November 26, 2024 • 49 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me
Tracy Moore. I was a casting director for film and
TV and commercials for over thirty years. I transitioned to
a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New
Jersey Drive with executive producers Spike Lee and director Nick Domez.
I auditioned every rapper from Biggie Smalls to Tupac, and
(00:24):
I realized that rappers and musical artists they needed help
transitioning to acting. My clients consist of musical artists from
Buster Rhymes to Eve, Missy Elliott, Angela Yee from The
Breakfast Club, and Vanessa Simmons, to name a few. I
also coach sports stars and host as well. I feel
(00:45):
I have the best of both worlds. As a casting director,
I know exactly what they're looking for, and as an
acting coach, I can coach you to be remembered in
that room.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Now. I know.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I know actors want to get the job. I get that,
but being remembered by casting director that is powerful. Meditation
of the day life has two rules. Rule number one,
never quit. Rule number two always remember. Rule number one
(01:17):
Duke Ellington, no matter how hard it gets, never give up.
You should always keep the vision of your dreams clearly
embedded in your mind. When things do appear bleak, just
know it's a test. You can get through it, and
you will survive. I have had my share of chaos,
(01:39):
but looking back now, I can honestly say I made it.
It's not over, but at least I know that, somehow
or another, I will continue to persevere. Today I will
strive to be a winner. Welcome to the Spirited Actor
Podcast with me Trey see More. I don't even know
(02:03):
how to begin this introduction because, aside from being a
phenomenally talented human being, actress, executive producer, just creative, overall
creative being, she is a dynamic, spectacular every adjective that
(02:25):
I can think of that talks about empowerment and beauty
and just graciousness and elegance. I want to introduce missus
Daphney Maxwell. Read. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together
for miss Daphney. Ready. Yes you are, Yes you are,
(02:49):
And I'm gonna have to look through it. No you are.
I'm gonna have to look through at thesaurus and get
some more adjectives because it doesn't it really doesn't touch
upon who you are. And I feel so incredibly blessed
to have this opportunity to have a conversation with you
and for other actors to be able to embrace this
(03:12):
conversation and your words of wisdom, your experience, just everything
everything that you embody.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, thank you. I please to be asked to share.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, we're going to start at the beginning. That's where
I want to start. And like I said, you know,
this is a conversation, you know, I this is a
platform for me to continue to educate and inspire actors
on their journey and knowing the truths about the journey,
not what they heard from actor be who messed it
(03:46):
up and you know, became telephoned now Okay, we want
the truth. Okay, so hard. Yes, So I wanted to
start at the beginning. What was your inspiration to enter
into the entertainment business.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I really didn't try to. I in high school, I
was playing with a group called the Group Theater Workshop
in New York was led by Robert Hooks.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Oh yeah, I love Robert Hooks.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Kevin Hooks day Yeah, the group theat a workshop became
the Negro Ensemble Company right after I left. Wow, I
was working with folks back then who were teaching me
to do improvisation and creation and presence and being and
(04:46):
how to deliver a line. And this is in high school.
But I thought, hey, this is a fun thing to
do on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Lines.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It was in the sixties, and in the sixties were
there were not a lot of examples of black women
who make a living acting. I had Diane Carroll, I
had Diana Sans. I had a couple of people that
I could look to, but they were working hard. I
wasn't as talented as Diana Stance because she could sing
(05:17):
and she was gorgeous, and I said, well, let me
go to school and use my head, and you know,
this is fun. So I never considered it as a career.
Then when I got to university, I was out in
Chicago at Northwestern and went through a discovery of myself
(05:42):
there and realized that I was a black woman for sure.
In New York, you don't know, but everybody's everything. I
don't call somebody who is Latino. You don't call them
either Puerto Rican or Cuban, because they may be the
other and they may cut you right.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
True.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You just don't distinguish and New York was such a
homogeneous place. I mean there were people of all colors, races, countries.
It was a wonderful place to grow up and be
exposed to the actual world. So when I got to Chicago,
(06:22):
it was quite different. There were black things and there
were white things, and they didn't kind of mix together.
So I had a lot of challenges in just dealing
with being a black woman in a place that they
didn't want me, which was very different from me. And
(06:43):
I realized that I have the strength that my mother
gave me, the responsibility to myself that my mother gave me,
and the courage that comes from somewhere deep inside of
me to understand that these people just were gig prints.
They didn't know me.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I guess it was time to let them know who
I was. So I went about living my life and
got discovered by my junior high school teacher in New
York who submitted me to something called seventeen Magazine's Real
Girl Issue. And it was an issue where they took
(07:25):
girls who had achieved things in high school and put
them in one issue. And this is when seventeen magazine
was large format. I mean, it was like it and
I got selected because I was a merit scholarship winner
and I modeled for the first time. Wow, And I said,
(07:50):
you mean you just want to want me to stand
here and smile.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
That picture became a full page in seventeen magazine Wow,
and was won by I leaned Ford, who was one
of my model agencies in New York.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Right Ford Models.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, I became a Ford model of special booking because
I didn't live in New York. I was in Chicago
at school, so I would fly back and forth to
New York. Now, this is going to hurt your heart.
I could fly round trip to New York, from New
York to Chicago and bath for twenty five dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Oh my god, I'm Oh my god. That definitely hurts
the heart.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Wowty five dollars. I would go to work, make fifty
bucks an hour, and go back to school. Wow.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And did you have to in that fifty bucks? Did
they take out that percentage already or did Were you
able to come home with fifty bucks?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Oh? I worked a couple of hours hours and I came
home with whatever. I came home more than I had
when I was.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
A scholarship That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It was all just spending changed to me. And so
that was my life. In college. I went back and
forth to New York and did editorial modeling. I was
never sold them to be the Runway girls or anything
like that. So I did editorial modeling and one day
(09:28):
I went back to New York. I had a kind
of a mentor back there named Amy Green, and she
would book me on things and call me and say, Okay,
come shoot this and come shoot that, and you know,
I'd go into the same day, I'd go back to school. Wow.
