July 10, 2024 • 36 mins
Multi-talented actress Meagan Good joins Shannon Sharpe at Club Shay Shay for a candid and gripping conversation. She opens up about her tumultuous journey growing up and navigating the entertainment industry. Meagan shares an intense story from her time on a Nickelodeon show, detailing how a fight escalated into a dangerous brawl, making her question her actions and seek peace.
Meagan discusses facing racism at school and being unfairly targeted by teachers. She also shares the emotional impact of losing possessions given to her by her father, who had a background in the LAPD.
Reflecting on her acting career, Meagan talked about her early roles in the cult classic "Friday" and working with icons like Chris Tucker and Ice Cube. She also shared valuable advice from Michael Clarke Duncan about treating everyone on set with respect. Despite numerous challenges and tough choices, Meagan underscores the importance of authenticity and not compromising oneself for success. She highlights her resilience, the lessons she’s learned, and the meaningful relationships she’s built throughout her life and career.
Celebrating 30 years in the business, Meagan expresses gratitude and hope for 30 more years, emphasizing the importance of love and support in her journey. She shares stories about her experiences as a young black actress in a predominantly white industry.
Meagan also recounted facing intense pressures on set, including a difficult experience with a director that almost made her reconsider her acting career. This moment, however, reinforced her determination to succeed.
Throughout the conversation, Meagan’s resilience shines as she speaks about her mother’s wisdom, God’s guidance, and the significance of humility and confidence. She recounts her growth in the industry and her determination to be recognized for her talent.
In this interview Meagan also touches on her experiences with homeschooling due to her acting career, the guidance she received from industry veterans, and her decision to focus on movies over TV shows to explore diverse characters. Despite the adversities, Meagan’s journey is a testament to her strength and the valuable lessons she’s learned along the way.
Join Shannon Sharpe and Meagan Good in this heartfelt and inspiring conversation, celebrating her incredible career and the strength she’s shown in overcoming obstacles and staying true to herself.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You an Obama effect with cat I see this interview.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm gonna leave it at that. I'm leaving it at that.
That's what I am gonna say. I'm sorry, but my
man is sexy to me. Oh, we just need to
be all the way clear on that.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
All my life, running all my life, sacrifice Hustle, berd Price,
Want Slice, Got the Brothers swap all my life. I
be grinding all my life, all my life and running
all my life sacrifice Hustle Bert Bryce Want Slice, Got
the brother dis swash all my life. I be grinding
(00:37):
all my life.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Hello, welcome to another episode of Club Shashe. I am
your host, Shandon Sharp. I'm also the propriud of Club Shache,
the lady that's stopping by for conversation on the drink today.
She has thirty years in the film industry. One of
Hollywood's most sought after actresses, she delivered iconic performances and
over one hundred films, TV shows and commercials. She's headlined
it was biggest blockbusters and helped generate over one billion
(01:03):
at the box office. She was in a film that
was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in
the United States. National Film Registry. An award winning actor, writer, producer, director,
a gifted performer, talented model, New York Times best selling author.
She's a star wart in the entertainment industry, the multi
talented making.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Did I do you right?
Speaker 5 (01:26):
You did?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I didn't even know about the one? What was the multicultural? Uh?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
There were you the Library of Congress?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah? Yeah, okay, okay doing it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So you know what, since we propped something on you, you
didn't know.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I have my own Kanyac. This is shay By Laportier.
It's named after my grandmother. Porter in frenchis Laportier. So
I named it after my grandmother. And I want to
toast let love the toast your success. Thirty years in
the business. Yeah, hopefully thirty more.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Amen, Thank you, thank you, it was nice. That's very nice.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yes, well, thank you very much. Making thank you for
topic by.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
I understand that you are extremely busy with your you know,
your time, your energy, your movie career is doing great,
and for you to give me a few moments, take
the time to day, I greatly appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I greatly appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
You know what, So let's get right into it.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
You've been at this thing you started, like when you
were four years old? Did you know you always wanted
to do? How did the commercial aspect of this think start?
Speaker 5 (02:40):
You know, what's interesting is as I grew up in
Santa Clarita, California, back when it was called Canyon Country
in the eighties, so.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
We were like one of one black family for a
long time.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
So I was almost like thirteen ishk and in that
in that time, you know, for me, it was more
like there was a little bit of bullying and different
things going on, and my mom was like, you know, okay, well,
hobby wise, what is it that you want to do
that can be your thing your safe space. And I
was like, I want to act, and she was like okay,
(03:11):
So then she put me into acting.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Me and my older sister, La Maya.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I was four, she was six, and it just started
off as commercials everything from Cheerios or Pringles to Barbie
to whatever you.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Could think of.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
And then from that, you know, when you say started
from the bottom, it went from like being next to
the person who was like the lead person on set,
My mom.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Like, just get next to her and have a lot
of energy, So you.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Do that, you know, and the next thing, yeah, oh yeah,
I was next for a long time. Well yeah, yeah,
and then and then that led to being on camera,
and that led to one line.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
One line led to two you know, three lines led
to a scene. A scene led to four scenes.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Four scenes led to you know, being a regular or
a guest star or something like that, and then.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
From so on and so on.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
So yeah, I started from the bottom, built my way
all the way.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
He started from the bottom. Did you ever become discouraged
because you didn't get the speaking parts regularly and that
you like just had to stand there and smile and
put on your bed's face, your bad book forward? Did
you ever get discouraged?
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Like, I don't know, mom, No, I actually felt it
a challenge. I was like, y'all go see me, y'all,
go give me a chance. And it's interesting because I
don't really know where I get that from. But you know,
I had a lot of teachers that were like, oh,
you're not gonna that's not a realistic career, or you know, honey,
nowt And I'd be like, just wait one day, you'll see.
And I've just always kind of had that mentality. So
(04:32):
for me to continue to just grow and grow and grow.
It's been a blessing and and I think a slow,
steady climb I think is healthy for any actor, but
any person in general, because it teaches you along the
way to have humility, to remember where you came from,
to understand, especially within this industry, this thing goes up
(04:52):
and down. You could show up one day, you know,
to a club and you stand it outside forty five
miss so you could show up next month and have
movie out, walk in with five guys and get a
free table at a bottle, And then you can come
back six months later and not have a movie out
and wait for fifteen minutes, you know. And so all
of that along the journey has allowed me to have
perspective and remind me this is not who I am.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's just what I do and I get to do it.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So where did you divelop this confidence from?
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Because these scenes you are a very competent young woman,
think that you understand that, like, you know what, it
might not happen today, but tomorrow is a different day.
How did you remain confident even though you weren't getting
those faking scenes in the beginning?
Speaker 5 (05:34):
I think my mom is you know, and God really
like just knowing that God's timing is perfect timing. And
as they always say with the kids, you know, people's
rejection is God's protection. And my mom just always saying like,
just wait, just keep doing your best, keep putting your
best foot forward, just show up. And then you know,
there's always the reality of like you have to carry
(05:54):
the crown before you wear it, and then I think
once you've warn it, you got to remember some times
to carry it again for someone else.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
And so my mom is.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Always instilled that my sister and I and for me,
it's just never been It's never been a question. I
remember being like nineteen and being like, Lord, I didn't
even ask you if this is what you have for me,
So let me ask you first. And then once I
got that confirmation, but that it was bigger than just
being in the industry. It is about using your platform
for something greater than you. But when I got that confirmation,
then I was like, there's nothing nobody gets tell me.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I was like, it's just a matter of time.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So do you remember your first commercial in that audition.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I remember the first commercial on set. I was four.
It was a Marshall Fields commercial.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
And I was like a little girl with a bunch
of little kids, like out on a picnic, and they
had a little dog that was trained and the guy
was holding the food just above the camera to get
the dog to kind of spin around in a little circle.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
And that's just what I remember about it.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I mean, you've been at over sixty televised commercials.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
What do you remember. What was your favorite commercial? What
do you remember most about doing that?
