ST. LOUIS — Award-winning Sterling K. Brown took a visit to The Drew Barrymore Show Tuesday, where the two discussed his life growing up in St. Louis and how it contributed to his career in acting.
The conversation began with Brown reviewing his time at his alma mater, Saint Louis Country Day, which is now known as Mary Institute and Saint Louis County Day School (MICDS).
“At that point in time in my life, I didn’t know what my track was scholastically. My mom worked in the public school system in my neighborhood—it was a good school system—but she felt like the young Black men were being tracked along the lowest common denominator, and she felt like she wanted more for me; the potential to be as fully realized as possible,” he said on the show.
At school, Brown mentioned he was quite involved between athletics and theater because there was no stigma among different groups.
“I did all the stuff because everybody else at the school did all of the stuff together,” he said. “I had half the football team going out for ‘West Side Story.’ My coach would be like, ‘Brown, what’re you doing?’ and I’m like, ‘Hey man, I just auditioned,’ and they came along with me…it was awesome.”
Brown later attended Stanford for economics, attributing the decision to his interest in high-level calculus and economics courses at MICDS. He even interned with the Federal Reserve in St. Louis, with the intention of continuing the corporate America path.
But as he stayed on that path, he came to some different realizations.
“Acting was always this thing I enjoyed, but I didn’t think it was a prudent thing to pursue. Then I realized once I got to school—money wasn’t that important. And I don’t mean that in a very blithe way; I mean, happiness was more important than the money,” he said.
Brown credits the people he surrounded himself with at his school for his career success, more specifically, his theater teacher Carolyn Hood—who he says he goes back every so often to visit.
Barrymore then surprised Brown with a heartfelt video from Hood.
“We are so proud of you, Sterling, for all the beautiful and layered performances you continue to awe us with. Every time you come home, you come and visit my classes, and you inspire and encourage this new group of artists coming up. And for that, I’m so grateful,” she said.
Some of Brown’s most popular work includes “Black Panther,” “This is Us,” and most recently, “Paradise.” He became the first African American to win a Golden Globe for Best Performance in a Drama Series in 2016 and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscar’s last year for “American Fiction.”