00:00How dare you? It's not coming back. Sorry. What's up? I'm Brian Tyree Henry.
00:11Welcome to my Essence digital cover shoot.
00:14Acting wasn't something that I thought I could really do as a career. It wasn't anything that I
00:28thought would pay the bills. It wasn't anything that I thought would feed me or
00:32keep a roof over my head. I just did it because it was the best thing I'd ever
00:35felt when I did it. It was a place of safety as well. You know when I started
00:40reading plays and reading stories with people like me in them because you know
00:44a lot of the times we're given stories and narratives that don't reflect us at
00:48all. Luckily because of my all-black education I mean I was in all-black
00:52schools from kindergarten all the way till college and I had a lot of educators
00:56who put a lot of things in front of me to read to give me a chance to escape and
01:00to help me evolve at the same time and so because of that I just imagined myself
01:04in these characters and in these places. I just never thought that because of the
01:08existence of who I am that I'd actually be able to usher them into people's
01:13living rooms, to be in theaters, to be in trailers, you know. But I knew it was
01:18something that I had to do.
01:32The calling for it has always kind of been in me because I was really annoying
01:36as a child. Like I used to imitate my family all the time to people so people
01:43would believe me when I'm like my family is crazy I'm nothing without the people
01:55who came in my life and were like yeah like do it like do it you should really
01:59really do it because I think we all know what the other side looks like when
02:02nobody is there to build you up and actually like propel you into these
02:05places of like you know yeah you can do it the tenacity of who we are is
02:09usually fostered by people who believe in us and see us and I loved it so much. It's
02:13very therapeutic it is not therapy but it is therapeutic like I want to be very
02:19clear a lot of people like oh acting is my therapy I'm like no your therapy is
02:22your therapy and we should lean into that especially us because it's hard it is a
02:27hard business for black people it is a hard business for black women it is a
02:31hard business to see your dreams actualized and feel like people are
02:35willing to put out the reflections of who you are in a great way not in a
02:39stereotyped way not in a trope way like we are the ones who control our stories
02:43we're the ones who know them better than anybody else so it's really great to be
02:47in a time a renaissance as it were where you are watching it be revived and be
02:52retold in a different way and being actualized and I'm just glad to be a part
02:56of that number I'm still in shock when I got the call and we're like oh essence I'm like
03:10nah I was like not not not the essence you know it's a dream it's a dream come true this entire day
03:17has been the most beautiful melanated shea buttered cocoa butter day of my life like I'm so happy like I
03:23walked in here and just saw all these beautiful amazing black faces and black creatives
03:27and it just reminds me why I'm doing this and I love that a publication like essence is reminding
03:42me of that as well that I have a place you know and amazing milestones that essence has captured in
03:47my life essence has always been there and so for me to be able to grace the pages of essence is just
03:53up there like I can't even express you like I woke up this morning just like ah essence day
03:58it's like all right here we go so I'm incredibly grateful I've been grinning non-stop I've been
04:05dancing I've been singing I've been tripping and kicking it just feels like it's a rite of passage in
04:11a way and um I'm really really grateful that it's happening this way like they put me in color
04:16you know what I'm saying like it's like I get to bring my own style my own essence which is what
04:21essence is about it's just another one of those things that if you're fortunate enough you know
04:27you get to be a part of it huge amount of gratitude to essence for this so I I'm over the moon yeah
04:32all right and that's a wrap on my essence digital cover shoot
04:43thank y'all
04:50thank y'all
04:52thank y'all
04:53thank y'all
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