I came one day and she said, Okay, put this
(09:49):
red jacket on. Now, just a little bath gower and
some lip gloss on your hair, old to side. Don't
worry about it. Sit on the window there. And I
sat on a window. A guy ca amen, he might
have shot twelve fifteen shots. She said, Okay, that's that's good. Okay,
go back to school. And I got back on a
plane and went back to school.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
That October of nineteen sixty nine, I was walking by
the newsstand and I saw my face on the cover
of Glamour magazine.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
And I was the first black African American girl on
the cover of glamor bag.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeay, excellent.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It was like, oh, what a delight. I'm just playing.
I'm still just playing school. I'm studying interior design and architecture.
I met the love of my life. I'm gonna get married.
So I got married in school. Wow, and commuted for
(10:50):
the last year in school, but continued to model after
I got out of school. Pregnant yay. Wow, one does
in the sixties.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Okay, you juggling a lot. I have impressed family. Just
jet sitting back and forth, back and forth.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
In school, like I mean, you know, it says a
lot about your character.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Well, I had a lot of fun. And I just
modeled and modeled and modeled. And then when I got
out of school, I was really not interested in getting
a job as an interior designer. I kept modeling with
the Chicago groups and started doing commercial and I was
(11:41):
hanging out with people who did commercials all the time
and voiceover talent and stuff. What is that? Let me
see that. So they would show me and take me
to a studio and I said, oh, I could.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Do this now. Did you feel that there was in
coming from a world of model where you have no words,
but you still have to sell that product or that
piece of garment. Right did you feel that? How was
the transition going from no words to now incorporating words
(12:14):
and building a character even in a commercial.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I've been talking all my life, Okay, was no big deal.
I want to do okay, yeah, oh show them that. Okay,
I can do that. It was all O JT. It
was just on the job. When I was on the job,
(12:40):
I was paying attention to what everybody was doing. I
wanted to know what the lightning guy was doing because
he was making me look better, and I was wondering
what the focused puller was doing, and he was making
me in focus. So I knew positioning, I knew hitting
my light, delivery of life, he's k I did that.
(13:02):
At the group theater workshop, I learned how to deliver
lines and how to make a point and what to emphasize.
And when I started the voiceover stuff in Chicago, I
was it was suggested that I just take magazine articles
and read them out loud in the mirror and see
if I could sell myself on what it was doing
(13:26):
and kind of get a flow going, find your center.
So that's what I did, and I happened to be
good at it, so I kept doing it and they
kept paying me. And then Robert this is a man
named Robert Conrad, came to Chicago and we just lost
(13:47):
Robert come about a weeks ago. He was the man
who I would say discovered me. He put me in
a television series he was shooting in Chicago called The
Duke The Duke, and he put me in as a
regular and he wrote me in. I auditioned for some
(14:09):
part and my agent says, well, you didn't get that,
and then she said, oh, you're in the script that
just came through. It's all handwritten in here.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Wow. Hand written was.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Looking out for me. Wow. He saw something in me,
and he just gloaned on it. So I did The
Duke a couple of episodes in Chicago. I think we
did maybe six or seven episodes, and then that was over,
and I went back to modeling and mothering and trying
to keep a marriage together that was falling apart because
(14:41):
my husband was falling apart. And finally decided, Okay, this
marriage is not going to last. I got to go,
and I left Chicago and moved out to la not
knowing hardly anybody I had a girlfriend out there who
was a lawyer, and I said, can I come out
(15:03):
here and stay with you for a week and see
if I can make this go? She said sure, sure, Sure,
you can come sleep on the couch. I got out there,
and the first person I called, of course, was Robert Conrad,
because he was out there was another show called A
Man called Sloan. He said, where are you? I said,
I'm in La. He said, come down to the studio.
(15:25):
I went down. I was in the episode that was
up next.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Oh my god, Oh my god, that's excellent.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Me in that episode. Wow, And it was a great part.
I got an agent the first week I was in
La and started working.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
That is very rare. Ladies and gentlemen, and that is
very rare.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I am blessed. I understand this. It was not my efforts.
It's got me where I was. It was the stars aligning,
people seeing something in me and being able to uphold
what they thought I could do.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So I was very, very blessed and still just getting
to the point where can I make a living out
of it?
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Right in La?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
In La. But it was the seventies, it was the
late seventies, and the early eighties, and it was a
time where they were looking for black girls to kind
of get into position. They couldn't be too light, they
couldn't be too dark. They had to be just the
(16:39):
right flavor for them. Wow, And they would slide them in.
And there were little opportunities that came up, and I
was working my butt off. I did things A Hill
Street Blue, Yeah, and McCormick and whatever, all of us.
I did so many little.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Shows, eighteen guest starring, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Those that were going on. I had a great career.
And I met We met Tim. I had known him
in Chicago because we had worked together, but he didn't
do nothing for me.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Oos should we be recording this?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah? Right, he knows.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I loved I love it. They are the best together.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Oh yeah, we've had a wonderful We just celebrated our
fortieth Valentine State again.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh that's beautiful forty.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah. We met in January nineteen eighty and have been
together ever since.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I love it. That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I got to work with him. I met the guys
when he was on WKRPNATI. When you're dating somebody and
you go to their show, you meet the crew. You
need the writers, you meet, the directors, you meet everybody,
and hey, they put me in WKRP.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
I loved it.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Two shows that then they move on to a show
called Simon and Simon, and then writers said, okay, we're
going to write you in here. Tends in the ud
in this too. So that's how my career progressed. It
wasn't me beaten down doors and saying I gotta do this,
I gotta do this, my heart says, I gotta do this.
It was I'm blessed with opportunities, and to take advantage
(18:33):
of these opportunities to the fullest, I have.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
To be prepared excellent.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So I stayed in shape. I just spent my downtime
doing things that I loved, which is what I encourage
actors to do. Find something you love with which you
can eat and do that and and love that while
(18:58):
you're waiting to be chose, because an actor has to
wait to be chosen, and unless you are creating your
own projects, you have to wait to be choken.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Wow, that's I'm going to reiterate that during the show.
