00:00I am here with Carmen Ijogo. How are you doing?
00:08I'm great. I'm so excited to be here. It's my first time. So, yeah, very excited.
00:12You absolutely take my breath away. Who are you wearing?
00:15I don't know. This was literally in the back of my closet.
00:18In the back of my closet is sweatpants and lint ball.
00:21No, this is one of those special dresses that you're keeping for special occasions.
00:24And this was a special occasion.
00:26And since it's your first time here, what does it mean to you to be here at Black Women in Hollywood in this room of such amazing women?
00:33I'm so honored. I'm proud. I have such respect for Essence as a magazine, as a publication,
00:42that it's sort of stood the test of time for 45 years and remains strong, remains relevant.
00:49It's why we're all here, because we know that there's an importance to this event and to what this publication represents.
00:57And I'm excited to be among my peers, women that I think are incredible.
01:03In this industry, you have to have so much tenacity, so much perseverance, resilience to be able to keep going.
01:11And I think it makes me very proud that I've been invited in.
01:16Did you have a particular film or TV moment or actress that's inspired you to say,
01:22yes, this is what I'm destined to do, this is what I want to be?
01:25Gosh, there have been so many.
01:27You know, it's an interesting thing, because growing up as a little girl in the UK,
01:31there weren't a lot of black actresses on television or in films to look up to yet.
01:36So a lot of my references are definitely white actresses like, you know, Jessica Lange, Betty Davis, Gina Rowlands.
01:42I'm very excited, though, for my daughter, that there's going to be a whole new generation of material and movies
01:48and performances that are so iconic and so beautiful that she will have so much more to choose from
01:54and to aspire and to perhaps guide the path that she chooses.
02:02I love that. That was a perfect, perfect answer.
02:04And what better way to wrap things up than ushering folks into the ballroom.
02:07Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. Enjoy. I'll see you on the inside.
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