F L A U N T
Toni Trucks is far more than an actress, and she’s here to leave a long-lasting impact on audiences all around the world. Now entering the fifth season of CBS’ critically-acclaimed television show SEAL Team, the Grand Rapids, Michigan native proves once again why she’s an elite in the film and entertainment industry.
Making her television debut in SHOWTIME’s Barbershop before embarking on her recurring role as Ensign Lisa Davis on SEAL Team. Toni’s all-star resume of credits includes Franklin and Bash, Made In Jersey, NCIS: New Orleans, Hostages, and Comedy Central’s Corporate. Her movie credits include Ruby Sparks, Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
When she’s not working or filming on set, Toni is passionate about the importance of self-care, and giving back to her community. In light of her role on SEAL Team, Toni has partnered with Military Made to curate family themed boxes with items for the whole family to enjoy, created by those who were in the military or are military spouses. The goal is to unite family members and tell the brave stories of those who have chosen to serve their country.
Flaunt caught up with Toni via Zoom, who was posted in Washington D.C,. filming a special for the Army Field Band. Read below as we discuss her background in music, roots in Grand Rapids, Michigan, biggest influences, landing her first role in television, preparing for her role in SEAL Team, what we can expect from Season 5, giving back, what she does for self-care, and more!
Where are you located?
Well I'm in L.A., but today, I'm in Washington D.C., because I'm filming a special for the Army Navy Field Band-- it's really cool. Every branch in the military has a band and a choir. They all have this wonderful musical element that we don't really get to celebrate. They're having the Army Navy games, which everybody gets all testosterone-y about. After that, I'm going to host the Army Field Band special. We're going to go all over D.C., where the choirs will sing and bands will play.
Do you have a background in music?
I was a music major growing up. I was in musical theater so mostly singing and dancing. I can play the piano, but mostly second grade proficiency. [laughs] I went to a performing arts high school called Interlochen, and did all my training there. It’s a fun place. I wanted to do Broadway so I went to University of Michigan and studied musical theater. I went on to New York and did musical theater for a while, then took a curveball with TV.
Being from Grand Rapids, Michigan, how was that growing up?
I was born in Grand Rapids, but I grew up in a really little tiny town two hours north of Grand Rapids. It's got about 10K people maybe. That played a huge role in my life because it was such a fishbowl, such a little incubator. I felt I could get the lay of the land. “Okay I get it, I see what has to happen here.” [laughs] I was able to navigate things pretty well there. Weirdly, although my town was so small, it had a ton of theater and arts. It was really supportive of young artists, even though I was this tiny little Hamlet. They were so encouraging so it's been great. They’re super supportive and now when I go home, they’ll have mini hometown premieres. They had a SEAL Team premiere at the local movie theater. [laughs] They really get into it.
Who were your biggest influences coming up?
My parents provided such a good support system and I had wonderful teachers around me. Even the local drama teachers, and the local dance teachers...you wouldn't necessarily think they’d still have an impact on your adulthood but they really did. They gave me such a beautiful foundation for the love of the arts and being this perpetual student. Even now, by myself, popping into class just so I can keep learning... that was a product of their encouragement. Both my parents are extremely involved in the community and were extremely supportive of my experience. They were very influential.
Do you remember your first big break?
I'm still waiting for it. No, I’m kidding. [laughs] When I think of my big break, I’d think of Barbershop because it was such a giant leap from what I was doing. I’d been in New York, I was doing musical theater. I was near where I am right now, I was in Baltimore at the time doing a play. My agent sent me an audition for Barbershop, the TV show for Showtime. I said “sure, that sounds like fun.” I didn't think there was any chance. Went through a long audition process for that. It kept getting a little further and a little further and a little further. We’re like, “Are we going to get this?” Then we did!
I had this situation where I had two weeks to move to Los Angeles, chop off all my hair and start a new life. It went from literally dancing in the chorus to riding in a little golf cart around Paramount like, “Oh my gosh, this is huge!” It felt so fun and so different. Doing a small town play premiere versus doing a red carpet felt really big. Seeing your face on a billboard...all those things felt like a bigger break. It was so shocking too. A person fresh out of college, what?!
How was it seeing yourself on television?
