2022 WOMAN OF THE YEAR: THE STARLET WONDER: NAFESSA WILLIAMS
BY: COREY GUEVARRA, EDITOR IN CHIEF
PHOTOGRAPHER: SAMANTHA SPENCE
HAIR: ANNAGJID (KEE) TAYLOR
MAKEUP: JASMINE MADISON
STYLING: ORETTA CORBELLI
Nafessa Williams is already not playing fair! Yes she’s an incredible actress & wildly successful entrepreneur, but to sweeten the deal, she’s a real life, homegrown, PHILLY girl! No, not like touristy, liberty bell & rocky steps Philly girl. I’m talking Overbrook Park, Rita’s WaterIce, TastyKakes & mustard on pretzels Philly girl! With all of that said, this (our very first) 26:NEXT! 'Woman of the Year' cover & conversation conducted by myself, a fellow Philadelphian, made getting to celebrate a hometown hero nothing short of an honor!
Even as a little girl growing up, Nafessa Williams ALWAYS knew! Though watching Phylicia Rashad portray Clair Huxtable initially inspired her into the safety net of following a path in law, after deeper introspection, she realized that she’d actually wanted to be the star ON the screen much more than the character in the courtroom. Stardom called to her in unexplainable ways even then.
As we began our interview, one thing was apparent, Nafessa Williams’ energy is infectious. In her eyes there’s a renewal, excitement & sincerity not [always] easily found in Hollywood. Though she’s already racked up quite the resume, she still has that fresh, effervescent energy, ready & excited, similar to a starlet preparing for their first big feat. If this is who greeted me on a chilly day in December 2022, then the 21 year old who was on track to become a lawyer & who took the chance at an audition after being denied time off, must’ve been a sight to encounter & as we continue to see, a force to be reckoned with! Fresh off her most recent birthday, Nafessa found herself immediately dropped into the media frenzy of her highly anticipated role in the already critically acclaimed Whitney Houston biopic “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”. Ironically her 2nd time being casted in a life story about the vocal legend, Nafessa describes the coincidence saying “she’s always been my auntie in my head, so to sort of continue being a part of this ‘Whitney universe’ that keeps coming back around, the artist in me & the fan in me are just ecstatic”. This time around Nafessa can be seen portraying Houston’s long time best friend Robyn Crawford as the flick promises a glimpse into the previously unexplored friendship, with accurate details only second to Crawford’s telling New York Times best seller “A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston”.
SO TAKE US BACK TO THOSE PHILLY DAYS, I KNOW YOU WERE SO INSPIRED BY PHYLICIA RASHAD’S CLAIR HUXTABLE CHARACTER THAT YOU WERE ALL SET TO BECOME A LAWYER! PLEASE TELL ME HOW WE WENT FROM NAFESSA WILLIAMS ESQ TO NAFESSA WILLIAMS’ IMBD? :-)
It was always on my radar but I just didn’t have connections of course in the beginning, so it just felt like a hoop dream you know. It seemed so far fetched I’d thought ‘how do I even accomplish that’, so I had my safe plan, go to school, become a lawyer. I was well on my way, I started working at the law firms, but I hated it to be honest. Very quickly I was like ‘this isn’t for me’. ‘This ain’t it’ . I was 21 at the time & I just had to get real with myself. I was like’ Fessa you KNOW what you REALLY wanna do, just go for it’! ‘You’re gonna be green, there will likely be failures, you’ll probably fall on your face a couple times’, -BUT I promised myself, if I make it a priority, I was gonna take it all the way! I’m not into shoudla-coulda-wouldas, I didn’t wanna be 20, 30 years down the line, saying ‘aw man, auntie had it back in the day, she coulda went for it, but she didn’t’! So… I went on an audition, even after the firm I was with told me I couldn’t take off, I went anyway. By the time I got back, I was fired but honestly it was the first day of the rest of my life! – The best thing that EVER happened to me! After that I started taking advantage of the nearby New York scene, began studying up there & the rest became history!
YOU STARTED IN SOAPS CORRECT? A REALLY BIG SOAP IN FACT; ONE LIFE TO LIVE… WHAT WAS THAT FIRST BIG PROCESS LIKE FOR YOU?
Yes!!! That was the first glimmer of hope that let me know that God was with me, it was all the confirmation that I needed to keep going! It was huge, we all grew up watching the soaps. I’d always heard that doing a soap opera was great training for actors because we film an entire script in 1 day vs regular tv shows, it’s 8-10 days on 1 script. So it really was like a crash course, you have to work really fast, you don’t get a lot of takes & it builds up the muscle within you as an artist. Albeit short-lived I’m really grateful for my time on the soaps (Nafessa also appeared briefly on The Bold & The Beautiful). Once ‘One Life to Live’ was cancelled I moved to LA & suddenly it was like starting all over again. In New York, I’d began to make a name for myself, so LA was new terrain for sure. But I honestly didn’t mind, I knew that I wanted to play in the big leagues, I wanted to make movies & that was the town to do it!
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO GO FROM THE LAW FIRM FIRING TO YOUR FIRST BIG BOOKING?
