Leslie Uggams Gets Candid on ‘Roots,’ ‘Gilded Age,’ 60 Years of Marriage and Reinvention at 82 (EXCLUSIVE)
She reflects on 60 years of showbiz, staying joyful and her exciting new chapter in ‘The Gilded Age’
Beloved for her role as Kizzy on the history-making series Roots, Leslie Uggams, now 82, has been making audiences laugh, cry, sing and dance for over sixty years. The multi-hyphenate talent has never shied away from performing, making her professional television debut in 1951 playing the niece of Ethel Waters on Beulah. That same year, she appeared as a featured performer at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem alongside Ella Fitzgerald, and the notoriously tough crowd loved “Little Leslie Uggams,” as she was known back then.
She continued her Apollo appearances where she opened for Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington and Fitzgerald. Hobnobbing with legends became commonplace for Leslie throughout her career—Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra and countless others. In 1969, she had her own television variety show, The Leslie Uggams Show, the first network variety show to be hosted by a black person. Then, in 1977 came Roots, for which she received an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination as Kizzy.
That was then, and now, Leslie has welcomed a new generation of fans with her portrayal of Blind Al in the blockbuster Deadpool film franchise.
This month, the acclaimed actress received the 12th Annual John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theater, and the Woman’s World cover girl (get your copy here!) shows no sign of slowing down. She has gone from wearing Bob Mackie designer clothes to designs of another era in HBO’s The Gilded Age, playing Mrs. Ernestine Brown, and her passion for her work still reveals a woman who loves what she does no matter what character she is portraying. Here, she gets candid with Woman’s World.
Woman’s World: You’ve been performing from a very young age. What is the first thing you learned about yourself both professionally and personally?
Leslie Uggams: I enjoy what I do. Ever since I was a kid, I was a ham. I was not a shy kid. You didn’t have to ask me twice to sing. It was just natural for me to do. I wasn’t fearful. My dad always said you can be anything you want to be.
WW: Were you comfortable in your own skin as a young child?
LU: When you’re little, you have to grow into your own skin. When you’re a teenager, you might be too tall, too this or too that, but I always loved singing. My mother said I heard a Frank Sinatra song, “Nancy,” when I was about 3 and I would sing that, so music was always a part of my life. My Aunt Eloise was on Broadway in The Blackbirds and she was a great singer. There was always music in my home.
WW: Now you’re on The Gilded Age, which gives viewers a glimpse of what it was like living in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island in that age. As Mrs. Ernestine Brown, a member of the Black elite community in Newport, how much of yourself have you inserted into this character?
LU: When I was growing up, there were quite a few organizations with very brilliant Black women at that time, so I was aware of their prestige and how they had to do their fundraisers. I had a cousin who worked for Mayor Daley back in the day, and also as a reporter as well, so she was part of that elite group. I was used to being around people like that.
On my mother’s side there were teachers, doctors, dentists—so I was aware. But there are a lot of clothes you have to wear. I don’t know how anybody could wear all those clothes because at the end of the day, you’d be worn out.
WW: Would you have enjoyed life as Mrs. Brown in ‘The Gilded Age’?
LU: I think so. She’s quite the little gossiper, isn’t she? They go to all the functions and seem to party all day. You just have to change your clothes. And all the help that they had and the places they lived were quite beautiful. That would have been a fascinating life.
WW: With your busy schedule, are there any ways you might tamper down any stresses in your life?
LU: I have a great family and we talk about everything and hang out. We have a new great-grandbaby. She’s 14 months now and is in Australia, so we get these fabulous pictures. And my granddaughters are here in New York, so we hang and have a lot of laughs together. Even with the Australian relatives, we go on WhatsApp so we’re constantly communicating and laughing together. I’m lucky that both my kids live here as well, so it’s constant family.
WW: How important is laughter to you in your overall health?
LU: I’ve been married to my husband for 60 years in October. We were friends before lovers. We like each other. He makes me laugh all the time. He’s got a great wild Australian sense of humor. We met in Australia. We watch a lot of comedies on TV. We watch a lot of TV together anyway. I call my husband the original Crocodile Dundee. He keeps me and everybody else laughing a lot.
