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Archive for the 'Yolonda Ross' Category
As screen veteran Yolonda Ross from Omaha enjoys today's black renaissance, she gears for next big career move
December 12, 2018 leoadambiga	1 comment
©by Leo Adam Biga
Appearing in the December 2018 issue of The Reader (www.thereader.com)
In her two decades as a working screen actress Omaha native Yolonda Ross has seen Black Cinema explode and women filmmakers assert themselves. She's "making it happen" herself as a recurring character in Showtime's The Chi after recurring parts in How to Murder Your Wife, The Get Down and Treme. She's in HBO's latest hit Random Acts of Flyness. She plays opposite Patricia Clarkson, James Caan and Toby Jones in the new indie feature Out of Blue.
Next spring, she breakouts behind the camera for her feature writing-directing debut, Scenes from Our Marriage. It shoots in her adopted hometown New York City with the same production team from the 2012 short Breaking Night she wrote-directed. She's also executive producing and starring in Scenes. She and Clarke Peters are husband and wife theater artists dealing with professional challenges, jealousy, infidelity and race.
Omaha native Tim Christian's Nightfox Entertainment is co-producing.
Ross left Omaha for NYC to pursue a fashion career. The multitalented artist (she also sings and paints) is glad for more opportunities today than ever.
"Yeah, this is a great time to be a black creative in our industry," Ross said.
The emergence of Shonda Lynn Rhimes, Lena Waithe, Ryan Coogler, Jordan Peele, Terence Nance and other black TV-film players marks a wave if not sea change.
"Things have improved some," Ross said. "I think it's great there's more people of color telling their own stories and not having pretty much the white race telling everybody else's story. It makes for more specific voices for people to really see themselves on screen. It's from a more authentic place because it's coming from the people that live it.
"There's still a lot of change that can happen though. There needs to be more people of color on the other side as far as green-lighting and distributing because you can produce things, but that still doesn't necessarily mean they're going to get picked up."
Ross has also seen her industry change in terms of how talent and content get discovered.
"Now having the Internet very much planted in the middle of everything, because you can stream everything, definitely has broadened the industry and made it smaller at the same time. There's a whole crop of people that are stars now for not really doing anything but talking to a camera telling you about something, which is not actually acting.
"They're just very different things."
She sees a content glut.
"I feel it's all very saturated right now. There's an overload of material out there. You have to really look for the quality stuff. As far as acting, I feel if you are at the top of what you do in your work, the cream of the crop still rises no matter the clutter. You just have a lot more to get around than before because everybody's jumbled up into one big industry."
Concurrent with these trends are new funding, production, distribution mechanisms to help women get their work seen and supported.
"It's wonderful," said Ross, who's worked with many women directors (Cheryl Dunye, Reed Morano, Carol Morley).
Her upcoming feature is getting love from Level Forward, a female-run production company supporting women's stories and women of color.
Her project is also nurtured by Film Independent and its Fiscal Sponsorship Program, which opens the door to nonprofit funding for independent filmmakers and media artists. The Friends of Mary Riepma Ross (no relation) Media Arts Center in Lincoln, Nebraska made a grant to her project through the program.
"My film is also going to be in Film Independent Fast Track," Ross said. The film financing market held during the LA Film Festival helps producers-directors "fast track" their projects via intensive meetings with executives, financiers, agents, managers, distributors, granting organizations and production companies.
Meanwhile, Ross, who's worked with Denzel Washington, John Sayles, David Mamet and Baz Luhrmann, continues keeping good company. Being part of Terence Nance's Flyness is the latest example.
"I think Terence is one of those voices we need to see. We need his Afropunk voice. We need voices like his. We need Lena Waithe's voice. We need my voice. We need these different kinds of voices with black skin to show that we are not all the same. We don't all think the same, we don't all process things the same."
Ross has prepared to make her own feature for years.
"I'm really psyched about it. We have a lot of things to say. I'm so ready. All the directors I've worked with, all the Sundance labs I've done, all the different mediums I've worked in – it all helps with making my own first feature film. Also, I feel I understand how to deal with other actors to get emotion without over-talking, overdoing things – but just letting people do their work.
"My experience working with so many people allows me to get the best actors, and they're willing to do favors, which is great. In terms of production, I understand how to get things in an efficient way because I've dealt with so many different types of situations. I'm able to look at things from the outside in and from the inside out, where sometimes directors kind of get stuck in the writing or the set. I also have a strong team around me to keep me on track so that I can lock down and streamline what I want to get in a moment, in a scene."
Doing Breaking Night was "extremely important," she said. "I needed to learn every step in making a film – from writing it to getting it out to festivals. Not only did I learn everybody's job, I dealt with everything from insurance to licensing music. I needed to understand the business side. It's helped me preparing to make this feature. I can talk to my producers about different elements and guide the project in a way that will be bes as far as time, money, creatively, everything.
"I like the producing aspects of filmmaking."
Her screen journey began in earnest with her breakthrough in the 2001 HBO movie Stranger Inside.
"When you're in it, sometimes you don't look back on it because everything is about the next job. You're always striving for more. Whatever you did in the past is great, but it's also the past. But I'm very thankful to be here and to be able to have touched people in various ways. I'm thankful to continue to work on great projects and to be able to support myself by doing my passion, my art."
She's never forgotten her roots.
"I'm always down to do things in Omaha. I was just there (May) at the Dundee Theater for a panel on women in television. Supporting artists there is totally my thing. I feel seeing people who grew up in the same setting as you living their dream is a really powerful thing."
Visit yolondaross.com.
Read more of Leo Adam Biga's work at leoadambiga.com.
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Categories: Actor/Acting, African-American Women, Cinema, Directors/Directing, Film, Movies, Omaha, Television, Writer, Writing, Yolonda Ross
Dope actress Yolonda Ross is nothing but versatile – from "The Get Down" to cinema cannibals to dog-eat-dog politics
October 18, 2016 leoadambiga	2 comments
Dope actress Yolonda Ross from Omaha gave me some love for the new Reader (http://thereader.com)) article I wrote about her, her recurring role as a teacher in "The Get Down" and an inspirational teacher in her life–
"Hey Leo!! I saw The Reader. It looks great. Thanks for including the part about Mrs. Owens. She meant a lot to a lot of people. Thanks for the nice spread in The Reader."
Just now featuring it on my blog, leoadambiga.com, where you can find several more pieces I've written about Yolonda as well as Gabrielle Union, John Beasley and dozens of other Omaha native screen and stage stars.
Love the photo of Yo going all glam. How about you? She's that rare actress who can transform herself from role to role and go from high to low, serious to silly, hard to soft in a heartbeat.
Originally appeared in October 2016 issue of The Reader (http://thereader.com)
Photo by Christopher Logan
Omaha native actress Yolonda Ross often turns up in edgy, must-see indie films and television projects. After a regular stint on the acclaimed HBO series Tremeand playing secret lover Robyn Crawford in the Lifetime biopic Whitney, she has a recurring role in this season's most talked about new series, The Get Down. The Netflix original from visionary filmmaker Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!) depicts the birth of hip-hop in the cultural maelstrom of 1970s the Bronx.
"The show is about music – it's about the beginning of hip-hop, rap, disco, everything that was happening during that time," Ross said.
The Omaha Burke High grad left here for New York to pursue a fashion career in the 1990s. Acting eventually became her main form of expression, though she also sings, paints and slays the red carpet. Early on she nabbed network TV gigs, but her breakout came as the lead in the HBO women's prison drama Stranger Inside directed by Cheryl Dunye. It's the first of many radical feminist projects to cast Ross in provocative roles.
"I actually do have a great record of working with women. I feel there may be something to that when looking at the kind of material I'm drawn to. I haven't sought them out – it's happened organically."
She's also appeared in John Cameron Mitchell's controversial feature Short Busand in David Mamet's HBO drama Phil Spector. Perhaps her biggest feature role came in the John Sayles film Go for Sisters playing the ex-con friend of parole officer LisaGay Hamilton.
In Get Down she plays Ms. Green, an influential teacher of young people at the forefront of a cultural revolution.
"I was in L.A. when the audition came through," Ross said. "I put myself on tape first for the role of Mrs. Kipling, the mother of a couple main characters. Then I got asked to come in and read for Ms. Green. I went in with a song prepared because we all had to sing, then met with Baz when I got back to New York. That was it."
She finds many things appealing about what Ms. Green symbolizes as a young black female professional committed to her community.
"She's the one character that represents the 'single' woman of this time, which was a very important time for women and women having rights. Being a feminist really came to light back then. I feel Ms. Green represents a woman from the Bronx who got out, learned and came back to help others. She's smart, strong and caring. She reminds me of characters I grew up watching on TV when I was a kid. So, it's really cool to be able to play someone like that now, as an adult."
