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women of color roles that are impactful and meaningful and roles that will go down in history. I’m glad to be able to be here to see this change.”
Reid knew this was an opportunity for many young girls
to see themselves represented on screen in a major adaptation for the first time. In one episode of her excellent Facebook conversation series, Chop It Up, Reid discusses the importance
of diverse casting with Niles Fitch, who became Disney’s first Black live-action prince in the film Secret Society of Second-Born Royals. Both teenagers considered the weight of history and what the roles meant for the future. Reid opens up more about the moment. “It was the opportunity of a lifetime for a 13-year- old girl,” she says on playing Meg in Ava DuVernay’s adaptation. “I knew that it was going to be something, but I didn’t know it was going to be as impactful as it was for so many young girls. I knew that Ava had a mission. Her mission is always to represent people in the right light and allow people to see themselves in any character, through any situation. I had that idea in the back of my head and knew I had to do Meg justice, not only for Miss Ava and her vision, my vision, Disney and the producers’ visions, but also: I was very aware that Meg had been a loved character for so many years, by so many people. I wanted to represent her and add the essence of a Black girl into her, but I didn’t want to change her in any way.”
Reid continues: “I didn’t realize what Meg would do
for me [or] for others until after it came out and young girls started to come up to me and thank me for allowing them to
see themselves save the world. That’s when I realized I’d been
a part of a film that has impacted so many.” Reid circles back
to her own childhood growing up in Atlanta, remembering the important television shows her family introduced her to—shows where she was able to see herself represented on screen. While there were some significant, standout shows, she says there could have been many more.
“I felt very privileged when I was little,” Reid shares, “because I saw Zendaya on TV, and I was like, ‘This is amazing. She’s so great, so pretty—a young girl of color. This is all I need. Now, looking back, there should’ve been so many other young girls of color on... all the networks. We had Raven-Symoné in That’s So Raven, which was great, and thankfully, I was privileged enough to have my family introduce me to the older Disney shows. There was The Proud Family, which I am still obsessed with to this day. It was a show about a Black family. When you’re really young, you don’t think about representation that much. When you see yourself, you just get really excited. To look at it now, there is no reason why there shouldn’t have been more young girls and boys of color and minorities on television.”
Reflecting on the memory now, she says, makes her casting as Meg feel even more significant. “I realized, ‘Wow, my career’s bigger than myself,” Reid says reflectively of the moment. “I’m not only doing this to pursue my dreams and passions, I’m doing this to use my art as a form of activism, even though I’m not an activist, and I don’t like calling myself an activist. I feel like we have the opportunity and the platform—not all of us, but a lot of us in Hollywood right now—to say something. To not say something, in our art, is selfish, in a way. The role changed my life, and it changed the way I viewed myself, so I’m forever appreciative of Meg.”
Reid is hopeful Hollywood is on the cusp of lasting change. “Hollywood is trying to make that shift to more diversity on screens,” she says. “Hopefully it’s not just something that is a fad or a trend, and it’s everlasting. I think we’re trying to make the progress, to have the media be more representative of the world as a whole.”
Our conversation moves to television and its current “Golden Era” where the size, scope, casting, and ambition of the programs on our screens feels more diverse and ground- breaking than ever before. Reid says a show like Euphoria (in
which she plays Gia Bennett, sister to Rue Bennett, played by her childhood icon Zendaya) gives her continued hope that
the industry is determined to make lasting change as well as explore topics on screen that were previously taboo—such as mental health, #MeToo, and more. Reid animatedly explains her excitement on reading the script for the first time. “I was shocked,” she says of reading the first episode which was packed with everything from drug abuse and mental health issues to sexual consent, toxic masculinity, and the dangers of social media. “I was like, ‘This is a lot!’” She shakes her head in appreciation of the memory and continues, “I’m so appreciative of Euphoria. Whether I was a part of it or not, I think I would still love it as much as I do. It’s a true representation of what the world is. It’s trying to bridge the disconnect between adults and young people, to really show the world what young people are going through. It’s showing that mental health is real and addiction is real, gaslighting is real, toxic masculinity is real for young people. All these things are real that you’re seeing.”
Reid describes the show as “stunning” and reveals she
is prepping for season two now. It’s been two years since the finale, and fans are desperate to see more of the critically acclaimed, Emmy award-winning series. “I always sit back, when I’m reading episodes, or when I was going through the season, preparing for the second season—you have to sit there and think, ‘Oh my God. Even though I feel like this is insane, and I’ve never been through it, and hopefully I never go through this, Sam, our writer, has had very similar experiences to these.’ He
is, in a way, depicting his life through these young people. It’s
so beautiful that he’s able to do that and have the bravery and courage to do that. Also, another step is to be able to portray that and depict it through the vision of a young woman, and how she moves through the world.”
Reid is just finishing filming another under-wraps project before Euphoria plans to shoot its long-awaited season two.
“I’m so grateful to be a part of Euphoria,” Storm adds. “I don’t think there’s anything like it, and I don’t think there will ever be anything like it. It is an anomaly, a cultural phenomenon, and I love it.”
Reid’s career choices to date have been both bold and meticulously considered, resulting in film and television shows with important social and political messages on issues she cares about deeply, including race, mental health and women’s rights—as well as projects that push the boundaries of genre and filmmaking. In 2013, she appeared in Steve McQueen’s Oscar winning 12 Years A Slave and in 2020 played Sydney Lanier alongside Elisabeth Moss in acclaimed thriller The Invisible Man—just two examples in a long-list of sharp career choices.
“Thankfully, I don’t have to act just to act,” Reid says. “I
can be very, very particular with the projects that I choose to
be a part of. We actors have the duty to tell stories that are representative and represent the real world. I really feel like that. I get tons of scripts and offers that I say ‘No’ to, not that
it’s bad writing or the creative team is not great, or they’re not people I believe in and am familiar with, but the script just doesn’t impact me. It doesn’t make me feel that it will impact audiences. That’s the thing I look for the most. I want to impact audiences, and I want it to be a piece of change. It doesn’t have to be preachy, trying to shove something down your throat, but everything can say something. That’s why I’ve been so particular about everything I’ve been a part of, and thankfully, those things have lived up to those expectations.”
Reid’s work outside of acting, such as her recent appointment as a Global Spokesperson for Maybelline, continues her aspiration to be an agent of change. On her appointment, Trisha Ayyagari, Global Brand President at Maybelline New York said: “Storm is a standout voice and change-maker. She is a deeply talented actress, a courageous
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