WEBVTT - The Spirited Actor - Jennifer Holiday (11/17/2020) 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.360 Hello, and welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:06.480 Tracy Moore. I was a casting director for film and 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:10.640 TV and commercials for over thirty years. I transitioned to 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:14.239 a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:19.480 Jersey Drive with executive producers Spike Lee and director Nick Domez. 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.720 I auditioned every rapper from Biggie s Balls to Tupac, 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.000 and I realized that rappers and musical artists they needed 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:32.360 help transitioning to acting. My clients consist of musical artists 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:37.360 from Buster Rhymes to Eve, Missy Elliott, Angela Yee from 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.480 The Breakfast Club, and Vanessa Simmons, to name a few. 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.559 I also coach sports stars and host as well. I 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.920 feel I have the best of both worlds. As a 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:50.960 casting director, I know exactly what they're looking for, and 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.159 as an acting coach, I can coach you to be 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.560 remembered in that room. Now I know, I know actors 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.600 want to get the job. I get that, but being 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:05.240 remembered by casting director that is powerful. And now it's 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:10.600 time for meditation of the day. In all things, there 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:12.319 is a law of cycles. 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:15.520 The universe has a way. 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.440 Of taking care of things if we trust it. On 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:23.160 a daily basis. I like to test the universe. I 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.800 will think of people, or I will put out a 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:29.680 wish for something, and always, to my surprise, something will happen. 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.680 I love it. I have learned not to question it, 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:37.319 but to embrace it. We all have the ability to 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.520 tap into our inner powers. We just need to not 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.800 fear it and just go with the flow. I will 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:50.400 test my inner powers today without fear. Welcome to the 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.640 Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore. 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.320 You are in for a treat. 0:01:57.960 --> 0:01:59.040 Regardless of what's. 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:03.840 Going on in the world, chaos, all of the confusion, pandemic, 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:09.639 all of that, we have a true blessing, a true blessing. 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:13.000 I am so honored to say her name. I am 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.200 so honored to have her in our presence. Ladies and gentlemen, 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:20.960 please put your hands together for Grammy Awards, Tony Drama Death. 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:26.240 I could go on a pleasant of awards, Miss Queen 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:37.440 of Broadway, Jennifer Holiday, Thank you, Oh Jennifer Holiday. I 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.800 have to tell our audience and we were extremely blessed 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.840 you guys. About three years ago I did I had 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:49.919 a spirit Actor showcase and Jennifer came with someone and 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.799 I couldn't even I was like, I don't even do 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:54.320 a showcase. I just want to hang out with you. 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:55.160 Hoday. 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.680 I was in the revival of Color Purple on Broadway 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:00.560 at the time. 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:06.440 Yeah, and I actually coached this woman, Yolanda Wins in 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:08.919 the Color Purple prior to that you did. 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:09.640 Yeah. 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.760 Well, Karen Wilson was the name of the student who 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:14.600 in your class that brought me with it. 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.959 Yes, yes, Karen, Yeah, so special. 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:19.240 Well. 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:21.920 I was very honored to have you in our presence. 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:26.840 And I have to say that when I arrived in 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:31.320 New York City August fifteenth, nineteen eighty three from San Francisco, 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:36.240 I used to sneak in Broadway. I used to walk 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:40.040 in with the intermission crowd and scope out what seats 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:44.560 were available, and I would watch Broadway shows. So I 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.160 saw the second half of dream Girls. I didn't know 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.600 the first half until I was able to afford it. 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:54.760 You literally walked right past me. 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:55.720 Wow. 0:03:57.440 --> 0:03:59.560 I will never ever ever. 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:04.040 Re and then forget like that moment and how powerful 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:05.680 that moment was for me. 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:09.600 You have the ability and. 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:14.280 I wanted to put this in words, but you make 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:19.520 me so happy that I am able to hear that. 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.320 To not be able to hear your. 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:28.720 Voice and know the beauty and the elegance and the rage, 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.600 I feel like my life would just I may have 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:36.160 gone in a different direction, because Broadway. 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:40.040 Is my life. To this day, I live Broadway. 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:45.080 So I have to say, at let's talk about where 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:48.640 it all started. Because I know you're born and raised Houston, Texas. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:50.920 That's right, born and raised in Houston, Texas. 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.960 I also got discovered in Houston, Texas singing in the 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:57.920 church choir Present Growth Baptist Church choir. A young man 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:02.040 by the name of Jamie Patterson was in the chorus 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:11.240 line uh down at the music Hall, and so he heard me. 