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Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Hi.

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This is Sugar Steve from Questlove Supreme. This

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March, we're celebrating women's history at QLs,

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something that we've done for years. Back in March

0:12

of twenty twenty one, we spoke to Anika Noni

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Rose about her acting, singing and voice work.

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She discussed growing up in Connecticut, working

0:19

on Dream Girls, and landing a life changing

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audition for Disney's The Princess and the Frog.

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This is a powerful and sincere conversation

0:25

that is worthy of hearing, and I hope you enjoy

0:28

it.

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Oh, I didn't know you say it was up Hi

0:37

Ceo in the Corn's it.

0:40

That's funny. I thought I was visible for

0:42

about six minutes, and I was like, oh,

0:45

I'm just a blank square.

0:46

So we're just talking

0:48

about the salt and pepper Lifetime,

0:51

The salt Lifetime.

0:54

Deep Salt Pepper, Deep Salt

0:56

Pepper.

0:57

Did you watch it yet? Protect

1:00

Come on, brother, I was on time for that thing. Man's

1:07

thirty seconds. Thirty

1:10

seconds?

1:10

Okay, the salt and pepper story,

1:13

it was, I mean, it was cool for Lifetime.

1:16

I thought they cast salt real good pepper.

1:19

I wasn't really too convinced on Pepper. I

1:22

really was not convinced with Tretch. I

1:24

really liked the way they cast Herbie love

1:26

Bug and the twin although it

1:29

hasn't really been documented that Herbie love Bug

1:31

has a twin brother does have a he

1:34

has a brother. I don't know if it's his twin

1:36

brother, but Herbie, Herbie does have

1:38

a brother. It looked like it was the

1:41

lookalike was in his uh it

1:43

was in the he was in the shoot video. I want to say

1:45

his brother is was in the shoot

1:47

video. I can't remember which scene, but anyway,

1:50

Yeah, I mean it was

1:52

a little too long. I felt like it probably could have

1:54

been like two hours. I mean, you know, if it was

1:56

Jackson, it was hours

1:59

long.

1:59

It was three hours.

2:00

And mind you, let's contrast that with

2:02

the Jackson's story being four hours.

2:05

So that was

2:07

multiple movie nights.

2:08

Okay, yeah, the jack Nat was five

2:10

yes, yes, yeah.

2:11

So did

2:14

you learn anything about salt and pepper

2:16

at all? Not that you didn't know, but just anything

2:20

I didn't know that, uh, pepper

2:23

was not pepper. Salt had to eating

2:25

disorder.

2:26

They kind of they kind of hinted

2:28

it that, you know what I'm saying that was the new information,

2:31

but yeah, that was it, and you

2:34

know it was I watched that ship on a Sunday

2:36

afternoon of my couched Nigga.

2:37

Hey man, welcome

2:41

to the show.

2:43

Welcome to the show. So

2:47

yeah, this is Quest Love Supreme and uh

2:49

I'm yours quest though. That was that

2:52

was our cold open take a little hot

2:54

take on the Salt and Pepper

2:57

Lifetime movie.

3:00

Am as this episode airs in women's history

3:02

mo yeah yeah

3:04

yeah.

3:05

Anyway, so we have a sugar

3:07

Steve with us. I have a hell

3:10

we have unpaid bill and we

3:13

have Laya with us as well.

3:15

Our Esteem guest today, Great,

3:18

thanks for asking, but oh okay, how you doing, Steve?

3:20

Great? Okay, nice weather. I

3:23

like I like this sweater. It's it's a champion

3:25

hoodie. It's not a sweater. Okay,

3:27

Well they can't see you on the on on.

3:30

I mean it's a very expensive sweater,

3:32

Steve. Can I please introduce the guest anyway?

3:34

Our steam guest today is an amazing,

3:37

versatile, award winning actress

3:40

who stage credits range

3:42

from Carl Jones to Raising His Sun

3:45

to Eli's Coming Carolina Change,

3:47

which she won a Tony Award and her

3:49

TV credits so many

3:51

Ladies, Number One Detective Agency. She

3:54

played Wendy Carr, one of my favorite TV shows.

3:56

I missed The Good Wife so much, Like that's

3:59

one of my favorite shows ever,

4:01

and I wish we're still here, even though you know,

4:03

the the not the reboot,

4:05

but a good fight

4:08

is sort of okay, you know, but

4:10

anyway. We also can't forget her

4:12

role as a jukebox character

4:15

on everyone's favorite guilty Pleasure Power,

4:19

not to mention Little Fires Everywhere. She

4:21

also did The Quad and had a cool bucket

4:23

list check as a voice

4:25

on The Simpsons. Uh, not to mention her

4:27

movie credits are just his own

4:29

point. This past Christmas, she

4:32

started in Netflix's amazing

4:34

jingle Jangle The Christmas Journey,

4:37

which hopefully will last for

4:39

years and decades and decades and decades.

4:41

Christmas story.

4:42

Yeah, definitely, my all, my niece's nephews

4:45

enjoyed it. Not to mention, there's dream

4:47

Girls for colored girls only. And also

4:52

yes, she starred as Princess Tiana

4:54

as the first Black Princess and the

4:57

historical Princess and the Frog for

4:59

Disney. Incidentally, she

5:02

is the youngest inductee

5:04

dever be honored as a Disney legend.

5:06

I want to know what a Disney legend is and

5:09

do I qualify for my four

5:11

seconds? Now I'm playing Anyway, Ladies

5:13

and gentlemen, please welcome to our show. Oh

5:16

my fellow Academy a member. It's it's like

5:18

a secret society that only people know. Anyway,

5:21

Welcome to Coest Love Supreme, Anika

5:24

Noni Rose, thank you, thank you

5:26

for coming.

5:27

Thank you.

5:28

I wanted to ask, how how have you made out

5:31

in the past year. You know this,

5:34

this this year has been difficult

5:36

on a lot of people, and it's been an

5:39

adjustment for artists in all

5:41

mediums like and for singers, for

5:44

you know, actors, and for

5:46

pretty much anyone in the arts is it's been

5:48

an adjustment. So how have you

5:52

been adjusting to the past year

5:54

or so?

5:55

I the past year was rough.

5:58

It was it was a rough year, you

6:00

know, And then you sort of feel funny

6:03

even saying that, because it's been rough for everybody,

6:06

like heavy, for everybody

6:09

in lieu of work. I've been

6:12

really lucky because I'm

6:14

a voiceover artist. So even

6:17

when I can't do something

6:20

where you see me on a set, I can still do

6:22

voiceover work. So that's a blessing,

6:24

you know, to be able to do that. And

6:26

I've started doing

6:29

some film work as well, which

6:32

was weird and still feels weird

6:35

to be on a set because I still sort of feel

6:37

like, don't be that close to me. So

6:39

professionally, I would have to say

6:42

that I've been I've been pretty

6:44

lucky in that respect, you

6:46

know. Personally, it's

6:50

taken some adjusting

6:53

too. It's been wild.

6:56

It's been a frightening year. It's been

6:58

a year full of really

7:01

intense anger. If

7:06

there is an emotion on the emotional scale,

7:08

I don't think that we've been

7:10

saved from it this year. I think we've done

7:13

that whole circle. So,

7:16

you know, I'm grateful to be healthy, especially

7:18

as an asthmatic. I'm very grateful to be healthy.

7:21

I'm grateful that my family wasn't

7:24

touched as often

7:27

as some people have been by

7:29

COVID and that type of loss.

7:31

But I've lost friends and I've lost family, and

7:34

it's been a really shit year. To

7:36

be perfectly honest.

7:39

No, we welcome that honesty, you know.

7:41

You know, I'm grateful

7:44

for the possibility

7:47

of change and we'll see, you know, how

7:50

just how much people are able to do. But

7:53

you know, January twentieth, when

7:55

everybody finally got inside and the doors were

7:58

locked and the cameras were gone, I felt like I could

8:00

breathe a little bit. I just wanted everybody to go inside.

8:02

I was like, this is great, can you now go inside?

8:05

Everyone, everybody.

8:08

I want Mama inside, I want to step

8:10

children inside. I want everybody inside. So

8:14

I was really I felt like

8:18

it felt like at the end of the move of a movie,

8:20

like a movie shoot when I've been wearing a corset

8:22

and I have to take that course and get to take that courset

8:25

off for the last day. It felt like

8:27

I have been wearing a corset for

8:29

four years and I finally

8:31

got to take that thing off and get a

8:33

deep breath in. I

8:36

felt like I could just breathe a little bit.

8:38

That is a very great metaphor. We've

8:41

all been wearing spanks for the last four years.

8:46

West trainers.

8:49

Waist trains and on

8:54

Bill and the face like, I was like,

8:56

do we have to translate this for you?

8:58

Like no, no, no, I'm hyptop

9:01

type clothing.

9:02

You know, I

9:05

admire you for, you know, the transparency

9:07

and the honest honesty about

9:09

it because you know, this has

9:12

been a hard adjustment this past year, and

9:14

for a lot of us, this forced

9:17

us to deal with ourselves

9:20

and to deal with the people in

9:22

our lives, like to really get to know them. I mean,

9:24

if you're quarantining alone or with the partner,

9:27

your children or your family members and that sort

9:29

of thing. So this was an adjustment

9:32

for you know, a

9:34

lot of us, and you know, a lot of us didn't didn't

9:37

make it, you know, through the past year

9:39

wiser or you know, I know a lot of people

9:42

that are in this field that

9:44

have given into to

9:46

panic and fear and that sort of thing. And

9:48

sort of what three divorces going on right now?

9:50

Like three's going through divorces?

9:53

Yeah wow, yeah, you

9:55

know, I hope for you that you know, it was at least

9:57

a lesson. But for the voiceover

10:00

work, was it more of a pivot for you? Or was

10:02

it what you were always doing or

10:05

was it something new that you weren't exactly

10:08

prepared to make, you know, something

10:10

as serious as far as your career is concerned.

10:14

It's something that I've always been doing and

10:16

that I really enjoy doing,

10:19

and then it became something

10:21

that I was also really really grateful to

10:24

be able to do you

10:26

know, outside of just saying, oh yeah, I

10:29

get to do voiceover. I'm a voiceover artist.

10:31

That's fun and I'm glad to do that. It became

10:33

something to be really grateful for during

10:35

this past year.

10:37

Can I has what experience does that entail?

10:40

I took one hand. I

10:42

did one time of trying to do voiceover

10:45

work, and you know, I kind

10:47

of I'll say I was unprepared.

10:49

It was like an American Express card and I realized

10:51

that like the inflections that you have to have and you

10:54

know, read things sustinctly, so

10:57

I well like.

11:00

What I do a little bit too. I would.

11:07

Not like.

11:09

What what does good voice over

11:12

work entail? As far as having to I

11:16

assume that if you get called back, that means you're good

11:18

enough to to work again.

11:21

So you know, it's different. It's different

11:23

for depending on what type

11:25

of voiceover you're doing. Like if you're doing a

11:28

commercial and they call

11:30

you to be your voice because

11:32

your voice is because you know you

11:35

are questlove. They just want to hear

11:37

your voice. So there's some things

11:39

that you don't have to worry about. You don't have to create a

11:41

character, but you still have

11:44

to read whatever

11:46

it is that they've given you in a way

11:48

that gets the whatever

11:51

emotional tone that they want, how

11:54

does it push their product the best way.

