Actress Uzo Aduba on new memoir 'The Road Is Good'
Actress Uzo Aduba talks about sharing her family's story in her new memoir, "The Road Is Good: How a Mother's Strength Became a Daughter's Purpose."
Nigerian-American actress Aduba is best known for her role as Crazy Eyes on Netflix show "Orange Is the New Black."
Her memoir pays homage to her mother and serves as a tribute to her. It also discusses her grandfather and how his treatment of women, particularly his equal partnership with his wife, may have influenced Aduba's career in Hollywood.
ABC News' Linsey Davis sat down with Aduba as she discussed her new book in more detail.
ABC NEWS: Three-time Emmy Award-winning Nigerian-American actress Uzo Aduba is best known for her role as Crazy Eyes on the Netflix original series "Orange is the New Black." And now she's stepping into the role of author, with her new coming-of-age memoir, "The Road Is Good: How a Mother's Strength Became a Daughter's Purpose." And joining us now is Uzo Aduba. Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it.
ADUBA: Thank you for having me.
ABC NEWS: How did you know that this was the time to share your family's story?
ADUBA: It felt like the right time in my life, you know. I had been approached before in the past to write a book, and it never felt like the right time. And suddenly now in my life, when the possibility came six years ago, I said, Yeah, this feels, this feels right. And I thought I was going to be telling a story of just funny experiences with my mother and I. And, you know, growing up first gen in this really suburban New England town. But the shape of my life took a different path. But it was absolutely the time in my life to be chronicling my story along with my mom's.
ABC NEWS: And really, this is paying homage to your mom. It's really a tribute to your mom. But I read about your grandfather and how you said that really it may be because of him that you have your career in Hollywood and how he really treated women, his wife in equal partnership. How for his daughters, it was just a dollar dowry. Explain how you feel that he really kind of changed the trajectory early on.
ADUBA: My grandfather was such a progressive man in a time in Nigeria and around the world, frankly, where the choice for women to go to school and get higher education was sort of, there was a ceiling, was capped. He had daughters, many, many daughters. And he believed that anybody who had the ability and the desire to go to school, he would pay for it regardless of sex. And he believed in all his children. And that sort of, I think, set the blueprint for my mother of having somebody pour into you, pour into you in terms of belief, affording you your dreams. She went on from there to go to college to earn two master's degree degrees, moved to the United States.
ABC NEWS: Social worker.
ADUBA: Become a social worker. Exactly. Have me and then do onto me and my brothers and sisters as had been done to her, and pour into us and make sure that every opportunity that this great country could afford us came our way.
ABC NEWS: You touch on the complexity of the black immigrant identity and going back to Nigeria. How did that ultimately shape you as a person?
ADUBA: Sure. You know, I think what I had experienced growing up was seeing my parents exist in two spaces. And then when I went back to Nigeria as a child, I discovered that all the food, all the music, all the clothes, all the language, all the spirit, heart and energy that I was seeing from them, it was from something.
ABC NEWS: What do you think your mother would say if she were able to, to read your book?
ADUBA: I hope she would say she was proud of me. You know, when we were, when I was writing this and we were recalling stories in the beginning before time left its footprint on us and marked itself. You know, she would tell stories and sort of say, oh Uzo, you know, call me tomorrow. I have a, I'm going to my Zumba, you know, I'll back to later to this. I do. And then when she got sick and before ,and we realized she was going to move to heaven, suddenly those stories and those lessons, she really wanted to make sure that we got them. So I think more than anything, I, I hope that she receives it as the the last living legacy of her own existence.
ABC NEWS: Before she moved to heaven. That is such a touching way to put it. We thank you so much for sharing her story, your story. All of the generations, the aunties, the uncles, grandfather.
ADUBA: Thank you.
ABC NEWS: Thank you. It's really a gift. Appreciate you joining us. "The Road Is Good: How a Mother's Strength Became a Daughter's Purpose," is now available wherever books are sold.
Actress Uzo Aduba on new memoir 'The Road Is Good' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com