00:00I remember feeling in my spirit first that it was mine, like I remember feeling that hunger for it
00:08that I hadn't felt for any other audition that I had done like to date. I was just so
00:17convicted I guess by the fact that this was James Baldwin's words, this would be like the first
00:26film adaptation of what is truly like a love story, that this was set in New York City. There
00:35were so many, so many, so many points at the time that resonated with me that I wanted so desperately
00:43to be a part of or to contribute to in some way. That was my first film after graduating Cornell,
00:50so I was truly in a bit of a debate between what I felt were my obligations at the time,
00:59which was to ensure that I could, in my mind, I'm feeling like I need to be self-sufficient as a
01:08college graduate, like I can't graduate school and go back to my parents house with nothing to show for
01:13it. Do you know what I mean? And so I was looking into like traditional forms of employment at the
01:23time and I had just come back from Chicago finishing like the final rounds of interviews for a company
01:30out there and I was being told that the offer letter was on the way and this was like the week of
01:37graduation and at the same time a professor in the performing and media arts department, his name
01:45is Godfrey, he asked if we could sit down for coffee before I graduate. I had done one play with him my
01:52freshman year because of course I came in hot and ready for the stage and so he had directed my first
02:00play that I did at Cornell, then I took one of his classes I think the following two of his classes the
02:06following year and I kind of disappeared after that for the sake of my degree, focusing on what I
02:13came to Cornell to do actually. But during that meeting he sort of spoke to the Dominique that he
02:21met as a freshman who came in all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and overflowing with joy for performance in
02:28this way and he spoke about how he felt when he I guess when his experience at the university and in
02:38that department met like my newness as a as a new student and speaking about how convicted he was by
02:45the passion that I had but also how understanding he was of the fact that I wanted to pursue or to focus
02:52on then what were my obligations and so hearing me talk about these new obligations that I've named he
02:59asked me if I wasn't uh deferring yet again my dreams for some supposed responsibility
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