Kelly McCreary.Photo: Randy Shropshire/Getty Images
WARNING: The following contains spoilers from season 17 ofGrey’s Anatomy.
Kelly McCrearyis all about using her platform for good.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, theGrey’s Anatomyactress, 39, opens up about the powerful mid-season 2-hour finale crossover event withStation 19and why she’s “grateful” for the opportunity to tell the stories of what it’s like to be a Black girl in today’s world.
“With these characters, we have the opportunity to really explore some other realities of being a Black woman in this country,” McCreary says of the young Black girls who were victims of kidnapping and potential sex-trafficking in Thursday’s episode of the ABC medical drama.
“I’m really grateful that we have the opportunity to talk about the very particular ways in which Black girls and Black women are vulnerable or treated differently,” she says. “We don’t receive the same support in return.”
“This storyline was an opportunity to go beyond the hospital see other ways in which that plays out,” McCreary, who worked closely with the writer’s room and theBlack Girl Freedom Fundahead of the episode, adds.
The Black Girl Freedom Fund aims to “support work that advances the well being of Black girls and their families, including work that centers and advances the power of Black girls through organizing, asset mapping, capacity-building, legal advocacy, and narrative work that seeks to shift structural violence enacted against Black girls,” according to theorganization’s website.
Grey’s Anatomy.ABC
Actors and fans were quick to lend a clapping hand in support of the recognition.
Station 19actress Barrett Dosstweeted: “We must do better for our Black women and girls. In King County, WA, where the show takes place, Black girls are less that 1% of the population, but they are 50% of all child sex trafficking survivors.”
McCreary, who recently launched a satirical election podcast,Wednesday Morning, and serves as a board member for Equal Justice Society, admits to PEOPLE that while she’s passionate about continuing her advocacy, it took her a while to get comfortable with vocalizing her support.
Kelly McCreary.Kevin Mazur/WireImage
“I don’t really love putting myself out there all the time,” she says. “And so doing that has kind of forced me out of that comfort zone to be like, ‘This is not about me. This is not about self-promotion. This is not about look at how cool or pretty or whatever I am.’ "
“I want to use my platform to do something for somebody else,” she adds. “Because I am lucky to have a tremendous amount of privilege — with that comes a lot of responsibility to me.
And while McCreary admits that leaving her comfort zone can be “uncomfortable,” it’s made her “braver.”
“I get so nervous, but getting past it is for a greater purpose than myself has expanded my comfort zone and helped me be a little bit braver and really experience that reality, that courage is not the absence of fear, but doing things even in the face of fear, doing what needs to be done in the face of fear,” she says.
source: people.com
