Meghan Markle is opening up about the struggle to land roles in Hollywood as a mixed-race person before her breakout role in Suits.
In a new interview on Emma Grede’s Aspire podcast, Meghan shared that she had a hard time getting a role before Suits.
“I was an auditioning actress — and this was well before Suits — [and] you have to think: at that time, there were certainly not a lot of mixed-race parts,” Markle shared.
“If I was going in for an audition, it was either — you have to remember, this was a very different time than it is now — girl next door. That was typically blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and a certain look, but because I’m half white, I would also be submitted for those roles,” she continued.
“And then if it was a character that had any sort of ethnicity, there was always a bit of an edge to those characters, but I’d be submitted for those roles. And I also, to a lot of people in casting, they thought I was Latina,” the Duchess of Sussex explained.
Meghan reflected on how getting rejected repeatedly affected her self-esteem.
“That is a lot to chip away at your self-esteem. That is really hard. I went through my chapter of self-doubt as an auditioning actor and beyond that. When you’re so consumed by what everyone around you thinks of you, that can be a really hard way to live,” she concluded.
Meghan Markle’s struggle finally came to fruition when she got a lead role in the 2010 legal drama Suits as Rachel Zane.