Forever a princess, the lilting TONY Award winning Anika Noni Rose accentuates Perry’s “Colored Girls”

On more than one occasion, I have observed Anika Noni Rose away from the camera, the first time, during interviews for the film adaptation of “Dreamgirls,” the award-rich theatrical production that has enjoyed decades of applause.  

Of Rose, there is a subtle prance in her step and a gliding motion in her expressions.  That the Hartford, Connecticut native is a trained dancer and celebrated stage performer underscores her role as Yasmine, a community-based dance teacher in “For Colored Girls.”

Full of life, lyrics and discipline gently doled out to her high-school age dance class, Yasmine is gullible; prey at the hands of a would-be suitor who reveals himself as her tormentor. 

Rose balances her character’s dance and disappointment, distraught and drowned dreams, dexterously, emerging as the emotional lightning rod among a thunderous chorus of superb cohorts in Perry’s dream cast. 

A great stage performer does so, effortlessly, as Rose unabashedly is. 

Rose at Los Angeles premiere of Disney’s “The Princess and The Frog”

Last year, when we talked about her leading role in Disney’s “The Princess and The Frog,” I referred to the 38-year-old [though she doesn’t look a day older that 25] as a rare breed who --like many thespians-- appears more aware and present with a keen ability to creatively absorb space and time.

In a particular “Colored Girls” scene, this artistic agility plays itself out when Yasmine is summoned to the coroner’s quarters to identify her attacker’s dead body.  She stares at the cold, lifeless corpse, and then slaps him, as a mournfully affected princess would. 

Nuance at its best. 

“I added that, it wasn’t in the script,” she offered.  “And, I felt if she had done more [than that], she might have lost her mind, she had to do something. I felt it was unfair for this man to be allowed to be dead and I (Yasmine) didn’t have a hand in it. So, that’s where that [slap] came from; she was angry and hurt and betrayed, also, I think still frightened of him.  Her world was shaken. That is what I was feeling at that time, and I said, ‘Tyler, I need…I want to hit him.’ He said, ‘go ahead.’

This is where I interject my personal bias for Perry as captain of this ship.  In my opinion, Perry, someone who has gained the trust of his actors and the admiration of legions of fans, could only have done “Colored Girls,” a challenging story to tell by any measure, given its original platform as a collection of choreopoems. 

In addition, that this Atlanta-based film giant’s industry imprint has yielded some half billion dollars in box office revenue, generated from 10 films --made in five years-- puts to rest any concerns detractors may have had about Perry’s filmmaking prowess. 

A proven track in Hollywood equals a “green-lit” project, ask anyone.  Moreover, Perry, in typical fashion, signs on recognized actors for his films, a telltale indicator of how highly regarded he is among the vast pool of available talent.

Following are excerpts from my conversation with Anika Noni Rose for “Colored Girls.”

Khalil Kain as Bill and Anika Noni Rose as Yasmine in “For Colored Girls”

Sandra Varner (Talk2SV): I spent some time with Khalil (Kain), your character’s tormentor, talking about the shooting day of that scene and his response somewhat surprised me.  Of his personal interpretation of the character’s violent acts upon you, he said, “I’m a professional; I told Anika I would give her whatever she needed and that I was there for her.”  I guess I was looking to hear of some physical display of how hard the scene was and if there was a clear the line of demarcation, emotionally.

Rose: Like all of us, he’s had a lot of time to be away from it [that scene].  During the day we shot it, he was very shaken and expressed it in a very different way, like men will do. He became more talkative as the day went on, more talkative than he had been on the set at all, and, I think because the energy, the feeling in the air was so palpable, he was trying to disperse it.  I don’t know if he thought about it that way, I don’t even know if he noticed it; I noticed it because I needed to remove myself.  But, he is a professional and he did say that and he did do everything that he needed to do; at the end of the day he’d check in with me because I think it was hard for him. 

Talk2SV: I refer to Phylicia Rashad as the emotional touchstone among the cast.  I refer to you as the emotional lightning rod.  The way you give us, the audience, permission to deal with our emotions is a very physical display.  I credit that to your body’s lilting way; do you own the assessment that I have of you?

Rose as Lorrell Robinson in “Dreamgirls”

Rose: You just gave me goose bumps. I, thank you for that. I don’t think of myself that way. I don’t know that I’ve assessed myself in that way, but honestly, and this will just sound like some actor crap, but it is so important to me to bring truth, that’s all I want to do. I want to be able to, within my career, have every moment that I put forth be something that grew from truth: that is my goal.

Talk2SV: What do you say about the retelling of this story and its placement in our lives as women in the era of Michelle Obama?

Rose: I think it’s wonderful because although it is the era of the wonderful Michelle Obama, it’s also an era of infanticide, terrorism and fear.  There is a lot of pain and fear in our world right now. I watched the news the other night; I can’t think of the last time I really watched the evening news.  Usually, I read the news.  It was so depressing and rife with pain.  There was a gay man in the Bronx, captured because he was gay, beaten up and then sodomized with a bat.

Talk2SV: Yes, I heard about that incident…

Rose: There’s a woman who recently killed her child; he was autistic and by all accounts, she loved him, so very much.  I think she was overwhelmed and couldn’t deal with that; she didn’t have support. These are stories that need to be told so that the next time someone is feeling overwhelmed and doesn’t feel supported, they can turn and say, ‘I’m about to lose my mind,’ and someone can be open to listen to them as opposed to say, ‘oh, you’ll be alright girl, you’ll be fine.’ Often, as women, we are told that, ‘we’ll be all right, we’ll be fine…you just have to keep moving and you just have to keep going.’  We’re expected to be these strong temples of fertility and forward movement and sometimes we’re not.

Talk2SV: Absolutely.

Rose: We suffer from depression, we suffer from anorexia, we are bullied, ‘we’ bully each other. There are so many issues that ‘we’ go through. We have children and we weren’t sure that we wanted them; we put children up for adoption, we get abortions.  These things, even though they happen every day, still are not available to be spoken of openly in the air without some bit of shame.  I think it is important that we shine a light on the things that are uncomfortable because they’ll never be comfortable.  At least there will be, maybe, a way that we can deal with them so that we don’t go to an extreme because we feel that’s all we can do.

Rose at New York premiere of “For Colored Girls”

Talk2SV:  Do you feel that you are free and liberated, a self-actualized person because of this project, yes, but equally because of all that you’ve done thus far?

Rose: I feel that I’m still growing. I’m not finished and I think the day that ‘I think’ I’m finished might be the day before I’m six feet under.  There is so much left for me to learn; there are so many things that I want to do.  I try to be, I think I’m very clear on, ‘who I am’, and I try to be honest with myself about who I am. It’s not all cute, it’s not all nice.  I see that, I recognize that, and I work at being better.  I accept that thing about me that’s ugly…that’s the ugly part. And, I think that that’s the best that we can do for ourselves; look at yourself, recognize yourself, either decide to fix it, move it forward, stretch it out, grow or leave it alone. It is up to you to make that decision.

Talk2SV: How does one leave it alone; how do you redefine it and get on with it?

Rose: Sometimes you leave it alone for a little while and then you come back to it. Throw it in the microwave and warm it up. You know what I mean. Sometimes you can’t; you’re not ready to twist at something or to poke at it or to cut it open and look on the inside.  You have to figure out when you’re ready because it is a lot of work that we do within ourselves to really look at ourselves, that’s work.