Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio, March Means
Speaker 1: Women's History, Monk, and we're gonna celebrate here at QLs
Speaker 1: as we travel back to twenty twenty one for this
Speaker 1: mic drop episode with none other than Tracy Ellis Ross.
Speaker 1: Whether you heard before or not, you're really gonna love
Speaker 1: this one. I know, I do.
Speaker 2: All right, enjoy your lighting designer should be paid?
Speaker 1: He looks, yeah, I'm the job.
Speaker 3: See you, guys. That means you would be paying Mother
Speaker 3: Nature or God.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, I tell Tracy, trying to tell
Speaker 1: us that she's someone using juices and berries. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know if like, I don't know how invoices
Speaker 3: come from Mother Nature. I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 3: how to do.
Speaker 4: That write A month later, it's gonna be a patterned
Speaker 4: skin line.
Speaker 1: I actually want to skip the want to skip the Injoe,
Speaker 1: are you ready to go?
Speaker 3: I'm recording. I'm recording, is recording, is recording right now?
Speaker 1: All right, we're all recording. I'm recording right now. Ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen. First of all, all all of the team
Speaker 1: Supremer say hello at the same time. Hello, guys. Hello, Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, today's a day. No, you're not a team supremer.
Speaker 3: Sorry, sorry you guys responding to.
Speaker 1: The hello as I You're not family yet. Hang on,
Speaker 1: let's let's let.
Speaker 3: Us Dutch you I apologize, apologize.
Speaker 1: Yeah, today's the day of miracles. It's so miraculous. I
Speaker 1: don't even I don't even I don't even want to
Speaker 1: waste a nano second giving you good people are guest
Speaker 1: impressive resident of the may we can reviewer life at
Speaker 1: the same time, you know, as a group. Uh and
Speaker 1: I'm not even being dramatic because I'm afraid she's going
Speaker 1: to disappear. So blah blah blah blah blah, lyrics, lounges
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, girlfriends, iconic parents blah blah blah, siblings, everybody, Yes,
Speaker 1: I blah, please welcome Tracy Ellis Ross the Quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 1: How did this moment happen? Blah blah blah blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. I just want to say, Tracy, I've
Speaker 1: never stalked as Yeah, I've never stalked a like a
Speaker 1: person I consider a friend like be one thing when
Speaker 1: I creep in Rihanna's DMS like, we don't have a
Speaker 1: relationship like that. I've been I've been slowly poaching you
Speaker 1: bit by bit, like I would do like tiny comments
Speaker 1: on all your social media to be like, oh man,
Speaker 1: let me follow him. Then I'm jumping in your dms
Speaker 1: and trying to get and that would never happen. So
Speaker 1: I don't know how this moment that that.
Speaker 3: Is ridiculous because by the way, the moment I finally
Speaker 3: saw your DM three years later. Three years later, but
Speaker 3: I saw it and I was like, what do you
Speaker 3: mean You've been trying to get I'm like, what are
Speaker 3: you talking about? Of course I'll do that.
Speaker 1: Look, I want to I want to let all all
Speaker 1: polite stalkers know and I say this.
Speaker 3: You ain't going to get to me.
Speaker 1: Really, I'd like that just a little bit, a little
Speaker 1: bit at a time. Persistence does work, but you know
Speaker 1: I had to stalk here. How are you today, Trace?
Speaker 3: I really like today. I'm really really good today. I
Speaker 3: am back from Cabo and my first sort of foray away.
Speaker 3: It's been a long time since I've had a break.
Speaker 3: This pandemic, like for everybody, was just really challenging. And
Speaker 3: I also didn't stop through the whole thing. I had
Speaker 3: a movie that came out right at the beginning of
Speaker 3: the pandemic, at the beginning of Lockdown, a week after
Speaker 3: George Floyd's murder, and it just it just has not stopped.
Speaker 1: So how was it being like business as usual?
Speaker 3: There was no business as usual, and it was a
Speaker 3: weird you know, leading up to the launch of the movie.
Speaker 3: I mean, I was so excited. It was the first
Speaker 3: time I sang like it was such a big moment
Speaker 3: for me. I walked through one of my biggest fears
Speaker 3: of my life. Like just it was so exciting. And
Speaker 3: then they're like, we're not going to have a premiere.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm so wanna, you know. So that was
Speaker 3: the first like disappointment and also like, you know, small
Speaker 3: disappointment considering the many disappointments everyone was having and the
Speaker 3: genuine grief and loss that was occurring, but a personal disappointment. Nonetheless,
Speaker 3: people had to you know, reschedule weddings and couldn't be
Speaker 3: there with holding people's hands. So that was the first thing.
Speaker 3: And then and then it was like who cares? It
Speaker 3: just felt so it was like who cares? And then
Speaker 3: it flipped back around to yes, because our freedom and
Speaker 3: our joy and our reveling in who we are is
Speaker 3: an important form of resistance in response to the systemic
Speaker 3: oppression and the violence and the deaths. And so it's
Speaker 3: just you know, like for everybody, we've been whirling around
Speaker 3: with so much in our hearts and heads through this time, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, that was such a not it's a heavy
Speaker 3: how am I?
Speaker 1: But bo wait, I will say probably the glass half
Speaker 1: full answers. Also, I probably think that more people saw
Speaker 1: the high new and the way that we saw it
Speaker 1: because you know, there was there was this a period
Speaker 1: where television and movies was just all of our escape,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and so it was one of the first movies
Speaker 5: to do the whole straight to.
Speaker 3: It was it was the second.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I definitely remember, like.
Speaker 3: Like genuinely, they didn't even know how to price it,
Speaker 3: Like that's how knew it was like no one knew
Speaker 3: what to I didn't even know what VOD meant, do
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? Like it was just no
Speaker 3: one understood any of that at that point. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The weekend that you guys in Palm Springs came out,
Speaker 1: that was like a happy weekend in the household, where
Speaker 1: we just you didn't know if you were coming or going,
Speaker 1: if we would be here next week or not here,
Speaker 1: you know, just yeah, So that I definitely remember, like
Speaker 1: just those first two months where just any new cinema
Speaker 1: content was like relief.
Speaker 3: It's so funny. I didn't watch any TV. Screens were
Speaker 3: not my thing. I was reading at the beginning, reading
Speaker 3: and cooking and listening to audio books like I couldn't.
Speaker 3: I could, I don't. I couldn't find the right content
Speaker 3: that made me feel okay, And so I was going
Speaker 3: back to old books I'd already read. How'd you read? Uh?
Speaker 3: The Bluest Eye is one of my favorite audio books
Speaker 3: because it's read by Ruby d Antony. It's why it's
Speaker 3: literally like going to the theater ordering that now. Incredible, incredible.
Speaker 3: So I listened to that. I went back to all
Speaker 3: the old David Sedari's books because they just made me
Speaker 3: laugh and sort of took me completely out of what
Speaker 3: we were in. And so I would cook and listen
Speaker 3: to audio books, and and then I slowly crept myself
Speaker 3: back to television. And you know, I remember watching The
Speaker 3: Tiger King and thinking, I'm not sure that this is
Speaker 3: a very soothing bomb. I don't know that my soul
Speaker 3: is going, Ah, this is what I needed. I'm not
Speaker 3: sure what's happening here. This is very much to take in.
Speaker 3: His outfits were intense.
Speaker 1: Was Tiger King. The lowest, I'll say, probably for me,
Speaker 1: was Selling sun That Set was the lowest that I
Speaker 1: went as far as like, what do you wait?
Speaker 3: Wait? Can I just tell you something? Selling Sunset was
Speaker 3: definitely lower and I actually watched it too, and then
Speaker 3: I caught myself at a certain point and I was like,
Speaker 3: oh this, I've got to stop this.
Speaker 1: I can't great right, and then you're watching all three
Speaker 1: seasons and.
Speaker 5: My whole I did not watch all three seasons.
Speaker 3: Here, you can go down with that.
Speaker 1: So let me preface A friend of like, I'm a
Speaker 1: thirty rock So a friend of mine at Saturday Night
Speaker 1: Live was doing a Selling Sunset spoof for the show,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know the other references. I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, let me watch one episode, and then that's
Speaker 1: how I got trapped, yeah, and then started just watching.
Speaker 1: I still have not.
Speaker 3: Watched an episode of the Kardashians.
Speaker 5: Ever in your whole life.
Speaker 3: No, I why really, none of y'all, I really.
Speaker 1: Have gentlemen, I'm giving you the biggest side I right now,
Speaker 1: come on, but no, I really haven't.
Speaker 3: First of all, you do get enough of the snippets
Speaker 3: on cram Ma'll come through? I did, I will. I
Speaker 3: tried to watch this the was it the first episode
Speaker 3: of this fight? Is this the final This is the
Speaker 3: final season, right, Leslie.
Speaker 5: I'm not supposed to know that, but yeah, that's what
Speaker 5: they say. You know, that's what I heard.
Speaker 1: Okay. I saw that.
Speaker 3: I saw a piece of it, and I was watching
Speaker 3: and I was like, this is just not for me,
Speaker 3: you know, It's just it's just not this is the
Speaker 3: same thing happens. When I opened TikTok, I go, oh,
Speaker 3: I don't, I don't know what's happening. Oh god, you're
Speaker 3: not wanting to Halloween did that on TikTok.
Speaker 1: But when I I was about to say, you seem
Speaker 1: like the prime candidate for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my content can go on there. But when I
Speaker 3: open that app, I feel like I'm being assaulted. I
Speaker 3: just like it's like as an app crazy and I
Speaker 3: feel like it's not meant for my generation.
Speaker 5: I was like, that's okay, when do we start admitting
Speaker 5: these things? I'm so ready for that.
Speaker 3: I'm so right now, right now, yeah, right now, proud, proud,
Speaker 3: proud of my age. I have earned every stripe, every wrinkle,
Speaker 3: every cellulite, every droop, all of it. I've earned it all.
Speaker 3: And I'm happy to say, No, that's not for me.
Speaker 3: I'm good.
Speaker 1: I will say that as a person that lives in
Speaker 1: a hotel room, like I'm a lazy card desk, Like
Speaker 1: I don't actively look for like the new episode, but
Speaker 1: on Sundays the network will do that eight hour marathon,
Speaker 1: and I just feel and I just like, sometimes I
Speaker 1: like a good aquarium to be in my room for
Speaker 1: like before my girlfriend moved in, Like I lived alone
Speaker 1: for the longest, and you just have TV running on
Speaker 1: the background. I normally, normally my fish, my aquarium was
Speaker 1: was my Soul Trade episodes. But now, please, I'm just
Speaker 1: saying that if it's on, I don't turn it off.
