Salli Richardson-Whitfield

Salli Richardson-Whitfield meets Questlove Supreme in Hollywood for an in-studio interview that covers her pivot from acting to directing to producing. Salli details her Chicago roots, recalls proving herself professionally, and discusses the new season of A Gilded Age.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quests.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Can we start
the theme? Steve, You're ready?

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Bill?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
You're ready? Why are you ready?

Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm ready.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Let's do it. Oh that's out forward. Yeah for it.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
Supremo roll cal Supremo, Supremo.

Speaker 5 (00:26):
Role came Supremo, Supremo, Supremat Supremo.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
What love is my name? Yeah, Supreme is the squad, Yeah, schis.

Speaker 6 (00:40):
Yeah, suprem Supremo.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Roll came Supremo Supremo. My name is Fante.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, I'm in my prime.

Speaker 7 (00:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (00:54):
Shout out to Sally. Yeah, we need some more winning time.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
So sup Suprema Sprivo roll call.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
My name is Sugar, Yeah, and we and Cali Yeah,
and I am so glad. That rhymes with Sally.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Vall.

Speaker 8 (01:22):
I'm unpaid Bill Yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Hold the phone.

Speaker 6 (01:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:26):
Shout out to our guests and her tailbone.

Speaker 6 (01:33):
Suprivo roll suprivavs like.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, that's here to teach.

Speaker 7 (01:42):
Yeah if I was damn Yeah, this is a firseprivo roll.

Speaker 8 (01:52):
Suv roll.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
My name is Sally.

Speaker 6 (01:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
They call me Mustang yeah because.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, you got that thing thing.

Speaker 6 (02:07):
So Supremo Suprema So so Somo.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Don't feel mad.

Speaker 8 (02:20):
I have done that many times.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
That was over soon, He's done.

Speaker 8 (02:24):
I've done.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
Sally's here to teach.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
I came for class like No, I got class.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
Like Angela and a mouth like peaches.

Speaker 9 (02:31):
Damn.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yeah, it was like Angela in the mouth.

Speaker 8 (02:37):
Like anyhow.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Anywhere rhythm and rapping.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, we were in trouble.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
I'm all right, So this is another uh Los Angeles
in person in studio quest love Supreme Love in person? Yeah,
in person, it's it's my favorite type of tapings that
we do. I enjoy it. It's amazing. Anything else.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
I'm looking at you Bill anyway.

Speaker 8 (03:07):
I'm just having me here. We never get to do this.
We always do this on MS.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
In person? Is weird to be? I love? I love
being in person. No, we're here, esqually. I know you have.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
To ask Afield.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
DeAndre gonna go home in trouble.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
We just.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Decided to call him DeAndre right now, call him Robert Andre.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Get me in trouble, all right, No, talk us through that.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
He will talk. We We've been calling him Robert forever.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Literally, he probably that's worse. That's not as bad as DeAndre.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
People call him Robert still from absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
I'm so sorry, Andre, Andre Andre.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
We're already getting off the shaky start, all right. So look,
the I would say the order of the day for
this podcast is we often talk about pivots, pivots in
terms of where we were creatively at the beginning of
our career, towards where we've learned that idiom from ll
cool J taking walks to the light, you know, And

(04:17):
so I will say that that's a major theme of
this program, and of course our guest today, I believe
in bodies sort of that motion. We first fell in
love with her as an actress and many a classic
film a name like Posse, Low Down, Dirty Shame. Uh eureka, right.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
I have so many questions about that exactly.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
I do want this to be the low down Dirty
tribute program. Not to mention, you know, I am legend
just countless of sitcoms and dramas and whatnot, which basically
leads to her calling as an executive producer and a director.
Sitting in that director's chairs, it's mighty a task that

(05:05):
you know, isn't for the faint hearted. And I will
say that between her directing on Queen Sugar, one of
my favorite programs by the way not to mention scandal,
Luke Cage, I'm so wow, right exactly blackish, the shy
not to mention winning time, the story of the classic

(05:30):
era of the Los Angeles Lakers, And right now we're
celebrating the guilted Age and we're going to talk pivots,
the art of storytelling, and just her journey creatively.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
And I would.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Like to welcome to quest Love Supreme without stutterying, Sally Richardson,
you look at me.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
I gave you that look.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
I know, yeah, like I already felt the pressure, right, yes, no,
Please welcome Sally Richardson Whitfield to Questions.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited
about being here.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Well for startists, for those that don't know you. Where
are you from? Where were you born?

Speaker 3 (06:15):
I'm from Chicago, part of Chicago. South side of Chicago.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Is everyone really from the south side between Detroit and Chicago.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
If you black, you mostly from the south side of Chicago,
unless maybe the West Side. You're from the west to
the south side.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
So I'm assuming that the south is the realest.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
End quote, because it is Chicago. As much as I
love it can be a segregated area and we didn't
grow up with you know, we didn't we didn't grow
up with a lot of money. And you know, so
you're on the South side of Chicago or the West
Side or the projects.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
So for you, what was your formative years like creatively speaking,
what was your family situation and growing.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Up sort of you know, parents divorced. I was very
lucky that I was able to go instead of my
father paying like actual like child support directly, he paid
for me to go to private school. So I went
to Lab School, which is part of the University of Chicago.
So it was sort of this mixture of going to
going to this fabulous school and then kind of going
back to, you know, my neighborhood and being able to

(07:22):
live in both of those worlds, which it has worked
very well for me now in life. I can kind
of flow anywhere I need to go. And then my mother,
both of my parents my father were at University of Chicago.
My mother at the time, she used to work. I
think my mom was working at The Defender at some point.
She which is a black newspaper in Chicago. She worked

(07:44):
at a recording studio for many years, which is where
I don't remember the name of it, but that's growing up.
I was around a lot of music, so I was singing,
and that's kind of where I met my first manager.
And I think what sort of sparked me wanting to
be in the arts because I was not around it
at all. And then at some point at the Lab School,

(08:05):
they shot Endless Love there and I yes, and that
is where I really got the bug because I was
always a basketball player in school, so if theater, I
didn't do a lot of because it always came in
during basketball season. So but they came there and they
did that movie with Brooks Shields and I saw all

(08:25):
of that and I was like, oh, I don't know,
this seems interesting, which is kind of started my path.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Okay, did you have siblings or.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
I have three brothers who are about fifteen years younger
than me, so most of my life I was an
only child.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
So you were older than them.

Speaker 7 (08:42):
Yeah, yes, that's interesting for them to have an older
sister that was fifteen years old.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
I was ready for you to be the younger sister
that they beat up everybody.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
No, I but you were there.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
I'm gonna beat you, but you know, I was the
I don't know, I don't know, have that mixture of
only child but then having really young ones that me
and my mom, you know, she was working a lot,
so me and me and my brother. Yeah, that's my
that's my baby there.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Okay, I see that default. Yeah, well quasi parents, Yeah,
I get that now, all right. So here's the thing,
like a lot of us that are not in the Midwest,
especially now in this political climate. Yeh hashtag what about Chicago?
What about Chicago? What is your view or description of

(09:30):
your formative years in Chicago because oftentimes I feel like,
again especially now, all you do is hear about the
bad side of Chicago whatever like is but is there
a rosy memory of Chicago or is it like I
have to get out of Chicago.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
So I spent a lot of time in Hyde Park.
So although I'm like this mixed girl, which can not
work for you, Well, at times it was a very
mixed area. There was a lot of white and black
couple so it was okay for me hung out at
the point beautiful. Then later on we moved to sixty
first Street, which we're now moving more and more south.

(10:11):
Now we're on ninety fifth Street off of Stony Island.
It's a little.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
It ain't.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
It ain't mixed no more so again, but I never
I don't know. My mother kept me in a bunch
of stuff. I'm going to school. I didn't really encounter
too much. When I go back and see some of
the places I walked around in I go, I can't
believe I was walking down that street to the grocery store.

(10:39):
You know, I would always say around seventy fifth and
Saint Lawrence. People from Chicago will know what I'm saying.
That's where you just churches and bars, church bar, church bar,
all everything's behind glass and the grocery store. That's when
I look back and go, God, I just walked over
there to the grocery store. Now, I don't think I
would know how to flow through that area anymore the

(11:00):
same way. And it's much worse now.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Okay, So well that was my next question, like has
your area been gentrified or is it?

Speaker 3 (11:08):
No? No, it's it's probably worse over there now.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Now you mentioned you mentioned manager. I don't know if
you were talking about manager then or manager now. But
when you spoken manager, are you you mean in terms
of acting or like did you have aspirations to sing?
At one point?

Speaker 3 (11:24):
I did so when I first started because of the studio,
I played piano. I used to study opera. Uh so
I thought when I first went to LA it was
sort of acting and singing. I thought I would do both.
There are a lot of demorels somewhere of me singing.
And I think I shot a not think I did.
I shot a video.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Okay, did you come to LA?

Speaker 8 (11:48):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (11:48):
I was twenty five. I don't know, I graduated eighty five.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
Whatever Giddo's real numbers.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
Look, I don't care. I'm old. And uh yeah, I
thought I was gonna be a singer.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
I kind of you in LA in eighty five, eighty six.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah, during Pebbles all that time. Yeah, and I could do.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Hip hop and now you are you fell in the hole?

Speaker 1 (12:16):
Now.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
It was a perfect time because I didn't really have
to dance well neither. It was like, this is good.
I can sing, I have no rhythm, I can't dance.
And this video, I'm really I haven't looked at in
a long time because it's in I have like the
tape of it, you know, it's in a real realm.
I need to digitize that. I'm a little afraid to
see that one. Nice Yeah, nice.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
What is the spark that prompts your move to Los Angeles?
As in like okay in order for me to pursue
my dream? And what is your dream that makes you
go to Los Angeles?

Speaker 3 (12:56):
You know at that time, a lot of things were
being shot in Chicago, a lot of movies, you know,
but you so I could get little guest spots, so
I didn't remember. I did Prelude to a Kiss. I
played one of Meg Ryan's bridesmaids.

