Jillian Reeves: Inspiring actress with a message of hope in her latest movie: Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot

26th July 2024Afrowoman1Afrowoman's World, Blog, Our Features0

Jillian Reeves: Image copyright: Virginia Niccolucci @virginia_niccolucci_photo

I had the privilege to interview Jillian Reeves, who embodies the essence of Hollywood’s creative spirit, with a career that spans acting, advocacy, and filmmaking. The latest project for this vibrant actress is a lead role in the powerful film and true story: the “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot,”. It’s a story about a small American town where 22 families adopted 77 of the hardest to adopt children.

Jillian made a memorable debut in BET’s groundbreaking “Let’s Talk”, series regular on TVOne’s “Media”, international debut in “L’Amore All’ Improvviso” and her guest appearance and recurring roles on hits like CBS’s The Unicorn, Young and the Restless, CSI: Miami, Grey’s Anatomy, Masters of Sex, Jillian has continued to captivate audiences.

A talented filmmaker and an advocate for Mental Health Awareness particularly within the African-American community, Jillian has developed the short film “Broken” using #EndTheStigma for her campaign. Her craft led her to establish the AAA Masterclass, where she serves as the lead acting coach, supporting others to stand out on-camera performances.

Read this 1st part of the interview, where Jillian talks about overcoming challenges to achieve her ambition to be an actress and the lessons we can all learn from her latest film project…

Jillian fulfills her mother’s dreams

AWO: Tell us about your background and how you got started. Do you come from a family of actors?

JR: My family are colourful people and I’m the only one in entertainment. But it’s funny when I looked through my mothers year book from high school and it said her passion and desire was to be an artist – it was still passed down even though she didn’t get to do it. I feel like I’m an extension of her dreams.

I didn’t start acting until college – I was painfully shy and I always thought about coming to California but I never thought of being an actress. But I think it was probably in the back of my mind. But then I went to college and took an acting class and I needed to improve my GPA; I got cast in a play then I got cast in another play (Jillian talks excitedly about this time). The plays in this town were huge. They were big productions, with the sets built and we had costumes made. moved to Chicago for grad school and then I moved to LA.

There’s often a lot of trauma involved in caring for others. So how can we protect our own mental health and make sure we’re setting boundaries and having self care?
Jillian Reeves

AWO: Did arriving late in Hollywood give you an advantage in how you look at life and the industry?

JR: I was a late bloomer as I arrived in LA at 27 years old – as well as my twins! I arrived with a different idea and as I had my family, a unit, it meant that I wasn’t as distracted – I was grounded early on. If you’re not grounded in this industry you can get yourself into a lot of sticky situations – which was an advantage.

Also having ‘split’ focus (a family) did make things difficult at times. So there were pros & cons, I do think overall it was good for me to come here with skill sets, meaning I can do a lot of things. I’m smart and resourceful – so I didn’t come here in desperation.

Living and acting a story of Hope

**Jillian Reeves: Image copyright: Virginia Niccolucci @virginia_niccolucci_photo**

AWO: About your latest project – The Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot: On the topic of focus and hope: what attracted you to the project?

JR: The project involves Letitia Wright from the UK, who is the executive producer. One of the lead actresses (a kid) Dianna is also from the UK. It’s a beautiful story I really related to about a small Southern religious town – which is basically where I’m from. They’re very poor but have beautiful big hearts in this town and they locked arms and decided to adopt 77 of the hardest to adopt kids in their town. That was 22 families that decided to adopt these kids. It was a massive undertaking and resonated as it’s so similar to where I grew up and where I’m from.

I’d never done a real true life story. In the past, I never got to play a real life story or a real woman who exists – that was really humbling and a beautiful experience. It made me want to dig deep be authentic and give as much as I could. Just to homage what they were able to do when they came together, so I love the story of community, unity, love and faith. I think it’s something everyone can relate to.

AWO: How did you prepare for the role? You met the person you played?

JR: I met her a few weeks in and I didn’t play her exactly as she is but I captured her love and huge emotional heart. She was the first to bring kids into her home in the town. I wanted to honour that. I felt like I had a lot of insight as it is so familiar to me. When I read the script I thought I know this – it felt so familiar to me.

After that building, deepening and committing to the circumstances of the film. It was a really good experience. They are wonderful people, they even came down to the set and they were in some of the scenes in the movie – in the church scenes. That was such a treat; I hadn’t got to experience that before.

AWO: In terms of what you learned from it, are there any personal lessons? Can you share what they were?

JR: It strengthened my feeling of community – I’d gone through some things and I was feeling like community was very far away. The beauty of how they stuck together and support each other through difficult times. It really reinforced how this is the answer to so many of the issues that plague us now.

I want to help people get to that point. To manage their selfcare, setting boundaries and caring for yourself, so that you can be what you need to be for so many different people. Black women need to have, hear and embrace this message.
Jillian Reeves

We focus a lot on how we’re different and what the other person isn’t, but what if we could see each other with love and come together as opposed to what is pushing us apart.

AWO: The message you would like the film to give to the audience to people watching the movie?

JR: A couple of things, number one the foster care system is overrun with children and they deserve better. The foster care system is ground zero for so many other issues – whether it’s homelessness, human trafficking, incarceration. We can stem the tide of so many problems in society if we give these kids a chance and we don’t let them age out of foster care with support system – that would be the first thing.

Also, ordinary people of modest means were able to do something to combat this crisis – we can all have a part. Even if you don’t foster or adopt you can care for a family, you can take them a meal – you can check on them, you can call or babysit – give somebody a night off. We can all support. I think I love the idea we can all play a part in making our world and communities a better place. And that in order to do that it does take that village, we need to come together. We need to see each other as extensions of ourselves, give of ourselves and be able to receive.

