#GEFFRI MAYA FULL#
We are full of magic and sci-fi and mystical worlds-we have a lot in us that are our inner children deserve to see. It’s also a responsibility for Black artists to tell the stories that make us happy, even the ones that are complete fantasy. It doesn’t mean that we only have to talk about the things that hurt us but we can’t not be honest about the lives we’ve lived. We have people and lives that are being portrayed in these shows that we love-and THAT is the responsibility. But we have stories that deserve to be told. Like you said, there were these moments where we didn’t want to look like this or that onscreen. A lot of what we experience as Black people, we may feel the need to run from it when it comes to storytelling. The responsibility is beyond expression or words. What I love about the roles you’ve been playing is that they are just as important as a Lady Macbeth or any other female character experiencing deep tragedy.Ī post shared by Geffri Maya Right. IM: At one time, when there were less portrayals of us onscreen, there seemed to be this idea that Black actresses shouldn’t play certain characters that presented a respectable image of us. Without living, I can’t even dig deep to share certain aspects of myself with these characters.
Acting is not just about what’s on the page, it’s about giving life to these people. Having those ups and downs, being able to have real experiences, that is so necessary to who we are as artists. I feel like, without those mementos of just truly living, I wouldn’t be where I am today. There were moments where I wasn’t doing what I was used to doing, I was working regular jobs and I just lived life.
I discovered my love for painting and just being in the world. I went to school and discovered my love for writing and directing. But in that space of transition, I wanted to do something different and didn’t want to just be identified by the things I was good at. If you’d asked me who I was then, I would have identified myself by what I could do. I was about to go to college and I wanted to take a moment to redefine who Geffri Maya was. In your waiting period, what were the most important things you learned?Ī post shared by Geffri Maya “Private Practice”, I was in this space of having been a child actor. IM: You’ve been in the game for a while but we all know there can be seasons of waiting in the acting game. The love I have for storytelling, it allowed me to just breathe life into those characters but the pandemic also gave me moments to step away. There are some people who are so masterful at portraying characters that they can just jump in but what about those moments when you can’t? You have to honor where you truly are in every moment. It requires, sometimes, us putting our lives in the backseat. Having those moments to really come to terms with self, it gave me time to mentally and emotionally prepare.
Going from not working to working, that switch can be a lot. To be honest, prior to All American I was going through my own life stuff while I was not working. Everyone’s pandemic experience shaped them in different ways especially emotionally and mentally. When dealing with these hard subjects on set, how did you prioritize your overall wellness with both of these roles?Ī post shared by Geffri Maya rough as the pandemic was, it was a blessing in disguise for me. IM: Right now, there’s a lot of discussion about how we prioritize and protect our mental health at work. That’s the point of being an artist anyway: to share and tell stories that people can always and forever be connected to.
There was a sense of vulnerability that I had to have to be able to play these roles in a way that people could connect with them. It was really interesting to take the time that was necessary to be able to fully and confidently play these characters in a way that I just genuinely felt. And then it was a challenge in regards to the artistry because they are two totally different people, interestingly enough, going through similar things from two different perspectives. That was a dichotomy that I’d never experienced.Īs an artist it pushed me, in a lot of ways, to really dig deep and discover that level of balance that I didn’t even know I had. So, once everything got lifted and we were able to go back to work, I was doing both shows at the same time. A post shared by Geffri Maya finished “All American” before joining “Snowfall” and right as I started on “Snowfall,” that’s when the pandemic hit.
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