Rejection is part of every career out there and retains an even more dominating presence in the life of an actor. So, when Jennifer Garner and Sheryl Lee Ralph sat down to chat, the two celebrities opened up about doing the grunt work to climb to the top and facing their fair share of rejections on the way. But getting shot down is never a fun experience, especially when the reason behind the said rejection is one head-scratcher.
Sheryl Lee Ralph began her work in 1977 when she was cast as Barbara Hanley in A Piece of the Action. She has worked consistently since in such works as Search for Tomorrow as Laura McCarthy from 1983 to 1984, It’s a Living as Ginger St. James from 1986 to 1989, and Moesha as Dee Mitchell from 1996 to 2001. More recently, she was Claudette in Ray Donovan from 2013 to 2020 and has been appearing as Barbara Howard in Abbott Elementary since 2021. One of the best lines she delivered in her interview on Variety’s “Actors on Actors” episode was, “It took me 40 years to become an overnight sensation.”
Garner, who began her career almost two decades later, has been acting since 1995 when she was cast as Sasha in Zoya and has since appeared in projects like Alias as Sydney Bristow from 2001 to 2006, 13 Going on 30 as Jenna Rink in 2004, and the leading role of Elektra in 2005. She’s currently starring as Hannah Hall in The Last Thing He Told Me.
Even though they have a few years between them, they have a good bit in common as far as being celebrities, juggling families, and loving kids. They also had quite a few stories to share about climbing the ladder from the bottom to get where they are today. Garner was fired from costumes and sent to construction where she ended up getting fired again and sent back to costumes. Having faced a string of rejections herself, Ralph could relate to the actress as it is something that most stars in Hollywood have to deal with throughout their careers no matter who they are.
Rarely does someone jump into the highlight right out of the gate without dealing with the challenges that come with the career. But Ralph has been on the receiving end of some bonkers reasoning behind rejections and proceeded to share the strangest out of the lot.
“I know what it’s like to hear no after no, and some of those noes were for absolutely no good reason. Someone once told me, ‘You didn’t get the role because you remind me too much of my ex-wife.’ And she was a white woman!”
Well, a rejection without a sensible answer to the “why” is particularly unfair, but that’s the industry. Rejection is subjective and is thrown around like money at a club. It’s a good thing that both Jennifer Garner and Sheryl Lee Ralph stuck with it because Hollywood just wouldn’t be the same without them.
