Speaker 1: Look man, oh, I see you? Why why? Oh? And
Speaker 1: look over there? How is that? Culture? Yes? Goodness last
Speaker 1: culture rest is calling. You're gonna hear that twice this
Speaker 1: episode because we have an amazing guest on it. You
Speaker 1: already know who it is if you've pressed play. It's
Speaker 1: Gabriel Union. She was very very cool too, like, actually,
Speaker 1: I haven't been nervous in a while, but this is
Speaker 1: like a genuine icon. Yeah. I just you look at her,
Speaker 1: even in the zoom box, and you go to this
Speaker 1: woman has power, power and presence, which I guess maybe
Speaker 1: you're the same thing, but you'll you'll hear Like we
Speaker 1: talk about how Matt tells her that she's done such
Speaker 1: a good job of speaking truth to power in her career,
Speaker 1: and I looked at her and I was like, god, Like,
Speaker 1: that's the through line in this person's life and career
Speaker 1: is that she has always just been honest. She's been honest,
Speaker 1: and like that's why people That's a huge part of
Speaker 1: why people love her is that like she she even
Speaker 1: like counted off the things in her hand of you know,
Speaker 1: being a mother to a queer child, of being a
Speaker 1: black actor in Hollywood, of being you know, someone who's
Speaker 1: had fertility issues, someone who's had all of these different
Speaker 1: experiences and is able to always be honest about all
Speaker 1: of those things in huge, huge, huge platforms. So cool
Speaker 1: I got I'm obsessed. Yeah, and a genuine talent too,
Speaker 1: and really excellent in this new movie, The Inspection, which
Speaker 1: bone I just watched. It's now a wide release. But
Speaker 1: it's a very different performance from her too. I mean
Speaker 1: it's really it's a tough one. It's a sad movie,
Speaker 1: but also it's it says something really interesting about parenting
Speaker 1: in the way that we expect to create strong people.
Speaker 1: It's an interesting one and I really encourage everyone to
Speaker 1: go see it. But damn if we didn't also get
Speaker 1: into some culture that made her say culture was for
Speaker 1: her as well, and um, some good some great answers
Speaker 1: sheet a great I don't think so, honey. You know
Speaker 1: it's strong. It's a take. It's a take. But you
Speaker 1: know what, like with any I don't think so honey,
Speaker 1: if you have the conviction and then the audience has
Speaker 1: no choice but to like at least not along to
Speaker 1: be like yeah. Absolutely. She recorded with us before Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: so that's just like a little as to risk before
Speaker 1: going in a little asked to risk? Oh my god,
Speaker 1: you ever think about that? Asked to risk? My ass
Speaker 1: is a no risk for anybody. Okay, my ass is
Speaker 1: a huge risk. Your ass is a huge risk. We
Speaker 1: partied last night, girl, I'm hungover, and the girls got
Speaker 1: messy last night. The girls got messy last night. And
Speaker 1: no regrets, no regrets ever about getting messy. When you
Speaker 1: go see K Pop the Musical, you two are going
Speaker 1: to be messy little horrors out on the streets because
Speaker 1: you're gonna be popping your ass here or there to
Speaker 1: frow up down fast slow. Oh my gods. Right, yeah,
Speaker 1: you could say, please enjoy our episode with Gabrielle Union,
Speaker 1: the one, the only and what do you say? Both?
Speaker 1: Should we throw it to ourselves? Let's throw it to ourselves?
Speaker 1: Ding donging American icon on the pod today, Bo yang.
Speaker 1: I mean this is a one for the books. This
Speaker 1: is one for the books. I feel like this book
Speaker 1: has every page. I mean, this is a big one.
Speaker 1: We're out possessing or comparing. No, no, no, we were
Speaker 1: out with the girls last night. We saw K Pop
Speaker 1: the Musical. Everyone must go Please. It really turned the
Speaker 1: girls out. It was unbelievably fun and friend of the
Speaker 1: pod Jason Kim wrote it, Everyone go see it. You're
Speaker 1: gonna love it. But then on a pad like a
Speaker 1: post drinks discussion, we mentioned that our guest was on
Speaker 1: the pod today, and this table of queer people absolutely
Speaker 1: lit up, and it sort of became a round table
Speaker 1: about how iconic the guest is. The impact, Yes, and
Speaker 1: the impact and we're very very excited, absolutely, and guess
Speaker 1: what what and guess what's going on? There's it's multiple projects,
Speaker 1: multiple plates being spun at the moment with our pal,
Speaker 1: Jabooky Young White in strange World. But I mean that
Speaker 1: that is a discussion that we can table or we
Speaker 1: can bring in with our guests. She just lit up.
Speaker 1: She might want to talk a little, Jabooky Young White.
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to and I was like, no,
Speaker 1: of course, we've never met Jake. Well we've never met Jake,
Speaker 1: but Jake and I had and the Stopties are gonna
Speaker 1: be mad at this. Jake and I had a nice
Speaker 1: little just a nice little moment when he came around.
Speaker 1: As the season Now I know I know the story. Okay,
Speaker 1: so people, I did the promos with Jake and the
Speaker 1: musical guest was Camila Cabello is very much I would say,
Speaker 1: as aligned with Taylor. We don't have to get into
Speaker 1: let's not get into swifty politics. We don't want to
Speaker 1: drag our guests into this. No, no, no, she has
Speaker 1: statement on the matter. And can we say Jake is
Speaker 1: very much engaged in the Instagram sort of agra of
Speaker 1: it all, like he will like keep track of what's
Speaker 1: happening in like our little corner of Hollywood of show.
Speaker 1: But first of all, I haven't checked in with them
Speaker 1: in a while. But it's not my place to reach
Speaker 1: out and be like, hey, what's up. But he's like,
Speaker 1: is with it? He's on the frequency? Does that stream
Speaker 1: Fire Island? You think? I don't know, maybe he might have.
Speaker 1: Maybe speaking speaking of Fire Island, Jolako and Booster saw
Speaker 1: our guests in a hallway I believe, passed in a
Speaker 1: hallway and said the guests did him the honor of
Speaker 1: looking at him and saying hello, and he screamed and
Speaker 1: then weep and texted us immediately. So to call this
Speaker 1: highly anticipated would be an understatement. Right now, there's big
Speaker 1: buzz bo for the film The Inspection, which we just
Speaker 1: watched by Elegance Bratton. It is so fabulous. Our guest
Speaker 1: is so stunning in it. It's just like some a
Speaker 1: way that you've never seen Gabrielle Union before. I mean,
Speaker 1: truly truly great work. And Jeremy Pope is fantastic in
Speaker 1: the lead role, just big actor eyes wet with tears
Speaker 1: and emotion. We love to see it, we love to
Speaker 1: feel it. Not only that, but truly just a part
Speaker 1: of the culture. I am so hesitant to say how
Speaker 1: many times I've seen Bringing On because it would approach stalker.
Speaker 1: But let's just say it was on constant loop in
Speaker 1: my home as a child. Thank you my parents for
Speaker 1: having stars, because that movie beyond stars. Every sales day,
Speaker 1: it was like they would rotate it out, and so
Speaker 1: Bring It On was a huge thing for me. Bo.
Speaker 1: This is very exciting. Should we just bring her the
Speaker 1: hell in? Let's bring her in. Everyone, Please welcome Gay.
Speaker 1: This is too much. Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, please, it's our distinct honor. Really literally
Speaker 1: isis like that was So we were talking last night
Speaker 1: about how that movie was decades ahead of its time.
Speaker 1: M hm, Well, cultural appropriation is a gift that keeps
Speaker 1: on giving. So well, we were saying that this was
Speaker 1: a movie about that concept without even saying the words
Speaker 1: cultural appropriation. It's about how we live in a culture
Speaker 1: that steals from black women all the time without a
Speaker 1: being to preachy. I mean like a movie like that
Speaker 1: at that time for that audience like really formative, I
Speaker 1: think on a collective level for us to understand and
Speaker 1: key in too that it's fantastic. You know what's funny?
Speaker 1: Is like at the twentieth anniversary of Bring It On,
Speaker 1: there was like a whole of best movie Villains and
Speaker 1: I'm like flipping through and there the there I was.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can custom there I was
Speaker 1: as a villain, and I was like, oh, they I
Speaker 1: don't know about it's a misinterpretation. Yes for standing up
Speaker 1: for our cheers. Damn it. Uh there was a villain.