Ross knows what it's like to have a teacher who cares. She fondly recalls her English teacher at Burke High – the late Karen Owens. "She treated us students as equals, not as kids. She listened to us and our points of view and nurtured our growth in writing and expressing ourselves. She was a dear friend of mine and someone that made a difference in my life."
Luhrmann, whose film credits include Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and The Great Gatsby, is known for Pop Art-style production values, elaborate camera work and flamboyant cutting. His production designer-wife, Catherine Martin, is a key collaborator. On Get Down he also worked with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis (Between Riverside and Crazy), whose LABrynith Theater Company Ross worked in. Ross is impressed by what the creative team has wrought in recreating the period and place.
"This show is the '70's. From what I've seen, it looks and feels like '70s TV – not a current show pretending to be. Baz's crew has worked with him for a long time, so these guys know what he likes and how to attain that. That's a luxury to have in a series production. Baz is great to work with. You know every aspect of the production is gonna be great when dealing with he and his wife, Catherine. They are known for paying attention to all details. The Get Down is no different. What I really appreciated about working with Baz is he gives you everything you need to 'act.' He allows you to do your work without being rushed or feeling like you're just going through a routine."
The series is among projects with name talent bypassing theaters and broadcast-cable networks for direct consumer digital platforms. Ross likes this on-demand new world.
"This is the first project I've done in the realm of streaming," she said. "As we have become stay-at-home viewers of all content, I feel these new platforms to distribute content are just what's needed. It works for both sides. As a creator of content, you will have the ability to get your story across in its full 10 to 13 episodes, without the possible network interruption of canceling you or having to go through the timely and expensive procedure of shooting a pilot, waiting and then shooting your series – if picked up. It's a quicker process to get down to creating.
"On the other side of things, as the viewer, you have the choice of watching however many you want, whenever you want, wherever you want. That's a win-win to me."
As a filmmaker herself, Ross has a vested interest in how works get shown. She wrote-directed-starred in the short Breaking Night that played festivals. Alexander Payne provided support. The short became the music video for Manfred Mann's cover of "Blinded by the Night." She's developing a feature she wrote and plans to direct and star in next spring. Her co-star will be Clarke Peters from The Wire. She said, "The film deals with the fragility of love, art and race and takes place in New York."
Like her fellow women filmmakers, she aspires to opening more doors for women behind the camera.
"There is definitely progress in seeing more women directors, but there is definitely a lot more work to be done. As women in the industry we're all pushing to make more progress and generate more work and opportunities for ourselves because it's still a boys club."
Female cinematographer Reed Morano, an Omaha native, directed Ross in her directorial debut, Meadowland.
After meeting at a women of color bash honoring Ross, Angela Basset directed her in Whitney. "Angela is a great person and wonderful to work with." Ross's portrayal of Robyn Crawford followed the script and what her instincts told her.
"As someone that studies relationships and human behavior for a living, knowing these two women knew each other since their teenage years through Whitney's success and fall, it only made sense to play her as someone that loved and cared for her on the deepest level. I saw Robyn as the solid rock in that relationship, even after Whitney got with Bobby Brown."
Ross also shines in male-driven material, including Antwone Fisher under Denzel Washington's direction. Twice David Mamet has written parts for her – in The Unitand in Phil Spector, which saw her work with an idol, Helen Mirren.
In Lila & Eve she worked with friend and Oscar-winner Viola Davis.
This fall Ross is once again in an edgy film helmed by a woman, Ana Lily Amirpour's The Bad Batch. The black comedy about a community of cannibals in a Texas wasteland stars Jim Carrey, Keanu Reaves, Jason Momoa, Diego Luna and Giovanni Ribisi.
"Ana Lily Amirpour knows what she wants. Just as she did with her first feature, A Girl Walks Home Alone, Lily creates a world."
From cinema cannibals to dog-eat-dog American politics, Ross keeps close tabs on Black Lives Matter and the presidential campaign. She hopes the awareness BLM brings to injustice translates into changed perceptions and policies. Meanwhile, she's "sad to see" Donald Trump reducing his bid for the Oval Office to bad "reality TV."
Fortunately. she has a deep reservoir of creativity to escape the noise, including painting. At her recent first solo exhibition in New Orleans she showed work inspired by Aboriginal dot art. "I like the method of storytelling through symbols," she said. Ross, who's appeared at screenings of her films in Omaha and Fremont, hopes to exhibit here one day.
Follow her at yolondaross.com.
Categories: "The Get Down", Actor/Acting, African-American, African-American Culture, Art, Feminism, Film, Hip-hop, Movies, Music, Omaha, Television, Writing, Yolonda Ross Tags: "The Bad Batch", "The Get Down", Actress, African-American, African-American Culture, Feminist, Indie Film, Omaha, Yolonda Ross
In his corner: Midge Minor is trainer, friend, father figure to pro boxing contender Terence "Bud" Crawford
July 30, 2013 leoadambiga	6 comments
As I've said before on this blog nearly every writer gets around to writing about boxing at one time or another. I did my first boxing story in the late 1990s and every now and then I get the craving to do a new one. I've built up quite a collection of boxing pieces this way and you can access them all on the blog. The following story for the New Horizons in Omaha profiles an up and coming pro lightweight contender, Terence "Bud" Crawford, and the older man in his corner who is trainer, friend, father figure and more to him, Midge Minor. They are as tight as two people nearly 50 years apart in age can be. Crawford has been under the wing of Minor from the time he was a little boy and he still relies on his sage advice today as he prepares for an expected world title fight. The loyal Crawford is an Omaha native and resident who's never left his hometown or the gym he grew up in, the CW, and he's not about to leave the man who's guided him this far.
Originally appeared in the New Horizons
Nebraska's best ever hope for a world professional boxing champion works out of the CW Boxing Gym in north downtown Omaha.
As 25-year-old lightweight contender Terence "Bud" Crawford goes through his paces, he's watched intently by an older man in a sweatsuit, Midge Minor. Though separated in age by four-plus decades, the two men enjoy a warm, easy relationship marked by teasing banter.
Crawford: "I'll beat this dude up right now."
Minor: "You're scared of me, you know that."
Crawford: "You be dreaming about me."
Minor: "You stick that long chin out to the wrong man."
They've been going back and forth like this for decades. At age 7 Crawford got his boxing start under Minor at the CW, 1510 Davenport St., and he still trains there under Minor's scrutiny all these years later.
The facility is part of the CW Youth Resource Center, whose founder and director, Carl Washington, spotted Crawford when he was a kid and brought him to the gym.
Crawford, an Omaha native and resident, owns a 21-0 pro record and a reputation among some experts as the best fighter in the 135-pound division. The smart money says it's only a matter of time before he wins a title. That time may come in January when the Top Rank-promoted boxer is expected to get his title shot and the opportunity to earn his first six-figure payday.
Midge Minor
Since showing well in two recent HBO-telecast fights, he's riding a wave of fame. He's the pride of the CW, where the number of fighters is up because he learned to box there, made it big and never left.
"He's one of the causes of our gym being full now," says Minor. "They all look up to him. It's kind of like he put us on the map."
Crawford doesn't act the star though.
"I'm the same person, I'm regular, I just want to be able to make it and provide for my family," he says earnestly.
He engages everyone at the gym and offers instruction to fighters.
"I'm always going to have CW somewhere inside of me because this is where I started from. Never forget where you came from. I'm always going to be a CW fighter. I just feel comfortable here. It does feel like home when I walk through them doors because it's the only gym I knew when I was coming up. I've been coming here and going to the donut shop (the adjacent Pettit's Pastry) ever since I was 7."
For a long time he was pressured to leave Omaha, where quality sparring partners are rare and pro boxing cards even rarer. But he's remained true to his team and his home.
"A lot of people came at me with deals wanting to get me to fight for them, sign with them and move out of town. They kept telling me I can't make it from Omaha and need new cornermen – that they took me as far as they could. But I'm loyal and a lot of people respect me for it. My coaches have faith in me and trust me that I'm not going to do nothing to jeopardize our relationship, and I trust them and have faith in them.
"I've just stayed with it and continued to have confidence in my team. I just keep pushing forward."
He keeps a tight circle of confidantes around him and all share his same CW and Omaha lineage.
"We all family," he says.."Every person I turn to in my corner that's giving me instructions came up under Midge."
CW Boxing Club is located in the CW Youth Resource Center
For his last fight Crawford, who always sports Big Red gear to show his Nebraska pride, wore trunks emblazoned with "Omaha" on them.
As Crawford shadow boxes inside the ring, looking at his reflected image in a bank of mirrors against the near wall, the 73 year-old Minor takes it all in from his spot in the corner, just outside the ropes. Minor has been in Crawford's corner, both literally and figuratively, since the fighter first got serious about the sport at age 12. They initially met five years before that, when Crawford became argumentative with the trainer. Minor demands obedience. He barks orders in his growl of a voice. He's known to curse, even with kids. He doesn't take guff from anyone, especially a brash, back-talking little boy. When Crawford wouldn't mind him, Minor banned him from the CW.