Way to be chosen, because you're absolutely right, and the
preparation is, you know, if you believe and know that
there is a role out there for you, and when
that role presents itself, you are ready for that. And I,
(19:33):
like you said in the downtime, that's where the preparation begins,
and that's where you're constantly nurturing that your talent. You know,
my generation, I know all of your body of work
and have enjoyed you from Afar and then when I
met you, it was like, oh my god, one of
my favorite actresses in the Hawaii world for real. So
(20:00):
and when you said Simon and Simon, like your face
immediately popped up in a show in like an episode.
I just remember so. And then you know, there's that generation.
You know, you have been blessed to go through several
generations of you know, consistent work, which is rare in
this entertainment business. So when you got to the Fresh
(20:25):
Prince of bel Air, Aunt Viv, you know we're going
to talk about this story. You have to tell Yes,
you have to tell this generation and beyond tell us
how that transition happened.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Okay, we had been working on a bunch of shows
in La my husband and I. We did Sister Sister,
We did Frank's Place with Dun cancel much later. Yeah,
(21:00):
right when we finished Frank's Place, we got picked up Snoops.
That's the show we got as a payback for canceling
Frank's Place. Network kind of held on to their talent
and we did CBS shows for many years, and then
we had deals with TBS. Tim created shows for CBS,
(21:23):
so we.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Did Snoops and we were exhausted and we decided we're
moving out of la and we're going to Virginia because
they just elected the first black governor in the United States,
so something must.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Be happening back there. And Tim is from Virginia and
was supporting the governor for his run. So as soon
as he got elected, we bought a farm back in Virginia.
We said, okay, time up.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Working for the past ten years really hard, and we're
going to slow down nice. So we did that. Right
before we left, I got an audition call. We want
you to come and there's a role for a mother
and it has to do with a young rap star.
And I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no, no,
(22:14):
I'm not doing no rap stuff. Sorry, So I said no,
thank you. I didn't go to the audition, but they
told me about the project right, And I said, now
this is not for me. I'm at the farm, my
new farm in Virginia, just playing away, having a grandson.
Slow it down the tall and oh, what a cute show.
(22:39):
This is that little Fresh Prince thing. They were talking about,
what a cute show. So I'm looking at it. I said, oh, well,
I didn't do that, and I'm going on about my
business in Virginia. Three years later, three I guess this
call and they said they're having an audition for the
(23:02):
Fresh Prince of Bell there. I said, before I hang
up the phone, I'm getting a play ticket.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I'll be there, okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yes, And I came back to LA and it took
two weeks of auditioning. I auditioned probably five times, and
every time I went back to a callback, there were
women there that I had never seen in my life.
M wow. And I kept going back, Oh good, I
can go back, and I kept going back, and then
finally said, okay, now tomorrow you go to the network.
(23:34):
I said, oh, okay, I get to the network callback.
There are three of us, totally different people.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
But I had already hit it off with James Avery,
who I observe and our auditions were always fun and delightful,
and we had a chemistry, so I was confident, but
I didn't know what they were looking for, so I
was not overconfident. After I read for the network, I
(24:07):
went home and I guess I prayed, and Tim was
out in LA with me that time, and we just
sat around and we said, Okay, we'll find out tomorrow.
And tomorrow was the longest getting there I was. It
was eight o'clock in the morning, it was ten o'clock
(24:29):
in the morning, and no phone had wrung. Finally, about
ten thirty that morning, they called and said you got it.
I cried, Oh was That's thrilled. And it was also
the first television show that I had done it. I've
(24:51):
been working in television for ten to twelve years. That
was the first time I had done it before a
live audience. It was going to be wow, wow w KRP.
The episodes that we shot were a lot of film based.
They were kind of offset doing film based, so I
really hadn't worked before a live audience. And I was like,
(25:16):
in New York and high school.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Wow, but you had your theater training though, right the yeah, yeah,
But when.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
You start on a sittim you don't know. You have
to learn how to wait for the last right. You
can't just keep talking.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Right right and talk over it.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
You can't talk over the last right. You got to
let it breathe during rehearsal. We have the writers who
supposedly laugh, but they laugh at.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Anything, right, Yeah, okay, true.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I was welcome at Fresh Prints as if I had
been in television for forty years and was queen of whatever.
I mean. They treated me with such respect and such
that's great. I was greeted with dozens of red roses
in my room with me and welcomed me. It was
(26:22):
really really wonderful. And after the first scene, huh, I
settled in so and it became very comfortable to do.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
When you know, that's really great to know that you know,
you were welcome because the transition, you know, was unorthodox
so to speak, right, I mean in television world, because
I don't know, and I tried to remember this, but
did anybody address it? Like you know, I just feel
(26:55):
like we were given the information there was going to
be a cast change. Did it happened? And then it
was like, okay, well, we're just all gonna believe that
you are on viv now Like it was just you know,
did it feel like that on the set.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
It just felt like I had been there the whole time. Wow,
they did address it, and it's one of my favorite episodes,
which is my too. Yeah, in the kitchen with Dandy,
Jeff comes and brings it a present for the baby.
Uh huh and this is my first scene, first day
(27:34):
and he brings the present and calls him the wrong
name that I correct him right, And he looked at
me and he says, you know, you should look different
since you had that TAKEE and Will broke the fourth wall,
looked right into the camera and just shrugs and it
went on. There was never mentioned again.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah. I thought that was brilliant the way you guys
addressed it. Yeah, I bravo. You know I told you
that twenty eight minutes was going to fly by, and
they just gave me the five minute morning signal. Oh
my god, Yes, I'm telling you so. I already knew. Listen,
we're gonna we are coming back because we're going to
(28:15):
fast forward. We're going to address this audience of actors.
