Tiffany Haddish is standing her ground.
The actress, comedian, and author, 44, is looking back while moving forward in this week’s print edition of PEOPLE, as well as in her new essay collection, I Curse You with Joy, out May 7 from Diversion Books.
“I wanted this book to be about something,” Haddish tells PEOPLE. “I felt like I needed to live a little more life and get a better understanding of where I am now.”
Following her bestselling 2017 debut The Last Black Unicorn, Haddish’s new book picks up where the Haunted Mansion star last left readers. In I Curse You with Joy, the actress delves into the ups and downs of her career in the entertainment industry, as well as her personal life, including her mother’s struggles with mental illness, which led Haddish to become her family’s caretaker before she ended up in the foster care system.
The star also acknowledges that the book is coming after a handful of controversies, including two DUI-related arrests, as well as difficult moments in her personal life, like the loss of her grandmother and the end of her relationship with rapper Common.
But Haddish takes all that has been tossed her way and uses it to propel her forward.
“I’ve learned to take tomatoes being thrown at me and turn them into tomato sauce,” the actress says. “And I’m going to make some spaghetti.”
In an exclusive excerpt from I Curse You With Joy, Haddish looks back on the beginnings of her career in comedy and how she came to embrace her onstage persona.
It was like they couldn’t get their heads around the existence of a woman who wasn’t super polite and polished. I have noticed that Black women get pressured to try to fit into a mold, do the Clair Huxtable, be the epitome of Black excellence. But I am not Clair Huxtable. Where I come from, we’re loud, we clap, we point fingers, we reach out and snatch your soul. When we’re happy, we’re happy; when we’re mad, we’re mad; when we’re sad, we’re sad. And we are going to let you know it. A lot of us are not shy about talking about sex, but a lot of times, that makes other people uncomfortable.
I remembered what the late great Bob Saget said to me one night at the Laugh Factory. The owner of the club, Jamie Masada, had come over to chew me out after a set I’d done that had a lot of dick jokes in it, saying, “You can’t be cussing onstage like that. You should be a clean comedian.”
Bob overheard what Jamie had said. After Jamie left, he gave me a kiss on the forehead and said, “F— that. Do not let them change who you are. If you feel good doing it, that’s what you need to be doing.” He wanted me to know I should just be me.
Once I loosened up, I felt more like me. It was like my soul was being seen under my clothes. No one was repressing my spirit, telling me how to be. I was moving through the world more like men— entitled to be themselves, no one judging them, no matter how loud or assertive they are or how much space they take up.
I Curse You with Joy comes out May 7 from Diversion Books and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.
Source: People.com