Speaker 6 (13:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
So you're getting small things like that Rocky Carroll. That's
where I met Rocky Carroll because he was he was
in that movie. And so you see that you can
get small things, but you can't it's it. And then
I did a screen test for what is that Bill
Duke movie? He directed with Robin Gibbon. So I screen

(13:36):
test for that. Yes, so I was there. It was me,
Robin and this other actress. And I just knew, you know,
like I did it in the makeup art. This is
when don't listen to know. But this is when I learned,
never get too excited. More than likely you didn't get
it or it's not big. And I just knew I

(13:57):
did it. And I was cute, and I thought I
had my little southern accent. I was ready, and I
did not get it. Robin, Well, that's when you find
out Robin Gibbons's sort of popular.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
At the time. Like when you are auditioning, and this
is the part I really want to do, like the
audition process. Are you in a room collectively with everyone
or is it.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
Just like no, No, they did a real screen test.
They don't do this very often.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Now.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
I did the same thing for Nutty Professor, which was
a real screen test. They put you through here and makeup.
I had on a dress.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
It's dress.

Speaker 10 (14:33):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
In the movie it's with Forrest Whittaker. Like it's a
real screen test. They are on a kind of set
like it's a thing that's somewhere too. I would love
to you know, look, I'm like, where is that stuff?
Now'll find out why I didn't get it. You weren't good.
So anyway, I'm doing small things like that, and just

(14:56):
something went. You got to make a decision, you got
to go to New York or LA And I don't know,
I mean, I think it was just an accumulation of
all those little things. And so I was waiting tables too,
I saved up my money for a year waiting tables,
bought this six hundred dollar car. But I am a planner,

(15:17):
so I flew to la first, got an agent. One
of my agents in Chicago helped me set up some
meetings somehow or not. I've always been this person. Things
kind of fall in line for me. So I at
the time I met with William Morris and another one.
I have no idea how I got in this meeting.
I really had no tape, and they're like, do you
have tape.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
I'm like, I do not, But so you had to
have even back then, you had to have real Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
They were asking they want to see something, and I
was like, oh, I had done. I had done this movie.
How you like me? Now? That was my first I
think that's my first film.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
I see in this film I got remind I was.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Like, okay, I look crazy because Halie Berry had just
like hit it. And so the guy who was producing
it was a white guy who was producing it for
this black director.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
This movie.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
He decided because my hair is so right now, my
hair is curly, but my hair is very straight. So
he decided that I didn't look black enough, and he
wanted me to wear a short wig with more what
he considered black hair. And so I'm wearing this wig
so it looks more halle Berry's shortcut to look more black.

(16:38):
It's really bad. Ye try that, but you know, you like,
I'm gonna do this movie. I'm gonna wear this wig.
But yeah, and some days the wig look good and
some days it did not.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
It wasn't this.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
It wasn't nowadays where you can get good wigs.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
You know.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
You just got this film.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
I've seen it. I've seen this, I have to.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
It's with Darnell william Oh, yeah, I found the roster Williams.

Speaker 4 (17:03):
Yeah, baby, like I am.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
I'm like twenty two or something, So I think that was.
But I have another one. I don't know the name
of it. It's with Marla Gibbs and Stony Jackson.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
Whoa wow.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
No, and we shot it in Chicago. Those are my
two films that shot before I moved it set up
against the the wall.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yes, this is why we need to be, Yah, Mars,
we need to be.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
So I'm not really showing that I had just did
how you like me?

Speaker 8 (17:44):
Now?

Speaker 3 (17:44):
Now, I didn't have anything to show myself, but I
just did this film. In Chicago. So I was just
I'm a good talker in a room. So I was like,
but I'm great, I'm a work I'm just met a
table full of old men, and I'm selling. I'm selling.
And I at this agency called Triad at the time,
which was a big agency then, and I went with Tryad.

(18:07):
And so I went back home and packed my car up.
I also had found a place to live out there,
rented from this woman in her house, and then I
drove up to l A. And I saved up enough
money and had a little help from my then manager
who used to run my mother's studio, who was helping me,

(18:29):
and I didn't have to work for a year. And
then within that year, before my money was just about
to run out, I got posse.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Wow, wait the way she told that story, it was
like a cliffhanger, and.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Hear everything I know how know how to hit the
bullet points.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
We are literally rabbit hole city.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
But I mean I had gotten you know, a few
I think I did a pilot.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Uh and how many pilots have you done?

Speaker 7 (19:02):
A number of them, didn't I see the rock is
on your IMDb two do you do an episode of
a rock Rocky Carrol.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
So I was like wondering if that translations to the
rock it's been a.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Long Yes you can't remember, Yes you've done. Yeah, yes
you have.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
Okay, Oh I did, yeah.

Speaker 8 (19:18):
Yes you.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
Have.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
I forgot I did a Jamie Foxx show.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
Yeah you did.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
Yeah, Yes I forgot that.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
So this is why I'm asking this. So there's a
friend of mine who was the star of her own,
uh successful series, and she told me that even though
they were hit out the box, she wanted to wait
until season three to buy the house. You know, when

(19:47):
you're like, hey, I'm on a hit show, I've been
nominated for a few Emmy's, I'm established, let me buy
that house. And then out of nowhere, and I don't
know why, but suddenly the show got canceled. And it
wasn't like dude to low ratings, Like something happened, a
freak accident maybe like one of the executive producers died
or something, and now she's stuck with this house. And

(20:11):
the whole point was she told me it took her
like maybe eight years to finally get this off of
her hands, like she's been stuck with this house. So
I always wanted to know on the acting side of things,
when you're in this city, when you get a guest
role on a rock or you know, the office person

(20:32):
number twelve and living single whatever, sustainability wise, how safe
do you feel like if the imagined grim Reapers behind
you is a guest spot on a show, a jump
for you for at least four months of safety to
breathe before the grim Reaper catches up and then you

(20:53):
have to get your next series.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Like how four months?

Speaker 2 (20:56):
No?

Speaker 3 (20:57):
No, that's why be born strike you. I can't make no. Luckily,
I've always lived as if whatever this check is, I
may not work for months. I may not work for
a year.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
So even when you have something good, it's never a.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
I haven't felt comfortable and secure in this business, and
I still have an actor's mindset that at any point
some shit might change. Until I started directing and really
started hitting my stride, have I sat back and relaxed

(21:37):
for a second. And my husband will tell you there
have been many flights where he's like, I'm like, it's
only a four hour flight. We can fly coach. I'm cheap,
And that's how I live. I live is if I
may not work for another year.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
But does that also prevent you from dreaming? And I,
not to sound real naive, saved yes, but it really
wasn't until like I allowed myself to Like it's almost
like you have to tell your body, like, Okay, this
is what I want and this is my dream I'm

(22:14):
pursuing hook cook, crook or whatever, because I used to
be the careful smurf like, oh man, like we're never
going to da da da da dada, so let me
save up and that sort of thing. So how do
you ride the line between safety and this is the
dream that I went?

Speaker 4 (22:30):
Well, I did.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
But I did do that because by really pivoting to directing,
I had to take a chance. I was working a
lot as an actress and that was working well for me.
And when you first started directing, it's a good living.
But if I'm on a hit show. When I started directing,
I could still make more money acting as long as

(22:51):
I was on a series, because I have a you know,
my my rate for an episode is going to be
pretty good compared to the director, which takes a little
longer to do an episode.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
But oh damn, so I chose the wrong profession again.

Speaker 8 (23:07):
Every time?

Speaker 3 (23:07):
No, But so I had to really make a decision.
I was looking at the long game. I knew that
in directing, you know, there's not a lot of and
I'm just I don't care. I'm fifty five now, I'll
be fifty six this year.

Speaker 8 (23:23):
They are not awesome.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
There are not a lot of women my age, especially
people of color, who are big, huge movie stars or
you know, the lead of a TV series. As you
get older, things are going to change, so you have
to make a decision where you're going. And so looking
at directing, I knew it was going to take me somewhere,

(23:45):
and I just had faith that. Besides that, I feel
like it's my calling. I knew that this was going
to be my longevity and this is where my wealth
was going to happen.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
When did you realize that directing was you call.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
It honestly the first time I did it, really, which
was the first Eureka, okay, I did Ava DuVernay's first film,
I will follow.

Speaker 8 (24:13):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
She had done some docu she had I think she
had directed a documentary or two before that, but this
was her first narrative film. And during that process, I
always say I must have been a little one of
those actresses that was given too much of their opinion
because at some point she said to me during that process,
she said, I think you're a director and you don't

(24:33):
know it.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
How did you feel when you were told that.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
There's something about when it was you know how someone
just says something to you and you kind of see
your life flash and I go like, moment, I had
a Eureka moment. Thank you. It was like God put
something in her to give to me and it changed

(24:57):
my life and I was on I was want to
break from Eureka at that time. It was like you
know our hiatus and Ava said that to me and
I went, huh, she's doing it. She was a publicist,
she can do this. And I called this director. I
knew Eric Laanaville, who does Who's done Black Black? Director

(25:21):
used to be an actor on I Think Saint Elsewhere
with Denzel. He came up with him and he started
directing that show. Anyway, he had directed me on Eureka,
and I called him. I said, hey, I want to
ask them about directing. I think I want to do this.
Can I shadow you? He said absolutely, So went in
shadowed him on a few like two shows during my

(25:43):
break and got Ava gave me some tapes. I got
some books. I have many years of you know, learning
on the set, which you find out how much you
really know when you do it. And I asked my
producer producers, and they tried me and gave me an episode.
And when I did, I still remember when they called

(26:06):
me and said yes where I was standing, and that
moment of being excited and then literally the next moment
going holy shit, now now it's real. Now I have
to really do it. And after doing that first episode,
I went, oh, I understand this. I get this.

