Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me
Speaker 1: Tracy Moore. I was a casting director for film and
Speaker 1: TV and commercials for over thirty years. I transitioned to
Speaker 1: a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New
Speaker 1: Jersey Drive with executive producers Spike Lee and director Nick Domez.
Speaker 1: I auditioned every rapper from Biggie s Balls to Tupac,
Speaker 1: and I realized that rappers and musical artists they needed
Speaker 1: help transitioning to acting. My clients consist of musical artists
Speaker 1: from Buster Rhymes to Eve, Missy Elliott, Angela Yee from
Speaker 1: The Breakfast Club, and Vanessa Simmons, to name a few.
Speaker 1: I also coach sports stars and host as well. I
Speaker 1: feel I have the best of both worlds. As a
Speaker 1: casting director, I know exactly what they're looking for, and
Speaker 1: as an acting coach, I can coach you to be
Speaker 1: remembered in that room. Now I know, I know actors
Speaker 1: want to get the job. I get that, but being
Speaker 1: remembered by casting director that is powerful. And now it's
Speaker 1: time for meditation of the day. In all things, there
Speaker 1: is a law of cycles.
Speaker 2: The universe has a way.
Speaker 1: Of taking care of things if we trust it. On
Speaker 1: a daily basis. I like to test the universe. I
Speaker 1: will think of people, or I will put out a
Speaker 1: wish for something, and always, to my surprise, something will happen.
Speaker 1: I love it. I have learned not to question it,
Speaker 1: but to embrace it. We all have the ability to
Speaker 1: tap into our inner powers. We just need to not
Speaker 1: fear it and just go with the flow. I will
Speaker 1: test my inner powers today without fear. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore.
Speaker 2: You are in for a treat.
Speaker 3: Regardless of what's.
Speaker 4: Going on in the world, chaos, all of the confusion, pandemic,
Speaker 4: all of that, we have a true blessing, a true blessing.
Speaker 1: I am so honored to say her name. I am
Speaker 1: so honored to have her in our presence. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: please put your hands together for Grammy Awards, Tony Drama Death.
Speaker 1: I could go on a pleasant of awards, Miss Queen
Speaker 1: of Broadway, Jennifer Holiday, Thank you, Oh Jennifer Holiday. I
Speaker 1: have to tell our audience and we were extremely blessed
Speaker 1: you guys. About three years ago I did I had
Speaker 1: a spirit Actor showcase and Jennifer came with someone and
Speaker 1: I couldn't even I was like, I don't even do
Speaker 1: a showcase. I just want to hang out with you.
Speaker 2: Hoday.
Speaker 3: I was in the revival of Color Purple on Broadway
Speaker 3: at the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I actually coached this woman, Yolanda Wins in
Speaker 1: the Color Purple prior to that you did.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, Karen Wilson was the name of the student who
Speaker 3: in your class that brought me with it.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, Karen, Yeah, so special.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 2: I was very honored to have you in our presence.
Speaker 1: And I have to say that when I arrived in
Speaker 1: New York City August fifteenth, nineteen eighty three from San Francisco,
Speaker 1: I used to sneak in Broadway. I used to walk
Speaker 1: in with the intermission crowd and scope out what seats
Speaker 1: were available, and I would watch Broadway shows. So I
Speaker 1: saw the second half of dream Girls. I didn't know
Speaker 1: the first half until I was able to afford it.
Speaker 1: You literally walked right past me.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 3: I will never ever ever.
Speaker 1: Re and then forget like that moment and how powerful
Speaker 1: that moment was for me.
Speaker 3: You have the ability and.
Speaker 1: I wanted to put this in words, but you make
Speaker 1: me so happy that I am able to hear that.
Speaker 2: To not be able to hear your.
Speaker 1: Voice and know the beauty and the elegance and the rage,
Speaker 1: I feel like my life would just I may have
Speaker 1: gone in a different direction, because Broadway.
Speaker 2: Is my life. To this day, I live Broadway.
Speaker 1: So I have to say, at let's talk about where
Speaker 1: it all started. Because I know you're born and raised Houston, Texas.
Speaker 1: That's right, born and raised in Houston, Texas.
Speaker 3: I also got discovered in Houston, Texas singing in the
Speaker 3: church choir Present Growth Baptist Church choir. A young man
Speaker 3: by the name of Jamie Patterson was in the chorus
Speaker 3: line uh down at the music Hall, and so he heard me.
Speaker 3: He wanted to go to church one day before matinee
Speaker 3: and he heard me singing, and he came up to
Speaker 3: me and he said, boy, you have a voice that
Speaker 3: would be great on Broadway. Well I didn't know what
Speaker 3: Broadway was. I didn't know what he was talking about.
