Yolonda Ross Thrives
-TV Drama, Indie Film Fixture, and as David Mamet Stock Player-
Photo provided by Yolonda Ross
by Leo Adam Biga
Since the dawn of the new millennium Omaha native film-television actress Yolonda Ross has stamped herself a chameleon for playing sweet or sour, straight or gay, street or bougie. This veteran of episodic dramas (Law and Order, Treme, Chicago P.D.) is perhaps best known these days for her portrayal of Jada on Showtime’s The Chi, whose fourth season launched May 23. Having a recurring part on a hit show is a career anchor that allows her to work in made-for-TV movies, independent features and stage plays. She also has the good fortune of being a member of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Oscar-nominated screenwriter David Mamet’s stock company. Her most recent role in a Mamet work came in 2021’s Four American Women. The collection of new monologues was produced and streamed April 26-May 9 by Great Barrington Public Theatre (Mass.) via Broadway-on-Demand. Joining Ross in the piece were Rebecca Pidgeon and Heidi Sulzman.
From the film “Whitney“ photo credit: thewrap.com
Ross, who played Whitney Houston’s intimate friend Robyn Crawford in the 2015 cable movie, Whitney, has now collaborated three times with Mamet. In the CBS series The Unit she played a role he expressly wrote for her. She appeared in the Mamet written-directed 2013 HBO courtroom drama Phil Spector. With American Women, she’s cemented her association with this titan of American stage and cinema, and she couldn’t be more pleased. “I love it,” Ross said, speaking from the set of The Chi in Chicago. “I like to say that I am (a Mamet player).”
Mamet specifically asked her to be a part of it. “It means a lot that he called me for this and wanted me for it,” Ross said. “I always love working with him. I respect him so much. I really appreciate him because he’s very personal, so it’s not like doing a job. It’s like a friend calling, you know what I mean? I loved the opportunity getting to do it. He’s a brilliant writer.”
Photo credit: broadwayondemand.com
Her character, identified only as “an attorney,” “grapples with definitions and issues of gender, marriage, and age,” according to project press materials. Ross identifies with some of the themes her character expresses saying, “It’s interesting that he (Mamet) chose me for that one (character) because the attorney’s monologue deals with infidelity and how it affects a woman versus how it affects a man. Infidelity in a couple is something I actually wrote a feature about (the unproduced Scenes from Our Marriage), so getting to explore and talk through it in his words as this attorney character was very interesting.”
Mamet is known for a distinctive writing style thick with precise, caustic dialogue that has a telltale rhythm or meter to it. “His text is dense. That’s what he’s known for – how he uses language. When you’re in the play it’s not a matter of paraphrasing or moving words around or any of that kind of thing. It definitely was a lot of work,” Ross said, “but I was very happy with how it turned out.”
For the virtual “staging” of the monologues, Ross, her castmates and the crew were all in different places. She was shooting The Chi when the project went online. A member of the Labyrinth Theater Company in New York City where she resides, she’s yet to act in a Mamet stage work produced for in-person audiences. But she hinted at projects that may present that opportunity as well as more screen collaborations. “There are things that have not happened yet that were supposed to happen (before the pandemic). I’ll just be mum on that.”
Making Jada on ’The Chi’ Every Black Woman
The prestige of the Mamet project is a nice ego stroke, but her bread and butter continue to be The Chi. The show offers her the career stability many actors never achieve.
Photo credit: imdb.com
“I’m very thankful for it,” she said. “To be on a series-- period-- but then to be on a series that does mean a lot to people, that does showcase people who don’t get seen on screen is quite a blessing.”
She feels a big reason for the ensemble program’s enduring popularity is its representation of residents of an African American community as “people just living life.” Added Ross, “It’s showing family, it’s showing neighborhood, it’s showing all sides of that,” she said, “and how people are affected by one thing that happens to somebody in the neighborhood and how it reverberates throughout a group of people.” She noted that storylines tackle current events and conditions – from pandemic challenges to toxic police practices. “This season one of our themes is (over)policing and the effects in the Black community. The whole defund the police movement and all that will play out on the show.”
Her character Jada is a strong single mother and home care nurse who shows compassion and grit when interacting with patients, neighbors and her young adult son Emmett. She often finds herself responding to the consequences of his reckless social life. Always putting others ahead of herself, she may finally be ready to heed her own needs.
“She is every Black woman out there. She is some form of all of us – handling everything that comes at her and being strong and being vulnerable and being all these things,” said Ross. “And luckily we have the show to be able to see all those sides of this particular woman. A lot of times single mothers, mothers, women in general don’t feel like they have a voice or don’t particularly see themselves on TV. With Jada we’re shedding light on all women who have it together and are taking no prisoners in getting things done. That’s great because people need to know these women.”
