Editor’s Note: I am so incredibly excited to bring this series back to LoveBrownSugar! When I started the “Get Like Me” series way back in 2010, I created it to empower and inspire you all to dream big. This was a space dedicated to the amazing men and women of the fashion, beauty and entertainment industries who were doing big things in their careers and had real advice to share. I encourage you to scroll back into the “Get Like Me” archives and get to know some of these incredible figures. Thanks to Andrea Lewis for being apart of the relaunch.
You guys may remember her as “Hazel” from the famous Canada-based TV phenomenon Degrassi. Since her former days co-starring alongside the likes of Drake in the popular teen drama, actress Andrea Lewis has gone on to pave her own path in the entertainment industry as an actress of color. The Toronto-born talent has gone from living and working in LA post-Degrassi to now calling Brooklyn, New York her home as the creator and producer of new web series “Black Actress”. I sat down with Andrea to chat with her about her likes, her loves and what it really takes to make it in Hollywood:
Name: Andrea Lewis
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Personal Style: “Celia Cruz” Meets “Grace Kelly”
Favorite Designer(s): Roberto Cavalli, Alexander McQueen, Stella Jean
Must-Have Accessory: Lipstick. I’m currently wearing MAC Flat Out Fabulous. One of my of faves, which is similar to this is “Vesper” from The Lip Bar. I’m obsessed.
How did you land yourself in the acting world?
I was just really lucky. I got into acting when I was a toddler. My mom was approached by a casting director in the mall when she was with me and I was a year old. I started doing commercials and print ads and I just really liked it. Over the year I progressed because I really enjoyed doing it.
How was it transitioning from being on Degrassi as a teen to living our your acting dreams as an adult?
It’s been very interesting. It’s a little bit of a different “coming of age” story than your average person because I was a teenager on TV! I left Degrassi during the time when your average teenager is coming out of high school and going to college and instead it was like I was on TV and everybody got to see me awkward. I definitely had to find myself. I moved to LA from Toronto when I was 19 years old and and so that city really helped me to carve out who I was. Sometimes ‘LA’ was great and sometimes it was up and down. I did a lot of partying because I was young and sometimes I would just want to go out and hang with my girlfriends. My agents now call LA the equivalent of me going to college. I did a lot of training when I was there so when I came to New York I was more confident in myself. I knew who I was and what I wanted to do.
What major lessons did you learn going from LA to NYC?
What inspired my move was getting into a relationship with someone who lived here. I always knew I wanted to come to New York. I would always say ‘I hope I get a project or something that will allow me to live here for a year.’ You know NY is so glamorous to people and at first when I got here I thought it was a really difficult city. It’s a pedestrian city and you are surrounded by people ALL the time. In LA, you can be by yourself alot. It takes a while to make genuine friends in LA because you’re driving everywhere and it can really isolate you. But here in NY there’s so much inspiration. Everyone is hustling, everyone is chasing after something. And people are very honest. You know where people stand. Also there’s inspiration everywhere. My style has really emerged here because people are not afraid to stand out and be themselves.
So what inspired the creation of “Black Actress”?
Well I was doing a film in Vancouver and I was the only actress of color on the cast, which I’m pretty used to. One of the cast members was introducing us to his manager and when he got to me he said ‘…and this is Andrea, she’s the urban one.’ And I was like ‘Pause’. He thought nothing was wrong with that statement and in that moment I realized he sees me the exact same way the script has me written. I am just the black girl here. I’m just the urban one. Nothing more than that. Alot of my friends of color, famous or not, had experiences like mine so I knew I wanted to do something that shows the story of a black girl pursuing her dreams. I wanted it to focus on black actresses because I am one and I love them. I always knew I wanted to incorporate interviews and that was mainly because I knew so many actresses and their stories. I really do get to hear, all the time, the ups and the downs of black actresses from every point of view. From the girl grinding it out to the one that everybody recognizes.
What’s up next for the series and your company Jungle Wild Productions?
We’ve gotten such a great response this season with the show and people just really enjoy everything that we did. I really worked hard to make sure that the second season was going to be even better than the first one. So I’m just hoping to take it even higher after our mid-season break. You will also see some characters from Black Actress on some of the other shows Jungle Wild is producing and vice versa so that should be really fun.
Three pieces of advice for aspiring black actresses?
1. Make sure your confidence is all the way up. Do not get into this business if you are hoping for somebody to give you confidence. You have to go in there with confidence because it’s such a negative industry. There’s so much rejection, so many people that are going to try and tell you about yourself or break you down or simply don’t want to see you succeed, so that last thing you need is for your own thought process to be the exact same.
2. Don’t underestimate training. These days I meet a lot of people who are on the borderline between pursuing acting and pursuing fame. Those are two very different things.
3. Be confident in your look and appearance. Being an actor is kind of like being a model in a sense because you’re a bit like a blank canvas, but be confident in what you’re bringing to the table. A casting director can see you and your “look” is exactly what they have been looking for.
What’s in your bag?
My wallet. Literally 8 different lipsticks (which is psychotic but for some reason I’m always like “I never know what I might want throughout the day!” I always have bobby pins because you just don’t know what that hair is gonna wanna do throughout the day. My metro card. I bring a long silk scarf with me too because I never know what my day is going to entail, so a good scarf can be a belt, it can be a hair tie, so many things.
For more about Andrea Lewis and her new web series “Black Actress”, check out Andrea Lewis on YouTube
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