WEBVTT - QLS Classic: Tracee Ellis Ross 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio, March Means 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:09.640 Women's History, Monk, and we're gonna celebrate here at QLs 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.840 as we travel back to twenty twenty one for this 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:19.000 mic drop episode with none other than Tracy Ellis Ross. 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:22.200 Whether you heard before or not, you're really gonna love 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:23.479 this one. I know, I do. 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:36.320 All right, enjoy your lighting designer should be paid? 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:38.000 He looks, yeah, I'm the job. 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.080 See you, guys. That means you would be paying Mother 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:42.080 Nature or God. 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.519 So I don't know, I tell Tracy, trying to tell 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:48.760 us that she's someone using juices and berries. I don't know. 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.840 I don't know if like, I don't know how invoices 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.760 come from Mother Nature. I don't know. I don't know 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:57.280 how to do. 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.080 That write A month later, it's gonna be a patterned 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:00.640 skin line. 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.520 I actually want to skip the want to skip the Injoe, 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:04.400 are you ready to go? 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:09.040 I'm recording. I'm recording, is recording, is recording right now? 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:13.000 All right, we're all recording. I'm recording right now. Ladies 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.680 and gentlemen. First of all, all all of the team 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:20.920 Supremer say hello at the same time. Hello, guys. Hello, Okay, 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.560 all right, today's a day. No, you're not a team supremer. 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:26.840 Sorry, sorry you guys responding to. 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.640 The hello as I You're not family yet. Hang on, 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:30.479 let's let's let. 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:32.919 Us Dutch you I apologize, apologize. 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.760 Yeah, today's the day of miracles. It's so miraculous. I 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:39.800 don't even I don't even I don't even want to 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.920 waste a nano second giving you good people are guest 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:46.960 impressive resident of the may we can reviewer life at 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.880 the same time, you know, as a group. Uh and 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:52.040 I'm not even being dramatic because I'm afraid she's going 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:56.200 to disappear. So blah blah blah blah blah, lyrics, lounges 0:01:56.200 --> 0:02:01.320 blah blah blah, girlfriends, iconic parents blah blah blah, siblings, everybody, Yes, 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:06.400 I blah, please welcome Tracy Ellis Ross the Quest Love Supreme. 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.919 How did this moment happen? Blah blah blah blah blah 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.040 blah blah blah. I just want to say, Tracy, I've 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:18.600 never stalked as Yeah, I've never stalked a like a 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:20.880 person I consider a friend like be one thing when 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.400 I creep in Rihanna's DMS like, we don't have a 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:26.480 relationship like that. I've been I've been slowly poaching you 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.400 bit by bit, like I would do like tiny comments 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:32.760 on all your social media to be like, oh man, 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:34.840 let me follow him. Then I'm jumping in your dms 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:36.760 and trying to get and that would never happen. So 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:41.360 I don't know how this moment that that. 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.320 Is ridiculous because by the way, the moment I finally 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:49.320 saw your DM three years later. Three years later, but 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:50.320 I saw it and I was like, what do you 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:51.680 mean You've been trying to get I'm like, what are 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:53.000 you talking about? Of course I'll do that. 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:55.919 Look, I want to I want to let all all 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.120 polite stalkers know and I say this. 0:02:58.639 --> 0:02:59.639 You ain't going to get to me. 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.600 Really, I'd like that just a little bit, a little 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:05.880 bit at a time. Persistence does work, but you know 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.400 I had to stalk here. How are you today, Trace? 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:13.639 I really like today. I'm really really good today. I 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:19.440 am back from Cabo and my first sort of foray away. 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:21.360 It's been a long time since I've had a break. 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.280 This pandemic, like for everybody, was just really challenging. And 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.080 I also didn't stop through the whole thing. I had 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:31.239 a movie that came out right at the beginning of 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:33.720 the pandemic, at the beginning of Lockdown, a week after 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:38.520 George Floyd's murder, and it just it just has not stopped. 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.320 So how was it being like business as usual? 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:43.800 There was no business as usual, and it was a 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:49.480 weird you know, leading up to the launch of the movie. 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.000 I mean, I was so excited. It was the first 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.640 time I sang like it was such a big moment 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.000 for me. I walked through one of my biggest fears 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.000 of my life. Like just it was so exciting. And 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:02.680 then they're like, we're not going to have a premiere. 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:06.800 I'm like, I'm so wanna, you know. So that was 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:10.040 the first like disappointment and also like, you know, small 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:14.640 disappointment considering the many disappointments everyone was having and the 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:20.640 genuine grief and loss that was occurring, but a personal disappointment. Nonetheless, 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:24.000 people had to you know, reschedule weddings and couldn't be 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:26.360 there with holding people's hands. So that was the first thing. 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.560 And then and then it was like who cares? It 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:32.840 just felt so it was like who cares? And then 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.480 it flipped back around to yes, because our freedom and 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:41.800 our joy and our reveling in who we are is 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:46.480 an important form of resistance in response to the systemic 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:51.040 oppression and the violence and the deaths. And so it's 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:53.520 just you know, like for everybody, we've been whirling around 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:58.000 with so much in our hearts and heads through this time, right, 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:00.640 I mean, that was such a not it's a heavy 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:01.480 how am I? 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:10.800 But bo wait, I will say probably the glass half 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:16.680 full answers. Also, I probably think that more people saw 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.320 the high new and the way that we saw it 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:22.279 because you know, there was there was this a period 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:26.680 where television and movies was just all of our escape, 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:27.320 you know what I mean. 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:30.440 Yeah, and so it was one of the first movies 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:32.159 to do the whole straight to. 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:34.719 It was it was the second. 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.279 Yeah, No, I definitely remember, like. 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:40.840 Like genuinely, they didn't even know how to price it, 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.360 Like that's how knew it was like no one knew 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:46.920 what to I didn't even know what VOD meant, do 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:48.840 you know what I mean? Like it was just no 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.000 one understood any of that at that point. Yeah. 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:53.960 Yeah. The weekend that you guys in Palm Springs came out, 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.160 that was like a happy weekend in the household, where 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.800 we just you didn't know if you were coming or going, 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:02.360 if we would be here next week or not here, 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:06.280 you know, just yeah, So that I definitely remember, like 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:10.240 just those first two months where just any new cinema 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:12.080 content was like relief. 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:17.160 It's so funny. I didn't watch any TV. Screens were 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:20.200 not my thing. I was reading at the beginning, reading 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.960 and cooking and listening to audio books like I couldn't. 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.640 I could, I don't. I couldn't find the right content 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:31.159 that made me feel okay, And so I was going 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.880 back to old books I'd already read. How'd you read? Uh? 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:37.599 The Bluest Eye is one of my favorite audio books 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:42.880 because it's read by Ruby d Antony. It's why it's 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:48.200 literally like going to the theater ordering that now. Incredible, incredible. 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:50.520 So I listened to that. I went back to all 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.280 the old David Sedari's books because they just made me 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:56.560 laugh and sort of took me completely out of what 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.000 we were in. And so I would cook and listen 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:03.560 to audio books, and and then I slowly crept myself 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:07.040 back to television. And you know, I remember watching The 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:09.840 Tiger King and thinking, I'm not sure that this is 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:14.440 a very soothing bomb. I don't know that my soul 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:20.560 is going, Ah, this is what I needed. I'm not 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.880 sure what's happening here. This is very much to take in. 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:25.640 His outfits were intense. 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:29.200 Was Tiger King. The lowest, I'll say, probably for me, 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.400 was Selling sun That Set was the lowest that I 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:34.680 went as far as like, what do you wait? 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:36.760 Wait? Can I just tell you something? Selling Sunset was 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.880 definitely lower and I actually watched it too, and then 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:42.400 I caught myself at a certain point and I was like, 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:43.520 oh this, I've got to stop this. 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.360 I can't great right, and then you're watching all three 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:47.040 seasons and. 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.040 My whole I did not watch all three seasons. 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.320 Here, you can go down with that. 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.200 So let me preface A friend of like, I'm a 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.920 thirty rock So a friend of mine at Saturday Night 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.640 Live was doing a Selling Sunset spoof for the show, 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.200 and I didn't know the other references. I was like, 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:07.360 all right, let me watch one episode, and then that's 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.360 how I got trapped, yeah, and then started just watching. 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:12.040 I still have not. 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:14.960 Watched an episode of the Kardashians. 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:16.480 Ever in your whole life. 