“In the black community, it’s something that happens, but we don’t speak about it. We have to continue to talk about it and bring it straight to the forefront. And [that doesn’t only apply to] the black community but different races as well,”
In Essence’s “Yes Girl” podcast, Wright said:
“I didn’t want to do acting again. I was in a very, very bad place. I was willing to just wrap it up. I put so much pressure on myself. I would watch these women that I’m on the [ESSENCE] cover with and compare myself to them or anybody—Michael B. Jordan, John Boyega—comparing myself to these people. It was so hard for me to just accept that my path is different, not only with acting but other things too.”
“I speak boldly about [depression] because I struggled with it and I tried to find different ways [to heal], and it just didn’t work. I had to look deeper to find what could hold me, and I found that what held me together was my relationship with Jesus and my relationship with God. Even to this day, I’ll be at events and people will pull me to the side and tell me that they deal with the [situations] that I’ve dealt with. And I’m grateful because I want people to find a way out.”
At some point she thought of giving up acting because of her challenges.
However, she found rest in her faith. She said:
“I said I wanted to give [acting] up, then went into becoming a Christian. My friends told me about [Christianity] and I thought it was nonsense until I realized that it wasn’t; that the spirit of God, the holy spirit, is very real. Once I realized that, I felt centered. The reason why I share this story is because I know there are people out there who are silently going through what I went through. It’s a thing that goes on, especially creatives, putting so much pressure on ourselves and it leads to depression. The light that’s in me now and the joy and the happiness that I feel, I didn’t get it on my own. It’s God working through me.”
Photo credit: vulture