Speaker 1: I don't actively watch it, but I also don't turn
Speaker 1: it off.
Speaker 3: So and by the way, I'm not I'm not hating,
Speaker 3: as I said, it's just not for me, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. I'm not hating on that. I personally.
Speaker 1: Other people have said.
Speaker 3: Worse is the diplomatic way to It's totally quiet for
Speaker 3: me in my home and in my life, Like I
Speaker 3: don't I listen to music, but I don't have a
Speaker 3: soundtrack that's always going or a TV not at all.
Speaker 4: Do you get do you get overwhelmed by the music
Speaker 4: like you do everything else? Because I don't know about you,
Speaker 4: but yeah, well I don't.
Speaker 3: I mean I talk for a living and so like
Speaker 3: at a certain point, I'm just like move enough, like
Speaker 3: shut it down, and I do like when I'm packing
Speaker 3: or I need background information because I always get anxiety
Speaker 3: when I'm packing to go somewhere. It's such an ordeal.
Speaker 3: It's such an ordeal. And I'm such an overpacker, and
Speaker 3: it's like I have lost I've let go of all
Speaker 3: the shame about the overpack. It just is what it is.
Speaker 3: I am. My friends find it hilarious and so annoying.
Speaker 3: But while I'm packing, I like to listen to stand
Speaker 3: up comedy.
Speaker 1: We're the same person.
Speaker 5: Who means, well, yes, what you are listening to?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 1: Well, let you talk you about myself like an aquarian.
Speaker 3: And I like you. I just watched Raw again. I
Speaker 3: just watched Richard Pryor when he's in the Red satin shirt,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, do that shirt went from satin to velvet.
Speaker 1: Sweat like sunset?
Speaker 3: Right? Like it was, it went into like a sunset,
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden it looked velvet.
Speaker 1: Wait have I have I ever admitted on the show
Speaker 1: that he's Murphy Eddie's comedy never hit me?
Speaker 5: Oh no, oh no, I don't think you said that
Speaker 5: mister supposed to be a black person.
Speaker 1: But let's get into it just because wait, because.
Speaker 5: I never heard one say what that. I never heard
Speaker 5: say that.
Speaker 1: I wasn't allowed to watch it as a kid, and
Speaker 1: so when I got it years like I got that
Speaker 1: when I was on the tour bus and I only
Speaker 1: knew the stuff based on what my friends did in
Speaker 1: high school, like like I knew the ice cream joking
Speaker 1: on that stuff, but watching raw and uh delirious for
Speaker 1: the first time, like as a twenty year old on
Speaker 1: the tour bus, like I didn't. I wasn't on the
Speaker 1: floor like I was with Chris Rock or watching Chappelle.
Speaker 1: I think it's one of those you had to be
Speaker 1: there moments and then like a millennial watching Public Enemy right.
Speaker 3: Now, like but let me ask you a question, though,
Speaker 3: when you watch Richard Pryor, Does it hit.
Speaker 1: You I snuck like I I snuck Richard Pryor, Like
Speaker 1: my dad had those records and I'd sneak and listen
Speaker 1: to those records. He didn't bring Eddie Murphy in the house,
Speaker 1: so we didn't have cable.
Speaker 5: Like, oh, so you're saying you didn't hear it in
Speaker 5: its time because you heard it, right, Okay.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think I think I don't know that it has
Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm not your therapist, but I don't
Speaker 3: know if it has to do with what you heard
Speaker 3: as a kid, because I didn't hear Eddie Murphy or
Speaker 3: Richard Pryor as a kid. And but that sensibility, particularly
Speaker 3: Richard Pryor and his storytelling ability, I can't, like, I
Speaker 3: can't get over it, like it I as I was.
Speaker 3: I would be packing and I would stop and just
Speaker 3: be like the crafting and it's not even crafting, it's
Speaker 3: just the way his mind works, right, Like it just
Speaker 3: blew my mind the way he would come back around.
Speaker 3: You know, there's some comedians I watch and I think, uh,
Speaker 3: there was more to that joke, Like you quite get
Speaker 3: the rest out of that, Like you know, like the
Speaker 3: the backseat driver who can say, like what the commedian
Speaker 3: like he's on Netflix, Like clearly he's just fine. I
Speaker 3: don't think he needs Tracy's commentary. But but that's the
Speaker 3: beauty of watching it in your home. You can do
Speaker 3: all that. But I will admit, no, I don't know
Speaker 3: if I'm gonna admit.
Speaker 4: What I was.
Speaker 1: Good ahead, let it fly safe.
Speaker 5: Oh bull crap, No, it is a safe well.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 5: That's true. That's true.
Speaker 3: No, there there is someone who people are shocked that
Speaker 3: I do not have on in any of my music playlists.
Speaker 3: And it's just not someone I listened to. I did
Speaker 3: growing up, but it hasn't lasted for me.
Speaker 1: I got it anyway.
Speaker 3: No, it's it's Prince.
Speaker 2: That's maybe this isn't a safe space.
Speaker 1: I get it. Princess a niche artist, and so like
Speaker 1: I very specific.
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting because like I grew up. I
Speaker 3: remember when Darling Nikki came out, I would hide on
Speaker 3: the backside of my bed on the floor with the
Speaker 3: tape cassette thing opened up to look at the look
Speaker 3: at the lyrics and I and I learned that song.
Speaker 3: It was like this is fascinating. What is all this
Speaker 3: he speaks of?
Speaker 4: Was that something that you would have you would have
Speaker 4: gotten in trouble and you would have got caught for
Speaker 4: if that?
Speaker 3: Probably? I mean my mom is anti violence and pro sex,
Speaker 3: like she didn't have issue with love and sex and
Speaker 3: us seeing that, but violence, like the Flintstones she had
Speaker 3: issued with because of the violence and that like they're violence.
Speaker 5: Bam bam, yeah seriously.
Speaker 3: And the way he treated his wife was not great.
Speaker 3: Fred Yeah, yeah, so but I don't think I mean
Speaker 3: that's that song was really intense. No, it was.
Speaker 5: I didn't know how old you were still.
Speaker 3: Live and what year did that What year did that
Speaker 3: song come out?
Speaker 1: Eighty four, eighty four.
Speaker 3: I was born in seventy two.
Speaker 5: I was twelve, I mean yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: There was a period where like a lot of black
Speaker 1: families became super Christian conservative, like between seventy nine and
Speaker 1: eighty eight. So I caught hell like baby boomers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, well, the thing is they did all the
Speaker 1: sin and as as twenty year olds in the sixties
Speaker 1: and all the Heatonistics shit in the seventies, and then
Speaker 1: they had to atone for their sin when they returned
Speaker 1: forty so yeah, I'm just saying, like I missed, I
Speaker 1: got on punishment for prince, but for everything else, like
Speaker 1: they were on my ass as far as like making
Speaker 1: sure that I didn't see it even though like I
Speaker 1: had cousins and whatnot. So that's why let me ask.
Speaker 3: You a question. Were my forties supposed to be atoning
Speaker 3: for my sinses.
Speaker 5: Were different than their forties?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: But the thing is also I'll say that the the
Speaker 1: silver lining of what we just went through this year
Speaker 1: was that we have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the
Speaker 1: idea of the moral right majority is absolutely full of shit.
Speaker 1: Like we have proof. Now, yeah, that's the thing that
Speaker 1: that's the thing that everyone was hanging on, like they
Speaker 1: actually believed in, like you know, Christian values and family
Speaker 1: values and all these things and cleanliness and all that.
Speaker 3: You know, drinking milk, Thank you cleanliness though, I really
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 1: But I'm just saying that in terms of what the
Speaker 1: moral right has led us to think was, you know,
Speaker 1: American moral right values in which i've in the last
Speaker 1: four years of what we went through, has been absolutely
Speaker 1: proven that it's bullshit. Like there really isn't a moral right.
Speaker 6: It's just hiding behind the shield of Christianity to and
Speaker 6: racism exactly.
Speaker 3: I mean, morality is a tough one. I think values
Speaker 3: are very different, but morality has a fundamentalism to it
Speaker 3: that gets really complicated because somebody gets to decide what's
Speaker 3: right and wrong. Obviously there is a baseline you know,
Speaker 3: on those things, but it starts to get really complicated.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I think that the moral right, so to speak,
Speaker 3: is a different term and has been used to sort
Speaker 3: of cloak racism, sexism, et cetera.
Speaker 1: But that's just I think it's going to be a
Speaker 1: long time before we get somebody that can pull what
Speaker 1: Reagan pulled in terms of like really getting people to
Speaker 1: turn around and at least we're black people, because you know,
Speaker 1: people younger people are shocked when I tell them, like
Speaker 1: everyone my parents' age were like Republicans because they thought, like,
Speaker 1: you know, Republicans are closer to Christianity and abortion, so
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, like people were really shocked that blacks
Speaker 1: were as conservative as they were. I doubt that it'll
Speaker 1: happen again. So yes, to answer your question, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think forty and fifty year old people have
Speaker 1: anything to worry about as far as hell.
Speaker 3: I'm not atoning. I'm trying to get as free as
Speaker 3: I can. Certed woman, listen into the world.
Speaker 1: Hey man, talking shit. Okay, I have to ask you, obviously,
Speaker 1: and I was wondering to shout to even burden you
Speaker 1: about like the first ten years of your life, but
Speaker 1: only because of my personal curiosity. I'll say that, you know,
Speaker 1: I think I told you the story before that. Instead
Speaker 1: of like reading me books, my parents would just put
Speaker 1: records on and that would be my uh, what do
Speaker 1: you call it? My lullaby And so they would often
Speaker 1: play your mom's live records, her two live records at
Speaker 1: Caesar's in Vegas as my that was. That was like
Speaker 1: my my lullabye, you know whatever. And so she they'd
Speaker 1: always put on side too, where she would tell the
Speaker 1: stories of Ronda, Tracy and Chutney, which I guess to
Speaker 1: like five year old me, you all were just like
Speaker 1: one three headed monster. So Or she would always talk
Speaker 1: about crazy.
Speaker 3: You're not the only one. I can't remember who else,
Speaker 3: Toronto Burke. She's always like Ron to Tracy Chutney.
Speaker 1: Right right. I just knew you guys, like I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're my friends. Because she and she always talked about
Speaker 1: you three, like when she went on Dinah Shore and
Speaker 1: when she went like the average, like the talks to circuits,
Speaker 1: she would just talk about her children. But it was
Speaker 1: like always one name. So I guess my question is like,
Speaker 1: at what point does it register to you that you're
Speaker 1: not in an average situation as far as your childhood's concerned.
