Cicely Tyson

 

When did you decide that acting was your calling? What was the thing that made you say, "This is what I have to do"?

Well, it happened because I learned that I could speak through other people. I was a very shy child. I was an observer. I would sit and observe and listen and watch people's actions in order to understand what they were. I wanted to know what prompted them to say and do the things that they did. I sucked my fingers for 12 years. I never spoke ... but I was a great observer.

Do you have some advice for younger artists or those just beginning their careers after you've done so much and seen so much and been through so much? Do you have any advice that you would share?

Well, I don't feel like I am one to give advice, except to say, you know, my mother did not want me to be an actress and she said I could not live in her house and do that. But in my gut, I knew there was something there that I was put here to do. And she didn't speak to me for a couple of years.

And although I lived long enough and she lived long enough to see that I was not going to live in a den of iniquity and that I would not forget the teaching that she gave me in my early years. And finally she came around and I was able to hear her say, "I am so proud of you" and see that I was not going to forget my beginnings.

And so your advice would be what? Just stick with it?

Just stick with it. Just stick with it. There's always a reason why you keep going in the direction you chose to go in.

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/24/959608246/just-as-i-am-cicely-tyson-reflects-on-her-long-career-and-the-miles-davis-she-kn