Teyana Taylor 专访：首次执导长片《Get Lite》

Cover Story

Teyana Taylor Takes the Lead

In the director's chair of her first feature film, the award-winning actor-singer-dancer is bringing her strong vision to life.

November 12, 2026

Teyana Taylor is fresh off a movie set and in full-on mommy mode after her youngest daughter took a little tumble. Taylor’s sole focus is on comforting her baby girl. She picks her up and gently rubs her back, reminding her to be careful, in a smoky-toned voice that coats each word like a hug. Once it’s clear that she’s alright, Taylor ends the sweet scene, turning to greet me.

We’re in a boxy film trailer on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a few blocks from the famous Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, the alma mater of stars such as Timothée Chalamet, Jennifer Aniston, Michael Che, and Al Pacino. Today it’s the set for Get Lite, a movie that follows a dance student navigating life in New York City, which is set to hit theaters in 2027. Taylor, a.k.a. “Spike Tey,” is behind the camera this time, making her feature-length film directorial debut.

She’s dressed in all-black, wearing oversized cargo pants, chunky platform boots that add height to her petite stature, and a varsity jacket with “The Aunties”—the name of her production company—emblazoned on one sleeve. She takes off the jacket and hangs it up, revealing a fitted T-shirt that shows off her sculpted biceps and veined forearms, before settling in next to me on a small, black leather couch.

It’s around 2:30 p.m., and this is Taylor’s first break of the day. So far she’s eaten two Cuties mandarins and a few rushed bites of food that upset her stomach. Taylor also missed the window for the Chinese takeout that’s been sitting in the stuffy trailer for over an hour—despite the AC, the day’s humidity permeated. “That smelled crazy,” Taylor says, as she looks for air freshener.

“I didn't eat the way I would have liked to, but I prefer to get my shot,” she tells me, referring to the scene she just wrapped on set. “Getting that shot was important.”

Taylor has been working relentlessly today and over the past couple of years. She starred in five feature-length movies; a self-directed short film, which was released alongside her 2025 Grammy-nominated album Escape Room; and in the first season of Ryan Murphy’s legal drama series All’s Fair. You can see her again in the second season of that soapy offering (the first became a guilty pleasure for many) when it airs this month.

But it was her standout role as Perfidia in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2025 film One Battle After Another that launched her to Hollywood’s peak. Beyond proximity to castmates like Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn, Taylor’s gutsy performance earned her a 2026 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, an Oscar nomination, and a celebratory moment when the film won Best Picture at the Oscars.

Now, after a 20-year career in entertainment, one could say that Teyana Taylor, 35, is a household name. Though she seems inconceivably busy, directing a film requires her to also be intensely present. She likens the experience to finding the perfect parking spot and then having to clean out your car before you can walk away. “Baby, when they yell, ‘Cut, that's a wrap,’ you gotta stay back. You gotta come in early. You literally have to approve every single thing,” she explains. “You are hands-on in every single aspect.”

Taylor isn’t complaining, though. “It’s everything I’ve ever asked for,” she tells me. Get Lite has been baking since 2022, and the timing of it taking shape now isn’t lost on her. “What if this would have worked out four years ago when I was still trying to figure it out? It wouldn't have hit the same,” she reflects.

Back then, Taylor was a fairly new mom of two, retired from her music career, and had just wrapped A.V. Rockwell’s 2023 indie film, A Thousand and One—her gripping breakout role that got Anderson’s attention before One Battle After Another. On both movie sets, Taylor, who had already been directing her own content and music videos for other artists, soaked up all the knowledge she could. “I paid attention to my director, the ADs, and DPs because I'm like, ‘This is going to be me in a few months. This is going to be me next year,’” she says.

Somehow Taylor also found time to enroll in culinary school, in 2025, to create a quiet place for herself, and because she loves to cook. While there she discovered the servant-leader mindset that shaped the team environment she created on set as director. “The head chef is in the kitchen with you,” she says. “I'm really big on wanting to be a leader, not a boss.”

Taylor is Harlem-raised, so her hustle is innate. “I could literally sell your shoes on your feet right back to you,” she says. She jumped at any opportunity to try and succeed. “If I was good at it, I wanted to do it. I always had a director mentality. I needed to say, ‘This needs to happen,’” she recalls of her younger self.

The musical seeds were planted in Taylor’s childhood apartment, uptown on St. Nicholas Place. She closes her eyes for a moment and drops back there. “There would be times when all the kids would be playing in the hallway. My mom's playlist was on point, and I would have my ear to the door. I'd be sitting in front of a windowpane singing my heart out and imagining myself in concert.”