Speaker 5 (26:26):
This is great and directly for you was something you
learned strictly just from shadowing other director.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
It's not something like you went to school for.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
Well, I say, I went to school because it was
like twenty five years of acting, so what I realized.
So then I did. I did the Sony Film program
at the studio and then I remember during that I'm
in this program and I was feeling a little intimidated
because they had all these students who had gone to

(26:55):
Afi and Yu and blah blah blah. They had done
their little films and stuff, but they've all been in school,
and I the more they talked. The more panels, I mean,
the more like little group classes and speakers would come.
All of a sudden, I became part of the speakers
because I knew so much from being on the set right,

(27:17):
so I the mixture of doing the work I needed
to by really shadowing and paying attention. And when I
say shadow because I tell people who come to shadow
means shadowing means you're there through every bit of pre production,
every meeting, every when I go to set. If I

(27:38):
get to work an hour before, you should be there
an hour. Yeah, you're there every minute. When we edited,
I was there every minute. And so you really that's
a different than just sitting on a set. I learned
a lot. You shadow me. It's it's I learned a
lot doing that. And then but honestly, you don't you

(27:59):
don't know if you're can be good at it until
you do it.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
So now that you're knee deep in it, have you
accepted that this is your actual calling? Because for me,
though they're still it's almost you know, like in Heat
where you got to walk away in thirty seconds or else,
and there is that moment. Sorry to spoiler for those
that have not seen the movie Heat, yeah, No, there's

(28:26):
a moment at the very end where de Niro can
just he executed it. He got the guy, he can
walk off.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
With the girl.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
This is a little itching he has to go back
and see and of course you know, I won't spoiler
what happens, but it does. So my whole point is

(28:56):
there is a part of me as a musician that
still feels like I didn't scratch that itch yet.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
Yeah, you know, like.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
I've done everything in the music world except arrived at
this platform on my own without aiding someone getting there
or that sort of thing. And even though I'm having
a hell of a life and a hell of a
journey everywhere else, this part of me that's still like, man,

(29:26):
none of this like there's an asterisk there, like, none
of this counts until I can do for music what
I'm able to do for these other ventures. So for
you in acting in terms of like that, have you
resolved that? And just like, hey, if the universe always
wanted me to tell stories behind.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
The camera, no have I. So when I started directing
so much, I in the beginning I thought that I
would be doing both. I would I'll direct this part
of the year and then I'll be on a series,
use and do this part of the year, and then
all of a sudden, I was getting booked so much
that it made sense for me to just keep on directing.

(30:09):
So I always thought I would be acting. I didn't
know I was quitting at the time. And then you
look back and it's three years later, and you know,
because I was still dabbling and doing small little things,
or more than three. I mean, it's been many years
now that I haven't really acted.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
You know.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
Every once in a while, I've done a show where
it was directed and they're like, oh, why don't you
just do this role. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'll do it.
That'll be fun. So I would never say never. I
would love to do something that would be truly challenging
for me. I think at the end of my acting career,

(30:46):
I was doing a lot of the same kind of role.
I was like the powerful black woman in the office, attorney,
head of the company, deag you know, I was just
the same. Yeah, you know, I'm telling everybody what to
do and then I go back in my office. That
was becoming a kind of boring and not very challenging.

(31:06):
And I do think that I never was given the
opportunity to really show how good I can be and
to really really do amazing work, and I don't think
I ever had. Part of the way the reason I
direct the way I do is that I really push
people because I felt like I've never had that one

(31:30):
director who would not accept anything but everything they knew
they had in me. And so when I work with actors,
if I know you have more, if I know if
I'm watching your performance and I know what kind of
actor you are, too say you've done three takes and

(31:51):
it's the same. It's a good performance, but I noticed
it's the same. Then I know you werehear set at
home and now and I like it. I'm watching it.
Other people are impressed. But there's something in my gut
or in my heart, in my body that I know
when it's real, and I hope to push you to

(32:12):
give me that moment where I really feel it and
then I go, now we have it. And I've never
had that person do that for me.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Yeah, I guess in the past ten to fifteen years,
they come in I won't say shots fired, but there
have been words from the US brothers in terms of
their experience with Denzel on.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
It's a book of.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Right, of which I guess you know. One of them
was joking about like, and I've heard this before from
other actors, where like Denzel would be like, I'm only
going to give you two performances, so you better capture
it now, like I don't have it, And established actors
I know, like I didn't know that that was an option, like,

(33:06):
you've better capture me now. And I've heard de Niro
stories and all that stuff from established actors. How do
you know how far to push your actors, especially if
you're in a situation where like time is of the essence.
You know, there's always some serious micromanaging producer in the background,
like okay, we're losing light, or you know, we don't

(33:30):
have enough for overtime or whatever. How do you know
when to press a button, when to make someone do
a fourth take? Yeah, Like, how do you know that?

Speaker 3 (33:41):
I think it's everyone's different and you have to take
cues from the people you're working with. Sometimes I will,
especially with the bigger actors, I will I have conversations
with everyone before I shoot, you know, because how far?
How far can I push you? How far are you

(34:02):
comfortable with?

Speaker 2 (34:04):
I apologize guys, this is really going to just be
the Sally mirror because morse he's talking. The more I'm like,
oh god, I didn't think about them of this. I
gotta confront people and talk, and I talk to them
a lot of my actor friends, and they'll tell me,
like if a list person's being an asshole on the
set and that sort of thing.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
There's some people I know that. There are some actors
I can I can on the side of the camera
say things that I know that will give you an
emotional response. I can come whisper in your ear and
tell you you're a piece of ship and that's why
you ain't never this. I'll talk crazy in her, but
I know that we have, we've had a conversation.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Just get excited.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
I see you doing that. Actors on the Gilday, I.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Just went off the room.

Speaker 8 (34:56):
I am a piece of ship.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
I'm like, what do you?

Speaker 4 (34:59):
I'm like, what are your bring Christine Baranski's ear.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
I am not saying that, but there are certain people
I can go. I can look at you and go
I don't believe you right now.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
So but should you have to go through Jedi, Yeah, you.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
Just have to go through Jedi. I have to figure out.
I have to figure out how to get the best
out of you without you shutting down. Now there are
some there's some big actors who are a little more persnickety,
but I also don't have to put they they're good people,
they know what they're doing. So I have to figure
out what little things I can say to you to

(35:40):
get what I want. And sometimes it can be uncomfortable
for me, but that's by earning their respect and not
being afraid to give them the note even though you
know they're gonna give you an attitude about it.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
So as a woman, as we you know, and I've
heard this many times in any professional setting, like women
often have to fight for to stand their ground as
leader and to get oursts and it's sort of us
not look kind of sitting and all those things. So
how deep is the mental preparation that you have to

(36:19):
do when you know that you're dealing with an actor
or actress whatever that sort of might have closed that
won't submit to you.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
I don't there is something about my personality that does
not give you the feeling that you should not listen
to what I'm asking you to do. And first of all,
I'm very prepped and prepared, which is part of them
starting to respect you. And again, there's not much you

(36:56):
can do to me that will, at least outwardly, will
break me down.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
So people attempted.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
I've had. I've had some early on, some volatile people.
But that's where Chicago comes and in my mind because
people I've had producers say to me, Okay, other women
have cried here and this and that, and I'm like,
ain't nobody gonna see me cry? Like that's just not

(37:28):
like it's not happening. I don't cry in life. Really,
it's not a good thing. My husband says, I didn't. No,
I'm a sad but you know, I just I come

(37:48):
from that that you know, I come from that black
mother where there is there is like just suck it
up and move on. So there's times I feel it
and of course cried in my life. I believe I
need to learn how to cry. My husband was I

(38:08):
remember when he goes, if you walk down this aisle
and I don't see you cry, and the whole time
going down the aisle, I was like, fuck, figure how
to cry?

Speaker 4 (38:18):
Real upset?

Speaker 3 (38:19):
I didn't cry when I had I gave birth to
two children. With no drugs and yeah, but no tears
with no drugs, natural child. I just not a crier anyway.
So let me tell you you're you're not that. I've had,
you know, different things in my life. I'm not ready
to do. I'm not doing hotel all I need to

(38:40):
be on one. But I've had enough trauma that you
being a disgruntled actor or even cursing in my face
and like seeming physically intimidating in front of me. In
my mind, I'm like, I wish you.

Speaker 8 (39:01):
Now.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
I wouldn't say that, but that's the look. I'm like
what you got so so that mixed with what people
think I look like and how But I also have
this mom voice that will come what I was. What
I'm telling you that I need you to do is
go from there to there. And but then I'm nice

(39:23):
to you too, like you have to pull everything out.
I gotta be your mother. I gotta be your girlfriend.
Sometimes I gotta be your sister. I gotta be your boss,
I gotta there's a whole uh my job. And what
I'm very good at is figuring out what you need?
What does this actor need for me to get the

(39:46):
best performance? And at the end of the day, they
most of them, I would, I think, have left feeling
like I know what I'm doing and they trusted me
and and you know, and then some of them want
to be friends with them. Some I hope I never
see you again, but but they would never know it.

Speaker 8 (40:05):
But don't you feel that way about the band? Like
you're a suit me.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Saying this?

Speaker 2 (40:12):
She's saying this now, and I've learned so I learned
already that when a person worries, you're basically politely praying
that something bad does happen to you. I hope I
don't get attacked in this subway. I hope I don't
get ran over by a car. I hope my wife

(40:32):
don't catch me, you know, like weird weird one. But
for the last two years sort of riding the fence
of why me and why now and what's the catch here?

(40:53):
And then she's saying this, and I'm realizing, Ah, fucking universe,
I get this now. The universe knows I hate confrontation.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
I don't like confrontation either.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
I despise. I know I have Richard Nichols for that.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Don't let that verse go. Yeah, you know, but you
know now I'm realizing, ah, damn, this is God because
this thing, it's one thing when you're doing documentaries, like
for me, I will say that what I'm working on
now is it's not summer of soul, you know what

(41:31):
I mean in terms of like people talking about a
joyous time whatever, like, because I'm talking about trauma and shit.
So getting answers out of my subjects is like, like
I feel like I should be a qualified paralegal like
the lawyer levels that I'm going to get the answer
that I need you to give and coax it out
of you. And it's just like, ah, damn, what if

(41:55):
this is the universe forcing me in this like to
be a people person something.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
That you're from. I hate people, you know.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
But now that you're saying this, and I'm realizing, damn,
this is what the next six years of my life
is about to be. Like I'm gonna have to talk
to people and.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
You'll learn so much about I don't know, I say,
grace right now, I'm here, But you learned so much
about communication with people. I mean, okay, he don't do
he needs help with the iause I have to deal

(42:40):
with so many different people and as But really in
the position listen, I can't argue. I'm not going to
argue with any actors. I'm not going to argue with
your stars, not really argue because you could walk off
the set. Now I can't shoot, so because my job
is also so let's get this day going. So sometimes

(43:03):
I'm like, in my mind, you may be talking crazy
to me. Do I engage? No, I can't engage because
that's an argument.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Is that what?

