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Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: We're rolling.

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Speaker 1: Let's go up.

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Speaker 2: Primo se se Primo Robo came up.

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Speaker 3: Primo, so so sel Primo Roll Call, Supremo Supremo roll called.

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Speaker 1: So prim So Primo. It is Quest Love. Yeah, aren't

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Speaker 1: you glad? Yeah? Ronald timmis here. Yeah, he's gonna get mad.

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Speaker 1: Upremo Road Call, Prima Supremo Road. My name is Spante, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's who I am. Yeah, letting you know. I too

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Speaker 1: have a cousin named Pama.

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Speaker 4: Supremo Road Come Supremo Supremo roll Call.

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Speaker 1: My name is Sugar.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: And this is my phone.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: And if you're still living single, yeah, I live alone.

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Speaker 4: Supremo Rod Suprema Sou Soun Supremo Road.

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Speaker 1: I'm on paid bill. Yeah, now take it easy.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 7: Might have drank, Yeah, a few martinis.

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Speaker 1: Suprema So you turn Erica Sprea Road.

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Speaker 8: Yeah. And let's talk style Yeah. TV couples. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 8: Max and Kyle.

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Speaker 4: Supremo Roll Suprema your Supremo role.

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Speaker 2: My name is Erica. Yeah, I'm the coolest. Yeah. I

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Speaker 2: don't know what I'm doing. Yeah, I don't hope, I

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Speaker 2: don't hope.

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Speaker 4: To Supremo Rome Suprema So Supremo Road Up, Preema Shu

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Speaker 4: sun Sel Primo Road call Prima sut sun self free road.

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Speaker 1: So much I had to do that. We gotta have

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Speaker 1: to dance in silhouette like.

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Speaker 2: Funky Fresh. I feel very welcome.

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Speaker 1: Thank you up from fact in doing the LL tour.

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Speaker 9: Whenever Latifa went on the road with us, the biggest

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Speaker 9: like bigger than any LL song, bigger than any song

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Speaker 9: than when we did live in single.

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Speaker 1: It was like doing smells like teen Spirit mind.

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Speaker 9: I believe it like Dana thought I was lying to

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Speaker 9: her when I said, Yo, we need to do that twice,

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Speaker 9: like literally as soon as it came on, yeah, check

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Speaker 9: and check check, whole crowd started all the way time.

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Speaker 8: I'm glad I got my girls.

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Speaker 2: I love it well that.

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Speaker 9: This is a new version of Quest Love Supreme, which

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Speaker 9: we are still in the room together, but we're doing

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Speaker 9: uh a virtual episode.

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Speaker 1: We're live in sort of live short of yeah in person. Right, Well,

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Speaker 1: we're here together.

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Speaker 8: Better than us being all on zoom.

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Speaker 1: This is still cool, yes exactly, but sure here the

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Speaker 1: team Supreme.

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Speaker 9: How are we good man? So we're just we're not

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Speaker 9: going to act like we're not going to act like

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Speaker 9: we weren't doing this like three hours ago.

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Speaker 7: No, I'm just yeah for you, Bill, fantastic. I had

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Speaker 7: a good afternoon, Thank you for asking. And then I

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Speaker 7: took myself out to dinner and I feel fantastic.

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Speaker 1: What did you have for dinner?

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Speaker 2: Uh?

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Speaker 7: Martinis and Sea Best.

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Speaker 1: It was great? Wait did y'all eat together? I wish?

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Speaker 9: Well, let me ask, how's it going? Did you have

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Speaker 9: to buy yourself date as well? You just not actually

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Speaker 9: meet cargo?

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Speaker 1: And uh we went and had some Mexican food for

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Speaker 1: lunch in New York. Yeah? Yo, how that turned out?

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Speaker 1: Shit was banging. I was surprised.

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Speaker 3: Won't you go the spot in the hotel, the those cominos,

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Speaker 3: those caminos.

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Speaker 9: To hear episodes in which we do not remote but

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Speaker 9: like in person, all of your hotel, culinary inventions adventure

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Speaker 9: sound awesome.

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Speaker 1: Like I've yet to hear a bad review.

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Speaker 8: And you have to have the Fante experience in a restaurant.

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Speaker 8: We were just talking about this earlier. There is an

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Speaker 8: experience with Fante. He likes to recommend things, he suggests.

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Speaker 8: You know, he's really good.

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Speaker 3: At I'm a man of husk I've been decided a

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Speaker 3: long time, so I don't get food wrong.

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Speaker 1: I know that I know snacks, speaking of which I

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Speaker 1: actually you know infamously.

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Speaker 9: Well, yeah, as a foodie, people will think that my

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Speaker 9: culinary choices are very hoity toity and whatever up there

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Speaker 9: the way that I am you right now, however, Captain Crunch,

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Speaker 9: no dog, you know what. I gave a chance for

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Speaker 9: the first time and wasn't mad. I'm not mad at Chipotle, No, no, no,

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Speaker 9: I mean Steve's taking.

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Speaker 6: I very much preferred those Toros. If you're going to

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Speaker 6: go that fast food, well well across the nation. I

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Speaker 6: can't do anything about that. But wait, those totals is

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Speaker 6: I like those tauruses, uh steak much more than Chipotle,

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Speaker 6: And that's what I normally get.

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Speaker 1: Let's intro our gust today.

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Speaker 9: So you know, it's hard to say whether or not

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Speaker 9: the category that you fall into is just actress or

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Speaker 9: character actress.

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Speaker 1: However, I will the way the ways you look like.

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Speaker 9: In my opinion, I think you are an ace character

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Speaker 9: actress because you often come when I don't expect you

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Speaker 9: to show up in any film no matter what you're in,

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Speaker 9: and you really have the ability, like I get excited

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Speaker 9: when oh damn, it's gonna be good, like I've I've

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Speaker 9: yet to have a actual response to like if she

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Speaker 9: if I'm unaware that she's part of it, Like I

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Speaker 9: didn't realize that she was going to be versus mother

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Speaker 9: in WU.

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Speaker 1: Tanks at that part right right that party get out

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Speaker 1: or whatever, like where you just don't expect to see

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Speaker 1: her then my ears prick up like a puppy, like,

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Speaker 1: oh you know that sort of thing makes the movie

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Speaker 1: more interesting?

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Speaker 2: Oh, thank you well.

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Speaker 9: First of all, Caroline in the in the Oscar nominated

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Speaker 9: American Fiction American Fiction.

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Speaker 1: What was your last name in that?

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Speaker 2: I was Coraline?

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Speaker 1: Yes, But did you have a last name in that?

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Speaker 1: Not that I know of?

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Speaker 2: I was just coreline.

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Speaker 9: Okay, side question before I say your name. If given

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Speaker 9: a character, are you allowed to give yourself a last name?

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Speaker 9: If it's not they're in your bios? Are you allowed

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Speaker 9: to make your character.

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Speaker 2: Up if you're yes, I mean I am.

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Speaker 5: I'm able to do what I want as long as

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Speaker 5: I don't put it in the lines the story.

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Speaker 1: I get it, okay, all right? Also, uh, barb ballot

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Speaker 1: and run the world, which I don't know. I enjoyed

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Speaker 1: it right.

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Speaker 9: In in the brand new Apple series of Swimming with Sharks,

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Speaker 9: She's a mayor to Lockhart and no, no, no, you're

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Speaker 9: in Shining Girls right, You're at Girls Apple right exactly.

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Speaker 9: I'm sorry, I'm getting my networks mixed up. But of course,

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Speaker 9: uh we we would be remiss, of course, uh mentioning

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Speaker 9: the world in which at last she entered my life,

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Speaker 9: even though I know you you've had a life of

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Speaker 9: acting before then. But of course, as cousin Pam on

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Speaker 9: The Cosby Show, but probably I will say that Maxine

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Speaker 9: Shaw is one of the most loved characters period, and

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Speaker 9: to this day I still wonder if her and Overton

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Speaker 9: not Overton k.

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Speaker 1: Yes, are are making it like? Yes exactly, Erica Alexander, Yes, thank.

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Speaker 2: You, happy, I'm proud to be with you all. Thank you. Chris.

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Speaker 1: So where are you right now as we speak?

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Speaker 5: Well, I'm zooming in on a zoom from Vancouver because

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Speaker 5: I'm filming for the Apple Plus series Invasion.

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Speaker 8: I'll watch that. Where are the second season? Second, third season,

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Speaker 8: third season?

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Speaker 1: Girl.

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Speaker 8: That's a good one, yea.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good one. A lot of secrets on

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Speaker 2: his set.

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Speaker 5: Simon kim Berg is the showrunner, and he famously did

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Speaker 5: a lot of well all of the X Men movies

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Speaker 5: and Deadpool I think or Dared Devil one of them. Yeah,

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Speaker 5: he's pretty awesome.

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Speaker 8: So you're going to be a recurring I am going.

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Speaker 2: To be a regular character, but only on season three.

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Speaker 1: So you're in Vancouver right now.

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Speaker 5: I am in Vancouver and we are filming, and it's

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Speaker 5: a big production. It's an international global production. They did

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Speaker 5: a lot of their filming the two previous years in

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Speaker 5: South Africa, Morocco, Japan, England, and now they've kind of

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Speaker 5: rested here in Vancouver.

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Speaker 1: I see how many how many weeks have you been

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Speaker 1: there so far?

