Omaha Native on race, family and her new role on ABC’s ‘Night Stalker’
Let’s face it, the girl can’t help it. With a combo of beauty and attitude to die for, Omaha-born actress Gabrielle Monique Union embodies what it means to be fabulous. 
Despite The Honeymooners fizzle, her profile is about to explode owing to her work in a handful of new feature films awaiting release and a starring role in the new ABC series “Night Stalker,” which premieres Thursday, Sept. 29, at 8 p.m.
Despite looking confident and put together, she confided to The Reader while visiting during Native Omaha Days, anxieties produced by stardom and some frustrations that go with being black in a white-dominated field. She is about to start producing her own projects, in part to determine the fate of her own image. Meanwhile she plays the game, transforming herself into our fantasies.
When on the circuit of the red carpet runway, she’s the preening diva in designer wear, perfect makeup and flawless hair who flashes I-love-my-public smiles and blows kisses in classic movie star fashion. In those Neutrogena TV spots, she’s the girl-next-door, oh so fresh and so clean, of our dreams. She turns serious young artist at events like the NAACP Image Awards and on the big screen, she’s the hottie object of desire for LL Cool J, Jamie Foxx and Will Smith. Lately, however, she’s taking parts that don’t so much exploit her head-turning attributes as display her acting depth, including roles in the drama Neo Ned, which received rave reviews at the 2005 TriBeca Film Festival, Constellation, which beat out both Hustle & Flow and Crash for the Audience Prize at the Urbanworld film fest, and Running With Scissors, the much-awaited adaptation of Augusten Burroughs’ tell-all book, where Union plays the possessive lover of a character played by Annette Bening.
In “Night Stalker,” an update of a 1970s
show, she’s part of an investigative reporting team examining unexplained homicide cases. With a creative staff from “The X-Files,” it’s not surprising “Stalker” casts Union as Perri, a skeptic trying to rein-in her overly curious partner Carl Kolchak (Stuart Townsend), who suspects the supernatural, paranormal or extraterrestrial in every unsolved murder. Sound familiar? Union was sold on the show, due to the quality of the scripts and the chance it offered “to grow with my character.”
All this comes on the heels of her small but weighty appearance in the Emmy Award-winning HBO drama, Something the Lord Made, her first period piece.
Ten years after breaking through, she’s sufficiently in the select company of such single-name Star Sistas as Halle, Queen, Beyonce, Angela, Oprah and Vivica — adding flavor to an otherwise bland look-alike white girl scene.
A rising career for a black or Latina actress, no matter how talented or lovely she is, is not the same as it is for a white actress. Union bristles at the inequity that gives a Reese Witherspoon or Cameron Diaz carte blanche when she’s restricted from certain roles.
“It’s the option of doing different kinds of things,” she said. “They have the option of doing any kind of movie they want. Anything that could possibly pop into their head, that kind of script is there for them. Whereas with me, I’m offered the same exact things over and over and over again.”
This relative lack of choices, she said, not only means a more limited artistic palette to pick from but also a smaller financial reward. “There is a financial reality in what we do. Those bills, darn it, pop up every month. That dang mortgage has to be paid. You can pass, pass, pass, pass, pass and hope for better material, but when it’s not coming, at a certain point you end up doing the same sort of material. As actors of color we don’t have the same luxury and we’re certainly not paid anywhere close to what [majority actors] get paid,” Union said.
Then there are industrywide casting practices that unfairly limit actors of color. Producers often can’t or won’t hire blacks and Hispanics for nonrace-specific roles because the suits’ experiences and perceptions of the world don’t include racial-ethnic minorities in certain guises, especially opposite whites.
“That just happened last spring. I was told, ‘Gabrielle, you gave the best read. If we decide to go “black,” you’re at the top of the list.’ It’s still a big fight to get people to think someone like me could be the friend or colleague of a white character, male or female. I’m not even talking about trying to convince somebody I could be Angelina Jolie’s sister or something like that. I’m talking about being her friend or associate or whatever. It’s the nature of the business [to stereotype us],” she said.
But as her slate of new projects attests, Union’s not backing down or giving up. A former competitive athlete, she has redirected her fire into her career, where she aggressively pursues parts traditionally reserved for white counterparts. She’s landing some of these jobs, but she wants more.
