Speaker 1: Welcome to Checking in with Michelle Williams, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. Hey, everybody, there are just
Speaker 1: some folks that I just can't wait to talk to,
Speaker 1: especially when you see folks on your screen all the time,
Speaker 1: such a light, just beautiful, and they just seem like
Speaker 1: so much fun. So today I'm excited to talk to
Speaker 1: Denise Boute. She has pivoted, she's got her own seasonings
Speaker 1: and cook book, but yet she is still amazing on screen.
Speaker 1: We can't talk too much about specific acting work because
Speaker 1: we are on a strike. We are on strike, and
Speaker 1: that being said, I want to thank everybody for your
Speaker 1: love and your so port and patients as the actors
Speaker 1: navigate through the strike. But listen, Denise Boute, you know,
Speaker 1: has been on every network that you can probably imagine,
Speaker 1: on our favorite shows like Meet the Browns and Family Business,
Speaker 1: and she's just awesome. Y'all. Just stay tuned. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have a good time. Let's get going, okay, y'all. It
Speaker 1: is a joy and honor to have who I know
Speaker 1: to be an amazing heart and amazing so Louisiana Bread.
Speaker 1: You know, she's been on so many of our favorite
Speaker 1: shows like Meet the Browns and family Business, and she
Speaker 1: starred in a lot of our favorite movies on BT, Hallmark,
Speaker 1: TV one and the Big Screen. Come on, come on,
Speaker 1: so y'all, I'm excited.
Speaker 2: The skin is popping, the hair is always hairing, the
Speaker 2: brows are always full in lush, and she is checking.
Speaker 1: In with the y'all, her pray LANs getting to them.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that, Denise Boute, welcome you down.
Speaker 3: I'm just trying to keep up with you, girl, trying
Speaker 3: to be back here.
Speaker 1: Listen, we are in the middle of a strike, a
Speaker 1: sack sack after a strike which we both are members of.
Speaker 1: It is a blessing to be in, uh a union.
Speaker 1: There's some great things about it, but we are noticing,
Speaker 1: you know, some issues going on, and uh the actors
Speaker 1: have decided to be in support of what was originally
Speaker 1: the writer's strike. And then the actors.
Speaker 2: Was like, now wait a minute, some of these shows,
Speaker 2: that's all right.
Speaker 1: Now we are being affected. Some aren't seeing certain residuals
Speaker 1: and the shares that are actually well deserved. And so Denise,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about that. How you're holding up, how
Speaker 1: you doing well?
Speaker 3: Here's the deal.
Speaker 2: It's hard to get the right information right now because
Speaker 2: you're seeing what the studios are saying, you're seeing what
Speaker 2: the you know, the the Union is saying, and it's
Speaker 2: kind of hard, I guess you would say, to decipher.
Speaker 3: What's really going on.
Speaker 2: So we kind of have to read between the lines,
Speaker 2: but at the same time try to stay positive and
Speaker 2: figure that.
Speaker 3: They've got it under control.
Speaker 2: But the only thing is, here's what I will say,
Speaker 2: we got a David in Goalia situation going on, right, Yes,
Speaker 2: we had a David in Galaia situation going on. And
Speaker 2: I was trying to explain it to my mom yesterday,
Speaker 2: and basically, if you don't keep ahead of technology, it's
Speaker 2: going to golf.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's all there is to it. So there
Speaker 3: have been rumblings, you know, over the years or whatever
Speaker 3: about this whole.
Speaker 2: Thing, and you know, this whole AI situation. And the
Speaker 2: point is, I feel we didn't.
Speaker 3: Properly stay in front of the technology because it was coming.
Speaker 2: It was bound to happen. And I was explained it
Speaker 2: to my mom yesterday. I was trying to simplify it.
Speaker 2: Mom's almost eighty years old.
Speaker 3: So she's like, man, what's going on? I said, well, mom,
Speaker 3: let's go ahead and break it down in the terms.
Speaker 3: You understand, my dad was an appliance repairman. Okay, he
Speaker 3: would go in there and he would fix those boats
Speaker 3: and he would do all this stuff. Right. Well, then
Speaker 3: technology advanced. Then here come the young guys with a
Speaker 3: little box, you know, and they would they did diagnose
Speaker 3: things with a microchip. And my dad was like seventy
Speaker 3: something years old and he's like, I can't learn this,
Speaker 3: Like I don't know what's going on, you know, and
Speaker 3: he wasn't able to keep up with the technology. That's
Speaker 3: how it works. It evolves sooner or later.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, certain things disappear because it's no longer needed.
Speaker 3: Certain things become obsolete. So that's what we're kind of
Speaker 3: dealing with right now. You know, if you don't evolve
Speaker 3: with that changing.
Speaker 2: Technology and you don't get ahead of it and starting
Speaker 2: negotiating early, you're gonna get left behind.
Speaker 4: Oh you said, negotiate early. But those are tips tools
Speaker 4: and resources that maybe. Okay, So we've got actors, writers, producers, extra.
Speaker 2: Yes, we got a whole gamut of people that are
Speaker 2: trying to get a piece of this pie and negotiate.
Speaker 3: And it's broad.
Speaker 1: But when you say negotiate, I think that's the first
Speaker 1: time I've heard this word in the midst of all
Speaker 1: of this, because some people maybe you got the audition
Speaker 1: and you were so glad to get the audition that
Speaker 1: maybe you felt like you couldn't negotiate because this is
Speaker 1: your first time, maybe just maybe a third time, but
Speaker 1: you don't know the power that you have. And it's
Speaker 1: not that you're negotiating to be a diva. You're negotiating
Speaker 1: for protection.
Speaker 3: And it's all said, it's always two fould And here's
Speaker 3: something I always keep in mind. There's a backup.
Speaker 2: No matter how important you are, no matter how bad
Speaker 2: they want you, there's a backup. So you have to
Speaker 2: always balance or whatever what's your worth? You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, And what is it that you are willing
Speaker 2: to risk to potentially not be a part of this.
Speaker 2: Because I'll be honest with you, girl, there are times
Speaker 2: that I've negotiated.