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:21.280 No, I why really, none of y'all, I really. 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.600 Have gentlemen, I'm giving you the biggest side I right now, 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:25.960 come on, but no, I really haven't. 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:28.640 First of all, you do get enough of the snippets 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:33.160 on cram Ma'll come through? I did, I will. I 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.480 tried to watch this the was it the first episode 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:37.880 of this fight? Is this the final This is the 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:39.160 final season, right, Leslie. 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:40.760 I'm not supposed to know that, but yeah, that's what 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:42.040 they say. You know, that's what I heard. 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:45.719 Okay. I saw that. 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:47.800 I saw a piece of it, and I was watching 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:49.280 and I was like, this is just not for me, 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.160 you know, It's just it's just not this is the 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:54.440 same thing happens. When I opened TikTok, I go, oh, 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.120 I don't, I don't know what's happening. Oh god, you're 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.960 not wanting to Halloween did that on TikTok. 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.480 But when I I was about to say, you seem 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:05.160 like the prime candidate for it. 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:07.800 Yeah, my content can go on there. But when I 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.640 open that app, I feel like I'm being assaulted. I 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:14.880 just like it's like as an app crazy and I 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:16.840 feel like it's not meant for my generation. 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.800 I was like, that's okay, when do we start admitting 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:21.240 these things? I'm so ready for that. 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:25.680 I'm so right now, right now, yeah, right now, proud, proud, 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:30.000 proud of my age. I have earned every stripe, every wrinkle, 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.160 every cellulite, every droop, all of it. I've earned it all. 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.640 And I'm happy to say, No, that's not for me. 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:36.079 I'm good. 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:39.559 I will say that as a person that lives in 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.920 a hotel room, like I'm a lazy card desk, Like 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.160 I don't actively look for like the new episode, but 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:50.800 on Sundays the network will do that eight hour marathon, 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.400 and I just feel and I just like, sometimes I 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:59.800 like a good aquarium to be in my room for 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:02.800 like before my girlfriend moved in, Like I lived alone 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.439 for the longest, and you just have TV running on 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:09.839 the background. I normally, normally my fish, my aquarium was 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:16.360 was my Soul Trade episodes. But now, please, I'm just 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:18.679 saying that if it's on, I don't turn it off. 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:21.600 I don't actively watch it, but I also don't turn 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:21.920 it off. 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.040 So and by the way, I'm not I'm not hating, 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.079 as I said, it's just not for me, you know 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.640 what I mean. I'm not hating on that. I personally. 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:32.000 Other people have said. 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:36.360 Worse is the diplomatic way to It's totally quiet for 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:38.520 me in my home and in my life, Like I 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:42.120 don't I listen to music, but I don't have a 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:46.120 soundtrack that's always going or a TV not at all. 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.800 Do you get do you get overwhelmed by the music 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.400 like you do everything else? Because I don't know about you, 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:53.760 but yeah, well I don't. 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:57.199 I mean I talk for a living and so like 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.480 at a certain point, I'm just like move enough, like 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:05.120 shut it down, and I do like when I'm packing 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:09.800 or I need background information because I always get anxiety 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.800 when I'm packing to go somewhere. It's such an ordeal. 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.120 It's such an ordeal. And I'm such an overpacker, and 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.640 it's like I have lost I've let go of all 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:20.800 the shame about the overpack. It just is what it is. 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:24.760 I am. My friends find it hilarious and so annoying. 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:27.280 But while I'm packing, I like to listen to stand 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:27.800 up comedy. 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:29.640 We're the same person. 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:37.040 Who means, well, yes, what you are listening to? 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:38.319 Sure? 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:45.000 Well, let you talk you about myself like an aquarian. 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:54.400 And I like you. I just watched Raw again. I 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:58.760 just watched Richard Pryor when he's in the Red satin shirt, 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:02.120 and I'm like, do that shirt went from satin to velvet. 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:05.600 Sweat like sunset? 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.720 Right? Like it was, it went into like a sunset, 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:10.240 and then all of a sudden it looked velvet. 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:14.839 Wait have I have I ever admitted on the show 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:19.079 that he's Murphy Eddie's comedy never hit me? 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.240 Oh no, oh no, I don't think you said that 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:24.400 mister supposed to be a black person. 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.719 But let's get into it just because wait, because. 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:33.079 I never heard one say what that. I never heard 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:33.439 say that. 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:35.800 I wasn't allowed to watch it as a kid, and 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.839 so when I got it years like I got that 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.360 when I was on the tour bus and I only 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:43.520 knew the stuff based on what my friends did in 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.199 high school, like like I knew the ice cream joking 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:50.439 on that stuff, but watching raw and uh delirious for 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:52.400 the first time, like as a twenty year old on 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:56.160 the tour bus, like I didn't. I wasn't on the 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.679 floor like I was with Chris Rock or watching Chappelle. 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.800 I think it's one of those you had to be 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:06.680 there moments and then like a millennial watching Public Enemy right. 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:08.880 Now, like but let me ask you a question, though, 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.760 when you watch Richard Pryor, Does it hit. 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:18.199 You I snuck like I I snuck Richard Pryor, Like 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.480 my dad had those records and I'd sneak and listen 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.360 to those records. He didn't bring Eddie Murphy in the house, 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:24.960 so we didn't have cable. 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:27.240 Like, oh, so you're saying you didn't hear it in 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.079 its time because you heard it, right, Okay. 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:29.959 I don't know. 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.320 I think I think I don't know that it has 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:35.280 I don't know. I'm not your therapist, but I don't 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:37.439 know if it has to do with what you heard 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.079 as a kid, because I didn't hear Eddie Murphy or 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:44.560 Richard Pryor as a kid. And but that sensibility, particularly 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.880 Richard Pryor and his storytelling ability, I can't, like, I 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.559 can't get over it, like it I as I was. 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:52.800 I would be packing and I would stop and just 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.560 be like the crafting and it's not even crafting, it's 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.000 just the way his mind works, right, Like it just 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.040 blew my mind the way he would come back around. 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.560 You know, there's some comedians I watch and I think, uh, 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:09.640 there was more to that joke, Like you quite get 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.160 the rest out of that, Like you know, like the 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:14.760 the backseat driver who can say, like what the commedian 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.079 like he's on Netflix, Like clearly he's just fine. I 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.240 don't think he needs Tracy's commentary. But but that's the 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:22.000 beauty of watching it in your home. You can do 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.680 all that. But I will admit, no, I don't know 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:25.480 if I'm gonna admit. 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:25.680 What I was. 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.800 Good ahead, let it fly safe. 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.760 Oh bull crap, No, it is a safe well. 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:36.320 I don't know. 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:39.320 That's true. That's true. 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:43.080 No, there there is someone who people are shocked that 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.760 I do not have on in any of my music playlists. 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.040 And it's just not someone I listened to. I did 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:51.120 growing up, but it hasn't lasted for me. 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:54.920 I got it anyway. 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:57.200 No, it's it's Prince. 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.440 That's maybe this isn't a safe space. 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.040 I get it. Princess a niche artist, and so like 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:09.440 I very specific. 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:11.840 You know, it's interesting because like I grew up. I 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.760 remember when Darling Nikki came out, I would hide on 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:18.240 the backside of my bed on the floor with the 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:21.800 tape cassette thing opened up to look at the look 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.400 at the lyrics and I and I learned that song. 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:30.840 It was like this is fascinating. What is all this 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:31.720 he speaks of? 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:34.760 Was that something that you would have you would have 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:36.440 gotten in trouble and you would have got caught for 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:37.160 if that? 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.920 Probably? I mean my mom is anti violence and pro sex, 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.760 like she didn't have issue with love and sex and 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:49.040 us seeing that, but violence, like the Flintstones she had 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.800 issued with because of the violence and that like they're violence. 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.320 Bam bam, yeah seriously. 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:58.760 And the way he treated his wife was not great. 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:04.200 Fred Yeah, yeah, so but I don't think I mean 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.440 that's that song was really intense. No, it was. 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:09.840 I didn't know how old you were still. 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.320 Live and what year did that What year did that 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:13.000 song come out? 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:14.360 Eighty four, eighty four. 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:15.920 I was born in seventy two. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.120 I was twelve, I mean yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:21.720 There was a period where like a lot of black 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:27.480 families became super Christian conservative, like between seventy nine and 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:32.400 eighty eight. So I caught hell like baby boomers. Yeah, 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:33.840 I mean, well, the thing is they did all the 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.000 sin and as as twenty year olds in the sixties 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:38.960 and all the Heatonistics shit in the seventies, and then 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.000 they had to atone for their sin when they returned 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.760 forty so yeah, I'm just saying, like I missed, I 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:48.400 got on punishment for prince, but for everything else, like 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:53.000 they were on my ass as far as like making 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.800 sure that I didn't see it even though like I 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.240 had cousins and whatnot. So that's why let me ask. 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:02.000 You a question. Were my forties supposed to be atoning 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:10.360 for my sinses. 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:07.720 Were different than their forties? 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:08.280 Okay? 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:13.240 But the thing is also I'll say that the the 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.680 silver lining of what we just went through this year 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.879 was that we have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:27.480 idea of the moral right majority is absolutely full of shit. 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.440 Like we have proof. Now, yeah, that's the thing that 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:33.439 that's the thing that everyone was hanging on, like they 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:38.159 actually believed in, like you know, Christian values and family 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:40.560 values and all these things and cleanliness and all that. 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:47.880 You know, drinking milk, Thank you cleanliness though, I really 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:48.600 like that. 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:52.720 But I'm just saying that in terms of what the 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:57.040 moral right has led us to think was, you know, 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:00.680 American moral right values in which i've in the last 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:03.760 four years of what we went through, has been absolutely 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:07.199 proven that it's bullshit. Like there really isn't a moral right. 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:11.280 It's just hiding behind the shield of Christianity to and 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.240 racism exactly. 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.800 I mean, morality is a tough one. I think values 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.600 are very different, but morality has a fundamentalism to it 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:25.240 that gets really complicated because somebody gets to decide what's 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:29.840 right and wrong. Obviously there is a baseline you know, 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.960 on those things, but it starts to get really complicated. 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:40.760 And yeah, I think that the moral right, so to speak, 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:43.880 is a different term and has been used to sort 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:47.240 of cloak racism, sexism, et cetera. 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.000 But that's just I think it's going to be a 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:54.399 long time before we get somebody that can pull what 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:58.280 Reagan pulled in terms of like really getting people to 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:02.200 turn around and at least we're black people, because you know, 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.280 people younger people are shocked when I tell them, like 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.280 everyone my parents' age were like Republicans because they thought, like, 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:13.840 you know, Republicans are closer to Christianity and abortion, so 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:18.520 you know, yeah, like people were really shocked that blacks 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:23.160 were as conservative as they were. I doubt that it'll 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.400 happen again. So yes, to answer your question, yeah, I don't. 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.159 I don't think forty and fifty year old people have 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:31.000 anything to worry about as far as hell. 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.880 I'm not atoning. I'm trying to get as free as 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:38.280 I can. Certed woman, listen into the world. 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:48.480 Hey man, talking shit. Okay, I have to ask you, obviously, 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.040 and I was wondering to shout to even burden you 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:53.639 about like the first ten years of your life, but 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:57.800 only because of my personal curiosity. I'll say that, you know, 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.119 I think I told you the story before that. Instead 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:03.199 of like reading me books, my parents would just put 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.359 records on and that would be my uh, what do 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.440 you call it? My lullaby And so they would often 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:13.919 play your mom's live records, her two live records at 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:17.680 Caesar's in Vegas as my that was. That was like 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:21.840 my my lullabye, you know whatever. And so she they'd 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.560 always put on side too, where she would tell the 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.320 stories of Ronda, Tracy and Chutney, which I guess to 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:29.320 like five year old me, you all were just like 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:33.719 one three headed monster. So Or she would always talk 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:34.600 about crazy. 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:36.760 You're not the only one. I can't remember who else, 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.120 Toronto Burke. She's always like Ron to Tracy Chutney. 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:44.159 Right right. I just knew you guys, like I was like, oh, 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.080 they're my friends. Because she and she always talked about 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:48.760 you three, like when she went on Dinah Shore and 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:52.240 when she went like the average, like the talks to circuits, 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:54.960 she would just talk about her children. But it was 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:59.200 like always one name. So I guess my question is like, 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:04.160 at what point does it register to you that you're 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:09.280 not in an average situation as far as your childhood's concerned. 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:11.600 Not to mention, your dad is like a supermanager of 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:15.680 like Rufus and Shaka Khan and Billy Preston and Franklin 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:20.119 Asi and all these other groups. Your father bob Ellis 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:22.480 who I just that's It never occurred to me that 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:26.040 the elis in your name was the bob Ellis. 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:27.560 And let me tell you why I put that in 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:29.159 my name. I have like three things to say of 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:30.520 what you said, so I want to answer your question, 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:32.439 but I would also want to say whatever we were 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:37.600 texting about. You mentioned the name of a group from 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:39.600 my dad that which he managed. It was like an 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:41.760 offshoot of some other group where they were back. I 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:43.680 don't know. But when I mentioned it to him, because 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:46.200 I read him the text right, he first time, my 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:48.320 dad is the best stories. But he went on this 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:51.479 whole long tangent about this group, and we thought they 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:53.080 were going to be the ones that I don't know. 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:54.720 He had this whole story and I was like that, 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:57.159 I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm not 0:21:57.240 --> 0:21:58.960 going to remember know what you're talking about. 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:02.480 Okay, but by the way, we only got Tracy on 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:04.000 the show, so we can get to Bob. 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:07.479 Okay, happy to hear. 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.240 Yes, I have a legendary picture of him myself that 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.240 I'm saving for later. But please don't forget what your 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:13.040 points Tracy about. 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:16.560 Okay. So to answer your question about when did it 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:18.879 sort of dawnam did I realize who my mom was 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:22.399 in the in the context of life, and that it 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:26.000 was not I wasn't having the most ordinary experience of 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:29.440 being a child. So a couple of things to set 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.879 the stage. My mom is a mom before she's the 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:37.879 Diana Ross lady, so who the sort of extraordinariness of 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:40.760 Dinah Ross does not hold a candle to who she 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:43.680 is as a mom, Like she's really great as Diana Ross, 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.359 but like she's like exponentially great as a mom. So 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:51.160 we always came first. So she recorded at night while 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:53.480 she would put us in bed, get us to sleep, 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:55.560 then she would leave and go to the recording studio, 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:58.000 get home, wake us up for school, and then go 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:00.600 back to sleep. She never left for longer than a 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:03.520 week when we were in school, so and when she 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:06.159 was gone, she would call us at dinner time or 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:10.480 bedtime and in the morning sore. The sense of home 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:14.479 and normalcy that I grew up in was home and normal. 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:17.600 I wasn't carted all over the world in some crazy way. 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:20.800 And then on the summers we would go. She would 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:23.800 rent a home somewhere and have a home base. So 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:26.520 she would rent a home in London. We would live there. 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:29.399 She would charter out every night to go fly to 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:32.840 her gigs. I call them gigs still, it's really funny. 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:36.200 She would go fly to her shows and then come back. 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:39.359 So the sense of normalcy that I had, it wasn't 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:41.960 like I was, you know, I was going to school, 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:43.880 I was doing all the regular things. The other piece 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:47.119 of it is that I went to Dalton growing up, 0:23:47.840 --> 0:23:52.320 and I went to school with Robert Redford's kids, the 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:57.040 Ralph Lauren children. I'm trying to think za Bar's children, 0:23:57.160 --> 0:24:00.399 like all of these people who were part of the 0:24:00.560 --> 0:24:04.800 fabric of American culture. So it was normalized for all 0:24:04.880 --> 0:24:07.840 of us. We were just kids who our parents were. 0:24:08.080 --> 0:24:10.639 Was not like a thing, and it didn't come up 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:13.720 like it wasn't a part of what was happening in 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:17.920 my dynamics as a kid. I started to realize it 0:24:18.080 --> 0:24:20.600 and have really felt the impact of it later in 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:23.920 my life. But there were a couple of indicators that 0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:27.520 shit was weird, Like when you would go with your 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:33.119 mom to work and leave and there would be throngs 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:35.560 of people banging on the outside of the car, and 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:38.320 like security would have to escort us with police to 0:24:38.320 --> 0:24:40.960 wherever we went, and you know, like things like that 0:24:41.840 --> 0:24:44.639 were you know clearly like I'm not a dummy, Like 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:47.720 I was like this can't be normal, Like this is 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:51.760 not this is not a normal thing. But because of 0:24:51.840 --> 0:24:54.320 the groundedness of how we were raised, how I was, 0:24:54.440 --> 0:24:56.760 I say, we too, like I'm a Roda Tracy Chutney. 