Meagan Good Looks Back at Her Most Iconic Roles
Welcome to Look Back At It, a monthly column where some of the most iconic Black actresses in Hollywood reminisce and reflect on the roles that made them stars. For this month’s installment, Meagan Good breaks down her career—from Eve’s Bayou and You Got Served to her current Amazon Prime series, Harlem.
After being in the business for more than three decades, Meagan Good loves that she can still change people’s minds. She recalls an audition where she was initially passed on for a role that she really wanted, so she fought for the character. “When I got the job, I remember crying,” she says. “I was like, ‘Oh my God. I can still surprise people after 30 years.’” The role, she tells me, was for Camille in her current Prime Video series, Harlem.
From making her feature film debut as “Kid #2” to leading her own television show, Good has had a career that most actors can only dream of. Since getting her start in the late ’90s, some of her credits include classics like Friday, Eve’s Bayou, You Got Served, Stomp the Yard, and the TV sitcom Cousin Skeeter. Her roles have only evolved over the years and now, she’s really having fun. “I finally get to do a Lucille Ball-type of physical comedy,” she says. “And I know the best is yet to come.”
Below, Good takes us through her most iconic roles to share the lessons she’s learned, the words of wisdom she’s received from co-stars, and the films that changed everything.
Kid #2 in Friday (1995)
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“I remember this audition. I was 13 and did it in front of F. Gary Gray [the director]. He was like, ‘I love this kid.’ So I ended up getting it and it was my first speaking role in a movie and it was also F. Gary Gray’s first movie. He was only 25, so things were very disorganized. [laughs] I was on set for probably two and a half weeks before I was ever on camera. And I would get bored sometimes so I would go make sandwiches for Michael Clarke Duncan, who was a stand-in at the time. He told me, ‘I want you to remember this when you move on in your career. Make sure that you treat every single person that you come in contact with exactly the same on set, no matter what their job is and no matter who they are.’ So that always stuck with me. It was an incredible experience.”
Cicely in Eve’s Bayou (1997)
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Eve’s Bayou (1997 Movie) Official Trailer – Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Jurnee Smollett
“With Eve’s Bayou, I did the table read for Eve when I was 10 and remembered thinking, ‘Okay, great, let’s go shoot this movie.’ And Kasi Lemmons [the writer/director] was like, ‘Oh no honey, we have to raise money for it first.’ So for the next two or three years, I would always reach out like, ‘Are we doing it this year?’ So, finally, when they got the money for it, I was 14 and I was too old to play Eve, so I got the role of Cicely.”
Jacqui in Deliver Us From Eva (2003)
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“I had just come off of Cousin Skeeter. At the time, I was living in Santa Clarita, so I drove from there to Santa Monica for the audition. When I got back home, they were like, ‘Your audition tape didn’t take.’ So I had to drive all the way back and re-audition. Then I got a call and they said I was too young. I was only 19 and the character was a college student in her last year. So they decided to move it up to her first year of college. I had braces and they were like, ‘We’re gonna get the braces off and make this work.’ And we did. That was really the beginning of my true film career because after Eve’s Bayou, I went straight into Cousin Skeeter. So I kind of pressed the reset button at 19.”
Max in D.E.B.S. (2004)
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“So after I worked with Gabrielle [Union] on Deliver Us From Eva, she went to the head of Sony Screen Gems and said, ‘I love this little girl. You have to hire her, you have to work with her, you have to know her.’ That’s how I got D.E.B.S. Doing this film was really incredible for me because it was the first time I really got to do action, which was a space I knew that I wanted to be in. I also reunited with Michael Clarke Duncan, who was now a huge actor and he remembered me from Friday. So we were super close on set.”
Beautifull in You Got Served (2004)
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“I thought I was a little too old to be kissing Omarion. [laughs] I was just coming off of My Wife and Kids and I was working with this wonderful young woman named Jennifer Freeman. She hadn’t done any films yet, but I recommended her for the lead part. She got that and I ended up playing Beautifull. At the time, I really didn’t wanna do it, but when it was all said and done, it was my first number one blockbuster movie. God always knows what he’s doing and it was the right character for me to play. I shot this and D.E.B.S. at the same time.”