Speaker 5 (06:54):
My favorite commercial was probably a Pringles commercial, and it
was like, uh Pringle pop got that yuh yeah with
a kick a kick a Calsie.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I'm talking young to the maximum plus a whole kick
a kick and kicka Cassie.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Anyway, So it was about the Pringles having more calcium, right,
and we did a lot of dancing. And I remember
that vividly because one I was the only black kid,
which was often the case, but two it was the
first time anyone got me into fitted jeans and I
was fourteen, and before that I was like straight up
like tailc cross color, like you know, Jebo Boss, like
(07:27):
just my cousin's short. I was like, you know, string
around my waist with like a belt to make them
jings for me. And I used to get sent home
all the time because my clothes were too big, and
it was the first time I put on some tight
pants and I just liked them so much.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I warmed to school the next day and the boys
was like, you got a little like I do you know?
After that? Yeah, the rest of the sister.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Did you ever freeze? Did you ever get stage right?
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Or were you always a natural that the cameras you like,
I don't even really see the cameras. I'm like, I'm
in my own I'm at home, I'm in my room,
I'm in front of my mirror brush, and I'm just
doing this.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Did you ever have state front?
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I think I always the first time on a job
with the first day. I always have a first day
of school like jitters, you know, like nerves and you
just want to get it right, and you just want
to figure out the character and you just want to
be in tune with everything needs to happen.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I don't think I've ever froze before.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
I think the only time I've frozen is when I
was working on this job that it was a very
very big director, very very expensive job, and I just
felt a lot of pressure. I was the lead and
it was kind of an iconic remake of something, reboot
of something, and there was just so many hands in
the pot and so.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Many different people giving me directions.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
And as a child actor, you just learned to kind
of do what you're told. And so when you have
four different important people telling you to do something completely different,
even at thirty four, I kind of just didn't know
how to navigate that and like who to please first,
And I just started to get so stressed out that
I started to actually just forget my lines. I completely
forget them. And that was probably will be the most
(09:00):
challenging job I've ever worked on, because it was just
it took me. It took me until this young black
director came in and was like, I know who you are,
I know what you can do.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Trust yourself. I'm not gonna bother you for me to
go okay, And then from there on it was, you know,
great experience.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
That was the reassurance that you needed.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah you could do this, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
You were doing great at this, but you were hearing
too many voices.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
And also and also to just stand up for myself
and just.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Be like, look, y'all, one of you come and tell
me you guys aside what the four of you guys
want to do? And then some one person, probably the director,
because that's the one person who should be talking to
me why I'm filming, Just come tell me what what
you know you need me to do? And I mean
it was it was very pivotal for me because I
walked away from it initially going yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I don't know if I want to act anymore. Really yeah,
because it.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Was it was you got that discoverance.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
It was almost traumatizing because there was one director who
came on that was yelling at me like there was
a stunt that we were doing, and he told me,
no matter what, not.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
To stop and I was.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Like, well, if it looks like someone's gonna get hurt,
then I'm gonna stop. And then also I went from
a stunt guy doing it to the actor doing the stunt,
and in one case I felt that me running up
and grabbing this guy from behind, we were both going
to fall.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Down the hill.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
So I stopped and he just came out of the
tent and was like I just screamed at me.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
And it was the first time in my professional for
career where I was like, what do you want me
to do.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Like I flipped out because I was like, yo, yoa,
I'm so nice, I'm so cad, I'm so easy going.
Like this dude was like wild and I was like
you know what at some point, at some point, and
then after that, everyone was like because they know they
knew me, and they knew that I'm like trying to,
you know, be an.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Easy go away and for you to snap like that, yeah,
you've probably handed up here not here, listen.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I was.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
I was done so because because it's just you know,
it was it was completely inappropriate and anybody else wouldn't
have thought twice about saying, yo, don't talk to me
like that. But because I came from the background, I came,
and possibly because I was a black woman, I just
was a little bit, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
And then once I said, look, that's enough. But it was.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Interesting because he left to film something out else and
had to come back, like on one of the last
days to film a scene with me, And after I
fill the scene with him, I realized that I was
like sweating profusely and my hands were shaking, because that's
how like understand. Yeah, he almost like gave me like
an anxiety to just yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So anyway I made it though, Was that the first time?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Was that the moment that you decided that you needed
to stand up for yourself?
Speaker 5 (11:35):
Yeah? I think so that was the probably the first moment,
because because the first thing he did before that was
embarrassed me in front of the crew because I had
like this big dialogue and I was going over and
then he was like, just say it and I was like, yeah,
I'm about to, and he was like, no, everyone holds
your work.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Mind you.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
There's like two hundred people and said to it, everybody stop, everyone,
stop what you're doing. Say the line. And I was
like uh, And I was just so caught off guard
that I started saying it, but I was like fumbling
through it.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
And then he was just like, you've done it a
hundred times.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
You've done it a hundred like he just like reprimanded
me that I was a child in front of the
whole crew. So there was that moment and I cried
about that. So the next time he came for me,
he got.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
What he asked for. I am a leo after all,
I'm as kind as they come, baby.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
I try to make the best atmosphere for everybody, and
just the best quality of life and just love. But
I was like, okay, I've reached my yeah, because I'm
close to the edge.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I'm trying, yeah, not to lose my pat.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Okay, that's what's up. And then you were the extra.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
You're in movie Dookie House with Neil Patrick, Harris Sherman Hemsley,
who was the most no would be named for good Jefferson,
I'm sure called amen and being an extra, do you
like maybe try to steal a scene?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Do you like? Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, look, you try to not necessarily steal a scene.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
You just try to make sure that whatever you're doing
counts okay, because if you do that, then they might
be like, you know what, this kid, it is good,
Let's move them up to a principal row.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Let's make sure they're on camera. And that's literally how
I made my way up.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Really yeah, so you you you elevated when you bumped
some kid down.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Oh no, I would never.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
I would never push anyone over, kick anyone over, step
over anybody to get to where I'm going.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
I'm just making my own lane, right, So.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
What do you what do you remember most about those
about those days in your first actor I'm talking not
I understand that TV ads are one thing. But then
now you're on a TV or you're on a sitcom,
you're on a TV television series.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
What do you remember most about that?
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Well, you know what's interesting is is I did TV
probably up until I was like nineteen. So the last
two things I did was Cousin Skeeter Nickelodeon, which I
did for almost four years. I grew up on that
show with Robert Rashad, and then I switched over because
there was a strike at the time, and I just
said I wanted to do more TV. I just wanted
(13:52):
to focus on movies because Terrence Howard had said to me,
you know, when you finished this show, I want you
to be a young woman who travels the world and
plays different characters and jumps all around as all these
different things. So my advice to you is, don't do
a TV show again until you're married and you have
kids and you want something that's a lot more stable.
You want to know the character's gonna play, where you're
gonna go every day, all those things until then travel
(14:14):
the world and play different characters. So I came out
of that show saying I don't want to do TV.
And then there was a strike. So I did a
show with Bree Lawson and Cat Dettings and.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Bob Saggett, who I loved so much.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
And then I actually left that show to go do
delivers for me, and that was the beginning of my
you know, check to my phone career.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
You were homeschooled. Yeah, basically your entire.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
High school?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
High school? Yeah, just high school?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, just high school.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I read where you got bullied?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Did you get homeschool because you got bullied and it
was the safe space for you to be at home?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Or what caused that?
Speaker 5 (14:52):
I got homeschool because I was on a Nickelodeon show
and because it was too hard.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
To go to school job.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Yeah yeah, but you know, I mean I never wanted
back down from a fight, so if someone's bullying me,
I'm not gonna let them bully me out of submission.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
But but yeah, it.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Was mainly just because I was working so much as
an actor, it just made more sense.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, I really that you got jumped. Do you think
it had something to do with you being on that
Nickelodeon show.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, yeah, it very much did.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
We but it took five though.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
It did take five that.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
Because when I realized it was all coming from my face.
I was like, oh, no, we're not gonna do that.
So I actually laid down on the ground.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
And back then that's.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
When the big clunker shoes popular. I started kicking people
in the gut. Anybody who came near mad spin around
kicking them in the gut. And it's so funny because
I ran into this girl some years later and she
had told a mutual friend of ours that she had
just beat me up.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And I was like, no, you and four other hookers
beat me up. What are you saying right now?