0:24:58.280 --> 0:25:02.160 So because of how we were raised that the magnitude 0:25:02.200 --> 0:25:04.320 of that didn't quite dawn on me until I was 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:09.400 an adult and realized that I wouldn't even be doing 0:25:09.440 --> 0:25:11.080 what I was doing were it not for what my 0:25:11.160 --> 0:25:13.480 mom did and the way that she paved You know 0:25:13.720 --> 0:25:19.960 that there there were places and spaces that I would 0:25:20.040 --> 0:25:22.480 not be able to inhabit and certainly wouldn't have the 0:25:22.560 --> 0:25:25.800 confidence in inhabiting had it not been not only for 0:25:25.920 --> 0:25:28.959 the career of my mom, but also how I was raised. 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:32.200 And so you know, I don't know if that answers 0:25:32.240 --> 0:25:34.720 your question. And then the third thing you asked, was. 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:38.200 I never had a meta rabbit hole before. 0:25:38.640 --> 0:25:43.639 Yeah, it was so old points still like she stayed. 0:25:45.320 --> 0:25:47.200 There was a third but anyway, so it's jogged another 0:25:47.280 --> 0:25:47.720 thought for you. 0:25:48.400 --> 0:25:52.600 All right, well, okay, can you I always tried to 0:25:52.680 --> 0:25:57.600 imagine what it was like to grow up in Los 0:25:57.640 --> 0:25:59.879 Angeles or Hollywood, assuming that you grew up. 0:26:00.000 --> 0:26:03.360 I grew up in New York. Really, yeah, New York, 0:26:03.480 --> 0:26:05.560 New York, and Europe. So I was born here in 0:26:05.760 --> 0:26:07.520 La I went to the Center, and then we moved 0:26:07.520 --> 0:26:08.960 to New York so my mom could do the WIZ 0:26:09.040 --> 0:26:13.960 in seventy nine, and we left and started school in 0:26:14.040 --> 0:26:18.919 New York in seventy nine and stayed there until seventh grade, 0:26:19.119 --> 0:26:21.560 and I'm we moved to Paris and then Switzerland, so 0:26:21.680 --> 0:26:24.679 I did eighth and ninth grade in Europe, which are 0:26:24.760 --> 0:26:28.960 pivotal years, and then moved back to the East Coast 0:26:29.240 --> 0:26:30.080 and then went to Brown. 0:26:31.000 --> 0:26:37.960 You've got a couple of languages and maybe oh I 0:26:38.040 --> 0:26:38.960 just forgot all my friends. 0:26:44.880 --> 0:26:47.920 I have lost most of my vocabulary, but I have 0:26:48.040 --> 0:26:51.080 a strong French accent that can, you know, get me 0:26:51.200 --> 0:26:53.760 by and I can speak English with a French accent 0:26:53.880 --> 0:26:57.280 like nobody's business. Then you have no idea because you 0:26:57.320 --> 0:26:59.920 don't know that I speak English of conscience. Isn't about 0:26:59.920 --> 0:27:02.119 to because the people they wander. I don't know how 0:27:02.160 --> 0:27:04.120 you stay in English because the people are the wonder 0:27:04.200 --> 0:27:06.440 all the time? You know how you say, how you say? 0:27:07.600 --> 0:27:07.679 Uh? 0:27:08.359 --> 0:27:13.359 You know, wait, I'm sorry, I'm mere almos, Tracy, Tracy? 0:27:13.440 --> 0:27:15.359 Do you right? I do? 0:27:15.680 --> 0:27:16.639 I write so me. 0:27:16.760 --> 0:27:18.560 It's it's funny because I was just thinking you. I 0:27:18.640 --> 0:27:20.800 know you've done improv. I seen you sketch comedy with 0:27:20.840 --> 0:27:22.760 the lyricists lounge. Of course, you're a funny lady. 0:27:23.040 --> 0:27:25.119 How come? And I know your ian a stand up? 0:27:25.200 --> 0:27:27.040 Have you ever thought of like just doing. 0:27:26.960 --> 0:27:28.920 I've not done stand up, but I have to tell 0:27:29.000 --> 0:27:32.199 you I mean this. I'm forty eight years old. At 0:27:32.240 --> 0:27:35.600 my forty eight, I'm forty eight, and I'm going through 0:27:36.400 --> 0:27:40.640 the beginning of some changes, some perimenopause. And I've got 0:27:40.760 --> 0:27:42.879 to tell you that I get to stand up on 0:27:43.000 --> 0:27:46.400 this ship because I first of all, it's got Did 0:27:46.480 --> 0:27:51.360 you see the that two second pool video I posted? 0:27:51.880 --> 0:27:55.240 Yes, thoughts there. 0:27:57.119 --> 0:27:59.200 I heard about that fool video. It's funny. I don't 0:27:59.200 --> 0:28:01.120 think it's two seconds. 0:28:01.200 --> 0:28:04.359 It's two seconds in that video, Tracy. 0:28:04.440 --> 0:28:05.959 It don't matter. You was in a bathing suit. That's 0:28:06.000 --> 0:28:07.400 what I heard. That's all I had in a pool. 0:28:09.640 --> 0:28:12.680 I mean, you know, I have a like it wasn't 0:28:12.760 --> 0:28:16.240 me in a bathing suit in the kitchen actually in 0:28:16.320 --> 0:28:16.680 the pool. 0:28:17.880 --> 0:28:20.560 Yeah, I just like, why is this two seconds? 0:28:20.720 --> 0:28:21.200 You should do that? 0:28:21.200 --> 0:28:23.320 Because a female comedian told me that female shouldn't talk 0:28:23.359 --> 0:28:25.159 about female issues, so please do that. 0:28:25.840 --> 0:28:30.080 Why I wish more people would talk about it. I 0:28:30.160 --> 0:28:32.879 don't know about you, but some of the sexiest and 0:28:33.080 --> 0:28:36.720 most admirable women that I look at are my age 0:28:36.760 --> 0:28:39.600 and older. I want to know what's happening and. 0:28:40.160 --> 0:28:43.240 It's still happening, and how it happens and what it is, 0:28:43.480 --> 0:28:43.760 and like. 0:28:43.840 --> 0:28:45.760 It should be demestified. And I don't think it should 0:28:45.760 --> 0:28:48.160 be scary to men either. I think it's it's certainly 0:28:48.200 --> 0:28:50.120 not the end of my life. I am not being 0:28:50.320 --> 0:28:53.160 pushed out on a canoe out into nowhere. I'll tell 0:28:53.200 --> 0:28:55.440 you that right now. I, as I said before, am 0:28:55.480 --> 0:28:58.400 a liberated woman. I am out here living my life 0:28:58.480 --> 0:29:02.320 in all of its fullness. And I think people we 0:29:02.400 --> 0:29:04.960 should talk about it in that way so that we 0:29:05.160 --> 0:29:06.680 let go of the stigma. It's the same thing like 0:29:06.720 --> 0:29:09.240 on Blackish when we did that episode on postpartum depression. 0:29:09.560 --> 0:29:11.760 Why are we not talking about these things when you're 0:29:11.840 --> 0:29:15.800 siloed off by yourself, that's when you feel termally unique 0:29:15.880 --> 0:29:18.240 and you don't think that you can you know, it's 0:29:18.480 --> 0:29:21.280 just you that's in that situation. Nah, We're all doing it. 0:29:21.320 --> 0:29:23.520 And by the way, men have their own version of 0:29:23.600 --> 0:29:26.320 what's happening at this age as their home hormones are 0:29:26.320 --> 0:29:27.240 shifting and changing. 0:29:27.680 --> 0:29:30.400 Yeah yeah, hey, well yeah, I was about to say, 0:29:30.480 --> 0:29:33.880 will set it off yesterday, even though this is coming 0:29:33.920 --> 0:29:34.480 on way later. 0:29:34.600 --> 0:29:37.440 Oh my god, that was so charming and lovely. 0:29:37.200 --> 0:29:39.760 That he did that, and that was my favorite post. Yes, 0:29:40.200 --> 0:29:41.000 it was so lovely. 0:29:41.080 --> 0:29:42.800 But I also have to say, like a friend, so 0:29:42.920 --> 0:29:45.360 many friends and me if text I did a video 0:29:45.440 --> 0:29:47.840 on that on Instagram too, of people saying, you know, 0:29:47.840 --> 0:29:50.800 I've gained so much weight. Good, bravo, thank your body. 0:29:50.960 --> 0:29:53.640 You just made it through a pandemic. What else were 0:29:53.680 --> 0:29:55.920 you supposed to do? And I'm sorry, but that layer 0:29:56.000 --> 0:30:00.080 of softness welcome it because the shit was hard and 0:30:00.200 --> 0:30:01.920 scary and sharp out there. 0:30:02.320 --> 0:30:03.360 Everybody make it? 0:30:04.320 --> 0:30:07.880 No, you know, and so and and our joy and 0:30:07.960 --> 0:30:11.720 spontaneity was all funneled into very few spaces, most of 0:30:11.800 --> 0:30:15.560 which involved food and drink. So what y'all thought was 0:30:15.560 --> 0:30:20.720 gonna happen? Well, I've never done that, but you know that. 0:30:21.080 --> 0:30:24.400 But don't worry. It's okay. I'm okay. 0:30:25.520 --> 0:30:28.480 No truth, truth that you never had, no truth at all. 0:30:30.200 --> 0:30:32.840 No, and my friends know. I call it the devil's lettuce. 0:30:34.640 --> 0:30:36.600 Why did they let you in? The lyrics is lounge? 0:30:36.720 --> 0:30:39.120 I don't I don't know, I don't. 0:30:38.960 --> 0:30:44.000 Know it can happen. I'm gonna leave bloom or two trades. Yeah, 0:30:44.000 --> 0:30:45.520 I will aide you through this. 0:30:46.080 --> 0:30:48.360 Yeah, I've been I've been saying. I mean, I have 0:30:48.480 --> 0:30:50.720 so many stories about me thinking I'm gonna walk that 0:30:50.800 --> 0:30:51.120 way and. 0:30:51.520 --> 0:30:53.440 Wait till fifty. Just go ahead of wait till fifty. 0:30:53.800 --> 0:30:55.880 Okay, maybe it'll be my fiftieth birthday. You can send 0:30:55.880 --> 0:30:56.440 me a package. 0:30:56.680 --> 0:30:58.880 I'll leave the light one for you. Trust me, I 0:30:58.960 --> 0:31:04.000 got you. I got okay. So I always wanted to know, 0:31:04.920 --> 0:31:06.880 as far as you're growing up as concerned and that 0:31:07.840 --> 0:31:10.280 you were paired with other kids that were sort of 0:31:10.320 --> 0:31:13.920 in the same position as you, at what point, at 0:31:14.000 --> 0:31:17.240 any point, did you ever had to adjust in a 0:31:17.320 --> 0:31:21.280 world in which people weren't of that sort of cut 0:31:21.360 --> 0:31:26.040 from that that same cloth, where you had to deal 0:31:26.120 --> 0:31:27.960 with everyday people, Like, at what point. 0:31:27.800 --> 0:31:30.280 Were you every day in life? I mean I was, 0:31:30.400 --> 0:31:33.240 you know. I First of all, the way I was 0:31:33.360 --> 0:31:36.360 raised again is everybody is a person. I am one 0:31:36.400 --> 0:31:39.040 of people. I was not raised to think I was 0:31:39.120 --> 0:31:43.840 better than anybody. I had certain different opportunities and experiences 0:31:44.360 --> 0:31:47.440 than other people, but I was always taught to connect 0:31:47.640 --> 0:31:50.760 on the places that we are the same. We've all 0:31:50.800 --> 0:31:54.200 got blood running through our veins, and we all have feelings, 0:31:54.400 --> 0:31:57.280 and we all most of us are getting up every 0:31:57.360 --> 0:31:59.640 day trying to do our best and work our hardest 0:31:59.720 --> 0:32:02.800 and and sort of make at least our lives work 0:32:03.040 --> 0:32:07.840 and function properly. So I also come I don't know 0:32:07.920 --> 0:32:10.000 if I was taught this, if I came up with this, 0:32:10.480 --> 0:32:14.440 if you know, but to sort of put my my 0:32:14.640 --> 0:32:18.040 humanness as the front runner of who I am not. 0:32:18.960 --> 0:32:20.480 And first of all, I didn't do that. My mom 0:32:20.560 --> 0:32:23.600 did all those things. Did she keep. 0:32:23.520 --> 0:32:25.520 You around like a couple of Detroit cousins just to 0:32:25.600 --> 0:32:26.560 make sure do y'all knew. 0:32:26.840 --> 0:32:30.920 I went to Detroit every summer, and that's how you 0:32:31.040 --> 0:32:33.800 do it. Yeah, on a palette on the floor, and 0:32:33.880 --> 0:32:38.040 on Bobby's house up the street from Grandmammy, and Bobby 0:32:38.120 --> 0:32:39.880 sat me between her legs and did my hair with 0:32:39.960 --> 0:32:43.840 that goodie comb and tried to kill my scalp. And 0:32:44.320 --> 0:32:47.000 you know, Grandmammy, my Grandma lined us up outside the 0:32:47.040 --> 0:32:50.200 fancy bathroom downstairs and put all the cousins and put 0:32:50.240 --> 0:32:52.760 mayonnaise in our hair on the on the laid on 0:32:52.800 --> 0:32:54.720 the kitchen sink, put our head in the sink, and 0:32:54.800 --> 0:32:57.280 then filled our hair with mayonnaise. You had to walk 0:32:57.320 --> 0:33:01.160 around smell on like a sandwich forever to get your hair. 0:33:02.040 --> 0:33:04.480 I mean, all all of our cousins and boys and girls. 0:33:04.560 --> 0:33:06.480 It wasn't just the girl, the girls like the boys 0:33:06.520 --> 0:33:08.880 and girl. We all got lined up step and Monica Kevin, Kevin, 0:33:09.200 --> 0:33:10.360 we all just line up. 0:33:10.600 --> 0:33:13.040 We see that in rainbow that is so beautiful. That's dope, 0:33:13.080 --> 0:33:13.560 it's funny. 0:33:14.160 --> 0:33:17.240 So so yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, we weren't 0:33:17.400 --> 0:33:22.440 sheltered to be up in some crystal palace somewhere, although 0:33:22.680 --> 0:33:26.959 we lived, you know, in a hotel and I got 0:33:27.040 --> 0:33:29.200 to work in a rolls at the school at a 0:33:29.280 --> 0:33:31.200 Rolls rods every day with a driver by the name 0:33:31.200 --> 0:33:31.520 of Bartha. 0:33:31.640 --> 0:33:32.160 But that's. 0:33:35.800 --> 0:33:36.280 As you do. 0:33:37.120 --> 0:33:41.080 Wait a minute, okay, So yeah, I'm like, okay, so 0:33:41.240 --> 0:33:44.760 these things also did happen. I'm not saying they didn't, but. 0:33:46.520 --> 0:33:51.280 Wow, that's amazing Christmas a Ritz. 0:33:51.560 --> 0:33:53.640 But then we were in Detroit in summers, so. 0:33:53.640 --> 0:34:00.760 They did you. I know that singing at least when 0:34:00.920 --> 0:34:05.320 when I first met you in the early arts, singing 0:34:05.480 --> 0:34:09.080 was always a big passion of yours. With a household 0:34:09.239 --> 0:34:12.000 like yours, in an environment like you grew up in, 0:34:12.920 --> 0:34:15.400 how easy was it for you to express the desire 0:34:15.520 --> 0:34:18.360 to want to do something in the arts or not 0:34:18.480 --> 0:34:19.560 be shy about. 0:34:19.320 --> 0:34:25.680 It, Like Harry, My mother supported us in finding our 0:34:25.840 --> 0:34:28.200 version of expression in whatever that looked like. 0:34:28.800 --> 0:34:31.200 But you know, are you the only singing Ross? 0:34:31.920 --> 0:34:36.040 No, Ronda is a singer, Evan's a singer. 0:34:37.080 --> 0:34:40.440 I'm the last I forgot your brother Evan Ross, that's okay, I'm. 0:34:40.320 --> 0:34:43.239 The last to the party. And it's so funny because 0:34:43.280 --> 0:34:45.480 I remember, I can't remember how many years ago it was, 0:34:45.520 --> 0:34:47.920 but my mom was in Vegas and on stage and 0:34:48.040 --> 0:34:51.200 she was like, you know, my children sing blah blah 0:34:51.200 --> 0:34:53.480 blah whatever, and I want to bring someone up to 0:34:53.560 --> 0:34:56.479 sing with me. And I'm like standing there, like, go ahead, Evan, 0:34:56.520 --> 0:34:58.719 go ahead, you know whatever, and she said my name, 0:34:58.760 --> 0:35:01.960 and I was like, with what's happening right now? I 0:35:02.120 --> 0:35:04.440 was like, this is not my thing. I'm the funny one. 0:35:04.520 --> 0:35:07.480 What are we doing? What's happening? And she made me 0:35:07.640 --> 0:35:10.680 sing on stage and it was so hilarious because if 0:35:10.719 --> 0:35:14.440 you watch the video, you see my mom turn into 0:35:14.600 --> 0:35:19.759 my mom and think, oh no, did I just put 0:35:19.880 --> 0:35:22.920 Tracy put my baby in a position that she didn't 0:35:23.040 --> 0:35:26.400 want to be in inadvertently, like did I make her 0:35:26.719 --> 0:35:29.160 put her, you know, too exposed on something that makes 0:35:29.200 --> 0:35:32.479 her shy? And she sort of she got this tone 0:35:32.520 --> 0:35:34.839 in her voice that was such my mom's tone of Okay, 0:35:34.880 --> 0:35:38.480 everybody be quiet because this is important, like quiet, we need, 0:35:38.680 --> 0:35:40.520 we need to support this moment. Be quiet? 0:35:41.680 --> 0:35:44.040 Are you speaking of the infamous? When she puts people 0:35:44.040 --> 0:35:46.520 on the spot to sing reach Out and touch No. 0:35:46.800 --> 0:35:48.920 She put me on stage and had me sing this 0:35:49.080 --> 0:35:51.360 sing like Billie Holiday. 