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Speaker 5: I think I'm going on my fourth week. I just

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Speaker 5: got here just after the NDAACP Awards.

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Speaker 9: You know I often here, like right now. I mean Vancouver,

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Speaker 9: of course is an acting hub. Like how often as

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Speaker 9: an actress are you in Vancouver? Like how regular are so?

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Speaker 9: And why besides the tax reasons or whatever? Like visually,

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Speaker 9: like why is Vancouver the designated You know?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I filmed here before in onent He sixteen. It

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Speaker 2: was another Side five series. I forget the name of it.

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Speaker 5: But I don't think there's any other reason beside the

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Speaker 5: tax incent here. It's actually quite beautiful and it can

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Speaker 5: double for New York City or maybe a European street.

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Speaker 5: It really matters that it's got a lot of non

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Speaker 5: descript places, a lot of outdoor spaces, so they can

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Speaker 5: do a lot of action here. They've got a really

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Speaker 5: great amount of crew and talent up here. So I

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Speaker 5: think the idea is is that the American dollar compared

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Speaker 5: to the Canadian dollar also helps.

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Speaker 2: So there's all these.

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Speaker 5: Factors and it's very close to La You fly here

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Speaker 5: two and a half hours you are here.

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Speaker 9: Oh, I forgot the proximity that helps. Hey, by the way,

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Speaker 9: are you familiar at all with Lacasa Gelato?

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Speaker 1: Have you heard of?

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Speaker 8: Oh?

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Speaker 2: It sounds delicious though.

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Speaker 9: Lacasa Gelato is a place in Vancouver. They have five

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Speaker 9: hundred different types of ice cream flavors. Like when you

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Speaker 9: first walk in, literally it's the biggest ice cream quality

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Speaker 9: you've ever seen in your life. However, like once you

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Speaker 9: get in the middle, when you get past the regularly

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Speaker 9: strawberry vanilla, then you get into intricate things like cheddar

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Speaker 9: cheese ice cream, but saw mc vinegar ice cream, ghost

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Speaker 9: pepper ice cream.

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Speaker 8: Alway supposed to be ice cream, chicken and ice cream.

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Speaker 1: It sounds awful. No, no, no, no, it's it's it's

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Speaker 1: it's worth it's worth it. Why y'all shaking your hand.

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Speaker 1: I take your word for it.

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Speaker 8: I believe you, right, Gravey ice cream, There.

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Speaker 9: Is Pickle flavor ice cream though, No, no, I highly

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Speaker 9: recommend it for people to you know.

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Speaker 2: Just.

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Speaker 8: Vancouver.

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Speaker 5: Yeah it is.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's it's one of their like a

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Speaker 1: landmark spot in there.

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Speaker 5: But for sure, Well, if I ever want to have

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Speaker 5: diarrhea and the dribble ships, I.

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Speaker 1: Will, so I am not the only one that's not

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Speaker 1: lactose intolerant.

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Speaker 8: Good for you a mirror, Yeah that's great, but.

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Speaker 1: I feel like I can't be the only black person.

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Speaker 8: But y'all, I'm suggesting invasion because I gotta imagine this

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Speaker 8: show is like a super sci fi show, but it's

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Speaker 8: also like super emotional, like like it's an amazing show.

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Speaker 8: So I can't only imagine that it's pulling, taking all

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Speaker 8: your energies and whatnot, because man.

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Speaker 2: Well you know, it's a very big cast, so a

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Speaker 2: lot of that.

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Speaker 5: Are shifted to different people's shoulders at different times. But

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Speaker 5: what I imagine is that because Simon kimberb is such

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Speaker 5: a heavy dude. They gave him the type of money

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Speaker 5: that you need for to command that kind of time,

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Speaker 5: so he takes a lot of time to film, and

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Speaker 5: it's a very thoughtful sci fi exploration of what it

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Speaker 5: is to be invaded, you know. So that's what you feel.

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Speaker 2: I think you hear that sort of slow crew. And

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Speaker 2: by the way, whenever you feel that in a film,

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Speaker 2: it's because usually.

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Speaker 5: The production has more money, don't have to rush through

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Speaker 5: plots and all the types of things that other people do.

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Speaker 5: They can really just sort of linger on people's faces

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Speaker 5: and allow people to perform and or emote.

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Speaker 2: And that's what's happening.

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Speaker 1: See the way she said emote.

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Speaker 9: And see clearly tells me that acting like she's a serious,

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Speaker 9: a serious Apian.

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Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. Yes.

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Speaker 9: So one thing I do know about you, and I

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Speaker 9: never got to talk to you about You're a Philadelphian.

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Speaker 1: Come yes, and yeah she graduated. Well, I do know that.

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Speaker 9: When I first heard about you, like it was a

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Speaker 9: big deal in the newspapers, like girls high alumni, I did.

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Speaker 5: Yes, And I went to George White in high school

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Speaker 5: for a year. And that's where Kevin Hart went. But

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Speaker 5: I'm actually a transplant from Arizona and I came when

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Speaker 5: I was in seventh grade, eighth grades usually, so I

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Speaker 5: went to Roosevelt in Leeds too. Roosevelt was like going

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Speaker 5: to a prison.

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Speaker 2: Leeds was month.

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Speaker 1: Step up from prison.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, half, yeah, it wasnt one was more closer to

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Speaker 5: Germantown and that was I think they closed that down.

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Speaker 2: And then, of course the other one was more mount

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Speaker 2: Airy and that was a lot more I don't know better.

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Speaker 1: A right, what part of Philadelphia? Where are you from?

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Speaker 2: Mount Airy? Oh?

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Speaker 8: Nice, nice part of town.

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Speaker 9: See when you're from West Philly, I just think anything

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Speaker 9: that's north of City Hall is just n O R

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Speaker 9: F North Philly, even if it's Mount Airy. So what

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Speaker 9: was your beginnings in the world of acting? Like, were

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Speaker 9: you a freedom theater kid or was this stuff in

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Speaker 9: your school? Did you do you not want to go

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Speaker 9: to creative and performing arts or well, you know.

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Speaker 5: I think we had a conversation in Mire, and I

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Speaker 5: know you've had plenty of them. But you went to

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Speaker 5: school with my little sister Charlanda. Yes, he's the one

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Speaker 5: who went to the School of the Arts that you did.

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Speaker 5: But I was discovered when I was fourteen in the

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Speaker 5: basement theater called new Freedom Theater. Theater.

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Speaker 2: Freedom Theater closed. I talked to the council and the

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Speaker 2: other day we got to.

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Speaker 8: Get that back. That theater is beautiful.

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Speaker 5: It's beautiful, but it's stuffed in the middle of Temple

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Speaker 5: University and surrounded by I don't think people who understand

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Speaker 5: what it's.

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Speaker 8: Significantrification, what's going on with Howard University. I can roger

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Speaker 8: that so discovered in.

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Speaker 5: The basement theater by a movie company, merch and Ivory

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Speaker 5: Film Independent Film came to Philadelphia. They were looking for

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Speaker 5: Little Girls Back and Brown to audition for this movie.

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Speaker 5: And after nearly twelve to thirteen audition and for screen

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Speaker 5: screen tests, screen tests, Yeah, I was the one they chose.

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Speaker 1: When this is both cleared, Wow, Okay, what happened at

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Speaker 1: Freedom Theater?

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Speaker 9: Like, because that was one of the places where I

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Speaker 9: wanted to go, but instead my parents put me in

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Speaker 9: Settlement Music School. Oh and my sister went to Freedom Theater.

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Speaker 9: Like it was like, Okay, we're going to have her

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Speaker 9: act and he's going to do music. But we would

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Speaker 9: only pick her up afterwards. But I never knew, like

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Speaker 9: what happened in there, Like what was what would they

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Speaker 9: teach you there?

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Speaker 5: Well, Johnny Allen Junior and his partner they started it,

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Speaker 5: and they started in the sixties.

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Speaker 2: Sixties famously were starting.

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Speaker 5: To try to train black children the way the Black

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Speaker 5: Panthers did if they knew the schools that were primarily

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Speaker 5: white were giving them any sense of themselves. And you

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Speaker 5: had people like the great Nina Simone talking of about young,

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Speaker 5: gifted and black, so that that's really what was going on.

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Speaker 5: There was some sort of idea that if you infused

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Speaker 5: a child with the strong sense of themselves and you

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Speaker 5: also gave them creative outlets, got them in touch with

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Speaker 5: their body, discipline, voice, sound, body, all of those things performance, speech, communication,

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Speaker 5: that you could influence.

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Speaker 2: The rest of their life.

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Speaker 5: And they proved their point, like a lot of the

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Speaker 5: schools that were going around the country at the time

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Speaker 5: and new Freedom Theaters of that kind of tradition.

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Speaker 1: How old were you when you started Freedom Theater? Like,

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Speaker 1: at what age did you start?

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Speaker 2: Fourteen?

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Speaker 5: I only went there for the sixth week program, and

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Speaker 5: then I also did like two summers of a play

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Speaker 5: called under Pressure, which was their resident production that they

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Speaker 5: put on every year every summer.

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Speaker 9: Is the Hoope where I guess the goal of the

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Speaker 9: school to draw people, notable people to see the kids

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Speaker 9: and have them work with someone notable. Or is it

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Speaker 9: just like we teach you the craft of acting and

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Speaker 9: then you're out there in the world, Like, are they

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Speaker 9: like this how you get an agent?