Speaker 1: I guess the whole I know, you didn't think a
Speaker 1: white girl made that shut up? Was just a bridge
Speaker 1: too far, I guess. And I was a villa in
Speaker 1: and that is grild because I was outraged and then
Speaker 1: doing a bunch of press around the anniversary, the poll
Speaker 1: was not the only they were not the only people
Speaker 1: thinking that my character was like mean, did they watch it?
Speaker 1: This is insane. It tells you everything about how when
Speaker 1: black women speak, what you hear is totally up here.
Speaker 1: It has nothing to do with what we're actually saying.
Speaker 1: The filter is it's this Rorschach test, and for better
Speaker 1: for worse, people come away with thrown interpretation on it.
Speaker 1: But the fact that like the Clovers win at the
Speaker 1: end is like the sort of uplifting thing and like
Speaker 1: the unexpect not the unexpected thing, but the thing that
Speaker 1: like is just in the end. It is the joy
Speaker 1: of the movie to watch the Clovers win justifiably fairly
Speaker 1: right there. And also, you know, another element of that
Speaker 1: is that you as isis and the squad did not
Speaker 1: take her hand out, you know what I mean. It
Speaker 1: was like, you know, we don't need your help, we
Speaker 1: don't want your help. We're going we're going to beat
Speaker 1: you fair and square. You've taken advantage of us too
Speaker 1: many times and now we're just going to prove it.
Speaker 1: And honestly, what that's just crazy to me that more
Speaker 1: than one time you encountered that beyond Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I wish I wish it was just iis pore thing.
Speaker 1: Um Yeah, people like I'll literally be sitting quietly waiting
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, you're so intimidating, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I have I haven't even said a word. I'm literally
Speaker 1: playing words with friends because that's who I am. And
Speaker 1: I'm intimidating because I'm being quiet. Like you talk, you're intimidating.
Speaker 1: You're quiet, You're intimidating whatever. This is what Matt was saying.
Speaker 1: Not to pull this into my life. But Matt was
Speaker 1: saying last night, Okay, okay, let's go in. I was
Speaker 1: kind of like bemoting like the current state of dating
Speaker 1: for me, and I'm like, God, it's I'm in a
Speaker 1: weird place right now. And then Matt was like, well,
Speaker 1: it's because maybe because people might be anxious about approaching
Speaker 1: you or just like making the first move. And I go,
Speaker 1: I don't know that that's it. But if that's let's
Speaker 1: just say that's true, Like what do I do to
Speaker 1: change that? Of course, race as a factor in a
Speaker 1: different way, but like it's things that like are immutably
Speaker 1: out of your control and you're just like, well, I
Speaker 1: guess I'm s o L and I should just just
Speaker 1: live with it. But it's a strange little phenomenon personally,
Speaker 1: I think it's weird. It's an odd thing, and like
Speaker 1: we it's like you don't have the language or you're
Speaker 1: not supposed to just call a thing a thing. No,
Speaker 1: it's it's weird, right, Like I can't change who I am.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't change my silence. It's not going
Speaker 1: to be less deafening, I guess to you. But but
Speaker 1: you can change you, you know what I mean? Because
Speaker 1: and yeah, like especially during my single days, you know,
Speaker 1: that was a refrain and it just made me more aggressive,
Speaker 1: Like I went after what I wanted, um perfect, I
Speaker 1: flew through that bucket list. Let me just tell you, uh, okay,
Speaker 1: those panis reply it off the list left and right.
Speaker 1: Dune by taking matters into my own hands and not
Speaker 1: letting people say I was whatever intimidating or it was
Speaker 1: hard to approach you, and like that actually because dings
Speaker 1: do it every day. They are not deterred by anything.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna stop waiting. So
Speaker 1: I said the boat last night, but was getting into
Speaker 1: it last night with somebody and I you know when
Speaker 1: you take your girl to the side and you sort
Speaker 1: of have a moment. Well, we we took a turn
Speaker 1: about the room as my sister and I I want
Speaker 1: to do And I said, yeah, you better take this
Speaker 1: all the way because I see that you want to
Speaker 1: do it, and I'm telling you he's into it, and
Speaker 1: take it all the way. And then I said I
Speaker 1: want a full report. And I got the text today
Speaker 1: that we got a little sheepish. We got a little sheepish.
Speaker 1: I think that's my true self though I'm a sheepish guy.
Speaker 1: But I think inspired me because I think more bucket
Speaker 1: lists have penises on them, should have penises. And you've
Speaker 1: got to be a closer. I guess I don't even
Speaker 1: like hearing that you're not a closer, like she had
Speaker 1: up and nook at all the parts, like that's what
Speaker 1: I said. This here see if you're not going to
Speaker 1: take my advice to take Gabrielle Unions, please and now
Speaker 1: I know that will be what happens. Like it's my
Speaker 1: good friend Gabrielle Union told me. I was, like I
Speaker 1: told you the night before. If my good friend Gabrielle
Speaker 1: Union and my good friend Matt Routers are telling me,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do you know who's not to segue into
Speaker 1: too much of a left turn, But I feel like jabooky,
Speaker 1: our mutual friend between the three of us we love
Speaker 1: is someone who like closes closes closes. That guy what
Speaker 1: a star? What a role model? Has press been fun
Speaker 1: with with you guys and jay? I? First of all,
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with him, and I kept trying to change
Speaker 1: how many years I've been following him because I think
Speaker 1: it's been like since he got on. I'm like a
Speaker 1: psycho fan. So when I found out that he was
Speaker 1: playing my child, I was like, and I had this
Speaker 1: mental list of all the questions I wanted to ask,
Speaker 1: and I had to finally say it. I'm like, when
Speaker 1: I like a tweet, it's really a retweet. I just
Speaker 1: I lack the bravery to just retweet. And he was like,
Speaker 1: I felt that. I felt I felt that. But I'm
Speaker 1: obsessed with him, Like I am obsessed with him. He
Speaker 1: says everything I'm thinking. I just I I love him
Speaker 1: in a way that's probably a little unhealthy for us both.
Speaker 1: He's one of those people that always says that you're right.
Speaker 1: It's like, that was what I was thinking, but I
Speaker 1: didn't my brain didn't put it in that joke format
Speaker 1: or didn't distill it in that way. But that was
Speaker 1: the thing that was it. When he released a song
Speaker 1: called BBC You right right before our Disney movie, I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: this this is going to be a perfect press tour.
Speaker 1: And it has and he has given me everything that
Speaker 1: I have needed in addition to the love of Yes,
Speaker 1: he's going to keep a jabouki on the same page
Speaker 1: an anthem for the bucket. Yeah, we just watched The
Speaker 1: Inspection and it's so great and you are so great
Speaker 1: in it. But this movie is it's tough, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't let's just say, like not to give anything away,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't end neatly. It doesn't end how I
Speaker 1: think the audiences maybe going to feel or wanted to end.
Speaker 1: You play a mother who rejects their child, and we
Speaker 1: see him join the Marines, yes, for self betterment and
Speaker 1: also some structure and to just you know, change his
Speaker 1: life in a positive way, but also deeply we can
Speaker 1: sort of understand that he is doing it to really
Speaker 1: earn the love of his mother and that's something he
Speaker 1: craves because he doesn't have it. And the ending um
Speaker 1: is not neat and it's not necessarily reflective of like
Speaker 1: a beautiful world, you know, And I just wanted to ask, like,
Speaker 1: what did you draw on to place to play the
Speaker 1: root of this homophobia, because it is so deep and
Speaker 1: it is so dark, and I know it's the opposite
Speaker 1: of who you are as a person. You are an
Speaker 1: amazing ally and amazing activists and thank you for everything
Speaker 1: that you do. You truly are just one of those
Speaker 1: voices that rings right through, and so I just wanted
Speaker 1: to ask what you draw on because it's very real.
Speaker 1: We feel this woman's real pain but real decision to
Speaker 1: live in this homophobia. So all my compliments to your
Speaker 1: performance and where did this? Where'd you get this? That
Speaker 1: was the That was the challenge, right because when Elegance
Speaker 1: was like, I want you to executive ruise like that
Speaker 1: this script as a winner, I can I understand how
Speaker 1: I can be additive. And then it was like, I
Speaker 1: also want you to play my mother and I was
Speaker 1: like the fuck, um, what have I ever done to
Speaker 1: make anyone think I could pull this off? And he said, Gab,
Speaker 1: it has to be you, and he just kept going
Speaker 1: with he had so much confidence that I could do
Speaker 1: this and be good at this, and he's like, You're
Speaker 1: an actor, you can do anything we've known you could
Speaker 1: do you know anything this whole time? And I immediately
Speaker 1: knew what he meant by that in terms of the
Speaker 1: black community has known that I've had ranged that I could,
Speaker 1: I could do, you know, literally anything, but perhaps you know,
Speaker 1: the other parts of Hollywood had not caught up yet.
