As a substitute, she “influences the storytelling” by making certain there’s depth to her characters. “I remind [writers], ‘Let’s be sure we present the guts of this character as a substitute of simply displaying she’s a robust girl.’ That may find yourself being a trope,” she says. She likes to create characters via their “emotional panorama” particularly. “Understanding what the guts of that girl is and having the ability to convey that to the digital camera visually is de facto the place I really feel like the best affect I’ve as an actor in any story. That’s what makes an viewers join.”

With a high-powered, impartial TV producer like Mia, she’s centered on channeling vulnerability, a top quality not usually related to Black girls on display. “The writers of [‘The Morning Show’] are at all times hoping to mirror again the energy and the nimbleness of African American girls,” she says. “Typically that may be one-sided, so I am at all times making an attempt to infuse moments of fragility, softness, tenderness, and suppleness of what it means to be a lady in that job, in the identical ways in which you would possibly see a white girl in these jobs.”

In terms of Nya, Miranda’s professor-turned-friend on “And Simply Like That…,” it was vital to Pittman — and creator Michael Patrick King — that she put on her hair in braids. As she places it, “I believe it is very important mirror, particularly on that platform, what it’s to have an African American girl who utterly accepts her naturalness, who is not making an attempt to alter or look totally different, who’s embodying this assemble of Blackness utterly, and has determined that she’s going to reside in a spot of affection and training — and to share that intelligence on the present.” Pittman additionally understands that Nya’s friendship with Miranda permits the chance to indicate viewers what it appears like for a lady of colour to construct a relationship with a white girl who could not know some other WOC. That is particularly impactful in a sequence with a lot fanfare and generational recognition.

However whereas she’s in a position to begin conversations about her characters in some methods, she additionally acknowledges the challenges that include being a Black girl within the performing world. In her dialog with Smith-Cameron, Pittman shed gentle on Hollywood’s cultural reckoning in response to George Floyd’s homicide by police in 2020. Whereas there was an preliminary shift within the trade, she believes it is since reverted again to the established order.

“Individuals are forgetful,” she tells POPSUGAR. “Folks neglect, and as an actor, you do not need to at all times have your finger on the heart beat of tradition making an attempt to show them or remind them, ‘Hey, we have to pump some life into this.’ My white colleagues do not need to have these conversations.”

As with girls of colour in any area, she’d wish to solely focus on the job at hand: performing. “I’d love to enter an expertise the place the one factor that I am referred to as to do is to convey the complete breadth of my craft and never need to concern myself with anything,” she says. However, as she reminds us, that is the fact for any othered individual in our society.

As Pittman underscored in her dialog with Smith-Cameron, “the system is damaged,” and she or he is aware of it’s going to take time for the trade to progress. However what she will be able to do is collaborate with allies to advocate for the tales and characters they really feel are vital. “I need to be a human that builds coalition, that retains frequent floor,” she tells POPSUGAR. “One of many causes I like portraying these characters is as a result of they’ve their hand out for connection; they’re reflecting again to the tradition. There’s area for all of us. Actually in my profession, as a mom, as a human being, that’s the means I’m on the planet.”

She’s additionally eager for change. “If you happen to’re an actor or for those who’re an artist, you might be an optimist and an activist,” she says. “And for those who’re an activist or an optimist, you consider that humanity can do one thing totally different.”

Yerin Kim is the options editor at POPSUGAR, the place she helps form the imaginative and prescient for particular options and packages throughout the community. A graduate of Syracuse College’s Newhouse College, she has over 5 years of expertise within the popular culture and girls’s way of life areas. She’s keen about spreading cultural sensitivity via the lenses of way of life, leisure, and elegance.