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:13.760 He wanted to go to church one day before matinee 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:18.080 and he heard me singing, and he came up to 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:20.359 me and he said, boy, you have a voice that 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:22.280 would be great on Broadway. Well I didn't know what 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.120 Broadway was. I didn't know what he was talking about. 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.400 And he said, but if something comes up, I would 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.600 love to, like, you know, get you to like audition 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:34.440 for it. And I was like, well, where is this 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:36.919 and he said in New York. I said, well, I'm 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.160 not grown yet. I said, I look grown, but Mama 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:42.560 you'd have to ask my mama could I could I 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:47.600 come if something happened. So about three months later, Uh, 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.520 there was a national company of your arms to shirt 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.159 to box with God. And he told me, and he said, well, 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:58.640 the role that you would play the lady wanted Tony 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.559 Award for her name was still ors Hall and he said, 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:04.760 he said, so, he said, I think you would be 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:07.520 perfect for it, and so you have to come to 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:10.320 New York to audition and stuff. And I said, well, 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:12.799 my mom is not going to let me come there. 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.800 You know when youre in nineteen correct, I was only 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:20.880 seventeen seventeen. Yeah, I was only seventeen at that time. Yeah, 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:23.520 I was only seventeen. I was nineteen in dream Girls. 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:29.320 So yeah, so uh, he said, well, let me talk 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.960 to her. So he talked to her. But my mom 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.039 was like, I'm not letting you go to New York 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.960 with no mayan, you know, and everything like this and 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:39.760 my child and all this kind of stuff. Yes, so 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:44.280 he didn't give up though. He had an aunt in 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.640 Brooklyn who was slaved sant to by a field with 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:50.599 the holy ghosts who called my mama and said, listen, 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.159 if you let her come, well she can stay with me, 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:56.840 I'll take it to that. I'll never let her out 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.000 of my sight. So sure enough I went up there, 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.680 I auditioned, I got hired the same day, and I 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:04.320 never never went back. 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:08.359 That was believable. And what was that audition like? 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.040 Because I mean my background is a casting director. I've 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:15.480 been in that room where someone like you, extraordinary, you 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.120 walk in that door, you blow us away. We can't 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.040 even have we can't even articulate how we're feeling. 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:23.640 Like, did they just say you have it? 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.160 You have it? That well? 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:27.000 I had. 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.480 I had never done an audition, you know, for anything, 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.040 just basically, you know, singing in the church choir, you know, 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.720 my whole time of my young life at that time. 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.240 And so they just asked me, just said, you know, 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:44.200 just sing, just sing from your heart. You know what 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:48.280 are you going to sing? And so so I sang, 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.840 God will take care of you, I saying him, and 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:55.880 so I sang it. And then Carol, are you familiar 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:56.280 with her? 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:56.960 Yes? 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:01.560 So she was the director. Nika Grant wrote the piece 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:06.880 and so she was the director. And so she said, okay, 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:09.400 well let's see do you know how to move around 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:13.040 any you know whatever. So so then she started me 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:19.560 how to my first introduction into interpreting song as a story. 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.680 So she would take me around and she would like, 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.560 you know, okay, B not so if you're going to 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.120 do B not, so you're gonna look at the autist 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:30.440 and you're gonna go here, what are the words again? 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:31.800 Because she didn't know to him, she was like, I 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:33.360 don't know this song, you know. She was like, what 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.640 is like, y'all? What is you know? It was not 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:41.000 that West Indians don't know hims, but she she was like, 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.640 look what is the song? Okay? What are the words? 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:44.480 The words all? 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:45.640 You know, whatever like that. 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:48.360 So she would walk me around and then she would say, 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.960 you know, sing it again, you know, and then so 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.000 like what is the chorus to this song? Okay? And 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:55.959 then she would teach me. She would walk me around 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:58.319 and walk me around, and they kept me. Then they 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:00.559 had they gave me, they fed me love, and then 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.319 they had me sing it again. What she taught me. 