Cayman Filmwatch: Grace Byers

Caymanian actress and author comes home to film

Success has smiled on the talented actress, thanks to hard work and dedication. - Photo: Sergio Kurhajec

It only took five minutes in the company of actress Grace Byers to see what a great ambassador she is for the Cayman Islands.

Elegant, warm and open, with a strong sense of self, it comes as no surprise that she has found success in one of the toughest businesses there is. A solid foundation in theatre, coupled with ambition and talent, helped Byers win the coveted role of Anika Calhoun on the FOX smash hit TV show ‘Empire’. Since then, she has been working consistently in television, and now she is starring in ‘The Retirement Plan’ with such well-known names as Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Ashley Greene, Joel David Moore, Jackie Earle Haley, Rick Fox and Lynn Whitfield, due to be released in 2022. The film was shot in Cayman and produced by Productivity Media and Darius Films.

Byers’ agent had put her name forward for the role after chatting with one of the producers, and the actress was subsequently approached with the offer, which she happily accepted. The chance of being able to do the work she loves in her childhood home was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.

Grace Byers as Anika Calhoun in ‘Empire’.

“I’ve been dying to come back,” Byers said, “And you know, it’s been about a year and a half since I’ve come to Cayman. I’ve been missing seeing my family and my friends, so it was a beautiful two-for-one [deal].”

Luckily, getting the part was fairly smooth sailing once she was on the radar.

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“I was blessed that I did not have to audition for [the role], but that is definitely not my life; 99.9% of the things that I do get I have to audition for and go through a very rigorous process,” Byers said.

Once she had signed on the dotted line, she found herself winging her way to the Caribbean in June, bringing her husband of five years, Trai Byers, with her.

From Cayman to Hollywood
Born in the US to an American father and Caymanian mother, Byers grew up in Cayman from the age of two until she moved back to the US when she was 18. She attended university in order to study her craft, and states that she is a big advocate of tertiary studies.

“University has taught me a lot,” she said. “My grandmother was an educator, so I am biased to getting degrees… especially for people of colour. I think [university] can only propel you and move you forward.”

She got her bachelor’s degree in theater arts at the University of South Florida, followed by a master of fine arts in acting at the University of California Irvine. From there, the wind took her to New York City where she performed in such Off-Broadway productions as ‘Venus Flytrap: A Femme Noir Mystery’, followed by stints in Chicago for ‘The Misanthrope’, ‘Tartuffe’ and ‘Rent’.

It was her casting as Anika Calhoun in ‘Empire’, however, that propelled her into the spotlight. For someone of her nature to play such a devious character was an interesting experience, and she enjoyed it, but it was not without its challenges.

Grace and Trai Byers became the faces of romance in the Cayman Islands for a 2017/2018 tourism campaign.

“I feel like the show was stressful for me in a different way,” Byers said, “because my character that was always going through something substantially detrimental… I was always screaming or crying or fighting/arguing. There were very few moments of joy for Anika. So, there was a point in time where my body just felt the continual stress of that role over the years. I did enjoy it, despite that, and I do love dramatic roles. Plus, it was definitely a large key to my career and where I am today, and it also gave me the gift of my husband.” (Trai Byers played the role of Andre Lyon on the show.)

Since ‘Empire’, Byers has kept busy with shows such as ‘The Gifted’, ‘Harlem’ and ‘Phoenix’, despite the restrictions that COVID put on her industry. ‘Harlem’, which will be streaming on Amazon Prime in the future, is a project about which she has been particularly excited.

“The creator is Tracy Oliver. She did ‘Girl’s Trip’ and ‘First Wives Club’ [reboot] and that has been one of the most incredible experiences I’ve had in my career,” she said. “With the other girls… it took no time for us to just gel as a cast. We’re supposed to play best friends; we feel like we’re best friends.”

Byers added that filming ‘Harlem’ was “such a rewarding experience” and she loved being able to do comedy. Hopefully audiences will be able to see it by the end of this year.

The Retirement Plan
Without going into a lot of detail about her character, Byers said that her role in ‘The Retirement Plan’ is not that of a sweet, innocent femme fatale. It seems that once again, she is playing a ‘baddie’.

“It was hilarious that I got cast as… one of the antagonists. She’s a pretty severe villain,” Byers laughed. “And then my family and my friends are always entertained, because they’re just like, ‘You’re nothing like this’, you know?”

She also enjoyed working with the other actors in the cast.

“It was phenomenal,” Byers said. “It was really nice to rap with [Rick Fox] a little bit about just living on an island, and things that make us as patriotic as we are.” (Fox is Canadian-Bahamian and grew up in the Bahamas.)

“Nic Cage has been really nice; a very committed actor and down-to-earth,” she added. “And what was very interesting was before I got ‘The Retirement Plan’, my husband and I were kind of bingeing on
Nic Cage movies.”

Byers has penned two children’s books, with ‘I Am Enough’ reaching #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Being offered the chance to work with the Academy Award-winning actor soon afterwards must have seemed like a sign.

She said that Jackie Earle Haley was hilarious – the nicest guy – which made playing his boss in the movie a fun dynamic.

“We just absolutely hate each other [in the film] and we’re always arguing and screaming at each other,” she laughed.

One of the highlights for Byers filming in Cayman, however, was being surrounded by her countrypeople on-set.

“I [am] very happy to report that there were many [Caymanians working on the production],” she said. “Caymanians were working with the camera crew, they were working in wardrobe, they were working as extras, they were acting alongside me… and so that in itself was something that was really extraordinary. I felt like it was such a blessing.”

She explained that having these projects filmed on the island created another avenue of different jobs for Caymanians to consider.