Need to hear the history, need to hear the journey,
the perseverance, like you know, just the pearls of wisdom
that you have blessed them with in these twenty five
(28:36):
minutes that have flown by so far. So I do
want to extend an invitation and have you back so
that you know, we can even delve into character development.
Because one of the shows that I was a part of,
Eve's show in the beginning, I did the pilot and
(28:58):
at that point I had decided as an acting coach
that I wanted to settle back in New York. And
I have been on the road between Eve and Buster
for like six years. So when I found out that
you were JT Jason George's mom, oh my god, I
wanted to come back. I was like, man if I
(29:18):
had known Daphny was gonna be on that show, Like,
so I want to talk about that, because we didn't
even talk about that. There's just so much of your
work that is important for actors to know and to
embrace and and hear these stories. You know at a
time where I love where you said that you know actors,
(29:41):
you you will be chosen. You know you you want
to be chosen, and so but there's also other entities.
There's a studio we need to talk about. So I
am going to invite you back on the show, Daphne.
I love it, okay, So I am going to check
(30:02):
the calendar. I so appreciate you, love your time and
all of your energy. This morning. I could talk to
you all day like it really.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Was, because you have such a spirit that I just
admire so greatly and have always admired. I they mentioned
your name and I just light up. I said, oh yeah,
that's just as hon it.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Oh thank you, damning me. I got little tears growing
your buy. I appreciate love me oh always always, Like
you know, my first the first show I ever had.
You were on that show as well, So I appreciately
love your support. And I know the actors, all of
the actors listening and my studio family in here. They're
(30:50):
walking away with some jewels, so they're excited that you're
coming back. Excellent, excellent. So you have a wonderful day,
and thank you so much. Tell and I said, Hi,
give him a hug. Okay, and we're going to be
back with class in session on The Spirited Actor Podcast
(31:12):
with Me Tracy Moore. Welcome to The Spirited Actor Podcast
with Me Tracy Moore, and we are at one of
my favorite segments. Class in Session, Lean Amado and Melissa
Capri Hey give it up for him. Hey, thank you.
And also I do want to mention that I do
(31:33):
have a book called The Spirited Actor Principles for a
Successful Audition and it can be purchased Actor's House dot com.
I mean author's House, I apologize Author's House dot com
and also Barnes and Noble Amazon. I wrote this for you.
This is for you. This is my gift to actors. Okay,
(31:54):
so check it out. Thank you, and I'll sign it
for those of you who are so subscribed to the
Spirited Actor podcast on iHeartRadio, I will sign your book. Okay,
incentive Okay, Class in session. So we have a scene,
and you know how we do. I'm gonna read everything
(32:17):
the slugline action and our ladies here are going to portray.
The characters are Mary and miss Wise. Interior and we're
going to start right there. Okay, excuse me, Interior child
Psychiatrist's office day. Mary looks worse than ever. Her hair
(32:40):
and clothing are disastrous. She rocks somewhat anxiously on the
edge of her seat, like a desperate salesman looking to
close a deal.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Abuse, Yes, miss Johnson, abuse.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
There's no drugs in my No drugs because Precious, no,
damn well, I willpa asks Bright Blue if she brings
some drugs in my.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
I am referring to inappropriate acts of a physical and
sexual nature involving Precious.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Why don't you just say that that? Okay? When did
the first start?
Speaker 5 (33:20):
Yes, according to Precious files, she's had two children by
your boyfriend, the late Carl Kenwood Jones, who is also
her father. You've been calling her saying that you want
to be reunated with your daughter and grandson, and then
you want them to come home. Well, I think you'd
better explained just what happened in that home.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Precious waits nervously.
Speaker 6 (33:44):
Well, I Precious belong at home because I'm a good mother.
She had everything, and then told her that pink and
white baby carriage, little pink booty socks, dresses, everything I
put on her pink. Precious, she's so smiling and healthy.
(34:04):
They don't go by. I don't throw up her wheels
in the air. I take her up and down one
hundred and twenty fifth Street. I mean, Karl loved Precious.
I dreamed of the day we was gonna, you know,
get married, get housed with grass color TVs all.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
In the rooms.
Speaker 6 (34:21):
Precious that she was born about the same time as
Swestsun that got killed. You remember him, don't you?
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Precious?
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Precious looks at a loss.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
He born some summer time, by the same time as you.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
I was born in November. As far as I know, that's.
Speaker 6 (34:38):
Right, my little Scorpio child. Scorpio's crafty, and I ain't
say they lied, just you can't.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Always trust them.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Precious looks embarrassed beyond embarrassment.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
Miss Shunson. When did the abuse happen? How often?
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Where?
Speaker 5 (34:59):
And when? When you first aware of what was going on?
Speaker 3 (35:03):
When?
Speaker 6 (35:04):
I don't know when it starts when I remember it.
She's still little? Yeah three? Maybe I give her bottle.
I still got milk in my precesses, but not from her,
but from car sucking.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I give them titty precious bottle. Hygiene you know.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Excuse me, uh huh, you mentioned something about hygiene connection
with this, Wise can't go on.
Speaker 6 (35:39):
I bottled her titty m bottle are better for kids, sanitary,
But I never get dried up because Carl always on me.
It's like that you know, child man, a woman got
got both. What you're gonna do when in bed? Put
(36:00):
it on one side of me, on the pillow, call
on the other side of me.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
This Wise looks as if she's stopped breathing.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
I think that was the day it started. So you're
me the Then he reached over the Precious. He said, Carl,
what you're doing? He said, shut your big ass up.
It's good for her. I say, stop it, Karl. I
want him on me. I never want him to hurt her,
and I didn't want him doing anything to huh.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
I want him my man.
Speaker 6 (36:30):
For myself to text me up on my child me
me God damn it said y'all, you can't blame me
for this shit happened in the Precious on me. I
love Karl. I loved him. He had daddy, but he
wasn't my man.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Mary can't help but to shoot a look of anger
at Precious while missus Wise pauses to regain her composure. Scene.
This is a very very I want to pull on
both of you, guys. This is a very difficult scene.
