Teyana Taylor is adamant about her daughters Junie, 9, and Rue, 5, finding their own paths.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, the singer, actress, and entrepreneur shared that while she sees herself in her girls, she doesn’t want to pressure them to follow her footsteps.
“I’m not the parent who is like: ‘I did this so you have to do this too,’” Taylor explained. “So right now they’re in ballet, they do basketball, they dance, they sing, my youngest is a fashionista. At one point my daughter wanted to play drums. I got her a drum set. At another point she wanted to be a chef; OK, here’s the tools you need. They want to be a janitor? Here’s a broom.”
Taylor also says Junie’s “emotional intelligence is out of this world,” and describes her bond with both daughters as “the purest form of love.”
That deep connection made one scene in her latest film especially difficult to shoot. In Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, Taylor plays Perfidia Beverly Hills, a revolutionary who makes the choice to leave her child behind in pursuit of activism.
“[That] was one of the most difficult scenes for me to film without getting emotional,” she admitted. “Just imagining myself walking out on my child, that’s a lot. Me personally, in real life, I wouldn’t do that.”
Like her character, Taylor has faced struggles of her own. She’s been open about experiencing postpartum depression and praised Anderson for addressing the subject in the film.
“I’ve been in survival mode before, I’ve dealt with postpartum depression. I know what it feels like to not receive grace and compassion [when you are] categorised as strong,” she said. “Especially for black women, it’s just like: you’re a strong black woman. What does that even mean? Just because I’m strong doesn’t mean I don’t have moments of weakness, or moments of needing to feel heard and seen.”
