Blair Underwood
By Dina Morrone
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Blair Underwood, an award-winning actor, who works in film, television, and theatre, and is also a director and producer, sat down with me to share a little bit about himself. The list of Underwood’s projects over the years, and the accolades he has received, are long and impressive.
He is a Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences®, one of People Magazines “50 Most Beautiful People,” a singer, dancer, father, and humanitarian who cares deeply about paying it forward. Underwood has just completed directing and starring in the feature film Viral, a psychological thriller, meets murder mystery wrapped in a love story, which is set to be released in 2022.
My biggest takeaway from the interview with Mr. Underwood is that he’s a true gentleman, with the soul of a pure artist, and that he’s most proud of his children and being a father!
Mr. Underwood, please share with us a memory from your childhood that brings a smile to your face whenever you think about it.
When I think of my childhood, I think of happy times with my mother, father, brother, and two younger sisters. The one memory that stands out the most is that of Christmas morning every year. It was a huge deal at our house because it was my mother’s favorite time of the year. She made it so inviting and exciting for us. She was all in: music, decorations, carolers, parties, and so many Christmas trees, 50 of them, and she would count them all. It was a really special time. Sadly, my mother passed away on October 20, 2020.
Where did you get your love for the arts and your artistic abilities?
Definitely my mother. She introduced my siblings and me to the Arts –
Theatre, and Broadway specifically. She was a fashion designer but stopped doing that when she married my father and became a soldier’s wife. But she was also an artist, a painter, played the piano, and loved musicals.
It’s poetic that my mother’s last night on the town before she passed was to see me on Broadway in a play called A Soldiers Play. She was all dressed up in a gown, hair, makeup, and so happy to be there. It is so fitting that her last big hurrah would be at the theater.
To honor my mother, I am writing a memoir about her life for Harper Collins, and coincidentally it is called A Soldier’s Wife.
When did you first get the acting bug?
I used to watch a TV show called Eight Is Enough. One of the actors was a young boy named Adam Rich. One day he was being interviewed on the Mike Douglas Show. He was eight or nine, my age at the time. In the interview, he was asked how he got into the business. He answered that one day watching TV, his mom heard about some audition coming up and asked if he wanted to be in that “box,” referring to the TV, and he said, “yeah, I want to do that.” So, I turned to my mom and said, “I want to do that. I want to get in the box.” My family didn’t know what it would take for me to do that, but my mother told me if I really wanted to do that, I had to take it seriously. She laid it all out for me that I would have to go to school, train, do theater, go to college, and maybe one day go to Hollywood and Broadway. She didn’t know how it was going to happen, but she assured me that she and my father would do what they could to put me in the right position to be able to pursue it.
As an artist, do you tap into your inner child?
I feel that, as an artist, it’s important that we have a side of us that does not want to grow up. Of course, we do grow up, and we become responsible adults, but to delve into, and navigate the imagination every day, and to extricate ourselves from this life, this reality and play in our imagination of the world, and become different people, is the magic of childhood. And as artists, we do want to be able to tap into that.
Did you ever consider following in your father’s footsteps to pursue a career in the military?
I have tremendous respect for the military, but I did not see that as my career path. Although over the years, many times, I have created characters from the military in my acting work. I have played them on stage, television, and in film.
What do you do to feel spiritually grounded?
I try to start every day and end every day with Prayer – Meditation. I need that quiet moment to myself. It may be as short as 30 seconds, five minutes, or much longer. I try to center myself before I get out of bed and live in that space of gratitude, and I thank God for waking up and for the good health and happiness of my family.
Which charities are dear to your heart and why?
My mother had MS (Multiple Sclerosis), and I have been involved with Nancy Davis’ organization called Race to Erase MS for many years.
