Ebony Obsidian used to be asked, _why are trying to be an actor when you could just work a regular job?_ Now she’s being asked to star in television shows and movies.
The journey from struggling hopeful-actor to series regular in Tyler Perry’s _Sistas,_ recurring character in Amazon’s _Hunters_ alongside Logan Lerman and Al Pachino and actress in Oscar nominated _If Beale Street Could Talk_ wasn’t an easy one, but it’s one that Obsidian took and one that made her a better performer. She went from working three jobs to being an actor that should be on everyone’s radar. She never quit, even after a “terrible” first ever audtion. The hardwork and determination paid off, giving her an impressive resumé and skillset that are sure to only grow in the following years.
Read _Flaunt_’s conversation with the actress below and check out the third season of _Sistas_, out on June 9th!
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**When you were a child, you wrote poetry and music. Were there any skills that you learned from those passions that have helped you in the world of acting?**
Yeah, for sure. When I was younger, I was doing all the same things. I was acting, I was singing, I was writing. But I never really saw them as a career, to make money from them. They were just things that I did. So it's funny now looking back. People are like, _Oh, did you always want to be a writer and actor, musician?_ I'm like, I think so. I think I just didn't know it. So initially, I had gone into college for journalism, I was writing, and I think the structure of things was probably helpful for deadlines. Honestly, I think making art on deadline is such a strange concept even now to me. And so I think writing poetry and just kind of free writing is something that I'm making more time for now. So I can just feel like I have a bit more control of my art and so it can actually do what it's supposed to do, which is make me feel good. I've been busy, but I've been busy with all the right things, thankfully. So yeah, definitely structure is a good thing. But also knowing when to be flexible are skills that I kind of learned at a younger age that I love. I love the flexibility of art. But also, structure is nice too. It’s a skill you need if you're going to make it a profession.
**You said that you’ve kind of always known that you wanted to be an artist, but you didn't realize quite at first that you knew it could be a career. Do you remember when exactly you were like, ‘Oh, I could do this as a career’?**
I remember when I _had_ to do it as a career, when I was in college and I had a mental breakdown and was like, this is what life is gonna be for the next however many years it’s going to take me to get this degree. I was burnt out, I was working three jobs, I was a barista, I was a server and I was working at a clothing store too, at the same time. A lot of things were happening, I was kind of doing all the things that people told me to do. Be responsible, earn money, go to college, get a degree, you know, the structure of life that I think, at least in this country, is very important, or I guess, smiled upon. It doesn't work for me, I was not happy, I was not okay. And I remember having a breakdown in my bedroom, and my mom walked in, I was like, I'm gonna tell her what's wrong with me, and so I told her, and she was so supportive that I went for it, I ended up moving to the city, going to The William Esper Studio studying, gaining confidence in my own opinions and perspectives on acting and things like that. It wasn't really even when I decided to do it, it was more so when I decided I could not _not_ do it.
**Is it crazy looking back on that version of you, who was working three jobs, and then looking at where you are now?**
It's so weird, I still go back home and all the same places are there that I used to work at, some of the same people are even there. I actually went back to one of my old jobs to see what they would say. I went back in and I asked for a job, and immediately they were ready to hire me. So that makes me feel good about the work I was doing then, it just wasn't for me. But I was doing good work. But now looking back and seeing how focused I was on the wrong things, I think is the main thing I think I take from just reflecting on that time period. It's like, we can go so many years doing things that don't make us happy and it's like, why? Everything is going to be hard. Every career path is going to be hard. Every job is going to be hard, if not physically, mentally, not mentally, emotionally. So just pick the thing that at least makes you happy, right?
**Do you have any advice to people who maybe are in the same position that you were in, they're working all these jobs, and they're just not happy with what they're doing? Do you have any advice on how they can maybe find the right path?**
I think it's two things, right? Sometimes people know what they want to do. Sometimes people know what their passion is. That's kind of the biggest part of pursuing anything, you have to know it. I think for people who don't know it, maybe give yourself some space to figure it out, try new things, be open to new things, because you will find the thing if you're looking for it, but not if you’re not open to it. For the people who do know it and are, in a nine to five or doing whatever else that's kind of preoccupying their time, it is really scary to give things up that afford you what you believe the structure in terms of like financial structure or anything of that nature. But time is our most valuable—you can't get that back. Like I can't get back two seconds ago, it's gone. I can never attain that. So I think being scared is okay, but be brave enough to decide that our time is limited here and you got to make the most of it. That has to be the biggest leap that you take. Everything else will be hard to but at least it'll be worth it.
