Six-Time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald graces the cover of ESSENCE magazine’s April 2016 where she shares how following her passion literally saved her life. Get the scoop inside….
As we celebrate Women’s History Month, it’s only right to have Broadway legend Audra McDonald gracing the cover of a new magazine issue.
The Broadway starlet, who is also the mother to a teenage daughter, is serving all types of black girl fabness on the April 2016 cover of ESSENCE’s “Careers” issue. This is her very first ESSENCE cover.
If you haven’t heard, Audra made history as the first person to cop SIX Tony Awards in acting and won in each category. #BlackGirlMagic! She’s currently gearing up for HBO’s broadcast of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill where she channels the late Billie Holiday. It’s set to premiere March 12th. She’s also heading back to Broadway to star in “Shuffle Along,” with previews kicking off March 15th.
For the ESSENCE cover story, Audra, who has been happily married to Broadway actor Will Swenson since 2012, dishes on what it was like growing up being labeled a “drama queen” and how that was kick-started her acting career. She said,
“If it was raining, I’d freak out and think it was a monsoon.”
Her parents then decided to help channel that energy and enrolled her at a dinner-theater company. She reflected on the experience saying,
“All of a sudden, everything clicked for me. I felt normal. I had found my place.”
As she went on to pursue her career, Audra suddenly hit rock bottom. While studying opera at Julliard, she had become depressed and tried to slit her wrist. She overcame that bump in the road and went on to make history by winning SIX Tony Awards. Not only that, she also has two Grammy awards under her belt.
“I thought I would feel different [after winning my sixth Tony]—that I would finally figure out how to organize my underwear drawer,” she said. “I’m grateful and blown away by it all, but I’m still me. I still have work to do.”
It just goes to show that even when you’re at your lowest, you can still pick yourself up, brush it off and still do great things.
To read her full interview, you can catch it when the issue hits newsstands March 18th.
Photo: Dennis Leupold/ESSENCE
