Simone Missick is credited with being the first black female superhero on a live action series.
Myles Aronowitz/Netflix
Simone Missick made a triumphant return to Harlem for an intimate and empowering conversation with In Her Shoes' blogger Renae Bluitt.
Missick, who plays badass Detective Misty Knight on the Netflix hit show, Marvel's Luke Cage, teamed up with Eden Bodyworks to share her secrets to "unleash your inner shero" with over 150 young black women.
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Luke Cage, which follows the titular bulletproof Harlem hero, is often lauded for its all-star black cast. But, it’s Missick's Misty Knight who’s increasingly becoming one of the break-out stars from the series.
And if anyone should know about sheroism, it's Missick. Aside from being a fan-favorite on the show, Missick also serves as an ambassador for black girl magic as she’s credited with being the first black female superhero to appear on a live action television show. In the hour-long conversation, Missick spoke with Bluitt about faith guiding her career, the moment that the Harlem-based show crashed Netflix and her next move.
On learning to lead with with faith for her career
I had many years of slow growth and I remember I always said I'm going to be famous by 28. Gabrielle Union did Bring It On at 28 and that's going to be me. And when my 28th birthday came, I was like God what happened? And it was difficult to be a Christian and to pray and to tithe and to believe and to do all those things that I thought I was doing right and not feel like I was seeing the growth and the product and the results. So, every year, when I met my husband, I met him six years ago, and he was already established, and every year we would do this journal where we would write out what our goals were for the year, what we accomplished that year and what we were going to try to do the next year. And every year, I would write down this long list of things and every year I'd be like "Ugk, didn't get that that. Dang it. Didn't check that off." And it became daunting like it was spiritually just draining. So I would pray and I would say, 'God, listen, if this is not for me, remove it, remove it from my heart, remove it from my mind, just take it away from me and every single time, God would give me a job. And it wouldn't be the job, it would never be like 'and now you're the lead on the next..." It was...and now you're doing a commercial...which is money.
I realized that when I started focusing on God and prayer, not my career, is when things started to come together. I always think of the scripture "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added onto you." As soon as I stopped focusing on me, me, me, this is what I want, this is what I want, then things started to happen. And on my ten year anniversary of being in L.A., I booked this job which has been the biggest job of my career and of my life. But it really came from focusing on God, doing the work. Because if I had booked this job at 28, I would have just messed this up, completely.
On Marvel’s Luke Cage crashing Netflix after streaming in 190 countries
As people of color, we are told often that we are not enough. That we do not travel well. That people in other countries don't want to see us, they don't want to hear our stories, they don't want to see our truth. They only want to see us be athletes and musicians and sing and dance. They don't want to hear us be human. And that showed that that was a lie.
On defining Black Girl Magic
It's so much. Historically, we have been the birther of greatness, the mothers of greatness, the backbones to communities, the foundation for this country, this world. We have built monuments and mountains and pyramids and cities on our backs with our children with our blood, our sweat, our tears and we have done it all with beautiful hair and full lips and broad noses and melanated skin and pride that comes from knowing that we are the first woman and first children and first daughters of God, period. And we have still managed to accept and gently demolish the lies that are perpetuated about us that we are not the first, that we are not as great and as beautiful and as awesome and as brilliant and as intelligent and as sexy and as sensual and as feminine and as lovely as we are. We constantly tear down the idea that we are too rough or too hard or too loud or too big or too small every single day. And I think black girl magic is living in that. It is saying “No” when you have your boss say "Can you change your hair?" It is saying I rebuke you when you have people ask you ignorant questions. "Have you ever been to jail? Do you know anybody who's ever been in prison? Is your family on welfare?" If they are, there's nothing wrong with that but the assumption that we all come from less than or that being from less than makes us less than. So, I feel like black girl magic is just living within that, within a system and a world that constantly tries to subject us and to hold us down and still flourishing, still being our awesome amazing selves in whatever way we can.