11:57

So in that respect, you know you have

11:59

to be ready for that. If you're doing

12:01

a character, they're looking for actors

12:04

most of the time, unless, of course, you're being

12:06

called in to be yourself. They're still looking for you

12:09

to be an actor, but you still get to be

12:11

yourself, which takes

12:13

a little bit of that onus off of

12:15

you. But I would say if they're looking

12:17

for a character, if you're talking about a cartoon

12:20

or an animated feature, or

12:23

even a voice over for a

12:25

feature film, there's acting

12:28

involved because you need to know how

12:30

to put forth the emotion

12:33

the information that they

12:35

need to have. And I think that what

12:38

trips people up is that they think, oh,

12:41

oh well, let's just I'm just going there and talk.

12:44

It's gonna be fine. And it's

12:48

a lot more than that. And it's also tiresome

12:52

because if you are doing a whole feature

12:55

or something like that, they may

12:57

want you to lay that whole thing down in one day

13:00

and by the time you're done, you're like, thanks,

13:02

that was that was really nice.

13:06

And it's also very competitive too, because

13:09

unlike in some ways, even more so

13:12

than acting, because we're acting, you can

13:14

kind of age out of.

13:15

A role, so to speak.

13:16

But in voice acting, I mean,

13:18

hell, Nancy Cartwright been playing Bart

13:20

Simpson for thirty years, you.

13:22

Know what I'm saying.

13:24

So once you get in those roles, you kind of stay

13:26

there, and if you're there, you.

13:28

Can stay there. But it is extraordinarily

13:31

competitive. It is becoming

13:34

more different by the day and

13:37

more competitive by the day because it's becoming more

13:39

compartmentalized by the day as

13:42

well. So it's very interesting

13:44

watching the shift. But

13:47

to be able to be on The Simpsons was

13:49

so much fun and I got to be so silly,

13:52

and anytime I get to be silly, I am

13:54

very happy. And you

13:56

know, Princess Gianna was a huge, huge

13:58

honor. But I love doing voiceover for me.

14:01

I love being able to create a character. I

14:04

love when somebody listens to something and

14:06

they don't realize it's me, or

14:08

they figure it out real late. That that

14:11

gives me a kick, Like I feel real honored

14:13

when that happens, and that's exciting to

14:15

me.

14:16

And that's the difference. That's what Creed Summer taught us.

14:18

Y'all remember like that is why Anika

14:21

is in the cree tribe of things where you can't

14:23

tell them, where you can do all kinds of different

14:25

characters and whatnot. But then there's just the

14:27

voice over a voice over artists, which

14:29

is sometimes like you said, just direct what you're.

14:31

Talking about a commercial where they're like, hey,

14:33

we want to know who this person is because

14:36

they want to sell their project product

14:39

on that person's voice. And look,

14:41

trust if Nike

14:45

or Apple or any of those people want to be like

14:48

Ana, it would be great to I'll

14:50

be there before they finish the sentence. I'll be

14:52

right there, right

14:55

there, direct deposit form in hand.

14:58

Yes, I

15:00

wish I knew that ahead

15:02

of time, because I think I came there prepared

15:05

to do like my dom Pardo

15:08

uh impression. Then

15:12

when I when I asked my manager, like, so

15:14

what they think, They're like, they're going to roll with da da da

15:16

da, I was like, where I mess up? And they were like, they just wanted

15:18

you to sound like you were mere. And I was like, oh, you

15:21

know, I was talking like this the whole time and no, no,

15:23

no, no, So now now now

15:25

I know that, Okay, Yeah, but there would.

15:27

Be another chance for you because your quest love

15:29

and they see you on TV all

15:32

the time and you

15:34

are distinctive and now you know,

15:37

well common can.

15:38

Sell a I I think you can say

15:44

okay, okay, okay, all right,

15:46

because because you have uh

15:49

kind of both feet in all

15:52

of these uh areas of acting?

15:55

Is it one? Is it? Is it highly unusual

15:58

to not just concentrate on one

16:01

particular medium like strictly

16:04

television or the Broadway

16:06

stage or movies

16:09

like are you just one of those supernatural

16:12

people that will just take whatever comes

16:14

your way? Or you know? Or

16:17

is it highly unusual for a person

16:19

in the acting feeld to sort

16:21

of stretch out to all three different

16:24

arenas. I'm sure there's more than three, but I know

16:26

TV, right.

16:28

And I think that when

16:31

you can do that, you're lucky to be able

16:33

to do that. So I think that,

16:35

you know, and let me not say that it's just luck,

16:38

because somebody is going to be like, oh, excuse me, ma'am.

16:40

You know, there's a lot of training involved, there's a lot

16:42

of work involved to be

16:46

the actor or performer

16:48

that I am. And I've

16:52

been lucky for

16:54

the time that I've been

16:56

here, that I was here at the perfect time to

16:58

be able to be in the running

17:01

to be Princess Tiana, because five years

17:03

beforehand or two years beforehand, two

17:05

years afterwards could it wouldn't

17:07

have been me, you know. But also

17:11

there is an adjustment

17:13

of your craft depending

17:17

on what you're doing. You're not doing

17:19

the same thing on stage necessarily

17:22

that you're going to be doing on film that you're going to

17:24

be doing on television. And

17:26

it's not something that I can be clear about,

17:28

but there are tiny adjustments. And

17:31

there are some people for whom they're

17:33

amazing on film and

17:36

they get on stage and you're like what. And

17:39

there are some people who are on stage

17:41

and you're like, I've never seen anything like it,

17:44

and they get on film you're like oh, and

17:47

you know, so there are there's

17:49

a translation that happens. And

17:52

if you are somebody who is able

17:55

to translate to different

17:57

mediums, well, it

18:00

is again a blessing. It's the work

18:02

that you've done, but it's also you know,

18:04

you're lucky to be able to do that, because there are people

18:06

for whom they are magnificent actors

18:09

in either realm, but they get on screen

18:13

and your face looks funny and you don't know why

18:15

your face looks funny because your face looks great

18:17

in person, but the screen

18:20

will change your face, Like you get up there

18:22

and you're like, wait a minute, why does my eye look

18:24

so high on that side? Those

18:27

things happen on screen, So the

18:29

reasons that people don't make

18:31

it on screen aren't always about

18:34

their talent per se. There's

18:37

always something that can make it not work

18:39

for you. So I'm glad to be able

18:41

to do all three things. And it was a plan for

18:44

me to be able to do all three things because

18:46

I like to do all three things and I'm somebody

18:48

who I get tired of doing

18:50

the same thing over and over, Like

18:52

it's important to me to be able

18:55

to stretch out and try something different

18:57

and be in a different space because I get

18:59

ant see and I want

19:02

to be able to challenge myself. And basically,

19:05

anytime you see me doing something different,

19:07

it's because I was like, yeah,

19:10

I want to try that.

19:12

Let me see if I can do that well, and

19:14

I jump in which one edges

19:16

out more like what do you prefer? Do you prefer

19:19

the stage? TV

19:22

or movies?

19:25

I what was the last or

19:28

or movie or movie?

19:30

But then again there's also voiceover so I mean

19:32

it's like.

19:33

For I love stage,

19:36

and you know why, you know that feeling

19:38

being on stage, live in front of people, and

19:42

the challenge that it is to yourself every

19:45

time you're on a stage, how

19:47

much better it makes you having to do

19:49

that, wanting.

19:50

To do it.

19:52

I love stage and I love film, and that's

19:54

a different type of challenge, and

19:57

it's also finite, which is sort

19:59

of level. But on stage you have more

20:01

control over what you're doing, over the performance

20:04

that you're giving. And I

20:07

really feel like stage is the place

20:09

where I sharpen

20:12

my pencil, where I hone my skill, so

20:14

that when I step out to do something else,

20:18

I know that I have grown

20:20

a new limb from the time that I spent live

20:24

on stage.

20:25

Oh, I was gonna ask, have you ever given any consideration

20:28

that thought about like singing, like making the

20:31

nikoonni Rolls album?

20:32

Like is that a is that a

20:34

dream of fashion of yours?

20:36

I love to sing.

20:37

I have.

20:39

An album that I've been wanting to do for several

20:42

years and I just don't

20:44

quite know how to do it. And then I have a

20:47

different musical project that

20:49

I'm actually in the works

20:51

of planning now. So

20:54

yes, I love singing and I

20:58

don't know. And I think probably even

21:00

when I started, when I started as

21:02

a performer, I wanted to be I

21:04

wanted to be like

21:06

a Grammy winner. I said, by the time I was

21:09

twenty one, I want to grabby That's

21:11

what I wanted to do. That's what I didn't know that I

21:13

wanted to be an actor, and that feeling

21:16

came later. And then I've

21:18

just been really really focused on this part

21:21

of my career and I think that it is

21:25

it is a loss to me inside

21:27

of me to not sing as

21:30

much as I used to, even and definitely

21:33

that is in my plans.

21:35

I just have to some things I need to figure

21:37

out. That's a help I need.

21:39

I need some help which a genre of passion.

21:44

That's probably part of the problem. I just

21:46

love to say. So

21:50

I need to focus, you know. And I have a

21:52

focus on something I did. I

21:55

did a concert series a few,

21:58

oh god, several years ago now very bad

22:00

at time, and it was a tribute

22:02

to my grandmother.

22:06

And I would like to turn that into

22:09

an album. And I always wanted to do some sort

22:11

of like poppy thing, some

22:14

sort of pop R and B. I

22:16

love rock. I would love to put out a rock

22:18

song, so like I'm

22:21

not, I don't feel like, oh well, I would only do

22:24

you know what I mean?

22:25

Because you have a song out now right that's really

22:28

popular from the Jingle Jangle down here.

22:30

Yes, and John

22:32

Legend wrote this song. It's called Make It Work, and

22:35

it is such a brilliant

22:38

piece of writing. And

22:40

he is so interesting because his

22:43

soul, I think, is one hundred and two

22:46

years old and right

22:52

he puts all of that into his music.

22:54

So what Make It Work gave me

22:57

was R and B and

22:59

got bull and a henta pop

23:02

and a tap of rock all up

23:05

in one thing. And it

23:07

gave me intense musical

23:10

joy to be able to sing it. I

23:12

love it so deeply. And it was

23:15

so smart with

23:17

regard to the movie because it

23:19

was talking about many different things. It was talking

23:21

about making the relationship work between me

23:24

and my dad, but it was also talking

23:26

about him making his creation

23:28

work and making his life work again.

23:32

And what John managed

23:34

to do in the music is

23:39

he has a work song in there, like

23:41

an actual work song from

23:44

time in the Fields. You can feel

23:46

it in the bass and the movement of

23:48

that song, and it talks

23:51

to you in a way that

23:53

I don't know if people realize they're being

23:55

spoken to. It comes from the

23:57

inside. And you know, music moves

24:00

you in wavelengths

24:03

because your body moves on

24:06

wavelengths. So when people are like, oh,

24:08

I hate a musical, but then they go to a

24:10

musical and they're like, god, I kind of even amazing.

24:14

They've got caught because

24:16

of what the music has done to your body

24:18

and the wavelengths that your body moves on. And when music

24:20

is really good, it seeps

24:23

into your body that way. And I think

24:25

that that's part of what he

24:28

created with that song having

24:30

written it, and it was my great joy to

24:32

be able to come in and partner with him and

24:35

take it to the next place

24:38

of that vocally. It was

24:40

an amazing experience for me, and I loved it.

