Danielle Brooks Wants to Keep Us on Our Toes This Award Season

Award season is a marathon, not a sprint. In Lady Gaga’s voice: Luncheon. Party. Red carpet. Another red carpet. The sheer number of events can keep a nominee’s schedule packed for well over two months. But you won’t catch Danielle Brooks complaining. When I jump on a call with the actor the morning of the Critics Choice Awards (she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Sofia in The Color Purple), I can immediately feel her energy. It’s infectious. Despite not getting much sleep the night before—her adrenaline has been running high—she is feeling good and excited for the day ahead. After all, she has a showstopping look to get to.

Brooks’s award-show morning routine looks a little something like this. She starts with a calming salt bath with bubbles as Al Green plays in the background. She then jumps into the shower to rinse off—“A lot of people don’t do that, but I do,” she says—and wash her hair. She lotions up really well and orders breakfast. On the menu are fruit, an iced green matcha with almond milk (a new favorite), and, of course, lots and lots of water. 

When Brooks’s glam team—stylist Jennifer Austin, hairstylist Tish Celestine, and makeup artist Rebekah Aladdin—arrive, that’s when the real fun starts. Brooks and her team have booked out a lengthy four hours for the getting-ready process. If experience has taught her anything, it’s that things come up, so it’s better to be prepared. The vibes in the room are immaculate. Dancing is a must, and the champagne is flowing. There’s only one goal, and that is to soak up and enjoy every moment.

For the evening’s celebrations, Brooks selected a pastel-pink tulle bow gown by Monsoori that truly came alive on the carpet. Funnily enough, she actually wore the dress for a photo shoot not too long ago, but the images were (thankfully) never used, allowing Brooks and Austin to give it the moment it really deserved. “I kept telling my stylist this needs to be a carpet moment,” Brooks says. “People need to see me in this for hours.” Brooks admits the style of the gown was a bit of a departure for her, but the moment she slipped it on, she felt beautiful, feminine, and soft. Its flowy silhouette was another bonus. “I’m excited to not have to wear one Spank under this thing,” she says with a laugh. “I’m like, ‘This is going to be the best night ever!’”

Comfort is a key factor for Brooks when selecting a look for the carpet, but she’s also about surprising people and wanting to keep us on our toes. Just when you think you’ve nailed Brooks’s style, she switches it up. For the Golden Globes, she selected a tomato-red custom Moschino gown with a couture silhouette by Gabriella Karefa-Johnson. For the Governors Awards, it was a sultry purple sequin number from Naeem Khan, a nod to her film. Tonight, she’s making an angelic statement. “I’m pretty much open to anything,” Brooks says. “I’m not a girl who is afraid to show her back or her legs or arms. I don’t have time for that. It’s been a lot of fun playing with different styles.” 

She completed her Monsoori look with Norman Silverman 18-karat white gold dangling earrings, rings by Graziela, and Christian Louboutin heels. The brief for glam was dewy and soft makeup and a shoulder-length bob flipped at the ends to match the romantic energy of the dress.

“I’m excited,” Brooks tells me of her 2024 award season experience thus far. “I’ve really just been taking people in. I’ve been really listening when people speak and taking in people’s eyes because I feel like that’s what this is about, connecting with new people and enjoying this craft together with all of the writers, directors, and fellow actors and producers.” Some standout moments include getting to connect with Killers of the Flower Moon actor Lily Gladstone, who was everything she thought she’d be, and reuniting with her Orange Is the New Black castmates. “Running into the girls where all of this started for me has been just the highlight of this moment because we’ve seen each other grow, we’ve held each other’s hands through all of this, and we’re all having these grandiose moments.”

To be recognized by the critics for her performance in The Color Purple means everything to Brooks. She feels honored to have this moment and to be able to grow with a character she’s now played both on the stage and screen—something not many actors get to do. Since playing Sofia in the 2015 Broadway revival of The Color Purple, Brooks has become a mother and a wife, and those experiences allowed her to discover that there are so many more layers to the character. Not to mention, there was the incredible opportunity to tell the story in a studio film with Oprah Winfrey by her side supporting her. To sum it all up, Brooks leaves me with this: “It has truly been the highlight of my life, of my career. … I’m a very lucky girl.” 

Click here for more of our 2024 award-season coverage. 

Photographer: Sami Drasin

Stylist: Jennifer Austin

Hairstylist: Tish Celestine

Makeup Artist: Rebekah Aladdin

VP of Creative: Alexa Wiley

Director of Production: Samantha Rockman

Executive Director of Entertainment: Jessica Baker