Speaker 3: And you know, it felt my worth and girl, and
Speaker 3: I see that movie a few months later, I'm like, gosh,
Speaker 3: you know, like it would have been you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, something great and grand that I didn't have
Speaker 3: that perspective on at the time, and sometimes you really
Speaker 3: just looking at the numbers. You're really trying to again
Speaker 3: own your power, no, your worth, do these things or whatever,
Speaker 3: and sometimes they MiG in the butt. So that's what's so,
Speaker 3: it's a typewrote.
Speaker 2: We're on a type rope right now, and we have
Speaker 2: to know what to give in order to get.
Speaker 3: But again, who is in this game is very broad.
Speaker 3: It's very broad. You know what it is that's going on.
Speaker 2: I mean, SAG's got a whole lot of different you
Speaker 2: know type actors and entertainers or whatever you take care
Speaker 2: of right now. And it's like I said, David and
Speaker 2: Goliath right now, girl, we're trying to play catch up.
Speaker 1: It is a lot going on. Denise, tell us, how
Speaker 1: did you get in this place? And how did you
Speaker 1: get here in the first place. How did you get
Speaker 1: to a place where from the time you were a
Speaker 1: little girl, teen woman, amazing actress. I guess what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to say, you were in a strike. But how
Speaker 1: did it start for you before any of this?
Speaker 3: How much time you got, Carol?
Speaker 1: I don't I try to be light on people's time,
Speaker 1: but we're open, go ahead.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, this is the part that a
Speaker 3: lot of folks in a group on a farm.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't love it. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: grew up on a farm, so I'm a.
Speaker 3: Very simple girl. You know.
Speaker 2: My chores were you know sometimes I hate to use
Speaker 2: the term, but slapping the hogs eating if I could
Speaker 2: carry the bag of feed, girl, you know, responsible for
Speaker 2: doing that. I was picking the eggs. I was feeding
Speaker 2: the chickens every day. I had chores. My grandparents. It
Speaker 2: was their farm and our house was like right next
Speaker 2: to it. Our main crop with sugarcane. So we were
Speaker 2: very much So that's a nothing one girl. When Queen
Speaker 2: Sugar came out, I was like, Okay, in fact, hen
Speaker 2: me tell you something true story.
Speaker 1: Don't tell me you were up for it for the
Speaker 1: role or something. Girl.
Speaker 3: No, I didn't even make it that far. So I
Speaker 3: made my proleins and got into Ava's office.
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 3: I got it because at the time I think she
Speaker 3: was a publicist.
Speaker 2: I think she was a publicist, right, Okay, so she
Speaker 2: had an office right not far from venture, right, So
Speaker 2: your girl did some investigative work. I knew I couldn't
Speaker 2: get into Oprah's office. I knew I couldn't get into
Speaker 2: Harboe right.
Speaker 3: So I was just like, you know what, I'm going
Speaker 3: to make a plea and I know this thing is coming.
Speaker 3: I'd heard rumblings of this thing. I'm like, I'm Queen Sugar,
Speaker 3: like I have the real Queen Sugar. So girl, needless
Speaker 3: to say, I did get into her office. Your course
Speaker 3: was not there. I gave it to her secretary and
Speaker 3: never heard of work. But I tried. I tried, girl.
Speaker 3: I gave it a valiant effort because I was just like,
Speaker 3: I know I'm gonna be on that show.
Speaker 1: But I tell you this, we don't know what's down
Speaker 1: the pipeline. No, seriously, we can laugh at that, but like, okay,
Speaker 1: but you were putting your faith to work.
Speaker 3: Girl.
Speaker 1: I'm gang.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm gonna say I'm ganged to like that.
Speaker 2: If I see a role or if I hear it
Speaker 2: in the breakdowns and my manager says something's coming down
Speaker 2: the pipe, I'm going after it. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you can get some flowers. I don't know if you're
Speaker 2: gonna get some gown caddy. I don't know what you're
Speaker 2: gonna get. You might get a bottle of spices. You're
Speaker 2: gonna get something, trying to figure out how did I
Speaker 2: get your prey les? Why do I feel like were
Speaker 2: we all gonna were a gift bag a show?
Speaker 1: Orcn the real baby? You were? It was the real
Speaker 1: I knew.
Speaker 2: I was like we were, Yes, you were on you
Speaker 2: were hosting on the Wheel.
Speaker 3: And I came out, girl, that was my introduction. I
Speaker 3: came out with a whole platter up for colon candy
Speaker 3: and Lannie had already had them before, so Lonnie knew
Speaker 3: what was up. But yeah, so that's that was it.
Speaker 1: Girl.
Speaker 2: That's the down home girl in me that I've never
Speaker 2: you know, left, That's just who I am.
Speaker 3: And so with regards to so I'll get back on track.
Speaker 3: With regards to the whole acting thing, this was not
Speaker 3: in my mirror, Like, this was not even something I
Speaker 3: fathomed at all. I wasn't a little girl like, oh
Speaker 3: my god, I see this person and I want to
Speaker 3: be Rudy Huxtable. That was never something that I aspire
Speaker 3: to do. And so I was saying a practical things. Girl.
Speaker 2: I was trying to get off the farm, like I
Speaker 2: was trying to get up off the part. Okay, I
Speaker 2: didn't know how I was going to do it, but
Speaker 2: that's what I was gonna do. Yeah, So basically I
Speaker 2: was like an overachiever, I guess you would say in
Speaker 2: high school because I knew.
Speaker 3: To need a scholarship. You know, I knew my family couldn't,
Speaker 3: you know, afford to do that, and so I knew
Speaker 3: I needed a scholarship. So graduated top of my class
Speaker 3: and got a scholarship to LSU. And originally I was
Speaker 3: in pre met girl. I knew I wasn't gonna be
Speaker 3: a doctor. I read that, But why did you not
Speaker 3: feel like you were going to be a doctor?
Speaker 1: You just felt it in your soul or something. Again,
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 2: Trying to get off the farm, and in my mind
Speaker 2: I wasn't exposed.
Speaker 1: To too much.
Speaker 3: I wasn't exposed to too many options.