Speaker 3: And he said, but if something comes up, I would
Speaker 3: love to, like, you know, get you to like audition
Speaker 3: for it. And I was like, well, where is this
Speaker 3: and he said in New York. I said, well, I'm
Speaker 3: not grown yet. I said, I look grown, but Mama
Speaker 3: you'd have to ask my mama could I could I
Speaker 3: come if something happened. So about three months later, Uh,
Speaker 3: there was a national company of your arms to shirt
Speaker 3: to box with God. And he told me, and he said, well,
Speaker 3: the role that you would play the lady wanted Tony
Speaker 3: Award for her name was still ors Hall and he said,
Speaker 3: he said, so, he said, I think you would be
Speaker 3: perfect for it, and so you have to come to
Speaker 3: New York to audition and stuff. And I said, well,
Speaker 3: my mom is not going to let me come there.
Speaker 3: You know when youre in nineteen correct, I was only
Speaker 3: seventeen seventeen. Yeah, I was only seventeen at that time. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I was only seventeen. I was nineteen in dream Girls.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so uh, he said, well, let me talk
Speaker 3: to her. So he talked to her. But my mom
Speaker 3: was like, I'm not letting you go to New York
Speaker 3: with no mayan, you know, and everything like this and
Speaker 3: my child and all this kind of stuff. Yes, so
Speaker 3: he didn't give up though. He had an aunt in
Speaker 3: Brooklyn who was slaved sant to by a field with
Speaker 3: the holy ghosts who called my mama and said, listen,
Speaker 3: if you let her come, well she can stay with me,
Speaker 3: I'll take it to that. I'll never let her out
Speaker 3: of my sight. So sure enough I went up there,
Speaker 3: I auditioned, I got hired the same day, and I
Speaker 3: never never went back.
Speaker 2: That was believable. And what was that audition like?
Speaker 1: Because I mean my background is a casting director. I've
Speaker 1: been in that room where someone like you, extraordinary, you
Speaker 1: walk in that door, you blow us away. We can't
Speaker 1: even have we can't even articulate how we're feeling.
Speaker 2: Like, did they just say you have it?
Speaker 3: You have it? That well?
Speaker 2: I had.
Speaker 3: I had never done an audition, you know, for anything,
Speaker 3: just basically, you know, singing in the church choir, you know,
Speaker 3: my whole time of my young life at that time.
Speaker 3: And so they just asked me, just said, you know,
Speaker 3: just sing, just sing from your heart. You know what
Speaker 3: are you going to sing? And so so I sang,
Speaker 3: God will take care of you, I saying him, and
Speaker 3: so I sang it. And then Carol, are you familiar
Speaker 3: with her?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: So she was the director. Nika Grant wrote the piece
Speaker 3: and so she was the director. And so she said, okay,
Speaker 3: well let's see do you know how to move around
Speaker 3: any you know whatever. So so then she started me
Speaker 3: how to my first introduction into interpreting song as a story.
Speaker 3: So she would take me around and she would like,
Speaker 3: you know, okay, B not so if you're going to
Speaker 3: do B not, so you're gonna look at the autist
Speaker 3: and you're gonna go here, what are the words again?
Speaker 3: Because she didn't know to him, she was like, I
Speaker 3: don't know this song, you know. She was like, what
Speaker 3: is like, y'all? What is you know? It was not
Speaker 3: that West Indians don't know hims, but she she was like,
Speaker 3: look what is the song? Okay? What are the words?
Speaker 3: The words all?
Speaker 2: You know, whatever like that.
Speaker 3: So she would walk me around and then she would say,
Speaker 3: you know, sing it again, you know, and then so
Speaker 3: like what is the chorus to this song? Okay? And
Speaker 3: then she would teach me. She would walk me around
Speaker 3: and walk me around, and they kept me. Then they
Speaker 3: had they gave me, they fed me love, and then
Speaker 3: they had me sing it again. What she taught me.
Speaker 3: She said, now do it as I taught you, you know,
Speaker 3: with the you know, just the gestures and the whole
Speaker 3: thing and all that kind of stuff. And then she said,
Speaker 3: she said, well, I would love to have you here,
Speaker 3: so you know, you got an agent, you got I
Speaker 3: was like no. She said, well, you know, we're gonna
Speaker 3: send some papers for your mother and this kind of
Speaker 3: thing and whatever like that, and you know, I was
Speaker 3: just like, I didn't know what to think. I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't know what this is.
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, you know, and.
Speaker 3: My mother was you know, my mother was fine with it.
Speaker 3: She just wanted to know, you know, what it was
Speaker 3: going to do. So Jamie's aunt continued to, you know,
Speaker 3: help me and get a place for me to stay
Speaker 3: and stuff until we actually went out on out on
Speaker 3: the road, you know, on the national tour, right.
Speaker 2: So you literally had on training on site training, right.
Speaker 3: I traded, I was like, and then I was really
Speaker 3: you know, and I was I was really frightened of
Speaker 3: her because I had just never I had never seen
Speaker 3: such a forceful woman. And then I didn't know what
Speaker 3: a director was. You know, I knew what a director was.
Speaker 3: So it used to be yelled.
Speaker 7: At, yeah always, you know, so I used to be
Speaker 7: you know, yell but not like taken and just physically
Speaker 7: and just kind of you know, nursing lyrics of a
Speaker 7: song to tell a story with a dialogue.
