Episode 1 – Kelly Jenrette: “You Just Big Boned"

A conversation with Emmy Award-nominated actor Kelly Jenrette, whose short film, “You Just Big Boned" was recently selected as a 2021 Spotlight Initiative grantee by The Creative Coalition. Jenrette shares the genesis of the semi-autobiographical film of a young Black girl who goes on a journey to combat the whispered disease obesity and free herself from her family’s “big boned” label.

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Episode Transcript

(00:06):
This is On the Edge, apodcast series from the Creative Coalition featuring conversations
with an edge and chats with personalitiesfrom the world of entertainment. Now here's
your host, Creative Coalition CEO RobinBronk. Hello, everyone, Welcome,
I'm Robin and thank you for joiningus. Our guest today is a great

(00:29):
friend of the Creative Coalition. Amight I add mine, an extremely talented
actor whose role on a hit showHandmaid's Tale landed her an Emmy Award nomination,
and we're also very excited to watchher in the upcoming CW series All
American Homecoming. Welcome Kelly Jenrett,Thank you, Hi, thanks for having

(00:50):
me. And we're going to beon the Edge today. So just take
my hand, Okay, I promiseit won't hurt. Well, it'll be
a little bit sighting. We'll begoing on the Kelly jet Ratte journey.
I always like going on your journey. Well, thank you. Let's let's
throw it back a moment. Wheredid you grow up? I grew up

(01:11):
in Atlanta, Georgia, and actuallyin the city of Atlanta. Because sometimes
people are like, yeah, I'mfrom Atlanta. It's like, oh where
guy, Actually grew up in EastAtlanta, actually not too far from Moreland
Avenue. I grew up south ofthe Mason Dixon Line. I grew up
in Clemson, South Carolina. Tellme about your family up until seven or

(01:36):
eight. It was my older sisterand my younger brother, My older sister
Kim, my baby brother, Brandon. It was just the four of us,
my brother's sister, me, mymom growing up. My mom had
divorced from my daddy and we wereliving in a three bedroom, one and

(01:59):
a half bath house. And thenmy mom met an amazing man who also
had three children. He had threeboys. They got married and we became
what they called like the Phillip Spunch. We had this this gray astro van
and on the front license plate theyhad the Phillip Spunge. And they moved.

(02:21):
They ended up moving in with usinto our three bedroom, one and
a half bath house. So itwent from four people to eight people that
work. How did and how didyou guys feel? Yeah, okay,
they were there, these fun lovingnew brothers or stepbrothers, but how did
you feel. One of the firsttimes we went to meet them, we

(02:44):
went to a park and I wastrying to go down the slide and the
oldest boy, Eric was also tryingto go down the slide. Well,
he was trying to get in frontof me, and I was like move
and he was like you move,and you know, we had this little
tiff. It was very jarring,I think, to go from just the

(03:04):
four of us to now the eightof us. But we never did step
mom, step dad, step brother, step sister. They never forced us
to call the other parent mom ordad. For I want to say,
probably the first fifteen years my parentswere together, I called my dad by
his first name, Carlton. Mybrothers all called my mom mom because they

(03:30):
were young. I don't know thatthat thing of like, because my daddy
was still in my life, italmost felt like a betrayal to call someone
else's dad. That was pretty progressivethough, of your mom and Carlton to
kind of let it flow like that. As a parent myself and I'm remarried

(03:52):
and it's the whole step thing.Also, it's just it has like a
terrible I mean, listen, everyvillain was a step you know, the
same movie, so it just doesn'thave a good rap. Yeah, so
where were you in the lineup ofkids? I was the second oldest,
so it was my sister, thenme, so it was Kim Kelly,

(04:13):
Eric Christopher Seth Brandon. Wow,the name of this podcast is on the
Edge. What's your earliest memory ofbeing honest? I would have to say
in the fifth grade, my teacher, mister Hornsby asked the class if we
wanted to put on a play.We were all very excited, and I

(04:35):
think we agree to do Charlie andthe Chocolate Factory. I don't think there
were auditions. I believe I volunteeredto be Charlie, the lead, and
my teacher asked me, why notdo it? Yeah, like come on,
So he said, okay, welldo you want us to change the