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:05.760 She said, now do it as I taught you, you know, 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.760 with the you know, just the gestures and the whole 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.720 thing and all that kind of stuff. And then she said, 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.880 she said, well, I would love to have you here, 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.240 so you know, you got an agent, you got I 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:20.439 was like no. She said, well, you know, we're gonna 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.040 send some papers for your mother and this kind of 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:29.840 thing and whatever like that, and you know, I was 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:31.640 just like, I didn't know what to think. I was like, 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:32.439 I don't know what this is. 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:35.199 I was like, okay, you know, and. 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.720 My mother was you know, my mother was fine with it. 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:42.160 She just wanted to know, you know, what it was 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.640 going to do. So Jamie's aunt continued to, you know, 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:48.280 help me and get a place for me to stay 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.240 and stuff until we actually went out on out on 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.360 the road, you know, on the national tour, right. 0:09:54.760 --> 0:10:00.960 So you literally had on training on site training, right. 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:04.720 I traded, I was like, and then I was really 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.840 you know, and I was I was really frightened of 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:13.240 her because I had just never I had never seen 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:16.720 such a forceful woman. And then I didn't know what 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.840 a director was. You know, I knew what a director was. 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:22.120 So it used to be yelled. 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:33.760 At, yeah always, you know, so I used to be 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:39.160 you know, yell but not like taken and just physically 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:44.520 and just kind of you know, nursing lyrics of a 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.200 song to tell a story with a dialogue. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.199 So that was all brand new to me. 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:56.800 You know, when we talk about the song, which we're 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:00.800 all familiar with, and I am telling you I'm not going. 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:03.120 Did you. 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:09.680 See the effect of the power in that song and 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:13.640 the performance in that song, of how it affected the audience? 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.120 Were you able to see how you touch like every 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.240 single night, how you touched people you either. 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:20.959 I know. 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:24.640 When I went back to dream Girls and I bought 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.280 my mom and my aunt, both of them cried through 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:33.120 that song. But happy tears just empowered tears. There was 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.800 an effect and there still is an effect with that song. 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.520 Do you do you see that? Did you see that 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:41.200 when you first sang it? 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:43.559 Well, I did not see that because I was only 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.600 nineteen when I first and I had never been in 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:48.880 love and wasn't in a relationship, so I really did 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:54.719 not know what I was singing about. So and at 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:58.000 the time for dream Girls, I was already working on 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.920 Broadway in Your Armster Shirk to Bicycle because the national 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.800 tour did come back to Broadway, so we were on Broadway. 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:08.640 Me and Cleveland Derreks were both in that production. So 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.240 Michael Bennett came to see our performance and asked us 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.360 to participate in the workshop. It wasn't call dream Girls 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:21.280 at that time, and Sharlee Rath was the star of that, 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.240 so we were just we were just asked to come 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.439 be a part of it. So in the daytime from 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:31.480 ten to six, we worked on the workshop of the project. 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:35.160 It wasn't it didn't have a name. And then then 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:38.600 at nighttime I did your constructive box with God, you know, 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:44.600 from eight to eleven. So, you know, so we're we're 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:50.400 crafting something, you know, we're making something. And then Michael 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:54.680 Bennett decide that he wanted to direct the piece. So 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:57.600 when because Tom Iron was the director first, and it 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.800 was a vehicle for Shirley Raff at first, and so 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.920 when Bennett decided that he wanted to direct the piece, 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:08.280 then the whole everything changed. Then he began to focus 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:12.880 on me, and if he was not in the second 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:17.040 act at that time, and I'm telling you had not 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:21.520 been finished at that time, so uh, and I'm telling 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.920 you came not at the end of act one, but 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:29.920 in the middle of the act because Fie was never 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.280 really mentioned again, you know, after that. So it was 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.520 kind of more so like I was Florence Ballad or something, 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:41.839 you know, in the Supreme sort of and so right, 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:45.680 So in crafting of the song, again, very fortunate to 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:49.920 have a great director take me and teach me, because 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:57.559 now I'm moving again from interpreting song without dialogue dialogue, 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.960 I mean, you know, telling a story to song. And 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:04.480 he taught me a lot of that by making me 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:08.080 watch a lot of old Barber Streiss and musicals, you know, 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:13.719 of how to interpret song, you know. And then when 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.800 it came to and I'm telling you, I didn't have 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:21.960 anything to draw from from that emotion, So I drew 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:25.760 from my mother's pain of my divorce from my father, 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.640 because she so desperately loved him and she did not 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:34.720 want a divorce, and she begged him to stay. And 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:39.320 that's where that's where my own emotion was able to 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:44.080 come into that, plus with my own insecurity of my 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:48.080 weight problem because I was not a large size girl 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:55.040 when we've started the show. But Effie was supposed to 0:14:55.080 --> 0:15:01.760 be you know, unattractive and awkward and whateverything like that. 