Transcript

Tessa Thompson wrestles with cynicism but chooses optimism

From Fresh Air · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 2 min · 11,041 words · 170 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Tessa Thompson wrestles with cynicism but chooses optimism", an episode of Fresh Air published February 6, 2026 (1 h 2 min, about 11,041 words). It mentions 24 people, works and ideas, including Tessa Thompson, Dear White People, Nia Dacosta, Atlanta, Mark Anthony Thompson.

What this episode is about

Tessa Thompson discusses her career choices, highlighting the intentionality behind her roles, particularly in the context of female representation in competitive fields like journalism. She reflects on her unique experiences, including shadowing local news anchors, and the challenges faced by women in the industry, emphasizing a balance between cynicism and optimism in her artistic journey.

Key takeaways

  • In Hollywood, period lesbians aren't just characters; they're a reflection of evolving storytelling and representation.
  • Local news anchors are more than just talking heads; they're decision-makers shaping narratives in real time.
  • Shadowing professionals reveals shocking truths: news anchors script the stories, they don't just read them out loud.
  • Shooting in small towns like Delona is a treasure hunt—where history, culture, and a complex racial landscape collide.
  • Antique malls tell stories, but beware: a stroll can shift from nostalgia to confronting uncomfortable relics of the past.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Atlanta, Delana, Dear White People, Creed
  2. – 20:00: Atlanta, Henrik Ibsen
  3. – 30:00: Cold Case, For Colored Girls, Janet Jackson, Eileen Loveborg
  4. – 40:00: Mark Anthony Thompson, Nia Dacosta, Mario (Sherry Coleman's brother), David Bowie
  5. – 50:00: Dear White People, Cold Case, Tyler Perry
  6. – 1:00:00: Dear White People
  7. – 1:01:48: Tessa Thompson

Notable quotes from "Tessa Thompson wrestles with cynicism but chooses optimism"

  • Tessa, I want to know how I want to know about this shadowing of local news anchors in Atlanta or Yeah.
    about Tessa Thompson · at
  • One of the early sites of the Gold Rush, this really fascinating tiny town. So, I drove up I drove up there and I was just so taken by it that I thought, Yeah, I definitely want to make the show.
    about Delana · at
  • Career, was lucky enough to work with people that seem to work that way, like Ryan Cougler. I remember when I made the first Creed with him. how in-depth he likes to get about…
    about Creed · at
  • Nia in general thinks of the 50s as the time of great pretending, sort of this post-war effort to button up everything. women get back in the house, men get back to work,.
    about Nia Dacosta · at
  • What do you think Ha actually might want from Eileene? And maybe is it to destroy her? Is it to actually feel something in that moment with her? What is your interpretation?
    about Eileen Loveborg · at
  • Your first TV role before Veronica Mars, because people talk about Veronica Mars as is your breakthrough role. Yeah.
    about Cold Case · at
  • You about growing up with parents who were artists, but in particular your father. He was always photographing you, always filming you.
    about Mark Anthony Thompson · at
  • About us. And I just I don't know if I want to do it anymore. And then I got this script and it felt like for the first time I could play a character that was not just the…
    about Dear White People · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Tessa Thompson — Person · Main guest · 1 mention · first at
    Primary interview subject discussing her acting process, research habits, and recent projects including the series 'His & Hers' and Nia DaCosta’s adaptation of 'Hedda Gabler'.
  • Nia Dacosta — Person · Referenced collaborator (director/adaptor) · 1 mention · first at
    Discussed as a key creative partner whose adaptation choices (including gender-swapping Lovborg to Eileene) shape Thompson’s work in 'Hedda'.
  • Mark Anthony Thompson — Person · Referenced family member (father) and creative influence · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed as Thompson’s father, a musician and image-maker who filmed/photographed her, shaping her sense of trust, collaboration, and storytelling through lenses and music.
  • Ryan Coogler — Person · Referenced collaborator (director) · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as an early-career influence on Thompson’s deep character-building approach during 'Creed', including backstory details never explicitly shown on screen.
    Career, was lucky enough to work with people that seem to work that way, like Ryan Cougler. I remember when I made the first Creed with him. how in-depth he likes to get about…
  • Eileen Loveborg — Person · Character referenced in adaptation discussion · 1 mention · first at
    Named as Thompson’s character’s ex-lover/foil in Nia DaCosta’s 'Hedda' adaptation; discussed as a queer, professionally successful counterexample that intensifies Hedda’s envy and rage.
  • Tyler Perry — Person · Referenced filmmaker (casting/industry anecdote) · 2 mentions · first at
    Appears in a story about Thompson proactively sending an audition tape and note for 'For Colored Girls' after hearing casting had changed.
    They're making a movie version of it and there's a part in it for you. How soon could you send a tape? And I went home immediately from the market and recorded a tape and sent…
  • Henrik Ibsen — Person · Referenced author/playwright · 1 mention · first at
    Credited as the playwright of the original work being adapted ('Hedda Gabler'), used to frame why classics persist and how adaptations should ‘implicate’ the adaptor.
    Can take them apart and put them back together. But for my money, I always think if you're going to do a classic, you kind of have to implicate yourself.
  • Pablo Schreiber — Person · Referenced cast member · 4 mentions
    Mentioned as the actor playing cameraman Richard Jones in 'His & Hers', used to set up a scene discussion about newsroom dynamics and relationships.
    And hers, is no exception. And I actually want to play a scene where she's having lunch at a diner with a cameraman. His name is Richard Jones and he's played by Pablo Shriber…
  • Janet Jackson — Person · Referenced artist (influence) and cast example · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as part of the 'For Colored Girls' cast and as a major childhood influence (Halloween costumes, dance), underscoring Thompson’s artistic lineage and inspirations.
    Janet Jackson. How could I forget Janet?
  • Mario (Sherry Coleman's brother) — Person · Referenced artist (listening reference) · 1 mention · first at
    Named as music Thompson listened to during preparation, illustrating how she uses sonic landscapes to build character and share references with directors/departments.
    Tons. A lot of Ornette Coleman, but tons. And usually I'm sharing music with the person that I'm working with, the director, and we're sending things back and forth, and I always want to know.
  • Whoopi Goldberg — Person · Referenced peer (cast example) · 2 mentions
    Listed among the 'For Colored Girls' ensemble as an example of influential performers Thompson admired and learned from on set.
    For color girls, it's a raw poetic exploration of what it means to be black and a woman in America. And you are alongside all of these titans when you go back and watch it. Whoopie Goldberg, Carrie Washington, Sandy Newton, Felicia Rashad.
  • Carrie Washington — Person · Referenced peer (cast example) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned (as 'Carrie Washington', likely Kerry Washington) among the notable ensemble in 'For Colored Girls', illustrating the caliber of artists Thompson worked alongside early on.
    For color girls, it's a raw poetic exploration of what it means to be black and a woman in America. And you are alongside all of these titans when you go back and watch it. Whoopie Goldberg, Carrie Washington, Sandy Newton, Felicia Rashad.
  • David Bowie — Person · Referenced artist (influence) · 1 mention · first at
    Used as an example of an artist who created an ‘avatar’ persona, shaping Thompson’s ideas about daring self-expression in performance.
    Musicians that I grew to love and be so fascinated by from a very young age, whether they're Prince or David Bowie or Grace Jones, or later, someone like Erica Badu. I think…
  • Grace Jones — Person · Referenced artist (influence) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as part of a set of boundary-pushing performers whose persona work influenced Thompson’s approach to expression and character.
    Musicians that I grew to love and be so fascinated by from a very young age, whether they're Prince or David Bowie or Grace Jones, or later, someone like Erica Badu. I think…
  • Erica Badu — Person · Referenced artist (influence) · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as an example of musicians who create expressive personas/avatars, influencing Thompson’s thinking about performance and identity.
    Whether they're Prince or David Bowie or Grace Jones, or later, someone like Erica Badu. I think folks that I could really sense when I was young were creating a sort of…

