Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph says that when she hears Beyoncé’s hit song “Break My Soul,” it reminds her of her journey in Hollywood and the things her mother once told her when she was young.
According to the Emmy-winning star, there were a lot of things that could have broken her soul as a child, particularly when she tested out of public school and was sent to a predominantly white private school.
In a five-minute profile with AARP, Ralph explained that she was the only Black girl in the classes and both kids and adults said “terrible things” to her.
“When I cried my mother sat me in front of the mirror and said ‘Do you see an N-word? Do you see an ugly monkey?” the “Abbott Elementary” star recalled.
She said her mother would ask, “What do you see?”
Ralph said from that moment she “learned to look in that mirror” and love the image that stared back at her.
Even with such affirmation, her road in Hollywood would be marred with casting directors questioning where they could place her, saying “Everybody knows you’re a beautiful, talented, Black girl but what do I do with the beautiful, talented, Black girl? Do I put you in a movie with Tom Cruise? Does he kiss you? Who goes to see that movie?”
Ralph said that could have broken her soul, but she knew who she was, and decided she could and should be the actress that might be kissing the “Mission Impossible” actor on screen.
Fans took to the comment section of the YouTube video to applaud the “Sister Act” star for her fortitude.
One said, “Quite the beautiful example of overcoming adversity.”
A second person wrote, “Amazing, brilliant, extraordinary and the list goes on for this incredible human being!!! I love her!! She is beautiful inside and out!! This video made my heart smile.”
It was this confidence that her fans celebrated that allowed the Jamaican-American entertainer to not only make history as the original Deena Jones in the original Broadway production of “Dreamgirls,” earning herself both a Drama Desk and Tony Award nomination, but also as the youngest woman ever to earn a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in 1976.
The 66-year-old star celebrates where she is now, which she claims took 40 years in the making.
She said one piece of advice she lives by is “People don’t have to love you. But when you look in the mirror, you’d better love what you see.”
