Nia DaCosta

I was educated in many predominantly white institutions.

And you learn what being a Black woman does to the sound of your voice, to how much presence you have in a room.

You know, you learn pretty quickly what it means to other people and how that changes you.

Not who you are, but how you're perceived.

And how you're perceived changes perhaps how you will approach compromise, for example, or being uncompromising.

That has been very helpful because Hollywood is a predominantly white space.

And I mean, in general, I'm a person who's just like quite kind and really just wants everyone to have a good time and get along.

And I'm also very honest.

I don't really have a poker face.

So I've always just been like, kind honesty will get you through anything.

But as I've gotten older and as I've become more confident, sometimes it's a hard, no, I'm not doing that.

Or guess what?

I'm doing this.

And actually, even though I know that perhaps you'll perceive that as more aggressive because I'm a Black woman, I'm okay with that.

Now I'm okay with that.

So it's gotten better as I've gotten older, but it is as a Black woman, like being audacious, having the audacity as a Black woman.

Frankly, you have to have more to do what we do.

Yeah.

Going to boarding school in the middle of nowhere in Connecticut, in the heart of, like, WASP country, was very—it's a very specific place.

And I wasn't fully prepared for the lack of diversity.