WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: Erika Alexander Part 1 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.040 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:05.280 We're rolling. 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:08.920 Let's go up. 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:12.920 Primo se se Primo Robo came up. 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:20.120 Primo, so so sel Primo Roll Call, Supremo Supremo roll called. 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:26.200 So prim So Primo. It is Quest Love. Yeah, aren't 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:30.800 you glad? Yeah? Ronald timmis here. Yeah, he's gonna get mad. 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:41.400 Upremo Road Call, Prima Supremo Road. My name is Spante, Yeah, 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.680 that's who I am. Yeah, letting you know. I too 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:51.080 have a cousin named Pama. 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:55.480 Supremo Road Come Supremo Supremo roll Call. 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:56.760 My name is Sugar. 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:57.360 Yeah. 0:00:57.600 --> 0:00:58.720 And this is my phone. 0:00:59.160 --> 0:00:59.360 Yeah. 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.440 And if you're still living single, yeah, I live alone. 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:11.080 Supremo Rod Suprema Sou Soun Supremo Road. 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:14.800 I'm on paid bill. Yeah, now take it easy. 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:15.399 Yeah. 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:18.880 Might have drank, Yeah, a few martinis. 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:26.959 Suprema So you turn Erica Sprea Road. 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:33.600 Yeah. And let's talk style Yeah. TV couples. Yeah, it's 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:34.920 Max and Kyle. 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:43.040 Supremo Roll Suprema your Supremo role. 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.720 My name is Erica. Yeah, I'm the coolest. Yeah. I 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:50.160 don't know what I'm doing. Yeah, I don't hope, I 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:50.800 don't hope. 0:01:50.600 --> 0:02:01.080 To Supremo Rome Suprema So Supremo Road Up, Preema Shu 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:07.080 sun Sel Primo Road call Prima sut sun self free road. 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:17.840 So much I had to do that. We gotta have 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:19.280 to dance in silhouette like. 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.640 Funky Fresh. I feel very welcome. 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:29.560 Thank you up from fact in doing the LL tour. 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.400 Whenever Latifa went on the road with us, the biggest 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:36.639 like bigger than any LL song, bigger than any song 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.280 than when we did live in single. 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:41.919 It was like doing smells like teen Spirit mind. 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.320 I believe it like Dana thought I was lying to 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:47.160 her when I said, Yo, we need to do that twice, 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.560 like literally as soon as it came on, yeah, check 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:56.000 and check check, whole crowd started all the way time. 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:58.040 I'm glad I got my girls. 0:02:58.240 --> 0:02:59.200 I love it well that. 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.720 This is a new version of Quest Love Supreme, which 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.720 we are still in the room together, but we're doing 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:10.560 uh a virtual episode. 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:17.440 We're live in sort of live short of yeah in person. Right, Well, 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:18.440 we're here together. 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:21.240 Better than us being all on zoom. 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:25.400 This is still cool, yes exactly, but sure here the 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:26.120 team Supreme. 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:28.639 How are we good man? So we're just we're not 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.120 going to act like we're not going to act like 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.040 we weren't doing this like three hours ago. 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:38.120 No, I'm just yeah for you, Bill, fantastic. I had 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:40.280 a good afternoon, Thank you for asking. And then I 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:42.840 took myself out to dinner and I feel fantastic. 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:43.840 What did you have for dinner? 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:44.360 Uh? 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:47.320 Martinis and Sea Best. 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.480 It was great? Wait did y'all eat together? I wish? 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:52.920 Well, let me ask, how's it going? Did you have 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.560 to buy yourself date as well? You just not actually 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:56.200 meet cargo? 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.200 And uh we went and had some Mexican food for 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:02.360 lunch in New York. Yeah? Yo, how that turned out? 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:04.080 Shit was banging. I was surprised. 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:07.760 Won't you go the spot in the hotel, the those cominos, 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:09.240 those caminos. 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:11.880 To hear episodes in which we do not remote but 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:16.480 like in person, all of your hotel, culinary inventions adventure 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:17.600 sound awesome. 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:19.679 Like I've yet to hear a bad review. 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:22.400 And you have to have the Fante experience in a restaurant. 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:23.960 We were just talking about this earlier. There is an 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.479 experience with Fante. He likes to recommend things, he suggests. 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:28.600 You know, he's really good. 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.600 At I'm a man of husk I've been decided a 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:32.880 long time, so I don't get food wrong. 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.480 I know that I know snacks, speaking of which I 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.000 actually you know infamously. 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:42.760 Well, yeah, as a foodie, people will think that my 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.840 culinary choices are very hoity toity and whatever up there 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:51.400 the way that I am you right now, however, Captain Crunch, 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.720 no dog, you know what. I gave a chance for 0:04:54.800 --> 0:05:00.400 the first time and wasn't mad. I'm not mad at Chipotle, No, no, no, 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:02.920 I mean Steve's taking. 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.200 I very much preferred those Toros. If you're going to 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:10.920 go that fast food, well well across the nation. I 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:13.920 can't do anything about that. But wait, those totals is 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:18.000 I like those tauruses, uh steak much more than Chipotle, 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:19.320 And that's what I normally get. 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:21.159 Let's intro our gust today. 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:25.320 So you know, it's hard to say whether or not 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:31.400 the category that you fall into is just actress or 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:32.359 character actress. 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:37.000 However, I will the way the ways you look like. 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:42.560 In my opinion, I think you are an ace character 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.200 actress because you often come when I don't expect you 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.840 to show up in any film no matter what you're in, 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.480 and you really have the ability, like I get excited 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:59.120 when oh damn, it's gonna be good, like I've I've 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.600 yet to have a actual response to like if she 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:04.520 if I'm unaware that she's part of it, Like I 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.000 didn't realize that she was going to be versus mother 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:07.599 in WU. 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:11.560 Tanks at that part right right that party get out 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:14.039 or whatever, like where you just don't expect to see 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:17.800 her then my ears prick up like a puppy, like, 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:21.159 oh you know that sort of thing makes the movie 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:21.800 more interesting? 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:23.400 Oh, thank you well. 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.799 First of all, Caroline in the in the Oscar nominated 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:28.720 American Fiction American Fiction. 