Yandy, you mentioned that you work with casting on the production side. Obviously, we know that you wear a lot of hats in the industry. Something I was interested in speaking to you about is that there seems to be a wave of reality stars transitioning into the acting world. I noticed online that there have been some questions, or criticism, regarding that. What’s been your take, and have you felt any resistance from the acting community, or has it been a seamless transition for you?

YSH: So the thing about me, I didn’t start out in this business as a reality star. That was something that happened because of my business. I started out behind the scenes in management — music management. But even before that, I would take acting classes, I would put my talent into acting classes, and take the classes with them. So, it’s been something that has kind of been threaded and woven throughout my career in this business.

People say a lot of things. There have been rappers who have tried to act, and there have been actors who have tried to come up with albums. People always want to keep you in the box. It just kind of messes people up because I’ve been in so many different boxes. So now the most prevalent box is the fact that I’m on a reality show. But before being on the reality show, I was in music management for years. So, getting on that show was kind of like, ‘Wait a minute, we’ve seen this girl on tours with The Diplomats, on tour with Missy Elliott, on tour with Busta Rhymes, and with 50 Cent — what is she doing now on reality TV?’ That was something that was so hard for them to grasp and understand. So now that I’m getting into my acting career, it’s again kind of the same thing, like, ‘Wait a minute, what is she doing? I think I just know her in this space.’

So, the more roles and the more people see how serious I am — because I was super serious about this role on the producing side as well. Even when I was producing Love & Hip Hop, I was very serious about that. So, I was very serious in this role. You just have to give people time to catch up.

JL: Yandy was waking up and working until 3 in the morning in P.G. County when it is still 90 degrees outside. You can’t fake any of that. You must really be about your craft. There’s not anything that was a beginner about this film. Yandy’s role and she carried this film, and that’s a very difficult job. It takes a lot of attention to detail.

Yandy Smith-Harris

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week