“You have these little victories, and you hope to spin these little victories into a bigger victory,” she said, “and that’s just kind of been the basis of my career. I’m still waiting to sort of win the battle. But I’ve had a lot of fun on the path. Some of the battles I have lost have taught me so much about myself and about my inner resolve and who I am, and the fact that I don’t lay down and just die when I don’t get what I want. I learn to kind of regroup and fight harder. There’s nothing else I can do but stay prepared and stay ready for that opportunity. And I am prepared.”
Far from passively sitting and waiting for that breakthrough role to plop into her lap, she’s actively looking to develop properties and projects via Prominent Enterprises, a talent/marketing consulting agency expanding into film production. The company is owned and managed by Union’s husband, Chris Howard, an ex-NFL player, in partnership with her former publicist, Alejandra Cristina. Although a new player in Hollywood, Prominent’s raising a sizable film fund to finance productions for Gabrielle to produce and/or in which to star.
“They’ve put together an investment group that’s put up $20 million to make anywhere from one to five films, so we’ve been poring over scripts. Nothing I’m going to star in yet, but I’m definitely going to produce,” she said. “The investment group has the capability of distributing and marketing a film, all in-house, so we don’t have to go pander our films to a studio to get distribution. I’d rather learn producing through my husband’s company than out there alone. We’ll definitely be putting our friends to work, and you’ll be seeing people in roles that you would never anticipate them in. … It’s all happening very quickly. A lot quicker than we anticipated.”
Remembering her roots
Taking charge of her career is nothing new for Union, who’s taken pains in recent years to control her image by virtue of the parts she chooses and the type of publicity she does. For her, not doing nude scenes, for example, is not so much about protecting her good-girl persona in the industry as it is honoring her family.
“I think it’s the respect I have for my parents and the respect I have for my husband. It’s also been a learning process. I’ve taken jobs, and I’ve done photo spreads in the past I wouldn’t necessarily do now — understanding the reaction and aftermath that follows. My parents are alive and a part of my life, and I’m not estranged from anybody. My husband has to go to work and face people. It’s just not worth it to me to do things that are going to embarrass them. My folks raised me to be a certain kind of person, and I want my roles to be reflective of that, and I want the kind of press I do to be reflective of that. Sometimes I stray, but it’s all a learning curve, and I’m learning I have the power to say no and the world’s not going to end and my career’s not going to stop.”
An example of her emancipation came during her recent Omaha visit, when she refused agent-publicist entreaties to fly her out of town for an ABC affiliate appearance. Instead she opted to party on down with family and friends at the Native Omaha Days festival, where she caused a stir everywhere she and her small entourage went. The rumor she might show some place got joints jumping and crowds buzzing. Hundreds attended a ceremony naming the Adams Park pond after her.
The fans, many of them relatives from her large, extended family on both sides, crowded inside the rec center for an autograph or some piece of their “Nikki,” the endearing name those close to her prefer. Her appearance marked the first time “when everybody sort of came together since my wedding [in 2001]. They’re all here. More than I expected. People I didn’t even know came back. It’s exciting,” she said.
With such “a big family” and her “time always so limited” when in town, there’s added pressure to please everyone, so they don’t feel “cheated.” Visiting family also provides a reality check; her parents and sisters wouldn’t let her get away with a big head. Her folks, Theresa and Sylvester Union, who are divorced, both said their star daughter is amazingly “grounded.”
Pushing herself
Besides being selective in how she represents herself, Union has been holding out for the meatier roles. “It’s a lot easier to play when the part is close to who you are.” she said. “I take pride in bringing strong depictions of women to the screen.” With more substantial roles come more challenges.
Although she’s used to playing characters that are hell-on-wheels, Union’s part in Running With Scissors is a departure in that she portrays a drugged-out, gay woman. “She’s a lesbian, a speed freak and a psychologically tortured young woman who falls in love with Annette Bening’s character and disrupts her life. It’s a great kind of crazy character that’s really challenged me in new ways, and I just had a ball doing it. I think my mom is still getting used to the idea of me being a lesbian, but as long as Annette Bening is my girlfriend, she’s OK with it,” Union said, laughing.
