Believe it, Be it, Live it
Sitting down with seasoned actress, Skyler Joy, to talk dreams and how to make them a reality.
Photography by Jonny Marlow; Makeup by Anthony Merante; Hair by Preston Wada; Styling by Sonia Young
Actress, Skyler Joy, uses three words to describe herself: kind-hearted, strong, and motivated. The Alaskan born, now Los Angeles native has had a lot on her plate during the mandated months of quarantine with multiple projects set to release, including the talked about STARZ series P-Valley. From horror films to television series to stage, young Joy has portrayed role after role throughout her professional career in an effort to become the best actress she can be, and was happy to share her experiences with Bode.
Growing up in a small Alaskan town, Joy did not have as many opportunities to participate in local film and entertainment. “We didn’t have any TV shows or films being shot in our town,” reminisces Joy “but that didn’t stop ten year old me.” The actress says that she was lucky to find her passion for entertaining early in life, around the age of five, when her mother took her to watch her brother perform in a summer drama camp. “I remember feeling chills and jealousy, and wanting so badly to be on stage that I begged my mother to enroll me in the summer program the next year.” As you have seen, the rest is history. Joy participated in every production her small town had to offer, and even went so far as to set up shop on her mother’s Dell desktop computer to email casting producers across the country. “I also saved up my allowance to pay a professional photographer to take head shots of me, then took the printouts to school and autographed them,” laughed the actress. “Bottom line is, my acting career really started when I was five.”
Of course, those autographed head shots may come in handy today as Joy finds her success in the industry mounting. Her latest project, playing the role of Gidget on the STARZ series P-Valley, has garnered her nation-wide attention and acclaim. The show is adapted from award-winning playwright Katori Hall’s Pussy Valley, and follows the lives of women working in a strip club in the Mississippi Delta. We were eager to learn more about the show from Joy’s perspective. “Gidget is so dear to my heart,” beams the blue eyed blonde, “and I can’t wait to share her with the world. She is a dancer at the Pynk, the club the show is centered around, and she is quirky, athletic, and has big dreams of competing in the US Pole Dancing Championship.” Joy also revealed that Gidget uses the makeup, glitter, and wigs of the club to mask the pain of everyday life, no doubt making her fall more in love with her character as she is “strong as hell and utterly unapologetic when it comes to being herself.”
“Katori Hall — the creator, writer, and showrunner of P-Valley — wrote Gidget and the other characters in such a refreshingly authentic way that when I read the pilot I was immediately drawn to the project and the character of Gidget,” shares Joy. “It’s about human beings who continue to battle with many relevant issues,” states Joy, “such as prejudice, domestic abuse, and sexualization. They all share a connection with each other through the club.” Much to the success of the show onscreen, the role was demanding and required an incredible amount of training, particularly in the pole-dancing department. “It takes so much strength to lift your body weight up onto a pole,” Joy smirks in respect of the craft, “and I can’t even count how many times I fell.” She continues, sharing one of her favorite moments was when she went to dance rehearsal and, after months of practice, could climb the pole like it was nothing. That physical strength mirrored the personalities of her female counterparts as well, and Joy says that “being able to work on set with different amazing female directors every episode was one of my favorite things.” Indeed, all eight episodes of P-Valley were directed by women.
Of course, Joy also notes and offers gratitude for her fortune to work with some of the biggest names in the business, offering a piece of advice to fellow actors and young artists: “Knowing what I know now I would tell aspiring actors and storytellers to continue to trust their gut and their journey. I would also tell them to embrace every moment of their journey, the painful moments, the exciting moments, the stressful moments, and even the moments when they may feel like giving up. These moments I believe are the things that keep us going as creators, and they are the ones we are able to draw from to tell truthful, relatable, successful stories.” Now with success comes many onlookers and Joy does her best to balance her real life and her online world carefully. Always taking negative comments with a grain of salt, the actress tries to be her most authentic self online for the sake of her younger audience. “I think there’s a healthy mixture of highlights and realness,” Joy says, “and I want to inspire the younger generation to be true to who they are without makeup on and to feel comfortable in their own, unique skin.” Joy adds that of course, like many in the industry, she sometimes feels the pressure of online expectations, but that she always tries to remind herself that she got where she is today by being herself.
Staying true to her platform of authenticity, Joy reminisced a memorable milestone in her journey: “When I first moved to Los Angeles, I had a meeting with a talent agent who I was so excited to meet with. I walked into her office in the cutest jean skirt and booties feeling so confident. This woman looked me up and down and told me that if I lost twenty pounds in the next three months she’d love to work with me. I remember her looking down at my legs and telling me the other girls I was up against didn’t look like that. A few months later I booked P-Valley and continued to eat pizza and whatever else I wanted. The point is that when these negative interactions come up it’s always a reminder that I am who I am and that will always be what sets me apart.”
Now this positive attitude of self-acceptance and self-love is exactly what the actress has been living by while in quarantine. The Covid-19 pandemic has taken the world by storm, and the entertainment industry as well, with many artists without work and stuck at home. While the last few months have been rough for the actress, Joy has been taking the time to practice mindfulness. “It’s been easy for me in the past to get so caught up in work that at times I forget to look around myself and remind myself what I’m grateful for and simply breathe.” This outlook on life has Joy feeling much more positive during this time, and has even helped her to further cultivate her process as an actor. “Going through tough experiences like this is what makes us stronger,” she states, “and they are what I use in a lot of my character development work. If you are looking for it there truly is inspiration everywhere. I know that may sound cliché, but it’s the truth. However, if you are someone out there who is struggling with being productive, take it easy on yourself. These times are difficult and it’s completely understandable if you are struggling.”
We are Bode, after all, so we have to wrap up our time with Skyler Joy by asking her a bit about her personal style and her hopes for the future. The actress says that her style really depends on her mood, and that she does not feel like she fits into one category. “Somedays I love to rock the edgy bad girl look, and other days I might feel in the mood to wear something more casual and comfortable.” While her go-to labels may come and go, Joy considers her curls to be a huge part of her signature look. And as far as her future plans? The actress is always striving for bigger and better things, and she is going to continue to work hard to tell meaningful stories with her audiences and use her platform to give back in areas she is passionate about. Which leads us to her last comment in our conversation, speaking to the dreamer in all of us, and to the future that is so uncertain in today’s world: “I’d love to share some things I learned this year with [you]. I learned that if something is meant for you it will not pass you by, and in that sense patience and trust will become your best friends. I’ve also learned and realized this year that there is really no limit to your dreams. People often focus on their own fears and experiences when you ask their opinions, so with that I say dream even bigger. Believe in your dream and yourself until it becomes a reality, because it will if you allow yourself to just dream it.”
