"Abbott Elementary" Actor Sheryl Lee Ralph Revealed She Was Once Fired From A TV Pilot For Not Being "Black Enough"
BuzzFeed
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If you're a fan of ABC's hit sitcom Abbott Elementary, then you already know and love Sheryl Lee Ralph as kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard.
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Sheryl's an accomplished veteran of the stage and screen, with a list of roles going back several decades — but she's faced struggles alongside her many triumphs, too.
In addition to appearances on TV shows like Moesha, Claws, and Ray Donovan, she was also nominated for a Tony for her performance in the original Broadway run of Dreamgirls.
In a new interview with People, Sheryl revealed that she was once fired from a TV pilot because a producer told her she wasn't "Black enough."
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"I was fired from a pilot because the producer told me I was 'not Black enough,'" she said while talking about her experience in the 1980s. "Those were his words."
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"It was horrible. I can still remember the way I felt."
Abc / courtesy Everett Collection
"People's thinking was not very inclusive," she recalled while talking about Hollywood's cultural climate back then. "You [had] directors who were still trying to tell you how to be Black."
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This isn't the first time Sheryl's talked about facing racial discrimination in the industry. She told another story about a casting director's comments on The View just last month.
When she was asked to name the person who said that to her, Sheryl had the perfect reply: "Why bother? Look at me now."
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