Gabourey Sidibe has been the face of a conversation about confidence since 2009, and she wants it on the record that she never started it. “The confidence conversation has been around me since 2009,” said Sidibe, the Precious star who now directs. “I promise you, I didn’t start it.”
What she says instead is harder and more useful. “I was an unhappy child. I really was,” she said, and she set about manufacturing the opposite on purpose. “I think that I was purposely doing my best to shape and create happiness and joy, even though I did not feel it.”
The result she names with most pride is not confidence at all. “My favorite compliment as an adult is that I feel safe to other people,” she said.
Sidibe directed Mary J. Blige Presents Be Happy, which aired on Lifetime on February 7, 2026, with Tisha Campbell, Russell Hornsby and Mekhi Phifer in it. She turned the work down at first because she did not believe she was smart enough for it. “I bleed a little bit more as a director,” she said.
“I love being a woman. I love being Black and, more than anything, I love being a Black woman,” she said. “Everything that I do is a love letter to me, to you, and to us.”
“I am flawed. I am not fearless,” she said. “But sometimes I do it anyway.”