Speaker 2: But in my mind, anytime a parent talked about their
Speaker 2: kid and they were with.
Speaker 3: Pride and they were just like, oh my kid did
Speaker 3: something great. They were a doctor, a lawyer, got it,
Speaker 3: they were doctor or lawyer.
Speaker 1: You felt that being on the farm wasn't as talk worthy.
Speaker 3: No, no, And so I knew, oh no, I was
Speaker 3: not saying on the farm that was not even a question. Okay,
Speaker 3: that was that was not an option, okay, but I
Speaker 3: picked one. I was like, okay, lawyer, you got to
Speaker 3: read a little too much. I don't know.
Speaker 2: And I was just like, you know what, let me
Speaker 2: go ahead and do this doctor thing. Because there's so
Speaker 2: many different types. You know, there's bound to be something,
Speaker 2: you know, dermatology something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't understand that dermatology takes several years also,
Speaker 3: not to diminish what they have to do. And so
Speaker 3: I was like one of my girls in the dormitory,
Speaker 3: she was mass communication and I was like, shoot, I
Speaker 3: could talk. I was like, you can get a degree
Speaker 3: by talking. I was like, that's what I'm talking about
Speaker 3: right there. Okay, So I was.
Speaker 1: You're money.
Speaker 3: I went and I went into her class or whatever
Speaker 3: checked it. I was like, that's my major, that's my major.
Speaker 2: So then I started interning out a news station WRZ
Speaker 2: Channel two news.
Speaker 1: You better come on.
Speaker 3: No, girl couldn't read the teleprompter too good.
Speaker 1: So I I'm upset. Now what it's hard, Michelle?
Speaker 3: Have you read it?
Speaker 1: I love teleprompters.
Speaker 3: No no no, no, no no no no. When you
Speaker 3: are reading this on the daily five o'clock news and
Speaker 3: this thing is scrolling or whatever, you've got to like,
Speaker 3: it's hard to get your pacing down. And I remember
Speaker 3: Sylvia Weatherspoon would come with me sometimes after work, and
Speaker 3: Sylvia would work with me sometimes on weekend.
Speaker 1: I just couldn't get the hang of it, got it.
Speaker 3: It was just a yeah, it was just a thing.
Speaker 3: But maybe now, you know, I've got glasses and stuff
Speaker 3: like that, I've got more practice, so maybe I could
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know, Michelle, So maybe I
Speaker 3: can actually do that later in life. But then the
Speaker 3: whole advertising thing came up so fast forward.
Speaker 2: I was at five different agencies or whatever, and I
Speaker 2: was climbing the ranks doing some pretty awesome stuff. And
Speaker 2: one of the agencies I worked at or whatever wasn't
Speaker 2: actually an agency, but it was Fossil that makes up
Speaker 2: purses and watches and all that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were launching their clothing line. And in order
Speaker 3: to you know, keep cause down or whatever, Carford.
Speaker 2: America, keep those casts down, they got a few of
Speaker 2: us around the around the business, I mean, to the
Speaker 2: corporation to model the clothing.
Speaker 3: They were launching a clothing line. So some of those
Speaker 3: went in a few of the local stores, and one
Speaker 3: of the local agencies actually reached out to them and
Speaker 3: found two of us and had a conversation and wanted
Speaker 3: to have a meeting, and lo and behold, I signed.
Speaker 3: And it got to the point where my boss was like, hey,
Speaker 3: you're missing a little too much work. I don't know
Speaker 3: what you're doing, but you need to make a decision.
Speaker 3: Here I am six months married.
Speaker 2: I go to my newly wet husband and I'm like,
Speaker 2: I want to try this.
Speaker 3: I want to see how he's like. Go. He was
Speaker 3: like yeah, and I'm not.
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, I'm not exaggerating. There was no hesitation
Speaker 2: in his voice. There was no hesitation in his voice.
Speaker 1: Did he ever tell you why was that he was
Speaker 1: so sure to say yes, honey gull because I put a.
Speaker 2: Time frame on it and basically said, hey, look if
Speaker 2: things don't happen in a year or two, which I
Speaker 2: don't know. You know, if I'd gotten to that point,
Speaker 2: I probably would have been like, let's give it another
Speaker 2: couple of months.
Speaker 3: Let's give it, you know, because it's hard, you know,
Speaker 3: when you've made you know, some advances to say I'm done,
Speaker 3: it's over.
Speaker 2: So that and he'd seen the stuff that happened, and
Speaker 2: he'd seen over the years.
Speaker 3: You know, I guess you would say.
Speaker 2: And again I feel kind of, you know, weird saying this,
Speaker 2: but how people would respond, you know, to me during
Speaker 2: certain things.
Speaker 3: And it's just like there's something to this.
Speaker 2: He was like, I don't know what it is, but
Speaker 2: this thing is not just halphazardly happened, you know. There
Speaker 2: there's he's orchestrating this, you know, And so it doesn't
Speaker 2: hurt to try.
Speaker 1: So were you in the arts in school in the
Speaker 1: when when I was.
Speaker 3: In elementary school. You know what I'm saying, No, my
Speaker 3: music to.
Speaker 1: Me, Okay, formal training.
Speaker 3: Played bird, I played Big Bird. I did I'm forgetting,
Speaker 3: I'm forgetting. There was okay, there was two. Let me
Speaker 3: break it down. There were actually two. Let's break it down.
Speaker 3: This was not my first time. So we had Clovy's
Speaker 3: Crawfish on the Bayou. I'm this, Michelle, I'm lowly.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to be really nice and civil and stay
Speaker 2: focused in at interview style.
Speaker 3: But it's the Big Bird for me. This is what
Speaker 3: I do, Michelle. Though this is the unexpected part of Denise.
Speaker 1: You never know.
Speaker 3: When you asked, I will tell Okay.
Speaker 1: So, so formal training, like you didn't go to school.
Speaker 1: You went because I'm trying to find the details. So
Speaker 1: you went from Far.
Speaker 2: To Fossil, Yeah, foreign to LSU to Fossil and again
Speaker 2: got an agent haphazardly like it just like I said,
Speaker 2: divinely orcert there is no rhyme or reason, makes no
Speaker 2: sense whatsoever. And then I was taking my first set
Speaker 2: of headshots okay, and this.