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:30.240 What was your last name in that? 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:31.680 I was Coraline? 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.480 Yes, But did you have a last name in that? 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:36.960 Not that I know of? 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:39.279 I was just coreline. 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.880 Okay, side question before I say your name. If given 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.760 a character, are you allowed to give yourself a last name? 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:50.120 If it's not they're in your bios? Are you allowed 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.040 to make your character. 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.600 Up if you're yes, I mean I am. 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.160 I'm able to do what I want as long as 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:59.919 I don't put it in the lines the story. 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.839 I get it, okay, all right? Also, uh, barb ballot 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.640 and run the world, which I don't know. I enjoyed 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:08.480 it right. 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.440 In in the brand new Apple series of Swimming with Sharks, 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:17.040 She's a mayor to Lockhart and no, no, no, you're 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:22.400 in Shining Girls right, You're at Girls Apple right exactly. 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.160 I'm sorry, I'm getting my networks mixed up. But of course, 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:28.960 uh we we would be remiss, of course, uh mentioning 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:31.440 the world in which at last she entered my life, 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:33.120 even though I know you you've had a life of 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.480 acting before then. But of course, as cousin Pam on 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:40.960 The Cosby Show, but probably I will say that Maxine 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:45.400 Shaw is one of the most loved characters period, and 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.720 to this day I still wonder if her and Overton 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:51.000 not Overton k. 0:07:52.800 --> 0:08:01.200 Yes, are are making it like? Yes exactly, Erica Alexander, Yes, thank. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:07.640 You, happy, I'm proud to be with you all. Thank you. Chris. 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:10.840 So where are you right now as we speak? 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.480 Well, I'm zooming in on a zoom from Vancouver because 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:19.200 I'm filming for the Apple Plus series Invasion. 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.680 I'll watch that. Where are the second season? Second, third season, 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:23.520 third season? 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:24.440 Girl. 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:26.880 That's a good one, yea. 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:29.520 Yeah, that's a good one. A lot of secrets on 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:30.000 his set. 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:36.360 Simon kim Berg is the showrunner, and he famously did 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.200 a lot of well all of the X Men movies 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.920 and Deadpool I think or Dared Devil one of them. Yeah, 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:44.920 he's pretty awesome. 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.440 So you're going to be a recurring I am going. 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:53.280 To be a regular character, but only on season three. 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:55.200 So you're in Vancouver right now. 0:08:56.120 --> 0:09:00.680 I am in Vancouver and we are filming, and it's 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:06.480 a big production. It's an international global production. They did 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.760 a lot of their filming the two previous years in 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:17.040 South Africa, Morocco, Japan, England, and now they've kind of 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:18.160 rested here in Vancouver. 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:20.360 I see how many how many weeks have you been 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:20.880 there so far? 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:24.120 I think I'm going on my fourth week. I just 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:26.280 got here just after the NDAACP Awards. 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:30.080 You know I often here, like right now. I mean Vancouver, 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:33.760 of course is an acting hub. Like how often as 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:38.640 an actress are you in Vancouver? Like how regular are so? 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:42.040 And why besides the tax reasons or whatever? Like visually, 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:46.000 like why is Vancouver the designated You know? 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:51.679 Yeah, I filmed here before in onent He sixteen. It 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.719 was another Side five series. I forget the name of it. 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:58.839 But I don't think there's any other reason beside the 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:03.920 tax incent here. It's actually quite beautiful and it can 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.440 double for New York City or maybe a European street. 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:09.920 It really matters that it's got a lot of non 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:14.040 descript places, a lot of outdoor spaces, so they can 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:15.800 do a lot of action here. They've got a really 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.760 great amount of crew and talent up here. So I 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:23.240 think the idea is is that the American dollar compared 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:24.839 to the Canadian dollar also helps. 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:26.360 So there's all these. 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.440 Factors and it's very close to La You fly here 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:30.800 two and a half hours you are here. 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:34.839 Oh, I forgot the proximity that helps. Hey, by the way, 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.960 are you familiar at all with Lacasa Gelato? 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:39.520 Have you heard of? 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:39.680 Oh? 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:40.839 It sounds delicious though. 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:48.240 Lacasa Gelato is a place in Vancouver. They have five 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:53.319 hundred different types of ice cream flavors. Like when you 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.040 first walk in, literally it's the biggest ice cream quality 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:57.839 you've ever seen in your life. However, like once you 0:10:57.920 --> 0:10:59.840 get in the middle, when you get past the regularly 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:04.200 strawberry vanilla, then you get into intricate things like cheddar 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.160 cheese ice cream, but saw mc vinegar ice cream, ghost 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:08.920 pepper ice cream. 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:11.280 Alway supposed to be ice cream, chicken and ice cream. 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:16.439 It sounds awful. No, no, no, no, it's it's it's 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.640 it's worth it's worth it. Why y'all shaking your hand. 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:20.480 I take your word for it. 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:27.320 I believe you, right, Gravey ice cream, There. 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:31.000 Is Pickle flavor ice cream though, No, no, I highly 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:33.200 recommend it for people to you know. 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:33.640 Just. 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:36.480 Vancouver. 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:37.520 Yeah it is. 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:40.760 Yeah, I mean it's it's one of their like a 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:43.240 landmark spot in there. 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.640 But for sure, Well, if I ever want to have 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:48.360 diarrhea and the dribble ships, I. 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:54.480 Will, so I am not the only one that's not 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:56.400 lactose intolerant. 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:58.960 Good for you a mirror, Yeah that's great, but. 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:01.520 I feel like I can't be the only black person. 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:10.959 But y'all, I'm suggesting invasion because I gotta imagine this 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.319 show is like a super sci fi show, but it's 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.760 also like super emotional, like like it's an amazing show. 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.240 So I can't only imagine that it's pulling, taking all 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:23.120 your energies and whatnot, because man. 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.959 Well you know, it's a very big cast, so a 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:26.520 lot of that. 