Speaker 1: Not to mention, your dad is like a supermanager of
Speaker 1: like Rufus and Shaka Khan and Billy Preston and Franklin
Speaker 1: Asi and all these other groups. Your father bob Ellis
Speaker 1: who I just that's It never occurred to me that
Speaker 1: the elis in your name was the bob Ellis.
Speaker 3: And let me tell you why I put that in
Speaker 3: my name. I have like three things to say of
Speaker 3: what you said, so I want to answer your question,
Speaker 3: but I would also want to say whatever we were
Speaker 3: texting about. You mentioned the name of a group from
Speaker 3: my dad that which he managed. It was like an
Speaker 3: offshoot of some other group where they were back. I
Speaker 3: don't know. But when I mentioned it to him, because
Speaker 3: I read him the text right, he first time, my
Speaker 3: dad is the best stories. But he went on this
Speaker 3: whole long tangent about this group, and we thought they
Speaker 3: were going to be the ones that I don't know.
Speaker 3: He had this whole story and I was like that,
Speaker 3: I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm not
Speaker 3: going to remember know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Okay, but by the way, we only got Tracy on
Speaker 1: the show, so we can get to Bob.
Speaker 5: Okay, happy to hear.
Speaker 4: Yes, I have a legendary picture of him myself that
Speaker 4: I'm saving for later. But please don't forget what your
Speaker 4: points Tracy about.
Speaker 3: Okay. So to answer your question about when did it
Speaker 3: sort of dawnam did I realize who my mom was
Speaker 3: in the in the context of life, and that it
Speaker 3: was not I wasn't having the most ordinary experience of
Speaker 3: being a child. So a couple of things to set
Speaker 3: the stage. My mom is a mom before she's the
Speaker 3: Diana Ross lady, so who the sort of extraordinariness of
Speaker 3: Dinah Ross does not hold a candle to who she
Speaker 3: is as a mom, Like she's really great as Diana Ross,
Speaker 3: but like she's like exponentially great as a mom. So
Speaker 3: we always came first. So she recorded at night while
Speaker 3: she would put us in bed, get us to sleep,
Speaker 3: then she would leave and go to the recording studio,
Speaker 3: get home, wake us up for school, and then go
Speaker 3: back to sleep. She never left for longer than a
Speaker 3: week when we were in school, so and when she
Speaker 3: was gone, she would call us at dinner time or
Speaker 3: bedtime and in the morning sore. The sense of home
Speaker 3: and normalcy that I grew up in was home and normal.
Speaker 3: I wasn't carted all over the world in some crazy way.
Speaker 3: And then on the summers we would go. She would
Speaker 3: rent a home somewhere and have a home base. So
Speaker 3: she would rent a home in London. We would live there.
Speaker 3: She would charter out every night to go fly to
Speaker 3: her gigs. I call them gigs still, it's really funny.
Speaker 3: She would go fly to her shows and then come back.
Speaker 3: So the sense of normalcy that I had, it wasn't
Speaker 3: like I was, you know, I was going to school,
Speaker 3: I was doing all the regular things. The other piece
Speaker 3: of it is that I went to Dalton growing up,
Speaker 3: and I went to school with Robert Redford's kids, the
Speaker 3: Ralph Lauren children. I'm trying to think za Bar's children,
Speaker 3: like all of these people who were part of the
Speaker 3: fabric of American culture. So it was normalized for all
Speaker 3: of us. We were just kids who our parents were.
Speaker 3: Was not like a thing, and it didn't come up
Speaker 3: like it wasn't a part of what was happening in
Speaker 3: my dynamics as a kid. I started to realize it
Speaker 3: and have really felt the impact of it later in
Speaker 3: my life. But there were a couple of indicators that
Speaker 3: shit was weird, Like when you would go with your
Speaker 3: mom to work and leave and there would be throngs
Speaker 3: of people banging on the outside of the car, and
Speaker 3: like security would have to escort us with police to
Speaker 3: wherever we went, and you know, like things like that
Speaker 3: were you know clearly like I'm not a dummy, Like
Speaker 3: I was like this can't be normal, Like this is
Speaker 3: not this is not a normal thing. But because of
Speaker 3: the groundedness of how we were raised, how I was,
Speaker 3: I say, we too, like I'm a Roda Tracy Chutney.
Speaker 3: So because of how we were raised that the magnitude
Speaker 3: of that didn't quite dawn on me until I was
Speaker 3: an adult and realized that I wouldn't even be doing
Speaker 3: what I was doing were it not for what my
Speaker 3: mom did and the way that she paved You know
Speaker 3: that there there were places and spaces that I would
Speaker 3: not be able to inhabit and certainly wouldn't have the
Speaker 3: confidence in inhabiting had it not been not only for
Speaker 3: the career of my mom, but also how I was raised.
Speaker 3: And so you know, I don't know if that answers
Speaker 3: your question. And then the third thing you asked, was.
Speaker 1: I never had a meta rabbit hole before.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was so old points still like she stayed.
Speaker 3: There was a third but anyway, so it's jogged another
Speaker 3: thought for you.
Speaker 1: All right, well, okay, can you I always tried to
Speaker 1: imagine what it was like to grow up in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles or Hollywood, assuming that you grew up.
Speaker 3: I grew up in New York. Really, yeah, New York,
Speaker 3: New York, and Europe. So I was born here in
Speaker 3: La I went to the Center, and then we moved
Speaker 3: to New York so my mom could do the WIZ
Speaker 3: in seventy nine, and we left and started school in
Speaker 3: New York in seventy nine and stayed there until seventh grade,
Speaker 3: and I'm we moved to Paris and then Switzerland, so
Speaker 3: I did eighth and ninth grade in Europe, which are
Speaker 3: pivotal years, and then moved back to the East Coast
Speaker 3: and then went to Brown.
Speaker 5: You've got a couple of languages and maybe oh I
Speaker 5: just forgot all my friends.
Speaker 3: I have lost most of my vocabulary, but I have
Speaker 3: a strong French accent that can, you know, get me
Speaker 3: by and I can speak English with a French accent
Speaker 3: like nobody's business. Then you have no idea because you
Speaker 3: don't know that I speak English of conscience. Isn't about
Speaker 3: to because the people they wander. I don't know how
Speaker 3: you stay in English because the people are the wonder
Speaker 3: all the time? You know how you say, how you say?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 5: You know, wait, I'm sorry, I'm mere almos, Tracy, Tracy?
Speaker 7: Do you right? I do?
Speaker 3: I write so me.
Speaker 4: It's it's funny because I was just thinking you. I
Speaker 4: know you've done improv. I seen you sketch comedy with
Speaker 4: the lyricists lounge. Of course, you're a funny lady.
Speaker 5: How come? And I know your ian a stand up?
Speaker 5: Have you ever thought of like just doing.
Speaker 3: I've not done stand up, but I have to tell
Speaker 3: you I mean this. I'm forty eight years old. At
Speaker 3: my forty eight, I'm forty eight, and I'm going through
Speaker 3: the beginning of some changes, some perimenopause. And I've got
Speaker 3: to tell you that I get to stand up on
Speaker 3: this ship because I first of all, it's got Did
Speaker 3: you see the that two second pool video I posted?
Speaker 1: Yes, thoughts there.
Speaker 5: I heard about that fool video. It's funny. I don't
Speaker 5: think it's two seconds.
Speaker 3: It's two seconds in that video, Tracy.
Speaker 5: It don't matter. You was in a bathing suit. That's
Speaker 5: what I heard. That's all I had in a pool.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I have a like it wasn't
Speaker 3: me in a bathing suit in the kitchen actually in
Speaker 3: the pool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just like, why is this two seconds?
Speaker 5: You should do that?
Speaker 4: Because a female comedian told me that female shouldn't talk
Speaker 4: about female issues, so please do that.
Speaker 3: Why I wish more people would talk about it. I
Speaker 3: don't know about you, but some of the sexiest and
Speaker 3: most admirable women that I look at are my age
Speaker 3: and older. I want to know what's happening and.
Speaker 5: It's still happening, and how it happens and what it is,
Speaker 5: and like.
Speaker 3: It should be demestified. And I don't think it should
Speaker 3: be scary to men either. I think it's it's certainly
Speaker 3: not the end of my life. I am not being
Speaker 3: pushed out on a canoe out into nowhere. I'll tell
Speaker 3: you that right now. I, as I said before, am
Speaker 3: a liberated woman. I am out here living my life
Speaker 3: in all of its fullness. And I think people we
Speaker 3: should talk about it in that way so that we
Speaker 3: let go of the stigma. It's the same thing like
Speaker 3: on Blackish when we did that episode on postpartum depression.
Speaker 3: Why are we not talking about these things when you're
Speaker 3: siloed off by yourself, that's when you feel termally unique
Speaker 3: and you don't think that you can you know, it's
Speaker 3: just you that's in that situation. Nah, We're all doing it.
Speaker 3: And by the way, men have their own version of
Speaker 3: what's happening at this age as their home hormones are
Speaker 3: shifting and changing.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, hey, well yeah, I was about to say,
Speaker 1: will set it off yesterday, even though this is coming
Speaker 1: on way later.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, that was so charming and lovely.
Speaker 1: That he did that, and that was my favorite post. Yes,
Speaker 1: it was so lovely.
Speaker 3: But I also have to say, like a friend, so
Speaker 3: many friends and me if text I did a video
Speaker 3: on that on Instagram too, of people saying, you know,
Speaker 3: I've gained so much weight. Good, bravo, thank your body.
Speaker 3: You just made it through a pandemic. What else were
Speaker 3: you supposed to do? And I'm sorry, but that layer
Speaker 3: of softness welcome it because the shit was hard and
Speaker 3: scary and sharp out there.
Speaker 1: Everybody make it?
Speaker 3: No, you know, and so and and our joy and
Speaker 3: spontaneity was all funneled into very few spaces, most of
Speaker 3: which involved food and drink. So what y'all thought was
Speaker 3: gonna happen? Well, I've never done that, but you know that.
Speaker 3: But don't worry. It's okay. I'm okay.
Speaker 1: No truth, truth that you never had, no truth at all.
Speaker 3: No, and my friends know. I call it the devil's lettuce.
Speaker 5: Why did they let you in? The lyrics is lounge?
Speaker 3: I don't I don't know, I don't.
Speaker 1: Know it can happen. I'm gonna leave bloom or two trades. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I will aide you through this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been I've been saying. I mean, I have
Speaker 3: so many stories about me thinking I'm gonna walk that
Speaker 3: way and.
Speaker 5: Wait till fifty. Just go ahead of wait till fifty.
Speaker 3: Okay, maybe it'll be my fiftieth birthday. You can send
Speaker 3: me a package.
