Actress Gabourey Sidibe is opening up about the challenges she faced earlier in her Hollywood career as a Black woman.
In episode two of the Apple TV+ documentary “Number One on the Call Sheet,” Sidibe reflected on the difficulties she faced in a Hollywood that gives preferential treatment to white beauty standards, right down to the way you talk.
“I got the role of Precious when I was 24,” Sidibe, 41, said in the episode titled “Black Leading Women in Hollywood,” directed by Shola Lynch.
“Before that, I was just acting in between whatever it was for the rest of my life. And the rest of my life at that point, I was working at a call center as a phone-sex operator,” she shared.
Sidibe talked about the racial barriers she faced while working at the call center, where the company was mostly Black women, yet they were not “allowed to be Black on the phone.”
And so, in the same way, Black women were forced to survive in the US pre-Civil Rights, the Empire star had to try to pass for white. She adopted the name “Melody,” developed a high-pitched Valley Girl voice, and did what she had to do.
“There’s a Black girl line. Guess what — was barely ever called, that one. So, my girl name is Melody. And every call, I’d be like [in a high-pitched, Valley Girl voice], ‘Hello.’ And he’s like, ‘Hey, what’s your name?’ ‘Hi, I’m Melody.’ ‘How you doin’? Are you good?’ ‘Yeah, I’m totally good right now. Um, I just got home from school. I’m in college, and it’s, like, my sophomore year…’”
“We are trained to hate ourselves,” Sidibe continued. “And the world around us is also trained to reinforce it. But there’s something in me that’s like, ‘I don’t bend to that.’ Whatever it is that you don’t like about me, I’ll do it harder, and I’ll smile in your face. And that’s what I felt Precious needed to be.”
Sidibe may not have taken home the gold for her powerful performance in the title role, but she did receive a special mention from the winner, Sandra Bullock, for The Blind Side.
In the documentary, a clip shows Bullock recognizing Sidibe’s talent from the stage.
In the years since making her screen debut in Precious, Sidibe has starred in films like Tower Heist and Antebellum. She also landed regular TV roles in Empire and Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story series.
