When Gabourey Sidibe stopped by Live! With Kelly to talk about her role on Showtime's The Big C earlier this week, Ripa asked about the upcoming season of the show and mentioned that Sidibe's character, Andrea, will be returning to her roots after a trip to Africa. She expressed her love for African-inspired clothing and asked Sidibe if she felt the same way.
"I'm actually African, I'm Senegalese, and so I'm over it," Sidibe responded, adding, "I'm very Americanized and I hated the Afro."
Ripa asked her how long it took her to get her hair back to its regular look after shooting.
"I flew back and got home Saturday night, and I was in the chair Sunday morning. It was about 10 hours before I went back to this," Sidibe said, gesturing toward her hair.
Then she added, perhaps picking up on the fact that it might not be clear to the host that she didn't actually have to wait for her hair to grow out, "It's not mine."
In another portion of the segment, Sidibe lightheartedly referred to herself as "grenade" (an ugly girl, in Jersey Shore lingo) in an exchange with the reality show's Pauly D. While some found it a depressing display of low self-esteem, others thought it simply represented a good-natured and realistic assessment of mainstream beauty standards. We think the entire conversation on Live — which covered everything from hair to beauty to parallel-parking skills — demonstrated that Sidibe has a strong sense of herself and plenty of confidence to spare.
Watch the whole thing here:
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