Shanesia Davis Williams

Shanesia Davis Williams -- April 3, 1998
(Note: this transcript is still available at the realhollywood.com website)

HSHost: Hello from HOLLYWOOD! It's Rebecca here coming to you live from BoxTop Studios where all the hip kids come together & share their most intimate secrets. Welcome back to HOLLYWOOD SPOTLIGHT on realhollywood.com. Joining me in the studio tonight are my producer Mike, my screener Glenda, and our fabulous typist Vicki. All right, if you're a newbie tonight...welcome to the show. If you'd like to ask a question, there is a question mark icon on the menu bar you can click on, or just type /ask space and then type in your question. We'd like to give a warm shout out to all of you Excite users joining us tonight. If you're using Excite's VP chat, you can ask a question by clicking on the "something to say?" button on the lower right corner of the stage. I am really excited about tonight's show. We have a very special guest joining us in the studio, Shanesia Davis-Williams from "Early Edition". Let's all welcome Shanesia to the show! Hi. Shanesia. How are you?

SDW: Very well, very well.

PeterBill: Did you always know you wanted to be an actress?

SDW: Yeah, I did. I guess I was about 8 or 9. I did some child modeling. I always had a tendency to talk to myself and make faces. They called me Angie baby. I loved Lucille Ball. I think she was a wonderful comedian. My brother who was an actor, He passed away. He would go over lines with me. That helped me along too. I pay a lot of homage to him in my career because he was one of the people who helped me along.
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guest2799: How did you get your start in show biz?

SDW: I went I was doing things when I was younger, high school and stuff. I went to School of Drama and got my college degree which you really don't need. I got it in acting. Since then I haven't really looked back. I had some lean times like when it was Ramen noodles. But I can't complain, over the last 9 years I may have been out of work 8 times. I am very blessed. I am always in the right place at the right time. I have been trying. That's it.

guest2799: What was your first acting job?

SDW: I did a theater piece called It was Media set in the West Indies. I was a dancer. Most of the things I did out of school was dancing. The first 2 to 5 years out of school. That was my first paying gig. Jane Alderman, the casting director in Chicago, she was casting. The class she taught was film and television and how to manipulate the camera so I never took those classes. That was my first gig.

PeterBill: Where did you grow up?

SDW: Actually, I grew up in Detroit. That was were I was raised. I moved back to Chicago when I was 11 years. We just did an episode coming up. Set in the Chicago farm in 1871., You have cows and a farm. I felt weird around them. I know they can sense when I actually touched a cow.

Dan_K: Do you prefer stage acting or working on TV?

SDW: I prefer acting where I can create something. It is not a preference of stage or TV. They all have their aspect. They are all different. Stage you have immediacy of audience. You know what you performance is every night. You will have people come up and say it was great but whey did this happen. So it is more immediate. TV is just as fulfilling and the people that watch the show are how can I say, they are more attuned to follow your character. See it through from the beginning. They are in tune to what you are doing. It is like Marisa was initially the voice of reason. Earlier this season, she was more of a peripheral character. To show you the quality of the audience, people were asking where is Marisa. I was like wow. I was flabbergasted. I was trying to get them to develop something and it is the power of the audience that got them to see them. It is. They are just. I never realized how powerful the audience could be until the show was on hiatus. My character was at a crossroads with if she was going to be more developed or phased out and they made a difference.
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WilliamMiller: Who has been your favorite person to work with?

SDW: Oh gosh. There are so many people that I have worked with. WOW. Gosh, I like working with Michael Dinner, James Earl Jones and I couldn't read my lines because my jaw was on the floor. I worked with Robert Dinero on Backdraft and unfortunately I got cut out. Ron Howard is one of the coolest. He wrote me a letter and said sorry, Shanesia, we loved your work but we had to edit some of it out and unfortunately yours was it. I saved the letter. There have been so many people. I would have to look over my resume and see.

WilliamMiller: If you could work with anybody living or dead who would it be?

SDW: Billy Holliday had back up singers, I would sing with her. I would love to have worked with Sammy Davis Junior, Fitzgerald, Lucille Ball. I was such a TV fanatic my whole life, it was in the TV. I am drawing a blank.

WilliamMiller: Do you have any role models?

