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A sort of fearlessness has also deepened my work. In Eve's Bayou in 1997, I played a crazy old hag who practiced voodoo. With my face painted white, I was extremely unattractive. I had to work differently, dig deeper, when the tool I was used to relying on--my looks--was taken away. Before the cancer, I would never have allowed a director to destroy what I considered to be Diahann Carroll. But I felt replenished by the role.
Even now, though, it's sometimes hard not to be attached to one's looks. Recently a young woman approached me at an airport. "Oh, Ms. Carroll," she said, "I remember when you used to be so beautiful." I knew she said it lovingly, but ouch.
--As told to Francine Russo