Aminah Nieves shares how she didn’t want to audition for the series.
The actress who played Teonna Rainwater in the series 1923, nearly skipped the popular series’ audition entirely.
While speaking to the E! News, the actress says, “I didn’t want to do it. I actually told my manager that I wasn’t going to audition for it. It’s a big burden and you’re opening up a lot more when you’re actually living in what your family lived through. Because of their strength and because of what they did for us, I didn’t have to live through that in the same exact way that they did.”
In the series the audience witnessed mistreatment of Teonna and the other young women at the residential school at the hands of the nuns and the head priest, especially Teonna who has endured some extremely abusive treatment.
Nieves revealed how she ultimately made the decision to try out for the part and how the character made her realize she ultimately relied on her family for support.
She says, “I was speaking with my mom a lot. I almost didn’t feel worth enough to tell this story because it’s so important. It’s scary when you’re telling something that has been a part of you since you were just a thought, since you were a little light beam in the cosmos. It’s terrifying.”
The star added, “After the third self-tape, I couldn’t not do it. I could not get that third self-tape. I couldn’t get through it. I was bawling. I was like, I need to do it, not only for me, but I looked at my mom on the other side and I was like, ‘I gotta do it for her.”
The 1923 series is currently streaming on Paramount+.