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Speaker 1: Or this is how you you know this?

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Speaker 9: Commercial casting directors come into our thing tonight, Like is

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Speaker 9: it any of those things involved?

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Speaker 8: No?

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Speaker 2: Not. When I was going it might have changed.

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Speaker 5: It really was about self love, self reverence, power, black power,

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Speaker 5: young gifted and black, A sense of yourself inside of

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Speaker 5: a white world.

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Speaker 2: How can you move through it?

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Speaker 5: How do you stand lifting your head, your skins, making

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Speaker 5: the children go home and get undressed and look at

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Speaker 5: themselves in a mirror, all parts of themselves, the lower

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Speaker 5: parts of themselves, having some kind of regard and respect

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Speaker 5: for hygiene, The way you spoke, the way you stepped

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Speaker 5: up grammar, all of those things. It was really more

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Speaker 5: like a boot camp for life for black kids.

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Speaker 9: Did you realize that immediately or is this like in hindsight,

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Speaker 9: like I hated going to Okay, I'm sorry, I did

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Speaker 9: not hate going to Settlement Music School, but I hated

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Speaker 9: the homework assignments, However, I now realized, thank god I

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Speaker 9: went to sell them in music school.

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Speaker 1: That saved my life.

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Speaker 9: But you realize that stuff like when you're way older.

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Speaker 9: Did you realize that at the time, or because even

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Speaker 9: when we were doing those types of exercises at performing

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Speaker 9: art school whatever, like we'd be in the back laughing,

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Speaker 9: like you know, they want us to learn Elizabethan and

358
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Speaker 9: project with your voice.

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Speaker 1: And you know, we're just like that.

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Speaker 8: Settlement wasn't as black as freedom in that way though.

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Speaker 8: That's like a different experience, right.

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Speaker 2: Right, that's true. I think my sister went to Settlement

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Speaker 2: to my baby's sister.

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Speaker 1: How many siblings do you have, I'm one of six.

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Speaker 5: And fourth there's too younger than me. There's Charbanda who

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Speaker 5: you know, and then there's my y sh and I

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Speaker 5: think she went to Southerner.

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Speaker 1: And all of you have dabbled in the arts.

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Speaker 5: Yes, in some way, although my sister, it was a

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Speaker 5: social worker there in Philadelphia and my brother's a Philly cop.

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Speaker 8: Oh, so your family really stayed in Philadelphia, Yes, they did.

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Speaker 5: Both my parents were orphans, so we didn't necessarily have

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Speaker 5: a place to be. Wherever we were was where we

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Speaker 5: were at. But I think you were talking about, did

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Speaker 5: I recognize what it was doing.

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Speaker 2: Then?

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Speaker 5: Yes, they were very over. They kept it was like

378
00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:41,159
Speaker 5: a boot camp. It was like an officer and a gentleman.

379
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,800
Speaker 5: They were going to make you understand the power of

380
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Speaker 5: being black and blackness, and more importantly, the power of

381
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Speaker 5: self love. And we needed that because at the time

382
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Speaker 5: I was going in there, the streets were a battleground.

383
00:20:56,520 --> 00:21:02,600
Speaker 5: It was crack incarceration, Young women were getting pregnant. It

384
00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:07,280
Speaker 5: was really like some kind of weird pathology movie. And

385
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Speaker 5: I think they couldn't be soft about it.

386
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Speaker 2: They had to be over.

387
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Speaker 5: They didn't have the privilege to set back and not

388
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Speaker 5: act like they were trying to do. They were trying

389
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Speaker 5: to radicalize you, and I think that it worked well.

390
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Speaker 9: When you said offers and a gentleman, I'm like, wait

391
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Speaker 9: a minute. I remember Lewis Gossigjr. Making cry in the

392
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Speaker 9: right in the rain. I'm like, wait a minute.

393
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Speaker 2: So they are a lot of.

394
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Speaker 5: People cried, but they were crying because it was like church.

395
00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:38,840
Speaker 5: You got in there and you had real awakenings and

396
00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:42,760
Speaker 5: you reckoned with Even though you might have thought a

397
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Speaker 5: lot of people had a confidence and didn't have I

398
00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:50,040
Speaker 5: guess the fears that some children have, they all had

399
00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:53,200
Speaker 5: that we weren't allowed to be children. And there I

400
00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:55,960
Speaker 5: think that they knew they were different type of child

401
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:59,440
Speaker 5: and that they needed to break us down so we

402
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Speaker 5: could be wrong. Alright, not me though, by the way,

403
00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:05,440
Speaker 5: I'm a preacher's daughter. I came in already vulnerable. I

404
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:10,520
Speaker 5: was scared of Philadelphia and the students. And I will wait,

405
00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:12,760
Speaker 5: your dad was a pretty different student. Yeah, Church of

406
00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:15,040
Speaker 5: God in Christ, baby, what's all?

407
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Speaker 1: Why is a kojak? Is kojak? For sure? Where where

408
00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:20,040
Speaker 1: was the church?

409
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:20,840
Speaker 2: Well?

410
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Speaker 5: My parents are coming out of New Mexico, my carlosbad

411
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:27,800
Speaker 5: Las Cruses. They were Bible students. They traveled around in

412
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Speaker 5: the car, and that's why I spent the first eleven

413
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Speaker 5: years of my life.

414
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:33,760
Speaker 2: In a hotel called Starlight off a room sixty six.

415
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Speaker 1: Wow that was where you lived?

416
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:39,200
Speaker 2: Yeah? Wow?

417
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:42,199
Speaker 9: What was Wait let's go back even further. I mean

418
00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:44,480
Speaker 9: starting a freedom theater. Now I want to hear you

419
00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:45,360
Speaker 9: as a no man?

420
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:47,119
Speaker 1: What was that like?

421
00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:53,080
Speaker 5: I was born in Arizona off Highway sixty six, but

422
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:57,000
Speaker 5: don't want to be Oh those cowboys.

423
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:01,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got my It was like got her Texas

424
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Speaker 2: hold them.

425
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:06,080
Speaker 5: That's right, But you know that's what made me different

426
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:09,600
Speaker 5: and a little bit a lot of trepidation in Philadelphia

427
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:14,359
Speaker 5: because it was so bombastic and forward. And I'm coming

428
00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:21,760
Speaker 5: from Hope, Navajo, Estizio, Mexican German Lutherans. And then there

429
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,480
Speaker 5: was my parents who were Kojik Baptists, and then my

430
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:28,120
Speaker 5: brother my sorry, my father got discovered by the German

431
00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:31,920
Speaker 5: Lutherans and they sent him to the luther Theological Seminary

432
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Speaker 5: in Philadelphia, and that was in Chestnut Hill.

433
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Speaker 1: So he was going to be or is currently a preacher.

434
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Speaker 5: He died at fifty two. Shortly after he finished at seminary.

435
00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:47,960
Speaker 5: They sent him to Brooklyn in East New York to

436
00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:51,880
Speaker 5: start his church, mostly Puerto Rican neighborhood. Most of those

437
00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:54,760
Speaker 5: people had their churches for years. He maybe had or

438
00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:58,639
Speaker 5: or five members, but by that time he was too

439
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:00,960
Speaker 5: sick to recover. He was born with a bad heart.

440
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:03,640
Speaker 5: They didn't think that he would live past seventeen.

441
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:04,600
Speaker 2: He did.

442
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:07,440
Speaker 5: He was a miracle, and I think he lived long

443
00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:10,760
Speaker 5: enough to deliver us to Philadelphia, and that gave us

444
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:11,560
Speaker 5: a lot more choices.

445
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Speaker 1: Were you expected to join the ministry?

446
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 2: No?

447
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:23,200
Speaker 1: Wait, no, you said that no varia as a matter

448
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:25,199
Speaker 1: of fact, like what was.

449
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:30,479
Speaker 9: The home environment like, because most people of the cloth

450
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:34,680
Speaker 9: that I know, like it's a very strict environment. And

451
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 9: hearing that you're a preacher's kid, but also like you

452
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,760
Speaker 9: dabbled in the arts, like it's almost like oil and

453
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 9: water to me, because most people that I know like

454
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:48,800
Speaker 9: try to keep their kids out of any joyous expression

455
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 9: like singing, dancing, anything that's deemed secular.

456
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:56,479
Speaker 2: So well that wasn't the case for us.

457
00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:00,720
Speaker 5: My father was a boy preacher, so he didn't have

458
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,240
Speaker 5: a choice. Well, let me just put it to you

459
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 5: like this, my story and my background are their origin

460
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:11,239
Speaker 5: story is very Southern Gothic, and so you don't get

461
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 5: the feeling that these people are making these choices. They're

462
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 5: making choices because that's what's in front of them. And

463
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:21,399
Speaker 5: if you look at the Black tradition, a lot of

464
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:25,399
Speaker 5: those people were preachers. Around the end of reconstruction, the

465
00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:28,000
Speaker 5: people that they called in to ask about forty eight

466
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:31,480
Speaker 5: of mule were pastors and were clergy union. Other than that,

467
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 5: you were either going to be a farmer, perhaps maybe

468
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:40,639
Speaker 5: a teacher. But in Showpiz and so that tradition of

469
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:45,399
Speaker 5: preachers kids becoming show biz kids like Denzel and a

470
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:49,240
Speaker 5: lot of these people because we saw performance our entire life.

