REDARIC WILLIAMS - The DOPE MAG Interview

Actor Redaric Williams is the definition of brains mixed with brawn. The Motor City-bred actor was originally a rising football star at the University of Texas, pulling a 4.0 GPA as a Business major between practices, when he was sidelined by injuries and decided to follow his passion for acting instead. Now, instead of running plays up and down a field, Redaric spends his days on set at The Young and the Restless with a very different playbook as the street-and-book-smart Tyler Michaelson, brother of DOPE favorite Angell Conwell’s character, Leslie. No stranger to hard work, the soap opera rookie is an amazing addition to the iconic show and is gaining notoriety as one of daytime TV’s hottest bad boys.

There’s much more to this handsome heartthrob than just what meets the eye, however. Redaric chills out between Y&R takes to chop it with Pure DOPE’s Arionne Alyssa (a Chicago girl) to discuss a few play-by-plays and their shared Mid-West cool.

Written by Arionne Alyssa

Images by: Dani Brubaker

Read the Full Length Interview

(Arionne Alyssa: AA) You grew up in a nice, big family. What was every day like in your household growing up?

(Redaric Williams: RED) It was a good experience. I come from very humble beginnings, a single parent household, so I always considered myself the man of the house. I’m the oldest male in my family so I always took on that responsibility. My sisters always say that they don’t really remember me being a kid because I was always trying to take charge of things and all that. It gave me a huge appreciation for my mother and for single mothers as a whole. It dawned on me at a young age that she was just really doing her thing.

(AA) Describe your family structure. Each family is different and alike in ways.

(RED) I think that being in a large family, the dynamics were different. We weren’t like The Brady Bunch, we had our dysfunctions like 99.999% of families do, but it gave me an appreciation for what parents go through. It was good though. We literally are each other’s best friends; my brothers and sisters are my best friends. Get us five together and it’s a party.

(AA) You’re from the Motor City. How do you think that your Midwestern values helped you stay grounded in Hollywood life?

(RED) I think it established who I am early on. I’m a blue-collar dude. I roll up my sleeves and get under the car and fix stuff – tune-ups, oil changes, brake pads, you name it. That’s how I’ve always been. My twin sister who lives in D.C. said to me, “Man, I miss Midwestern men—like you and your friends. You’re not all fancy. These dudes nowadays are too fancy.” I do think it’s a Midwestern thing. It’s not about being fashionable or what you present to the world. It’s about what you do. But, I think it helped that I formed an identity early on.

(AA) What would you say is currently your number one priority?

(RED) My career. I have priorities that I look at for life in general, but right now, I’m still in career mode. What’s worked for me so far is mapping things out and having a blueprint and structure. There’s a method to the madness (Laughs!). For me, that structure is career, relationship, and then children. Right now, I’m still in that first gear trying to get my career stamped, sealed, and solidified. Once I have a concrete foundation, I’ll open myself up to a relationship and once I’m in a relationship where it’s totally there, we’ve reached the eye of the storm and nothing else matters but us two, then children will come into consideration.

(AA) You were a sports guy for a long time and there are a ton of similarities between sports and acting: dedication, persistence, practice. How did those experiences prepare you for this huge, blossoming career in acting that you have now?

(RED) Just what you said, the training and the preparation. Football was my bread and butter. It’s what got me into college and got me scholarships. Football is probably the only sport where you practice more than you play. You practice, practice, practice and you play once. Just one day at the end of the week. If you’re really taking football seriously, you get into a rhythm where you practice like you play, taking it very seriously. The same thing is necessary with acting. What I learned from Y&R is that acting in soap operas is tough. It is not easy to act on a daytime television show because we do everything in one take. We do one rehearsal to get the blocking and the cameras right and then boom! We do it all in one take so you really have to know your material. You have to be prepared. What I learned from sports it’s that the training and preparation beforehand is not a joke.