Speaker 3: So that was all brand new to me.
Speaker 1: You know, when we talk about the song, which we're
Speaker 1: all familiar with, and I am telling you I'm not going.
Speaker 3: Did you.
Speaker 1: See the effect of the power in that song and
Speaker 1: the performance in that song, of how it affected the audience?
Speaker 1: Were you able to see how you touch like every
Speaker 1: single night, how you touched people you either.
Speaker 8: I know.
Speaker 1: When I went back to dream Girls and I bought
Speaker 1: my mom and my aunt, both of them cried through
Speaker 1: that song. But happy tears just empowered tears. There was
Speaker 1: an effect and there still is an effect with that song.
Speaker 1: Do you do you see that? Did you see that
Speaker 1: when you first sang it?
Speaker 3: Well, I did not see that because I was only
Speaker 3: nineteen when I first and I had never been in
Speaker 3: love and wasn't in a relationship, so I really did
Speaker 3: not know what I was singing about. So and at
Speaker 3: the time for dream Girls, I was already working on
Speaker 3: Broadway in Your Armster Shirk to Bicycle because the national
Speaker 3: tour did come back to Broadway, so we were on Broadway.
Speaker 3: Me and Cleveland Derreks were both in that production. So
Speaker 3: Michael Bennett came to see our performance and asked us
Speaker 3: to participate in the workshop. It wasn't call dream Girls
Speaker 3: at that time, and Sharlee Rath was the star of that,
Speaker 3: so we were just we were just asked to come
Speaker 3: be a part of it. So in the daytime from
Speaker 3: ten to six, we worked on the workshop of the project.
Speaker 3: It wasn't it didn't have a name. And then then
Speaker 3: at nighttime I did your constructive box with God, you know,
Speaker 3: from eight to eleven. So, you know, so we're we're
Speaker 3: crafting something, you know, we're making something. And then Michael
Speaker 3: Bennett decide that he wanted to direct the piece. So
Speaker 3: when because Tom Iron was the director first, and it
Speaker 3: was a vehicle for Shirley Raff at first, and so
Speaker 3: when Bennett decided that he wanted to direct the piece,
Speaker 3: then the whole everything changed. Then he began to focus
Speaker 3: on me, and if he was not in the second
Speaker 3: act at that time, and I'm telling you had not
Speaker 3: been finished at that time, so uh, and I'm telling
Speaker 3: you came not at the end of act one, but
Speaker 3: in the middle of the act because Fie was never
Speaker 3: really mentioned again, you know, after that. So it was
Speaker 3: kind of more so like I was Florence Ballad or something,
Speaker 3: you know, in the Supreme sort of and so right,
Speaker 3: So in crafting of the song, again, very fortunate to
Speaker 3: have a great director take me and teach me, because
Speaker 3: now I'm moving again from interpreting song without dialogue dialogue,
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, telling a story to song. And
Speaker 3: he taught me a lot of that by making me
Speaker 3: watch a lot of old Barber Streiss and musicals, you know,
Speaker 3: of how to interpret song, you know. And then when
Speaker 3: it came to and I'm telling you, I didn't have
Speaker 3: anything to draw from from that emotion, So I drew
Speaker 3: from my mother's pain of my divorce from my father,
Speaker 3: because she so desperately loved him and she did not
Speaker 3: want a divorce, and she begged him to stay. And
Speaker 3: that's where that's where my own emotion was able to
Speaker 3: come into that, plus with my own insecurity of my
Speaker 3: weight problem because I was not a large size girl
Speaker 3: when we've started the show. But Effie was supposed to
Speaker 3: be you know, unattractive and awkward and whateverything like that.
Speaker 3: And then I began to be depressed by Effie and
Speaker 3: the character. And then I just kept gaining lots and
Speaker 3: lots of eight, lots and lots of eight, and I
Speaker 3: turned every birthday and during Girls twenty twenty one, twenty two,
Speaker 3: all the way to twenty five. But I also gained
Speaker 3: almost up to three hundred two hundred something pounds two
Speaker 3: hundred twenty pounds.
Speaker 1: I mean, I could see at a young age, at nineteen,
Speaker 1: playing a role like that, the death of that character
Speaker 1: and really the death of that song. That says a
Speaker 1: lot about you as an actress, because you know, actors
Speaker 1: need to have experience, knowledge of.
Speaker 2: Of your character in order to be authentic.
Speaker 3: Well I would I would say that I really have
Speaker 3: to credit Bennett with that. I mean, he just you know,
Speaker 3: just just as the first director, Vinette Carol took my hand,
Speaker 3: so did Michael Bennett took my hand. He wouldn't allowed
Speaker 3: them to give me an acting culture or anything. So
Speaker 3: I just want her to try to see where she
Speaker 3: feels this is and try to try to see where
Speaker 3: she can draw some of this. I'm just from, you know.
Speaker 3: And like I said, I had never been in love before,
Speaker 3: you know, definitely had no experience in begging no man
Speaker 3: for anything. But but but I said, my mama did,
Speaker 3: and it broke her and really made her life quite miserable,
Speaker 3: that kind of love. So I did was aware of
Speaker 3: that kind of love because of where it took my mother, right, had.
