Teyana Taylor recently explained why she doesn’t call her partner, Aaron Pierre, her boyfriend.
In a cover story with The Hollywood Reporter, she gushed over Pierre.
“That’s my apple pie, and we are each other’s safe space,” Taylor said. “If that’s something that I decide to say, then it’s going to be something that we say together.”
Taylor also reflected on her infamous appearance on MTV’s My Sweet Sixteen.
Taylor said, “I want to clear this up. I’ve seen all types of stuff, like I had this rich Chinese dad or a producer dad. I was living on 144th and Seventh Avenue. And my single mom was working her ass off in corporate America to provide for me. She wanted me to have a nice party!”
Taylor went on to say that the party was a part of her advance for signing with Pharrell Williams’ Star Trak label
“So between my mom, Pharrell, and the label, they put that party together. It was my welcome gift,” she said. “And it was probably the most modest episode that the show ever had.”
Taylor recently starred in One Battle After Another along with Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn. She spoke about the way critics said her character was sexualized by her white co-stars.
‘Is that not what Black women go through?”, Taylor responded.
She added: “We are fetishized, especially by creepy motherf**kers. And we are, unfortunately, the least protected people. Showing what Black women go through, that’s a hard reality to accept. And this movie should spark debate, I always knew it would, because sometimes you just got to shake the table.”
She also spoke about learning from legends in the business.
“Imagine having these legends for teachers,” says Taylor. “You think I’m about to fall asleep in class? No. I’m going to open that notebook, pen to pad. I’m here to be a sponge. Even when I’m teaching, I’m a student. And I’m a straight-A student.”