“To tackle” the role of an abused woman in Neo Ned, Union reopened the wounds of her own rape by going through old journals, therapy sessions and mentally revisiting those times that were out of sorts and out of control . “I was able to convey certain aspects of my own experience into the character’s, but at the time I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it without going nuts.” She made it through OK, but she said far from being cathartic, reliving her own trauma was harrowing.
“It was only afterward I found it therapeutic, when at the Q&A that followed the film’s opening, people were saying, and it always happens, ‘Me too, me too.’ It’s always comforting for me and others to know — I’m not alone in my experience. I’m not alone in my surviving, and in being able to still lead a decent, functional life, that these obstacles are surmountable,” she said.
Union has long-used her celebrity to openly discuss her rape and recovery and to advocate for victims’ rights and the importance of counseling, which she received.
As much as she enjoys educating people about empowering themselves, she realizes she’s still learning both her craft and this whole business of being a star. Therefore she seeks out mentors to school her in acting and in managing fame. Diva soul singer Patti LaBelle is among those who’ve taken Union under her wing, teaching her how to stay “who she is” and keep “what she stands for” amid the hoopla. The more high-profile projects Union does, the more-seasoned veterans she calls on.
“It’s the only way you’re going to get better. Unfortunately a lot of young people in our industry lack humility. That whole idea of wanting to be the biggest fish in the pond doesn’t appeal to me. You can learn so much more if you just shut up and watch, which is what I do.”
When asked if working with Bening in Scissors, Alan Rickman in Something the Lord Made or Billy Dee Williams in Constellation obliges her to raise her own level, she answered emphatically, “Oh, hell, yes. They make you step up your game. And especially as I’m not formally trained, I don’t have that wealth of knowledge to fall back on. I have to learn from my co-workers.”
She’s still insecure and starstruck enough that she gets tongue-tied around her idols, such as Diahann Carroll, whom she “chickened out” meeting. On the set of Constellation, she lost her composure working alongside icons Williams and Rae Dawn Chong. “I got intimidated. I didn’t know where to begin the scene — to not be buried,” she said, “because they were all bringing it.”
To her surprise, serious theater offers have come her way. Thus far, she’s passed, admitting she feels out of her element there.
“I’ve been offered things I have no business being offered. I mean Broadway productions — all off the strength of something like Bring It On. But I have too much respect for the craft and for the theater to take a job I’m not ready for, and to bring down a whole production. I have too much respect for the amazing talent that’s underemployed to take a job I don’t deserve and I haven’t earned — just because I can. I don’t want that on my shoulders.”
The props, the perks, the offers, the adoring crowds, the intrusive fans and the unwanted stares are all part of the bargain, good and bad.
“It’s weird. I don’t feel worthy of that sort of adoration. Ultimately it’s nice that people appreciate what you do and to know your work is not in vain,” she said.
Negotiating fame is a work in progress for her and her husband. “It’s been a long path to kind of figuring that out,” she said. “When we want a fun, cool time, either with him and I or with our friends, we don’t do it at premieres or parties. We do it at our homes. We keep it private. So that whatever we’re doing or talking about or wearing or not wearing, no one’s going to know about it except for us. That’s how we stay strong.”
Careerwise, she has her thing and he has his. Even with the overlap from Prominent Enterprises, she’s the one out front. He’s in the background, where he prefers it. It’s their way of maintaining separate identities. “When I do travel for work and go to premieres or parties, he doesn’t always come,” she said. “He’s like, ‘That’s your life. I don’t want to stand around and hold your purse. I have my own career and a whole life outside yours.’ And that’s made it a lot easier.”
Being the center of attention, she said, “sometimes is a drag.” “There are times you just don’t feel like it. You’re tired. You just want a quiet evening with family. You just want to be. But when they don’t fuss over you, that’s when you go, ‘What happened?’”
Inking the deal for “Night Stalker,” which she wanted against the advice of her management, was done partly to get more “alone time with my husband,” she said. “Now that I’m home in L.A. shooting the series, even though the hours are crazy, we have a little bit more time together. It almost feels like we’re starting over because I’m home now.” Starting a family is not a priority yet. “I don’t want to be jealous of a child for taking me away from my man. Once we get enough alone time and we travel and we do all the things we want to do, than we’ll expand.”
