When I set out on this path, I never saw myself being here, actually doing this, making a living from it. I always envisioned that if I was going to do this, then I would have to expect and accept the worst possible outcome, which would be that this would not be financially viable for myself. I would have to work some other job, but would maybe be able to do community theater or be a part of a traveling theater company, which honestly does sound very romantic to me, or in the regional theater space where I thought magnificent, creative, imaginative work was being done. I realized, especially [with] my college experience of being able to see traveling companies and the work they did, and the impact they had, especially when they visit schools or historical sites to perform—I thought that was magic. Even though it wouldn’t be able to financially carry me, I thought, but at least I would have that piece of magic in in my life. Facing the danger of what I wanted, and knowing I still wanted to step in that direction, the overwhelm ceased to exist because it was like finding something true about myself. I was like, ‘Oh, wow!’ Trying to be this other thing was overwhelming in a different way, because it wasn’t actually what I wanted to do with my life, and then releasing that and going through that pathway of breaking down or breaking through, as Kerry was telling me—there was an excitement with it, and a truth to it that felt real and honest that I could live inside of genuinely. Those were all the emotions entangled around it. Then it was breaking it to my parents, and surprisingly, my parents for the most part, were like, “Go on that journey, now is the time to see if that’s what you want.” It’s funny, because I remember when I was graduating college and I had gotten my BFA at University of California, Santa Barbara in theater, and my mom thought I was [going to] go to L.A., and, actually move forward and start doing it. I’d been introduced to the idea of grad school at by that point, and I was like, “Oh, this sounds like a safe place, where I can actually continue to do the thing that I love without any kind of negative repercussions. This place of learning.” I thank God I got in and went that route because the three years I spent there, the way I was able to grow as an artist and be inspired as an artist, and just have that safety net where I was able to be fully immersed in the thing that I wanted to do, and just be able to play and explore like that, was just the most magical time of this whole experience, because there was no pressure. There was no weight, there was no financial expectation. All of it was play. I wish every artist can have that experience, which I know is hard to come by. That was the path, and it was fascinating to me to go on that that exploration. I’m actually really proud of myself that at 17-18 [ years old] I was able to take a moment and assess what I wanted to do with my life and the way I wanted to move forward. Thinking back on it, actually, I’m surprised that I even had the wherewithal to have any kind of deep thoughts around that because for the most part, as a child, I was kind of ‘la-di-dah’ just in my own head, in my own world and imagination, but once I stopped saddling myself with the idea that I had to be this one certain thing in order to live up to expectations or pay back the people that had invested in me, I was free.

AP: You’ve played such diverse roles from historical figures to contemporary characters. For one of your more recent roles as Harriet Sloan they rewrote the role just for you to fit who you are as an actress. You said this was one of the most difficult roles of your life. Tell me about that, and what that experience was like—having them do this for you to fit who you are uniquely, and then also you, trying to rectify that with your idea of the character?

ANK: What a vote of confidence to have a creative team go to such lengths. We all read the book. We all loved the book, and to know they had a deep understanding of what the role of Harriet meant to the people that loved this book—for them to then say, “Okay, we want to keep the essence of what this woman is and how she impacts this other woman’s life, but we also want to breathe more life into her, and use her as a window really to open up what the rest of the world was like during this time for people other than just White people.”