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On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited about life is Tracee Ellis Ross? “Oh. I’m like a 10 or 11 right now.” Fresh off her Emmy nomination for her role as Dr. Rainbow “Bow” Johnson in Black-ish, the actress practically bounds through her bright and airy Los Angeles home for her rapid-fire round of 73 Questions.
She didn’t take home a statue at the Emmys, but in an ostrich-feather Chanel Couture confection, she was considered a winner on the red carpet. And at her house, in a more casual, monochromatic ensemble, Ross, of course, talked fashion. Growing up with access to her mother’s closet (ICYMI, that would be Diana Ross’s closet), Ross was exposed to a level of sartorial fabulousness experienced by very few. She cites a blue Comme des Garçons origami dress worn to the Met Gala as her best outfit ever.
She continues to dole out theatrical proclamations, assume various alter egos, and belt out her favorite curse word (a monosyllabic profanity she draws out into four). She names the types of salt she stocks in her kitchen (“I’m very big on salt”) and tosses in words to live by—not surprising, given the actress’s outspoken positions on a number of matters including race, women’s rights, and electoral politics. Her most desired superpower: the power to impeach.
So how does Ross reach a carpe diem level of 11? She abstains from stimulants—including coffee, sugar, and chocolate—meditates, awakens to a set of melodic string-instrument alarms, and reads. “If you’re not a reader, you need to read,” she insists. Closer inspection of her bookshelves reveals copies of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, Rebecca Traister’s All the Single Ladies, and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, and on a side table, piles and piles of Vogue magazines: French Vogue, Italian Vogue, Casa Vogue, and other glossies she’s collected since she was a kid.
Ross surrounds herself with family for love and laughter—watch out for younger brother Evan and his wife, Ashlee Simpson, hanging out in the background. At the end of the visit, it’s Evan and Ashlee who usher the exuberant Ross out the door. “You gotta go!” she exclaims, and just like that, she’s gone.