Books & papers

  • Dear White People — Book · Referenced work · 6 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of the guest's career and the impact of playing a character that was the subject of the narrative.
  • For Colored Girls — Book · Referenced work · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a play the guest loved and a film she was cast in after sending a tape to Tyler Perry.
    From my then agent who said, Jouri has to leave this. I know you love this play because for colored girls who considered suicide when rainbows Enough is one of the first plays…

Places & events

  • Atlanta — Place · Setting · 5 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a location where the guest shadowed local news anchors and shot projects.
    Yeah, I shadowed which was it's just such a delight. I did a ton of it in Atlanta and I'm so grateful to all the folks there that were so generous with me. But, it's gotten better now, but it has been, for a.
  • Delana — Place · Setting · 3 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a small town in Georgia where the guest's series was set and where she visited for research.
  • Gold Rush — Event · Historical context · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as part of the history of the small town Delana.
    Many, many months over the course of years shooting projects in Atlanta, but I had never heard of Delonica. It was one of the early sites of the Gold Rush, this really…

Media & podcasts

  • Creed — Media · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of the guest's collaboration with director Ryan Coogler and the depth of character development.
  • Cold Case — Media · Referenced work · 5 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as the guest's first TV role where she played a lesbian bootlegger from the 1930s.
  • Creed II — Media · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a project the guest was shooting in Atlanta when she first heard about Delana.
    I happened to be in Atlanta, Georgia shooting the Last Creed movie and I literally got off the phone with him and drove an hour and a half to Delonica right away because I just was so.
  • Veronica Mars — Media · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as the guest's breakthrough role in TV.
    Your first TV role before Veronica Mars, because people talk about Veronica Mars as is your breakthrough role. Yeah.

Full transcript with timestamps

You were a lesbian bootleger from the 1930s on the show Cold Case. And I This is beginning to feel like a theme. Just like a period lesbian. Just a lesbian of the past. A lesbian of the of a bygon era.

Am I right that this is your first lead in a murder mystery? This is my first lead in a murder mystery. Yeah. I hadn't thought about that until just now.

You're very intentional in the roles that you choose. I think that most actors are, but there is something that is very specific. I talked about it a little bit in the intro. There's a through line in many of your characters. Many of them are, of course, they're highly intelligent, but they're also deeply self-reflective and aware. Um, they use control as a way to survive. Anna, this particular character and his and hers, is no exception. And I actually want to play a scene where she's having lunch at a diner with a cameraman. His name is Richard Jones and he's played by Pablo Shriber and he's married to your nemesis, another news anchor, which I should just say is really real like this steps. There are so many photographers who are married to news anchors.

It's so true. And there are also so many anchors that have some, you know, testing relationships which I learned when I when I did my time shadowing some of them.

Oh, you did? So you shadowed? Yeah, I shadowed which was it's just such a delight. I did a ton of it in Atlanta and I'm so grateful to all the folks there that were so generous with me. But, you know, it's gotten better now, but it has been, you know, for a very long time a very competitive industry and for women in particular, there is a scarcity of opportunity which creates its own sort of drama.

Tessa, I want to know how I want to know about this shadowing of local news anchors in Atlanta or Yeah.

Yeah. local news anchor. Did you go out on stories with them or what was your shadow?

Yeah, I got to go out on stories. They got to help me with my copy. So I would send my copy in the show. They would help me rewrite. I got to go in studio and watch them work. It's one of the great extraordinary pleasures of what I get to do is to to to really in the in the you know process of preparation and research to meet so extraordinary so many extraordinary people that do incredible work and to really get a window into worlds that I think I might know something about. But truly like anything, you know nothing about it the closer that you look.

Oh, I'm so curious. What did what's something you learned that was of surprise to you about the job?

Something that was really surprising to me is I had always sort of assumed that anchors in particular were people that were just reading the news as opposed to writing it that they actively are really, you know, writing those stories and have so much to do with that. And then also just being in the room where they're deciding what stories are important or when something's breaking. I think just the immediacy sometimes of of information and truly that it's still going through a a human kind of funnel and and filter which I had always understood but I think to see it in real time maybe changed or um sharpened the way that I engage with the news and and with media. But, you know, I had a similar thing just sitting across from you because when I played Sam and Dear White People and got to play someone that worked in

a radio station, in a radio station. I still every time I do a podcast or I'm in a radio station, I have like a rush of that feeling again because I just loved

doing it. I just so enjoyed doing it. Sometimes when I play parts, this isn't always the case, but sometimes it feels like I get a sense of a window of like another trajectory I might have taken were I not an actor.

You also went to the small town that this was based on or it was based on a small town, right? Yeah. In Georgia,

it's set in this in this tiny little town called Delana. And thankfully, when I've had my first conversation with Willid about making the series, he said, "I want to set it in this town Delana." I happened to be in Atlanta, Georgia shooting the Last Creed movie and I literally got off the phone with him and drove an hour and a half to Delonica right away because I just was so fascinated. I'd spent many, you know, many, many months over the course of years shooting projects in Atlanta, but I had never heard of Delonica. It was one of the early sites of the Gold Rush, this really fascinating tiny town. So, I drove up I drove up there and I was just so taken by it that I thought, "Yeah, I I I definitely want to make the show."