Speaker 5 (15:53):
And it's crazy because after that fight happened, I went
looking for that girl all around town because I was like,
I just want to fight, just you, and the Lord
told me not to do it, and I did it,
and I found some of her friends, and then some
guys came, and then I had some of my guys come,
and the next thing you know, people have shanks and
all kinds of things going out, and we have a
(16:15):
huge brawl inside of Jerry's Deli and I broke the
back of my nail, back breaking a chair on someone's back,
was choking my friend. And by the time we got
out to the parking lot, somebody pulled up on a
motorcycle with a gun and threatened to shoot us all
and we all went running like cockbroaches. And then I
was in the bushes praying and I was like, lord,
(16:36):
I didn't listen and this wasn't right, and now everybody
else's life is in danger. And after that, that particular
guy actually ended up getting into a situation where someone
shot him but didn't kill him, but hurt him. And
I found out where he was at because after that,
I was scared for my life for like two weeks.
I went to his hospital room and said, look, let's
(16:58):
just squash the beef.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Buck say blah.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
And about a year later, I'm on a TV show
doing a reoccurring role and he's one of the writers
on the show and we've been friends ever since.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Wow, man, you about that life growing up.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
I'm okay, your country girl, but I've been around a
lot of crazy.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I'm looking at your petite self and you know, like, Okay,
you're on TV.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
You're like, I ain't gonna mess on my face. I'm
gonna mess on my nails, and you like, boy it,
boy it, Cause.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
I just felt like I just couldn't believe that somebody
had like taken it upon themselves to come into my space.
And the reason that the girls did it is because
they were like, oh, aren't you that one girl from
that TV show?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
And I was like yeah, and they were like, are
you think you all that? And I was like yeah, no.
I was like you you don't want to said that
you think I'm all that? And then they was like
come outside. I was like no, I'm not going.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
Outside, and then that became them jumping me. So I
just couldn't let it be. But now I know better
because it ain't worth it if someone had actually gotten hurt,
you know, I don't think I could lift that down.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
So I read that a teacher she did something she
did ye tell your whole work up, she misplaced your homework?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Uh which teacher?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Because where I grew up in Santa Clarita, like I said,
there was a lot of racism.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
So I had trouble with at least my fifth grade
teacher and my sixth grade teacher.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
My fifth grade teacher actually slapped me on the bag,
my mom got her suspended, and then my sixth grade
teacher just really.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Picked on me.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
It's like if I were a lip gloss, she take
my lip gloss, but she let the other little girls
who didn't have the same complexion as me were a
lip gloss. She take my things and put them in
the June box. And then in this particular instance, my
dad had given me the coins, and because my dad
was lapd and my mom and my dad weren't together,
we didn't always see our dad that often at that time,
so anytime he gave me a collection of coins, it
(18:44):
was like a really big deal to me.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And the teacher took them and put them in the
June box.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
I was supposed to get them back in June, and
another little girl was like, oh, those are mine.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I was like, no, those aren't. She was like, yes
they are. And the teacher was like, stop.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Lying, Megan, and I was like, why do I have
to be lying? And it was just kind of always
that situation. But the girl gave him back like three
years later and apologized.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I didn't punch her, you.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Guys, Magarine, not hopefully you do.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I did not punch her, but you thought about it
at that time. I don't know. I'm not aggressive in
that way.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
I'm one of those people who if you continue to
mess with me and you get me to a certain point.
Then I'm upset that you got me to that point
because it takes so much for me.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I'm so like, it ain't that serious.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
So let me get this straight.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
The June box is something if the teacher takes something
from you in September, October, November. Yes, they place it
in this June box, and at the end of the year,
when school is over, you get.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
To get it back.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yes, so she took your coins that your father had
given you.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Obviously, your mom and dad's not together, so it holds
a little bit more sentimental value to you because he's
not around every single day. Yeah, she places it in
that yep, and then and.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
She ain't keep no records, or maybe she did, but
she gave him to it dold it back. If I
knew where that girl lived, maybe maybe.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
You said in Santa Clarita, where you grew up. At
a lot of times you were the only black child. Yeah,
and there were so Obviously, if you're the only little
black child in that area, probably you're going to be
one of a handful of in the high school. So
you did you deal with a lot of racism in
high school or with just isolated incidents.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Well, definitely in elementary school quite a bit, and then
in junior high.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
A little bit.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
That's around when when the kids started busting in, like
black kids started busting in.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
But then it was kind of like in the beginning,
it was like the black kids was like, why are you.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Talk like that?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And I'm like, talk like what. They're like, like you're white.
I'm like, let's talk like I'm white.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
They're like I should do them Like how so anyways,
as I sound so crazy right now with my boy's
gonna hide it anyway. So I think for me, I
almost felt like I didn't really fit in anywhere kind
of growing up, which I think actually worked to my
benefit because then I just kind of learned how to
be authentically myself and unapologetically in that, but also how
(21:06):
to be a chameleon and get along with anyone and
go in any space and be comfortable.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
How were you in the role in Friday thirteen thirteen?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Yeah, and you know you had the scene the ice
cream truck with big big firm, I mean big worm.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, And so what was it like.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Because you know Chris Tucker, ICEQ phase on, John Witherspoon,
Bernie Matt Yeah, were you on the set with Were
you on the set with any of those guys other
than Tucker, Chris Tucker and Ice Cube.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
You know what's crazy is at that time, Michael Clark
Duncan was Tiny Lester's standing and you know, f Gary
Gray was twenty five years old. First movie and basically
for that those two scenes that I had in the movie,
I was probably on set for almost three weeks waiting
to shoot my scenes.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
And so I spent a lot of time with everybody.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
But one thing I'll never forget is a tiny I
was eating a tune of sandwich and he said, can
I have one? I said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So
I went and I made it when and I came
back and then Michael was like, well, where's mine? And
I was like, well, you didn't ask for one. He
was like yeah, but she didn't ask me if I
wanted one.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
And then he said to me, he said, just remember
as you go along in your career, make sure you
treat every single person on set the same exact way.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Everybody has a role and everybody has a job. Everybody
is important. And I was like right, And that stuck
with me.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
And so I always did that, and I've always done that,
And then it was really cool to do deads with
Michael Clark Duncan when I was twenty two, all those
years later, and yeah, he was a wonderful person.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, did you know Friday would be the cult classic.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
It's one of the It's one of the black film
If you got five black films, and there are a
lot of them, Friday's going to be in that collection.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Did you know what you were shooting at the time.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
I just was so happy to be there and to
have a real line on camera in a movie. I
was so nervous during my scene. There was a few
times whe Chris had to be like, it's.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Show line, It's show line, it's a line. I'm like, right, oh, man,
I hate him. That was so nervous, and I had
what he the ones I'd be saying, you ain't got
a one line, just say line.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
I was like, right, right, right.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
But he became like a big brother to me after that, right,
But yeah, I had no idea of what it was
going to become.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
And then you eaves by you. Yeah, with Samuel L. Jackson,
what was that experience.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
Like, well, that was the next year when I was fourteen,
and I'll never forget that. There was a table read
about four years prior and I was ten at the time,
so I was actually playing Eve in the table reading,
and Samuel Jackson was still playing of a father role.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
I think Maya Campbell was playing my role, and I
forget who else was there. But the point is.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
Is after that, I was like, great, so when are
we going to shoot this movie? And Miss Casey was
basically like, well, we got to, you know, get a
funding for it first. So every year I'd be like,
miss Casey, we get fundy, we get funny, we get funny.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
And finally when they.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Got funding, I was fourteen, so I was like, okay,
I have to get Cicily. I have to be you know,
and so I went in I got Cicily, which was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And then I remember Journey coming in.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
And four years prior, I had guest starred on our
own and played Jesse's love interest and had my first
on camera kiss with him and all that, and so
I remembered.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Journey and I was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
And then we just totally vibed out an audition and
then we ended up getting it together and then we
were talking about Poe in the room and I was like, oh,
you know, Journey's got a little brother that's the exact
same age as Poe. And then Casey went out there
and saw him, and then you know, then it's me
Journey day.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
So were they any roles early on that your mom
that your parents wouldn't allow you to do.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
I'm sure there would have been, but I think my
mom just kind of always instilled in me like, don't
do anything you're not comfortable with, don't compromise yourself in
any way. If you can look yourself in the mirror
and then you're okay. But if you can't, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Not worth it. It's not that serious. God will bring you
something better.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
And so growing up, every time I turned down something
that I wanted to do but I wasn't willing to
do the nudity or I wasn't willing to do this,
or that, God always did bring something better.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Has that always been your athos? Has that always been
the way you thought? And says like, you know what,
at the end of the day, I still have to
be able to look at myself and feel good about
myself one thousand.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Percent because I don't want fame or any type of
success at the expense of losing my soul.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Or not feeling good about who I am. It is
not that serious. It is a you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
And so I think, as long as I keep my
integrity and my authenticity, what's supposed to be mine will
come to me. And I think it'll come to me
even easier because you beat out the things that you
don't need to be concerned with anyways.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Do you feel you've missed out on some roles because
of the way you feel that you won't no, compromise
your integrity.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
No, what's meant to be, it's going to be.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
What's meant to be is going to And if I
had done those roles, what I feel as good as
I feel now, what I have the piece that I
have in.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
My heart now, No, and that's that you can't buy that.
