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\u201cIntentional\u201d is a word that comes up quite a bit when talking to Teyana Taylor about \u201cA Thousand and One,\u201d the feature debut by writer-director A.V. Rockwell in which the Harlem-native plays Inez, a woman who kidnaps her son from the foster care system in an attempt for them both to have a fresh start in a rapidly changing New York City.<\/p>\n
The opportunity to star in the Focus Features release came at a major turning point in Taylor\u2019s career, when she had just had her second child, was battling postpartum depression, and \u201cwas in a space where I felt like the people that I love most were not showing up for me, especially the people that\u2019s supposed to make sure I have what I need,\u201d Taylor said to IndieWire over Zoom.<\/p>\n
Coming off the release of her third R&B LP \u201cThe Album\u201d in 2020, not feeling any support from her record label Def Jam, Taylor says she locked herself in a room one day, and \u201cI made an announcement that I was retiring from music, and that I wanted to focus on other things that I loved just as much,\u201d she said. \u201cI hate when people try and box me into one thing. So it was time to take charge and say, \u2018This is what I want to do.\u2019 [Music] can wait.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a leap of faith, but Taylor trusted her heart and her gut. \u201cI want to say not even a month later, I get this script across my desk,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was just something that drew me to this that I was like, \u2018This is the one.\u2019 This is going to be the one that makes it. I started talking as if the role was already offered to me.\u201d The multi-hyphenate had already done plenty of acting in films like \u201cComing 2 America\u201d and \u201cMadea\u2019s Big Happy Family,\u201d and popular shows like \u201cStar\u201d and \u201cHit the Floor,\u201d but said she felt like \u201cI always wanted to be a part of something that I can show my range. I wanted my moment for people to take me seriously. I didn\u2019t want to be the sexy girl anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rockwell really made Taylor work hard in the auditions to play Inez, having previously told IndieWire \u201cI would have loved to just street cast the role.\u201d But the current Independent Spirit Award nominee for Best Lead Performance said her choice to retire from music, and focus on her acting career made her feel like \u201cnothing can stop me. Nothing can get in the way of what I\u2019m setting my intentions on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor added, \u201cI don\u2019t think it would\u2019ve come to me had I not made this very big scary decision to take this risk to [that], because now my grind is different. My mentality is different. Now it\u2019s time to lock in. And I don\u2019t think that I would\u2019ve been the Inez that I am in this movie if everything had gone my way when I wanted it to go my way. So I realized this has been a patience game, and that\u2019s the game that God\u2019s played, the patient game, because he already knows what\u2019s written for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even more than just allowing her to challenge herself as a performer, playing Inez in \u201cA Thousand and One\u201d \u201cwas really eye-opening and really healing for a lot of my childhood trauma,\u201d said Taylor. Even before she was a mother, the performer who has been in the public eye since she was a teenager could feel how being perceived as a strong Black woman often meant people not being compelled to show up for her. \u201cThey feel like you don\u2019t need help. They feel like you have it all and you know it all. So it\u2019s less compassion, less empathy, less people putting themselves in your shoes,\u201d said Taylor. \u201cSo being a strong woman and being in survivor mode, you are programmed to figure it out on your own. Because at this point, it\u2019s like beating a dead horse trying to tell someone to see you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing a single mother on screen allowed her to exhibit a level of vulnerability that Taylor felt she could not access in her personal life. \u201cI really use these scenes as therapy. I felt like getting on set and being Inez was my moment to finally be able to just take off my cape from being the perfect everything, and just finally having a moment of weakness and that moment of weakness turned into something so beautiful. For the first time, my weakness is being praised,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When it comes to the moments in the 2023 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner that she\u2019s most proud of, Taylor first mentions the earth-shattering ending of \u201cA Thousand and One,\u201d where Inez and her son Terry (Josiah Cross) put all their feelings and truths out on the table. \u201cI remember certain takes where I would just be full blown crying and [Rockwell] would be like, \u2018All right, now Teyana, let\u2019s dial back.\u2019 And I remember never really understanding. I\u2019m like, \u2018This is my Viola Davis moment, baby. I need the snot and everything. Why y\u2019all not using my tear takes?,\u2019\u2019\u2019 she said with a laugh. \u201cBut to understand Inez was to understand that it\u2019s always but so much Inez is going to give you, because she\u2019s always in survival mode and nobody\u2019s ever shown up for her. So how they sequenced that scene was perfect. The method to that madness was perfect. Because I have more takes that were more cold, no crying at all than I have takes that\u2019s full-blown selling it. But understanding that being too cold was not Inez or being overly emotional was not Inez. So now I have to find the happy medium into all of these things.\u201d <\/p>\n
It was an incredibly difficult scene to pull off, but Taylor previously explained to IndieWire that she and Rockwell had worked together to develop a technique where they associated colors with the different emotions her character was feeling as she said each bit of dialogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe color red for Inez meant that she was in an angry space,\u201d she said. \u201cI had big giant poster boards with the words on it, and then certain lines or certain emotions, I color coordinated, so I would go under the line or a blue marker or the red marker or the pink marker, just to know, \u2018Ok, cool. I\u2019m about to really go into a space where I need to really turn it red right here. No matter what tears are coming out of my eyes.\u2019 Or \u2018Now the color\u2019s blue, which is just water, and just like all of my emotion, this is the part where now I get to just let it out and just cry.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
