Baadja-Lyne Odums has kids (check), has grands (check), has two cocker spaniels (checky check), and is waiting to be cast in her own television series (double check, please). Baadja is a very spiritual person, meaning God and all of His glory controls her existence. She not only loves what she does, she lives what she does and that is to act.
Baadja started acting when most people reading this were spiritual dots in a microcosmic time warp. Uh, don’t try to “figger” that out. Just roll with it for a minute.
Many, many, many years ago, being shy and unpopular, acting became Baadja’s escape from reality. It was just her and the characters she created within her: a perfect world where she was in control of her life, her loves, lovers (some poor choices) and her future; where the curtain rose daily as to who she was going to be. Fast-forward: today she still creates within herself, but now she gets paid for it.
Baadja’s body of work includes The Ladykillers, Judging Amy, Without a Trace, ER, Philly, Strong Medicine, The Shield, Charmed, Clubhouse, Joan of Arcadia, Cold Case, and the NAACP-Award-winning play The Marriage.
Baadja has just gotten into sewing and she loves it. She has made some cute and some not-so-cute fashions. Be that as it may, they are her fashions and she wears them sometimes against her own better judgment (ha ha). Baadja will be hiring a PR person to write her bios as soon as she signs her first ten million dollar contract. Peace out. More information is at https://imdb.com/name/nm0644172.
It was actually by fluke. Growing up, as a child, I was always an outcast. I didn’t really have a lot of friends. I was always the biggest one, the one that didn’t have good clothes. Me and my girlfriend were sitting around and we saw Bill Cosby on TV on Room 222. They were looking for extras for the classroom. We didn’t know what an “extra” was. All we heard was that they would pay us and we’d be on TV. We went and we stood in a line that wrapped all the way down Hollywood Boulevard. This was back in 1972, ’73. We stood out there and we waited and we got called in. They asked for headshots—we didn’t know what headshots were. We were just there! We didn’t get selected, but it sparked something in me. When I went home and started looking at TV and started looking at these actors, it was as if I wanted to do that.
I started inquiring about taking classes. I ended up at a place called Inner City. At that time, that was where every actor went: black, Hispanic, it didn’t matter. That’s where you were. A lot of talented people came out of there, including Sumi Haru. That was the place where you broke your teeth or your teeth started growing. You had to take dance. You had to take voice. You had to do all the things that now, a lot of the actors are missing because they just want to act. I wasn’t used to working. I wasn’t used to being disciplined. But when you got there, you had to be disciplined or you were out. There were no second chances. When I got there, there was an instructor, Beah Richards. The first time I got on stage, I thought I would never come back into acting. She told me the truth and I couldn’t accept the truth. She told me, “No one’s gonna believe what you just did. You don’t even believe what you just did! To be an actor, you do not have to act.” I went home and thought about it and said, “If this is really what you want to do, you gotta come out of your shell.” I stayed with her for maybe two seasons and then I went on to Ed Cambridge’s Negro Ensemble Company. I stayed there for about five years, at the studio on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood.
I started on stage. I didn’t get to film and TV until about five, six years ago. A lot of actors were leaving their agents for whatever reason and when the actors’ strike was going on a friend of mine, Bill Brown, said, “Why don’t you contact my agent?” I did, and he didn’t contact me back right away. I was working a temp job in Long Beach and he called me and told me to come in. I came in and I did a monologue. I signed a contract that day and ever since then it’s been going up, up, up. About two years ago, I got a manager. She’s really been grooming me. A lot of things that you think you know in this business, you don’t really know. The people that have actually been where you’re trying to get start guiding you and showing you different things. I used to have a hard time interacting with people. I can’t just go into a crowd and say, “Hi!” I have to stand back and size everybody up and then maybe I’ll go in. My manager says, “Don’t be pushy, but let people know you’re out there.” I’ve met almost every casting director now, when five years ago, nobody knew who I was. Now people are calling me in. I got one job called The Hard Easy with Peter Weller and Gary Busey. The casting director called my agent and asked me if I wanted the job. It wasn’t a big part, but she called me! I didn’t even have to audition! I just sat there crying. That’s never happened to me before. It’s always like I was begging for a job and now people are calling my agent. It’s just been a blessing.
What were your survival jobs?