Speaker 3: Woman named sus Lanier took my headshot and she was like,
Speaker 3: I think you have something. She was like, I don't
Speaker 3: know what it is, but something tells me. She had
Speaker 3: been in the industry herself for years. Something tells me
Speaker 3: you have something.
Speaker 2: Was She was like, if you can come to Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: I'll introduce you to my partner, Jasper Cole, and I
Speaker 2: want him to meet you.
Speaker 3: You were just starting this agency, and I really think
Speaker 3: you have something. Okay, So I call up my girl
Speaker 3: from LSU.
Speaker 2: Her name is Victoria, and I called Victoria was like, look,
Speaker 2: can I sleep on your couch? Can I sleep on
Speaker 2: your couch or whatever for a moment and I want
Speaker 2: to meet these folks or whatever, and just kind of
Speaker 2: see I'd never been to Los Angeles, never been to
Speaker 2: Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: And she was like, yeah, sure, come out and I
Speaker 3: met her and Jasper until this day, Jasper is my manager.
Speaker 1: I love this story, Denise. As the kids say today,
Speaker 1: it takes a lot of audacity, Yeah, to just go
Speaker 1: and you are right being divinely orchestrated and guided. And
Speaker 1: the fact that you are still here it could only
Speaker 1: have been God purposed for you to be in this industry.
Speaker 2: There's no reasoning that, like, there's no reasoning behind how
Speaker 2: this all came about, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 2: again I gave myself that that you know, it was
Speaker 2: two years or whatever, and within a year and.
Speaker 3: A half here comes Styler Berry. I had no training, Michelle,
Speaker 3: I had no training whatsoever.
Speaker 2: But again, Tyler's the way that my you know, manager
Speaker 2: was she saw something, He saw something.
Speaker 1: You know, So when you would get in the camera,
Speaker 1: say with no training and say that or other actors
Speaker 1: who you know maybe went to Juliat or had the
Speaker 1: formal trainee, you weren't like are they can they tell
Speaker 1: I haven't had any training or you or.
Speaker 3: There wasn't insecurity. Absolutely when it started.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you something, when I got on Brown's,
Speaker 2: I finally, when when I got the offer i'd done.
Speaker 3: You know, I was a vampire. I was a vampire
Speaker 3: and I was a zombie. Yeah that was great.
Speaker 2: So that's how I could started out, you know, the
Speaker 2: first black girl that got killed or whatever.
Speaker 3: I wasn't playing the zombie, but the zombia killed me.
Speaker 3: You know, my heel, we.
Speaker 1: Weren't supposed to die. We're not supposed to die.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I was the first one, you know how
Speaker 3: I was the first one to die. A tripped in.
Speaker 3: The zombie got me. So anyway, not long after that,
Speaker 3: it's when Tyler came along. So yes, there was insecurity,
Speaker 3: you know. But Tyler was more so Medea, like I
Speaker 3: know him as Medea. So honestly, I didn't even know
Speaker 3: he was in my audition. I had no idea he
Speaker 3: was in No, ma'am. That's a whole other story. Okay.
Speaker 2: But it was a year and a half after I
Speaker 2: got here, and so as soon as I got the job,
Speaker 2: I found a comedy teacher and started working with her.
Speaker 3: Immediately started. So the first season of Brown's I was
Speaker 3: getting my four scripts on Friday, working them out with
Speaker 3: her on Saturday, and walking around with a tape recorder
Speaker 3: in my ears or whatever on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Okay, and let me tell you something. Logan Browning and
Speaker 2: I were the only newbies. Lama was not a newbie.
Speaker 2: Dave and Tam were not newbies. Okay, they knew what
Speaker 2: they were doing. So literally, Logan and I would take
Speaker 2: our lunches and be like, okay, you know, so we
Speaker 2: were nervous.
Speaker 3: I remember before anyone would yell.
Speaker 2: Action, my heart, my heart was beating out of my chest. Girl,
Speaker 2: it was literally beating out of my chest. But you know,
Speaker 2: once we started and action started, it just it was
Speaker 2: a bike, you know, you get on that bike. By
Speaker 2: season two it was kind of like it was, you know,
Speaker 2: because comedy.
Speaker 3: Is it's a rhythm. It's a rhythm. You learn that
Speaker 3: rhythm and beat. But comedy is harder than drama.
Speaker 2: For me, comedy is harder than drama because again it's
Speaker 2: a rhythm, you.
Speaker 3: Know, the rhythm and choreography. That's what comedy is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So when you're doing that, you got to catch
Speaker 2: whatever is given to you. And David a lot of
Speaker 2: times was if he was improper, So girl, you had
Speaker 2: to pick up what he was putting down.
Speaker 1: Yes, following and follow and flow and uh, lots of
Speaker 1: times I could sit and watch, you'd be like, is
Speaker 1: that improv or is that scriptive? But you like, I
Speaker 1: think to me, the length at which a scene could
Speaker 1: go on, I'm like, that's improv. But it's still amazing.
Speaker 1: It's still amazing. You're right, everybody got to be on
Speaker 1: their toes.
Speaker 3: Yes, you know, you can't be like, uh no, no,
Speaker 3: you literally have to come up with something or whatever,
Speaker 3: because I mean, Tyler, you get like two takes and
Speaker 3: this on like he's got several cameras. You miss your spot,
Speaker 3: you missed your dialogue. I mean, you're that's you know
Speaker 3: on you You got to figure it out.
Speaker 1: I am so encouraged by your story because I'm sure
Speaker 1: there could be someone listening who's probably feeling like they have. Well,
Speaker 1: me and you have similar stories about going to college
Speaker 1: feeling like I've got to do this so that I
Speaker 1: could do this. You know, it was about the four
Speaker 1: oh one K, the benefits, the nice salary. You know,
Speaker 1: it's all about that, and then both of us coming
Speaker 1: into an industry kind of with no. I had church
Speaker 1: and I wasn't creative and performing arts in junior high
Speaker 1: and high school, but they would never pick me to
Speaker 1: be in the plays, and I would audition and would
Speaker 1: audition and they would never pick me. And I literally
Speaker 1: still look back today like, Wow, I've done movies, I've
Speaker 1: done television, I've done Broadway, and so now we want
Speaker 1: to encourage you. If you're in training, still go. But
Speaker 1: if you find.
