Cocoa Cure Empowerment Series: Kim Fields – A Woman’s Work

For many thirty-plus-year-old women, actress Kim Fields is like an American icon. We remember her portraying the cute, innocent boarding school student on roller skates, Tootie Ramsey on the hit sitcom The Facts of Life (1979-1988). She wore the all-around bang hairstyle that little girls asked their mommies to duplicate. She says years later, Living Single co-star Erika Alexander even admitted to wearing Tootie’s hairstyle. Kim later blossomed into the sexy and confident Regine Hunter on the 90s series, Living Single, also co-starring Queen Latifah. As Regine, Kim was one-fourth a set of sistafriends who shared a living space while managing their careers and love lives. Living Single was the original Sex and the City, and young ladies sat in front of their television sets week after week again watching the star portray a character who resonated within their personal environment. Kim, now 41, has characterized many roles and personas, through evidence from one beloved character to the next, with guest spots in between, but as we learned in our inviting and intimate conversation, she is still trying to find the woman within and to get to know her better. The industry has been kind – she’s worked consistently in front of and behind the camera for over thirty years. She is currently directing for the sitoms, Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns and Tyler Perry’s House of Payne. Work sustains her, and as she puts it, "helps pay the bills." But business aside, Kim shared the facts of life she’s learned and how she feels empowered today. Wife to actor Christopher Morgan and mother to three-year old son Sebastian, Kim realizes that womanhood is more than balancing career with family.



When we think about influential women, we tend to think about the women who use money and power to enforce dramatic change – like Oprah. Often times, we don’t consider the people who also impact our heart. There are special people who use their gifts and talents to help others live better lives. A "chameleon", as she describes her ability to change her look for roles, Kim Fields recognizes that her outer star has been a direct reflection of her mother’s self-sacrificing love and the spiritual growth of the woman within. Sure, she admits to having days when she just sits on the couch and cries, for no reason at all , just crying because it’s life – learning, loving, living.

Kim is a grown yet petite woman, but how did she manage to stay looking so young and fresh? "Has Tootie ever grown up?", I joke when I see her. We didn’t get to swap beauty secrets – definitely next time. She’s sporting a shorter natural hairstyle with reddish-blonde highlighted twists. She’s very calm and sweet, but you can certainly feel her strength and independence. Kim enlightens us about a woman’s work.









Cocoa Cure: How do you think Tootie impacted that generation of young women?



Kim Fields: When I was doing Facts of Life, I was just doing a job. You don’t realize how it’s influencing or impacting [others]. After the fact, as I do appearances, I’m at the grocery store, wherever….that’s when people let you know. When you hear these things, most especially from women of color who were in a boarding school, it’s very surreal and odd to see that you had that kind of touch. Sometimes I don’t know what to do with this information except to say ‘Thank God’. It’s a wonderful blessing to know that you’ve touched someone’s life.



CC: Referring to Living Single, since it featured a predominantly black cast of women, how do you think the four women impacted the kinds of female images we see on TV?



KF: (laughs) Oh my God, that Regine! It’s mind-blowing to me, in all honesty. I’ve been blessed to be a part of two shows that made a mark on the landscape of not just television, but on the lives of people. I started at such a young age…didn’t get into [acting or entertainment] because I thought I would change someone’s life. You think that’s other peoples’ job, like a social worker. To have that lightening in a bottle once, no twice….you start to feel a creative responsibility. Can’t take it for granted…can’t play with that.







CC: Maybe Tyler Perry chose you to direct his shows because you share the same approach to telling stories and creating influential characters.



KF: I’d love to be ethereal about why Tyler and I started working together, but the fact of the matter is that he couldn’t continue doing everything! (laughs)



CC: But he still chose you.



KF: I don’t take his trust lightly because each project is your baby. I appreciate that he’s trusted me to the tune of over fifty episodes. [Tyler] For someone who never ever does that. It’s a compliment that I take to heart when he or the president of the studios says, ‘You’ve made our lives easier.’