WW: Sinatra and the song “Nancy” was your go-to song when you were a young girl. What song would you play over and over again as a teenager?
LU: Johnny Mathis—every morning when I would get ready to go to school, I’d play the Johnny Mathis “Chances Are” and “Wonderful! Wonderful!” I don’t know how my mother got any sleep, but she never complained. I thought I was going to marry him. Surprise!
When we moved to California, we got to see him and know his dad as well. Every time we had a chance, we’d go to his concert. And of course, I love my doo-wop too. Gotta keep your feet moving.
WW: What have been two important turning points in your life?
LU: Other than marriage and kids, career-wise, I’d say playing Kizzy in Roots was a big turning point. That will go down in history. People would ask why I wanted to act because I could sing. I didn’t want to be put into a box. Roots was challenging. Sometimes I would come home crying. We were doing the history of our family, so therefore, it was tough and it was tough on all of us emotionally. People still come up to me and say that Kizzy and Roots actually changed their life.
WW: What’s the first thing you do in the morning?
LU: Have a cup of tea. We’re tea drinkers. My husband likes plain old Lipton. If we go on the road, the first thing he asks room service is if they have Lipton tea. We put in a spot of milk. Very Australian…don’t call them British.
WW: What might be your simple self-care routine?
LU: I try to keep my skin hydrated—wash my face, a mask sometimes, but basically I believe in hydration of my skin. I like to experiment with products. I like La Mer. I got into that because I was doing a performance and a cocktail party before when a woman came up to me and said I had beautiful skin, what did I use? And I said nothing really. Turns out she was the head of La Mer and she sent me products and that’s how I started using them. I like Kiehl’s too. So I use either as cleanser and moisturizers.
WW: Do you have an overall philosophy or mantra on life?
LU: My whole thing is I try to be as positive as possible in my thinking. I like to think my glass is half full, not half empty. I’ve seen some extraordinary things in my lifetime that I go, “Wow.” Man walking on the moon, 9/11 here in New York where I live, things like that. I moved to California and was in an earthquake. I’ll never forget that with my bed shaking. I think my mother was the only person who got through on the phone because she called up and said come back to New York and bring the babies.
WW: And did you?
LU: No!
WW: It sounds like your philosophy is a combination of positivity and negativity that has made a full life for you.
LU: Absolutely! I’m grateful that I can still do what I love to do. I’m grateful that I still have opportunities given to me.
WW: At 82, you don’t let a number define who you are it seems. What might you have told your younger self?
LU: Interesting enough, I come from a family who didn’t make it past 80. But we take better care of ourselves now. We go to the doctor more regularly than family members did. They went when they felt sick and our generation is more into preventative care. I’m still here, knock on wood! So I might have told my younger self to be proactive about health.
WW: You have long work days in your line of work. How do you keep your mind and body prepared for these long days?
LU: With filming and television, it starts early on in the day and sometimes it’s a 15-hour day. But you’re talking to the other actors and reading your script so it keeps your mind going and concentrating on your character. Long days are a routine that you get used to, so you make sure you get plenty of sleep. I’m a seven-hour sleeper because I go to sleep with music in my head and wake up with music in my head.
WW: How would you describe Leslie Uggams of today?
LU: Curious. Not afraid to take a chance, to take a risk. People are surprised when I switch things up. My career has always been that way—nothing planned out. My mother used to say you look around one corner and it comes around the other corner. That to me has been my career.
WW: It seems like you enjoy reinventing yourself.
LU: Oh yes! Absolutely. Some people like to keep doing what they’ve been doing, but I’m always, “Let’s try this and see what this is like.” It’s been wonderful for me. I don’t like to do what I did 20 years ago, or even 30 years ago, except singing and dancing. Doing the same thing would seem boring to me. Most of my career has been out of the blue. I truly love what I do. I try to be a part of things that make me happy, but at the same time challenge me.
WW: What did you learn by doing The Gilded Age?
LU: It was just so much fun. From the minute that show came on, I was hooked. So, to be asked to do it, I said “YES! I can’t wait.” To work in those mansions in Newport, Rhode Island—you have to think it must have been really something and it’s still really something. It’s almost like a journey back in history.
Conversation
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