Every minute of speaking with Sheryl Lee Ralph feels like an incredible pep talk where you’re inspired to go out and conquer the world immediately afterward. If you watched her viral speech at the 2023 Critic’s Choice Awards, at which she won Best Supporting Actress for Abbott Elementary, you’d know exactly what we’re talking about.
If you didn’t, this is what she said: “To all of you watching here, come close to the screen and listen,” she said. “People don’t have to like you. People don’t have to love you. They don’t even have to respect you. But when you look in the mirror, you better love what you see. You better love what you see.”
This courage of conviction Lee Ralph attributes to her parents, she tells StyleCaster. “Being a child of the ’60s, my parents instilled in me the will and the determination to succeed,” she says. “To carry on knowing that I—and I say this a lot—I had to get up off the sidelines of my own life and get involved. That’s exactly where that has evolved after all these years, just getting the job done doing what needs to be done in order to carry on.”
In addition to becoming a multiple award winner, Lee Ralph is also the new spokesperson for Microban 24 disinfectant spray—a brand she discovered “in all of the stores that had the word dollar in it” during the COVID-19 pandemic and now she won’t buy any other brand. Now, she’s set to perform “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”, otherwise known as the Black national anthem, at the Super Bowl LVII on February 12, 2023, before watching her beloved Philadelphia Eagles take on the Kansas City Chiefs.
You have all this incredible confidence that you attribute to your parents. I want to know about your resilience, too. What happens when it’s hard to find confidence?
I tell folks all the time: “Go out there and get the help that you need. If you come up against something in your life and you need somebody to talk to, if you need some therapy, don’t be afraid to ask for the help that you need.” There are some people who like to go to their good books—whatever it is that they believe in, if that’s what you need to do, then buckle down on that.
Sheryl Lee Ralph. Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
But everybody needs to have an outlet. And they need to know that there is nothing wrong in seeking the help that they need and that they deserve. It’s when we don’t try to balance things out for ourselves; when we get into problems that we end up with greater problems. Know you’re not alone. You’re not the only person to fight personal battles. You’re not the only person to be at a loss. You’re not the only person to have to face grief. Don’t be the only person that doesn’t ask for the help that you need.
What sort of preparation goes into performing at the Super Bowl?
It’s a lot of rehearsal. I have an outstanding musical director in Adam Blackstone, who was also nominated for an Emmy and also a Grammy at the most recent Grammys. And he said, “Miss Ralph if they didn’t believe in you handling this moment, they would not have asked you.”
“You, meaning the NFL—they would not have asked you. So, the only thing you need to do when you get out there is get up on that stage and sing that is it. It’s two and a half million people, and two and a half minutes, make the best impression. That’s all there is to it.”
People look up to you as an icon. How do you feel about that word being applied to you?
It’s so interesting because “icon” simply means a personality or a thing that marks the moment. And if I am that person that marks this moment that we are going through right now, whether it be in show business, whether it be in the world, whatever that is, I accept it. And I love the fact that people will remember the moment when someone dared to tell them don’t ever give up on their dreams.
Courtesy of Pocket
For more about Sheryl Lee Ralph, check out her book Redefining Diva: Life Lessons from the Original Dreamgirl. In these highly personal reflections, Sheryl Lee Ralph reveals her take on her supposed feuds with Diana Ross and Jennifer Holliday, on auditioning for Sidney Poitier, why she exited so controversially from the TV series Moesha, and how she signed away her rights to Dreamgirls for a dollar. She uses her life story to illustrate her vision: black, white, or any other color of the rainbow, a true Diva is a person of strength, character, and beauty that radiates from within. Not just a memoir, Redefining Diva will inspire every woman (and man) who reads it to examine the potential in their own life.
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