Director Millicent Shelton, 43, became an African-American first when she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for NBC's "30 Rock." The award show may be over, but Shelton breaks down barriers and Hollywood's tough lessons.
ESSENCE.COM: Congratulations on your nomination. I was completely surprised to learn that you're the first Black woman to get a nod in this category.
MILLICENT SHELTON: I was surprised too! I was told that pretty early on and I thought that can't be the truth, there has to be somebody else. I had a lot of people do some fact checking; the Director's Guild and the Academy checked then confirmed the news. It's a dilemma on how to feel about being the first one because although it's a great honor, at the same time it's depressing and sad that it took until 2009 for an African-American female to be nominated.
ESSENCE.COM: Is there not enough of us in these roles, what's the deal?
SHELTON: Yeah, there's a small pool of women in these positions. Only five percent of directors in film and TV are women. So can you only imagine the percentage of women that are African-American, it's probably one percent or less.
ESSENCE.COM: What advice can you give to Black women who are trying to break into this field?
SHELTON: Don't pay attention to statistics. I think the reason why I've been able to do what I do is because I stick my head in the sand and move forward. I always believed my mother who said I could do whatever I wanted as long as I believed and worked hard enough. It's a naiveté that works on my behalf. It didn't occur to me that it was difficult; if I thought about that all the time I went in to interview for a job people would smell that fear and nervousness and I probably wouldn't get hired.
ESSENCE.COM: What's the best advice you've ever received?
SHELTON: Lavar Burton told me to "just do you" and that stuck. I try to do me, have a good time and be genuine. I'm also actively working on my craft trying to do the best work every time I get an opportunity.
ESSENCE.COM: Before you started in TV, you directed and wrote the movie "Ride." Will you ever go back to the big screen?
SHELTON: The movie was a hard experience because it didn't reflect my best work. The script was rewritten right before we went to production and I wasn't involved. It's hard to detach yourself from a movie; to work on something for three years and to have it ripped away from you, that's really hard. Plus, I was very young and I reached a point where I didn't want to do any more movies. But the horror of "Ride" has finally worn off so I'm looking at scripts. But I don't want to leave TV. To be a working director is an honor.