And then when we were working on the show, we got to shoot there and I got to spend increasingly more time there. Um, but it it is a rarified thing to get to shoot in the in the place sometimes. And I think it's really a gift,

right? When that happens, what are you looking for? When you drove there, what are the things that you're trying to sus out as you're trying to figure out the character that you're going to embody? trying to get a sense of the place. I mean, Delana, I knew on paper was almost 98% white. Um, but then to be in Delana and feel what that feels like to come from Atlanta, which is this mecca,

chocolate mecca, chocolate mecca. Um, to go into Delana into that space and be inside of a black body in those spaces to feel what that is. I'm a great lover probably because all the items that you find in these places are storied, but I love an antique mall. It is my pleasure, my heaven, and the best ones always exist in tiny towns and Delana is chalk full of them. And so I went into one of these um antique malls and I'm, you know, finding so many things I love at a steel little ceramics and and pieces of lace and all these things. and I turn one corner and the whole stall is Confederate flags. It's um all kinds of I mean some things I won't even say but really sort of shocking bumper stickers and pieces of literature and just kind of you know

challenging to to see that in and amongst sort of this all this sort of beauty and and the quaintness of the store otherwise but that's very real. you know, when we were shooting his and hers, there were so many neighborhoods we'd go into where there were tons of Confederate flags on lawns. And I think just having sort of the visceral experience of of being in these spaces always feels important to me and and and always in the process of preparation just to touch down um is is a gift.

This is so fascinating to me because right, you're building the scaffolding for the interiority of your character. who is this news anchor, who's a reporter, so she she's been born and raised in this small town and she's a woman of color. And so that gives you a sense of who she is, even if that's not part of the story line.

Yeah. I I sort of am of the mind that it all ends up on screen in some way that audiences can't even detect. And in some ways, the less that these things exist inside of the narrative or in an expository way, the more important it is as an actor and as as people that are creating the the world of these stories. It's more important to sort of do that that real digging and make sure that it exists inside of either the performance or the construction even and especially if it's not in overt ways. I sort of think you kind of have to double down even more. Um, or at least I like to. I don't know. I I I think it's always been my instinct a because I'm really curious. I studied cult cultural anthropology in college. So, I was really interested in in people, but I think also I, you know, early in my career, was lucky enough to work with people that seem to work that way, like Ryan Cougler. I remember when I made the

first Creed with him. I mean, how in-depth he likes to get about character, things that you'll never see reflected on the screen necessarily. I

Oh my goodness. When we, you know, spoke about Bianca for the first time, who's a musician, as you said, but we wanted her musical taste to feel incredibly varied. But she's a girl that grew up in, you know, in Philadelphia. how would she have been listening to experimental music in the neighborhoods that she grew up in? And you know, he shared with me that one of the first times that he really heard like rock music um or music that was different than what he was listening to at home or or with his peers was when he was playing football and everyone would get to take their turn playing things in the locker room. and it so expanded his his sort of musical taste or he heard all these things that he wouldn't have heard for the first time. And so we decided for Bianca that maybe she went to a Quaker school. And so even though her neighborhood was mostly black and brown, at school she suddenly had all these

kinds of different folks and influences and these sorts of things. There was never a scene where we expressly talked about that, but it gave us a sense of who Bianca was or, you know, we knew, you know, her astrological sign. We knew he's a he's a filmmaker that has an incredible appetite to build out the world of a character so that they feel so authentically real to him and also that they that they feel like they resemble people that he knows and understands. and he wants to do that in a very robust way with an actor. And I think working with him early on in my trajectory and also early on in his set me free in the sense that I understood like oh this way of working that feels right to me and and and necessary to me is also a valid way of working and and it's a way that I think particularly for a character like Bianca that is sort of supporting and exists in a a you know a kind of film where you would think like

Oh, maybe she's just the girlfriend. She's ancillary. That she gets to feel every time that she occupies the screen, she gets to feel like a a woman that audiences know that they can that they can that they can recognize, you know.

Um, and so it's just been continuously the way that I that I love to work. Well, this is so fascinating in particular about Anna and and his and hers. Um, I have this clip that I want to play, uh, where, as I mentioned, she's, uh, sitting with this cameraman and he's married to her nemesis and she's talking to him about the perils of being married to a news anchor and she's so she's talking about her nemesis, but she's also talking about herself in that same way. Let's listen. Richard Jones married to rising star Lexi Jones. It's not like, exciting, lonely, right?

Friends tell you it must be exciting to have a celebrity wife or what passes for a celebrity in Atlanta. But it's not, is it?

People recognize her in the grocery store asking to take their photo. next to her. You're invisible. She leaves at two for the four and the six and she stays for the 11 and then there's meetings after. So, she doesn't get home until after 1:00. You're already asleep. So,

goodbye sex. She makes five times more money than you do. Oh, and you're happy that she does,

but it creates an imbalance. So happy or not, it hurts you both. Okay. Um I love this scene because it also is so accurate. Sorry, I just was in this world for so long.

And you know, there are often these um these shows that try to portray this world and they never quite get it right, but this this particular piece seemed to do that. But what strikes me the most is that she's talking about her nemesis, but she's also

talking about herself. She's talking about herself. Take me to that scene. take me that to that particular piece of dialogue as well.

Oh, good. Well, I'm so glad that you said that because it was something that I felt really protective over both as a performer and then producorally. I was like, I want to try to get this world as right as we possibly can. So, as I said, I I would lean on some of my, you know, new friends who worked in the space to go through my copy, but also with that scene as we were developing it, I also asked them like what feels right. Um, and so I would send sort of drafts of it back and forth and get input from from women that really work in that space. So I'm really grateful because a lot of their DNA is inside of it. Um, yeah, you know, Anna is someone who is newly back or trying to regain her footing in her professional world and meanwhile is having to contend with um, a lot of choices that she made in her personal life. And so I think you get to see her in this moment. She's someone that um deflects a lot and is probably

projecting onto Richard, but really she is really talking about herself. Okay, let's talk about Ha.

Um what fascinates me about this play, Henrik Ipsson. It was written in 1891. But what fascinates me is its persistence. It just seems that across generations

there is always this this desire this need to unpack it to understand it in order to understand the moment that we're in

completely. I'm just curious what was it about Nia Dcasta's ha that really aside from the fact that you two had worked together previously. You knew each other well but her version of ha that that fascinated you?