24:43

I wanted to know what before you said

24:46

that, you know, the stage

24:48

is what caused you more of all the avenues

24:51

that you can do your

24:54

craft. I wanted to know that,

24:56

even it's weird that that's

24:58

your choice, even though like a thing. Think a lot

25:00

of times stage

25:02

actors get not dismissed,

25:05

but I mean there's really no glamour

25:07

or glory in it so

25:10

much. You know, like the baccolades

25:13

that a movie actor or a television

25:17

actor would get this hardly,

25:20

you know, extended to the

25:22

Broadway world, and at

25:24

that there's so much pressure because you kind

25:27

of have to deliver out the park every night,

25:29

Like there's no such thing as

25:31

a bad night or one

25:33

false newe you know, especially

25:36

with musicals, Like how hard is it to preserve

25:39

your like and basically

25:42

to hit it out the park every

25:44

night when you're on stage, Like how

25:47

much pressure is that?

25:49

Musicals are particularly exhausting, but

25:53

it's also life giving,

25:55

Like you leave the stage, you finish your

25:57

show. For me, it takes

26:00

hours for me to become tired. I

26:02

am so high when I leave the stage,

26:05

you know, like my energy is moving. And

26:09

I get home, I make something to eat, and I talk on the

26:11

phone or read

26:13

something. I'm up for hours. It takes me hours to

26:15

fall asleep because of the energy coursing

26:18

through my body. But it's exhausting,

26:20

and it takes an extraordinary

26:22

amount of discipline, which I don't

26:25

I don't know that people who haven't

26:27

done it realize that, which

26:30

is why it sometimes conquers people who haven't

26:33

done it and are like, yeah, let's do that, and then they're

26:35

like, oh my god, it's show number four. I'm about

26:37

to die because it's

26:39

a murderer like that if you don't know

26:42

how to pace yourself for it. So depending

26:45

on what you're doing, Like for me, if I'm doing a musical,

26:48

I want nine hours of sleep period.

26:51

I don't want to talk to people about it. I don't don't

26:53

call me in no single digit am. No,

26:56

I'm not trying to get up to do nothing with you.

26:59

No, we're not going one out at night because

27:01

I have to make sure

27:03

that somebody one hundred and fifty dollars or

27:05

however much they spent is worthwhile

27:08

when they come to that stage. And

27:10

it's that's my job. And

27:14

I take too much pride in what I do to

27:17

ruin it by being out at a bar

27:19

or out doing whatever. And look, some people can do

27:21

that. I can't. I'm speaking about it.

27:25

The show is done, and no,

27:27

I.

27:27

May go out to get something to eat, but what you will not

27:30

see me do is talk.

27:35

Done.

27:36

I'll be at a restaurant eating, But

27:38

if I'm talking to somebody, I'm talking in their

27:41

ear, like I'm in their ear right

27:43

here, real quiet, because you're

27:46

going to I'm gonna lose my voice trying

27:48

to speak over the din of a restaurant. You

27:50

stress your voice so badly that

27:52

the next day your voice is tired,

27:54

not from the show you did, from the talking

27:57

you did after. So I

27:59

am really I go home most

28:02

of the time, and I

28:04

drink an extraordinary

28:06

amount of water. I probably drink about two

28:10

leaders of water a day, no

28:13

less, to make sure everything

28:15

is moving. I

28:18

eat it super properly and well,

28:21

because I can't afford to be sick at

28:24

all.

28:24

You're vegan, no dairy.

28:26

I am not vegan. I would

28:29

like to be that person, but that's where my discipline

28:31

doesn't quite get that far. I

28:34

need a piece of meat, you

28:37

know, and not every day, but I need some meat or I'm

28:39

cranky and tired. But

28:43

I do you know, I cut

28:45

back on I don't eat a whole lot of fried

28:48

stuff. I don't eat a whole lot of spicy stuff.

28:51

I don't eat a whole lot of heavy,

28:53

heavy stuff. Why because those

28:55

are the things that get on your body and say, ooh you've

28:57

had fun, you ate really well, how about some reflux

29:00

for tomorrow. So those

29:03

are all things that I'm thinking

29:05

about when I'm

29:07

performing and somebody is going to be like, Oh,

29:09

you don't have to do all that. I never had to do all it.

29:12

I do this, I do that. That's great for them,

29:14

and I wish I was that person. But for me,

29:16

it involves a whole lot of discipline, and

29:19

I'm not bitter about it because it's the thing

29:21

that I love to do, so it always feels

29:23

worth it.

29:24

That's weird to hear because the

29:27

time that I was involved with the cast

29:29

of Faila, they would go super

29:34

hard, like every.

29:36

Night, like that's like a thing

29:39

and a star thing. I think like you

29:41

get to a certain age, you can't party that hard when you're

29:44

like, you know, a lot of the ensemble kids

29:46

don't feel like they need to save

29:48

the voice as much as the word stopped

29:50

you right there.

29:51

Bill Present

29:55

said something that I'm a

30:00

now I can understand why you

30:02

wouldn't have to you

30:07

about to be muted.

30:14

Canceled.

30:16

I have never This has always

30:18

been the way that I approached my job. It's my

30:20

job and I and you

30:23

know, FELA was an amazing

30:25

show with amazing artists

30:28

in it. Also

30:31

a dance heavy show. I don't

30:34

think it was as vocally heavy as it

30:36

was dance heavy, and it's

30:38

a different type of singing because it's

30:40

also choral singing. So everybody

30:43

singing except for uh,

30:46

what was his name, Sasha

30:48

Sar who was Chef's

30:52

Kiss magnificent. So it's

30:54

choral singing, so you have a whole lot of voices that

30:56

can fill that thing out. And

30:58

if and again let me make this clear,

31:01

no shade whatsoever. But if one choral

31:03

person is singing at

31:06

level six or seven on

31:09

a Tuesday night, the

31:11

audience isn't going to know that one choral person

31:14

is singing at six or seven unless

31:17

that person has a solo. So

31:19

when you're in a show that you can do choral work,

31:22

I think you have a little more space. You

31:27

can lean on that day what you said.

31:30

The person.

31:32

That is next to you in a different

31:34

way. But if

31:37

Sar would go out drinking

31:40

every single night, Sar, I'm gonna

31:42

have a different show the next day,

31:45

you know what I mean? And

31:47

he was, oh god, they were magnificent in that

31:49

show.

31:54

Wait, speaking of Bill good,

32:00

well, now he's canceled build instead of yeah,

32:05

wait a minute, because Ninka,

32:07

I was looking on your your

32:09

credits and I saw Hamilton

32:11

there. Explain this to

32:13

me when when was your run

32:16

with this? Because I didn't do a run.

32:19

I helped workshop Hamilton.

32:21

Ah, So I did

32:25

the original table like the the

32:27

last not the last

32:30

workshop, but the second to last workshop

32:32

to Hamilton.

32:33

We did a workshop up at Vassar at

32:35

New York Station Film, which was amazing,

32:40

and then I did A

32:42

Raisin in the Sun and

32:46

I couldn't really do anything

32:48

while I was doing A Raisin in the Sun because it was

32:51

a three hour tour and

32:56

I was it was just a really

32:58

busy and heavy show and dramatic,

33:01

and I didn't have a lot of space to do

33:03

other things while that was happening. They were still

33:05

doing work another workshop for it after

33:08

that, and they

33:10

got the lovely Renee Goldsbery

33:13

and she ended up being blessed

33:16

with the role. But that's how those things happened,

33:18

you know what I mean. Like sometimes sometimes.

33:22

Bill, I was I was not at that. I thought

33:24

you were going to bring up being on the Sesame Street

33:26

float, which is what you and Anica

33:28

have in common other than many other things.

33:30

No, but I mean she when I read

33:33

that she was in the initial Hamilton

33:35

thing, I was like, wait a minute, Bill, that's that's your

33:37

whole world I did.

33:39

I didn't know that I wasn't. I wasn't there

33:41

during that, but I know that Anica was the

33:43

first Angelica many many moons ago.

33:46

Wow. Oh okay, yeah, okay. I was just confused

33:48

because when I read that, I was like, wait a minute, I could.

33:50

Have sworn it was to make a record a

33:52

mirror, and she was not there when we made that record,

33:55

and that's the thing.

33:55

I was like, wait, was I in ruined?

33:59

It was so crazy? Is that Renee

34:01

and I actually did the

34:04

good fun together? And

34:06

she is so amazing and

34:09

beautiful and fantastic. And

34:12

to watch her, you know, step

34:14

up there and get that Tony and give that

34:16

beautiful speech afterwards. I was

34:18

so happy for her because

34:21

she is such a good person as

34:23

well as being you know, stupendously

34:25

talented and not too painful

34:28

on the eye. She's

34:30

she's a lovely human being. So, you

34:33

know, sometimes you lose out

34:36

on a role as somebody, and with

34:39

no rationality at all, you're sitting

34:41

at home mad at the person. It

34:44

has nothing to do with that person and

34:47

you, but you have a little mad you home,

34:49

sending them to no mad cussing

34:51

under your breath. But she is somebody

34:54

for whom you really can't

34:56

begrudge anything. She's so good at what

34:58

she does. She's such a lo person. She is,

35:03

She's really a blessing. So I

35:05

was really really happy for her. Does that mean

35:07

I was not sad that I

35:09

didn't get to do it now, But

35:11

it does mean I had a great time

35:14

when I did do it, and I was happy that

35:16

the person who ended up getting to do it was

35:19

somebody really beautifully

35:22

fitted to what it was.

35:24

Oh nice, I mean you wanted Tony

35:26

previously for Carolina Cheams.

35:28

What was that like to I

35:31

believe that that world is very not

35:34

unpenetrable, but just very hard

35:36

to get a seat at

35:38

the table, just based on my limited

35:41

experience of being

35:43

in that world, So I mean, what did it

35:45

feel like to get the acknowledgment?

35:46

At least it was one of the

35:49

most amazing moments of my

35:51

career because it

35:53

was the last thing that I expected. I

35:56

just had no idea that that was what was

35:59

going on to come from that role. And even

36:03

when at the time people were like, oh, we're

36:05

coming to see your show, I was like, well, it's not really

36:07

my show. I come in at this point in time, but come

36:10

to see the show, because the show is amazing and everybody

36:12

was phenomenal in it. I was

36:14

stunned when I got nominated

36:17

and then when I won, I

36:21

I if you ever get

36:23

to see that video, Like my head dropped,

36:25

Like they said my name, they

36:27

said my first name. I didn't even hear

36:30

my middle name. My head went down. And

36:34

then I was just focused on not tripping.

36:36

As I got to the stage, Everyone's

36:39

like, don't fall, don't fall.

36:40

There's a lot of wires.

36:44

Don't tell you that on the

36:46

heel.

36:47

And you haven't eaten for six hours

36:51

freezing because yeah,

36:55

and you're not trying to drink nothing because your dress

36:57

is fitted and you're not trying to have come

37:00

up put a pinch, so all

37:03

those things. But I did have

37:05

a lunar bar in my purse. Oh

37:08

I always have a snack. I'm the one a snack

37:10

because otherwise I'm cranky.

37:12

So you established

37:14

that you're angry, Like.

37:25

But my friend, my friends like,

37:28

NA, we're just going to carry some snacks for

37:30

you because you don't

37:33

really know how to act after a certain

37:35

impoortant time. And I was like, no, but

37:39

I can't even deny that. So I

37:41

had snacks but you know, what was

37:43

amazing to me was that

37:46

it was a collection of my peers

37:50

who said, you, you

37:54

did something that stands out

37:56

that is worthy of recognition.

38:00

And I looked out into Radio City Music Hall

38:02

and the people in the balcony.

