The ‘Black Panther’ actress has expressed her frustration at the lack of opportunity for black females in society and is now determined to pave the way for others.
When asked about the lack of historical success for black women, Letitia said: “It’s sad and it hurts. But, the funny thing is, if you actually step aside from that mentality and go, ‘No, there’s space for all of us [to succeed] we just have to keep building a wall’.
“The bricks at the bottom have to be laid first before the bricks on the second row can be laid. So, if you say, OK, you lay your first brick there, and I’ll lay my brick in the next two months. Let me make sure that your brick that’s laid is good and solid and paid well … Then, soon, you have a wall.
“Yes, I stole that from Will Smith. I’ve listened to that since I was 16, but he has a point: we have to be bricks, we have to be that solid foundation for each other or else what’s the point?”
The 26-year-old actress will star in Steve McQueen’s BBC TV series ‘Small Axe’ – which portrays the experiences of London’s West Indian community between 1969 and 1982 as they protest against police brutality – and believes that it is timely with the Black Lives Matter movement making headlines across the world in recent months.
Letitia told ELLE magazine: “Preparing for it, doing it, giving all that you can to it and then you get to 2020 and you’re like, hold up a minute, this is happening again.
“People aren’t going out to protest because they want to. It’s aggravation after aggravation and standing up for justice.”
The actress stars alongside her close friend John Boyega in ‘Small Axe’ and opened up about how the pair support each other.
She said: “We’re all a family, we all support each other. And – I’m not going to lie – in the UK because we’re so small, like, it’s such a small pond of actors, we just support each other and love each other.”