Recent Howard University graduate, Tiara Bolton was recently featured in BET’s newest commercial for it’s event “Black Girls Rock.” Appearing on screen next to event host and fellow HU graduate, Taraji P. Henson , Tiara is seen standing strong in solidarity and dancing with other beautiful black women.
Bolton secured her position in the commercial by running into Alan Ferguson, an accredited director and husband of Solange. On July 21st, Tiara and her friends were at The Promontory Nightclub in Chicago to celebrate a friends birthday. That night, he and his assistant approached them, asked what they were doing the next day, and if they wanted to be in the commercial.
“It was so unexpected. I was walking out of the club to take pictures of one of my friends. When we passed him, we whispered to each other like ‘is that Solange’s husband?’ When he said come here at first I was like ‘omg he heard us,'” says Bolton.
He was very quick, introduced her to his assistant, who later sent her the information that night. The next day, she went to a huge house in Indiana to film.
The house was decorated cute and had lights everywhere. “It was HOT! There were floors for make up, hair, clothes, and then the main floor was for shooting,” says Bolton. There was another building next door that provided food and solo shots. To her surprise, they were even serving delicious soul food. Tiara reminisces on the great food, saying “they served macaroni & cheese, crab cakes, green beans, and dessert. I laughed in my head thinking, ‘very black of you, BET.'”
When picking out scenes, Tiara and the other actresses stood around in a circle and were hand chosen. Luckily, she got to be in a few scenes with fellow Howard University alumna, Taraji P. Henson. In between takes, Henson was laughing and joking with the extras.
“She’s super down to earth and small. We talked about us both graduating from Howard. She told me about a scholarship she gave to be given to [School of Communications] students,” Bolton says.
Though Tiara doesn’t have any aspirations in acting, she admits that she enjoyed the entire experience, especially the monetary compensation. Black Girls Rock!