38:04

I could see them barely, but

38:07

I could see them like they stood, and

38:10

I could hear. At some point my hearing came

38:12

back, like I got to the stage and then I could hear this

38:14

wave of applause and I could see the

38:19

Oh, the woman who wrote the music, Jantia Sorri,

38:21

was climbing over somebody else to grab

38:23

them. While it was happening, my brother

38:26

was in the audience, my grandmother

38:28

was there, and both of my parents,

38:31

and I think I

38:33

was so very moved and

38:36

full, and I think that

38:39

you know those times when you just have no idea,

38:42

like I didn't even know when nominations came out,

38:44

and I try not to know because I feel like it's stress.

38:46

Live. I don't need that stress. You

38:48

know, it's so rare that we're in a

38:50

position where we were nominated

38:52

for something and then go ahead and get it. That's

38:54

something else, So I don't need to be thinking about

38:57

Oh, April second is blah

38:59

blah. That's stress you don't need, so I just

39:01

go on about my life. But I had

39:03

zero idea that

39:06

that was going to happen. And it was phenomenal.

39:09

It was phenomenal, that feeling, and

39:12

it led to me being

39:14

in Dreamgirls because Bill Condon saw Carolina

39:17

change and then he came back and saw me in

39:20

Pearly and that's how I got

39:22

to audition for Dreamgirls.

39:24

Like it

39:27

was an audition.

39:29

The audition it was. It

39:31

was interesting because I was such a knucklehead

39:34

and I was so new. They

39:36

had asked me to audition,

39:40

and I said, well, you know, I'm

39:42

actually supposed to perform at the Library of Congress

39:45

and I told him that I would and I can't pull out

39:47

of that because you know, it's a performance

39:50

that I said I would do, and so

39:52

let me know when you have a second round of auditions.

39:57

That could have gone so wrong. So

40:00

they did. They did let me know, and

40:03

they were like, but now we're in Los Angeles,

40:06

and I said, well, I'm

40:09

guess I'm gonna fly myself to Los Angeles. And

40:11

that's not something that I do regularly. I really

40:14

generally feel like if somebody really, really

40:16

wants you in something, a company

40:19

they'll send for you. Yeah, but

40:22

if you really really really

40:24

want something and you have

40:27

to decide what that thing is, then

40:29

then bring yourself and go get

40:32

it. And my point of view was I'm coming to get

40:34

this. So

40:36

I flew myself out. I did an audition. It was

40:38

a great audition. It was months

40:41

before I heard from them, like it must

40:44

have been three months I think it was.

40:47

And then they wanted me to come to a callback and they

40:49

flew me out for the callback and there

40:51

was a limo that met me at the airport.

40:53

And I was like, what, I didn't

40:55

notice really happy by

40:57

this time? Where were they in the casting process?

41:00

Like had some people been casting and some hadn't, or

41:02

like where were they by the time you got I wish that I.

41:04

Could tell you, But you know what I

41:07

was concerned about myself,

41:10

Eddie Murphy, you know already

41:15

in there. I think they were already there from

41:17

the beginning, but we weren't auditioning

41:19

with them, and they

41:22

were still trying to figure out who the girls were

41:24

going to be together.

41:26

You know.

41:27

And there are so many reasons why I may not have

41:29

gotten that job. I'm short, I am

41:31

five two and a half Beyonce,

41:34

I think it's five six. Jennifer

41:36

is five and nine. You

41:38

might not have seen me on screen, so

41:42

it was you know, it was

41:44

me and five and literally five and a half

41:47

inch heels through that entire movie, so

41:49

that we could all be on screen together. And

41:51

those are some of the things that people don't know happened.

41:54

When you're casting something. You

41:57

got the Lollipop Guild me to

42:01

say so anyway, so

42:03

I went, they flew me out, and

42:05

I auditioned again, and I sang ain't

42:07

no Party live and

42:10

with no music, and and

42:12

then it was like another three months and.

42:16

And I was like, well, you know, you start three

42:20

months waiting, like how are you supporting yoursel are you still

42:22

working as an actress like making money

42:24

and stuff?

42:25

You know what, I've been very lucky that I've

42:27

never done anything else with this. I've never waited

42:29

at a table. I've only done this.

42:33

Straight from school.

42:34

And I'm.

42:37

Grateful for that because I've

42:39

seen people at restaurants, you

42:49

know, people come in getting real entitled about

42:51

their medium, well Hamburgers. So I'm

42:56

grateful for that. And I have a lot of respect for

42:58

the people who can deal with the public feeling

43:01

special about their Hairburger.

43:05

So I've never had to do anything else, but I

43:07

have been broke, and at

43:10

that time, I really wasn't having

43:13

much money flow coming in because

43:15

I didn't have a stage job in that moment,

43:18

and I remember, but

43:20

I still had to get my hair done because

43:23

your hair is your face, so you have an

43:25

audition, your hair need to be right.

43:27

So I was getting

43:29

my hair done. I was under a hair dryer and

43:32

my phone rang and my agent was trying to talk

43:34

to me, and I was like, what.

43:35

I can't hear, I

43:39

can't. You gotta be calling you.

43:42

So I got out from under the dryer and

43:44

called this person back and they told

43:46

me that I had gotten the role.

43:50

And I was sitting in the hair hairdresser,

43:53

tears running down my face because

43:56

I wanted it so badly and I

43:59

felt like it was for me like I

44:01

felt it in that moment. Sometimes

44:03

you're wrong, though, and

44:06

I was so thrilled that

44:08

this was the next thing that I was going

44:11

to do because I knew that music and I knew that

44:13

show really well. And

44:16

then Anthony Manguela, who

44:18

did the Number one Ladies Detective Agency,

44:21

saw me and Dreamgirls called

44:23

Bill Condon to ask what kind

44:25

of person I was, and that's how I got the audition

44:28

for Number one Ladies. So

44:31

everything is sort of connected.

44:32

I see, I want

44:34

to know. I know that you worked

44:38

with the great Debbie Allen. She's

44:42

one of our bucket list hopefuls

44:46

for this show. What

44:49

was it like working under her

44:52

direction for Kat

44:54

on a high ten roof? First

44:57

it was this all black version of it, which is unusual.

45:00

Like, what was it like? And also with James

45:03

L. Jones was in that book, right, Yes

45:05

he was.

45:05

That was my big daddy, and

45:08

Felicia was, Yeah

45:12

it was. It was great

45:14

working with her because you're working with somebody

45:16

who knows the stage like the back of

45:18

her hand. You're

45:21

working with someone who has no pretense. You're

45:25

working with someone who will occasionally pull your hair

45:27

to make a point. And

45:32

I love her. I love her deeply.

45:36

And the fact that she came

45:39

to me with that role was

45:42

I mean, it's something I never thought I would do, not

45:45

because I didn't think I was able to do it. I just

45:47

never thought that I would be considered for

45:50

that role. I mean, you're talking about

45:53

a sacred cow Tennessee Williams, who

45:56

would have ever thought a black Maggie would

45:58

grace a stage.

45:59

And that's the role Elizabeth Taylor played

46:01

correct.

46:03

Yes, And I loved that play

46:05

and I loved those words, and

46:08

I loved that woman, Maggie. She's

46:10

an amazing and tortured soul.

46:14

And Debbie said, you know, would you like to

46:16

do this? And I said absolutely. And I will

46:18

really be grateful to her forever for giving

46:20

me that opportunity to stretch

46:23

myself like that and to be an

46:25

adult, like a full blonde

46:28

woman on stage, which

46:30

until that point I had not

46:33

really done. I was playing kids

46:36

most of the time and really young people, and this

46:38

was somebody who all

46:41

the youth had been sort of sucked out of her.

46:44

She was and she was a woman, and

46:46

she traveled the world

46:48

in womanhood before she was even a woman.

46:51

So this was something that it was perfect in my

46:53

life space because I

46:55

had known disappointment at that point in time,

46:57

and I had known pain, hurt,

47:00

and Debbie knew, she knew

47:03

that peace, and she knew that stage,

47:05

and she just she just set

47:07

me free in that space. I and I'm

47:10

really, really to this day very grateful

47:12

for her. And she's somebody you can laugh with,

47:15

but also who has done her homework

47:17

and you know that you can have an

47:19

in depth and fruitful

47:21

conversation about the art of it with

47:24

her.

47:25

So okay, one question I had for

47:27

you, Anita, I was specifically

47:30

concerning your time at FAM.

47:32

You it's not too many, we won't.

47:34

Get too many HBCU grads, you

47:36

know, to show I'm as

47:39

I graduated North Calina Central, and

47:42

yeah, FAM, he was actually one of my schools. I was,

47:45

you know, I got like a seventy two, but I wasn't

47:47

going all the way to down Florida. But yeah,

47:53

oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, like you too, So yeah,

47:56

just tell us about that time, you know, going

47:58

to FAM, and just what that experience was like

48:00

for you and how you think that influenced

48:02

your artistry.

48:04

Well, I wanted to go to

48:06

an HBCU. I

48:08

didn't know which one I was going to, but I knew I wanted

48:10

to go, and I had already

48:13

been accepted at a couple of other schools

48:15

that were, you know,

48:18

traditional schools. But I had

48:21

family who went to Howard, I had family who went

48:23

to Hampton, I had family who went to FAM, and

48:26

so I was familiar with these schools and

48:31

I don't know. I wanted to go someplace

48:33

that was small enough to

48:37

build a program and have individualized

48:39

attention if you needed it. That was important

48:42

to me because

48:45

say, Howard Grade School, fantastic

48:48

school, huge, so.

48:54

That much smaller.

48:55

It's the department is much smaller.

48:57

Oh, the department.

48:59

The department is much And I

49:01

was coming from Connecticut, and

49:03

that's another reason why I

49:06

wanted to have a an

49:09

HBCU experience, because that wasn't

49:12

my growing up experience. Like in my particular

49:14

neighborhood, I was one of two black

49:17

folks and I

49:20

don't know if the other person knew

49:23

that.

49:23

They were wanting to.

49:26

Connect Bloomfield.

49:29

Oh, beautiful

49:32

town, gorgeous town and a great growing

49:34

up and I'm happy to have had it. But it was

49:36

important to me to have that

49:39

experience. And I, you know, and I grew up in a family

49:41

who made it.

49:42

You know.

49:42

I was very clear about who I was and where I came

49:44

from and what my history was. I

49:47

didn't know if I would ever I don't

49:49

think I would ever have the opportunity again

49:52

after this time to be surrounded by my own

49:54

culture. So that was

49:56

important to me to have that

49:58

experience, and it was

50:01

I think it was a good experience. It was a good place

50:03

to be on stage. I studied

50:06

theater, so I didn't study acting

50:08

necessarily specifically. I studied

50:11

theater so that meant I was acting.

50:13

If I wasn't acting, I was doing costuming

50:15

or directing or fighting. Yeah,

50:18

I was doing everything. And I think

50:20

that that was a gift to me as

50:22

an actor, because it made it very clear that

50:25

there are a lot of other things happening around

50:28

you that make the thing work.

50:30

It ain't you. You

50:33

know, you, you are the reason the one

50:35

thing that you're doing is happening.

50:37

But you can't just do

50:40

that, you know what I mean. And

50:44

so I think it made me very appreciative of everything

50:46

that happened all around me.

50:49

And and.

50:52

The band was exquisite U

50:54

and I knew the band before I had

50:57

gotten to the school, and I had seen them live

50:59

before I got into the school, and

51:01

they were you know,

51:04

it was just such an amazing culture

51:07

to be a part of and to be proud to be

51:09

a part of. And there are a lot of HBCUs

51:12

with some good bands, but

51:14

then there's fam you.

