E-mail a friendJudy Reyes
airdate August 7, 2008
After guest roles in such TV hits as NYPD Blue and Oz, Judy Reyes gained prominence on NBC's comedy series Scrubs. Her film credits include Washington Heights and the indie Dirty. She also starred in, co-produced and co-directed Glow Ropes: The Rise and Fall of a Bar Mitzvah Emcee, which won the HBO New York Latino Film Festival's Best Film award. A Bronx, NY native, Reyes roots are in the theater, where she was a founding member of the multicultural collective LAByrinth Theatre Company.
Actress tells Tavis what it's like playing characters of varying Latin American backgrounds. (3:11)
Full Interview. (9:25)
Judy Reyes
Tavis: Judy Reyes is a talented actress who stars on the Emmy and Peabody-winning comedy series "Scrubs." Early next year, the show will return for its eight season after making the switch from NBC to ABC. More on that in a moment, but first you can catch her in the new Lifetime movie network project "Little Girl Lost," which premieres Sunday, August 17th - my mama's birthday. Here now, a scene from "Little Girl Lost."
[Clip]
Tavis: So I mentioned earlier that it premieres on my mother's birthday, which means it's going to do very well.
Judy Reyes: Mm-hmm.
Tavis: All right.
Reyes: That's a good sign. Thank you, Mama.
Tavis: That's a very good sign, yeah. That said, though, it's a story about a mother and a lost child, and I popped this thing in to watch it and was blown away by the storyline. It's based on a true story.
Reyes: Yeah.
Tavis: I'll let you explain it, but it's quite a story.
Reyes: Yeah. Luz Aida Cuevas had a baby. She was the mother of two boys already; she's a Puerto Rican woman, actually lived in Philadelphia, in South Philly, I believe, and had a baby girl. Ten days after she was born, there was a horrible fire that broke out in the baby's room, and her attempts to rescue her were futile. She was pulled out of the room and the room was engulfed in flames.
And the police told her that the body was burned beyond recognition, beyond rescue, but in fact she insisted that the body wasn't there, that the window was open. Nobody believed her, her husband didn't believe her, all the so-called evidence was against her that the baby existed.
And six years later, she goes to a birthday party and is confronted with this little girl who she feels instinctively, that's my little girl, that's Delimar, that's the girl that was stolen from me, not that she burned to death. Because she insisted and she lost her husband, had to rebuild her life, was forced to move on because she was confronted with a system and everything around her that told her, against her own instinct and against her own heart.
She sees this little girl, snatches hair from her head, gets it tested for DNA, finds herself her local councilman, her local representative, tells him her story. He thinks it's crazy but gets it tested anyway, and a long story short, it's a match. It's her child.
Tavis: It's an amazing story. You and I were talking when you came on the set - I don't have kids as yet; you don't have kids as yet, and yet I got it. It makes perfect sense to me that even though the child is only 10 days old when she is abducted, that a mother, even six years later, sees that baby, knows it's her child. It just made perfect sense to me, that a mother, more than anybody else in the world, would know that.
Reyes: Exactly. And as soon as I read the script I was moved on more than one occasion to tears, to almost tears, to goosebumps, just reading the story. Its veracity was undeniable, and just the knowing that it was true. Then I went to the Internet and I saw pictures, and the girl is identical to her mother, from the face to the mouth to the hairdo, even - they both have bangs and a ponytail. It was frightening - frightening.
So that sends chills up your spine. I had all that to go with when people asked me - well, the first question they do ask me in doing the role was "Are you a mother?" "No, I'm not." "So how do you do it?" I had that, I had that research at my fingertips, thanks to the Internet, of course, and I had the simple fact that she knew what nobody else knew, that she went into that room and the window was open.
Tavis: As an actor, though, Judy, what did you draw upon? I've always loved these conversation where I get a chance to get inside actors' heads for what they drill down into to bring out what they need in that moment to make the character believable. So you're not a mother. As I said earlier, obviously I'm not. But I got it - I got how a mother would know it's her child. What did you drill down into emotionally to make it believable on camera?