(04:57):
character to a girl? And Iwas like, no, I can play
a boy. Like, let's doit. And we transformed our fifth grade
classroom into this chocolate factory and Iplayed Charlie and it was amazing. And
for me, it wasn't even aquestion of like, are you sure you

(05:17):
can do this? I think justwhen I was younger, there was just
no fear. Was like, okay, here's the edge. Well, then
jump. We are very proud thatyou produced and created one of our short
one of the creative polish and shortfilms, and really, as I've gotten
to know you and seeing your short, talk about that a little bit because

(05:40):
the short it exposes some personal thingsabout you, personal things about you growing
up and why you did it andwhat your short is about. And the
short's name is big Bone. Yeah, you just big boned. And growing
up, I was fat, asthey used to say, so I had
two nicknames or not nicknames. Onenickname was heavy Duty, and they used

(06:08):
to say Kelly shake that belly.And I don't remember ever feeling sad or
like I was being bullied. It'sweird, you know. Maybe it was
like, oh, they're you know, I know they love me, They're
just being whatever, and I amkind of chunky, you know. My
mom would joke about, like whenI was really young, having to take

(06:31):
a Q tip and clean between theroles on my body. But I do
believe maybe around six or seven itstarted to affect me because I remember we
would go to the country as wecalled it, eight l Georgia, about
three hours south of Atlanta, andspend the summers with my mom's mom,

(06:55):
my grandmother, and my aunt,her sister. And she had fed me
a plate and I was like,I'm not eating bread, Grandma, I
have to lose weight. Ho oldman. Probably. I think I may
have been like six six or so. That's a lot of perspective there for
a six year old. Yeah,so I think I think as I say,

(07:16):
like, well, no, itdidn't really affect me. I think
it did because my sister was veryslender, you know, she was just
skinny, and she was lighter thanme. So that was a whole other
dynamic. Like I remember one summer, I was like, I'm not going
outside because I don't want to getdarker. And so growing up in the

(07:36):
South, where we don't use theword obesity, that's like a it's like,
did you do you remember any timethat word came up? What were
the euphemisms for it? Yeah,I do remember the word coming up one
time at a doctor's appointment. Thiswas much later. I was in high

(07:58):
school, and the doctor said,according to the you know paper that he
had, I was obese because Ithink I was supposed to maybe weigh like
ninety six pounds and I think atthat point I was like one, sixteen,
one twenty or something like that.That was the first time that I
had heard that word what we saidwas the title of my short you just

(08:22):
big bone, you know it?Or you're thick with it? Or you
got a little cushion for the pushing, you know something that that did not
make us feel bad about the extrameat that we had on our bodies,
because, like I said, theword obesity, it had such a negative

(08:46):
connotation, like there was something wrongwith you. But to say you just
big bone. So when you saidthis word obesity, did you was it
that there was something wrong with youor that you you were responsible for tell
Yeah, I think I think bothof those. That there was something wrong
with me and I was responsible forwhat was wrong with me. To say

(09:11):
that I'm big bone, I can'tcontrol my bones, That's just something that
happened to me, you know.To say I have a little cushion for
the pushing, that's something that's pleasurable. People enjoy that. You like plush
things. As I sat down andkind of did research about it and understanding

(09:33):
what this word obesity means, andthen how in the African American community we
don't talk about this and people aredying, especially with COVID happening, and
how COVID and obesity were working togetherto take out so many people in the

(09:58):
black community. I was just like, well, how can I share a
story that doesn't make people feel likethey're being attacked but kind of makes them
sit up and say, wait,yeah, no, I've heard you just
big bone, like I'm familiar withthat. And then just I will never

(10:20):
I will never forget hearing a comediansay there are no fat skeletons, and
it was just like, oh,yeah, that's there. There aren't any
fat skeletons. And when I readmy synopsis to my mom and I had
talked about no fat skeletons, shewas like, oh my god, you're

(10:43):
right, there aren't any fat skeletons. So just wanting to explore this idea
of being big bone and and gentlykind of ushering us into a conversation of
obesity. What did you find themost challenging about making the short Who A

(11:05):
couple of things. So we startthe short off with our main character changed
her name to Shelley instead of Kelly. But we opened up with this six
year old Shelley being taunted and bulliedwith other little girls, you know,

