Gabrielle Union is truly one talented actress and even more so, we have watched her become an incredible parent. Recently, The Inspection actress took time out of her schedule to exclusively open up to ET about her approach to raising her daughters, whom she shares with husband, Dwayne Wade.
Mother to four-year-old, “Shady Baby”, Kaavia James and 15-year-old daughter, Zaya, the actress told ET that she finds it difficult to separate being mother, producer, and actress, especially after the director of her latest project, Elegance Bratton’s mother died during production.
“As a mother, I just wanna be part of healing for a child. I wanted to be there as a mother except that wasn’t my job and it was kind of difficult to separate me as a mother, me as a producer and me as an actor because I just wanted to hold him,” she admitted to the popular news outlet. “I just wanted to make everything OK as most mothers want. But I had a job to do and I had to stay focused on the task at hand.”
The sentiment that the actress felt towards Bratton in his hour of need, is unquestionably felt tenfold towards her own girls. And Union tries with all of her might to make sure that they feel loved, seen, supported, and heard. All of course, unconditionally.
“Zaya’s still a child of this world and we try to create a loving safe bubble in our home, in her school and community with our extended family but she’s still a queer person in this country, in this world and she has to fight every day to be seen, to be loved, to be nurtured, to be thought of as worthy,” Union said of her oldest daughter. “I’m glad that [fans get] a a snippet of the joy that exists but always know that it is a struggle, and she is not completely unlike Elegance in the sense of the yearning for loved ones to see them and love them completely without condition.”
In terms of her youngest daughter, Union told ET that Kaavia, at four-years-old, is teaching her things everyday about how to parent.
One thing that Kaavia has taught Union is that, “you can have all the wants and dreams for your children but they are who they are and it is your job to love them and guide them and and try to give them the world. You’re not in control. Like, I wanna make sure she has good manners, she’s kind, she’s compassionate, she’s a student of the world and that she’s got a world perspective, but if she’s gonna be shady, she gonna be shady,” the mom joked.
Union continued, “If she wants to dress [in] full accessories to tennis it’s gonna happen… This is who she is.”
If you haven’t yet heard about Union’s newest project, here is a brief synopsis of this heartwarming film according to Deadline.
The Inspection follows Ellis French (Pope), a young, gay Black man, rejected by his mother and with few options for his future, who decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside. But even as he battles deep-seated prejudice and the grueling routines of basic training, he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of belonging that will shape his identity and forever change his life.
The Inspection premieres in theaters on November 18.
Photo Credit: Gabrielle Union Instagram