Speaker 1: But he just had so much confidencing in me. I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm going to go for it. And trying
Speaker 1: to find a way in to a woman who's asked
Speaker 1: I would kick if given the opportunity was a challenge
Speaker 1: because I'm like, what do we have? I don't even
Speaker 1: know what a starting off point is. And the more
Speaker 1: he started talking about who she was when she was
Speaker 1: a girl, her being a top student, a top athlete,
Speaker 1: and then you know, getting pregnant as a team and
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, let me let me go back
Speaker 1: to what she wanted when she was before she became
Speaker 1: a mother, which was to be considered good, was to
Speaker 1: to to follow the path of good girls, and and
Speaker 1: the way you get out of poverty for young dark
Speaker 1: skinned black children, especially girls, like it's you. You're either
Speaker 1: a great student. You're a great student and athlete. You're
Speaker 1: just a great athlete. Whatever you can do to be
Speaker 1: considered good to get these opportunities to get out of
Speaker 1: here and change her life. Well, she gets pregnant, she
Speaker 1: still wanted to be thought of as good. And as
Speaker 1: her son got older, it became abundantly clear that he
Speaker 1: was queer. But she had clung on too organized religion
Speaker 1: to still be considered good. And I realized that while
Speaker 1: I've never bartered with my children, I've never thought of
Speaker 1: my children as disposable. I have bartered with my soul
Speaker 1: in this town and in life, to get this much
Speaker 1: closer to the power structures, to get this much closer.
Speaker 1: Like I leaned so heavily into assimilation, I didn't recognize
Speaker 1: myself when you are willing to put everything on the
Speaker 1: table to stay, to stay good bye someone's standards, who
Speaker 1: would not spit in your direction if you caught on fire,
Speaker 1: and you're willing to constantly shape shift for these kinds
Speaker 1: of people who are constantly rooting against you, you don't
Speaker 1: realize that at the time. It's called the American dream.
Speaker 1: As long as you stay in this box, you do
Speaker 1: with I say you're one of the good ones, You're
Speaker 1: a good negro. You know you have access to the
Speaker 1: land of milk, and honey, and you're considered good and
Speaker 1: worthy and deserving. But we had that in common. So
Speaker 1: I bartered with different things, relationships, pieces of my soul
Speaker 1: that I will work a lifetime to to heal and
Speaker 1: recover from um. But we had that in common, that
Speaker 1: desire to be good, to be thought of as good
Speaker 1: and deserving and worthy. And she thought, you know, due
Speaker 1: to organized religion that said being gay or queer was bad.
Speaker 1: She looked to save herself. And I can't say I've
Speaker 1: made different decisions when it came down to doing the
Speaker 1: right thing or doing the wrong thing and thinking about
Speaker 1: self preservation instead of doing the thing that helps your
Speaker 1: fellow man or um being the right kind of ally,
Speaker 1: a real ally. Um, you're willing to sell anybody out,
Speaker 1: your child, yourself, loved ones, everybody's on the table when
Speaker 1: you were on that assimilation train. Everything can though, and
Speaker 1: that unfortunately getting to that dark ass route. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure my therapist bought a second home, just like I
Speaker 1: needed extraceptives like a mug. I've heard you talk about
Speaker 1: worthiness as this concept when you've tried to approaching as
Speaker 1: and I feel like that's exactly that's sort of the
Speaker 1: unifying thing in this whole film is that she is
Speaker 1: clinging onto any self worth or feeling of worthy units
Speaker 1: that she can at the expense of someone else's. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Jeremy's character is someone who is concerned about protecting the
Speaker 1: man to his left, and the man too is right,
Speaker 1: and I think, and that's the sort of healing mechanism
Speaker 1: through which he can sort of still have this radical
Speaker 1: compassion for his mother. At the end, m We're worth
Speaker 1: Without giving too much away, but I think maybe that's
Speaker 1: what that was. The thing that jumped out to me
Speaker 1: about Elegance is writing and is and and this film
Speaker 1: is that I was like, Oh, this is the way out.
Speaker 1: This is someone can be caught in the spiral of
Speaker 1: feeling completely worthless in a world that has made them
Speaker 1: worth less. But if they're enacting that sort of destruction
Speaker 1: on someone else, on people that they should be protecting,
Speaker 1: I feel like that's um, that's the tragedy of Venez
Speaker 1: as a character. And I feel like what Matt was then,
Speaker 1: compliments to you for portraying that so humanly. Yeah, it sucks,
Speaker 1: you know it sucks. But so many parents, they really
Speaker 1: firmly believe that their intention is filled with love in
Speaker 1: trying to change their child deny their identity. But to
Speaker 1: deny someone's identity is to deny their humanity. So your
Speaker 1: love shouldn't be inhumane. And like, if your love harms
Speaker 1: your child, causes trauma abuse, there's literally eight million people
Speaker 1: in the world now, there's eight billion ways of loving.
Speaker 1: Choose one that doesn't lead to harm. You know, that
Speaker 1: doesn't lead to trauma, and there's another way. So my
Speaker 1: hope in this role. Initially it was like there's one
Speaker 1: parent in particular I'd like to change, um. But if
Speaker 1: other parents see themselves in inns because as parents, like
Speaker 1: as reasonable parents, you try to lead with love. Like
Speaker 1: everything you're trying to do for your kids, your intention
Speaker 1: feels it feels so pure to you, It feels so
Speaker 1: loving to you. You feel like I'm protecting my child. Um,
Speaker 1: but I'm here to tell you there's another way. There's
Speaker 1: absolutely another way of loving, accepting and respecting and being
Speaker 1: compassionate to your own child and taking disposing of them
Speaker 1: off the table from jump and not torturing them. Also,
Speaker 1: if they stay home, it's it's okay to love them.
Speaker 1: It really is. The water's war. I promise you You'll
Speaker 1: be okay. Anyone that you would lose for loving your
Speaker 1: child openly and without apology and standing tintoes down for
Speaker 1: your child, anyone you might lose you are better off without.
Speaker 1: And that part I think a lot of parents get
Speaker 1: fearful of what they will lose. It's like they're losing
Speaker 1: dead weight. Yeah. It's also it's interesting that he goes
Speaker 1: to the Marines, and obviously this is based on a
Speaker 1: against this real story and that it's there. We also
Speaker 1: see sort of like an abuse as betterment scenario, which
Speaker 1: and that's what makes it so hard to watch too,
Speaker 1: because I think, like, you know, there is this idea
Speaker 1: that we're going to like break someone into the best
Speaker 1: version of what they can be because nothing is going
Speaker 1: to phase them. But then I think when you become
Speaker 1: an adult, you realize that it's vulnerability. It's it is
Speaker 1: that ability to break that a full human. And so
Speaker 1: this like creation of monsters, which they literally say in
Speaker 1: the film, it literally just creates a world of monsters,
Speaker 1: and you have to wonder, like what is the process
Speaker 1: of then unlearning that can it be? I guess if
Speaker 1: it's really successful, which it must be, because the Marines
Speaker 1: are you know they're good at what they do. It
Speaker 1: scares you, you know what I mean, And you wonder
Speaker 1: if it's it's just a very layered story, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I think everyone can see themselves in it. Maybe their
Speaker 1: parents weren't the exact version of that, but there is
Speaker 1: this idea that like, I'm gonna be hard on my
Speaker 1: child and that's going to in some way better the child.
Speaker 1: But I have seen and known parents that do see
Speaker 1: a change in the older years, like I've seen a
Speaker 1: change in my parents now that I've become an adult,
Speaker 1: much softer, much more sensitive, almost a little rueful and regretful,
Speaker 1: because there's that thing of the constant turning back of
Speaker 1: did I have to go that hard? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And it does create work ethic, it creates character,
Speaker 1: but there might be a little bit of a cost,
Speaker 1: you know. And and so I think that we see
Speaker 1: that in just the way parenting changes. I mean, you're
Speaker 1: raising children now in the year two and it seems
Speaker 1: like probably very different from the way that you were
Speaker 1: raised and we were raised, and it just a completely
Speaker 1: different worldview. I mean, absolutely, my dad, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys ever heard of this movie called The
Speaker 1: Great Santini and it was like very hardcore, just very
Speaker 1: very hardcore man, And that was my dad's favorite movie.