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Because whenever I'm on to set, I'm talking about, like
when I was doing videos whatever, the annoying person, the
guy that yells and all that stuff. Like I always
know is that the directors just sits in front of
the watch the daily's screen and all that stuff and
really doesn't say much. It comes.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
The AD doesn't talk to the actors for me.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
No, you don't allow that for you or in.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
General on it on the kind of shows that I'm doing,
absolutely not okay. He can call and tell you it's time,
you know, it's time to shoot or something, but any
if to No, it's all me.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
I always thought the job of the AD would sort
of be the bad cop, so that you don't have
to that would.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Be my bad cop. As far as production. Let let
them know this information. This is why we're not shooting
right now, this is why it's going to take longer.
I'm sorry we brought you in earlier, but this is
this happened that kind of thing. But any problems on
a set, when we're talking about the work, what I

(44:18):
need you to do, what this character is going to do,
why it's not working, blah blah blah, that's all me.
So yeah, So.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
When you're doing a series, yeah, and you aren't the
showrunner of said series, how do you navigate your job
as a director? Because okay, for instance, there was there
was an episode of Boardwalking Pyre that I watched that
Marty Scorsese directed, Okay, and I would have had no
clue that he did it because I didn't see none

(44:47):
of the film a school markert, like none of his trademark,
yeah scorseseisms or whatever. And I realized that, oh well,
he sort of has to fit into the shell of
what the show is. How do you know when you
get called for a show, how much leverager leeway are
you allowed to or are you even one of those
directors that's thinking of like what your trademark is, Like

(45:11):
you know.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
Yeah, so you find a way. And again that's why
I kind of had a goal of the platform, Like
really my end goal was to get to a platform
like HBO where you have more freedom to be who
you are as a director. So when you're going on
some of these earlier shows, absolutely there is a style

(45:34):
you have to fit into it, but you find a
way to infuse some of you into their show. Otherwise
they could hire anyone. So why do they Why do
they bring you back? So maybe I have a few
shots that maybe pushing the envelope a little bit, but

(45:57):
it's definitely what I like to do. I always say
I like the camera moving a lot, and I love
doing long runners. So most of the time you'll find
that in my episode somewhere in there might be a
long runner.

Speaker 5 (46:12):
Yeah, I was going to ask what was some of
your I guess your techniques and winning time that you use.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
That's a good example.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
That's the show which it has to look like vintage,
you know.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
Yeah, he came in second season too.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Well, I start, I did the first season. I did
the last two episodes of the first season.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
So how much micromanaging does the screenwriter do in terms
of like, so, what have you decided I don't want
to use this grain of like are you allowed to
make a radicus?

Speaker 3 (46:42):
No? No, no, no, no, that is established what the look
is going to be. But I find that particular show
we're using so many different formats that I really have
a lot of freedom. So I definitely there's a lot
of that style in me. I mean, they're is a
lot of I say, in the action, you'll see a

(47:03):
lot of pushing and pulling shots that are mine. Again,
there will be a lot of shots where it's a
long wonner, where there's a lot of handoffs. That means
think of a classic uh, good fella shot I love.

Speaker 10 (47:24):
At the table, good fellow, the whole restaurant when you first.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
I well, I love blocking, and so blocking a shot
like that with that that takes a lot of prep
and that would just everything about that shot is perfect.
I love that shot. There's a shot in this movie
called Rush that does about Yes, there's a big long

(47:58):
shot like that too, love it, love it. So you'd
see a lot of that in my work. You'll see
a lot of energy pushing and pulling. You'll see lower angles,
You'll see that stuff that comes in really intimately. So
I could winning time was perfect for that. I could
pretty much do whatever I wanted to there within even

(48:19):
though the format of how we shot it was set
in stone, I could still do most of me in
there too, which is I think part of the reason
they brought me back to produce the next season and
to direct half of it, because they liked what I
did in the last two episodes. And I feel like
the show, you know, kind of found its real sweet spot.

(48:41):
You know, it takes a show a second. You know,
Adam set up an amazing pilot, but then it takes
a second for things to really you know, get mixed
and work, you know, bake, and by the second season,
you know, we could really get in there and fine
tune some things.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Do you question I had to that point.

Speaker 5 (48:58):
So a lot of times with TV, we're talking to
directors and talking to just a lot of actors. A
lot of times they'll tell you most television shows don't
really hit their stride until probably like season three or
you know, but now shows don't even get that much
of a chance. How do you, as a director, how
do you adapt to that this kind of landscape.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Whit I mean, there's nothing you can do. It just
hope that. I don't know. It's so hard, I think
with you know, Winning Time, it's also a very very
expensive show to make, so it's hard to just let
it hit its stride. Although I felt like this second
season so you were really falling into a nice spot.

(49:43):
But you know, the things have changed down here, and
you know, in the business, who knows. I don't know
the decision making. I know I did what I was
supposed to do and people are loving it, and you know,
I just kind of blow where the wind takes me.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
How do they determine what is a successful series and
worth investigating as opposed to not nowadays? Because I mean,
if we're Winning Time, they're not going on or they're
not sharing Nielsen rating still.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
For network TV, it's different on on those platform well.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
I know, for streaming or whatever, they don't share the numbers.
You don't know, So I mean to to sort of
prematurely yank it before it gets its chance to really
unfurl and reveal itself.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
Like I think, there's so many factors. There's so like
is it getting is it getting awards? Is it getting
nominated that maybe even if it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Getting Lovecraft like that got so many that left for
another reason, right, like that didn't even have anything to
do with No that was creative.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
Yeah, I think there were some things going on. Yeah,
so there's so many. There's so I heard Casey Bloyse,
who's you know they head to HBO. I heard him
on a podcast talking and there's just so many factors.
It can be a show that is like artistically fantastic

(51:22):
that doesn't cost them a lot and may not be
getting but is getting all the great reviews, may not
be getting all the numbers, but maybe that show can
come back because it's getting some of the artistic things
they want and doesn't cost that much to make, so
it works, you know. So there's all these different factors
he was talking about on this podcast.

Speaker 7 (51:43):
So again, so do you attribute the success of the
Gilded Age to that? To the what you just said
about awards and whatnot, because now there're.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
I mean, we got things for behind the scenes, but
actors weren't getting it the show, you know, but we
don't even know. I mean, this is the second Secene
and Gilded we had our second season winning time. I
think Gilded is going to be you know, and we
don't know about the season three of Gilded until it's
out and we see what the numbers are. I think
that the second season of Gilded is fantastic and fun,

(52:16):
you know, so who knows? But also about winning time
was about you know, I don't know right right?

Speaker 2 (52:21):
So okay, when you when you got the Gilded Project,
what was your please?

Speaker 8 (52:28):
I was like, how did I get this?

Speaker 4 (52:30):
Please tell us?

Speaker 2 (52:31):
But yeah, like, what was your knowledge of life in
the eighteen hundreds?

Speaker 3 (52:35):
At the same knowledge that anybody else has?

Speaker 8 (52:37):
Right fast?

Speaker 4 (52:38):
If you think about it, like had you heard of
the Gilded Age?

Speaker 3 (52:41):
Even listen, white, black, blue man, woman, nobody who's living
in the eighteen hundreds? Most people are not historians.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
But there's always some historian like, well, actually they you know.

Speaker 7 (52:54):
We have.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
But I have you there to fulfill, you know, to
tell me what that stuff is. I was a lover
of period pieces. I've always loved them. I had watched
all of down to Abby. I had if you say
on the list, I would love like dangerous Liaisons. I
have to watch that over and over, you know. Anyway,
So when that opportunity came up to UH to meet

(53:17):
with them, I was ready and I had done enough.
I hadn't done a show like that, and they were
looking for a black woman in particular, I think, to
fill that role because they knew they were going to
have this black family in it, and they also knew
they needed a woman's point of view because of what

(53:37):
the show was. And so I met and I just
told them about my love of the show. I'm very
good with detail. I'm a good student of things. So
somehow or another I convince them, like I did when
I moved to LA and convinced William y'all should sign me.
I ain't got no tape, but I can do it.
I was, I'm good again, I'm good in to interview.

(53:59):
I convinced and I can do this, and they said
yes and and and then that because of COVID, because
initially I was only supposed to do two episodes, and
then COVID happened, and that's part of the thing that
launched it into me then producing and doing more of

(54:23):
the episodes. Uh, and grew into this deal at HBO.
It was like this whole weird thing that I don't
even know how it has.

Speaker 7 (54:30):
All deal, you mean you're over me to Sally Richards
and Whitfield, HBO overall deal which I don't Most people
don't even understand what that means.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
But congratulations.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
This means that you can develop your own projects there.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
Yeah, and they just give me a certain amount of
money and I'm exclusive to them and everything.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Yo.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Black Dynamite is one of my favorite movies. You body
that it?

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Well, thank you, thank you mother.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
Okay, So I first became aware of you of posse.
Could you talk about the process that led to Mario
hiring you?

Speaker 8 (55:11):
So?

Speaker 3 (55:12):
I think I actually got the audition, I mean through
my agent, But I had met Blair Underwood somehow in
La you know, i'd been there a little about it,
you know that year, right, met him at a party
and he told Mario. I think he told Mario about
me and said I'd be perfect for this film. She's

(55:33):
black and American Indian.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Right.

Speaker 3 (55:36):
So I go in an audition with everybody else and
I got down to the last few. But then they
hired someone else. I'll tell you who that was in
a secondly, because it's okay, I can tell you. Wait
a minute, is this a thing where they hired someone
else and they were shooting and they say.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
No, no, no, And then it comes down to you.

Speaker 3 (55:57):
They were shooting and they were like, I got a call. Okay,
So I don't get it. I'm sad because I was like,
who else can be? But at that time, my hair
legit was down here, dead straight. I'm like, my mama
has always told me we got charity.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
I am American, and.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
I got a picture of my great grandmother and she
is two braids, and I'm pretty sure my mama ain't
lying anyway, So I don't get it. And then one
day I get a call on it Saturday and they're like, oh,
they have fire the actress. Can you be here later

(56:47):
on tonight? You're shooting Monday.

Speaker 9 (56:51):
That person is stay and I think she got there
and whatever.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
I don't know. I heard there was some you know,
it wasn't going well, difficult anyway. I don't know I
went there. But all I know is I got a
call Saturday and Monday I was shooting.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
How did you feel when you got I.

Speaker 3 (57:19):
Still remember where I was. I was at some guy's house.
I was dating, and I don't even know if I
had time to think, you know, I was just like, oh,
I got it.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
Was just Saturday and you start on Monday.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
Well, I don't know if I started now I started
that week. I was there. Whatever hair they had got
for her track, they put that in my head and
put that.