Taylor’s first stage was the living room, where she put on a show with her cousin Paris, featuring moves from Michael Jackson videos like “The Way You Make Me Feel” and “Thriller.” A crowd of relatives cheered them on. That early applause gave Taylor the confidence to explore her gifts, knowing her biggest champions were the people who loved her the most. “Family is just a tiny bit delusional about they babies. ‘My honey's going to be a star. Get your pictures now because she's going to blow up,’” she says with a laugh, imitating their grandiose praise. “They know it before you do.”

Obviously they were right. In 2007, 16-year-old Taylor signed to Pharrell Williams’ label, Star Trak Entertainment, and boldly established herself as a trendsetter. That same year, she introduced herself to the world on a legendary episode of MTV’s My Super Sweet 16, rocking a skater-girl-meets-doll tutu that influenced a generation of millennial teens. The next year, Taylor dropped the single “Google Me,” followed by her 2009 debut 25-track mixtape, From a Planet Called Harlem, her first full offering of the R&B and hip-hop sound she’s known for.

In 2012, Taylor left Star Trak and signed with Kanye West’s, now known as Ye’s, G.O.O.D. Music label, where she released three studio albums between 2014 and 2020. Halfway into the deal, Taylor starred in Ye’s 2016 music video for “Fade,” giving a sultry, eye-popping dance performance. It created visibility for her, but behind the scenes, Taylor says, she felt caged in and that she lacked the autonomy she needed to consistently thrive.

After she dropped The Album in 2020, Taylor was done fighting to be seen, and announced her retirement from music, which would last for five years. “I was afraid,” she says. “I felt like I was falling out of love with something that wasn't fun anymore. It was the first time that I had juggled fear and confidence at the same time.”

Some people doubted her decision to walk away. The major onscreen offers hadn’t rolled in yet, and her next move hadn’t really been planned. “It made me feel like the music shit was an end-all, be-all. They wasn't jacking me saying, ‘I'm going to be a big director one day. I'm going to be a big actress one day. I'm going to be a creative director one day. I want to create safe spaces for creatives,’” she says, her Harlem accent intensifying as she fires off each word. “Nobody believed that shit, because that's not what was instantly bringing in the things.”

It was an emotional time for Taylor, who was also dealing with postpartum depression. In a gigantic leap of faith, she landed 10-toes down and bet on herself. Less than two months after deciding to retire from music, Taylor got the call to play Inez in A Thousand and One. “A lead role, the first time people saw me as a serious actress, and we won Sundance. Are you shitting me?” she asks proudly, still with a tinge of disbelief. “After that, I instantly became a go-to music video director.”

Taylor also led creative direction, stage production, and performance coaching for artists like Summer Walker, Latto, and Lil Baby.

Her advice, in short: Do it scared.

Taylor’s recent string of successes feels like one big pinch-me moment for her. At the pinnacle of last year’s awards-show season, her realness broke through the sea of composure. Her laughter during commercial breaks, an improvised Whitney Houston impersonation, and the reveal of her “party in the back” (a blingy, bow-shaped thong) on a custom Schiaparelli gown during a tearful acceptance speech were all refreshing and fab. Taylor’s joy made headlines, especially at the Oscars, where she cheered on her category competitor, Amy Madigan, who won Best Supporting Actress.

On social media, where everything is ripe for analysis, a flurry of comments suggested that Taylor’s enthusiasm was over the top. “I'm a whimsical girl, and I love that I'm happy for everybody, because I'm happy for people that's happy for me,” she pops back. “Miss Amy and I really helped each other throughout the whole award season. So when I stand up and I clap for Miss Amy, I mean that. Whether I win or lose, I'm going to celebrate my peers.” The two still keep in touch.

Taylor is no stranger to public scrutiny, but she’s realized this new level of fame brings a far more hypercritical gaze. “Freedom ain't free, peace ain't free, privacy ain't free. Everything comes with a price,” she says, looking directly in my eyes. The high cost has forced her to abandon a lifelong need to explain herself, whether to the public or her family and friends. “At this point you could say, ‘I saw Teyana floating on a cloud,’ and guess what? It is what it is.” She purses her lips and shrugs.

Perhaps one of Taylor’s biggest strengths is her ability to quickly put things in perspective. She moves in the spirit of gratitude and tries not to take things personally, like her momager, Nikki Taylor, taught her. Beneath her optimism, though, I wonder how she truly feels about her heightened stardom.

“Blessed, but the human side is that it can be isolating at times,” she reveals, her voice softening as she goes deeper. “Because you're juggling a part of your life that you didn't even think you would see. I've been an underdog for so long, so for everything to shift from one end of this story—it's kind of like a bow and arrow.”

