'Honorary Canadian' Sheryl Lee Ralph fights the good fight

There's no denying that Sheryl Lee Ralph is a force of nature. The Emmy-winning actress has a self-confidence that is unwavering and, quite frankly, infectious. Even I walked away from our interview feeling like I'd won an Emmy of my own. 

Ralph has been in showbiz for over 45 years, riding the ups and downs of Hollywood and Broadway, most famously in her Tony Award-nominated role as Deena Jones in the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls. Today, she's best known for playing Barbara Howard, a veteran teacher, on ABC's Abbott Elementary. The role helped her earn her first Emmy Award — and also made her the first Black winner of the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category in 35 years.

When Ralph took the stage, she broke into song, emotionally belting Dianne Reeves' "Endangered Species." She embraced her trophy and declared: "To anyone who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream wasn't, wouldn't, couldn't come true, I am here to tell you that this is what believing looks like. This is what striving looks like. And don't you ever, ever give up on you."

The actress champions and motivates wholeheartedly, and playing a teacher onscreen has made her even more aware of their plight. Now, the actress is helping launch MadeGood's special back-to-school program, Share Some Good Fund, which will gift $200 to 1,000 teachers across Canada. Teachers can self-nominate or be nominated by someone in their lives; voting ends Sept 24. 

Ralph is also an impassioned supporter of the SAG-AFTRA strike and is part of the committee negotiating a new contract. While the strike meant we couldn't discuss her TV or film roles, there was plenty else to talk about while she was in Toronto promoting the MadeGood program — including how she's sustained herself through an extensive career, what brings her joy, and the outcome she hopes to see from the strike.

Welcome back to Toronto! This is not your first time here, is it?

No, I've been here before. I've worked here. It's so interesting that in my lifetime, I remember when they would import actors, especially Black actors from America, to come up here to do roles because there was not a community. And now there's a community and it's just like, "Wow, I love seeing this." So I've done quite a few movies here and I did a series in Vancouver. I had a great time doing that and I was here so much my phone thought I was Canadian.

There you go — you're an honorary Canadian.

Thank you! I hear it all the time that I'm an honorary Canadian. I love it. For the most part, people here are very nice. They're very kind. They take their time. They will cuss you out every now and then, but for the most part, you have to really, really stretch their patience for that to happen. 

I did have a chance to read your book, Redefining Diva, and it talks a lot about finding joy. What brings you joy?

My kids; my husband; times for me when I'm able to do absolutely nothing. Just relax. My daughter's always saying, "Breathe, mommy. Breathe. Relax. Take your time. Do nothing. Enjoy the moment. Listen to the sound." I value stuff like that. I really do. I'm learning that from my kids.

It's interesting — you never know how your kids respond to what it is you're doing. And you know, my kids will say to me, "You do so much. Do nothing. Relax." And I'm thinking to myself, "Who the hell relaxes? There's stuff to do. I'm a mother! I have things to do." And it's like, "Oh, wait a minute. Maybe I can relax."

You radiate such enthusiasm for life and such positivity. Even in your career, you've gone through ups and downs, but you still hold true to that. So where does that come from? How do you maintain that?

How do I not maintain that? As people talk to me about things like growing older, I say, "Listen, there's an alternative."

I choose to grow older in my life. I choose to live my life. Yes, I think we're going through very difficult times now. So what am I supposed to do? Be reduced to sadness? Am I supposed to be depressed because things are difficult? No. I have to hold on to my hope. I have to be strong and face the world with courage and move forward.

There'll be others behind me and they just have to see and remember, "She did it. If she did it, I can do it." Because that's what they have to see. That's what they have to know.

I see this not only in your personality, but also in your roles. How does being an actor satisfy you as an artist creatively?

You know, my whole life and being an artist and the roles that I've played — it's been on purpose. I've chosen certain roles because I want my family to be proud of me. I want my community to be proud of me. I really wanted my parents to be proud of me. I didn't want my father to have to go to the movie and see parts of me he hadn't seen since I was an infant. I wanted my church to be able to get on the bus and come see me and say, "That's our Sheryl Lee Ralph. Look at her."

