Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2: Everybody is the DJ Envy Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the God.
Speaker 2: We are to Breakfast Club. We got a special guest
Speaker 2: in the building, legendary the Icon, Miss Lynn Whitfield.
Speaker 3: Welcome, good morning.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling.
Speaker 3: Thank you? I feel great, glad to hear that. I'm
Speaker 3: happy to be back. Look amazing, Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: You just came back from South Africa, Zimbabwe.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I came back from South Africa. I was
Speaker 3: doing a film in Cape Town. I was at all
Speaker 3: like two and a half months.
Speaker 4: I was like, for you spiritually and culturally, okay, So
Speaker 4: spiritually there's a lot of mag there's a magnetic force there,
Speaker 4: you know, with Table Mountain, a cape of good hope
Speaker 4: out there.
Speaker 3: It's so powerful. So I feel very energized by the
Speaker 3: energy of the place and often saddened by the history
Speaker 3: of place, you know. So I have to kind of
Speaker 3: balance that out and maybe not go to the Slave
Speaker 3: Launch Museum right away, and maybe not go to District
Speaker 3: six and you know, remember Robin Island and all that,
Speaker 3: you know, and just feel the energy of the place.
Speaker 3: Why it was so attractive in the first place, if
Speaker 3: people wanted it so badly and still do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I'm going to Cape Town for the holidays.
Speaker 1: I've been to Joe Burgy. I've never been to cap
Speaker 1: It's beautiful.
Speaker 2: It's very beautiful.
Speaker 3: It's like a cross in topography between say a San
Speaker 3: Francisco and a Miami.
Speaker 2: I think it's like Miami. I always say Cape Town
Speaker 2: reminds me of Miami a lot. Durban is kind of
Speaker 2: like DC.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know I haven't been at it like
Speaker 3: Chicago Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's how I feel. But I love it there.
Speaker 3: It's my fourth time in South Africa.
Speaker 2: Now you're on season seven of The Shy. Yes, how
Speaker 2: are you enjoying The Shy?
Speaker 3: Oh? Well, I really enjoyed it season seven. It was great.
Speaker 3: I mean in for three episodes at the end of
Speaker 3: season six, and then I was invited back for all
Speaker 3: of season seven and it was great. So many young
Speaker 3: talented actors and an interesting storyline for me.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, how do you decide what you want to
Speaker 2: do now?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Because you've done so many things and so many things
Speaker 2: that have been impactful for our community. How do you say,
Speaker 2: you know what I want to do I want to
Speaker 2: work with the young Bucks on this one or I'd
Speaker 2: rather do this one? How do you decide what, miss Linfield?
Speaker 3: I don't know when I read it. When I read
Speaker 3: something and my imagination gets to cooking and I can
Speaker 3: see where I can add something to it. My southern
Speaker 3: mother in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who's now ninety four, Yama,
Speaker 3: she says, she says, well, she'll put something on or
Speaker 3: put a throw pillow on the couch or something, and
Speaker 3: she'll stand back and she'll say, I don't know, does
Speaker 3: it add? So if I feel like I can add
Speaker 3: something at dimension, at deeper, meaning you know, thread something
Speaker 3: through a story that makes it better, I usually want
Speaker 3: to do it. Also, you know, I like roles that
Speaker 3: are a little bit showy that I get to do
Speaker 3: something exciting.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I heard you did that with Alicia.
Speaker 5: I heard that you said that you were drew to
Speaker 5: the role not because of what was on the paper,
Speaker 5: and that you needed to fill that role out a
Speaker 5: little bit more, right, Okay.
Speaker 3: Right, the possibility of it, okay, because uh, it was
Speaker 3: only for three It was supposed to be for three episodes.
Speaker 3: So we have the first all the first information was
Speaker 3: she wanted her son to go and revenge the death
Speaker 3: of her brother, okay, which is you know, street culture,
Speaker 3: street law like revenge, right. So I found that very
Speaker 3: interesting to me because I don't understand people. I don't
Speaker 3: really understand the visceral energy of people who actually are hurt, disappointed,
Speaker 3: feel lost, and then turn that out into I'm going
Speaker 3: to make somebody pay, because it still doesn't make the
Speaker 3: pain go away, you know. So it was very interesting
Speaker 3: to me to take that journey and kind of figure
Speaker 3: out and fill in the gaps of how a human
Speaker 3: being can decide that because I'm hurting, I'm going to
Speaker 3: hurt you, I'm going to kill you and hopefully that
Speaker 3: makes me feel better, you know, because I watch True
Speaker 3: Crime sometime and you know, I love our country. I
Speaker 3: love but there's a lot of gun violence going wrong.
Speaker 3: People are acting out in some ways that more violence
Speaker 3: will make me whole. That's crazy. That's a crazy concept
Speaker 3: to me, and so I wanted to explore that kind
Speaker 3: of psyche.
Speaker 1: You know, people that just hurt and hurt people hurt people.
Speaker 3: Well, that's exactly right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, when you don't, when you have all that unhealed trauma,
Speaker 5: that you haven't dealt with you just go around, well.
Speaker 3: Exactly exactly so, but the journey, So we understand intellectually
Speaker 3: how that works, right, but do we actually if we
Speaker 3: were a fly on the wall and saw people move
Speaker 3: in that direction and move to that and go and
Speaker 3: purchase a and go and do and all of that.
Speaker 3: So it's the nuances of it that are interested in me,
Speaker 3: not just the you know, the sweeping bullet point concept.
