Profile #24: Be Willing to Make Others UncomfortableActor, Producer, and Advocate Michael Cory Davis
Profile #25: If You Stay True to Yourself, Others Will Respond Singer Jason Pure
Profile #26: Have a Vision and Work Towards It Singer and TV Host Taylor Hicks
Profile #27: Shine Your Light No Matter Where You Are Writer and Producer Will Packer
Profile #28: Be Unapologetically You Singer and TV Personality Aubrey O’Day
Profile #29: You’re Never Too Young (or Old) to Start Again Author Mary Higgins Clark
Profile #30: Get Out of Your Own Way Author Wally Lamb
Profile #31: Recognize What Makes You Unique Actor Jon Chaffin
Profile #32: Be an Example by Celebrating Others Singer and Actress Stephanie Mills
Profile #33: The Road to Success Is Long but Worth It Actress Renee Lawless
Profile #34: Believe You Can Do It Model and Actor Anthony C. Johns
Profile #35: Your Life Can Change the World Singer Kenny Lattimore
Profile #37: Be Bold. Be Brave. Be You. Poet and Author Joy Elan
Profile #38: Make Sure Your Life Has the Right Director, Speaker, and Author DeVon Franklin
Profile #39: Use Life’s Lessons to Keep Growing Actor and Producer Isaiah Washington
Profile #40: The Best Is Yet to Come Actor Sam Humphrey
Give Yourself Permission to Focus and Refocus in Life
Actress, Producer, and Author Robinne Lee
Robinne Lee is a talented producer, actress and author, a woman known for movies like Deliver Us from Eva and Seven Pounds, as well as the hit show on BET, Being Mary Jane. Her fans went crazy when she joined the cast of the Fifty Shades franchise, and she spends a lot of time promoting her work, which includes her new novel, The Idea of You. Her busy life shows how much effort Robinne has put into her work, but she is always eager to share with others how her success is something they can attain as well.
CW. Robinne, what has it been like for you to reflect on this amazing ride that you have had, not only as an actor and a producer, but now as an author?
RL. You know, I think I am the kind of person … I am a little bit of a “Type A” person. I am very controlling, but I also don’t like to sit still.
I feel like I need to be creating and evolving, and I think that it is important to keep finding things that feed your soul, your heart, and your brain.
And for me, I’ve always appreciated storytelling in any aspect, and I have always written for myself for joy since I was little. I just kind of did it for pleasure. And the same with acting—it has always given me pleasure, but acting is different in the fact in the way that you are waiting for someone to give you permission to act. You kind of have to rely on other people to support you.
Writing is something that I just sit down anywhere with my laptop and create and have something to show for it.
CW. That control is definitely a great thing. I think so many times, even in other professions, we give up so much of our power, and we wait on opportunities that in many ways and now especially with technology and the way that the world is that we can create for ourselves. People have gotten to know you over the years because of these amazing characters that you brought to life and dramas and comedies you’ve been a part of. Do you think that also helped set the stage for where you are now with books, where you are able to bring us a little bit of laughter and a little bit of drama but also, you know, those really deep personalities you have gotten to play and gotten to know yourself?
RL. Right! I think that it all feeds into each other. If you are a person and paying attention and living and breathing in the world, you hold onto these things. You hold onto these experiences and you hold on to all of the parts that make you who you are. At least as an artist I kind of store them up so I can use them in future projects, and whether or not it’s something that I’ve borrowed from the behavior of one character or a voice or something, it’s like having a treasure of materials that you can dip into. And so I think all of these little things that you do, everything you experience and the way you experience the world kind of really helps you as an artist, as long as you make yourself open to experiencing new things and you kind of walk around as if you don’t have any skin and allow situations in different environments to affect you.
CW. Your main character in your book, The Idea of You, is having to definitely find her way as many of us do. There is so much we can learn from her experiences that play into what others can realize about powering their lives with the positive. Part of Celine, the main character of your book, is her ability to change and adapt when things weren’t going well. What do you want readers to think about when they read Celine’s words about realizing that you can redefine yourself and that you can really be whatever you really want
to be?
RL. I felt, at twenty, like the choices that I made then were going to lead me on a path to a certain place, and that I wasn’t going to be able to change direction. I wanted to try all of these different things, but I also had these fears that maybe I am not focusing enough. I did have friends who came out of college and then went straight to law school, and they were on a certain path. They then became law professors, etc. They were on this certain trajectory, but I feel like if you know what you want to do from the time you are young that’s one thing, but if you don’t know what you want to do you shouldn’t feel like, “I’ve got to figure it out right now.”
There is time to figure it out. And even if you do figure it out, you can re-figure it out and you can reinvent yourself. You are not running out of time.
I love that you can continue to