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:33.559 Are shifted to different people's shoulders at different times. But 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.920 what I imagine is that because Simon kimberb is such 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:42.760 a heavy dude. They gave him the type of money 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.920 that you need for to command that kind of time, 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:49.280 so he takes a lot of time to film, and 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:54.240 it's a very thoughtful sci fi exploration of what it 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.880 is to be invaded, you know. So that's what you feel. 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:00.839 I think you hear that sort of slow crew. And 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.040 by the way, whenever you feel that in a film, 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.040 it's because usually. 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:12.120 The production has more money, don't have to rush through 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.240 plots and all the types of things that other people do. 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:17.720 They can really just sort of linger on people's faces 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:20.400 and allow people to perform and or emote. 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:21.480 And that's what's happening. 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:24.400 See the way she said emote. 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:31.480 And see clearly tells me that acting like she's a serious, 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:34.000 a serious Apian. 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:35.160 Yes, exactly. Yes. 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:37.679 So one thing I do know about you, and I 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:42.760 never got to talk to you about You're a Philadelphian. 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:48.599 Come yes, and yeah she graduated. Well, I do know that. 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.160 When I first heard about you, like it was a 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:57.160 big deal in the newspapers, like girls high alumni, I did. 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:00.640 Yes, And I went to George White in high school 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:02.959 for a year. And that's where Kevin Hart went. But 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.160 I'm actually a transplant from Arizona and I came when 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.640 I was in seventh grade, eighth grades usually, so I 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.960 went to Roosevelt in Leeds too. Roosevelt was like going 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:13.640 to a prison. 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:15.240 Leeds was month. 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:17.800 Step up from prison. 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:22.640 Yeah, half, yeah, it wasnt one was more closer to 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.520 Germantown and that was I think they closed that down. 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.600 And then, of course the other one was more mount 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.960 Airy and that was a lot more I don't know better. 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.440 A right, what part of Philadelphia? Where are you from? 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:37.200 Mount Airy? Oh? 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:39.760 Nice, nice part of town. 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.880 See when you're from West Philly, I just think anything 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.080 that's north of City Hall is just n O R 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:51.360 F North Philly, even if it's Mount Airy. So what 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:55.200 was your beginnings in the world of acting? Like, were 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:58.480 you a freedom theater kid or was this stuff in 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:00.800 your school? Did you do you not want to go 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.920 to creative and performing arts or well, you know. 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:05.640 I think we had a conversation in Mire, and I 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:07.680 know you've had plenty of them. But you went to 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.880 school with my little sister Charlanda. Yes, he's the one 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:14.720 who went to the School of the Arts that you did. 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.120 But I was discovered when I was fourteen in the 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.760 basement theater called new Freedom Theater. Theater. 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:25.640 Freedom Theater closed. I talked to the council and the 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:27.200 other day we got to. 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:28.640 Get that back. That theater is beautiful. 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.520 It's beautiful, but it's stuffed in the middle of Temple 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.880 University and surrounded by I don't think people who understand 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:36.720 what it's. 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:41.280 Significantrification, what's going on with Howard University. I can roger 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:43.560 that so discovered in. 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.720 The basement theater by a movie company, merch and Ivory 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.760 Film Independent Film came to Philadelphia. They were looking for 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:53.600 Little Girls Back and Brown to audition for this movie. 0:15:53.800 --> 0:16:01.480 And after nearly twelve to thirteen audition and for screen 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:05.560 screen tests, screen tests, Yeah, I was the one they chose. 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:09.400 When this is both cleared, Wow, Okay, what happened at 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:10.080 Freedom Theater? 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:13.960 Like, because that was one of the places where I 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.480 wanted to go, but instead my parents put me in 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:21.720 Settlement Music School. Oh and my sister went to Freedom Theater. 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:23.720 Like it was like, Okay, we're going to have her 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:27.000 act and he's going to do music. But we would 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:29.480 only pick her up afterwards. But I never knew, like 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.200 what happened in there, Like what was what would they 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:32.760 teach you there? 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:39.520 Well, Johnny Allen Junior and his partner they started it, 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:40.800 and they started in the sixties. 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:42.960 Sixties famously were starting. 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:46.400 To try to train black children the way the Black 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:50.240 Panthers did if they knew the schools that were primarily 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:54.000 white were giving them any sense of themselves. And you 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:58.000 had people like the great Nina Simone talking of about young, 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.680 gifted and black, so that that's really what was going on. 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:05.320 There was some sort of idea that if you infused 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.240 a child with the strong sense of themselves and you 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:13.720 also gave them creative outlets, got them in touch with 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:20.880 their body, discipline, voice, sound, body, all of those things performance, speech, communication, 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.280 that you could influence. 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:24.680 The rest of their life. 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.280 And they proved their point, like a lot of the 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:30.400 schools that were going around the country at the time 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.200 and new Freedom Theaters of that kind of tradition. 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.240 How old were you when you started Freedom Theater? Like, 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:42.879 at what age did you start? 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:43.800 Fourteen? 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:48.040 I only went there for the sixth week program, and 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.800 then I also did like two summers of a play 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:58.679 called under Pressure, which was their resident production that they 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:00.760 put on every year every summer. 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:03.159 Is the Hoope where I guess the goal of the 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:07.160 school to draw people, notable people to see the kids 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.280 and have them work with someone notable. Or is it 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:12.119 just like we teach you the craft of acting and 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:14.239 then you're out there in the world, Like, are they 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.760 like this how you get an agent? 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:18.600 Or this is how you you know this? 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:23.080 Commercial casting directors come into our thing tonight, Like is 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:24.800 it any of those things involved? 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:25.639 No? 