(11:26):
saying Shelley, shake that belly,Shelley, shake that belly, and then
calling her heavy duty, heavy dutyand getting the auditions from those little girls
auditioning saying heavy duty, heavy duty. I was. I was taken aback,
like, oh my god, likethat's harsh, and we had to

(11:52):
when we cast our six year oldShelley. It was so impressed on my
heart. We have to talk tothe parents, We have to talk to
these other little girls. I wantedto protect that six year old Shelley,
and you know, maybe there wasI was more affected than I realized because

(12:13):
I immediately was like, no,we have to protect her. We have
to tell this story. But Ineed my six year old Shelley, who
was played by a young lay beautifullyplayed by a young girl named Kara.
I was like, I have toprotect her. And so we had a
conversation with our we call the meangirls. We had a conversation with our

(12:35):
mean girls and with Kara just explainingto them, you know that this is
part of my story and we arejust acting. And when we say cut,
I need us to cut. Wecan't continue to go on with the
lines and the taunting after we saycut, because I want to make sure

(12:56):
that Kara is protected and and doesn'ttake this on for herself. So I
think that that was like one ofthe biggest challenges up front for me,
and then even putting out the breakdownit was challenging. I think the second

(13:16):
time we may have used the wordobese. It was so I was so
afraid to put that in the breakdownbecause I didn't want people to be like,
oh, so, what you're tryingto say, I'm fat? You
know, so just the whole castingof it. But as I talked to
other people, there was so muchfreedom that they said that they felt like,

(13:41):
thank you for seeing me, actuallyseeing me. And one of the
characters, Aunt Linda, the actorwho played her, during one of the
takes, we had to stop becauseshe got emotional because the untlanda character represents
a lot of people in the blackcommunity who were like, look it is

(14:05):
what it is. I'm happy,I'm not sick. Yes, I may
have diabetes or whatever, but lookat me, I'm living my best life.
And as she said the lines inthe script, she heard herself saying
these things and she got emotional andshe was like, I'm hearing myself for

(14:26):
the first time, and these arethe things that I say to make me
feel better about not addressing my health, you know, And so it was
challenging to kind of open that doorto expose people in a way that I
didn't know if they were ready tobe exposed. Have you been behind the

(14:46):
camera before? And that was arisk too, I assume to do you
take me on a subject area thatmakes people avert their eyes, and you
decided to hear your success in frontof the camera. Why would you try
and do something that it's not proven? Uh? Who you know, I've
never done anything on this level.Like I did a web series, three

(15:11):
episode web series that I produced anddirected, but nothing where I had to
create a budget. So you're puttingyour own story out there? What made
you take that risk? So backin twenty fourteen, I feel like after

(15:31):
much prayer and like what am Idoing here? I just felt like God
was like, because you're making itso much about you. You want to
be famous, and you want todo this, you want to do that.
The gift that He has blessed mewith, it's not mine. It's
a gift that I should give.And so I'm always asking what's the assignment?

(15:56):
Where can I be used? Andand just knowing that the statistics for
black women alone and obesity is heartbreaking, you know, in my own family,
to know that these are conversations thatwe have never had. It was

(16:17):
like, I just felt like wehave to start having the conversations. It
was never my intention to say,hey, I'm going to put this together
and this is going to have allthe answers. I just wanted to create
something that would at least start theconversation. You know, you're sitting around
the dinner table eating your hamhocks andyour fat back college greens, and you

(16:41):
peach cobbler and all of these things. I just wanted the conversation to start.
You know, too many we're losingtoo many people because we're keeping our
mouths shut or full tally about HandmaidsTale, which you are g I mean
nominated. What season was it thatyou were the guest star? Season two?

(17:06):
Season two, episode four. Um. I remember watching the show and
I couldn't get through the first seasonbecause that first episode, I was like,
oh my god, it was sotop right, it was so hard.
But I remember June and Luke weresitting down at a table and I

(17:30):
think Luke had mentioned his wife Annie, and I was like, I wonder
who this Annie is? And youknow, didn't think anymore about it.
It didn't finish the season because Iwas like, I just can't do this
in my life right now. Um. And then the audition came in and
I was like, okay, Handmaid'sTale auditioning for Annie, Like it didn't

(17:52):
even click until later. Um.I went in audition for it. It
was a tough audition. And thenI got a call back for the audition
and Sherry Thomas, who's absolutely amazing, be Ali Thomas. I just love
that office they are sharing and Jerry, I'm just amazing. And Cherry was

(18:15):
like, okay. She was like, you're always so prepared, Kelly,
Like I'd never have to worry aboutyou and whether or not you're gonna be
prepared with your lines. And shewas like, you're always so prepared this
next take and we just throw allthat out the window. Just be here
with me, be this woman thatis hurt, that is feels betrayed.