That's what I wanted, and the way it's paid off for me is when I'm in a room full of young and young at heart people, and they say, "Miss Ralph, you did that for me." And I'm like, "You are absolutely right. I did that for you."

I'm glad that I'm able to stand now and look at them and see it was worth it. It was the right thing to do. Now when I look at my fanbase, it's like they're so young. It's like I have a huge child's fanbase. I read a children's book for the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, and a million children sat and listened to me. I'm like, "This is crazy, but I love it!"

I want to ask you about the SAG-AFTRA strike. You are incredibly supportive of it. Where do you think things are headed?

Listen, you know me — I'm a positive person. But it's got to get better. Actors, dancers, singers, disc jockeys; we have so many different kinds of people in the union. All workers want one thing: they want to get paid. They want to get paid a working wage. And the fact is 80% of our union, they're not making $25,000. They're not making that money — they just are not.

So I would like to be able to see us, after this strike, come out with a working wage. I would like us as performers to own our art, especially when our art is ourselves with things like artificial intelligence, where they now have the capabilities to scan your body, take your movements, take who you are, put a different face on it, if they make you a different colour, but still keep the bones and the movement of who you are and then not pay you. I don't think so! I want to be paid in perpetuity for what is mine; I want my family to get money off of the work that I've done.

I need a new chart for residuals because now they've changed the system. They're doing a lot of these shows for streaming, only eight episodes, six episodes, 10 episodes. People can't make a living on that. And you should not be able to hold them to that contract — they should be able to do 10 of them so that they can put this all together and they've got to get residuals.

People need to make money; artists should be able to make a living on their art. And it's got to happen. Why shouldn't it happen? [Executives] are going to be paid $55 million a year. If you can get that kind of pay, you've got to pay other people.

This fight [has been] going on for a while and it'll last for as long as it needs to last. I hope it's over sooner than later. But power is an interesting thing. Power doesn't give up power. It doesn't. Once they have it. They want to hold onto it, and you've got to fight for yours.

Can you talk about the MadeGood campaign, and why you wanted to advocate for this?

Just like the show that I'm in that we both love, we get to shine the light on the plight of teachers. These are people who show up every day with commitment to their students and their classroom and their school, and a lot of them are underpaid. They often don't get the respect that they deserve.

For me, the fact that these are educated people [and] we put the hearts and souls and minds of our greatest resource, our children, into their hands every day, and we don't want to pay them? I find it so disturbing that we would not make our children our priority in a way that says, "The people that you spend time with are going to be the best people that we can find and we are going to pay them to the best of our ability."

It's terrible and our show shines the light on that. And then here comes MadeGood and [they're] going to do their part to help; they're going to award 1000 teachers an extra $200 for them to not have to go into their pocket to get these essentials for the classroom. I mean, it's a perfect fit.

Have you always known about the plight of teachers, or did playing one shine a light on it?

I've had teachers in my life my whole life and I see the sacrifices that they make. Gosh, I remember my dad put together these bus trips for young musicians to go and hear other musicians play, and those who couldn't afford it, [he] paid the rest of the money so that they could make the trip and all of that. (Editor's note: Ralph's father is a college professor.) So it didn't just start now; it's been going on for quite some time where teachers had been going into their pocket to do what was needed for their students.

I just can't believe that we as society have let it get so bad, to let it go so far, that there are so many teachers who are not making these salaries. They're not making big money.

I've spoken to the teacher that's making $25,000, I've spoken to the teacher that's making $30,000, I've spoken to the teacher who had to leave the classroom because he could not afford to take money out of his meager paycheck to buy these things for his classroom allow. So for me, it was a natural fit to be able to talk about this and shine a light on it with others.

Not many people know about teachers buying supplies from their own paycheques…

Oh, yeah, the Dollarama is important to a lot of schools. Teachers are really, really doing what they can do. They're stretching $1 in more ways than one.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.