Speaker 8 (57:45):
Happened on me.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
I was, how much preparation did you have to to do?

Speaker 3 (57:51):
I don't know. I just started. I don't you know.
It's been a while. But it's not like I had
that many deep lines. I already wrote. I knew how
to ride and stuff. So getting ready for another movie audition,
I had learned, you know, Glenn Turman has a ranch.
So I had met some people who took me to
Glenn Turman's ranch, and Glenn taught me how to like
really ride. So I was ready. I was like, I

(58:14):
got there. I had a young brain. I could memorize anything.
Now I'd be like, well, I need two weeks to
memorize this. And I was there and I was shooting,
and I'm there with Tone Loak and Big Daddy Kane
and yes At Melvin and Mario and and Pam Greer

(58:36):
and I mean we had all sorts of people there.
It was a it was a dream. It like it's
a blur in my mind. We used to play during
our breaks, like on the weekend, we would play basketball.
I remember tiny I was still good in basketball then
I could still because when I first was out here,
I would do that. That's when they used to do

(58:58):
celebrity basketball tournaments, so I used to play in all
of those games. I was still I was still pretty decent.
Then what's your position?

Speaker 8 (59:11):
Lists this entire tablets.

Speaker 7 (59:15):
Played center on my Boys and Girls club basketball team.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
I played the sports here we go. No you have
you got it, bron, I don't know nothing much for it.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
Yeah, so yeah, it was. We had the best time
on that movie.

Speaker 5 (59:30):
I mean, I wanted to ask you about low down,
dirty Shane, which is probably my favorite role of yours,
right like straight up and down. And I was thinking
about what you were saying earlier about how directors it
is read that you were pushed in some ways. I
think the reason why I really liked that role is
because that was the first time that I remember kind
of seeing you as a villain, and I just thought,

(59:51):
I was like, yo, I want to see more. Sally
is like the villain, like just straight up, you know,
just you know.

Speaker 3 (59:56):
So unfortunately, you know, also, I came up at a
time where there wasn't that many it wasn't that many
jobs we were It was really all of us, me,
Jada h Nia. Everybody's going for the same thing and
Jada Nia few people kind of they were already there. Honestly,
they had started a little sooner than me. You know,

(01:00:17):
people start taking off and there's just not a lot
of spots for you. But also when I talk about
not being pushed there, I also have been given that
many roles where there was an opportunity to push me
to do something that different.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
You know, what would be an example of something now,
a role now that you would.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
Or a role that you went after that close. But
no cigar moment.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Oh, those are so many. I mean probably every every
movie you've seen another black actress the lead in.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
We all knew.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
We all went out for the same thing. Remember I
said I screen test me. I think Tisha Campbell was
there too, and then Jada for Nuttie Professor and they
gave it to Jada. Yeah, I think it was the
three of us testing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
So Okay, when you talk about testing, what is the
process of testing, because I've heard like, okay, he's coming recold.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
For those are auditions. Those are like the yes's.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Testing, like a chemistry test to see chemistry, character.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
Gets along and when I say, a screen test. That's
a whole different thing. So when I said Rage and Harlem,
I read with Forrest on a set in full hair, makeup, costume,
him and costume. We're doing a scene from the movie
being filmed on the cameras. That's like, it looks like

(01:01:41):
the movie almost.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
How often does that process happen now still or not?

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
I don't think as much, Nutti Professor, same thing. Eddie
came out in full on makeup. I'm their hair makeup.
You're in. I think we were in a lab or
something and we did a scene from the movie and
they filmed this same data. Got what's funny is that?

(01:02:07):
What's funny is that's what my hair looks like this?
And then I saw the movie and it was a yeah,
Jada's wig, so my hair was just like that. And
then they did the movie. I said, they put my
hair on. That's what I decided, because you know, she
had really short hair. I said, what is this in.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Your in your acting fees? Like for you, are movies
the the ultimate goal or the security of a series?

Speaker 3 (01:02:39):
Well, as an actress, you want the security of a
you know, if you could get a scandal, listen, you
move because most of the time, unless you are the
big A list actor, you're not making that much to
do a film. You know, maybe you know, maybe a

(01:03:00):
few hundred thousand dollars which will last you for a
little while, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Back to my original analogy. So a small role as
the girlfriend or whatever, any movie that's just enough for
maybe if you're two months three months out here.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
A small role or what are you talking about? Like
my role in Low Down? Yes, probably that was my
biggest paycheck, main character in that one. Yeah, so that
gave me enough money to live on for a little while.
And again I'm going, in my mind, I think that
the people need to have more of this mindset I

(01:03:39):
go because everyone else is mine. They're like, oh you well,
because people are telling you that, ooh you about to
take off, right, it's about to be it. In my mind,
I already knew at that point. Yeah, I'm not trusting it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
Do you book a project at a time or do
you Are you allowed to stack?

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
Of course if you can. Again, at that time, there
wasn't a lot of too stack. I don't know what
I did. I don't know what I did after that.

Speaker 7 (01:04:15):
So are you frugal enough they're doing low down, dirty shame.
After that, you were still in your one bedroom or
did you go, I'm gonta step it up and get two.

Speaker 3 (01:04:23):
Listen when we were when we were shooting, when we
were shooting low down, dirty shame. I and I had
done Posse and some other small things. I still had
that six hundred dollar car.

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
Wowkauy of that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:36):
I drove to La n and Jada and Keenan. They
were like, listen, you have got to get a new car.
And I did remember. I remember pulling up on the
set and they all, you know, Jada had been on
some series and they got nice cars. I would meet

(01:04:56):
people at parties and at restaurants and I would not
vow because.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
That's what I was going to ask.

Speaker 4 (01:05:02):
And I know that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
Well, at some point, like I couldn't put my window down.
It was you know, it looked good. You know again,
I was like, so I finally like least a truck, duck,
at least ah. Well, you know, everybody has an SGUV.

Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (01:05:22):
I didn't know if he was going how she'd be
were I was gonna be a rabnet.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
I was like, no, no, no, I leased a car.
I don't know but I was afraid, you know, I
was just afraid. I was afraid of being broke. I'm
in I didn't have I have lovely parents, I have
a very supportive family, but there wasn't an wasn't a
bunch of money to be sending to help me, and
nor did I ever ask. So I moved to l A.

(01:05:47):
This was my choice. I have to make. I'm out
here on my own and not not to say I
couldn't have gone back to Chicago and had a place
to go. Like again, I love my family that would
have done anything for me. But I never had to
ask for anything.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
And was there a moment where you're just like, I'm
out here, like no, so you just never no matter.

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
How not that I wasn't at home weeping and crying
and when am I going to work? And just I
did weep and cry about that stuff. I was like,
that's not in front of people, that's by myself. You know,
you know, you have that depression. I haven't worked in three,
four or five months? Is what's the next thing going

(01:06:31):
to be? But I always worked enough to keep going.
I never and I never spent beyond my means. I
never I was always because I just didn't. You know,
when you come from not having everything you want, you
should be conservative. I think you're on both sides, or

(01:06:53):
you just start spending all your money.

Speaker 7 (01:06:55):
So are you the person now that like, since we're
going through this long asst right, people are now calling
like Sally.

Speaker 4 (01:07:01):
How did you do it?

Speaker 7 (01:07:02):
Like Sally, help me get through it? Like you just
seem maybe in that way because people I've.

Speaker 3 (01:07:07):
Been telling I've been telling everyone listen, I don't know
how Like my assistant, I kept going, Hey, we don't
know how long the strike is going to be. Right now,
I'm still getting my money and everything they haven't, which
means I can still pay you. But anything could happen,
So don't get comfortable.

Speaker 4 (01:07:29):
I know everybody must be jealous of that, because if
you ain't, if they.

Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
Ain't paying me, you ain't getting paid because I don't
have I don't have it like that, you know. So
I've been with her. I see people. I judge people
all the time. During this time, I've been seeing some
of my friends or some of the people in my
director's group going on trips and stuff, and I'm knowing
that they don't work as much as I do. You know,
like you know where I'm like, I'm like, uh, why

(01:07:55):
are they on that trip? I'm like they got something
going on. I don't know, but I'm like, Okay, I'm glad.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
I'm not the only person and things like that, like
I'll see somebody like I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:08:07):
Judging people well, and I'm judging your money. I don't
know what you got all the time?

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
How did you maintain your sanity in a straight but
also your creativity? And really was the rule that you're
not supposed to do any work whatsoever?

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
Well, I can do stuff on like me and my
manager can talk about stuff.

Speaker 8 (01:08:36):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
I have projects that I've been developing for a while
that I can do stuff on my own. I'm sitting there.
I have to make like my pitch decks. I have
a documentary that I'm working on in which I can
do so I've been working on this, like sizzle. I've
been able to pitch some of my documentary stuff, so,

(01:08:57):
you know, So I've been able to do some things.
And and then I've you know, drove my husband a
little crazy because probably everything in our every drawer in
our house has been reorganized. We're we're onto the garage.
I'm not like, right now, I was audience, I have
a back injury. I am not good. I can't not do.

(01:09:21):
I'm a doer.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
You can't relax.

Speaker 3 (01:09:23):
I'm a twenty fource. And maybe one day and then
after that, I'm like, I'm being real irresponsible. Right now,
I need to get up. I'm gonna I just have
to do something. So I'm like, well, I got nothing
else to do. We're gonna reorganize the house. We're gonna
do this. I've been needing to get this done because.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
I wanted you to be silent, and I have.

Speaker 3 (01:09:45):
I found that's why I got COVID and then I
got hurt.

Speaker 4 (01:09:47):
My back set you down, literally.

Speaker 3 (01:09:50):
But but I've been watching stuff on the on my
side as I lay in the bed on my side.
But I've learned that if you're sitting aroun not doing,
things get done. Uh not, they don't get done, and
things move ahead because there's other people doing this last year.

(01:10:11):
Uh And a lot of that is through having this
HBO deal and kind of coming into my own enough
that I go, I'm not getting this work because I'm
a woman. I'm not getting this work because I'm black.
I'm getting these jobs now because I really am the

(01:10:32):
best person for this job. And luckily and now they
can also check these boxes off. You know, it's like
some added little thing. So I think somewhere in that
confidence has made me go, you can relax a little bit.
We like, we had a big group trip. We all
went to South Africa together, which was not a cheap

(01:10:53):
trip trip.