It was so terrifying. You know what, what I remember most about that experience was when we had our premiere. This is a long time ago now, but when we had our premiere, Showtime was just poppin’ at the time. So we premiered with Weeds.
Oh, I remember that show!
Yes, we premiered with Weeds. I sat in front of Mary-Louise Parker, she was right behind me. She didn't like to watch herself at that time--I don't know if she still does. So we premiered first. We watched Barbershop, then she was going to scoot out because she didn't want to watch the first episode of Weeds. But before she left, she whispered in my ear and said, "That was so good, you're going to be a huge star." I’m like "Kill me now!" She was really so sweet. That felt like such a magical Hollywood moment.
Fast forward to now, you're on SEAL Team! How did it feel to land this role?
It was great. I was so happy to do something really different. You go through these chapters in your career... I went through my secretary phase and my best friend phase, you're always doing those things. Then I entered a uniform phase--everybody wanted me to be in uniform all the time. [laughs] What I loved about SEAL Team is that my character, Lisa Davis, was so determined. She's so good at her job. As I read the scripts, immediately I loved seeing a young, fierce woman who was so good at her job. She was invaluable. Over the course of these seasons, we've been able to see her stumble a bit,and want more… She continues to be so hungry for upward mobility. She keeps getting promoted. I love seeing her rising in the ranks because we don't get to see a ton of women in the military portrayed on TV. I'm very precious and protective of her because if you only have so many images of women in the military portrayed, we have to do a really good job doing it.
What is the training or preparation like for a role like this?
Well it's calmed down at the moment because when we first started, we did a lot of tactical training stuff, because we didn't have any baseline for what we’re talking about. We were thrust into everything. Even now when we get scripts, we have a 3-page index/dictionary of all these military acronyms that I still have to roll off the tongue with some ease. But now my character has moved up. In the beginning of Season 1, I was packing a lot of parachutes and doing a lot of gear stuff.
Now my character has gone off to Officer Candidate School, and has been promoted time and time again. It feels a bit more like desk duty, but she's trying to affect the team in a different way from a higher position. How can she try to keep these guys safe in a smarter way through procedure and policy? Also on the mission monitoring drone footage or something. [laughs] It's interesting, I'm always learning. Every day is a learning curve for me. There's not a day that goes by where I’m like “what does this mean? I've never heard this before.”
What’re you most excited for with Season 5 approaching?
Ooh, Season 5. We're moving over to Paramount+ from CBS, which is so huge. We've been so happy and loved at CBS, but everyone's getting into the streaming game. It gives us a different opportunity to add a little bit of grit to the show, that we didn't have before when we had the umbrella of CBS. I'm excited to have the audience experience a little bit more of the less polished version of SEAL Team. There's always been different things that I say "We should talk about that!” It's like “Oh, we don't know if that’ll fit in exactly.” Now we get to be a little bit grittier, even with the language and subject matter. So that's good, especially because we've tackled some very sensitive topics, like sexual harassment in the military. Having the seatbelt off a little bit is helpful when you're trying to tell these important, complicated stories. I think Paramount+ is going to help us do that.
Talk about the importance of women being in strong roles, such as yourself.
Oh, so many things. I was able to go on a USO tour a couple years ago, pre-COVID. It was so helpful for me to see the people I'm portraying each week. You get caught in this imaginary world. To be in another country — Djibouti, Kosovo, Kuwait, whatever — we're seeing in real life these people that we're pretending to be everyday. It really focused my efforts a bit. It made me think when we were on tour, we had to do a USO show. My portion of the show was to challenge one service woman to a push up competition in every country.
That's so dope!
Oh my god, it was so terrifying. When we got to the last country, somehow by then the SEAL Team gods had been winning. We were in Djibouti towards the Horn of Africa, they brought in a ringer and she just whooped me. It was so great to meet a real life, kick ass, military woman. This girl could’ve done push ups all day. It was the perfect way to end the trip, because okay, I see what's happening here. The woman I'm pretending to be on TV is real, she exists.
It's also impacted my life because I've seen that being able to have the spectrum of the people that are in the military coming to full color for me has been so inspiring. It's helped me in my off seasons to get more involved with modern military family organizations that are supporting LGBTQ military members. The military’s made up of everybody, so I'm interested. I'm dipping my toe in and supporting those lesser celebrated aspects of the military. For me, it makes it more fun.