Speaker 5: Have you ever had the emotionally recover from a role
Speaker 5: you played and which one took you out the most personally?
Speaker 3: Mmm, it's it's it's one that it's one that nobody ever,
Speaker 3: that people didn't really see. It was a part of
Speaker 3: a trilogy of uh short stories that was on Showtime
Speaker 3: years and years and years ago, and with Andrew Andrew,
Speaker 3: I can't even remember all the people who were in it,
Speaker 3: but the character was raped and when we shot it
Speaker 3: it was a rainy day in Toronto, and you know,
Speaker 3: the whole thing, the being thrown down, the invasion of it.
Speaker 3: Of course there was no sexual act, but it really
Speaker 3: took me a little while to process all that and
Speaker 3: like release it because that aggressive of act was so
Speaker 3: harsh to my spirit. Even though we were acting, I
Speaker 3: had to just kind of heal from it. And that
Speaker 3: was an unpleasant one and it took a while, and
Speaker 3: I cried myself to sleep that night. So my heart
Speaker 3: goes out to you know, women or any human beings.
Speaker 2: Who've been you know, sexually assaulted.
Speaker 3: Sexually assaulted.
Speaker 2: When you hear that in the news, did that bring
Speaker 2: you back there?
Speaker 3: When I hear it in the news, that you know, again,
Speaker 3: it's the nuances of something. So we hear, oh, somebody
Speaker 3: was rape, somebody was sexually assaulted, but the nuances of
Speaker 3: actually that happening to you, your body being invaded, you
Speaker 3: being overpowered, you being overthrown. It's frightening and it's painful
Speaker 3: and it's helpless.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. And you've also portrayed like a lot of
Speaker 1: powerful matriarchs, right. I always wondered like, what did you
Speaker 1: powerful women?
Speaker 3: They're not all matriarches. Sometimes they don't, you know, there
Speaker 3: are powerful women who don't have children, can't have children. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I always wonder like, what did your mother or even
Speaker 5: grandmother teach you about that? Like commanding presence that you bought.
Speaker 1: To those worlds don't know.
Speaker 3: I think that's an energy that somebody's kind of born with,
Speaker 3: and my mother has it. And it's funny because my
Speaker 3: mother has this commanding presence and she's, you know, in
Speaker 3: her youth was really beautiful and well groomed and all
Speaker 3: of that. Yet as her daughter, I know the nuances.
Speaker 3: So that's why I texture all of the women, because
Speaker 3: I was raised by women who have a lot of
Speaker 3: dimensions to them, you know, who have a lot of insecurities,
Speaker 3: and sometimes insecurities are all wrapped up and dressed up,
Speaker 3: you know, in fancy clothes or you know, jewelry or
Speaker 3: perfume and you know, hair and all of that. But
Speaker 3: that doesn't have a lot to do with the evolution
Speaker 3: of a soul. So I find it very interesting to
Speaker 3: always go a little bit past the power and into
Speaker 3: the other nuances of who people are. So they're never
Speaker 3: just always powerful with no problems with without character flaws.
Speaker 3: They're not perfect. There always some little missing link that
Speaker 3: they could make better that makes them not quite the
Speaker 3: person they want to be.
Speaker 5: Is it even possible to capture the complexities of a
Speaker 5: human in one role, because it feels like you can
Speaker 5: only focus on like one or two layers of a person.
Speaker 3: Well, that all has to do well. Of course, it
Speaker 3: depends on script. It depends on the way a writer
Speaker 3: allows you to develop a character. Yeah, so you can't
Speaker 3: tell the whole story. I mean when I did Josephine Baker,
Speaker 3: we couldn't tell the whole story. How can you tell
Speaker 3: the whole How can I tell your entire story? You know?
Speaker 3: I mean I could read your book and you probably
Speaker 3: didn't tell your whole entire story. You know, that's a
Speaker 3: very specific You can only make some decisions and take
Speaker 3: an angle and make some creative decisions and go with that,
Speaker 3: you know, because there are there are if you look
Speaker 3: at a human being, there are like central events in
Speaker 3: people's lives that make a big difference in who they
Speaker 3: turn out to be. So you can make a choice.
Speaker 3: And that's not just the actor, that's the writer, the director.
Speaker 3: I can decide in my mind, these are events that
Speaker 3: I know that occurred in this human being's life. So
Speaker 3: that will affect how I respond, Right, even if the
Speaker 3: audience doesn't see it, the audience seeing those important events
Speaker 3: that happen to you help them have more compassion for
Speaker 3: your mistakes. I think understand. I mean, there's so many
Speaker 3: people that we love in the world, who are cultural icons.
Speaker 3: You know, big mistakes, you make mistakes, Well, something happened
Speaker 3: when you Something had to happen long before you made
Speaker 3: these mistakes that skewg your judgment, you know, so it
Speaker 3: I believe that human beings were born good. No baby
Speaker 3: is born a villain. No baby is born a murderer,
Speaker 3: And it's up to you know, how they're parented, what
Speaker 3: they're surrounded by, what they're exposed to, who they turned
Speaker 3: out to be.
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask about the evolution of Hollywood, right,
Speaker 2: meaning I don't think people look at movies as they
Speaker 2: did back then. I wanted to get your thoughts on it,
Speaker 2: right because you know, when a movie came out, everybody
Speaker 2: wanted to go see that movie. But now I feel
Speaker 2: like you we don't have that same the same feeling
Speaker 2: towards movies a lot of the times. Like I was
Speaker 2: just talking to Charlamaine about the Clarissa Shields movie, and
Speaker 2: I was like, it was an amazing movie, but I
Speaker 2: forgot it came out. It came out on Christmas and
Speaker 2: I happened to see it on a plane and I'm like, damn,
Speaker 2: this was a good movie movie.
