Inside LaTanya Richardson Jackson’s Production of Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous
The Tony-nominated actor/director talks about Pearl Cleage, the play’s themes of legacy, and her husband, Samuel L. Jackson.
June 17, 2026
When someone says “actress LaTanya Richardson Jackson,” they may not realize how long she’s actually been acting. Richardson Jackson started her TV career in the late 1980s and has appeared in films such as Fried Green Tomatoes and Malcolm X. She currently stars in Diamond with Andy Garcia and Brendan Fraser.
A long-time theater actress, she made her Broadway debut in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at the Belasco Theatre in 2009 and has been nominated for a Tony Award four times, most recently for Purpose in 2025.
But she is also an accomplished director, notably for the 2022 Tony-nominated revival of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. Now, she’s in Los Angeles directing the Geffen’s production of Pearl Cleage’s Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous, featuring Olivia Washington, Deborah Joy Winans, and Charlayne Woodard, and Denise Burse.
Richardson recently talked with TheaterMania about why the subjects covered in Angry are close to her and why they should be to women of a certain age, as well as her at-home dynamics with her “basic” but loving movie star husband, Samuel L. Jackson.
(© Obidigbo Nzeribe)
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Tell us a little bit about the play.
This is Pearl Cleage’s play, and it’s making its Los Angeles premiere. The play deals with aging and passing the torch. The legacy of work. Not just what our family’s legacy is but who we are in our occupation. How do we get the next generation ready? And when is enough enough for us? When do we say, “We can stop playing the ingenue”?
What made you decide you wanted to direct this play?
Pearl Cleage and I were classmates at Spelman College. I was in her first play there. So I have a great relationship with her. And she had asked me to direct a play some time ago, but I was already engaged with something else and I couldn’t do it. This time when it came around, it was like, ‘Oh, I got the window because I’m getting [foot surgery] in LA. That will be an opportune time for me to do this play because I won’t be in New York,” so I jumped at the chance to do it.
What is your preference, directing or acting?
Directing. Acting is very seductive, but I should have been directing as much as I was acting a long time ago because I truthfully feel that I have a greater sense of the total picture. I think that I’m a good actress, but I think I’m a better director. There’s something about the directing and the total picture that is just intoxicating for me. I love seeing it all come together.
(© Jeff Lorch)
You have a cast that includes two younger and two older actresses. What are your thoughts on this?
Being in the room with them has been a challenge and fun because they have different ideas about a lot of things. One thing that I have learned is, don’t have everything so solidified when you walk into your rehearsal so that you’re not flexible, so you’re always open to what everyone is contributing.
And when I tell you, these young people, they had to get me straight. ‘No, Ms., no, that’s old … no, you need younger. That’s not what’s happening now. I’m thinking Rihanna and somebody was hip-hop, and they said, ‘Oh, no, no, no, you need Sexyy Red and blah, blah, blah.’
Do you think it’s harder or easier for Black women to get work in the theater?
It depends on what theater you’re talking about. It’s harder in life, but that’s our life. We have taken it on now, you know, living in the world, not just in America, but in the world as a Black woman, it was harder, is harder. That’s been our legacy. At this point, I want our younger people not to have it as an albatross. We’re not having any chips on our shoulder because that’s not living and we are determined to live.
It’s harder if you want commercial theater, if you want the Broadway theater. You have to look at the package; if it’s a Black show or if it’s a Black person in another show. Then, if it’s in a show of a different community, then, yeah, it’s harder. Because not only in the politics of now are they trying to erase us but for a lot of people, it’s just that we’re not considered; we’re not in their thought process that way, that you should be included. Which is why DEI was important, because we made ourselves included in a way that made you aware of it. Tarell [Alvin McCraney, Geffen Playhouse’s artistic director] has what is ostensibly a white theater at the Geffen, but he has brought in, and is bringing in a new day.
I’ve spoken with your husband on the red carpet, and he is funny. I want to know what he’s thought about your career?
My husband is very practical, basic: “How much is this going to cost me?” His whole thing is, “Your working costs me money because you don’t make enough money for this, for you to sustain yourself. Just keep remembering that when you’re negotiating, when your great agents are negotiating your contract, just say, ‘Oh, no, my husband already thinks this is going to cost him.’” Because it does!
Now he’s overjoyed that I have something to do other than him, but he requires that I’m definitely still doing him. He is like, “What am I eating? Where’s my this?” It’s so great that we’re working at the same time. That’s when it’s golden. Because when it’s not, I have to think, figure it out. He thinks it’s the greatest thing since cheese that I [act and direct]. I do all of this because that’s how we met. We met while working. So I know he’s overjoyed, even when he bitches about it.
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