For those of you who don't know this scene. It's
from a film Precious. There is abuse of the highest levels.
(37:17):
I can't even comprehend a child going through this, And
that was one of my questions with you, because I'll
address both of you.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
But.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Lean, as a psychiatrist, you're supposed to be neutral and
clearly in the actions excuse me, it's stated she's floored.
That tells us something about your disposition. Miss Wise can't
go on. Miss Wise looks as if she stopped breathing
(37:52):
this situation. And I'm sure you've been around a lot
of situations in this. You know this is your job, right,
This sounds like you've never had this experience. So where
do you where do you search to get this type
of experience with this?
Speaker 5 (38:10):
I definitely how to use imagination because for it to
be this extreme and I just pictured, you know, if
it was like I pictured my little sister if I
was younger, and when she was younger, and like I
had a hard time even like fathoming three years old,
(38:33):
like just the size of a baby at three years old.
But yeah, it's so it's so extreme that like the
only thing I can pull from is imagination. How to
create it because I have not experienced or or have
seen it.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
So and then there are maybe references of films, like,
you know, we're talking about abuse, so they play enough
every Saturday, you know Jennifer Lopez's films, Maybe there are
films like that. In reference to where women were being abused,
It's a very difficult subject. I mean, I can't imagine,
you know, being in a film and I know that
(39:12):
we're acting, but the truth of this is that this
young girl is being abused in the same bed with
her mom and her abuser. So for you, Julisa, how
do you prepare for a role like this where you
have no experience and you also have a child?
Speaker 6 (39:30):
Yeah, I mean I definitely as a coal read It's
like going through it, I was like, oh wait, all
of this is happening. Okay, cool, But like if I
was to do research and stuff on it, I have
to make sure that you don't judge the character, because
you can't play a character and judge it at.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
The same time.
Speaker 6 (39:45):
Right, So coming from the respective of an abused woman,
I have to think about, well, she had trauma, and
what are her traumas and what are her triggers and
going through all of that, it's like, okay, well, how
did she justify her actions or did she even feel
to fight in them, Like I just try to put
myself in the mind frame of the person and what
are her surroundings and what were the stakes? Like if
(40:08):
she didn't allow this to happen, would she be out
in the street?
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Well?
Speaker 6 (40:10):
What you know? Like, so none of it makes it right,
but it's like trying to make sure that like I
just put myself in their shoes as opposed to like
judging it from the outside, because you can judge anyone's
situation from the outside and you have no clue what's
happening on the inside, and you don't exactly know, not
that this would ever happen in my life, but you
don't know what would happen or how you react when
certain things come up.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
That's right.
Speaker 6 (40:32):
So and your past plays a role, your fears play
a role, like your stakes. All that plays a role.
So yeah, when I'm like if I was reading for
the first time, as you always say, the first time
you go through, Yeah, I'd be floored because it like
of everything that's happening, and I think about my child
and what would happen. But then I have to flip
the table and think about, Okay, where is she coming from?
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Right, what are the stakes for her.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
So and I like that statement that you don't judge
the care you can't judge the character. You don't know
this story behind it, right, And in this particular case,
you definitely were abused and molested as the mom some
that happened in your past. But I still think that
out of all the situations that you have had over
(41:17):
your career, you've never had this, And that's why it
was important for the writer to write she is floored,
to let us know the impact. And then there's kind
of a nonchalant sort of way in which you kind
of like have made this the new normal, an acceptable
(41:37):
quote unquote, which is really sick with you.
Speaker 5 (41:40):
Yeah, right, Yeah, I think about when I was when
you know, I was just reading this when I was here.
But we had when you had Derek Bernard on the show,
he talked about it, like the reminder about serving like
the relationships like in the you know, in our work.
So I was trying, even me as a therapist and
(42:01):
a psychologist, I was trying I'm sorry a psychologist. I
was trying to I was almost trying to like give
her the benefit of the doubt like before, like I
feel like my mind's already made up. I'm protective of precious,
like it's such such a special case. But I feel like,
like I feel like I was trying to like fight
to listen to her because I'm like, it's it's so
(42:23):
irrational that, like you said, like she's got it, Like
I feel like she's got to be coming from something,
you know what I mean. So I was really trying
to not to not judge her character and like hear
her even though my mind was made up. But I'm like,
but I was trying to hear her instead of just
coming from like a defensive standpoint.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Which is good because acting is a part of listening.
So she was giving you that breathing space as well.
So another thing that I wanted you to add, Leanne
about your preparation, what.
Speaker 5 (42:54):
Was that that if I had time to prepare for this,
I would try to go to shelters or you know,
homes or centers for women who have been abused to
like really get a sense of the truth of it,
because I wouldn't want to play a characature in a
role like this.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Excellent, So observation, homework, research, all of that stuff is
about the preparation. And then of course you know you
need time. So I applaud these ladies because this is
all a code read so they are literally getting it
just as I'm getting it as well. Okay, so this time,
let's read it again. I'm not going to read any
action and we are just really focusing on building these characters. Okay,
(43:34):
whenever you guys are ready.
Speaker 5 (43:36):
Abuse, yes, mis Sehnston abuse.
Speaker 6 (43:40):
There's no drugs in my house. No drugs because Precious, no,
damn Well, I will ask Bright Blue if she brings
some drugs in my house.
Speaker 5 (43:47):
I am referring the inappropriate acts of physical and sexual
abuse involving Precious.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
Why'd you say that that? Okay? Okay? When did it go?
When did it start?
Speaker 5 (44:05):
Yes? According to Precious as files, she's had two children
by your boyfriend, the late Carl Kemwood Jones. It's also
her father. You have been calling her saying you want
to be reunited with your daughter and grandson, and then
you want them to come home. Well, I think you
better explain just what happened in that home.
Speaker 6 (44:29):
Well, I the Precious belong at home because I'm a
good mother.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
She had everything and told her at.
