Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph has gone viral after opening up about advice she said she would have given herself had she known back then what she knows now.
During a red carpet appearance at the 2023 80th Golden Globe Awards, she was asked to reveal what she would tell herself when she was 15.
“There’s nothing wrong with your nose,” the Moesha star who was nominated for best supporting actress in a television series told an InStyle reporter. “There is nothing wrong with the shade of your skin. There is nothing wrong with the way your hair grows out of your head.”
“And there certainly is nothing wrong with your lips because there will be some people called Kardashians and they will pay $10,000 for your lips!” she exclaimed while looking into the camera.
The Instant Mom star continued by stating that no matter what the critics tell you, “you’re good. Hang in there.”
Ralph, who recently won an Emmy for her role in Abbott Elementary, didn’t win the best supporting actress role for her performance in the mockumentary, but she did snag a collective win with her fellow cast for best comedy. Her co-stars Quinta Brunson and Tyler James Williams won the awards for lead actress and supporting actor, respectively.
After Ralph’s red carpet comments went viral the next day, she stood by her comments and tweeted, “I said what I said. Now, I’m going to bed. Goodnight,” adding the kissy face emoji.
The 66-year-old had a historic moment at the Emmy’s last year after delivering a riveting speech as she accepted the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress.
As she took the stage to accept her award, she made a nod to women everywhere by using the opportunity to sing a capella, bringing the audience to its feet in standing ovation.
“I am an endangered species, but I sing no victim’s song,” she sang during her acceptance speech. “I am a woman, I am an artist. And I know where my voice belongs.”
The Sister Act 2 actress won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a comedy for a role as Barbara Howard, the infectious teacher on the Abbott Elementary show.
“To anyone, who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream wasn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t come true — I am here to tell you that this is what believing looks like,” she said in her speech after singing the Dianne Reeves song called Endangered Species. “This is what striving looks like. And don’t you ever ever give up on you.”
She then thanked her co-star and Abbott Elementary creator, Quinta Brunson, her husband Vincent Hughes, a Pennsylvania Senator and her two children.
The Rutgers alumna began her career in the late 70s and rose to stardom after being nominated for a Tony Award in 1981. She has since been in highly-successful movies, including Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, The Distinguished Gentleman and To Sleep with Anger. She is most known for her role as Deidra “Dee” Mitchell in the hit series, Moesha.
The honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated almost gave up on acting, she said in a WUSF interview. “‘What are you doing?’ she remembers asking herself. “And I said, ‘Well, actually, I’m not doing too much. That must be because you must not want to do too much or you’ve forgotten who you are.’ And I was like, ‘Wow. What a perfect moment.’ And it really took that moment to reexamine my career, reexamine who was representing me and get out there and get better representation, which I did with my current manager, Lisa Wright. And what she was able to do, with the trajectory that she was able to put me on, is exactly where I am, exactly where she told me I deserve to be.”
