Being comfortable and free is everything for the actress. Good rose to fame in the mid-2000s with a string of sexy roles in movies like Biker Boyz and Waist Deep, and she’s constantly expanded her repertoire. She’s starred in everything from horror films like One Missed Call and Saw V to TV dramas like NBC’s “Deception.” Always open to telling a strong story, Good admits her frustration with the criticism that is often aimed at black actresses who play characters that aren’t Clair Huxtable-esque or pristine.
“If Angelina Jolie goes topless, everyone goes ‘Wow, she’s so badass, so committed to her craft,’ ” Good says. “But if Halle Berry goes topless, everyone’s like ‘She’s a slut. She probably took a bunch of money to do that.’ People attack her with unsavory names. And it’s unfortunate. Halle is one my favorite actresses — I’ve looked up to her since I began this journey. There’s definitely a double standard but I can’t put my finger on exactly why that is. If someone is telling a story, they should go to whatever extent that they’re comfortable with to tell the story. Whatever they feel is necessary.”
While Good is in full support of actresses pushing their limits and pushing the envelope for the sake of storytelling, she admits that she has not appeared nude on-camera herself because it can often feel exploitative. “I have no problem with nudity — it just has to not be exploitative and it has to be important to tell the story,” she explains. “It depends on the script, the character, the story, the tone of the movie — all of those things. I commend women of every nationality that are bold enough to tell a story in a way that’s fearless. I just haven’t found a project where I felt it was necessary to do that. The scenes I’ve come across seemed exploitative and I just didn’t do it.
“My faith is everything to me, but I’m also extremely liberal and I believe in telling real people stories,” Good adds. “If you’re always trying to be this perfect character in everything, how can you be inspiring and do anything interesting? I like playing complicated characters who sometimes make bad choices. I like playing characters that do something questionable and ultimately the repercussions of their choices are kind of the lesson of the story. It’s just that, once in a while, there’s an extreme amount of nudity or the way that they’re talking about God and or the way that they’re dealing with something specific, [and] I’m like ‘Yeah, I don’t want to do that.’ But every time I say ‘no,’ it leads to something better for me.”
