Awkwafina Recalls Her Lifelong Desire to Stand Out
Awkwafina is on one of the covers of Variety‘s Power of Women issues!
Here’s what the 30-year-old actress had to share with the mag…
On her lifelong desire to stand out: “I wanted to play the drums but then like 15 other people wanted to, so I was like, ‘OK, what’s the next loudest instrument? The trumpet is one of those instruments where people can almost tell what your voice is like… My band teacher was able to tell who was playing the trumpet down the hall. I thought that aspect of it was really cool, because it involved a part of you.”
On her rap tracks going viral and attracting Hollywood’s attention: “I didn’t anticipate that music would be like, a career. I just knew that I loved doing it. When I was growing up, I was really into music, but the biggest question was access to the technology… [So] when I first started producing beats, I was looking up how to do things like ‘How does a compressor work?’ These were questions that, in the context of GarageBand, could never be answered.”
On Building Beats, a nonprofit that supports minority and low-income youth who want to go into music production: “It teaches you structure, how to be in charge of your own destiny and how to apply those tools later if you do want to go into the business of selling your music. I’ve been to a lot of workshops with Building Beats, and these kids really care. They remind me of me back then, you know? Though they go to after-school programs, which — man, you couldn’t have paid me to go to an after-school program! Without certain tools, if you want to compete in a market, you won’t be able to. But talent and passion don’t discriminate.”
For more from Awkwafina, visit Variety.com.