That's not for self.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
I've interviewed a lot of people that were kid actors
and they a lot of them have some bad stories
to tells.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Do you have any bad stories?
Speaker 4 (26:19):
I mean, I remember you had you had the one
director that you said that he yelled at it, Yeah,
But outside of that, were they anything that you like
that made you even maybe second guests was like, maybe
this isn't for me because this yelling and all the
belittling and the carrying on.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I don't know if it's for me.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
No, because I started doing it so young that it
was the world I knew and the world that I
lived in. So when I saw things that I didn't like,
I just stayed away from it. Or if I saw
people who had bad energy or were desperate for attention
or whatever it was, I just kind of stayed out
of their way and did my own thing. And so
it's all I've ever known is the job that I've
(26:55):
had my entire life. So I understand some of the
things that come with it. I just don't concern myself
for those things.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
You've been Megan Good famous basically your.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Entire life, Right, did you wish that you could do
some of the other things that kid could do because
you couldn't do because you on television, You were in
commercial so you just couldn't go play, and you just
couldn't go hang out with your friends. And by the
looks like you had a whole lot of friends.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
You run them off, I did.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
But my best friend I've been best friends for twenty
seven years.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Y'all.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Bet most of my friends I've had for twenty.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
Years Twust wow, yeah yeah, and they're so you know,
they're true, Oh man, they're just quality human beings, like
some of God's greatest gifts to my life.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Truly.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
I think the only thing I missed out on was
the college experience, which I kind of went back and
forth because that would have meant that I would have
had to take a break right and then. And then
I also had the mentality of, like, so many of
the things that I want to learn, I want to
learn other people who were actively doing it for a living.
And then I think I just I really would have
(28:06):
wanted to do the reunions like the ten year union.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
I just love stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
And yeah yeah, so but you were you did you go?
Did you have sleepovers? Did Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah? Definitely.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
I mean we weren't really allowed to sleep over anyone
else's house, but they could come, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
But yeah, I mean, in that.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Sense, there was always time to play, to find time
to hang out.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
My mom was definitely.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
Particular about who would obviously meet their parents and all
those things. But in that sense, that part of it
was pretty normal outside of people recognize you.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
So in other words, to make a long story short,
that you don't feel that you missed out or anything,
even though you've had this long career and you know,
you was a TV show, your movies and like a
lot of normal kids, did you ever want to play sports?
Speaker 5 (28:56):
I'm very athletic and I do love sports, but I
don't think so.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I think I alwaysknew I wanted to do drama.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
This is what you are and yeah, and then I
tried to dance for a while, but I just was
not good at it. So yeah, my older sister la
Mina and my younger sister likes you are both phenomenal dancers.
But I was just like, yeah, that's not the that's
not something if the Lord has given you making, and
that's okay.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Right you got served.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Yeah, So now, I mean now the movie they're starting
to come with greater regularities. It's like like you're working,
you wrap one and you're starting another, wrap that one,
starting another because you have a stretch where you like
for like a decade, right you in two a couple
of movies yet right, right, right.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
So now you're like, Okay, did you ever like man
girl doing it? You don't think that's not your personality?
Speaker 5 (29:46):
No, I think I had one moment where I did
this movie and it was such an all star cast
and I just thought, Okay, this is.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Going to be the one and you know, I'm going
to be out of here.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
And this person who had did ow many films that
just always re number one box office hits, this is
the one that flocked. Oh, And I just thought to myself,
I was just praying about it, and I was just like,
I don't have the right heart, the right like you
know what I'm saying. My mind wasn't right about it
was like this one is going to get you out
of here? Like what does that mean? What is out
us here mean? What is it that you are trying
(30:18):
to accomplish in your mind in that moment? And so
I really had to check myself on that and really
ask myself, like what do I want? You know, what
is my intention? And so so I've never approached anything
like that ever.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Again.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
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Speaker 4 (31:59):
Deliver from Evil. You got served roll Bound Stop the Yard,
But it was really think like a man. Yoh yeah,
with Kevin Hard, Chris Brown, Grab Union, Regina Hall, Tarajie,
j Gary Owen, Steve Harvey.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Yes, that was an all star cast.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
That's a lot of personalities. Yes, yes, everybody's like important,
They're important. Amen, Megan, how do you fit in? How
do you blend in? Like, Okay, I'm here, Obviously they
think I'm important because I'm here, But obviously Kevin Hard
is Kevin Hard, Steve Harvey, Steve Harvey Toajji is Toaji
(32:38):
uh huh? So how do, how do you? How do
you fit in? But in the same time, you stand out.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
You be humble, and you be authentic.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Nobody can be you the way that you can be you,
and nobody can bring what you bring to the table
the way that you bring it. If you stay in
your lane and you do you, then you will stand
out because that is you.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
There's nobody else in the world like you. But if
you stay humble.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
You learn from others, You're able to teach, You're able
to enjoy the space the time with everyone.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I don't believe in competition by.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
Any means, and so for me, I'm really a girl's girl,
but I'm also you know, a guy's girl where I
genuinely want to see everybody when as much of a
leo as I am, I also am very like if somebody,
you know, if somebody wants to shine a certain way,
I'm like, by all means, you got it.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Because I don't care. Because for me, I.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
Have a lot of self love and a lot of
like just you know, I just know who I am
and that's enough for me.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
And so yeah, I'm.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
Just very peaceful in all situations, on all sets, with
all people.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
I read that the very first time that you were
in Vegas is that you were filming this movie?
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Is that true? No, you had gone to Vegas before?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Tis times?
Speaker 1 (34:00):
What see you got a lot of secret from U? Yeah, no, few.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Of course everybody has secrets.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
So when you feel in this movie you understand all
the characters and like, remember you said there was a
movie before that, You're like, this is the one that's
gonna get me out of here.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Did you know how successful that Think like a Man?
Did you know it was gonna be?
Speaker 5 (34:24):
I think I had an inkling, but I didn't go
into it with that. What I went into it with
was this is my first opportunity to really figure out
like the comedy part of it, because comedy terrified me.
You know, I was used to playing the straight man.
I was used to doing more drama and all of that.
So and Think like a Man when Tim's story kind
(34:47):
of gave me the opportunity to just like add things
in and to try different things and see if they
were and see if it was funny, and you know,
throw a bunch of stuff up against the wall and
sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesn't. But he allowed
me the freedom and space to learn how to just
jump and to know that that's the only way you're
going to find the funny and from there, you know
that experience and think like a man alone. Tim's story
(35:11):
really set me up for Harlem.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
You know.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
He really was the teacher in the space that allowed
me to figure out that my funny doesn't.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Have to be like anybody else's funny.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
I learned that my funny is awkward funny, you know,
And so as I lean, as I lean into my
own brand of what comedy is, you know, the right
people will respond to it.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
They respond to it.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
But that that's all I went into it with, was
just like, Okay, I just got to like get for
you on this and I just gotta, you know, conquer
this kind of comedy thing and just have fun with it.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
So you shoot it it wraps, Yeah, premiere, Yeah, what's
going through your mind?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
It came out so good. I'm so proud of it.