51:19

Did this? Did you did this? Prepare

51:21

you for your time

51:24

on the quad? On BT.

51:27

Because you know what was amazing about my time

51:29

on the Quad is that I was playing a woman who was

51:31

from Connecticut who was

51:34

thrown into the HBCU experienced

51:37

And did they.

51:38

Know your did they know your history when

51:40

writing this character or it

51:43

was just a coincidence.

51:44

Rob Hardy did. Rob Hardy

51:46

did, but a little bit of coincidence.

51:50

And it was really interesting

51:52

and great for me to be able to bring that

51:55

aspect of myself

51:57

to what I was doing. And I had

52:00

spent a lot of time in academia because

52:03

because of family, and my grandmother was a

52:05

teacher, and so all

52:08

of those things sort of came to ahead.

52:11

But the HBCU thing, most

52:13

assuredly, I think you have to live

52:15

it to know it, and you

52:18

can read about it and you can watch some video,

52:21

but you sort of have to live it to know it. And

52:23

I was grateful to be able to bring that

52:25

part of myself to that

52:28

space. And we had a couple of writers on staff who

52:30

were HBCU people, and Rob Hardy, who also

52:32

went to family, was one

52:34

of the creators. So it was

52:38

luck that all of that came

52:40

together in one space.

52:43

And she was a pretty fun character

52:46

to play.

52:51

Can I ask a random role question because it was

52:53

two roles I just wanted to ask you about, and

52:55

one of them is very random, but it's still one of

52:58

my favorite episodes of this brandis

53:00

Law and Order.

53:04

Yes, Law and Order SVU. I wanted

53:06

to ask you about that.

53:06

And I wanted to ask you about what that now

53:09

that I know, I mean, I knew you were from Connecticut, but what that

53:11

meant as an East Coast actor?

53:13

What that means to East Coast

53:15

actors in a way? And was that something that you felt

53:18

like you had to do? It was on a bucket list of sorts

53:20

in a way, because it's I feel like everybody has

53:22

run through Lawn Order.

53:24

It was not, And it was a badge of honor

53:27

to be the only New York actor that I knew

53:29

who had never been on Lawn Order.

53:32

I was like, apparently they

53:34

don't want me, and I'm the only New York

53:36

actor they don't want, So I'm going to turn that into

53:38

an honor instead

53:42

of being like, y'all do I can't

53:44

even be dead in the park like people die every.

53:46

Week, right

53:51

you?

53:52

Okay? I didn't even get that.

53:54

So it took years

53:57

before that happened. And and

54:00

it was a great and interesting role. And

54:03

the guy who wrote it, Oh,

54:06

it's Matthew's last name. I

54:08

can't think of his last name, but I'm gonna figure it out right

54:11

now because that's rude. He he

54:14

was so good and

54:18

I'm looking him up right now. That's why I'm trying

54:20

to multitach my mind. He saw you on David Matthews.

54:23

David Matthews wrote that episode. Warren Light

54:25

is a really good dude, and they love theater

54:28

people. But David wrote something so interesting

54:30

with this character, this woman, this Marriam Dang,

54:33

who was based on a real person

54:36

who had had that situation happened to her. And

54:38

I cannot remember the real woman's in

54:41

the beginning, Okay, I

54:44

researched her, I pulled her up.

54:46

I listened to her accent over and over

54:48

again to find this woman and

54:51

it was an interesting accent. It was different for me

54:54

to do, but it was fun. It

54:56

was fun to do, and it was just it

54:59

was something different for me

55:01

to do. And then I now, I can't

55:03

say I'm the only one who they didn't want.

55:11

My second world question was just about going

55:13

to be about jukebox and the way that character was

55:15

brought to you, and if it was brought

55:18

to you, if you auditioned, and why it took.

55:20

It took me four episodes to realize it

55:22

was her.

55:22

Oh my god, you were just That's when I

55:24

was like, oh, she's you.

55:26

Just all things are kind of flying by you mirror.

55:28

Like, like, no things,

55:31

No, you're still in the doghouse. Yo, I'm

55:36

gonna come back.

55:36

I'm gonna come back. Wait till we get to the Princess of the Frog.

55:39

I got Betty questions, but literally literally

55:41

and all kinds of ship.

55:42

There's a point where you know where

55:45

I guess you were going to Kiltaric or whatever. And

55:49

when I watched the credits to the end, I

55:52

was like, no, that's not her, let's

55:54

get out of it. And then I realized that was you and I had

55:56

to rewatch that episode again. Yeah,

56:01

I totally did not make that you until

56:03

you really lost yourself there.

56:06

For me, that is See, that's my favorite

56:08

compliment. I love that. I

56:11

loved jukebox. I

56:15

loved jukebox.

56:16

Courtney put you to do it, or

56:19

like how I met her. She's one of the nicest

56:21

people ever.

56:22

Also from Connecticut. Courtney

56:26

and I have mutual friends, and

56:29

we met at a game night and

56:32

Courtney also wrote on The

56:35

Good Wife? What so

56:38

she knew me from The Good Wife? I didn't know

56:41

her at that point. And then we met at this game night

56:43

and had a great time. And

56:47

when we met, we were like, we like

56:49

each other. We should go to lunch. And

56:51

so we went to lunch and

56:54

she was like, you know, Anka, if

56:57

there was a is there a role that you'd want

56:59

to play that you feel like no one

57:01

would ever give you? And

57:04

I was like, huh, well

57:07

yeah. She was like, well what is

57:09

that? I was like, I would like to be a

57:12

complete badass, preferably

57:16

on a motorcycle, which I don't drive. I don't

57:18

ride motorcycles. But I'm thinking this is

57:20

something new when I would have given me and

57:23

you know, just completely like wild

57:25

and the outside of anything

57:28

somebody would think of me for. And this

57:31

was years before before power had even

57:33

happened. And she was like, oh, that would be really

57:35

cool. I'd love to see you this way and

57:38

I was like yeah. And

57:40

so cut to a couple of years later,

57:42

I'd get a call saying, would

57:45

you be interested in She's

57:50

a cop, She's a rogue cop. She's

57:52

a lesbian, she's sort of murderous.

57:54

I said, yes, yes,

57:57

I would, I would be absolutely.

58:00

I mean, you ain't got to tell

58:02

me nothing else. Thank

58:05

you. I loved her. I loved

58:07

her because she was ruthless and interesting

58:10

and different, and it's something I would never be

58:12

in life, you know what I mean, Like I would never

58:15

want to do the things that she did in life. But

58:17

that's one of those times where you can do all the horrible

58:20

things on screen and have

58:22

fun with it. And I got to mush fifty cent

58:24

in the head, like we guessed the mushif.

58:28

More than mush fifty cent in the head yo.

58:31

And the accent I heard a DZ accent.

58:32

I appreciate it, thank you, thank you.

58:35

Yeah, it was.

58:35

It was really really fun for me. And it

58:38

was so well written. The episodes

58:41

were so well written. And that was

58:43

that, honestly, was another moment where they

58:46

were just like, so, how

58:48

you want to do it? And I was like, oh, really,

58:51

let's go. I

58:55

just got to go. And I have been in New Yorker

58:57

for so long, you know, I'd lived in New York for

58:59

a really long time, and I've

59:01

always been I grew up on the East Coast,

59:04

so you know, Thank god, I haven't

59:06

had to really spend time with

59:09

those people, but I've definitely seen those people,

59:11

and you recognize them when you see them, when you look

59:14

into their eye and you see like

59:18

they are not worried about doing

59:21

away with you. It would not bother

59:24

them. You've seen those people. So

59:27

I loved her. I loved her, and

59:30

thank you.

59:31

Okay, So if

59:34

you can, can you completely

59:38

walk me now? I feel safe asking

59:40

this question because people already

59:42

know on the show that

59:46

my animation watching

59:50

activity is very, very low, with

59:53

the exception of occasional few,

59:56

so I don't feel bad when people ridicule

59:59

me for not you never saw the Lion

1:00:01

King. Yes, I've been through all that, So

1:00:04

can you walk me through the process

1:00:08

now? And again,

1:00:10

I know this is a very historical

1:00:14

pivotal, not even for you, but

1:00:16

just for history. Love

1:00:19

it, keep going, keep We

1:00:23

didn't see Princess at the front, But what

1:00:27

I'm asking is to please walk me through

1:00:30

the process of how that

1:00:32

role came to you.

1:00:35

And it's the best ship ever. I

1:00:40

have daughters and

1:00:43

it's just great.

1:00:45

I was in l A doing

1:00:49

Carolina Change after

1:00:52

we closed the New York Rule, the New York Run

1:00:55

We did a soft tour just

1:00:57

LA and San Francisco, and that was all I did, because

1:01:00

by then I had done over three hundred shows.

1:01:04

And while I was in La, the Disney people

1:01:07

came to see it at the mark Taper and

1:01:09

they were like, we'd love to have a meeting with you, and

1:01:11

I was like yes, because

1:01:15

I had always wanted to be a Disney voice, not

1:01:18

necessarily a Princess. I really didn't care what I

1:01:20

was going to be. I just wanted to be a voice. And

1:01:24

so I had this meeting and I

1:01:28

told them that I would love to be anything, and

1:01:31

I could be a fleet even and I

1:01:33

had a sound for the fleet or

1:01:35

the ticket, and they

1:01:38

probably thought I was insane, and

1:01:41

from that meeting I was a

1:01:44

couple of years later, three

1:01:46

years later, two years later, they

1:01:49

called me for to audition for

1:01:52

The Princess and the Frog and

1:01:56

I read that the piece that they gave you, because they

1:01:58

don't give you the whole thing, and I was like,

1:02:00

oh, I know this girl. I

1:02:02

am this girl. I am from a small

1:02:04

town where nobody did

1:02:07

the thing that I wanted to do. I

1:02:11

spent my growing up

1:02:14

and trying to do what I do being

1:02:16

told you know that it wasn't perhaps

1:02:19

possible. I knew who this girl

1:02:21

was and I was a hard worker.

1:02:25

So it took three auditions over

1:02:29

I don't know, must have been a year that those

1:02:32

auditions happened. One

1:02:35

was the first one

1:02:38

was the day after the Dream Girl's

1:02:40

premiere in LA So

1:02:43

you will see no pictures of me at the Dreamgirls premiere

1:02:46

party in La because

1:02:48

I went back to my hotel room and I worked

1:02:50

on that audition and I

1:02:53

think I sang everything in my book when I went in there,

1:02:55

because I was like, I'm going to get this wrong.

1:02:58

And the second one was some

1:03:00

time later, and I also

1:03:04

crazy. I was working on a show

1:03:06

in Australia and I got

1:03:08

a call back for the Princess and the Frog, and

1:03:11

I was in Oh God,

1:03:13

I was in New York. I was flying

1:03:16

out to Australia. I

1:03:18

think the next two days I was flying out and

1:03:21

my audition was

1:03:23

going to be I

1:03:26

had to go to Australia, unpack

1:03:28

a bag, shoot for one day,

1:03:31

get on another plane, go back to

1:03:33

LA And the day after

1:03:35

that was my second audition.

1:03:38

That sounds crazy because it was. However,

1:03:42

I didn't care because

1:03:44

I wanted that role and

1:03:47

I was like, if I have to turn around and

1:03:49

get dressed on this plane and gargle

1:03:51

my way to Bourbank, I'm

1:03:53

coming to get this role. So we

1:03:56

did that, and then time went past,

1:03:59

and I think I will It was

1:04:01

two thousand and six, so I was we

1:04:03

were doing the Oscars telecast for dream Girls,

1:04:06

and Randy Newman was there because he of course

1:04:08

had something that was nominated. And

1:04:11

I'm looking at him because he had been in the room

1:04:13

audition.