Speaker 1: I'll leave the light one for you. Trust me, I
Speaker 1: got you. I got okay. So I always wanted to know,
Speaker 1: as far as you're growing up as concerned and that
Speaker 1: you were paired with other kids that were sort of
Speaker 1: in the same position as you, at what point, at
Speaker 1: any point, did you ever had to adjust in a
Speaker 1: world in which people weren't of that sort of cut
Speaker 1: from that that same cloth, where you had to deal
Speaker 1: with everyday people, Like, at what point.
Speaker 3: Were you every day in life? I mean I was,
Speaker 3: you know. I First of all, the way I was
Speaker 3: raised again is everybody is a person. I am one
Speaker 3: of people. I was not raised to think I was
Speaker 3: better than anybody. I had certain different opportunities and experiences
Speaker 3: than other people, but I was always taught to connect
Speaker 3: on the places that we are the same. We've all
Speaker 3: got blood running through our veins, and we all have feelings,
Speaker 3: and we all most of us are getting up every
Speaker 3: day trying to do our best and work our hardest
Speaker 3: and and sort of make at least our lives work
Speaker 3: and function properly. So I also come I don't know
Speaker 3: if I was taught this, if I came up with this,
Speaker 3: if you know, but to sort of put my my
Speaker 3: humanness as the front runner of who I am not.
Speaker 3: And first of all, I didn't do that. My mom
Speaker 3: did all those things. Did she keep.
Speaker 5: You around like a couple of Detroit cousins just to
Speaker 5: make sure do y'all knew.
Speaker 3: I went to Detroit every summer, and that's how you
Speaker 3: do it. Yeah, on a palette on the floor, and
Speaker 3: on Bobby's house up the street from Grandmammy, and Bobby
Speaker 3: sat me between her legs and did my hair with
Speaker 3: that goodie comb and tried to kill my scalp. And
Speaker 3: you know, Grandmammy, my Grandma lined us up outside the
Speaker 3: fancy bathroom downstairs and put all the cousins and put
Speaker 3: mayonnaise in our hair on the on the laid on
Speaker 3: the kitchen sink, put our head in the sink, and
Speaker 3: then filled our hair with mayonnaise. You had to walk
Speaker 3: around smell on like a sandwich forever to get your hair.
Speaker 3: I mean, all all of our cousins and boys and girls.
Speaker 3: It wasn't just the girl, the girls like the boys
Speaker 3: and girl. We all got lined up step and Monica Kevin, Kevin,
Speaker 3: we all just line up.
Speaker 5: We see that in rainbow that is so beautiful. That's dope,
Speaker 5: it's funny.
Speaker 3: So so yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, we weren't
Speaker 3: sheltered to be up in some crystal palace somewhere, although
Speaker 3: we lived, you know, in a hotel and I got
Speaker 3: to work in a rolls at the school at a
Speaker 3: Rolls rods every day with a driver by the name
Speaker 3: of Bartha.
Speaker 5: But that's.
Speaker 1: As you do.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, okay, So yeah, I'm like, okay, so
Speaker 3: these things also did happen. I'm not saying they didn't, but.
Speaker 5: Wow, that's amazing Christmas a Ritz.
Speaker 3: But then we were in Detroit in summers, so.
Speaker 1: They did you. I know that singing at least when
Speaker 1: when I first met you in the early arts, singing
Speaker 1: was always a big passion of yours. With a household
Speaker 1: like yours, in an environment like you grew up in,
Speaker 1: how easy was it for you to express the desire
Speaker 1: to want to do something in the arts or not
Speaker 1: be shy about.
Speaker 3: It, Like Harry, My mother supported us in finding our
Speaker 3: version of expression in whatever that looked like.
Speaker 1: But you know, are you the only singing Ross?
Speaker 3: No, Ronda is a singer, Evan's a singer.
Speaker 1: I'm the last I forgot your brother Evan Ross, that's okay, I'm.
Speaker 3: The last to the party. And it's so funny because
Speaker 3: I remember, I can't remember how many years ago it was,
Speaker 3: but my mom was in Vegas and on stage and
Speaker 3: she was like, you know, my children sing blah blah
Speaker 3: blah whatever, and I want to bring someone up to
Speaker 3: sing with me. And I'm like standing there, like, go ahead, Evan,
Speaker 3: go ahead, you know whatever, and she said my name,
Speaker 3: and I was like, with what's happening right now? I
Speaker 3: was like, this is not my thing. I'm the funny one.
Speaker 3: What are we doing? What's happening? And she made me
Speaker 3: sing on stage and it was so hilarious because if
Speaker 3: you watch the video, you see my mom turn into
Speaker 3: my mom and think, oh no, did I just put
Speaker 3: Tracy put my baby in a position that she didn't
Speaker 3: want to be in inadvertently, like did I make her
Speaker 3: put her, you know, too exposed on something that makes
Speaker 3: her shy? And she sort of she got this tone
Speaker 3: in her voice that was such my mom's tone of Okay,
Speaker 3: everybody be quiet because this is important, like quiet, we need,
Speaker 3: we need to support this moment. Be quiet?
Speaker 1: Are you speaking of the infamous? When she puts people
Speaker 1: on the spot to sing reach Out and touch No.
Speaker 3: She put me on stage and had me sing this
Speaker 3: sing like Billie Holiday.
Speaker 1: Oh, Like I.
Speaker 3: Sing that around the house and she was like, go ahead,
Speaker 3: did you? Because every time I mean I sang in
Speaker 3: high school and whatever, every time I sang. When I
Speaker 3: was twenty two, my mom said to me, all right, Tracy,
Speaker 3: it's time. And I was like, it's time for what.
Speaker 3: She's like, it's time for you to record an album.
Speaker 3: And I was like hell, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: no no no, I'm gonna go the other way. It's like, nope,
Speaker 3: we're gonna make people laugh and we're just gonna keep
Speaker 3: them at arm's length and that'll be good.
Speaker 1: But why, Okay, in hindsight, why do you think that
Speaker 1: was your decision?
Speaker 3: Uh, for a lot of reasons. I think unconsciously, I
Speaker 3: the idea of being compared to my mom was just
Speaker 3: too much to think of. I had also seen children
Speaker 3: of be obliterated in the press, just shredded, and you
Speaker 3: think back to that time and being the child of
Speaker 3: or any of those things, that's not that was not
Speaker 3: cool then, that was not something. That was also the
Speaker 3: time when you didn't move from TV to movies, and
Speaker 3: you didn't move from being a host to an actor,
Speaker 3: like everything was very pigeonholed. And there certainly wasn't this
Speaker 3: spirit of oh, you're Dona Ross's child. Maybe you want
Speaker 3: to say, no, not at all. And I look like
Speaker 3: my mom, And the truth is I sound kind of
Speaker 3: like her. So you know there was no you put
Speaker 3: you as soon as you put a sparkly dress on me.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've seen it now. I want a golden globe.
Speaker 3: I've been doing working in the I'm forty eight years old.
Speaker 3: I'm not a child anymore, and I still cannot do
Speaker 3: anything without my mom's name. Like maybe my mom's just
Speaker 3: like it's she's larger, she's an.
Speaker 1: Interesting let me but let me, let me interject. I
Speaker 1: definitely now feel as though, you know, to Dinah Ross,
Speaker 1: it's like, yo, Tracy Ellis is your daughter, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you've done You've definitely done something that is I don't
Speaker 1: know if any person, maybe Janet Overcoming who her her
Speaker 1: brothers were, to be in her own right, but yeah,
Speaker 1: like you've made your own name though. Yeah, yeah, you're
Speaker 1: when history books are written, like you know, you have
Speaker 1: your own and not even to compare like.
Speaker 3: That, you know, like we can all well, that was
Speaker 3: part of what I came to I mean and understood
Speaker 3: it's like and an adult mind can look at it
Speaker 3: that way, but a kid cannot. And so now I know,
Speaker 3: like I'm not my mom right, Like I'm not trying
Speaker 3: to be here, I'm not like never, that's not what's happening.
Speaker 3: But as a kid, you think you know and you have.
Speaker 5: Something that's really super special.
Speaker 4: I was gonna ask you because your production company is
Speaker 4: named Joy Mills, but I'm assuming that you're aware that
Speaker 4: you have that superpower and that's why you named it that.
Speaker 4: Are you aware that, like Tracy Ellen's Ross is a
Speaker 4: joy bringer.
Speaker 3: That like makes my heart very very full.
Speaker 5: I'm just trying to tell you.
Speaker 3: My I was born Tracy Joy Silverstein. That's my name,
Speaker 3: so right.
Speaker 5: Now, so because I'm like, well what about mister Ellen.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, go ahead, Okay, So this is and that
Speaker 3: was the third point, okay about my dad. So when
Speaker 3: I joined so like many kids, uh so, then I
Speaker 3: was Tracy Joy Ross Silberstein all through growing up. T
Speaker 3: j R s were my initials all through growing up.
Speaker 3: But then, like so many people, you dropped this name.
Speaker 5: That name is too long.
Speaker 3: I was Tracy Joy Ross. You know what I mean,
Speaker 3: drop these names too many names. So I became Tracy
Speaker 3: Joy Ross. And then when I joined SAG there was
Speaker 3: another Tracy Ross in the Union. Remember Tracy Ross.
Speaker 4: She was.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 5: I thought, yeah, very.
Speaker 3: She grew up.
Speaker 1: Wow, I didn't know you were my age.
Speaker 5: I thought, like, you know, we don't all look alike.
Speaker 5: They with nothing alive.
Speaker 1: I heard the name Tracy Ellis. I remember watching that
Speaker 1: Tracy Ross on Star Search.
Speaker 5: He was a hero.
Speaker 1: And then she thought like, oh, that's Dinah Ross's daughter.
Speaker 1: That's the one she talked about.
Speaker 3: When I joined the Union, there was another Tracy Ross.
Speaker 3: So they were like, uh, do you want to be
Speaker 3: Tracy Joy Ross in the Union? And I was like yes,
Speaker 3: But everybody like I look like my mom, and people
Speaker 3: know I'm my mom's child and I'm so much a
Speaker 3: product of both of my parents, Like I am my
Speaker 3: dad's child and I'm my mom's child. And I wanted
Speaker 3: him to have a steak. You know, it's so crazy
Speaker 3: because I talk so much about women and women of color,
Speaker 3: and particularly black and brown women, that we historically have
Speaker 3: not had a steak in what we make, and even
Speaker 3: with our children, we give up our name, and so
Speaker 3: there's often this you can't even follow our bloodline because
Speaker 3: of that. But we have been at the center of economic, cultural,
Speaker 3: political revolutions in this country, and we are often doing
Speaker 3: the work, but not centered in the prize from that work.
