What have you been doing during quarantine?
Staying home and making things: food, shoes, clothes, furniture,
textile art, pottery, watercolor. If I have the materials to create
it, I’ll do it.
I prefer breathable fabrics whenever possible in linen, highquality
You make your own clothes and shoes. What are
some of your favorite patterns and fabrics?
cotton, and silk blends. I’m really into polka dots and
hues in my seasonal color palette right now. Seasonal palettes
are a bit of an old-school approach to fashion and beauty, but
after reading the original (problematic, but informative) book
on color palettes for skin types that came out in the 70’s, it
all connected for me and it has had a huge impact on the
types of clothes I make and the outfits I now put together. I will
always have a place in my heart for Big 4 patterns (Vogue,
McCalls, etc), but I prefer working with indie patterns…the fit is
usually better requiring less adjusting and the instructions and
construction techniques are often more thoughtful and nuanced.
What is your favorite type of art?
I love the type of art that is usually labeled as “craft” and
therefore considered “women’s work” and not valuable enough
to be considered high art. It is a product of our society’s inherent
misogyny that puts functional craftsmanship like weaving,
basket making, pottery, quilting, etc. into categories that are
deemed less dignified than “art”. It is not a coincidence that
much of this art comes from poorer communities of color. I love
the intersection of modern artists with centuries-old craft and am
always excited to see how they innovate within the realm of art.
What is your favorite type of music?
I love soul music, but as long as it has a groove and I can sing
to it, it’s probably in my rotation.
What was your favorite subject in school?
English.
How do you relax?
By making. Knitting and pottery have proven to be very
therapeutic ways for my brain to relax and regulate my body’s
breathing while I focus my energy into something tangible and
malleable.
Tell us about your role on The Good Doctor. What
have you enjoyed most? What has been the most
challenging?
I play a pathologist named Dr. Carly Lever. I have most enjoyed
working with Freddie Highmore, he is a dream scene partner
and I am lucky to have spent pretty much all of season 3 with
him. The most challenging aspect has been having to field the
hateful and sometimes racist reactions from fans who either
didn’t want to see Shaun end up romantically with my character,
or felt deeply uncomfortable at seeing an interracial relationship
portrayed on TV.
Did you like school?
I loved school, because I knew it was the only way I was
going to get myself out of the South. Thankfully I was good at
school and was able to focus much of my energy into doing
well so that I could get scholarship money to go to college. I
grew up very poor and I knew the chances of me having the
kind of life I wanted to lead as an adult were going to rely on
me having some kind of higher education, but I feel resentful
that opportunities for poor people of color are so few and far
between. We already start out at a deficit when you consider
the effects of both generational poverty and trauma on BIPOC
communities, and then we have to work doubly hard to compete
with people who grew up with more resources, access and
institutional support.
Do you have any pets?
We have a Pitbull named Rosie.
What is your favorite color?
Yellow.
What’s up next for you?
Making sure me and my loved ones survive Covid-19 is my only
goal right now.
Plug your social media.
I’m on Twitter: @TheJasikaNicole and my Instagram is
@jasikaistrycurious.