SDW: I would say, role models, Eartha Kitt, Cicely Tyson, Kate Hepburn. They are all women who have, Nina Simone, they are very powerful women who were not given the credit they deserved in their peak but now they are legends and it proved that some of the people may have called it. Divas but they knew what they wanted their career to be. That is what I admire about them. Their light still shines. You see Kate Hepburn and you just say WOW.

guest2897: Do you feel that women's roles in Hollywood have changed or improved?

SDW: I think they have changed a lot. I think they are improving. For women in general, a lot of roles, how many times would you see women in action movie. Like Vanessa Williams she was great in the action movie. African American Women roles are getting better. I saw Vivica Fox and that is great, that is where we need to go. I was a first year student and there were women at a speech and there was a woman there and she said how come your women are always tramps or miserable or don't have any backbone. He said, you know what, if you want roles for women, write them because I am not going to do it because. I am not a woman. How can we complain if we aren't going to do it. Hopefully with the forthcoming generation of women. Hopefully we will do our own thing. It may be a boys club but you do have women who can go in there and get it done.
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WilliamMiller: If you could write yourself into any show on TV what show would you choose?

SDW: Great question. What show would it be. I actually would be Barney because every child is in love with Barney. Yeah, gosh, I am trying to think. I guess Chicago Hope would be cool. I would have to answer that question, if there was going to be an action TV show I would write myself into that role. That is what I would do. The theater that I have been doing over the years, I started off as a dancer and it was very physical and one of the biggest challenges was not being able to move a lot, having big movement is not good in TV , Ron Howard would say that was great but make it smaller.

Dan_K: What is it like to play a blind person? Did you have to do a lot of research?

SDW: Yeah, I still do research every time I see someone. One of the things I was trying to fight for was to have something a little more interesting to see how a blind person would chop tomatoes and if they would go through a revolving door. Small things. I still do research all the time. Different occupations blind people have. I was sending info to an executive on the show and I told him. Occupations that you would have no idea. They aren't brain surgeons but they are functional people.

HSHost: Please speak up a little.

PeterBill: What do you consider your most challenging role?

SDW: Outside of Marisa. I would say Marisa is to date. Well, there has been one role, Ophelia which was very challenging because you had to get into the psyche of who this girl was. Why she was so fragile. That was one of the most fun roles I have had. It was fun. Another role I was Desdemona. It was a comedy and it is the only one on my resume. It was turned around so she was the force behind Othello. She was the one who would have fits. She was like this Grace Jones. It was so challenging because it was so physically draining every night. It was great and it made me realize how difficult it is to do comedy, especially physical comedy like Lucille Ball.
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HSHost: Yeah.

SDW: Some of the more challenging roles I have had.

guest2897: Do you have any desire to write, produce, or direct?

SDW: Yes, I do. I am working on some things now. There is a play I am developing and writing now. It is difficult because I go back and forth. It is three women but actually the story of one woman and her relationship with her family. Another fairytale that I am writing about a young girl who has her life snuffed out. I guess some inspirational stuff. I would like to develop those and produce some stage. When I think of directing, I think of the stage, not film or TV but the stage because I know more about it.

guest2897: What's been your favorite episode?

SDW: The one that is coming up. Mums the Word. Tomorrow at 8:00 9:00 eastern on CBS. In Chicago it is Channel 2. It was the 1871 and I get to see I am a totally different person and it is great.
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guest2897: Was it fun taping the episode were some of the characters form "Chicago Hope" were written into the story?

SDW: Yeah, that was great fun. They were really really open and real relaxed. It was like we were coming into their territory on our show but we still got uncomfortable because we were on their show. We went on and on about pregnancy stuff. Rocky was cool so was Hector. He is a very classy man. Rocky was really cool. I had to be on a table for the defibrillator and they put a clamp or whatever, they were metal and cold, but I said that is okay I can handle it. He warmed them up for me. I thought that was so sweet.

HSHost: You must be very special for them to do that.

SDW: It was great.

ExciteUser: (HipPoet) On the show, what is exactly up with the white cat?

SDW: The white cat?

HSHost: Make sense?

SDW: I don't recall. We always have the same cat.
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guest2897: Do you sing? Do you have any plans for an album?

