{"id":353935,"date":"2026-07-07T21:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T21:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/acting\/yolonda-ross-on-directing-the-chi-saying-goodbye-to-jada-and-her-worst-audition-ever-interview\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T21:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T21:52:10","slug":"yolonda-ross-on-directing-the-chi-saying-goodbye-to-jada-and-her-worst-audition-ever-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=353935","title":{"rendered":"Yolonda Ross on Directing ‘The Chi,’ Saying Goodbye to Jada and Her Worst Audition Ever | Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"


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After seven seasons on The Chi<\/em>, Yolonda Ross<\/a><\/strong> had more than earned a sense of ownership over Jada Washington. She had lived with the character, helped shape her and watched her go through love, motherhood, illness and everything in between. So, when Ross found out that Jada\u2019s cancer would return and the character wouldn\u2019t make it, the news was understandably bittersweet.<\/p>\n

The other half of that news, though, was something Ross had wanted for a long time: the chance to direct an episode of the show. For Ross, saying goodbye to Jada came with the opportunity to step behind the camera, work with castmates in a completely different way and finally take on a challenge she had been preparing for throughout her time on set.<\/p>\n

In this interview, Ross talks about saying goodbye to Jada, why the character\u2019s death didn\u2019t really hit her until the episode aired, directing The Chi<\/em>, and working with the actors from the other side of the camera. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full conversation in the video below or\u00a0on our YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never had the opportunity to play a long-running character. Did you ever fully take ownership of her? Like, \u201cI know her inside and out. I don\u2019t think she would do this or do that?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> Yeah, I think you do. You\u2019ve worn that person\u2019s story, you\u2019ve helped create that person. Yes, they\u2019re characters; yes, they\u2019re written, but they\u2019re coming through you, and so you give them life. So there definitely was a point, and it might have been early on, I would say at least by Season 3.<\/p>\n

How did you find out your character was going to die?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> There was a meeting, a Zoom meeting, and I didn\u2019t know what it was about, and it was a good news, bad news situation. I chose the bad news first, which Jada\u2019s not going to make it, her cancer\u2019s coming back.<\/p>\n

What was the good news? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> It was to direct. I\u2019ll take it. I hated to be leaving this character, because I really loved playing Jada. I loved working with everybody, but to get the opportunity to do something that I\u2019ve wanted to do for so long on the show was a great trade-off.<\/p>\n

The funny thing about it, though, is that none of us knew it was going to be the last season of the show, so it really is a huge positive for me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to get to your directing episode in a second, but I watched that last episode you were in. Was that your last day of shooting? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> Yes, that was the last day of us shooting the show. It was weird because I\u2019m lying on Darnell\u2019s [Rolando Boyce<\/strong>] lap, and when I opened my eyes, the whole crew was there because I was gone. They were all there, cast and crew, everybody had come in for that scene. It was very surreal to be in that, because it\u2019s like, I just went through something mentally, and then it\u2019s a sad, happy goodbye because it\u2019s the end of this season, and just everybody\u2019s there. It\u2019s the end of that character.<\/p>\n

How did you prepare for that particular day and that particular scene? I have a<\/strong> heart of stone and that scene almost got me. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolanda Ross:<\/strong> Almost? We didn\u2019t get you?<\/p>\n

I told you it\u2019s stone!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> That one was easier for me than some others, because in that case she\u2019s sick, and it\u2019s everyone else around that has it really hard. I would say the same thing, probably, in real death, they are a lot of times ready to go, because whatever the sickness is has done so much to them. It\u2019s harder on everybody around you. In that case, it was for me as well.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t really hit me until it aired and I wasn\u2019t Jada, but I was looking at Jada being gone like the exact feelings I felt was I lost a friend. I lost somebody I really liked. She\u2019s gone, she\u2019s not coming back, and I was just very sad.<\/p>\n

Now, getting to directing, did producers know you wanted to direct prior to offering it to you? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> No. I submitted work. I had shadowed the first season, so I did want to, but at the end, that trade-off happened.<\/p>\n

What was the hardest thing about directing for you? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know. I wouldn\u2019t say hard but there were some different things for me. My character Jada was always indoors. It was really cold, and a lot of those scenes are outdoors so I had to suit up, put on the cold gear.<\/p>\n

All the prep was new to me, because you can literally have a full day of meetings, just meetings, every department, and there were people that I met that I had never met before. As an actor, you don\u2019t come across everybody. It was more exciting and just a huge gift because I love learning, and you can only learn by going through something.<\/p>\n

Being an actor that has worked on a lot of sets, worked with a lot of directors, have done my own shorts, I had an idea of all the things and had done a lot of the things, but I had never done TV as a director, so to get that opportunity, you\u2019re doing and learning all at the same time.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest, more complex scenes for me was with a scene with Jake [Michael Epps<\/strong>] and Desiree [Sophia Echendu<\/strong>]. We\u2019re building a scene out of nothing and we have the script, but there is no location, so we took a corner out of some big office looking thing, and built what looked like a photo studio. My idea for that was to have her saying her lines to him, him trying on clothes, doing this photo thing, and then the lights change and there\u2019s to be a moment between them where they get enraptured in each other. Then the lighting changes back to studio lighting, and she says, \u201cwhy don\u2019t you come to this lunch thing with me?\u201d That was a huge undertaking.<\/p>\n