The trainer hated letting Crawford go, too, because he recognized the kid as something special.
"I saw that he had a lot of heart and that goes a long way in boxing. He never wanted to quit on me."
The boy's heart reminded Minor of his own. Back in the day, Minor was a top amateur flyweight, twice winning the Midwest Golden Gloves. But prospect or no prospect, Minor wasn't going to stand for disrespect. The two eventually reconnected.
"I kicked him out of the gym for five years," says Minor, a father many times over, "and then I brought him back when he got a little more mature and then we went from there."
Crawford acquired some rough edges growing up in The Hood. Being physically tested was a rite of passage in his family and neighborhood. It toughened him up. He needed to be tough too because he was small and always getting into scuffles and playing against bigger, older guys in football, basketball, whatever sport was in season. He learned to always stand his ground. The more he held his own, the more courage and confidence he gained.
"I was taught to never be scared…to never back down. That was instilled in me at a young age," Crawford says. "My big cousins pushing me, punching me, slamming me, roughing me up. My dad wrestling me. After going against them it wasn't nothing to me going against somebody my size, my age.
"I'd fall and get jacked up or get bitten by dogs or get scratched. I'd need stitches here and there, and my mom would be like, 'You're all right.' There was no going home and crying to your parents or nothing like that. No babying me. I don't know what it feels like to be babied."
There was something about Crawford, even as a child, that pegged him for greatness.
"Before I even started boxing my dad used to make me punch on his hands, teach me wrestling moves, throw the ball with me. He always said, 'You're going to be a million dollar baby.' Ever since I was little he was like, 'You can be whatever you want to be, just go out there and do it, don't let nobody hold you down or hold you back.'"
His father, grandfather and an uncle all boxed and wrestled in their youth. His dad and uncle trained at the CW. His grandfather boxed with Minor. They all had talent.
"It was just in me, it was in the blood line for me. I just took after them. My dad always gave me pointers."
By the time Crawford came back to the gym, he was less belligerent and more ready to learn. The non-nonsense Minor and the hot-tempered youth bonded. Like father and son.
"When I came back to the gym Midge and I were like instantly close.
Midge was like my dad," says Crawford.
What was the difference the second time around?
"I don't know. maybe it's because I accepted Midge ain't going to change for nobody. I didn't really know him like that at the start. so for him to be talking to me crazy I took that as disrespect. I was offended by it. But when i came back I realized that's just Midge being Midge. Some people get intimidated by him but one thing about Midge is if he likes you he's going to roll with you. If he don't like you, he don't like you and there's nothing nobody can do to make him like you. And if he's with you he's with you to the end.
"When I got to know him more I realized Midge will have my back till the day he dies and I'll have his back to the day I die, and that's just how close we are. Midge put a real big hold on me."
When you ask Crawford if he could have gotten this far without him he says, "Probably not because Midge kept me out of the streets. He taught me a lot. Without Midge, I don't think so, He taught me a lot of responsibility."
Crawford came to know he could depend on Minor for anything, which only made him trust him more and made him want to please him more.
"I used to ride my bike to the gym with a big old bag on my back, that's how dedicated I was. Then Midge started taking me to the gym. Over holidays he'd come to my house to take me to the gym. On school days he'd come get me at school and take me to his house. We'd just sit there together and watch boxing tapes. I would watch any kind of fighter just for the simple fact that you never know when you might see that style. He'd tell me what they're doing wrong and what I could do to beat 'em."
Minor also became Crawford's mentor.
"Anytime I needed anything or needed someone to talk to he was always there," says Crawford. "He's a great father figure in my life.
Just an all around good guy. He loves kids."
All of Minor's work with Crawford inside and outside the ring had the full support of Bud's mother.
"It was a little like school to me. Sometimes I'd try to duck him and tell my mom to tell him I wasn't there and she wasn't having it. Sometimes my mom would call him and say, 'Come and get him Midge' and I'd spend the night at his house, watch tapes, work out. It was like that."
When he got in trouble at school his mother informed Minor because she knew he'd hold him accountable. When Minor got his hands on him he worked him extra hard. it was all about getting the young man to learn lessons and to pay his dues. Instead of resisting it, Crawford took it all in stride. He says, "It was instilled in me early that what don't kill you will make you stronger.I looked at it that it was helping me."
"He appreciated it. He respected me," says Minor. "We got along real well."
The troubled boy no one could reach found a friend and ally to push him and inspire him.
"Midge always instilled in me, 'Nobody can beat you, especially if you work hard and put your heart into your training.' He drilled that in my head. He believed in me so much. There were times I kind of doubted myself in my mind and he was just like, 'Nobody can beat you.' The fight's the easy part. Preparing for it, that's the hard part. I've been fighting all my life so to get in there and fight, that's easy. That's 30 minutes. Sometimes only three minutes or 30 seconds if I get an early knockout. That's compared to training for hours and hours a day."
Minor routinely put him in the ring with much more experienced guys.
"That's how much confidence he had in me. Seeing him have that much confidence in me made me even more confident," says Crawford.
"It didn't make no difference who I fought him with because he was going to fight 'em. I've had a lot fighters but they didn't have the heart that he has."
The legend of Terence "Bud" Crawford began to grow when as a teen amateur he sparred pros and outfought them. Even today he likes to spar bigger guys.
"I like to try myself."
Crawford is now on the cusp of boxing royalty and Minor is still the one Bud puts his complete faith in.
"He's still there for me taking good care of me," Crawford says. "I'm always going to have his back. You know he looked out for me when I was little and I'm going to look out for him now that he's older."
Having Minor in his camp as he preps for the biggest fight of his life is exactly where Crawford wants him. Having him in his corner on fight night is where he needs him.
"It means a lot to have Midge there. Midge is the brain. Everything goes through Midge before it's all said and done for me to go in there and fight. Without the brain we can't do nothing, so it's very important that Midge is there.
"Before every fight I bring him a disc of who I'm fighting and I ask him what he thinks about the guy and he tells me what I should do and we go from there."
The strategy for any fight, he says, is "a team effort" between his co-managers Brian McIntyre and Cameron Dunkin, trainer Esau Diegez, Minor and himself.
"We all work together and dissect our opponent but Midge is always the one that's like, 'Alright, this is what you're going to do to beat this guy. This is how you're going to fight 'em.' And we all go by what Midge sats. He's great for seeing things I don't see and making me see it.
"He gives me the instructions to beat 'em, and all I have to do is follow 'em. He's got the wisdom."
Minor says Crawford is a great student who picks things up quickly, including a knack for altering his style to counter his opponent's style.
"He can observe different fighters and he can adapt to their styles. He doesn't have no problem adjusting to them," says Minor. "He listens to me and he produces for me."
"Oh yeah. I see it one time and I do it," Crawford says. "You gotta practice it to though, you can't just think you're going to perfect it by doing it one time. You gotta keep on trying it in the gym. You might not get it the first time, you might not get it the second time, but you gotta keep trying until you get it right."
Still, when all is said and done, it's Crawford who's alone in the ring come fight night.
"You can tell me this, you can tell me that, at the end of the day I'm the one that's gotta take those punches and get hit upside my head. The difference between me and other people is that I'm willing to go through the fire to see the light."
Midge Minor, left, fighting as an amateur
Crawford's aware of the strides he's made in recent years.
"I feel like I'm more relaxed in the ring. I know more about the game.
I know what to do, when to do it, and I'm not just throwing punches just to be throwing them. I'm pinpointing my shots more. Yeah, all around my whole arsenal is just way better."
"Early in his career he used to just throw punches," says Minor. "He learned to settle down and adjust."
Crawford says his overall skill set has developed to the point that he doesn't have an obvious weakness.
"I can adapt to any style. I'm a boxer, a puncher, I'm elusive, I'm whatever I need to be. I'm always confident and I just come to win.
I've got it all – hand speed, power, movement, smarts. I can take a punch."
He's always in shape and lives a clean lifestyle, Minor says admiringly. The trainer never has to worry his fighter's not working hard enough.
Minor's trained several successful pros, including Grover Wiley and Dickie Ryan, but he says he's never had anyone as accomplished as Crawford this early in their career.
Neither feels he's reached his full potential.
"I've got a lot of things to work on," says Crawford. "So I figure once I get those bad habits out of the way then I'll be better than I am now. Little things like not keeping my hands up, not moving my head. Sometimes I'll get in there and I'll feel like he can't hurt me, and I just want to walk through him without coming with the jab."
Minor's always watching to make sure Crawford doesn't abandon his fundamentals. The veteran trainer guided Crawford through a highly successful amateur career that saw the fighter compete on the U.S, Pan American Games team and advance all the way to the national Golden Gloves semi-finals in his hometown of Omaha. Crawford dropped a controversial decision in the semis that left him disillusioned by the politics of amateur scoring and Minor "broken-hearted."
