Oh I’ve told that story a few times. Working on that show was a nightmare. I think I was (if not the first) one of the first black characters they had on the show. I was supposed to be recurring https://twitter.com/pinkfiIes/status/1088648088611442688

Okay, my That 70’s Show experience. I auditioned to be Hyde’s gf. I didn’t watch the show but was told I’d be (if not the first) one of the first black people on the show. I audition for the casting director. I get called back to read w/ Danny. I kill it. I get the job.

THE FIRST DAY OF WORK we have a table read with the cast, producers and network execs. Cast is reading the script out loud. I DO THE EXACT SAME THING I DID IN MY AUDITION. Table read ends. We go home. ON MY WAY HOME I get a frantic call from my manager. They didn’t like my read.

Okay, it’s their show. They can like or not like what they want. My agent sends me to an acting coach. That day. My acting coach (a white man I’d been seeing for years) decides the best thing to do is to make me Meredith. From Cheers/Frasier. Emotionless. Basically, no black shit

So I go back to work the next day. Nervous as shit. I’m by myself on this white ass set. We start rehearsals and the director (a white man) picks at every little thing I do IN FRONT OF THE CAST. Every scene. “Less sass” “Don’t be cute” “Too Cute. Again” I was mortified.

Luckily, my cousin worked on another show on that lot and we’d have lunch everyday. I felt so alone and humiliated. They kept me on for the rest of the week but no one in the cast talked to me. It was horrible. They never called me back.

It would’ve been dope for my career to be recurring on that show. But it never happened.

*Lilith* not Merideth.