Speaker 3: And you didn't. Yeah, well, technology has sort of changed everything,
Speaker 3: I think, you know, because everything is accessible. When when
Speaker 3: movie culture was a family event, when people waited with
Speaker 3: faded breath to go and see a movie the opening
Speaker 3: of a movie, it was because they weren't going to
Speaker 3: see it. If you miss it in the movie theater,
Speaker 3: you might not see.
Speaker 2: It until it went to Blockbuster.
Speaker 1: My age.
Speaker 2: But yes, we went to the block till you could.
Speaker 3: Get it and block damn blockbuster Blockbuster in a long time.
Speaker 3: But it was so like great because it's a family event.
Speaker 3: You know, everybody gets together, you go in. People even
Speaker 3: used to like want to look cute, They have dinner
Speaker 3: before and the family goes to the movies and shares
Speaker 3: this idea even I mean, I loved drive ins. Drive
Speaker 3: ins were great because we're going our pajamas. But no,
Speaker 3: it's not like that anymore because people have access. Sometimes
Speaker 3: they have access to the movie before it's in a
Speaker 3: movie theater. So technology has kind of changed all that.
Speaker 2: But does that killed the experience? Like we were talking
Speaker 2: about even sinners, Like he said, you want to see
Speaker 2: it on imax because the sounds and the reality and
Speaker 2: seeing it on an airplane TV is not doing anything
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 3: What can I tell you? No, No, of course it's
Speaker 3: going to be good. But when I trained to be
Speaker 3: an actress, you know, when I was at Howard, when
Speaker 3: I trained, you know, privately, after college and all that,
Speaker 3: I was training to be on a big, thirty foot screen.
Speaker 3: It was not occurring to me that people would be
Speaker 3: watching my image on a three inch screen on a phone.
Speaker 3: It really that part makes me a little sad sometimes, Yeah,
Speaker 3: because I fell in love with movies and storytelling watching
Speaker 3: things on a big screen, or at least the Million
Speaker 3: Dollar Movie with my grandmother when you could you know,
Speaker 3: but this had been a movie and you couldn't see
Speaker 3: it anywhere else as you caught them, you know, you
Speaker 3: caught the late night movie and it was playing again.
Speaker 3: You couldn't just on demand it somewhere.
Speaker 5: Well, what's the difference, Like, how do you approach it
Speaker 5: differently as opposed to Okay, I know this is gonna
Speaker 5: be on a film, big screen, it's gonna be on TV.
Speaker 1: Like, how do you do you approach it differently? When
Speaker 1: you act.
Speaker 3: A little bit?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, when you know something is gonna be on
Speaker 3: a big screen and you trust the director, I'm so
Speaker 3: excited because I just did a thrill with Malcolm d Lee.
Speaker 3: That's what I was doing in South Africa. And we
Speaker 3: know that it is made for the movie theater. Okay,
Speaker 3: so when a screen is thirty feet tall, you really
Speaker 3: can think of thought and it will transmit. You know,
Speaker 3: you don't have two show people what you're feeling. You
Speaker 3: can simply feel what you're feeling, you know, And and
Speaker 3: that's so beautiful. But if you know it's on a tiny,
Speaker 3: a small screen, it kind of gives you freedom to
Speaker 3: be more animated, you know. I mean, you know, on
Speaker 3: a thirty foot screen, I mean I don't I don't
Speaker 3: want to see people's lips trembling and all that. But
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, I don't want to see somebody,
Speaker 3: you know, if there's surprize like eyes. But because that
Speaker 3: means your eyes are like fifteen, it's big, you know,
Speaker 3: and invasive. And I think it's film just pulls you
Speaker 3: into the experience, you know, and the smaller the screen
Speaker 3: that you don't have to think about it quite as much.
Speaker 3: So it can be different. But good acting is good acting.
Speaker 3: Believable acting is believable anywhere it could be on the
Speaker 3: stage a big screen television, right, but there are a
Speaker 3: little nuances that can change when you're doing it. For Bisically,
Speaker 3: how do you like seeing stories?
Speaker 5: How do you like to take That's an interesting question,
Speaker 5: I mean, and I'm hearing you say it now. And
Speaker 5: then I heard like one of my production partners, we
Speaker 5: was talking earlier this week and he was like, you
Speaker 5: shoot it.
Speaker 1: Then after you shoot it, you determine where it's gonna
Speaker 1: where it's gonna live. You can tell where it's going
Speaker 1: to live.
Speaker 5: And I had me just think, and I personally think
Speaker 5: I liked the theater, even though I like the comfort
Speaker 5: of home, but certain things I want to go see
Speaker 5: in theater. I enjoyed watching centers and theaters. I want
Speaker 5: to go see you I can't wait.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I enjoyed it. I still enjoyed the THEA too bad.
Speaker 3: I'm leaving we ago.
Speaker 2: You could have went too, because I like the comfort
Speaker 2: of my home and the safety of my home now
Speaker 2: with everything going on, I like being home.
Speaker 3: I know every now and then. I remember last year
Speaker 3: I was in Chicago. I went to see Pretty Thinks.
