Jay Ellis’ sat with MACRO’s UpRising newsletter (subscribe here) to talk about the inspiration behind his new book, Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (Or Just Me), The actor goes deep on how the idea was born during COVID and talks about how impactful his imaginary friend, Mikey, was during his early childhood teenage years.
“There was this point where this imaginary friend came into my life to help me navigate the world,” said Ellis. “There were moments in my life that no kid should [have to experience]—heavier moments that kids don't have the skillset or emotional wherewithal to understand or process. Because of that, we lose our innocence so much younger. Childhood gets cut short in a lot of ways.”
The Insecure alumnus and star of MACRO’s upcoming film, Freaky Tales, had an easy time remembering that era of his life with the help of his family but putting those memories in between the paper lines was difficult. Ellis details those struggles:
Was it easy to remember so many of these vignettes and chapters of your life with so much detail and also be vulnerable enough to put them in writing?
The remembering was tough. Some things came back crystal-clear—I could still see sweat rolling down somebody's nose. Especially as I tell preteen and teenage stories, because a lot of them were firsts. Losing a kid that I was in a gang with to Russian Roulette, getting pulled over by the cops nine times, or the first time I made a basketball team and got kicked off. All those things formed thought processes and put things into action that changed my life.
The childhood memories though, I tapped in with my mom, my dad, grandmas, cousins. I asked them, what do you remember? What did I say? Where were we? How did I react? What were you doing? I used this storyteller tradition to get details from folks who remember better than I did.
Was there a chapter or event that was particularly difficult to open up about or want to share with the world?
I really wanted to write a book about joy. There were things I didn't write because of that—things that were traumatic. But some stories made it. The Week I Joined a Gang was a chapter I went back and forth on a lot. To do that chapter, I had to talk about family and experiences I had previous to me joining a gang. So that was really tough to write. My cousin who was killed is still an unsolved case, so there were some sensitivities to think about. I almost [removed] that story because I wanted to be respectful and thoughtful towards the people who also went through this experience.
Ellis is already thinking about how his book can be adapted. He says there’s a path where his book could be a 30-mintue family show that’s a cross between Everybody Hates Chris and Young Rock.
"Mikey, my imaginary friend, would take the place of that voiceover that we hear through Everybody Hates Chris," said Ellis. "You have these moments of humor and fun, but you also have these real-life things that happen to families and young kids."