Speaker 2: Yourself knowing that you don't quite can't articulate it, but
Speaker 2: you know, oh you might.
Speaker 1: It seems like you're being guided in another direction.
Speaker 3: Lead It is your intuition, it is in you. If
Speaker 3: you listen to that little voice, things don't halfhazardly happen.
Speaker 3: I'm a true believer. And if we listen to what
Speaker 3: is going on around us, he's talking to us.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying audibly, I'm not saying that, but you
Speaker 2: have to pay attention.
Speaker 3: To the people around you and the little coincidences that
Speaker 3: are happy. I don't believe in coincidence. Again, I said,
Speaker 3: divinely orchestrate. That's what it is.
Speaker 1: It is it is.
Speaker 3: I don't even I don't even question it. In hide sight,
Speaker 3: I'm just like, oh, that's what you're trying to do.
Speaker 3: But in the moment or whatever, I just try to
Speaker 3: listen and not fight it. And I'm a very practical person.
Speaker 3: I'm a type A. If I show you my scripts,
Speaker 3: it is the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen in
Speaker 3: the world. Okay, but the beauty of it is you
Speaker 3: have to have faith because once you get on that set,
Speaker 3: the whole point is to free fo you, free for you,
Speaker 3: let all you do, all that preparation, all that studying.
Speaker 3: But when you get that's for me type A, I
Speaker 3: get to just free fall. That's the one time I
Speaker 3: don't have to be in control. Because if you're trying
Speaker 3: to control yourself, you know that you give a robotic performance,
Speaker 3: you know good, you can't do that. And so for me,
Speaker 3: my training came from vulnerability, you know, over time, letting
Speaker 3: my guard down and listening, just being interacting with that
Speaker 3: other human.
Speaker 2: When once you got the technicalities of the dialogue down,
Speaker 2: you're having a conversation with another person.
Speaker 1: And I mean because when we're talking, it's I could
Speaker 1: it's almost as if you're on TV, but you're being you.
Speaker 2: And you have to know the more in tune you
Speaker 2: are to you, the more you can let your guard,
Speaker 2: the most more authentic you can be and respond to
Speaker 2: that other person.
Speaker 3: That's your performance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's women like you and Alfree Woodard where it's
Speaker 1: like you're literally feeling like I'm just watching y'all just
Speaker 1: talk like it's not oh she oh, she wrote down
Speaker 1: on her script. Make sure to hunch my shoulder and
Speaker 1: have like you know what I mean. Now, Okay, Michelle, you.
Speaker 3: Said Alfree Woodard. That is the biggest compliment you can
Speaker 3: give me. You said me Alfree Woodard and my name
Speaker 3: in the same sentence. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, that's one
Speaker 3: of the most amazing compliments I've ever received in my career.
Speaker 1: It's the down to earth'sness of the And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that there weren't some roles where you had to
Speaker 1: be more dramatic or maybe play less than maybe what
Speaker 1: your type a personality is. I get that, but it
Speaker 1: still comes across natural and now we know why. And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna thank the farm for it.
Speaker 3: Hey. Hey, like I said, authentically, I wanted to get out.
Speaker 3: I just need to.
Speaker 1: Get out for I'm gonna think that being Louisiana. One
Speaker 1: more question about the side of producing the importance of
Speaker 1: what how you feel like? Is it important for you
Speaker 1: now producing your own projects?
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
Speaker 2: Because what am I doing in this downtime I have
Speaker 2: to channel my creative energies into something. See that's the
Speaker 2: whole thing, you know, with all this whole strike situation.
Speaker 2: And now we'll go to you talking about mental health.
Speaker 3: You have to have somewhere to pour your energy into
Speaker 3: so you're not waking up every day saying, I hope
Speaker 3: this stripe ends. What am I gonna do? We're not
Speaker 3: gonna work again.
Speaker 2: You have to take whatever anxiety you have and transform
Speaker 2: that energy into something you can pour into another passion.
Speaker 3: Where am I pouring it into projects? Baby, I'm writing
Speaker 3: my managers already. We're dusting off projects. We have new relationships.
Speaker 3: We have new relationship ships that we built for people
Speaker 3: that got some money. So let's go ahead and go
Speaker 3: into pre production on some of these items because we
Speaker 3: have time.
Speaker 1: And that my DearS, y'all are listening. That is what
Speaker 1: longevity gets you. That's what keeping trying to be a
Speaker 1: good integrity in this business. So like you said, you know,
Speaker 1: you can dust off a project like you said and
Speaker 1: go back to the people. You probably couldn't do this
Speaker 1: your first or second year in the game. Now you've
Speaker 1: got some equity.
Speaker 3: I didn't know those people, See, I didn't know those
Speaker 3: people to make it happen. But in developing and nurturing
Speaker 3: relationships and knowing who's got my back and knowing that
Speaker 3: people who are authentic.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. We want to work together again.
Speaker 2: I would love to do a project.
Speaker 3: Who's getting a call? Hey, I know you can find it.
Speaker 3: I know where I can do an independent project when
Speaker 3: we gonna make it happen. Okay, and guess what those
Speaker 3: gears are already in motion. Come on here, here's what
Speaker 3: I did, girl. I got back to that pot. Girl,
Speaker 3: I started to start.
Speaker 1: I've been talking. Listen, listen, I'm like, we're talking about
Speaker 1: pivoting and other passions. The food.
Speaker 3: The food growing up on that farm, my mom go
Speaker 3: stir my pot. Now, mind you let me break it down.
Speaker 3: We ate rice and gravy and pork and beans almost
Speaker 3: every night, like it was always the only thing that
Speaker 3: changed was the meat.
Speaker 1: Like we were.
Speaker 2: It was as if beans were vegetable. We never eat
Speaker 2: broccoli or asparagus or anything. We had beans.