Minor continues to be the guru Crawford turns to for advice. Perhaps a turning point in their relationship and in the fighter's development was getting past the anger that seemed to fuel Crawford early on and that threatened to derail his career.
When his temper got the better of him Crawford was suspended from the U.S, national team. He says American amateur boxing officials "put a bad rep out for my name," adding, "They called me hot-headed and a thug." He feels the stigma hurt him in his bid to make the U.S. Olympic team.
The fighter acknowledges he had issues. He got expelled from several schools for fighting and arguing. He grew up playing sports and fighting in the streets, parks and playgrounds of northeast Omaha, where his mother mostly raised him and his two older sisters. His father, Terence Sr., served in the U.S, Navy and was separated from his mother, only periodically reappearing in Bud's life.
No one seemed able to get to the root of Crawford's rage. Not even himself.
"I really can't say about my temper. It was just something that was in me. Everybody asked me, 'Why do you be so mad?' and I never could pinpoint it or tell them why. I'd be like, 'I'm not angry.' But deep down inside I really was. I was ready to fight at any given time and that's how mainly I got kicked out of all the schools.
"I was in counseling, anger management, all that stuff. None of it ever worked…"
His favorite way of coping with the turmoil was to go fishing at the Fontenelle Park pond.
He knows he could have easily fallen prey to the lures and risks of the inner city. Friends he ran with included gang members. On the eve of his first big nationally televised pro fight he got shot in the head after leaving a heated dice game he had no business being in in the first place. He was told by doctors that if the bullet hadn't been slowed by the window it passed through in his car it would have likely killed him.
"I was lucky, I was blessed. That just opened my eyes more. I took it as a sign, as a wakeup call."
Becoming a father – he and his girlfriend Alindra are raising their son and her daughter – also helped him mature.
Through it all Minor was that steadying voice telling him to do the right thing.
Crawford's temper cooled and his life got more settled.
"It took him a while," says Minor. "He was hard-headed. I used to make him come over to my house and I'd sit em down to watch boxing tapes and the more he observed other fighters he learned that his temperament had to change to be where he's at now."
Crawford also credits two men who took him under their wing at Omaha Bryan High School, then principal Dave Collins and assistant principal Todd Martin.
"They would always talk to me if I got in trouble. They put it in terms like I was in the gym training. They'd say, 'You cant talk back to the teachers when they're trying to tell you something you need to know. You don't talk back to your coach when he's teaching you how to throw a punch.' I began to look at it like that and I said, 'You're right, i messed up.' That really got me through my high school years doing what I had to do."
Now that Crawford's come so far he's looking "to give back" to the community through his own boxing gym in the same community he grew up in. He wants his North O-based B & B Boxing Academy, which he recently opened with Brian McIntyre, to be a place that keeps kids off the street and gives them something structured to do.
Bringing a world title belt back to Omaha is his main focus though.
"Oh, it would be great. A lot of people look up to me so for me to bring that belt home to Omaha it would mean a lot, not only to me but to Omaha. Boxing is not real big in Omaha. I used to be and I'm trying to bring it back and I feel I can do that. I could inspire some little guy that later on could be the champion of the world. Who knows?"
He's not leaving anything to chance in his bid for glory.
"I've got my mind made up, I've got my goals set, and I'm going to get it. I'm not going to let nothing or nobody keep me from conquering my dreams."
"That's that confidence." Minor says. "I'm so proud of him."
Crawford knows he wouldn't be where he is today without Minor. "He's played a big factor in my life." He values all that Minor's meant to him.
"You got to. Nothing lasts forever, so cherish it while it's here."
Terence Crawford – The World Awaits! (boxingjunkie.wordpress.com)
BSO Interview: Lightweight Boxing Prospect Terence "Bud" Crawford (blacksportsonline.com)
Terence Crawford Gets a 6th-Round KO Win Over Alejandro Sanabria (sportsnippets.com)
Categories: Athletics, Boxing, Old Market, South Omaha YMCA, World War II, Yolonda Ross, Youth, Zach Wahls Tags: Boxing, CW Boxing Gym, Midge Minor, Terence "Bud" Crawford, TopRank
Omaha Film Festival features strong lineup, including "The Sapphires" and "Breaking Night"
March 9, 2013 leoadambiga	Leave a comment
Caught the Omaha Film Festival's opening night screening of The Sapphires on Wednesday and was completely taken with it. It's a feel-good movie with some real soul and depth and bite to it. It's certainly not a great film from an aesthetic point of view, although it has high production values and a very good cast, but it tells a familiar Dreamgirls-like story in an entirely new context. The movie's based on the true story of an Aboriginal girl singing group being discovered and groomed in the late '60s for a wild adventure performing for U.S. troops in Vietnam. Sure, some predictable stuff happens, but the movie makes it seem fresh and it keeps you captivated throughout.
As good as the actresses are that portray the girl singers, the real star of the show is Shari Sebbens as their manager, Dave,
If this flick comes back for a regular theatrical run then make sure you catch it.
The Sapphires is one of many dozen curated new films, including narrative and documentary features and shorts, playing at the Festival.
I meant to see on the big screen the writing-directing debut work of my friend and fellow Omaha native Yolonda Ross, whose dramatic short Breaking Night was an official selection at the fest. She also stars in it. Fortunately I did see it on my computer thanks to a link she shared with me and after several viewings I must say it's an impressive achievement that shows much promise for her as a feature writer-director, which is her ultimate aim. In the current issue of The Reader (www.thereader.com) I profile Yolonda and her recent work, which in addition to Breaking Night includes parts in new films by David Mamet and John Sayles. You can find my new Ross piece, along with previous profiles I did about her, on this blog. If you love film, then take some time out to peruse and read my many other film stories on the blog.
Ross is among several film artists participating in panels and workshops at the Festival, which has a solid history of bringing in top professionals from across the film arts landscape to discuss their work and craft.
The Festival continues through Sunday. Check out its impressive offerings at http://www.omahafilmfestival.org.
Yolonda Ross Adds Writer-Director to Actress Credits; She's in New Movies by David Mamet and John Sayles aas her Own 'Breaking Night' Makes the Festival Circuit (leoadambiga.wordpress.com)
Previewing 'The Sapphires' (kcet.org)
Categories: Cinema, Film, Movies, Omaha, Omaha Film Festival, Yolonda Ross Tags: Omaha Film Festival, The Sapphires
Yolonda Ross adds writer-director to actress credits; In new movies by Mamet and Sayles as her own "Breaking Night" makes festival circuit
February 28, 2013 leoadambiga	3 comments
If you appreciate really good acting then a name you should know is Yolonda Ross. Her face may be familiar but her name likely isn't. She doesn't get the high visibility film and television parts that another Omaha native actress of color , Gabrielle Union, gets but it's not for lack of talent. It certainly isn't for a lack of looks either. No, it's hard to say why she hasn't had the major breakthrough that other actresses have but it's not as though her career is wanting either. She's done lots of good work on the big and and small screens and three new movie projects are sure to bring her more attention than she usually gets. She appears in new movies by noted filmmakers David Mamet and John Sayles and her own writing-directing debut, the short Breaking Night, which she also stars in is making the festival rounds. Indeed, her dramtatic narrative short is screening at the Omaha Film Festival on March 8. She'll be there for that screening and she'll also participate in an acting panel on March 9. I've been following her career for several years now and you'll find my earlier stories about her and her work on this blog. I'm hoping she finally gets the due she deserves.
Yolonda Ross adds writer-director to actress credits;
In new movies by Mamet and Sayles as her own "Breaking Night" makes festival circuit
Soon to appear in The Reader (www.thereader.com)
You may not know the name but for more than a decade now Omaha native Yolonda Ross has been a stalwart actress in American independent cinema and quality television movies and episodic dramas.
Before recently working with a pair of star indie writer-directors – David Mamet, on the new HBO movie Phil Spector, and John Sayles on the coming feature Go for Sisters – she'd previously been directed by Woody Allen (Celebrity), Cheryl Dunye (Stranger Inside), John Cameron Mitchell (Shortbus) and Todd Haynes (I'm Not There).
Ross played the recurring role of documentary filmmaker Dana Lyndsey in season two of the acclaimed HBO series Treme. She's guested on such prestigious network shows as Third Watch, 24, Law & Order and New York Undercover.
Spector and Sisters come on the heels of her turn as a mother and wife in the well-received 2012 indie feature, Yelling to the Sky, that deals with issues of race, violence, bullying and relationships. It was shot in Queens, NY.
A measure of the esteem Ross enjoys is that both Mamet and Sayles wrote parts for her in their new films. Though she's only in one scene in the Spector biopic, which premieres Mar. 24, it's with the great Helen Mirren. Her co-lead role, opposite LisaGay Hamilton, in the Sayles cross-cultural suspenser Sisters marks her first lead in a prestige feature.