Speaker 6 (44:40):
Pink and White baby carriage, Little Pink booty socks, dresses,
everything I put on her pink, pascious. She's so smiling
and healthy. They didn't go by that didn't throw whole
wheels up in the air. I take up and down
the hunch ins with the fifth Street me and called loved.
(45:01):
I dreamed of the day we was gonna, you know,
get married, get housed with grass color TV and all
the rooms press. She born at the same time. It's
Westsun that got killed. You remember him, don't you, precious?
He born summertime, same time as you.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
I was born in November, as far as I know.
Speaker 6 (45:23):
Yeah, that's right, a little Scorpio child. Scorpio's crafty.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Look. I ain't saying they lied. They just can't always
trust them.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
It's Johnston. When did the abuse happen? How often and where?
And when were you first aware of this? Even going on?
Speaker 3 (45:48):
When?
Speaker 6 (45:50):
I don't know when to start. When I remember it,
she still little, and maybe around three.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
I give her bottle.
Speaker 6 (46:04):
I still got milk in my breasts, and says, but
not from hub, from Carl sucking. I give him titty
precious bottle.
Speaker 5 (46:12):
Hygiene you know, excuse me, h, you mentioned something about
the hygiene and connection with.
Speaker 6 (46:21):
I bridled her titty m bottle moore, better for kids, sanitary.
I never get dried up. It's Karl always on me.
It's like that, you know, child man, woman got both.
What you're gonna do? We in bed, So I put
(46:44):
on one side of me, on the pillow, Carl on
the other side of me.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
I think that's the day it started. So he or me.
Then you reach over the precious. I said, call what
you're doing?
Speaker 6 (46:58):
Said, shut your big ass up. It's good for her,
say I say, stop it.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Call.
Speaker 6 (47:04):
I want him on me. I never wanted him I
heard uh. I didn't want him doing anything to huh.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
I wanted my.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Man for myself. Sex me up. I'm my child.
Speaker 6 (47:17):
Hey god, damn it. See you can't blame me for
all that ship that pressure has happened on me. I
love Karl. I loved him here daddy, but he.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
Was my man.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
And scene wow, very very powerful. My wish is that
our our audience was able to pick up the tension
the relationship. Just you know, this was a really really
deep scene. Give it up for Liaan and Alisa. Thank you.
Wow wow brings it. You know, we need to pick
(47:56):
me up energy in here. Pick me up. I love
if you're looking for love. If you are looking for love,
you're going to love this book. The Spirited Actor Principles
for a Successful Audition by me Tracy Moore and I
share some insights and tips and love. So stay tuned
as we leave class and session, and we're going right
(48:19):
into Give Love. Thank you. Give love when you have
done all you can, when you have prayed and whatever
your religious belief, when you have fallen to your knees
and ask God to help you, when you have no
other resource, when you have nowhere else to go, stop
(48:45):
breathe and give it to God. Your plan doesn't provide
the relief and the comfort of God's plan. Relax, it's
already taken care of. Thank you for joining us on
The Spirited Actor Podcasts with me Tracy Moore. I look
forward to our next Spirited podcast. Thank you,
Hello, and welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me
Tracy Moore. I was a casting director for film and
TV and commercials for over thirty years. I transitioned to
a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New
Jersey Drive with executive producers Spike Lee and director Nick Domez.
I auditioned every rapper from Biggie Smalls to Tupac, and
(00:24):
I realized that rappers and musical artists they needed help
transitioning to acting. My clients consist of musical artists from
Buster Rhymes to Eve, Missy Elliott, Angela Yee from The
Breakfast Club, and Vanessa Simmons, to name a few. I
also coach sports stars and host as well. I feel
(00:45):
I have the best of both worlds. As a casting director,
I know exactly what they're looking for, and as an
acting coach, I can coach you to be remembered in
that room.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Now. I know.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I know actors want to get the job. I get that,
but being remembered by casting director that is powerful. Meditation
of the day life has two rules. Rule number one,
never quit. Rule number two always remember. Rule number one
(01:17):
Duke Ellington, no matter how hard it gets, never give up.
You should always keep the vision of your dreams clearly
embedded in your mind. When things do appear bleak, just
know it's a test. You can get through it, and
you will survive. I have had my share of chaos,
(01:39):
but looking back now, I can honestly say I made it.
It's not over, but at least I know that, somehow
or another, I will continue to persevere. Today I will
strive to be a winner. Welcome to the Spirited Actor
Podcast with me Trey see More. I don't even know
(02:03):
how to begin this introduction because, aside from being a
phenomenally talented human being, actress, executive producer, just creative, overall
creative being, she is a dynamic, spectacular every adjective that
(02:25):
I can think of that talks about empowerment and beauty
and just graciousness and elegance. I want to introduce missus
Daphney Maxwell. Read. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together
for miss Daphney. Ready. Yes you are, Yes you are,
(02:49):
And I'm gonna have to look through it. No you are.
I'm gonna have to look through at thesaurus and get
some more adjectives because it doesn't it really doesn't touch
upon who you are. And I feel so incredibly blessed
to have this opportunity to have a conversation with you
and for other actors to be able to embrace this
(03:12):
conversation and your words of wisdom, your experience, just everything
everything that you embody.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, thank you. I please to be asked to share.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, we're going to start at the beginning. That's where
I want to start. And like I said, you know,
this is a conversation, you know, I this is a
platform for me to continue to educate and inspire actors
on their journey and knowing the truths about the journey,
not what they heard from actor be who messed it
(03:46):
up and you know, became telephoned now Okay, we want
the truth. Okay, so hard. Yes, So I wanted to
start at the beginning. What was your inspiration to enter
into the entertainment business.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I really didn't try to. I in high school, I
was playing with a group called the Group Theater Workshop
in New York was led by Robert Hooks.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Oh yeah, I love Robert Hooks.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Kevin Hooks day Yeah, the group theat a workshop became
the Negro Ensemble Company right after I left. Wow, I
was working with folks back then who were teaching me
to do improvisation and creation and presence and being and
(04:46):
how to deliver a line. And this is in high school.