“If they don’t necessarily want to pursue finance or economics – and they are artists who want to play in this medium – I think that it really provides an incredible opportunity for them to get experience in a way that they mightn’t have gotten, had these films not come here.”

Plans and dreams
The support Byers feels from her people when it comes to her career, is something that keeps her reaching higher all the time.

“[It] keeps me pushing onwards because it does feel like very personal support… it really encourages me to keep going,” she said. “So, whenever there are big milestones for me, I consider them big milestones for our country. I really, really do. My deepest prayer is that there are children and young people who are coming up, looking at me and saying, ‘You know, I feel represented by her’.”

Byers has already penned two children’s books: ‘I Am Enough’, released in 2018, and the follow-up title ‘I Believe I Can’, released in 2020. ‘I Am Enough’ became a #1 New York Times bestseller and won a Goodreads Choice Award.

Byers with her bestselling children’s book. – Photo: K Rish

While in Cayman, she managed to carve out some time to meet her young fans and read excerpts from her works at an event hosted by Next Chapter on 16 July.

When not writing bestsellers, she is always looking for other ways to be creative.

“I think I have a dream of creating art. Yes, I truly am an artist at heart,” Byers said. “I love any type of creative expression and I feel like if I stay in one medium for too long, I get bored, so I think it’s really important to keep my artistic side stimulated.

“Doing this film was really great… and I would love to keep doing television as well.”

That being said, she will always happily go back to the theatre, and she has a particular play in mind once she gets the chance.

“‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ by Tennessee Williams,” she said, without hesitation. “I actually played Maggie when I was in grad school, and I found it to be, of course, one of the most complicated, difficult, convoluted roles that I’ve ever approached, and I did not understand the emotional struggles and the emotional cacophony that she was dealing with at the time. Now that I have lived some life, I would love to attack that role. There is so much I feel like I would just vulnerably give over to it.

“So, I would love to do it, and I’m trying to convince my husband to play Brick. I’m like, ‘One day, you’re gonna play Brick, I’m gonna play Maggie, it’s gonna be great!’,” she laughed.

Seeing changes in Cayman
The chance for young Caymanians to get a taste of working in the international film industry has been a positive addition to the local landscape, but Byers has concerns about other changes she’s noticed since she last visited Cayman.

“My grandparents were Harry and Theoline McCoy, so they really established a lot of the bedrock things and Caymanian culture that we even associate with today,” Byers said. “Growing up here and Cayman culture… there were a lot of things that were just very, very important to me and things that I held very near and dear. I have to say, it’s been a year and a half since I’ve come back home, and this is the first time that I actually feel that Cayman is shifting, in a way that I don’t recognise, and that’s hard for me; that’s very difficult for me.

Byers is looking forward to the release of ‘Harlem’ on Amazon Prime, hopefully by the end of this year. – Photo: Irvin Rivera

“Then there’s the other aspect where I do find the little elements and things that feel very Caymankind; things like our resources, the mangroves, the water, the sand, my family… these are the things that I lean into as I start to see Cayman shift a bit.”

She expressed particular concern for the younger generation and what opportunities will be available for them.

“There are questions that really come to my mind, like: What are the spaces that we are creating for our young Caymanians? When they are graduating from school, when they are looking to get a loan for a mortgage, when they are looking to come back and give back their talents and resources to the island… What opportunities are we providing for them? It’s not just the things that I’m seeing, it’s also things I’m hearing from my family [and] from my friends. The general quote that I hear most is that they don’t feel like Cayman is for the Caymanians anymore.”

Words of wisdom
When it comes to giving advice to those keen to get into her line of work, Byers once again emphasises the importance of education.

“My husband and I both got our degrees in acting. We heavily believe in the technique and the training, because you can have a natural talent, but that’s not what’s going to sustain you in an industry like this. Whenever you feel like, ‘This is too much for me’, in whatever way or form, falling back on the technique, training, the tools and honing the craft… that is what’s going to sustain you. I feel like if you’re serious about it, train for it.”

She highlighted some of the disciplines that actors have to learn that people don’t always think about.

“Leaving Cayman at 18 years old, there was no way that anyone could understand me and my very, very heavy Caymanian accent,” she said. “One day someone said, ‘I’m pretty sure Juliet isn’t Caymanian, Grace’ [laughs] so, I had to learn IPA [International Phonetic Alphabet], I had to learn voice, I had to learn diction, I had to learn speech, I had to learn where I placed my things in my mouth, as a Caymanian, and where my vowels stood, so that I could shift into a neutral.”

Thanks to her training, Byers can now do myriad accents, as well as keep her voice from getting tired.

Byers said it was fantastic to be able to film in the Cayman Islands. – Photo: Gilles Toucas

“If I’m shooting something, and there’s this very emotional scene, and I have to cry 20 times, there’s a way in which I lean into my body and lean into the techniques that were given to me, in order to help me sustain, should my emotions shift, if I’m shooting it five bajillion times.”

Being able to use her talent as a vocal chameleon certainly has its entertaining moments, she said.

“There was a film that I was auditioning for recently, where I had to do a 1930s Southern Delta accent; it was very particular. My sister (Faith Gealey-Brown), who’s a speech pathologist, also knows IPA very well… we were both excited when we were learning it at the same time.

“When I did the audition and I sent it to her, my sister said, ‘You are literally unrecognisable. I see my sister, [but] I don’t hear or really understand that this is my sister’, [all] because of just the technique of being able to really get it and get it right.”

For those with dreams of Hollywood who don’t yet have a chance to get to university to study, Byers reminded them that learning through other means can help them on the path to success, such as getting involved in film productions like those over the last six months.

“Whenever there are moments, ways and avenues that people on the island are creating for you, take advantage of those things. Watch the plays, watch the improv, take the class.”