'By the Way', Sanaa Lathan is back on stage

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Sanaa Lathan has fashioned an enviable acting career going back to the 1990s. All hands down, her most beloved movie is Love & Basketball. Since then she’s amassed an impressive resume with a diversity of characters in film, television, and theater. Theater has been the recent focus of her career, a throwback to her training at the prestigious Yale School of Drama, which earned her a Tony award nomination for her portrayal of the sassy Beneatha in A Raisin in the Sun.

theGrio spoke with Sanaa Lathan about her recent hiatus from films to focus on once-in-a-lifetime roles in theater, what’s it like being a black actress in Hollywood today (setting the record straight about a couple of things), and what she’s working on next.

By the Way, Meet Vera Starks is playing at Second Stage Theater in New York City. The play which opens on May 9th, pokes fun at Hollywood while paying homage the black actress like Theresa Harris who had so much more to give Hollywood but spent her career playing maids in mediocre films rather than playing leading ladies that their talent deserved. By the Way, Meet Vera Starks was written by Lynn Nottage, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her play Ruined in 2009.

TheGrio: How did you come across the role of Vera Starks? It seems almost handwritten just for you?

Last year I was in London doing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Lynn was there doing a play. We talked and she offered me the workshop for the play. I was excited to play the character from the moment I read it. What a great character to play that deals with real issues that we deal with even today and in the industry.

How did you prepared for this role — emotionally, physically, spiritually? I know this is a historical piece, any research you had to do?

We watched a lot of 1930s Foucault movies. There’s a great one called The Flame of New Orleans. There’s an actress named Theresa Harris who plays in this movie. Like Vera Stark, she made a career of playing maids. We watched a lot of 1930s screwball comedies. Thank God for YouTube! A lot of Ed Sullivan type shows with divas like Lucille Ball, Pearl Bailey, Judy Garland, and Betty Davis.

So what’s it like working in Hollywood? For the most part Hollywood seems pretty segregated. I saw many parallels with the play and the situation of black actors in Hollywood today.

All you have to do is look at what’s being put out there to see that Hollywood is like the last frontier. There’s definitely is a lot of inequality in Television and Hollywood. The one thing I’d love to see when I go to the movies is to see movies that reflect the world that I live in. Now when I go to the movies, I don’t see that. All I ask is that movies start telling the stories of the entire experience of America.

Like the character you portray, Vera Starks, are there things you have to trade on as an actress in Hollywood?

Not as much as her. I have had a wonderfully diverse array of characters that I’ve been able play. I’ve been able to be in movies and make a living at it. So, no, I don’t feel that way at all. I’ve been very lucky in my career. To make a point: I don’t think I would have survived in this business without cultivating a positive attitude.

Vera Starks, in and of itself, this role is…

Revolutionary?

Yes! I hope so! I feel like I get to play a woman from the 1930s in her 20s. And then play that same woman in her late 60s. And she’s an alcoholic. So it’s like a double period piece. And I get to age with the character. It’s a dream come true.
What’s it like doing satire? The play is quite funny but also very serious. What rewards does theater offer that film doesn’t?

Honestly, I love them both. The wonderful part of theater is the collaboration between the people on stage and the audience. So you’re really fed by the energy of the audience.

You’ve taken a break from Tinseltown to do theater. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Was this planned? Strategic?

No, the play that I did in London was The Cat on Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams. It was like the Mount Everest of roles — black or white. When this came along, I couldn’t turn it down. It was with James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, and Adrian Lester. It was just really amazing but very taxing on my body. Doing eight shows a week gives me a whole new respect for people [actors] who do this all the time.

Would you say the roles in theater tend to be more nuanced — generally very different — than what we get to see on the silver screen?

The thing about playwriting is that there’s integrity especially on the level of what Lynn Nottage is doing — people spend years writing their plays. And it depends on what kind of film you’re doing. They can throw a script together in a couple of months and say you know this scene is not completely done. You guys can improv it. So, with playwriting, there’s none of that. Every night we’re studying line notes. In general, there’s a lot more care and time that goes into playwriting.

Both of your parents are in the business, how did that prepare you for becoming an actress?

My dad was one of the first black directors in television. My mother was a dancer with the Alvin Ailey Company and she was on Broadway. The biggest thing — since there is no real way to prepare someone, since there are so many different roads is when I came home crying, there was this level of understanding since they had their own experiences and they were like you know what — this too shall pass. Wherever I was in my career, there was always a lot of support.

I could also talk to my dad about projects and he’d ask who the producer was and do his research. Let me go on the record saying, I’ve never gotten a job because of my dad. People will often say she got a role because of her dad. Absolutely not! I’ve never worked with him. Maybe one day we will.

In thinking about this play — and playing the character of Vera Starks — have you thought about your own career and what you want your own legacy to be when all this is said and done?

So funny because I was talking to Lynn, the writer, one day and I was saying a lot of times when you play roles you take pieces of the character with you in life. I was telling Lynn, I don’t want this part. And she said, no you play it so you don’t have to do it, you don’t have to go for that. So when I play this character who went down a dark road in the latter part of her life. I say to myself because I played her I don’t have to end up like her.

Yeah, sort of like what James Baldwin says “you’ve already been bought and paid for” so Vera Starks has already paved for you so you don’t have to repeat her life.

Yes. Wonderful!

So what are you working on next?

I’m reading some scripts right now. I have a movie coming out in October, Contagion. It’s a great cast, I’ll be playing with Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, and Laurence Fishburne. It’s about a disease that travels around the world through different cultures. And I have my cartoon, The Cleveland Show on Fox.

Is there a dream role you’re waiting for, I know you’re turning the big 4-0 this year!

Things have been very good. If they can just continue this juicy, I’d be very happy.