1999 was a magical year for teen movies: it was when 10 Things I Hate About You and She’s All That were released. These two films have one actor in common, Gabrielle Union, and she fills her second-fiddle position with aplomb. Her screen time is limited to serving the arcs of the main players (Julia Stiles, Rachael Leigh Cook), but you still notice her: as Chastity in 10 Things, she asks the great question, “Can you ever just be whelmed?”. She was 26 at the time, playing 17.
Union, now 42, began her showbiz life as a model. This led to small TV roles, then movies, supplemented with appearances in Friends, ER and Ugly Betty. She’s a classic Cool Girl, the type that appeals to men and women: she’s fun, sporty (married to basketball player Dwyane Wade in real life) and beautiful in that girl-next-door way (fresh-faced, dimples); she looks like she means business. It matters when a black woman plays the Cool Girl, because those roles usually go to Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore. Union has indie form, too, making a short film with Selma director Ava DuVernay, and recently co-starring in Chris Rock’s feature Top Five.
Since 2013, she’s been playing the titular character, a news anchor, in Being Mary Jane on US cable channel BET. MJ – selfish, insecure, often petty – is certainly no bed of roses, but she’s also principled and opinionated, which echoes Union’s off-screen personality: she was raped at 19, and has been a member of Barack Obama’s national advisory committee for violence against women and girls, publicly supporting rape survivors. When nude photos of her were stolen and leaked online last year, she called the hack “a violation and a crime”. Not everyone steps up like this. Wouldn’t it be great if they did?
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