Speaker 3: I forgot the name of it, but it was it
Speaker 3: won the Oscar and I was leaning back on the seat,
Speaker 3: and the seat was kind of tweety, and all this
Speaker 3: sudden I got into my mind like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: what if somebody like had some kind of something that
Speaker 3: I could catch.
Speaker 5: Now, I'd be like that when I go to the Madinade,
Speaker 5: because I go to Madina's so nobody's in there, and
Speaker 5: so I'll be all the way to the top.
Speaker 1: So if somebody comes up there and sits by me,
Speaker 1: I'm like, why would you come?
Speaker 4: All all?
Speaker 3: It's a whole What in the world that's like being
Speaker 3: at a gym and the gym is completely empty. Why
Speaker 3: in the world are you going to choose the treadmill
Speaker 3: right next to me? I don't want to you grunting
Speaker 3: and breathing, you know.
Speaker 5: And I like the theater experience now because I'm learning,
Speaker 5: like how the IMAX experience enhances it.
Speaker 1: The other day I went to go see Thunderboats.
Speaker 5: I want to see Thunderbolt last week and I want
Speaker 5: to go see it in whether it RpK or r
Speaker 5: p X or something like that, and you can you can.
Speaker 3: You feel it? Yeah? Yeah? All the rumbring all this
Speaker 3: more experiential kind of well, we certainly need really quality
Speaker 3: escapism right now. I would say so. Yeah, it's great
Speaker 3: to be enveloped in an experience and lose oneself to
Speaker 3: just being taking in, taking in another story, taking in
Speaker 3: humanity from another point of view, whether it's action or whatever,
Speaker 3: it is, romance, sensual, whatever, it's just great to leave
Speaker 3: our problems behind and step into somebody else's reality.
Speaker 2: I think about you're talking about black stories.
Speaker 3: I know you're gonna call me Lynn.
Speaker 1: Lynn, you know, just Lyn.
Speaker 3: No, but would you please call me Lynn?
Speaker 1: I can say, miss Lynn.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's just respectful, It is respectful, okay, miss all right,
Speaker 3: Miss Lynn? What then if you're going to do that,
Speaker 3: I probably like what we feel better, you know? When
Speaker 3: to Southern.
Speaker 1: Born and raised, I'm from New York.
Speaker 2: He's from South Carolina, South.
Speaker 1: Carolina rais yes, ma'am.
Speaker 3: I never would have thought so.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 5: My family there right now, really my mother, dad, in laws, brothers, sisters, everybody, cousins.
Speaker 3: I didn't know. Okay, we country can that's right, right.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2: I was asked about, you know, you talked about our stories,
Speaker 2: black stories. Why do you think it's still so hard
Speaker 2: for black stories to be told and sold in Hollywood?
Speaker 2: When you know, obviously we're supporting people are going to see,
Speaker 2: but they just don't want to produce them.
Speaker 3: Now, you know, we could just go on and on time. Well,
Speaker 3: the relevance of of who we are as a people,
Speaker 3: the entertaining nature of who we are as a people,
Speaker 3: the magic of who we are, of course, is always
Speaker 3: being downplayed, is always being made less important than it
Speaker 3: is in every in every aspect of our culture. I
Speaker 3: mean in fashion, nobody is going to say, wow, this
Speaker 3: is really something that was very much influenced by the
Speaker 3: raps that were worn by men in some you know,
Speaker 3: Western African tribe.
Speaker 2: Even the metcallamy thirty one million, how much went to
Speaker 2: organizations that benefit black and brown people?
Speaker 1: It says zero.
Speaker 3: So, you know, I just came back from South Africa,
Speaker 3: a country that I love. I love this country, but
Speaker 3: that the supremacy of others and the self importance of others,
Speaker 3: and I feel the insecurity of our wonder, you know,
Speaker 3: being threatened by our majesty, our creativity. So it's constantly
Speaker 3: a threat to people, it's constantly being belittled and made
Speaker 3: less important. That's just the nature of it. Because you know,
Speaker 3: I thought I would be you know, just getting away
Speaker 3: from some things, being in another country for two and everyboos.
Speaker 3: But it is so the true. I mean, I go
Speaker 3: to Victoria Falls, which which is called Mosa Tuna, you know,
Speaker 3: and that's the storm, the storm, the storm that thunders.
Speaker 3: I think that's the true tribal you know, Quosa. I
Speaker 3: think it's Closa the language, and that was the name
Speaker 3: of it. So this English explorer comes the tribe, show
Speaker 3: him this seventh one of the seven Wonders of the world,
Speaker 3: and he says, the livingstone, you know, oh marvelous. Yes,
Speaker 3: I discovered this. I think I should gift it to
Speaker 3: the queen and name it after Crazy. So that's Victoria Falls,
Speaker 3: you know. So it's a constant kind of wanting something
Speaker 3: that doesn't belong to you, or wanting to quiet things
Speaker 3: that are threatening to you or makes you seem less interesting,
Speaker 3: or is has commercial value, but you want to own it.
Speaker 4: So that.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's the same story over and over and
Speaker 3: over and over again. So sometimes I feel like if
Speaker 3: we just keep just talking about it, we're just romancing,
Speaker 3: you know, like, oh, dead mess. Because I can't see
Speaker 3: I can't see white supremacy disappearing. I can't see the
Speaker 3: need to make others small to feel strong. I don't
Speaker 3: see it leaving right.
Speaker 5: And the hilarious thing about white supremacy is that we're
Speaker 5: not the threat to your existence. White supremacists are the
Speaker 5: threat to white supremacist existence.