I was also involved, for some time, with Artists for a New South Africa, which was started in 1994 during Apartheid in South Africa when Nelson Mandela was still in prison. It was a way for the people here in Hollywood to keep a light and a focus on Apartheid. The organization then transitioned to Education and sending supplies over for AIDS and AIDS awareness. Unfortunately, the organization disbanded two years ago, but through that, I learned how I could be of service and find a way of giving back.
Also, another thing I was involved with was something my business partner, Gary Reeves brought to me. It was this idea for a show called Give that aired on Saturday mornings. It turned out to be very successful and won an Emmy a few years ago.
The idea was Shark Tank for Non-Profits. On every show, there would be one celebrity and two different nonprofits. There was also a gifting organization that gave in the form of training, money, maybe a car, etc. It was the celebrity’s job to learn from the nonprofit’s presentation what the organization needed. It helped me to achieve what I set out to do, and that was to give back. It was a win, win for all involved.
You were the co-narrator, along with Beau Bridges and Cynthia Nixon, for Al Gore’s book An Inconvenient Truth, about the climate crisis. What was your biggest takeaway from this book?
I got quite an education being exposed to the material in that book. I do my part about being aware of what is going on around me and globally. Thankfully, every year, we as a society are taking this issue more and more seriously. The discussion of this situation continued to open up so much more from when I first recorded the book. I hope that we all do our part and continue to take the climate crisis seriously as it is affecting our planet in ways, we are all witnessing firsthand now with all the weather changes.
Growing up, who were the African American role models you looked up to?
My role models in show business are Sidney Poitier and Cecily Tyson.
But others who are not in show business include my mother and father, who have always been role models to me. And then there is Marie Maniego, my high school English teacher. She was also my mentor, and she had her own theater company off campus where I was able to perform. And Billy Wilson, who was my dance teacher at Carnegie Mellon. He introduced me to his agent when I first moved to New York.
There have been so many people in my life and my career that have played pivotal roles. This is one of the reasons I feel so strongly about paying it forward when I can.
Is there someone you met that had your jaw dropped in a “please pinch me” moment?
It was 1988. I was doing press for a show in New York. When I got on the plane to return home to Los Angeles, I walked to my seat and saw this very tall, elegant gentlemen, legs outstretched, sleeping. It was Sidney Poitier. My seat was right next to his. I had one of those moments where I gasped, which woke him up. I went on to introduce myself. Because it was a five-hour flight, I didn’t want to overwhelm him right away by saying I was a huge fan. So, I said hello, and sat down.
Before boarding, I had planned to use those five hours on the plane to write a thesis I was doing as a final paper for Carnegie Mellon. In my third year of studies at Carnegie Mellon, I had to drop out for financial reasons, but I was fortunate enough to start working right away. After several years of working and some success, Carnegie Mellon reached out to let me know they wanted me to get my degree and thought I too would like to do that. Since I had worked in the field for three years, they said they would let that serve as my credits, but to graduate, I had to write a final thesis on what I had learned working out in the field. Well, instead of sitting there on the flight back writing that thesis, I ended up having a conversation with Mr. Poitier. When I did finally write the paper, it ended being about the conversation I had with Mr. Poitier. I called it The Business of Show. He was so generous, open, and transparent and became a mentor over the years. At almost every major point of my career from that day forward, he was there.
When I did a one-person show called I M 4 in Los Angeles, he was there in the front row on opening night. And when I did the play A Trip to Bountiful and worked with Cicely Tyson – I played her son – it was such an honor to invite Mr. Poitier to come see me in that play and to surprise Ms. Tyson with his presence. To see them greeting each other, jumping for glee, two icons, was something magical.
The second “pinch me” moment came when I saw Nelson Mandela. I was doing some work for Artists for a Free South Africa event. After Apartheid was dismantled, we changed it to Artists for a New South Africa. I had met him briefly on a plane, and the moment really took my breath away. And then I met him again at a state dinner at the White House, under Bill Clinton, where he was the special guest of honor.