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:27.879 Not. When I was going it might have changed. 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:33.119 It really was about self love, self reverence, power, black power, 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.359 young gifted and black, A sense of yourself inside of 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:37.119 a white world. 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.000 How can you move through it? 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:44.119 How do you stand lifting your head, your skins, making 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:47.040 the children go home and get undressed and look at 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:50.800 themselves in a mirror, all parts of themselves, the lower 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:54.280 parts of themselves, having some kind of regard and respect 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:58.240 for hygiene, The way you spoke, the way you stepped 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.600 up grammar, all of those things. It was really more 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:05.119 like a boot camp for life for black kids. 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:10.119 Did you realize that immediately or is this like in hindsight, 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.000 like I hated going to Okay, I'm sorry, I did 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.080 not hate going to Settlement Music School, but I hated 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:21.159 the homework assignments, However, I now realized, thank god I 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:22.320 went to sell them in music school. 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:23.080 That saved my life. 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.440 But you realize that stuff like when you're way older. 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:29.240 Did you realize that at the time, or because even 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:33.680 when we were doing those types of exercises at performing 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:36.600 art school whatever, like we'd be in the back laughing, 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:40.320 like you know, they want us to learn Elizabethan and 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:42.800 project with your voice. 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:45.440 And you know, we're just like that. 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:48.280 Settlement wasn't as black as freedom in that way though. 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:49.880 That's like a different experience, right. 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:52.040 Right, that's true. I think my sister went to Settlement 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:53.080 to my baby's sister. 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:55.680 How many siblings do you have, I'm one of six. 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.479 And fourth there's too younger than me. There's Charbanda who 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:00.399 you know, and then there's my y sh and I 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:01.800 think she went to Southerner. 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.080 And all of you have dabbled in the arts. 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:10.560 Yes, in some way, although my sister, it was a 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.840 social worker there in Philadelphia and my brother's a Philly cop. 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:19.280 Oh, so your family really stayed in Philadelphia, Yes, they did. 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:22.960 Both my parents were orphans, so we didn't necessarily have 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.399 a place to be. Wherever we were was where we 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:32.800 were at. But I think you were talking about, did 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:35.120 I recognize what it was doing. 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:35.399 Then? 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:39.000 Yes, they were very over. They kept it was like 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.159 a boot camp. It was like an officer and a gentleman. 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:44.800 They were going to make you understand the power of 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:48.480 being black and blackness, and more importantly, the power of 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:52.680 self love. And we needed that because at the time 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:55.920 I was going in there, the streets were a battleground. 0:20:56.520 --> 0:21:02.600 It was crack incarceration, Young women were getting pregnant. It 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:07.280 was really like some kind of weird pathology movie. And 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:09.720 I think they couldn't be soft about it. 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:10.640 They had to be over. 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:13.639 They didn't have the privilege to set back and not 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:15.040 act like they were trying to do. They were trying 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:18.600 to radicalize you, and I think that it worked well. 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:20.960 When you said offers and a gentleman, I'm like, wait 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:26.480 a minute. I remember Lewis Gossigjr. Making cry in the 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:28.359 right in the rain. I'm like, wait a minute. 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:29.919 So they are a lot of. 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:33.640 People cried, but they were crying because it was like church. 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:38.840 You got in there and you had real awakenings and 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:42.760 you reckoned with Even though you might have thought a 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:47.080 lot of people had a confidence and didn't have I 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:50.040 guess the fears that some children have, they all had 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:53.200 that we weren't allowed to be children. And there I 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:55.960 think that they knew they were different type of child 0:21:56.880 --> 0:21:59.440 and that they needed to break us down so we 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.680 could be wrong. Alright, not me though, by the way, 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:05.440 I'm a preacher's daughter. I came in already vulnerable. I 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:10.520 was scared of Philadelphia and the students. And I will wait, 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:12.760 your dad was a pretty different student. Yeah, Church of 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:15.040 God in Christ, baby, what's all? 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:19.320 Why is a kojak? Is kojak? For sure? Where where 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:20.040 was the church? 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:20.840 Well? 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:24.320 My parents are coming out of New Mexico, my carlosbad 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:27.800 Las Cruses. They were Bible students. They traveled around in 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:30.280 the car, and that's why I spent the first eleven 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:31.080 years of my life. 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.760 In a hotel called Starlight off a room sixty six. 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:36.640 Wow that was where you lived? 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:39.200 Yeah? Wow? 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:42.199 What was Wait let's go back even further. I mean 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:44.480 starting a freedom theater. Now I want to hear you 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:45.360 as a no man? 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:47.119 What was that like? 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:53.080 I was born in Arizona off Highway sixty six, but 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:57.000 don't want to be Oh those cowboys. 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:01.760 Yeah, I got my It was like got her Texas 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:02.320 hold them. 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:06.080 That's right, But you know that's what made me different 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:09.600 and a little bit a lot of trepidation in Philadelphia 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:14.359 because it was so bombastic and forward. And I'm coming 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:21.760 from Hope, Navajo, Estizio, Mexican German Lutherans. And then there 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:25.480 was my parents who were Kojik Baptists, and then my 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:28.120 brother my sorry, my father got discovered by the German 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:31.920 Lutherans and they sent him to the luther Theological Seminary 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:34.360 in Philadelphia, and that was in Chestnut Hill. 0:23:35.200 --> 0:23:38.439 So he was going to be or is currently a preacher. 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:43.680 He died at fifty two. Shortly after he finished at seminary. 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:47.960 They sent him to Brooklyn in East New York to 0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:51.880 start his church, mostly Puerto Rican neighborhood. Most of those 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:54.760 people had their churches for years. He maybe had or 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:58.639 or five members, but by that time he was too 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:00.960 sick to recover. He was born with a bad heart. 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:03.640 They didn't think that he would live past seventeen. 