People laughed at the things I added in, like you know,
that kind of thing, and.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Just being thankful to be alongside people that are great
and gracious and the people that I love. I've known
Gabrielle since I was like fourteen, you know. Taraji I've
known forever since, like right after she did Baby Boy.
I mean, Regina Hall, I mean, I just love her
(36:18):
to pieces. When I was going in for Harlem, I
called Regina and I was like, look, I'm about to
go test for this.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Will you run these lines with me because I want
to know what you think and both. She was like, girl,
would you funny? I was like, yeah, but you the best, right,
So I just want to see what you think. Blah
blah blah.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
Michael Ealy, who absolutely adore Kevin who Apps, I mean
that whole cast, Terrence my brother, Like everybody is just
people who are great actors, great talent, and great human beings.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
simply go back to club profile and I'll see you there.
You an Obama effect with cat I see this interview.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm gonna leave it at that. I'm leaving it at that.
That's what I am gonna say. I'm sorry, but my
man is sexy to me. Oh, we just need to
be all the way clear on that.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
All my life, running all my life, sacrifice Hustle, berd Price,
Want Slice, Got the Brothers swap all my life. I
be grinding all my life, all my life and running
all my life sacrifice Hustle Bert Bryce Want Slice, Got
the brother dis swash all my life. I be grinding
(00:37):
all my life.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Hello, welcome to another episode of Club Shashe. I am
your host, Shandon Sharp. I'm also the propriud of Club Shache,
the lady that's stopping by for conversation on the drink today.
She has thirty years in the film industry. One of
Hollywood's most sought after actresses, she delivered iconic performances and
over one hundred films, TV shows and commercials. She's headlined
it was biggest blockbusters and helped generate over one billion
(01:03):
at the box office. She was in a film that
was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in
the United States. National Film Registry. An award winning actor, writer, producer, director,
a gifted performer, talented model, New York Times best selling author.
She's a star wart in the entertainment industry, the multi
talented making.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Did I do you right?
Speaker 5 (01:26):
You did?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I didn't even know about the one? What was the multicultural? Uh?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
There were you the Library of Congress?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah? Yeah, okay, okay doing it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So you know what, since we propped something on you, you
didn't know.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I have my own Kanyac. This is shay By Laportier.
It's named after my grandmother. Porter in frenchis Laportier. So
I named it after my grandmother. And I want to
toast let love the toast your success. Thirty years in
the business. Yeah, hopefully thirty more.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Amen, Thank you, thank you, it was nice. That's very nice.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yes, well, thank you very much. Making thank you for
topic by.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
I understand that you are extremely busy with your you know,
your time, your energy, your movie career is doing great,
and for you to give me a few moments, take
the time to day, I greatly appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I greatly appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
You know what, So let's get right into it.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
You've been at this thing you started, like when you
were four years old? Did you know you always wanted
to do? How did the commercial aspect of this think start?
Speaker 5 (02:40):
You know, what's interesting is as I grew up in
Santa Clarita, California, back when it was called Canyon Country
in the eighties, so.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
We were like one of one black family for a
long time.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
So I was almost like thirteen ishk and in that
in that time, you know, for me, it was more
like there was a little bit of bullying and different
things going on, and my mom was like, you know, okay, well,
hobby wise, what is it that you want to do
that can be your thing your safe space. And I
was like, I want to act, and she was like okay,
(03:11):
So then she put me into acting.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Me and my older sister, La Maya.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I was four, she was six, and it just started
off as commercials everything from Cheerios or Pringles to Barbie
to whatever you.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Could think of.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
And then from that, you know, when you say started
from the bottom, it went from like being next to
the person who was like the lead person on set,
My mom.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Like, just get next to her and have a lot
of energy, So you.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Do that, you know, and the next thing, yeah, oh yeah,
I was next for a long time. Well yeah, yeah,
and then and then that led to being on camera,
and that led to one line.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
One line led to two you know, three lines led
to a scene. A scene led to four scenes.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Four scenes led to you know, being a regular or
a guest star or something like that, and then.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
From so on and so on.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
So yeah, I started from the bottom, built my way
all the way.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
He started from the bottom. Did you ever become discouraged
because you didn't get the speaking parts regularly and that
you like just had to stand there and smile and
put on your bed's face, your bad book forward? Did
you ever get discouraged?
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Like, I don't know, mom, No, I actually felt it
a challenge. I was like, y'all go see me, y'all,
go give me a chance. And it's interesting because I
don't really know where I get that from. But you know,
I had a lot of teachers that were like, oh,
you're not gonna that's not a realistic career, or you know, honey,
nowt And I'd be like, just wait one day, you'll see.
And I've just always kind of had that mentality. So
(04:32):
for me to continue to just grow and grow and grow.
It's been a blessing and and I think a slow,
steady climb I think is healthy for any actor, but
any person in general, because it teaches you along the
way to have humility, to remember where you came from,
to understand, especially within this industry, this thing goes up
(04:52):
and down. You could show up one day, you know,
to a club and you stand it outside forty five
miss so you could show up next month and have
movie out, walk in with five guys and get a
free table at a bottle, And then you can come
back six months later and not have a movie out
and wait for fifteen minutes, you know. And so all
of that along the journey has allowed me to have
perspective and remind me this is not who I am.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's just what I do and I get to do it.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So where did you divelop this confidence from?
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Because these scenes you are a very competent young woman,
think that you understand that, like, you know what, it
might not happen today, but tomorrow is a different day.
How did you remain confident even though you weren't getting
those faking scenes in the beginning?
Speaker 5 (05:34):
I think my mom is you know, and God really
like just knowing that God's timing is perfect timing. And
as they always say with the kids, you know, people's
rejection is God's protection. And my mom just always saying like,
just wait, just keep doing your best, keep putting your
best foot forward, just show up. And then you know,
there's always the reality of like you have to carry
(05:54):
the crown before you wear it, and then I think
once you've warn it, you got to remember some times
to carry it again for someone else.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
And so my mom is.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Always instilled that my sister and I and for me,
it's just never been It's never been a question. I
remember being like nineteen and being like, Lord, I didn't
even ask you if this is what you have for me,
So let me ask you first. And then once I
got that confirmation, but that it was bigger than just
being in the industry. It is about using your platform
for something greater than you. But when I got that confirmation,
then I was like, there's nothing nobody gets tell me.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I was like, it's just a matter of time.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So do you remember your first commercial in that audition.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I remember the first commercial on set. I was four.
It was a Marshall Fields commercial.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
And I was like a little girl with a bunch
of little kids, like out on a picnic, and they
had a little dog that was trained and the guy
was holding the food just above the camera to get
the dog to kind of spin around in a little circle.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
And that's just what I remember about it.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
I mean, you've been at over sixty televised commercials.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
What do you remember. What was your favorite commercial? What
do you remember most about doing that?
Speaker 5 (06:54):
My favorite commercial was probably a Pringles commercial, and it
was like, uh Pringle pop got that yuh yeah with
a kick a kick a Calsie.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I'm talking young to the maximum plus a whole kick
a kick and kicka Cassie.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Anyway, So it was about the Pringles having more calcium, right,
and we did a lot of dancing. And I remember
that vividly because one I was the only black kid,
which was often the case, but two it was the
first time anyone got me into fitted jeans and I
was fourteen, and before that I was like straight up
like tailc cross color, like you know, Jebo Boss, like
(07:27):
just my cousin's short. I was like, you know, string
around my waist with like a belt to make them
jings for me. And I used to get sent home
all the time because my clothes were too big, and
it was the first time I put on some tight
pants and I just liked them so much.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I warmed to school the next day and the boys
was like, you got a little like I do you know?
After that? Yeah, the rest of the sister.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Did you ever freeze? Did you ever get stage right?
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Or were you always a natural that the cameras you like,
I don't even really see the cameras. I'm like, I'm
in my own I'm at home, I'm in my room,
I'm in front of my mirror brush, and I'm just
doing this.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Did you ever have state front?
