It’s going to take us a minute to get Michael B. Jordan’s digitized blue eyes out of our minds after seeing that Amazon Alexa Super Bowl commercial on the big screen, but we’re also not over the hilarious brown beauty who starred alongside him in the ad spot.
Briana Price was all of us as she pressed her face against a glass window, fantasizing about Jordan’s “beautiful vessel” embodying the home device. Sadly, only she got to sit with the actor in a bathtub surrounded by candles and witness his chiseled pecs up close. And to think she almost missed out on that by going to med school.
“I started off going to school to be a doctor,” Price tells ESSENCE of her career trajectory. “That didn’t pan out. My parents are still thrilled about that.”
The Pasadena, California, native started dancing while attending Columbia University in New York City and decided to pursue dance professionally after booking a gig.
“No one told me you could make money doing art,” she says noting both of her parents are academics.
After working as a dancer professionally in Los Angeles for a couple of years, an injury derailed Price’s dance dreams. That’s when she tapped into acting, something she says she always wanted to pursue.
The Super Bowl commercial most likely isn’t the first time you’ve seen Price’s face. She’s toured with Nicki Minaj, performed on Glee, starred in Shameless, The Prom, and 13 Reasons Why, and, most recently, landed a role in the Hallmark movie Christmas Tree Lane.
“Quarantine has actually been probably the best time of my career,” she says. “I had a bit of a catapult 2020, 2021.”
Enter MBJ and Amazon. Price tells us she auditioned for the role like any other part, but once she landed the job no one would tell her who she’d eventually be lying with in a bubble bath, despite her many asks.
“I always had a feeling that it was going to be him. I had a feeling it was going to be him in the audition actually. I don’t know how, I don’t know, but I always had a feeling.”
It wasn’t until she filmed the hilarious scene gazing out the window at Jordan’s tour bus, however, that Price’s suspicions were confirmed. As for working with the Black Panther star, she says, “It was great! It was actually very easy. I didn’t feel nervous at all. It was like working with any other actor that I’ve worked with. He’s super down to earth, super chill. I felt like I was talking to one of my friends when I was talking to him. It was just fun.”
Another interesting behind-the-scenes fact: Price’s mom is responsible for the beautiful braided bun she wore in the commercial.
“The director had a very specific vision and he sent reference photos over and it was all cornrow stuff,” she says alluding to the fact she didn’t want to befall the same fate as many other Black actresses and end up with a hairstylist who couldn’t properly do her hair. “My mom has been doing my hair since I was a little girl so she knows my hair. Just to be safe, I wanted to make sure that I looked good.”
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Super Bowl won’t be the last time you see Price. She’s shooting a Netflix show this coming week, and though she can’t share details of the other projects she has in the works, she says, “I’m excited about some potential things to happen in the future.”