Oh my goodness. So many things. I mean, I think to your point, these pieces are ripe for adaptation because they're dextrous enough to handle them. They're so well constructed and and and what they observe or wrestle with is something so universal and foundational to humans that you can just you can you can take them apart and put them back together. But for my money, I always think if you're going to do a classic, you kind of have to implicate yourself. You have to have a good reason to want to because they're so perfect. It's like, why take it apart and put it back together unless you have something, you know,

to say to say or or or you want to take a big swing or you want to you want to do something daring um that both,

you know, satisfies the original material but maybe um takes it a step further or or uses it in in a way that that pushes even the boundaries of what the original, you know, writer was intending. And I think Nia did that in spades

a couple of different ways. A couple of different ways. Yeah. For one, I mean, casting you as Hetta is the biggest way.

And I I want to say there's a particular kind of rage um within Ha. But it translates a little bit differently with you being a black woman.

Can you talk about that for you and how you kind of thought about that? how it kind of translated for you as you embodied that role, that restraint, that ability to be able to articulate that rage, but it come out in this very specific way that is um

so many different ways. Yeah. I mean, you also add sort of the dynamics of upper society. Yes.

Um postwar UK um that has its own sort of a effect. You know, Nia in general thinks of the 50s as the time of great pretending, sort of this post-war effort to button up everything. Um, women get back in the house, men get back to work, everything's okay. Never mind the trauma that is happening globally. Um,

and the great pretending, it shows up in so many different ways in ha. I mean I mean she herself is a great pretender, but I when I was beginning work on her, I thought about my paternal grandmother who was a a black woman in the 50s, a school teacher, so a working woman. But I thought about all the ways in which she and my maternal grandmother had to pretend. You know, they took very different paths. One became a working woman. Another um married and was a housewife. Never had a job in her life. Was always attached to the men that she married. First one and then the other.

Um and I understood with more clarity now looking back on them. One is still alive. Um and to this day, by the way, she's almost in her 80s. She wears her red lipstick every single day. But I just think about how much I understood that they were pretending and how much rage they must have had because of the things that they um were expected to do or the things that they could not do because of the time. And I think something that we were really interested in in this adaptation is to yes create a world in which ha as a mixed race woman you know in society at that time also as a woman who is queer is hemmed in by the the time the expectations but is also hemmed in by by herself

and that I think is the thing that all of us understand. There are limitations that are put on us because of where we're from and and and um who we are. And there are also the limitations that we put on oursel because we are too afraid to step into who we are. M and that that articulation comes through so clear in her queer relationship, her ex-lover, Eileene Loveborg, played by Nina Hos,

and she I I want to break this down a little bit because she is a professional woman, Eileen. She is up for a professorship. She also is living a free life. She is in a queer relationship and it is a healthy relationship. And your character, it almost as if like she is a she is a show of what if what Ha could be.

Exactly. Which is exactly why Nia decided to change I love Loveborg who is typically a man in the play to Eileene Loveborg. It wasn't her intention necessarily to set out to make a queer story, but she wanted to create a real foil for Ha because in the original piece, Ha is in a world of men. She's trapped inside of domesticity. She never leaves the ha the house. Everything that happens happens off stage. She's not a woman of the world. Oura is a woman of the world and a woman who, you know, has other choices that she could have made, albeit they'd have their own attended challenges,

but um but nevertheless, she could. I actually want to play a scene where we get to see sort of the manipulation that Ha um navigates throughout the night. So, in this scene, Ha knows Eileen has stopped drinking. Um she knows she could lose control if she drinks and she pushes her to to do it anyway. Let's listen.

Drink something. You look thirsty. I don't drink. Eileen, one can't hurt. She doesn't drink either.

Never. I thought you were just cutting back. That's not what I said. And if I say you have to,

then you'd be speaking. You wouldn't do as I say. Not where that is concerned. Now,

I think you should. It's ridiculous. It's silly. Really? It's all right for Thea, but not for you. You can write your books with them and teach with them at the university, and you might even be able to get jobs alongside them, but they'll never really respect you if they think you can't do it like the boys.

Please. You saw Greenwood's face earlier when you asked for a soft drink like a soft woman.

What did you see? Condemned. I'm used to contempt. Condemned for your extracurricular interest. Yes. But for your mind, your character.

He can think what he likes. The woman of principle. What do you think Ha actually might want from Eileene? And maybe is it to destroy her? Is it to actually feel something in that moment with her? What What is your interpretation?

Oh goodness. I mean, I have a tremendous amount of empathy for having embodied her. I think if I'm honest, I think in that moment she she she's pretty dead set on destroying her. M

I I think she's come from this attempt at vulnerability, which is to say, if we could have done things differently in the past, if we could have been together, which is basically her way of saying, could you have me now? Would you have me now? And she feels um terribly rejected

in that moment. And I think from that moment on decides, then I then I then I have to destroy you. Um and I and and the truth is I think thankfully we are conditioned to um to not give credence to those sort of dark impulses inside of us.

Yes. I've heard you say that you think envy gets a bad rap and I I want to know more about that. I do and and and actually the process of working on HEA helped me understand that because particularly in my industry I' I did a lot of work early in my career because there's so much competition. Um and I really wanted to feel like I'm happy for people if something doesn't come my way particularly for other black women. Um I feel like I win every time someone um like me wins. Like really and truly I I I feel that I feel so deeply a part of that community. And yet of course in all of us, you know, particularly when you when you want something, when you cannot have it, I think there's something inside of us that gets quelled from when we're children and we we

we're told it's bad to feel that. We're told it's bad. We're told it's ugly. And particularly as women, we're told to feel that about each other is unsavory. And yet, I think understanding and being able to connect to moments of jealousy or envy actually helps us understand the lives that we want to live.

It's that thing of like when we're scrolling on Instagram and we and we feel petty about someone's, I don't know, job that they post or recent weight loss or engagement. I think what they help us understand is maybe I'm not in the job that I that I want to be in. Maybe I want to be someone who's taking better care of of myself. Um maybe I want to be in a relationship that feels like it's moving towards um you know some new level of commitment. These are little I think whispers to oursel if we can channel it in positive ways I think it can help us understand where we want to go and and and potentially how to get there. That's the healthy version. But I think these instincts that exist inside of ha ex exist inside of all of us. And I think we do a tremendous amount of pretending that they don't. And I think it actually gets us further away from our emotional truth.

Your first TV role before Veronica Mars, because people talk about Veronica Mars as is your breakthrough role. Yeah.

But before any of that, you were a lesbian bootleger from the 1930s on the show Cold Case. And

this is beginning to feel like a theme. Just like a period lesbian. Just a lesbian of the past. A lesbian of the of a bygon era.