471
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 5: My mother sings, he plays a piano. She was trained

472
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:58,760
Speaker 5: as an opera singer and pianist. My father played the

473
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:04,360
Speaker 5: piano by ear. And we got along and got over

474
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 5: with the kindness of strangers because a lot of times

475
00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:09,200
Speaker 5: they were performing for their food.

476
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:10,960
Speaker 2: They didn't just preach.

477
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:14,600
Speaker 5: They got in there and said, oh and they selling

478
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:16,880
Speaker 5: that could get you chicken and maybe some lint.

479
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 8: It sounds like, I mean, just based on what you

480
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:21,320
Speaker 8: just told us in the last ten fifteen minutes, like

481
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 8: your family sounds pretty miraculous, Like you kind of slid

482
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:27,720
Speaker 8: in there that both your parents were orphans, which is

483
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:35,440
Speaker 8: a miraculous I mean, not even knowing their story, wow wow,

484
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:38,840
Speaker 8: and them me coming together and meeting each other. So

485
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:42,159
Speaker 8: my question also was were did they also have this

486
00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:45,440
Speaker 8: underlayer of foundation for you to even know about Freedom theater?

487
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 8: Did they also give you this other layer of self

488
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:51,119
Speaker 8: awareness of blackness? Like that's a but on top of

489
00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:54,600
Speaker 8: going to this church that determines brought him so many layers,

490
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,000
Speaker 8: like did you get that from them as well? Your

491
00:26:57,040 --> 00:26:59,919
Speaker 8: activism and community and knowing about blackness and who you are.

492
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:02,000
Speaker 2: I would say the activism.

493
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 5: Yes, I think most black people that came from that

494
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:07,959
Speaker 5: era thought they were being hunted and they were haunted

495
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:12,800
Speaker 5: by whiteness. They were hunted literally by white people, and

496
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 5: so you always had to do that. You had to

497
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:17,639
Speaker 5: find a place to be. It wasn't just like the

498
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 5: Green Book. You had to choose where you were going

499
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:24,119
Speaker 5: to live. You had to choose the type of career

500
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:28,360
Speaker 5: that didn't make you a threat. And so that's why

501
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:34,480
Speaker 5: people being athletes, they're performing for white people. They're coming

502
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 5: in front of them and they're offering their voice and

503
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:42,600
Speaker 5: their talents, and suddenly they may be a threat when

504
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 5: to go outside of that door, but inside that door

505
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 5: they have a certain type of privilege. And so I

506
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:52,159
Speaker 5: think that my mother, who was twice or offended and

507
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:55,680
Speaker 5: she had an extraordinary background.

508
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:58,600
Speaker 2: She was raised by the richest couple.

509
00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:03,119
Speaker 5: In her town, Carlsbad, and that's why she had she

510
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 5: knew how to I'm here talk about enunciation. Pronunciation is

511
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:11,840
Speaker 5: very from That's where it comes from. But then, of course,

512
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:14,639
Speaker 5: being a child of the preacher, you.

513
00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 2: Know that everything they do, you see, it's all.

514
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:23,800
Speaker 5: Part and parcel. But you're also coming from respectability politics.

515
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:27,639
Speaker 5: They were the people who did not want to look dusty.

516
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 5: You were coming out for plantations, you're talking about after reconstruction.

517
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:34,479
Speaker 5: You're talking about all the things that black people were

518
00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:35,639
Speaker 5: seen as dirty and.

519
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 2: Unsophisticated and unlearned.

520
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 5: They had to immediately establish their bona fide, and so

521
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 5: begins the black bourgeois there you go. And then once

522
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:51,040
Speaker 5: they found out we had money, so begins the black

523
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 5: middle class. Oh and the race for labels.

524
00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:59,360
Speaker 9: You saying that has already brought me back to twelve,

525
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:03,400
Speaker 9: because there's a time where even if I wanted to

526
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:06,240
Speaker 9: go to the movies, I would have to put a

527
00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 9: suit on. And it's like, why do I have to

528
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:11,880
Speaker 9: put a suit on to see Jim Kelly and black

529
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 9: Belt Genlemans in silent scream at the Capitol on fifty

530
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:20,560
Speaker 9: second and they're you know, their whole thing was like, well, yeah,

531
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 9: it's respective of these politics, but it's also like if

532
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:27,160
Speaker 9: you have a suit on, you won't get shot, right.

533
00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:29,400
Speaker 9: But then I thought it made me your target to bullies,

534
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:31,160
Speaker 9: like why is he walking in with a suit on?

535
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:35,600
Speaker 9: Like everyone else is casually dressed, but I'm the one

536
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 9: guy is sitting there like, well.

537
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 5: Maybe you remember the boy choir of Harlem. That was

538
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 5: the whole bithing there to put on suits suits, and

539
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:49,080
Speaker 5: that's how they went to school. And it made them targets,

540
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:52,360
Speaker 5: but it also made them responsible for their behavior.

541
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:55,959
Speaker 2: They needed them to look at different.

542
00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:01,400
Speaker 9: I see after the six weeks that at Freedom Theater, Like,

543
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:05,200
Speaker 9: what was your next move into what brought you a

544
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 9: step closer to your profession? Like at what point were

545
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:12,600
Speaker 9: you like, Okay, I want to be an actress and

546
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:13,960
Speaker 9: pursue it seriously.

547
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:18,000
Speaker 5: I never accepted that I was an actress until maybe

548
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:20,240
Speaker 5: my late thirties or early forties.

549
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:25,800
Speaker 9: So even with cosbian living single, you didn't feel like

550
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 9: you were a full time actress.

551
00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 5: No, nope, I would always go back to my trader

552
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:34,480
Speaker 5: talking about I was going to write my comeback piece.

553
00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:44,520
Speaker 1: Okay, so I'm skipping. Look, since you brought it up,

554
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:45,280
Speaker 1: let me skip it.

555
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:49,600
Speaker 9: So the last day of living single or Betty at

556
00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:53,680
Speaker 9: a week after living single, are you feeling like do

557
00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:55,760
Speaker 9: I go back to being a civilian or do I

558
00:30:56,960 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 9: are you basically saying that was your mind state, like

559
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 9: not a full time actress until I have the next

560
00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:07,760
Speaker 9: stable job or your life is.

561
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:11,000
Speaker 5: An actor, just as a musician is very porous. Nothing

562
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:14,160
Speaker 5: ever ends, nothing ever really begins. You can feel a

563
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:16,640
Speaker 5: little bit because people have rap parties and that helps

564
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 5: you sort of put your.

565
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 2: Mind around like it's done.

566
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 5: Yeah, but you've probably been auditioning the whole time for

567
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:27,760
Speaker 5: other things, and I had been, and at the time,

568
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 5: I was dealing with a lot of heartbreak because there

569
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 5: was a lot of I guess, hierarchy as to who

570
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:38,840
Speaker 5: they would allow to work other jobs, and I wasn't

571
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:45,320
Speaker 5: that person. So yeah, and so I missed out on

572
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:49,000
Speaker 5: a lot of things, roles that they would offer me

573
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:52,080
Speaker 5: but I couldn't take because fox let did take it,

574
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 5: and they would have pushed my career forward. So once

575
00:31:56,280 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 5: I got out of there, and I wasn't it's like

576
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:00,680
Speaker 5: being five years in the same timehigh school. You want

577
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:04,640
Speaker 5: to go, you're ready to go, and unless there's something

578
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:11,280
Speaker 5: keeping me there, some kind of overall goal you might have.

579
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,320
Speaker 5: Maybe you're really bonded with the cast that's really going well,

580
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 5: everybody sort of signs up to do it again. But

581
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,920
Speaker 5: it was breaking down on its own, so I didn't

582
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 5: think about it at all, like, oh, like I'm a

583
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:26,680
Speaker 5: civilian I've always been a civilian, just one that people known,

584
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:31,680
Speaker 5: and so I've been famous longer than I was not famous.

585
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:36,479
Speaker 5: In Philadelphia, when Mayor Good calls you to the Mayor's

586
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 5: office and gives the key to the city and a proclamation,

587
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:43,400
Speaker 5: and kids start acting weird around you that never really

588
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 5: paid attention to you. You see how celebrity warps things.

589
00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 5: So all I ever wanted to do was sort of

590
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:57,400
Speaker 5: return to a stable version of myself, but that was impossible.

591
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,000
Speaker 5: So I kind of accepted that that came with the territory.

592
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:04,120
Speaker 5: But I got to say, once I got out of there,

593
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:06,120
Speaker 5: I thought, I'm going to be a producer and write

594
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:09,360
Speaker 5: because I'd been trying to do that since A Cosby show.

595
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:14,640
Speaker 5: Oh wow, And the acting thing. I'm not just being

596
00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:17,840
Speaker 5: kind of glib about it. I hadn't accepted that I

597
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:20,640
Speaker 5: was this actress. It's just something that I can always do.

598
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 5: So I think as a musician or you understood that

599
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 5: maybe in your core competency you could always do it.

600
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:28,200
Speaker 2: You were good at it.

601
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:30,560
Speaker 5: It sat down and play the piano, and people said, oh,

602
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 5: you're good at it, But it didn't mean that you

603
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:33,480
Speaker 5: wanted to be a pianist.

