"Empire" star Grace Byers speaks in her native accent for National Caribbean Heritage Month
It was Grace Byers' husband Trai who encouraged her to stop hiding her Caymanian accent and worrying about what other people would say about it. https://t.co/bLU01capDq
- MadameNoire (@MadameNoire) June 6, 2019
- "Empire" star Grace Byers was born in Pennsylvania to a Caymanian mom and American dad. They moved to the Cayman Islands when she was a toddler and she returned to the states for college.
- Byers" When I first came to America I had a very heavy accent. At the time, the circles I was finding myself in, it was very hard for people to understand me. I was very much a standout. At 18 I wanted very much to fit in and not stand out.
- For acting roles she studied the"standard" American accent, even recording a friend saying words phonetically. She had better success at getting roles doing this.
- When her future husband and co star Trai Byers first heard her her accent, he asked why she did'nt speak with it more often. She told him about people in the past not understanding her. He told her he could understand her just fine and was bewildered that others in the past could not.
- Byers" He's imploring me to show up as my authentic version of myself, so i'm taking the first step here. Now it's time to slowly start to switch back to living my everyday life speaking like this and knowing people are going to get it".
- The Instagram video of her speaking with her Cayman accent is at the source.
Ontd: Have you ever changed the way you sound to fit in?
Source:https://twitter.com/MadameNoire/status/1136656493959213056