Speaker 1: He also loved to watch war movies. But he had
Speaker 1: three daughters and he wanted to make us. He always said,
Speaker 1: you gotta be bigger, better, better, just to be considered
Speaker 1: even and kind of like, I'm going to prepare you
Speaker 1: for what's happening out there, because if you can't take
Speaker 1: it for me, you're you're going to crumble out there.
Speaker 1: And turns out nothing has come close to what he
Speaker 1: prepared before. Um, Like I basically left my house ready
Speaker 1: for war, and you know it didn't come in the
Speaker 1: way that I thought it was going to come. How
Speaker 1: you prepared me for toxic masculinity. Um, then maybe I
Speaker 1: would have made some different decisions. But yeah, like a
Speaker 1: lot of times we really think we're preparing our children,
Speaker 1: were protecting our children, and all you're doing is breaking
Speaker 1: your children. And some like you know you and I
Speaker 1: like I became crazy efficient psycho, Like my work ethic
Speaker 1: is beyond, but I will literally work myself into an
Speaker 1: early grade because I don't recognize where working hard begins
Speaker 1: and abusing myself starts and stops. You know, doing too much.
Speaker 1: I have no concept of like until I'm literally like
Speaker 1: I don't feel well, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: a lot of kids, you know, I've met ninety year
Speaker 1: olds who are still wanting the love and validation from
Speaker 1: their parents. And what you what you do is you're
Speaker 1: breaking them in a way that it's like humpty dumpy,
Speaker 1: Like you might be able to get some pieces like
Speaker 1: enough where they can cobble through a life, but there's
Speaker 1: a brokenness that nothing can fix that because the love
Speaker 1: of your parents are the first people that you love,
Speaker 1: are the people are supposed to love you more than
Speaker 1: anybody else. And if there are fissures and major breaks
Speaker 1: and trauma in that, there's only so much therapy. And
Speaker 1: a lot of kids don't survive that. A lot of kids,
Speaker 1: and by kids I mean young children. I mean we
Speaker 1: we're seeing younger and younger kids, you know, kid admitting suicide.
Speaker 1: But you know, to that ninety year old who's still
Speaker 1: looking for something for their parents who have been dead
Speaker 1: for you know, a long time. But a lot of
Speaker 1: our kids don't make it. And you know, they don't
Speaker 1: make it physically because they take their lives or there's
Speaker 1: a brokenness that can just that can just never be
Speaker 1: filled and it's it doesn't have to be this way.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't you know what I mean, It does
Speaker 1: not have to be this way. And I just I hope,
Speaker 1: you know, like my biggest reward or award that I
Speaker 1: could get from this movie is again that one parent
Speaker 1: I'm trying to reach. But if you know the other parents,
Speaker 1: I mean, I've already even heard from you know who
Speaker 1: saw it this weekend. We were like, I screwed the pooch.
Speaker 1: Holy crap. I never thought of myself as a villain
Speaker 1: in my own child's life, and wow, okay, I'm going
Speaker 1: to do different and even like quote unquote good parents,
Speaker 1: you know, um, I'd like to think of myself as
Speaker 1: a as a as a solid parents, you know, um,
Speaker 1: a good ally. But even we make mistakes and Zi
Speaker 1: has had to check us for filth often, you know, um,
Speaker 1: and trying to throw away some of the things that
Speaker 1: our parents gave us that brought it and spoiled in
Speaker 1: the seventies and eighties. And I'm like, now let's bring
Speaker 1: it out. It looks yeah, plum parenting, and it's as
Speaker 1: thinks that's a way that should have been left a
Speaker 1: long time ago, and that that's why you're in therapy, lady.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, you're right, you work on that and
Speaker 1: maybe not pass on the same crap to my kids.
Speaker 1: But luckily we have a very outspoken child who you know,
Speaker 1: is up to date and is refusing to shape shift
Speaker 1: for adult comfort. She's refusing to compromise on being her
Speaker 1: wholeful as self for anyone's comfort. And I'm like, is
Speaker 1: there a ted talk you can give? There's a little
Speaker 1: lot of people who can benefit by like getting these
Speaker 1: pep talks a we get from her, And and I
Speaker 1: know she's speaking to herself as much as she's speaking
Speaker 1: to everybody else, but like man and a child shall
Speaker 1: lead them. So yes, you know, it's a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1: That's it's very public too, you know, because everyone knows
Speaker 1: your story and like the story you are telling and living.
Speaker 1: And so when she came to us and was like,
Speaker 1: because you know, between the two of us were constantly
Speaker 1: doing press and people refer to our children constantly by
Speaker 1: the names that they think, and Zia was like, I
Speaker 1: need people to know that this is my name and
Speaker 1: these are my pronouns. And we're like, well, I mean
Speaker 1: people know like the people that count your school and
Speaker 1: your friends and family. And she was like, you know,
Speaker 1: because everybody I hear it. I read it like people
Speaker 1: reference us all the time, and I want them to
Speaker 1: use my name and my pronouns and me and you
Speaker 1: were like, okay, do you know how this works and
Speaker 1: how you get that kind of message to everybody at
Speaker 1: one time? And she was like, yeah, you'll do one
Speaker 1: of your pressed. It was like yeah, but then everyone
Speaker 1: knows and are you okay with this? And she said
Speaker 1: I want my name. It was very first of all,
Speaker 1: the first thing I thought of a Tina Turner when
Speaker 1: she was like, I just want on but when that's
Speaker 1: a major part of your I mean, your name is
Speaker 1: the first thing you offer as a part of your identity.
Speaker 1: And she wanted to know, you know, just as my
Speaker 1: name and these are my pronouns, and I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you a hot second to switch over your brain. She
Speaker 1: gave us exactly one school year, and I mean, I
Speaker 1: have to say I think d D was off book.
Speaker 1: If you will no mistakes, like no no mistakes that
Speaker 1: she she gave us a bit of grace and but
Speaker 1: everyone's fallen in well, most people have fallen in and
Speaker 1: they realize, this is who this child is, and she's
Speaker 1: amazing and smart and dynamic and going to change the world,
Speaker 1: and we should all get behind her because she's she's
Speaker 1: doing it whether we are standing in her way or not,
Speaker 1: you know, so why don't we get behind her? And
Speaker 1: what's incredible is that she in sort of the inverted
Speaker 1: way of the way that maybe you were parented, is
Speaker 1: that she is picking up on a lot of information
Speaker 1: in her outside world and going, oh, I'm preparing myself
Speaker 1: for my own battle, you know, like, and she's informing
Speaker 1: she's sort of like up cycling it too to her parents,
Speaker 1: where she goes, this is what you need to know.
