Ghosts star Danielle Pinnock made a declaration after the 96th Academy Awards that we’ve all been thinking: this is the year of the plus-sized actress.
“Seeing the nominations during this award season for Danielle Brooks and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who is one of my dear friends, has been so inspiring because it means that women that look like us also can win too.”
Pinnock is a winner in her own right. Her CBS series Ghosts is the one of the most-watched comedies on TV, and it’s just been picked up for season four. In this week’s episode, her character Alberta is front and center with a new ghost love interest. “She’s dusting off the cobwebs after 100 years,” Pinnock jokes.
In this EBONY exclusive, the actress shares more about her special episode, body courage and the secret to her 10-year-plus marriage.
EBONY: Your run the award-winning Instagram account, HastagBooked, where you declared this is the year of the plus-sized actress. Why is now the time?
Danielle Pinnock: For years, I felt like in the industry, we’ve either been the butt of the joke, or we’ve had these occupationally driven roles: we’re the best friend to the lead with no background; no one knows anything about our actual lives. But now, I feel there is a tide turning. We see women like Natasha Rothwell creating her own work and Michelle Buteau, who had a beautiful project on Netflix. Even with fashion—Da’Vine was wearing Louis Vuitton on the red carpet. They are opening doors for women like me, and I’m so grateful to be in the same class as them, that people can see me in my size and say, “Oh my gosh, maybe I can be on television too.” For them to pave the way and for me to be paving the way for someone else just means the world to me.
What else can Hollywood do to fully embrace women of color who are plus-sized?
I honestly think having more imagination helps. But that is also a reason why I like to create my own legacy, why I love being on social media and having these characters that I portray because it gives me a global audience. And then casting directors can see me online and say wait, she can also do that too. I would encourage all actors and artists to create their own work as well. Yes, it’s nice to be in someone else’s project. It’s nice to get some coins, right? But there’s no experience like being able to create your own work. Your yes matters. You get to tell the stories that have been so deep in your soul for so long, on your terms. That’s why I love people like Issa Rae, Lena Waithe and Ava DuVernay because they are doing it.
Your Instagram account is “BodyCourage.” How do you define body courage?
Body Courage was the title of my one-woman show I did for five years in Chicago and in New York, which eventually landed me in Los Angeles. My background is in a type of theater called documentary theater, the same as Anna Deavere Smith. I interviewed 350 people worldwide about how they felt about their bodies, and more importantly, their body image. I transcribed those interviews and performed them on stage. Those interviews ranged from a meeting a priest in Northern Ireland who was suffering with early onset Parkinson’s and an Olympian from Mumbai who was encouraged to take steroids to a little girl from the south side of Chicago who was struggling with her weight and getting bullied in high school. Peppered in the show were interviews from my own family and exploring the generational curse of self-hate and negative body image. I interviewed my mother, my uncles, my aunties and my grandmother, who was a very iconic character in the show. I do believe that true body courage is finding the courage to love yourself daily, because it does take courage sometimes. Not everyone feels 100% all the time. It’s being able to meet yourself where you are, regardless of your external circumstances, and say, “Listen, I may not be where I want to be, but I’m on the way there and I’m gonna love myself through that journey.” That’s true body courage to me.
You’ve been married for a decade-plus. What’s the secret to maintaining a happy home full of bliss?
I think the secret really is honest communication, as good or as bad as it may be. Communicating is really hard. And if people don’t have the tools to communicate, I would encourage them to go to therapy because they can get tons of tricks and tips on how to communicate with each other. People talk with each other differently. People want to receive information differently. Therapy is fabulous. He grew up on a farm and then my life: I’m a city girl through and through. It was very helpful to get those tips in therapy on how we interact with each other. And honestly, just praying with each other every morning, before I even open that phone, to connect on a spiritual level. Those are the things that we’ve carried with us in our marriage for over a decade. And I don’t see that stopping anytime soon. Marriage counseling has been a huge help to us because I did not have a blueprint on what a good marriage looks like. My husband and I went to premarital counseling when we first got married. I think that was so important for me specifically because my parents were divorced, and I never saw marriage as an option for me. I was never the little girl who read Cinderella and said, “Oh, happily ever after.” I always asked questions. My mother would get annoyed because I was like, ‘”What happens next? Who’s paying the bills? Do they have a prenup?”
How did you know your husband was the one?
I was just very happy with touring the world and having lovers everywhere, until I met my husband. Jack is one of the most thoughtful and incredible human beings I’ve encountered in my life. He truly is my best friend and the way that he loves me and the way that he loves my family, my mother, my grandmother who is obsessed with him, that’s when I knew this really was the one. He loved all my flaws and positives and wanted to work with me to get my dream and he’s always been so supportive.
He must be enjoying your work on Ghosts. Tell us about your upcoming episode airing April 11.
It’s “The Polterguest” episode, which is written by the incredibly gifted Akilah Green, a poltergeist who is attached to a living human comes to Woodstone Mansion. The incredible Lamorne Morris plays “Saul” and Geoffrey Owens plays the human he’s attached to. Saul is in the Negro Baseball League, and we filmed this episode during the first week of Black History Month, so it was such a special experience.
The series always brings some real-life history to the mansion. What did you know of the Negro Baseball League before you filmed the episode?
Alberta is a 1920s Prohibition-era jazz singer, so she would absolutely be falling for someone in the Negro Baseball Leagues. I knew of Jackie Robinson; he was the one we heard about in school and movies. Something that I did learn based on Saul’s character is that a lot of them died from injuries to the head, which was quite surprising. I’m just gonna add a little tidbit. Everybody was fine back then. From the black and white photos, with suits, cuts, hard shoes and that marching for freedom. During that time, I would have just acted up.
Danielle Pinnock as Alberta. Image: Bertrand Calmeau/CBS ©2022.
What famous jazz musicians of decades past have inspired your character?
In my mind, I imagined that Alberta was rubbing shoulders with Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. I know there was some other jazz singers that came a little later that she wouldn’t have necessarily have known but in her afterlife may have listened to like Billie Holiday. Ella Fitzgerald has this beautiful scat on “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” That is one of the ways I get into character because the scat just energizes me. Alberta is a burst of energy. She is braggadocious, she lives for the applause and she is so confident as those women were.
It’s Earth Month! Do you have any sustainable activities that you engage n?
I’m a huge gardener, through and through. That’s my act of self care, being outside being able to touch grass, I think that’s important, especially in this industry. It’s very easy to get caught up in, “oh crap, craft service. I should be getting food served to me every day. Absolutely not. That’s not real life. Your family is your real life. Your your friends that have been with you on this journey are your real life. Going outside and it’s getting that natural vitamin D from the sun to energize you is real life. Gardening has been a huge help for me in lowering stress levels, just getting outside and being one with the earth. And I recycle everything. Like I’m truly becoming my grandmother. Those grandmas who have the cookie tins you open and there’s sewing things and all of that? I’m the cookie tin lady now for sure.
Catch Pinnock on Ghosts, airing Thursdays on CBS.