1:04:14

I'm like, hi, toy story

1:04:16

sixteen.

1:04:17

And I'm just hoping he's gonna

1:04:19

say something positive to me, and he was

1:04:21

like hey. And

1:04:28

some more months went by before I

1:04:30

got the word, and that one I got the

1:04:32

word walking down the street in New York, headed

1:04:35

to the bank with a sad piece

1:04:37

of check in my hand. I don't know what. I just

1:04:40

know it wasn't it wasn't exciting,

1:04:42

but I was happy to be putting it in the bank. And

1:04:44

I got the call walking down Broadway that I

1:04:46

had gotten that role, and they were like, you should

1:04:49

where are you. I was like, oh, oh, broa, where

1:04:51

and they were like, you should come to our

1:04:54

offices so we can celebrate. And I bopped

1:04:56

myself to the Disney offices and

1:04:58

had an intense, tearful,

1:05:01

fabulous celebration and you

1:05:03

know, three years of making later

1:05:06

it came out.

1:05:07

Wow. So it took three years

1:05:09

from that point wow for it to come out?

1:05:11

And was that really what you were asking me? And

1:05:14

I gave you an hire?

1:05:16

Okay, we lived for this

1:05:19

is the rabbit Hole Central. We we

1:05:22

lived for those things.

1:05:24

Wait can you talk about can you talk about Princess

1:05:27

and the Frog? Like the music so like

1:05:29

straight out of New Orleans and like just the whole process

1:05:31

of like getting into that vibe. Also Randy

1:05:34

Newman known for like the medium

1:05:36

shuffle sort of getting himself out of

1:05:38

that and writing things that are very you

1:05:41

know, New orleansy as it were, And like,

1:05:43

how did what was it? What was your approach to

1:05:46

that and how did you feel about like being that character?

1:05:49

I loved being that character.

1:05:51

Because the singing, like the acting and the voice

1:05:53

stuff is great in that show, but the singing and like you

1:05:55

know, you're always trying and Disney stuff to be the

1:05:57

next great Disney songs because

1:06:00

these songs are are so high. This

1:06:02

is coming from a guy who works a saysme street. Disney songs

1:06:04

are so high on the you know, on the thing of

1:06:07

great songs, Like, did you feel a sense of

1:06:09

purpose? I feel a sense of that you

1:06:11

had to to be up. I

1:06:13

mean, you're always up to a certain level. I'm not going to

1:06:15

say that, but like, did you feel a sense of having to push

1:06:17

it over the top?

1:06:18

Like what was what was that? I don't want to get

1:06:20

canceled again.

1:06:21

No, my finger is hovering, but I didn't.

1:06:27

I have to tap themw button. I'm

1:06:29

glad.

1:06:31

No.

1:06:32

I felt a sense of responsibility

1:06:36

towards the character. I

1:06:39

felt a strong sense of responsibility

1:06:41

towards her because I wanted her to be as

1:06:44

honest and as real as possible.

1:06:47

And I felt like it was something

1:06:49

that I was old as

1:06:52

a little black girl in this country who

1:06:54

grew up on Disney. I felt like it was something

1:06:57

that my parents'

1:07:00

generation were old, having never seen

1:07:03

that. And I felt like it was something that was

1:07:05

old to the generation

1:07:07

coming up behind me, that

1:07:10

this person be real, that

1:07:13

she be relatable, that

1:07:16

she be honest. And

1:07:20

there were things that we talked about as we went

1:07:23

through it. You know, musically, I

1:07:27

wanted to hear the youth in

1:07:30

her voice, particularly

1:07:32

as we started

1:07:35

the movie and the wonder

1:07:37

in her voice, and I

1:07:39

wanted her to be true to the sound of that era.

1:07:43

So the movie starts with a tiny

1:07:45

song the evening

1:07:48

star shine and

1:07:51

right, so make

1:07:53

a wish and hold

1:07:56

on time. There's

1:07:59

magic in the air

1:08:02

to night and

1:08:05

anything can that

1:08:07

was flat thing can

1:08:09

happen. So

1:08:12

I wanted that beginning

1:08:14

to definitely be as

1:08:16

magical and whimsical as possible.

1:08:19

And as we went through almost

1:08:22

there, you got her spirit in there, and you got her

1:08:24

soul in there. That

1:08:27

last note that I was able to just

1:08:29

I was given the space to just hold

1:08:31

and go with it. And then

1:08:35

at the end, when she sings down

1:08:37

in New Orleans, which Doctor John had sung

1:08:39

towards the beginning of the movie, I

1:08:41

felt like it was important to hear the

1:08:45

maturity of who she had

1:08:47

become and the journey that she had gone through.

1:08:50

So it's still her,

1:08:53

but you know, we all sing differently for different

1:08:55

occasions, different feelings, different moments.

1:08:58

I really put some a little bit

1:09:00

of her gut in that song because I felt like

1:09:03

she was freed of some things. She

1:09:05

was freed of the responsibility that she had

1:09:07

put on herself. She was a

1:09:12

she was more open to just having some fun.

1:09:15

She had found love, which she didn't expect,

1:09:18

and she had achieved her dream. And

1:09:20

I feel like that is an opening

1:09:23

up that happens that takes

1:09:25

you from being a

1:09:27

girl to a young woman.

1:09:30

And I wanted that to be heard in her voice.

1:09:32

So when you get to that down

1:09:34

in New Orleans, sorry, down

1:09:36

in New Orleans, in the Southland,

1:09:39

there's a city way down

1:09:41

on the river. I wanted

1:09:44

to use some more

1:09:46

of the bottom part of the voice and some

1:09:48

more and to let

1:09:50

some more dirt for

1:09:53

lack of a better word, come into to her

1:09:55

voice for that song. And

1:09:59

that was important to me, and we had a conversation

1:10:01

about it because I didn't want her to be to

1:10:03

spend a whole movie singing

1:10:07

in this place. I didn't

1:10:09

want not from New

1:10:11

Orleans, you know what I mean. And

1:10:14

I felt like it was important to the truth of

1:10:16

who this young woman is and would

1:10:19

be to have that space today.

1:10:21

Were you allowed to sort of drive

1:10:23

what your character was or did you have to

1:10:25

have like a conversation with the Disney

1:10:28

people, because I, you know, I

1:10:30

would think that at least when you're dealing with the Hollywood

1:10:33

superpower like that, they're always thinking about

1:10:36

middle America and we don't want to scare them

1:10:38

off, and you know that sort of thing.

1:10:40

So yeah, no, I

1:10:43

wasn't worried about Middle

1:10:45

America. You

1:10:49

know, she's from New Orleans, so I was worried

1:10:51

about New Orleans. And she

1:10:55

is me, so I was worried about representing

1:10:58

you know, who we are. And they

1:11:00

wanted it to be as true

1:11:04

to form as possible. They really did,

1:11:06

and so I was

1:11:08

given the space

1:11:11

to say, you know, I don't think

1:11:13

this would be this doesn't

1:11:15

really make sense to me for this reason

1:11:18

or the other. And I

1:11:20

was heard when I said those things.

1:11:23

Now, mind you, I didn't write the story, so it's

1:11:25

not like the necessarily

1:11:27

the story was going to change. But if I

1:11:29

said that something culturally didn't

1:11:32

sit well, or if I said

1:11:34

that, I know, we had a big

1:11:36

talk about the scene

1:11:39

in the I think I'm free to say this, the scene

1:11:42

in the swamp where when

1:11:44

Princess Tianna was a frog

1:11:46

still and Navin

1:11:49

was a frog and they were being hunted,

1:11:53

and there was when we first

1:11:55

did that scene, my

1:11:58

concern was, I said, what we don't

1:12:00

want in this scene is

1:12:03

for it to feel like a

1:12:06

slave hunt, because

1:12:11

you know, black folks are always going to think

1:12:13

about and feel that

1:12:16

feeling when you've got these

1:12:20

real what's the good

1:12:22

word, like hick white dudes

1:12:25

with two teeth and a

1:12:27

net and some dogs running

1:12:30

after us. Very

1:12:32

important to have the tone

1:12:35

of that scene correct.

1:12:38

And we talked about it, and I talked about it and they

1:12:40

were like, oh, you're absolutely right.

1:12:42

So it made a difference

1:12:45

in how that scene moved and the

1:12:48

words that were used and how

1:12:50

the chase happened. And I'm and

1:12:53

I'm glad that I was working with a group of people

1:12:57

who were open to hear that. And

1:13:01

you would think, well, of course they would, because they want

1:13:03

to make some money, but you'd be surprised the

1:13:05

amount of times that people don't listen

1:13:07

to you.

1:13:08

As you were saying it to you, I was thinking to myself,

1:13:11

they listening, and I was wondering if that anybody in that room

1:13:13

that looked like you though that was helping to write that story.

1:13:15

But I'm guessing that that's why you had to provide

1:13:17

that expertise, because.

1:13:19

Well, I mean, I

1:13:22

think we had one

1:13:24

black writer, maybe two,

1:13:26

but they weren't always there with us.

1:13:29

And I think

1:13:31

when you're dealing with large

1:13:33

entities that

1:13:36

you do the best you can to make sure that you're heard,

1:13:39

but sometimes it's

1:13:41

hard to be heard. And

1:13:45

look, I don't know what conversations happened before

1:13:47

I said that, so let me make that very clear. I don't

1:13:49

know what conversations happened. But sometimes

1:13:52

it's hard to be heard from

1:13:54

the inside of the room. Sometimes

1:13:59

something has to come through from the outside

1:14:02

of the room for people to understand,

1:14:05

Oh, this

1:14:08

isn't just so and so who I work with every

1:14:10

day. This

1:14:13

really is something that

1:14:15

you know will be a universal

1:14:18

thought issue, you know, problem

1:14:20

feeling. But I don't know

1:14:23

what they talked about beforehand, but I know that

1:14:25

for me that that was something that we really

1:14:27

needed to talk about. And

1:14:30

I'm glad that they heard me. And they were really wonderful

1:14:32

during the process, like really wonderful Peter

1:14:35

del Vaco, Ron Clements and

1:14:37

John Musker, who are amazing and

1:14:40

they also did a Little Mermaid, so

1:14:42

it was an amazing production team.

1:14:46

And I did feel listened to when

1:14:49

I spoke, I'm

1:14:52

and I'm glad for that. And I think it's only smart

1:14:55

of people who are creating something

1:14:57

in a culture that isn't theirs to listen to the

1:14:59

person who in the room, for whom it

1:15:01

is now, am I from New Orleans? No, but

1:15:04

as a black woman who grew up in

1:15:06

this country and knows her history

1:15:09

and has family in the South. There are things

1:15:11

that I'm going to bring to that that they never

1:15:13

would have listened to there. First of all, not even women,

1:15:16

so we can start there. You

1:15:19

know, it was a group of men, but they were good dudes.

1:15:22

And there were other things that we talked about, like I asked

1:15:24

for Tiana to be left handed, and

1:15:26

they were totally into that. Yeah.

1:15:29

Right, And that's something that you just don't I am,

1:15:32

and it's something you just don't see, you don't get to see.

