MADEFEATURES MADEXXXX
Los Angeles with a couple hundred dollars . He worked odd jobs while trying to get his acting career off the ground , which was not always easy . “ With acting , you deal with a lot of ‘ No .’ When I first started out , it was really just learning how to deal with ‘ No ’ because you can take it as personal rejection and its never about you . It ’ s rarely ever about you . It ’ s the thing you can never control while you ’ re being told ‘ No .” Dealing with rejection bought him a major revelation that ’ s helped him in his acting career . “ When you hear enough of ‘ No ’, you start to think , ‘ Yo , this ain ' t for me . Forget this . I ’ m packing up and I ’ m going home . This is some bullshit .’ Then you realize , hopefully , if you stick around , the ‘ No ’ s ’ aren ’ t against you , your talent or what you look like or how tall you are , your weight , or how good-looking you are or are not . They ’ re really about what ’ s written . You can ’ t control what somebody has created or what somebody has written . But there were plenty of moments [ where I said ], “ What am I going to do now ?” or [ thought about ] leaving , especially when I first started out . But this is what I love , this is my passion . I don ’ t even know what else to go do because this is what I wanted to do my entire life . So , I ’ m just going to fight until there ’ s no more left .”
# TEAMLAWRENCE
We can ’ t get enough of HBO ’ s Insecure — it ’ s relatable , funny and keeps us on our toes ! Jay Ellis talks his hella handsome and heartbroken character , Lawrence .
MADE : People are still talking about last year ’ s season finale ! What ’ s in store for season 2 ?
JE : We ’ re still picking up the pieces of what ’ s going on in Lawrence and Issa ’ s relationship , the pieces of what ’ s going on with Lawrence and work , Issa and work and then Molly and the realization of her dating life . Lawrence is at a fork in the road . How is he going to choose ? How is he going to respond to having his heart broken and now sleeping with Tasha ? What does that mean for him ? It ’ s going to be a bang . You ’ re going to be happy , you ’ re going to be upset , you ’ re going to be crying . This season really is a crazy rollercoaster . For every single character , there ’ s a lot of ups , downs , turns and behavior you won ’ t expect from each character .
MADE : We ’ re three episodes in and there ’ s already been a lot of plot twists ! How easy or difficult was it for you to relate to Lawrence ?
with Issa and trying to be the best boyfriend that he can — having that ripped away from him , I do think there were a lot of things there that I could connect to . Not necessarily that experience , but I ’ ve had my own personal experiences in my work life or my relationships .
Lawrence to me is a lot more of the everyday dude , especially the everyday black man . I don ’ t think that ’ s out there and I think that what we
PHOTO CREDIT Elton Anderson
JE : When we started , it took me awhile to connect with Lawrence . Luckily , we got enough of a window ahead of time to sit and think about it and live some of those moments before we started season one . Now that he ’ s gone through the job search , and the bullshit jobs that he didn ’ t want and he ’ s gone through falling back in love
When I first started out , it was really just learning how to deal with ‘ No ’ because you can take it as personal rejection and it ’ s never about you . It ’ s rarely ever about you . made-magazine . com . com | | 12 12