Yara Shahidi Stuns On The Cover Of BYRDIE’s Revival Issue

Yara Shahidi is on the cover of the new issue of BYRDIE. The young actress is on the cover of the magazine’s “Revival Issue”. Highlights from her interview are below.

On keeping a healthy balance between acting and her personal life: “One thing my mother has always said is acting is something we do, but it’s not who we are. I’ve always appreciated that distinction because it’s meant I’ve always had a personal life with hobbies and friends. My acting career was never all-consuming as a kid. Before Black-ish, I was guest-starring on a lot of shows, but I would go to work and then go back to school or attend things like karate class.”

On how she began to relate more to her character Zoey on grown-ish when she began college: “For years, I felt like Zoey was my polar opposite, and we just happened to be the same age. But, suddenly, we hit this moment in the script where Zoey’s in school, balancing work, and flying back and forth. And she was struggling with her feelings about missing important moments in her work and personal world. That brought me to tears because it was so resonant. As thankful as I was to be able to fly to school and work—and as much as I was the one who signed up for both—it was a lot. There was a lot to process in terms of what I was missing even though I was having all these great experiences in exchange.”

On taking the role of Tinker Bell in the Disney+ film, Peter Pan & Wendy: “I talked to the director, David Lowery, about why he and the higher-ups at Disney wanted to retell this story and I loved his response. They wanted to bring some new fun to this classic but also give us the fairy tale we deserve. It’s evident they’re not just popping Black and Brown folks in the cast for the sake of updating the story. Instead, it’s about creating a story that so many more people can see themselves in after we’ve been left out for so long.”

You can check out even more from her interview here.