From Madamenoire

June is National Caribbean Heritage Month, and for actress Grace Byers (neé Gealey), it’s the perfect time to bring her colorful Caymanian accent out of hiding.

The 34-year-old Empire actress, born in America to a Caymanian mom and American father, moved to the Cayman Islands when she was a toddler. She returned to the United States for college, and when she did, she found that her accent was an issue for the people she was surrounding herself with.

“When I first came to America at 18 years old, I had a very, very, very heavy accent. I can guarantee it was heavier than what I’m speaking in right now,” she said in an IG TV video. “At the time, the circles I was finding myself in, it was very hard for people to understand me. It felt like I was very much an anomaly, I was very much a standout. So for somebody who’s 18 years old and wants to fit in, the last thing you want to hear is that you stand out and that you’re different.”

“Couple that with the fact that I was auditioning for roles and a lot of the material I was reading was specifically written in a way where if it was for a person of color, it probably had some American accent or feel to it,” she added. “So at the time, it was very hard to kind of turn my tongue into something that was a little more American.”

She tried though. She studied the “standard” American accent, even recording a friend saying words so she could get better phonetically. When she developed the American accent we hear her speak in most of the time, she found that she had better success playing roles in acting classes and finding opportunities, including playing Anika on Empire. Eventually, she was able to code switch back and forth, which she did until one day on set of the hit Fox series she found herself struggling to get back into the American accent after breaking out of it during a conversation with Terrence Howard.

“I remember going back into my Caymanian accent. Here I am speaking in my Caymanian accent. I don’t know why I was speaking in my Caymanian accent. I don’t know if he asked me something, I don’t know what it was. I went back into my accent, and moments later, Lee [Daniels], who was directing that episode was like, ‘Alright, you guys ready?’ He was about to say action and…I just could not for the life of me get back into this American accent,” she said. “It frightened me so that I said to myself, you know what Grace, for the betterment of everybody around you, try so stay [laughs] in your American accent.”

“I felt like I kind of didn’t stand out as much when I was able to talk in an accent that sounded a little more American,” she added. “Before I knew it, I was talking like that almost all of the time.”

She brought out her Caymanian accent when she spoke with family and to other Caribbean people. When she started dating her Empire co-star, Trai Byers, and he heard her “slip” into her accent, he was blown away that she had hidden it from so many people for so long.

“It wasn’t until I started dating my husband and I’ll never forget the first time Trai heard me slip into a Caymanian accent. He just looked at me. He was like, ‘What?! [laughs]” she said. “He said to me, ‘Grace, why don’t you talk in this accent all of the time?’ I said, ‘Because Tre, you know, I’ve had a history of people not understanding what it is I’m saying.’ Tre said, ‘Listen, I don’t know who you were around, I don’t know who you were talking to, I don’t know which people couldn’t understand you, but I can understand you just fine.’”

She said he’s been the one who has encouraged her to speak in her accent more often than not.

“He’s been imploring me to show up as this authentic version of myself, so I’m taking the first step here,” she said. “Now it’s time to slowly start to switch back into living my everyday life speaking like this and knowing people are going to get it.”

For more on this story and video go to: https://madamenoire.com/1076447/grace-byers-cayman/