1:15:35

It was important to me that she not have a cookie

1:15:37

cutter body. I was like, you know, this is a black

1:15:39

girl, so let's make sure that

1:15:42

you know, we don't want it to look like porn, which sometimes

1:15:45

cartoons can do to people. But she need

1:15:47

to have a booty because let's

1:15:49

be true to form. Let's make a real

1:15:52

person, not just paint something

1:15:55

that's there. And to

1:15:58

be clear, this wasn't a fight. They

1:16:01

asked me the things that I that I

1:16:03

thought of that I felt were important, and those were

1:16:05

you know some of the things that I talked

1:16:08

about, but not all of them. But those are the things that you

1:16:10

will see immediately, and that

1:16:12

our hair not be straight. Those are

1:16:14

things that you'll see immediately. And

1:16:17

it was and I have now taken you all

1:16:19

the way to Wonderland because I think I'd forgotten

1:16:21

what the question was that I got.

1:16:25

A quest love Supreme, where

1:16:27

every tangent is a good tangent.

1:16:31

Again.

1:16:31

No, this this brings

1:16:33

a whole new level of respect

1:16:36

that you know was already there, but added more to

1:16:38

it. No, thank thank you for sharing that

1:16:45

You're in Tyler Perry's uh for

1:16:47

Colored Girls with damn

1:16:50

near half of Hollywood.

1:16:52

What was that?

1:16:53

What was that whole experience

1:16:55

like in doing that that movie?

1:16:59

You know, it was interesting because most

1:17:01

of those people we I didn't see till the end, and

1:17:06

I I

1:17:08

didn't I didn't see them. However,

1:17:13

it was it

1:17:16

was actually a really

1:17:18

good experience. And I'll have to say that as

1:17:21

far as how you're treated on a set,

1:17:24

Tyler had there

1:17:26

were flowers in my trailer every

1:17:29

morning when I went into work, fresh fresh

1:17:31

flowers that had never happened before.

1:17:33

And so that makes a difference.

1:17:35

You know, all it says,

1:17:37

is we care.

1:17:39

Okay, and at the very least you're

1:17:41

doing so much heavy work that it

1:17:44

kind of doesn't end up lifting a ways.

1:17:45

Okay, well, at least I'm starting my day off with these flowers,

1:17:47

because.

1:17:47

Yeah, start up with something nice

1:17:50

because you're going into the ships that

1:17:54

one. But

1:17:57

that was a really lovely thing. And we

1:18:00

shot in New York and we shot in Atlanta

1:18:02

and it was pretty fast. But

1:18:05

yeah, so I didn't really get to Tandy

1:18:07

and I became very close on that set. For some

1:18:09

reason, we ended up being

1:18:13

what year was that we ended up

1:18:15

being connected of two thousand and nine and

1:18:18

Carrie and I became friendly, but

1:18:21

we didn't really get to find,

1:18:24

you know, meld and work

1:18:27

together because it really as much

1:18:29

of an ensemble as it was. It

1:18:32

was also you know, if you know the

1:18:34

original piece, which I'm sure you do, it was monologues,

1:18:37

right. It was singular stories that cut

1:18:40

together and touch each other in the corners.

1:18:44

So but what I am grateful

1:18:48

like that monologue is such an amazing

1:18:51

and phenomenal monologue that I got to do in

1:18:54

the hospital, and I remember Tyler

1:18:56

was like, oh, so we're gonna

1:18:59

do this shot and then

1:19:01

that shot and the other shot, and

1:19:04

I started to do

1:19:06

it. We did a rehearsal, and

1:19:08

then I went back to and we didn't want to use

1:19:10

a lot of time because it was so emotional and I was

1:19:12

coming off with something else and going straight into that, and

1:19:16

I was supposed to go back to makeup, and I said,

1:19:18

no, I don't want any

1:19:21

makeup. I want you to leave my face

1:19:23

as it is. I think it's important to see

1:19:26

her face. I don't

1:19:28

want her to look nice or better

1:19:31

or falsely

1:19:33

worse. I want you to see her face as

1:19:36

it is. And he did not fight me on that.

1:19:38

And then one thing that he

1:19:40

did, which I really appreciate it was he

1:19:42

was like, you know what, we were going to do different angles,

1:19:46

but you just do your monologue. And

1:19:49

so instead of doing different angles and cutting

1:19:51

and doing this and that and the other, I

1:19:53

did a take and he got closer

1:19:56

and closer and closer and closer

1:19:59

with the camera so that it didn't

1:20:01

have to be cut up and I didn't have to find

1:20:05

create that same

1:20:07

emotional space because I've waited now

1:20:10

for fifteen minutes for a camera angle

1:20:12

to change or for a lens to change, which

1:20:15

God bless them those people are doing their jobs

1:20:17

and they're trying to make you look as good as possible

1:20:19

when the edit is done. But sometimes

1:20:22

there is something to be said for

1:20:25

allowing the emotional

1:20:28

space to live and just

1:20:31

showing it in its naked space. And

1:20:33

I think that that's something that's something that happened

1:20:36

in that moment that I think

1:20:40

Tyler totally made. Well. Look,

1:20:42

that sounds crazy, but it felt like the right

1:20:44

choice to me at the time, and as an

1:20:46

artist, it definitely was the right choice

1:20:48

for me to be able to do the

1:20:51

best that I could do in that space, you

1:20:54

know what.

1:20:55

You mentioned that, and then it also hit

1:20:57

me that well because I worked

1:20:59

on it as well. You

1:21:01

were no no, no, no, not colored girls. I've

1:21:03

worked on Roots, you were on Kiss. I

1:21:08

totally forgot I was.

1:21:12

Episode four. I think I was, you

1:21:16

know, which was quite an honor to bring

1:21:18

that, to bring that story to the

1:21:22

young people, people who haven't seen the original,

1:21:24

who didn't know about the original, And at

1:21:27

first I was like, why are y'all doing this again?

1:21:29

What already?

1:21:35

And not because it was about slavery, because listen,

1:21:37

I think it's important that people know about slavery.

1:21:40

Here's one thing There's

1:21:43

a reason that the Jewish population

1:21:45

teaches the Holocaust all

1:21:47

of the time, and they teach

1:21:50

it all of the time because it is important

1:21:52

for young people to know what happened

1:21:55

so that it does not happen again.

1:21:57

We must move through the

1:22:00

pain of the thing so that we know

1:22:02

how to keep it from coming back, so that

1:22:05

we are clear on our history, and

1:22:07

so for people who did not live the history

1:22:10

know what their

1:22:13

lineage did and can

1:22:15

teach themselves and their children to

1:22:18

do different things and make different choices.

1:22:20

We must tell the story of slavery.

1:22:23

We must, and maybe we want

1:22:25

to tell it from a different angle. Okay,

1:22:28

I think that it's important to talk about It's

1:22:31

important to talk about the revolutions

1:22:35

that happened on plantations.

1:22:38

It's important to tell this, to

1:22:40

not just tell the story of bondage,

1:22:43

but to tell the story of the breaking freeze,

1:22:45

to tell the story of the moors, to tell

1:22:47

the story of the Sorry

1:22:50

the oh. I can't remember

1:22:52

shaking my.

1:22:53

Head so hard because me and Fonte had this debate all the time.

1:22:55

I'm like, it's important.

1:22:57

The mores is not the word that I wanted to say, but the

1:23:00

ah, what do they call the people in Jamaica,

1:23:03

and then Haiti who went off into the hills.

1:23:06

And I can't think of the name of the word.

1:23:09

It starts with the M. I

1:23:11

can't think of it right now. But see,

1:23:13

that's why you have to keep telling. But

1:23:16

there are other angles to enslavement

1:23:19

and to slavery. But also

1:23:21

what we need to do, like with Jingle Jangle,

1:23:24

is have stories in that time

1:23:27

period where you see people who are not

1:23:29

dealing with bondage, because bondage

1:23:31

was not what we sprang from. Bondage

1:23:34

is not the only thing that happened to us. So

1:23:36

I am somebody who yeah, sometimes

1:23:38

I'm like, oh God, I don't know the slave story, but only

1:23:41

because it's coming from the same angle.

1:23:44

We have to look at other angles. But we

1:23:47

cannot afford to not

1:23:49

tell this story. And if we thought we could afford

1:23:51

to not tell this story, January

1:23:53

sixth should have taught us.

1:23:59

Exactly.

1:24:02

That's where I am.

1:24:05

Making a gun.

1:24:07

Because I

1:24:11

make this point constantly and people always

1:24:14

argue with me about it, and I'm like, I don't understand

1:24:16

twelve years a slave with not the same slave movie

1:24:18

as Roots twelve you of the slave was really cause I'm kind

1:24:20

of different like, I've never seen the story of a free

1:24:23

man that guy kidnapp, Like, stop acting like that's the

1:24:25

same.

1:24:25

It just was. So I'm just runs

1:24:28

maroons. Want

1:24:30

to give me.

1:24:33

Sorry?

1:24:34

Are you do you feel that you're now at the place where

1:24:38

you can well

1:24:42

that you can create productions

1:24:45

and and and things

1:24:47

that you want to do without having

1:24:50

without not having to go through the Hollywood

1:24:52

shuffle. It's like, are you

1:24:54

past the place where it's like, no, this

1:24:57

particular company calls and we want you to fly

1:24:59

in the ref this role in that I'm learning

1:25:01

now through this show that there's two

1:25:04

different types of processes, Like you

1:25:06

get called in and you have to read and read and read and

1:25:09

wait for a call back. And then there's people that are like, I

1:25:11

won't do that.

1:25:13

There are times when I won't do that. There

1:25:16

are times when I won't do that because

1:25:18

sometimes people want to put you through hoops

1:25:20

just to put you through hoops, and there's too

1:25:22

much tape for people to watch to

1:25:25

be putting folks through hoops for no reason of

1:25:29

very different roles, you know what I mean. It's

1:25:31

not like I've been doing the same role for twenty years

1:25:33

and you're like, but today we'd like

1:25:36

you to be a magician, and we've never seen

1:25:38

you pull a rabbit out of the hat. You know, there's

1:25:41

a lot of tape for people to look at. So there

1:25:43

are some things where I'm just like, no, no,

1:25:46

I'm not going to do that. There are other

1:25:48

things that I would

1:25:50

be willing to and I do go in

1:25:52

for. I mean, i'd like to

1:25:54

say that's over, but I don't know that it's

1:25:56

ever over, to be perfectly honest. There

1:25:59

are things that I get on offers for, and

1:26:01

then there are things that are like, we'd love for you to

1:26:04

We love you, You're amazing. We think,

1:26:06

oh my god, you are our favorite in this and

1:26:09

we've got this amazing role. We'd

1:26:11

love for you to read what

1:26:15

happened of Love? What

1:26:18

happened to that?

1:26:19

So we love for you to read. It's sort of the deal breaker

1:26:21

that, like.

1:26:22

Man, it depends on the on

1:26:25

the role, on the project, on

1:26:27

how I feel about it. It depends.

1:26:30

There are a whole lot of variables

1:26:32

that that go into that.

1:26:35

So is there a genre that you haven't stepped into

1:26:37

yet, like the horror genre or

1:26:41

I don't I don't know if they call the Marvel world,

1:26:43

like science fiction or not. I don't know, Like I

1:26:45

don't know what the It's.

1:26:46

Just I'm supposed to do a horror movie. I

1:26:49

was scheduled to get on a plane

1:26:52

two weeks after Quarantine it and

1:26:57

I'm supposed to be in Romania.