Speaker 3: And strangely enough, I was worried about my dad having
Speaker 3: a piece of what he made, and so I put
Speaker 3: Ellis in my name and I became Tracy Ellis Ross
Speaker 3: at the beginning of my career, and my first you know,
Speaker 3: SAG card was Tracy Ellis Ross And now you know,
Speaker 3: my name goes up there and people go and Bob
Speaker 3: Elis's kid.
Speaker 1: Okay, what was the first major creative thing that you
Speaker 1: at least for you, What was the first major creative
Speaker 1: thing that you did as far as doing television or
Speaker 1: commercials or well.
Speaker 3: The first big thing I did was the gap ad
Speaker 3: with my mom. Yeah, and I remember it was on
Speaker 3: billboards and it was like a big wall and an airport.
Speaker 3: I walked through and I was just like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: I made fifteen hundred dollars and I thought I had
Speaker 3: made I was like, I'm rich. God, I don't meet
Speaker 3: my mother I'm rich. It's like, that was so amazing.
Speaker 3: I could pay my own doctor's fees. I can just
Speaker 3: I can make my own food. Was a crud. I
Speaker 3: was so much money. I was like, I was like,
Speaker 3: I will never work again. I actually think it was
Speaker 3: it was seven hundred and fifty dollars and then I
Speaker 3: think I made fifteen hundred on the first show I did.
Speaker 3: But then the next thing was I did an Infinity commercial.
Speaker 3: So I was modeling with Wilhelmine Agency and I went
Speaker 3: in for a modeling like commercial job and go see
Speaker 3: and at the place where they were doing it, they
Speaker 3: were like the people that are doing and it was
Speaker 3: a secret deodorant ad I went in for and there
Speaker 3: was a sign in sheet next to it for Infinity
Speaker 3: car commercial and whoever ran the commercial audition place was
Speaker 3: like you should go in and try for the Infinity commercial.
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, yes, of course I'll drive.
Speaker 3: So I went in and that was the job that
Speaker 3: Taft Heart lead me into SAG, which is the job
Speaker 3: that will pay the money to get you into SAG.
Speaker 8: And yeah, I just love the idea that Tracy Els
Speaker 8: had to Taft Hartley. I mean, I've done that and
Speaker 8: it just just makes me laugh. That's okay, keep continuing,
Speaker 8: doesn't But also also, why are there not people with
Speaker 8: multiple names in SAG? Couldn't there be multiple Tracy?
Speaker 1: Really?
Speaker 5: But Nesa Williams remember William.
Speaker 3: L.
Speaker 1: Williams Vanessa Williams. Yeah, well ship okay? Cool? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: learned something again.
Speaker 3: So I got taft Heart lead in. I did that
Speaker 3: commercial and then I don't know. I mean, it has
Speaker 3: not been a fast and easy road for me. I
Speaker 3: remember there was a movie called Mixing Nia that Karen
Speaker 3: Parsons from Fresh She ended up getting that movie, and
Speaker 3: I've never been more devastated in my life.
Speaker 8: Really.
Speaker 3: I was like, I mean, I was sure.
Speaker 7: I mean that this was going to launch me into
Speaker 7: the stratosphere of the Boscar. I was going to the
Speaker 7: Academy Awards with my seven hundred and fifty dollars from
Speaker 7: my gap ad. I was going to march my way
Speaker 7: into Hollywood and be received with open arms for a
Speaker 7: career that would last a lifetime.
Speaker 3: Didn't happen.
Speaker 1: What is that process like, like your version of the
Speaker 1: Hollywood Shuffle As far as callbacks near missus, what did
Speaker 1: you audition for that you didn't get?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 3: My God, I don't even remember. I had a three
Speaker 3: ring binder, like one of the those Whopper three refinders
Speaker 3: of like every audition I had auditioned for.
Speaker 5: I didn't care.
Speaker 1: You keep all the receipts of everything.
Speaker 4: I didn't get nothing, really, because according to us, it's
Speaker 4: like Daddy's Girls.
Speaker 5: And I know, in right, like I'm trying to think no.
Speaker 3: No, no, no there from from the time that I
Speaker 3: did I did Far Harbor, that first movie I did
Speaker 3: with Jennifer Connolly and Marshall Harden. Okay, so I did that,
Speaker 3: and then I did the show and before that, I
Speaker 3: did the show The Dish on Lifetime. That was because
Speaker 3: I'm a TV girl. I live in your TV and
Speaker 3: I'm a TV girl, like and it was like a
Speaker 3: magazine show about TV shows.
Speaker 5: What nothing? He ain't say nothing, he said.
Speaker 1: At first I.
Speaker 5: Started watching Lifetime.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, you know. And and then I got an
Speaker 3: agent and auditioned and auditioned and auditioned and auditioned and
Speaker 3: auditioned and auditioned and auditioned and auditioned, and I auditioned
Speaker 3: some more and I didn't get many callbacks, and then
Speaker 3: they dropped me. And this is what they said. It
Speaker 3: stuck with me for a really long time. Listen, Tracy,
Speaker 3: we're gonna let you go because you come with all
Speaker 3: these bells and whistles, but then you get in the
Speaker 3: room and you just don't pop.
Speaker 5: Wow face bitch.
Speaker 3: You know what. It was a turning point for that's crazy.
Speaker 3: I could not get out of there without those you know,
Speaker 3: those tears they sit there.
Speaker 5: Because you're so ha.
Speaker 3: You know those office chairs with the wheels, the wheels
Speaker 3: on the box of them. I felt like my heart
Speaker 3: had come out and it was like stuck underneath the
Speaker 3: wheel and she kept moving the chair and it was
Speaker 3: just getting all tangled in there with my heart and
Speaker 3: then there was blood and stuff and then the tears,
Speaker 3: and I couldn't get out fast enough. But I made
Speaker 3: a decision at that point. I remember calling my sister.
Speaker 3: I called her. I was like, you know, I don't pop,
Speaker 3: I don't wow, I know, no popper.
Speaker 5: That stand up.
Speaker 1: At any point, did you ever consider dropping the ross
Speaker 1: from your name?
Speaker 3: It was too late.
Speaker 1: The thought that like, okay, maybe they're holding that against me,
Speaker 1: like my lineage.
Speaker 9: And well, you know, I used to say that. People
Speaker 9: were like, well, doesn't being done roses or open doors
Speaker 9: for you.
Speaker 3: And I was like, no, what it does is and
Speaker 3: unlocks the door, and then people sit on the other
Speaker 3: side like this going, how you going to walk in?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: They're like, okay, show us what. But I don't think
Speaker 3: that had anything to do with it. I think I sucked.
Speaker 3: I think I didn't know how to bring the person
Speaker 3: that I was inside myself and in the privacy of
Speaker 3: my home out into the world. And I needed that
Speaker 3: hit in order to ask myself, did I have the
Speaker 3: courage to do what it took to bring that person out?
Speaker 3: Or did I just want to go back into my
Speaker 3: hole and and sort of live privately as I chose.
Speaker 1: You know, do you think girlfriends is what you learned
Speaker 1: to kind of be that person?
Speaker 3: No, I learned before girlfriends. It's the reason I got girlfriends.
Speaker 1: Actually, am I assuming? Well, I'm assuming that for I
Speaker 1: first saw you as an adult in Lyris's lounge. So
Speaker 1: how did how did that come to be? Yeah?
Speaker 3: I'm so good Lyris Lounge. Okay, So there was a
Speaker 3: coming out and turning point in my journey towards courageousness.
Speaker 3: I don't remember when because I'm bad at timelines, but
Speaker 3: I had been dropped by my agents. I moved to
Speaker 3: la and one of the things I did was I
Speaker 3: every person that I met that helped me or offered
Speaker 3: me some information, I would write them a thank you note.
Speaker 3: And if they said you should meet so and so,
Speaker 3: I would say, can you call them for me? And
Speaker 3: I would constantly do that, and that's how my career started.
Speaker 3: So like Marcia gay Harden said you should meet my agents,
Speaker 3: and I was like please.
Speaker 9: And I met her agents and they were like, we
Speaker 9: can't represent you, but you should meet so and so,
Speaker 9: and I was like, thank you so much.
Speaker 3: I would write a handwritten thank you note and then
Speaker 3: they would call the person. Then I would go meet them.
Speaker 3: And that's just how my career started. And I booked
Speaker 3: a movie of the Week, an NBC Movie of the Week,
Speaker 3: and then Lyricist Lounge came up and I wanted that
Speaker 3: show so badly, and somewhere after the Movie of the Week,
Speaker 3: as you guys can hear, I do a lot of
Speaker 3: different voices and characters, and I love dressing up. I
Speaker 3: love clothes. I love playing dress up. So my closet
Speaker 3: is my happy place and I go in there and
Speaker 3: sometimes I make a really good outfit and sometimes an
Speaker 3: outfit turns into a character, and my mom had I was.
Speaker 3: My mom had given a high eight video camera one Christmas,
Speaker 3: so I set it up in my kitchen and I
Speaker 3: stayed up until three o'clock in the morning and I
Speaker 3: played dress up and I made a video of all
Speaker 3: of these characters that I had been telling stories as
Speaker 3: for years, and I called it my holiday It was
Speaker 3: my holiday gift. And I sent it out to anybody
Speaker 3: that wouldn't think I was trying to get a job.
Speaker 3: I sent it out with a note that said, I
Speaker 3: am sharing joy with you this holiday season. This is
Speaker 3: my version and it was me like I was like
Speaker 3: a crazy person, and then it said no judgment, Happy Holidays.
Speaker 3: I did like an improv to Broadway song Madame Vera
Speaker 3: was on there, Callipe Champignelle, like all of these characters
Speaker 3: that still exist. And my agents ended up seeing it
Speaker 3: after the holidays and sent it to the producers of
Speaker 3: Lyrisis Lounge. I got an audition for Lyris Lounge, but
Speaker 3: they did not cast me. They cast Sarah Jones. Sarah
Speaker 3: Sarah Jones. Yeah. Sarah Jones had a values conflict with
Speaker 3: the subject matter of the show. She felt that some
Speaker 3: of the sketches. It didn't work for her, so she
Speaker 3: left and they brought me in.
Speaker 1: Wow, man, that is crazy. Does Sarah know that story?
Speaker 3: Yeah? And Sarah and I for years we had never met,
Speaker 3: and a whole thing. And then she and I came
Speaker 3: back together and met each other at the White House
Speaker 3: with the Obamas for Missus Obama's first mentoring weekend. We
Speaker 3: were walking to the White House together. We came down
Speaker 3: in the elevator, walked to the White House together, and
Speaker 3: we were like, can you believe this shit?
