Actress Angela Means was tearful in a new emotional interview about playing Felicia from Friday and says people still call her a “dirty, dumb b***h.” f
In the new interview with Comed Hype, Means gives Felicia’s side of the story when interviewed about her iconic film role.
The actress who played the character in Friday, talked about how her character was treated within the film and by fans.
The feelings she has for the character brought her to tears.
“I was really feeling her emotions, I was feeling a lot of fear, a lot of things that happened to Felicia,” she said. “…Maybe people were tired of her….Why was there so much hate for such an obviously beautiful woman? She’s kind, you didn’t hear her using any profanity…Why would they be so unkind to a family member?”
“Why would they be so dismissive? Why would no one defend her? And I’ve asked this question for 30 years,” she continued through tears. “Why is it so easy for us to dismiss each other like that?…When people come at me and even to this day, I’ll see people saying, ‘Bye, you dirty bitch, you f—ed up bitch, you dumb bitch.’ Not one time, not even the mother, said, ‘Hey, it’s Felicia. I wonder what’s going on with her.’ Not one person.”
She added, "To this day, I’ll see people say ‘bye you dirty b***h, you f**ked up b***h, dumb b***h."
While Felicia was disliked within the film, Means felt her role was a meta-commentary on what life was like in the ’90s for Black people growing up and living in California at that time, when violence was high and broadcast to the mainstream.
“We just kind of let Felicia fall through the cracks…what happened to Felicia? Why didn’t anyone get upset when she showed up beat up?” she said, adding that the reason Felicia was constantly getting into trouble was because of her loyalty to her boyfriend Deebo (Tommy Lister, Jr.).
"As much as Felicia needed help, she was standing [for someone] who was bullied," she said, recounting how Felicia stood up for Deebo after he was attacked.
Earlier in the interview, she talked about how she came to know her character so well through writing a biography for her.
“I wish I still had Felicia’s bio. At the time I was in intensive actor workshop…[and] I wrote a bio on Felicia and it was an amazing process. It was one of the greatest processes that I’ve ever been allowed to be a part of,” she said. “I wrote a very intense bio on her. Some of the things that had happened to her. Her background…where she went to school, everything about her. I put everything down on paper and then I put it inside. I trusted it and Angela went away and this person, Felicia, emerged.”
