Meghan Marklesays there’s a difference between being “difficult” and “clear.”
The Duchess of Sussex released the latest episode of herArchetypespodcast on Spotify Tuesday, welcoming Issa Rae and Ziwe to the show to discuss the stereotype of the “angry black woman.”
Issa shared that she’s taken advice from other Black women in the entertainment industry to not be afraid of being called a b—, and she took a friend calling her “particular” as a compliment.
“To me, that means I have a sense of what I want,” theInsecurestar, 37, said.
“I’m particular,” Meghan, 41, agreed. “A. I think a high tide raises all ships — we’re all going to succeed, so let’s make sure it’s really great because it’s a shared success for everybody. But I also know that I will find myself cowering and tiptoeing into a room — I don’t know if you ever do that, the thing that I find the most embarrassing — when you’re saying a sentence and the intonation goes up like it’s a question. And you’re like, ‘Oh my God, stop!’ Stop whispering and tiptoeing around and say what it is you need. You’re allowed to set a boundary, you’re allowed to be clear. It does not make you demanding, it does not make you difficult. It makes you clear.”
Jon Kopaloff/WireImage; Chris Jackson/Getty Images; Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Meghan asked Issa, “Was there a point in your life, and maybe it still happens to you now, because of the archetypes, especially as a black woman, do you feel that you’re allowed to be angry in certain moments?”
The actress replied, “Absolutely not. Because I can’t lose my cool, I can’t do that, especially as a black woman, but also just even as a public figure now. Because people are looking for ways to justify their perception of you. That doesn’t mean I don’t get angry. That might mean that I will vent my frustrations to someone that I trust, get it out of my system and then go in fix mode. And I think even personality wise, I’m always like, I don’t want to sit in my anger too long anyway because what does that do? I want to work on fixing something, but I want to be allowed to have that emotion because it’s a natural…like, it’s an emotion.”
The Duchess of Sussex also recalled her acting days, complimenting Issa on creating “nuanced, layered, multifaceted women” in her shows.
“I mean, I remember when I was auditioning, the idea of even Black roles, I remember those casting sheets where the description of the character, she always had to have an edge or an attitude,” Meghan said.
At the start of their chat, Meghan also revealed she was back to drinking coffee after a break.
“I didn’t even think about it,” she said. “When I was on set, of course! Like Nespresso all day, every day. And then I didn’t really drink it in the U.K.”
When Issa asked why she went back to drinking it, Meghan said, “I guess because life started to come back and so people started to come. When guests come or meetings or when they’re like, ‘Oh, would you like coffee?’ And I was like, ‘Maybe I should join them.’ It’s a ritual.”
Issa Rae.FilmMagic/FilmMagic for HBO
Meghan also sat down with Ziwe, where the Duchess of Sussex said she “just had my genealogy done a couple years ago.” Meghan revealed she was 43% Nigerian, saying: “I’m going to start to dig deeper into all this because anybody that I’ve told, especially Nigerian women, are like ‘What!’ "
“This is huge for our community,” Ziwe, 30, said. “No, honestly, you do look like a Nigerian, you look like my Aunt Uzo. So this is great.”
The star of Showtime’sZiwesaid interviewers often tell her that they’re “terrified” of her.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that hurts my feelings,’ " she said. “I’m a sensitive Pisces. Like, I don’t want you to be scared of me. That’s not my goal.”
Ziwe explained, “I grew up with culturally conservative parents who had a really like strict understanding of women, what women did and how they lived and they cooked and cleaned, etc. And so, from that understanding, I also exist in society and I know what the expectations are of women there as well. And these things correlate. And so to be the character of Ziwe that is brash and rude and thoughtful is in direct opposition to what a woman should be publicly, according to sexism.”
Daniele Venturelli/WireImage)
Last week, Meghan interviewedParis Hiltonfor an episode titled “Breaking Down the ‘Bimbo.’ " In it, the formerSuitsactress recalled being a model on the showDeal or No Deal.
She recalled that whileDeal or No Dealwasn’t so much about acting, which she was pursuing, she was grateful to have a job to pay bills while she was auditioning.
“I had also studied international relations in college, and there were times I was on set atDeal or No Dealand thinking back to my time working as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina in Buenos Aires and being in the motorcade with the security of treasury at the time and being valued specifically for my brain. Here, I was being valued for something quite the opposite.”
The formerSuitsactress said that before tapings of the show, the models would line up for different stations: lashes, extensions, bra padding. The women were also given spray tan vouchers every week.
“There was a very cookie-cutter idea of precisely what we should look like. It was solely about beauty — and not necessarily about brains,” Meghan said.
Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images; Trae Patton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
“When I look back at that time, I’ll never forget this one detail — because moments before we’d get on stage, there was a woman who ran the show and she’d be there backstage, and I can still hear her. She couldn’t properly pronounce my last name at the time and I knew who she was talking to because she’d go, ‘Markle, suck it in! Markle, suck it in!’ "
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source: people.com