Speaker 1: Here's how you can support me. Let's do it. Like
Speaker 1: what a lovely sort of directionality that goes in where
Speaker 1: it goes up and down and outward. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: she said the most the other day that she had
Speaker 1: joined basically I'm not I'm sure there's a name for it,
Speaker 1: but basically the Black Student Union at her school. And
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, let's dope, and she was like,
Speaker 1: and I joined the Latino Students group And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: is there a yeah? And she's like, oh, look you know,
Speaker 1: her two best friends are biracial and half Latina, and
Speaker 1: she's like, it's not my place to go to the
Speaker 1: meetings and speak, it's my it's my place to go
Speaker 1: to the meetings and learn and so I can know
Speaker 1: how to better support my friends. And I'm like, what,
Speaker 1: that's incredibly gosh okayhmore and yeah, and we were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course you would be in Laassa because you are
Speaker 1: a good ally and also know to not center yourself. Well,
Speaker 1: my job here is done. What I've always really admired
Speaker 1: about you is you really do speak truth to power,
Speaker 1: and I I think one of my favorite things I've
Speaker 1: seen anyone do was the speech that you gave. It
Speaker 1: was when you got the Fearsome Fields Award, and you
Speaker 1: you owned up to something that I think we in
Speaker 1: the queer community can really identify with as well. And
Speaker 1: I was really excited to talk to you about this
Speaker 1: because when you said that when someone like another black
Speaker 1: actress would get a role that you wanted, you'd be
Speaker 1: talking ship and like you be that person that was
Speaker 1: like not rooting for people, and that of course comes
Speaker 1: from a system that doesn't or it feels like because
Speaker 1: it really hasn't, and it's getting incrementally better as we
Speaker 1: see more representation, but it comes from like they're really
Speaker 1: not feeling like there's enough, like and and the pitting
Speaker 1: against each other. And I think that as gay actors
Speaker 1: we experienced this as well. I can't say that I've
Speaker 1: been saying every single time I have seen a part,
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to X, Y or Z, and
Speaker 1: maybe I have said some stuff, But so watch you
Speaker 1: get up on that stage in front of your peers
Speaker 1: and say that. I think was really powerful because it
Speaker 1: was a moment where you called everybody in by calling
Speaker 1: yourself out. And I just think that that was such
Speaker 1: a moment, And I wonder, like what went into the
Speaker 1: decision for you to be that honest, because it's really
Speaker 1: hard to be honest in this town, in Hollywood, because
Speaker 1: people will look at you like, oh, well, you know,
Speaker 1: she'll say like the truth and God forbid that, Like
Speaker 1: so we maybe we wouldn't want to like and bring
Speaker 1: her in or involved in something, but it seemed like
Speaker 1: it was more important to you to call that out
Speaker 1: and move forward. But what went into the decision to
Speaker 1: be honest that night and also so honest about everything,
Speaker 1: like I was working on this speech with my life
Speaker 1: coach at the time, and as one does, and she
Speaker 1: was like, what is your goal, m And I was like,
Speaker 1: give a good speech. And she was like, should the
Speaker 1: truth be present in this speech? Or you want to
Speaker 1: string together a bunch of cliches like every other actress
Speaker 1: is going to do. And she's like, you have an
Speaker 1: opportunity in this room to talk about all the things
Speaker 1: that we've been working on that you say you're on
Speaker 1: the other side of. Let's talk about it. I was like, okay, um,
Speaker 1: challenge accepted. And when I got up there, my hands
Speaker 1: are shaking. I'm I'm looking out I see Oprah Um
Speaker 1: and Gail and like all of my like my best friends,
Speaker 1: but also you know, a room of my peers and
Speaker 1: people I have actively rooted against and people I know
Speaker 1: who have actively rooted against me, and we we all
Speaker 1: just accepted it as Hollywood. That's just Hollywood. And that
Speaker 1: was like kind of like parenting. But what if there's
Speaker 1: another way. What if we can move through this industry
Speaker 1: with radical transparency and honesty, And what's the worst that
Speaker 1: can happen? You know what I mean? Like I'm already
Speaker 1: not getting jobs and what's gonna what's the worst that
Speaker 1: can happen? Um, But something amazing happened is my world
Speaker 1: opened up a I felt free as hell for the
Speaker 1: first time I felt free in a room like that.
Speaker 1: I had no secrets, I had no ulterior motive, there
Speaker 1: were no agendas. I just wanted to tell the truth.
Speaker 1: And then each person who got up after me was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well here was my speech, and after that like, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna get up here and tell and that's all.
Speaker 1: I want all to be free. But we can't be
Speaker 1: free living a lie. We can't be free not calling
Speaker 1: a thing a thing, you know what I mean? And
Speaker 1: it changed my life and I I got way more
Speaker 1: after that speech, because there's a fear of like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm gonna be honest and everyone's gonna hate
Speaker 1: me and I'm never gonna be seen from again. And
Speaker 1: it was the opposite. Every time I opt for just
Speaker 1: the truth, just my reality, I've gotten more and and
Speaker 1: and by more, I mean more people are like, thank
Speaker 1: you for saying that. I thought I was alone on
Speaker 1: an island. I thought I was the only one. So,
Speaker 1: whether it's fertility, whether it's racism, whether it's colorism, whether
Speaker 1: it's raising a queer child, whether it's equity, the farce
Speaker 1: of equity in in Hollywood or in any major industry.
Speaker 1: It doesn't serve anyone to to spout lies like change
Speaker 1: doesn't happen from upholding the company line. It never will.
Speaker 1: So you can do the bidding of those same people
Speaker 1: who won't spit in your direction when you're on fire,
Speaker 1: or you can free yourself and others by telling the
Speaker 1: truth and banning together. And that's kind of what happened. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: we here on last culture are big fans of burning
Speaker 1: it down. So burn it all down and right a
Speaker 1: slift yea poetry. So we u We have a question
Speaker 1: that we asked every single one of our guests, and this,
Speaker 1: uh is when we are asking you right now, which
Speaker 1: is what was the culture that made you say culture
Speaker 1: was for you, Gabrielle Union. This is the piece of
Speaker 1: pop culture that you were exposed to in your life
Speaker 1: at some point. It would be like a movie, a
Speaker 1: musical artist, something, a TV show, something in your surroundings
Speaker 1: that you can look back on now and you think
Speaker 1: that made me who I was, or at least start
Speaker 1: to become who I was. Yah, it's a big question,
Speaker 1: but it's actually quite simple. A few answers, but it
Speaker 1: can be multiple answers as well. Well. Okay, so I
Speaker 1: would say to take it off Greece, I'm I'm a
Speaker 1: Grease one and two super fans, but also like it.
Speaker 1: It changed the way I look at quote unquote bad girls.
Speaker 1: Like my alias forever was Chacha what we called her
Speaker 1: Chacha dukie Oriole because that's what it sounded like to us.
Speaker 1: Her character name was Sacha DiGregorio, repretatious, but that all
Speaker 1: was like, wait, that girls seem to have a lot
Speaker 1: more fun. Sure Stoccard Channing's character of Rizzo had a
Speaker 1: pregnancy scare. Okay, perhaps you know have safer sex than Rizzo,
Speaker 1: but she sounds like she's she's having the most fun
Speaker 1: of it of everybody. So I kind of lean more into, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, living on the edge once I got
Speaker 1: a car um but also playing a team well into
Speaker 1: my thirties kind of took me in there. Like watching
Speaker 1: the Barge. Like every summer I would go back to
Speaker 1: Omaha and that's where I got to watch b ET
Speaker 1: and I would just watch the Et because I was
Speaker 1: the only time I got to see black people, and
Speaker 1: I saw the barge and Bunny to Barge and she
Speaker 1: was like writing in a in a convertible, singing with
Speaker 1: her brothers. And I wanted to be Bunny to Barge
Speaker 1: and I wanted to be like that that bitch, so
Speaker 1: Bunny to Barge and then any like everything Janet Jackson,
Speaker 1: like I wanted to be Janet Jackson, my super hot dentist.
Speaker 1: Um really he was unusually good looking. UH used to say,
Speaker 1: I looked I reminded him of Janet Jack's in and
Speaker 1: I believed him because his wife was the dental hygienist
Speaker 1: and she would always make a leader like it's because
Speaker 1: I trying to ruin my smile and I got those
Speaker 1: braces off and it's been cooking with fish freeze everywhere.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but like Janet made me feel like I
Speaker 1: could do anything, like if I got like a smidgeon
Speaker 1: of Janet nous, which I was unstoppable, And to this day,
Speaker 1: anything big in my life, I'm playing Janet like walking
Speaker 1: right before I walk in need feel like that of
Speaker 1: all things. But now she's a friend, so it's a
Speaker 1: little weird. I mean, you can still gauge like an
Speaker 1: admirable distance, a distance of admiration, like, wait, what are
Speaker 1: the songs that are playing before you walk into with
Speaker 1: high stakes situation? What's in your head? It's the one
Speaker 1: with her and Beatie Man. Um, oh my god, I
Speaker 1: just smoked at you, guys, damn it. Normally it's like
Speaker 1: all for you, but it's like it's the one where
Speaker 1: she's on the beach with Beatie Man. Yeah, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't do that music video is absolutely iconic. That
Speaker 1: was She's so hot in her no one's worn a
Speaker 1: bra right since everything to this day, like she's everything,
Speaker 1: Like we'll be a dinner and I'm just like, come on,
Speaker 1: it's Janet. She ordered the eggplant. Yeah, I'd like, I'd
Speaker 1: like what she's having in a very real way. I'm
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I'm an eggplant clean and she
Speaker 1: she is a friend that reminds you to set your
Speaker 1: clocks forward or backwards, which I love that about her, honestly,
Speaker 1: Like singing in cars a theme here. This is so
Speaker 1: funny that you say Greece because I was just last
Speaker 1: night for some reason, you know, when your instinct just
Speaker 1: takes you in a weird place. It wanted me to play.
