Source: Fabiola Bouchereau
In a world that’s still reluctant to celebrate Black women for their boundless beauty, resilience in sexist spaces and culture-shifting power, there’s an emerging crop of game-changers like award-winning actress/stunt specialist/voiceover pro Ayisha Issa who threaten to dismantle a system built to shrink their talents, ambitions and dreams.
As one of very few multi-layered Black Doctors in TV history, the 6’0″ Jiu-Jitsu champion shines as the steely yet brilliant ‘Dr. June Curtis’ on NBC’s refreshingly diverse Medical Drama “Transplant” that centers on Dr. Bashir “Bash” Hamed, a Syrian doctor with battle-tested skills in emergency medicine who fled his country with his younger sister, Amira.
We caught up with the rising star who took a break from changing the world through art and philanthropy to chat with us about her role as Dr. Curtis and much, much more.
Tell us how you got involved with “Transplant”
So, I had a martial arts academy at the time and my agent called and said I had an audition for a part on the show and I thought the material was really fun and I auditioned for a different character, then I completely forgot about it–about a month later, Ally (agent) called back and said they wanted me to read for the June character.
And so I was really excited, got to work and pumped out 28 takes or something like that. And we did something that was kind of unusual–you don’t usually send 28 takes to a casting director–but we decided to send all 28 and let them decide what to do with it. And it worked. I got the part.”
You might have one of the most interesting careers in all of Hollywood right now. You have your academy, your Jiu-Jitsu background, your stunt work background–you’ve been in video games and now you’re on this big NBC show–you have a great agent!
Can you talk about developing your range as an actress through all of these different mediums? How did you develop who you wanted to be as an actress?
“I was fortunate enough to not have decided right from the get-go that I was going to be an actress and that there was a certain way to go about this and that I was going to do it that way because I feel like that might have locked me into a pattern that may or may not have worked for me… and made it more difficult to see everything that was out there and available.
So, because I fell into it backwards I was just grateful for the opportunity. And I was having a good time with it. And I wasn’t formally trained so, for me, there were no rules as to how to go about it. And then, like you said, I’m fortunate, I have a great agent Ally.. I’ve been with her since the beginning of my career… so, when it comes to building out my career, it really has been like, ‘OK, you know, I know that I love martial arts. I know that I love physical roles so I’m going to tackle those.
And then it became, you know, my agents would only push me to do roles that they knew would be a good addition to my résumé. It’s about remaining flexible and staying true to yourself and if you’re always having fun and enjoying it and OK with saying “no, sorry, I’d rather go do something else than play that part’ then it works out.”
What would you say is the hardest part about playing a doctor on TV?
“Originally, for me, it was really about being in the environment where we’re doing these big trauma scenes–and they have all this cutting and fake blood and stuff–the’ve done such a good job of making it look realistic…
You know, I know it’s fake but I get a physical response to doing some of these scenes sometimes I have to sit down and like, ‘Woo, OK,’ I get hot and sweaty, even though I know it’s not real. So I think that’s the hardest part outside of the medical language and things like that.”
As an emerging black woman in the industry, what would you say has been your biggest challenge and your biggest triumph up to this point? Do you ever feel alone or do you feel supported?
“Yeah, that’s a really good question–I have a really great team. I know that I can call and complain. I can call and be angry. And I know that they have my back. I can’t say that I feel alone. That being said, there are definitely challenges. I entered the market in a way where I was unique in the sense that I’m six feet tall, I’m athletic, I have a martial arts background and I’m Black. And so there’s not too much competition in that particular area. And then, you know, work ethic and having people behind you help build the confidence to tackle roles that are more mainstream.
My biggest triumph is not feeling desperate to the point of taking jobs that I would not feel proud of having done. You know, I played a prisoner once on a show for five years. I got an award for that. And I don’t ever have to play another stereotypical character ever again.
The triumph is the patience, remembering the power of the “no” and having the confidence to walk away.
And you shouldn’t be so desperate for one career that you’re willing to compromise on who you are or what you believe you’re capable of or worth. But that’s easier said than done.”
I have to ask–so, basically, you’re having an entanglement with the security guard at the hospital and I know that you got an intimacy coach for this. So tell me about this situation.
Well, when I saw it in the script I was like uhhh *laughs* we’re so lucky to have a very supportive group of people that we’re working for and working with and so it was possible for me to go to the producer and say, ‘hey, I’m uncomfortable with this. I’ve never done this before.’ And it’s true. I never had any kissing scenes and all of that kind of stuff. And it made me legitimately uncomfortable…
So they’re like ‘yea, OK, don’t worry about it. We’ll get you an intimacy coach’ and so the process is learning to connect and learning to to be comfortable in these kind of intimate situations. But it all worked out pretty well and I think that ‘June’ being uncomfortable, I was able to lend her my true emotion in that moment.”
What’s your opinion about dating coworkers off camera in real life?
“I don’t think that I would date anybody that I’m working with. Work environment is so important, especially when you’re on the show. You want to be going there and having a good time–you don’t want any distractions in your work environment.
There’s so many people out there, so many interesting, great people. And I think that sometimes leaving the area that we’re familiar with, leaving our work environment that we frequent all the time and venturing out would be a really great opportunity to meet someone who can help us grow in other ways because they have a different perspective on life”
To close things out, I saw you say something really interesting about how this show is about the guy who’s in all of the medical shows who you never really get to learn about. So just tell me why people need to watch “The Transplant” as soon as possible.
That’s what it is. You know, the show about the guys in all these shows who we never get to know about. He’s the guy behind the counter at the restaurant. He’s the taxi driver. He’s all these other little parts that we never delved into at all.
And this is an opportunity to explore what it means to be that person. And I feel like it’s representative of real life in that sense of whether we cross each other on a daily basis. And, you know, we kind of categorize each other based on, you know, stereotypes or whatever, whether or not we’re trying to do it.
And if you look at all the characters, we represent a different version of that. You know, where the backstory is a little different than you would expect. It’s a great opportunity to peek into other people’s lives and think a little bit about the people you cross on a daily basis and don’t necessarily interact with.
So I hope that that opens a little bit of conversation and encourages people to talk to each other and remember that we have more similarities than differences and that we’re all just trying to try. And we all have that in common.”
“Transplant” airs every Tuesday at 10 pm on NBC.
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