Pop-Culturalist.com

Ito Aghayere is a gifted storyteller who fell in love with the written word for its endless possibilities. It was the gateway into new worlds and the opportunity to join a cast of characters, and feel seen and heard. It’s that passion and drive that saw Ito make the pivot from law into acting.

From gracing the stage in the Tony-nominated play Junk to her starring role as Dr. Maya Jacobs in Carol’s Second Act, Ito has proven her talent knows no bounds.

This March, she steps into the iconic shoes of Guinan in Star Trek: Picard.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Ito about her multifaceted career, putting her own spin on Guinan, and more.

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts and storytelling?
Ito: I always wanted to be a librarian when I was a kid, partly because of my mom. That was the place where she let us go wild. I have three other siblings. She would pack all of us up and bring us to the library. We could get as many books as we could carry (as many she could carry). We were allowed to get as many books as we could pack onto the stroller and things like that. It felt like the one truly wild place for me as a kid. I wanted to be a librarian because as a kid I always thought that you got to stay there overnight and read as many books as you want while having sleepovers, and have the sleepover of all sleepovers.

That was my entry point into different worlds that I didn’t have access to. It was through all these different stories. I think of Tamora Pierce, Island of the Blue Dolphins by O’Dell, and all of these different books that had such an impact on me because I would stay up at night and imagine being all of these different characters. I had the flashlight under the blankets, pretending to be every single character in every one of these stories. I would pretend I had a hunch in my back and would take on the physicality of all these different people that I wasn’t but wanted to be. That’s where I fell in love with the possibilities of what storytelling could be. I might not have been in the shows that I watched on TV or in the movies that I went to see, but in a story, I could be everyone. I could be anyone I could embody.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Ito: My mom gave me the platform. She introduced me to the magic of libraries. I would give her a lot of that credit. Then I would say my high school AP teacher. He would do this thing every day where he would pick up a book and he would read the first paragraph. That’s all he would read. Then we would go on with the class. But it would be this moment outside of time where you would be taken into a world that an author had spent years, if not decades, to craft for you. He did it without any preamble, without any context—he would just read a paragraph from a book.

I’m sure there were hundreds of kids over the course of his years of doing this who were introduced to authors they would have never read, books they would’ve never picked up because he did that. I give him credit also for introducing me to a different aspect of storytelling—which is bringing people in, drawing you into a world by any means necessary. The way an author does it in a book is with things like punctuation, alliteration, and world-building. As a storyteller, I love that everything that I’m doing as an actor is bringing people into the world that I’m creating, whether it’s with my voice or my body. Storytelling can draw people in in the tiniest ways, like how my teacher would with the various books that he introduced me to.

PC: In addition to the incredible work that you’ve done on screen, you also have a theater background. What would you say is the biggest lesson you’ve learned on the stage that you’ve been able to apply to your career on-screen and vice versa?
Ito: I would say it’s a reverence for the written word. In theater, it’s a slower process. There’s a maturation of the text that you’re working off of. Even though it can change through collaboration and rehearsal, there is this weight that it has and this importance that it’s imbued with. That’s something that I bring to my work in TV and film, even though it moves a lot faster. I’m poring over it as I would a play, using dramaturgy that I learned from theater for the work that I do in TV and film.

Why this word and not this word? Why does this character that I’m playing choose to use this kind of vocabulary? What are her limitations? What are her blind spots? How does she communicate with the world and people around her? What does that show us about who this person is? That’s one of the things that I have brought from my work as a thespian. It’s the dramaturgy and the ability to really dig into the language and discover what it means in the most minute ways.

PC: You’ve had so much success already in your career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
Ito: So I went to Duke (go Duke). I studied political science and theater. I remember having a conversation with my dad, who at the time I thought was really gung ho about me becoming a lawyer and going that route. I was raised by very sweet, very protective, and very affirming immigrant parents from West Africa. If you have any West African friends or any immigrant friends, there are usually five professions that your parents have approved of. Acting is not one of them. [laughs] I kept that part of my life hidden from them. I would do plays at Duke and things like that, but I would not highlight that to them. I would tell them, “Hey, I got an A on my poli sci paper, isn’t that great?” Even when I wrote a play in my theater class, I didn’t share that with them.

There was this one moment in my junior year when I was trying to figure out whether I should go to law school or go to grad school for acting. I remember I didn’t tell them that I was applying for both. I applied to law schools and grad school acting programs, but inevitably I had to make a decision within a few months when I got acceptances and rejections.

I remember a conversation I had with my dad. I remember exactly where I was. I was in my dorm room lying on my floor hugging my blanket. I’m talking to my dad trying to tell him I might choose grad school for acting and having a very casual conversation about other things while gearing up to this reveal. I’m like, “Dad, so the thing about law school…” He was like, “I’m so proud of you. I can’t wait to tell people that my daughter is in law school.” I was like, “About that…I think I want to go to grad school for acting.” There was this long pause. I expected him to say, “What a waste. Your mum and I have sacrificed so much for you guys to do all the things we couldn’t.” But what he said was, “I don’t want to be responsible for your unhappiness in three years if after law school you decide this is not the path for you. This is your life. This is your decision. I will support you either way.” That was one of the most pivotal moments for me in my journey as an artist. Because one, I took full ownership over the path that I was taking. And two, I realized that my parents would be proud either way.