2013 also marks Yolonda's writing-directing debut with the short drama Breaking Night, an official selection of the Mar. 6-10 Omaha Film Festival unreeling at the Regal Stadium 16, 7440 Crown Point Avenue. Her dramatic narrative short screens Friday at 5:30 p.m. The coming-of-age story stars Ross as a young woman riding the throes of first love to escape a harsh home life. The film was selected for the New Voices in Black Cinema series in Brooklyn, NY.
Ross is a veteran of workshops at the Sundance Institute's screenwriters and directors labs, where she's worked with her "dear friend" screenwriter-director Joan Tewksberry (who scripted Nashville). The actress filmed her short last summer in St. Charles Parish, New Orleans and in Baton Rouge, whose spell she'd already fallen under from her work on Treme, the post-Katrina Big Easy-set drama. She recruited some of her crew from the show.
Fellow Omaha native Alexander Payne served as a Breaking Night producer.
A longtime New York City resident, Ross will be at the OFF screening, where Omaha friends and family will lend support.
Though she hopes Sisters leads to acting offers and Breaking Night establishes her directing cred, she's taking matters in her own hands by writing new scripts for her to direct and/or star in. She's currently penning a feature family drama she plans to direct in Houston, Texas next year. She's also writing a spec pilot. She has more short scripts she'd like to develop.
She clearly views Breaking Night as the start of her career as filmmaker.
"It's like one down and many to go. Once I got it finished it was just onto the next one. It doesn't stop at one," she says.
The many faces of Yolonda Ross:
Ross, a Burke High graduate who left Omaha in the mid-1990s to work in fashion, also sings (jazz, R&B) and paints (acrylic abstracts) and thus she views writing-directing as simply two more expressions of her creativity.
"I can do a lot of things. I happen to be one of those people that's gifted in a lot of ways creatively. I mean, that's just how I function. To not be utilizing all the parts of yourself sort of feels like you're wasting yourself ."
Her writing's evolved to where she's confident she can craft her own vehicles.
"I feel as time has gone on my writing has gotten more defined. I know what my voice is, I know I have a unique point of view, I know I see things in a way that I feel are not being seen. Also, so many things are from a male point of view. I find it refreshing to see somebody else's point of view, and you know I'm a black woman and one that I don't feel is stereotypical," says Ross, who's worked with several women directors.
"I can tell a story and my writing has been really going places.
Breaking Night realizes a long-held goal to put her ideas on screen.
"I wanted to get the visions out of my head and see if I can do it, see what I can make, see what comes out of me. I actually had something else written but I didn't feel like doing that so the story of Breaking Night just kind of came about. I had just been up at the Sundance film labs the summer before working on a project and it just made me want to have my own project to work on and to see what came of it with a collective group of people."
Helming her own film proved to be everything she thought it would be.
"It was like an amazing, magical event. Little by little it all came together. It was a four-day shoot. Our last day of shooting was a night shoot that went into morning and the sun came up and we watched the sun rising. We all broke night together and nobody wrecked anybody's nerves. We all worked together, there were no like attitudes, it was just beautiful."
She says the film's story is "a universal one with a different face on it." Her inspiration was the classic '70s rock song "Blinded by the Light," a personal favorite that always conjured romantic and rebellious images for her. She set the story, which all takes place in the space of 24 hours, in the same decade to stay true to the song's roots.
"I tell a universal story of a young person going through problems at home who doesn't have support and leaves home. That's every race, every generation."
In her script the song becomes an anthem for breaking free of shackles that define or limit us. Her choice to infuse an interracial love relationship into the mix was about overturning stereotypes but in the end her film's less about that than it is about finding one's identity and following one's destiny.
"There are definitely images that would always come to mind when I would listen to the song, knowing the time period it comes from, knowing which stations it would be played on and who the audiences would be for it. But in my thoughts it's universal because everybody I know loves that song and rocks that song and I wanted to put a different face on who the characters were in it.
"If a film from the song was made in the '70s when it came out I'm sure those characters would all be white. In TV and film then most times you would see black people either in the city on drugs or selling drugs or trying to get out of the ghetto or in the South trying to flee the South. In this case I wanted to put certain constraints on myself to fit the story and these elements into this seven minute song and tell this story."
She's satisfied she delivered a tale of youthful angst and longing that transcends cultures.
"I feel I've succeeded because race is not the issue at all in it. The story happens to have a black family. What I used as reference were movies like Silkwood and Norma Rae. It's a rural home where the mom, even though it's not said, has like a factory job and she's got a dude she shouldn't be with. He's not a dad, he's kind of living off them and taking advantage.
"The boy the girl is in love with is her escape. He's the only one that understands her. At that age you have that person and he's that person. They both run away. She's got him as protection. That's a young romance, so who knows what's going to happen to it when she gets to wherever she's going."
Ross has the girl she plays cross paths with a posh black couple out on the town getting their disco down. The couple represent to the girl a sophistication and life far removed from her own.
"It's like they symbolize to the girl that she can become that. So then she does take her life and her future into her hands and makes a decision. She's not going to be a person who gets run over and taken advantage of, she's not going to allow herself to be in the same kind of situation as her mom."
An actress who never looks the same from part to part, Ross deftly plays both the ingenue and the ethereal disco mama.
Ross shot and edited the encounter to indicate the disco couple also see in the girl the possibility of something she'd never seen in herself. The girl becomes empowered by accepting a knowing look from the woman and a kiss and a business card from the man. All affirmation of her worth and emancipation – that her time has come, that her path will be different.
"It's like, 'This fabulous couple sees something in me? OK, I'm out of here.' The kids don't know where they're going, they're just running away, but now she's going wherever the disco man's card says he from. It's that kind of feeling."
Ross went after a late '70s-early '80s Pop style look for the film, which plays like a good music video. She doesn't mind the music video comparison but is adamant the story stands on its own.
"It has the aspects of a music video to it but it really is a short film because without the music the story is still there. I would like people to understand that there's a lot actually happening there. All those frames in it have meaning."
The visual palette changes as the drama plays out.
"It's got three parts to it. It starts off light and kind of generic but once you get into the home it gets dark, it gets more real because it's a messed up situation that happens. Once she's out of the home that night it goes through a kind of surreal take. It leaves you wondering did this really happen or did she dream it."
WATCH THE FILM AT–
In one shot the two young lovers have a kind of out-of-body experience while making out and to convey that feeling Ross wanted a visual effect she recalled seeing from that era. But she couldn't find an example and she didn't know what to call it.
"That was like the hardest thing," she says. "In describing seeing that thing on TV or in videos in the early '80s I could not find anybody who knew what that thing was. I finally found somebody to actually do it for me. It's called a trail."
The ending unfolds in an other-worldly rural idyll flush with Spanish Moss trees. There's a sumptuous quality to the imagery throughout, even the gritty parts, that she credits her director of photography, Justin Zweifach, with.
"My DP was amazing. He literally came on a week before us shooting because my original DP dropped out and it was a blessing because he understood everything that was going on in my head. I made storyboards and there's a full script but him asking me certain questions about the feel of things, the feel of characters, how I saw things, that was way more helpful in him capturing how it looks. It's above and beyond what I expected. I mean, he shot it beautifully."
She says crew embraced the project because with its minimal dialogue and luscious images their work can be readily seen on the screen.
Others who helped ease her through the first-time filmmaking process were executive producer Tim Mather and associate producer Sasha Solodukhina.
About Mather, she says, "When you've got somebody who's got your back and understands the whole production part of it to guide you through it's a lifesaver because there are so many little things. I come from acting, so I know about emotions, I know about all that kind of stuff. Before I did this i really didn't even know the difference between a gaffer and a grip. I hate to say this but I didn't know what the jobs were, but now I know. I know in front of, I know behind, I know these things now.
"And Tim is great dealing with people and places you need to have connections to to get better deals and to get things done."
She says Solodukhina was "like wonder woman because she got me so many people. She knows everybody."
As for having Payne's imprimatur on the film, she notes, "What can you say? How can that hurt? I'm glad that our friendship made him come on and contribute. I still have to show him the film though."
With the likes of Payne, Mamet and Sayles in her corner, she knows her work is getting noticed by the right people.
"It's like how I feel most of my career has been, you just do your work and a lot of times you don't feel anybody's paying attention or whatever but then you get these offers from these great directors, so it's amazing who watches and who does think of you."
The offer from Sayles came while she location scouted for her short. She knew him from auditioning for his Honeydripper, losing a part in it to her Go for Sisters co-star, LisaGay Hamilton.
Sisters is the fictional story of childhood best friends whose different life paths have separated them for 20 years until events reunite them as adults. Ross is the newly released from prison Fontaine, who finds her old friend Bernice (Hamilton) assigned as her parole officer. The street wise ex-con becomes a lifeline when Bernice's son is captured and held for ransom by drug dealers in Mexican border towns. Edward James Olmos becomes the third amigo in this search party that courts danger at every turn.
