Tracee Ellis Ross on Creating ‘Solo Traveling,’ Teases Season 2

Tracee Ellis Ross is understood for starring on hit tv reveals like “Black-ish” and “Girlfriends.” But now, audiences are getting up shut and private with Ross in her hit Roku Original collection, “Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross.” The collection debuted to rave evaluations final month and rapidly grew to become the most-watched unscripted collection in Roku historical past, incomes a Season 2 renewal. 

Ross has all the time adored touring, however it took a second for the Emmy-nominated actress to comprehend that followers had been flocking to her social media accounts to get a glimpse at her beautiful holidays. “​​I came home from my regular summer trip that I do with my friends every year,” she tells Variety on the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF), the place the collection screened to a sold-out crowd on Friday night time. “And the guy that was helping me at the airport was like, ‘Girl, every year we wait for your first dip and we wait for your Paris fashion.’ He said, ‘I can’t even wait to see what you’re wearing.’ I said, ‘Are you serious?!’”

Upon realizing that there was an viewers that was intrigued by her travels, Ross took the thought and ran with it. “I called my manager and I was like, ‘Is there any world where we could do a travel show that felt like the volume was turned up slightly from my social media?’ she says. “And he was like, ‘I don’t know, let’s figure it out.’” From there, “Solo Traveling with Tracee Eliis Ross” was born. But she had one stipulation: “For me, a lot of it is about the prep and packing, and if we couldn’t show that, then I didn’t want to do it. No one understood that [at] first.’”

Once she obtained manufacturing to purchase into the packing segments, although, Ross was on a roll. The first season of “Solo Traveling,” which consists of three episodes, follows Ross (and her iconic wardrobe) as she adventures in Morocco, Mexico and Spain. Like most journey collection, it showcases gasp-worthy places, however what makes the present distinctive is the actor’s vulnerability, her distinct worldview and the way she handles the emotional highs and lows that include being alone in a brand new atmosphere. 

Solo touring has been part of Ross’s life for over 25 years; she took her first voyage in her 20s. “I had finished this show and I had more money than I’ve ever had, which is not a lot,” she remembers. “But I had money, and I thought, ‘I want to go away.’ My friends were working, and no one was available to go with me. And I was like, ‘I’m just going to go.’ I had seen the Pink Sands Resort [in the Bahamas] in Condé Nast Traveler. I don’t remember being frightened or anything like that. I felt safe and comfortable, and I remember it was a great experience.”

That vacation knowledgeable the way in which Ross travels to at the present time. “I talk about the fact that there are all different kinds of solo travel,” she explains. “Some people travel for adventures. Some people travel to meet people. Some people travel to escape their daily lives. Some people travel to decompress, like I do. Since then, I think I go on at least one solo trip a year if not two.”

While Ross is an skilled traveler in actual life, it took a bit of labor to get the tone of the present good. “It was a delicate balance,” Ross explains. “Some of the first cuts that came back, they filled them in with music, and I was like, ‘No.’ It was losing the intimacy of some of these quiet, solitary moments.” Ross additionally notes that she travels with a skeleton crew to movie the collection. “I made a conscious decision not to use a stylist or hair and makeup. I was like, ‘That’s not how I travel. So it should look the way I travel.’ That was important to me,” she says. “And I found the show refreshing when I watched it.”

Safety and anxiousness are obstacles for many individuals who concern solo touring, particularly ladies. For Ross, security is crucial, as is deciding what you need out of your expertise. “Once you determine that for yourself, you can figure out where that would be,” she says. “I like to remind people that you should ask yourself if there are parts of your identity that are the most empowered, beautiful parts of you, but perhaps might leave you vulnerable in other environments, whether that’s being LGBTQ, non-binary, a Black woman, differently abled, whatever those things are.  And it might not even be those kinds of questions. It might be that I don’t like rain.”

Still, even with tons of preparation (and packing for any and all situations), Ross reminds us all that generally you’ll be able to’t anticipate what may occur. For instance, throughout her journey to Spain for episode 3, Ross had a horrific bout of meals poisoning and was unable to movie and even depart her resort mattress, however she needed to maintain the cameras rolling. “There was nothing I could do about it because we had a short window for shooting,” she says. “That was why I left that crying bit in. Because not only did I feel physically bad, but I felt like I was disappointing everybody. But that was what we had. And it was okay with me. We had to edit around the story because no one wants to hear the graphic behind-the-scenes.  It was so fucking awful. Oh my God! But I felt it was important to leave in. It is part of what happens. Things don’t always go as planned.”

Solo touring has additionally modified the way in which Ross views herself. Sprinkled all through the collection are gut-wrenchingly trustworthy video diaries the place Ross will get candid and emotional about loneliness and singleness. “What I love about how the show is resonating is the intention of the show,” she says. “It’s not about travel, but can you be yourself, by yourself, out in the world? Can you be who you are? It’s taken me years to discover who I am, then have the courage to be that person, and even more to live as that person. This show is an expression of living as that person. And it’s about knowing oneself, making choices that truly honor who you are and what you know about yourself. The fact that that’s what’s resonating — the sense of being responsible for your own happiness — is very moving to me.”

With followers so desperate to voyage throughout the globe once more with Ross in Season 2, she’s already contemplating the place she’ll find yourself subsequent. “When we did this season, I gave a long list of all the places I wanted to go, so there’s still a whole list of places,” she teases. “I have a dream list. I’d love to hear from other people and get new ideas. I want you to go to all the places, and we want to go along with you.”