Tessa Thompson

spaces and taking me out of private schools that were completely white, where I was the only kid of color in there on scholarship and understanding what that felt like.

You were even homeschooled for a while.

Yeah, because I was in a school system that, frankly, was racist and not great.

And I was bullied in that school.

And

And she understood how detrimental that was to me at a very young age.

And we didn't have the money to get to a better school district.

And so she took me out of school and homeschooled me until we could.

I think of myself as someone that doesn't write letters, but you're reminding me, I suppose I am.

I read Dear White People at a time when I almost wanted to quit.

Quit the industry.

Yes.

And I hadn't really been working in an arguably...

But I just thought there's not enough for me here.

There's not enough that's substantive.

And frankly, some of the things that I'm going up for or would be offered, were I lucky enough to get them, I think are like problematic in terms of what they say about us.

And I just I don't know if I want to do it anymore alone.

And then I got this script and it felt like for the first time I could play a character that was not just the object of the narrative but the subject of the narrative, which was massive.

And by the way, there are amazing roles that you can play where you are somewhat an object, which means your character functions but is not the protagonist, is not the subject that the audience or the filmmaker frankly cares the most about.

But at that point in my career, I had never, you know, with the exception of maybe my first job on Cold Case, got to be real the subject.