(18:37):
Just be here. And I justlet go and did that, and by
the end we were all like,I just happen. You know, it
was it was hard. I wasin tears, you know, it was
harder. So then when I gotthe call that I got it I was
like, Okay, I need towatch the still season one. We filmed

(19:03):
that in Toronto, and I rememberbeing in my hotel room at night binging
the episodes because while it is ahard watch, it is you're just you're
hoping for like that redemption, youknow, like come on, June,
you can save us kind of thing. That was a wonderful experience meeting Elizabeth

(19:27):
Moss. She was just I sayit all the time. She was very
gracious. I remember she came onset. She introduced herself. I always
love when celebrities introduced themselves and it'snot just an assumption like, well,
because I'm a celebrity, you knowmy name, you know. She was
like, Hi, I'm Elizabeth.She said, your audition was amazing.

(19:48):
Thank you so much for being here. And in my head, I'm like,
are you kidding me? Thank youfor having you know? So I
thanked her. I told her thatI was very grateful to be here.
The set was very light. Yeah, what is the set like? Unhandmade?
Because the subject matter is so heavy, it's a lot, and I

(20:11):
think because of that, the setis so light. They are laughing and
joking and enjoying one another. Ididn't necessarily go there because I was a
guest star and I was there todo a very specific job, so I
needed to stay in my bubble um. But they were They were great.

(20:33):
They laughed, they smiled, theyjoked, they have fun. You know,
it was a It was a beautifulset to be a part of,
which I understand because when you youknow action, you know now it's it's
back to this doom and gloom kindof thing. Take as when you heard
you had an ennomination, How didit feel? Oh my goodness. I

(20:57):
was at home and my husband,Melvin, had to work, so I
watched it. I watched the announcementson TV. They were broadcasting it live,
and then they were like, tofind out the rest of the nominees,

(21:18):
go to whatever website, And soI went to the website and I
was like, let me just checkit out and see. So I go
on. I'm scrolling and then Isee Outstanding Guest Actress and a drama and
then I see Cecily Tyson, Kellyjan Red, Samira and I was like,

(21:38):
that's my name. And I justkept saying, no, no,
no, I'll turn away and comeback to look at the computer to make
sure because they didn't have my pictureup. They had everybody's picture up in
that category, they didn't have mypicture up, and so I kept looking
away and looking back to is that. I mean, it's just it's not

(22:02):
a picture, it says Kelly Jarette, but I don't know. And then
Melvin calls and he was like,Babe, you're an Emmy nominated actor.
And I said I know. Ohmy god. And he was also on
the ballot and I was like,do you know if you were nominated and
he said he didn't know because hewas at working. I was like,
okay, let me look it up. So I look up his category.

(22:22):
He was in the short form categoryand I looked it up and I was
like, oh my god, babyou're nominated too. Like we're both Emmy
nominated, you know. And tofind out that we were the first African
American married couple to be nominated inthe same year was just crazy. And
I called my mom and I wascrying and I was like, I'm Emmy
nominated. And I called my team. I called my manager, Robin,

(22:47):
and I was like, Robin,I'm Emmy nominated. She was like no,
I said yeah. She was like, no way, yeah, so
we had this back and forth.No really, yeah, I don't know
yet. You know. It wasjust it was unbelievable and very humbling,
very humbling, and my phone waslike ringing off the hook. And I

(23:10):
still have voicemail messages from that time. My sister and best friend who passed
away in twenty eighteen from colon cancerleft me a voicemail that I listened to
from time to time, and anothergood friend, Kimberly a There has a

(23:32):
voicemail that anytime I'm feeling like Ijust play it and it lifts my spirits.
And so it was just it wassuch a beautiful time, and I
think what made it even more specialwas the fact I got to do it
with the love of my life,my husband. Did it give you courage
to do things or try out thingsthat you would maybe not have ordinarily gone
for before, or were you alwaysit sounds like you're always like time and

(23:56):
pushing the envelope so to speak.Yeah, yeah, I think I've always
kind of tried and push the envelope. I feel like there's a part of
me that's just kind of like,yeah, I mean, why wouldn't we
jump off this cliff? Like wecame this far, let's just go.