AWO: The message about community seems to be coming out the loudest in the movie. Where people feel like they can’t do it, that being able to connect with others will help?

JR: That’s my hope – these are children and when they haven’t had guidance they’ll make mistakes and it’s easy to vilify those children because of those mistakes. But I hope that people see that children and ‘people are people’ who have difficulties and traumas and have things going on. But if we can see the humanity that’s in them as opposed to a label or problem that we don’t want to look at but we can say, “no they are traumatised they need guidance and we’re going to bring them in and not push them away” or close our eyes. But see the humanity in everyone; and that’s the first step as there’s all kinds of forces – all sorts and to combat that we have to push the coming together and seeing each other with love as part of the same community and same solution as opposed to each other’s problems.

We focus a lot on how we’re different and what the other person isn’t, but what if we could see each other with love and come together as opposed to what is pushing us apart.
Jillian Reeves

Enjoying her journey of growth and supporting others

AWO: In terms of your career path – you starred in Grey’s Anatomy , CSI Miami – and now this film Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot – you must be on a growth journey?

JR: Filming is fun because it’s usually deeper. You have longer to film and you can flesh the characters out. Whereas TV is procedural and it moves. I love TV but it’s a different beast and you don’t have the time to go in-depth in the characters like in movies. They are different mediums and I like them both and one is for a shorter attention span to tell a story in 30 minutes or an hour whereas the other you get to live and breath in this world a bit more. They’re both great and I’m really happy with this part of the journey for sure.

AWO: On your career path and development, also being a film maker, you established the AAA Masterclass; Tell us a bit more about that and what it includes and how you’re supporting people there?

JR: I did my first film right before Covid. It’s a film largely based on mental health. It’s about a family struggling with a family member with mental health challenges, It’s based/inspired on real life events. It was such a frustrating world to be in and I wanted to create something cathartic and educational- similar to Sound of Hope movie, where a lot of people don’t understand the foster care world. So this is shining a light on it. I wanted to do the same thing, so I made Broken and I’m excited about it and expanding it.

Mental Health Awareness month – Supporting Black, Indigenous, and people of color

JR: It’s also national Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) Mental Health Awareness month. I’m going to screen it here and do a caregiver panel like what you see in the film. There’s often a lot of trauma involved in caring for others. So how can we protect our own mental health and make sure we’re setting boundaries and having self care? It’s been great to be able to integrate entertainment along with my mental health advocacy. So I’ve done that through that particular film (Broken).

The AAA Master Class was something I started when I was living in Italy (during the pandemic I moved to Italy). I used Club House and met diverse actors from all over who loved the idea of Hollywood and entertainment, where I taught them audition techniques and accent reduction. So it was aimed at helping people who wanted to work in the States (USA) and have a more Americanized accent through auditioning. I’m from the South and we have a different way of talking so I had to learn to neutralise my own accent and I decided to expand it and teach online classes that people could purchase.

AWO: So is that all part of you coaching and supporting different people with their acting careers as well?

JR: Yes even in acting this is my way to elevate and support people to reach their potential. I can always see someone’s potential and think “I know exactly what you need to do” but my own life, haha – I’m an expert in helping other people to go to the next level. So I was doing it for so many years, it made sense to build a structure to help even more people.

AWO: Being a Black women in TV and film and helping to coach and support others; do you focus mainly on helping Black people or people in general?

JR: It’s diverse – as I’ve lived in different countries it’ a ‘big tent’. When it comes to the mental health part, I’m building something called Join Jillian about selfcare and especially for caregivers and those in difficult circumstances. It’s something that affects Black women in a major way, when it involves looking after kids, parents and taking on people’s issues. We are so caregiving in nature historically, so we often have issues in drawing boundaries to care for ourselves.

Breaking the stigma of mental health

JR: So, as a caretaker myself, as I was caretaking for my mom last year before she passed away, I have deep understanding of how exhausting it can be. When caregivers don’t realise how much trauma they are facing daily and as caregivers we fare worse than the people we are caring for, as we don’t always take care of ourselves.

The stigma of therapy and mental health and all these things in the Black community, I’ve fought very hard to end this stigma and share our stories. When I first started talking about mental health the silence in our community was deafening. But after I really started sharing, people I’d known for years would start telling me their stories– for example they’d say things like “my uncle had schizophrenia and I’m his caretaker, or I haven’t seen my brother in years because he’s….” I thought oh my goodness these are beautiful Black women that I know – what is it that’s making us think we have to these burdens alone and keep these secrets?

I am very much about us sharing our stories, for us to have a space for us to feel that we’re not alone. Also there is a virtuousness in giving all of yourself. You know when we give our all for our kids, for the church – those are beautiful examples. However it’s not virtuous to give from an empty cup and have nothing left for yourself. So I want to foster that space that supports the people who are supporting other people.

A virtual panel to give back to caregivers

JR: The virtual panel I have coming up for this minority mental health month is called Who’s Caring for the Caregivers – Caregivers Corner. I was surprised when I was learning about the different traumas Caregivers can go through. There’s 7 or 8 traumas specific to caregivers – vicarious trauma, secondary trauma, PTSD etc. Even in the film you see Caregivers struggling to respond to kids with mental health needs. I feel that this is a space that’s really needed in our community and I’m committed to having that space. It took a lot for me to recover and restore after feeling so depleted. I want to help people get to that point. To manage their selfcare, setting boundaries and caring for yourself, so that you can be what you need to be for so many different people. Black women need to have, hear and embrace this message.

This is the first part of the Jillian Reeves interview. I’ll be publishing the 2nd and final part soon; with Jillian talking about her Join Jillian platform championing self-care and mental health and advice for aspiring actresses.