Speaker 5: That's beautiful circle. That's a beautiful circle.
Speaker 3: It was that amazing because I thought she hated me
Speaker 3: for all those years. I was like, she left because
Speaker 3: she couldn't do it. And then I took it, and
Speaker 3: you know, it was a joy for me. I had
Speaker 3: a ball doing it. And everybody has a different compass
Speaker 3: on how they feel connected to material and it didn't
Speaker 3: work for her, and I had no judgment of that,
Speaker 3: but it changed my career. And then the interesting story
Speaker 3: is that Lerisis Lounge left us hanging. We didn't know
Speaker 3: if we were picked up or not. It had been ages.
Speaker 3: We had no idea what was happening. And I auditioned
Speaker 3: for girlfriends and we had a window. They wanted me
Speaker 3: for Joan, and we had a window of like three
Speaker 3: days that if we couldn't get the sign off and
Speaker 3: the approval by the head of MTV, they would have
Speaker 3: to move to their second choice for Joe and Clayton
Speaker 3: and tell me, do you know? And the head that
Speaker 3: head of MTV was on vacation in Italy and we
Speaker 3: couldn't get a hold of him. And I remember just
Speaker 3: laying on my bed like frozen for hours, like for
Speaker 3: twelve hours, just waiting to hear if I was going
Speaker 3: to get this role that was going to change my
Speaker 3: life and it worked out in my favor, but I
Speaker 3: didn't know apparently.
Speaker 1: So Wow, having entered what you did at MTV, at
Speaker 1: any point, were you interested in sort of sort of
Speaker 1: honing your skill at say like uh, Second City in
Speaker 1: Chicago or upright Citizens Brigade or any of those like.
Speaker 3: Improv You know what's so funny? As you were talking,
Speaker 3: I thought you were going to say, did you ever
Speaker 3: cross your mind on your skills as a rapper?
Speaker 5: Well too career now, that.
Speaker 3: Did not cross my mind. I was so bad at
Speaker 3: that that I was in that sketch with most deaf
Speaker 3: and and master Fool, and they had to I mean,
Speaker 3: because you know sometimes I get the one three really
Speaker 3: fast and they were like no, and so they they
Speaker 3: had to coach me on when to come in. No,
Speaker 3: I didn't.
Speaker 2: I had.
Speaker 3: Bennetts. What is it called out here the improv u.
Speaker 1: Not the comedy store.
Speaker 3: So I was in an improv troop in college at
Speaker 3: Brown and strangely enough with Marty Blafsky, who was also
Speaker 3: on Lyrisis Lounge. And I loved improv. And then I
Speaker 3: went to Groundlings and they wouldn't move me from the
Speaker 3: you know, one level to level two because they said
Speaker 3: I was too sticky and I wasn't funny enough. So
Speaker 3: I told Groundlings, I said, you know what, Groundlings.
Speaker 5: They kind of THEI and me. They like the uji
Speaker 5: of the mprov.
Speaker 3: Well either way, I was like, I was told to
Speaker 3: go where the love is, and I do not feel
Speaker 3: the love here how facts And then I booked Larry's Lounge,
Speaker 3: So no, I didn't think of that at all, mostly
Speaker 3: because what I thought I was gonna I thought I
Speaker 3: was going to stick in sketch comedy after Lyricsi's Lounge.
Speaker 3: But because of Girlfriends, which I thought was gonna happen
Speaker 3: later in my life. I was living out the Lucy
Speaker 3: fantasy for me. So Larius's Lounge was my Carol Burnette
Speaker 3: fantasy and dream, and then Girlfriends was my my Lucy foray.
Speaker 6: So what do you think My wife, she loves she
Speaker 6: loves you. She watches Girlfriends on Netflix, like all the time.
Speaker 6: She was curious to know, do y'all leave what stories
Speaker 6: did y'all leave on the table for girlfriends?
Speaker 1: And like when that ended, what was that like for you?
Speaker 3: It was horrible, Yeah, devastating. It was really hard when
Speaker 3: Jill left and that also changed storylines because that uh
Speaker 3: just it was just such a hard adjustment. And then
Speaker 3: when the show ended, you know, the last episode we shot,
Speaker 3: I directed, and it was during the strike, so we
Speaker 3: didn't even we didn't even have our family together. The
Speaker 3: producers weren't there, Marra wasn't there, So it was it
Speaker 3: was such a strange odd end the courthouse.
Speaker 5: It was like a location shot too, right, That's what
Speaker 5: feels like.
Speaker 3: It was the end. That was not the end. That
Speaker 3: was the end of the season with Tony.
Speaker 5: Oh, that's right and right, and then it came back
Speaker 5: with and we had had two more after that. So
Speaker 5: what did it feel like.
Speaker 4: When you you got the call from ABC the job
Speaker 4: we're going to be bringing the girls to Blackish?
Speaker 3: Oh? Oh no, that's not how that went.
Speaker 5: Okay, What did it feel like.
Speaker 1: When you told that?
Speaker 3: We said we have so Courtney came to me and said,
Speaker 3: we have an idea. What do you think? And I said,
Speaker 3: this is the best idea ever. But before I said,
Speaker 3: tell tell me when it's an actual green light that
Speaker 3: you guys feel like it can actually happen, and then
Speaker 3: let me call the girls first and find out if
Speaker 3: they're interested and comfortable. I don't want to make this
Speaker 3: a thing until I know if they want to do this.
Speaker 3: So I called each of them individually, even though we're
Speaker 3: on a group thread, but I wanted to call each
Speaker 3: of them individually so that no one felt pressured by
Speaker 3: somebody else or you know, so that everybody just felt
Speaker 3: comfortable to answer. And I said, you don't have to
Speaker 3: answer me now, like it was an immediate yes for everybody,
Speaker 3: but we I mean, by the way, everybody at Blackish
Speaker 3: was like, what is going on?
Speaker 5: How much as love was it?
Speaker 3: I just got launched into another world like and you know,
Speaker 3: some people on our crew have no idea what Girlfriends was.
Speaker 3: They were like, I don't understand what's happening, Like we've
Speaker 3: never seen Tracy like this. I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 3: But we would not We did not stop talking. It
Speaker 3: was as if we were right back on girl. It
Speaker 3: was so delicious. It was so good.
Speaker 4: We had so much and the storyline that you made
Speaker 4: around that y'all created around it was really dope. It
Speaker 4: was really consistently yes, yeah.
Speaker 3: So good.
Speaker 6: My niece wants to know when they because I have
Speaker 6: Alice Ross, we get it.
Speaker 1: You already know.
Speaker 6: When they saw her name was on QLs calendar, they
Speaker 6: was just like, my text was blowing up.
Speaker 1: Everybody want to so I'm trying to answer my family's
Speaker 1: questions sofully. So my niece wants to know. How do
Speaker 1: you navigate the LA dating scene?
Speaker 5: Oh girl? Please thank you Ni Sepool, because I live
Speaker 5: in l A.
Speaker 3: To what you mean, I don't, I don't, I don't
Speaker 3: know or do you even care? I mean, well, the
Speaker 3: beauty of it is it's not an l A dating scene.
Speaker 3: The world is so small now that you know there
Speaker 3: was no dating scene during the pandemic, yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 5: I don't know, if you heard.
Speaker 4: I think NIE's asking from the perspective of it's hard
Speaker 4: for a black woman to day in LA But maybe
Speaker 4: I'm just stripping.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think it's I think dating is hard no matter
Speaker 3: who you are, where you are, and if you're a
Speaker 3: man or a woman. I think there's good men out there.
Speaker 5: Oh, I wasn't. Oh, that wasn't the argument. It was
Speaker 5: just that they are they around unavailable, That's.
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know if they are. I don't I
Speaker 3: don't know that they are. I don't know. I don't
Speaker 3: have major, major sort of theories and beliefs and and
Speaker 3: I don't I don't have any answers. What I know
Speaker 3: is that someone's gonna either make my life better or
Speaker 3: I'm gonna keep rolling with this wonderful life that I've
Speaker 3: built for myself, you know.
Speaker 1: And I found my happiness at fifty, So I mean,
Speaker 1: oh my god, speaking of.
Speaker 3: Which I Meir, you said at fifty you found your life.
Speaker 3: How old are you now?
Speaker 1: Fifty fifty fifty?
Speaker 3: I was with the way you said it. I was like,
Speaker 3: what are you sixty? Like what.
Speaker 1: You just found last week? I'm just saying that a
Speaker 1: few other things. Flowers flowers around, no around like forty seven,
Speaker 1: forty eight. I was just like, maybe I'm just going
Speaker 1: to be a serial bachelor for life, and you know whatever.
Speaker 1: And then, you know, as with all of us with
Speaker 1: the pandemic, like this, pivot happens and you get a
Speaker 1: new either heed to the calling or you uh, succumb
Speaker 1: to the inside of your voice. And no, I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's possible to have a turnaround for you.
Speaker 5: Most men get their sense at fifty.
Speaker 3: So first of all because we done.
Speaker 1: Made out money.
Speaker 3: But well some of it's that.
Speaker 1: That's no, it's also about just being open.
Speaker 3: But wait, the thing that's so interesting, I mean you
Speaker 3: just said the sound inside my voice is that you said,
Speaker 3: that's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: Well, just inside my heads. You know, oftentimes we hear
Speaker 1: the the I mean, the voice inside of our head
Speaker 1: says the most mean shit to us all the time.
Speaker 1: We say stuff. We say shit to ourselves. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: say ship to ourselves that you know, we wouldn't allow
Speaker 1: anyone to say to us. And oftentimes we listen to
Speaker 1: that voice more than anything. So introspective of mer my favorite.
Speaker 5: But understand a year and a half, maybe.
Speaker 1: This is Crystal, I'm not.
Speaker 5: Friend, it's a beautiful woman named woman.
Speaker 3: But this is a look at him rolling his eyes. Well,
Speaker 3: something's happened there.
Speaker 1: So just this episode is not about me. We only
Speaker 1: got fifteen minutes whether I can't even get the.
Speaker 3: Blackish Okay, So that's okay, Okay. So let me just
Speaker 3: say that I I think there's really good men out there,
Speaker 3: and I don't know how to navigate any dating scene.
Speaker 3: Dating is just awkward and weird. And it's even more
Speaker 3: awkward when you like being in your house. Yes, and
Speaker 3: you know, you get to a certain age where you're like,
Speaker 3: I don't't do that, Like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I don't want to go there. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: I'm happier right here on my couch. So huh.
Speaker 1: What one thing?