Edward James Olmos, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Yolonda Ross in Go for Sisters
The low-budget, guerrilla-style shoot in Mexicali, Calixico and Tijuana required a huge number of locations in a short number of days, which kept cast and crew hopping.
"It was fun but just different logistically for me," says Ross. "It was sort of like you wake up and you just go. You don't even look around. You're like, OK, who am I? What are we doing? It's almost a road movie because we're on the move so much. The story takes you on a nice trip. There's lots of familiar faces in cameos and it's fun to see who you come across next."
About the enigmatic Sayles, she says, "Pretty much he gives you the blueprint and you do it. He has said, and now I see it, that his directing is choosing the right actors,. He lets us do our work." By contrast, she says Mamet "is more verbal than John. I think he's really funny, I really like him a lot. The one way they are alike is they both tell stories while working and they both have people around them they've worked with before, so there's a level of comfort with the crew."
She's excited to see who next notices her work. though she says she's been around long enough to know that some filmmakers "go after the same people or who they think are hot or whatever," adding, "You can be talented all day but that has nothing to do with them hiring you." She says if box office performance is the arbiter then she'll always be at a disadvantage because the small indie work she does rarely makes much of a splash or a profit.
"It's unfortunate. The rest is just all crazy business stuff, which makes no sense. That's why I'm writing."
Ross is also part of a March 9 panel, Actors on Acting, at 3:15 p.m.
The Omaha Film Festival is a curated assemblage of narrative feature films, documentaries, live action and animated shorts as well as workshops and panels. Now in its eighth year, the fest has a strong track record of bringing film artists with and without Nebraska ties to discuss their work.
For schedule and ticket details, visit http://www.omahafilmfestival.org.
John Sayles – An American Classic (mrmovietimes.com)
Phil Spector Biopic Trailer Released By HBO (noise11.com)
Interview with Victoria Mahoney on 'Yelling to the Sky' starring Zoe Kravitz, Gabourey Sidibe and Black Thought (ifelicious.com)
Categories: Entertainment, Film, Movies, Omaha, Omaha Film Festival, Screenwriting, Television, Writing, Yolonda Ross Tags: Breaking Night, David Mamet, Film/Television Actress, Go for Sisters, John Sayles, Sundance Institute, Treme, Yolonda Ross
Actress Yolonda Ross is a talent to watch
June 22, 2011 leoadambiga	12 comments
One of my favorite "discoveries" from the past decade is fellow Omaha native Yolonda Ross, a supremely talented actress whose work back here has gone largely unnoticed for some reason. I caught up with her the first time, for the story that follows, not long after her breakthrough starring role in the HBO women's prison movie Stranger Inside brought her to the attention of the television/film industry and just before Antwone Fisher was released and her small but telling role as Cousin Nadine made an impression. She's proved a daring artist in her choice of material and is exploring writing-directing opportunities in addition to acting gigs. My story below appeared in The Reader (www.thereader.com) and a later profile I did on her for that same publication can also be found on this blog.
NOTE: More recently, Yolonda's had a recurring role as Dana Lyndsey on the acclaimed HBO drama Treme. Another Omaha actor of note, John Beasley, just nabbed a recurring role on the same series. Small world.
Yolonda Ross is a talent to watch
Originally published in The Reader
With her sweet-sassy voice, orange-tinged Afro, almond-shaped eyes, real-women-have-curves bod and cool hip-hop vibe, Yolonda Ross gets her groove-on exploring a seemingly boundless creativity.
The Omaha native left town soon after graduating Burke High School in the early 1990s to work in the New York fashion industry before carving out a career on stage and in front of the camera. This rising young film/television actress with a penchant for essaying gritty urban sistas is on the verge of break-out success between her acclaimed star turn in the 2001 HBO women's prison drama Stranger Inside and supporting performances in two new high-profile films slated for release this winter. Due out first is Antwone Fisher, the directorial debut of Oscar-winner Denzel Washington. Next, is The United States of Leland, a project produced by Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey. She's now looking to develop a script she wrote into a feature she would also appear in.
Whatever happens with her career, this confident woman of color has an array of artistic flavas to explore. "I like creating in a lot of ways — writing, painting, making clothes, singing, acting," the New York resident said upon a recent swing-through Omaha to visit family. It was that way even growing-up with her three sisters. "I've always been into fashion. I would be up in the middle of the night making things to wear to school the next day. It's a creative thing to be able to start and finish something and say that you made it. It's just something I really like to do — that and interior design." And music. "Me and all my sisters were always musical. I always liked to sing. I didn't get really serious about it until I was in New York. A roommate who's a producer had me cut a Billie Holiday cover." Before long, she said, Ross had her own three-piece band and got offered a Motown demo deal. "I didn't go for it," she said. "They were trying to change my jazz into something else."
New York sustains and energizes Ross. "When you're in New York you're always hustling, you're always doing a variety of things to see which breaks. There's always stuff happening and you can just literally walk into things," she said. One gig would lead to another, making her early years there "growing and learning…not really so much struggling." Prior to 9/11 she lived near the World Trade Center. She was in L.A. when the tragedy occured and took her time moving back. New York is where she feels "at home" again. "I like being on the street with people. I hate driving. I like walking and being a part of it. I'm a downtown person. It works for me."
When she first went to the Big Apple, she didn't know a soul there. Undeterred, she stayed to fulfill a long-held vow "to go to New York." Within a few years there she transitioned from working as a buyer for trendy Soho botiques to modeling (Black Book) to fronting her own band in Greenwich Village gigs to appearing in music videos for the Beastie Boys, L.L. Cool J and Raphfael Saadiq and D'Angelo.
After honing her dramatic skills in classes, she began acting in small theater productions, appearing in recurring roles on Saturday Night Live and daytime shows and getting guest leads in TV series (a cop in New York Undercover, a beleaguered mother in Third Watch). She said she learned more about acting from singing than formal training.
"I've taken classes…but it was like being on stage with people you didn't really like and saying words you didn't really feel. When I started singing is when I understood that key of emotion and emoting through different characters. Behind everything I do is music. Now, when I do something, it's not me anymore. I mean, you get a little bit of me with it, but I'm just the conveyor of the writer's and director's vision."
Then along came the part of her young life. On the strength of her TV work, the script for Stranger came her way and after reading it Ross felt the role of Treasure Lee was meant for her.
"I thought it was amazing. I understood it so well. I knew where she was coming from and everything. I was like, I've got to get this part. I went in and auditioned. There were a lot of other girls there. I just did my thing and left and I got a call back. I ended up getting a call back three times. The producers flew me out to L.A., where it was like a month of auditioning, and I ended up getting it."
Written and directed by black-lesbian filmmaker Cheryl Dunye, Stranger takes the conventions of Hollywood prison films and applies a feminist-dyke twist to them, offering a raw depiction of women's life inside the pen. Ross portrays the troubled Lee, a desperate young woman trying to forge a bond with the mother she never knew, Brownie, a lifer and queenpin behind bars. Her work earned her the 2001 IFP Gotham Award for Breakthrough Actor, a Best Debut Performance nomination from the Independent Spirit Awards and an Outfest Screen Idol Award nomination for Best Performance By an Actress in a Lead Role. In 2001, she was named one of Variety's "10 Actors to Watch."
Photo credit: Jack Zeman
While never tackling a role as large or demanding as Treasure before — in one scene she endures a full nude body search and in another is pleasured with oral sex by a fellow inmate — she embraced the challenge, fully aware of just how juicy a part it was.
"To be able to do Treasure and to do everything that was in that script — I welcomed it — I really did — because I knew I had this chance that a lot of people don't get and I wasn't about to mess it up."
Making the part resonate for Ross was its reality.
"Treasure, to me, was like a real person, not just a movie person. With a lot of scripts you read the characters don't really evolve. The thing I like about Stranger is the characters aren't one-dimensional. They're good, strong female characters that let you see other sides."
She said playing a profane, violent, overtly sexual woman was liberating. "The freedom to be able to get things out through her and to stretch through her was something I looked forward to. As Yolonda, I'm not going to act the way Treasure would — not that I don't have it inside me — but I need to get those things out and use them and caress them and fine-tune them."
Researching the role brought Ross to some California women's prisons, where she met inmates. The film was shot at the "eerie" abandoned Cybil Brand Prison. Rehearsals lasted four weeks, which she welcomed. "You see, I'm not one of those ad-lib people. I like to know exactly what I'm doing. Sometimes, in rehearsal, little things come up and you find things. I feel once you hit it, you should leave it alone until you shoot it."
She said filming was such a blast "I didn't want it to end." As for the finished film, she feels Dunye captured the truth without compromise. "It wasn't glossed up. It didn't get sliced up. All the emotions came through. I thought it was a great job and I'm proud of it." The only downside to making Treasure her first lead, Ross said, is that without much of a track record behind her casting directors "didn't know how much of it was acting and how much of it was me."
