Thread by @JackeeHarry

It’s crazy to think that 227 premiered 34 years ago today.

When I reflect on that time, I remember a valuable lesson that I’d like to share.

Buckle up! It’s story time. 💫

NBC had arranged to fly me from NYC to LA to read for the part of Rose. And I was ecstatic! I’d never been on a plane by myself before, and although I was in coach it felt like first class. Plus, I was the only black person on the flight.

NBC sent for ME! I had this job!

I rang the bell for the stewardess (that was what they were called back then) over and over again, because every time she came it just reminded me that NBC wanted ME.

I’d say, “Could you please bring me a Chardonnay?” 🥂

Then silently add, “because NBC wants ME!”

And then, 10 minutes before we took off, another two dozen African-American actresses stepped onto the plane. 😩😩😩 They were all the same age as me, all pretty.

And I thought.. damn. I ain’t got this job.

But I figured I’d just have fun. We all knew each other, we all saw each other at various theater auditions, and we all knew we couldn’t all get the job. So we lived it up. We laughed our heads off on that plane ride.

And then, when the group of us African-American women from New York walked into the NBC building on Alameda, we realized it was much worse than we had thought.

In the waiting room were another 275 of us.

I damn sure knew I wasn’t getting this job.

I finally went in to audition for Rose wearing a shapeless dress, glasses, a red wig of my sister’s, and the ugliest orthopedic shoes I could find, because the character was plain and boring.

I was auditioning with the casting director, writers, line producer and this one and that one, even @MarlaGibbs4Real was there, but all I saw was a room full of white men in suits.

We went through some back and worth and each man at the table in front of me was more bored than the last. Hell, I was bored.

No matter how many glasses of Chardonnay I’d had on the plane, if this was what I was giving them, NBC did not want me.

Then they asked me to go out and come back to read for the part of Sandra.

I went into the bathroom and changed into a low-cut red dress, platform red shoes that made me taller than the Empire State Building, huge gold hoop earrings, and another wig of my sister’s, and I walked back in that room like the ghetto personified. 👠💄

My first line was, “Ladies.” Just that word. So I put on a Ghetto Ice Queen voice and said, “Ladies” as if I could freeze them to death with it.

And the men at the table started laughing.

Then an assistant said Mary’s line about how I was home from work early and my line was, “I’m sick.” So I sucked my teeth and smacked my gum and rolled my neck and said, “I’m sick,” all at the same time.

The men at the table laughed louder, and they kept laughing.

The man who had asked me to come back in as Sandra - I later learned was Brandon Tartikoff, the head of NBC - didn’t look as bored as he had before. He turned to a man next to him, whispered something, then asked me to do the scene again, but this time not to try so hard.

So I did it again, and I gave less.

When I finished, he turned to that other man and they whispered together, and then he turned back and said, “No, you were right the first time.” 🙄

After all of us had auditioned, we sat around in the waiting room until another white man in a suit told everyone except @thesherylralph, who was perfect for the role, that we could go home.

In that moment you could hear 300 black women thinking: I ain’t got this job.

A woman next to me said, “It’s okay. You’ll get the next job.” I reassured her of the same thing, then looked at her with a smile that was half commiseration and half gratitude and thought: I hate your guts.

She was thinking exactly the same thing, I guarantee you!

I looked at the woman sitting next to her. “I hate your guts too. And yours and yours and yours..”

There were 300 women in the room - that was a lot of guts to hate. I looked at @thesherylralph, who is the nicest person alive, and thought: I hate your guts most of all.

So we went back to the hotel, all 299 of us, and spent the night drinking, playing cards and telling lies. I’m doing this role with this director, one of us would say and the next would say, I’m doing this bigger role with this more famous director. Not a word of it true.

Meanwhile, we all left the doors to our rooms open in case @thesherylralph got run over by a truck and they needed somebody new.

Every once in a while somebody’s phone would ring and she would run to her room, so excited, only to come back dejected saying it was just her mother.

At some point, my phone rang.

The rest is history.

So what did I learn from that experience? Let go of everything you think you know. Life will have its twists and turns and it doesn’t do any good to sit around pretending to know what will come next.

Live in the moment. Enjoy those plane rides, the friendships with your sisters, the kindness of @thesherylralph, and the opportunities afforded to you.

One day, things will work out as they’re meant to. And the surprise of it all will be the ultimate reward.

Thanks for laughing with us for 34 years. ♥️