Speaker 3: We had corn. We had corn, well corners, a.
Speaker 1: Lot of seafood and green oh.
Speaker 3: Honey, that was on the weekend. See weekend. Yeah, Now,
Speaker 3: seafood was a tree. Okay, when the script man came
Speaker 3: with his truck with his ice in his tailgate, with
Speaker 3: a shrip that he just got. Yes, that's how I
Speaker 3: went out. That was a treat. So on the weekends,
Speaker 3: oh yes, and the family every weekend got together on
Speaker 3: Sundays at Mama's mamma's house. Mama is a grandmother, Capa's
Speaker 3: a granddaddy. Okay, so yeah, so the whole family got together.
Speaker 2: We went and had that we would all leave with
Speaker 2: you know, whatever foods or whatever that were packed. If
Speaker 2: we had a oh, I'm taking it to Abushiti, which
Speaker 2: is when you do the cab for the the pig
Speaker 2: and you go home with you meet. Okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 2: that's a whole other that we're gonna have to have
Speaker 2: a whole of the show about that situation. But that's
Speaker 2: what I did and saw. I was familiar with it,
Speaker 2: but I wasn't in love with it. I didn't care
Speaker 2: about cooking until I went to Dallas, Texas, and I
Speaker 2: was in advertising.
Speaker 3: Because out of practical purposes, when you're just starting out,
Speaker 3: you don't have any money for takeout, you don't have
Speaker 3: any money for all these things or whatever.
Speaker 2: So I basically would call my mom on Saturdays and
Speaker 2: she would, you know, I would ask, okay, so.
Speaker 3: Mom, how do you do this? And how do you
Speaker 3: do that?
Speaker 2: The first time I made a gumboat, you know what
Speaker 2: she said, I wanted to know how dark the rook
Speaker 2: had to be because there was no ruin or jar.
Speaker 3: Now you're just buying a jar, girl, and keep it moving.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, yeah, you just go ahead and get
Speaker 3: your jar, girl, and you put that in the pot
Speaker 3: or whatever. Put it from you, though, it will be.
Speaker 2: Okay because we can only get it from like you
Speaker 2: or Miss Tina knowles her gumbo's amazing, so you yeah, okay, okay, So.
Speaker 3: Me and Miss Tina are gonna have to talk. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know if Miss Tina got time to put
Speaker 3: it in the jar, but I do so well, thank you, Michelle,
Speaker 3: because honestly, that was not a part of my trajectory
Speaker 3: trajectory with me. You from Louis, you know, so when
Speaker 3: you say now you can just get in the jar,
Speaker 3: wait wait wait wait wait wait, no, you from you
Speaker 3: know what it's supposed to look like, taste like, the
Speaker 3: texture that is supposed to be To credit Michelle, I
Speaker 3: will say inspired by.
Speaker 2: No, but just I just just just let's do something
Speaker 2: where we can do together.
Speaker 1: I love it. Okay, I'll take it, receive it.
Speaker 2: We'll do something one where I get to be I
Speaker 2: want to sample all the products.
Speaker 3: You want to sample all the products. Okay.
Speaker 2: So right now we just have spices, but we are
Speaker 2: expanding those going pralins that you taste it.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: It's a hell of a process in developing because they
Speaker 3: have to be authentic.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna put something or whatever on the market
Speaker 2: that is not true to my mama's recipe.
Speaker 3: That's my mama's recipe. Okay, but I'm the only one
Speaker 3: that can recreate it.
Speaker 1: Usually get a big old kitchen. Just get you a
Speaker 1: big old kitchen.
Speaker 3: Make some prailings.
Speaker 1: I'll come out and help you stamp them.
Speaker 3: And part of it, Michelle, here's the bad part. It
Speaker 3: takes so long to real sugar and caramel. It's a
Speaker 3: long process.
Speaker 2: And that's sugar butter. Okay, let me sugar butter caramel.
Speaker 2: Is there coconut? Is there anything coconut in pralins?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: I'm not from Louis.
Speaker 1: I'm from Illinois. Okay, so butter caramel, brown sugar. Am
Speaker 1: I right? What do I be tasting?
Speaker 3: I can't tell you my recipe of miso, okay, but
Speaker 3: but I will say, if you want to add coconut,
Speaker 3: you can, or you can add coconut flavoring.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've tasted now in you. I feel
Speaker 1: like I've tasted them.
Speaker 3: It's possible because there's different versions of it. Everybody makes
Speaker 3: their own version of it. So no, you are absolutely crey.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So here's the funny part. I'm gonna tell you how
Speaker 3: my mom taught me how to make a room. She said, well, baby,
Speaker 3: she's like, if you want to make a light room,
Speaker 3: she was like, you're gonna go to the inside your arm.
Speaker 3: You're gonna go to the inside. I'm just like, mom,
Speaker 3: it's like summertime. So I don't know, I got that, okay.
Speaker 2: And she was like, if you want to make a
Speaker 2: roof of gumbo, you want to make a dark room.
Speaker 2: She was like, so put your arm on the side
Speaker 2: of the pot.
Speaker 3: And when that roop gets that color, she was like,
Speaker 3: make sure your waters. It's gonna turn real quick. The
Speaker 3: color's gonna turn, so you make sure you got your water.
Speaker 2: And she was like, that's when you dump your water
Speaker 2: when you've got that root, this color, dump your water,
Speaker 2: and that's your roof.
Speaker 1: For your gumbert Here for essence Fest twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: because you're gonna eat twenty twenty four to really, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, let's do it. Maybe me, maybe we
Speaker 1: can do fast twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: I got a year, Okay?
Speaker 1: Is that pressure? Is that pressure?
Speaker 3: Honey? No, listen, I have time. I have nothing but
Speaker 3: time right now. Really, you were saying, we said pivot. Okay,
Speaker 3: well let's your girls go on pivot. And I wanted
Speaker 3: to do I have a I have a cookbook. I
Speaker 3: have a cookbook out here with Chef Gennard's. But I'm
Speaker 3: gonna go ahead and venture out. He did one of
Speaker 3: his own. Okay, I'm going to do one of my own.