Speaker 1: I not, I wanted to if you could share with
Speaker 1: the audience, I always stress the actors the importance of
Speaker 1: work ethic and your work ethics hous phenomenal, the difference
Speaker 1: between because there's a certain stamina that you have to
Speaker 1: have in Broadway. What is that stamina and what is
Speaker 1: that work your approach in terms of your work ethic, Well.
Speaker 3: I think that had I not gone from directly from
Speaker 3: the church choir to the Broadway stage, I probably would
Speaker 3: not have been able to have it of that kind
Speaker 3: of stamina. But because when you're doing Broadway, they teach you.
Speaker 3: They teach you how to preserve your instrument, to go
Speaker 3: those eight shows a week, and to pace yourself. You know,
Speaker 3: some of it they weren't drunk, but some of them
Speaker 3: did do it, you know, doing some expirital drugs. But
Speaker 3: for myself, because of my voice, you know, I never
Speaker 3: I never drank or smoke or did any drugs or
Speaker 3: anything because I was always worried about my instrument and
Speaker 3: what happened to it. So the discipline that they taught me,
Speaker 3: you know, at eighteen and eighteen, un till I got
Speaker 3: that first lesson and then to Broadway. So when I
Speaker 3: transitioned from just having a leading role in a show
Speaker 3: to actually then be having a starring role in the show,
Speaker 3: then my discipline from the first show kicked in even
Speaker 3: more because I had already been properly trained from the
Speaker 3: director and the people who were in that show, who
Speaker 3: taught me what to do in little tidbits and tips
Speaker 3: and stuff like that, because they give you tips and
Speaker 3: stuff of how you should do. But as a star,
Speaker 3: now I have double weight, not of just carrying the
Speaker 3: songs or anything like that, but now I'm a star,
Speaker 3: and who knows who knows how to be that at
Speaker 3: twenty well, I hadn't turned twenty one when we were
Speaker 3: on Broadway, so actually I'll be sixty years old next
Speaker 3: month in October, and then Dream Girls will be forty
Speaker 3: years old next year.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Right, So so at that point though, at twenty years old,
Speaker 3: we had Boston trial, so we were there for a while.
Speaker 3: So they were already calling me, oh my god, you
Speaker 3: got to see this girl, you got to go here,
Speaker 3: or so people were traveling to Boston before we even
Speaker 3: got just to hear me, you know. So that was
Speaker 3: an incredible. Wait. And then by the time we did
Speaker 3: get to Broadway and then our opening night, you know,
Speaker 3: I had turned twenty one just before, you know, prior
Speaker 3: to our opening night. It was quite quite a lot,
Speaker 3: you know, quite a lot.
Speaker 1: And what was it did you dream of winning a
Speaker 1: Tony Did you think about Tony? What was that moment
Speaker 1: like when you were nominated and then went.
Speaker 2: To the Tobees and received a Tony Award.
Speaker 3: I did not dream of winning a Tony Award because
Speaker 3: I had to learn very early about politics and show business.
Speaker 3: You know, it's kind of like, okay, you know, the
Speaker 3: Tony Wards are important whatever like this. And so they
Speaker 3: did a kind of little trick on us before the
Speaker 3: show opened. They opened another Broadway show, a white one
Speaker 3: that they opened nine right before the cutoff time for
Speaker 3: the Tony Awards. And they swept. They swept the the
Speaker 3: Tonys and so had already been forewarned, you know, by
Speaker 3: Michael Bennett. He said, listen, they have done this. So
Speaker 3: now you and Charlie Raff are in the same category.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: And he says, and also even though you work with me,
Speaker 3: and he said, a lot of people hate me. He said,
Speaker 3: That's why they opened this this road. It's not against
Speaker 3: you all because you're black. It's against to teach me
Speaker 3: a lesson. And sure enough, we did not win Best Musical,
Speaker 3: he did not win Best Director, Tommy Toon did, and
Speaker 3: nine did. So you go figure that one, you know.
Speaker 3: And so I had an early lesson in about even
Speaker 3: though you may be good and you may have people
Speaker 3: standing up every night, it's you still could not win.
Speaker 3: So as we know, with these awards and all these
Speaker 3: kind of things, now we've come to learn these things.
Speaker 3: Some of it is politics, and some of it is
Speaker 3: your turn, or some of it is never your turn,
Speaker 3: you know, and that's how it goes. So I did
Speaker 3: not venture to dream in that, and I think that
Speaker 3: that was why my Tony performance was able to be
Speaker 3: as it was that it was. It was not for
Speaker 3: awards recognition. It definitely was not for money we were
Speaker 3: We were not making money like them help kids today.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, what what did we
Speaker 3: go wrong? I'm just I was, like they said, for
Speaker 3: the rest of their life. But you know, but God, yeah,
Speaker 3: gave us a favor. I mean, you know, I mean
Speaker 3: we don't have the kind of money that they have,
Speaker 3: but we did. You know all of us have done,
Speaker 3: you know, amazingly well you know what I'm saying from
Speaker 3: that show. But you know, so I think that when
Speaker 3: you love theater, especially back then we're talking, you know,
Speaker 3: forty years ago, you did it for the love of theater. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because you had repertoire theaters, you had off off Broadway,
Speaker 3: you had you had little black bosses, people were creative
Speaker 3: and doing things, and and so I really, you know,
Speaker 3: really didn't know. Also, we were in the middle of
Speaker 3: the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, and that devastated a
Speaker 3: lot of us as well. So there are a lot
Speaker 3: of things going on, you know, for a young girl
Speaker 3: to try to well, not young girl, but a young
Speaker 3: lady at this point, you know, twenty one years old.
