Karen Pittman on How Her Black Identity Influences Her Roles

In season three of “The Morning Present,” a race scandal rocks UBA, the published community that serves because the present’s backdrop. The storyline sees Karen Pittman’s Mia and Greta Lee’s Stella strikingly depict the realities of ladies of coloration in largely white, company areas like community tv. “That is me and Greta truly, in an actual method,” Pittman tells POPSUGAR after talking on the 2024 Makers Convention on Feb. 28.

By means of characters like Mia and Nya on “And Simply Like That…,” Pittman brings unbelievable nuance to her portrayal of robust Black girls who navigate their race of their respective environments, which she opened up about in dialog with “Succession” actor J. Smith-Cameron. The 2 spoke on the three-day summit hosted by Makers, a community-focused media model owned by Yahoo that is targeted on accelerating fairness for girls within the office.

For Pittman, identity-driven storytelling is inherently intentional. “I believe the storytellers and writers are all the time searching for methods to imbue your private, genuine perspective, no matter you have got been by way of in your life,” she says. However for the actor and activist, that authenticity is much less about sharing her lived experiences and extra about bringing advanced feelings to her characters. “I satisfaction myself on having characters that do not resemble me as an actor,” she explains. “I do not see any of myself in Mia, and I hope to by no means see any of myself.”

As a substitute, she “influences the storytelling” by guaranteeing there’s depth to her characters. “I remind [writers], ‘Let’s be certain that we present the guts of this character as an alternative of simply exhibiting she’s a powerful girl.’ That may find yourself being a trope,” she says. She likes to create characters by way of their “emotional panorama” particularly. “Realizing what the guts of that girl is and with the ability to convey that to the digicam visually is actually the place I really feel like the best affect I’ve as an actor in any story. That’s what makes an viewers join.”

With a high-powered, impartial TV producer like Mia, she’s targeted on channeling vulnerability, a high quality not typically related to Black girls on display. “The writers of [‘The Morning Show’] are all the time hoping to replicate again the energy and the nimbleness of African American girls,” she says. “Typically that may be one-sided, so I am all the time making an attempt to infuse moments of fragility, softness, tenderness, and suppleness of what it means to be a lady in that job, in the identical ways in which you would possibly see a white girl in these jobs.”

With regards to Nya, Miranda’s professor-turned-friend on “And Simply Like That…,” it was necessary to Pittman — and creator Michael Patrick King — that she put on her hair in braids. As she places it, “I believe you will need to replicate, particularly on that platform, what it’s to have an African American girl who utterly accepts her naturalness, who is not making an attempt to alter or look totally different, who’s embodying this assemble of Blackness utterly, and has determined that she’s going to reside in a spot of affection and schooling — and to share that intelligence on the present.” Pittman additionally understands that Nya’s friendship with Miranda permits the chance to point out viewers what it seems like for a girl of coloration to construct a relationship with a white girl who could not know every other WOC. That is particularly impactful in a collection with a lot fanfare and generational reputation.

However whereas she’s capable of begin conversations about her characters in some methods, she additionally acknowledges the challenges that include being a Black girl within the appearing world. In her dialog with Smith-Cameron, Pittman make clear Hollywood’s cultural reckoning in response to George Floyd’s homicide by police in 2020. Whereas there was an preliminary shift within the trade, she believes it is since reverted again to the established order.

“Individuals are forgetful,” she tells POPSUGAR. “Individuals neglect, and as an actor, you do not wish to all the time have your finger on the heartbeat of tradition making an attempt to show them or remind them, ‘Hey, we have to pump some life into this.’ My white colleagues do not should have these conversations.”

As with girls of coloration in any area, she’d prefer to solely concentrate on the job at hand: appearing. “I’d love to enter an expertise the place the one factor that I am referred to as to do is to carry the total breadth of my craft and never should concern myself with anything,” she says. However, as she reminds us, that is the fact for any othered particular person in our society.

As Pittman underscored in her dialog with Smith-Cameron, “the system is damaged,” and she or he is aware of it will take time for the trade to progress. However what she will do is collaborate with allies to advocate for the tales and characters they really feel are necessary. “I wish to be a human that builds coalition, that retains frequent floor,” she tells POPSUGAR. “One of many causes I like portraying these characters is as a result of they’ve their hand out for connection; they’re reflecting again to the tradition. There’s house for all of us. Actually in my profession, as a mom, as a human being, that’s the method I’m on this planet.”

She’s additionally longing for change. “Should you’re an actor or should you’re an artist, you might be an optimist and an activist,” she says. “And should you’re an activist or an optimist, you imagine that humanity can do one thing totally different.”

Yerin Kim is the options editor at POPSUGAR, the place she helps form the imaginative and prescient for particular options and packages throughout the community. A graduate of Syracuse College’s Newhouse Faculty, she has over 5 years of expertise within the popular culture and ladies’s way of life areas. She’s keen about spreading cultural sensitivity by way of the lenses of way of life, leisure, and elegance.