Rashida Jones has opened up about an interview that went viral in which she was asked about her “tan”.
Jones, who is the daughter of legendary music producer Quincy Jones, was forced to explain her ethnicity when an interviewer complimented her on her look and asked her about her “tan”.
The interviewer said to Jones: “You look amazing, gorgeous! You look like you’ve just come off an island or something. You’re very tan, very tropical.”
In response, Jones replied: “I mean, you know, I’m ethnic.” The clip went viral on social media afterwards.
Now, in a new interview with the New Yorker, Jones admitted she wasn’t in the best mood when the interview happened and added that she’s spent her career making sure she wasn’t “whitewashed” in the roles she was offered.
Of the interview, Jones explained: “I was a little grumpy, I’m going to admit. I was, like, Not today, Jesus. Not today.”
She went on: “As much as I might feel confused about where I belong at times, I feel comfortable with who I am. I’ve never hidden who I am. I’ve never led with anything that didn’t feel true to me. I don’t want to show up and try to represent something that I’m not.”
She added: “I will just say for the record, I’ve never been whitewashed, meaning I would never let somebody cast me with two white parents. But for the first 15 years of my career, I would go in and read for Black parts, but I just wouldn’t get cast. And there weren’t a ton of biracial people with my hair and my eyes on TV.”
Recently, Jones opened up about her role in Parks And Recreation and how it was always close to being cancelled.
In a new interview with the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, aired earlier this month (July 8), Jones revealed that the show “never succeeded” in the ratings and was always close to being cancelled.
Jones appeared in the show alongside Amy Poehler, Adam Scott, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Rob Lowe, and Nick Offerman and revealed that NBC did cancel the show at one point before changing their minds.
Speaking to O’Brien, Jones explained: “[Parks and Recreation] is kind of iconic now—It’s like one of those great comedies of that time, which is so awesome…But we didn’t feel that way.”
She continued: “Every single season, we were like, this is it. They’re not gonna want us back,” she continued. “At one point we were cancelled and then the president of NBC got off the plane and changed his mind. It was like, ‘Eh, don’t cancel it yet, I guess.’ It was not really a thing at all.”
When it came to ratings, Jones said “we never succeeded.” She added: “The whole time we were just holding on for dear life, hoping we got to do more…which is probably part of why it was so good—because there was no stardom. It wasn’t infiltrated by any outside feelings about us. People kind of liked us if they knew who we were.”
Reflecting on the show’s success now, Jones added: “I think it was five years ago, we went to the Dolby and we did a 10th anniversary thing where we all came out, the whole cast. The reception was so—I felt like the Beatles, it was so nuts.
“People were screaming so loud [and] we were all crying, because we had never been in a room where anybody cared.”
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