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I think I always the first time on a job
with the first day. I always have a first day
of school like jitters, you know, like nerves and you
just want to get it right, and you just want
to figure out the character and you just want to
be in tune with everything needs to happen.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I don't think I've ever froze before.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
I think the only time I've frozen is when I
was working on this job that it was a very
very big director, very very expensive job, and I just
felt a lot of pressure. I was the lead and
it was kind of an iconic remake of something, reboot
of something, and there was just so many hands in
the pot and so.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Many different people giving me directions.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
And as a child actor, you just learned to kind
of do what you're told. And so when you have
four different important people telling you to do something completely different,
even at thirty four, I kind of just didn't know
how to navigate that and like who to please first,
And I just started to get so stressed out that
I started to actually just forget my lines. I completely
forget them. And that was probably will be the most
(09:00):
challenging job I've ever worked on, because it was just
it took me. It took me until this young black
director came in and was like, I know who you are,
I know what you can do.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Trust yourself. I'm not gonna bother you for me to
go okay, And then from there on it was, you know,
great experience.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
That was the reassurance that you needed.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah you could do this, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
You were doing great at this, but you were hearing
too many voices.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
And also and also to just stand up for myself
and just.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Be like, look, y'all, one of you come and tell
me you guys aside what the four of you guys
want to do? And then some one person, probably the director,
because that's the one person who should be talking to
me why I'm filming, Just come tell me what what
you know you need me to do? And I mean
it was it was very pivotal for me because I
walked away from it initially going yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I don't know if I want to act anymore. Really yeah,
because it.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Was it was you got that discoverance.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
It was almost traumatizing because there was one director who
came on that was yelling at me like there was
a stunt that we were doing, and he told me,
no matter what, not.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
To stop and I was.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Like, well, if it looks like someone's gonna get hurt,
then I'm gonna stop. And then also I went from
a stunt guy doing it to the actor doing the stunt,
and in one case I felt that me running up
and grabbing this guy from behind, we were both going
to fall.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Down the hill.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
So I stopped and he just came out of the
tent and was like I just screamed at me.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
And it was the first time in my professional for
career where I was like, what do you want me
to do.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
Like I flipped out because I was like, yo, yoa,
I'm so nice, I'm so cad, I'm so easy going.
Like this dude was like wild and I was like
you know what at some point, at some point, and
then after that, everyone was like because they know they
knew me, and they knew that I'm like trying to,
you know, be an.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Easy go away and for you to snap like that, yeah,
you've probably handed up here not here, listen.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I was.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
I was done so because because it's just you know,
it was it was completely inappropriate and anybody else wouldn't
have thought twice about saying, yo, don't talk to me
like that. But because I came from the background, I came,
and possibly because I was a black woman, I just
was a little bit, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
And then once I said, look, that's enough. But it was.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Interesting because he left to film something out else and
had to come back, like on one of the last
days to film a scene with me, And after I
fill the scene with him, I realized that I was
like sweating profusely and my hands were shaking, because that's
how like understand. Yeah, he almost like gave me like
an anxiety to just yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So anyway I made it though, Was that the first time?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Was that the moment that you decided that you needed
to stand up for yourself?
Speaker 5 (11:35):
Yeah? I think so that was the probably the first moment,
because because the first thing he did before that was
embarrassed me in front of the crew because I had
like this big dialogue and I was going over and
then he was like, just say it and I was like, yeah,
I'm about to, and he was like, no, everyone holds
your work.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Mind you.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
There's like two hundred people and said to it, everybody stop, everyone,
stop what you're doing. Say the line. And I was
like uh, And I was just so caught off guard
that I started saying it, but I was like fumbling
through it.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
And then he was just like, you've done it a
hundred times.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
You've done it a hundred like he just like reprimanded
me that I was a child in front of the
whole crew. So there was that moment and I cried
about that. So the next time he came for me,
he got.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
What he asked for. I am a leo after all,
I'm as kind as they come, baby.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
I try to make the best atmosphere for everybody, and
just the best quality of life and just love. But
I was like, okay, I've reached my yeah, because I'm
close to the edge.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I'm trying, yeah, not to lose my pat.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Okay, that's what's up. And then you were the extra.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
You're in movie Dookie House with Neil Patrick, Harris Sherman Hemsley,
who was the most no would be named for good Jefferson,
I'm sure called amen and being an extra, do you
like maybe try to steal a scene?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Do you like? Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, look, you try to not necessarily steal a scene.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
You just try to make sure that whatever you're doing
counts okay, because if you do that, then they might
be like, you know what, this kid, it is good,
Let's move them up to a principal row.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Let's make sure they're on camera. And that's literally how
I made my way up.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Really yeah, so you you you elevated when you bumped
some kid down.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Oh no, I would never.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
I would never push anyone over, kick anyone over, step
over anybody to get to where I'm going.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
I'm just making my own lane, right, So.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
What do you what do you remember most about those
about those days in your first actor I'm talking not
I understand that TV ads are one thing. But then
now you're on a TV or you're on a sitcom,
you're on a TV television series.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
What do you remember most about that?
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Well, you know what's interesting is is I did TV
probably up until I was like nineteen. So the last
two things I did was Cousin Skeeter Nickelodeon, which I
did for almost four years. I grew up on that
show with Robert Rashad, and then I switched over because
there was a strike at the time, and I just
said I wanted to do more TV. I just wanted
(13:52):
to focus on movies because Terrence Howard had said to me,
you know, when you finished this show, I want you
to be a young woman who travels the world and
plays different characters and jumps all around as all these
different things. So my advice to you is, don't do
a TV show again until you're married and you have
kids and you want something that's a lot more stable.
You want to know the character's gonna play, where you're
gonna go every day, all those things until then travel
(14:14):
the world and play different characters. So I came out
of that show saying I don't want to do TV.
And then there was a strike. So I did a
show with Bree Lawson and Cat Dettings and.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Bob Saggett, who I loved so much.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
And then I actually left that show to go do
delivers for me, and that was the beginning of my
you know, check to my phone career.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
You were homeschooled. Yeah, basically your entire.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
High school?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
High school? Yeah, just high school?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, just high school.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I read where you got bullied?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Did you get homeschool because you got bullied and it
was the safe space for you to be at home?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Or what caused that?
Speaker 5 (14:52):
I got homeschool because I was on a Nickelodeon show
and because it was too hard.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
To go to school job.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Yeah yeah, but you know, I mean I never wanted
back down from a fight, so if someone's bullying me,
I'm not gonna let them bully me out of submission.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
But but yeah, it.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Was mainly just because I was working so much as
an actor, it just made more sense.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, I really that you got jumped. Do you think
it had something to do with you being on that
Nickelodeon show.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, yeah, it very much did.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
We but it took five though.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
It did take five that.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
Because when I realized it was all coming from my face.
I was like, oh, no, we're not gonna do that.
So I actually laid down on the ground.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
And back then that's.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
When the big clunker shoes popular. I started kicking people
in the gut. Anybody who came near mad spin around
kicking them in the gut. And it's so funny because
I ran into this girl some years later and she
had told a mutual friend of ours that she had
just beat me up.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And I was like, no, you and four other hookers
beat me up. What are you saying right now?
Speaker 5 (15:53):
And it's crazy because after that fight happened, I went
looking for that girl all around town because I was like,
I just want to fight, just you, and the Lord
told me not to do it, and I did it,
and I found some of her friends, and then some
guys came, and then I had some of my guys come,
and the next thing you know, people have shanks and
all kinds of things going out, and we have a
(16:15):
huge brawl inside of Jerry's Deli and I broke the
back of my nail, back breaking a chair on someone's back,
was choking my friend. And by the time we got
out to the parking lot, somebody pulled up on a
motorcycle with a gun and threatened to shoot us all
and we all went running like cockbroaches. And then I
was in the bushes praying and I was like, lord,
(16:36):
I didn't listen and this wasn't right, and now everybody
else's life is in danger. And after that, that particular
guy actually ended up getting into a situation where someone
shot him but didn't kill him, but hurt him. And
I found out where he was at because after that,
I was scared for my life for like two weeks.
