Gina Torres is a strong, formidable woman, not unlikeher character in the popular legal drama “Suits.
Torres is much the same.
Suddenly, she was seen as Black and only Black, despite her Cuban heritage, she toldMSNBC.
“Singing was definitely one of my loves,” Torres toldThe Blade.
“I just wanted to live and die on the musical theater stage,” she said.
“I just remembered thinking, I want to do that.
I want other people to feel the way she made me feel,” Torres recalled.
“[T]hey project onto you a kind of maturity.
You either step up to it or you don’t.
But she revealed that she’s really one big goofball behind all that emotional armor.
She doesn’t show that side of her to just anyone, however.
“It used to be a very well-kept secret,” she quipped.
They teased me constantly,” Torres said.
“I have my mom’s old bow up on the top and my dad’s fullness.
I think of them every time I look in the mirror,” she said.
“I had too much of everything,” Torres told Bustle.
And I’m standing there thinking, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.
I’m not really living this right now,'” Torres toldBackstage.
“I walked down center stage and shouted over the footlights, ‘Excuse me!
I was told to prepare a song would you like me to sing?’
Yes, oh of course!’
And I did,” she recalled.
That doesn’t mean she recommends everyone do it, however.
“The moral of that story is, you choose your battles.
And sometimes wonderful things happen.
You find your voice” she said.
Her parents weren’t exactly happy with her decision.
Torres told USA Today that they envisioned her getting a traditional, stable, prestigious job.
“Doctors, engineers, something with a title.
That was not where I ended up,” Torres told the outlet.
Despite her parents' disapproval, Torres still went ahead and pursued acting.
She told The Blade that she knew, in her heart, that it was her calling.
She didn’t even have a backup plan and still doesn’t.
“Even when it makes me miserable, there is no Plan B,” she admitted.
That doesn’t mean that she didn’t understand her parents' hesitation.
Nor did I," she explained.
Even now, Hollywood is criticized for its lack of diverse representation.
Others told her that she was “too exotic,” as Torres toldCNN.
She was often considered neither Black enough for certain roles nor Latina enough for others.
Being an actress might be a cool job, but it isn’t always the easiest one.
“That was hard,” she recalled.
Speaking to Bustle in 2022, Torres recalled the first time she questioned her career and life choices.
“I hung up the phone, and I burst into tears,” Torres recalled.
This is my life!
What am I doing?'"
By the time she hit her 30s, Torres was already having a midlife crisis, so to speak.
She was questioning where her career was headed and unsure if she would ever get her big break.
“[Y]ou go, ‘Did I miss it?
Is that it?’
Of course, in the end, everything worked out.
Torres met Fishburne in 1997, and the two tied the knot in 2002.
But two years after the show ended, they broke hearts across the globe when they announced their divorce.
Only a love story with a different ending than either one of us had expected.”
The couple first confirmed toPeoplethat they were expecting on January 6, 2007.
“My daughter has a version of my lips.
It starts with self-love.
It starts with self-acceptance.
And when you get to that point, it’s unstoppable.
Because the world sees what you see when you accept it in yourself.”
“Everything about her was impeccable.
She added that her character also never led with the fact that she’s a woman of color.
“She always led with her intelligence, her integrity, her balls,” Torres quipped.
Gina Torres has learned to accept failure
Surviving in Hollywood takes growing a thick skin.
“You look at something you want and think, ‘That’s a game changer.
That could have changed my life,'” she said.
“What is yours is yours.
“I firmly believe your blessings are yours, and we get them when we’re ready.
We get them when we’re supposed to,” she added.
“The gist of it is, ‘No cow can eat your grass.’
My grass is my grass,” Torres said, adding that the phrase is way catchier in Spanish.
Enter “Pearson,” the “Suits” spin-off featuring Torres’ character.
Trying her hand at producing meant that Torres had to step out of her comfort zone.
“I knew a lot more than I thought I did.
The biggest lesson she learned during this time?
“To pick my battles and not to belabor the point.
“I work out so I can feel good,” she toldHealthin 2019.
“I love food.
I like all the no-nos.
I love buttery, cinnamony, caramelly, and sometimes lemony things.
And I love fried chicken and bacon!”
she told the outlet.
When she first stepped into the acting world, Afro-Latina roles were few and far between.
This approach eventually paid off.
And just like that, there was finally a TV show with an Afro-Latina woman as the main character.