Congratulations on your Tony Award Nomination in 2020 for your role in the Tony Award Winning Best Revival of a Play, A Soldier’s Play.
Thank you. Although I personally did not win in my individual category, I couldn’t be more excited that the play won the Tony for Best Revival.
With regards to the production of A Soldiers Play, thankfully we finished our run of the show on March 13, 2021, right when the pandemic hit. We were the very last play to run on Broadway! We were scheduled to do our Lincoln Center Archival performance on Friday the 13th, so we were
allowed to go forward and do the show but without an audience. That felt very weird because we had packed houses during the run and had to go back to a rehearsal feel with no audience, except for a few friends in the mezzanine.
What does it mean to you to perform live on stage, and when you are not performing live, what do you miss about it?
What it means to perform live on stage, and what I miss is that communal fellowship between the artists and the audience that you don’t get anywhere else in any other shape or form. To be in the same room with an audience, feel the same electricity, and ride that same wave with them, there is nothing else like that. It’s a high, especially when you are in that zone. The ability and privilege to take the audience along with you it’s magical.
Suppose you could go back in time and speak to ten-year-old Blair. What would you say to him about what it means to be honored with 16 nominations and eight wins by the NAACP?
I would say to him, be true to yourself, and remember that you don’t only represent yourself. You represent so much more than just yourself. I say remember because my mother raised us as that soldier’s wife. In the ’60s, there were so few African American military officers, and so we were raised to carry with us a sense of dignity and honor and to know that we represent our father’s rank, our family, ourselves, our family name, and our race. That was a lot for a ten-year-old to carry, but that’s how we were raised. You did not leave the house and embarrass yourself, your father, his rank, and your race. That notion and that guiding premise have carried me and informed my career and life choices.
I look back at my life and think, you have to follow where your gut and heart take you, and people will respond and react; however, they are going to respond and react. So, I am grateful for whatever those choices were and wherever my heart took me. I am glad that I get love from the African American community, my community, and where I come from. I am grateful that I am a man of African descent.
What projects are you working on?
I am currently in the editing process of a film I directed, and that I am also staring in called Viral. It’s a psychological thriller, meets a murder mystery, wrapped in a love story. It’s intense, deep, and really well written. And it also stars Sarah Silverman, Alfre Woodard, and Jeanine Mason.
I’m very pleased that the pilot of our re-boot of L.A. Law was finally picked up by ABC. We will shoot the pilot in February or March 2022. Also, I have joined the cast of Three Women for ShowTime. It is a 10-episode limited series that I started filming at the end of October. I will be in five of the 10 episodes. It is based on the acclaimed New York Times Bestseller written by Lisa Taddeo.
I am a co-producer of the Broadway show Pass Over, which opened on September 12. It was the first stage play, back on Broadway, with a live audience since the pandemic shut everything down. I’m thrilled to announce that it was a rousing success. It’s one thing to open the curtain during a pandemic and global plague. It is another thing entirely to keep the curtain up. We’re glad the show ran its intended nine weeks and closed successfully on October 10th.
And I have several other projects that are in various stages of development.
What do you cherish the most about
fatherhood?
What I cherish the most is watching them grow and watching them blossom. As a parent, you water, nurture, cultivate, you input information, and then you watch it take root, and you watch them become their own people, making their own choices and decisions. It’s not always heartening but more heartening than not. Watching them become their own people is extraordinarily gratifying. It’s the greatest thing that I am most grateful for in my life.
Is there an acting role you’d like to interpret?
Yes. I would love to play Marvin Gaye in his life story.
Special Thank you to:
Blair Underwood
Alexia Melocchi @theheartofshowbuiness
Rochelle Brodin @RochelleBrodinPhoto
Lisa Joy Walton: Makeup
Moda Color: Black Suit on cover
Giovanni Testi: Suit on pages 12/13
Marika Soderlund (Kicka Custom): Styling
Antonella Carlevaro: Location
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