Even though it meant playing another "bad girl," Ross jumped at the chance to be in Fisher. The film is based on the best-selling book, The Antwone Fisher Story, in which Fisher, who adapted his own book to the screen, details his real life odyssey of childhood abandonment, foster care abuse, adult rage and — with the help of a good woman and a psychiatrist (played by Washington) — overcoming trauma to emerge a successful husband, father and artist.
Ross portrays Cousin Nadine, a foster family abuser in Fisher's life. When she read the script, she said she doubted "if I can do this. But the negative things my character does you don't actually see, and so once I figured that out then it was all right. I sent in my audition on tape. I was out in L.A. to do a 24 and one day I get a call on Melrose, and I'm trying to hold the reception. I'm like (to passersby), 'OK, wait, I've got Denzel on the phone — walk around me. I'm not moving. I'm not going to lose this one.' He called to say he loved it (her audition)," hiring her on the spot. "Oh, man, that was crazy." The film was largely shot in Cleveland, where the events depicted actually took place.
Photo by Christopher Logan-
On working with Washington, she said, "He's so focused…He knew what he wanted. He had his vision and he just did it." With no rehearsal this time, she discovered the character of Nadine on the set. "We just did the scenes and did 'em different ways and he used what he wanted." Of Fisher, she said, "He is the sweetest man. Soft-spoken, low-key. His family is beautiful." She avoided reading his book before filming "because I didn't want to try to be exactly something that he wrote. I wanted to come to it with what I have. The crazy thing was, after reading it, my interpretation was just like the character."
The film, which follows Fisher up to his being reunited with his biological family, is ultimately an inspirational story. "Out of what he endured in his life…all this positive has come out of it," Ross said. She likes how the film doesn't sensationalize the events it dramatizes but rather shows them as part of a whole. "It isn't like a Hollywood movie even though Fox Searchlight did it. It's like how life is. How a lot of times not much is happening but then some craziness will happen and then, like, OK, you're back to this place." The film, starring newcomer Derek Luke, features unknowns, which she feels works to its advantage. "Because you're not having stars shadow the story, the story is the star. It just works beautifully."
Besides a one-act play she's preparing to appear in in New York, Ross awaits her next acting job. Hardly idle, she's busy schmoozing-up a production deal for her script, which she describes as "a slice of life set in New York" dealing with the romantic entanglements of two couples.
"It's one of those things where you've been with somebody for a while and somebody just comes out of nowhere and blows your mind. Is it real? Is it not? Do you jump and go off with this person or do you stay with your steady in a not so happy but safe relationship?"
She wrote it because "there just aren't a lot of great parts out there for black women. I mean, you're the crack head or the welfare mom or the girlfriend. It's like you can never just stand alone and be a character. So, if there's something I want to do and I can write it, then I might as well do that. Why wait?"
In United States, premiering at Sundance in January, Ross plays the girlfriend of Don Cheadle in a story examining the impact a death has on a community. Her part was added after principal photography wrapped. She also appears this fall on PBS in an American Film Institute short, The Taste of Dirt. Meanwhile, she's campaigning for the role of jazz singing legend Billie Holiday. "There's an amazing script out there I really want. It's not at the point where there's anybody behind it, but I'm trying to make sure I'm more than in the running when it comes to that."
So, how does a young woman from Omaha stay real in the spotlight? "My sisters. My sisters keep me real. They won't go run and do stuff for me. It's like, 'No, do it yourself.'" What's important to her? "My family — we're really close. My health. Paying attention to things around me and appreciating them. I'm very much an earthy kind of person." Still, as her marquee value rises, Ross has her eyes fixed on the perks fame can bring and, for now anyway, forgoes thoughts of long term romantic attachments, saying unabashedly, "There's things that I want, and I need to get them, and I can't let things get in the way of that. I'm so focused on working."
What does the 20-something crave? "A place of my own in Manhattan. A house in upstate New York. To be settled…to be able to have a little bit under my belt. I'd like to be producing movies that I would be in."
If Fisher nets the same enthusiasm it did in September at the Toronto Film Festival, where Ross said it got a standing ovation, then hers may soon be a household name. "Exactly," she said, delighted at the notion of being THE new one-name soul sista. "Not Diana, not Halle…Yolonda. Mmmm, hmmm. We'll see." Go, girl, go.
Yolonda Ross Takes It to the Limit (leoadambiga.wordpress.com)
Kevyn Morrow's Homecoming (leoadambiga.wordpress.com)
Life is a Cabaret, the Anne Marie Kenny Story: From Omaha to Paris to Prague and Back to Omaha, with Love (leoadambiga.wordpress.com)
Categories: African-American Culture, Cinema, Film, Movies, Nebraskans in Film, Omaha, Writing, Yolonda Ross Tags: African American, African-American Culture, Arts, Cinema, Film, Movies, Nebraskans in Film, Omaha, Omaha Nebraska, Stranger Inside
Daring actress Yolonda Ross takes it to the limit
Another example of a talented creative artist from Omaha is Yolonda Ross, a superb actress who left her hometown years ago for New York City, and she's carved out a very nice career in film and television. The following profile for The Reader (www.thereader.com) gives a good sense for this adventurous actress, who also writes and directs. This story appeared in advance of her role in the controversial film Shortbus, one of my provocative projects she's participated in. I am posting other pieces I've done on Yolonda as well.
Some of the many faces and looks of Yolonda Ross:
Copyright © 2017 YOLONDA ROSS
Originally published in The Reader (www.thereader.com)
Gabrielle Union gets all the pub, but another film/television actress from Omaha, the righteous Yolonda Ross, consistently does edgy material far afield from Bad Boys II and The Honeymooners. Ross has played everything from a wannabe gangsta desperate for love to a string of lesbian characters to a child molester to a porn actress. She's worked with everyone from Woody Allen (Celebrity) to Denzel Washington (Antwone Fisher) to Don Cheadle (The United States of Leland) to Vanessa Williams (Dense and Allergic to Nuts).
Last fall, she worked on a Leonardo DiCaprio-produced film, The Gardener of Eden, and has been in discussions with such A-list artists as Cheadle for other parts. But it's a project she wrapped last summer, Shortbus, that should grab her some attention. The notorious new feature by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), a maker of queer cinema, deals with transient artists looking to connect through sex in the malaise of a post-9/11 Manhattan languishing from ever-present anxiety, commerce, inflation and exhibitionism.
Whether Shortbus ever makes it to Omaha is anyone's guess. Most of Ross's film work, which includes several shorts, doesn't make it here. An exception is Dani and Alice, a 2005 short directed by Roberta Marie Munroe that's screening at the Omaha Film Festival. The film deals with the rarely discussed problem of woman-on-woman partner abuse. Ross plays the femme victim Alice to butch lover Dani in an abusive relationship in its last hours. Dani and Alice shows March 25 at the Joslyn Art Museum's Abbott Lecture Hall in the fest's 9 p.m. short film block and Ross plans to attend and participate in an after-show Q & A. For details, check the event website at www.omahafilmfestival.org.
Difficult subjects are the Ross metier, which keeps her work from being widely seen. Her Shortbus director, John Cameron Mitchell, had trouble financing that pic because of his insistence on lensing non-simulated sex scenes.
"Yeah, that's true, the not-simulated part," Ross said. "That's why it's taken him so long to get money for the movie. People were scared to put money into it."
Ross was originally put off by the idea of "doing it" on screen and perhaps jeopardizing her career by blurring the line between adult and mainstream cinema. Then, she changed her mind, and was even prepared to partner up again with an old flame for some celluloid enflagrante.
"At first, I was like, I'll work on it, but I won't do the sex part. Then, a year later, when John still didn't have money for it I told him me and my ex-boyfriend would do it — because he needed couples. At that point I was like, If Chloe Sevigny could suck off Vincent Gallo (in The Brown Bunny), then I'm sure I could do it with my ex in a movie. Right?! I said I would do that based on my complete faith that John knew what he was doing and would do something amazing with it, and not use it in a disgraceful way." As things turned out, Ross didn't have to get down and dirty for the sake of her art. "Everything turned out cool. The actual couples are still in it. But when somebody fell out of another part, I was re-cast in a role that does not require me to have sex on camera," she said.
In a film full of non-actors, she plays opposite JD (Samson) of Le Tigre and Suk Chin of Canadian News. She's not telling who does what on screen. "Dude, you'll have to watch the movie to know who does and who doesn't have sex," she said, laughing.
In the film, she's the lesbian rocker, Faustus. She attends a women's support group whose members talk through the politics and emotions of being gay in a straight world. Shortbus is the name of the fictional salon where the insecurities and idiosyncrasies of the characters, including Faustus, intersect. Some go for readings or performances. Others, for therapy. Still others, to engage in public sex. The salon culture portrayed in the film, where sex is a ritualistic and nihilistic acting out mechanism, is based on actual Manhattan salons.
