Niecy Nash Doesn’t Want to Be the ‘Sassy Black Friend’ Anymore

Photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Before booking her latest role, in Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us, based on the true story of the Central Park Five, Niecy Nash had to bring her whole team together for a meeting. She sought to “reintroduce” herself to everyone, to drive home that she was now looking for roles beyond what she’d done earlier in her career. “Back then, I was just hungry,” she said at The Hollywood Reporter’s Drama Actress Roundtable. “I wanted to eat. Now the refrigerator is full.” The strategy appears to have paid off, as she talked about how fulfilling she found her role in the Netflix miniseries: “I felt so full at the end of the day, but so driven to tell the story.” And now that Nash has the ability to pick and choose, she was very clear on her creative priorities. “I don’t want to be a sassy black anything,” she said. “I don’t want to be a sassy black mama. I don’t want to be a sassy black neighbor. I don’t want to be a sassy black friend. There’s so many more notes to be played.”