Lorraine Toussaint claims that a white director once told her that Lorraine Toussaint’s natural Caribbean accent wasn’t “authentic.”
Lorraine Toussaint told Page Six in an exclusive interview at the Alvin Ailey Spirit Gala, “I’m almost tempted to name his nasty little name. He’s one of those big directors.”
Lorraine Toussaint said that to make matters worse, the white director allegedly demonstrated what he “thought” the accent should sound like.
“I went [to audition] for a role. It was for a Caribbean role. He happened to be Caucasian and American. He said, ‘Your Caribbean accent is not authentic. Let me show you how to do it,'” Lorraine Toussaint recalled.
Lorraine Toussaint told us the director went on to “bastardize and butcher the Jamaican dialect.”
She also claimed that the director said, “I can’t really tell what your body is like with all those clothes on.'”
“The look I must have given him,” Toussaint said. “I went out and called my agent on a payphone – remember those? – and I said, ‘I didn’t get that job. Because I did not let him get away with that.'”
Lorraine Toussaint stars in “The Equalizer,” which airs every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.
