For the Reckord | Hyatt urges authenticity for Jamaican artists

Shakespeare’s much-quoted admonition “To thine own self be true” was a dominant theme of stage and television actress Michael Hyatt’s talk at the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ) recently. While addressing the advertised topic, “Actualizing an International Acting Career,” in a 50-minute presentation (followed by a discussion), she stressed that being authentic was the way to go.

The actress, who insists on calling herself an African-American-British-Jamaican, was born in England, the daughter of Jamaicans Vera Hyatt, art historian and museologist, and the late actor and broadcaster, Charles Hyatt. Now working in the USA, she received a bachelor’s degree from Howard University and a master’s from New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts.

In her wide-ranging talk, she spoke of her father’s struggles for 20 years to find work in England as a black actor, of the family returning to Jamaica to help to develop the country, and of her parents separating when she was 10. As a teenager living in Washington with her mother, and singing and dancing with a Jamaican performing arts ensemble called the Caribbean Heritage Group, Hyatt said, she had no desire to go to college. However, her mother insisted and she enrolled at Howard University, her mother’s alma mater.

When she saw the stage at the university, “something clicked,” said Hyatt, and she knew that performing was to be her life. But she was a terrible student, though she shone when she was on stage. However, losing control of herself in “an out-of-body experience,” while rehearsing, so frightened her that she didn’t act for the rest of the school year. Instead, she concentrated on learning lighting and got jobs with major theatres. Then a “magical” internship at the Folger Theatre led to her going to New York City to get acting work and she left Howard without finishing her degree.

In New York, she hustled for jobs for years, but also found a college where she could do the last course in theatre history that she needed for the degree from Howard, and later got into New York University.

Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, she told the IOJ audience, she could see that all her actions were being divinely guided. She was working in a department store, when she saw in an item in Backstage about an audition call for actors. This led to her getting a job in film as a production assistant and later being hired as an extra in a film.

small gigs

New York University’s graduation programme is always watched by numerous agents and casting directors, she said, and she was able, on graduation, to get small parts in various shows, including Shakespeare in the Park and television’s Law and Order.

She moved to Pennsylvania with her boyfriend at the time and started doing home nursing, entirely without training, but then an audition got her into the television hit show, The Wire, and there she stayed for several years. Another unhealthy relationship with another man led to her moving to Los Angeles. She was getting her bag in the airport when her agent called to tell her to go to an audition for a part in The West Wing. She went to the audition with no real expectation of getting the job. “I just wanted to show my work. That allowed me to feel relaxed and I was able to do my best and got the part after two weeks in being in LA,” she said.

Thrown back into the world of television, her self-esteem, fears, and her doubts about her profession returned. She had been told that to be successful she had to cut her hair, fix her teeth and lose weight. She did all that, but still felt that she did not deserve the loads of money she was earning with the show.

“I [mistakenly] understood that to be an artist you had to struggle. I didn’t see myself as worthy of earning money,” she said, and was more comfortable being broke and “peed” away her money. But then she got pregnant and at 39, found herself without a job. There followed a seven-year period in which she got only small parts.

It turned out to be “a wonderful, wake-up call,” she revealed, making her realise that she should honour the talent she’d been given and to understand it could be taken away. With her awakening, she got a part in several other television shows, including Ray Donovan, Night Crawler, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Snowfall.

“Now, I’m a series regular and earning a pile of money. I’ve finally reached a place in my emotional development where I can allow the work to come through me,” she said.