Speaker 3: That's still my boy, right, But we were both talking
Speaker 3: about another concept, and so I'm also working on my
Speaker 3: cookbook because I've been pulling recipes. I didn't have time
Speaker 3: to do it.
Speaker 2: And the spices are called Weisiana Girl Weisiana Girls spices.
Speaker 3: So as you can see, I got the purple, the gold,
Speaker 3: and the green. Imagine the color coordination, right and real cute.
Speaker 3: She's so cute. You hold a gumbo with a nice y'all.
Speaker 1: Weezyana girl, w e e z I A n A
Speaker 1: girl dot com is where you can read your Teleprompter's
Speaker 1: where you can get these amazing spices. You have been
Speaker 1: an absolute joy. I know this is who you are.
Speaker 1: But do you feel the pressure to always stay lit up?
Speaker 1: And or do you have moments of anxiety or nervous
Speaker 1: like say with the strike, was there nervous?
Speaker 3: Is?
Speaker 1: How are you taking care of your mental health? Hell?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm nervous. Oh yeah, I mean I wouldn't sit
Speaker 3: down here and tell you I'm not, Like when am
Speaker 3: I gonna work again? You know, because again you're getting
Speaker 3: so much information, and law of that could be misinformation.
Speaker 3: I don't know. So I pick and.
Speaker 2: Choose how much I actually digest today, because again there's
Speaker 2: a lot of negative energy out there, so I don't
Speaker 2: I don't expose myself to too much of it.
Speaker 3: Right, But like I.
Speaker 2: Said, and I'm channeling that instead of staying in a
Speaker 2: place of anxiety and nervousness, I'm going and taking what
Speaker 2: I can't control.
Speaker 3: I can't control that.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, you can go on the picky line
Speaker 2: or whatever, marching and stuff. But I honestly I can't
Speaker 2: control that. What I can control is how I use
Speaker 2: my time, how it is that what I pour myself
Speaker 2: into in the meantime.
Speaker 3: And figuring out all these things that, Thank you Jesus,
Speaker 3: I was blessed with all these products.
Speaker 2: I've never worked more than a half this year, and
Speaker 2: that's part of the reason why I'm like, dang it,
Speaker 2: because I'm here and I can't use my platform or
Speaker 2: whatever in order to get that information. There's nothing that
Speaker 2: hurts me more because I've worked with some of the
Speaker 2: best people, with some of the best productions, with some
Speaker 2: on some of the projects that mean so much to me,
Speaker 2: telling stories that these people need to hear. We need
Speaker 2: to hear, like women need to hear.
Speaker 3: But I got a gag arter, dude, Like I can
Speaker 3: say nothing. That's pretty much the equivalent of what it is.
Speaker 3: I've worked for a major corporation that I've been wanting
Speaker 3: to work with for years. I did it. I can't
Speaker 3: say nothing, Michelle, I can't see.
Speaker 1: Put it in the chat. I won't say nothing. I'm
Speaker 1: just playing.
Speaker 3: No, I'm just saying I'm so sorry, Yes, yes for
Speaker 3: me my heart hurts. But what I'm doing is going
Speaker 3: back in that kitchen. My baby girls like Mommy, let's
Speaker 3: do a TikTok this, that and the other. Okay, we tiktoking.
Speaker 2: Okay, and we can't TikTok right, we can take a
Speaker 2: tick top, but we tiktogging.
Speaker 3: Girl. Weusiana girl going in the five. Look, I got
Speaker 3: some cinnamon sugar right here we are. We are putting
Speaker 3: Louisiana girl in the pot. I am taking that time.
Speaker 3: All those recipes I've modified that, I've.
Speaker 2: Pulled all my mom and my mama's recipes that I've
Speaker 2: always wanted to recreate.
Speaker 3: This cookbook was we called Southern Inspired because it was
Speaker 3: a healthier take on some Southern dishes. Okay, I'm going in.
Speaker 1: When you say healthier take, you mean like lower MSG
Speaker 1: no butter, no no.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah no MSG period but yeah, lack of butter,
Speaker 2: basically finding substitutes for butter, you know, lots of and
Speaker 2: and here's what they say.
Speaker 3: Wat's that olive oil You shouldn't eat? Olive oil you shouldn't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's certain of so many now I don't know,
Speaker 1: but they say you got avocado, sesame and other kinds
Speaker 1: of oils now, don't I don't know which ones are best.
Speaker 1: As far as heating grape seed, grape grape seed, I
Speaker 1: knew it was something grape seed. Now, my uncle is
Speaker 1: a doctor, he's a medical physician. Let me tell you
Speaker 1: what he told me. He said, regular butter is healthier
Speaker 1: than all the process margins and stuff. Especially, Maybe go
Speaker 1: to a farmer's market or get that good old block
Speaker 1: hard butter. That's that good.
Speaker 3: He is absolutely correct. He is absolutely correct. As soon
Speaker 3: as you've seen too many ingredients and you see that
Speaker 3: preservative in there bbbb, unless it's pure, it's something. Because
Speaker 3: of course you're gonna pay for it. That's the sucky part.
Speaker 3: Healthy eating costs more. You're gonna pay more, you know,
Speaker 3: which is almost like a setup.
Speaker 2: It's like, dude, we don't want to have to get
Speaker 2: on medication, we don't want to go to the hospital,
Speaker 2: we don't want.
Speaker 3: To do these things. But unfortunately it costs in order
Speaker 3: to be healthy, you know. So it's kind of like, yeah,
Speaker 3: which kind of game is going on?
Speaker 2: Okay, in order for me to attend to my health
Speaker 2: if I don't have the means or whatever to do it.
Speaker 2: So that cookbook was about using items everyday, items that
Speaker 2: you could as healthy as you possibly could, to substitute
Speaker 2: and give you the most authentic flavor that you could
Speaker 2: have without sacrificing the taste.
Speaker 1: Where can we get the cookbook?
Speaker 3: Oh? The cookbook is on Amazon.