But I thought, hey, this is a fun thing to
do on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Lines.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It was in the sixties, and in the sixties were
there were not a lot of examples of black women
who make a living acting. I had Diane Carroll, I
had Diana Sans. I had a couple of people that
I could look to, but they were working hard. I
wasn't as talented as Diana Stance because she could sing
(05:17):
and she was gorgeous, and I said, well, let me
go to school and use my head, and you know,
this is fun. So I never considered it as a career.
Then when I got to university, I was out in
Chicago at Northwestern and went through a discovery of myself
(05:42):
there and realized that I was a black woman for sure.
In New York, you don't know, but everybody's everything. I
don't call somebody who is Latino. You don't call them
either Puerto Rican or Cuban, because they may be the
other and they may cut you right.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
True.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You just don't distinguish and New York was such a
homogeneous place. I mean there were people of all colors, races, countries.
It was a wonderful place to grow up and be
exposed to the actual world. So when I got to Chicago,
(06:22):
it was quite different. There were black things and there
were white things, and they didn't kind of mix together.
So I had a lot of challenges in just dealing
with being a black woman in a place that they
didn't want me, which was very different from me. And
(06:43):
I realized that I have the strength that my mother
gave me, the responsibility to myself that my mother gave me,
and the courage that comes from somewhere deep inside of
me to understand that these people just were gig prints.
They didn't know me.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I guess it was time to let them know who
I was. So I went about living my life and
got discovered by my junior high school teacher in New
York who submitted me to something called seventeen Magazine's Real
Girl Issue. And it was an issue where they took
(07:25):
girls who had achieved things in high school and put
them in one issue. And this is when seventeen magazine
was large format. I mean, it was like it and
I got selected because I was a merit scholarship winner
and I modeled for the first time. Wow, And I said,
(07:50):
you mean you just want to want me to stand
here and smile.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
That picture became a full page in seventeen magazine Wow,
and was won by I leaned Ford, who was one
of my model agencies in New York.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Right Ford Models.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, I became a Ford model of special booking because
I didn't live in New York. I was in Chicago
at school, so I would fly back and forth to
New York. Now, this is going to hurt your heart.
I could fly round trip to New York, from New
York to Chicago and bath for twenty five dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Oh my god, I'm Oh my god. That definitely hurts
the heart.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Wowty five dollars. I would go to work, make fifty
bucks an hour, and go back to school. Wow.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And did you have to in that fifty bucks? Did
they take out that percentage already or did Were you
able to come home with fifty bucks?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Oh? I worked a couple of hours hours and I came
home with whatever. I came home more than I had
when I was.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
A scholarship That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It was all just spending changed to me. And so
that was my life. In college. I went back and
forth to New York and did editorial modeling. I was
never sold them to be the Runway girls or anything
like that. So I did editorial modeling and one day
(09:28):
I went back to New York. I had a kind
of a mentor back there named Amy Green, and she
would book me on things and call me and say, Okay,
come shoot this and come shoot that, and you know,
I'd go into the same day, I'd go back to school. Wow.
I came one day and she said, Okay, put this
(09:49):
red jacket on. Now, just a little bath gower and
some lip gloss on your hair, old to side. Don't
worry about it. Sit on the window there. And I
sat on a window. A guy ca amen, he might
have shot twelve fifteen shots. She said, Okay, that's that's good. Okay,
go back to school. And I got back on a
plane and went back to school.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
That October of nineteen sixty nine, I was walking by
the newsstand and I saw my face on the cover
of Glamour magazine.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
And I was the first black African American girl on
the cover of glamor bag.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeay, excellent.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It was like, oh, what a delight. I'm just playing.
I'm still just playing school. I'm studying interior design and architecture.
I met the love of my life. I'm gonna get married.
So I got married in school. Wow, and commuted for
(10:50):
the last year in school, but continued to model after
I got out of school. Pregnant yay. Wow, one does
in the sixties.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Okay, you juggling a lot. I have impressed family. Just
jet sitting back and forth, back and forth.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
In school, like I mean, you know, it says a
lot about your character.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Well, I had a lot of fun. And I just
modeled and modeled and modeled. And then when I got
out of school, I was really not interested in getting
a job as an interior designer. I kept modeling with
the Chicago groups and started doing commercial and I was
(11:41):
hanging out with people who did commercials all the time
and voiceover talent and stuff. What is that? Let me
see that. So they would show me and take me
to a studio and I said, oh, I could.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Do this now. Did you feel that there was in
coming from a world of model where you have no words,
but you still have to sell that product or that
piece of garment. Right did you feel that? How was
the transition going from no words to now incorporating words
(12:14):
and building a character even in a commercial.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I've been talking all my life, Okay, was no big deal.
I want to do okay, yeah, oh show them that. Okay,
I can do that. It was all O JT. It
was just on the job. When I was on the job,
(12:40):
I was paying attention to what everybody was doing. I
wanted to know what the lightning guy was doing because
he was making me look better, and I was wondering
what the focused puller was doing, and he was making
me in focus. So I knew positioning, I knew hitting
my light, delivery of life, he's k I did that.
(13:02):
At the group theater workshop, I learned how to deliver
lines and how to make a point and what to emphasize.
And when I started the voiceover stuff in Chicago, I
was it was suggested that I just take magazine articles
and read them out loud in the mirror and see
if I could sell myself on what it was doing
(13:26):
and kind of get a flow going, find your center.