A short yet poignant scene where Inez eats a cup of Oodles of Noodles while watching an episode of a trashy 90s talk show, oscillating between laughter and tears also stands out as a moment that finally allowed Taylor to showcase her range, and how she could channel some of the heartbreak she was feeling around the time of production into Inez. \u201cThat was another big layering moment to have to laugh through my cry and vice versa. And I received a really, really heartbreaking phone call right before [Rockwell] yelled action. And already that week I had been, in less than two weeks, to two different funerals during my lunch break from just childhood friends that had passed on in Harlem. And I was still dealing with postpartum depression. I was six months postpartum. So it was a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cSo those two scenes I love the most, but the whole movie, every single moment was cherishable. Every single moment there was something that was happening. I suffered from a lot of loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor could see just as much of herself in Terry as she did in Inez, so the experience of being on the outside looking in on raising an NYC teenager made her \u201can even better daughter, even better niece, even better granddaughter, even better mom. Because it also made me feel like I wasn\u2019t bugging. I\u2019m like, \u2018Yes, we go above and beyond. We would do anything for our kids.\u2019 So it was really healing in a lot of ways,\u201d she said. Before, she struggled with her mother being a workaholic, and not being as present during her childhood, but now she could better empathize, saying to herself \u201cOh, wow, she was really working her ass off trying to make ends meet, and making things happen to make sure I have the career and the grace and the head on my shoulder that I have now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though it may have put her through the wringer, Taylor is nothing but grateful for the experience of starring in \u201cA Thousand and One.\u201d \u201cThis is doing everything that I prayed for, everything that I wanted it to do, everything that I knew intentionally,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople see me now. They\u2019re showing up for me now. They\u2019re appreciating me now, and it\u2019s from what I was able to put on screen. It had nothing to do with the popularity, had nothing to do with any of those things. Coming from music, it\u2019s a popularity contest. But in acting it\u2019s a different level of appreciation because it\u2019s either you got it or you don\u2019t. They acknowledge the work, not the person, not the personality or the popularity of this personality. What they saw on that screen was Inez.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having been nominated for a Gotham Award, and honored with the Breakthrough Actress Award (Film) at the Critics Choice Celebration of Cinema and Television event in December, Taylor finds just the prospect of being considered for more award nominations exciting. \u201cBeing brought up in these conversations, and even just seeing things that I wasn\u2019t nominated for, and people fighting for me\u2014\u2019Teyana was snubbed\u2019\u2014 I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m in the conversation. You have to understand it\u2019s a different level of appreciation and gratefulness. So I\u2019m not even looking at certain stuff like \u2018How come I wasn\u2019t awarded?,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a part of the conversation is all I ever really wanted. Of course, we all want to win, but I think that we all miss out on the fact that we\u2019re even in the conversation. The conversation is the most important to me,\u201d said Taylor. \u201cIt\u2019s all still a win, even the snub talk, I love that the most. Because it\u2019s people in here that\u2019s like, \u2018I would love to see Teyana. I hope they keep Teyana in mind when it\u2019s time for award season, when it is time for Oscars.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
As for what\u2019s next for Taylor outside of awards season, the artist is constantly cooking up ideas for more creative direction work with her production company The Aunties. And as an actress, \u201cI\u2019m even in a space where I\u2019m making sure the roles that I take are roles that are going to allow me to keep pushing my range and to continue to work toward being a better version of everything than I am. So, for me, I don\u2019t want to take anything that\u2019s too easy. I want to take on the challenge and further myself,\u201d said the star of the upcoming biblical dramedy \u201cThe Book of Clarence,\u201d out January 12.<\/p>\n
This creative rebirth has even caused Taylor to consider a return to music, feeling more assured in her retirement announcement being one of the best decisions she made as an artist. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t lock myself in that room and do that, I would\u2019ve continued to have people back me in a corner and say all the things I shouldn\u2019t do or why I shouldn\u2019t do it,\u201d she said, revealing that labels have started new conversations with her, with the intentions to do right by her this time. \u201cWhat if I would\u2019ve stayed? We would\u2019ve never known. They would\u2019ve never known what it felt like to lose me, or felt like to miss me, or felt like to say, \u2018Oh, wow, she took a leap and didn\u2019t drown. She took a leap, and she\u2019s literally walking on water.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA Thousand and One\u201d is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.<\/p>\n
View this article at IndieWire<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018A Thousand and One\u2019 Gave Teyana Taylor Everything She Wanted: \u2018People See Me Now\u2019: \u201cIntentional\u201d is a word that comes up quite a bit when talking to Teyana Taylor about \u201cA Thousand and One,\u201d the feature debut by writer-director A.V. Rockwell in which the Harlem-native plays Inez, a woman who kidnaps her son from the
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