Niecy Nash-Betts has enjoyed an acclaimed run of dramatic roles – including her Emmy-winning turn in “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” — but she wants to remind audiences that she’s comedian, too.
“I literally just called my team and said, ‘I think people forgot I’m funny.’ Every role I get, I’m crying. I’m falling out. I’m perturbed. I’m a funny girl too, so I’m out here in the streets trying to remind people,” Nash-Betts explained during The Hollywood Reporter’s Drama Actress Roundtable.
The “Grotesquerie” actress’ recent career has been so varied that she’s not even sure what a “Niecy Nash-Betts type” is anymore.
“I’ve lived a lot of lives as an actor — doing something as loud as ‘Reno 911!,’ and then you slide all the way over and that pendulum hits ‘Jeffrey Dahmer.’ I don’t know what it would say [today] because it depends on which version of me they’re looking for,” she said.
Nash-Betts said she loves that she “can make people laugh and cry,” but she went through some tough auditions while trying to break her way into Hollywood.
She recalled, “I auditioned for something early in my career, and the two producers looked at each other and said, ‘She’s got a cute face. You think she can lose weight?’ And I was like, ‘Guys, she can hear you. She is here. And, no, she can’t. Now are y’all going to give me the job?’”
Nash-Betts made headlines when she married her wife, singer Jessica Betts, in August 2020, which surprised fans since the actress had previously only had public relationships with men. She has stated that she prefers not to define her sexuality.
Nash-Betts told Ellen in March 2021, “I wasn’t anywhere to come out of. I wasn’t living a sexually repressed life when I was married to men. I just loved them when I loved them. And now I love her yeah.”
Nash-Betts and Betts will serve as the Vanguard Grand Marshals of the LA Pride Parade June 8. Nash-Betts will next appear on screen in Ryan Murphy’s upcoming Hulu legal drama, “All’s Fair,” alongside Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, Sarah Paulson, and Glenn Close.
Watch the full THR Drama Actress Roundtable — which also includes Kathy Bates, Cristin Milioti, Helen Mirren, Parker Posey, and Keri Russell — below.