PC: That’s the perfect segue to this next question. This has been a very exciting week for you. You made your debut in Star Trek: Picard and you have shared that this is a childhood dream come true for you. What impact has this character had on you growing up? What has it meant to share this moment with your friends and family?
Ito: Oh my goodness. It’s been incredible. I watched interviews of Whoopi talking about Nichelle Nichols and how Nichelle Nichols opened up this world to her where the future included her and people who look like her. Whoopi was my Nichelle, she was my Uhura. When I watched her as a kid, I was like, “I belong in this genre. I could be as cool as Whoopi.” She belongs here, and she’s depicting a future that includes us. Number one, it’s very cathartic to be a part of something that had such an impact on me as a kid. Then to have people in my family who are also fans of the show be like, “You were serious when you told us you were playing Guinan?” It’s a full-circle moment for us.

PC: This is such an interesting role because we know who your character is in the future, as established beautifully by Whoopi Goldberg, like you said. You’re in this unique position where you get to reintroduce this character in a really fresh and interesting way. What was your process of creating your own version of this character while also paying homage to what Whoopie has established?
Ito: Whoopi gave me a picture of who this woman could become. My work was essentially deconstructing the journey of who this woman has to become in order to end up being Whoopi’s Guinan. A lot of the work that I did was to rewatch all of her episodes and try not to binge season after season of TNG but to focus on every episode where she talked about loss, every episode where she talked about a past pain, her history, and all of that. Then subtract 400 years from the amount of wisdom and grace that she has for herself and those around her in their own story.

What does it look like to have less maturity to the degree of 400 years? What does it look like to have more bitterness? What does it look like to have that wisdom replaced by a sense of loneliness or fear? What does that look like in a 400-year-removed Guinan? A lot of the work that I did was stripping away a lot of the elements that I loved about Whoopi’s Guinan while keeping true to some of the characteristics where I was like, “I think this would have changed her sense of humor or her ability not to take herself so seriously or some of her mannerisms in some way.” I hope that fans of the show and people who are familiar with the role will see those moments and be able to tie both of our Guinans into the same world.

PC: When we’re introduced to your version of Guinan, you can feel the pain and her disappointment towards the world. As an actress, how did you create the space for yourself to dive into all of those emotions?
Ito: That’s how I came to the role. I didn’t know it was Star Trek. I didn’t know the role was Guinan. All I knew was it was the character of a woman who was disappointed and scared. She didn’t want to face another day of expecting something that wouldn’t come. That’s not only something that I’ve experienced, but it’s a universal experience for a lot of us—not just over the last few years that have been crazy on their own but at any point in our lives when we’ve come face to face with crushing disappointment or expectations that were not met. That’s how I entered the world of this character without knowing it was Star Trek. Those are the stories that impact me the most, and to be able to play that role and be in that world allows me to access a lot of those emotions and a lot of the experiences that I’ve already had and that is universally felt.

PC: During my research, I loved learning about your character and your collaboration with the cast and crew, and how you made the bar that Guinan owns authentic to you. Can you tell us about that process?
Ito: A lot of that had to do with Dave Blass and Lea Thompson who invited me into that process—because that’s not always the case. Sometimes as an actor, you get what you get. You have to put yourself into that world. You do the contorting that you need to do in your head to make it feel like it’s yours, to make it feel like it’s part of you. But the process on this show is anything but that. It was so collaborative. Lea and our director for this block reached out to me and were like, “Talk to me about what you see your bar looking like, talk to me about this part of the script. Do you have any issues with this?” They invited me into that process and were so thoughtful about what it means to have a bar owned by a Black woman.

What does that look like? How do we not make it look generic? How do we make it look very nuanced and thought through? Dave knocked it out of the park. He and his team were incredible. Christine, who did our wardrobe for this season, snuck me into the bar earlier than I probably should have seen it. I walked in. All the lights were out. It was the day before I was shooting. I walked in, and I just stopped talking. She looked at me, and she was like, “I’m going to give you a moment.” She literally just left for the day. [laughs] I spent an hour sitting in the bar. I could only have done that and have found those emotions within that space because of all of the incredible people who thought through all of the details of what Guinan’s bar should look like. I’m super grateful.

PC: Speaking of that collaboration, you’re getting to bring a fresh take to this beloved relationship that fans know and love. What was it like working with Patrick [Stewart] to bring your take on this pairing?
Ito: It was really great. It’s such a treat because my character doesn’t know him and doesn’t like him. As an actor, one of the loveliest things is to have a real obstacle in the room with you—not an obstacle in your mind but something that’s tangible. Patrick was that for my character. He’s the guy who won’t leave, and what I love about him is that he has all of the awareness and understanding of where our relationship will end. He brings this affable, endearing quality to the way he relates to my Guinan. It’s the seed in the ground for where we’re going.

It was such a joy to work with him. It was such a fun disparity between our scenes and when we were off camera. We’re dishing and talking, and then the camera goes on and we’re like, “I guess I have to not like you again.” It’s great because off camera, we know where the characters are going. On camera, we get to play with that origin story. He mentioned to me that it’s cool to be able to go back and to create this alternate-timeline origin of these two people who care deeply about each other.

PC: Throughout your career, you’ve brought these multi-layer characters to life and worked on projects that have so much meaning and social commentary. What is your vetting process for deciding what you go out for?
Ito: The vetting process is, does it impact me? Is there a touchpoint for me? It doesn’t have to be something I’ve experienced, something I’ve done, a character I even know or that I’m a fan of, but is there some aspect of their experience that I can identify with, that I can step inside of and experience in a different way? Those are the stories that matter the most to me. It’s the ones that are bridges to experiences, emotions, and worlds that perhaps aren’t seen on screen or elevated as often. My joy in being a storyteller is being able to tell stories that aren’t often told and also to make people for whom those stories are very, very close to their experiences feel seen.

To keep up with Ito, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+ today.

Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures