Inspiring Women : November 2020

this for about six months before getting my
first theater job here in German, in Berlin
and going on tour for about two and a half
years in the German speaking world. I only
spoke English when it was absolutely
necessary, i.e. when I had to say something
that I couldn’t say in German.
The tour went all over Germany, Austria,
Switzerland- the German speaking
countries. It was amazing. Everyone on the
tour spoke German. No Americans. I had
no choice but to speak German. When I
returned from the tour, I started to do more
film work, television, TV series, made for TV
movies, for all the main TV networks in
Germany. In most of the films, I spoke
German, something that I’m very proud of.
At this point I was being offered a lot of different roles, some of which fit the horrible picture, that of
the stereotypical black woman clichés. I said to myself if I ever have kids, I don’t want my kids to
grow up with me playing the maid unless the maid develops like in The Help - there’s a development
there… but just to play the maid with nothing behind it just to support the stereotypes - that’s
something I didn’t want to do. At some point that’s all that was out there, I said to myself this isn’t
why I got into acting. It was to break those stereotypes.
So I took a conscious break and
worked part-time in Munich as a
free-lance German dubbing
supervisor for Disney. Something
completely different, but I was still
being creative. I had to travel a lot
and it became tiresome, so when
my daughter was born, I returned
to Berlin. I began to teach acting,
working as a dialogue coach, as
well as doing German- English
translations at night while the
children slept. I was brought up in
a matriarchal home where the
women always worked.
Then in 2010 I did the film
Shahada, which was later selected
in competition for the golden and
silver bear at the Berlinale. That
film got me excited about acting
again. I had to learn Arabic and the
role was very complex. Working with
a director like Burhan Qurbani is every actors’ dream. He listens and sees his actors and interacts
with them. It was pretty exciting to walk down the red carpet at the Berlinale.
Currently, I am acting, doing voice-overs, translating, writing English dubbing scripts and directing
them as well. My favorite film that I dub-directed was Traumfabrik.
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Yollette with Berlin mayor, Klaus Wowereit, at a celebration for the film
Hollywood Drama.