0:35:51.680 --> 0:35:52.960 Oh, Like I. 0:35:54.640 --> 0:35:58.680 Sing that around the house and she was like, go ahead, 0:35:58.719 --> 0:36:01.080 did you? Because every time I mean I sang in 0:36:01.200 --> 0:36:03.320 high school and whatever, every time I sang. When I 0:36:03.440 --> 0:36:07.160 was twenty two, my mom said to me, all right, Tracy, 0:36:07.600 --> 0:36:09.080 it's time. And I was like, it's time for what. 0:36:09.200 --> 0:36:10.719 She's like, it's time for you to record an album. 0:36:10.760 --> 0:36:13.800 And I was like hell, no, no, no, no, no, no, 0:36:13.880 --> 0:36:18.080 no no no, I'm gonna go the other way. It's like, nope, 0:36:18.120 --> 0:36:19.879 we're gonna make people laugh and we're just gonna keep 0:36:19.880 --> 0:36:21.319 them at arm's length and that'll be good. 0:36:22.640 --> 0:36:26.320 But why, Okay, in hindsight, why do you think that 0:36:26.560 --> 0:36:27.240 was your decision? 0:36:28.200 --> 0:36:31.960 Uh, for a lot of reasons. I think unconsciously, I 0:36:33.320 --> 0:36:35.640 the idea of being compared to my mom was just 0:36:36.120 --> 0:36:42.000 too much to think of. I had also seen children 0:36:42.120 --> 0:36:46.800 of be obliterated in the press, just shredded, and you 0:36:46.960 --> 0:36:50.840 think back to that time and being the child of 0:36:51.080 --> 0:36:52.880 or any of those things, that's not that was not 0:36:53.080 --> 0:36:56.120 cool then, that was not something. That was also the 0:36:56.239 --> 0:37:00.040 time when you didn't move from TV to movies, and 0:37:00.080 --> 0:37:02.520 you didn't move from being a host to an actor, 0:37:03.080 --> 0:37:07.360 like everything was very pigeonholed. And there certainly wasn't this 0:37:08.239 --> 0:37:11.839 spirit of oh, you're Dona Ross's child. Maybe you want 0:37:11.880 --> 0:37:15.279 to say, no, not at all. And I look like 0:37:15.400 --> 0:37:17.239 my mom, And the truth is I sound kind of 0:37:17.320 --> 0:37:21.560 like her. So you know there was no you put 0:37:21.719 --> 0:37:24.000 you as soon as you put a sparkly dress on me. 0:37:25.080 --> 0:37:27.720 I mean, I've seen it now. I want a golden globe. 0:37:28.080 --> 0:37:31.399 I've been doing working in the I'm forty eight years old. 0:37:31.480 --> 0:37:34.920 I'm not a child anymore, and I still cannot do 0:37:35.080 --> 0:37:39.759 anything without my mom's name. Like maybe my mom's just 0:37:39.880 --> 0:37:43.080 like it's she's larger, she's an. 0:37:42.960 --> 0:37:47.120 Interesting let me but let me, let me interject. I 0:37:47.680 --> 0:37:53.919 definitely now feel as though, you know, to Dinah Ross, 0:37:54.000 --> 0:37:56.879 it's like, yo, Tracy Ellis is your daughter, Like, yeah, 0:37:57.920 --> 0:38:02.279 you've done You've definitely done something that is I don't 0:38:02.360 --> 0:38:06.839 know if any person, maybe Janet Overcoming who her her 0:38:06.920 --> 0:38:10.799 brothers were, to be in her own right, but yeah, 0:38:11.080 --> 0:38:13.680 like you've made your own name though. Yeah, yeah, you're 0:38:14.239 --> 0:38:17.680 when history books are written, like you know, you have 0:38:17.840 --> 0:38:20.880 your own and not even to compare like. 0:38:20.920 --> 0:38:23.279 That, you know, like we can all well, that was 0:38:23.400 --> 0:38:25.640 part of what I came to I mean and understood 0:38:25.680 --> 0:38:28.600 it's like and an adult mind can look at it 0:38:28.640 --> 0:38:31.680 that way, but a kid cannot. And so now I know, 0:38:31.880 --> 0:38:36.439 like I'm not my mom right, Like I'm not trying 0:38:36.480 --> 0:38:39.040 to be here, I'm not like never, that's not what's happening. 0:38:39.120 --> 0:38:42.920 But as a kid, you think you know and you have. 0:38:42.960 --> 0:38:44.240 Something that's really super special. 0:38:44.280 --> 0:38:46.880 I was gonna ask you because your production company is 0:38:46.960 --> 0:38:50.880 named Joy Mills, but I'm assuming that you're aware that 0:38:50.960 --> 0:38:54.320 you have that superpower and that's why you named it that. 0:38:54.520 --> 0:38:57.640 Are you aware that, like Tracy Ellen's Ross is a 0:38:57.840 --> 0:38:58.919 joy bringer. 0:39:01.160 --> 0:39:03.279 That like makes my heart very very full. 0:39:03.520 --> 0:39:04.520 I'm just trying to tell you. 0:39:06.440 --> 0:39:11.480 My I was born Tracy Joy Silverstein. That's my name, 0:39:12.200 --> 0:39:13.560 so right. 0:39:13.560 --> 0:39:17.759 Now, so because I'm like, well what about mister Ellen. 0:39:17.840 --> 0:39:20.080 Okay, okay, go ahead, Okay, So this is and that 0:39:20.360 --> 0:39:23.759 was the third point, okay about my dad. So when 0:39:23.800 --> 0:39:26.960 I joined so like many kids, uh so, then I 0:39:27.120 --> 0:39:29.640 was Tracy Joy Ross Silberstein all through growing up. T 0:39:29.800 --> 0:39:31.920 j R s were my initials all through growing up. 0:39:32.920 --> 0:39:35.759 But then, like so many people, you dropped this name. 0:39:35.840 --> 0:39:36.759 That name is too long. 0:39:36.880 --> 0:39:38.640 I was Tracy Joy Ross. You know what I mean, 0:39:39.320 --> 0:39:41.920 drop these names too many names. So I became Tracy 0:39:42.000 --> 0:39:45.160 Joy Ross. And then when I joined SAG there was 0:39:45.239 --> 0:39:50.040 another Tracy Ross in the Union. Remember Tracy Ross. 0:39:50.160 --> 0:39:50.560 She was. 0:39:54.760 --> 0:39:54.960 Yes. 0:39:55.400 --> 0:39:59.919 I thought, yeah, very. 0:40:00.280 --> 0:40:00.799 She grew up. 0:40:00.960 --> 0:40:04.680 Wow, I didn't know you were my age. 0:40:04.719 --> 0:40:06.799 I thought, like, you know, we don't all look alike. 0:40:06.840 --> 0:40:07.840 They with nothing alive. 0:40:10.280 --> 0:40:12.680 I heard the name Tracy Ellis. I remember watching that 0:40:12.760 --> 0:40:14.359 Tracy Ross on Star Search. 0:40:14.520 --> 0:40:15.040 He was a hero. 0:40:15.520 --> 0:40:18.960 And then she thought like, oh, that's Dinah Ross's daughter. 0:40:19.000 --> 0:40:20.399 That's the one she talked about. 0:40:20.960 --> 0:40:23.600 When I joined the Union, there was another Tracy Ross. 0:40:23.680 --> 0:40:25.440 So they were like, uh, do you want to be 0:40:25.520 --> 0:40:28.600 Tracy Joy Ross in the Union? And I was like yes, 0:40:28.880 --> 0:40:32.760 But everybody like I look like my mom, and people 0:40:32.920 --> 0:40:35.560 know I'm my mom's child and I'm so much a 0:40:35.640 --> 0:40:37.920 product of both of my parents, Like I am my 0:40:38.040 --> 0:40:41.560 dad's child and I'm my mom's child. And I wanted 0:40:41.719 --> 0:40:44.680 him to have a steak. You know, it's so crazy 0:40:44.800 --> 0:40:48.800 because I talk so much about women and women of color, 0:40:48.880 --> 0:40:52.680 and particularly black and brown women, that we historically have 0:40:52.840 --> 0:40:54.919 not had a steak in what we make, and even 0:40:55.000 --> 0:40:57.279 with our children, we give up our name, and so 0:40:57.400 --> 0:41:00.960 there's often this you can't even follow our bloodline because 0:41:01.000 --> 0:41:04.640 of that. But we have been at the center of economic, cultural, 0:41:04.719 --> 0:41:08.479 political revolutions in this country, and we are often doing 0:41:08.560 --> 0:41:12.160 the work, but not centered in the prize from that work. 0:41:12.760 --> 0:41:17.960 And strangely enough, I was worried about my dad having 0:41:18.600 --> 0:41:21.799 a piece of what he made, and so I put 0:41:21.880 --> 0:41:24.279 Ellis in my name and I became Tracy Ellis Ross 0:41:24.280 --> 0:41:27.440 at the beginning of my career, and my first you know, 0:41:27.640 --> 0:41:30.960 SAG card was Tracy Ellis Ross And now you know, 0:41:31.320 --> 0:41:33.640 my name goes up there and people go and Bob 0:41:33.719 --> 0:41:34.399 Elis's kid. 0:41:35.400 --> 0:41:40.360 Okay, what was the first major creative thing that you 0:41:40.840 --> 0:41:43.920 at least for you, What was the first major creative 0:41:43.920 --> 0:41:48.239 thing that you did as far as doing television or 0:41:48.239 --> 0:41:49.399 commercials or well. 0:41:49.440 --> 0:41:52.160 The first big thing I did was the gap ad 0:41:52.640 --> 0:41:56.320 with my mom. Yeah, and I remember it was on 0:41:56.600 --> 0:41:59.799 billboards and it was like a big wall and an airport. 0:42:00.040 --> 0:42:02.000 I walked through and I was just like, oh my god, 0:42:02.080 --> 0:42:04.480 I made fifteen hundred dollars and I thought I had 0:42:04.600 --> 0:42:10.359 made I was like, I'm rich. God, I don't meet 0:42:10.400 --> 0:42:16.200 my mother I'm rich. It's like, that was so amazing. 0:42:16.280 --> 0:42:19.400 I could pay my own doctor's fees. I can just 0:42:19.640 --> 0:42:23.279 I can make my own food. Was a crud. I 0:42:23.440 --> 0:42:27.360 was so much money. I was like, I was like, 0:42:27.719 --> 0:42:35.360 I will never work again. I actually think it was 0:42:35.840 --> 0:42:37.680 it was seven hundred and fifty dollars and then I 0:42:37.760 --> 0:42:39.839 think I made fifteen hundred on the first show I did. 0:42:39.960 --> 0:42:44.080 But then the next thing was I did an Infinity commercial. 0:42:44.160 --> 0:42:48.600 So I was modeling with Wilhelmine Agency and I went 0:42:48.760 --> 0:42:54.640 in for a modeling like commercial job and go see 0:42:55.239 --> 0:42:58.200 and at the place where they were doing it, they 0:42:58.239 --> 0:43:01.520 were like the people that are doing and it was 0:43:01.600 --> 0:43:06.040 a secret deodorant ad I went in for and there 0:43:06.160 --> 0:43:08.640 was a sign in sheet next to it for Infinity 0:43:08.760 --> 0:43:12.759 car commercial and whoever ran the commercial audition place was 0:43:12.840 --> 0:43:15.200 like you should go in and try for the Infinity commercial. 0:43:15.239 --> 0:43:18.080 And I was like, oh, yes, of course I'll drive. 0:43:18.719 --> 0:43:21.360 So I went in and that was the job that 0:43:21.520 --> 0:43:25.000 Taft Heart lead me into SAG, which is the job 0:43:25.080 --> 0:43:27.879 that will pay the money to get you into SAG. 0:43:28.640 --> 0:43:32.200 And yeah, I just love the idea that Tracy Els 0:43:32.520 --> 0:43:34.239 had to Taft Hartley. I mean, I've done that and 0:43:34.320 --> 0:43:36.360 it just just makes me laugh. That's okay, keep continuing, 0:43:37.600 --> 0:43:40.640 doesn't But also also, why are there not people with 0:43:40.800 --> 0:43:43.840 multiple names in SAG? Couldn't there be multiple Tracy? 0:43:44.760 --> 0:43:45.040 Really? 0:43:45.360 --> 0:43:48.000 But Nesa Williams remember William. 0:43:49.160 --> 0:43:49.200 L. 0:43:49.320 --> 0:43:54.719 Williams Vanessa Williams. Yeah, well ship okay? Cool? Yeah, I 0:43:55.000 --> 0:43:55.919 learned something again. 0:43:57.280 --> 0:44:00.120 So I got taft Heart lead in. I did that 0:44:00.280 --> 0:44:04.080 commercial and then I don't know. I mean, it has 0:44:04.160 --> 0:44:07.279 not been a fast and easy road for me. I 0:44:07.400 --> 0:44:11.800 remember there was a movie called Mixing Nia that Karen 0:44:11.920 --> 0:44:17.360 Parsons from Fresh She ended up getting that movie, and 0:44:17.480 --> 0:44:19.480 I've never been more devastated in my life. 0:44:20.120 --> 0:44:20.359 Really. 0:44:20.800 --> 0:44:23.560 I was like, I mean, I was sure. 0:44:23.880 --> 0:44:26.840 I mean that this was going to launch me into 0:44:27.000 --> 0:44:30.759 the stratosphere of the Boscar. I was going to the 0:44:30.880 --> 0:44:34.920 Academy Awards with my seven hundred and fifty dollars from 0:44:34.960 --> 0:44:38.040 my gap ad. I was going to march my way 0:44:38.080 --> 0:44:41.880 into Hollywood and be received with open arms for a 0:44:42.040 --> 0:44:43.920 career that would last a lifetime. 0:44:44.280 --> 0:44:44.839 Didn't happen. 0:44:46.120 --> 0:44:48.759 What is that process like, like your version of the 0:44:48.840 --> 0:44:53.759 Hollywood Shuffle As far as callbacks near missus, what did 0:44:53.800 --> 0:44:55.319 you audition for that you didn't get? 0:44:56.160 --> 0:44:56.279 Oh? 0:44:56.360 --> 0:44:58.719 My God, I don't even remember. I had a three 0:44:58.840 --> 0:45:01.360 ring binder, like one of the those Whopper three refinders 0:45:01.440 --> 0:45:03.400 of like every audition I had auditioned for. 0:45:04.680 --> 0:45:05.399 I didn't care. 0:45:05.920 --> 0:45:07.480 You keep all the receipts of everything. 0:45:07.880 --> 0:45:12.440 I didn't get nothing, really, because according to us, it's 0:45:12.520 --> 0:45:13.359 like Daddy's Girls. 0:45:13.400 --> 0:45:16.400 And I know, in right, like I'm trying to think no. 0:45:16.520 --> 0:45:18.960 No, no, no there from from the time that I 0:45:19.160 --> 0:45:23.359 did I did Far Harbor, that first movie I did 0:45:23.880 --> 0:45:27.400 with Jennifer Connolly and Marshall Harden. Okay, so I did that, 0:45:28.120 --> 0:45:31.480 and then I did the show and before that, I 0:45:31.600 --> 0:45:35.720 did the show The Dish on Lifetime. That was because 0:45:35.760 --> 0:45:39.279 I'm a TV girl. I live in your TV and 0:45:39.480 --> 0:45:43.880 I'm a TV girl, like and it was like a 0:45:44.040 --> 0:45:46.520 magazine show about TV shows. 0:45:49.080 --> 0:45:54.120 What nothing? He ain't say nothing, he said. 0:45:54.120 --> 0:45:55.920 At first I. 0:45:57.760 --> 0:45:59.040 Started watching Lifetime. 0:45:59.600 --> 0:46:03.440 Yeah, okay, you know. And and then I got an 0:46:03.520 --> 0:46:08.800 agent and auditioned and auditioned and auditioned and auditioned and 0:46:08.920 --> 0:46:14.480 auditioned and auditioned and auditioned and auditioned, and I auditioned 0:46:14.560 --> 0:46:17.080 some more and I didn't get many callbacks, and then 0:46:17.120 --> 0:46:20.160 they dropped me. And this is what they said. It 0:46:20.320 --> 0:46:23.680 stuck with me for a really long time. Listen, Tracy, 0:46:24.600 --> 0:46:27.719 we're gonna let you go because you come with all 0:46:27.880 --> 0:46:30.400 these bells and whistles, but then you get in the 0:46:30.480 --> 0:46:32.360 room and you just don't pop. 0:46:33.600 --> 0:46:38.440 Wow face bitch. 0:46:39.840 --> 0:46:42.320 You know what. It was a turning point for that's crazy. 0:46:42.960 --> 0:46:45.800 I could not get out of there without those you know, 0:46:45.880 --> 0:46:48.640 those tears they sit there. 0:46:52.760 --> 0:46:54.000 Because you're so ha. 0:46:56.200 --> 0:46:59.560 You know those office chairs with the wheels, the wheels 0:46:59.600 --> 0:47:02.120 on the box of them. I felt like my heart 0:47:02.280 --> 0:47:04.759 had come out and it was like stuck underneath the 0:47:04.800 --> 0:47:07.719 wheel and she kept moving the chair and it was 0:47:07.880 --> 0:47:10.800 just getting all tangled in there with my heart and 0:47:10.880 --> 0:47:13.440 then there was blood and stuff and then the tears, 0:47:13.880 --> 0:47:16.960 and I couldn't get out fast enough. But I made 0:47:16.960 --> 0:47:19.640 a decision at that point. I remember calling my sister. 0:47:19.680 --> 0:47:25.640 I called her. I was like, you know, I don't pop, 0:47:26.040 --> 0:47:33.279 I don't wow, I know, no popper. 0:47:35.719 --> 0:47:36.279 That stand up. 0:47:36.320 --> 0:47:40.800 At any point, did you ever consider dropping the ross 0:47:41.840 --> 0:47:42.440 from your name? 0:47:43.520 --> 0:47:44.120 It was too late. 0:47:44.560 --> 0:47:48.120 The thought that like, okay, maybe they're holding that against me, 0:47:48.320 --> 0:47:49.680 like my lineage. 0:47:49.239 --> 0:47:51.759 And well, you know, I used to say that. People 0:47:51.800 --> 0:47:54.400 were like, well, doesn't being done roses or open doors 0:47:54.440 --> 0:47:54.640 for you. 0:47:54.719 --> 0:47:56.200 And I was like, no, what it does is and 0:47:56.320 --> 0:47:58.200 unlocks the door, and then people sit on the other 0:47:58.320 --> 0:48:00.640 side like this going, how you going to walk in? 0:48:01.760 --> 0:48:02.000 Oh? 0:48:02.960 --> 0:48:06.200 They're like, okay, show us what. But I don't think 0:48:06.239 --> 0:48:08.160 that had anything to do with it. I think I sucked. 0:48:09.800 --> 0:48:12.640 I think I didn't know how to bring the person 0:48:12.719 --> 0:48:16.880 that I was inside myself and in the privacy of 0:48:16.960 --> 0:48:20.480 my home out into the world. And I needed that 0:48:20.880 --> 0:48:25.239 hit in order to ask myself, did I have the 0:48:25.320 --> 0:48:28.879 courage to do what it took to bring that person out? 0:48:30.080 --> 0:48:32.560 Or did I just want to go back into my 0:48:32.680 --> 0:48:37.320 hole and and sort of live privately as I chose. 