(24:17):
And then there are other times andI'm like, oh, I dun't know,
I don't know, I don't know, but I think just for I
think the most for the most part, I am just like, well,
let's just see what happens to AndI was reading a little bit about your
new project, but it's like,it's very it's very kg what it is.
It's the Leslie Oldham Kerry Washington project. That was actually a pilot that

(24:42):
I booked back in twenty nineteen.I booked a pilot opposite Leslie Oldam Jr.
Was playing his wife, and itwas loosely based on the lives of
two pastors out here in LA andit was a blended fan Emily and just
kind of seeing how that dynamic work. Leslie's character had two kids, my

(25:04):
character had two kids, and soyou know, that dynamic felt very familiar
since that's what I came from.Um And then being able to meet Carrie
Washington. I remember going in forthe for the producers session and Carrie was
like, Hi, I'm Carrie.She said, so nice to meet you.

(25:26):
Loved your episode of the Handmaid's Tale, and I was like and if
I sat here and talked about everythingI loved about you, we'd be here
all day. So, uh,good answer. Yeah, she's great.
She's great to be able to workwith her, and Fred Savage was the
director of that pilot. It unfortunatelydid not get picked up, but it

(25:48):
was by far one of one ofthe favorite shows that I've been a part
of. What I just finished workingon one of CW's most popular shows,
All American, which is based onthe life of a Spencer Pacinger if I'm
saying its name correctly, former footballplayer and you know, kind of following
his journey. The CW is hopefullydoing a spinoff of that show, All

(26:15):
American Homecoming, and I booked thatpilot. There you the pilot will actually
air as part of the current seasonof All Americans, so they're kind of
using that pilot as a as abackdoor pilot. So we're just waiting for
the official pickup. Oh that's great. Yeah, that's a that's pretty exciting

(26:37):
and it's a different audience. Whatdid you love about this show or what
do you love? And Catchy theshowrunner the writer is like a ball of
beautiful magic. Just she's so graciousand kind, her writing just feels like

(26:59):
it's something that I would say.I became a fan of All American I
want to stay around season two.I was introduced to it by my husband,
and being able to see a blackmother loving her black sons was just
such a beautiful thing to witness.You know, I don't think I had

(27:21):
seen anything like that where she wasshe was firm, she was direct,
and she was loving and kind andcompassionate, and you could tell that this
woman loved her children. The momon the show beautifully played by Kareema Westbrook.
It just I was just like,oh, I've never I've never seen

(27:45):
this before, and just the writingfelt good and the characters felt good.
And so when the audition came acrossmy desk reading it, I was like,
oh, yeah, I know thiswoman. I am this woman.
You know, she's a professor atthe university, youngest professor youngest doctor at

(28:07):
the university. She plays the Imean, she is the aunt to the
main character in the spinoff, Andso it just felt like, this is
the representation of black people that Iwant to see on TV. We are
educated, we are intellectual, weare funny, we are we are all

(28:27):
the things. And I just Iwas so drawn to that and how academics
were so important like that, justthat kept being that was the point that
they were driving home, like academics, academics. Yes, there are sports,
but we black people, black menare more than football players, more

(28:49):
than basketball players, black women morethan basketball players. Like we can be
doctors, we can be scientists,we can be astronauts, we can be
like whatever, you know. AndI just love that aspect of the show.
So it might be coming on.Well, the episode that I shot
that they will use as the backdoorpilot is going to air, which is

(29:12):
beautiful because you know, sometimes ifthe show doesn't go you never see the
pilot, but this pilot we willget to see as part of All Americans
current season. So word on thestreet is that it's may air June twenty
eighth, So just waiting to see. I'm hoping any day now we'll hear
news that the show got picked up, so we'll see. I knew All

(29:33):
American and it would be tremendous tohave the spin off because again, it's
underscoring these themes that there's been sucha dearth of yeah, and how will
Homecoming differ from All Americans? SoAll American Homecoming will focus on The main
character is the character Simone, playedbeautifully by Jeffrey Maya, who is in