Taylor’s getting at the tension she’s felt over the years. She acts it out, bringing her high cheekbones and swirling baby hairs into focus as she pulls back an imaginary bow. Slowly, taut, and zeroed in on a target, she narrates: “The wait is not punishment; it’s preparation. But in that pull, it feels so heavy,” she says. “The moment I found my aim, my goal, I let go—and everything else went with it. Hurt, heartbreak. It knocked down a hundred bottles at one time. It’s been one extreme to another, and it's a lot to navigate.”

The biggest aches come when Taylor has to be away from her two daughters, Rue, 6, and Junie, 10. From red carpets to courtside at basketball games, she keeps her mini-mes close. “Everybody knows, I don’t play about my babies,” she says.

The girls are getting older, and she wants them to socialize, so they go to school in person instead of at home, which makes it tricky for them to be with her 24/7 while she’s working. “I do get separation anxiety and go into little depressions when I'm away from them,” Taylor says, looking down, her voice growing sad. “It’s one of the busiest, most successful years of my career, and I’m trying to balance that with motherhood.”

Often, Taylor feels misread. “I got strong features. I look very androgynous, and I think people get intimidated just by looking at me,” she says. “I don’t get a lot of grace. They treat me like I'm tough when I'm really a princess. I am just a girl.”

This is a familiar reality for many Black women, who get cast as aggressive or unshakeable by a world that demands we stay vigilant to survive, yet still looks to us to save it at every turn. “We’re Superwoman all the time. When do we ever get to take our cape off?” Taylor asks. At the Golden Globes, a line from her speech reminded Black women and girls: “Our softness is not a liability.”

She compares herself to an egg; her exterior might look hard, but inside she’s just yolk. “My muscle memory is love,” she says with such sincerity it’s as if she reached into her core and pulled the words out. “It does hurt when I see certain things on the internet [about herself] because I’m like, ‘Damn, I thought people would be happy.’”

It dawns on her that because she was homeschooled from 9th to 12th grade, she missed the messy, coming-of-age lessons that might have taught her that not everyone has good intentions. “I became a businesswoman very quickly and very young. My thinking was: Protect my family, protect my bread, then I'll protect the heart,” she says, connecting the dots. “I really am pure to a lot of things that people expect me to know, and I genuinely sometimes don't understand. I've been in a little bubble. That's why it's hard for me to identify who's wearing a mask.”

This has meant that her wide-eyed, ingenuous nature as a giver has attracted takers. Despite past pangs of disappointment, Taylor prides herself on her kindness and grace, and won’t let heartbreak change it. “I don't want no ice box where my heart used to be,” she says, being both funny and poignant without even trying.

Being a mother has pushed her to hold herself accountable for exercising better discernment. “How can I teach you to protect your heart if I'm not protecting my own?” she asks. “I had to learn quick, pick my damn head up and say, ‘This is what it got to be.’”

It’s getting late in the afternoon, and the pings from Taylor’s phone zap us out of our deep conversation. What felt like a stuffy trailer earlier has become a snug portal where we’ve gotten cozy. She’s multitasking, still talking as she moves around the small space. She reapplies her lip combo in the mirror (Taylor is also a brand ambassador for Revlon Super Lustrous), sits back down to put on her boots, and talks about the second season of All’s Fair. In the show, she plays Milan, a paralegal who is caught up in a love triangle.

The first season—which also starred Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts, Glenn Close, and Sarah Paulson—wasn’t necessarily a hit. It was considered a camp indulgence by some, and bad TV by most. Either way, people were watching.

What did Taylor think of the negative reviews? “We didn't really pay no attention to that. It didn't matter. I mean, I think we were number one,” she says, unbothered. “I don't care. We were happy when we did it. We had a good time. And most importantly, what we've gained from it was a sisterhood—a bond that I wouldn't give back.”

Her motion is forward.

“I’m in control because I created this space for myself,” Taylor says. She’s building with love at the forefront, for her own future, but for other artists too. “[It’s] a space for us to know that anything is possible. We don't ever have to settle for what we feel like we're more than.”

Taylor’s crew is at the door now. They need Spike Tey back on set.

Stylist: Ronald Burton III
Hair: Nikki Nelms
Makeup: Porsche Cooper
Manicure: Angie Aguirre
Set Design: Selena Liu
DP (motion only): Jack Belisle

Opening image: Dress by Gucci. Shoes by Gianvito Rossi. Earrings and bracelet by Cartier.

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