Actress/comedian Nicole Byer (Instagram)
Nicole Byer, star of MTV’s “Guy Code vs. Girl Code,” is opening up about casting directors who consistently asked her to be a stereotypical Black woman. At a panel for the Television Critics Association July 31, Byer told reporters there was no variety in the role requirements.
“There isn’t really any different perspective … it’s just one, and it’s ‘sassy,’ ” she said of her early auditions.
Byer said a casting director once told her, “I need you to be as Black as possible, and if you go too Black I’ll bring you back.”
Others asked if she could “be more urban” and “have more edge,” implying that there was only one way a Black woman can act.
“It was every audition I went on,” Byer said.
The actress is gearing up for her new MTV single-camera series, “Loosely Exactly Nicole.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show focuses on Nicole, who lives in California’s San Fernando Valley. As she tries to achieve her dreams of stardom in Tinseltown, she juggles her friends, relationships and day-to-day tasks like paying bills.
“Most of it is based on my life,” Byer said at the TCA press tour. “Almost every episode has a nugget from my life in it.”
Byer’s issues with racist stereotypes will get its own episode.
When asked about the show’s two white executive producers being able to accurately depict the life of a Black woman, Byer is honest about the dynamic between the three of them.
“They’re very white, but they listen to me,” she said.
Referring to an upcoming episode about braids she added, “[The executive producers] don’t know anything about braids. I think listening was a key thing. I don’t think [they] needed to be Black people. We had two Black writers so … the Blackness was trickling up,” she joked.
See a preview of “Loosely Exactly Nicole,” featuring the stereotype-filled audition below.
