An interview by Ioana Istrate written in collaboration with Regina Luz Jordan
Why this iS not jUST a press stop FOR rENéE eLISE gOLDBERRY
Some interviews play nice. This one doesn’t. We asked Renée Elise Goldsberry about legacy, about the gatekeeping that loves our talent but starves our paychecks, about being a woman of color who refuses to age out of the frame.
She did not dodge. She attacked and answered the hard hitting questions Hollywoodland News is know for, like a builder who measures her impact by who gets through the door after her and how they are treated once they arrive.
“If it doesn’t lift up that little girl, I want no part of it.”
That line becomes the spine for everything that follows.
I opened with legacy. Does it belong behind glass, or in motion and
Renee responded that she keeps legacy moving, not embalmed. She sees Angelica Schuyler as a correction to the record, and Henrietta Lacks as another way of putting a woman back at the center of the story. “Angelica deserved to be honored alongside the founding fathers,” she replied. “I’m proud I helped reintroduce her.”
Legacy isn’t a plaque on a wall
Hamilton is baked into her DNA, sure, but Renee refuses to let legacy sit behind glass. When she talks about Angelica Schuyler, she frames it like a correction, adding a foremother back into a story that pretended she was a footnote. Same energy with Henrietta Lacks. She is not chasing prestige for the mantle. She is choosing work that fixes the record and expands the frame, work that tells a young Black girl her intelligence is the headline, not the twist.
“I feel most satisfied when something I say helps someone claim the space they deserve.”
Pull that thread and the choices line up. Angelica, Henrietta, then a scientist in her forties who saves the world because brilliance looks good with laugh lines. Then a diva in her fifties who wants another shot at pop stardom and says it out loud.
Let’s be real, this is representation with teeth, not a checkbox.
I pressed on the pipeline. Is theater still the driver, or does the feed decisions? She didn’t romanticize it. “Hamilton would have been a hit anytime,” she replied, “but the phenomenon came from social media. Access mattered.” For Renee the lesson is simple. The art is live. Discovery is digital.
The pipeline is real AND FOR rENéE eLISE gOLDSBERRY, it runs both ways
People love to pretend Broadway and pop culture are distant cousins. Renee has receipts. Rehearsal clips hit early on Instagram. Ham for Ham traveled farther than the opening night ink. TikTok became the ticket when tickets were impossible. That current carried the work into prestige sci-fi, sharp comedy and Marvel.
“Theater still drives culture,” she added, “and like film and television it relies on social platforms to find its audience.”
Bottom line: the stage lights the spark and our phones moves it. Meet people where they scroll and invite them to the room.
The cost of the room
and why rENéE eLISE gOLDSBERRY stays anyway
I asked what it actually costs to keep her voice. She didn’t sugarcoat. The cost is high because it mean fewer roles for women, even fewer for women of color and ewer again as women age. It’s the pay that trails the work and that is the reality.
Then there’s the pivot. If access is rationed, make your own access: write an album, make a documentary, teach, vote and be a part of collaborations. She treats those choices like oxygen, not side projects.
“We can tell our own stories,” she replied. “Technology gives everyone access. The scarcity is time.”
So she protects her time and spends it on roles that move the needle, on music that says it plain, on a film that shows the cost and the grace. There’s no waiting room, no permission slip. She let’s the work speak for her.
Choice as craft, not branding
I asked how Renée Elise Goldsberry decides what gets a yes. She replied that she carries two audiences into every room: the little girl who needs proof and the older woman who deserves respect. If both feel seen, the work is worth it.
You can see that filter on screen. Quellcrist Falconer is a brilliant mind in a mid-40s body that saves the world. Wickie Roy turns middle age into unapologetic ambition. Mallory Book wins with precision instead of spectacle. Each role cracks a stereotype and then widens the opening for whoever comes next.
“I imagine both versions of me,” she replied. “If they are lifted and affirmed, I am in.”
So if the choices look intentional, it’s because they are. She isn’t curating a brand. Renée Elise Goldsberry is building a record and projects that lift the girl and honor the woman, that center skill, stamina and voice. If the work does that then it gets her time. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
The album and the mirror
I asked why make a record now when crossover albums get called vanity projects. She replied that Who I Really Am is a memoir set to music and not a side quest. It’s a statement.
Renée Elise Goldsberry is skilled enough to hide behind a character. She chooses not to in her documentary. Satisfied keeps that choice honest. The camera turns on the work, the family and the bill that comes due when ambition is real. There’s no halo or gloss. It’s just clarity.
Both projects do the same thing in different keys. The album lets her say it herself. The film shows what it costs and why it matters. That kind of honesty is rarer than it should be.
On carrying the mantle and widening it
I asked what it means to join that Broadway-to-pop lineage. Renée Elise Goldsberry responded by widening the frame. Credit the women who built the room and stand alongside the ones pushing now. Clear space for whoever is walking in next.
She keeps the focus on community, not coronation which we love because in our crossover question, we dropped now infamous names like Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster and Patti LuPone. Renée Elise Goldsberry replied, “Tell your story so others see what is possible. Share the mic. Leave the lights on. “
The list of women of color who are killing it in every space is long,” she replied.
The point for her is not to be the only one and to make sure there are many.
What this means right now
This is more of a blueprint than a greatest hits tour.
While we forever love it, Hamilton proved theater can dominate the feed without losing its soul. Girls5eva showed that middle age can be loud, messy, ambitious and still funny. She-Hulk let a sharp attorney steal scenes with wit and precision. Her album and the documentary lock the narrative in her own hands before anyone else tries to write it.
If you are a young creative, take the work that lifts you.
If you are an older creative, take the space you earned.
If you hold the purse strings, fund the projects that move the needle and stop pretending the math is complicated.
Renee’s message is simple and present tense: make the thing, tell the truth, leave the light on for the next person.
Final word FROM oUR cHAT WITH rENéE eLISE gOLDSBERRY
This wasn’t a victory lap. It was the operating manual. The pipeline is clear that the stage lights the spark and the feed moves it.
Renée Elise Goldsberry isn’t looking back, she’s plotting the next move. The stage will spark it, the feed will carry it and the work will keep widening the room. The question isn’t whether she’ll cross over again but more along the lines of who gets to follow.
If you’re paying attention, plan accordingly.
Leave a Reply