Speaker 1: It's on Amazon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so if you go to my website, you can
Speaker 2: of course get it, but it'll take you right over
Speaker 2: to Amazon. Okay, Now, when you modify a recipe, yes,
Speaker 2: are you sure it's as good?
Speaker 1: Because people be like sugar free peach cobbler, you know.
Speaker 3: Can I be real with you? Can I be real
Speaker 3: with you?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I know what it's authentically supposed to taste like. Okay,
Speaker 3: so it's kind of hard. But maybe you being from Illinois,
Speaker 3: maybe your palette is not as discriminated.
Speaker 2: I don't from Illinois, but the folks is from Alabama.
Speaker 3: And Artasaw, so I know, I know. So you know, Okay,
Speaker 3: maybe a person that doesn't have other roots that lives
Speaker 3: in Illinois don't really know, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2: So what could I cook today from the cookbook that
Speaker 2: could like maybe as a pot of cabbage or green beans,
Speaker 2: pot of greens? Is that a modified recipe in there?
Speaker 2: And if so, how did you and chef.
Speaker 1: Modify? Give me something you could It could be anything.
Speaker 3: What can I cook tonight? Okay? So I have a
Speaker 3: we a girl pot pie. But here's the one that
Speaker 3: I would say. And again it's because there is no uh,
Speaker 3: you don't have the butter. Okay, Louisiana Girl Shrimp Creole
Speaker 3: Girl Shrimp Creole year Mars Shrimp Prio.
Speaker 2: So I'm going on an I'm going on Amazon literally
Speaker 2: as we speak.
Speaker 1: Yeah, being unprofessional. I'm just gonna get.
Speaker 2: And this is my this is my nanny's recipe, my
Speaker 2: godmother this okay, So yeah, so nanny know how to
Speaker 2: do it.
Speaker 3: So Weuisiana Girls Shrip Priole on page I'm sixteen seventy.
Speaker 3: So you can find again step by step, step by
Speaker 3: step on how to make these.
Speaker 2: But like I said, you know, so this right here
Speaker 2: was us being you know, uh, what do you call it?
Speaker 2: Fat conscious, health conscious, all that stuff. I'm gonna have
Speaker 2: a block of butter and everything in this NEXTICLK.
Speaker 1: Okay, I listen, I am getting this cook book Southern.
Speaker 3: Modified, Southern Modified.
Speaker 1: Okay, at least I'm a put it right here. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be too unprofessional.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's again, that's what I'm pouring my stuff into.
Speaker 2: Instead of dwelling on this stuff that I cannot control,
Speaker 2: I'm getting back in that kitchen.
Speaker 1: I'm getting the harrd cover.
Speaker 2: I'm there's it comes in paperback, but I'm getting the
Speaker 2: hardcover because it's gonna make for nice on the kitchen shelf.
Speaker 1: But I'm actually going to use it. Let of y'all
Speaker 1: got cookbooks and it's just for decoration, use it, But.
Speaker 3: The real one that I have, I don't know the
Speaker 3: paperback girl.
Speaker 2: Look now, this is a paperback girl's got stains on it,
Speaker 2: because I still have to use. If you've got a
Speaker 2: real good cookbook, you got stains, you got some posting
Speaker 2: notes up in that bad ball. Yes, I still use
Speaker 2: the recipes, okay, but yeah it's real y'all.
Speaker 1: Y'all can't see it. But she does have the book
Speaker 1: with all the posted notes and every since she actually
Speaker 1: uses it. Well, I just got it. It will be
Speaker 1: to my house by Friday. I am excited. So y'all
Speaker 1: go on Amazon. It is called Southern Modified Southern Inspired
Speaker 1: Dishes Modify for Today's Healthier Lifestyle. You can go to
Speaker 1: Louisiana Girl dot com and get those spices. And when
Speaker 1: this is all said and done, I pray that we will.
Speaker 1: I know we will. We just got to get through
Speaker 1: this portion of the strike. And it was something about
Speaker 1: what the pandemic has done. It's something for what the
Speaker 1: strike is done. You know, once we get what we
Speaker 1: are asking for, I know the I can imagine what
Speaker 1: the industry is going to be. It's going to be
Speaker 1: on fire in a good, good, good way. And thank
Speaker 1: you for your strength, your boldness and your courage. There's
Speaker 1: somebody listening that is saying, I am going to go
Speaker 1: for my dreams or when I feel that nudge of
Speaker 1: guidance that maybe everybody wanted me to go right, but
Speaker 1: I just feel a divine tugging to go to the left.
Speaker 1: That's where you go, because that's how we are able
Speaker 1: to talk to the amazing seeing Denise Boutet today.
Speaker 3: Michelle, thank you so much. You are awesome.
Speaker 1: You are awesome. I cannot wait. I cannot wait to
Speaker 1: see you in person sometime.
Speaker 3: I can't wait to work with you in person.
Speaker 1: We will work together. There's so much to do. There's
Speaker 1: so much to do. As you were talking, my wheels
Speaker 1: were spinning. But we can't talk about that right now.
Speaker 3: We on strike, all right.
Speaker 1: We may not be next week, you know, we don't know.
Speaker 2: Okay it he's got to figure it out and under control.
Speaker 2: But all we can do in the meantime and between
Speaker 2: time is channel our energies and our creativities into something or.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, thank you, dear heart.
Speaker 3: I'll see you soon.
Speaker 1: All right. I told y'all we were gonna have a
Speaker 1: good time. It was kind of like we weren't even recording.
Speaker 1: What a joy. And I hope that you are encouraged,
Speaker 1: you know. I remember being told Michelle, stick to one thing,
Speaker 1: stick to one thing, and I'm so glad I didn't
Speaker 1: stick to one thing because time's changing. So you have
Speaker 1: to be able to, you know, evolve. You have to
Speaker 1: be able to pivot. You've got to be able to
Speaker 1: be willing to try new things if you want to.
Speaker 1: You don't have to. But it's just a joy. It's
Speaker 1: a joy, all right, you guys, Thank y'all so much
Speaker 1: for checking in. I love you, and there's I mean,
Speaker 1: what you're gonna do about it? Checking In with Michelle
Speaker 1: Williams is a production of iHeartRadio and the black effect.
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