Speaker 1: There are worst things I could do in this whole
Speaker 1: towel room, so did you as well? The way you
Speaker 1: just lurched out of your chair and there I will
Speaker 1: never turn down an opportunity to sing. There are worst
Speaker 1: things I could do. It is the song, and you
Speaker 1: know they almost cut it, Like Stockard talks about an
Speaker 1: interviews there that she begged them. She was like, please,
Speaker 1: you have to keep it in. It is the window
Speaker 1: to her soul. If you don't, if you cut that song,
Speaker 1: like the character doesn't make sense. And honestly me as
Speaker 1: like a little kid watching it because it too was
Speaker 1: one of my favorite movies. I think I know every
Speaker 1: single line of dialogue, like we'll see, I'll test myself later.
Speaker 1: But when she sings that song, like even as a
Speaker 1: little queer kid, like I'm watching it and I'm like
Speaker 1: the inner life being exposed, like the nuances in the performance,
Speaker 1: like that's one of those that's like if you go
Speaker 1: back in time, like give that an Oscar nomination, like
Speaker 1: Stockard chanting unforgettable in that number and throughout like truly,
Speaker 1: I mean the way she clutched those books to her, yes,
Speaker 1: she was like trying to round the corner away from
Speaker 1: the Patty Simpax and he and I said, she like
Speaker 1: she tries to hide with her books, but like I
Speaker 1: literally will do the whole thing, like acting out with
Speaker 1: the books and a pencil skirt and like hiding behind
Speaker 1: doors again just like this all night. The books are
Speaker 1: such a part of it because even like when they
Speaker 1: did it live, like Vanessa Hudgens like had the books
Speaker 1: to the damn Sternum, like she she's protecting herself. Of course,
Speaker 1: to this day, I love Vanessa and I'll be like,
Speaker 1: please do it please. She did great. She was so
Speaker 1: good and she's like the Yeah. So we're watching Johnet
Speaker 1: order the egg plant. We're making Vanessa's things that are
Speaker 1: worse things I can do. Does de Barge Greece and
Speaker 1: Janet Jane Tableau makes Gabrielle Union. We love it honestly,
Speaker 1: Like you know what I love is like RuPaul and
Speaker 1: RuPaul's drag Race obsessed with DeBarge, Like he keeps talking
Speaker 1: about all the kids now that are on it that
Speaker 1: are truly yeah there, but everyone every queen on that
Speaker 1: show they hired I was younger than thirty, so they're
Speaker 1: always looking at real like like they don't know. And
Speaker 1: like the queen he said, looked like El de Bard,
Speaker 1: like Crystal looks like El de Barge. And this queen
Speaker 1: said afterwards, I didn't know what the funk rule was
Speaker 1: talking about. The entire time. I was just smiling and
Speaker 1: nodding at the Barge. That's how you got to go
Speaker 1: back to the eighties, like the eighties de Barge, you know,
Speaker 1: that's like a hate more of behaved day. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I would go see L. I saw L right for
Speaker 1: the pandemic. It was El de Barge, Casey and Joe
Speaker 1: Joe Sat. I feel like there's one other artists, but
Speaker 1: like those three, for those four, I should say, and
Speaker 1: got my whole life, as did everyone in the audience.
Speaker 1: Like I screamed for like throughout the whole thing all
Speaker 1: like three hours, as I who's in Miami, here we go.
Speaker 1: Yeah at university. Yeah, it was like the old school
Speaker 1: soul or whatever. It was amazing. Do you forget like
Speaker 1: how many hits that L had solo, how many hits
Speaker 1: he had with the Bard, like Keith Sweat has bangers
Speaker 1: to this day and Cathy and Jojo, I mean what
Speaker 1: else is I mean crazy? I'll be tossing my head
Speaker 1: back to revisit myself. Wow, oh no, they were good,
Speaker 1: and you know they're fantasias cousins. Yes, And then wait
Speaker 1: then I saw something on Wikipedia earlier which I have
Speaker 1: to ask you about. Are you Sweedie's cousin know that?
Speaker 1: Because it's like I feel like it took a turn
Speaker 1: like like to negative for her. Like people thought she
Speaker 1: was like a nepo baby, but I'm like, she's like
Speaker 1: a whole different generation. Like her dad and I are
Speaker 1: first cousins. Her grandmother is my aunt um, and me
Speaker 1: and her dad are born a day apart, and so
Speaker 1: we were kind of like raised like fiddlings um. So
Speaker 1: when Deed was when he had we called her. Our
Speaker 1: family calls her d d Um. You know, like the
Speaker 1: last I was like sort of keeping up with her.
Speaker 1: She was like a toddler. And then all this time
Speaker 1: I moved away from home, like I go to Hollywood,
Speaker 1: and so I randomly casually asked like, oh yeah, let's
Speaker 1: look up too. I knew she was like at s C.
Speaker 1: I thought she was like looking at IBM. I had
Speaker 1: no idea, and they were like, she's doing she's like
Speaker 1: car wraps. And I was like, okay, car wraps and
Speaker 1: I'm like, kid, just send me a link. So I
Speaker 1: get the link to it was like the biggest train
Speaker 1: that she had done at that point, and it had
Speaker 1: millions and millions and millions of views. Wait a second,
Speaker 1: and then like Icy Girl came right after, like maybe
Speaker 1: a month or two later, and we were in Miami
Speaker 1: and she was like, I'm in town, you know, let's go,
Speaker 1: let's link up. And I was like yes, And I
Speaker 1: at this point I don't even understand, like she's got
Speaker 1: a deal, she's got a whole team, Like I'm so
Speaker 1: after the fact, I'm like, so you're not at ibm um,
Speaker 1: and you're doing okay for yourself. So I do want
Speaker 1: to make it very clear I did not help her
Speaker 1: career in any way shape or for being my relative,
Speaker 1: in no way aided or abetted her. But she's she's
Speaker 1: amazing in her own right. And she was a super
Speaker 1: amazing student, like that was her thing. Like she was
Speaker 1: very very smart and obviously very beautiful, and then she
Speaker 1: started doing correpts and now the rest is history. In
Speaker 1: a different industry too, by the way, like that's that's
Speaker 1: not quite how nepotism usually works sometimes. Had I known,
Speaker 1: I would have been like the Mama June in her
Speaker 1: I would have tried to manage her. But I did.
Speaker 1: It was kind of after the fact, so um I did.
Speaker 1: I did definitely reach out to her, like my friends
Speaker 1: at her label that you know, perhaps run the label,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, if she a priority because she's trying
Speaker 1: to buy things, and they're like, wait, what, that's your cousin.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yeah, like could she get like a condo?
Speaker 1: And they're like, yes, girl, a priority. She is, She's everything,
Speaker 1: and they could not believe that she never mentioned it ever.
Speaker 1: I think I spilled the beans first, and now it's
Speaker 1: I hope it's not a major negative or a knock
Speaker 1: on her being related to me, because I'm just we're
Speaker 1: just proud of her, like I'm very yeah, well yeah.
Speaker 1: And then when you know that, especially you being in
Speaker 1: the industry and understanding what what the entertainment industry is,
Speaker 1: seeing the darkness and like everything that comes with it,
Speaker 1: like of course us her family is going to step
Speaker 1: in and be like, I want to make sure she's
Speaker 1: being treated right, because I mean, the music industry is
Speaker 1: a whole other thing. It's a whole other animal, and
Speaker 1: you know, I only know what I know. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: I will I'm always here as a resource, um, but
Speaker 1: what am I? And I'm fifty Like I'm like leten
Speaker 1: I worked out some choreography out of here. She I
Speaker 1: mean her her verse a Little Mix has a song
Speaker 1: called Confetti and Sweedie got on Confetti and I swear
Speaker 1: to god that song went from like an eight to
Speaker 1: a fifteen for me and then I literally I was
Speaker 1: doing a bit on this podcast stream Confetti, Stream Confetti,
Speaker 1: like best first I've heard on a pop song and
Speaker 1: like the last like four or five years. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's iconic, right, It's iconic, iconic. Sweet. Also, when she
Speaker 1: wrote her not to drop Snal again but she wrote
Speaker 1: the RESTNL, it was like such a cool moment. It
Speaker 1: was her and seem so it was like to like
Speaker 1: Asians like on the on the bill basically and it
Speaker 1: was like, oh this is this is fun and god
Speaker 1: she was so she did tap in into um but
Speaker 1: she she just had so many good looks and it
Speaker 1: was so so so good. She's good like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and we're just proud, like we're just like
Speaker 1: go ahead, girl, like and I'm like, do you need it? No, okay, yep, yeah, coverage.
Speaker 1: I always put like the help out there. I'm like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fine. I'll just be cheering back here technology. It's fine.