Speaker 3: Well, of course, But when you get to the point
Speaker 3: when we're just even hitting the tip of an iceberg
Speaker 3: talking about cultural things, artistic things, and why you know,
Speaker 3: so just story which was so just play could be
Speaker 3: done and do all that box office back thirty years
Speaker 3: ago with Adolph Caesar and Denzel you know, and then
Speaker 3: after that there's still a earth or how you could
Speaker 3: have ladies sings the Blues and it'd be so incredible.
Speaker 3: But you know, thank god, HBO said what twenty years later,
Speaker 3: let's do Josephine Baker, I mean, how many stories? So
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter often, like what the box office is
Speaker 3: that it actually made money, they just don't see the
Speaker 3: relevance of filling out theaters with more. And sometimes we
Speaker 3: maybe don't even we maybe don't you know, put forth
Speaker 3: the stories that move us forward. I mean, there's so
Speaker 3: much complexity in race, in every corner of it. What
Speaker 3: do you think?
Speaker 1: I think everything you just said is absolutely correct, you know,
Speaker 1: But does.
Speaker 3: It make you tired you have these conversations? Does it
Speaker 3: make you you know, because you have so many of
Speaker 3: these conversations, it.
Speaker 5: Makes me tell and when we're not doing anything about it.
Speaker 5: But I think that there's a lot of people that's
Speaker 5: doing things about it, and I'm not looking.
Speaker 3: For Ryan Coogler's definitely doing I am just Ryan. I
Speaker 3: want to work with you. You are brilliant. He is
Speaker 3: just so brilliant and courageous and just and authentic, you know,
Speaker 3: just so multi layered in his message. So there's always
Speaker 3: always something that moves us forward.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: We got all the leaders we got and now maybe
Speaker 3: we have a pope, will be some voice in something
Speaker 3: to speak up.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It's there's always I have faith, I hope, but I
Speaker 3: have faith that there'll always be something that will bring
Speaker 3: a balance to it.
Speaker 1: Well, that's something that's always God.
Speaker 3: I think, Well, yeah, it's always it, that's right. But
Speaker 3: God will always provide some new voice, some new leader, groom,
Speaker 3: somebody that we don't know that will come out of
Speaker 3: nowhere and help us to get through this.
Speaker 1: I love you.
Speaker 2: I said you have to leave at nine for the
Speaker 2: five oh I do.
Speaker 1: I do exactly. Relax, You're just tired me.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, perfect.
Speaker 1: You know I love your longevity in the game.
Speaker 5: I don't think we applaud that enough in people, just
Speaker 5: the fact that somebody can be around for so long
Speaker 5: and be so consistent.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: Was there ever a time in your career when you
Speaker 5: felt invisible? And how did you push through that season?
Speaker 3: Well? You were just talking about God, right, So those
Speaker 3: times when you say, God, I've contributed, I've done you know,
Speaker 3: I've tried to do good work all this time? Why
Speaker 3: is nobody seeing it? Why is the continuum? Right? So, yeah,
Speaker 3: that happens. And then I have to have faith that
Speaker 3: this gift that was deposited in me, this purpose that
Speaker 3: was put in to me, what is not there for nothing,
Speaker 3: and that the right vehicle will come or perhaps maybe
Speaker 3: what God is saying, well, you need to do the
Speaker 3: right vehicle your damn self, because I've given you all
Speaker 3: kinds of talent to do so. So you know whether
Speaker 3: or not I'm obedient to that. You know, we'll no
Speaker 3: maybe in our next conversation, but of course, and I
Speaker 3: get through it with God. I get through it with
Speaker 3: my love of storytelling, my love of acting, of being
Speaker 3: a part of this phenomenon.
Speaker 5: Why wouldn't you be obedient to God telling you to
Speaker 5: make your own? Like, what would even be the hesitation.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's a hesitation of I don't know
Speaker 3: if I should do it. It's the energetic, the energetic
Speaker 3: activity of what it takes to do it and to
Speaker 3: sell it, you know, to see it all the way through.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm saying. Ryan Coogler is just so inspiring,
Speaker 3: you know, because he went all around Africa to many
Speaker 3: many countries before he did Black Panther, you know, researching,
Speaker 3: He researched the Blues and all those So I mean,
Speaker 3: so it takes it's me wanting to put forth all
Speaker 3: the energy, effort layers that it takes in a craft
Speaker 3: that I haven't spent my life developing, like acting telling
Speaker 3: the story, but creating the story like taking a pen
Speaker 3: and putting it on. And I kind of always want
Speaker 3: to be good at what I do. So the sloppy copy,
Speaker 3: I just feel like, yeah, the sloppy coffee might scare
Speaker 3: the shot out of me, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, I get this this, you know, like
Speaker 3: a blank page. So so That's why it's not a
Speaker 3: brazen disobedience. It's more maybe a lack of.
Speaker 5: I love when I hear, you know, the ogs talk
Speaker 5: about people like Ryan, because I wonder, what is Ryan
Speaker 5: doing that you haven't seen before?
Speaker 1: Because you know, you know the Gordon parks Is and
Speaker 1: the Melvin Van.
Speaker 5: Peebles and the Kathleen College, the Spike Lee's like, you know,
Speaker 5: all of these people have created great black work as well.
