Tracee Ellis Ross is known for starring on hit television shows like “Black-ish” and “Girlfriends.” But now, audiences are getting up close and personal with Ross in her hit Roku Original series, “Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross.” The series debuted to rave reviews last month and quickly became the most-watched unscripted series in Roku history, earning a Season 2 renewal.
Ross has always adored traveling, but it took a moment for the Emmy-nominated actress to realize that fans were flocking to her social media accounts to get a glimpse at her stunning vacations. “I came home from my regular summer trip that I do with my friends every year,” she tells Variety at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAAFF), where the series screened to a sold-out crowd on Friday night. “And the guy that was helping me at the airport was like, ‘Girl, every year we wait for your first dip and we wait for your Paris fashion.’ He said, ‘I can’t even wait to see what you’re wearing.’ I said, ‘Are you serious?!’”
Upon realizing that there was an audience that was intrigued by her travels, Ross took the idea and ran with it. “I called my manager and I was like, ‘Is there any world where we could do a travel show that felt like the volume was turned up slightly from my social media?’ she says. “And he was like, ‘I don’t know, let’s figure it out.’” From there, “Solo Traveling with Tracee Eliis Ross” was born. But she had one stipulation: “For me, a lot of it is about the prep and packing, and if we couldn’t show that, then I didn’t want to do it. No one understood that [at] first.’”
Once she got production to buy into the packing segments, though, Ross was on a roll. The first season of “Solo Traveling,” which consists of three episodes, follows Ross (and her iconic wardrobe) as she adventures in Morocco, Mexico and Spain. Like most travel series, it showcases gasp-worthy locations, but what makes the show unique is the actor’s vulnerability, her distinct worldview and how she handles the emotional highs and lows that come with being alone in a new environment.
Solo traveling has been a part of Ross’s life for over 25 years; she took her first voyage in her 20s. “I had finished this show and I had more money than I’ve ever had, which is not a lot,” she recalls. “But I had money, and I thought, ‘I want to go away.’ My friends were working, and no one was available to go with me. And I was like, ‘I’m just going to go.’ I had seen the Pink Sands Resort [in the Bahamas] in Condé Nast Traveler. I don’t remember being frightened or anything like that. I felt safe and comfortable, and I remember it was a great experience.”
That holiday informed the way Ross travels to this day. “I talk about the fact that there are all different kinds of solo travel,” she explains. “Some people travel for adventures. Some people travel to meet people. Some people travel to escape their daily lives. Some people travel to decompress, like I do. Since then, I think I go on at least one solo trip a year if not two.”
While Ross is an experienced traveler in real life, it took a bit of work to get the tone of the show just right. “It was a delicate balance,” Ross explains. “Some of the first cuts that came back, they filled them in with music, and I was like, ‘No.’ It was losing the intimacy of some of these quiet, solitary moments.” Ross also notes that she travels with a skeleton crew to film the series. “I made a conscious decision not to use a stylist or hair and makeup. I was like, ‘That’s not how I travel. So it should look the way I travel.’ That was important to me,” she says. “And I found the show refreshing when I watched it.”
Safety and anxiety are barriers for many people who fear solo traveling, especially women. For Ross, safety is imperative, as is deciding what you want from your experience. “Once you determine that for yourself, you can figure out where that would be,” she says. “I like to remind people that you should ask yourself if there are parts of your identity that are the most empowered, beautiful parts of you, but perhaps might leave you vulnerable in other environments, whether that’s being LGBTQ, non-binary, a Black woman, differently abled, whatever those things are. And it might not even be those kinds of questions. It might be that I don’t like rain.”
Still, even with tons of preparation (and packing for any and all scenarios), Ross reminds us all that sometimes you can’t anticipate what might happen. For example, during her trip to Spain for episode 3, Ross had a horrific bout of food poisoning and was unable to film or even leave her hotel bed, but she wanted to keep the cameras rolling. “There was nothing I could do about it because we had a short window for shooting,” she says. “That was why I left that crying bit in. Because not only did I feel physically bad, but I felt like I was disappointing everybody. But that was what we had. And it was okay with me. We had to edit around the story because no one wants to hear the graphic behind-the-scenes. It was so fucking awful. Oh my God! But I felt it was important to leave in. It is part of what happens. Things don’t always go as planned.”
Solo traveling has also changed the way Ross views herself. Sprinkled throughout the series are gut-wrenchingly honest video diaries where Ross gets candid and emotional about loneliness and singleness. “What I love about how the show is resonating is the intention of the show,” she says. “It’s not about travel, but can you be yourself, by yourself, out in the world? Can you be who you are? It’s taken me years to discover who I am, then have the courage to be that person, and even more to live as that person. This show is an expression of living as that person. And it’s about knowing oneself, making choices that truly honor who you are and what you know about yourself. The fact that that’s what’s resonating — the sense of being responsible for your own happiness — is very moving to me.”
With fans so eager to voyage across the globe again with Ross in Season 2, she’s already considering where she’ll end up next. “When we did this season, I gave a long list of all the places I wanted to go, so there’s still a whole list of places,” she teases. “I have a dream list. I’d love to hear from other people and get new ideas. I want you to go to all the places, and we want to go along with you.”