Well, gosh, you were so young. I was so young. And I thought, what a hell of a way to start. Yeah.

You know, but um you talked about being drawn to characters that don't fit neatly, who um you know, they cross lines, they resist categories. Um

where does that actually come from, though? I I want to talk more about your childhood and growing up, but you know, you go out and you audition

or whoever represents you says, "Oh, there here's a role for you to go to to audition for,"

but like this is a very pretty this is a pretty specific role to say like I I want to go for this, you know?

Yes. I mean, the truth is early in your career as an actor, if you're someone like me that doesn't have any, you know, folks in Hollywood and my family, I was like cold calling agents, you know, I was like sending my little resume. I put together like a little collage and a handwritten note and I would send it out to agents around town. I mean, it was like very scrappy in those early days. But I was also meanwhile doing theater and so I would do these plays and occasionally a casting director or somebody with proximity to the industry or in the casting process would see me in a play and I would get early auditions based on that and Cold Case was one of those instances. But you know then you're just sort of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. But I remember that Cold Case audition came after I'd had like a lot of commercial auditions which I never had any luck at.

You know you never got one? Oh, I'd be holding a pizza box. And I just found the whole process really challenging. I was not very good at it. It convinced me that I was probably not a very good actor because I couldn't do any of the things that they wanted me to do at these commercial castings. And also, typically, you'd be like one of like 85 people that look vaguely like you, just in like slightly different outfits. And I was like, I don't know if I'm going to make it this way. But I remember when Cold Case came through, I thought, "Oh my goodness, this is so fascinating."

because it aligned with so many of the things I already loved and one of which was research. I was like, "Oh, I get to do so much research into the time." And then I remember when I got the part, I went to I think it was on the Universal lot, got to go to their costume archives and you know the suit that I'm wearing it in it is an actual boy's suit from that time from the period. Um, and I remember just thinking like, wow, if if this is what it's like to work in TV and film, because that was my very first time doing it. I was like, I never want to stop. This is extraordinary. This collage that you made with these little handwritten notes. Um,

that's something that is a throughine that I I see in a lot of um the roles that you ultimately got. I mean, there's this story about you um writing Tyler Perry. Um, you said first off, you sent a tape to Tyler Perry for Colored Girls after you heard that the film was already cast.

Yes, I heard it was cast, but I knew sadly because I think she would have been extraordinary, Journey Smlette had to fall out of it. And so I got a call.

I was in the supermarket at the time. I'll never forget. Um, and I got a call from my then agent who said, "Jouri has to leave this. I know you love this play because for colored girls who considered suicide when rainbows Enough is one of the first plays I fell in love with. I still have my hard copy that I stole sorry from the Brooklyn Library. I still own it. I'm so sorry to them. I will pay you whatever I owe you. But I just devoured that play and and read it so many times and loved it. Um and so my agent at the time knew that and said, "They're making a movie version of it and there's a part in it for you. How soon could you send a tape?" And I went home immediately from the market and recorded a tape and and sent it to Tyler and sent him a note just about I don't even remember what I said, maybe just how much I love the the play.

Yes. Um but yeah, that's how that that's how that came about. I mean, for color girls, it's a raw poetic exploration of what it means to be black and a woman in America. And you are alongside all of these titans when you go back and watch it. Whoopie Goldberg, Carrie Washington, Sandy Newton, Felicia Rashad. What did you absorb being among them?

Janet Jackson. Janet Jackson. How could I forget Janet? All of the women. All I cannot tell you. All of the women I watched my whole childhood.

I mean, had Jouri been in the movie, she also would have been one of those cuz she I remember watching her in East Bayou when I was, you know,

about that age, watching her on screen. I mean, so many of these women had h had such an incredible impact on me. I remember the first time I saw Tandy Newton in that film Gridlock. My dad showed it to me and was like, "You got to see this woman." I mean,

all of their work collectively. Janet Jackson, I was her for three times at Halloween. I used to know all of I mean, very poorly, but the Rhythm Nation dance, I could do that as a child.

Wait, three times. So, so Rhythm Nation and what other eras of Janet? Rhythm Nation twice.

It's a good one. It's a good one. Rhythm Nation twice. Yeah. You got the hair today.

That's true. I do have the hair today. I mean, I'm always trying to be Janet, but these women meant so so so much to me. Um, and so being on that set with them was just, you know, I mean, like pinching myself every single day. But also, I feel like I'm so deeply aware all the time of just how how we're in relation to each other. You know, the the women that that both came before me, many of them still working today.

Absolutely. Um the women that are working currently that feel like they're they're coming after me, the women that will come after them. I just spend a lot of time energetically feeling connected to to to

to black women and in inside of this business because I just know from watching,

you know, film and television growing up that it meant so much. It shaped so much of my ideas of self, you know, seeing black women on screen. I want to talk to you a little bit about your uh relationship with director Nia Dcasta because you've said something important about how so much of what you're able to bring um to the lens to your roles has to do with the person behind the camera and their ability to see you

and what is that relationship that trust what do you think it is in Nia just on a fundamental level um they're probably a million different attributes, but there's something that's a connective tissue that you feel like she allows you the ability to be expansive in who you are on screen.

Oh goodness, so many things. I mean, we've become just the closest of friends, so there's definitely that. But I also think that she has a real vested interest in the same way that I do with taking black female protagonists into all sorts of spaces. She already is interested as a filmmaker in being able to traverse across genre. That's just because her interests are are so um varied.

It's pretty expansive just like you. I mean, you've gone from blockbusters, Marvel to independent films, and her career trajectory is the same.

Is the same. Exactly. Right. Um, but I think a a part of it is also that she hopes to then take black female protagonists into all these spaces with her. And again, I don't think there's any black women in the Bone Temple, but that's also amazing that she's a filmmaker that insists on not being pigeonholed because so often what can happen sometimes to a filmmaker of color is that there's assumption that you're only going to tell stories uh about your experience and from your own cultural lens, which is fair and fine and many filmmakers do that and that's extraordinary. And also, you should be able to tell any kind of story that you want to. And I think that's that is the space that NIA exists in, which is to say that I I want to center black women in my stories. And I also, as a black woman, don't want to feel like I have to be centered in anyone's space. I want to be boundless. I want to

be able to go everywhere to do anything. And I think that kind of ferocious appetite that has to do yes with her own interest but also has to do in like where have we not been before and particularly where has a black female director not been able to go before like I want to go there.