Speaker 3: Well what what what what? What Ryan is doing is
Speaker 3: taking that same kind of authority, creativity, uh, authenticity into
Speaker 3: genres that we're not usually Yeah, you know, so that
Speaker 3: so that's wonderful, you know, So we have voices and
Speaker 3: being told in all those areas you know, sinners is
Speaker 3: you know, well there's but yeah it's vampires, right and
Speaker 3: the blues and you know, so authentically moving us into
Speaker 3: not camp not, you know, just authentically like this is
Speaker 3: a real story, not like a shiny costume but a
Speaker 3: tweet suit and it's been around a long time, it has.
Speaker 1: Character, it still feels black, and.
Speaker 3: That's exactly right. So that's why I applaud him. So
Speaker 3: because we need the new voices, right, we're talking about
Speaker 3: new voices. We need new creative leadership. We need, we
Speaker 3: need for energy all the time.
Speaker 1: I think Jordan Peel does a good job too, Yes,
Speaker 1: yes he does.
Speaker 3: He really, really really does a really great job. He's
Speaker 3: and I think there's so much more to come.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 2: Is there a movie role that you turned down that
Speaker 2: after seeing the movie, he was like, damn, I should
Speaker 2: have turned that one down. I liked that movie a
Speaker 2: part or a character.
Speaker 3: No, there there were one or two that they didn't
Speaker 3: choose me for that I thought I should have done.
Speaker 3: But then you know, you can never name those. You're no, no, no,
Speaker 3: we're not. We're gonna leave here with just it's gonna
Speaker 3: be smooth sailor.
Speaker 5: I've seen a lot of people on line comparing the
Speaker 5: role of Alicia to your Lady May roll, you know,
Speaker 5: and how do you feel about those compared?
Speaker 3: I mean, they can do what they want. I think,
Speaker 3: you know, Alicia, Lady May they have a kingdom and
Speaker 3: they're not gonna lose it. You know they have, you
Speaker 3: know what they have, They're not gonna lose. Lady May
Speaker 3: would not pick up a gun and go kill somebody.
Speaker 3: She might pray you out of the church, but she
Speaker 3: wouldn't take someone's life. Lady May is a God fearing
Speaker 3: woman who feels that putting her faith in God will
Speaker 3: help her do what she needs to do. Lady May
Speaker 3: had a long standing love affair with her actual real husband,
Speaker 3: even though they had problems, so it was a much
Speaker 3: more organized family structure. Alicia's out there on her own,
Speaker 3: you know, divorced by herself, trying to make something of
Speaker 3: her son, not having much faith in anything, so therefore
Speaker 3: feeling like she's got to take care of it. All
Speaker 3: they have in common that they're well groomed women, but
Speaker 3: I really pay more attention to the diversity in these
Speaker 3: women's emotional experiences. So for me, they're very different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they're looking at the on screen diva, well.
Speaker 3: This is it, and yeah, yeah, not like who they are.
Speaker 3: And it's not always my fault. I am not somebody
Speaker 3: who says it's in my contract that I have to
Speaker 3: have fabulous clothes, and I think home with me when
Speaker 3: I go, they must be gorgeous, they must be designer.
Speaker 3: People see that in me, and they it always just
Speaker 3: even if I'm trying to be less. But did you
Speaker 3: see my film Albany Road. You didn't see that? You
Speaker 3: see Albany Road because it was an independent film that
Speaker 3: didn't have great distribution. But there's absolutely no glamor. It
Speaker 3: was last year we won several film awards and it's
Speaker 3: me and Renae Elast Goldsbury and a lot of great actors.
Speaker 3: But you see that stuff, they don't. It doesn't stay.
Speaker 3: I was funny. I was not glamorous. I was no, no, no,
Speaker 3: so there are I've played My Maid and you know
Speaker 3: and this, and but they don't see them. They don't
Speaker 3: seem to stick. They like. People like what they like.
Speaker 2: They like, Yeah, they like see But do you still
Speaker 2: you don't still audition or do you still audition? Do
Speaker 2: you enjoy the audition process or is it one of
Speaker 2: those things now you're like, give me what I want.
Speaker 3: We just talked about Hollywood. Why are you asking me?
Speaker 2: And you got hits on the board?
Speaker 5: I do, I do.
Speaker 3: I've made classes. I mean, you know, I'm a horse
Speaker 3: that you can bet on. You know. I don't mean
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna. I will not I will not break
Speaker 3: a leg or lose the race for you. I will
Speaker 3: take it to the end and people will feel something
Speaker 3: that's the truth. But that is not always rewarded, and
Speaker 3: there's you know, so yeah, many times I'm invited to
Speaker 3: do things. I was invited to do the Shy, I
Speaker 3: was invited to do Albany Road. I was invited to
Speaker 3: do the film I just did with Malcolm d Lee,
Speaker 3: which I have great, uh expectation that it'll be good.
Speaker 3: But then sometimes it's like, oh, really, well, we just
Speaker 3: need to see her, we need to see her do it,
Speaker 3: prove it. And many many, many, many many people. Yeah,
Speaker 3: after the air and now even the Golden Globe nomination
Speaker 3: and after the absolutely absolutely. It's because here's the thing,
Speaker 3: so much of casting in Hollywood and Hollywood is based
Speaker 3: upon fear. So like, you don't want to make a mistake.
Speaker 3: A director wants to be sure, maybe that you can
Speaker 3: deliver their vision of something, and nobody wants to take
Speaker 3: the blame. Nobody wants to take a fall. So show me,
Speaker 3: prove it to me. I don't know if every everybody
Speaker 3: goes through, but I think if you ask many actors,
Speaker 3: probably not Denzel or Sam or you know this, it
Speaker 3: tends to be a little bit easier for our male stars.