Jada, The Chi photo credit: tvline.com
The multi-talented Ross, who left Omaha for the Big Apple shortly after graduating Burke High School to pursue a fashion design career, didn’t need the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements to affirm herself. Her self-confidence and self-esteem were already enough that within short order she transitioned into singing and acting. Her breakthrough role came in 2001s searing HBO movie Stranger Inside as a convict who reunites with her mother in prison. She’s been much in demand for gritty character parts ever since. Also a painter, she’s had gallery shows.
“I’ve always felt empowered, period. I’m a Black woman, I know my gifts. I have people behind me who know what I do. I know what I’m capable of. I’m not trying to be somebody else, not trying to do something for the wrong reason. I feel like I’ve always been this way, I really do. I do what I like and what moves me, and that is enough for me.”
In Good Company
Her assurance, naturalism and raw openness attract name filmmakers to her. Denzel Washington directed her in Antowne Fisher. She co-starred in the John Sayles scripted-directed Go for Sisters, She was a regular in the acclaimed but short-lived Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) Netflix show, The Get Down. She’s also worked with top women (Reed Morano) and queer filmmakers (Cheyrl Dunye, John Cameron Mitchell). But The Chi has given Ross her most sustained exposure to mass audiences. Fans have made Jada a favorite, which tells Ross she’s doing right by her.
Yolonda Ross photo credit: Yolonda Ross’s Public Facebook profile
“With Jada I’m very thankful for all the people that do relate to her and do see themselves in her because for me it’s doing the job authentically, truthfully. That’s the only way I can do it. As long as I’m being truthful with her and her emotions and what she’s going through and bringing those words off the page for the writers and the producers, I’m doing my job. Yeah, Jada’s my girl.” Ross has had some input into Jada’s trajectory. “Before the writers come to us they’ve already gotten together and planned out the season. It’s all gone to the network and everything, Then they give us kind of a layout on where our characters are going, so we can talk about it a little bit. It’s like getting an outline, but it’s not filled in. And each season is different, so as the episodes come through we see where they’re going with it.”
Ross isn’t shy expressing her opinion of where she wants Jada’s character arc to go. “I feel this season, in particular, I’ve probably been more vocal than ever. Since we do have this platform to showcase Black people there are things I want to see happen with the character. Sometimes it’s a ‘no,’ sometimes it’s, ‘okay, we’ll see,’ and sometimes it’s ‘yes’, but the writers are there and they do listen.” She enjoys the chance to discuss matters of motivation and nuance.“It’s interesting to get a take on what they’re thinking, what particular lines mean if there’s a couple of ways they could be delivered. It’s good to know from the person that wrote the words.” As a scenarist and director in her own right (she wrote-directed-produced and starred in the short film Breaking Night), Ross has lobbied to script and direct episodes of The Chi. While she still hasn’t been given the nod, she’s hopeful that if there is a next season, she’ll finally get the chance.
Measure by Measure
Photo provided by Yolonda Ross
Like everyone, she’s eager for the isolation imposed by the pandemic to end and hopeful that the intimacy it also encouraged continues. “I feel it gave us an opportunity to actually be closer to the people we are around. The thing that kept us from being connected with each other before was being busy, not having time, not socializing, everybody on computers, phones and everything else. In this case we all slowed down and stopped for a minute and actually spoke to the people in our houses or next door. We actually noticed people more because you weren’t going out, you weren’t doing things, so taking those walks around the neighborhood because you have time made a difference.” She’s optimistic that slowing down to appreciate things may be the new normal. “Just watching the news I see that there are a lot of people that don’t want to just go back to a workplace like they did before. I do hope it means getting back to neighborhoods, getting back to speaking to each other and knowing each other.”
Navigating the social-cultural-political events of the past year since George Floyd’s murder has evoked trauma and inspiration. “I watched it all just like everybody else, because there really was nothing else you could do, somewhat stunned but not really stunned by all of it. I don’t feel that all of this happened during this time for no reason. The change needed to happen. People needed to see themselves. People needed to wake up. Being stuck in the house and watching all of this unfold – things which Black people have seen for decades and suddenly white people looking at themselves .”
Meanwhile, Black creatives such as Ross and fellow Omaha natives Gabrielle Union and Amber Ruffin ever more assert themselves as developers of their own content. Ross has worked with several Black women screen icons, including Angela Bassett, who directed her in Whitney, and Viola Davis, whom she supported in How to Get Away with Murder. Ross has several projects of her own in development, including Scenes from Our Marriage, which is meant to be her feature directorial debut. “It’s out to new producers in the U.K. I’m waiting to hear back.”
As for what fans of The Chi can expect from Jada, she indicates her alter ego may develop a romantic interest. “Well, I’m not giving away anything because I want y’all there Sunday nights with us. But, love, I’ll say that.”
Yolanda Ross can be seen on The Chi Sunday on Showtime.