Working alongside seasons actors and award winners like Queen Latifah and Mahershala Ali gave Deborah Ayorinde the confidence that her work was good enough for the big leagues. After her supporting turn in 2017’s smash comedy “Girls Trip,” Ayorinde took what she observed from her co-stars into her next role: playing Ali's daughter Becca Hays on the third season of HBO’s “True Detective.”
What has your latest role on “True Detective” added to your acting skills?
I used a lot of my personal things that I’ve been through in my own life to allow me to tap into what my character was experiencing. In the past, I haven’t been that vulnerable, but in this experience, I really opened up in that way. I’ve taken that and done that since then.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would make sure that I remind my younger self that I’m perfectly imperfect and that I have all I need in me to do what I’m called to do. I spent so much time in my younger years trying to be someone [else]. I’m always growing and I’m always learning and I think that’s a beautiful thing in life, but there comes a point that you learn to be OK with yourself and accept and love yourself. Don’t get me wrong, train and prepare and grow your gift, but just realize at the end of the day [that] you have it. You’re just expanding on what you already have.
So much of acting is drawing from your own experience.
Exactly. Everyone does it in different ways—there are many methods to the madness. But the way that I learned, even if a character isn’t going through something that I’ve directly been through, I’ll try to figure out what they’re actually feeling and try to figure out ways in my personal life I can somehow relate to that attitude and go from there. If you go that route, acting is not really acting, per se. You’re living out a part of you, just in a different way. Whether it’s exaggerated or underplayed, you’re still living it out. That’s why you see a lot of actors say, “I couldn’t connect with this character,” because sometimes you can’t. Sometimes you just don’t understand. You can’t do every role, but the ones you can relate to, that’s the best experience.
Did you take anything from working with actors like Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Regina Hall on “Girls Trip” into working on “True Detective”?
It’s really a blessing to work with people I’ve looked up to for so long. Working on “Girls Trip,” it gave me the confidence to know I can hold my own in a group of such powerful actresses. By the time I worked on “True Detective,” I was a little more confident in my ability.
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What advice would you have for actors walking on set where you feel like the new kid?
It’s OK to get on set and take a second to observe. I think a lot of people come into those situations being eager to please, eager to be liked. Sometimes you’ll go to set and connect with people who you work with again and again and again. Sometimes you’ll go to set and do your job and go home. And each experience is OK. Step into it, take the breath, and really just observe everyone. That’s been my saving grace in a lot of situations. I’m like that in general; I’m very observant. I’ll come into it not really eager to get to know everyone but allowing for organic friendships to happen as they happen.
It’s a lot to balance and think about when trying to get a job.
The audition process can be kind of awkward. It’s just finding your way to block out whatever else is going on. Also, one thing that I learned that helped me is that they usually can tell whether you’re going to advance to the callback or testing level before you even open your mouth. I think that takes away a bit of the pressure to be perfect and the pressure to remember every single line. When you realize that your job is really to go in there, do a good job, sure, but to exude the essence of the character and show your interpretation of what’s going on—as long as you do that job, you’ve done your job. Your job isn’t to worry about all the things that are out of your control.
Who was the casting director who gave you your first big break?
For my first TV role, we’re talking Alpha Tyler. She worked with Tyler Perry Studios. My first TV role was on “Meet the Browns,” and it was the perfect first experience, because if anyone’s worked on a Tyler Perry production, they’ll know they’re so welcoming, so loving, and so nurturing.
How do you typically prepare for an audition?
I try to get all the information that I can get. If I don’t have a script, I’ll try to get one. If I can’t get one, I’ll read what I have over and over and ask what I need to ask. It’s different for every role, but the main thing is if I can’t understand on a very basic level what the character’s going through or what they want, I’ll more than likely pass. The second thing is making sure that I’m not nervous. If I have to meditate, if I have to pray, if I have to listen to certain types of music—if I’m nervous, I’m not in the zone. I’ll be too worried about not being nervous that I won’t be connected to what’s happening in the moment.
What is your worst audition story?
It was my first professional audition and it was terrible. There was a part where the character is supposed to say something to another character and storm off. Now I know you can come into the audition room and ask, “How much room do I have [on the camera]?” You can ask the questions you want to ask. I didn’t know back then. I didn’t know they had a midshot and only had that bit of space. That part where I said something and was supposed to walk off, I actually got up and kind of walked off and stood there and didn’t know what to do. It was so awkward because [the casting director] literally got upset with me and was like, “Sit down!” I never did that again.
How do you deal with speed bumps like a botched audition or a canceled TV show?
It was during pilot season two years ago, I was all over the place doing auditions—a lot of good auditions, but this one didn’t go well. I was so upset because this was the one I wanted. I got home and got on YouTube and started finding actors telling the stories of their worst auditions and, believe it or not, that made me feel so much better because A) everyone has bad auditions and B) you’ll get over it and you’ll have another audition and you’ll get another job. Here are these legendary actors who are obviously successful, [and] it didn’t stop their whole career. I can be a bit dramatic and think, I had a terrible audition, this is the end of my career. But that’s not the case. Watching those videos, after a while I was like, There’ll be another day, and I’ll move on. If they can move on from that experience, you can, too. That’s something I learned from working with so many legendary actors; just watching them through their process, watching them flub lines sometimes, watching them be human, it gives you permission to be human as well and to know you don’t have to be perfect.
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