Union learns power of her voice
Gabrielle Union has found freedom in speaking up.
In her new book, “You Got Anything Stronger?,” she takes on tough, personal subjects, including racial prejudice in Hollywood, depression and infertility, which led to surrogacy. She even reveals how she forgave husband and former NBA player Dwyane Wade after he fathered a child with another woman. It’s a follow-up to her 2017 bestselling memoir, “We’re Going to Need More Wine,” which was a collection of essays on her Nebraska childhood, including a powerful account of being raped at gunpoint in college.
At 48, Union has learned the power of her voice and being vulnerable, she said. She appeared in Houston on Friday for a sold-out talk about her book at the Fountain of Praise church with pastor Mia Wright. The event was presented by Houston bookstore Kindred Stories and Metamorphosis Conference.
“I really fought to add a Texas date to the book tour, and there was some pushback,” she said. “I thought it was really important. And you guys, I mean, you made me look like Yoda, so I do appreciate the support.”
Union, who married Wade in 2014, began her acting career in the 1990s on sitcoms and had a breakout movie role in “Bring It On” in 2000. She’s written two children’s books, has a hair care line, Flawless by Gabrielle Union, and production company, I’ll Have Another Productions, which is developing the bestselling memoir “All
Boys Aren’t Blue” by
George M. Johnson into a TV series.
She talked with the Houston Chronicle about her new book, motherhood and finding her own voice.
Q: Why did you want to write another book?
A: I had a lot more to say. I had experienced a lot more that I definitely knew I needed to share and wanted to share. I was healed enough to speak about it in an effective, impactful way. After this pandemic and everyone being so isolated, I knew that now was the time to write the follow-up, and help to try to just create more community by sharing some of my life’s challenges and joys, and hope to allow other people to see themselves reflected on the page.
Q: Was the writing process easier this time?
A: It was easier because I was less afraid. I wasn’t bound by the same fears as the first one. I wasn’t so motivated by the reaction, I was motivated by the truth and radical transparency.
Q: How has motherhood changed your outlook on life?
A: As a mom raising two daughters, I want to raise black girls to de-center white comfort and decenter the needs of patriarchy and toxic masculinity, to ask who would you be, what kind of dreams would you have if you divested from those things. To me, that’s freedom. As a mom who so desperately wants that for my daughters, I realized that maybe I should start with myself. So I’m hoping to inspire more people to find what freedom means to them, and to seek it out and to live it.
Q: On social media, you make motherhood look so fun. Are you having as much fun as it seems? A: I’m very privileged and lucky that I have really fun and funny kids. They’re just not that challenging every day, all day. I also have a lot of help. So things might not have been fun if I was just by myself or feeling like I was underwater, but with a ton of help, a very large village and having my family close by and in the house, it allows me to find some humor in some parts of parenting that I probably would not find funny at all if I was by myself.
Q: Why is it important for you to speak out about issues such as racism in Hollywood and women’s rights?
A: There continues to be so much to fight back against, so much to push back against, so much to uncover and shine a light on and expose. In order to move forward, you have to look back and to be accountable … But first, we have to address the actual harm caused, and that takes people speaking up. And I don’t mind being outspoken, and I just hope that it inspires more and more people to join the fight.
Q: Do you think things will change?
A: If enough of us speak up and band together, if we all step up together, they can’t take us all out. And that is the only way that there’s going to be any sort of noticeable change. We’re still so geeked on celebrating the first Black woman this, the first Asian woman that or the first Latinx man. That causes me shame. I cringe. In 2021, we’re still having firsts. We all need to rush forward and say, ‘No, one is not enough.’ And we’re not taking it anymore, and this younger generation is certainly not taking it. The demand for real change, significant change, tangible change, is now.
Q: What keeps you up at night?
A: The Texas abortion ban. It’s like something out of the “Handmaid’s Tale.” It’s illogical. It’s not based in science, and it sends everybody backward. Under the guise of being profamily, it’s frightening. And now it’s the blueprint for a number of other states, and it keeps me up at night.
Q: Are there any roles you won’t take?
A: I don’t tend to be offered problematic roles, where people would have strong negative opinions. For whatever reason, I’m just not really ever put in that position … At this stage of the game, it’s more of like, how comfortable am I with, say, nudity?
Q: Does nudity for an acting role bother you?
A: I don’t generally have an issue with nudity. In real life, we’re naked. There are lot of things that other people might find offensive or uncomfortable that aren’t even a thing to me, like exploring sexuality and nudity, or some more controversial topics. I know some people are like, “But you are a mother now, what would your daughter think?” And I’m like, I hope my daughter knows that adults have sex.
Q: You looked fabulous at the recent Met Gala. Did you have a good time?
A: This year’s Met Gala was a little different for a thousand reasons, and I was alone. I didn’t have a date. I wasn’t physically with a friend or the designer (Dutch designer Iris van Herpen), who wasn’t able to travel from her country with our country’s COVID travel issues. So, it was kind of a more solitary experience, and I’ve never really experienced Met in this sort of way. I had a lot of fun after, getting to hang out with Regina King and
Queen Latifah, and going to Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’s party and eating pizza, chilling. That was very fun, that was a lot of fun.
Q: What is something surprising about you?
A: I’m not just one thing. I think for some people, they’re like, “She’s this advocate. She’s a rabblerouser. She’s a basketball wife, or she’s whatever.”
But I think people would be surprised that I have a lot of joy and laughs in my life. That I’m funny. That there’s a lot of joy in the book, and it’s not just heavy topics. So they can see a bit more of the fullness of my life, not just one part.
Q: Are you a jokester at home?
A: I’m a great storyteller. Not jokes, per se. I’m a funny commentator about most things, but I leave the jokes to the comedians.
Q: What brings you joy?
A: My family. Watching my family achieve their dreams, and live the dream and be free. And to feel so loved and supported by them brings me a lot of joy.