Honestly it didn’t take long at all. In a matter of about a year & a half, I booked ‘One Life To Live’ & it was like “Ok God!” …like if I can book that, I can book another, all I ever need is for 1 casting director to say yes. It literally only takes that 1 YES. So I kept going, kept working &…God met me!
FROM THERE YOU JUST KEPT BUILDING YOUR INCREDIBLE RESUME. FAST FORWARD SOME YEARS & THEN BOOM ‘BLACK LIGHTNING’! YOUR CHARACTER & HER IDENTITY WERE SO PIVOTAL, LIKE LITERALLY HISTORY MAKING. HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT ANISSA THE 1ST TIME YOU READ FOR HER & WHY WAS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU TO TELL HER STORY?
Wow, so Black Lightning changed my life! -I was just really grateful that God chose me to give a voice to Thunder. I know what it’s like being underrepresented as a black woman in the industry, in fact we know all too well what that’s like in America. So when you add another layer of being a black lesbian or black queer woman, I was really just honored to jump on as an ally & give a voice to that identity because we all want to be, we all deserve to be represented! -And personally, even now when I hear “the first black lesbian superhero”, I still can’t fully wrap my brain around the magnitude of it! I’m just grateful. Because of Black Lightning & because of Thunder, now we’re seeing even more queer superheroes & I’m so humbled that I was chosen to give a voice over to that light, it was & will forever be very important. Not only was Thunder queer, she was an activist, she stood up for what was right at a time where we continue to NEED more of that in our societies. I felt like we (the show) were adding to that conversation, doing our tiny part, I felt like I was walking in SO much purpose as Anissa!
OK SO BACKING UP JUST A HAIR, IN 2015 YOU WERE IN THE MOVIE “WHITNEY” & NOW… WE’RE GETTING READY TO SEE YOU TAKE FLIGHT IN “I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY” HOW DID IT FEEL GETTING TO SOMEWHAT LIBERATE THIS FRIENDSHIP’S STORYLINE BETWEEN WHITNEY & ROBYN &….WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS SORT OF UNDENIABLE WHITNEY THREAD THAT’S CONTINUING TO SHOW UP IN YOUR LIFE?
I’m honestly just like, ‘wow auntie’, like she’s my auntie for real! LOL. The artist in me & the fan in me are just excited to be able to give voice over to Robyn, especially because she was SO important to Whitney’s life. I honestly believe that they were soulmates, they just couldn’t live out loud together back then you know? I wanted people to see the loyalty & the adoration & the love that they actually shared for one another! It’s a huge part of her story & I think it’s time for it to be told. I think that Robyn ALWAYS had the purest intentions for Whitney, she was very protective of her & I appreciated that because so many people who were around weren’t there with those good intentions. Robyn however truly, sincerely had her back & it’s just really time for that truth to be told. It honestly makes me sad when I think about the fact they couldn’t be who they were back then, so this movie, this story, it feels redemptive that way to me & I can’t wait for everyone to see it!
I READ SOMEWHERE THAT YOU’D BE INTERESTED IN ONE DAY TAKING YOUR COMEDIC CHOPS TO SNL? WE’VE PRIMARILY SEEN YOU IN MORE DRAMATIC ROLES SO FAR… PLEASE TELL US ABOUT THIS SECRET COMEDIC PERSONALITY OF YOURS LOL…WHAT IS YOUR HUMOR LIKE NAFESSA?
Ha! Im kinda crazy lol… I just like to have fun, I love to make people laugh! I love doing impersonations & because I’ve done so much dramatic work in my career, I’d love to one day switch gears & do more comedic work that I also feel I have living within me! So yes, I wanna do SNL, at least like twice in my life! I’m okay with not being a full time cast member, but I definitely want to host at least twice!! So this is me putting that out into the universe! -Please remember that I said this today!!! :)
ANY COMEDIC ICONS IN PARTICULAR?
YES! Tichina Arnold & Tisha Campbell are my comedic heroes, like I wanna do that kind of funny! I love how they always went there you know, they made the ugly faces, they didn’t care about looking a certain way, they were just always committed to delivering the funny with their whole entire body. I love Martin [Lawrence] he’s my favorite, that was my favorite TV show! In stand up, I love Mike Epps, the list can go on & on. But Tichina & Tisha have always been my first memory of truly aspiration, leading funny women, funny black women!
WHO IS YOUR [PERSONAL] BIGGEST INSPIRATION NAFESSA?
My biggest inspiration in my life, I’d have to say is my mom. One thing my mom taught me that I carry with me is my spirituality. Because of that foundation, I’ve always felt like I could have or do or become anything. –She introduced me to my relationship with God… People always ask how I did this, how I manifested this life & honestly that’s my answer; my relationship with God that my mom instilled in me very early on. -It can be a tough industry, you hear ‘no’ way more than you hear ‘yes’ so, I’m just grateful for my faith, it keeps me going. That’s also one thing that I found very inspiring about Whitney. Growing up I would hear her speak very boldly about her love for God & her spirituality. I remembered thinking when I get there, that it’s gonna be equally as important to me to be transparent & let the world know that it was God who brought me here!