Toya Turner On Cultivating Black Joy, Rediscovering Herself and ‘Warrior Nun’ on Netflix
Fresh off the heels of her new hit Netflix show Warrior Nun, I caught up with Los Angeles-based Toya Turner to hear more about her role in the show. Plus, she shares how she’s finding ways to cultivate black joy in her home, how this period has allowed her to rediscover who she is and the wise advice of making friends with situations in life that you might be resistant to or find challenging.
Toya was photographed by me over FaceTime.
Toya, it’s great to meet you. Thank you for getting creative over facetime! We chatted a bit but how have you been doing?
It’s been different phases for me, it’s been up and down for sure. I just try to make sure I do a lot of self-care, self-love and that I have fun. I am trying to make sure that I explore all of the things that I don’t have time for. I ordered a stripper pole because I want to get my arms together (laughs), I try to keep my favorite snacks on hand and I ordered some paint because I’ve been doing a lot of painting and drawing. When I was younger, I used to draw, paint and write children’s books. All those things that I used to do, I started doing again, I am also dancing. I am doing my favorite routines from the musicals, movies and music videos that I like. I have been trying to make sure that I always bring a bit of joy back into my life each day.
I love that you say that, I think it’s so important to tap into joy right now despite everything that has been going on in the world .
I know the world is going through a lot right now and I don't want to bring pain inside my home. I am trying to cultative as much black joy in this house. It’s much needed, if not, everyday you can just keep going down, down, down. Even if you just meditate and take a moment of silence for yourself for two minutes, it’s worthwhile.
Agree completely. What type of self-care routines do you do?
I meditate, I have different meditations for everything. I downloaded the Calm app. I’ve also been journaling a lot and getting to know myself again. In this time period, I kind of had a rebirth for myself. It’s interesting because I enjoy my job so much and that's what I used to run to to escape and the fact that I don’t have it made me check myself and ask, who are you, other than your job?
I’d love to know, Was there a film or TV show that had an impact on you that made you want to pursue this profession?
My favorite movie that I watched over and over again was The Color Purple. I used to watch it when I was little; whenever I went over to my aunt’s house to get my hair done, she would pop that on. I couldn’t get enough of it. Even though I watched it all of those times, watching it recently, I got it. I got what it was about it. There are so many one-liners that Miss Sofia has, but now one of my favorite scenes is when they are walking in the fields of the purple flowers. I never got what she meant by, it’s disrespectful to ignore purple—I never had gotten that until I had grown up. I have to watch it every Thanksgiving or Christmas.
“I went up to her and thanked her for changing my life and she said, no, you did.”
How did you get the wheels in motion to pursue it as a career?
I was doing theater before I went to the British American Drama Academy (BADA). One of my home boys had gone there a couple of years before me; I watched him and when he came back, he had grown so much. He was so good and he had just gotten into the game at the time. I checked it out and I wanted to go further and really study it. At the time, I hadn’t studied it besides watching a bunch of TV and film. I didn’t go to a performing arts school, I was usually the crew at the theater. I wasn’t even on stage like that but I always loved it. I’d memorize lines of movies and that’s how I started.
Were you at all ever hesitant to pursue the field because it might be hard? What has the road been like?
I don’t want to say it was an easy road for me but I guess I just paid attention a lot. I started listening to other actors and performers and hearing what they were saying. One of the main things was that they hated auditions so I had to psych myself up and I had to start loving auditions because it was the thing that I would be doing the most. Everyone at the beginning said that’s what you are going to be doing until you start booking, you are going to have more interviews than anything. So I had to learn how to love it and I had to learn how to be easy on myself; I had to be my biggest hype person beforehand then when I got out, I would treat myself with ice cream or my favorite restaurant. I would always treat myself like a job well-done. It kind of even made my body know that we are going into an audition and you don’t need to tighten up, it’s okay, you are still going to get your ice cream afterwards. So it doesn’t matter how it goes, it’s going to be okay.
“I also started living my life like I am the star of it, not the co-star or the quirky supporting friend, but I am the lead in my life. ”
I think that positive energy is so important, you can almost become your worst enemy when you are put into a situation where you might get rejected. Cultivating that self-love is so important. It probably only added to your success!
I wish I was better at it more back then, even though I was prepping and prepping myself. I just wanted to make sure that for me, as an artist and me as a person, I’m not the first person to put myself down. If I am the first person to beat myself up, I had to change that. I always told myself, I love you, then I’d do a dance and then go about my day.
That’s good vibes, indeed.
I probably need to write a letter to my younger self because I was so hard on myself.
I think so many of us are way too hard on ourselves, myself included. So now to talk about ‘Warrior Nun’, congratulations! It’s been at the top of the Netflix charts! How does that feel to have your work be such a great immersive show during the given moment?
It is everything that I have ever dreamed of—it’s everything that I have ever manifested, journaled about or put on my wishlist. It’s everything.
“I know the world is going through a lot right now and I don’t want to bring pain inside my home. I am trying to cultative as much black joy in this house.”
The show has a real girl power element to it. I think it awesome to see women coming together to make a change. What drew you to the script?
One fact was that it wasn’t just one or two women in the story, the starring cast is 70% women leading it, that was really great. Finding out that Jet Wilkinson was directing some of the episodes was really awesome, but one of my favorite things that drew me to the role was Ava’s journey. Maybe it was because of some personal things going on for me at the time, but her finding her own way and kind of experiencing and tasting freedom for the first time made me connect with it.
Can you share more about your character, Shotgun Mary.
My character is the black sheep, she is rebellious, very kick-ass and strong. I loved that she goes on her own mission and her own journey. She’s like Foxy Brown mixed with a little bit of Punisher. I loved the idea of being in the comic book world as a black woman.
This is such an action packed show. What did you have to do on a physical level to get ready for it?
The training definitely started by having six brothers. I also have a cousin who used to wrestle me (laughs). I trained with my fight choreographer who specialized in a few different types like MMA Fighting and boxing and we just started taking our time doing punches and getting my hand and foot coordination right. We did tactical team training on our first day. We all just connected right away.
WHAT’S BEEN ONE THING YOU HAVE BEEN SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT YOUR FIELD?
One thing I learned about the industry that I didn’t know before is how much power actors have. I feel like actors can feel like they have no power and they have no control over their destiny because so many hands are in the pot of them getting that ‘yes’. I regained the power in myself and I also started living my life like I am the star of it, not the co-star or the quirky supporting friend, but I am the lead in my life.
I love that. So often you want to be grateful for opportunities that you don’t want to ask for more things, but then you diminish your power in a way but claiming that is so powerful. I believe you teach people how to treat you.
That reminds me, we were on the last day of shooting the first two episodes that were directed by Jet Wilkinson, who helped me get cast—she chose me. I went up to her and thanked her for changing my life and she said, no, you did. I had never heard that before.
I love that, that gave me the chills! Since you have talked about manifesting, something I believe in too, what type of career would you like to ultimately manifest?
I want to be the next villain in Black Panther, that’s the dream. I would love that for what it means as far as representation.