Green People: Rosario Dawson Says to ‘Get Into Nature’
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Between cofounding fashion social enterprise Studio 189, her support for voting rights and conservation and her latest acting roles (namely Hulu’s “Dopesick” where she plays a tireless DEA agent bent on bringing Purdue Pharma’s hand in the opioid crisis to light) — Rosario Dawson is a fast-mover for what matters.
But to her core, she’s a New Yorker — married to the grind but enthralled by the daily rituals of time outside, be it bike rides or community gardens.
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Here, WWD catches up with Dawson to find out her take on conscious commerce, why she identifies with her “Dopesick” character and what she considers activism today.
WWD: What is your greatest source of pride with Studio 189’s impact over the years, and what’s happening next?
Rosario Dawson: For us, it’s very much recognizing the people and the planet all along the supply chain and making sure that we’re way more conscious and intentional about how we make things, how we buy things, how we share things, how we get rid of things, how we repurpose things — and that’s just been a beautiful experience through Studio 189 over the years and to grow this idea of conscious commerce.
I just went to Ambercycle in Los Angeles where you can bring in your old clothes [to be recycled]. They’ve figured out a way to completely shred up the clothes, after you take buttons and zippers off, and make it into little pellets to replace new polyester, and you can use pellets from old clothes to make brand new clothing. The outfit — the pants that I wore on “Ellen” [earlier this month] — was made from that fabric.
The whole way of doing things in fashion has been cradle to grave, and now, that whole conversation is being rethought.
Even creating Studio 189 at the beginning didn’t have the energy of what we have now where there is such a desire for collaboration and sharing resources, which I don’t think has ever existed in fashion before. I think people are very particular about keeping their wisdom and their businesses private and protecting their money, and now everyone is like, “Let’s work together, let’s figure this out because this is a crisis.” None of us are going to make money out of dead people and dead planet.
WWD: What’s something about being a native New Yorker that shifts your view or relationship to nature?
R.D.: I was born in Coney Island, so the beach was such a huge part of my childhood and my life, and then you move to Manhattan and you’re just on this island…For me, it was like this interesting juxtaposition, in Manhattan, for New Yorkers it’s a very normal thing to turn a corner and see everyone looking up and seeing this little piece of rainbow between two skyscrapers and taking it in and appreciating, “Ah, look — nature,” then getting back to the grind and hustling across the street. I think that juxtaposition made it so clear — I never took it for granted and had the best of both worlds.
You cross over the George Washington Bridge — and you’re in nature. Boom, there’s deer, there’s tons of trees everywhere…My parents were big on going camping all the time. Within a short distance, you could just be out there. We used to take road trips a lot and visit my family down [in North Carolina]. I think I’ve always had this very beautiful connection to nature because of my family. A big part of it was not having a lot of money, so not being able to do a lot of the fancier or more touristy things.
[It’s a juxtaposition of] being starved of green spaces but so grateful for people like Bette Midler [behind the New York Restoration Project] who championed community gardens, so I grew up around a lot of gardeners. My grandmother gardened, my aunt gardened so I spent a lot of time in these community gardens, so much so, I was even in a Sesame Street episode where I’m in the community garden talking about growing our own fruits and vegetables in the Lower East Side.
WWD: Are there any community gardens you want to give a shout out to?
R.D.: Oh, there’s a couple of them in the Lower East Side that we have. There’s [El Sol Brillante] on 12th Street, the one on Sixth Street [Sixth & B], the one on Avenue C [La Plaza Cultural] between Eighth and Ninth that used to have the willow trees that were sadly cut down.
Those were amazing! Could you imagine being in New York City then you come to this corner and there’s these huge willow trees that are just coming over the outside of the fences? They ended up getting taken down because of Hurricane Sandy and other things that happened. There was literally a memorial that was done in the neighborhood over these trees because they were so special.
WWD: How does this love of nature fit into your latest projects?
R.D.: This is why I really wanted to work with [personal care company] Tom’s [of Maine] on [its new “Get Into Nature” program, a $3 million initiative to get kids to go outside and get into nature] because I know not every kid has that in their family. Not every kid has access to green spaces. There are so many green deserts across the country.
This initiative that [Tom’s is] spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on over the next three years is specifically targeting those at-risk kids knowing that it makes such a huge difference when it comes to their mental health.
This generation specifically overindexes online. Between being stuck inside and having to do their schoolwork and everything online now, their mental health is just plummeting. And this is such a brilliant way to get the family together and just connect whether it’s a picnic or doing sports or going for a nice walk or a great bike ride — whatever it is, there’s opportunities to connect and remember why we’re here.
It’s not just to be online and shop all day.
WWD: What is the most transcendent lesson you want people to take away from your role in Dopesick?
R.D.: I think we can often be too cynical. And we ignore the news and the signs and we don’t participate because we’ve become so cynical looking at the landscape and feeling like things are dire, and what I love about this story — as compelling and as fraught with information as it is that makes you so outraged — is seeing the people who are true civil servants, who really are champions for greatness, who are not just looking at their own livelihoods or going with the status quo…but just decide to take accountability and responsibility and do things for the better.
It doesn’t mean that they always win, and it doesn’t mean that they always get what they want or need or all of the different things, but they’re on the right side of history. You see over this 20-year process of trying to hold Purdue and the Sackler family accountable, and we’re still fighting to do that with the Sackler Act sitting in Congress — waiting to be passed so we can stop this family from hiding behind Purdue’s bankruptcy. It was so cathartic to play Bridget [DEA agent Bridget Meyer], this person who does what you always wish you would do if you were in that moment…You see her status get raised and raised and raised and she never loses focus or her priority on doing the right thing.
That’s not always true because power can be so corruptive but it’s so beautiful to see the people who get that power and use it for the good, and I hope that’s what people really take away from this.
WWD: What are your thoughts on the meaning of activism today?
R.D.: I’m just so excited that people are getting that activism means being active. It’s not just talking about it, it’s not complaining about it and it’s not just voting — it’s this multifaceted thing. You have to vote, it’s not one or the other. It’s part and parcel to these conversations that we have around our dinner table with our elders and our children. That is critical, radical work.
We are just not communicating with each other, we are not prioritizing each other and we are not prioritizing these issues, and our relationships in this world are suffering because of it.
Being educated is radical and it’s active, [as is] volunteering and giving money, but the idea that [responsibility resides solely] on philanthropists and people with a lot of money — it’s like, ‘No, we’re asking more of you as well.’ We need you to participate and put something on the line because everything is on the line for all of us. I love this intergenerational component of [activism] because we’re never going to get there unless we get there together.
Courtesy Tom's of Maine
For More, See:
Green People: Burberry’s Pam Batty ‘Proud’ of Sustainability Progress
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