My Mom Shares Her Hollywood Stories for Mother’s Day

It may sound cliché, but I owe all of my success in life to my ambitious mother, the woman who raised me on my own and always pushed me to aim for the stars even when life got me down. stop.

Growing up, I never understood friends who said they should become a doctor or a lawyer because their parents said so, or because it was the practical thing to do for financial stability. It was never my reality. My mother always assured me that I could be anything I wanted to be as long as it made me happy. Even while juggling the heavy responsibilities of being a single mother, she took her own advice and continued to be a background actor in Hollywood, briefly. All because she imagined she could and acted on it.

She may not know it, but that determination is the main reason why she is one of my biggest inspirations.

My mother, Angela McKnight, who is from our hometown of Baltimore, graduated from Morgan State University in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in social work. She then became a social and medico-social worker, among other things in the field of health. It’s not exactly the career path you predict for an aspiring actor, but she tells me that at 35, almost five years after I was born, she decided she “wanted to try something different.” .

“It was something that happened to me,” she says of her acting career, adding that she once took acting classes. “I wanted to try something new. I felt like I was at a crossroads in my life. But as I tried to continue acting and working as an extra in many films, [as a mom], I didn’t have the flexibility I needed so I didn’t travel. Back when I was doing it, movies were coming to town, so I was working on them, or I was going out and trying to get the opportunity to work on them.”

In May 2002, an acting opportunity presented itself in Baltimore for a film that would later become Chris Rock’s directorial debut, “Head of State.” And, as my mother has often told me throughout my life, I helped her secure it. “I went to a casting, and the one they had to [Security Square] Mall, I remember going with you, she explains. I didn’t have a babysitter, so I took you. And when we got there, the line was out the door; it was so long. I thought, ‘You know what, there’s no way I can fit you in that line because I’m trying to do this.’ And just as I was about to leave, one of the production assistants came over because you started whining and he told us to go to the front of the line and have my picture taken.”

Image source: Angela McKnight

After my mom did it with me posing right next to her off camera, she went to a casting director who said, “See you on set.” Fast forward to this summer, she’s officially worked on her first major film as a background actress. She then worked as an extra in other films like “Ladder 49”, “The Invasion”, “Shooter” and “Live Free or Die Hard”, which featured big names like Nicole Kidman, Bruce Willis, Daniel Craig , John Travolta and Mark Wahlberg, to name a few. She’s also starred in TV shows like HBO’s “The Wire” and “We Own This City,” as well as Netflix’s “House of Cards.”

Needless to say, my mother lived a life. The one who inspired me to live as fearless and determined as her. Although she took a long break between 2007 and her final acting credits (2013 and 2022) to pursue her career in healthcare and, of course, raise me, she says she has no regrets. for not continuing to act beyond his handful of background roles.

“I loved being in the set, in the atmosphere. I never really got discouraged because it seemed like I would always have the opportunity to have a bit part,” she shares. “If I wanted enough I would have gone further, but I just didn’t. As a single parent, my main concern was to make sure my child was well taken care of.”

My mother always dared to dream and still does, even when her situation as a single mother left her no room. I couldn’t be prouder of the example she set for me in my own endeavors, and I would say she’s equally proud of how they turned out. “Now I’m being interviewed by my daughter, who is a famous journalist,” she beams proudly.

Read ahead to learn more about some of his true Hollywood extra stories.