I remember the feeling when we got to the beginning of that scene. I was like, this is going to be a lot. There\u2019s movement, there\u2019s lighting, there\u2019s music, there\u2019s all these things actively happening in the scene and you don\u2019t want it to come off chaotic and crazy, it all should be just flowing together.<\/p>\n

Then at the end of the whole thing, the scenes go through the editing process, and a lot of it was just cut out, because they cut a lot of the dialogue out of it. I know what was shot, so there\u2019s that feeling you wish you could see the whole moment happen, but it\u2019s cut down, so it\u2019s just a few moments.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve worked with a lot of the actors but was it weird now that were in charge? Was it intimidating? You don\u2019t want to overstep because you\u2019re friends with them, I would imagine. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> I know what you mean. I was more friends with them than actually worked with them, because literally, on the show, I worked with Rolando Boyce, Jacob Lattimore<\/strong>, and then a couple other people here and there. It was really just the Darnell character and Emmett that I really worked with. Some of them I had never been in scenes with. That was exciting to see how they work, how they do their thing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m very compartmentalized anyway, so when I am directing, that\u2019s it, I\u2019m that person. But you also know when I\u2019m acting, I\u2019m a certain way.<\/p>\n

I like to get the thing done. I like to try things, if possible, but it\u2019s like, I\u2019m thinking about all the things all the time, as an actor and a director, and wanting the best for you.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the one thing I feel they knew going into it, that I was not going to steer them wrong. I was going to listen to them and we were going to come out with some fire at the end of it, and I\u2019m really happy with the episode.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day or week, what was more tiring, being an actor on set or being the director?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> Well, tiring can be sitting around doing nothing for hours. That\u2019s acting. I mean, I like the exhaustion of directing, because you know you\u2019ve done something. You know you\u2019ve touched everything in the episode. Even after you\u2019ve done it, your mind is still going. What do we have to do tomorrow? Did I get this? Did I get that? It\u2019s a different set of muscles. I love the exhaustion of both.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to keep you forever, but I want to ask you about some upcoming projects. \u00a0There\u2019s a Basquiat film and somehow Jeffrey Wright<\/a> is in this one as well. <\/strong>\u00a0Is he legally required to be in every single Basquiat movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> You know what? It might be a contractual thing. We\u2019re not mad at it, either.<\/p>\n

I do think he should be in everything.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> Well, yeah, but let me be in everything with him somewhere in the mix too. He\u2019s great. We have a couple scenes together. Kelvin Harrison<\/strong> is amazing. I\u2019m playing his mom in the film, so I am really looking forward to it. To be a part of Jean-Michel\u2019s legacy as the artist, as this black man who did what he did in a time where black artists weren\u2019t really valued, he was the start of something in the \u201980s. It\u2019s a different take on the artist that we know as Jean-Michel.<\/p>\n

What else do you have coming up? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> Don\u2019t Ever Wonder<\/em> with Nia Long<\/strong> and Lorenz Tate<\/strong> directed by Eugene Ash<\/strong> who did Sylvie\u2019s Love<\/em> and Flowers Para Las Muertos<\/em>, which was so much fun. That\u2019s a dark comedy, something I have never done, so I\u2019m very excited about that.<\/p>\n

Finally, what\u2019s been your worst audition ever? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> I\u2019ll just say this, I am not a strong auditioner. I am a great actress. This was for a play, and it was for a Lynn Nottage<\/strong> play and this was early on for me and I had worked so hard on this audition. I get in there and started doing the thing, but then lost where I was at. This is theater, it\u2019s not TV, it is not a film. You start saying some stuff that\u2019s not on that page, they let you know about it. So, I got told about it. I didn\u2019t mean to get off, so I had to walk out of there quietly.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been in situations like that before, it\u2019s never fun. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> It\u2019s not like you mean to go off book, but then when somebody actually says something about it, it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, wow.\u2019<\/p>\n

Yeah, it\u2019s like yeah, \u2018I didn\u2019t mean to do that!\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yolonda Ross:<\/strong> Give me a break!<\/p>\n

Related Posts<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After seven seasons on The Chi, Yolonda Ross had more than earned a sense of ownership over Jada Washington. She had lived with the character, helped shape her and watched her go through love, motherhood, illness and everything in between. So, when Ross found out that Jada\u2019s cancer would return and the character wouldn\u2019t make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":353936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12021],"tags":[13474,19750,16562,41925,4731,4631,5727,175124,175119,175120,5390,11258,175121,175123,175122],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-353935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acting","tag-actor-interviews","tag-audition","tag-chi","tag-directing","tag-featured","tag-goodbye","tag-interview","tag-jada","tag-jeffrey-wright","tag-lynn-nottage","tag-ross","tag-worst","tag-worst-audition-ever","tag-yolonda","tag-yolonda-ross"],"yoast_head":"\nYolonda Ross on Directing 'The Chi,' Saying Goodbye to Jada and Her Worst Audition Ever | Interview - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=353935\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yolonda Ross on Directing 'The Chi,' Saying Goodbye to Jada and Her Worst Audition Ever | Interview - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After seven seasons on The Chi, Yolonda Ross had more than earned a sense of ownership over Jada Washington. 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