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:06.160 And then I began to be depressed by Effie and 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:09.400 the character. And then I just kept gaining lots and 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.160 lots of eight, lots and lots of eight, and I 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.960 turned every birthday and during Girls twenty twenty one, twenty two, 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.440 all the way to twenty five. But I also gained 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:22.240 almost up to three hundred two hundred something pounds two 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:23.880 hundred twenty pounds. 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.200 I mean, I could see at a young age, at nineteen, 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.040 playing a role like that, the death of that character 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.360 and really the death of that song. That says a 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.720 lot about you as an actress, because you know, actors 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:47.920 need to have experience, knowledge of. 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.320 Of your character in order to be authentic. 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:50.160 Well I would I would say that I really have 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.240 to credit Bennett with that. I mean, he just you know, 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:57.360 just just as the first director, Vinette Carol took my hand, 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:00.920 so did Michael Bennett took my hand. He wouldn't allowed 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:03.800 them to give me an acting culture or anything. So 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.000 I just want her to try to see where she 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:09.880 feels this is and try to try to see where 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.720 she can draw some of this. I'm just from, you know. 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.680 And like I said, I had never been in love before, 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.080 you know, definitely had no experience in begging no man 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:24.480 for anything. But but but I said, my mama did, 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:30.880 and it broke her and really made her life quite miserable, 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.080 that kind of love. So I did was aware of 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:39.200 that kind of love because of where it took my mother, right, had. 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:43.240 I not, I wanted to if you could share with 0:16:44.080 --> 0:16:48.440 the audience, I always stress the actors the importance of 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:52.680 work ethic and your work ethics hous phenomenal, the difference 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:55.560 between because there's a certain stamina that you have to 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.760 have in Broadway. What is that stamina and what is 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:05.000 that work your approach in terms of your work ethic, Well. 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:09.840 I think that had I not gone from directly from 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:13.280 the church choir to the Broadway stage, I probably would 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.480 not have been able to have it of that kind 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:23.200 of stamina. But because when you're doing Broadway, they teach you. 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:27.719 They teach you how to preserve your instrument, to go 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:31.520 those eight shows a week, and to pace yourself. You know, 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.680 some of it they weren't drunk, but some of them 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.800 did do it, you know, doing some expirital drugs. But 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:45.200 for myself, because of my voice, you know, I never 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.639 I never drank or smoke or did any drugs or 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.560 anything because I was always worried about my instrument and 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:56.919 what happened to it. So the discipline that they taught me, 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:02.480 you know, at eighteen and eighteen, un till I got 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:06.200 that first lesson and then to Broadway. So when I 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:11.160 transitioned from just having a leading role in a show 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.520 to actually then be having a starring role in the show, 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:19.880 then my discipline from the first show kicked in even 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:24.520 more because I had already been properly trained from the 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.680 director and the people who were in that show, who 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:30.760 taught me what to do in little tidbits and tips 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:32.719 and stuff like that, because they give you tips and 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.720 stuff of how you should do. But as a star, 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.560 now I have double weight, not of just carrying the 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:41.960 songs or anything like that, but now I'm a star, 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:46.359 and who knows who knows how to be that at 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.959 twenty well, I hadn't turned twenty one when we were 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.680 on Broadway, so actually I'll be sixty years old next 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:58.399 month in October, and then Dream Girls will be forty 0:18:58.480 --> 0:18:59.680 years old next year. 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:00.680 Yeah. 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:06.760 Right, So so at that point though, at twenty years old, 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.480 we had Boston trial, so we were there for a while. 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:15.919 So they were already calling me, oh my god, you 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.720 got to see this girl, you got to go here, 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.000 or so people were traveling to Boston before we even 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.440 got just to hear me, you know. So that was 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:27.360 an incredible. Wait. And then by the time we did 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:31.399 get to Broadway and then our opening night, you know, 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.359 I had turned twenty one just before, you know, prior 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.640 to our opening night. It was quite quite a lot, 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:39.840 you know, quite a lot. 