13 Times Black Actors Got Brutally Honest About Being Mistreated Or Overlooked On Set — From The 1980s To Literally This Year
Over the years, numerous Black celebrities have shared their heartbreaking experiences of being overlooked or mistreated on the sets of various movies and TV shows. Here's a look back at 13 examples:
1. Trina McGee
In perhaps one of the most heartbreaking instances of on-set racism, Boy Meets World star Trina McGee — who was the only Black actor among the main cast of the sitcom — spoke out about her negative experience filming the show in a series of tweets shared in 2020.
“Called aunt Jemima on set during hair and make up. Called a bitter bitch when I quietly waited for my scene to finish rehearsing that was being f’ed up over and over due to episode featuring my character. Told ‘it was nice of you to join us’ like a stranger after 60 episodes,” she wrote.
Trina later revealed that it was Will Friedle who had called her the racist term. She said that he’d apologized to her 22 years before she publicly shared her devastating experience.
2. Sheryl Lee Ralph
In 2022, Abbott Elementary actor Sheryl Lee Ralph said she was once fired from a TV pilot because a producer told her she wasn’t “Black enough.”
“You [had] directors who were still trying to tell you how to be Black,” she said as she recalled struggling to navigate the Hollywood scene back in the 1980s. “I can still remember the way I felt.”
3. Reagan Gomez-Preston
On the contrary, Reagan Gomez-Preston once said that she was told to tone down her Blackness while shooting for That 70’s Show.
Sharing a series of tweets in 2019, Reagan — who portrayed Melissa — described her experience on the sitcom as a “nightmare.”
“I didn’t watch the show but was told I’d be (if not the first) one of the first black people on the show,” she wrote. Reagan said that despite acing the audition, the crew scrutinized her first ever table read.
“So I go back to work the next day. Nervous as shit. I’m by myself on this white ass set. We start rehearsals and the director (a white man) picks at every little thing I do IN FRONT OF THE CAST. Every scene. ‘Less sass’ ‘Don’t be cute’ ‘Too Cute. Again’ I was mortified,” she wrote.
“I felt so alone and humiliated. They kept me on for the rest of the week but no one in the cast talked to me. It was horrible. They never called me back,” Reagan said.
4. Lamorne Morris
New Girl actor Lamorne Morris once revealed that he was made to do his own hair on a production. He recalled, “I would have to go to the barbershop at 4, 4.30am before set to get my hair cut. When I would get to set, I would see everyone else in the hair and makeup trailer getting their hair cut. When I asked why I couldn’t get my hair cut at work, it was because – this is what they told me – they didn’t have the budget for my hair.”
5. Meagan Good
Meagan Good once recalled having her hair mishandled on set. “When [the hairstylist] went to press my hair, he put a metal comb underneath the comb and that comb slipped out and the pressing comb basically burned my forehead,” she shared.
6. Candice Patton
Candice Patton previously recalled being subjected to horrific racist abuse and harassment online when she was first cast in The Flash — and sadly, the CW and Warner Bros allegedly failed to protect her.
“At the time, it was kind of just like, ‘That’s how fans are, whatever,’” she said in 2022. “Even with the companies I was working with, The CW and WB, that was their way of handling it. We know better now. It’s not OK to treat your talent that way, to let them go through abuse and harassment. For me in 2014, there were no support systems. No one was looking out for that. It was free range to get abused every single day.”
“It’s just not enough to make me your lead female and say, ‘Look at us, we’re so progressive, we checked the box.’ It’s great, but you’ve put me in the ocean alone around sharks. It’s great to be in the ocean, but I can get eaten alive out here,” she added.
7. Bryan Hearne
Nickelodeon actor Bryan Hearne (All That) opened up about his “harmful” experience on set earlier this year in ID docuseries Quiet On Set. Bryan recalled being referred to as a “piece of charcoal” by an adult, a comment that he said has stuck with him over the years.
Bryan also recalled being cast in racially stereotyped roles, including a teenage “drug dealer” and a rapper.
8. Giovonnie Samuels
Fellow All That child star Giovonnie Samuels, who also spoke out in Quiet On Set, recalled feeling “overlooked” while working at Nickelodeon.
9. Leonard Roberts
Heroes star Leonard Roberts previously spoke about feeling singled out as a Black actor on set.
In 2020, the actor penned a first-person essay for Variety, in which he recalled clashing with the show’s creator, Tim Kring, and his costar, Ali Larter, who allegedly expressed discomfort at filming an intimate scene with him and later excluded him from further discussions about how to navigate their shared scenes.
Leonard claimed that Tim later told him that his character would be killed off over “the Ali Larter situation,” even though Ali got to stay on the show. Variety corroborated Leonard’s account with 10 people who either worked on the series at the time, or who were familiar with his experience.
Ali later apologized to Leanard, stating that while her recollection of events was different, she was sorry for any role she “may have played in his painful experience during that time.”
10. Gabrielle Union
In 2017, Gabrielle Union looked back on her experience appearing on the hit NBC sitcom Friends. She recalled being treated as someone new to the acting industry by Hollywood executives despite already being an established actor at the time — something that appeared to be a microaggression.
“That dual consciousness though is what prepares me to then do an episode of Friends after being on City of Angels,” she said. “When they’re like, ‘Nikki or Gabby, do you know what a mark is?’ Yeah, I’m an actor. Didn’t have to audition for this job, because I was just on a hit show on CBS.”
11. Nicole Beharie
Last year, journalist Maureen Ryan alleged in an explosive book that Sleepy Hollow star Nicole Beharie experienced horrific racism on the set of the show, which was described as “hellish” and “miserable.” In the book, it’s alleged that Nicole was labeled “difficult” by a predominantly all-white male staff, with production staffers also stating that the leading actor was made to work in a “very us-against-her environment.”
12. Lonnie Chavis
In 2020, This Is Us actor Lonnie Chavis (who was 12 at the time) recalled breaking down in tears on set when shooting a scene involving racism — only to be told not to cry without any acknowledgement of why he was so emotional.
“I can recall a time on set when I started crying listening to an actor portray a racist grandmother toward my character. The director and writers told me that they didn’t need me to cry for the scene. However, it was hard for me not to cry as I witnessed what I had just learned was my reality,” he said.
“I wasn’t acting, I was crying for me. Can you imagine having to explain to a room full of white people why I couldn’t hold back my real tears while experiencing the pain of racism? I can,” he added.
13. Danielle Brooks (and The Colour Purple cast)
Earlier this year, Danielle Brooks revealed that she and the other The Colour Purple cast members were initially made to share a dressing room on set and were not provided with sufficient food.
“I remember when we first came in, and we were doing rehearsal, and they put us all in the same space, and we didn’t have our own dressing rooms at the time,” she said during a Q&A before praising producer Oprah Winfrey for being their “voice.”
“Sometimes you do come in just saying, ‘OK, well I’m going to just take whatever they give me, I'm just happy to be here,’ you know,” Danielle said.
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