Speaker 3: And by the time that Tony's were coming, I had
Speaker 3: not had not even turned twenty two years old. So
Speaker 3: absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2: What do you feel in today's climate with theater?
Speaker 1: You know, my heart is broken just to think that
Speaker 1: all the theaters are down. How do you think New
Speaker 1: York is going to recover from this? Well, New York
Speaker 1: is wealthy.
Speaker 3: I feel as a whole in that that medium of theater, right,
Speaker 3: They've always you know, they've always been wealthy. Now what
Speaker 3: they've chosen to do is another thing. And I'm quite sure.
Speaker 3: And I was telling another young man the other day
Speaker 3: and he was saying, well, what do you think that
Speaker 3: will happen as well, a young young black brother, And
Speaker 3: I said, well, at the bottom line with everything, unfortunately,
Speaker 3: is money. And Broadway had already begun by doing movies
Speaker 3: into theater, had already begun to think about the bottom line.
Speaker 3: So the thing will be is for you to continue
Speaker 3: to do the excellent work, but also figure out how
Speaker 3: do you get those backers auditions like the white shows,
Speaker 3: you know, because they start at different levels, so you
Speaker 3: can do your own type of workshop, invite some people
Speaker 3: backers in, you know, and unfortunately you need a lot
Speaker 3: of backers to even put on a plate now, you know,
Speaker 3: so that you'll see a play that's got eleven names
Speaker 3: up there. You know. Back in the day when I
Speaker 3: was coming out, it was one or two names. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that was it. It was like if one person, if
Speaker 3: one person listen, if one person thought that you had
Speaker 3: a show, they backed the whole thing, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. But that's not the way way it is anymore.
Speaker 3: So I think that the future of Broadway depends on
Speaker 3: the people who have always held the future of Broadway
Speaker 3: and what they want Broadway to look like. Unfortunately, So
Speaker 3: unless you do get someone that has the the dollars,
Speaker 3: that becomes a part of the producing branch of it,
Speaker 3: then that's how you you know, that's how you get
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, I know Color Purple was was
Speaker 3: born out of the Alliance Theater, you know, which was
Speaker 3: a repertoire company. So it depends, like I said, yeah,
Speaker 3: so you have to get someone to come and see
Speaker 3: you and then you go. I don't know what that
Speaker 3: does for small, smaller shows though, at the beginning of
Speaker 3: when we come out of this, because when we come
Speaker 3: out of this, the bottom line with a lot of
Speaker 3: people is going to be money and how to make
Speaker 3: it and how to make it quickly, and a lot
Speaker 3: of that will be turning movies into musical Darth Vay
Speaker 3: will be singing, you know, like.
Speaker 9: Yeah, okay, okay, you know, it will be like all
Speaker 9: kinds of things that way.
Speaker 3: First, what kind of things will generate dollars first? Because
Speaker 3: they have it and they all have always had it,
Speaker 3: and so inclusiveness may not be at the front right away,
Speaker 3: unless they revive something that's already been done, you know,
Speaker 3: revival of a revival of something that regulars up says
Speaker 3: to get things going right, and then once they can
Speaker 3: see that, then they'll decide. So I would love to say,
Speaker 3: all you got to do is dream and believe in yourself.
Speaker 3: And no, that's a lot right now. That's a lot
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 2: Okay, it sounds good, though, it sounds good.
Speaker 3: But that's a lot right now. Okay, Yes, just survived
Speaker 3: the pandemic. Yeah, continue to work on your craft, hone,
Speaker 3: your craft, be good at what you do, know that
Speaker 3: you're good at what you do, and be ready, be
Speaker 3: ready when they are ready for to pull in that.
Speaker 3: That's that's what's happening in Hollywood right now. All the
Speaker 3: black progress is being green lid and whatever. They didn't
Speaker 3: just get introduced to them. They've been sitting in their closets.
Speaker 3: They were like, Oh, we're all the black things at
Speaker 3: oh locked over there?
Speaker 10: Yeah, yes, or I Love this was back in the day,
Speaker 10: but I Love I Loved with Waity to Excel came
Speaker 10: out and then it's like, in the studios, do.
Speaker 2: We have any black female projects? Like right, you know,
Speaker 2: they gravitate like said, these.
Speaker 3: Have been on the bookcase, but these been these but
Speaker 3: they were like, get that out. Wasn't somebody who's had
Speaker 3: a project?