0:48:37.440 --> 0:48:39.680 You know, do you think girlfriends is what you learned 0:48:39.719 --> 0:48:41.320 to kind of be that person? 0:48:42.040 --> 0:48:46.000 No, I learned before girlfriends. It's the reason I got girlfriends. 0:48:46.239 --> 0:48:50.640 Actually, am I assuming? Well, I'm assuming that for I 0:48:50.840 --> 0:48:54.800 first saw you as an adult in Lyris's lounge. So 0:48:55.000 --> 0:48:57.439 how did how did that come to be? Yeah? 0:48:57.440 --> 0:49:03.520 I'm so good Lyris Lounge. Okay, So there was a 0:49:03.600 --> 0:49:09.280 coming out and turning point in my journey towards courageousness. 0:49:11.440 --> 0:49:14.000 I don't remember when because I'm bad at timelines, but 0:49:15.280 --> 0:49:19.160 I had been dropped by my agents. I moved to 0:49:19.360 --> 0:49:21.360 la and one of the things I did was I 0:49:22.120 --> 0:49:25.320 every person that I met that helped me or offered 0:49:25.360 --> 0:49:27.680 me some information, I would write them a thank you note. 0:49:27.719 --> 0:49:29.200 And if they said you should meet so and so, 0:49:29.400 --> 0:49:31.600 I would say, can you call them for me? And 0:49:31.719 --> 0:49:35.600 I would constantly do that, and that's how my career started. 0:49:36.080 --> 0:49:39.200 So like Marcia gay Harden said you should meet my agents, 0:49:39.200 --> 0:49:39.919 and I was like please. 0:49:39.960 --> 0:49:41.400 And I met her agents and they were like, we 0:49:41.480 --> 0:49:43.480 can't represent you, but you should meet so and so, 0:49:43.560 --> 0:49:44.680 and I was like, thank you so much. 0:49:44.680 --> 0:49:46.440 I would write a handwritten thank you note and then 0:49:46.440 --> 0:49:48.440 they would call the person. Then I would go meet them. 0:49:48.760 --> 0:49:52.560 And that's just how my career started. And I booked 0:49:52.760 --> 0:49:56.279 a movie of the Week, an NBC Movie of the Week, 0:49:56.400 --> 0:49:58.960 and then Lyricist Lounge came up and I wanted that 0:49:59.040 --> 0:50:01.600 show so badly, and somewhere after the Movie of the Week, 0:50:02.000 --> 0:50:03.680 as you guys can hear, I do a lot of 0:50:03.680 --> 0:50:07.600 different voices and characters, and I love dressing up. I 0:50:07.719 --> 0:50:10.840 love clothes. I love playing dress up. So my closet 0:50:11.680 --> 0:50:13.759 is my happy place and I go in there and 0:50:13.840 --> 0:50:16.040 sometimes I make a really good outfit and sometimes an 0:50:16.080 --> 0:50:20.960 outfit turns into a character, and my mom had I was. 0:50:21.440 --> 0:50:24.760 My mom had given a high eight video camera one Christmas, 0:50:25.320 --> 0:50:29.160 so I set it up in my kitchen and I 0:50:29.760 --> 0:50:31.759 stayed up until three o'clock in the morning and I 0:50:31.920 --> 0:50:34.319 played dress up and I made a video of all 0:50:34.440 --> 0:50:38.839 of these characters that I had been telling stories as 0:50:39.040 --> 0:50:41.920 for years, and I called it my holiday It was 0:50:42.000 --> 0:50:44.680 my holiday gift. And I sent it out to anybody 0:50:44.719 --> 0:50:46.200 that wouldn't think I was trying to get a job. 0:50:46.280 --> 0:50:48.600 I sent it out with a note that said, I 0:50:48.719 --> 0:50:51.640 am sharing joy with you this holiday season. This is 0:50:51.719 --> 0:50:55.040 my version and it was me like I was like 0:50:55.120 --> 0:50:58.920 a crazy person, and then it said no judgment, Happy Holidays. 0:51:00.120 --> 0:51:03.840 I did like an improv to Broadway song Madame Vera 0:51:04.040 --> 0:51:06.480 was on there, Callipe Champignelle, like all of these characters 0:51:06.520 --> 0:51:11.200 that still exist. And my agents ended up seeing it 0:51:11.360 --> 0:51:14.320 after the holidays and sent it to the producers of 0:51:14.400 --> 0:51:17.759 Lyrisis Lounge. I got an audition for Lyris Lounge, but 0:51:17.840 --> 0:51:22.720 they did not cast me. They cast Sarah Jones. Sarah 0:51:23.520 --> 0:51:32.000 Sarah Jones. Yeah. Sarah Jones had a values conflict with 0:51:32.200 --> 0:51:35.640 the subject matter of the show. She felt that some 0:51:35.760 --> 0:51:37.640 of the sketches. It didn't work for her, so she 0:51:37.800 --> 0:51:41.080 left and they brought me in. 0:51:42.680 --> 0:51:46.760 Wow, man, that is crazy. Does Sarah know that story? 0:51:47.320 --> 0:51:51.359 Yeah? And Sarah and I for years we had never met, 0:51:51.400 --> 0:51:54.759 and a whole thing. And then she and I came 0:51:54.880 --> 0:51:58.440 back together and met each other at the White House 0:51:58.560 --> 0:52:03.400 with the Obamas for Missus Obama's first mentoring weekend. We 0:52:03.560 --> 0:52:06.160 were walking to the White House together. We came down 0:52:06.239 --> 0:52:08.480 in the elevator, walked to the White House together, and 0:52:08.560 --> 0:52:11.640 we were like, can you believe this shit? 0:52:12.080 --> 0:52:14.400 That's beautiful circle. That's a beautiful circle. 0:52:14.719 --> 0:52:16.680 It was that amazing because I thought she hated me 0:52:16.840 --> 0:52:19.439 for all those years. I was like, she left because 0:52:19.440 --> 0:52:20.960 she couldn't do it. And then I took it, and 0:52:21.880 --> 0:52:24.000 you know, it was a joy for me. I had 0:52:24.160 --> 0:52:27.080 a ball doing it. And everybody has a different compass 0:52:27.160 --> 0:52:30.279 on how they feel connected to material and it didn't 0:52:30.320 --> 0:52:32.279 work for her, and I had no judgment of that, 0:52:34.200 --> 0:52:36.760 but it changed my career. And then the interesting story 0:52:37.040 --> 0:52:40.640 is that Lerisis Lounge left us hanging. We didn't know 0:52:40.680 --> 0:52:42.680 if we were picked up or not. It had been ages. 0:52:42.719 --> 0:52:44.880 We had no idea what was happening. And I auditioned 0:52:44.920 --> 0:52:48.000 for girlfriends and we had a window. They wanted me 0:52:48.160 --> 0:52:50.839 for Joan, and we had a window of like three 0:52:50.960 --> 0:52:53.800 days that if we couldn't get the sign off and 0:52:53.880 --> 0:52:57.520 the approval by the head of MTV, they would have 0:52:57.640 --> 0:53:00.840 to move to their second choice for Joe and Clayton 0:53:01.400 --> 0:53:03.920 and tell me, do you know? And the head that 0:53:04.200 --> 0:53:07.920 head of MTV was on vacation in Italy and we 0:53:08.000 --> 0:53:10.080 couldn't get a hold of him. And I remember just 0:53:10.280 --> 0:53:15.880 laying on my bed like frozen for hours, like for 0:53:16.080 --> 0:53:19.480 twelve hours, just waiting to hear if I was going 0:53:19.560 --> 0:53:21.279 to get this role that was going to change my 0:53:21.360 --> 0:53:25.600 life and it worked out in my favor, but I 0:53:25.680 --> 0:53:26.760 didn't know apparently. 0:53:26.840 --> 0:53:31.319 So Wow, having entered what you did at MTV, at 0:53:31.360 --> 0:53:37.560 any point, were you interested in sort of sort of 0:53:37.719 --> 0:53:41.200 honing your skill at say like uh, Second City in 0:53:41.280 --> 0:53:45.400 Chicago or upright Citizens Brigade or any of those like. 0:53:45.440 --> 0:53:49.160 Improv You know what's so funny? As you were talking, 0:53:49.239 --> 0:53:51.200 I thought you were going to say, did you ever 0:53:51.280 --> 0:53:53.520 cross your mind on your skills as a rapper? 0:53:54.520 --> 0:53:58.040 Well too career now, that. 0:53:58.200 --> 0:54:00.799 Did not cross my mind. I was so bad at 0:54:00.840 --> 0:54:03.520 that that I was in that sketch with most deaf 0:54:03.760 --> 0:54:08.000 and and master Fool, and they had to I mean, 0:54:08.600 --> 0:54:10.880 because you know sometimes I get the one three really 0:54:10.960 --> 0:54:15.880 fast and they were like no, and so they they 0:54:16.040 --> 0:54:18.600 had to coach me on when to come in. No, 0:54:18.800 --> 0:54:19.240 I didn't. 0:54:19.440 --> 0:54:20.400 I had. 0:54:21.880 --> 0:54:25.680 Bennetts. What is it called out here the improv u. 0:54:27.280 --> 0:54:28.200 Not the comedy store. 0:54:31.600 --> 0:54:34.040 So I was in an improv troop in college at 0:54:34.120 --> 0:54:39.200 Brown and strangely enough with Marty Blafsky, who was also 0:54:39.280 --> 0:54:44.960 on Lyrisis Lounge. And I loved improv. And then I 0:54:45.080 --> 0:54:48.600 went to Groundlings and they wouldn't move me from the 0:54:49.200 --> 0:54:52.000 you know, one level to level two because they said 0:54:52.080 --> 0:54:57.360 I was too sticky and I wasn't funny enough. So 0:54:57.480 --> 0:55:00.320 I told Groundlings, I said, you know what, Groundlings. 0:55:00.680 --> 0:55:02.799 They kind of THEI and me. They like the uji 0:55:02.920 --> 0:55:03.520 of the mprov. 0:55:04.040 --> 0:55:06.040 Well either way, I was like, I was told to 0:55:06.080 --> 0:55:07.799 go where the love is, and I do not feel 0:55:07.840 --> 0:55:12.280 the love here how facts And then I booked Larry's Lounge, 0:55:12.960 --> 0:55:15.240 So no, I didn't think of that at all, mostly 0:55:15.360 --> 0:55:18.719 because what I thought I was gonna I thought I 0:55:18.800 --> 0:55:22.240 was going to stick in sketch comedy after Lyricsi's Lounge. 0:55:22.560 --> 0:55:25.480 But because of Girlfriends, which I thought was gonna happen 0:55:25.560 --> 0:55:27.840 later in my life. I was living out the Lucy 0:55:27.960 --> 0:55:30.680 fantasy for me. So Larius's Lounge was my Carol Burnette 0:55:30.680 --> 0:55:36.600 fantasy and dream, and then Girlfriends was my my Lucy foray. 0:55:37.080 --> 0:55:41.640 So what do you think My wife, she loves she 0:55:41.760 --> 0:55:44.520 loves you. She watches Girlfriends on Netflix, like all the time. 0:55:44.880 --> 0:55:47.880 She was curious to know, do y'all leave what stories 0:55:47.880 --> 0:55:49.600 did y'all leave on the table for girlfriends? 0:55:49.640 --> 0:55:51.800 And like when that ended, what was that like for you? 0:55:52.840 --> 0:55:57.839 It was horrible, Yeah, devastating. It was really hard when 0:55:57.880 --> 0:56:03.440 Jill left and that also changed storylines because that uh 0:56:03.880 --> 0:56:07.600 just it was just such a hard adjustment. And then 0:56:07.640 --> 0:56:10.879 when the show ended, you know, the last episode we shot, 0:56:11.080 --> 0:56:13.440 I directed, and it was during the strike, so we 0:56:13.560 --> 0:56:18.120 didn't even we didn't even have our family together. The 0:56:18.200 --> 0:56:20.960 producers weren't there, Marra wasn't there, So it was it 0:56:21.080 --> 0:56:24.880 was such a strange odd end the courthouse. 0:56:24.960 --> 0:56:27.520 It was like a location shot too, right, That's what 0:56:27.840 --> 0:56:28.360 feels like. 0:56:28.480 --> 0:56:30.440 It was the end. That was not the end. That 0:56:30.640 --> 0:56:32.719 was the end of the season with Tony. 0:56:33.080 --> 0:56:35.120 Oh, that's right and right, and then it came back 0:56:35.120 --> 0:56:38.160 with and we had had two more after that. So 0:56:38.360 --> 0:56:39.080 what did it feel like. 0:56:39.080 --> 0:56:40.920 When you you got the call from ABC the job 0:56:40.960 --> 0:56:42.840 we're going to be bringing the girls to Blackish? 0:56:44.080 --> 0:56:46.000 Oh? Oh no, that's not how that went. 0:56:46.120 --> 0:56:47.040 Okay, What did it feel like. 0:56:47.040 --> 0:56:48.640 When you told that? 0:56:48.880 --> 0:56:52.919 We said we have so Courtney came to me and said, 0:56:52.960 --> 0:56:54.879 we have an idea. What do you think? And I said, 0:56:54.920 --> 0:56:59.759 this is the best idea ever. But before I said, 0:56:59.800 --> 0:57:02.120 tell tell me when it's an actual green light that 0:57:02.239 --> 0:57:05.000 you guys feel like it can actually happen, and then 0:57:05.120 --> 0:57:07.680 let me call the girls first and find out if 0:57:07.719 --> 0:57:11.560 they're interested and comfortable. I don't want to make this 0:57:11.719 --> 0:57:14.080 a thing until I know if they want to do this. 0:57:14.760 --> 0:57:17.440 So I called each of them individually, even though we're 0:57:17.520 --> 0:57:20.160 on a group thread, but I wanted to call each 0:57:20.200 --> 0:57:22.800 of them individually so that no one felt pressured by 0:57:22.880 --> 0:57:25.760 somebody else or you know, so that everybody just felt 0:57:25.760 --> 0:57:28.560 comfortable to answer. And I said, you don't have to 0:57:28.600 --> 0:57:30.920 answer me now, like it was an immediate yes for everybody, 0:57:31.000 --> 0:57:33.360 but we I mean, by the way, everybody at Blackish 0:57:33.480 --> 0:57:35.360 was like, what is going on? 0:57:36.400 --> 0:57:37.600 How much as love was it? 0:57:38.520 --> 0:57:41.920 I just got launched into another world like and you know, 0:57:42.120 --> 0:57:44.320 some people on our crew have no idea what Girlfriends was. 0:57:44.360 --> 0:57:46.200 They were like, I don't understand what's happening, Like we've 0:57:46.280 --> 0:57:49.000 never seen Tracy like this. I don't know what's going on. 0:57:49.560 --> 0:57:52.240 But we would not We did not stop talking. It 0:57:52.400 --> 0:57:55.360 was as if we were right back on girl. It 0:57:55.480 --> 0:57:58.600 was so delicious. It was so good. 0:57:59.120 --> 0:58:01.760 We had so much and the storyline that you made 0:58:01.800 --> 0:58:05.320 around that y'all created around it was really dope. It 0:58:05.440 --> 0:58:07.880 was really consistently yes, yeah. 0:58:08.240 --> 0:58:08.600 So good. 0:58:13.560 --> 0:58:16.560 My niece wants to know when they because I have 0:58:16.920 --> 0:58:18.080 Alice Ross, we get it. 0:58:19.040 --> 0:58:19.640 You already know. 0:58:20.720 --> 0:58:23.480 When they saw her name was on QLs calendar, they 0:58:23.560 --> 0:58:25.320 was just like, my text was blowing up. 0:58:25.360 --> 0:58:27.720 Everybody want to so I'm trying to answer my family's 0:58:27.800 --> 0:58:30.400 questions sofully. So my niece wants to know. How do 0:58:30.480 --> 0:58:32.080 you navigate the LA dating scene? 0:58:32.440 --> 0:58:35.600 Oh girl? Please thank you Ni Sepool, because I live 0:58:35.640 --> 0:58:36.120 in l A. 0:58:36.240 --> 0:58:39.080 To what you mean, I don't, I don't, I don't 0:58:39.120 --> 0:58:43.560 know or do you even care? I mean, well, the 0:58:43.640 --> 0:58:45.840 beauty of it is it's not an l A dating scene. 0:58:45.840 --> 0:58:49.240 The world is so small now that you know there 0:58:49.320 --> 0:58:52.000 was no dating scene during the pandemic, yeah. 0:58:53.200 --> 0:58:53.520 I don't know. 0:58:53.560 --> 0:58:56.800 I don't know, if you heard. 0:58:56.840 --> 0:58:59.000 I think NIE's asking from the perspective of it's hard 0:58:59.000 --> 0:59:01.120 for a black woman to day in LA But maybe 0:59:01.160 --> 0:59:01.840 I'm just stripping. 0:59:01.960 --> 0:59:02.360 I don't know. 0:59:02.640 --> 0:59:05.120 I think it's I think dating is hard no matter 0:59:05.160 --> 0:59:07.320 who you are, where you are, and if you're a 0:59:07.400 --> 0:59:10.160 man or a woman. I think there's good men out there. 0:59:10.480 --> 0:59:12.520 Oh, I wasn't. Oh, that wasn't the argument. It was 0:59:12.600 --> 0:59:15.040 just that they are they around unavailable, That's. 0:59:15.320 --> 0:59:17.640 Oh, I don't know if they are. I don't I 0:59:17.720 --> 0:59:21.280 don't know that they are. I don't know. I don't 0:59:21.320 --> 0:59:24.800 have major, major sort of theories and beliefs and and 0:59:25.320 --> 0:59:28.480 I don't I don't have any answers. What I know 0:59:28.800 --> 0:59:31.720 is that someone's gonna either make my life better or 0:59:31.960 --> 0:59:34.960 I'm gonna keep rolling with this wonderful life that I've 0:59:34.960 --> 0:59:36.640 built for myself, you know. 0:59:37.960 --> 0:59:40.760 And I found my happiness at fifty, So I mean, 0:59:41.560 --> 0:59:42.600 oh my god, speaking of. 0:59:42.640 --> 0:59:46.120 Which I Meir, you said at fifty you found your life. 0:59:46.200 --> 0:59:46.840 How old are you now? 0:59:47.400 --> 0:59:48.480 Fifty fifty fifty? 0:59:49.920 --> 0:59:51.800 I was with the way you said it. I was like, 0:59:51.960 --> 0:59:53.080 what are you sixty? Like what. 0:59:54.560 --> 0:59:58.440 You just found last week? I'm just saying that a 0:59:58.520 --> 1:00:03.919 few other things. Flowers flowers around, no around like forty seven, 1:00:04.040 --> 1:00:06.120 forty eight. I was just like, maybe I'm just going 1:00:06.160 --> 1:00:09.240 to be a serial bachelor for life, and you know whatever. 