Speaker 6: One thing I will say about about you, Tracy, Like
Speaker 6: I've always admired you, seen for your celebrity and the
Speaker 6: status of all things you've done. You are like one
Speaker 6: of the most regular celebrities like and I mean yeah,
Speaker 6: and the like and the sweetest way possible you were
Speaker 6: just you know, you just always just exude just kind
Speaker 6: of just a realness about you.
Speaker 1: And I was just curious to know how do you
Speaker 1: maintain that in Hollywood? How do you keep your identity?
Speaker 1: She stays off the couch.
Speaker 3: I think, I think it's that my identity is not
Speaker 3: wrapped up in what I do. It's it's who I
Speaker 3: am and how I show up for my friends and
Speaker 3: how they show up for me, and the kind of
Speaker 3: daughter and sister I am. Like that's where that's what
Speaker 3: has meaning to me, how I am of service in
Speaker 3: the world, particularly to those I love and even more
Speaker 3: importantly to those I don't know. And so I that's
Speaker 3: what right sizes is my life. And I really like
Speaker 3: being a people among people. It's my humanity is my
Speaker 3: favorite part. It's also the most uncomfortable part of me,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like sometimes I'm like, oh ah,
Speaker 3: can I stop being such a human being? You know
Speaker 3: what I mean? Like what better? And not do better? What?
Speaker 3: You know, Like I wake up every day, try to
Speaker 3: do my best. Why did this day suck so bad?
Speaker 3: Like you know what I mean, Like how did that happen?
Speaker 3: Like I didn't try to go left, but somehow I
Speaker 3: am left?
Speaker 5: So so a human being?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I also think I'm not. I'm not really invested
Speaker 3: in I don't know. I mean, look, I love sparkly things.
Speaker 3: I love pretty clothes, I love shoes, I love great restaurants.
Speaker 3: But I'm also not My compass is not money. My
Speaker 3: compass is not fame. It's having an opportunity to do
Speaker 3: the things that I love and to connect with people
Speaker 3: and to make people laugh and to make people feel
Speaker 3: comfortable in their own skin. You know, I know what
Speaker 3: it feels like for me when I'm around people that
Speaker 3: I leave and I'm like, oh, I just feel so
Speaker 3: much like myself around them, Not like I want to
Speaker 3: be them, but like, I just feel so safe and
Speaker 3: like myself around them. And I hope that I can
Speaker 3: bring that to the world and to other people, and
Speaker 3: so maybe that keeps it right side.
Speaker 1: But I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Are there okay? Now that you have the platform and
Speaker 1: the position that you do have, what's on your bucket
Speaker 1: list as far as things that you really want to do,
Speaker 1: cross off and sort of manifest and bring out there
Speaker 1: that maybe ten years ago you weren't able to develop.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of those things are in process
Speaker 3: right now, and I'm not one of those people like,
Speaker 3: you're not going to see me post about the idea
Speaker 3: of doing something, You're going to still post when it's
Speaker 3: is having it. So I pattern was a just it
Speaker 3: was a ten year dream. It took me ten years
Speaker 3: to launch that company. And I love being a CEO.
Speaker 3: I love being a fan under of a company company.
Speaker 3: I love using my mind in that way. The access
Speaker 3: that it has given me to be able to sit
Speaker 3: in boardrooms and talk to people who don't usually get
Speaker 3: somebody who's not afraid to say, yeah, that doesn't work, like,
Speaker 3: actually that's not effective. Actually that's actually detrimental to the
Speaker 3: people you say you're helping. Oh, I'm sorry, it's not
Speaker 3: called d and it's diversity, equity and inclusion. I'm sorry, gatekeeper, sir.
Speaker 3: If you don't make changes, there's never going to be
Speaker 3: fundamental change. You know. I didn't know that so much
Speaker 3: of what so many things that I was experiencing that
Speaker 3: caused frustration and disappointment had to do with the systemic
Speaker 3: problems that were happening in the world. I took them personally,
Speaker 3: you know, And so when you realize it, then you're like, oh,
Speaker 3: what can I do to help make this change? Pattern
Speaker 3: has given me access not only to a particular and
Speaker 3: different kind of platform, but also a courage inside me
Speaker 3: to not be a person that gets plugged in places,
Speaker 3: but actually can create more real estate, not just for me,
Speaker 3: but for others, to help other people find how to
Speaker 3: have their own equity in what they make. So I
Speaker 3: have a production deal with ABC Signature, which is across
Speaker 3: all their platforms, HULUFX, all of their platforms. I have
Speaker 3: five different projects and development. There's expansion that I want
Speaker 3: to happen that is in process with Pattern. So those
Speaker 3: things and those parts of my dreams, Like I want
Speaker 3: to be a producer. I love being a producer, and
Speaker 3: that is happening. I really would like to do more movies.
Speaker 3: I would like to get I want to do and
Speaker 3: I want to kick some ass in a movie. I
Speaker 3: really would like to like like tell you like you
Speaker 3: know those when they spin around and then they chop
Speaker 3: under the and the person falls and then they go
Speaker 3: oh like, I would really like to do that in
Speaker 3: a movie in some very strong and powerful way. I
Speaker 3: would like to be to do a love story. I
Speaker 3: would like to be a love interest in a movie
Speaker 3: as a sexy, grown ass woman and not have to
Speaker 3: be like the twenty two year old with the fifty
Speaker 3: year old man, Like maybe I'm the fifty year old
Speaker 3: with the twenty two year old man. How you doing? Me?
Speaker 5: And the Rustio fans are sitting here like how we
Speaker 5: ain't seen? This can not happen, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: I want to see a whole bunch of black women
Speaker 3: on screen being as incredible as we are and not
Speaker 3: have to constantly be talking about the fact that we're black,
Speaker 3: but just be in our experience. I want to see
Speaker 3: those stories. I want to. I want to be a
Speaker 3: part of making those happen, and I want to be
Speaker 3: involved in them. I want to. So there's lots of
Speaker 3: those things.
Speaker 1: You gotta drop the word wanna and just manifest.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna. I'm gone.
Speaker 1: That's my last words of wisdom. With manifest such good.
Speaker 3: Words of wisdom, and you know I have to say
Speaker 3: I manifest quickly. So it just got to be specific
Speaker 3: about that language.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, you got three minutes left, three minutes left,
Speaker 1: three minutes. Yeah, we got three minutes left, and I'm skipping, skipping,
Speaker 1: I'm skipping black is just y'all, watch back. I actually
Speaker 1: want to go to Mix This, Yes, how much of
Speaker 1: your life and shout out to us Angela, our friend,
Speaker 1: Angela Nissel family. Yes, yes, and how much of your life?
Speaker 1: I know that Mixed This is quote a show about
Speaker 1: your character's life, but how much input do you have
Speaker 1: in it? As far as the direction that I have a.
Speaker 3: Lot of input, But it is not my life. It's
Speaker 3: Bo Johnson's life, you know. But but the mixed experience,
Speaker 3: I love that we're able to tell that story and
Speaker 3: such a and to tell it through the eighties, which
Speaker 3: is so strange to think about that, the divisiveness that
Speaker 3: the eighties held and how similar it is to what
Speaker 3: we're living in now. A couple of different overlays, but
Speaker 3: we can what time, come on? What is seventeen twenty?
Speaker 3: We've got three minutes? What if we have eight minutes?
Speaker 1: Okay? Y, we got eight minutes?
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 4: So that being said, because we didn't ask her the
Speaker 4: question when we had Mariah here, do you did you
Speaker 4: have anything to do with getting Mariah to sing that
Speaker 4: that thing that didn't seem easy?
Speaker 5: The same song? Mister?
Speaker 3: No, that was Kenya? Okay, okay, okay, that was Kenya
Speaker 3: And that was so she was so excited to do that.
Speaker 1: She was so excited, perfect excited enough that big ass
Speaker 1: credit at the beginning. I still tea her days. She's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if that happens. I'm like, I know
Speaker 1: your people.
Speaker 3: She is hilarious. She also is a really big text
Speaker 3: for that one.
Speaker 1: I've not stopped talking to Mariah since our interview that night.
Speaker 3: Yeah. But by the way, Maria, Mariah is also really
Speaker 3: regular in some ways.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, as much as she can be.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I mean, no shout out me, I'm
Speaker 1: only playing.
Speaker 3: Yes, she's one. Look. Anyway, that was a really wonderful
Speaker 3: experience and I got to know Mariah in a way
Speaker 3: that I did not before. And and it's not that
Speaker 3: I had any negative idea of Mariah, but I didn't
Speaker 3: know Mariah, do you know what I mean? And she's
Speaker 3: so lovely and her.
Speaker 5: Mix experience is ill too. After reading a book and
Speaker 5: what I.
Speaker 3: Have not read her book.
Speaker 1: Trace, get the audiobook.
Speaker 3: I will get the audio book and literally it's on
Speaker 3: my list.
Speaker 1: It's so stupid that you're a long driver or whatever,
Speaker 1: like her storytelling.
Speaker 3: Is is And my friend Mikela wrote that with her, Yeah,
Speaker 3: how was it a people because people got the power.
Speaker 3: Yeah she is. She is one of my faves. So
Speaker 3: but yeah, mixed ish my first producing experience and really
Speaker 3: love being in that position. To be able to craft
Speaker 3: a story before a script is written, you know, to
Speaker 3: actually uh let that, to be a part of that,
Speaker 3: to be a part of casting. All of that I
Speaker 3: find really exciting and sort of the execution of something,
Speaker 3: you know, mix this was a little mixed. What's mixed?
Speaker 3: This was a little different because it was you know,
Speaker 3: it was the the full expression of something that had
Speaker 3: already existed and sort of been given life. But the
Speaker 3: other projects that I'm developing, you know, from optioning a
Speaker 3: book and that, like, it's just so exciting. That process
Speaker 3: is so exciting.
Speaker 1: Uh Okay, now do you want to go back to Black? Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's so many things I want to ask about the show.
Speaker 1: But probably for me as such a fan of that show,
Speaker 1: whose idea was it for you guys to have sort
Speaker 1: of the dark period of your marriage? Where I didn't
Speaker 1: see that coming? And again, like when I when I
Speaker 1: watched these shows, I kind of do a binge style,
Speaker 1: So it wasn't like I even had a warning from ABC,
Speaker 1: like a special ABC you know, narrative Bexter Bernie episode
Speaker 1: of Blacket.
Speaker 3: They used to do that, a very special, very.
Speaker 1: Special different strokes one what Dudley got. So yeah, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't see that coming. And I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is this is really bold because I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: without okay, I'm trying to say this is as diplomatic
Speaker 1: as I can. The Huxtables were always my first family.
Speaker 1: An now it's like the Johnson's are about to overshadow
Speaker 1: that and really be you know, because you guys cover
Speaker 1: so many subjects that were never ever on The Cosby Show.
