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Home · Yes, Girl Podcast

Actress and Activist Angelica Ross On Her Undeniable Purpose (and Glow)

Actress and Activist Angelica Ross On Her Undeniable Purpose (and Glow)
By Ashley J. Hobbs · Updated November 4, 2020

Listen to Angelica Ross’s full episode of Yes, Girl! click play below:

If there is one thing Angelica Ross, former star of Pose and American Horror Story is clear about, it’s her purpose. Her famously storied trajectory as a Black trans woman has garnered the attention of millions from her activism work to her career in entertainment. And while many privileges are attached to her risen star, Miss Ross keeps her feet planted on the ground, continuing to do the work she believes she was born to do.

“That’s not why I’m here, to accumulate privileges,” the multi-hyphenate businesswoman tells Yes, Girl! co-host, Cori Murray. “That’s not a purpose driven life, accumulating titles and things. I’m here to move us forward. I’m here to create more peace and healing,”

Ross, who recently signed an overall deal with Pigeon Production Company, credits her spiritual tenacity to the Buddhist vow she took a decade ago and her ability to go inward and love herself as a Black trans woman, even when others didn’t.

“The first really most impactful turning point that I had was when I chose myself,” Ross explains. “And I think that that’s a lesson to reflect to so many different people of what it means and what it looks like to choose yourself, even when sometimes in society, it seems like you’re last to be chosen.”

The star is unapologetic about her life in a way that is refreshing and affirming for every woman in need of encouragement, even, perhaps, her Trump-supporting limo driver.

“By the time I got to the airport, the woman driver steps out of the car crying, gave me a hug and said thank you.  It really was because a lot of these Trump supporters, it’s hard because they don’t recognize their privilege to be that ignorant just as many folks within our cis heteronormative community don’t sometimes recognize their privilege to be that ignorant,” Ross says.

Actress and Activist Angelica Ross On Her Undeniable Purpose (and Glow)
Photo: Instagram/@angelicaross

Check out her Yes, Girl! episode to hear the whole story and Ross’s thoughts about…

…HOW MISS ROSS GETS THAT GLOW!

“All I have to do is grab my little Lancome powder, a brush and do one quick swipe over, little concealer under the eyes and be ready to go…”

…LAVERNE COX’S SAGE ADVICE TO ANGELICA

“It’s one of those things where I was in a job working for a nonprofit that really didn’t value me, they were tokenizing me. Everything that I suggested was a block, I just had so much trouble there. So one of the programs that I created was to connect the homeless population and the population that was newly diagnosed with HIV, these girls that I was working with, connecting them to people like Laverne. Back in the day when we were not really doing all this, so we were Skyping Laverne in, and we were talking about the fact of being undeniable. About the way she is when she goes into an audition room. The same way that I was when I showed up for that very job…”

…WHAT CHRISTIANITY HAS TAUGHT ANGELICA

“I’m a Buddhist, but one thing I do understand that I’ve learned from Christianity is that we all are books. There’s the book of Cori. There’s the book of Angelica Ross. There’s the book of Janet, the book of Laverne. And there are so many books because we always learned that the story is not over until God says it is. So why do we keep trying to be the author of other people’s stories and telling them what is instead of watching how God works from point A to point B and giving people the grace to learn and to grow?”

Check out the full interview with Angelica Ross full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you get your podcasts! And follow @essencepodcasts on Instagram!

TOPICS:  angelica ross black trans women Buddhism Pose Spirituality
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