Speaker 2: You feel you get the flowers you deserve for all
Speaker 2: the roles and the hits and the big movies and
Speaker 2: the big shows. You feel like you get the flowers
Speaker 2: that you deserve. Honestly, well, let me.
Speaker 3: Say, I think I'm more in the I'm more in
Speaker 3: the in the market for like, because you know, flowers
Speaker 3: wilt and die. So I'm good with I mean, I
Speaker 3: understand when they say I want to give you your
Speaker 3: flowers while you I know, but you know, give me
Speaker 3: some diamonds, give me some things that stick, that continue
Speaker 3: to to gain value and so classics. So an opportunity
Speaker 3: to do more films that are stories that will be classics,
Speaker 3: that will stick around after I'm long gone is what
Speaker 3: I want. I don't need so much people sitting around saying, oh,
Speaker 3: you did so good and you're an icon, and you
Speaker 3: know on your shoulders you open doors for me. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm opening doors for myself still, you know, I still
Speaker 3: have stuff I want to do, you know. So the
Speaker 3: Black Critics Association on me this year at their luncheon,
Speaker 3: not at their evening big gala. But it was beautiful
Speaker 3: at the luncheon because it's more intimate and people care. Gil, Gil,
Speaker 3: don't don't listen to that, Gill. You don't know gil No,
Speaker 3: because people really talk real smack at the luncheon. They
Speaker 3: really it's not so formal. I really really enjoyed it
Speaker 3: and I said something there that I really would not
Speaker 3: say probably at the gala, which is, thank you so
Speaker 3: much for the respect, thank you for giving me flowers,
Speaker 3: that I open doors for you and you're inspired and
Speaker 3: all that. But I mean, I really don't feel comfortable
Speaker 3: when people say, you know, on your shoulders, I stand,
Speaker 3: and please don't stand on my shoulders because I need
Speaker 3: to be laying on my feet. I'm not going to
Speaker 3: be put in some corner. And as long as I
Speaker 3: can just keep this. I heard that ault therapy and
Speaker 3: red light therapy really you know, tightened skin. So as
Speaker 3: long as I can keep it, then I have so
Speaker 3: much I want to do.
Speaker 2: What do you tell the young actress in college right now,
Speaker 2: Hampton University that is looking to be in this game?
Speaker 2: What do you tell that individual?
Speaker 1: Try?
Speaker 3: Is that your child or your girlfriend or who are
Speaker 3: you talking about? I'm trying to I just want to
Speaker 3: know who you're talking about. That is so mean, That
Speaker 3: is so mean. I would say, you know that it's
Speaker 3: really important two really be good at what you do
Speaker 3: to work on the techniques that will give you the
Speaker 3: upper hand when all that stuff is going on. You know, auditioning, nerves,
Speaker 3: you know action, you know, everything's going people if you
Speaker 3: have to have your game plan, So that's called technique.
Speaker 3: So I would say, you know, real study so that
Speaker 3: you have command of your own talent is really important.
Speaker 3: And then after that, to understand the shifts in this
Speaker 3: business that would give you visibility to even be considered,
Speaker 3: you know, that is important. Social media is important. Where
Speaker 3: where are people finding talent? You know, so figuring out
Speaker 3: the business part of it and how you can attain
Speaker 3: it because agents don't even want to represent people who
Speaker 3: don't already have credits. And then out in Hollywood, you know,
Speaker 3: everything's behind the gate, but every audition is like virtual,
Speaker 3: so you don't even get to there. There is no
Speaker 3: couch thing even that you have to worry about because
Speaker 3: there's they just virtual. It's all virtual there. You don't
Speaker 3: even have to be worried about that. It's like, oh,
Speaker 3: can you send a tape where it has to be
Speaker 3: in by five o'clock, and you know they get one
Speaker 3: hundred tapes and then a casting director goes to that,
Speaker 3: so you don't even have the opportunity for your personality
Speaker 3: to stand out or whatever you're trying to.
Speaker 4: Say.
Speaker 1: You don't have the opportunity to sleep your way to
Speaker 1: the top.
Speaker 3: No, I didn't want to say it because I have
Speaker 3: to be careful. Like land Wit Phil was talking about
Speaker 3: what is she doing for young It's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3: People take things out in front of yeah. Yeah, so
Speaker 3: you don't even get to get in the room. So
Speaker 3: learn the business and how you can amplify your talent,
Speaker 3: but first, please be good. Mediocrity it's just the most
Speaker 3: boring thing.
Speaker 5: I've got two more questions, because I know you got
Speaker 5: to go what does success look like to you at
Speaker 5: twenty five? And how that definition changed?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: Oh, at twenty five, I wanted an oscar. I still
Speaker 3: don't have one. I haven't even been in anything that
Speaker 3: would give me a consideration for an oscar. I haven't
Speaker 3: even been in that conversation I would. I don't know.
Speaker 3: That was just a childhood It's superficial. I know it is,
Speaker 3: but oh my goodness, I just it was just sort
Speaker 3: of something I romanced in my life. Right, So I
Speaker 3: still have the twenty five year old version of fat
Speaker 3: But now I just am more comfortable with myself and
Speaker 3: I trust myself more. And what was different with my
Speaker 3: twenty five year old self than now? I think I
Speaker 3: was much more of a romantic and now I'm not
Speaker 3: so much of a romantic.
