Tracee Ellis Ross Opens Up About Dishonest Journalism, Getting Snubbed by Jay Leno’s Booker, And the Tribeca Thriller ‘Cold Copy’
variety.comTatiana Siegel It’s all about the framing of a news story. “We’re seeing it now, how a narrative can change the truth,” says Tracee Ellis Ross as she slides into a plush chair in her Los Angeles home.
There’s no particular trending story on her mind. The actress and sometimes director is simply musing about the state of clickbait journalism and America’s eroding trust in the media.
The topic is front and center in her latest movie, the Fourth Estate thriller “Cold Copy,” in which Ross plays Diane Hager, an esteemed yet cutthroat TV journalist who begins mentoring an ambitious wannabe (Bel Powley), eventually leading them both down a morally bankrupt path. “There’s a way that you can tell stories, you can create a frame around a story that completely changes the identity of a human being, their humanity,” Ross says. “I think Diane Hager really is a part of that system.” As the middle daughter of music icon Diana Ross and business manager Robert Ellis Silberstein, the “Black-ish” star witnessed firsthand how her mother’s story often was shaped into a pat narrative that bore little resemblance to reality.
She even had a front row seat when the elder Ross sat for some of the biggest TV personalities. “My mom was interviewed by Barbara Walters multiple times,” she notes. “And Oprah numerous times.
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