NAACP Image Award-nominated actress Lisa Raye McCoy said, “Hollywood will tear you down,” in her latest interview with Page Six.
“Hollywood will tear you down. [It’s] not for everybody, that’s for sure,” she told the news outlet, as she explained that actors and actresses need lots of confidence to navigate the industry and succeed.
“Not to be confused with your ego, being too big — you’re in a business where you hear more no than yes, and you still got to feel like you want to go back to another audition,” she said.
Raye McCoy added that, on many occasions, casting agents would tell entertainers that they’re not good enough for the roles they’re auditioning for. However, actors and actresses must find it within themselves to move on without letting the rejection get to them.
“You will be told that you were not right, that you are too short, or you weren’t strong enough for this character, or your look wasn’t right. So you got to find a way to be able to move on and go on confidently,” she said.
As of late, Raye McCoy has been busy starring in the new Lifetime film, Greed: A Seven Deadly Sins Story, which is set to debut on Apr. 23. The film–executive-produced by Bishop T.D. Jakes–was inspired by a book series by author Victoria Christopher Murray. Its star-studded cast has also included Monique Coleman, Eric Benét, and Canadian actor Nathan Witte.
However, despite landing roles many years after her debut on the big screen in the classic 1998 film, The Players Club, the Chicago-born star insisted that “there’s no loyalty in Hollywood.”
“There’s nobody that’s helping people just for the sake of saying I’ll pass on a good word for you. There is a finders fee, partner’s fee, agency fee,” she said.
As far as deadly sins, she named “adultery” as one of the most fatal, saying it was “a deal-breaker” when it came to relationships.
The 54-year-old actress famously divorced her ex-husband, former Turks and Caicos chief minister Michael Missick, in 2008 after he was allegedly accused of infidelity and misappropriating government funds. The two wed in 2006 and she served as the First Lady of the Turks & Caicos Island while they were married.
“I am announcing that I am separated from LisaRaye McCoy-Misick. I am committed to dissolving the marriage amicably,” Missick announced in a statement at the time. “I believe that this is a private matter and will have no further comments. I hope that our privacy will be respected.”
14 years later, Raye McCoy has not only continued her successful acting career, but she has also been a co-host on Fox Soul’s Cocktails With Queens show.
On the show’s latest episode, she and fellow co-hosts Claudia Jordan, Vivica A. Fox, and Syleena Johnson all dressed up as powerful Black female figures for Women’s History Month. She dressed up as Rosa Parks and screenshotted the cast dressed in costume via her Instagram page on Apr. 1.
“On this last day of women’s history month im going to give a shout out to my Queens,” she wrote. “Check out Cocktails with the queens Mondays on @foxsoul or YouTube. Ladies, we pulled off another theme week.”
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