I went to his hospital room and said, look, let's
(16:58):
just squash the beef.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Buck say blah.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
And about a year later, I'm on a TV show
doing a reoccurring role and he's one of the writers
on the show and we've been friends ever since.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Wow, man, you about that life growing up.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
I'm okay, your country girl, but I've been around a
lot of crazy.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I'm looking at your petite self and you know, like, Okay,
you're on TV.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
You're like, I ain't gonna mess on my face. I'm
gonna mess on my nails, and you like, boy it,
boy it, Cause.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
I just felt like I just couldn't believe that somebody
had like taken it upon themselves to come into my space.
And the reason that the girls did it is because
they were like, oh, aren't you that one girl from
that TV show?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
And I was like yeah, and they were like, are
you think you all that? And I was like yeah, no.
I was like you you don't want to said that
you think I'm all that? And then they was like
come outside. I was like no, I'm not going.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
Outside, and then that became them jumping me. So I
just couldn't let it be. But now I know better
because it ain't worth it if someone had actually gotten hurt,
you know, I don't think I could lift that down.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
So I read that a teacher she did something she
did ye tell your whole work up, she misplaced your homework?
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Uh which teacher?
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Because where I grew up in Santa Clarita, like I said,
there was a lot of racism.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
So I had trouble with at least my fifth grade
teacher and my sixth grade teacher.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
My fifth grade teacher actually slapped me on the bag,
my mom got her suspended, and then my sixth grade
teacher just really.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Picked on me.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
It's like if I were a lip gloss, she take
my lip gloss, but she let the other little girls
who didn't have the same complexion as me were a
lip gloss. She take my things and put them in
the June box. And then in this particular instance, my
dad had given me the coins, and because my dad
was lapd and my mom and my dad weren't together,
we didn't always see our dad that often at that time,
so anytime he gave me a collection of coins, it
(18:44):
was like a really big deal to me.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And the teacher took them and put them in the
June box.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
I was supposed to get them back in June, and
another little girl was like, oh, those are mine.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I was like, no, those aren't. She was like, yes
they are. And the teacher was like, stop.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Lying, Megan, and I was like, why do I have
to be lying? And it was just kind of always
that situation. But the girl gave him back like three
years later and apologized.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I didn't punch her, you.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Guys, Magarine, not hopefully you do.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I did not punch her, but you thought about it
at that time. I don't know. I'm not aggressive in
that way.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
I'm one of those people who if you continue to
mess with me and you get me to a certain point.
Then I'm upset that you got me to that point
because it takes so much for me.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I'm so like, it ain't that serious.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
So let me get this straight.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
The June box is something if the teacher takes something
from you in September, October, November. Yes, they place it
in this June box, and at the end of the year,
when school is over, you get.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
To get it back.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yes, so she took your coins that your father had
given you.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Obviously, your mom and dad's not together, so it holds
a little bit more sentimental value to you because he's
not around every single day. Yeah, she places it in
that yep, and then and.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
She ain't keep no records, or maybe she did, but
she gave him to it dold it back. If I
knew where that girl lived, maybe maybe.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
You said in Santa Clarita, where you grew up. At
a lot of times you were the only black child. Yeah,
and there were so Obviously, if you're the only little
black child in that area, probably you're going to be
one of a handful of in the high school. So
you did you deal with a lot of racism in
high school or with just isolated incidents.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Well, definitely in elementary school quite a bit, and then
in junior high.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
A little bit.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
That's around when when the kids started busting in, like
black kids started busting in.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
But then it was kind of like in the beginning,
it was like the black kids was like, why are you.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Talk like that?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And I'm like, talk like what. They're like, like you're white.
I'm like, let's talk like I'm white.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
They're like I should do them Like how so anyways,
as I sound so crazy right now with my boy's
gonna hide it anyway. So I think for me, I
almost felt like I didn't really fit in anywhere kind
of growing up, which I think actually worked to my
benefit because then I just kind of learned how to
be authentically myself and unapologetically in that, but also how
(21:06):
to be a chameleon and get along with anyone and
go in any space and be comfortable.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
How were you in the role in Friday thirteen thirteen?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Yeah, and you know you had the scene the ice
cream truck with big big firm, I mean big worm.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, And so what was it like.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Because you know Chris Tucker, ICEQ phase on, John Witherspoon,
Bernie Matt Yeah, were you on the set with Were
you on the set with any of those guys other
than Tucker, Chris Tucker and Ice Cube.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
You know what's crazy is at that time, Michael Clark
Duncan was Tiny Lester's standing and you know, f Gary
Gray was twenty five years old. First movie and basically
for that those two scenes that I had in the movie,
I was probably on set for almost three weeks waiting
to shoot my scenes.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
And so I spent a lot of time with everybody.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
But one thing I'll never forget is a tiny I
was eating a tune of sandwich and he said, can
I have one? I said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So
I went and I made it when and I came
back and then Michael was like, well, where's mine? And
I was like, well, you didn't ask for one. He
was like yeah, but she didn't ask me if I
wanted one.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
And then he said to me, he said, just remember
as you go along in your career, make sure you
treat every single person on set the same exact way.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Everybody has a role and everybody has a job. Everybody
is important. And I was like right, And that stuck
with me.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
And so I always did that, and I've always done that,
And then it was really cool to do deads with
Michael Clark Duncan when I was twenty two, all those
years later, and yeah, he was a wonderful person.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, did you know Friday would be the cult classic.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
It's one of the It's one of the black film
If you got five black films, and there are a
lot of them, Friday's going to be in that collection.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Did you know what you were shooting at the time.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
I just was so happy to be there and to
have a real line on camera in a movie. I
was so nervous during my scene. There was a few
times whe Chris had to be like, it's.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Show line, It's show line, it's a line. I'm like, right, oh, man,
I hate him. That was so nervous, and I had
what he the ones I'd be saying, you ain't got
a one line, just say line.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
I was like, right, right, right.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
But he became like a big brother to me after that, right,
But yeah, I had no idea of what it was
going to become.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
And then you eaves by you. Yeah, with Samuel L. Jackson,
what was that experience.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
Like, well, that was the next year when I was fourteen,
and I'll never forget that. There was a table read
about four years prior and I was ten at the time,
so I was actually playing Eve in the table reading,
and Samuel Jackson was still playing of a father role.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
I think Maya Campbell was playing my role, and I
forget who else was there. But the point is.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
Is after that, I was like, great, so when are
we going to shoot this movie? And Miss Casey was
basically like, well, we got to, you know, get a
funding for it first. So every year I'd be like,
miss Casey, we get fundy, we get funny, we get funny.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
And finally when they.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
Got funding, I was fourteen, so I was like, okay,
I have to get Cicily. I have to be you know,
and so I went in I got Cicily, which was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And then I remember Journey coming in.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
And four years prior, I had guest starred on our
own and played Jesse's love interest and had my first
on camera kiss with him and all that, and so
I remembered.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Journey and I was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
And then we just totally vibed out an audition and
then we ended up getting it together and then we
were talking about Poe in the room and I was like, oh,
you know, Journey's got a little brother that's the exact
same age as Poe. And then Casey went out there
and saw him, and then you know, then it's me
Journey day.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
So were they any roles early on that your mom
that your parents wouldn't allow you to do.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
I'm sure there would have been, but I think my
mom just kind of always instilled in me like, don't
do anything you're not comfortable with, don't compromise yourself in
any way. If you can look yourself in the mirror
and then you're okay. But if you can't, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Not worth it. It's not that serious. God will bring you
something better.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
And so growing up, every time I turned down something
that I wanted to do but I wasn't willing to
do the nudity or I wasn't willing to do this,
or that, God always did bring something better.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Has that always been your athos? Has that always been
the way you thought? And says like, you know what,
at the end of the day, I still have to
be able to look at myself and feel good about
myself one thousand.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Percent because I don't want fame or any type of
success at the expense of losing my soul.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Or not feeling good about who I am. It is
not that serious. It is a you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
And so I think, as long as I keep my
integrity and my authenticity, what's supposed to be mine will
come to me. And I think it'll come to me
even easier because you beat out the things that you
don't need to be concerned with anyways.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Do you feel you've missed out on some roles because
of the way you feel that you won't no, compromise
your integrity.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
No, what's meant to be, it's going to be.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
What's meant to be is going to And if I
had done those roles, what I feel as good as
I feel now, what I have the piece that I
have in.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
My heart now, No, and that's that you can't buy that.