604
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:35,160
Speaker 2: So with acting.

605
00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 5: I had to accept later on that I just didn't

606
00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 5: get chosen, like, hey, you can act, and here's a

607
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:44,440
Speaker 5: career that I did enjoy it, and that I was

608
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:48,480
Speaker 5: an actress. And when I had that sort of come

609
00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:50,959
Speaker 5: to Jesus moment, it was because a hypnotist.

610
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:52,680
Speaker 2: A hypnotist put me under.

611
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:58,280
Speaker 5: And when I left the office, I started to sob

612
00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:01,640
Speaker 5: because she said, Erica an actress, and I go, I

613
00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 5: am an actress and I had not really.

614
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:05,760
Speaker 2: Said that to myself.

615
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,399
Speaker 1: How do you feel now?

616
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:16,759
Speaker 5: I feel like I'm an artist and a creator, And

617
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:21,799
Speaker 5: I think that best sort of says about the activism,

618
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:27,520
Speaker 5: the fact that I have bigger ambitions than any one

619
00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:30,400
Speaker 5: production can fulfill.

620
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:34,320
Speaker 2: But I just love the idea of people who are creators,

621
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:35,160
Speaker 2: and I like to.

622
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:40,959
Speaker 8: Learn what's your dream project, the one that you needed

623
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 8: that if you had one hundred million dollars. This is

624
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:46,239
Speaker 8: what I'm making, you know.

625
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:49,200
Speaker 5: I think there's a room for a new King Panther,

626
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,000
Speaker 5: and I would love to do a character like that

627
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:55,960
Speaker 5: because I'm good at physical comedy, and I'm good at comedy,

628
00:34:56,239 --> 00:34:58,839
Speaker 5: but I'm also dramatic. And I think if you look

629
00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:02,800
Speaker 5: what Peter Sellers did, he was allowed to be a

630
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:07,120
Speaker 5: lot of different states of weirdness. I like the British

631
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:10,880
Speaker 5: sense of comedy, and I would like to do something

632
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 5: like that.

633
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:19,279
Speaker 1: All right, it manifested coming, let's do it. Okay. So

634
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,280
Speaker 1: now back back to your teens.

635
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:25,799
Speaker 9: What was the stage that you're like, okay, let's take

636
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:29,000
Speaker 9: this serious, like your first audition.

637
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:32,560
Speaker 2: What was that like at fourteen or just later on

638
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 2: after that?

639
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:38,040
Speaker 1: How were you when Pam came into full disclosure?

640
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:42,680
Speaker 9: Also, I kind of thought I was like maybe a

641
00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:46,840
Speaker 9: decade and a half older than you, Like what ye

642
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:52,360
Speaker 9: you look fucking awesome by the way, But like in

643
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,000
Speaker 9: my mind, I thought like, okay, well, you know eight

644
00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 9: these kids like.

645
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:57,279
Speaker 1: Started cousin Pam.

646
00:35:57,360 --> 00:35:59,800
Speaker 8: Wasn't a teenager that cousin Pam? What's the post?

647
00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:02,000
Speaker 9: In my mind, I'm like, wait, I was like twenty

648
00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:04,400
Speaker 9: something when the coss Okay, she was definitely like fourteen

649
00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:07,400
Speaker 9: fifteen because something on the special led episode and all

650
00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:11,279
Speaker 9: that stuff. So in my mind, you're way younger than me.

651
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:14,200
Speaker 9: So I'm like trying to school you use words like

652
00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:16,040
Speaker 9: manifest hilarious.

653
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:22,200
Speaker 5: No, I was older, playing younger than myself because of

654
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:26,160
Speaker 5: the hours. You know that those things take they try

655
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:29,480
Speaker 5: to get kids that are older, teenagers that are older

656
00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:33,880
Speaker 5: play younger. I was younger than Malcolm Jamal, but I

657
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:37,200
Speaker 5: actually think I'm older than Malcolm Jamal in real life.

658
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 1: Right.

659
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:40,879
Speaker 2: So actually I did an audition for cousin Pam.

660
00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:44,520
Speaker 1: That was your that was your first audition, but she

661
00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:46,879
Speaker 1: did an audition or you didn't.

662
00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 5: When I was twenty years old, Okay, I had been

663
00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:54,800
Speaker 5: acting for since I was fourteen. I'd gone around the

664
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:57,440
Speaker 5: world with Royal Shakespeare Company. I did a nine hour

665
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:02,120
Speaker 5: play called The Mahabaratta. I did mini series and a

666
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:05,640
Speaker 5: movie with Whoope called The Long Walk Call Wait Wait

667
00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:06,040
Speaker 5: Wait Wait.

668
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 8: Wait, Long Walk Wait Wait wait wait.

669
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:09,960
Speaker 9: Yeah, so that's where that experience comes from. Okay, I

670
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:10,960
Speaker 9: see now, Yes.

671
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:13,160
Speaker 2: And I had done two or three plays at the

672
00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:14,080
Speaker 2: Public one.

673
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 5: With Joseph Papp his last play called The Forbidden City,

674
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 5: Big Gun's Last Play.

675
00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:22,080
Speaker 2: So I've done a lot of theater, which a lot

676
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:23,239
Speaker 2: of black people did.

677
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:26,080
Speaker 5: If you look at Sam Jackson and all these cats,

678
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 5: there were no TV and films to absorb that type

679
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:29,439
Speaker 5: of talent.

680
00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:29,680
Speaker 1: Thing.

681
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:32,040
Speaker 5: You had one or two things, and if you were

682
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:35,839
Speaker 5: lucky to be those one or two people, you maybe

683
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,600
Speaker 5: catch lightning in the bottle. No one expected to have

684
00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 5: a career in film and television, certainly not a black woman.

685
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:45,880
Speaker 5: So I was doing a play at the Public and

686
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:49,120
Speaker 5: the story goes it was actually a play called Forbidden City,

687
00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:52,840
Speaker 5: Josephap's last play that he directed, and the great Gloria Foster.

688
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:55,320
Speaker 2: He's the light skinned woman in the matrix.

689
00:37:56,560 --> 00:38:01,360
Speaker 5: Yeah, have a cook, that's the great glory of And

690
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:05,040
Speaker 5: her best friend is Comille Cosby. And when I was

691
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:08,400
Speaker 5: told that, Camille Cosby came to see the play and

692
00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:10,799
Speaker 5: then went back to her husband, Bill Cosby, and said,

693
00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:12,840
Speaker 5: you've got to see Gloria in this play. In this

694
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 5: little girl, little girl she was talking about with me.

695
00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:19,880
Speaker 5: He never saw the play, but I also hear that

696
00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:22,320
Speaker 5: he liked to give his wife gifts, and I was

697
00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:24,360
Speaker 5: a gift. I got a call one day, could you

698
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 5: be at mister Cosby's house in about an hour. And

699
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:32,719
Speaker 5: I showed up just off of Park Avenue in the

700
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:37,400
Speaker 5: Central Park and he made a roll up for me right.

701
00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:38,040
Speaker 2: In front of my face.

702
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:41,480
Speaker 5: He said, so, there's this girl and her name is Pam,

703
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:44,560
Speaker 5: and she's the cousin of Claire.

704
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:48,040
Speaker 2: And that's how it went. And I said thank you

705
00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 2: very much, and I was cousin Pam.

706
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:53,360
Speaker 8: He must have loved that you were from Philly too. Together.

707
00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:59,279
Speaker 5: He called me hometown and he really put a definition in,

708
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:02,120
Speaker 5: I don't know, kind of a premium around people who

709
00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:04,359
Speaker 5: were self made. And I think that's what he liked,

710
00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:06,800
Speaker 5: that he saw me being self made and that I

711
00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:10,400
Speaker 5: didn't need him. That's where those were his words.

712
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:15,440
Speaker 9: How intimidating was it to enter not only like an

713
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:19,520
Speaker 9: established institution, but I mean by that point it was

714
00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:21,640
Speaker 9: such a well oiled machine.

715
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:23,160
Speaker 1: And oftentimes, in.

716
00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:28,680
Speaker 9: Kind of the folkal or TV shows, like adding a

717
00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:31,560
Speaker 9: new character that late in the game is often seen

718
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:33,080
Speaker 9: as a jump in the shark moment.

719
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 8: Oscar, the Brady Bunch or whatever, or Oliver Oliver.

720
00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:42,640
Speaker 1: I watched right now. You mentioned Oliver from The Brady Bunch.

721
00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:46,399
Speaker 9: Yeah, So, but how did it feel just coming into

722
00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:52,080
Speaker 9: an already established, well oiled machine.

723
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:52,319
Speaker 1: By that point?

724
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 5: I guess the difference is is I'm not the star.

725
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:57,800
Speaker 5: I'm a featured character. I get to day trip, I

726
00:39:57,880 --> 00:39:59,720
Speaker 5: get to drop in at a little Salt and pepper,

727
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:04,040
Speaker 5: but the flavor's there, and it's a new dish. It's

728
00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 5: got a lot of juicy dark meat, you know, and

729
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:10,080
Speaker 5: so they're adding a different flavor. But they've had the

730
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:16,600
Speaker 5: criticism that the Cosby show was too inaccessible. The family

731
00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:20,319
Speaker 5: was inaccessible because they were too upper class. So cousin

732
00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,640
Speaker 5: Pam came in from the other side of the tracks.