How important is self-care? Mental health is huge for me as well. I know filming has a very rigorous schedule.
I know! It is, it can be so insane. Well, besides vegging out on the couch with some ice cream to reset my system... [laughs] I was a dancer for a long time. When I stopped dancing for work and doing theater, I ended up going to the gym. What I realized is that wasn't doing my body any good. I ended up graduating to more surprisingly, slower pace things like pilates. I was surprised to see it helped my brain and my body so much to not exhaust it so much, to not attack my workouts with such vigor. It's been nice to find a different way into that quiet place. I find that that's very, very helpful. I love vegging out to music. Fun fact about me, I'm a compulsive rocker. I’ve always loved rocking chairs. I’m always checking the rebound on the couch. I could rock myself to sleep. [laughs]
Wait, that's hilarious!
I know! I need a rocking chair everywhere. Or if not, I need a good pillow and I’ll all of a sudden... [snores]
What’d it mean to partner with Military Made?
Military Made popped up on my radar through my manager, she’d caught wind of it and I checked them out. They're a smaller company right now. I thought what they’re doing was so interesting because they’re supporting military veterans or military spouses through curated boxes. 3 times a year they do a box. What I loved about it was they're patronising all of these individuals. They're curating these boxes, but they're purchasing everything to give these entrepreneurs a surge of attention and profit. When I spoke to them, I said “how can I be of service to you?” They asked me, “Why does this interest you?” I said “what I'm personally interested in is really painting a very diverse picture of the military,” which is the true picture of the military” It's so easy to see your blond-haired, blue-eyed, good ole boy in uniform, but it's not really the truth of what's happening out there.
I wanted to show who some of these entrepreneurs are and the immense diversity of products being created. My theme of my box I'm creating for the fall is all about family. I really wanted to bring home the point that when you talk about military family; these diverse faces are what your military family looks like. It's not cookie cutter, it's all the colors of the rainbow and all really interesting, fun products. That’s so interesting and fun to me, when you really peel back the uniform and get to see who these folks are.
Talk about also serving on the California Death Penalty focus board, I love that you're using your platform for something greater.
Shirley, thank you so much. That’s been really so fulfilling. It's a study for me every day. I'm new to the board so I'm still learning everything, but I feel so good to do good. My parents are both extreme activists. My mother runs a community action agency in Michigan, she’s really a social justice warrior. Her whole life is dedicated to people living below the poverty line. My father's the same way, they're so engaged in the community. When the opportunity to join the death penalty focus came up, it felt like a no-brainer to me because there's such a systemic disparity with people on death row for one.
I’m so vehemently against the death penalty, I can't wrap my brain around it. Knowing how fallible of a system it's functioning under makes me that much more passionate to attempt to abolish it wherever we can in this country. I've learned so much last year. They asked me to host their annual event, which was so exciting. We had to do it remotely but it was still so fun to really be able to learn a little bit more intimately some of the heroes of the movement. We're getting ready to do that again right now. We're compiling our list of people we want to celebrate.
Also meeting exonerees sobers you really quickly, when you meet people who say "I was in prison for 27 years for a crime I did not commit.” You're like, “Okay we're here with you." It's super important to me, I'm excited to even get more involved. I'm so happy I can represent that movement. Taking it back to SEAL Team, we deal with complicated war every week. What I still appreciate about our writers is they're not afraid to show fallibility in the characters. You see them make mistakes, which it’s tempting to show people being awesome every week, kicking butt, coming home victorious, and having some fun. It's also not true. You have to show that instead these are complicated people in complicated situations that can make mistakes and feel big feelings about things that have-long term implications on their lives, psyche and health. Those are stories that I'm interested in telling.
What are you most excited for next? What can we look forward to?
SEAL Team is the biggest thing right now, we moved to Paramount+ so we're hopeful. This will be interesting. It provides for a shorter season for us so I'm hoping that means it opens up doors for some new opportunities for me sp I can have a little bit more time on my schedule. A little more room on my dance card. [laughs]
Military Made is slated to launch in November just in time for the upcoming holidays. Stay tuned for that and more by following @tonitrucks on Instagram and Twitter.
Photography by Jonny Marlow
Style by Anna Schilling
Hair: Diane Dusting
Makeup: Saisha Beecham
