By playing her tenacious character, Lisa Davis, in the popular navy drama, SEAL Team, Toni Trucks has learned that a requirement to be fit comes with the territory.
Here, in an interview with M&F, the talented actor talks about her journey through seven epic seasons of the show and how, with one mission coming to an end, it appears that another is just beginning. Having suffered with hearing loss since childhood, Trucks understands the debilitating effects that an undiagnosed audio deficiency can cause. So she’s set her crosshairs on raising awareness so that others can get the treatment they need faster than she did.
Toni Trucks appeared on NCIS: New Orleans and has broke through in movies like Dreamgirls, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2, and Music and Lyrics. Always up for a challenge, the star has never been afraid to push herself outside of her comfort zone. But signing on for SEAL Team was really something else.
“It was such an education for me,” she shares. “I didn’t have any working knowledge of the military.” Trucks explains that one of the coolest things about working on the show was gaining valuable behind-the-scenes advice from genuine Navy SEAL vets. “On top of their skill, one of the things that was really impactful to me was the surprising places that they find humor,” she explains. “Even in the darkest of times you have to kind of hang onto humanity. And so, what may seem not funny to a layman can breathe new life when you’re in a dark situation.”
Toni Trucks likes to stay true to her character
Still, even with the vets on set, impressing an eagle-eyed audience by holding a gun and trying to look legit on a television show is no mean feat. Trucks admits she was even once heckled for having her hair in a pony tail in the early days.
“Why don’t you comply with grooming standards,” she laughs, recalling a comment made by one irate viewer. “You can’t get away with anything. And on one hand it can be frustrating and, on the other hand, it really keeps us to be honest and keeps us on our toes. So, we’ve made that much more effort to really get it right. We haven’t always got it right. We’ve messed up a few times, but they let us know. I’d say our percentage is probably that we’ve got it wrong 5% of the time.”
No doubt, the cast and crew’s commitment has helped SEAL Team to be a runaway success, airing from 2017 to the final episode on October 6, 2024, but then all good things must come to an end. Trucks’ character, Lisa, started out as a Petty Officer, but was soon moved into more dangerous scenarios.
“Gosh, we’ve done everything,” she recalls. “I mean, you know, you’ve got the normal battle stuff. And then, I mean, there’s scenes where we’re like undercover and tackling people, and Axe throwing in one episode, randomly! It’s been kind of all over the map.”
Toni Trucks is Passionate about Pilates
What many television viewers may not know is that the dialogue in a show like SEAL Team can be just as cardio vascularly demanding as some of the physical work, since Trucks was often expected to verbalize long streams of technical dialogue. “In every script, the first five pages were just definitions that I had to memorize, and be able to speak as quickly as possible,” she shares. Fortunately, the actor’s love of Pilates has kept her breathing in good stead. “I came from a dance background,” says the star. “Although I love
being in the gym, and working out, I craved something that felt more akin to cardio. I wanted to find that energy and strength from a different angle. And, I find that with Pilates it’s such an internal ‘warming up’ that’s happening. I find myself feeling so stretchy, and really strong. You can get such long, lean muscles. I think many health professionals will tell you that tackling your own body strength is the key to your potential health span, right?” Indeed! Studies show that Pilates is also great for improving depression and anxiety.
Toni Trucks is Raises Awareness for the Hard of Hearing
Her mission may now be complete with SEAL Team, but Trucks is seriously committed a cause that is very close to her heart. The actor explains that she first began wearing hearing aids around a year ago, but has been suffering with a degrading ability to pick up sounds since childhood.
“I’ve known that I’ve had hearing loss, since I was probably 4 or 5, but I was always told by doctors to ‘come back when you’re 74,’ kind of vibe. Finally, I found myself in the company of a hearing specialist who was like; ‘No, we shouldn’t ignore that. That’s not good for your brain,’ So, when I realized that hearing health is actually firmly holding hands with my brain health, there was no hesitation, and for me wanting to treat it.”
Some figures say that two to three out of every 1,000 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears, but it is not an exact figure because so many cases go undiagnosed meaning that the true number is likely significantly higher. Approximately 15% of American adults go on to report trouble with their hearing. The key to timely treatment is for adults, parents, and kids to seek help.
“People talk about it like mild hearing loss, but you are two-times more likely to get dementia if untreated, and with severe losses it’s five times more likely, because we don’t just hear with our ears, we also hear with our brains,” explains Trucks, who wants everyone affected to experience the rush that comes from gaining a measure of their hearing back. “When I put on the hearing aids for the first time, I burst into tears,” she shares, explaining that many conditions are reversable, and hoping that by having more conversations about this invisible illness, more people will improve their life.
Toni Trucks also points out that the first steps to checking out your hearing can be as simple as taking an online hearing test or watching a video specifically for kids hearing. “And I’m serious, you go get those ears checked out!” she enthuses. No doubt, this is another mission that Toni Trucks is tacking head on.
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