733
00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:24,640
Speaker 1: Oh, you're supposed to be the street element.

734
00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:26,280
Speaker 2: Can you imagine?

735
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:28,480
Speaker 1: Did they want you to be more thugged out than

736
00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:29,560
Speaker 1: you were?

737
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:34,600
Speaker 2: Like? How did you I think that his if he

738
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:38,719
Speaker 2: had told that to his the writer's room, they might

739
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:39,160
Speaker 2: have thought it.

740
00:40:39,239 --> 00:40:43,400
Speaker 5: But you have to understand the king of respectability politics

741
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:45,919
Speaker 5: back in the day was Bill Cosby. So he set

742
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:48,880
Speaker 5: us down me caramony in the white owl pain and

743
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:53,960
Speaker 5: gave us the speech, do not make me ashamed, just

744
00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:55,799
Speaker 5: like you get at church. Don't you go out there

745
00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:59,120
Speaker 5: and act the food, don't do all your head, don't

746
00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:02,880
Speaker 5: do you know any extra on it. And so we

747
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:05,640
Speaker 5: were told that we were we weren't going to do it,

748
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:10,040
Speaker 5: but it was sort of just saying, this is not

749
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:13,400
Speaker 5: that place. I have Mary mckeeba on this show, I

750
00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:16,000
Speaker 5: have this person on that that show. We are the

751
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:16,799
Speaker 5: talented ten.

752
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:21,279
Speaker 8: But Karen was charmain, so oh she must have had.

753
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:23,920
Speaker 2: That's right.

754
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:26,719
Speaker 8: Yeah, So she must have had to constantly weigh that

755
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,320
Speaker 8: that line because that's like, that's your Maine.

756
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:31,279
Speaker 2: No, she didn't because they got her because she talked

757
00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 2: like that.

758
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:34,719
Speaker 5: I mean, they wanted that flavor. They didn't know what

759
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:36,839
Speaker 5: to do to cousin Panmther. So it's like they gave

760
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:40,680
Speaker 5: me my own posse and that helped the strain off

761
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,720
Speaker 5: the show. So I got it. I was I probably

762
00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:46,920
Speaker 5: wasn't people's cup of TV, and I didn't really necessarily

763
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:48,880
Speaker 5: know what I was doing. I didn't think I was fundy,

764
00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:50,800
Speaker 5: but I also didn't think they wrote me funny, and

765
00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:53,640
Speaker 5: I was confused a lot. By the time I got

766
00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:57,360
Speaker 5: to living single, I understood the idea of acting to

767
00:41:57,480 --> 00:42:01,280
Speaker 5: camera and having an audience. I had done them separately,

768
00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:04,840
Speaker 5: but to put them together was confusing. And then I

769
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:07,040
Speaker 5: got it. I'd asked mister I said who do I

770
00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 5: act to? And he said the audience, because he's stand up.

771
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:14,120
Speaker 5: I asked the director, Ellen Gidtleson, I said who who

772
00:42:14,239 --> 00:42:17,440
Speaker 5: I act? And she said the camera. They were both right,

773
00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:21,040
Speaker 5: So I had to get that type of timing in

774
00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:24,600
Speaker 5: my head. Listen for the audience, because they were my

775
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:28,600
Speaker 5: best they were the fourth character in the show. And

776
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:31,719
Speaker 5: then also if they couldn't see what I was doing

777
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:34,040
Speaker 5: because the light wasn't on the camera, because the camera

778
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:38,239
Speaker 5: wasn't ready, it had to hold. And so there's this

779
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:42,320
Speaker 5: dance you're doing and it's like timing, it's like music,

780
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:45,160
Speaker 5: and if you get it, you can be funny.

781
00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:49,040
Speaker 8: Did you say dance? Because that makes me think of

782
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:50,640
Speaker 8: the cousin Bam dance.

783
00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:55,440
Speaker 2: Do you know that's a thing? Right?

784
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:58,880
Speaker 8: No, cousin Pam dance from the special ad episode.

785
00:42:59,239 --> 00:43:02,680
Speaker 1: Episode when you start when you do that, what that's

786
00:43:02,719 --> 00:43:05,320
Speaker 1: a thing, Like, yeah, you did not know that.

787
00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:07,160
Speaker 2: I didn't know what. Thank you for letting me know

788
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:08,040
Speaker 2: this was a dance.

789
00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:12,480
Speaker 9: It's funny you said that because there was an episode

790
00:43:12,520 --> 00:43:17,640
Speaker 9: of Our Sineo in which de Niro, who rarely gives interviews,

791
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:22,279
Speaker 9: was basically explaining to Our Sineo. I think it's right

792
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:24,360
Speaker 9: around the time when Goodfellas was coming out, so this

793
00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:28,400
Speaker 9: was like eighty nine to ninety whatever, and DeNiro was

794
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:29,840
Speaker 9: explaining to him.

795
00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:32,480
Speaker 1: Like, basically, I'm not acting.

796
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:37,120
Speaker 9: He gave this whole thing about like if you most actors,

797
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:40,160
Speaker 9: will you know the mistake they make is they show

798
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:42,719
Speaker 9: emotion and all that stuff, and he's like, real life

799
00:43:42,719 --> 00:43:46,440
Speaker 9: people don't show their emotions, they hold back. So he

800
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:49,360
Speaker 9: was basically saying that because he holds back and is

801
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:52,680
Speaker 9: very dry in his delivery, that's what makes him the

802
00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:57,480
Speaker 9: everyday person, right, And that stuck with me a lot,

803
00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:01,000
Speaker 9: even though, like acting wasn't mine my focus back then,

804
00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:02,719
Speaker 9: but when he said that, I was like, Oh, so

805
00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:04,759
Speaker 9: it's what you hold back.

806
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:06,720
Speaker 1: And I actually.

807
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:13,160
Speaker 9: Liked your role because I've never seen someone of your character,

808
00:44:13,239 --> 00:44:16,680
Speaker 9: of your ilk not be a caricature, because I think

809
00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:21,160
Speaker 9: sometimes it's almost like the acting version of being a

810
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:26,839
Speaker 9: gospel chops musician, you know, like every musician nowadays got

811
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:28,040
Speaker 9: to show off everything they do.

812
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:31,360
Speaker 1: Melisma.

813
00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:35,520
Speaker 9: Yes, you held back, And then I saw an interview

814
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:42,640
Speaker 9: that you did, and because you had Felicia Rashad's you know,

815
00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:46,160
Speaker 9: like when she talks like Felicia Rashad has that that

816
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:51,240
Speaker 9: camera meal is crazy sort of Yeah, when you spoke

817
00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:53,799
Speaker 9: like that, us like, oh, she's like a real actor's action.

818
00:44:54,040 --> 00:44:56,840
Speaker 9: And I was going to ask if you dabbled in Shakespeare,

819
00:44:56,920 --> 00:45:00,279
Speaker 9: but you already told that to us. I actually like

820
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:03,480
Speaker 9: the fact that you were kind of nondescript in the

821
00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 9: Cosby Show, and that you weren't.

822
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:08,799
Speaker 1: All the way you know, you could have been JJ.

823
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:11,640
Speaker 9: You could have been JJ or Hillary from the Fresh

824
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 9: Prince of bel Air, like a character I don't know

825
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:15,239
Speaker 9: that was mine.

826
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:16,719
Speaker 2: I appreciate that.

827
00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:21,160
Speaker 5: I think what you're seeing is that I think somehow,

828
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:24,160
Speaker 5: even in a character, you have to express a level

829
00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:29,680
Speaker 5: of authenticity. And I'm from Arizona, so I don't have

830
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:34,120
Speaker 5: the idea of blackness as being a set of tropes

831
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,800
Speaker 5: that are like very big and laws, because that's not

832
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:41,239
Speaker 5: what I saw. I saw black people be black, like

833
00:45:41,320 --> 00:45:47,200
Speaker 5: American fiction black. That's the idea is that we're presented

834
00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:50,759
Speaker 5: with a set of stereotypes that we don't even know

835
00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:55,800
Speaker 5: that we're pushing, and black people were probably only people

836
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:56,120
Speaker 5: to have.

837
00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:56,920
Speaker 2: To have burden.

838
00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:03,160
Speaker 5: We're always trying to balance a version of ourselves and

839
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:06,000
Speaker 5: we don't even know where we end or begin anymore.

840
00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:08,759
Speaker 5: But I do say this about comedy. It is a

841
00:46:08,960 --> 00:46:12,600
Speaker 5: full contact sport and you have to give to receive.

842
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:14,360
Speaker 5: You have to embrace it, you have to channel, you

843
00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:15,920
Speaker 5: have to love it. You have to go out on

844
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:18,800
Speaker 5: a limb. You have to be bold. You can't be scared,

845
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:24,280
Speaker 5: you can you have to be curious, and that allows

846
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:28,560
Speaker 5: you to be free in the moment and make improvisational

847
00:46:28,719 --> 00:46:31,960
Speaker 5: choices because I'm not necessarily changing the line, but I

848
00:46:32,080 --> 00:46:36,160
Speaker 5: am changing the inflection in the line, the delivery of it,

849
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:37,040
Speaker 5: the delivery.