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:04.600 He did. 0:24:04.760 --> 0:24:07.440 He was a miracle, and I think he lived long 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:10.760 enough to deliver us to Philadelphia, and that gave us 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:11.560 a lot more choices. 0:24:12.640 --> 0:24:16.960 Were you expected to join the ministry? 0:24:17.760 --> 0:24:17.800 No? 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:23.200 Wait, no, you said that no varia as a matter 0:24:23.240 --> 0:24:25.199 of fact, like what was. 0:24:25.240 --> 0:24:30.479 The home environment like, because most people of the cloth 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:34.680 that I know, like it's a very strict environment. And 0:24:35.840 --> 0:24:38.600 hearing that you're a preacher's kid, but also like you 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:41.760 dabbled in the arts, like it's almost like oil and 0:24:41.840 --> 0:24:44.080 water to me, because most people that I know like 0:24:44.240 --> 0:24:48.800 try to keep their kids out of any joyous expression 0:24:48.880 --> 0:24:52.840 like singing, dancing, anything that's deemed secular. 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:56.479 So well that wasn't the case for us. 0:24:57.240 --> 0:25:00.720 My father was a boy preacher, so he didn't have 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:03.240 a choice. Well, let me just put it to you 0:25:03.400 --> 0:25:06.600 like this, my story and my background are their origin 0:25:06.720 --> 0:25:11.239 story is very Southern Gothic, and so you don't get 0:25:11.320 --> 0:25:13.800 the feeling that these people are making these choices. They're 0:25:13.840 --> 0:25:18.200 making choices because that's what's in front of them. And 0:25:18.280 --> 0:25:21.399 if you look at the Black tradition, a lot of 0:25:21.440 --> 0:25:25.399 those people were preachers. Around the end of reconstruction, the 0:25:25.440 --> 0:25:28.000 people that they called in to ask about forty eight 0:25:28.240 --> 0:25:31.480 of mule were pastors and were clergy union. Other than that, 0:25:31.840 --> 0:25:35.560 you were either going to be a farmer, perhaps maybe 0:25:35.600 --> 0:25:40.639 a teacher. But in Showpiz and so that tradition of 0:25:41.800 --> 0:25:45.399 preachers kids becoming show biz kids like Denzel and a 0:25:45.480 --> 0:25:49.240 lot of these people because we saw performance our entire life. 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:53.320 My mother sings, he plays a piano. She was trained 0:25:53.320 --> 0:25:58.760 as an opera singer and pianist. My father played the 0:25:59.440 --> 0:26:04.360 piano by ear. And we got along and got over 0:26:05.960 --> 0:26:07.800 with the kindness of strangers because a lot of times 0:26:07.880 --> 0:26:09.200 they were performing for their food. 0:26:10.160 --> 0:26:10.960 They didn't just preach. 0:26:11.040 --> 0:26:14.600 They got in there and said, oh and they selling 0:26:14.640 --> 0:26:16.880 that could get you chicken and maybe some lint. 0:26:17.320 --> 0:26:19.280 It sounds like, I mean, just based on what you 0:26:19.480 --> 0:26:21.320 just told us in the last ten fifteen minutes, like 0:26:21.720 --> 0:26:24.080 your family sounds pretty miraculous, Like you kind of slid 0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:27.720 in there that both your parents were orphans, which is 0:26:28.280 --> 0:26:35.440 a miraculous I mean, not even knowing their story, wow wow, 0:26:36.240 --> 0:26:38.840 and them me coming together and meeting each other. So 0:26:39.200 --> 0:26:42.159 my question also was were did they also have this 0:26:42.359 --> 0:26:45.440 underlayer of foundation for you to even know about Freedom theater? 0:26:45.840 --> 0:26:48.240 Did they also give you this other layer of self 0:26:48.280 --> 0:26:51.119 awareness of blackness? Like that's a but on top of 0:26:51.240 --> 0:26:54.600 going to this church that determines brought him so many layers, 0:26:54.720 --> 0:26:57.000 like did you get that from them as well? Your 0:26:57.040 --> 0:26:59.919 activism and community and knowing about blackness and who you are. 0:27:00.920 --> 0:27:02.000 I would say the activism. 0:27:02.119 --> 0:27:04.720 Yes, I think most black people that came from that 0:27:04.800 --> 0:27:07.959 era thought they were being hunted and they were haunted 0:27:08.000 --> 0:27:12.800 by whiteness. They were hunted literally by white people, and 0:27:12.920 --> 0:27:15.720 so you always had to do that. You had to 0:27:15.800 --> 0:27:17.639 find a place to be. It wasn't just like the 0:27:17.720 --> 0:27:20.520 Green Book. You had to choose where you were going 0:27:20.560 --> 0:27:24.119 to live. You had to choose the type of career 0:27:24.920 --> 0:27:28.360 that didn't make you a threat. And so that's why 0:27:28.760 --> 0:27:34.480 people being athletes, they're performing for white people. They're coming 0:27:34.560 --> 0:27:37.920 in front of them and they're offering their voice and 0:27:38.040 --> 0:27:42.600 their talents, and suddenly they may be a threat when 0:27:42.600 --> 0:27:44.600 to go outside of that door, but inside that door 0:27:44.640 --> 0:27:47.000 they have a certain type of privilege. And so I 0:27:47.080 --> 0:27:52.159 think that my mother, who was twice or offended and 0:27:52.280 --> 0:27:55.680 she had an extraordinary background. 0:27:56.080 --> 0:27:58.600 She was raised by the richest couple. 0:27:58.359 --> 0:28:03.119 In her town, Carlsbad, and that's why she had she 0:28:03.520 --> 0:28:08.560 knew how to I'm here talk about enunciation. Pronunciation is 0:28:08.680 --> 0:28:11.840 very from That's where it comes from. But then, of course, 0:28:11.960 --> 0:28:14.639 being a child of the preacher, you. 0:28:14.760 --> 0:28:20.280 Know that everything they do, you see, it's all. 0:28:20.240 --> 0:28:23.800 Part and parcel. But you're also coming from respectability politics. 0:28:25.480 --> 0:28:27.639 They were the people who did not want to look dusty. 0:28:28.480 --> 0:28:31.760 You were coming out for plantations, you're talking about after reconstruction. 0:28:31.840 --> 0:28:34.479 You're talking about all the things that black people were 0:28:34.520 --> 0:28:35.639 seen as dirty and. 0:28:37.240 --> 0:28:39.320 Unsophisticated and unlearned. 0:28:40.080 --> 0:28:45.400 They had to immediately establish their bona fide, and so 0:28:45.560 --> 0:28:48.720 begins the black bourgeois there you go. And then once 0:28:48.760 --> 0:28:51.040 they found out we had money, so begins the black 0:28:51.080 --> 0:28:54.640 middle class. Oh and the race for labels. 0:28:55.880 --> 0:28:59.360 You saying that has already brought me back to twelve, 0:28:59.560 --> 0:29:03.400 because there's a time where even if I wanted to 0:29:03.440 --> 0:29:06.240 go to the movies, I would have to put a 0:29:06.360 --> 0:29:09.440 suit on. And it's like, why do I have to 0:29:09.560 --> 0:29:11.880 put a suit on to see Jim Kelly and black 0:29:11.920 --> 0:29:15.400 Belt Genlemans in silent scream at the Capitol on fifty 0:29:15.480 --> 0:29:20.560 second and they're you know, their whole thing was like, well, yeah, 0:29:20.560 --> 0:29:23.400 it's respective of these politics, but it's also like if 0:29:23.440 --> 0:29:27.160 you have a suit on, you won't get shot, right. 0:29:27.280 --> 0:29:29.400 But then I thought it made me your target to bullies, 0:29:29.480 --> 0:29:31.160 like why is he walking in with a suit on? 0:29:31.400 --> 0:29:35.600 Like everyone else is casually dressed, but I'm the one 0:29:35.680 --> 0:29:37.680 guy is sitting there like, well. 0:29:37.600 --> 0:29:40.400 Maybe you remember the boy choir of Harlem. That was 0:29:40.480 --> 0:29:46.160 the whole bithing there to put on suits suits, and 0:29:46.280 --> 0:29:49.080 that's how they went to school. And it made them targets, 0:29:49.120 --> 0:29:52.360 but it also made them responsible for their behavior. 0:29:53.600 --> 0:29:55.959 They needed them to look at different. 0:29:57.320 --> 0:30:01.400 I see after the six weeks that at Freedom Theater, Like, 0:30:02.160 --> 0:30:05.200 what was your next move into what brought you a 0:30:05.240 --> 0:30:08.640 step closer to your profession? Like at what point were 0:30:08.680 --> 0:30:12.600 you like, Okay, I want to be an actress and 0:30:12.680 --> 0:30:13.960 pursue it seriously. 0:30:14.760 --> 0:30:18.000 I never accepted that I was an actress until maybe 0:30:18.120 --> 0:30:20.240 my late thirties or early forties. 0:30:20.760 --> 0:30:25.800 So even with cosbian living single, you didn't feel like 0:30:25.840 --> 0:30:26.920 you were a full time actress. 0:30:28.040 --> 0:30:32.360 No, nope, I would always go back to my trader 0:30:32.440 --> 0:30:34.480 talking about I was going to write my comeback piece. 0:30:41.080 --> 0:30:44.520 Okay, so I'm skipping. Look, since you brought it up, 0:30:44.680 --> 0:30:45.280 let me skip it. 0:30:45.640 --> 0:30:49.600 So the last day of living single or Betty at 0:30:49.680 --> 0:30:53.680 a week after living single, are you feeling like do 0:30:53.840 --> 0:30:55.760 I go back to being a civilian or do I 0:30:56.960 --> 0:30:59.680 are you basically saying that was your mind state, like 0:31:00.120 --> 0:31:04.200 not a full time actress until I have the next 0:31:04.880 --> 0:31:07.760 stable job or your life is. 0:31:07.760 --> 0:31:11.000 An actor, just as a musician is very porous. Nothing 0:31:11.040 --> 0:31:14.160 ever ends, nothing ever really begins. You can feel a 0:31:14.200 --> 0:31:16.640 little bit because people have rap parties and that helps 0:31:16.680 --> 0:31:17.520 you sort of put your. 0:31:17.440 --> 0:31:18.680 Mind around like it's done. 0:31:19.600 --> 0:31:23.640 Yeah, but you've probably been auditioning the whole time for 0:31:23.760 --> 0:31:27.760 other things, and I had been, and at the time, 0:31:27.840 --> 0:31:31.560 I was dealing with a lot of heartbreak because there 0:31:31.640 --> 0:31:35.280 was a lot of I guess, hierarchy as to who 0:31:35.480 --> 0:31:38.840 they would allow to work other jobs, and I wasn't 0:31:39.280 --> 0:31:45.320 that person. So yeah, and so I missed out on 0:31:45.400 --> 0:31:49.000 a lot of things, roles that they would offer me 0:31:49.080 --> 0:31:52.080 but I couldn't take because fox let did take it, 0:31:52.320 --> 0:31:56.200 and they would have pushed my career forward. So once 0:31:56.280 --> 0:31:58.360 I got out of there, and I wasn't it's like 0:31:58.480 --> 0:32:00.680 being five years in the same timehigh school. You want 0:32:00.720 --> 0:32:04.640 to go, you're ready to go, and unless there's something 0:32:04.720 --> 0:32:11.280 keeping me there, some kind of overall goal you might have. 0:32:11.600 --> 0:32:14.320 Maybe you're really bonded with the cast that's really going well, 0:32:14.400 --> 0:32:16.360 everybody sort of signs up to do it again. But 0:32:16.480 --> 0:32:19.920 it was breaking down on its own, so I didn't 0:32:19.920 --> 0:32:22.600 think about it at all, like, oh, like I'm a 0:32:22.800 --> 0:32:26.680 civilian I've always been a civilian, just one that people known, 0:32:27.720 --> 0:32:31.680 and so I've been famous longer than I was not famous. 