Just call her ‘Ms. Jaq’
Doesn’t matter if you are working in Hollywood or working a 9 to 5, if you are not where you want to be in life this phenomenal Royal Woman teaches us that it’s never too late to start over, get it together and get it right.
Some Royal Women are made through their tribulations and hardships in life and others are made through their humility.
Ms. Jaqueline Fleming is a Royal Woman made up of all the above. The actress has been in the Hollywood spotlight for quite some time, most recently co-starring in the BET drama The Quad. But if you let ‘Ms. Jaq’, as she is affectionately called, tell you, she is only now just starting to see her true calling and full potential.
“I was defiantly one of those that was just like completely on the wrong track in life,” the Danish-born actress recalls on earlier years in the business.
She was not much different than most of us are in our 20’s. We want what we want and we want it now. We’re constantly on the hunt to find our place in the world and when we do find it, we struggle with the process or lack thereof to get there. Most of this hardship comes from our business and professional world; not to mention a lack of patience and faith. As an aspiring actress coming to Hollywood the first time around, Ms. Jaq admits she was frustrated with the slow speed of what she thought would be fast stardom.
“I came out here and I didn’t really understand the business of show I was working in,” Fleming says. “I just didn’t understand why things weren’t moving faster but two things were in play, politics of the business and me not being my best self. I couldn’t do anything about the politics but I definitely had control over whether or not I wanted to be my best.”
She also admits to having too many distractions in her personal life on purpose. During this time, she was dating her all-star boyfriend. Together the couple traveled the country and she simply lived for the next party.
“It was easier to disappear than be present and responsible,” she says. “So I was living this ‘jet set life”.
“My focus was split between those dreams of ‘oh I wanna be a star on a television series’ and ‘ oh I wanna star in movies’ and damn! My boyfriend is so successful, it was easier to live in his shadow. At this time in my life, I had very little self-esteem of my own and I was living vicariously through him.”
“I was defiantly one of those that was just like completely on the wrong track in life.”
In the end, Fleming fell short when it came to reaching her goals and she admits she took her opportunities for granted. While living in Los Angeles, she was sinking deeper into unhappiness and she felt as if she was going in circles. The sudden thought of moving to another city and having a fresh start became appealing. And it was one particular destination that has always been a favorite of hers.
“I always liked New Orleans and so when I was invited for a New Year’s Eve party I was like let’s roll!”
It was the mixture of that unhappiness and immaturity that led her to New Orleans post-Katrina. Little did she know that New Year’s Eve Party in the Crescent city would become one of the greatest and most transitional shifts in her life.
Following her agent’s advice, Fleming started volunteering shortly after moving. She spent time at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, where staff was short and the need was great. And while working there, something triggered in her that she never thought would happen.
“For the first time I had interest and concern for someone other than the person I was looking at in the mirror,” she says. “I ended up wanting to take care of and look out for someone other than myself.”
Fleming volunteered at the hospital for the next six months. Soon she found herself busy with dozens of humanitarian projects. While volunteering at the hospital, people started to recognize her face on various television rerun shows.
One of those people was a doctor who asked her if she was an actress and taught acting, because his daughter wanted to become an actress. Although she had taken acting classes, she had never taught the profession herself, outside of coaching some of her acting friends in Hollywood on their auditions. Ultimately that young girl would become her first student. Her name is Taylor Faye Ruffin. Under Fleming’s coaching, she landed her first role in Debbie Allen’s television series, My Parents, My Sister & Me.
Ruffin’s success led her to opening Jaq’s Acting Studio and back to her original calling. However this time around, she found herself helping other young actors find success in front of the cameras, such as Straight Outta Compton’s Jason Mitchell.
Fleming recalls meeting the young teen, who played Eazy E in the 2015 Oscar-nominated movie about the notorious rap group, N.W.A.
“He had no professional experience, just that raw God-given talent.”
During this time, Fleming also discovered another hidden gem about herself; the joy of mentor ship. Together, she and her teachers’ ignited purpose and ambition with the kids; they had a place to talk and express themselves. And their success was seen off-screen as well as on-screen.
“When put in the right environment, you can reach your full potential,” Fleming says. “They’re improving in class and to their self-esteem. They speak better, they’re reading better and so the studio served a lot of purposes outside of just wanting to become an actor.”
But not all of her students had happy endings. Fleming lost many of her students to drugs, pregnancy and gangs.
“They were so talented but they wouldn’t leave the gangs alone in New Orleans,” she says. “One of them was shot and killed and one of them went to prison, so you can’t save everybody.”
“When put in the right environment, you can reach your full potential.”
In 2014, she received a Trailblazer award for her mentor ship. She spoke at women empowerment conferences and to women in halfway houses and prisons. Her positive work in the community also earned her the title of honorary sheriff. Her personal and professional accomplishments in New Orleans motivated her to embark on a new journey. She closed the studio to focus more on her own career and personal growth. She surrounded herself with her own mentors and allowed herself to be a vessel to learn. She also started doing more service work.
“I really had to step back and humble myself,” she says. “I told myself, ‘you’re here in this world to enhance someone’s life, to mentor and to teach with love, patience, and kindness. You are not better than anybody.”
The actress stayed in New Orleans for nine years before moving back to Los Angeles last year. And although her acting studio is long gone, Fleming says she will never stop being a mentor. Many of her students, who are now accomplished actors themselves, still keep in contact and call her for advice. Their success is her success.
“Every time they win a job as an actor, it’s like as if I booked it, I love them,” she says. The thought of them makes her emotional. “Just knowing that they can still connect to me and I’ll never leave their side and I’m here in L.A. Any door that opens for me opens for them.”
Within her kids and others who look up to her, she stimulates inner strength and faith, specifically the power of prayer and having a strong foundation. As for the disappointments and hardships young actors can face in Hollywood, she teaches them to prepare for them, but to not let it define them.
“Any door that opens for me opens for them.”
“You have to say to yourself, ‘I am enough, this is what I bring to the game. Just because I didn’t get a part, I’m not going to be self-destructive. I’m not gonna give up, I’m gonna keep pushing.”
Her most recent project is the action-film, Atone, embodies all of these qualities and more. Fleming plays a fierce Royal Woman named Laura Bishop, a former special ops soldier who pulls out all the stops to save her daughter from hijackers.
“Really bad-ass, positive, strong character (Laura),” she says, “and she is taking down the bad guys.”
Atone premieres in theaters this summer.
And what makes Jaqueline Fleming a Royal Woman?
“My faith, my courage, my perseverance and my love for other people.When you give back, it’s one of the best things you can do in this world. “
#royalwomeninspire
