Tiffany Haddish hasn’t had an easy road to becoming one of Hollywood’s sought-after comedians. Like many performers, the actor dealt with years of rejections before getting her breakout film role in “Girls Trip” in her late 30s.
The “Saturday Night Live” star admitted in an interview with Hollywood Reporter that she came up with her own way of getting ahead of the feedback. Rather than wonder about why she was receiving so many rejections, the star said that she decided to get creative.“I’d put my phone on voice memo and put it in my bag, I’d do the audition, walk out, and leave my bag,” Haddish revealed. “Then I’d come back and be like, ‘Oh, I forgot my purse in here.'”
The “Haunted Mansion” actor used the trick to become privy to all the things casting agents would say about her, and it wasn’t always nice. “They’d be like, ‘She’s not as urban as I thought she’d be.’ Or, ‘She’s so ghetto, I just can’t. Her boobs aren’t big enough. I really think we should just go with a white girl.'” Haddish’s undercover technique earned her some praise from fans, despite some of them wondering whether or not it was legal to record a conversation in California unless both parties were aware (short answer, it’s not).
In any case, fans are on Haddish’s side. “She’s brilliant,” one fan commented on the clip. “To all the folks saying its illegal to record people’s conversation… NO ONE CARES. Like literally no one. Maybe those people Tiff recorded should stop racial profiling people,” another wrote.
Haddish called attention to racism in the industry during an Oscars 2018 bit with Maya Rudolph.
