Teyana Taylor Is Ready to Be Taken Seriously

When Teyana Taylor first got the script for A.V. Rockwell’s feature film debut A Thousand and One, she read it in less than an hour. “When I’m into something and I can see it in my head, I read through it really quick,” Taylor explains over Zoom to ELLE.com. “That’s how I’m always able to gauge whether something is for me or not.”

In the film, the musician-turned-actress plays Inez de la Paz, a young woman who has just been released from Rikers Island. She then returns home to Harlem where she kidnaps her son Terry (played by Aaron Kingsley Adetola, Aven Courtney, and Josiah Cross) from the foster care system. Unemployed and with nowhere to go, Inez attempts to build a stable life for him by working various odd jobs and finding a low-cost apartment.

Although she’s been acting since 2010, this is Taylor’s first serious leading role. Over the years, she’s appeared in films like Stomp the Yard 2, Madea’s Big Happy Family, and The Trap. “I was always either the hot girl or the ghetto girl,” she says. “I was ready to be taken seriously.” With A Thousand and One, she is.

In January, the film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and Taylor’s phenomenal performance has dominated. She’s even getting early Oscar buzz. “I’ve never felt so many different emotions at once,” she says. “You know, I’m a movie girl. I love to watch movies, but I’m usually on the outside, so this is just surreal.”

Below, Taylor speaks to ELLE.com about her role in A Thousand and One, the movie that inspired her most, and her official transition from music to film.

Teyana Taylor stars as Inez de la Paz and Aaron Kingsley Adetola stars as six-year-old Terry in A Thousand and One.

To start, when did you first become involved with A Thousand and One?

It was about two to four months into my [music] retirement. When I retired, I really wanted to focus on directing and acting, so this is the first project that I did since stepping into that world. I remember they told me about the script and I was like, “Oh yeah, I’m doing it.” When I read the synopsis, I was like, “This is some Losing Isaiah type shit.” So I did the self-tape and then a few reads with A.V. and by then, it was clear that we wanted each other. So that’s how it happened. And I do want to say that by the time we started filming, I was only six months postpartum. So I knew that I had something to prove. There was no time for games. I knew that this was something that I wanted to fight for. I knew it was something that I wanted to earn. Doing this role meant a lot to me, especially with my retirement and people making me feel like music was my end-all, be-all. But one thing I always stood strong on was my faith. When one door closed, another one opened. What is for me was already written.

People are raving about your performance and you’re even getting Oscar buzz. What’s it like to be in those types of conversations?

Oh, man. It’s an emotional thing because I heard a lot of nos before I heard a lot of yeses, and I’m now receiving a lot of yeses from the people that I received a lot of nos from. But instead of being upset about it, it’s grace over grudges. Why take it personal? I appreciate those people for making me wait. I wouldn’t have been able to channel Inez the way I do if it wasn’t for that. I wouldn’t have had that same grind and hustle. I’m thankful for every person that believed in me enough to give me an opportunity when I was just “the hot girl.” It’s been a slew of emotions and I’ve never cried for six different reasons at once ever before in my life. This has been that.

Other than your desire to play a serious character, what else inspired you to work on this film? Was it the fact that it was set in Harlem? Was it the motherhood angle? The family story?

Honestly, you worded every single thing. It was about a mother who was willing to sacrifice, willing to go against the whole city, and willing to go to war for her kid. It’s something that I do for mine and something I’ve seen my mom do for me. This is the side of motherhood that Terry doesn’t see. He thinks this shit is a piece of cake and it’s not. Even just taking on this role was emotional because my mom was a single mom. She overworked to make sure I had everything that I needed. And in my head, I didn’t see it that way. It’s like, “Where are you? Why are you not here? Why am I not with you? Why can’t I come to work with you every day?” We don’t see the bigger part.

As a child, you just want to be with mommy all day. Doing this movie really made me appreciate her more than I already did. [Being a parent] is hard, and I’m married. So imagine how it was for a single mom that’s trying to make this happen with no help. And imagine how it was for her mom. This whole thing is a love letter to them and to us. This is the part that I cry about because I knew this would be tough for me. I have to relive and revisit a lot of these feelings in interviews and press. It’s been mentally and emotionally challenging for me and it’s been a rollercoaster.

Speaking of heightened emotions, were there ever moments when you came home from set and felt like Inez was still with you?

I was carrying her before and after the movie because I feel like Inez is so many of us. You don’t have to have kids for you to see Inez within yourself. You see what she deals with as a Black woman. You see what it’s like when her strength is used against her. We’re all Inez and the movie made me have to tap into different levels [of womanhood] than I ever have before. But I was definitely always Inez. I still am. That’s why it’s such a special movie for me. I mean, we don’t want to spoil it, but towards the end, people may not understand why she made certain decisions.

Without getting too deep into spoilers, when you first read the twist in the script, what was your reaction?

Girl. It was tea. I gagged.

I did, too.

[Laughs] Shit got real. It was crazy because it was so wrong, but it was also so right. It was just so heartfelt. I was like, “Wow.”

What was it like filming in your hometown of Harlem?

It was so amazing. But I’m gonna tell you something funny. So, life has whooped Inez’s ass, right? There were times where we would film these shots where the camera was really, really far away, so it just looked like I’m randomly walking down the street on 125th looking a fool. We were filming damn near Guerilla style. People were asking for pictures and I’m just like, “Oh my God, this eyebrow is deadass wrong. This red lip is deadass wrong.” I could hear people whispering about me. [Laughs] But now with the movie coming out, it was all worth it. And, of course, I know everybody in Harlem so it just felt like a family reunion. It was really dope to be embraced and to have a warm welcome. Everybody showed so much love and they took care of me.

What did you discover about yourself while working on this movie?

I taught myself a lot. I don’t have an acting coach or anything like that, so I’m learning as I go. Inez taught me so much about being able to channel different things. When I used to be in my singing bag, people would always tell me to put all that energy into the booth. That’s never been me. I have to be happy to make a breakup song. I have to be in a stable place. I don’t feed off of negativity and being sad. So this was the first time that I channeled all of my anger and my sadness into a role. It didn’t matter how I had to get there, I just knew I had to get there. This project taught me how to tap in even when I’m happy. I started teaching myself different techniques of how to get there. I didn’t want the fake tears. I didn’t want fake emotions. I wanted it to feel real.

Taylor returned to her hometown of Harlem to film A Thousand and One.

How did you get there?

All right, don’t laugh at me, but I would watch short clips from The Pursuit of Happyness. The bathroom scene took me out every single time so I would watch that before I had a scene. When I kidnap [Terry] from the hospital, I would watch that scene of Will [Smith] just holding back tears. He was incredible. And another scene took me completely out. It’s at the end when he went in and they told him he got the job and he was holding back tears. I’m getting chills even just talking about it. And then when he walks out of the building, he just holds his hands up in the middle of the crowded, busy street. It took me out. I watched those two scenes back-to-back.

And if you notice, Inez is a strong woman. There were a lot of times where I was crying my eyes out and I had the full-blown Viola Davis [tears] going. And A.V. was like, “That’s not who Inez is.” She’s so strong and sometimes she gets in her own way. So you’ll see her almost go there and then hold it in. So I had to dial it back. There were a lot of different techniques that I taught myself to get into this space. It felt like I was on my own pursuit of happiness.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Juliana Ukiomogbe is the Assistant Editor at ELLE. Her work has previously appeared in Interview, i-D, Teen Vogue, Nylon, and more.