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:44.680 And what was it did you dream of winning a 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.959 Tony Did you think about Tony? What was that moment 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:53.040 like when you were nominated and then went. 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:55.359 To the Tobees and received a Tony Award. 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.000 I did not dream of winning a Tony Award because 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:08.560 I had to learn very early about politics and show business. 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:10.639 You know, it's kind of like, okay, you know, the 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.560 Tony Wards are important whatever like this. And so they 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:17.879 did a kind of little trick on us before the 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:21.040 show opened. They opened another Broadway show, a white one 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:28.239 that they opened nine right before the cutoff time for 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:32.359 the Tony Awards. And they swept. They swept the the 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:37.080 Tonys and so had already been forewarned, you know, by 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:40.840 Michael Bennett. He said, listen, they have done this. So 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:45.760 now you and Charlie Raff are in the same category. 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:46.639 Wow. 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:52.879 And he says, and also even though you work with me, 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.400 and he said, a lot of people hate me. He said, 0:20:56.400 --> 0:21:00.800 That's why they opened this this road. It's not against 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:03.639 you all because you're black. It's against to teach me 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:08.320 a lesson. And sure enough, we did not win Best Musical, 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.919 he did not win Best Director, Tommy Toon did, and 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:16.159 nine did. So you go figure that one, you know. 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:23.560 And so I had an early lesson in about even 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:26.679 though you may be good and you may have people 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.400 standing up every night, it's you still could not win. 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:33.000 So as we know, with these awards and all these 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:35.200 kind of things, now we've come to learn these things. 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:37.720 Some of it is politics, and some of it is 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:41.280 your turn, or some of it is never your turn, 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:46.960 you know, and that's how it goes. So I did 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:49.680 not venture to dream in that, and I think that 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:54.560 that was why my Tony performance was able to be 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:59.000 as it was that it was. It was not for 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:02.239 awards recognition. It definitely was not for money we were 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:04.800 We were not making money like them help kids today. 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:10.240 I was like, oh my god, what what did we 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:13.879 go wrong? I'm just I was, like they said, for 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:16.080 the rest of their life. But you know, but God, yeah, 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:18.399 gave us a favor. I mean, you know, I mean 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:19.879 we don't have the kind of money that they have, 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:21.760 but we did. You know all of us have done, 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:25.240 you know, amazingly well you know what I'm saying from 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:30.720 that show. But you know, so I think that when 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:34.560 you love theater, especially back then we're talking, you know, 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:39.080 forty years ago, you did it for the love of theater. Yeah. Yeah, 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:42.640 because you had repertoire theaters, you had off off Broadway, 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:46.240 you had you had little black bosses, people were creative 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:51.600 and doing things, and and so I really, you know, 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:54.040 really didn't know. Also, we were in the middle of 0:22:54.080 --> 0:23:00.040 the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, and that devastated a 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:02.919 lot of us as well. So there are a lot 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:05.000 of things going on, you know, for a young girl 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:06.840 to try to well, not young girl, but a young 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:09.760 lady at this point, you know, twenty one years old. 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:13.280 And by the time that Tony's were coming, I had 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:16.639 not had not even turned twenty two years old. So 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:18.639 absolutely amazing. 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:22.760 What do you feel in today's climate with theater? 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.600 You know, my heart is broken just to think that 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:29.239 all the theaters are down. How do you think New 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:33.720 York is going to recover from this? Well, New York 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:35.520 is wealthy. 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:41.440 I feel as a whole in that that medium of theater, right, 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:46.760 They've always you know, they've always been wealthy. Now what 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:51.800 they've chosen to do is another thing. And I'm quite sure. 0:23:52.840 --> 0:23:56.040 And I was telling another young man the other day 0:23:56.040 --> 0:23:59.320 and he was saying, well, what do you think that 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:02.080 will happen as well, a young young black brother, And 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:06.159 I said, well, at the bottom line with everything, unfortunately, 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:11.920 is money. And Broadway had already begun by doing movies 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:17.680 into theater, had already begun to think about the bottom line. 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:23.800 So the thing will be is for you to continue 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:27.960 to do the excellent work, but also figure out how 0:24:28.000 --> 0:24:31.800 do you get those backers auditions like the white shows, 0:24:32.040 --> 0:24:36.520 you know, because they start at different levels, so you 0:24:36.560 --> 0:24:42.840