It created an opportunity for the community to invest in these young women’s futures and inspired me by celebrating young women that looked like me with hope and optimism for their futures on their faces. She is the reason that I was able to attend the Miss Juneteenth pageant, a scholastic beauty pageant for young Black women that my film is based on. Opal Lee was a part of the fabric of my childhood, and she always felt larger than life when I would see her proudly walking at the head of the annual Juneteenth parade, leading it through the streets of Fort Worth. She has been the lifeblood of creating awareness about Juneteenth, which commemorates the day that enslaved people in Texas finally found out that they were free-two and a half long years after the Emancipation Proclamation. At 94 years young, she has spent her life in service of others. Opal Lee, who is a civil rights icon from Texas. The heroine that I am spotlighting is Mrs. Nathalie Emmanuel, who played Missandei in critically acclaimed HBO series Game of Thrones and most recently starred in the hilarious series Die Hart opposite Kevin Hart and John Travolta I saw Halle at a party once and just had to say thank you. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized I am part of a legacy within Hollywood because of Halle and others that came before, such as Dorothy Dandridge, and it’s a legacy that I am proud to be a part of. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated the possibilities for Black and brown women in film by taking up space and showing the industry what kind of actor she can be and not who they expect her to be-which led to her being the first (and sadly the only) Black actress to win an Oscar for best lead actress. I realize now that it was the beginning of me thinking a career in acting was possible. Seeing Halle Berry in The Flintstones as a five- or six-year-old was the first time I saw myself reflected on screen. Nathalie: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
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