Naomi in Roll Bounce (2005)
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“I was 22 on Roll Bounce. I distinctly remember this because I went in and had a great audition. Then a week later, I went out with my friends and we had a long night. The next day, I got a callback. So I was a little bit hungover with my lashes sticking to my forehead. I was trying to wash my face and put my hair in pigtails to try to look 16 and all these things. So I go in, I audition, and I bomb. I did a terrible job, so I was like, ‘Can I come back in?’ and they said I could go in after they saw everyone else. So I waited for two hours. I went back in and nailed it. I actually ended up turning 23 on that set. I had my 23rd birthday in Chicago while I was filming. And I reunited with Jurnee [Smollett].
Coco in Waist Deep (2006)
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“So I’d love to say thank you to Kasi Lemmons and Vondie Curtis-Hall. Kasi gave me my break as a child actor and Vondie gave me my break as an adult actor. They both put me in leading roles as a teenager in Eve’s Bayou and as a young woman in Waist Deep. I had worked with Vondie before because he’s married to Kasi and he was in Eve’s Bayou. So we already had that relationship. When they hired Tyrese, they asked him who he wanted to cast for my role and he said, ‘I want Meagan’ and Vondie was like, ‘I love Meagan.’ I remember being extremely nervous, but I felt like I showed up and did a good job. It was a real turning point in my career and definitely a milestone. I was 24.”
April in Stomp the Yard (2007)
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“Initially, I didn’t want to do this. I was always playing the love interest or the girlfriend. This just felt like the same thing all over again. Then I found out that Columbus Short, who was one of my childhood friends, was going to be in it. I had known him since I was 10 and I knew what a phenomenal talent he was. So I was like, ‘You know what? Let’s see what happens.’ And it ended up becoming my second number one at the box office.
Blythe in Jumping the Broom (2011)
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“I got the audition for this and prepared everything for the lead character. Then in the eleventh hour they were like, ‘We offered this to Paula Patton,’ so then they offered me the character Blythe. I didn’t want to play her because she wasn’t a big role. So I prayed about it and God was like, ‘Who do you think you are? This is what I have for you. You need to be humble and appreciate it.’ So I did it, and I had the best experience. This is when I reconnected with DeVon [Franklin, Good’s ex-husband and studio executive]. We had already met a few years prior, but on this movie, we got a chance to really get to know each other. Nine months later, he asked me out on a date and then 10 months after that, we were engaged, and two months later we were married. And then we were married for 10 years. And even though we’re not married anymore—which I obviously struggle with because I’m like, ‘Lord, you told me to marry this man’—I did have a successful marriage and he’s a wonderful human being. I wouldn’t have preferred to do it with anyone else and I don’t regret anything. I learned a lot. I gave a lot. He gave a lot. It’s one of the best experiences I’ve had in my life. And now I’m like, ‘All right, Lord, what’s next?’”
Mya in Think Like A Man and Think Like A Man Too (2012 and 2014)
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“I fell in love with this script immediately. Tim Story [the director] gave me the confidence to lean into my brand of comedy, which ultimately resulted in the character that I play in Harlem. I learned that my brand of comedy is awkward and offbeat. It’s a little bit dorky. Once I understood that leaning into my own authenticity is my superpower, that’s when people connect with it. I cite Think Like A Man as the first time I really jumped off that comedy cliff.
Watch Think Like a Man on Prime Video
Watch Think Like a Man Too on Starz
Camille in Harlem (2021-present)
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“When Harlem came about, I met with Tracy [Oliver, the writer/director] and I left there thinking I had a job, but then I heard nothing for two weeks. They were still auditioning people for Camille. I wanted to fight for this character, so I got on the phone with Tracy and asked her how she saw Camille. She said, ‘Quirky with goddess locs.’ So before my audition, I sat for 11 hours straight getting my hair done. I also called Regina Hall to read lines with me because she’s the best [in comedy]. And the rest is history.”
Juliana Ukiomogbe is the Assistant Editor at ELLE. Her work has previously appeared in Interview, i-D, Teen Vogue, Nylon, and more.