SDW: I do sing. I sing more in the shower than I do. I used to sing a lot in rock operas. I was Margaret. I had to sing. They were plays with music in them but not musicals. I do sing and possibly in one of the shows coming up I may be singing.

WilliamMiller: If you weren't acting what do you think you'd be doing?

SDW: I would be doing something in the arts, painting or being some successful artist, either that or choreographing something. I am a frustrated choreographer. I was 16, graduating high school and had a scholarship. One of my art teachers sent in my portfolio and I had a scholarship to Tokyo but I didn't pursue it. I told my mother after I got out of college and she was aghast. I should have taken the opportunity. Who knows where my life would be now. I don't regret not doing it but... Absolutely.

guest2799: You have a very unique name does it mean something?

SDW: Shanesia. Well it means spirit. And this is a meaning that I gave. It is a self imposed definition.

HSHost: The best kind.

SDW: Things that have made me who I am. My spirit keeps me going. Being alive. It is not like I have been through any death defying experiences.
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guest2897: What inspires you as an actress?

SDW: I find every role within itself inspiring. You have to find the challenges and the obstacles. How do I meet them and overcome them. What tic does that character have. Who is it going to reach. Who is it going to touch. What if they don't like it. Sometimes that inspires me to do something more real.

Joanee: What kind of response have you gotten from the blind community about the show?

SDW: You have to find something a lot more real. If they know their art. I haven't gotten any at all. Everybody is not going to love it or like it. I have had some people who had blind relatives and they wondered if I was blind. One of the people on Chicago Hope, one of the consultants, was surprised that I could actually see. She thought I was actually blind. She said my grandmother and grandfather were blind and I thought you were right on the money. But I haven't gotten any responses from any blind people yet but I am always open to it.

Dan_K: Have you ever taken or passed up a role that you later regretted?

SDW: No. My agent probably thought I was a little beside myself but there is a role that I won't portray and won't do and I would get scripts for them and I would turn them down but it was no. I had been living on coffee and popcorn for a week and the agent said you got to get over there and I went and auditioned but I went to the audition but I didn't want to waste the time but it didn't speak to me. I wasn't in a position to turn it down but. . . Script with foul language, etc. I can't get into that.

HSHost: I think that is awesome. When people follow boundaries and guidelines.

SDW: Thank you. It has taken me a long time to get here but.
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guest2897: Do you have any advice for someone trying to break in to the business?

SDW: Stand your ground. Keep your integrity no matter how long you go without food or when you see your friends getting roles. Every actor could tell you when they got their break was when they were about to give up. You can't really give up. In this business, you have to be your own best friend, that sounds selfish but you have to go with what you feel is right. You will come along a lot of challenges where people want you to give up your integrity but you have to live with yourself. One of the things...I love this business more than I thought I did. I was in California and I had the popcorn and coffee for a week and only 2 dollars and a train ticket to get back to Chicago. I was at a friend's and I had to walk from Sycamore to CBS studios in the summer in the heat, not thinking that this is L.A. and it is hot. I had a meeting with the executives and I was so wired, they probably thought I was a crackhead so I told them I am really tired and have been living on coffee but nothing came out of it immediately but one person there remembered me and that is probably a reason I got the role with CBS.
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PeterBill: What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you on stage or the set?

SDW: Every role I have had I have fallen. I have run out on stage and fell flat on my ass. I was doing a play, I was playing Marcus Garvey's wife, I was sitting at the money board, keyboard or something and there was a big drop a bit thing that to drop every night the screen got closer and closer to the keyboard and one night it caught on to the keyboard and the it dragged me along with it and fell on the floor. But that is the thing that is so great about it. You have to pick up your face and go.

HSHost: We have run out of time tonight. it was great having you on the show.

SDW: Thanks.

HSHost: Your show is tomorrow at 8:00 on CBS. It is one of your favorite shows. Shanesia thank you so much for joining us tonight, it was great to have you on our show. And thanks to all you folks for joining us from excite, and to all of you here on realhollywood.com. Please join us again every night next week at 7PM when our guests will be Charles Shaugnessy from "The Nanny", Richie Sambora, John Cryer, Jonathan Silverman, and The Pharcyde. Goodnight Everyone!

SDW: Bye Bye.
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