Speaker 2: What was the name of that?
Speaker 3: What was the name of that? It was something like,
Speaker 3: I don't know, get everything out. I want everybody to
Speaker 3: go through every project, remember that they were black, and
Speaker 3: give them a call right now. So that's why, so
Speaker 3: black Hollywood is having the best time of day life.
Speaker 3: But unfortunately with Broadway and plays and things like that,
Speaker 3: you know, you don't have that same type of opportunity.
Speaker 3: You know you will you will have had to develop
Speaker 3: something over over time because broadways are birth. Broadway plays
Speaker 3: and musicals are birth from a process. So it is
Speaker 3: ever ever tuning, ever tweaking, ever growing in that process.
Speaker 3: So I think that that makes it a little more harder.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that you said a process because
Speaker 1: just this whole journey of being an actor is a
Speaker 1: process that actors people need to respect and they need
Speaker 1: to understand that. You know, things are not going to
Speaker 1: happen overnight, and that's for a reason. As Thruth said
Speaker 1: this twenty eight minutes flew by Jennifer Okay, I can't
Speaker 1: even tell you how this has been just riveting and just.
Speaker 2: Empowering and inspiring.
Speaker 1: I want you and I always ask my guests if
Speaker 1: you could leave the audience with some diamonds, some pearls,
Speaker 1: what is it that they need to know on their journey?
Speaker 1: On their journey?
Speaker 3: Just remember Dorothy in the Whiz with those rich shoes
Speaker 3: when when the and It said to her you could
Speaker 3: always go home. Well, whatever you have in you, like
Speaker 3: Tyler Perry was talking about the other night, what's going
Speaker 3: to be in your quilket? Well, what is it that's
Speaker 3: in you? Number one that you know you have and
Speaker 3: no one else sees it, but you know it's there.
Speaker 3: And so how do you manifest that to the world?
Speaker 3: And then second, how do you learn something in this
Speaker 3: time of darkness, confusion, uncertainty and what is going to
Speaker 3: be your new skill in terms of your acting? So
Speaker 3: maybe you only like this particular role and you're stepping
Speaker 3: out of your comfort zone to do what, But most
Speaker 3: importantly it is just to be ready. How do you
Speaker 3: be ready? And there were many years when I was
Speaker 3: almost destined to, you know, with my career, and then
Speaker 3: I got rediscovered after the Dream Girls movie came out.
Speaker 3: And what had what had I not been able to sing?
Speaker 3: What had I given up? And to say, well, nobody
Speaker 3: want to hear me sing? Ain't nobody tried to do it?
Speaker 3: But I was ready. I was like, give me the
Speaker 3: give me the microphone. Okay, I'm ready. You know, even
Speaker 3: though none of y'all gave a hoot about me for
Speaker 3: three and a half years or four years, But it
Speaker 3: doesn't matter, because what I have inside me wasn't given
Speaker 3: to me by anyone and wasn't brought forth by anyone.
Speaker 3: Only we can bring.
Speaker 2: Our light forth. It's there.
Speaker 3: Someone can teach you, someone can help to you know,
Speaker 3: nurture you along your journey, but only you can unleash.
Speaker 1: Your light and just be ready. Well, I don't know
Speaker 1: if I was ready, Jennifer. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: was ready for all this. I feel like I need
Speaker 1: some more time. But I will extend another invitation to
Speaker 1: you because you were phenomenal. Thank you, such a blessing
Speaker 1: and to know that whenever I hear your music, and
Speaker 1: so grateful for you for singing at rest in peace.
Speaker 1: Congressman John Lewis was beautiful. You were so magnificent.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: You are in the cloth of black America, America.
Speaker 2: There's no colors. You are just an American.
Speaker 1: Thank you, fall thank you, thank you, Jennifer blessing us
Speaker 1: with your presence and your wisdom, your experience.
Speaker 2: We are grateful to you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Thank you, guys. I'm excited.
Speaker 2: I told you this was going to be riveting vity.
Speaker 1: We are going to be back with the Spirited Actor
Speaker 1: Podcast with me Tracy Moore, and we are blessed to
Speaker 1: still have Jennifer Holliday with us for a class in session.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore,
Speaker 1: and you are still blessed to have Miss Jennifer Holliday
Speaker 1: with us. And so everyone who listens in on our
Speaker 1: class and session and those of you who are new.
Speaker 1: I'll break down the process. Leanne Amato Leanne is Our.
Speaker 1: I called her our writer in residence because Leanne writes
Speaker 1: all the scenes.
Speaker 2: Give it up for Leanne yay and our actors. Today
Speaker 2: we have Charlotte Hendricks Hey, Charlotte, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 1: I'm excellent, happy to have you here, happy to be here, Thank.
Speaker 2: You, thank you. And Elfonzo Walker Junior.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen you in a minute. Happy to see you. Perfect, okay,
Speaker 1: so lean you're reading the stage direction? Yeah, okay, all right,
Speaker 1: so whenever you're ready, you guys ready, and let's action.
