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Sidibe’s also being candid about her weight loss and fitness journey, slimming down after gastric bypass surgery.
Here’s a look at her life.
Her father is a cabdriver from Senegal, while her mother taught special education early in her life.
Entertainment is in Sidibe’s blood.
“For a long time, my father was dead to me,” she shared with the magazine.
And not only did her father say that she was fat, but so did her mother.
F*** you!'
like eating a delicious cookie.
Cookies never hurt me."
“I knew every song on the radio, so I sang a lot,” she said.
While she didn’t want to do that for a living, it helped her in school.
She encouraged young people to find their own passions.
“Junior high school sucked for me.
Confident,” she revealed.
And I’d march off into battle."
“I’m still dealing with the haters.
It is rough.”
And she revealed toUs Magazine, “The best advice I’ve heard is to shake hands with rejection.
I champion for therapy therapy is everything.”
The actress “learned how to flirt” and “to ask for what I wanted.”
She shared, “I’m not afraid to say anything to anyone.
I’m not afraid tobeanyone” because of the phone sex work.
While not a happy story, it does become a more hopeful one.
She “cried real tears” in the audition.
She relished the chance to play the role.
“She sees herself in me onEmpire.
If it has to start with me, why not?”
Dealing with the haters
The actress continues to break barriers in Hollywood.
Sidibe’s character Becky had a rooftop sex scene on the showEmpirein 2015.
It was treated matter of factly on the drama, but some people trashed her for it.
I had the most fun ever filming that scene even though I was nervous," she said.
“But I felt sexy and beautiful and I felt like I was doing a good job.”
She noted, “I keep hearing that people are ‘hating’ on it.
I’m not sure how anyone could hate on love, but that’s okay.
You may have your memes.
Honestly, I’m at work too busy to check Twitter anyway.
Hope you enjoy next week’s show!”
(Yes, I called an outfit my soul mate.
I’m single and over 30.
If I want to settle down and live my life with an article of clothing, I can!
Just be glad it’s not 75 cats.)"
The actress said, “I put 100 percent of my confidence into this gorgeous outfit.
I wore it with gold hoop earrings and a big curly wig teased to look like an Afro.”
She had a great time rocking her look at the event.
She said, “I couldn’t just stop scrolling.
Another person hated my hair.
She was just 32 at the time of the diagnosis.
So she made a decision that would change her life.
In 2017, she admitted toPeoplethat she hadundergone weight loss surgerythe previous year.
“I just didn’t want to worry,” she said in the magazine.
“I truly didn’t want to worry about all the effects that go along with diabetes.
I genuinely [would] worry all the time about losing my toes.”
And I’ve been feeling like that for some time.”
“Throwing up made me feel high.
I felt a release around my head like a halo that made me feel lighter physically and emotionally.”
Successful therapy helped change her life for the better.
But it’s still not always easy.
The actress admitted to the magazine, “I have been struggling with weight my entire life.
I realize that as long as I have a body, it will be a struggle.”
She has been compared to Mindy Kaling and David Sedaris.
She toldPeopleshe even “outlived” her first trainer, who died of cancer.
Sidibe shared, “I really, really tried I gave a valiant try” to lose weight.
“So I’m glad that I finally realized that the surgery wasn’t the easy way out.
I wasn’t cheating by getting it done.
“I spent years trying to lose this much weight, and I didn’t do it.
I wish I’d done it sooner.”
“I did not get this surgery to be beautiful.
I did it so I can walk around comfortably in heels.
I want to do a cartwheel.
I want not to be in pain every time I walk up a flight of stairs.”
“There’s nothing ugly about me.
“I was in a war with my body for a long time.
If I’d started treating it better sooner, I wouldn’t have spent so many years hating myself.
But I love my body now.”
“Listen, I’m a solitary, selfish person.
I have no kids and I feel bad about my selfishness,” sheshared withNylon.
We all do, at any size.”