Speaker 4 (01:10:54):
With like that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
I have some fancy friends, Jeff and Nicole Friday from ABFF.
Jeff and Nicole liked I'm shouting them out. They like
to travel nicely, so they forced me out of my
comfort zone. And my husband's very happy because you know,
he could just kind of let me be who I
am and just shakes his head. But we had a

(01:11:21):
fabulous trip, so I was like, Okay, we're gonna go
take this once in a lifetime trip with my children.
And my daughter and I took a trip before she
went to college. So I've been able to relax a
little bit. And then I come back and then I
get a moment of being afraid or we spend too
much money, But you know, you have to enjoy this stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
I want to ask you about Dondre. I've had a
chance to meet him.

Speaker 5 (01:11:45):
This has been a couple of years back on Queen
Sugar Good buddy my Omar that plays Hollywood. We hung
out in New York one night and he was coolest dude.
You know what I'm saying. I don't know how he
is at home, but.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
With us, it's been twenty we've been together twenty six years.

Speaker 5 (01:12:03):
Question, how do y'all? Because I think I think it's
like y'all and like Courtney and Angela Bassett, like.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
Y'all, like one of the only.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
Surviving no pressure, no pressure now now because now now
you just jinxes. That's like watching golf. He's been making
this but all you got to miss it now, Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
Go ahead, How did all survive for so long? What?
What you know?

Speaker 5 (01:12:24):
It's specifically and not just in a mess but just
I mean too creative professionals.

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
Yeah, like that's a lie.

Speaker 4 (01:12:31):
You directed him?

Speaker 3 (01:12:32):
You know what? I don't know. Andre and I obviously
we we love each other very much. We have two
very I think a lot of it. We have two
very happy children. And once you're you know, my my
son's going into heigh it just is a freshman this
year and my uh, my daughter is. It's film and pure.

(01:13:00):
So you look at your children, and but you know,
you look at your children, and that's also a motivating
factor of that. No matter what our issues are, we
need to figure this out. We got happy. We got
a happy little family here, and there's a you know,

(01:13:20):
there's a mutual respect there. And I don't know, we're
both very competitive and that competitive nature of oh no,
we're gonna stay together. We committed to this. They're gonna
figure this out.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
Also.

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
Somehow I think we both know if you look out here,
ain't nothing.

Speaker 10 (01:13:39):
There's nothing out here in the.

Speaker 3 (01:13:47):
And I mean honestly, I mean for me, like what
we're come on, you get to a certain age? What what? What?
Who I'm on? Meet now? And who's gonna treat me
like my husband treats me.

Speaker 4 (01:14:00):
Oh because I put out the fat.

Speaker 1 (01:14:05):
Yeah, Steve is in mare for him right now. Shoot,
the silence are good.

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
But my husband treats he really does treat me like
a queen. He takes care of me almost every morning.
He knows my coffee I want, if I'm still, if
I happen to sleep late, he is bringing that coffee
up there for me.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
That's my question. Yeah, what is your morning routine? What
what do you one what time do you automatically wake
up without the clock waking you up? And what's the
first thing you do in the first half hour of
your day?

Speaker 3 (01:14:34):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:14:35):
If we're your habitual right.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
Fact, most of the time, my eyes will open at
six thirty in the morning. Unfortunately, I don't care. My
eyes just open. Probably we have three dogs. They probably
made some noise in the room. Uh. Three. We have
a Rottweiler, a golden Doodle and a crazy Frenchy.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
Do they like each other?

Speaker 3 (01:14:58):
Yes, they do, although our Frenchie and are Roddy are
both males who are not fixed and are starting they
starting to well, they grew up together because they're only
about they're both like three three and a half ish,
and they've just that that loving friendship has changed and

(01:15:20):
it's mostly the Frenchie is cool. He's like, if you
don't mess with me, we good. He gets along with
other dogs. But that frenchie is insane anyway, So I
let the dogs out. If if I happen to, you know,
sleep later, I'll have my coffee, go down and have
my coffee, and usually I get up. I take the

(01:15:43):
dogs on a hike, which is how I hurt my
back because I slipped, and I take them out separately.
I take the frenchie by himself for a short walk
real quick, and then I come back for the other
two because they can go on a long walk with me.
So that sort of get my day going. And and
then you know, nowadays it would be now I have

(01:16:03):
maybe these three zoom calls during you know, zoom meetings
or something, but it's usually and I don't eat till
probably about twelve thirty one. I'll have a protein shake
or something. Yeah, I don't eat in the morning, and
that's if I'm not working. Okay, you know working, you know,

(01:16:27):
set four.

Speaker 8 (01:16:28):
In the morning.

Speaker 1 (01:16:28):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
Okay, what what is your secret talent that you're allowed
to say, right right right?

Speaker 3 (01:16:40):
I don't know. I always say, I mean I do
a lot of things. I mean, I'm a golfer. I'm
a I don't know if that's so secret, but I.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
Think I know.

Speaker 4 (01:16:48):
Are you a part of the squad? So no, like
that whole black female squad that goes down well.

Speaker 3 (01:16:53):
No, I used to do a lot of the celebrity
golf tournaments and stuff. I used to be actually very good.
My son is a he's in golfer.

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
He's what is it about golfing? Because a lot of
my friends, especially my black friends, who are professionals. Yeah, like,
is there a memo that I haven't gotten yet? Like
everyone turns forty five and suddenly like.

Speaker 3 (01:17:14):
Well, I've been playing for like least twenty five years.
I had started playing because Andre played when we met.

Speaker 2 (01:17:22):
Is it fun or did you start at like golf
and then top golf?

Speaker 3 (01:17:26):
Oh no, no, no, no, I started playing golf. Richard
Rowntree is one of the first people to help me
play golf, Richard Rowntree and Richard Laws, and I've had
amazing people who have helped me play golf in the beginning,
and then obviously my husband. I don't if you listen,
I'm not gonna be doing any more pickup games of
basketball and stuff like that. I think what it is

(01:17:47):
is that golf is something Golf is something you can
do by yourself, you can do in a group. It's
highly therapeutic, you can take and smoke, it's highly competitive.
It's a way for me to compete. I love to
I love to compete, okay, and it's a way for
me to do that. And it's it's a hard game.

(01:18:08):
It will challenge you like.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
How long did it take you to learn it? Because
I feel like now I'm gonna have to no.

Speaker 3 (01:18:14):
One has.

Speaker 8 (01:18:16):
Thee sorry no.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
But the thing is is, like, all right, for instance, uh,
our friend Zara, who is no, but she's stuck in
her uh kind of, she's stuck in her mood. She's
stuck in her mode where like she loves chain restaurants
and I'm like, yeah, exactly, oh no you mentioned Chipotle.

(01:18:43):
She'll like, she'll just die on the spot. However, you know,
I'm telling her like, Okay, we're ramping up our games now,
and you live in Los Angeles and we're doing these
high powered meetings. You might have to learn how to
acclamant or adjust yourself to eating sushi. When she's her
first response, yeah, I hate sushi whatever, I'm like, no,

(01:19:04):
but like a lot of you know.

Speaker 1 (01:19:06):
Pep, we're gonna be running in That's.

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
Exactly You're gonna have to. We're gonna have to start adulting.
And I feel like, for some reason, a lot of
the high caliber power people that I'm running in.

Speaker 4 (01:19:18):
It's an expensive sport.

Speaker 7 (01:19:20):
So that's one thing too, right, why it's not a
brokeman's game it's very expensive to play, right, So I
mean that's why.

Speaker 2 (01:19:26):
Yeah, I hole.

Speaker 1 (01:19:29):
So it's like you're walking.

Speaker 5 (01:19:31):
From what I've heard is a lot of people to
use it for networking, like because it's I mean it's
eighteen so you walk in you talking.

Speaker 3 (01:19:39):
There's definitely been like on sets on the weekend I'm
on location, the producers like we're playing off. I'm like,
I brought my clubs. I played. They're like, you play.
It is something I've met a lot of people through golf,
but I don't use it just for that. I love golf.
It's fun. I watch it.

Speaker 4 (01:19:58):
Just stretch before you do it, mirror.

Speaker 7 (01:20:00):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
Ever, just despite you.

Speaker 8 (01:20:05):
I'll tell you, I'll go with you.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
Matter of fact, why don't we all next game night,
I'm taking everybody to the Top Golf.

Speaker 3 (01:20:13):
I'm going let's get let's start you there, get a lesson, he.

Speaker 4 (01:20:16):
Says, top Golf.

Speaker 1 (01:20:17):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:20:17):
I was like, that's not the same.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
No, I want to get you could get some.

Speaker 3 (01:20:21):
You know, I could get some swings in and not
a physical game.

Speaker 2 (01:20:25):
And you you cannot play right now in your current.

Speaker 3 (01:20:28):
Condition, absolutely not not because your back is stance. No,
that would not be a good choice. This injury.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
Can you name me all the non professional jobs that
you used to have, Okay, always non industry related.

Speaker 3 (01:20:47):
So growing up, my grandmother had owned the dry cleaners,
and it's some at one point at two to three
of them, like you know. And so in Chicago, a
lot of times in the high rises you have a uh,
they have a dry cleaner in the building. So so
I used to work there every weekend in the summer,
every day for my grandmother. So dry cleaners, copy store, okay,

(01:21:12):
pizza place, taking orders and waiting tables at this Italian restaurant.
And then I used to stuff envelopes for my mother
at the at Chicago State University during a certain time
during the year you'd have she had to pay somebody,
and I did it. I always had a little job.

Speaker 2 (01:21:30):
Cereal of choice.

Speaker 3 (01:21:33):
And then you're not funny in the morning, Okay. Back
in the day, it would have been. Uh the frosted wheaties.
Frosted wheaties. I love those things. Many weeks I love those.
I could eat those out the box.

Speaker 2 (01:21:52):
That's my top ten. I like that number six. Yeah,
oh man, you scared me.

Speaker 3 (01:22:00):
Because I don't like it. Gets I have to when
I would eat it like. I don't like Mike to
get soggy, so I would have to like put the
milk in and eat it real quick while it was
still crunchy. It gets all mushy and it's gross.

Speaker 2 (01:22:11):
And okay, I mean, what's your top, dude, I'm peanut,
but a Captain crunch all day.

Speaker 4 (01:22:18):
No crunchberries. If you're gonna do a Captain crunch, you
better do a cruncher.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
I don't know what You're better eat them with a
mouth guard.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
They're gonna cut up the top of the.

