Teyana Taylor has apparently battled through postpartum depression when filming “A Thousand and One”. When making rounds to promote the A.V. Rockwell-directed drama, the “Gonna Love Me” singer got real about the challenges she faced for her acts as Inez de la Paz.
Sitting down for an online interview with Yahoo Entertainment’s Senior Correspondent Kevin Polowy, the 32-year-old confessed, “I was actually six months postpartum when we started working on ‘A Thousand and One’.” She continued, “So I was dealing with literal postpartum depression. And in the midst of dealing with postpartum depression, I lost a lot of my childhood friends.”
“[I was] back home to film and then come to find out that a lot of [my] childhood has been erased. That was a lot, emotionally. That made Inez very therapeutic for me,” the “Coming 2 America” actress went on to admit. On the reason why, she simply pointed out, “because I was able to cry out loud for once.”
Teyana, who has 7-year-old Iman and 2-year-old Rue with husband Iman Shumpert, further shared, “I think I hadn’t been able to do that because when you’re a super mom, that’s all your kids see you as, you’re a superhero all day, every day.”
“So going to the set every day, I was able to put my cape to the side, have my therapy session and just cry out loud,” the singer-turned-actress further elaborated. “Any type of quiet battles I was fighting or struggles, I was able to pour it all into Inez and really give my all.”
“And I think that’s what made it so real and authentic because every single emotion was real,” Teyana continued. “Every single tear was real. Every single scream was real. Every single emotion was real,” she added.
In the same interview, the “Madea’s Big Happy Family” actress also explained why playing Inez who struggled to give her child a better life was meaningful for her. “This role is something that I prayed for, something I was willing to work for,” she reasoned. “It was something I was willing to fight for. And that’s exactly what I did.”
“A Thousand And One” premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in January. It will be released in theaters on March 31.
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