**Do you remember your first audition ever, how did it go?**
Terribly, of course. I had come to the city before I was even studying just to kind of see how I felt about this space. I wasn't familiar with acting, like going in auditioning or even finding resources for auditions. I didn't live in the city at the time, I was upstate, it was a lot of different things. And I was like, let me just go and try this thing. I'm one of those people who's just like, jump in, see how you feel and if you don't like it, then don't even bother trying to go that way again. And so that's what I did. I basically took a bus to the city and I crashed this audition that I was not invited to and I went in and it was pretty terrible. I mean, I was so nervous. I was just like, trying to feel something. I didn't even really know what it was entirely. I was just trying to grasp what acting is. It's like an assignment, right? Like not when you're at home performing for your family or performing for whoever. And I did that. And it was terrible. I mean, I'm glad that I did it, where I did it. I think it was at NYU or something like that. It was one of those college films. It was funny now looking back at it, but I'm glad that I don't think they recorded it. I don't think anybody will ever see that. Thankfully.
**Was there a moment after that audition where you were like, ‘Man, I don't want to do that again’ or were you kind of like, ‘I learned a lesson from this and going forward, I'm gonna do better maybe’?**
I think that's the thing, too. When you find the thing and everything after it is really difficult. I have family members who asked me before I was a working actor, they just asked me, _Alright, you're broke, you're struggling financially, you're struggling to even eat on certain days. Why are you doing this when you can just go get a job?_ I always had a job, but it was like, again, flexibility. I had to make time for my craft. And the truth is, it never crossed my mind to quit. There were times that I was wondering if I was going about it the right way, but it was never like, ‘oh, I should stop this. It's really hard or it's not paying off, or oh, maybe I'm just not cut out for this.’ It was always like, I can do better. I can learn how to interpret these things better, I can learn how to embody the human experience in different ways, right. Something people don't talk about is, we're all living our own lives, even actors or people who are performers, we have our entire own lives that we're living in. The more that we experience, the more that we can bring to the table for any character. That's kind of what was happening for a lot of years. But no, I never really thought about quitting. It was just like, figure it out.
**Some of your family members early on, were asking why you didn't work a different job. What do those family members think about where you are now?**
That's the best feeling, right? It's like everybody else could be like, congratulations, oh my god, that's so cool, but I think when people who have known you, since the inception of you, can see not only that you're working, but that you're making an impact on people in daily life and stuff. Everyone is super supportive now. I think I wouldn't even say supportive, because it’s not that some people weren't supportive, it's just like, it's a dream. Acting is a dream, entertainment is a dream. But the thing is, if anybody has done something before, it can obviously be done. What capacity or what level it’s done I think is kind of the thing that no one ever really knows until it happens. I think I've exceeded my own expectations and now I have new goals and new aspirations. So that's a beautiful thing. Everyone's happy now. The family's happy now.
**Do you remember the first role you booked and how you felt?**
The first role that I booked was in a film called _The Vixens_. I don't even know that it ever came out. It's one of those things in New York, where you do so much indie stuff, sometimes you never see it. I was playing the assistant to a lawyer and essentially, there was all this crazy stuff going on and we were just kind of running around. It was a lot, it was a lot going on. But when I booked it, I felt really good. It was the first positive reinforcement that like, okay, you're not going to book everything, but you will book some things and those things will be the jobs that let you practice. As an actor you're only really working when you're preparing for a role and when you're on set. But all the times in between when you're trying to book it's like, you can work on your craft in different ways, but that's the most concentrated. So I was really excited to get a chance to be on camera, of course, but also just to get to practice, like I wasn't able to practice in that way before. So that was really cool.