I want to ask you about your your parents and in particular your father Mark Anthony Thompson. Uh he's a musician. Mhm.

Um, and I I have so many questions I want to ask you about growing up with uh with uh parents who were artists, but in particular your father. He was always photographing you, always filming you. What do you remember? Take me there. What do you remember about being on the other side of his camera? Yeah, he loved um he always had cameras whether it was a Super Eight or a a digital camera or still camera. He loved images, still does, but then it was relentless. He was always recording. Um and he would use me to test light and so he just sort of needed a subject.

But then we graduated eventually and I could use him as my cameraman and my cinematographer. So I would come up with these stories and then and then I would tell him and sort of direct him and he would shoot them and some of them actually were quite elaborate. I cast my older sister very begrudgingly who is deathly shy just in general but camera shy especially and so she's in one of those early films that we made. I don't know. I think I remember a sense of um feeling a tremendous amount of excitement and abandon.

You know, I definitely was not a a child that felt I I was lit up by by a camera's presence. It was actually later in life when I began working professionally that I had to build a new relationship with with a camera. But then it's like no self-consciousness at all. Just a just a just a excitement and being able to capture. And then my dad would also cuz we drive around Hollywood a lot. He would hand me the camera so I would get to record a lot too. And I really loved that. I loved being able to see life through a lens. It made even the most mundane thing exciting suddenly to get to see it behind a lens. That's so powerful because I just it makes me think about your ability to clearly see the people you want to work with and how you want to work with them. And um if those foundational experiences with your father were pretty foundational in you understanding how it feels and what you need from from the people that you work

with. Yeah, I hadn't even connected that. You're so right because I think obviously it's my dad and there's such a kind of intimacy

and trust and trust and so there's absolute freedom. You're right. Maybe I'm always tracing that now.

He's a musician, chocolate genius really. um he had several different uh arcs in his career as a musician, but I'm always fascinated by the neo soul era because that was just a special era of a time when um

it was a a a bringing back of music in such an intentional way and musicality in such an intentional way and I know that you are that's another form of storytelling for you. You did it in Creed where you were a musician who was writing music but also you wrote music as part of it. Can you talk a little bit about how music kind of plays into your your storytelling as well? Do you see yourself as a musician?

I don't see myself as a musician. No. Just because I know if anything like it's requisite it's it's sort of like an eat, sleep, breathe. It is your world and music is not necessarily. But it has such a huge place in my world. And I think in terms of formative early experiences, a lot of those films that I would make with my dad or or that time of creation was also at a time when he lived in his in his studio.

So when I would be spending because my parents weren't together, I would spend time with my father. And when I was spending time with my father, I was in Hollywood in this studio. So there were so many people coming in and out and creation and I would be playing or watching a movie while my dad would be recording. And so there was this sense of constant music around and and and constant kind of creation. And I still work in a very similar way when I'm working on something. Music is a huge part of of how I'm beginning process and and character and understanding characters. There's there's so much that happens with sort of connecting kind of a sonic landscape with an emotional landscape.

So when you're preparing, are you you using music or playing music? Yeah, constantly I'm using so much music. What did you use? What did you do?

Tons. A lot of Ornette Coleman, but tons. And usually I'm sharing music with the person that I'm working with, the director, and we're sending things back and forth, and I always want to know what people are listening to in every department because typically people are using music too. Yes. So that becomes a part of my world. I want to know the people that are creating the literal world. What is what is their, you know, what what is their world like whilst they're creating? Like that feels important to me. But um yeah, I think it's just such a music is such a you there's something about it that even in a way that film can't necessarily do, there's something about music that really I think sort of connects us um in such an immediate such an immediate way.

So it's something that just yeah matters a lot to me. But I but definitely watching my dad from an early time because I think as a a storyteller, as a songwriter, he he a is so extraordinary and then also in his performance early, he really would create these sort of personas that felt like an exaggerated version of him. And so I think I did learn in in those early times watching him and watching so many of the musicians that I grew to love and be so fascinated by from a very young age, whether they're Prince or David Bowie or Grace Jones, um, or later, you know, someone like Erica Badu. I think folks that I could really sense when I was young were creating a sort of avatar, a version of themselves whereby they were sort of free to to challenge audiences and to expand our ideas of what's possible and who and what we can be in the most expressive and daring ways. And so I think that had a huge influence on

me for sure. Your mom um you all are extremely close. And I I want to read something that you said about her. Um it was at an Essence Black Women in Hollywood lunchon back in 2020. So you said something pretty poignant about your mother and your grandfather. And here's the quote. I want to acknowledge someone who is not black and is not in the room because she couldn't be. But it's my mother. Her father, my grandfather, was of Mexican descent. He was a performer in a time where there was very few of them. and he was the only very often. And I think because of this, he had a real pressure to assimilate because he didn't want my mother to speak Spanish. And I was just really struck by the fact that you wanted to acknowledge her in this room.

You wanted to say the sacrifices that she made allowed you to be in that room and also her understanding of identity in that way. How did your mother's experience actually help you hold on to the parts of yourself in this world as you navigate trying to pinpoint the storyteller you are?

Yeah, I mean her her effect was so extraordinary. Firstly, I think she um she really recognized cuz I was doing plays in school and and one of my early productions. I remember she came and I had never seen her look at me that way. I think it was the moment that she realized that I had found something that was gonna occupy really so much of my heart and life, you know, and um and that she would do anything to

make it happen to make it happen and to and to support me and to never make me feel um pressure to always I mean she really is one of the people that really helped me be able to define success in these spaces on my own terms and not by anything outwardly, you know, not by accolades or even by the jobs I get, but just the the bravery that it takes to pursue something that's really hard where the odds are such that you might not have like quote success, but to do it because it's really what's inside of you. And I think my mom really gave me that in spades. And then separately, I think um as someone that grew up, you know, I remember and and and I think her father was just trying to give her the best odds, but for example, suggesting that maybe she change her name on a resume to sound less ethnic because it might help her get jobs. And in fact, it did. It worked. He was not wrong,

you know, in the 1980s. Um, but I think my mom really wanting to make sure that for me, that I didn't feel like I had to make any concessions of self, that I could show up exactly as I was. And she did it in really small ways. For example, I remember very early on wanting to straighten my hair, to get my hair chemically straightened. And my mom was very sweet and very generous and she's like, "We can investigate the whole process and do it." And we investigated everything. I had had like a series of very terrible blowouts that the weather didn't agree with. And she was like, "Whatever makes you happy." But she outlined everything for me. And finally, I I it was my choice. I said, "No, I want to keep my hair just like this."