0:32:32.520 --> 0:32:36.479 In Philadelphia, when Mayor Good calls you to the Mayor's 0:32:36.560 --> 0:32:39.520 office and gives the key to the city and a proclamation, 0:32:39.840 --> 0:32:43.400 and kids start acting weird around you that never really 0:32:43.440 --> 0:32:49.320 paid attention to you. You see how celebrity warps things. 0:32:50.320 --> 0:32:52.360 So all I ever wanted to do was sort of 0:32:52.400 --> 0:32:57.400 return to a stable version of myself, but that was impossible. 0:32:57.840 --> 0:33:00.000 So I kind of accepted that that came with the territory. 0:33:00.840 --> 0:33:04.120 But I got to say, once I got out of there, 0:33:04.240 --> 0:33:06.120 I thought, I'm going to be a producer and write 0:33:06.160 --> 0:33:09.360 because I'd been trying to do that since A Cosby show. 0:33:10.400 --> 0:33:14.640 Oh wow, And the acting thing. I'm not just being 0:33:14.760 --> 0:33:17.840 kind of glib about it. I hadn't accepted that I 0:33:17.960 --> 0:33:20.640 was this actress. It's just something that I can always do. 0:33:21.920 --> 0:33:25.000 So I think as a musician or you understood that 0:33:25.120 --> 0:33:27.440 maybe in your core competency you could always do it. 0:33:27.480 --> 0:33:28.200 You were good at it. 0:33:28.760 --> 0:33:30.560 It sat down and play the piano, and people said, oh, 0:33:30.560 --> 0:33:32.280 you're good at it, But it didn't mean that you 0:33:32.400 --> 0:33:33.480 wanted to be a pianist. 0:33:34.280 --> 0:33:35.160 So with acting. 0:33:35.360 --> 0:33:38.560 I had to accept later on that I just didn't 0:33:39.120 --> 0:33:41.440 get chosen, like, hey, you can act, and here's a 0:33:41.520 --> 0:33:44.440 career that I did enjoy it, and that I was 0:33:44.480 --> 0:33:48.480 an actress. And when I had that sort of come 0:33:48.520 --> 0:33:50.959 to Jesus moment, it was because a hypnotist. 0:33:51.160 --> 0:33:52.680 A hypnotist put me under. 0:33:55.120 --> 0:33:58.280 And when I left the office, I started to sob 0:33:58.360 --> 0:34:01.640 because she said, Erica an actress, and I go, I 0:34:01.760 --> 0:34:04.920 am an actress and I had not really. 0:34:04.800 --> 0:34:05.760 Said that to myself. 0:34:07.000 --> 0:34:09.399 How do you feel now? 0:34:11.600 --> 0:34:16.759 I feel like I'm an artist and a creator, And 0:34:17.200 --> 0:34:21.799 I think that best sort of says about the activism, 0:34:23.480 --> 0:34:27.520 the fact that I have bigger ambitions than any one 0:34:27.640 --> 0:34:30.400 production can fulfill. 0:34:31.440 --> 0:34:34.320 But I just love the idea of people who are creators, 0:34:34.480 --> 0:34:35.160 and I like to. 0:34:35.239 --> 0:34:40.959 Learn what's your dream project, the one that you needed 0:34:40.960 --> 0:34:44.360 that if you had one hundred million dollars. This is 0:34:44.480 --> 0:34:46.239 what I'm making, you know. 0:34:46.320 --> 0:34:49.200 I think there's a room for a new King Panther, 0:34:49.440 --> 0:34:52.000 and I would love to do a character like that 0:34:52.360 --> 0:34:55.960 because I'm good at physical comedy, and I'm good at comedy, 0:34:56.239 --> 0:34:58.839 but I'm also dramatic. And I think if you look 0:34:58.920 --> 0:35:02.800 what Peter Sellers did, he was allowed to be a 0:35:02.880 --> 0:35:07.120 lot of different states of weirdness. I like the British 0:35:07.360 --> 0:35:10.880 sense of comedy, and I would like to do something 0:35:11.000 --> 0:35:11.200 like that. 0:35:12.080 --> 0:35:19.279 All right, it manifested coming, let's do it. Okay. So 0:35:19.800 --> 0:35:22.280 now back back to your teens. 0:35:22.920 --> 0:35:25.799 What was the stage that you're like, okay, let's take 0:35:25.880 --> 0:35:29.000 this serious, like your first audition. 0:35:29.280 --> 0:35:32.560 What was that like at fourteen or just later on 0:35:32.680 --> 0:35:33.040 after that? 0:35:34.000 --> 0:35:38.040 How were you when Pam came into full disclosure? 0:35:38.160 --> 0:35:42.680 Also, I kind of thought I was like maybe a 0:35:42.840 --> 0:35:46.840 decade and a half older than you, Like what ye 0:35:48.280 --> 0:35:52.360 you look fucking awesome by the way, But like in 0:35:52.480 --> 0:35:55.000 my mind, I thought like, okay, well, you know eight 0:35:55.040 --> 0:35:55.680 these kids like. 0:35:55.719 --> 0:35:57.279 Started cousin Pam. 0:35:57.360 --> 0:35:59.800 Wasn't a teenager that cousin Pam? What's the post? 0:36:00.520 --> 0:36:02.000 In my mind, I'm like, wait, I was like twenty 0:36:02.040 --> 0:36:04.400 something when the coss Okay, she was definitely like fourteen 0:36:04.480 --> 0:36:07.400 fifteen because something on the special led episode and all 0:36:07.440 --> 0:36:11.279 that stuff. So in my mind, you're way younger than me. 0:36:11.360 --> 0:36:14.200 So I'm like trying to school you use words like 0:36:14.280 --> 0:36:16.040 manifest hilarious. 0:36:18.360 --> 0:36:22.200 No, I was older, playing younger than myself because of 0:36:22.320 --> 0:36:26.160 the hours. You know that those things take they try 0:36:26.200 --> 0:36:29.480 to get kids that are older, teenagers that are older 0:36:29.719 --> 0:36:33.880 play younger. I was younger than Malcolm Jamal, but I 0:36:33.920 --> 0:36:37.200 actually think I'm older than Malcolm Jamal in real life. 0:36:38.000 --> 0:36:38.160 Right. 0:36:38.640 --> 0:36:40.879 So actually I did an audition for cousin Pam. 0:36:42.080 --> 0:36:44.520 That was your that was your first audition, but she 0:36:44.600 --> 0:36:46.879 did an audition or you didn't. 0:36:47.160 --> 0:36:51.600 When I was twenty years old, Okay, I had been 0:36:51.640 --> 0:36:54.800 acting for since I was fourteen. I'd gone around the 0:36:54.800 --> 0:36:57.440 world with Royal Shakespeare Company. I did a nine hour 0:36:57.520 --> 0:37:02.120 play called The Mahabaratta. I did mini series and a 0:37:02.280 --> 0:37:05.640 movie with Whoope called The Long Walk Call Wait Wait 0:37:05.640 --> 0:37:06.040 Wait Wait. 0:37:05.960 --> 0:37:07.120 Wait, Long Walk Wait Wait wait wait. 0:37:07.239 --> 0:37:09.960 Yeah, so that's where that experience comes from. Okay, I 0:37:10.040 --> 0:37:10.960 see now, Yes. 0:37:11.000 --> 0:37:13.160 And I had done two or three plays at the 0:37:13.200 --> 0:37:14.080 Public one. 0:37:14.000 --> 0:37:16.960 With Joseph Papp his last play called The Forbidden City, 0:37:17.000 --> 0:37:18.080 Big Gun's Last Play. 0:37:19.160 --> 0:37:22.080 So I've done a lot of theater, which a lot 0:37:22.120 --> 0:37:23.239 of black people did. 0:37:23.920 --> 0:37:26.080 If you look at Sam Jackson and all these cats, 0:37:26.320 --> 0:37:29.040 there were no TV and films to absorb that type 0:37:29.080 --> 0:37:29.439 of talent. 0:37:29.560 --> 0:37:29.680 Thing. 0:37:30.080 --> 0:37:32.040 You had one or two things, and if you were 0:37:32.120 --> 0:37:35.839 lucky to be those one or two people, you maybe 0:37:35.880 --> 0:37:38.600 catch lightning in the bottle. No one expected to have 0:37:38.680 --> 0:37:41.239 a career in film and television, certainly not a black woman. 0:37:42.000 --> 0:37:45.880 So I was doing a play at the Public and 0:37:46.320 --> 0:37:49.120 the story goes it was actually a play called Forbidden City, 0:37:49.239 --> 0:37:52.840 Josephap's last play that he directed, and the great Gloria Foster. 0:37:53.640 --> 0:37:55.320 He's the light skinned woman in the matrix. 0:37:56.560 --> 0:38:01.360 Yeah, have a cook, that's the great glory of And 0:38:02.600 --> 0:38:05.040 her best friend is Comille Cosby. And when I was 0:38:05.160 --> 0:38:08.400 told that, Camille Cosby came to see the play and 0:38:08.560 --> 0:38:10.799 then went back to her husband, Bill Cosby, and said, 0:38:10.840 --> 0:38:12.840 you've got to see Gloria in this play. In this 0:38:13.000 --> 0:38:15.440 little girl, little girl she was talking about with me. 0:38:16.920 --> 0:38:19.880 He never saw the play, but I also hear that 0:38:19.960 --> 0:38:22.320 he liked to give his wife gifts, and I was 0:38:22.320 --> 0:38:24.360 a gift. I got a call one day, could you 0:38:24.480 --> 0:38:28.640 be at mister Cosby's house in about an hour. And 0:38:28.880 --> 0:38:32.719 I showed up just off of Park Avenue in the 0:38:33.320 --> 0:38:37.400 Central Park and he made a roll up for me right. 0:38:37.320 --> 0:38:38.040 In front of my face. 0:38:38.080 --> 0:38:41.480 He said, so, there's this girl and her name is Pam, 0:38:42.400 --> 0:38:44.560 and she's the cousin of Claire. 0:38:44.840 --> 0:38:48.040 And that's how it went. And I said thank you 0:38:48.160 --> 0:38:49.640 very much, and I was cousin Pam. 0:38:50.440 --> 0:38:53.360 He must have loved that you were from Philly too. Together. 0:38:53.520 --> 0:38:59.279 He called me hometown and he really put a definition in, 0:39:00.080 --> 0:39:02.120 I don't know, kind of a premium around people who 0:39:02.160 --> 0:39:04.359 were self made. And I think that's what he liked, 0:39:04.840 --> 0:39:06.800 that he saw me being self made and that I 0:39:06.880 --> 0:39:10.400 didn't need him. That's where those were his words. 0:39:11.480 --> 0:39:15.440 How intimidating was it to enter not only like an 0:39:15.560 --> 0:39:19.520 established institution, but I mean by that point it was 0:39:19.640 --> 0:39:21.640 such a well oiled machine. 0:39:21.840 --> 0:39:23.160 And oftentimes, in. 0:39:25.520 --> 0:39:28.680 Kind of the folkal or TV shows, like adding a 0:39:28.880 --> 0:39:31.560 new character that late in the game is often seen 0:39:31.640 --> 0:39:33.080 as a jump in the shark moment. 0:39:33.280 --> 0:39:37.400 Oscar, the Brady Bunch or whatever, or Oliver Oliver. 0:39:38.840 --> 0:39:42.640 I watched right now. You mentioned Oliver from The Brady Bunch. 0:39:43.239 --> 0:39:46.399 Yeah, So, but how did it feel just coming into 0:39:47.560 --> 0:39:52.080 an already established, well oiled machine. 0:39:51.760 --> 0:39:52.319 By that point? 0:39:53.360 --> 0:39:55.160 I guess the difference is is I'm not the star. 0:39:55.280 --> 0:39:57.800 I'm a featured character. I get to day trip, I 0:39:57.880 --> 0:39:59.720 get to drop in at a little Salt and pepper, 0:40:00.600 --> 0:40:04.040 but the flavor's there, and it's a new dish. It's 0:40:04.040 --> 0:40:06.719 got a lot of juicy dark meat, you know, and 0:40:06.840 --> 0:40:10.080 so they're adding a different flavor. But they've had the 0:40:10.239 --> 0:40:16.600 criticism that the Cosby show was too inaccessible. The family 0:40:16.680 --> 0:40:20.319 was inaccessible because they were too upper class. So cousin 0:40:20.400 --> 0:40:22.640 Pam came in from the other side of the tracks. 0:40:22.960 --> 0:40:24.640 Oh, you're supposed to be the street element. 0:40:25.480 --> 0:40:26.280 Can you imagine? 0:40:26.560 --> 0:40:28.480 Did they want you to be more thugged out than 0:40:29.120 --> 0:40:29.560 you were? 0:40:29.880 --> 0:40:34.600 Like? How did you I think that his if he 0:40:34.680 --> 0:40:38.719 had told that to his the writer's room, they might 0:40:38.800 --> 0:40:39.160 have thought it. 0:40:39.239 --> 0:40:43.400 But you have to understand the king of respectability politics 0:40:43.440 --> 0:40:45.919 back in the day was Bill Cosby. So he set 0:40:46.000 --> 0:40:48.880 us down me caramony in the white owl pain and 0:40:49.040 --> 0:40:53.960 gave us the speech, do not make me ashamed, just 0:40:54.080 --> 0:40:55.799 like you get at church. Don't you go out there 0:40:55.840 --> 0:40:59.120 and act the food, don't do all your head, don't 0:40:59.200 --> 0:41:02.880 do you know any extra on it. And so we 0:41:03.000 --> 0:41:05.640 were told that we were we weren't going to do it, 0:41:06.640 --> 0:41:10.040 but it was sort of just saying, this is not 0:41:10.239 --> 0:41:13.400 that place. I have Mary mckeeba on this show, I 0:41:13.480 --> 0:41:16.000 have this person on that that show. We are the 0:41:16.080 --> 0:41:16.799 talented ten. 0:41:18.840 --> 0:41:21.279 But Karen was charmain, so oh she must have had. 0:41:23.440 --> 0:41:23.920 That's right. 