Speaker 3 (01:22:26):
Guys. No, the sugar puff, what is it? The what
is it? The puff with the sugar tops?

Speaker 1 (01:22:31):
Kicks, sugar corn pops?

Speaker 2 (01:22:33):
No golden crips. What's what's the name of the.

Speaker 3 (01:22:38):
It was like toaster not No, I don't like that. No.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
I was not a Simon cookie us like I.

Speaker 3 (01:22:52):
Would get lucky charms. But just eat all the.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
Did last night I got so Now they've made fruity
pebbles with marshmallows.

Speaker 7 (01:23:02):
Now none of that stuff tastes the same as kids
like so much sugar.

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
It's not the same.

Speaker 1 (01:23:09):
I'm still part of the fruit loops. I think fruit loops.

Speaker 3 (01:23:11):
Yeah, okay, Apple Jackson of the day. If you're asking
me now, I'm gonna give you answers from back in
the day because my eating happens have changed. I don't
eat here. I'm not gonna have a big sugar bomb
in the morning. Yeah, that is not a good choice
to start your day off.

Speaker 8 (01:23:28):
Yeah, now she's giving life advice.

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
Pescari mushrooms ended this morning. That's what I had. Mushrooms
are the thing right now.

Speaker 5 (01:23:38):
There are you in the mushroom like drug mushrooms, not drugs, drugs.

Speaker 4 (01:23:47):
Magic mushrooms are.

Speaker 1 (01:23:50):
Just a little bit different than heroin. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:23:53):
I never with that. Yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 3 (01:23:55):
But at this point in my life, of course, not really.

Speaker 2 (01:23:59):
What yes, but been there done that sounds it'll help
your tailbow.

Speaker 3 (01:24:08):
I'm one of those people at this point I would
not like some of the chances I took as a
young person.

Speaker 2 (01:24:14):
You're not changing horses midstream.

Speaker 8 (01:24:16):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:24:17):
I'm like, I could, I could get that one crazy high,
like something weird that changes my life, and I got
responsibilities and kids. There's nothing, there is nothing, There is
no high that I'm chasing. I look back at my
life and I go, I'm very lucky that nothing crazy happened.
So I'm a wrapping up and keep moving. A little

(01:24:38):
wine and maybe a gummy or something. You started with mushrooms,
but that's a psychedelic kind of it's a psychodap.

Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
But we talked about drugs.

Speaker 5 (01:24:52):
I'm talking about like the hard ship, like the White ship,
like scheduled to narcotics, you.

Speaker 1 (01:24:57):
Know what I mean, like any anything.

Speaker 2 (01:24:59):
It's like use that as a party drug. So it's yeah,
like what.

Speaker 3 (01:25:06):
Yeah, but I'm not going to no More park we're
talking about I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (01:25:10):
Yeah, No, it's not. I don't consider mushrooms a party joke.

Speaker 3 (01:25:13):
And my husband's very straight. He's like, no drugs. He
barely drinks, so.

Speaker 8 (01:25:18):
Busy cleaning the garage.

Speaker 1 (01:25:21):
I would be there.

Speaker 5 (01:25:21):
I'm the organized twenty seventeen coffee How do you how
you do your coffee?

Speaker 2 (01:25:30):
How do you know? I was going to ask that
question because he knows where is your order at Starbucks?
What's your Starbucks order?

Speaker 8 (01:25:37):
She doesn't go to Starbucks. Make your home.

Speaker 1 (01:25:39):
It's just my god.

Speaker 3 (01:25:43):
If I'm on the set and they say we're going
to Starbucks, I will ask for two things. I will
either say I want Americano with one cream one sugar
or I will go, oh, today, I'm going to have
a little dessert thing. Give me a I mocha half
chocolate soy milk, and that would be no whip cream

(01:26:05):
that was at home at home. So he has this
mushroom coffee. I'm into the mushrooms, but I love but
I love coffee, so I'm not saying you asked me
about coffee. So I have my coffee. Listen, try this

(01:26:25):
because in the morning, this thing will have you moving
through your day. So I have my regular big cup
of coffee ten ounces, and I put a tablespoon of
the instant mushroom coffee in my coffee.

Speaker 2 (01:26:39):
And then, by the way, done.

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
This, and then I use a butter bomb in there
that has the coconut oil and the d butter mixture thing.
And that's why I don't eat till one because that
kind of carries me.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
Puts a dab of coconut butter inside of his coffee,
and what does that do something?

Speaker 3 (01:27:02):
It's really good. It's it's really good for your mental
capacity energy that mixed with the mushroom stuff with it,
Like I'm.

Speaker 4 (01:27:14):
So wait, what kind of butter was that again?

Speaker 2 (01:27:15):
And just butter bomb butter bomb or a coconut.

Speaker 3 (01:27:18):
That's a tight I'm asking, but it's a mixture of butter,
coconut and this other something.

Speaker 2 (01:27:26):
But I can I can vouch for this TOI put
us onto it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:31):
I did it. It actually is.

Speaker 3 (01:27:32):
But this whole mixture with the mushroom in it is
my I think is my It's my thing. I made
it up because I don't want mushroom coffee. I want coffee.
And so I was like, I could put it all
on Wenesday.

Speaker 4 (01:27:45):
What it is coffee?

Speaker 3 (01:27:46):
And then yeah, are you coming at you don't drink coffee?

Speaker 4 (01:27:51):
Oh so you think he don't know?

Speaker 3 (01:27:52):
Okay, no, No, the mushroom because it's a mushroom coffee.
I add the mushroom coffee powder into my regular coffee
with the butter thing and no sugar.

Speaker 2 (01:28:01):
If coffee was really my jam, I'm one of these people.
I'm not, Wow, we're talking about coffee, Steve. If you
have not waiting yet.

Speaker 8 (01:28:07):
I'm thinking about snorting rice.

Speaker 2 (01:28:09):
Chrispis as much when I think of Starbucks, Like my
Christmas gift to Steve is always like you probably ran.

Speaker 8 (01:28:17):
Out already, gold Starbucks card or something.

Speaker 2 (01:28:22):
It's like a lifetime supply. All right, for Halloween? What
is your costume? Wait, we're already office, all right, ship, Okay,
we're still talking about No, I'm obsessed, but let's talk
about Halloween.

Speaker 3 (01:28:34):
Okay. The last Halloween that we went to was a
dress up as your because they were people were performing
on stage two and doing a thing. So I went
as Vanity.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
Wow, yes you did.

Speaker 3 (01:28:50):
I went as Vanity. I wore her little outfit, you know,
but what I was going to and then I chickened down.

Speaker 4 (01:28:58):
Wait, which Vanity from the actual movie?

Speaker 3 (01:29:01):
Vanity opened the video, and so I had I got,
I rented a tuxedo jacket, and I had hotelingerie and
the heels I went.

Speaker 2 (01:29:11):
I went.

Speaker 3 (01:29:12):
That's how I went.

Speaker 1 (01:29:14):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (01:29:16):
Do you do you go karaoke? Like at all?

Speaker 3 (01:29:18):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:29:20):
You started out as a.

Speaker 3 (01:29:21):
Singer, but I don't like karaoke. It's not my thing. Okay,
because you go and then it's not in the key
you need to be I'm judging, it's like it's too No.

Speaker 8 (01:29:30):
No, those songs are always higher than you think.

Speaker 3 (01:29:32):
They're always highed like.

Speaker 8 (01:29:34):
Any bon jovie song. Ever, You're like, I got this ship,
and then and then you get to the chorus of
Blaze of the Glory and you're like, I don't gotten
this ship, and then they.

Speaker 3 (01:29:43):
Give me this book like this, I can't make it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:46):
It's like.

Speaker 3 (01:29:51):
It's a lot judging.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:29:55):
For me, I discovered that I have to go back
to me as a nine, ten eleven year old and
discover fun for that person. For you, what is your
one Do you allow yourself to ever become an eleven
year old at this stage in your life? And what

(01:30:16):
is it that you do for fun? Do you play
Monopoly when no one's watching? Do you watch Tom and
Jerry play spades? Am I really making you uncomfortable right now?

Speaker 3 (01:30:27):
Well, because I'm thinking of my whole life is going.
I'm going maybe I'm not doing enough things for fun.
We do play spades. I don't know if I'm doing
that all the time, but we used to a lot
of things. I used to do, Like Dondrey and I
used to be on a in a bowling league. We
used to bowl a lot, okay, and golf more than
he would say, I'm not playing much golf anymore. I

(01:30:48):
start getting too into work, so I might h you
may be telling me I need to have more fun
because usually.

Speaker 2 (01:30:57):
No, No, these are just random questions.

Speaker 8 (01:30:59):
You're or not.

Speaker 3 (01:31:00):
This is a hard question for me to answer. It
would usually be getting together. We have sort of a
couple's group. We all go out to dinner, and it's
really hanging out with them and going to dinner. But
that doesn't sound like that much fun. We're vacationing together,
but it doesn't sound that exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:31:16):
You know something I discovered the joys of silence.

Speaker 3 (01:31:19):
You know, I'm kind of you know how they say
I would rather be at home. Sitting up in my
house is comfortable. We have a nice little area outside.
I can watch TV outside and sit there and be
with my husband and with my dogs and chill.

Speaker 5 (01:31:38):
Okay, you know you have a guilty pleasure in terms
of food or like we talked about all the healthy stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:31:44):
Yeah, you do.

Speaker 5 (01:31:45):
What's like your you know when you just want to
go to the abyss, Like what's the worst thing you eat?
Like you just you buzzed down a quarter pounds like
burger Let's let's ratchet Sally riches.

Speaker 3 (01:31:59):
I think because so for many for a long time,
I was like a vegan vegetarian. I've just started eating
some meat sometimes now, so I think it would be
some pizza and wings something like that. No, no, I
want spicy. I went hot. Yeah, I've been enjoying some girls.

Speaker 1 (01:32:24):
Let's talk about it.

Speaker 11 (01:32:26):
And which right, She was like, god, she thought about
the mouse sauce. She was like, holy ship, what I'm sorry,
Delian the truth.

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
We're a very silly show.

Speaker 8 (01:32:43):
No, very serious about mushrooms.

Speaker 1 (01:32:46):
And we're a very silly show.

Speaker 3 (01:32:48):
You're asking me, serious ship, what you want? I'm giving
you serious answers.

