The entertaiment industry had been notorious for a lack of diversity among the people working in the industry for a long time. But things started to change for the better with the dawn of 21st century, when views regarding diversity started to evolve. Josie Totah, who is known for her roles in Jessie and the movie Moxie, weighed in on the conversation surrounding diversity and her choices as an actor in this evolving industry.
Why Josie Totah doesn't want to restrict herself to only LGBTQIA+ roles
Josie Totah is a rising young actor who has impressed viewers with her performances in various shows and movies. She is also a proud trans woman as well as an icon of the LGBTQIA+ community. Though, through her new role in the period show The Buccaneers, the actor is branching out and broadening her acting horizons.
"I follow the story" Josie Totah told PEOPLE at the 2024 SCAD TVFest in February, "I am an actor. I want to work. So it's a combination of wanting to do a job, but also wanting to uplift storytellers who I find fascinating and tell stories that I feel like need to be told"
In her new show she plays a character named Mabel Elsworth on The Buccaneers, who is trying to defy her family expectations of finding a good suitor and getting married, by forging her own path and choosing to love on her own terms.
Josie Totah on the differences between period setting of the show and present day life
A period setting is a very popular way to tell a story these days, as it allows to take viewers back to an era they have not lived through as well as get a chance to learn from the missteps of that era. WIth The Buccaneers, Josie Totah got a chance to experience a time she had not lived through and compare the realities of that time to the realities of today.
The Jessie star noted that "it was such a beautiful place that we got to film in," but added that she's "really grateful that we live in this time."
For Josie Totah, the experience of starring on the show proved to be quite transformative as she got to learn the realities of a different time period through the filming.