I worked for the government for thirty years. I was a physical science technician. We analyzed hazardous waste for disposal coming off the ships or coming out of the harbor. It started getting political where it was time to shut down the base at Long Beach and everything was going to go to San Diego. I didn’t want to go to San Diego, so I was forced out. I had to do an early retirement. I couldn’t live off unemployment, so I had to get a temporary job. The first job I got was in a warehouse. It was the most god-awful job I have ever experienced in my life. I had to go get safety shoes. They’d reproduce CDs and we had to pack ’em and then we had to lift ’em and by the end of the day my butt, back, teeth, everything ached. I said, “Lord, just let me be an actor! I will do anything you say, just let me be an actor.” The next job I got, I worked in Long Beach at an up-and-coming computer company. They were going on the Internet, having teachers put their lesson plans up so the kids would come online to do them. I was basically the housemother because what I did was answer the phone, I cleaned the kitchen, I kept the bathroom in order. I didn’t have to use my brain. I left there during the actors’ strike, and I couldn’t get any more work. I didn’t know where the money was going to come from. My daughter was helping me the best she could, but I didn’t have any money.
What do you consider your first break?
There was an ad in the Dramalogue for Bonnie’s play, The Female Perspective, and I didn’t have money. I didn’t have any gas. And I went to this audition. I was scrapin’ pennies to get there. I did a monologue for Bonnie that I made up on the spot. I didn’t have anything! I wanted it so bad. I wanted to work! I was at a point where I didn’t want to exist anymore because nothing was working for me, I thought. I did that play and I was getting the bug back to perform, but I still didn’t have any money. I think everyone was going out somewhere one night and I wanted to go, but I didn’t have any money. I said, “Oh, I’m going to pass. What I really need to do is look for a job.” Well, one of the cast members, Lisa Lefevre, said, “What kind of work do you do? My husband is looking for someone! Let me talk to him.” It was almost a month, but then her husband and a coworker came to see our show.
That next day, he called me in for an interview. I said, “Lord, I have less than a fourth of a tank of gas. I don’t have any money and I have to have money to park downtown. But I’m going on faith.” I went down there and I parked in the wrong place—I didn’t know this at the time. I went in and I did the interview and they said, “We’ll get back to you.” They asked me for my parking ticket as I left and said, “Oh, this is not our lot. You’re going to pay a good fifteen, twenty dollars.” I was crushed. But then they said, “Can you start to work next week?” I said, “Can I start now?” They said, “No. You start next week.” So, I started that next week, but they advanced me money because my house was in foreclosure, my car was behind. Sometimes, I would sleep in my car so they wouldn’t come and take it. That’s how bad it was. I said, “Lord, something has got to give. I’m coming out here on faith.” They kept me there long enough for me to pull myself out. When 9/11 came, things started going bad for everybody, so they had to let me go. By that time, I had gotten Philly, I got ER, things had started picking up. And now, my house is out of foreclosure, my car is paid for, and I’m just so happy. When I think back on that, I wanted to leave this Earth. That’s how bad it was. And I know it’s a sin to even think about committing suicide, but that’s how bad it was. God has been good.
How do you handle rejection?
You really have to have patience and faith. I’ve been doing this for thirty-five years and the last five years, it’s really been paying off for me. I think once I got on stage and I saw how people received me—because I’ve always been self-conscious of my body and everything—I knew people weren’t looking at that. They were reacting to a character. People don’t judge you when you’re on stage. They’re relating to that character and where that goes in their life. If I make someone stop and realize, “Hey, that made me feel good,” or, “That made me feel sad,” I can just let all of this out. I don’t have to worry about what I look like. I just get up there and do the best job that I’ve been trained to do. It has been a blessing. Every day I get up and I pray and I just thank God. My faith is stronger—not only in God, but in myself—because of what I’ve faced. I used to say, when someone would ask me what I do, in a whisper, “Uh, I’m an actor.” And now I say, “I’M AN ACTOR!” I can say it now! It took me to get this old to realize that I’m at a young place. I feel great about it.
What do you wish someone had told you at the beginning of your career?
I did some extra work maybe about five times. I knew it wasn’t for me. If I had guidance where I would’ve started in this business—although I’m glad I started in theatre—maybe I would’ve started in film and television a little bit sooner if I had known where to go. At the time, there were a lot of black-exploitation movies out but there was only a handful of black actors. Either you were one of those actors or you were an extra. I knew I didn’t want to do that. I was married at the time and I was working so I wasn’t going out for a lot of work anyway, I figured, “Oh, I’ll wait for my big break.” Because I wasn’t in the union, the few extra jobs I did, they treated us like dirt. We worked eighteen, nineteen hours and they barely wanted to pay us twenty-five dollars and even then they had the nerve to ask us, before we even got paid, if we could come back the next day and work another eighteen hours before we could get that little twenty-five dollars. I said, “Y’know what? If this is how you get into acting, I don’t want it. There’s got to be a better way.” So, I gravitated toward these theatre ensembles that were like family. If something happened to one, everybody knew about it and they would all come help you out.
How do you choose the material you work on?