1:00:09.600 --> 1:00:11.600 And then, you know, as with all of us with 1:00:11.720 --> 1:00:15.240 the pandemic, like this, pivot happens and you get a 1:00:15.320 --> 1:00:19.800 new either heed to the calling or you uh, succumb 1:00:19.880 --> 1:00:23.760 to the inside of your voice. And no, I mean 1:00:23.800 --> 1:00:27.560 it's it's possible to have a turnaround for you. 1:00:27.880 --> 1:00:29.320 Most men get their sense at fifty. 1:00:29.480 --> 1:00:31.800 So first of all because we done. 1:00:31.720 --> 1:00:32.320 Made out money. 1:00:32.800 --> 1:00:34.440 But well some of it's that. 1:00:36.440 --> 1:00:39.880 That's no, it's also about just being open. 1:00:40.360 --> 1:00:42.680 But wait, the thing that's so interesting, I mean you 1:00:42.800 --> 1:00:45.200 just said the sound inside my voice is that you said, 1:00:45.200 --> 1:00:46.560 that's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. 1:00:47.120 --> 1:00:50.760 Well, just inside my heads. You know, oftentimes we hear 1:00:50.960 --> 1:00:53.800 the the I mean, the voice inside of our head 1:00:53.960 --> 1:00:57.760 says the most mean shit to us all the time. 1:00:57.880 --> 1:01:00.640 We say stuff. We say shit to ourselves. Yeah, we 1:01:00.720 --> 1:01:03.640 say ship to ourselves that you know, we wouldn't allow 1:01:03.680 --> 1:01:06.040 anyone to say to us. And oftentimes we listen to 1:01:06.120 --> 1:01:11.000 that voice more than anything. So introspective of mer my favorite. 1:01:10.720 --> 1:01:14.120 But understand a year and a half, maybe. 1:01:20.040 --> 1:01:21.560 This is Crystal, I'm not. 1:01:23.120 --> 1:01:25.600 Friend, it's a beautiful woman named woman. 1:01:26.520 --> 1:01:29.680 But this is a look at him rolling his eyes. Well, 1:01:29.800 --> 1:01:30.800 something's happened there. 1:01:30.920 --> 1:01:32.840 So just this episode is not about me. We only 1:01:32.880 --> 1:01:35.800 got fifteen minutes whether I can't even get the. 1:01:35.800 --> 1:01:39.120 Blackish Okay, So that's okay, Okay. So let me just 1:01:39.200 --> 1:01:44.000 say that I I think there's really good men out there, 1:01:44.360 --> 1:01:48.640 and I don't know how to navigate any dating scene. 1:01:48.720 --> 1:01:52.520 Dating is just awkward and weird. And it's even more 1:01:52.560 --> 1:01:57.520 awkward when you like being in your house. Yes, and 1:01:57.640 --> 1:01:59.400 you know, you get to a certain age where you're like, 1:01:59.440 --> 1:02:01.439 I don't't do that, Like you know what I'm saying. 1:02:01.800 --> 1:02:03.520 I don't want to go there. You know what I mean. 1:02:03.800 --> 1:02:06.760 I'm happier right here on my couch. So huh. 1:02:07.920 --> 1:02:08.800 What one thing? 1:02:08.920 --> 1:02:11.160 One thing I will say about about you, Tracy, Like 1:02:11.280 --> 1:02:14.560 I've always admired you, seen for your celebrity and the 1:02:14.600 --> 1:02:16.680 status of all things you've done. You are like one 1:02:16.720 --> 1:02:21.640 of the most regular celebrities like and I mean yeah, 1:02:21.640 --> 1:02:23.720 and the like and the sweetest way possible you were 1:02:23.800 --> 1:02:26.120 just you know, you just always just exude just kind 1:02:26.160 --> 1:02:28.080 of just a realness about you. 1:02:28.160 --> 1:02:29.440 And I was just curious to know how do you 1:02:29.560 --> 1:02:32.520 maintain that in Hollywood? How do you keep your identity? 1:02:32.640 --> 1:02:33.520 She stays off the couch. 1:02:35.160 --> 1:02:37.560 I think, I think it's that my identity is not 1:02:37.800 --> 1:02:40.080 wrapped up in what I do. It's it's who I 1:02:40.200 --> 1:02:42.760 am and how I show up for my friends and 1:02:42.800 --> 1:02:44.320 how they show up for me, and the kind of 1:02:44.440 --> 1:02:47.360 daughter and sister I am. Like that's where that's what 1:02:47.560 --> 1:02:49.840 has meaning to me, how I am of service in 1:02:49.920 --> 1:02:53.240 the world, particularly to those I love and even more 1:02:53.280 --> 1:02:59.000 importantly to those I don't know. And so I that's 1:02:59.040 --> 1:03:02.040 what right sizes is my life. And I really like 1:03:02.200 --> 1:03:05.760 being a people among people. It's my humanity is my 1:03:05.880 --> 1:03:09.440 favorite part. It's also the most uncomfortable part of me, 1:03:09.600 --> 1:03:11.200 you know what I mean, Like sometimes I'm like, oh ah, 1:03:11.520 --> 1:03:13.960 can I stop being such a human being? You know 1:03:14.040 --> 1:03:17.200 what I mean? Like what better? And not do better? What? 1:03:17.320 --> 1:03:18.880 You know, Like I wake up every day, try to 1:03:18.920 --> 1:03:21.040 do my best. Why did this day suck so bad? 1:03:21.640 --> 1:03:25.040 Like you know what I mean, Like how did that happen? 1:03:25.240 --> 1:03:27.480 Like I didn't try to go left, but somehow I 1:03:27.640 --> 1:03:28.280 am left? 1:03:28.920 --> 1:03:31.400 So so a human being? 1:03:32.040 --> 1:03:35.080 Yeah, I also think I'm not. I'm not really invested 1:03:35.360 --> 1:03:38.800 in I don't know. I mean, look, I love sparkly things. 1:03:39.360 --> 1:03:42.840 I love pretty clothes, I love shoes, I love great restaurants. 1:03:43.400 --> 1:03:48.640 But I'm also not My compass is not money. My 1:03:48.760 --> 1:03:51.840 compass is not fame. It's having an opportunity to do 1:03:51.960 --> 1:03:54.120 the things that I love and to connect with people 1:03:55.000 --> 1:03:58.000 and to make people laugh and to make people feel 1:03:58.080 --> 1:04:01.160 comfortable in their own skin. You know, I know what 1:04:01.320 --> 1:04:03.600 it feels like for me when I'm around people that 1:04:03.720 --> 1:04:05.520 I leave and I'm like, oh, I just feel so 1:04:05.640 --> 1:04:08.000 much like myself around them, Not like I want to 1:04:08.080 --> 1:04:10.680 be them, but like, I just feel so safe and 1:04:10.840 --> 1:04:14.200 like myself around them. And I hope that I can 1:04:14.280 --> 1:04:15.960 bring that to the world and to other people, and 1:04:16.080 --> 1:04:17.439 so maybe that keeps it right side. 1:04:17.480 --> 1:04:17.920 But I don't know. 1:04:18.440 --> 1:04:18.800 I don't know. 1:04:19.360 --> 1:04:22.560 Are there okay? Now that you have the platform and 1:04:22.600 --> 1:04:27.440 the position that you do have, what's on your bucket 1:04:27.480 --> 1:04:29.920 list as far as things that you really want to do, 1:04:30.600 --> 1:04:33.960 cross off and sort of manifest and bring out there 1:04:34.000 --> 1:04:36.960 that maybe ten years ago you weren't able to develop. 1:04:37.520 --> 1:04:39.640 I think a lot of those things are in process 1:04:39.720 --> 1:04:41.560 right now, and I'm not one of those people like, 1:04:41.600 --> 1:04:43.560 you're not going to see me post about the idea 1:04:43.640 --> 1:04:46.640 of doing something, You're going to still post when it's 1:04:47.520 --> 1:04:53.200 is having it. So I pattern was a just it 1:04:53.280 --> 1:04:55.120 was a ten year dream. It took me ten years 1:04:55.160 --> 1:04:58.680 to launch that company. And I love being a CEO. 1:04:58.920 --> 1:05:01.360 I love being a fan under of a company company. 1:05:01.560 --> 1:05:05.320 I love using my mind in that way. The access 1:05:05.400 --> 1:05:08.400 that it has given me to be able to sit 1:05:09.120 --> 1:05:13.160 in boardrooms and talk to people who don't usually get 1:05:13.200 --> 1:05:17.960 somebody who's not afraid to say, yeah, that doesn't work, like, 1:05:18.280 --> 1:05:23.600 actually that's not effective. Actually that's actually detrimental to the 1:05:23.680 --> 1:05:27.240 people you say you're helping. Oh, I'm sorry, it's not 1:05:27.400 --> 1:05:33.320 called d and it's diversity, equity and inclusion. I'm sorry, gatekeeper, sir. 1:05:33.760 --> 1:05:36.320 If you don't make changes, there's never going to be 1:05:36.440 --> 1:05:42.200 fundamental change. You know. I didn't know that so much 1:05:42.440 --> 1:05:45.600 of what so many things that I was experiencing that 1:05:45.800 --> 1:05:50.120 caused frustration and disappointment had to do with the systemic 1:05:51.480 --> 1:05:54.320 problems that were happening in the world. I took them personally, 1:05:54.560 --> 1:05:57.240 you know, And so when you realize it, then you're like, oh, 1:05:57.720 --> 1:06:00.360 what can I do to help make this change? Pattern 1:06:00.400 --> 1:06:04.040 has given me access not only to a particular and 1:06:04.200 --> 1:06:07.320 different kind of platform, but also a courage inside me 1:06:07.880 --> 1:06:10.440 to not be a person that gets plugged in places, 1:06:10.840 --> 1:06:13.840 but actually can create more real estate, not just for me, 1:06:13.960 --> 1:06:18.360 but for others, to help other people find how to 1:06:18.480 --> 1:06:21.400 have their own equity in what they make. So I 1:06:21.680 --> 1:06:25.000 have a production deal with ABC Signature, which is across 1:06:25.080 --> 1:06:28.160 all their platforms, HULUFX, all of their platforms. I have 1:06:28.600 --> 1:06:33.080 five different projects and development. There's expansion that I want 1:06:33.160 --> 1:06:37.200 to happen that is in process with Pattern. So those 1:06:37.320 --> 1:06:39.480 things and those parts of my dreams, Like I want 1:06:39.520 --> 1:06:41.440 to be a producer. I love being a producer, and 1:06:41.520 --> 1:06:45.480 that is happening. I really would like to do more movies. 1:06:45.920 --> 1:06:48.800 I would like to get I want to do and 1:06:49.040 --> 1:06:50.840 I want to kick some ass in a movie. I 1:06:50.920 --> 1:06:55.840 really would like to like like tell you like you 1:06:55.960 --> 1:06:59.480 know those when they spin around and then they chop 1:06:59.560 --> 1:07:01.800 under the and the person falls and then they go 1:07:02.080 --> 1:07:05.440 oh like, I would really like to do that in 1:07:05.520 --> 1:07:08.880 a movie in some very strong and powerful way. I 1:07:09.000 --> 1:07:12.440 would like to be to do a love story. I 1:07:12.800 --> 1:07:14.720 would like to be a love interest in a movie 1:07:14.920 --> 1:07:19.760 as a sexy, grown ass woman and not have to 1:07:19.880 --> 1:07:22.480 be like the twenty two year old with the fifty 1:07:22.560 --> 1:07:25.600 year old man, Like maybe I'm the fifty year old 1:07:25.640 --> 1:07:31.480 with the twenty two year old man. How you doing? Me? 1:07:31.560 --> 1:07:33.640 And the Rustio fans are sitting here like how we 1:07:33.720 --> 1:07:36.640 ain't seen? This can not happen, you know what I mean? 1:07:36.960 --> 1:07:38.880 I want to see a whole bunch of black women 1:07:38.960 --> 1:07:42.400 on screen being as incredible as we are and not 1:07:42.600 --> 1:07:45.000 have to constantly be talking about the fact that we're black, 1:07:45.040 --> 1:07:47.040 but just be in our experience. I want to see 1:07:47.080 --> 1:07:49.000 those stories. I want to. I want to be a 1:07:49.080 --> 1:07:50.920 part of making those happen, and I want to be 1:07:51.000 --> 1:07:53.640 involved in them. I want to. So there's lots of 1:07:53.680 --> 1:07:54.120 those things. 1:07:54.360 --> 1:07:56.880 You gotta drop the word wanna and just manifest. 1:07:57.000 --> 1:07:57.919 I'm gonna. I'm gone. 1:07:58.560 --> 1:08:03.120 That's my last words of wisdom. With manifest such good. 1:08:02.960 --> 1:08:04.800 Words of wisdom, and you know I have to say 1:08:04.840 --> 1:08:07.160 I manifest quickly. So it just got to be specific 1:08:07.200 --> 1:08:07.880 about that language. 1:08:07.880 --> 1:08:11.360 Okay, all right, you got three minutes left, three minutes left, 1:08:13.720 --> 1:08:17.439 three minutes. Yeah, we got three minutes left, and I'm skipping, skipping, 1:08:17.760 --> 1:08:20.719 I'm skipping black is just y'all, watch back. I actually 1:08:20.720 --> 1:08:22.800 want to go to Mix This, Yes, how much of 1:08:22.920 --> 1:08:25.960 your life and shout out to us Angela, our friend, 1:08:26.040 --> 1:08:30.840 Angela Nissel family. Yes, yes, and how much of your life? 1:08:30.920 --> 1:08:34.000 I know that Mixed This is quote a show about 1:08:34.080 --> 1:08:36.880 your character's life, but how much input do you have 1:08:37.080 --> 1:08:39.680 in it? As far as the direction that I have a. 1:08:39.760 --> 1:08:42.439 Lot of input, But it is not my life. It's 1:08:42.560 --> 1:08:46.680 Bo Johnson's life, you know. But but the mixed experience, 1:08:46.840 --> 1:08:49.040 I love that we're able to tell that story and 1:08:49.200 --> 1:08:51.920 such a and to tell it through the eighties, which 1:08:52.080 --> 1:08:55.960 is so strange to think about that, the divisiveness that 1:08:56.080 --> 1:08:58.880 the eighties held and how similar it is to what 1:08:58.960 --> 1:09:02.280 we're living in now. A couple of different overlays, but 1:09:02.400 --> 1:09:05.200 we can what time, come on? What is seventeen twenty? 1:09:05.240 --> 1:09:07.280 We've got three minutes? What if we have eight minutes? 1:09:07.920 --> 1:09:09.880 Okay? Y, we got eight minutes? 1:09:10.240 --> 1:09:10.519 Okay. 1:09:10.760 --> 1:09:12.600 So that being said, because we didn't ask her the 1:09:12.680 --> 1:09:15.519 question when we had Mariah here, do you did you 1:09:15.600 --> 1:09:17.360 have anything to do with getting Mariah to sing that 1:09:17.640 --> 1:09:18.760 that thing that didn't seem easy? 1:09:18.840 --> 1:09:19.599 The same song? Mister? 1:09:19.800 --> 1:09:23.000 No, that was Kenya? Okay, okay, okay, that was Kenya 1:09:23.160 --> 1:09:26.000 And that was so she was so excited to do that. 1:09:27.000 --> 1:09:29.920 She was so excited, perfect excited enough that big ass 1:09:29.960 --> 1:09:36.479 credit at the beginning. I still tea her days. She's like, 1:09:36.520 --> 1:09:38.519 I don't know if that happens. I'm like, I know 1:09:38.560 --> 1:09:38.960 your people. 1:09:39.080 --> 1:09:42.200 She is hilarious. She also is a really big text 1:09:42.240 --> 1:09:42.680 for that one. 1:09:43.080 --> 1:09:45.960 I've not stopped talking to Mariah since our interview that night. 1:09:46.800 --> 1:09:50.559 Yeah. But by the way, Maria, Mariah is also really 1:09:51.000 --> 1:09:52.599 regular in some ways. 1:09:53.000 --> 1:09:56.320 Yeah, yeah, as much as she can be. 1:09:57.280 --> 1:10:00.240 Yeah, you know, I mean, no shout out me, I'm 1:10:00.280 --> 1:10:00.719 only playing. 1:10:00.840 --> 1:10:04.000 Yes, she's one. Look. Anyway, that was a really wonderful 1:10:04.040 --> 1:10:07.000 experience and I got to know Mariah in a way 1:10:07.080 --> 1:10:10.360 that I did not before. And and it's not that 1:10:10.439 --> 1:10:12.800 I had any negative idea of Mariah, but I didn't 1:10:12.840 --> 1:10:14.519 know Mariah, do you know what I mean? And she's 1:10:14.600 --> 1:10:17.200 so lovely and her. 1:10:17.160 --> 1:10:19.600 Mix experience is ill too. After reading a book and 1:10:19.680 --> 1:10:20.040 what I. 1:10:20.080 --> 1:10:21.280 Have not read her book. 1:10:23.800 --> 1:10:25.280 Trace, get the audiobook. 1:10:25.800 --> 1:10:28.680 I will get the audio book and literally it's on 1:10:28.880 --> 1:10:29.320 my list. 1:10:29.400 --> 1:10:31.800 It's so stupid that you're a long driver or whatever, 1:10:32.200 --> 1:10:34.519 like her storytelling. 1:10:34.160 --> 1:10:38.360 Is is And my friend Mikela wrote that with her, Yeah, 1:10:39.400 --> 1:10:41.120 how was it a people because people got the power. 1:10:41.600 --> 1:10:43.760 Yeah she is. She is one of my faves. So 1:10:45.479 --> 1:10:49.880 but yeah, mixed ish my first producing experience and really 1:10:50.360 --> 1:10:53.679 love being in that position. To be able to craft 1:10:53.760 --> 1:10:57.600 a story before a script is written, you know, to 1:10:57.720 --> 1:11:00.960 actually uh let that, to be a part of that, 1:11:01.160 --> 1:11:03.840 to be a part of casting. All of that I 1:11:03.960 --> 1:11:06.639 find really exciting and sort of the execution of something, 1:11:07.080 --> 1:11:09.519 you know, mix this was a little mixed. What's mixed? 