850
00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:41,359
Speaker 9: So that said, could you tell me if we're going

851
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:45,960
Speaker 9: to the social media term, how it's going and how

852
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:50,600
Speaker 9: it ended or whatever. When you're given Maxine Shaw, which

853
00:46:50,840 --> 00:46:52,520
Speaker 9: you know, as I said at the top of the show,

854
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:56,600
Speaker 9: I believe that Maxine's character is the anchor of that show,

855
00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:03,040
Speaker 9: you know, like for me, Latifa is the the the.

856
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:09,040
Speaker 1: I guess the straight man of the click and Dorothy

857
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:10,480
Speaker 1: not mom.

858
00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:15,720
Speaker 9: Right, and both chems have to sort of be the colorful,

859
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:21,320
Speaker 9: which really allowed you, I think a lane to really

860
00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:25,480
Speaker 9: like all your punchlines were funnier, and your physical comedy

861
00:47:25,560 --> 00:47:28,479
Speaker 9: and then your chemistry, which at the time, I don't

862
00:47:28,480 --> 00:47:31,680
Speaker 9: think you're going into this thing thinking like, Okay, by

863
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:34,880
Speaker 9: season one, I'll be this carry and then we'll have

864
00:47:35,040 --> 00:47:38,239
Speaker 9: our sort of apart with each other, like because both

865
00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:42,640
Speaker 9: of you two basically wrote each other to glory in

866
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:46,319
Speaker 9: my opinion, But how did you prepare for your role

867
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:48,520
Speaker 9: as Maxine Shaw on Living Single?

868
00:47:50,560 --> 00:47:53,600
Speaker 5: I prepared for it my entire life before I got there,

869
00:47:54,840 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 5: and I took every little piece that I understood and

870
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:03,160
Speaker 5: put it in a role that nobody was paying attention

871
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:06,839
Speaker 5: to because I wasn't the star that Latifa or Kim

872
00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:08,960
Speaker 5: Cole's or Kim Fields was.

873
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:10,280
Speaker 2: I was actually fourth.

874
00:48:10,400 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 5: I was the dark skinned person in there with TC Carson,

875
00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:18,440
Speaker 5: and they weren't looking at me. And I learned from

876
00:48:18,520 --> 00:48:22,360
Speaker 5: the Cosby Show, or at least I understood now the

877
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:28,279
Speaker 5: dance of the camera, comedy and the audience. So I

878
00:48:28,440 --> 00:48:30,480
Speaker 5: knew and you can see in the first year we

879
00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:34,240
Speaker 5: kind of push those stereotypes that got us the roles

880
00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:37,040
Speaker 5: the audition, like girl, I got this this, So it's

881
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:40,400
Speaker 5: a little amped up, but that's what you do to

882
00:48:40,440 --> 00:48:43,520
Speaker 5: get the role. Otherwise, these people who are executive executive

883
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:45,719
Speaker 5: positions don't think you're doing anything if you come in

884
00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:46,560
Speaker 5: and do something.

885
00:48:46,360 --> 00:48:47,600
Speaker 2: That's a little bit more laid back.

886
00:48:47,760 --> 00:48:50,400
Speaker 5: We're not allowed that type of soft presence that a

887
00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:58,239
Speaker 5: lot of luance thank you that other performers get. Black

888
00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:03,880
Speaker 5: people have to come with it right way. So I

889
00:49:04,040 --> 00:49:09,280
Speaker 5: like to think that I'm in there discovering and experimenting

890
00:49:10,200 --> 00:49:13,000
Speaker 5: and it's not harming anybody as long as I deliver

891
00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:16,160
Speaker 5: the show they want. But each time I got more

892
00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:21,359
Speaker 5: information about what the audience slighted about Max, and each

893
00:49:21,560 --> 00:49:25,120
Speaker 5: time I wanted to deliver a version of her that

894
00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:30,359
Speaker 5: was authentic to me Erica, and that balanced the show

895
00:49:30,520 --> 00:49:33,200
Speaker 5: because you have to be generous with comedy. The people aren't.

896
00:49:33,480 --> 00:49:35,239
Speaker 5: That's why they don't do so well. They're trying to

897
00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:40,080
Speaker 5: get the line funny all the time, and sometime you're

898
00:49:40,120 --> 00:49:42,680
Speaker 5: there to take the hit and sort of just look

899
00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:47,160
Speaker 5: and it's not about you. It's about you just tossing

900
00:49:47,239 --> 00:49:50,280
Speaker 5: around and you got to know. But I think nobody

901
00:49:50,440 --> 00:49:51,759
Speaker 5: was looking, So that's what I want.

902
00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:57,360
Speaker 9: I think people oftentimes when they see greatness, whatever you

903
00:49:57,520 --> 00:50:02,080
Speaker 9: take it for granted, always refer to watching Steph Curry

904
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:05,040
Speaker 9: play like he's gonna throw it in and you automatically

905
00:50:05,120 --> 00:50:07,239
Speaker 9: know it's going and no matter what. So at one

906
00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:09,920
Speaker 9: point you just take for granted that all right, yes,

907
00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:12,480
Speaker 9: he knows he's pulled enough some incredible shit, as he

908
00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:13,480
Speaker 9: does it all the time.

909
00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:16,040
Speaker 1: Right, But then then it's like, okay, they always do that.

910
00:50:16,440 --> 00:50:18,880
Speaker 9: But I don't think people really appreciate the fact that,

911
00:50:19,560 --> 00:50:22,520
Speaker 9: first of all, it's six of you, and so I

912
00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:25,919
Speaker 9: almost feel like, all right, So in jam session situations,

913
00:50:26,600 --> 00:50:31,240
Speaker 9: especially when I'm paying with musicians that aren't my guys

914
00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:36,280
Speaker 9: and the roots, I automatically have to go into, Okay,

915
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:38,560
Speaker 9: this guy's overplayed, So let me dial it down a

916
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:41,840
Speaker 9: little bit so that it's not too overwhelming. Because my

917
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:45,160
Speaker 9: fear is that I always make the All Star Game

918
00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:49,800
Speaker 9: analogy that All Star games are very boring because everyone's

919
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:52,279
Speaker 9: on a hundred, so there's really no sense of drama whatever,

920
00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:56,440
Speaker 9: like when everyone's at one hundred. To me, that's just

921
00:50:56,520 --> 00:51:00,480
Speaker 9: as boring as everyone being amateurs. So how do you

922
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:05,400
Speaker 9: but there's such a push and pool chemistry with the

923
00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:08,880
Speaker 9: six of you when you're in scenes together, Like what

924
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:11,120
Speaker 9: do you credit that to the writing of the show

925
00:51:11,520 --> 00:51:14,279
Speaker 9: or do you know to hold back sometimes and let

926
00:51:14,400 --> 00:51:16,840
Speaker 9: Kim get her shine or whatever? And is it like

927
00:51:16,920 --> 00:51:20,920
Speaker 9: a game of basketball in which you guys like instantly

928
00:51:21,080 --> 00:51:23,680
Speaker 9: know like what the other character is going to do,

929
00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:26,279
Speaker 9: Because there's even some moments on that show in which

930
00:51:27,440 --> 00:51:29,200
Speaker 9: I'm like, I wonder if they rehearse that ahead of

931
00:51:29,280 --> 00:51:31,239
Speaker 9: time to get that timing right or that sort of

932
00:51:31,280 --> 00:51:33,320
Speaker 9: thing like it to me, it was effortless.

933
00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:36,360
Speaker 1: So when did it gel for you.

934
00:51:37,160 --> 00:51:42,080
Speaker 5: It jeiled immediately, everybody saw real And I think the

935
00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:47,080
Speaker 5: right analogy is music. I think that if there was

936
00:51:47,200 --> 00:51:50,200
Speaker 5: genius or maybe lightning in a bottle was because they

937
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:55,360
Speaker 5: recruited performers and other collaborators that have a pinch it

938
00:51:55,520 --> 00:52:02,160
Speaker 5: for individualism and they play well with others. They're soloists

939
00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:05,280
Speaker 5: that play well with others. If you look at Latifa

940
00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:09,200
Speaker 5: Kim Cole's Kim Fields, you could all be soloists. But

941
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:13,600
Speaker 5: we understand the whole and you got to have your

942
00:52:13,640 --> 00:52:15,480
Speaker 5: self esteem has to be in check.

943
00:52:15,560 --> 00:52:17,200
Speaker 2: You have to know who you are.

944
00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:21,920
Speaker 5: And I think that we were at an age I

945
00:52:22,040 --> 00:52:25,399
Speaker 5: was twenty three coming in, but we had done enough

946
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:28,600
Speaker 5: in life that we didn't have to win. We knew

947
00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:32,040
Speaker 5: we would win if we all win, if we all won.

948
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:35,279
Speaker 5: So I think that you want soloists who play well together,

949
00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:37,400
Speaker 5: especially if they respect the ensemble.

950
00:52:37,320 --> 00:52:38,040
Speaker 2: And we did.

951
00:52:39,160 --> 00:52:41,360
Speaker 8: Hey, you talked about being a brown skinned woman and

952
00:52:41,440 --> 00:52:44,719
Speaker 8: woman on the screen. I'm so curious for Maxine Shaw

953
00:52:44,880 --> 00:52:46,239
Speaker 8: in this look. You know, I was just talking to

954
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:48,640
Speaker 8: somebody earlier. We were talking about your braids, and somebody

955
00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:50,920
Speaker 8: was like, did you know that Erica's braids were made

956
00:52:50,920 --> 00:52:52,719
Speaker 8: out of yard. I was like, yeah, that's we used

957
00:52:52,719 --> 00:52:54,200
Speaker 8: to do that back in the day, especially because hair

958
00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:54,719
Speaker 8: cars more.