0:41:24.880 --> 0:41:26.719 Yeah, So she must have had to constantly weigh that 0:41:26.920 --> 0:41:29.320 that line because that's like, that's your Maine. 0:41:29.480 --> 0:41:31.279 No, she didn't because they got her because she talked 0:41:31.320 --> 0:41:31.520 like that. 0:41:31.880 --> 0:41:34.719 I mean, they wanted that flavor. They didn't know what 0:41:34.800 --> 0:41:36.839 to do to cousin Panmther. So it's like they gave 0:41:36.920 --> 0:41:40.680 me my own posse and that helped the strain off 0:41:40.760 --> 0:41:43.720 the show. So I got it. I was I probably 0:41:43.800 --> 0:41:46.920 wasn't people's cup of TV, and I didn't really necessarily 0:41:47.000 --> 0:41:48.880 know what I was doing. I didn't think I was fundy, 0:41:48.920 --> 0:41:50.800 but I also didn't think they wrote me funny, and 0:41:50.920 --> 0:41:53.640 I was confused a lot. By the time I got 0:41:53.680 --> 0:41:57.360 to living single, I understood the idea of acting to 0:41:57.480 --> 0:42:01.280 camera and having an audience. I had done them separately, 0:42:01.360 --> 0:42:04.840 but to put them together was confusing. And then I 0:42:04.920 --> 0:42:07.040 got it. I'd asked mister I said who do I 0:42:07.120 --> 0:42:11.080 act to? And he said the audience, because he's stand up. 0:42:11.400 --> 0:42:14.120 I asked the director, Ellen Gidtleson, I said who who 0:42:14.239 --> 0:42:17.440 I act? And she said the camera. They were both right, 0:42:18.200 --> 0:42:21.040 So I had to get that type of timing in 0:42:21.160 --> 0:42:24.600 my head. Listen for the audience, because they were my 0:42:24.800 --> 0:42:28.600 best they were the fourth character in the show. And 0:42:28.800 --> 0:42:31.719 then also if they couldn't see what I was doing 0:42:31.760 --> 0:42:34.040 because the light wasn't on the camera, because the camera 0:42:34.160 --> 0:42:38.239 wasn't ready, it had to hold. And so there's this 0:42:38.480 --> 0:42:42.320 dance you're doing and it's like timing, it's like music, 0:42:42.760 --> 0:42:45.160 and if you get it, you can be funny. 0:42:46.040 --> 0:42:49.040 Did you say dance? Because that makes me think of 0:42:49.120 --> 0:42:50.640 the cousin Bam dance. 0:42:54.280 --> 0:42:55.440 Do you know that's a thing? Right? 0:42:55.640 --> 0:42:58.880 No, cousin Pam dance from the special ad episode. 0:42:59.239 --> 0:43:02.680 Episode when you start when you do that, what that's 0:43:02.719 --> 0:43:05.320 a thing, Like, yeah, you did not know that. 0:43:05.560 --> 0:43:07.160 I didn't know what. Thank you for letting me know 0:43:07.280 --> 0:43:08.040 this was a dance. 0:43:09.080 --> 0:43:12.480 It's funny you said that because there was an episode 0:43:12.520 --> 0:43:17.640 of Our Sineo in which de Niro, who rarely gives interviews, 0:43:18.800 --> 0:43:22.279 was basically explaining to Our Sineo. I think it's right 0:43:22.360 --> 0:43:24.360 around the time when Goodfellas was coming out, so this 0:43:24.440 --> 0:43:28.400 was like eighty nine to ninety whatever, and DeNiro was 0:43:28.840 --> 0:43:29.840 explaining to him. 0:43:29.800 --> 0:43:32.480 Like, basically, I'm not acting. 0:43:33.080 --> 0:43:37.120 He gave this whole thing about like if you most actors, 0:43:37.280 --> 0:43:40.160 will you know the mistake they make is they show 0:43:40.200 --> 0:43:42.719 emotion and all that stuff, and he's like, real life 0:43:42.719 --> 0:43:46.440 people don't show their emotions, they hold back. So he 0:43:46.560 --> 0:43:49.360 was basically saying that because he holds back and is 0:43:49.480 --> 0:43:52.680 very dry in his delivery, that's what makes him the 0:43:52.800 --> 0:43:57.480 everyday person, right, And that stuck with me a lot, 0:43:57.560 --> 0:44:01.000 even though, like acting wasn't mine my focus back then, 0:44:01.120 --> 0:44:02.719 but when he said that, I was like, Oh, so 0:44:03.800 --> 0:44:04.759 it's what you hold back. 0:44:05.280 --> 0:44:06.720 And I actually. 0:44:08.000 --> 0:44:13.160 Liked your role because I've never seen someone of your character, 0:44:13.239 --> 0:44:16.680 of your ilk not be a caricature, because I think 0:44:16.760 --> 0:44:21.160 sometimes it's almost like the acting version of being a 0:44:22.960 --> 0:44:26.839 gospel chops musician, you know, like every musician nowadays got 0:44:26.880 --> 0:44:28.040 to show off everything they do. 0:44:30.760 --> 0:44:31.360 Melisma. 0:44:31.560 --> 0:44:35.520 Yes, you held back, And then I saw an interview 0:44:35.600 --> 0:44:42.640 that you did, and because you had Felicia Rashad's you know, 0:44:42.800 --> 0:44:46.160 like when she talks like Felicia Rashad has that that 0:44:46.360 --> 0:44:51.240 camera meal is crazy sort of Yeah, when you spoke 0:44:51.320 --> 0:44:53.799 like that, us like, oh, she's like a real actor's action. 0:44:54.040 --> 0:44:56.840 And I was going to ask if you dabbled in Shakespeare, 0:44:56.920 --> 0:45:00.279 but you already told that to us. I actually like 0:45:00.320 --> 0:45:03.480 the fact that you were kind of nondescript in the 0:45:03.560 --> 0:45:05.440 Cosby Show, and that you weren't. 0:45:06.800 --> 0:45:08.799 All the way you know, you could have been JJ. 0:45:09.560 --> 0:45:11.640 You could have been JJ or Hillary from the Fresh 0:45:11.680 --> 0:45:14.600 Prince of bel Air, like a character I don't know 0:45:14.719 --> 0:45:15.239 that was mine. 0:45:15.960 --> 0:45:16.719 I appreciate that. 0:45:17.440 --> 0:45:21.160 I think what you're seeing is that I think somehow, 0:45:21.320 --> 0:45:24.160 even in a character, you have to express a level 0:45:24.400 --> 0:45:29.680 of authenticity. And I'm from Arizona, so I don't have 0:45:30.680 --> 0:45:34.120 the idea of blackness as being a set of tropes 0:45:34.320 --> 0:45:37.800 that are like very big and laws, because that's not 0:45:37.880 --> 0:45:41.239 what I saw. I saw black people be black, like 0:45:41.320 --> 0:45:47.200 American fiction black. That's the idea is that we're presented 0:45:47.320 --> 0:45:50.759 with a set of stereotypes that we don't even know 0:45:51.360 --> 0:45:55.800 that we're pushing, and black people were probably only people 0:45:55.880 --> 0:45:56.120 to have. 0:45:56.160 --> 0:45:56.920 To have burden. 0:45:58.560 --> 0:46:03.160 We're always trying to balance a version of ourselves and 0:46:03.280 --> 0:46:06.000 we don't even know where we end or begin anymore. 0:46:06.680 --> 0:46:08.759 But I do say this about comedy. It is a 0:46:08.960 --> 0:46:12.600 full contact sport and you have to give to receive. 0:46:12.680 --> 0:46:14.360 You have to embrace it, you have to channel, you 0:46:14.480 --> 0:46:15.920 have to love it. You have to go out on 0:46:15.960 --> 0:46:18.800 a limb. You have to be bold. You can't be scared, 0:46:19.360 --> 0:46:24.280 you can you have to be curious, and that allows 0:46:24.360 --> 0:46:28.560 you to be free in the moment and make improvisational 0:46:28.719 --> 0:46:31.960 choices because I'm not necessarily changing the line, but I 0:46:32.080 --> 0:46:36.160 am changing the inflection in the line, the delivery of it, 0:46:36.400 --> 0:46:37.040 the delivery. 0:46:37.840 --> 0:46:41.359 So that said, could you tell me if we're going 0:46:41.440 --> 0:46:45.960 to the social media term, how it's going and how 0:46:46.000 --> 0:46:50.600 it ended or whatever. When you're given Maxine Shaw, which 0:46:50.840 --> 0:46:52.520 you know, as I said at the top of the show, 0:46:52.640 --> 0:46:56.600 I believe that Maxine's character is the anchor of that show, 0:46:57.400 --> 0:47:03.040 you know, like for me, Latifa is the the the. 0:47:04.880 --> 0:47:09.040 I guess the straight man of the click and Dorothy 0:47:09.840 --> 0:47:10.480 not mom. 0:47:12.440 --> 0:47:15.720 Right, and both chems have to sort of be the colorful, 0:47:17.480 --> 0:47:21.320 which really allowed you, I think a lane to really 0:47:22.040 --> 0:47:25.480 like all your punchlines were funnier, and your physical comedy 0:47:25.560 --> 0:47:28.479 and then your chemistry, which at the time, I don't 0:47:28.480 --> 0:47:31.680 think you're going into this thing thinking like, Okay, by 0:47:31.760 --> 0:47:34.880 season one, I'll be this carry and then we'll have 0:47:35.040 --> 0:47:38.239 our sort of apart with each other, like because both 0:47:38.280 --> 0:47:42.640 of you two basically wrote each other to glory in 0:47:43.000 --> 0:47:46.319 my opinion, But how did you prepare for your role 0:47:46.520 --> 0:47:48.520 as Maxine Shaw on Living Single? 0:47:50.560 --> 0:47:53.600 I prepared for it my entire life before I got there, 0:47:54.840 --> 0:47:59.520 and I took every little piece that I understood and 0:47:59.640 --> 0:48:03.160 put it in a role that nobody was paying attention 0:48:03.280 --> 0:48:06.839 to because I wasn't the star that Latifa or Kim 0:48:06.960 --> 0:48:08.960 Cole's or Kim Fields was. 0:48:09.360 --> 0:48:10.280 I was actually fourth. 0:48:10.400 --> 0:48:13.680 I was the dark skinned person in there with TC Carson, 0:48:14.760 --> 0:48:18.440 and they weren't looking at me. And I learned from 0:48:18.520 --> 0:48:22.360 the Cosby Show, or at least I understood now the 0:48:22.520 --> 0:48:28.279 dance of the camera, comedy and the audience. So I 0:48:28.440 --> 0:48:30.480 knew and you can see in the first year we 0:48:30.680 --> 0:48:34.240 kind of push those stereotypes that got us the roles 0:48:34.280 --> 0:48:37.040 the audition, like girl, I got this this, So it's 0:48:37.080 --> 0:48:40.400 a little amped up, but that's what you do to 0:48:40.440 --> 0:48:43.520 get the role. Otherwise, these people who are executive executive 0:48:43.520 --> 0:48:45.719 positions don't think you're doing anything if you come in 0:48:45.760 --> 0:48:46.560 and do something. 