(29:59):
the current current season. She's arecurring character in the current season current series
All American, but this will focuson her in college. And so now
we are at this HBCU university andit will also the male main character,
played wonderfully by Sean Payton, isa baseball player. But we find out

(30:26):
how important academics are to this university, to the professors there, and while
sports are definitely important, academics areequally as important. Well, it sounds
fantastic and we want to be thereto support it. So now that you've
been behind the camera, you're youknow, you've been creating. You have

(30:49):
the success even you know, theearly day success of you Just Big Bone.
Do you have something in you?Do you have a series of film,
a long form film, but you'rethinking about I'd love to see you
just Yeah. You know, I'vebeen kind of toying with the ideas and

(31:11):
thoughts of a feature you Just BigBone, and what that would look like.
I had a conversation with a friendof mine who, she said she
struggled with her weight all of herlife, and she just talked about how
it informs every aspect of her life, from the how she books her plane

(31:36):
tickets, you know, her seats, to when she's going to the theater,
where she's going to sit in thetheater. Like I would love to
explore more of that, you know, and just this idea of self blame,
of just expounding more on this wholeyou just big bones. So I've
been kind of toying with it.The show business has really taken on and

(32:01):
try to take on body positivity,which is kind of a different issue.
Sure, this is very candidate.What's your prediction is? Do you think
that will be able to get showbusiness looking at obesity as a disease?
I think so. I think aslong as the Creative Coalition continues to do

(32:24):
what it does, and the membersof society and the members of the creative
community, if we continue to educateourselves, I think it helps to open
the door for others to see.So I learned so much about obesity being

(32:47):
a disease, even down to howyou talk about it, so saying you
have obesity instead of saying your obese. When I talk with a doctor and
he was talking to me about obesity. He was like, you would never
say that someone is cancerous, thathas cancer. You would say they have

(33:09):
cancer because it's a disease, andobesity is a disease. So I think
we have to start at a verybasic level of understanding that obesity is a
disease and so changing the language ofsaying, oh, yeah, you're obese,
to know you have obesity. AndI feel like having those kind of

(33:34):
conversations will help open open the doors. That's why it was so important in
my short to say that, youknow, to say you have obesity,
you aren't obese. Have you everhad to take on a role and what
went through your head whether you tookit on and you didn't were it was
like, this is ridiculous. Butthen again, I need I need a

(33:54):
job, I need this. Imean, have you ever had to take
on a role that really when endsto your grain? No, because I
don't take roles like that, youknow, something like to the core of
it. There's there's a difference betweenme seeing a character like so like the
character and all day and night howshe talked to her son. I would

(34:16):
never talk to my child like that. My you know, my my nephew,
I would never talk to him likethat. But being able to understand
where this woman came from, whatshe was going through, Okay, that
I understand, but at but atthe core, you know, if it's
something that I'm at the core ofme eats away at me. I can't

(34:38):
take it. I can talk toyou all day and I don't want take
up. Great. Thank you,thank you, thank you for everything,
thank you for all the activism thatyou do. You two are an activist
who happens to be an actor,and you really help to shape through your
craft and through your art, howto shape the world in the our way.

(35:00):
And so I thank you, thankyou for rapping, and thank you
to the Creative Coalition. Thank youso much, Kellie Janerette. I can't
wait to see more of what you'recreating, both in front of and behind
the camera and to the side isthe left and the right, because you
are one of our creative geniusism andwe love you for that. So thank

(35:21):
thank you so much for saying that. That's absolutely beautiful. Thank you so
much for tuning in, and ahuge thanks to Kellie Jannerette for joining us
today. Tune in next week wherewe'll sit down with SAG Award winning actor
and Breaking Bad star Dean Norris.You may also recognize him from his starring
role in Clause, the iconic actionfilms Totally Call, and Terminator two Judgment

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Day, and currently you can seehim in the United States. About I
should be able to recognize him.We hope you'll join us. You've been
listening to On the Edge, apodcast series from the Creative Coalition hosted by
Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk. Formore information on how you can protect funding

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for the arts and harness the powerof the arts to promote social good,
visit us at the Creative Coalition dotorg.