Speaker 5: My own decision.
Speaker 11: Interior kitchen day Grace guys peers through the windows on
Speaker 11: this Saturday afternoon. Mac looks stunned after just hearing your
Speaker 11: voice message up on their house phone. We see him
Speaker 11: struggling to process be for opening his mouth, while Mecca
Speaker 11: is deep in her book on the couch.
Speaker 5: That was a message from playing Parenthood for you.
Speaker 2: She looks up from her book.
Speaker 5: Everything okay, yeah, thanks.
Speaker 2: I'll call them back on Monday. I just need a
Speaker 2: regular checkup.
Speaker 5: It sounds like you already went because they were calling
Speaker 5: and see how you were feeling.
Speaker 2: So no response.
Speaker 12: Did you have an abortion? You've been laying around here
Speaker 12: saying you don't feel well.
Speaker 5: Did you do it? Mecca?
Speaker 11: She tears up while he tries to contain his anger.
Speaker 8: I can't fucking believe this. How can you make a
Speaker 8: decision like that without talking to me first? You know
Speaker 8: how much this means to me? Say something?
Speaker 6: This wasn't ready. I couldn't fathom to think about keeping it,
Speaker 6: about being a mom. It terrified me.
Speaker 3: It's not just your choice to me. Whenever you ever
Speaker 3: felt like you couldn't talk to me, I.
Speaker 2: Know how bad you wanted a baby.
Speaker 5: So you kept it from me.
Speaker 12: I can't believe you do this to me, Mecca tired, baby,
Speaker 12: my first baby.
Speaker 11: He paces around, angry, sad, shocked. He doesn't know what
Speaker 11: he feels.
Speaker 5: Did you ever plan on telling me?
Speaker 12: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's my body. I don't know how I feel.
Speaker 6: I just don't know if I'm ready for the things
Speaker 6: that you're ready for. You have everything figured out, and
Speaker 6: it's like you just put me into this.
Speaker 2: Picture you painted, and I don't know if I'm there, Mac.
Speaker 12: Maybe I'm not trying to scare you. I told you
Speaker 12: my dreams that my goal is because I finally felt
Speaker 12: like I found somebody who can share them with me,
Speaker 12: and I want it all with you, and I want you, but.
Speaker 6: I don't know if the rest is for me, if
Speaker 6: it's what I want. I just couldn't handle the pressure,
Speaker 6: not right now, and if I told you, I know,
Speaker 6: it would have been more pressure.
Speaker 3: I'm so sorry, Mac.
Speaker 11: She's beside herself. He sees her, He grabs her, and he.
Speaker 5: Holds her.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, all right, wow, that's right.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna throw it to you, Jennifer, whatever
Speaker 1: you want to share.
Speaker 3: Well, I love the scene because it's kind of like
Speaker 3: a reverse, you know what I'm saying. It's like the
Speaker 3: dude be like, okay, and what you gonna do about that?
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. Look, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: I ain't ready for no, you knew, you know, blah
Speaker 3: blah blah blah blah. So since it is the reverse,
Speaker 3: I just felt that Charlotte when he first asked her
Speaker 3: about the call from the plant Parry, I felt that
Speaker 3: she wasn't more in the sense where, okay, does he
Speaker 3: is he wan to figure out this? Or is this
Speaker 3: the moment Now I'm going to have to come and
Speaker 3: tell him, you know what I'm saying, And then I
Speaker 3: think it. I think it was okay for definitely from
Speaker 3: the director's direction, for when she welds up with the
Speaker 3: tears and stuff. But then after that, you know, she
Speaker 3: can be sorry about it, but she don't have to
Speaker 3: keep you.
Speaker 2: Know, she doesn't.
Speaker 3: She doesn't owe him any explanations. He ain't put no
Speaker 3: ring on it. You know, It's like these mens, come
Speaker 3: on now, one minute you want this, one minute you
Speaker 3: want that, And if she'd had a baby, then you
Speaker 3: be complaining, you know, like you know whatever. It's kind
Speaker 3: of like, so it is her body and she is
Speaker 3: a woman. So I just felt maybe the crying and
Speaker 3: the star and the weeping was just maybe too long
Speaker 3: because she don't have to do that. It's kind of like,
Speaker 3: you know, after you weld up. You weld up because
Speaker 3: not not because of you did something to hemp per se,
Speaker 3: but you welled up because this was also traumatic for you.
Speaker 3: It was not easy for you to make this decision,
Speaker 3: but you also knew he wasn't going to go for
Speaker 3: this decision, you know, And we don't know the prior
Speaker 3: conversations to all of this that led up to this.
Speaker 3: So is it about money that you don't want the children?