1:11:09.520 --> 1:11:12.560 This was a little different because it was you know, 1:11:12.920 --> 1:11:16.519 it was the the full expression of something that had 1:11:16.720 --> 1:11:21.800 already existed and sort of been given life. But the 1:11:21.960 --> 1:11:24.640 other projects that I'm developing, you know, from optioning a 1:11:24.680 --> 1:11:27.120 book and that, like, it's just so exciting. That process 1:11:27.280 --> 1:11:28.280 is so exciting. 1:11:29.240 --> 1:11:32.280 Uh Okay, now do you want to go back to Black? Yeah, 1:11:32.479 --> 1:11:34.679 there's so many things I want to ask about the show. 1:11:34.760 --> 1:11:38.000 But probably for me as such a fan of that show, 1:11:39.240 --> 1:11:44.639 whose idea was it for you guys to have sort 1:11:44.680 --> 1:11:47.519 of the dark period of your marriage? Where I didn't 1:11:47.520 --> 1:11:50.800 see that coming? And again, like when I when I 1:11:50.960 --> 1:11:53.040 watched these shows, I kind of do a binge style, 1:11:53.120 --> 1:11:56.160 So it wasn't like I even had a warning from ABC, 1:11:56.360 --> 1:11:59.920 like a special ABC you know, narrative Bexter Bernie episode 1:12:00.040 --> 1:12:00.639 of Blacket. 1:12:01.880 --> 1:12:04.439 They used to do that, a very special, very. 1:12:04.320 --> 1:12:14.559 Special different strokes one what Dudley got. So yeah, I didn't. 1:12:14.760 --> 1:12:17.720 I didn't see that coming. And I was like, wow, 1:12:17.800 --> 1:12:21.560 this is this is really bold because I mean, you know, 1:12:21.760 --> 1:12:26.280 without okay, I'm trying to say this is as diplomatic 1:12:26.360 --> 1:12:31.960 as I can. The Huxtables were always my first family. 1:12:32.000 --> 1:12:35.760 An now it's like the Johnson's are about to overshadow 1:12:35.880 --> 1:12:38.880 that and really be you know, because you guys cover 1:12:39.040 --> 1:12:41.800 so many subjects that were never ever on The Cosby Show. 1:12:41.920 --> 1:12:43.920 But if not for the cos there wouldn't be the Johnson's. 1:12:44.560 --> 1:12:47.840 And I'm not disparat but yeah, I didn't see that coming. 1:12:48.040 --> 1:12:50.280 Like whose idea was it to really just bring it 1:12:50.360 --> 1:12:51.160 down to that level? 1:12:52.200 --> 1:12:55.240 Kenny embarrass and Anthony and I were not happy. 1:12:56.040 --> 1:12:58.160 Wow was happy? 1:12:59.120 --> 1:13:00.760 Well, it took a minute. I was like, why are 1:13:00.840 --> 1:13:03.720 we doing this? What is this? Why are we doing this? 1:13:04.160 --> 1:13:05.559 Like I was like, I don't understand this. It feels 1:13:05.600 --> 1:13:07.799 like the end of the show. It was so confusing. 1:13:08.160 --> 1:13:11.080 It was, you know, Kenya, there was a bold risk 1:13:11.240 --> 1:13:13.599 on his part, and this is why Kenya is Keny. 1:13:13.680 --> 1:13:16.040 You know what I mean, Like he really, I don't 1:13:16.040 --> 1:13:17.519 know where it came from. You can ask him all 1:13:17.560 --> 1:13:20.080 those questions. But once we dove in and you know, 1:13:20.200 --> 1:13:24.080 I directed the first of those two episodes. 1:13:25.439 --> 1:13:27.240 Oh okay, that. 1:13:27.439 --> 1:13:32.960 Was hard because I was playing a version of bo 1:13:33.240 --> 1:13:36.439 that I had never played before. Like usually the show 1:13:36.600 --> 1:13:39.920 is anchored in dre and bow liking and loving each 1:13:39.960 --> 1:13:43.280 other like and it's also anchored in me and Anthony, 1:13:43.439 --> 1:13:48.680 like we have a respect and a safety with each other. 1:13:48.880 --> 1:13:51.640 That is the core of the show. Like that's what 1:13:51.720 --> 1:13:56.080 we do, you know, he and I. There are places 1:13:56.200 --> 1:14:01.200 that I can fly to because of Anthony and that 1:14:01.360 --> 1:14:04.040 he can fly to because of me that I've never 1:14:04.160 --> 1:14:08.439 experienced in my creative career. It's so much fun. It 1:14:08.600 --> 1:14:13.160 is so much fun dancing and playing ping pong with Anthony. 1:14:13.720 --> 1:14:17.320 I can't even tell you. And so that was hard. 1:14:17.400 --> 1:14:19.120 I didn't like fighting with him. I didn't like it. 1:14:19.800 --> 1:14:23.200 Even the film stock that you guys used, like that 1:14:23.640 --> 1:14:26.000 kind of film stock where I was like in and 1:14:26.080 --> 1:14:28.120 out of that, yeah, someone's about to die here or. 1:14:28.240 --> 1:14:29.000 Yeah, I know. 1:14:29.439 --> 1:14:31.240 And then my dad did die. It was a mess. 1:14:34.040 --> 1:14:35.800 And that was and by the way, and then we 1:14:35.880 --> 1:14:37.840 went and shot a funny scene. After that, I was like, 1:14:38.160 --> 1:14:43.759 are you all crazy? I don't know. I'm so proud 1:14:43.800 --> 1:14:47.880 of what we do on the show. I think back 1:14:48.000 --> 1:14:52.880 to when Blackish launched and how freaked out everybody was 1:14:52.960 --> 1:14:55.439 about the name, And if you sink back to the 1:14:55.560 --> 1:14:56.120 landscape of. 1:14:57.520 --> 1:14:59.960 One person, and we know that person was, it was. 1:15:01.600 --> 1:15:04.120 A lot of you started, but a lot a lot 1:15:04.160 --> 1:15:06.600 of people were upset about it, but they didn't know 1:15:06.640 --> 1:15:08.840 what the show was yet. And I understood that. And 1:15:08.960 --> 1:15:12.160 the truth is, it's a It's a perfect name for 1:15:12.280 --> 1:15:14.800 what our show is and what we deconstruct and pull 1:15:14.800 --> 1:15:18.240 apart and unpack. And but if you think of what 1:15:18.320 --> 1:15:21.760 the landscape of television was at that moment and what 1:15:22.080 --> 1:15:28.360 we opened up in terms of giving metrics to the 1:15:28.479 --> 1:15:32.679 ability for black stories about a black family that doesn't 1:15:32.760 --> 1:15:37.040 happen to be black, but is black being successful and 1:15:37.280 --> 1:15:43.599 identifiable for everybody, you know, we we changed the landscape 1:15:43.600 --> 1:15:44.120 of television. 1:15:44.120 --> 1:15:46.720 I did an episode on June teenth that was not 1:15:46.840 --> 1:15:50.080 in the mainstream of conversation that. 1:15:50.320 --> 1:15:52.240 An amount of people that have said to me, I 1:15:52.320 --> 1:15:54.160 didn't know what white people that have said I didn't 1:15:54.160 --> 1:15:58.280 know what Juneteenth was before Blackish aired that episode is 1:15:58.360 --> 1:16:01.439 a lot a lot of people who didn't know. And 1:16:01.720 --> 1:16:04.000 I always say to people like you, come by that honestly, 1:16:04.120 --> 1:16:06.280 like a lot of people didn't know because nobody. 1:16:06.080 --> 1:16:10.080 Was telling anybody, well black a good little small education 1:16:10.240 --> 1:16:11.960 to some layers of Black people. 1:16:12.080 --> 1:16:14.599 And if that's funny, if you watch and you don't 1:16:14.640 --> 1:16:16.400 know us, you get to know a little bit. 1:16:16.680 --> 1:16:19.000 A little bit, A little piece doesn't do everything. It's 1:16:19.040 --> 1:16:21.760 not two minutes, and you get to see it through 1:16:21.800 --> 1:16:25.080 the lens of this family. But and I mean, you know, 1:16:25.280 --> 1:16:27.600 it's just it's been a treat, a real treat. We 1:16:28.000 --> 1:16:32.600 don't talk enough about the frame that needs to be 1:16:33.960 --> 1:16:38.600 present to hold the narrative of our cultural value, you know. 1:16:40.200 --> 1:16:43.560 And I don't mean a Blackish I mean of the 1:16:43.720 --> 1:16:48.400 stories Black stories, you know, and and how so many 1:16:48.439 --> 1:16:51.120 people reap the cultural benefit, but we don't get the 1:16:51.760 --> 1:16:56.120 credit or for the work done and the story is told, 1:16:56.240 --> 1:16:59.280 and so I don't know, I'm so grateful this show 1:16:59.280 --> 1:17:03.040 has been such a blessing and so much fun. I mean, 1:17:03.120 --> 1:17:07.600 it's been seven years, knock on wood, but you know, 1:17:08.080 --> 1:17:10.320 Anthony and I haven't gotten into nothing. 1:17:10.960 --> 1:17:11.800 And y'all created it. 1:17:11.840 --> 1:17:14.040 They didn't bring you guys the cake yet saying goodbye 1:17:14.080 --> 1:17:15.599 and another. 1:17:16.200 --> 1:17:18.240 But I mean, like Anthony and I had like to 1:17:18.439 --> 1:17:21.599 work that closely with someone as much as I mean 1:17:21.880 --> 1:17:24.599 we work fourteen hour days like it's just the longest ever, 1:17:24.760 --> 1:17:28.640 you know, and the way we work together, it's just 1:17:28.760 --> 1:17:30.439 been such a like such a joy. 1:17:30.560 --> 1:17:32.400 It's a joy. It's a joy to watch. 1:17:33.240 --> 1:17:37.200 It is everybody and y'all created the youngest executive producer. 1:17:37.000 --> 1:17:41.040 Ever, she told She told us all back then when 1:17:41.040 --> 1:17:43.080 we asked. There was a panel we did first season 1:17:43.760 --> 1:17:46.120 and said what do you want to be to get older? 1:17:46.160 --> 1:17:47.480 And she said a legend. 1:17:50.320 --> 1:17:54.200 Episodes is a pilot where guys and we were all like, well, okay, then. 1:17:57.160 --> 1:18:02.640 For president I'll so we we our listeners will kill 1:18:02.680 --> 1:18:05.280 as we forget this. The Kanye video you have to tell. 1:18:06.680 --> 1:18:06.920 Got it? 1:18:07.120 --> 1:18:08.240 Which one touched this guy? 1:18:09.200 --> 1:18:10.880 Which? What about stuff? 1:18:11.240 --> 1:18:11.400 As? 1:18:12.080 --> 1:18:14.599 Yeah, that was that. That was a guy. 1:18:16.840 --> 1:18:23.400 I've done. I've done two Kanye videos. I was in 1:18:23.640 --> 1:18:28.120 Kanye in workout plan. That was crazy. We flew on 1:18:28.360 --> 1:18:34.240 helicopters into the Grand Canyon and we shot in the 1:18:34.360 --> 1:18:40.320 Grand Canyon, me Nia Long and Pam Anderson. I was like, 1:18:40.680 --> 1:18:44.680 what's going on right now? And I remember because he 1:18:44.840 --> 1:18:48.000 was my neighbor. And he was like, I have an idea, 1:18:48.040 --> 1:18:51.479 and I'm like okay. And he told me that the 1:18:52.160 --> 1:18:56.080 uh you know the story of the the video. And 1:18:56.160 --> 1:18:57.920 I was like, I don't understand. Why am I not 1:18:58.439 --> 1:19:01.240 the other character? He said, because there knee along. 1:19:04.880 --> 1:19:07.360 Right right right. 1:19:07.400 --> 1:19:09.040 I get it. I get it now, I got it. 1:19:09.120 --> 1:19:11.559 I was like, I just I'm funny. 1:19:12.000 --> 1:19:15.040 I'm I'm I'm my own best advocate. So like, I'm 1:19:15.080 --> 1:19:17.880 just wondering why, Like I wasn't like, but whatever. And 1:19:18.000 --> 1:19:21.360 then we had so much fun doing that. Though that 1:19:21.400 --> 1:19:26.280 was insane. It was freezing. I would have chose you no, 1:19:26.479 --> 1:19:30.800 but no, but I I think I uh that you 1:19:30.920 --> 1:19:32.840 know what about the hair? And that's that was me. 1:19:33.040 --> 1:19:36.680 That was just me improving like a crazy person. What 1:19:36.760 --> 1:19:38.320 are you gonna say? What are you gonna say? I said, 1:19:38.360 --> 1:19:41.640 don't worry about it, Kanye, don't worry about it. Just 1:19:41.760 --> 1:19:45.080 turn the cameras on and tell me say the A word, 1:19:45.560 --> 1:19:47.280 say action, and it's gonna come. 1:19:47.720 --> 1:19:50.479 Were you always were you? Always? Were you always the 1:19:50.560 --> 1:19:51.320 family comedian? 1:19:51.920 --> 1:19:55.639 Yes? Oh oh my god, my mom used to cheat. 1:19:57.920 --> 1:20:02.120 My mom so our dining room table there were glass 1:20:02.240 --> 1:20:04.920 like glass doors outside, and my mom like, I would 1:20:05.280 --> 1:20:08.280 disrupt so much. I would have like the wiggles, that's 1:20:08.360 --> 1:20:11.000 my grandma called it, the twelve year old giggles wiggles, 1:20:11.040 --> 1:20:13.600 and I just had so much energy and so and 1:20:13.720 --> 1:20:16.040 I would really like to poke at my sister Randa 1:20:16.360 --> 1:20:17.760 to see if I could get her to laugh, but 1:20:17.880 --> 1:20:21.639 usually it made her really angry. And so my mom 1:20:21.760 --> 1:20:25.280 would excuse me from the table, why don't you go 1:20:25.400 --> 1:20:28.639 outside and get the wiggles out? So I would stand 1:20:28.760 --> 1:20:33.080 outside my family is eating dinner. I would stand outside 1:20:33.720 --> 1:20:40.760 like I'd be like, and I would come back and 1:20:40.800 --> 1:20:43.160 sit down and she would say, have you gotten them 1:20:43.160 --> 1:20:45.800 all out? And I'd be like, I don't think. So 1:20:50.000 --> 1:20:54.839 my mom was very supportive of my large, large energy. 1:20:55.360 --> 1:20:59.559 Thank you, thank you mom. We thank you. No, we're 1:20:59.560 --> 1:21:00.000 wrapping up. 1:21:00.000 --> 1:21:03.360 But I'm gonna say this because my sister Rhonda, my 1:21:03.479 --> 1:21:04.880 mom was such a good mom, as I said, and 1:21:04.920 --> 1:21:06.920 my sister ron and my siblings are such great parents. 1:21:07.280 --> 1:21:10.080 And when her son Raif is doing what I do, 1:21:10.240 --> 1:21:13.080 because she gave birth to a little me, when he's 1:21:13.120 --> 1:21:15.960 gonna I'm like, what is going on back there? I 1:21:16.000 --> 1:21:19.120 can't even hear you? She says, he's being creative. 1:21:19.760 --> 1:21:22.479 Yeah, saw him in an award show. He's hilarious. 1:21:22.560 --> 1:21:23.160 I love him. 1:21:23.360 --> 1:21:25.360 Yes, and he looked at Michael on the website. 1:21:25.680 --> 1:21:27.960 Yeah, my son is being creative. Yes. 1:21:28.240 --> 1:21:31.240 Yes, wait, this one quick question and this is totally 1:21:31.880 --> 1:21:36.040 just random. Speaking of you, you and your relationship with 1:21:36.120 --> 1:21:41.720 your mom. Was it you that influenced her to have 1:21:42.080 --> 1:21:46.639 Ello Cool Jay on her special back in eighty seven? 1:21:47.479 --> 1:21:52.840 Nor I know my mom is way cooler than I 1:21:52.960 --> 1:21:53.800 could have made her. 1:21:53.720 --> 1:21:56.280 Be, Okay, because I always wanted to know, like we 1:21:56.439 --> 1:21:58.040 were like, what the hell is Llo doing? This is 1:21:58.080 --> 1:21:59.439 like when Bigger and depfor First came out. 1:21:59.920 --> 1:22:02.840 I don't believe you. We would have to see for ourselves. 1:22:05.600 --> 1:22:09.240 Trust me, it's weird. No, like this is when her 1:22:09.560 --> 1:22:11.519 Red Hot Rhythm and Blues album came out. 1:22:12.400 --> 1:22:13.439 Well you know everything though. 1:22:13.680 --> 1:22:16.479 Yeah, you know, Tracey, I really thank you for giving 1:22:16.600 --> 1:22:16.960 making this. 1:22:19.200 --> 1:22:19.240 Know. 1:22:19.360 --> 1:22:22.200 I was really about to say thank you very. 1:22:22.160 --> 1:22:27.920 Much, Ron and Tracy said you're welcome. I adore you, 1:22:28.920 --> 1:22:30.760 and I'm so glad I finally got on here. 1:22:31.200 --> 1:22:33.639 To our viewers out there, yes, viewers, to our listeners 1:22:33.640 --> 1:22:35.920 out there, yes, I try to turn this into a 1:22:36.040 --> 1:22:38.760 five hour Jimmy Jam episode. It didn't happen, So don't 1:22:38.800 --> 1:22:41.280 get down at me because Tracey Ellis Ralse is booked 1:22:41.320 --> 1:22:41.759 and busy. 1:22:43.320 --> 1:22:45.000 Can you tell your daddy that we still want to 1:22:45.000 --> 1:22:48.640 talk to him? No, I'm series, but he talked to us. 1:22:48.680 --> 1:22:49.599 You think he would talk to us. 1:22:49.720 --> 1:22:51.519 I think he'll talk talk to anybody. He talks to you. 1:22:51.520 --> 1:22:53.040 If you're in the line of Starbucks, you're gonna get 1:22:53.040 --> 1:22:53.559 the whole ear. 1:22:53.760 --> 1:22:57.240 Yes, I cannot this episode. 1:22:58.680 --> 1:22:59.679 Thank you, no joke. 1:23:00.120 --> 1:23:02.560 I appreciate it. Tracy, run to your appointment. Thank you 1:23:02.720 --> 1:23:05.160 very much. And this is Quest Love Supreme. Y'all, We 1:23:05.320 --> 1:23:13.120 will see you next week next time. Bye, yo, what's up? 1:23:13.160 --> 1:23:13.799 This is fante. 1:23:14.280 --> 1:23:16.479 Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at 1:23:16.600 --> 1:23:18.680 QLs and let us know what you think and who 1:23:18.720 --> 1:23:20.000 should be next to sit down with us. 1:23:20.280 --> 1:23:23.400 Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast, all right? Peace. 1:23:32.760 --> 1:23:38.360 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more 1:23:38.439 --> 1:23:42.440 podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 1:23:42.880 --> 1:23:44.559 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.