Speaker 1 (01:32:52):
Okay, but what's.

Speaker 3 (01:32:54):
Your Okay, my haralds it's been a long time, but
my Harold's order would be say it like.

Speaker 4 (01:33:00):
You at the counter, because okay, well I got to
think about.

Speaker 2 (01:33:03):
It because I remember, is my chicken Heaven in Chicago?

Speaker 3 (01:33:08):
So you would get it's like a fried chicken plate
and then there's French fries on it and some white bread,
and so I always get, you know, like what is
that like half a chicken or so I don't remember what,
but I like the barbecue sauce and the hot sauce
all over it, and I yeah, yeah, so like yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:33:26):
Half white bread. Yes, it has to be white bread.

Speaker 3 (01:33:30):
It has to be in Chicago. Rib tips, yes, sir, Yes,
Chicago South Side. That is the city of rib tips,
rib tips and white bread, white wonderbread, and some French fries.

Speaker 2 (01:33:46):
I'm so glad you're here because it's been a while
since we had a Chicago guest on the show.

Speaker 1 (01:33:50):
You got to.

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
Explain some things to me. Okay, Number one, here we go.
What's up with y'all? And this anti ketchup on hot.

Speaker 3 (01:33:58):
Dog thing, that's you know what, I like ketchup on
my hot dogs. But yeah, because you get when you
go get a Chicago hot dog, it's a pickle, these
peppers and mustard.

Speaker 2 (01:34:11):
Out the restaurant. Sometimes if you put ketchup on it,
or or if.

Speaker 3 (01:34:16):
You ordered a Chicago dogs, insult to them. Yeah, yeah,
I like ketchup. I think that's more of a white thing.

Speaker 2 (01:34:24):
Okay, defend your pizza.

Speaker 3 (01:34:27):
It's fantastic talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:34:29):
Oh my god, the way she was.

Speaker 3 (01:34:31):
I used to work at a pizza place. I used
to work at Eduardo's, which is like really thick pizza.

Speaker 2 (01:34:39):
Well, not not to totally alienate an entire part of
our listenership, I will just.

Speaker 3 (01:34:46):
Let me tell you.

Speaker 2 (01:34:46):
Could you recommend good, better spots in Chicago?

Speaker 3 (01:34:53):
Okay, So honestly, on the what I do not remember
the name of this. There's a place on like really
south side because my mom lives out like in the South.
I'm good, no, because he's because she lives out like
in the South suburbs now. But it's a thinner pizza

(01:35:15):
that they have. But there is a different taste to
the sauce and the pizza in Chicago. Oh God, I
wish I as opposed to it. No, no, because yours
is super thin. Okay, right, The New York pizza is
its own thing. It's fantastic. But there is a thinner
crust pizza in Chicago that has like the sausage pizza

(01:35:40):
with the grease in it, and the taste of that
sauce is I think maybe it's neighborhood pizza or something.
It is a you would love that pizza. If you
don't like thick crust, fine, but you would love that pizza.
I would put that pizza. I'm I'm gonna text my
mother before I leave here and find out the name

(01:36:02):
of this pizza place. I would put that against a
slice of New York pizza.

Speaker 1 (01:36:08):
I don't have any.

Speaker 3 (01:36:09):
You don't have any.

Speaker 2 (01:36:11):
I just have to live in New York. But okay,
but you know, I'm testing out their pizzas, but that
you know what.

Speaker 3 (01:36:20):
Okay, So now besides Harold's that pizza in Chicago, that
kind of thin crust one with that grease and that
Italian sausage. That and Chicago Chinese food is because they
don't Chicago Chinese food is. Well, obviously that's what I

(01:36:42):
grew up on. But like some egg food young from
some it's a whole different Chinese.

Speaker 8 (01:36:48):
I came out of Chinese place.

Speaker 2 (01:36:49):
We went to there one night, David Yo, I tried
David Wan's last night.

Speaker 8 (01:36:55):
I was losing hope changed my life as a Jew
who loves Chinese food. Well, for whatever reason, that moment at.

Speaker 2 (01:37:02):
That night, fancy Chinese or like, it's not hood, it's
not hood, it's but it's not fancy, but it's not hood.
But they've mastered the art of salt and pepper chicken wings.

Speaker 1 (01:37:17):
Oh okay, And.

Speaker 3 (01:37:20):
Yes, my test is always egg foo young and shrimp
with lobster sauce. If it tastes a certain way, If
it's not right, then your restaurant ain't right.

Speaker 2 (01:37:27):
Philadelphia is a salt and pepper chicken.

Speaker 8 (01:37:31):
It's like two dishes. Of what is probably like a
thousand dishes, but for.

Speaker 3 (01:37:34):
Those two are big staples in a In a Chicago
Chinese restaurant, you should be able to make egg food
young and I.

Speaker 8 (01:37:43):
Feel like you're about to fight.

Speaker 10 (01:37:44):
I'm just saying the Chicago one.

Speaker 4 (01:37:49):
I'm a random dinner.

Speaker 3 (01:37:50):
I said you should have you should have had some
alcohol here. I might have been a different person.

Speaker 8 (01:37:55):
Less to meet back here tomorrow. Sad time.

Speaker 2 (01:38:04):
We're going to wrap up a bit. But I have
a few more random questions.

Speaker 3 (01:38:08):
If asked me about Gilded real quick, so I can
tell you about Okay, you kind of did. It's a
great season. It'll be fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:38:15):
Now what more would you like to be going?

Speaker 3 (01:38:17):
I just want people it's about to come out, and
you know, I want to tell for for my black audience,
because we want all I want to say, who were
hungry for more of Peggy? Yes, and the Black elite.

Speaker 4 (01:38:31):
She's not going to get hurt when she goes to
the South.

Speaker 3 (01:38:33):
I'm not telling yeah, cool, but but she does go.
But I can't say that she goes to meet Booker
t Washington. So she does go to Tuskegee. So but
you get to see more of that because people were
hungry for it, because it was just the taste of
Obviously the show's not about that, but so I just

(01:38:54):
wanted to say that because people have been everywhere I go,
people are like, when's it coming back? Are we going
to see more Peggy? Yes you are, and it's gonna
be great.

Speaker 4 (01:39:01):
It's kind of great.

Speaker 2 (01:39:02):
Well, they're just totally paled my next question.

Speaker 3 (01:39:09):
I just wanted to get people keep asking me someone
to tell them, go ahead.

Speaker 7 (01:39:13):
Do y'all put a little extra extra funky on those
clothes on the wardrobe and gilded h They spent a
lot of money on those because they it seems I mean,
it's is brilliant.

Speaker 3 (01:39:26):
She is friend this French woman, She is brilliant. They
are all handmade. But you know, obviously the ones for
the actors, for the main actors, they're all handmade for
each of them. They are made with the most beautiful fabric.
The hats are It's all about the hats.

Speaker 4 (01:39:41):
This year I saw that.

Speaker 3 (01:39:45):
It's just that's what I enjoyed so much in directing.
It was like, oh, if I if you show if
she showed me a special piece, I'm like, don't worry, baby, we.

Speaker 1 (01:39:56):
See you again.

Speaker 3 (01:39:57):
Yeah, yeah, come, I asked you a shallow QUI.

Speaker 1 (01:40:00):
Wow, it's like Jerry's Sally.

Speaker 8 (01:40:10):
At seven on the Look the funk Out, because.

Speaker 2 (01:40:13):
I kind of wanted to ended on on rather apropoke question.
What would you tell, oh lord, your seven year old
self right now, shallow ship.

Speaker 1 (01:40:31):
See, they should have warned you about this show. No, no, no, And.

Speaker 2 (01:40:35):
Some some guests are are a little thrown off because yeah,
I mean, we could do the normal thing, like hey,
what do you pluck? But I want to get to
the deep person, you know, behind the project. What would
you tell your seven year old self right now, like
you're given two minutes to time travel back to you

(01:40:56):
at the age of seven, and opinion your parents did?

Speaker 3 (01:41:00):
I think it's I think it really is one of
those like you will make it through this. You will
make it through this, and and I always say, and
it's gonna be okay, like, uh, it's really you're gonna
make it through this. You're gonna make it through this. Yes,
it's great.

Speaker 4 (01:41:20):
What is it like to direct?

Speaker 7 (01:41:21):
Now?

Speaker 4 (01:41:22):
I'm sorry my last question guild a question. What is
it like? I'm gonna say it one more time to
direct Audrey McDon.

Speaker 3 (01:41:28):
She's she's one of those people there's not much to
do because she's brilliant and she's kind and nice and
easy and everything you would hope from someone who's that talented,
Like there's no issues. And if I didn't, you know,
if I if that wasn't true, then I would have
given you a quick, easy answer.

Speaker 1 (01:41:46):
It's good.

Speaker 3 (01:41:47):
Thank you a good lady.

Speaker 2 (01:41:48):
Well, my future mentor.

Speaker 3 (01:41:51):
Sally, are you coming and shadowing? You ready? And then
I'll come and talk to you about documentary work.

Speaker 8 (01:42:00):
Who's like a round table?

Speaker 4 (01:42:04):
Come on now?

Speaker 2 (01:42:05):
Well, I thank you for coming on the show.

Speaker 3 (01:42:07):
Thank you, thank you so much for having me excited
when you guys call, thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:42:11):
Thank you for putting your touch on my favorite show.

Speaker 2 (01:42:16):
And uh yeah when we have font Digelo and m Pei,
Bill and Sugar Steve and Layah, this is Quest Love.
Thank you a Salarbry you said Woodville for coming on
the show. And we'll see you on the next go
round the Quest Love SUPREMEO. All right, thank you for
listening to your Quest Love Supreme hosted by a mere
Quest Love Thompson. Why you, Saint Clair Fonte, Cole, Sugar,

(01:42:41):
Steve Mandel, an.

Speaker 1 (01:42:43):
Unpaid Bill Sherman.

Speaker 2 (01:42:45):
Executive producers are a mere Quest, Love Thompson, Sean g
and Brian Calhoun. Produced by Brittany Benjamin Cousin, Jig Pink,
Liah Saint Clair, edited by Alex Conroy, Produced by iHeart
by Noel Brown and Mike Johnson, Audio engineering by Graham

(01:43:08):
Gibson and iHeart.

Speaker 3 (01:43:10):
And LA Studio.

Speaker 2 (01:43:14):
What's Love Supreme is a production of ihearten Radio. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.