Speaker 1: I'm still gonna let here we go. Yeah. So wait,
Speaker 1: because before we move on to I don't think so
Speaker 1: honey on like tennis minutes, I have to ask you,
Speaker 1: like because you really, like even just a cursory look
Speaker 1: at like what you've done. You truly appeared in all
Speaker 1: of my favorite movies, like when I was in the
Speaker 1: late nineties, like I'm telling you love in Basketball again Stars,
Speaker 1: the way that Stars was giving bring it on and
Speaker 1: loving basketball and she's all that in rotation. So it
Speaker 1: was just and ten things I hit about you. So
Speaker 1: it was Gabrielle, Gabrielle, Gabrielle, and so I've been just
Speaker 1: such a fan for so long, but specifically about loving basketball.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about like favorite memories from
Speaker 1: that because that is such a classic. That is one
Speaker 1: of the great romance films. And now like Gina prince
Speaker 1: By popping off with the woman King, like finally like
Speaker 1: people really understanding because again, like someone can be around
Speaker 1: for so long. But it's like, how many times you
Speaker 1: have to hear this name for her to be like
Speaker 1: a list director? Like she is truly one of the greats.
Speaker 1: And I just wanted to ask about anything you remember
Speaker 1: from Love and Basketball, maybe working with Alfrey the Queen, truly,
Speaker 1: like what did you got from Love and Basketball? Well, Luckily,
Speaker 1: from Love and Basketball I got one of my best
Speaker 1: friends in Sina Lathan. She was not friendly at the time.
Speaker 1: She was not friendly at the time. I was just,
Speaker 1: you know, I was sort of newish, you know, to
Speaker 1: the to the business, and I hadn't done a ton
Speaker 1: of movies and I had originally auditioned for Sina's role,
Speaker 1: and um, Gina was like, I don't think you're right
Speaker 1: for this, but there's another role that I think you're
Speaker 1: you'll be perfect for. The sizes are in the lobby,
Speaker 1: you know, take all the time you need. And I
Speaker 1: get to the lobby and I'm like, because I'm in
Speaker 1: my basketball shorts, I'm giving you that I was a
Speaker 1: real I was an actual act. You were an athlete.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you my whole operation. And so I get
Speaker 1: back to the lobby and I'm like, oh, she's a
Speaker 1: hop Yeah, she's the she's the hole on the side. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my critessy is an athlete that I really am, but
Speaker 1: you could see me as a home okay, okay, So
Speaker 1: needless to say, I got the role. Um my holenus
Speaker 1: just came out. But it's funny because later on today
Speaker 1: Gina and I are interviewing each other for a whole
Speaker 1: different amazing finally, just twenty years Why did you think
Speaker 1: I was a hume? What whole vibe was that giving off? Um? Yeah,
Speaker 1: like we we had like me and Boris Kojo were
Speaker 1: both kind of new and they had us in in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: like where you rank kind of goes by your trailer.
Speaker 1: So we had a we were sharing with I don't
Speaker 1: remember who. The third person was a honey Wagon, which
Speaker 1: was like it's tiny, yeah, tiny little sliver, and the
Speaker 1: air conditioning wasn't working. We're working in the summer, and
Speaker 1: so we would just whoever was in the middle wasn't
Speaker 1: there that day. So we opened up all the little
Speaker 1: you know, accordion walls, and so we had a bigger
Speaker 1: room and we left the doors open. We'd literally sit
Speaker 1: on our steps and and that's how we became close friends. Um,
Speaker 1: so I made really great friends on this movie. Omar
Speaker 1: and I are great friends. Um, but a lot of
Speaker 1: that happened later because Sanah and Omar were an actual
Speaker 1: real couple. Yet, yeah, they were an actual real couple. Um.
Speaker 1: So he Omar didn't like, you know, or didn't really
Speaker 1: mess with Boris and Sna was really not messing with me.
Speaker 1: So because the roles we were sort of playing. And
Speaker 1: then cut to later, I'm in Miami filming Bad Voice
Speaker 1: for six months and she's in Miami staying at the
Speaker 1: same hotel filming at a time, and she sees me
Speaker 1: in the lobby and I see her and I'm like,
Speaker 1: fun this book and so I'm giving her dust and
Speaker 1: she's like, no, be does that whole time. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we bonded, and you know, she apologized and gave me
Speaker 1: her feel of her process, and yeah, we've been best
Speaker 1: season since. I love it. Oh man, I I just
Speaker 1: rewatched it again because I've covered it. I have this
Speaker 1: other podcast for HBO Max and I it's on their list.
Speaker 1: You can stream it on HBO Max people. But we
Speaker 1: went into it like it holds up so well and
Speaker 1: it gives you all those good nostalgic feelings and that's one.
Speaker 1: I mean talk about iconic moments like that song full
Speaker 1: of Me at the end when they when they play
Speaker 1: each other. I mean, that is for all time. That
Speaker 1: that is for all time. That movie incredible because it
Speaker 1: also has that di'angelo song, but that one that's so
Speaker 1: good in it, Like Regina Hall in it, Harry Lennox
Speaker 1: was in it, Like there were so many people that
Speaker 1: were that We're in it. Tyra was in it right,
Speaker 1: and everyone stuck to you know what I mean, like
Speaker 1: everyone's still working and doing great. We're still chugging away. Wait,
Speaker 1: you've mentioned Miami a couple of times. I wanted to ask,
Speaker 1: because Matt and I are going to Miami for New
Speaker 1: Year's what is like the vibe now for when you
Speaker 1: guys go, like, what what's on the docket? Is there one?
Speaker 1: Are you guys just like chilling? For the most part,
Speaker 1: it's Miami, Like it's most when it's at dinner. Where
Speaker 1: are we going? Probably Carbone? But it's different, like Miami
Speaker 1: changed a lot during the pendem it felt very republican. Um,
Speaker 1: it felt very it felt very jed Um and all
Speaker 1: their friends brought up all of the beach. Everyone in
Speaker 1: left New York during the pandemic overpaid. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: moved down and the vibe is a little depending on
Speaker 1: where you go, the vibe is a little different. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean they you can't say gay um, like you
Speaker 1: can't teach history like you like, it's a whole weird vibe. Um.
Speaker 1: But in terms of fun, uh yeah, I mean people
Speaker 1: go to just kind of lose themselves. So I hope
Speaker 1: you all'll be getting lost boat have a boat day, yes,
Speaker 1: like that would like the boat, get those pictures on
Speaker 1: the yacht, like like it's like a small yacht, it's
Speaker 1: like a book little boat. And we also have a
Speaker 1: friend that's like a reservation queen. Yes, so it's like
Speaker 1: we're covered on the reservations and stuff. So it's good
Speaker 1: to have always roll with someone in the crew that's
Speaker 1: like he says, his gay powers reservations because it's like
Speaker 1: New Year's is it's a big holiday for us down there.
Speaker 1: So make sure you get your rooms, your O, B
Speaker 1: and d s because we're good. Yeah, we have to
Speaker 1: go to Idom thinks to hunt. And something you just
Speaker 1: said made me realize what I'm gonna do. So this
Speaker 1: is I don't think so honey, This is our one
Speaker 1: minute segment where we drag something in pop culture that
Speaker 1: needs to be absolutely fucking dragged. Bow and I do
Speaker 1: have something. You'll watch us, and then I know you're
Speaker 1: gonna have one Gabrielle union. So this is I don't
Speaker 1: think it's Honey Boone and I'm ready to go. This
Speaker 1: is Matt Rogers. I don't think the Wings time starts now.
Speaker 1: I don't think so Honey Avanca being like, I'm actually
Speaker 1: stepping away from politics this time, bitch, We're already good
Speaker 1: on you, and don't even think about moving back to
Speaker 1: New York. If you want to be shown every damn
Speaker 1: door in your face, stay down in Florida. So when
Speaker 1: we cut it off and let it float away, you
Speaker 1: can be on it. I can't stand Ivanka Trump. There's
Speaker 1: not a single like bone in my body that's even close.
Speaker 1: And when I saw you make this statement, I was like,
Speaker 1: what is she trying to do? Now? So it's like,
Speaker 1: who even needs to hear from you? I have not
Speaker 1: turned my head to this Trump announcement. Maybe I should,
Speaker 1: because I guess we should quote unquote be prepared for
Speaker 1: whatever is happening. But whatever Ivanka and Jared are thinking
Speaker 1: you're gonna is gonna happen now? No, the answer is no.
