I don’t know about you, but for me, The Craft was one of my favorite movies growing up. Now, I never had an interest in dark magic or supernatural horror flicks, but I did like seeing a Black girl front and center in a mainstream teen movie. Rachel True’s character of Rochelle was relatable in her struggles with her White classmates, but also quite badass in her use of witchcraft to give her haters a reality check. To this day, there is still something quite epic about her causing her nemesis’s hair to fall out. (That’s what you get when you go around telling folks their hair is “nappy”!) The role seemed to be a perfect fit for True, but according to the 50-year-old actress (you read that right), Rochelle was originally intended for a White actress.
True, who has had an affinity for tarot cards and divination in real life for many years, said in an interview with The Lenny Letter that not only being Black, but being older (she was almost 30 trying to play a teenager) initially was an issue for producers. Still, she managed to find a way to make the role hers.
My friend Jordan Ladd had come back from auditioning for it, and she was like, “Rachel, you’ve got to read for it. You’re perfect for it.” I went to my agents at the time and said, “Hey, I’d really like to get in on this film.” They were like, “No, you’re too old.” I had this other manager who was interested in representing me, so I called her up and said, “Listen, if you can get me in on this film, I’ll work with you.” She picked up the phone, made one phone call, and got me in on the project. When I saw the sides for the script, they said, “She’s bulimic and anorexic,” and I thought Yeah, that’s so not me. So I just went in and did the best that I could with the material. The audition went well, and I got a few more callbacks. As I worked more with the script, I literally said, “If anyone is going to be a little black witch in this town, it’s me.”
She continued:
The year before I read for The Craft had been slow, so I really delved deep into esoteric studies and learning tarot. When the script came up, I definitely put a lot of mental energy into it, trying to manifest that part for myself. I just knew the role was perfect for me. After all the callbacks, I did a screen test, with hair and makeup, the whole shebang. I’d never done a screen test before, so I was incredibly nervous. I think I had a few crystals in my pocket.
True does say that looking back on her experience more than 25 years later, there were moments where she was left out of press junket opportunities and more, which left a sour taste in her mouth at the time:
It was a blast. Literally as much fun as you’d think. Except there were some negative things, like when we went to do the publicity junket for it and I wasn’t included. To this day, my friends are like, “Let it go.” But it just seemed a little racist back then, to be honest. That you have four girls in a movie and you don’t include the black one. I did end up going on one junket because one of the other actors called the producer and said, “What’s happening here? Will you please include her?” So they did. That was twenty years ago, and things have really changed. Times were different then.
True admits that she didn’t realize how important her character would be to other young Black girls who didn’t see much of themselves in popular media among the sea of White faces and characters. She now realizes how big Rochelle really was for the time (1996).
When I was auditioning for the movie, I wasn’t actually thinking about, Oh my God, there’s not really many black people in teen movies. I wasn’t thinking about the ramifications of all that. I’d say maybe five years after the movie, I started having a lot of young girls and people of color coming up to me and telling me how much it meant to have someone who looked like them in the movie.
Check out True’s full chat with The Lenny Letter here.
Images via Columbia Pictures