Mitchell and Ross had wanted to collaborate for some time and the two actually hooked up last winter for a Bright Eyes video he directed and she appeared in.
"It's really a nice thing working with John. He's so good with people, whether they're actors or non-actors. He's great at bringing out the most in them," she said. "He's really good at making people feel confident and at ease, while staying on track with what he wants. I think he's ridiculously talented."
Ross follows her own clear vision in trying to elevate her career to the next level. She's well aware, however, of Hollywood's feckless ways. It's why she's taking matters in her own hands and pitching scripts she's penned in the hope one sells and provides her with a tailor-made part. One of those scripts is serving as her directorial debut, for the comedy short Safe Sex she plans shooting. The story explores how sexual preferences, once exposed, tend to define people.
"Sex fascinates me. It makes people do really stupid things and act in ways they probably never do otherwise. It's about a lot of mind stuff and what we see as wrong with sex. People have their fetishes or what have you, but you can't really judge a person by what they get off to. Different things turn different people on."
Bold themes and choices mark her work. In her best known role, as lesbian inmate Treasure Lee in Cheryl Dunye's 2001 HBO original film, Stranger Inside, she endures the humiliation of a strip search early on and, in a later love scene, enjoys being pleasured by an inmate going down on her off-camera. In the comic fable Hung, she's among several gay women to grow a penis. Each owner of the new appendage has her own ideas what to do with it.
In the feature Slippery Slope, pegged for a fall release, she's a porn star named Ginger who initially struggles adjusting to the higher expectations of a legit director slumming in the world of skin flicks. "Ginger's been in the business a little while," Ross said of her character. "She's a bit set in her ways. She kind of only knows one way to act. She resists learning something new and then she kind of embraces it. She gets into it, actually — the idea of making better pictures. And she starts making her own pictures. It's nice that she's not a one note character."
With Shortbus, Ross once again pushes the envelope as one in a gallery of exotics. Exposing herself emotionally and physically in a part doesn't intimidate her.
"I have no problem with being a taboo character or doing taboo things or anything like that," she said. "As long as I can physically do them, I'm going to get up there and do it. I want you to forget it's me. I want you to be lost in that character."
Because Ross wants even fringe characters grounded in reality, she underplays what could be camp or superficial. "I like working subtly. The stuff that gets me is what happens behind the scenes and what people are really going through. Good, strong female characters that are real people," she said. Not big on research, she relies instead on instinct and script preparation. "Know what you need to know, and then Iet the acting take over. I think what you need to be dead-on with are the emotions. That's what makes me work better. If I know what my character thinks or feels in a situation, then that's what makes me react in the right way."
Her expressing the right emotion of a line is akin to when she sings jazz or blues, something she does purely for pleasure these days, but that she once did professionally in New York clubs. Music, she said, opened her up to acting, and she still uses it today to find the right notes and beats for her characters.
"When I started singing is when I understood the key of emotion. With every major character I've done there's been music behind each one. From singing, I know there's certain notes I hit or tones I make that, when I hear them, make me cry or make me feel some other way. Music can change my whole body and how I carry myself. If I'm listening to Ella, I'm not going to walk the same way I do as when I'm listening to Ray Charles. When I was doing Stranger Inside, there was a Marvin Gaye song, Distant Lover, in my head. OnShortbus, it was The Tindersticks' Trouble Every Day soundtrack. Music keeps me relaxed or tense or whatever I need to be."
In her early-30s, Ross is at a place in her career where she does a nice balance of little and big screen gigs capitalizing on her street smart persona, which finds her getting cast as beleaguered mothers, strung-out junkies, intense cops and bohemian types in episodic TV. But anyone who's seen her work, such as her riveting turn in Stranger, knows she can play a full palette of colors and be everything from a hard-core case to a sweet, neurotic, vulnerable woman-child.
There's a sense if she can just land one juicy part, she'll be a major presence. Even if that doesn't happen, she keeps adding to an already impressive body of work. Among her TV credits, are sketch comedy on Saturday Night Live, and high drama guest shots on 24, ER and Third Watch.
Part of why Ross hasn't broken out big time in front of the camera, despite some heady props for Stranger and Fisher, has to do with the unsympathetic or peripheral roles she gets and the small indie projects she plays them in. One could argue that until now, while Gabrielle Union's enjoyed the more successful commercial career, Ross's has been more interesting. To be fair, though, Union has three films in the can that finally go beyond purely popcorn storylines and that for once hold out the promise of stretching her dramatic abilities.
But the point is Ross, an African-American contemporary of Union's, has explored provocative subject matter for some time now without a fat pay-off. Union and Ross, who incidentally are fans of each other's work, offer an interesting comparison. Each has defied the odds to carve out a nice career on screen. A key difference is perception. Union's classic, wholesome beauty, with her smooth, soft features, put her up for positive roles and land her well-placed Neutrogena TV spots and endless glamour photo spreads in national mags. She comes across as sexy, brainy, full of attitude, but in purely non-threatening terms — as the love interest, friend or rival — and in widely accessible pictures, too.
By contrast, Ross's unconventional but no less intriguing radiance has harder features, leaving her out of luck when it comes to girl-next-door or, for that matter, seductress roles. Spend any time with Ross, and it's obvious she can play it all. She even does her share of glam, including a recent Bicardi Big Apple event in which she modeled an Escada gown. She's a regular at New York premieres and other photo-op bashes. But in a town where they only know you by, What have you done lately? — perception, not reality, rules. Her performance in Stranger, a film/portrayal that became a cause celeb at feminist/lesbian festivals, was so on the mark, she's been typecast ever since as a low down sista. In fact, she's in high demand by women directors, whom she often works with.
Women confront stereotypes in the business, but Ross said black women must overcome even more. She said if you look closely, you'll see that actresses with darker skin tones play "bad" while those with lighter skin shadings play "good."
"Darker women are the cops, the crack heads, the hard asses. The darker the skin, the harder you're going to be, the tougher you're going to be. It's very difficult for me to be seen as the cute girl next door or the nice mother or the love interest. I mean, it's the craziest thing. Gabrielle's about the same color I am, but she's somewhat busted through," said Ross, who surmises Union's straight hair translates into less urban or ghetto in the minds' of casting directors. "It's about looks and name and face recognition. That's what sells. Halle Berry can make bad movie after bad movie and have a Revlon contract. But why is it Angela Bassett isn't working?"
Good women's roles are hard to find, period, and even harder if you're black. "Most scripts I read aren't that good," she said. "The characters don't evolve." Then there's color-conscious casting that denies Ross, and even Union, a chance at roles deemed white or, God forbid, being part of an interracial romantic pairing.
That's why Ross, who's developed a working friendship with famed screenwriter Joan Tewksbury (Nashville) — "my second mother" — and Dani and Alice co-star Guinivere Turner, is trying to make something happen with projects she's written alone or in collaboration. She despairs sometimes how fickle and slow the business is. "It drives me crazy. But I have to remember all the stories about other people where it took like 10-15 years to get something done. I know that the stories I have will have an affect on people. So, I keep that in mind."
Until something breaks there, she's waiting for start dates on two more features she's cast in. Pearl City is a modern-day film noir set in Hawaii that lets Ross play sly as one of many potential suspects in a homicide investigation. Then there's a new religious-themed film by Boaz Yakim (A Price Above Rubies).
Meanwhile, slated for a spring release is The Gardener of Eden. Directed by Kevin Connolly, the film co-stars Ross as one of many people crossing paths with a man so addicted to the props that come with being hailed a hero that he manipulates events to rescue others. The film also features Lukas Haas and Giovanni Ribisi.
Whatever comes next, Ross will take it to the limit.
[Movies] Shortbus (2006) (geeky-guide.com)
The Ties that Bind, One Family's Celebration of Native Omaha Days (leoadambiga.wordpress.com)
Yolonda Ross is a Talent to Watch (leoadambiga.wordpress.com)
Film Review: Shortbus (thenakedtruth69.wordpress.com)
Categories: African-American Culture, Cinema, Film, Movies, Nebraskans in Film, Omaha, Television, Writing, Yolonda Ross Tags: African American, African-American Culture, Arts, Cinema, Film, Movies, Nebraskans in Film, Omaha, Omaha Nebraska, Yolonda Ross
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leoadambiga
Author-journalist-blogger Leo Adam Biga resides in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. He writes newspaper-magazine stories about people, their passions, and their magnificent obsessions. He's the author of the books "Crossing Bridges: A Priest's Uplifting Life Among the Downtrodden," "Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film" (a compilation of his journalism about the acclaimed filmmaker) "Open Wide" a biography of Mark Manhart. Biga co-edited "Memories of the Jewish Midwest: Mom and Pop Grocery Stores." His popular blog, Leo Adam Biga's My Inside Stories at leoadambiga.com, is an online gallery of his work. The blog feeds into his Facebook page, My Inside Stories, as well as his Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Tumblr, About.Me and other social media platform pages.
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Subjects/Themes
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