When Drew Sidora was a child in the ’90s, she often dressed up as T-Boz. As fate would have it, years later Sidora landed a role in the VH1 biopic, CrazySexyCool, as her childhood idol. The Chicago-born actress tells ESSENCE.com she thought T-Boz was “the coolest person ever” and through preparing for the role, she discovered they have much more in common than originally thought.
In honor of the film, Sidora takes us down memory lane to share nine things she loves about the ’90s.
1. Her favorite ’90s movie
DREW SIDORA: Boomerang! I love that movie just because of Halle Berry, Robin Givens, Eddie Murphy, Grace Jones and Eartha Kitt. There were so many characters. As an actress, to see African-American actors be so diverse was different from what I was used to seeing.
2. Her favorite ’90s song
SIDORA: Don’t ask me why, but TLC’s “Creep.” My friends and I would videotape ourselves doing the choreography. Oddly enough I was T-Boz! TLC stood out because we had never seen women dress that way with baggy clothes. At the time mini dresses were in. The music was also cutting edge. They talked about real life things.
3. Her favorite ’90s hairstyle
SIDORA: My mom used to put in a french roll. And when I would go to the hairstylist they would do finger waves and the crimp with glitter in it. I’m from Chicago, so I definitely rocked that a few times.
4. Her favorite ’90s fashion flub
SIDORA: I remember wearing the big oversized baseball and basketball jerseys and Timbaland boots. I was a tomboy growing up. I recently caught a picture of myself and I was like ‘God! What was I thinking about?’ And I definitely wore my fair share of swooshy (windbreaker) outfits.
5. Her favorite ’90s pop-culture moment
SIDORA: I don’t want to say this, but it’s real! Mike Tyson biting Evander Holyfield’s ear. A lot my friends spoofed that.
6. Her favorite ’90s TV show
SIDORA: Martin, definitely Martin! It came out at an hour that I was supposed to be going to sleep. I was low-key sneaking to watch it, but I got a lot of laughs. Martin Lawrence was groundbreaking. The fact that he played multiple characters, for me, was brand new. That was something that I had never seen.
7. Her favorite ’90s tech accessory
SIDORA: I had the beeper with the see-through case. You could not tell me I was not cold with the beeper and it would just be my mom [paging me]. If you had a beeper you were really cool.
8. One thing she wishes she could bring back from the ’90s
SIDORA: I would say the fashion. Because when we did CrazySexyCool, we got a chance to go back in time. We were loving the fact that we didn’t have to put on heels. Women were comfortable and it was cool with the airbrushed jeans.
9. One thing she’s glad stayed in the ’90s
SIDORA: The hairstyles! The crimps, glitter, finger waves and all of that. Ohhh… it was horrible. That was the era of perms and relaxers that thinned all our hair out. I think the ’90s is the reason why I recently had to find natural haircare products to allow my hair to grow. That was a time where they were processing your hair and it was a time when African-American women wanted that straight hair.
CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story airs tonight at 9 p.m.