The fabulous, garrulous publisher of #SoFu Lifestyle magazine Michelle Taylor Willis and the incomparable Jasmine Guy hit it off immediately. And I couldn’t believe my good fortune to get to be right in the room as Michelle interviewed her for the According to Michelle show. I must be “living right.” Jasmine Guy is Atlanta royalty, an HBCU queen. Afterall, she quips, she attended both Mission College in “School Daze” and Hillman on “A Different World.”
The ladies bonded over raising their children. Michelle is the ultimate #boymom raising four sons and Jasmine is watching her daughter launch into adulthood. And despite their extensive vocabularies and trainings, they agreed that there are some occasions where nothing but a well-placed swear word will do. The laughter abounds. Jasmine Guy is a lady but Whitley Gilbert, she is not. “I love her,” she says. “But I’m not her.”
Like MTW, our local media maven, Jasmine Guy has been busy. She turns 60 this year but she seems to be speeding up, not slowing down. She’s been working on a couple of Christmas movies including 2018’s “The Christmas Pact “and can currently be seen on Amazon Prime Video sporting an accent much different than the one she’s known for. Art imitated life as she plays the mother of a daughter starting a life in NYC but the Caribbean heritage she portrays is borrowed from her tv daughter Grace Byers. On this series, “Harlem “that also stars Megan Good, Guy found herself apologizing to Byers, hoping that she was not being too mean.
Guy says that with this character and even with Whitley Gilbert, people who are mean are mean for a reason. With Whitley, she says the character is overcompensating for her jealously of Denise Huxtable ( of the loving Cosby Show family). As for her Harlem character Patricia, she’s mean because she wants her daughter to be strong and independent in a way that she herself is unable to be.
Of her immense talents, Michelle describes Guy as a “beast,” a high compliment to describe her acting, comedic and dramatic, dancing skills and work ethic. The actress is touched and remarks that you never hear the good things people say. “I don’t go on social media. Social media makes people stay in middle school.” Bullying is always on Guy’s radar and social media has only made bullying worse. She attended a huge high school (North Atlanta) and intentionally sought out a smaller community for her daughter in middle school at the Atlanta Girls School. She is fiercely protective of her daughter and she feels that this was one of the best decisions.
Guy grew up in an interracial household with a preacher dad where she was encouraged to speak her mind. They had family meetings and were encouraged to be direct and plead their case on various topics. She was a dancer. Her friends had no idea she was funny. Then she saw the Alvin Ailey company and discovered that she could make money doing what she loved! Even now when she encounters a roadblock or a hater, she reminds herself that if Debbie Allen could do it, so could she!
This February, Guy stars in a film called Ladymakers, which she says is a bit different than any part that she has played previously. It’s a true story about the screenwriter’s mother, a Black woman and her interactions with a community of Jewish women who were not mean or prejudiced who rescue women on the edge and smooth out their roughness to make them into ladies. The story is set in Indianola, Mississippi and Guy really enjoyed showcasing the tender moments of friendship between the women. Guy can do no wrong in my eyes so she had me at heartfelt. Hope you will join me in enjoying the film on it’s expected release date 2/22/22.