On giving advice to her 10-year-old self and learning to embrace yourself
Don't lighten your voice. I was a little kid with a really deep voice. And my brother and my sister who are eight years older than me would make so much fun of me. And I was like “Oh (in deep voice) Simone this ain't cool no more.” So I started lightening my voice and I started making myself more friendly in that way. And then, the lightening of my voice turned to...I was a really goofy kid. And when I got to high school, I was like Oh, boys don't like that. Don't be goofy anymore. Be serious and demure. Just dumb, really. Be yourself. Then, I moved to L.A. and it was change your look. Get really long hair, put on a lot of make-up and look like a Kardashian. This is before the Kardashians were the Kardashians. But it was like follow this L.A. uniform of what a woman looks like. And we see it every day on Love & Hip Hop and everything else and there's nothing wrong with that look. Every woman has the ability to look whatever way they want but if that's not your look...it's not like I was like "This is how I want to look everyday." It was like "This is how I need to look in order to get a job" and so if I had just told my ten-year-old self don't lighten your voice I would have never stopped being the goofy goofy, which I found myself back to be. I wouldn't have been out there straightening my hair, trying desperately to make them edges lay down when they did not want to. (laughs)
So, yeah, I would say don't lighten your voice. Don't change yourself, don't put yourself into a box to make other people comfortable. Don't dim your light to make other people feel bright. Don't make yourself small to make other people feel large. Be you, walk in your greatness because that will then inspire everyone else around you to walk in their greatness. That's your superpower. Your superpower is being yourself. Nobody else can be you.
On the lack of diversity behind the camera and finding comfort in being herself on set
You think there's no diversity, there is no diversity in the make-up room. None. Even on my show, as black as it was, the make-up room was all white. Now, the woman who did my make-up was awesome, she was from South Africa, she had educated herself on how to do women of color's make-up so she knew exactly what she was doing but the hair department...every day, there would be some different little young white woman who was like "uhmm...so...do you want to just do it?" I would do my hair every night. Every night. It takes a village to keep a twist out.
You gotta think about what was great was that the creator of the show's wife is also natural and he was like this needs to happen, I want this image out there. That's one thing. And that feels good as a woman to have someone say just be you, just walk in as yourself. Do not change anything about yourself. We don't need you to gain weight, lose weight, gain hair, lose hair, just be you.
On her next moves
So I'm working on a show called The Defenders. For those of us who are not affiliated with the superhero of it all, it's a street-level Avengers. It's where they all come together and so I'll be doing that show with Mike Colter and Krysten and Charlie Cox who plays Daredevil and Finn who plays Iron Fist and Sigourney Weaver who's been announced to be a part of the show. So that's fun. I am excited because I'm getting ready to start prep on two projects. One is a web series on abc.com for a friend of mine who is another Detroit girl, her name is Diarra Kilpatrick. She wrote this show called American Koko. She is such a brilliant, smart, black girl and her show surrounds a woman named Koko who's the head of the Everyone's a Little Bit Racist agency which investigates racially sticky situations and it's being produced by Viola Davis which is awesome. Then, I just signed on to do another project by another black girl magic young filmmaker who's doing a movie about a woman, myself, who decides to covert to Islam. And what happens to her daughter, who's very free-spirited and just wild at 16 and how that affects her life as a result of it. It's called Jinn.
On advice to others and how to unleash your inner “shero”
If there is something that you have in your heart deep deep down or on the surface, it could be something you tell everybody that you want to do but you don't feel like you're there yet. Never, never, never, never never give up and go about the business of figuring out how to do what it is that you were called to do. It is your job. God placed that in your heart for a reason. He will never take it away because he gave it to you when he created you. Before the foundations of this world, he made you to be you for Him. So in order to unleash your inner shero, or hero, it's really just unleashing the power that God has placed inside of you that your mind is trying to keep down or that the people around you are trying to keep down. So, go out every day and figure out how you can do something every day that terrifies you. Not stupid stuff like jumping in traffic or drugs. Go out and figure out how to live your best self. How to be your best you and don't feel like you have to be anybody else.