Speaker 3: Or is it about your career that you don't want
Speaker 3: to when you say you're not ready, You've had to
Speaker 3: have these conversations prior to you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So we don't know the rest of the before we
Speaker 3: got to this scene. So I just feel that, you
Speaker 3: know that maybe she should have just been a little
Speaker 3: bit more like, oh okay, well, is he going to
Speaker 3: figure out that something off planet or did I need
Speaker 3: a new birth control perspective or what you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. But then if this is the moment that
Speaker 3: I have to reckon, yeah, I'm gonna come claim because
Speaker 3: the bottom line that it is my body and we
Speaker 3: are not married from I can tell from what it
Speaker 3: is because he didn't didn't give that sense that they
Speaker 3: were married couple and that they have not come to
Speaker 3: the thing, you know, and the words say that I'm
Speaker 3: not there yet. And because usually conversations about children, they've
Speaker 3: had the conversation the fight has been the fight. You know,
Speaker 3: I love Angela RAI would come and you know Angelaurai
Speaker 3: wanted children and come and didn't want them, and she
Speaker 3: asked them one day she said, so you know I
Speaker 3: want you whatever she said, He said, how do you
Speaker 3: feel about that? He said, well, I don't know. She said, well,
Speaker 3: you just answered it because so we don't have the
Speaker 3: same goal. So even though even though the d is good,
Speaker 3: I got to go, you know, to say it, because
Speaker 3: I already know I want to, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: because people, because it's not something that just all of
Speaker 3: a sudden come up You've had the conversation lots of time.
Speaker 1: Right, and that saves the heartache, you know then, you know,
Speaker 1: otherwise you're setting your own self up for me to
Speaker 1: be disappointed because you have this information. You make that chaye.
Speaker 1: So I agree, I definitely agree. I would have just
Speaker 1: balanced it, like you said, played it a little bit more.
Speaker 3: But yeah, just balance it. That's the correct word. Yeah,
Speaker 3: just you know, just just balanced it, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. And it's kind of funny because you know,
Speaker 3: now now Coming is digging, Tiffany had to ash and
Speaker 3: now Tiffany saying, well, I wouldn't bring a baby into
Speaker 3: this world. No, you wouldn't bring a baby because Coming
Speaker 3: don't want all.
Speaker 2: Right, we already know, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3: Who that's all.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad we were able to get that straight.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 2: We got a lot of insight there, you guys.
Speaker 3: And I just want to take job fund So I
Speaker 3: didn't mean not to give you a manor you're you
Speaker 3: played it so so passionate that it was kind of
Speaker 3: it was it was so believable. You know, there was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: here's a man that is concerned about that he wants
Speaker 3: to have have children. You know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 3: he's not a he's not singing a rap songs that
Speaker 3: I'm gonna make you my baby, I'm gonna you know.
Speaker 3: It's like no, he is saying, listen, I got for this,
Speaker 3: you know. But he is also, you know, apparently a
Speaker 3: compassionate man, because he's like, Okay, I haven't been really
Speaker 3: listening to her because in his mind, I think he
Speaker 3: has reflected and said, she'd have told me this about
Speaker 3: a hundred times. She don't want these children right now,
Speaker 3: you know. So we're just gonna hug it and we're
Speaker 3: gonna go out to eat it. It's gonna we're gonna
Speaker 3: have good sex tonight. It's gonna be I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: leave it alone.
Speaker 2: Because I was like, wow, there's resolve.
Speaker 3: But he was excellent. I felt, I felt I believed
Speaker 3: him that he really wanted children and that he might
Speaker 3: have to do some rethinking himself. He was kind of like, okay,
Speaker 3: I this is one of my requirements. You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, lean once again, you gave us a wonderful scene,
Speaker 1: and so he really was. So I want to thank
Speaker 1: you for that. I want to thank Charlotte and Alfonzo
Speaker 1: and I really really want to thank Mss Jennifer Holiday,
Speaker 1: Queen of Broadway, Thank you.
Speaker 3: Bravo, bo and everybody.
Speaker 1: On October nineteenth, Yes, we're gonna be We're gonna be
Speaker 1: blowing sprinkle dust and saying happy Birthday to Jennifer.
Speaker 3: Yes, I also have a virtual concert on that day too,
Speaker 3: so tickets are for sale on www dot stellartickets dot com.
Speaker 2: Wow, we gotta come, We gotta support you.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're gonna We're gonna spread some love and let
Speaker 1: everybody know I appreciate that wonderful, wonderful for your time
Speaker 1: and all of your energy and support and love. We
Speaker 1: just give you big, mad love. I'm giving you for
Speaker 1: hugs and mad love. Thank you so much. You're on
Speaker 1: the Spirited Action podcast with me Tracy Moore, and we'll
Speaker 1: be back and I'm gonna give love, and now it's
Speaker 1: time forgive love. I embrace my flaws every day. I
Speaker 1: learned from them and they inspire me to be a
Speaker 1: better person. We all of us are extraordinary spiritual beings
Speaker 1: and we should embrace that. I just have a really
Speaker 1: big problem with compliments. They made me uncomfortable until I
Speaker 1: accepted them as reminders of who I was. Now I
Speaker 1: embrace them with joy, and I am inspired to continue
Speaker 1: to be my best and I am grateful. Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us on the Spirited Actor Podcast with me
Speaker 1: Tracy Moore. I look forward to our next Spirited Podcast.
Speaker 2: Thank you,