**Would you say you've had a most impactful role or character that you've played? Or do you think they all hold a similar importance to you?**
I feel like I almost gravitate towards certain past roles, depending on where I'm at. So they've all been impactful, of course, I mean, they came at very different times. Everything that I've done so far has been things that I've wanted to do and that's kind of the most important thing to me. There's not a role that I'm like, oh, I wish I hadn't taken that. There are projects that didn't come out the best, but I'm glad I did the role, because I learned a lot. They have an importance to all of them, but more importantly, I learned things later from all of them as well, which is a really cool thing.
**Is there a role that's challenged you the most?**
I think anytime you do television, a prolonged experience, for example, _Sistas_, we're in our third season—which comes out on the ninth—anytime you're with a person or a character for that long, they're changing, and you're changing with them. So I think that kind of becomes a challenge. I'll just say that for now, _Sistas,_ Karen, for sure. If you're not familiar, she is someone who is a professional ‘L’ taker. So it's crazy stuff happening to her and she just cannot seem to escape the drama no matter how much she wants to. And so I think that that's challenging, the further that we get into that because, different topics I touched on, sometimes, there's so many directions you can go with the topics like that you're exploring with television or film and sometimes you don't always get to express them or always get to really cover them fully. I think that can be challenging too, when you're wanting to express things that aren't necessarily expressed on the paper.
**Does the process of tapping into each of your characters differ, whether it's a film role or a television role?**
I think the really, really beautiful thing that I appreciate so much about film is that you get the full story. You get the beginning, the middle and the end and your crafting process is different because you have it all. You know where it's going and you can make decisions that are fully aware of what the story is, all the parts, all the other characters. Where the thing with TV, especially TV that's not limited series, you don't know—which kind of I guess mimics more of the experience of actually living—you don't know what's coming next and so you can only work on what you have now. I love both of them. I think film is always where I saw myself and it's a pleasant surprise how much I've gotten into TV. They're definitely different processes, but In general, just the actual, the actual being on set and doing the job is fairly similar. It’s just the process beforehand that's different.
**What’s one of the biggest lessons you've learned throughout your time of acting?**
Trust your instincts. Trust your instincts. That's something that I think anytime I talk to or get a chance to work with an actor that I've looked up to for a long time, they all kind of touch on the same thing, which is just this idea of, as an artist, sometimes I think it's easy to second guess yourself, especially if you're someone who watches all your work. That's something that's very difficult to do in terms of not being tapped into the thing that makes an actor brilliant, just being able to go and do it, and be present and not be judgmental of your own work or your own process or whatever the case may be. Trust yourself, trust your instincts. Doing _Sistas_ as well, we shoot so fast that you don't really have a choice, you don't have time to second guess yourself, because you're only going to get one take anyways. So you just have to shoot it and literally let it go, and not worry about anything else and just trust that the performance, whatever came out of you is what it was supposed to be. And so I think that's been a show that has definitely just further taught me to just trust myself.
**Do you have a dream role or character you want to play, or maybe a dream person that you would like to work with?**
There's so many people I want to work with. Mostly people who just have been working for so long. In terms of a dream role, my goal is always to do something I haven't done before. I get really easily bored and I just need the stimulation of someone entirely different sometimes. Sci-fi is a space I haven't touched at all, action is a space I haven't touched at all. I love to do roles that would challenge me in a way that I haven't been challenged before. Maybe physically, maybe I'd have to train, change that way. Things like that excite me, because any role that's easy, I don't really think I want to do because for me, the work is in the challenge. That's just what I say all the time. Always what I'm thinking about it. What haven't I done? How can I do it? When is it coming?
**Is there anything else that you want people to know about you?**
I had a song recently come out called “EIL” for ‘everything is love.’ I'm gonna call it my pandemic song because I started it in 2020 and initially, it was about a romantic relationship, but then I put it down for like, two seconds and life was happening and loss was happening. The rest of the song was just about being connected with people far beyond the point that they're no longer physically here with you. That's streaming everywhere. I'm really proud of it. It's a song that I needed to hear.
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Photographer: [Julia Sariy](https://www.instagram.com/julia_sariy/)
Stylist: [Angelina Scantlebury](https://www.instagram.com/angelinascantlebury/)
Makeup: [Veronica Gaona](https://www.instagram.com/veronicagaona/?hl=en)
Hair: Monique Mitchell + Helene Marie
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