Reyes: Well, that, what you said, that you get it, you get it when you read it, and a very well crafted script, based on a story that's true. It's the thing that makes you - oh my god, this is a true story. All that research that I told you, and that.
I've been that person who A loves that way, who's lost someone they love and they feel like they - why did you take this away from me? I wanted this more than anything. I wanted to complete this picture of these two little boys and now I have my little girl.
And I've also been not believed when I know that it was right. This is blue. No it's not. It's blue. It's blue, I'm not crazy. Everybody's telling me - of course the civil rights movement, that kind of thing. And then you - she has a moment where she has to stop and say, "Well, you have two children - what about them?"
She has to take that moment, and it can't be about kicking and screaming, kicking and screaming, and making herself sick when she's forgetting about the two children that exist.
Tavis: I know that earlier in your career - and I was just discussing this with somebody the other day - that earlier in your career, not unlike a lot of actors of color, you get tired of being offered these stereotypical roles, and sometimes these roles that are over the top where the accent is concerned, the mannerisms are concerned.
So clearly, this is a story about people of color, and I think the answer would - you're going to answer this for me - obviously, the storyline overwhelms everything. But how do you go about making choices now when offered roles where you have to play the character who happens to be a person of color with that thick accent?
Reyes: Well, that's - well, this was a character, a person, a story that actually happened that existed. It's not a parody of someone, it's not a caricature based on someone who doesn't know that person's existence. So it's an opportunity to realize something.
That said, it's also television, so you have to make it accessible to an audience, and that was one of the concerns that I had when I did get the script and I sat down with the director, Paul Kaufman, who did an outstanding job, who was extraordinarily receptive, because of course he as a director, as an artist himself, has his own agenda of being a legitimate filmmaker and not just be relegated to what television became, and it's thanks to cable also, coming out of that realm of crappy medium.
People, I think, we're all trying to maintain our artistic pursuits and exploring every medium that we can. So right after I got the script I got all excited and all emotional and then I went right to the news, to the Internet, and found all the footage, all the Spanish language media. This woman conducted her life and existed in Spanish, she's Puerto Rican, barely here - recently here.
And I'm fluent in Spanish, I grew up in the Bronx around Puerto Ricans, I love doing accents. I'm Dominican, though - my Spanish is different. But I'm also an actor, and I relish the opportunity to do any accent. I'm like, what? (Laughter) But you also have to appeal to a wide audience that's that Lifetime audience.
I also know that Latinas love Lifetime. My girls, it was like "Oh my god, I love a Lifetime movie, that's my favorite channel." (Laughter) "I can't wait, I can't wait - you know, those stories are true."
Tavis: I get the sense that the accent notwithstanding, whatever the accent is - this is my sense, after all these years of being around this business, although not in it the way you are - that if you can tap into the humanity of the character, then people get it.
Reyes: Yeah, people get it.
Tavis: People get it. People get humanity.
Reyes: People get it, but the Latino reality is a little more complicated, and if you're appealing to your peers and your artists, because there's Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Venezuelans, Costa Ricans, and the artistic challenge of being true to the regionalisms, at least. And then challenging yourself as an actor, also; as an artist.
Tavis: So before I let you go - "Scrubs."
Reyes: Yeah.
Tavis: Still has life. (Laughter) That was the coolest story, after all those years on NBC, NBC says, "Okay, we're moving on," and ABC says, "Come over here." So you're back.
Reyes: Yeah, we're back.
Tavis: Yeah - what do you make of that.
Reyes: As Johnny C. says, "We're making television history." (Laughter) Every day.
Tavis: It is amazing, though, isn't it?
Reyes: It is, it is. We're really, truly blessed, it's fun. As long as we like being there, we like - every day. Sometimes we have to kind of hang out and wait for them to write a scene or two, but the results are always fun. The audiences love it.
Tavis: Well, congrats on this project.
Reyes: Thank you.
Tavis: And on being back for "Scrubs" on ABC.
Reyes: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
Tavis: Nice to see you.
Reyes: Nice to be here.
Tavis: Judy Reyes.
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