1:27:02

But no, it was a really it was interesting

1:27:04

and different and potentially a lot of fun. And

1:27:06

now I think it's dead. I would

1:27:09

love to I miss comedy. I

1:27:12

miss comedy, and I think maybe

1:27:14

people have forgotten that I can

1:27:17

do that, so I sort of miss that

1:27:20

now. Sort of I really do miss do income comedic

1:27:22

things. I would love to

1:27:24

do a

1:27:27

cute, little romantic comedy

1:27:30

or just a regular comedy. I love

1:27:32

sci fi and I'm glad you mentioned that. And I've got

1:27:35

the rights to a couple of book series

1:27:37

that I am trying to make

1:27:40

happen, And

1:27:42

then I don't have the right to a couple of series

1:27:44

that I'm friends with the authors,

1:27:46

and I'm like, I'm we

1:27:49

are talking about moving forward with

1:27:52

me as part of their package without

1:27:56

moving the rights, but

1:27:58

to have me as a producer and an actor

1:28:01

on it, because I sort of I love sci fi. I

1:28:03

love us in the world of sci fi.

1:28:06

I love anything

1:28:08

that goes beyond the boundary that

1:28:11

people have tried to give us. And

1:28:15

so I'm into those things

1:28:17

because I'm not into being told

1:28:20

who I am allowed to be. So

1:28:24

that is always exciting to me when I can find

1:28:26

something that is outside of the

1:28:28

space that we have sort of been relegated

1:28:30

to, because I always say, and

1:28:32

people are like, when I see a sci fi

1:28:35

movie and people are, you know, seventy

1:28:39

five, one hundred years into the future, and

1:28:42

you've got one black person, you

1:28:45

a lie, you a

1:28:47

lie. There is no way that

1:28:50

black people, and I mean throughout

1:28:52

the diaspora have been

1:28:55

through the things that they have been through and

1:28:57

are here in twenty twenty one, and

1:28:59

you think we're not about to be here in

1:29:02

thirty twenty one.

1:29:04

If you here, we here, we started

1:29:06

this time.

1:29:07

We're here. So that

1:29:10

is always a story that I'm interested

1:29:13

in telling and putting us in a space where we have

1:29:15

been told that we do not belong or will not exist.

1:29:18

I'm always interested in that awesome,

1:29:20

awesome, real quick. My last

1:29:23

question is about Jingle Jingle, Like, what was

1:29:25

the experience for you and doing that

1:29:29

film, And well, I know it's

1:29:31

important for at least

1:29:33

my nieces and nephews like they you

1:29:35

know, they lost their minds over it and seeing

1:29:37

it. Yeah, but how

1:29:40

did that project come to you?

1:29:42

David Talbert offered

1:29:44

me that role, and it was so funny

1:29:46

because I think he was trying to get in touch with me for like

1:29:49

the better part of a year. We just kept missing

1:29:52

each other and

1:29:55

I would have missed out on something so great.

1:29:58

No happy, but it success for him too, by the

1:30:00

way, Yes.

1:30:02

It's really great for him. And

1:30:07

so we had a Zoom meeting because

1:30:10

I don't know where I was. I think I was. I was in New

1:30:12

Orleans shooting some and

1:30:16

so we met on Zoom and

1:30:18

we talked and then it was had to go up the

1:30:20

flagpole and then oh and

1:30:22

while we were talking about it, I

1:30:24

had read a version of the script, which was an

1:30:27

fairly early version of the script at that point, and

1:30:29

I was like, this is cute and this is cool and yeah,

1:30:32

this is interesting. And then

1:30:34

he was like, and you know, it's a musical

1:30:37

and I was like, oh, yeah,

1:30:40

I had heard it was a musical. That's cool.

1:30:43

Well who's doing the music and

1:30:45

he said Philip Lawrence, phil

1:30:49

and John Legend And

1:30:51

I was like and sold

1:30:55

because everything came together

1:30:58

in that package. You've got this Chris story

1:31:01

with us centralized and

1:31:03

normal but also magical, and

1:31:06

now you've got these amazing musicians

1:31:09

connected to it. I

1:31:12

love Phil Lawrence. I

1:31:14

think he is magnificent, and I also love

1:31:17

Bruno Mars, whom you know that he writes for a lot,

1:31:19

but he as a singer musician

1:31:22

is also beyond Phil

1:31:25

himself. And I've already told you how

1:31:27

much I love John Legend and his

1:31:29

work and how he is able to translate

1:31:33

story to song and a song

1:31:35

for a story. So all of those

1:31:37

things sort of just worked

1:31:40

together, and it

1:31:43

was a really wonderful thing to be

1:31:46

a part of another project

1:31:49

that centralizes Black

1:31:52

children and our

1:31:55

wonder, our ability to feel

1:31:58

wonder the joy

1:32:00

of Christmas in a way that wasn't showing

1:32:02

lack. You know, there

1:32:04

was family dysfunction, but that's important to show

1:32:07

too because we all have it. But the

1:32:09

story wasn't about what these people couldn't

1:32:12

have, couldn't get, couldn't whatever, aside

1:32:15

from love, and they rectified that. The

1:32:19

story took place in the Victorian Age

1:32:22

with these amazing costumes

1:32:24

by Michael Wilkinson, who's Australia.

1:32:26

Randomly and phenomenal, and

1:32:30

he mixed all these African fabrics

1:32:32

in with these Victorian costumes and these amazing

1:32:35

colors. And then the hair with Sharon Martin,

1:32:37

who I'd worked with on Half of the Yellow Sun,

1:32:40

and all the hair was natural and it wasn't

1:32:42

like there wasn't a commentary on it, because

1:32:45

this is what people's hair was supposed to look like, does

1:32:47

look like, looks like. So

1:32:49

the amount of positive reinforcement

1:32:52

within this film without beating people over

1:32:54

the head with it is just fantastic.

1:32:57

And then you know, again,

1:33:00

to be able to sing the songs that I was able

1:33:02

to sing was delicious.

1:33:05

And I'll say this because we were talking about

1:33:07

make it work and it's not

1:33:09

a way that people have heard me sing before, and

1:33:12

that for me was quite the gift

1:33:14

because I love to access that part

1:33:16

of my voice. And I think usually

1:33:19

when people are thinking of me, they're thinking of me as

1:33:21

a soprano, because that's you

1:33:23

know, I am a soprano. However, I'm

1:33:26

also that you

1:33:28

know, I'm also that gritty. I

1:33:32

don't know, you know, I'm

1:33:34

not Fantasia, so I'm not I

1:33:37

haven't gone there yet. I think when I do that that's

1:33:39

the farewell concert, that'll be the last note. But

1:33:44

I also live in the deeper register

1:33:46

of my voice and I and I

1:33:48

really enjoy being there. So there

1:33:51

was an aspect of my voice that I

1:33:54

don't think I had gotten to express before, and

1:33:56

that to me was really joyous

1:33:59

to be able to do so

1:34:02

the whole thing. And I got to work

1:34:04

with my Felicia Machad, who I just love,

1:34:06

love love. I got

1:34:08

to see Madeline come into being, which

1:34:11

is always something that's amazing

1:34:13

when you see a little kid come into to

1:34:15

being. Kieran

1:34:18

Dyer, who played Edison, who was a scream,

1:34:22

was also magnificent, and the

1:34:24

lovely and very gentle

1:34:27

Forrest Whitaker, so there's there was

1:34:29

nothing to not lack about it.

1:34:31

Really wow, thank

1:34:33

you.

1:34:34

You know.

1:34:36

Our episodes can go on forever, but

1:34:39

you know we gottap up. We

1:34:41

have to wrap up. We really thank you.

1:34:44

I thank you because I have embarrassed

1:34:46

myself in front of you at least twice. I

1:34:52

have shamed myself at least the

1:34:55

first time you were DJing

1:34:58

at Hammy party.

1:35:00

I do this yeah.

1:35:03

Yeah, in l A.

1:35:05

Okay, I can't.

1:35:06

Remember what hotel it was, but anyway, and

1:35:09

you were going off the Year's Eve, No,

1:35:11

No, the Emmys. The Emmys was a couple of years

1:35:14

old. And Kirk

1:35:17

was playing the hell out of this guitar. I

1:35:19

mean when I say he was playing the hell out of this

1:35:21

guitar. So he was playing

1:35:23

it, and he lifted it over this girl's head, and

1:35:25

I think she was talking, and I don't

1:35:27

think he appreciated that at the time. So

1:35:30

he lifted it over her head and she

1:35:32

was talking to her, and

1:35:36

and the and the guitar came over her head.

1:35:38

And he's playing the guitar in front of this girl

1:35:40

as if she was playing it and got

1:35:43

all of her attention and all of our attention.

1:35:45

And my mouth is open and my eyes

1:35:47

are wide, and I'm like, I can what's

1:35:49

happening right here, right now? This is amazing.

1:35:52

And so I started you all

1:35:54

were going on a break.

1:35:56

I think it was her Amazon. I remember this.

1:35:58

It was like you root for the hotel being

1:36:00

crazy.

1:36:01

Yeah.

1:36:02

I was a little fanned out right.

1:36:05

I was amped by the music, and I was feeling

1:36:07

very fanny, and I was

1:36:09

walking and talking and not paying attention,

1:36:11

but like running my mouth about how fantastic

1:36:14

everything was. And I don't

1:36:16

remember who stopped me, But

1:36:19

I was I was being talked to. I

1:36:21

wasn't talking at somebody's back or anything. I wasn't

1:36:23

being a crazy person. But I was talking and running

1:36:25

my mouth and I

1:36:28

had to be stopped. And I was like,

1:36:30

what what's happening? And it didn't

1:36:32

occur to me that you all were going into your.

1:36:34

Dressing Oh really?

1:36:37

And I was just walking and talking

1:36:39

and like heading into this dressing room with y'all

1:36:42

and I was moretrified, and

1:36:44

I was like, these people are going to think I'm insane

1:36:47

and they are never going to speak to me again. And it

1:36:49

has lived with me for years. So thank

1:36:51

you for erasing that, Like you

1:36:53

know, men are blacking it from your memory

1:36:57

to be of all the roots.

1:36:59

We definitely welcome you into our dressing

1:37:01

room.

1:37:05

I'm just.

1:37:11

Thank you. Thank you so much for doing this for us,

1:37:13

and thank you for you know,

1:37:15

we appreciate your your talent

1:37:18

and and sharing your story with us, and you

1:37:20

know we're proud of you. Thank you for coming on

1:37:23

the show.

1:37:23

Thank you so very much. It was really lovely

1:37:25

speaking with all of you and getting to know

1:37:28

you and you know, outside

1:37:31

of what you see of the

1:37:33

person, but really getting to see you. The person

1:37:35

has been a gift, all of you, and

1:37:38

and Bill, I forgive you.

1:37:49

All right, I'm still

1:37:51

canceled, but thank you or viaf

1:37:54

like you and Sugar Stephen, and

1:37:57

we have the same birthday.

1:38:01

Nice job.

1:38:05

Wow that's my wife's birthday. You got

1:38:07

you and my wife same birthday. And she's left

1:38:09

handed as well.

1:38:10

Yeah wow nice

1:38:13

wow. Anyway, anything

1:38:16

else, Steve, Nope, just the birthday

1:38:18

thing. Thanks, okay, okay, anyway

1:38:21

where we have a birthday

1:38:23

burger group down there and and fontigolo

1:38:26

and uncanceled, uh Bill uh

1:38:29

this quest left signing off for QLs. We'll see

1:38:31

you on the next go round. Thank you, yo,

1:38:35

what's up? This is Fante.

1:38:37

Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at

1:38:39

QLs and let us know what you think and who

1:38:41

should be next to sit down with him.

1:38:43

Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast, all

1:38:45

right. Peace West

1:38:55

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1:39:01

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1:39:05

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