And I remember when I made that choice, she cried because she was so happy. M but she had given the choice to me you know um and and I think that was just an early indication that was so helpful for me then when I navigated Hollywood and eventually was on sets where people deeply decided that I had to straighten my hair that I had to look one way or another. my mom gave me an early sense of of self enough that um that I you know could could say no actually I I I want to look like myself.

Um and I'm not sure that I would have that I would have known how to do that were it not for my mother.

You know what I also note based on what you shared about your mother and in particular that speech you gave at that women's lunchon where you said I want to acknowledge this woman who's not in the room. I mean, oftent times when we're talking about your identity, it is really focused on your blackness,

but you are biracial and your mother is is white and Mexican. And so, she's she's really not in the rooms when we talk about no

black discourse, but this sounds like she was such a fundamental part in you understanding who you are.

Yeah. And also, I think she did a really phenomenal job at raising a mixed race daughter and like connecting me to my black identity and making sure that I was like in those spaces and taking me out of private schools that were completely white where I was the only kid of color in there on scholarship and understanding that like what that felt like. You know,

you were even homeschooled for a while. Yeah, because I was in a I was in a school system that frankly was racist and and not great and I was bullied in that school and um and she understood how detrimental that was to me at a very young age and we didn't have the money to get to a better school district. And so she took me out of school and homeschooled me until we could

because she knew that that school wouldn't protect me and she couldn't be there every day to do that. And so she thought, "I'll take you home and I'll protect you here."

Yay for moms. Yay for moms. I I talked about you sending that um that tape to Tyler Perry. You also did something similar with Dear White People. You in this case wrote a letter to uh the director and showrunner uh Justin Simeon. a letter where you described um how much of a fan you were of the of the actual work and that you needed to be in the movie.

This is a pattern. Do you know what's so funny is just the other day I was thinking I need to write more letters to people not in an effort to get a job just to tell them how much I love their work because I'm such a massive fan and and work means so much to me and and I'll watch something that I love and it'll swirl around forever and ever. Um, and I want to send these sort of missives to people just to let them know. I think of myself as someone that doesn't write letters, but you're reminding me, I suppose I am. I read Dear White People at a time when I almost wanted to quit.

Quit the industry. Yes. And I hadn't really been working in it arguably that long, but I just thought there's not enough for me here. There's not enough that's substantive. And frankly, some of the things that um I'm going up for or would be offered, were I lucky enough to get them, I think are like problematic in terms of what they say about us. And I just I don't know if I want to do it anymore. And then I got this script and it felt like for the first time I could play a character that was not just the object of the narrative, but the subject of the narrative. Um, which was massive.

And that's interesting distinction there. are huge because I think that for the average viewer, it's not until you say it that there's an understanding of what you mean. It's such a it's so deeply embedded in art and cinema being an object versus being the subject.

The subject. Yes. And by the way, there are amazing roles that you can play where you are somewhat an object, which means your character functions but is not the protagonist, is not the subject that the audience or the filmmaker frankly cares the most about. But at that point in my career, I had never, you know, with the exception of maybe my first job on cold case, got to be real the subject. And even then, she really is an object because she's just a cold case of, you know, that you're trying to figure out in the past, right?

So, it was remarkable remarkable to have the opportunity to to to to play that kind of character. And then also Justin Simeon wanted to sort of it was an indictment of Hollywood itself in some ways about the kind of things that we're allowed to be on screen as as as black folks. Um, and that was something I so deeply felt and and had so many feelings about that I didn't even get to process because anytime I was working it was sort of like you're just happy to be there. You're happy to have a job. Um but but secretly I was feeling a lot of turmoil about what was possible for me and particularly coming from the theater where you play these incredible

expansive parts expansive parts. I mean my first professional play I was playing Juliet and Romeo and Juliet. you play these things that you get to sink your whole humanity into and then to feel like it's mitigated to this this sort of tiny and in very many cases especially early in my career and at that time in Hollywood sort of superficial or stereotypical versions of of of

yes a woman of a black woman in particular I just felt I I was tired frankly Yeah. And it's such a refreshing, dynamic, satirical. It was also one of your first times you've done satire right?

Yeah. And satire is increasingly rare. So I I just I just I just loved the script and sort of died for it and and it felt like that thing that I just I just knew I had to play that part. I knew that I had to play that part.

Dear White People is set on a college campus. you play um a college student, a biracial student who has a radio show and she's kind of militant. She's also dealing with her own internalized feelings about her identity and

is kind of confronted by it in various different ways, both by being a person of color on campus in a majority white campus, but also from black people, other black people who question her blackness. and um it's about people of color on a campus and dealing with race and identity. What What did you love about the part that you play the most?

Well, as I told you, I love playing someone that that that works in radio journalism. I just found that so fun and so fascinating. But I also thought all the host of kind of contradictions inside of Samantha White were just so fun to play. And truthfully, as impactful as it is, race is silly. And I can imagine you I mean, you know, I can imagine you as a biracial person able to see this more than anyone. Like you're you're able to to see Do you feel that way? Oh, that's interesting. Uh maybe perhaps it gives me a slightly different lens. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Um because you know like growing up you you hear things like like this idea that you um could talk white like what that what does that even mean? It's so

bizarre. Um it's so bizarre. And so I think also getting to kind of talk about race inside of a movie that is in one on one hand taking it very seriously and also identifying how unserious it really is.

Yeah, that's the fun part. That's the fun part and that's for my money personally. I think that's the kind of discourse I'm interested in with with regards to race. Yeah.

I want to ask you this question only because we may find a clip later, but is there a particular scene or something that was the most fun for you to to shoot on that?

Oh goodness, there's so many fun scenes. And as I said, I haven't seen the film in quite a long time, but there's a confrontation that I have with Kyle Gallagher, who plays sort of the the villain. Um he's the head of this group on campus called Prestige. Yeah.

And there's some fun sort of tit for tat inside of there. And then also there's another scene that I have with my sort of secret partner. I'm I'm secretly in love with um a white TA on campus, but I can't because he's going to mess up my standing with the black student union.

Um but there's an argument that we have that essentially is foreplay. They have a lot of discourse about race, but really what they want to get to is is is connection. And I think there's something kind of sweet about that because the truth is sometimes we can get so mired in identity um that it gets us further away, not just from ourselves, but from each other. And I think there's something about this scene that sort of illustrates that

because this TA actually, this white TA, he really sees her. He does. Mhm. He does really see her.

Yeah, that's exactly right. He's the only one that does. I mean, she secretly also loves Taylor Swift, you know, and and can't

and and how silly, you know, how silly. But I remember being in high school and I am an avid lifelong fan of Joanie Mitchell.

