Rose eyes greater diversity of roles
Anika Noni Rose is ready for more. Her career began in theater, and in 2004 she received a Tony Award for her performance in “Caroline, or Change.” From there, she seamlessly transitioned to film and TV, where she performed in “Dreamgirls,” voiced Disney’s first African-American princess in the animated film “The Princess and the Frog” and starred in a revival of “Roots,” among numerous other roles.
Rose, 44, was recently at the Sundance Film Festival, promoting a new BET series, “The Quad.” Rose plays Eva Fletcher, president of a fictitious historically black university, who is tasked with saving the school from bankruptcy in between navigating personal struggles. The show explores the rich history of black colleges and the battles that many are facing now. Rose talked about the role and her desire for more opportunities as a black actress. The following is an edited transcript.
Q: You attended Florida A&M, a historically black university. Are there any similarities between your college experience and the issues your character must address in the series?
A: I would guess that as a student, I wasn’t so concerned with those issues, but certainly they were around. Our school was never in peril while I was there. But we know that the government has been trying to defund HBCUs since (President) Reagan was in office, so it was always something that we were aware of every year. If your school is a state school, you don’t know what programs are going to stay, what programs are going to be cut, and whether or not it will be dealt with as respectably as your counterpart schools.
Q: For those who did not attend a historically black college, how can they relate to the show?
A: I think anybody who went to college at all can relate to the show. There are things that are specific to that experience, but I think even within that specificity is something that people who went to college can deal with. Anybody who was a scholarship child knows what it is like to possibly lose that scholarship and be worried about how are they going to continue paying for school. That situation is not relegated to HBCUs. People being away from home and dealing with grown-up issues for the first time, anybody who’s ever been a fish out of water, I think can connect to that watching this show.
Q: Many of the roles you have taken on are centered on the black experience. That must be what speaks most to you.
A: No, it’s not my intention, it’s Hollywood. I think that with some things, of course, I chose because they spoke to me, and I do happen to be a black woman. But in Hollywood, people aren’t running up to black women about scripts that aren’t talking about blackness. I think that whenever I have the opportunity to be doing something that isn’t centered around my ethnicity, it would be very, very exciting to do. Feb. 5 birthdays: Actress Barbara Hershey is 69. Actor-director-comedian Christopher Guest is 69. Actor-comedian Tim Meadows is 56. Actress Jennifer Jason Leigh is 55. Actress Laura Linney is 53. Actor Chris Parnell is 50. Singer Bobby Brown is 48.