CC: You’re making an even greater impact because you’re now leaving the door open for other women to get those same opportunities.



KF: It’s hard to think in those terms. In terms of who else is coming up behind me. When you’re writing a script or pitching an idea and it doesn’t work, you [don't want it to affect others' chances] for the next fifteen years, like, ‘You messed it up for all black people.’ I don’t always deal in terms of, let’s have more women or let’s have more black people. It’s more the mindset of who can do the job. But not at all [being] oblivious that it opens the doors to more opportunities.



CC: What kind of reaction have you gotten from Hollywood when you’ve decided to wear your hair in its natural texture? Do you think it affects the chances for black women to get certain roles?



KF: In terms of the entertainment industry, everything is based on taste. When I first started locing [hair], I was really surprised from the industry, but [more] how people of color started embracing me on a different level. It was deeper. Like I was ’bout it ’bout it (laughs). From the industry standpoint, they’re starting to embrace people with different looks, even with women of color. It’s never prevented me from getting work. Nowadays women can change their look in minutes. I’ve never been rigid enough to say that I’ll only wear my locs. Turning forty, I decided to cut my locs. I wasn’t sure what I would do in terms of style or color, but I wanted to do something different going into a new chapter of my life. In my thirties as a mom, a wife, my career… everything was rocking. Going into that year [forty] I felt lost in the desert. It’s like my style disintegrated. I was struggling hard, I had to pull from that confidence, that empowerment. My mother-in-law said something so wonderful. ‘Your confidence as a wife, as a mother, in your career…all of those things is because you spend a lot of time doing them. You’re not confident in your womanhood because you don’t spend a lot of time there.’ She dropped that gem on me. And not womanhood in the sense that you don’t get your brows done every week or your nails done…it’s the soul of your womanhood.







CC: Now that you have the successful career, the husband, the family…your thirties as you say were poppin’, do you think service now comes into play to help you identify with your womanhood or to find that greater purpose in your life?



KF: I can see why you think that. My mother always (actress Chip Fields) instilled service in me as a child so we’re always giving back. It’s not a new concept to me. A lot of women in that kind of predicament tap into that. I’m not having an identity crisis. So much of my identity is my career. It is what it is. I’m not really sure what makes me happy. I pour so much into my husband, into my son, church…after you keep pouring, what do you pour into yourself? I have time for me. I just don’t know what to do with that time. The ‘me’ time…what do I do with that time?



CC: Who do you credit in your life for helping you to become an empowered woman?



KF: There’s a lot of people. First, Chris and Sebastian – my husband and my son. They make me feel like I can do anything with their love and their support. There are famous women…like Jackie Kennedy Onassis…Grace Kelly, Ruby Dee. I don’t take life as one distinct thing. I once watched either my biography or an intimate portrait that Lifetime did on me and somebody…maybe [Queen]Latifah…and they were giving their perspective on me on how I have these compartments and put things into these little boxes. There are a lot of people who impact specific areas. For instance Janet [Jackson], I get a lot of empowerment energy from somebody, who someone like myself had to be the queens of reinventing…from your hair, to your makeup, to your body, to your body of work. People who are moms…now of course Michelle Obama. And the top of that list, my own mother who never forgot to be a parent. I think there are women who empower me as a wife, from the standpoint of ‘are you a praying wife?’, how you support your mate. And then I have really good girlfriends who have been my rock when I’m going through it. I am inspired by businesswomen, like Lisa Price [founder of Carol's Daughter], Lucille Ball. If someone somewhere feels that I empower them- that’s God – and someone’s watching and saying that she’s still doing this so I can.











Kim and her husband Chris







Living Single. From left to right, Erika Alexander, Queen Latifah, Kim Fields, Kim Coles







Kim as the adorable "Tootie"





Kim Fields has also launched a women’s ministry campaign, www.virtuousbeauty.com, which includes daily affirmations.