Speaker 1: The answer is a capital and capital. Oh, we're done.
Speaker 1: I don't think so, honey, iv Anka, You're not going
Speaker 1: to become friends with Chelsea Clinton again. I understand, like
Speaker 1: it's been a quote unquote hard year, but no, no
Speaker 1: sympathy for you, Ivanka, No sympathy for you. Jared. We're
Speaker 1: taking back the name Jared. I have people in my
Speaker 1: life that I love that are called Jared, and I
Speaker 1: I'm taking it back. Ivanka. You can stay gone. I
Speaker 1: don't think so, honey. And that's one minute. Wow, that
Speaker 1: was dense. She really tried something with that statement of
Speaker 1: I will be stepping out of the political sphere and
Speaker 1: almost like this little hint of like and you're welcome,
Speaker 1: and like hint hint, Maybe I don't sup. We don't care,
Speaker 1: we don't care. What if they say that he made
Speaker 1: like what a one point nine billion during his presidency?
Speaker 1: Disgusting girl. Your hands are dirty, okay, so Bo and Yang,
Speaker 1: this is your I don't think so, honey. And your
Speaker 1: time starts now. I don't think so hony. Herbal cigarettes
Speaker 1: on film sets, I saw Gabriel Union smoke one in
Speaker 1: the movie The Inspection, and I went, I know she
Speaker 1: is not enjoying that because they taste somehow worse than cigarettes.
Speaker 1: And I get that there are laws in place and
Speaker 1: people do get bothered by the second hand smoke. But
Speaker 1: on a sensory level, the herbal cigarettes are just worse.
Speaker 1: And I don't even know if they're that even even
Speaker 1: that much healthier for you. There's no like tar and
Speaker 1: like the arsenic or anything, I guess. But also it
Speaker 1: just doesn't feel. It does not do the body good
Speaker 1: to even inhale a little vapor molecule of the stuff.
Speaker 1: It smells bad. It clings worse than glitter somehow. It
Speaker 1: just stays on you for days and days, and I
Speaker 1: cling and clings worse than glitter, and not that many
Speaker 1: things cling worse than glitter. I do not wish sigarettes
Speaker 1: on any actors, any proper person, on anyone on any
Speaker 1: film set. I don't think so any herbal cigarettes in film.
Speaker 1: And that's one minute you don't realize how harsh they are.
Speaker 1: I had to do it, and I love that for you.
Speaker 1: When my character was smoking weed and it was the herbs,
Speaker 1: and it is harsh, and I was changing smoking. Well,
Speaker 1: I have an actual allergy to the chemicals that are exhaled.
Speaker 1: It may like fries, so I'm immediately congested. I can't
Speaker 1: breathe like and it gives me like bronchitis for like
Speaker 1: months at a time. So I tried, definitely try to
Speaker 1: like stay away from cigarettes. I don't have like a
Speaker 1: philosophical opposition to like cigarettes, but like just you know,
Speaker 1: go over there. Um okay, um wait, so wait, what's
Speaker 1: the catchphrase? So you say, I don't think so honey
Speaker 1: the thing and then if you can repeat the phrase,
Speaker 1: I don't think so high, don't think so honey. Okay,
Speaker 1: and this is your time, it starts now, I don't
Speaker 1: think so honey. You have food restrictions on Thanksgiving, Listen,
Speaker 1: there will be a turkey, there will be a handy camp.
Speaker 1: I don't care that you can't have gluten or dairy
Speaker 1: or peanuts or whatever. Don't come into a black home
Speaker 1: talking about food restrictions or allergies or sensitivities. You're gonna
Speaker 1: get all of these things, and no one is going
Speaker 1: to care about whether or not your plate as full,
Speaker 1: um have the salads has gluten? Who cares? Okay, we
Speaker 1: don't care. Let me tell you right now, we don't
Speaker 1: care about your food restrictions, your dietary restrictions, things that
Speaker 1: you were just opposed to. Pork, Oh, the pork, the
Speaker 1: pork industry. You know who doesn't care all of us,
Speaker 1: all of us that we eat um, So listen, thank
Speaker 1: you for coming. You tried it. Eat this candy tam
Speaker 1: um five by incredible. It's called tupperware. Fill it up
Speaker 1: with whatever you got. You can heat it up over
Speaker 1: there in the microwaves or bring your own ship to Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: I don't want to give of your your dietary restrictions
Speaker 1: because you know who's not paying attention are getting well?
Speaker 1: Like I'm technically gluten free, dairy free, but not on Thanksgiving?
Speaker 1: Why would I even do that? Why would I do that?
Speaker 1: As on Thankgiving? And the glutenous the inflammation, you don't
Speaker 1: who who wants to hear about inflammation around the holidays?
Speaker 1: No one, No one cares about like the rest of us. Yeah, period,
Speaker 1: it's it's actually it's a season for eating, but it's
Speaker 1: also a season for shifting and bowen. That's really culture
Speaker 1: number it's and it's also a season for susse probiotics,
Speaker 1: you guys. Yeah, And with that, I encourage everyone I
Speaker 1: know Bowen does to go see the inspection. Will be
Speaker 1: wide release when this episode comes out. Gabrielle Union, I mean,
Speaker 1: this was such a pleasure. It was so nice to
Speaker 1: talk to you. This was a lot of fun, and
Speaker 1: we truly stand as the kids. Thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. I've had the best time. You're
Speaker 1: the best bow We'll catch up in the stack. But
Speaker 1: all right, everybody, Oh, I see it. She really had
Speaker 1: to go bo. So I was like, we I don't
Speaker 1: think we can sing at her right now and get
Speaker 1: the woman is on a press tour for two projects
Speaker 1: and she is a champion for it. Truly, this is
Speaker 1: even one is as as you all know, this is
Speaker 1: the year where everyone as a culture understood that press
Speaker 1: tours are nuts. So like, I got it this year
Speaker 1: have never had before I'm saying. I mean, like I
Speaker 1: think in a post Gaga world, we understand press tours
Speaker 1: to be one thing like oh at least to get
Speaker 1: like these fun moments. But now post House of Gucci
Speaker 1: and post don't worry about everyone's just like the glut
Speaker 1: of it is a lot. So anyway, all our sympathies.
Speaker 1: We need to do a movie called press Tour. You
Speaker 1: and I need to do a movie called press Tour.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, one fun wow, wow wow. Look at
Speaker 1: Christopher guest style, like, well, I guess that's that's for
Speaker 1: your consideration. But we can we can find it, can
Speaker 1: find it. Take. We're gonna go do that now. We
Speaker 1: hope you'll have an excellent excellent Well let's just say day,
Speaker 1: day and maybe night. Yeah, and we and every episode
Speaker 1: a bow with this song. And it's Christmas time yourself
Speaker 1: maryss to my own fake Christmas now screaming, now please dream?
Speaker 1: Have you heard of Christmas? Okay, so the star turn
Speaker 1: for my star turning. I love bathroom acting. It's my
Speaker 1: favorite spoiler alert? Did you like acting with me in
Speaker 1: the bathroom? And did you catch my reference to Lady
Speaker 1: Gaga on the Stars Born? When I screamed? Not only
Speaker 1: did I catch the reference, I saw you talk to
Speaker 1: Drone director, Drone Iconic director and say, well, this is
Speaker 1: the Star is Born movement. And so I was. I
Speaker 1: was there, I witnessed the whole process of it, and
Speaker 1: I was so privileged. I I did think that day.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, this is so fun, Like I
Speaker 1: get to act alongside man even you know what my
Speaker 1: favorite thing is when it's with someone you like the
Speaker 1: time in between setups, the time in between roles where
Speaker 1: you're just like two real people the goose but it's
Speaker 1: like your two real people and this like fake environment.
Speaker 1: But then the time just goes flying by when it's
Speaker 1: like you're with your best buddy, And I was like,
Speaker 1: this is fun. Honestly, I thought to myself, I need
Speaker 1: to get on the Matt Rodgers Bow and Yang projects
Speaker 1: that like are in my head because like this is like,
Speaker 1: this is the reason for the season. It was the
Speaker 1: reason for the season, not just Christmas season, but every
Speaker 1: season with my girl, with my garl. Okay, so now
Speaker 1: let's close out again this episode. Here we go, Okay,
Speaker 1: have yourself, have yourself us, make them you tie gat
Speaker 1: mm hmmmm. And the rest is a standard. You can
Speaker 1: listen to any of the girls sing up. They all
Speaker 1: cover to come on, bye Bye