That's not for self.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
I've interviewed a lot of people that were kid actors
and they a lot of them have some bad stories
to tells.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Do you have any bad stories?
Speaker 4 (26:19):
I mean, I remember you had you had the one
director that you said that he yelled at it, Yeah,
But outside of that, were they anything that you like
that made you even maybe second guests was like, maybe
this isn't for me because this yelling and all the
belittling and the carrying on.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I don't know if it's for me.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
No, because I started doing it so young that it
was the world I knew and the world that I
lived in. So when I saw things that I didn't like,
I just stayed away from it. Or if I saw
people who had bad energy or were desperate for attention
or whatever it was, I just kind of stayed out
of their way and did my own thing. And so
it's all I've ever known is the job that I've
(26:55):
had my entire life. So I understand some of the
things that come with it. I just don't concern myself
for those things.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
You've been Megan Good famous basically your.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Entire life, Right, did you wish that you could do
some of the other things that kid could do because
you couldn't do because you on television, You were in
commercial so you just couldn't go play, and you just
couldn't go hang out with your friends. And by the
looks like you had a whole lot of friends.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
You run them off, I did.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
But my best friend I've been best friends for twenty
seven years.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Y'all.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Bet most of my friends I've had for twenty.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
Years Twust wow, yeah yeah, and they're so you know,
they're true, Oh man, they're just quality human beings, like
some of God's greatest gifts to my life.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Truly.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
I think the only thing I missed out on was
the college experience, which I kind of went back and
forth because that would have meant that I would have
had to take a break right and then. And then
I also had the mentality of, like, so many of
the things that I want to learn, I want to
learn other people who were actively doing it for a living.
And then I think I just I really would have
(28:06):
wanted to do the reunions like the ten year union.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
I just love stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
And yeah yeah, so but you were you did you go?
Did you have sleepovers? Did Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah? Definitely.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
I mean we weren't really allowed to sleep over anyone
else's house, but they could come, you know.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
But yeah, I mean, in that.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Sense, there was always time to play, to find time
to hang out.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
My mom was definitely.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
Particular about who would obviously meet their parents and all
those things. But in that sense, that part of it
was pretty normal outside of people recognize you.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
So in other words, to make a long story short,
that you don't feel that you missed out or anything,
even though you've had this long career and you know,
you was a TV show, your movies and like a
lot of normal kids, did you ever want to play sports?
Speaker 5 (28:56):
I'm very athletic and I do love sports, but I
don't think so.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I think I alwaysknew I wanted to do drama.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
This is what you are and yeah, and then I
tried to dance for a while, but I just was
not good at it. So yeah, my older sister la
Mina and my younger sister likes you are both phenomenal dancers.
But I was just like, yeah, that's not the that's
not something if the Lord has given you making, and
that's okay.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Right you got served.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Yeah, So now, I mean now the movie they're starting
to come with greater regularities. It's like like you're working,
you wrap one and you're starting another, wrap that one,
starting another because you have a stretch where you like
for like a decade, right you in two a couple
of movies yet right, right, right.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
So now you're like, Okay, did you ever like man
girl doing it? You don't think that's not your personality?
Speaker 5 (29:46):
No, I think I had one moment where I did
this movie and it was such an all star cast
and I just thought, Okay, this is.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Going to be the one and you know, I'm going
to be out of here.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
And this person who had did ow many films that
just always re number one box office hits, this is
the one that flocked. Oh, And I just thought to myself,
I was just praying about it, and I was just like,
I don't have the right heart, the right like you
know what I'm saying. My mind wasn't right about it
was like this one is going to get you out
of here? Like what does that mean? What is out
us here mean? What is it that you are trying
(30:18):
to accomplish in your mind in that moment? And so
I really had to check myself on that and really
ask myself, like what do I want? You know, what
is my intention? And so so I've never approached anything
like that ever.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Again.
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Speaker 4 (31:59):
Deliver from Evil. You got served roll Bound Stop the Yard,
But it was really think like a man. Yoh yeah,
with Kevin Hard, Chris Brown, Grab Union, Regina Hall, Tarajie,
j Gary Owen, Steve Harvey.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Yes, that was an all star cast.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
That's a lot of personalities. Yes, yes, everybody's like important,
They're important. Amen, Megan, how do you fit in? How
do you blend in? Like, Okay, I'm here, Obviously they
think I'm important because I'm here, But obviously Kevin Hard
is Kevin Hard, Steve Harvey, Steve Harvey Toajji is Toaji
(32:38):
uh huh? So how do, how do you? How do
you fit in? But in the same time, you stand out.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
You be humble, and you be authentic.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Nobody can be you the way that you can be you,
and nobody can bring what you bring to the table
the way that you bring it. If you stay in
your lane and you do you, then you will stand
out because that is you.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
There's nobody else in the world like you. But if
you stay humble.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
You learn from others, You're able to teach, You're able
to enjoy the space the time with everyone.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I don't believe in competition by.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
Any means, and so for me, I'm really a girl's girl,
but I'm also you know, a guy's girl where I
genuinely want to see everybody when as much of a
leo as I am, I also am very like if somebody,
you know, if somebody wants to shine a certain way,
I'm like, by all means, you got it.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Because I don't care. Because for me, I.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
Have a lot of self love and a lot of
like just you know, I just know who I am
and that's enough for me.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
And so yeah, I'm.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
Just very peaceful in all situations, on all sets, with
all people.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
I read that the very first time that you were
in Vegas is that you were filming this movie?
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Is that true? No, you had gone to Vegas before?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Tis times?
Speaker 1 (34:00):
What see you got a lot of secret from U? Yeah, no, few.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Of course everybody has secrets.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
So when you feel in this movie you understand all
the characters and like, remember you said there was a
movie before that, You're like, this is the one that's
gonna get me out of here.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Did you know how successful that Think like a Man?
Did you know it was gonna be?
Speaker 5 (34:24):
I think I had an inkling, but I didn't go
into it with that. What I went into it with
was this is my first opportunity to really figure out
like the comedy part of it, because comedy terrified me.
You know, I was used to playing the straight man.
I was used to doing more drama and all of that.
So and Think like a Man when Tim's story kind
(34:47):
of gave me the opportunity to just like add things
in and to try different things and see if they
were and see if it was funny, and you know,
throw a bunch of stuff up against the wall and
sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesn't. But he allowed
me the freedom and space to learn how to just
jump and to know that that's the only way you're
going to find the funny and from there, you know
that experience and think like a man alone. Tim's story
(35:11):
really set me up for Harlem.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
You know.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
He really was the teacher in the space that allowed
me to figure out that my funny doesn't.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Have to be like anybody else's funny.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
I learned that my funny is awkward funny, you know,
And so as I lean, as I lean into my
own brand of what comedy is, you know, the right
people will respond to it.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
They respond to it.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
But that that's all I went into it with, was
just like, Okay, I just got to like get for
you on this and I just gotta, you know, conquer
this kind of comedy thing and just have fun with it.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
So you shoot it it wraps, Yeah, premiere, Yeah, what's
going through your mind?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
It came out so good. I'm so proud of it.
People laughed at the things I added in, like you know,
that kind of thing, and.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Just being thankful to be alongside people that are great
and gracious and the people that I love. I've known
Gabrielle since I was like fourteen, you know. Taraji I've
known forever since, like right after she did Baby Boy.
I mean, Regina Hall, I mean, I just love her
(36:18):
to pieces. When I was going in for Harlem, I
called Regina and I was like, look, I'm about to
go test for this.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Will you run these lines with me because I want
to know what you think and both. She was like, girl,
would you funny? I was like, yeah, but you the best, right,
So I just want to see what you think. Blah
blah blah.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
Michael Ealy, who absolutely adore Kevin who Apps, I mean
that whole cast, Terrence my brother, Like everybody is just
people who are great actors, great talent, and great human beings.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
simply go back to club profile and I'll see you there.
Host
Shannon Sharpe
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