0:48:46.360 --> 0:48:47.600 That's a little bit more laid back. 0:48:47.760 --> 0:48:50.400 We're not allowed that type of soft presence that a 0:48:50.440 --> 0:48:58.239 lot of luance thank you that other performers get. Black 0:48:58.280 --> 0:49:03.880 people have to come with it right way. So I 0:49:04.040 --> 0:49:09.280 like to think that I'm in there discovering and experimenting 0:49:10.200 --> 0:49:13.000 and it's not harming anybody as long as I deliver 0:49:13.480 --> 0:49:16.160 the show they want. But each time I got more 0:49:16.200 --> 0:49:21.359 information about what the audience slighted about Max, and each 0:49:21.560 --> 0:49:25.120 time I wanted to deliver a version of her that 0:49:25.320 --> 0:49:30.359 was authentic to me Erica, and that balanced the show 0:49:30.520 --> 0:49:33.200 because you have to be generous with comedy. The people aren't. 0:49:33.480 --> 0:49:35.239 That's why they don't do so well. They're trying to 0:49:35.280 --> 0:49:40.080 get the line funny all the time, and sometime you're 0:49:40.120 --> 0:49:42.680 there to take the hit and sort of just look 0:49:45.080 --> 0:49:47.160 and it's not about you. It's about you just tossing 0:49:47.239 --> 0:49:50.280 around and you got to know. But I think nobody 0:49:50.440 --> 0:49:51.759 was looking, So that's what I want. 0:49:52.480 --> 0:49:57.360 I think people oftentimes when they see greatness, whatever you 0:49:57.520 --> 0:50:02.080 take it for granted, always refer to watching Steph Curry 0:50:02.120 --> 0:50:05.040 play like he's gonna throw it in and you automatically 0:50:05.120 --> 0:50:07.239 know it's going and no matter what. So at one 0:50:07.320 --> 0:50:09.920 point you just take for granted that all right, yes, 0:50:10.000 --> 0:50:12.480 he knows he's pulled enough some incredible shit, as he 0:50:12.560 --> 0:50:13.480 does it all the time. 0:50:13.880 --> 0:50:16.040 Right, But then then it's like, okay, they always do that. 0:50:16.440 --> 0:50:18.880 But I don't think people really appreciate the fact that, 0:50:19.560 --> 0:50:22.520 first of all, it's six of you, and so I 0:50:22.680 --> 0:50:25.919 almost feel like, all right, So in jam session situations, 0:50:26.600 --> 0:50:31.240 especially when I'm paying with musicians that aren't my guys 0:50:31.280 --> 0:50:36.280 and the roots, I automatically have to go into, Okay, 0:50:36.400 --> 0:50:38.560 this guy's overplayed, So let me dial it down a 0:50:38.640 --> 0:50:41.840 little bit so that it's not too overwhelming. Because my 0:50:42.000 --> 0:50:45.160 fear is that I always make the All Star Game 0:50:45.200 --> 0:50:49.800 analogy that All Star games are very boring because everyone's 0:50:49.840 --> 0:50:52.279 on a hundred, so there's really no sense of drama whatever, 0:50:52.520 --> 0:50:56.440 like when everyone's at one hundred. To me, that's just 0:50:56.520 --> 0:51:00.480 as boring as everyone being amateurs. So how do you 0:51:01.520 --> 0:51:05.400 but there's such a push and pool chemistry with the 0:51:05.480 --> 0:51:08.880 six of you when you're in scenes together, Like what 0:51:09.000 --> 0:51:11.120 do you credit that to the writing of the show 0:51:11.520 --> 0:51:14.279 or do you know to hold back sometimes and let 0:51:14.400 --> 0:51:16.840 Kim get her shine or whatever? And is it like 0:51:16.920 --> 0:51:20.920 a game of basketball in which you guys like instantly 0:51:21.080 --> 0:51:23.680 know like what the other character is going to do, 0:51:23.800 --> 0:51:26.279 Because there's even some moments on that show in which 0:51:27.440 --> 0:51:29.200 I'm like, I wonder if they rehearse that ahead of 0:51:29.280 --> 0:51:31.239 time to get that timing right or that sort of 0:51:31.280 --> 0:51:33.320 thing like it to me, it was effortless. 0:51:33.520 --> 0:51:36.360 So when did it gel for you. 0:51:37.160 --> 0:51:42.080 It jeiled immediately, everybody saw real And I think the 0:51:42.200 --> 0:51:47.080 right analogy is music. I think that if there was 0:51:47.200 --> 0:51:50.200 genius or maybe lightning in a bottle was because they 0:51:50.280 --> 0:51:55.360 recruited performers and other collaborators that have a pinch it 0:51:55.520 --> 0:52:02.160 for individualism and they play well with others. They're soloists 0:52:02.200 --> 0:52:05.280 that play well with others. If you look at Latifa 0:52:05.440 --> 0:52:09.200 Kim Cole's Kim Fields, you could all be soloists. But 0:52:09.320 --> 0:52:13.600 we understand the whole and you got to have your 0:52:13.640 --> 0:52:15.480 self esteem has to be in check. 0:52:15.560 --> 0:52:17.200 You have to know who you are. 0:52:18.560 --> 0:52:21.920 And I think that we were at an age I 0:52:22.040 --> 0:52:25.399 was twenty three coming in, but we had done enough 0:52:25.640 --> 0:52:28.600 in life that we didn't have to win. We knew 0:52:28.600 --> 0:52:32.040 we would win if we all win, if we all won. 0:52:32.360 --> 0:52:35.279 So I think that you want soloists who play well together, 0:52:35.360 --> 0:52:37.400 especially if they respect the ensemble. 0:52:37.320 --> 0:52:38.040 And we did. 0:52:39.160 --> 0:52:41.360 Hey, you talked about being a brown skinned woman and 0:52:41.440 --> 0:52:44.719 woman on the screen. I'm so curious for Maxine Shaw 0:52:44.880 --> 0:52:46.239 in this look. You know, I was just talking to 0:52:46.280 --> 0:52:48.640 somebody earlier. We were talking about your braids, and somebody 0:52:48.760 --> 0:52:50.920 was like, did you know that Erica's braids were made 0:52:50.920 --> 0:52:52.719 out of yard. I was like, yeah, that's we used 0:52:52.719 --> 0:52:54.200 to do that back in the day, especially because hair 0:52:54.239 --> 0:52:54.719 cars more. 0:52:54.640 --> 0:52:55.000 Than the yard. 0:52:55.120 --> 0:52:58.400 But regardless, I'm so curious how you were able to 0:52:58.440 --> 0:53:00.520 pull this off at twenty three and you and fourth 0:53:00.600 --> 0:53:02.480 on the call sheet. This look. 0:53:04.120 --> 0:53:04.840 I came in with that. 0:53:06.160 --> 0:53:11.160 Okay, the white person would have ever allowed me to 0:53:11.320 --> 0:53:16.160 come in with that, And it wasn't because that the 0:53:16.280 --> 0:53:18.160 white thing has nothing to do with It's just that 0:53:18.680 --> 0:53:20.759 she was the lawyer and they would have probably wanted 0:53:20.800 --> 0:53:24.800 her hair pressed. And I came in like that because 0:53:24.840 --> 0:53:27.160 I had worked with Wooby Goldberg. She played my mother, 0:53:30.239 --> 0:53:33.920 I remember now, and we carry with us, all of 0:53:34.040 --> 0:53:37.680 us in the world. Everybody somebody imprints on you. So 0:53:37.800 --> 0:53:41.520 if you look at that hairdo mm hmm, it's jumping jack. 0:53:41.440 --> 0:53:52.800 Flash stop that. And I had just come from that 0:53:53.320 --> 0:53:55.719 uh tour. 0:53:56.200 --> 0:53:58.400 I mean actually, I've just come from a series for ABC, 0:53:58.719 --> 0:54:01.120 and the producers asked me that I shaved my hair 0:54:01.200 --> 0:54:04.080 and I did was nothing. It was natural because my 0:54:04.360 --> 0:54:06.200 hair kept frizzing up and I didn't have a perm 0:54:07.239 --> 0:54:08.400 and so they asked me to shave it off. I 0:54:08.400 --> 0:54:10.239 said I would, and I was growing it out and 0:54:10.360 --> 0:54:14.319 I had a hairdresser in Brooklyn, ebrah Hair Bay, does 0:54:14.360 --> 0:54:16.440 the Nray locks and she said, I know what, I 0:54:16.480 --> 0:54:19.200 can grow your hair out, and so you see the whole. 0:54:19.040 --> 0:54:21.799 Back is shaved and shaved to catch on the top. 0:54:22.080 --> 0:54:23.920 She said, I'll do a cool bob and you can 0:54:24.000 --> 0:54:26.320 do anything with his hair. And I just happen to 0:54:26.400 --> 0:54:28.840 walk in and audition it with that hair and that's Maxine. 0:54:29.600 --> 0:54:29.799 Wow. 0:54:29.920 --> 0:54:32.080 And by the time you finished the show, it was 0:54:32.320 --> 0:54:35.640 gorgeously long and layered and h and yeah. 0:54:35.800 --> 0:54:39.719 And it was a wig. Get the fuck that's right? 0:54:40.520 --> 0:54:44.280 Because I kept getting recognized and I couldn't go anywhere, 0:54:44.560 --> 0:54:45.279 so I said, you got. 0:54:45.280 --> 0:54:45.799 To make a wig. 0:54:46.200 --> 0:54:48.759 So yeah, So that was a question earlier were talking about. 0:54:48.800 --> 0:54:51.080 You could see the response from people. 0:54:51.520 --> 0:54:54.080 How did you know? I mean, how did my social media? 0:54:54.760 --> 0:54:57.680 How did you know? Like, Okay, this is really is hitting, 0:54:57.920 --> 0:54:59.480 Like it was instant. 0:55:00.520 --> 0:55:03.920 We were on Sundays and our leading was Martin and 0:55:04.120 --> 0:55:09.759 we beat our leading From then on, M beat the 0:55:09.880 --> 0:55:10.799 number one show. 0:55:12.160 --> 0:55:13.880 And I don't like to say black show, but you 0:55:14.200 --> 0:55:18.919 have a cast of black people and you beat the show. 0:55:19.080 --> 0:55:21.120 They say the Black Show the number one black show 0:55:21.120 --> 0:55:24.840 in America for Latin Latins and Blacks. 0:55:25.880 --> 0:55:27.520 You win. So that's what happened. 0:55:28.400 --> 0:55:30.759 Wow, I can't remember they went because it didn't that 0:55:30.880 --> 0:55:32.480 helped Martin. I can't remember. 0:55:32.760 --> 0:55:33.680 It was kind of messed up. 0:55:33.719 --> 0:55:36.920 They made a Thursday Night, they put under cover New 0:55:37.000 --> 0:55:37.560 York undercover. 0:55:38.600 --> 0:55:40.839 They made like a Black Night, and we were all 0:55:41.120 --> 0:55:41.920 insulted by it. 0:55:43.080 --> 0:55:47.640 Wait a minute, so okay, because I was about to say, 0:55:47.640 --> 0:55:49.960 I always remember Living Single as a Thursday show. 0:55:50.200 --> 0:55:51.719 It started as a Sunday show. 0:55:51.840 --> 0:55:53.000 It was a Sunday show. 0:55:53.200 --> 0:55:56.480 After a Living Color. That's right, No, no, it was. 0:55:56.840 --> 0:56:01.319 Our leading was Martin then was Living Single and Living Color. 0:56:01.600 --> 0:56:03.960 Living Color was on. I don't know if they were 0:56:03.960 --> 0:56:04.520 on another. 0:56:06.280 --> 0:56:07.120 Yeah, yeah it was. 0:56:07.680 --> 0:56:12.160 They were all Fox No no, no, yeah were But 0:56:13.000 --> 0:56:15.399 then they decided let's put them all on the same night. 0:56:15.920 --> 0:56:19.880 That was Black Night Thursday. Then they flipped Living Single 0:56:19.920 --> 0:56:23.800 to first. We became Martin's leading, gotcha. 0:56:24.160 --> 0:56:27.319 That's what Damon Walliams was fighting. Remember that he tried 0:56:27.360 --> 0:56:28.480 to do that to him and said. 0:56:28.280 --> 0:56:31.000 I think I did not know that. 0:56:31.280 --> 0:56:36.000 Okay, Hi everyone, this is Sugar Steve from Questlov Supreme. 0:56:36.440 --> 0:56:38.239 We are so sorry to do this, but we're ending 0:56:38.280 --> 0:56:41.160 part one right there. Please come back. This Friday, or 0:56:41.239 --> 0:56:44.080 check your podcast feed for Part two with the incredible 0:56:44.320 --> 0:56:47.880 Erica Alexander. In that interview, Erica speaks about working on 0:56:48.080 --> 0:56:50.960 Get Out American Fiction and her role as Riza and 0:56:51.040 --> 0:56:53.800 Devine's mother on Wu Tang in American Saga. 0:56:54.120 --> 0:57:02.200 See You Soon. Thank you for listening to Quest Love Supreme. 0:57:02.320 --> 0:57:04.960 This podcast is hosted by a Mere Quest Love Thompson, 0:57:05.320 --> 0:57:08.800 Lias Saint, Clair Fonte, Coleman Sugar, Steve Van Dell, and 0:57:08.880 --> 0:57:10.520 myself Unfave fil Scherm. 0:57:10.840 --> 0:57:12.440 The executive producers. 0:57:12.040 --> 0:57:15.480 Are Meir just Walked into the Goddamn Room, Thompson, Sean 0:57:15.600 --> 0:57:19.160 g and Brian Calhoun. Produced by Britney Benjamin, Jake Pain 0:57:19.280 --> 0:57:22.880 and Liah Sinclair. Edited by Alex Conroy I Know Alice Conroy. 0:57:23.280 --> 0:57:25.280 Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown. 0:57:34.520 --> 0:57:40.680 West Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For 0:57:40.800 --> 0:57:43.880 more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 0:57:44.120 --> 0:57:47.160 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.