Sheryl Lee Ralph on Confronting Hollywood

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sheryl Lee Ralph has been a staple of Black entertainment for decades. She played Deena Jones in the original Broadway production of “Dreamgirls,” and was in “Sister Act 2” alongside Lauryn Hill and Whoopi Goldberg. She’s currently starring in the new ABC sitcom “Abbott Elementary.” Her decades-long career gives her a unique perspective on how the industry has changed since she started—and how it hasn’t. “I think that, sometimes in order for institutions like Broadway to truly make room for others, you’ve got to break it down,” she tells The New Yorker’s Vinson Cunningham. “Because you’ve got to help people see things differently, outside of their own vision. And, even if it’s 20/20, it’s not perfect.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNWC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:09.6	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnick.
0:12.5	We're looking today at Black Film and Television.
0:15.5	At some of the shows and movies that are defining the cultural conversation at the moment,
0:19.6	and it seems that in recent years, like a real floodgate has opened to some tremendous
0:23.7	successes, commercial as well as critical, and they're centered on Black experience.
0:29.6	This certainly doesn't come out of nowhere.
0:31.7	To get some perspective, Staff Rider Vincent Cunningham recently sat down with the actor
0:37.0	Cheryl Lee Ralph.
0:38.6	Here's Vincent.
0:39.6	So, even if you think that you don't know Cheryl Lee Ralph, I would bet that you do.
0:44.7	She has been a staple of Black television and movies for decades, and she's been present
0:50.5	at some amazing moments of American entertainment.
0:55.4	She played Dina Jones in the original cast of Dreamgirls 40 years ago.
1:00.2	She was in Sister Act 2 with Lauren Hill and would be Goldberg, which was just a huge
1:06.7	movie for Black audiences and one of my all-time favorites to this day.
1:12.0	And she's now in Abbott Elementary, a new sitcom on ABC.
1:16.8	I wanted to get your expert, classy eye on my rug request email to Eva.
1:21.3	Jeanine, we are not getting new rugs, we are not getting anything.
1:26.0	Barbara, have some faith.
1:28.1	Eva literally said she'll get us whatever we need.
1:30.4	Jeanine, I have been working in the Philadelphia School District for 20 years, and Eva is just
	...

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