Speaker 5: But if not for the cos there wouldn't be the Johnson's.
Speaker 1: And I'm not disparat but yeah, I didn't see that coming.
Speaker 1: Like whose idea was it to really just bring it
Speaker 1: down to that level?
Speaker 3: Kenny embarrass and Anthony and I were not happy.
Speaker 1: Wow was happy?
Speaker 3: Well, it took a minute. I was like, why are
Speaker 3: we doing this? What is this? Why are we doing this?
Speaker 3: Like I was like, I don't understand this. It feels
Speaker 3: like the end of the show. It was so confusing.
Speaker 3: It was, you know, Kenya, there was a bold risk
Speaker 3: on his part, and this is why Kenya is Keny.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean, Like he really, I don't
Speaker 3: know where it came from. You can ask him all
Speaker 3: those questions. But once we dove in and you know,
Speaker 3: I directed the first of those two episodes.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, that.
Speaker 3: Was hard because I was playing a version of bo
Speaker 3: that I had never played before. Like usually the show
Speaker 3: is anchored in dre and bow liking and loving each
Speaker 3: other like and it's also anchored in me and Anthony,
Speaker 3: like we have a respect and a safety with each other.
Speaker 3: That is the core of the show. Like that's what
Speaker 3: we do, you know, he and I. There are places
Speaker 3: that I can fly to because of Anthony and that
Speaker 3: he can fly to because of me that I've never
Speaker 3: experienced in my creative career. It's so much fun. It
Speaker 3: is so much fun dancing and playing ping pong with Anthony.
Speaker 3: I can't even tell you. And so that was hard.
Speaker 3: I didn't like fighting with him. I didn't like it.
Speaker 6: Even the film stock that you guys used, like that
Speaker 6: kind of film stock where I was like in and
Speaker 6: out of that, yeah, someone's about to die here or.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3: And then my dad did die. It was a mess.
Speaker 3: And that was and by the way, and then we
Speaker 3: went and shot a funny scene. After that, I was like,
Speaker 3: are you all crazy? I don't know. I'm so proud
Speaker 3: of what we do on the show. I think back
Speaker 3: to when Blackish launched and how freaked out everybody was
Speaker 3: about the name, And if you sink back to the
Speaker 3: landscape of.
Speaker 1: One person, and we know that person was, it was.
Speaker 3: A lot of you started, but a lot a lot
Speaker 3: of people were upset about it, but they didn't know
Speaker 3: what the show was yet. And I understood that. And
Speaker 3: the truth is, it's a It's a perfect name for
Speaker 3: what our show is and what we deconstruct and pull
Speaker 3: apart and unpack. And but if you think of what
Speaker 3: the landscape of television was at that moment and what
Speaker 3: we opened up in terms of giving metrics to the
Speaker 3: ability for black stories about a black family that doesn't
Speaker 3: happen to be black, but is black being successful and
Speaker 3: identifiable for everybody, you know, we we changed the landscape
Speaker 3: of television.
Speaker 4: I did an episode on June teenth that was not
Speaker 4: in the mainstream of conversation that.
Speaker 3: An amount of people that have said to me, I
Speaker 3: didn't know what white people that have said I didn't
Speaker 3: know what Juneteenth was before Blackish aired that episode is
Speaker 3: a lot a lot of people who didn't know. And
Speaker 3: I always say to people like you, come by that honestly,
Speaker 3: like a lot of people didn't know because nobody.
Speaker 4: Was telling anybody, well black a good little small education
Speaker 4: to some layers of Black people.
Speaker 5: And if that's funny, if you watch and you don't
Speaker 5: know us, you get to know a little bit.
Speaker 3: A little bit, A little piece doesn't do everything. It's
Speaker 3: not two minutes, and you get to see it through
Speaker 3: the lens of this family. But and I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: it's just it's been a treat, a real treat. We
Speaker 3: don't talk enough about the frame that needs to be
Speaker 3: present to hold the narrative of our cultural value, you know.
Speaker 3: And I don't mean a Blackish I mean of the
Speaker 3: stories Black stories, you know, and and how so many
Speaker 3: people reap the cultural benefit, but we don't get the
Speaker 3: credit or for the work done and the story is told,
Speaker 3: and so I don't know, I'm so grateful this show
Speaker 3: has been such a blessing and so much fun. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's been seven years, knock on wood, but you know,
Speaker 3: Anthony and I haven't gotten into nothing.
Speaker 5: And y'all created it.
Speaker 1: They didn't bring you guys the cake yet saying goodbye
Speaker 1: and another.
Speaker 3: But I mean, like Anthony and I had like to
Speaker 3: work that closely with someone as much as I mean
Speaker 3: we work fourteen hour days like it's just the longest ever,
Speaker 3: you know, and the way we work together, it's just
Speaker 3: been such a like such a joy.
Speaker 5: It's a joy. It's a joy to watch.
Speaker 4: It is everybody and y'all created the youngest executive producer.
Speaker 3: Ever, she told She told us all back then when
Speaker 3: we asked. There was a panel we did first season
Speaker 3: and said what do you want to be to get older?
Speaker 3: And she said a legend.
Speaker 4: Episodes is a pilot where guys and we were all like, well, okay, then.
Speaker 6: For president I'll so we we our listeners will kill
Speaker 6: as we forget this. The Kanye video you have to tell.
Speaker 1: Got it?
Speaker 3: Which one touched this guy?
Speaker 1: Which? What about stuff?
Speaker 7: As?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that. That was a guy.
Speaker 3: I've done. I've done two Kanye videos. I was in
Speaker 3: Kanye in workout plan. That was crazy. We flew on
Speaker 3: helicopters into the Grand Canyon and we shot in the
Speaker 3: Grand Canyon, me Nia Long and Pam Anderson. I was like,
Speaker 3: what's going on right now? And I remember because he
Speaker 3: was my neighbor. And he was like, I have an idea,
Speaker 3: and I'm like okay. And he told me that the
Speaker 3: uh you know the story of the the video. And
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't understand. Why am I not
Speaker 3: the other character? He said, because there knee along.
Speaker 4: Right right right.
Speaker 3: I get it. I get it now, I got it.
Speaker 5: I was like, I just I'm funny.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm I'm my own best advocate. So like, I'm
Speaker 3: just wondering why, Like I wasn't like, but whatever. And
Speaker 3: then we had so much fun doing that. Though that
Speaker 3: was insane. It was freezing. I would have chose you no,
Speaker 3: but no, but I I think I uh that you
Speaker 3: know what about the hair? And that's that was me.
Speaker 3: That was just me improving like a crazy person. What
Speaker 3: are you gonna say? What are you gonna say? I said,
Speaker 3: don't worry about it, Kanye, don't worry about it. Just
Speaker 3: turn the cameras on and tell me say the A word,
Speaker 3: say action, and it's gonna come.
Speaker 1: Were you always were you? Always? Were you always the
Speaker 1: family comedian?
Speaker 3: Yes? Oh oh my god, my mom used to cheat.
Speaker 3: My mom so our dining room table there were glass
Speaker 3: like glass doors outside, and my mom like, I would
Speaker 3: disrupt so much. I would have like the wiggles, that's
Speaker 3: my grandma called it, the twelve year old giggles wiggles,
Speaker 3: and I just had so much energy and so and
Speaker 3: I would really like to poke at my sister Randa
Speaker 3: to see if I could get her to laugh, but
Speaker 3: usually it made her really angry. And so my mom
Speaker 3: would excuse me from the table, why don't you go
Speaker 3: outside and get the wiggles out? So I would stand
Speaker 3: outside my family is eating dinner. I would stand outside
Speaker 3: like I'd be like, and I would come back and
Speaker 3: sit down and she would say, have you gotten them
Speaker 3: all out? And I'd be like, I don't think. So
Speaker 3: my mom was very supportive of my large, large energy.
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you mom. We thank you. No, we're
Speaker 5: wrapping up.
Speaker 3: But I'm gonna say this because my sister Rhonda, my
Speaker 3: mom was such a good mom, as I said, and
Speaker 3: my sister ron and my siblings are such great parents.
Speaker 3: And when her son Raif is doing what I do,
Speaker 3: because she gave birth to a little me, when he's
Speaker 3: gonna I'm like, what is going on back there? I
Speaker 3: can't even hear you? She says, he's being creative.
Speaker 5: Yeah, saw him in an award show. He's hilarious.
Speaker 1: I love him.
Speaker 5: Yes, and he looked at Michael on the website.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my son is being creative. Yes.
Speaker 1: Yes, wait, this one quick question and this is totally
Speaker 1: just random. Speaking of you, you and your relationship with
Speaker 1: your mom. Was it you that influenced her to have
Speaker 1: Ello Cool Jay on her special back in eighty seven?
Speaker 3: Nor I know my mom is way cooler than I
Speaker 3: could have made her.
Speaker 1: Be, Okay, because I always wanted to know, like we
Speaker 1: were like, what the hell is Llo doing? This is
Speaker 1: like when Bigger and depfor First came out.
Speaker 5: I don't believe you. We would have to see for ourselves.
Speaker 1: Trust me, it's weird. No, like this is when her
Speaker 1: Red Hot Rhythm and Blues album came out.
Speaker 3: Well you know everything though.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Tracey, I really thank you for giving
Speaker 1: making this.
Speaker 3: Know.
Speaker 1: I was really about to say thank you very.
Speaker 3: Much, Ron and Tracy said you're welcome. I adore you,
Speaker 3: and I'm so glad I finally got on here.
Speaker 1: To our viewers out there, yes, viewers, to our listeners
Speaker 1: out there, yes, I try to turn this into a
Speaker 1: five hour Jimmy Jam episode. It didn't happen, So don't
Speaker 1: get down at me because Tracey Ellis Ralse is booked
Speaker 1: and busy.
Speaker 5: Can you tell your daddy that we still want to
Speaker 5: talk to him? No, I'm series, but he talked to us.
Speaker 5: You think he would talk to us.
Speaker 3: I think he'll talk talk to anybody. He talks to you.
Speaker 3: If you're in the line of Starbucks, you're gonna get
Speaker 3: the whole ear.
Speaker 1: Yes, I cannot this episode.
Speaker 3: Thank you, no joke.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Tracy, run to your appointment. Thank you
Speaker 1: very much. And this is Quest Love Supreme. Y'all, We
Speaker 1: will see you next week next time. Bye, yo, what's up?
Speaker 1: This is fante.
Speaker 6: Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at
Speaker 6: QLs and let us know what you think and who
Speaker 6: should be next to sit down with us.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast, all right? Peace.
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
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