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*With more than 300 appearances in film and television, Jenifer Lewis admits that these days, she can’t be bothered with auditioning for roles.
“I’ll still audition if it’s someone like Steven Spielberg or someone like that. I’ll audition my ass off. But I haven’t auditioned in a long time.”
Recalling a time when she questioned why she had to audition, she says:
“Somebody called me in one time to audition for a mother and I said, “Are you out of your f*cking mind?” I’m the motherf*cker, b*tch. You either want Jenifer Lewis or you don’t.”
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Lewis is known for playing roles of mothers in several blockbusters, and it has earned her the title, “Black Mother of Hollywood.” She also had recurring roles on several sitcoms, including “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and in 2014, she began starring as Ruby Johnson in the ABC comedy series, “Black-ish,” for which she received two Critics’ Choice Television Award nominations.
“Good lord, Black-ish! It’s brought a new level of fame. When you’re on one of the major networks, on primetime, you are in their living rooms right after dinner.”
Initially, her character wasn’t as significant as it now is.
“I wasn’t in the original cast, and then I came on as a guest star. Then they asked me to become a regular. That sh*t is the cherry on my career! Black-ish is saying something. These are the modern subjects that we need to embrace now. Black-ish is needed all over the world. It’s time for African-Americans to be seen in this light. It’s time for our history to be told. I just got back from Iceland. Some b*tch in a snowsuit comes running up to me on a glacier, like, “Oh, you’re on Black-ish!” Oh my god, b*tch, we’re in a glacier. Get the f*ck out of here.”
Meanwhile, embarrassment, Lewis writes in her new memoir “is not a word that’s really attached to me, but hold on a minute, let me try to think. When I was doing the national tour of the musical ‘Eubie!’ — this was probably 1981 — we were somewhere like Rhode Island and my halter top fell while I was on stage and my breasts were exposed during that number. Yeah. Exposed. On stage. In the middle of a dance number. The wardrobe just came off. I was in my 20s so they were still very pretty. The audience was blessed, I assure you. The whole cast was laughing when I got off stage. The audience had a blast, I mean their eyes popped out of their heads and they were hiding the kids’ eyes. Let’s just say it caused a commotion for about four seconds.”
She admits that before she landed the “Black-ish” role Lewis considered quitting show business altogether, per the Chicago Tribune.