959
00:52:54,640 --> 00:52:55,000
Speaker 1: Than the yard.

960
00:52:55,120 --> 00:52:58,400
Speaker 8: But regardless, I'm so curious how you were able to

961
00:52:58,440 --> 00:53:00,520
Speaker 8: pull this off at twenty three and you and fourth

962
00:53:00,600 --> 00:53:02,480
Speaker 8: on the call sheet. This look.

963
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:04,840
Speaker 2: I came in with that.

964
00:53:06,160 --> 00:53:11,160
Speaker 5: Okay, the white person would have ever allowed me to

965
00:53:11,320 --> 00:53:16,160
Speaker 5: come in with that, And it wasn't because that the

966
00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:18,160
Speaker 5: white thing has nothing to do with It's just that

967
00:53:18,680 --> 00:53:20,759
Speaker 5: she was the lawyer and they would have probably wanted

968
00:53:20,800 --> 00:53:24,800
Speaker 5: her hair pressed. And I came in like that because

969
00:53:24,840 --> 00:53:27,160
Speaker 5: I had worked with Wooby Goldberg. She played my mother,

970
00:53:30,239 --> 00:53:33,920
Speaker 5: I remember now, and we carry with us, all of

971
00:53:34,040 --> 00:53:37,680
Speaker 5: us in the world. Everybody somebody imprints on you. So

972
00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:41,520
Speaker 5: if you look at that hairdo mm hmm, it's jumping jack.

973
00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:52,800
Speaker 2: Flash stop that. And I had just come from that

974
00:53:53,320 --> 00:53:55,719
Speaker 2: uh tour.

975
00:53:56,200 --> 00:53:58,400
Speaker 5: I mean actually, I've just come from a series for ABC,

976
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:01,120
Speaker 5: and the producers asked me that I shaved my hair

977
00:54:01,200 --> 00:54:04,080
Speaker 5: and I did was nothing. It was natural because my

978
00:54:04,360 --> 00:54:06,200
Speaker 5: hair kept frizzing up and I didn't have a perm

979
00:54:07,239 --> 00:54:08,400
Speaker 5: and so they asked me to shave it off. I

980
00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:10,239
Speaker 5: said I would, and I was growing it out and

981
00:54:10,360 --> 00:54:14,319
Speaker 5: I had a hairdresser in Brooklyn, ebrah Hair Bay, does

982
00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:16,440
Speaker 5: the Nray locks and she said, I know what, I

983
00:54:16,480 --> 00:54:19,200
Speaker 5: can grow your hair out, and so you see the whole.

984
00:54:19,040 --> 00:54:21,799
Speaker 2: Back is shaved and shaved to catch on the top.

985
00:54:22,080 --> 00:54:23,920
Speaker 5: She said, I'll do a cool bob and you can

986
00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:26,320
Speaker 5: do anything with his hair. And I just happen to

987
00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:28,840
Speaker 5: walk in and audition it with that hair and that's Maxine.

988
00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:29,799
Speaker 3: Wow.

989
00:54:29,920 --> 00:54:32,080
Speaker 8: And by the time you finished the show, it was

990
00:54:32,320 --> 00:54:35,640
Speaker 8: gorgeously long and layered and h and yeah.

991
00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:39,719
Speaker 2: And it was a wig. Get the fuck that's right?

992
00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:44,280
Speaker 5: Because I kept getting recognized and I couldn't go anywhere,

993
00:54:44,560 --> 00:54:45,279
Speaker 5: so I said, you got.

994
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:45,799
Speaker 2: To make a wig.

995
00:54:46,200 --> 00:54:48,759
Speaker 3: So yeah, So that was a question earlier were talking about.

996
00:54:48,800 --> 00:54:51,080
Speaker 3: You could see the response from people.

997
00:54:51,520 --> 00:54:54,080
Speaker 1: How did you know? I mean, how did my social media?

998
00:54:54,760 --> 00:54:57,680
Speaker 1: How did you know? Like, Okay, this is really is hitting,

999
00:54:57,920 --> 00:54:59,480
Speaker 1: Like it was instant.

1000
00:55:00,520 --> 00:55:03,920
Speaker 5: We were on Sundays and our leading was Martin and

1001
00:55:04,120 --> 00:55:09,759
Speaker 5: we beat our leading From then on, M beat the

1002
00:55:09,880 --> 00:55:10,799
Speaker 5: number one show.

1003
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:13,880
Speaker 2: And I don't like to say black show, but you

1004
00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:18,919
Speaker 2: have a cast of black people and you beat the show.

1005
00:55:19,080 --> 00:55:21,120
Speaker 5: They say the Black Show the number one black show

1006
00:55:21,120 --> 00:55:24,840
Speaker 5: in America for Latin Latins and Blacks.

1007
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:27,520
Speaker 2: You win. So that's what happened.

1008
00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:30,759
Speaker 8: Wow, I can't remember they went because it didn't that

1009
00:55:30,880 --> 00:55:32,480
Speaker 8: helped Martin. I can't remember.

1010
00:55:32,760 --> 00:55:33,680
Speaker 2: It was kind of messed up.

1011
00:55:33,719 --> 00:55:36,920
Speaker 5: They made a Thursday Night, they put under cover New

1012
00:55:37,000 --> 00:55:37,560
Speaker 5: York undercover.

1013
00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:40,839
Speaker 2: They made like a Black Night, and we were all

1014
00:55:41,120 --> 00:55:41,920
Speaker 2: insulted by it.

1015
00:55:43,080 --> 00:55:47,640
Speaker 9: Wait a minute, so okay, because I was about to say,

1016
00:55:47,640 --> 00:55:49,960
Speaker 9: I always remember Living Single as a Thursday show.

1017
00:55:50,200 --> 00:55:51,719
Speaker 1: It started as a Sunday show.

1018
00:55:51,840 --> 00:55:53,000
Speaker 2: It was a Sunday show.

1019
00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:56,480
Speaker 1: After a Living Color. That's right, No, no, it was.

1020
00:55:56,840 --> 00:56:01,319
Speaker 5: Our leading was Martin then was Living Single and Living Color.

1021
00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:03,960
Speaker 5: Living Color was on. I don't know if they were

1022
00:56:03,960 --> 00:56:04,520
Speaker 5: on another.

1023
00:56:06,280 --> 00:56:07,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah it was.

1024
00:56:07,680 --> 00:56:12,160
Speaker 5: They were all Fox No no, no, yeah were But

1025
00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:15,399
Speaker 5: then they decided let's put them all on the same night.

1026
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:19,880
Speaker 5: That was Black Night Thursday. Then they flipped Living Single

1027
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:23,800
Speaker 5: to first. We became Martin's leading, gotcha.

1028
00:56:24,160 --> 00:56:27,319
Speaker 8: That's what Damon Walliams was fighting. Remember that he tried

1029
00:56:27,360 --> 00:56:28,480
Speaker 8: to do that to him and said.

1030
00:56:28,280 --> 00:56:31,000
Speaker 1: I think I did not know that.

1031
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:36,000
Speaker 6: Okay, Hi everyone, this is Sugar Steve from Questlov Supreme.

1032
00:56:36,440 --> 00:56:38,239
Speaker 6: We are so sorry to do this, but we're ending

1033
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:41,160
Speaker 6: part one right there. Please come back. This Friday, or

1034
00:56:41,239 --> 00:56:44,080
Speaker 6: check your podcast feed for Part two with the incredible

1035
00:56:44,320 --> 00:56:47,880
Speaker 6: Erica Alexander. In that interview, Erica speaks about working on

1036
00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:50,960
Speaker 6: Get Out American Fiction and her role as Riza and

1037
00:56:51,040 --> 00:56:53,800
Speaker 6: Devine's mother on Wu Tang in American Saga.

1038
00:56:54,120 --> 00:57:02,200
Speaker 1: See You Soon. Thank you for listening to Quest Love Supreme.

1039
00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:04,960
Speaker 7: This podcast is hosted by a Mere Quest Love Thompson,

1040
00:57:05,320 --> 00:57:08,800
Speaker 7: Lias Saint, Clair Fonte, Coleman Sugar, Steve Van Dell, and

1041
00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:10,520
Speaker 7: myself Unfave fil Scherm.

1042
00:57:10,840 --> 00:57:12,440
Speaker 1: The executive producers.

1043
00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:15,480
Speaker 7: Are Meir just Walked into the Goddamn Room, Thompson, Sean

1044
00:57:15,600 --> 00:57:19,160
Speaker 7: g and Brian Calhoun. Produced by Britney Benjamin, Jake Pain

1045
00:57:19,280 --> 00:57:22,880
Speaker 7: and Liah Sinclair. Edited by Alex Conroy I Know Alice Conroy.

1046
00:57:23,280 --> 00:57:25,280
Speaker 7: Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown.

1047
00:57:34,520 --> 00:57:40,680
Speaker 1: West Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For

1048
00:57:40,800 --> 00:57:43,880
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

1049
00:57:44,120 --> 00:57:47,160
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.