And I remember certain people being like, Joanie Mitchell, that's what you're listening to. I mean, I was also listening to Tupac, but this idea that I couldn't reconcile that or or my peers had a hard time reconciling that that we had to exist in these binaries that had to do with race was always so

silly. Except in high school, I couldn't see it yet. It just felt like, you know, terrifying. It felt like I had to, you know, code switch depending on where I was to be able to fit in because, of course, as a teenager, that's your desperate, desperate, desperate desire. But the truth is you never really find yourself or the people or your village until you can integrate all the varied things about yourself.

Do you revisit your old work? Like have you revisited that that particular film?

No, I haven't seen it. I will say Tessa um it I loved it when it came out. I saw it many times. It felt different watching it in 2025.

Really? In what sense? It still held up. It was still strong. Oh wow. That's cool. But we're in a different place.

Yeah. Back then, I mean, we were it was it was the the tail end of the Obama era and we were kind of um we were naming things in a very intentional way and there was also a bit of optimism in being able to name for many people.

Sure. And um to watch that just thinking about something like that being created today, do you think it could be?

No, I don't think so. Not in the same way. No, I think there was a run and Dear White People was sort of early in it, but I think there was a run of really extraordinary projects, American films that wanted to talk about race and in in um really inventive ways.

Mhm. Um and I think it it was a really generative time. Yeah. You know, that sort of maybe culminated in the brilliance of a film like Get Out. And I think of like cinema to me it's like cinema before Get Out and after Get Out in terms of what that film did, what that film told us you could do, what was possible.

Um that you could take the genre space and and and speak about race or class or and now we've seen many films that do that in in in very different ways. Um but I think Dear White People was sort of on the early end. I don't know. I I I I I hope I think that these things are sort of like a pendulum and things come back around.

Um and this time will probably give birth to a whole um welcomed rash of projects.

You're optimistic. I am. I am optimistic. I am. I love in the same way that I love stories that are audacious. I love storytellers that are audacious. I love people full stop that are audacious. I think one of the most audacious things currently is to be optimistic.

And so I I try to be something interesting about you is you have uh you may have more but I but I don't know this but you have two tattoos. One that is a yes.

Yes. And then one that's a no. Yes. The yes is bigger and more visible to to to audiences than the no is. But you know, I got the yes first and then many years later I thought I needed to get the no for good measure. But I think and they're on separate arms. I do think I'm constantly wrestling with that. I think I wrestle with my cynicism and my optimism. I think they're always in because that's what they optimism and there's the cynicism. But why did why did the cynicism need need to happen a few years later with the no after this big declarative yes?

It was a reminder to myself that we are as much defined by the things that that we don't do than by the things that we do. And I think I needed to be reminded to to say no.

I think I'm I think I'm partially because of my optimism and boundless energy. I'm someone that's inclined to say yes. And also I think in this industry there is a perceived um feeling of scarcity. And so I think you're constantly kind of like what's next? What's you know and sometimes it it breeds a yes that maybe should have been that should have been a very polite no.

What was the impetus for the yes though? I want to know what was the what's the story behind the yes.

Okay. So I've never bothered to look this up to make sure that it's a true story. But ever since I heard the story, I was so taken by it. Apparently, the way that John Lennon met Yokoono.

Oh, yeah. She was in a group show. Yeah. And the piece was this um white ladder that you could walk up.

Mhm. And on a ceiling was a magnifying glass that was hanging from it and you could find a very, very, very tiny Yes. And John Lennon was so taken by the piece and said, "Whose piece is this?" And it was Yokoono's. And that's how they met. And I always loved this story. I just I just loved the imagery. I think I'm also a romantic at heart, but this idea of art connecting people in the most profound ways that you could understand something fundamental about another

in a piece of work. So, I loved that. Um, and I love this idea that if you if you look close enough, it might be tiny, but there there are little yeses everywhere, which is to say there is so much to be affirmed by if we look close enough. And I just love that. And I because I am also a very impulsive person. The I heard that story and then rush to get a tattoo. In the same way, I have a number five that is taken from a Carrie James Marshall painting. I went to see his work at his retrospective. I knew his work, was already a fan, but to see so much of his work in person, I wept the whole time and then immediately went to a tattoo parlor and got it tattooed on me. I have more than two tattoos and most of them are very impulsive.

And I would guess it doesn't even matter about whether that story is true or not.

No. with yokoono and linen. Your yes is is is kind of your mantra. Yeah. Exactly.

Can you show us your tattoo? Yes. Yes. And I like Yeah. Let me see if I can. They're so elegant, too.

They are. They're They're tiny. I'm a wimp. Okay. Here's the note. Oh, the no. Yes. Why did you choose these spaces places? Is there a particular reason?

I don't know. Because I thought this one was This one is kind of for me. And this one, I thought the yes is not just for me but for other. I thought it's a cheerful tattoo for people to get to engage with. You know, it's a bit of like positivity to send. But this

is kind of closer closer to me. And is that a heart? This is this is an anatomical heart, but it also is there's these Mexican um this is Mexican game called Loia, and it's a card game. And so this is one of the cards, one of my favorite ones.

Do you speak Spanish? I do, but I I need work. It's been a long time. Yeah. Just thinking about like how meaningful that is for your mom and for your legacy, you know, for you to take it on.

Yeah, it is. Then my mom has been doing all this incredible ancestral work and connecting to to members of her family that she had lost touch with and doing trips to Mexico and and really trying to unpack and uncover um her her relationship not just with her her family there but with with that part of herself um which has been a just wonderful to watch.

Tessa Thompson, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you. The pleasure's been all mine. Thanks so much for having me.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Tessa Thompson wrestles with cynicism but chooses optimism"?

Tessa Thompson (Host).

What is "Tessa Thompson wrestles with cynicism but chooses optimism" about?

Tessa Thompson discusses her career choices, highlighting the intentionality behind her roles, particularly in the context of female representation in competitive fields like journalism. She reflects on her unique experiences, including shadowing local news anchors, and the challenges faced by women in the industry, emphasizing a balance between cynicism and optimism in her artistic journey.

What is mentioned in this Fresh Air episode?

24 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Tessa Thompson, Dear White People, Nia Dacosta, Atlanta, Mark Anthony Thompson, Creed. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Tessa Thompson wrestles with cynicism but chooses optimism"?

The episode runs 1 h 2 min; the transcript is about 11,041 words in 170 timestamped sections.

More from Fresh Air

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated February 7, 2026.