Most everything now comes through my agent or manager. They’ll call me and say, “What do you think about this?” And sometimes I can’t see the vision. I’ll say, “If you truly see the vision, I’ll work it for you.” But we try to get a balance. One thing came through that they called me on—and it’s not that I’ve never heard curse words—and every page was full of curse words. I said, “I can’t do this. I just can’t do it.” My agent sent me out for a Howard Stern movie and I said, “I can’t do this. I cannot be a mammy.” I just don’t want to be a mammy, and that’s what they were looking for: a loud, bodacious black woman. I just won’t do that. I said, “I came to you guys so that I can clean up that stuff. I want to do judges.” I’m not like, “Oh, they said, ‘Damn.’ I can’t do this!” But morally, I’m looking for the right fit for me. I have to think, is it going to help someone else? It’s not about me, it’s about helping other people. That’s why this is my ministry. This is one of the reasons I’ve gotten into acting, because sometimes it helps other people. I did a play called The Marriage and it’s about Alzheimer’s. I played Dawnn Lewis’ mother and I had Alzheimer’s. We were doing this scene together and we heard this woman in the audience crying. When it was over, she came up to us and said that her mother has Alzheimer’s, and that’s the way she was acting and she couldn’t understand why. But when she saw me in the character, she understood her mother more. It gave her more compassion for the illness. She never took the time to find out what it meant before. It taught her not to label people until she found out what was going on in their hearts. I thought that was most profound. When you’re on stage, that audience isn’t looking at you. They’re looking at their life.
How did you feel about being asked to play God in Joan of Arcadia?
To play God is the ultimate call without trying to be God—because no one can be God. But just to represent Him was a blessed feeling. Then when they called me back again, I said, “Okay, Lord. I hear you. I got it. I got it this time.” I love the show because it doesn’t drive it in and beat you with, “You’ve got to repent or you’re going to Hell.” It’s like everybody can be God. Blake can be God sitting here doing this book. That’s God there, because what you two are doing is going to help somebody else. That’s God. People have their own concept, but that’s my concept. What you do to help somebody else, that’s your God.
What’s your favorite thing about being an actor?
Even if I were to stop acting today, I’ve done more in my five-year lifetime than a lot of people have done their whole lifetime. I can take that to my grave. I’m happy with that. I get to hang out with other actors with like minds. They know what the struggle is. You love your family, you love your friends, but they don’t know. I like hanging with actors. They’re so cool. They’re in a world all their own and I like it because they’re non-judgmental. I do have actor friends that are negative. Now, I love ’em, but I gotta leave ’em where they are because they’re not growing. If you keep up with them, they’re going to pull you down and you’re going to have to start over. Keep yourself surrounded with people that are doing the same thing you’re doing, love the same thing you’re doing, and if you didn’t get that audition, so what! You’ll get the next one!
Who are your favorite actors?
Nowadays, it’s Johnny Depp. He is so versatile. He can play an inchworm and make you believe he’s an inchworm. He is so remarkable. He wowed me in Edward Scissorhands and in Ed Wood. That’s when I really started watching him. He makes good choices. He’s up there with the best of them. He’s a “real” actor. I like Tom Cruise, but Tom Cruise is more for show. Depp can act the pants off of Tom Cruise. Favorites from the “old movies” are Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell. Those are two of the greatest actors.
What do you do when you’re not acting?
I spend time with my two Cocker Spaniels. I say, “Look! Momma’s on TV! Watch! Watch!” and they say, “Okay, Momma.” They’re always: “You’re happy, we’re happy!” I write. I’m writing a play right now about alcoholism. I’ve taken up sewing. I go see all the free movies I can. Between SAG and Cinemark, I can see a lot of free movies. I work on my yard. I ride my tricycle. My sister died and her husband was selling the house. The trike had been sitting out. I said, “What are you going to do with that?” He said, “Give it away.” I said, “Can I have it?” So I took it to a bike shop and they cleaned it up and I went to Sav-on and I got a basket for the front. I put my radio in there. Then I bought a canopy to go over because it would be hot. I go on the riverbed and I will pedal my tricycle from Compton to Long Beach in the riverbed—that’s about twenty-six miles, roundtrip. My daughter has a hot dog stand called Snooky Doggs on Sixth and Pine in Long Beach. If you ever go down there, you’ll get better hot dogs than they have in New York. Sometimes I go down and help her out. And every Friday they have a Farmer’s Market in Long Beach and I’ll go down there and get my fruits and vegetables and then I’ll come home. I’ll pick out some old movies — some black-and-whites — and I’ll watch them. I love being an actor!
This interview was conducted on November 8, 2004, and it originally appeared in Acting Qs: Conversations with Working Actors by Bonnie Gillespie and Blake Robbins, available at Amazon.