‘American Gods’ actress Yetide Badaki uses her powers for good

Actress Yetide Badaki, who plays Bilquis on STARZ’s “American Gods,” was introduced to the audience via a memorable scene. | Starz End

Former Chicago actress Yetide Badaki is well-aware of the assumptions some may have when it comes to film and TV roles deemed suitable for Black women.

Through her best-known role to date, she’s changing the narrative.

Badaki, who plays Bilquis on STARZ’s “American Gods,” was introduced to the audience via a memorable scene where she swallowed a man whole — and not with her mouth. The show debuts its third season at 7 p.m. Sunday.

“That introduction happened right at the top of the #MeToo movement,” said Badaki. “It was a powerful thing to play this character who so boldly and unapologetically owned that part of herself in a very, very powerful way. As a performer, it’s incredible to be able to dive into those assumptions and turn them on their head.”

Badaki says this season, the over-the-top fantasy series will get into the weeds regarding the issues of the day, including social justice.

“A lot of times, [we’re] speaking to [a topical subject] before it even occurs because we’ve usually shot by the time we’re experiencing these moments,” said Badaki. “We see that with Shadow Moon, our main character [played by Ricky Whittle] and the way that he interacts with the world and how the world interacts with him. ... There’s definitely this undercurrent of him being in a world of being ‘othered.’ ”

Actress Yetide Badaki (left) with her “American Gods” co-star actor Ricky Whittle.

Like a lot of actors who have a platform, Badaki made the decision to speak out: on what it is like to be a Black woman in the arts, and as a Nigeria native keeping an eye on the #ENDSARS movement, a series of protests against her homeland’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) that has a long history of police brutality toward citizens.

“I was [in Nigeria] up until I was 12; I saw many ways in which the power of the people was slowly but surely eroded,” said Badaki. “And we’re also dealing with that again now with the #ENDSARS movement. One thing that became very clear was that once your rights are taken away from you, they are so much harder to get back.

“After a few months of having isolated, I put on my mask, I got my signs, and I said: ‘Well, this is something I’m willing to stand in the line of danger for.’ This is a moment where I don’t want to have to look back and say I did nothing.”

As for the challenges for Black actresses, she related to “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” alum Janet Hubert, who related on a recent HBO Max reunion special that her dark complexion has held her back, and that her issues with star Will Smith branded her as “difficult,” damaging her career.

“Everywhere I find that I’m moving forward, I’m trying to see how many more doors I can open up behind,” said Badaki, whose other TV credits include “Masters of Sex” and “Criminal Minds.” “Because the truth is, it’s harder for women in general. It’s harder than for women of color, then it’s harder for darker skin women. … I had a professor at Illinois State who told me that I would have to work at least three times as hard to be noticed — I’ve taken that to heart.”

After leaving Illinois State, where she was a theater student, Badaki moved to the Ravenswood neighborhood in Chicago and performed at Steppenwolf Theatre and in Victory Gardens Theater’s “Wheatley,” where she played Phillis Wheatley, America’s first published Black woman poet.

Badaki has made the road smoother for young girls who want to participate in the arts via the UBUNTU Scholarship, a yearlong scholarship offered to a Los Angeles-based woman of color.

“The way I see it is also meant to benefit my brother, it’s also meant to benefit my sister; it’s supposed to benefit all those around me — it’s not just about me,” said Badaki. “As we say in this season of ‘American Gods’: ‘I is we’ — we are interconnected. We are only as strong as the most vulnerable within us as the pandemic has shown. … It’s a concept that has African roots.

Yetide Badaki (left) plays Juliette, a young survivor of the 1994 anti-Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, in Victory Gardens Theater’s Chicago premiere of “I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda.”

“I wanted to try and open up the pipeline some more. We got to hear some incredible stories through the application process. People dealing with the DACA situation, people that have also experienced racism, as well as colorism.”