Speaker 1: Really, I don't think so.
Speaker 3: I I okay, here's the thing. I am a romantic,
Speaker 3: but I thought that being a romantic about life meant
Speaker 3: that you would find the best of romance, that life
Speaker 3: would be so romantic. And I don't think that life
Speaker 3: is as romantic as I thought.
Speaker 1: You are aging like fine wine.
Speaker 5: Right, So what's the most misunderstood thing about being a
Speaker 5: woman who ages publicly in Hollywood?
Speaker 3: That they that there's some kind of neutering thing that
Speaker 3: goes on, you know, where you don't think of women
Speaker 3: as sensual or sexual beings or real you know, real women.
Speaker 3: Is stereotypical things that begin to happen in terms of
Speaker 3: roles and casting and writing. And that's what our black
Speaker 3: writers do it as well. It's not it's not a
Speaker 3: white Hollywood thing where this happens. It just happened, and
Speaker 3: it's boring as ship. It's really a boring.
Speaker 2: Be sexy. You can still be romantic. You don't have
Speaker 2: to Grandmammy. You don't have to anto me.
Speaker 1: That's why I call you Miss Whitfield, because if I
Speaker 1: call you Lynn.
Speaker 3: But that's boring though, But that's boring.
Speaker 1: Still got that everything, you still got the the sexiness.
Speaker 3: Well it's fun. And so I said, if I get
Speaker 3: this old therapy.
Speaker 2: Just keeping e things the mask and now you put
Speaker 2: the mask onto the red light.
Speaker 3: I have it. I don't do it as often as
Speaker 3: I should, but I'm going to because that would be
Speaker 3: the only thing, just keeping everything tight.
Speaker 1: But the energy about you, it's the energy that you have,
Speaker 1: is the energy stuff any Mills has. It's an energy police.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, lord, Yes, yes, so that's it. I
Speaker 3: just I just think they do that and that's boring.
Speaker 3: It is so so boring. Uh. How they the stories
Speaker 3: that they write, how you're perceived.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get what you're saying.
Speaker 5: They want to write you into parts that they think
Speaker 5: a older woman should be playing basically.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yes, they want to write that in you know,
Speaker 3: comfortable world. Everybody ain't got children, they are barren women.
Speaker 3: There are women who never had children who are really interesting,
Speaker 3: who have a life. And even if you do have children,
Speaker 3: if people have lives, separate from their kids and their
Speaker 3: husbands and their like appendage rolls. I don't know. I'm
Speaker 3: very just fascinated by interesting women who continue to be
Speaker 3: productive and have have a life, and they do and
Speaker 3: we do, so I don't like that.
Speaker 2: We appreciate you for joining us always.
Speaker 3: And I don't want to end on something I said.
Speaker 3: I don't like that. Does that sound fussy? No? No,
Speaker 3: but I mean no. I know we have to go,
Speaker 3: but you will always get me talking, and I always
Speaker 3: leave here saying did I say anything that's gonna be?
Speaker 1: You've earned the right to say whatever you want. That's okay, right, right?
Speaker 3: But did he tell you that I was one of
Speaker 3: the early people to make him take his hat off?
Speaker 3: And I don't know how many people have felt his
Speaker 3: and how and how it just is amazing. I'm just
Speaker 3: so happy and i've seen you without and you're very
Speaker 3: handsome with.
Speaker 2: When when you come up here, he starts to blushing
Speaker 2: and pace.
Speaker 3: Back and yeah, I saw y'all sitting up in here
Speaker 3: looking border ship before I got here. But thank you
Speaker 3: so much, But thank you so much, and thank you
Speaker 3: for supporting the Shy and all my cast made, and
Speaker 3: mainly for supporting me always and always being kind and
Speaker 3: never making me too controversial. But I was saying, maybe
Speaker 3: I need more controversy because then you don't think you.
Speaker 1: Don't want to be contrived.
Speaker 5: That's why I'm glad what you I don't know if
Speaker 5: he was trying to do that, but contrived contriversy like
Speaker 5: contrived controversy.
Speaker 1: You don't need that.
Speaker 3: I don't, right, I can't even do it. I know
Speaker 3: I can't. But you know, the people who do, they
Speaker 3: find them. Come on, see, I don't agree with that.
Speaker 1: I don't agree with that.
Speaker 5: I feel like the people who are actually good because
Speaker 5: you said that earlier, make sure you're good. You're actually good.
Speaker 5: Everybody knows that you're you're great. I think that's it
Speaker 5: hurts to say, but it's a lost art of being great.
Speaker 5: But anytime you're doing art, you should be being great.
Speaker 5: I don't have a lot of great people out here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or at least trying. You know, we can make
Speaker 3: mistakes and do a sloppy copy and maybe it didn't work,
Speaker 3: but keep working at it and getting down to you
Speaker 3: want to act.
Speaker 1: No, I'm actually going to be I'm producing.
Speaker 3: You're producing.
Speaker 1: I like producing.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's good. I could see that.
Speaker 2: What about you I did before. But I'm good, You're good.
Speaker 2: I'm good.
Speaker 3: I know it's a lot of work. It's hard to work.
Speaker 3: It's a lot of work. Well, you won't thank you
Speaker 3: so much.
Speaker 2: Season seven of the Shot is streaming now, Miss lynd
Speaker 2: Wit Phil, thank you so much.
Speaker 3: You're quite welcome. Thank you for having me wake that
Speaker 3: ass up in the morning.
Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club