So that's what I did, and I happened to be
good at it, so I kept doing it and they
kept paying me. And then Robert this is a man
named Robert Conrad, came to Chicago and we just lost
(13:47):
Robert come about a weeks ago. He was the man
who I would say discovered me. He put me in
a television series he was shooting in Chicago called The
Duke The Duke, and he put me in as a
regular and he wrote me in. I auditioned for some
(14:09):
part and my agent says, well, you didn't get that,
and then she said, oh, you're in the script that
just came through. It's all handwritten in here.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Wow. Hand written was.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Looking out for me. Wow. He saw something in me,
and he just gloaned on it. So I did The
Duke a couple of episodes in Chicago. I think we
did maybe six or seven episodes, and then that was over,
and I went back to modeling and mothering and trying
to keep a marriage together that was falling apart because
(14:41):
my husband was falling apart. And finally decided, Okay, this
marriage is not going to last. I got to go,
and I left Chicago and moved out to la not
knowing hardly anybody I had a girlfriend out there who
was a lawyer, and I said, can I come out
(15:03):
here and stay with you for a week and see
if I can make this go? She said sure, sure, Sure,
you can come sleep on the couch. I got out there,
and the first person I called, of course, was Robert Conrad,
because he was out there was another show called A
Man called Sloan. He said, where are you? I said,
I'm in La. He said, come down to the studio.
(15:25):
I went down. I was in the episode that was
up next.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Oh my god, Oh my god, that's excellent.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Me in that episode. Wow, And it was a great part.
I got an agent the first week I was in
La and started working.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
That is very rare. Ladies and gentlemen, and that is
very rare.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I am blessed. I understand this. It was not my efforts.
It's got me where I was. It was the stars aligning,
people seeing something in me and being able to uphold
what they thought I could do.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So I was very, very blessed and still just getting
to the point where can I make a living out
of it?
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Right in La?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
In La. But it was the seventies, it was the
late seventies, and the early eighties, and it was a
time where they were looking for black girls to kind
of get into position. They couldn't be too light, they
couldn't be too dark. They had to be just the
(16:39):
right flavor for them. Wow, And they would slide them in.
And there were little opportunities that came up, and I
was working my butt off. I did things A Hill
Street Blue, Yeah, and McCormick and whatever, all of us.
I did so many little.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Shows, eighteen guest starring, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Those that were going on. I had a great career.
And I met We met Tim. I had known him
in Chicago because we had worked together, but he didn't
do nothing for me.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Oos should we be recording this?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah? Right, he knows.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I loved I love it. They are the best together.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Oh yeah, we've had a wonderful We just celebrated our
fortieth Valentine State again.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh that's beautiful forty.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah. We met in January nineteen eighty and have been
together ever since.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I love it. That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I got to work with him. I met the guys
when he was on WKRPNATI. When you're dating somebody and
you go to their show, you meet the crew. You
need the writers, you meet, the directors, you meet everybody,
and hey, they put me in WKRP.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
I loved it.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Two shows that then they move on to a show
called Simon and Simon, and then writers said, okay, we're
going to write you in here. Tends in the ud
in this too. So that's how my career progressed. It
wasn't me beaten down doors and saying I gotta do this,
I gotta do this, my heart says, I gotta do this.
It was I'm blessed with opportunities, and to take advantage
(18:33):
of these opportunities to the fullest, I have.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
To be prepared excellent.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So I stayed in shape. I just spent my downtime
doing things that I loved, which is what I encourage
actors to do. Find something you love with which you
can eat and do that and and love that while
(18:58):
you're waiting to be chose, because an actor has to
wait to be chosen, and unless you are creating your
own projects, you have to wait to be choken.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Wow, that's I'm going to reiterate that during the show.
Way to be chosen, because you're absolutely right, and the
preparation is, you know, if you believe and know that
there is a role out there for you, and when
that role presents itself, you are ready for that. And I,
(19:33):
like you said in the downtime, that's where the preparation begins,
and that's where you're constantly nurturing that your talent. You know,
my generation, I know all of your body of work
and have enjoyed you from Afar and then when I
met you, it was like, oh my god, one of
my favorite actresses in the Hawaii world for real. So
(20:00):
and when you said Simon and Simon, like your face
immediately popped up in a show in like an episode.
I just remember so. And then you know, there's that generation.
You know, you have been blessed to go through several
generations of you know, consistent work, which is rare in
this entertainment business. So when you got to the Fresh
(20:25):
Prince of bel Air, Aunt Viv, you know we're going
to talk about this story. You have to tell Yes,
you have to tell this generation and beyond tell us
how that transition happened.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Okay, we had been working on a bunch of shows
in La my husband and I. We did Sister Sister,
We did Frank's Place with Dun cancel much later. Yeah,
(21:00):
right when we finished Frank's Place, we got picked up Snoops.
That's the show we got as a payback for canceling
Frank's Place. Network kind of held on to their talent
and we did CBS shows for many years, and then
we had deals with TBS. Tim created shows for CBS,
(21:23):
so we.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Did Snoops and we were exhausted and we decided we're
moving out of la and we're going to Virginia because
they just elected the first black governor in the United States,
so something must.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Be happening back there. And Tim is from Virginia and
was supporting the governor for his run. So as soon
as he got elected, we bought a farm back in Virginia.
We said, okay, time up.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Working for the past ten years really hard, and we're
going to slow down nice. So we did that. Right
before we left, I got an audition call. We want
you to come and there's a role for a mother
and it has to do with a young rap star.
And I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no, no,
(22:14):
I'm not doing no rap stuff. Sorry, So I said no,
thank you. I didn't go to the audition, but they
told me about the project right, And I said, now
this is not for me. I'm at the farm, my
new farm in Virginia, just playing away, having a grandson.
Slow it down the tall and oh, what a cute show.
(22:39):
This is that little Fresh Prince thing. They were talking about,
what a cute show. So I'm looking at it. I said, oh, well,
I didn't do that, and I'm going on about my
business in Virginia. Three years later, three I guess this
call and they said they're having an audition for the
(23:02):
Fresh Prince of Bell there. I said, before I hang
up the phone, I'm getting a play ticket.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I'll be there, okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yes, And I came back to LA and it took
two weeks of auditioning. I auditioned probably five times, and
every time I went back to a callback, there were
women there that I had never seen in my life.
M wow. And I kept going back, Oh good, I
can go back, and I kept going back, and then
finally said, okay, now tomorrow you go to the network.
(23:34):
I said, oh, okay, I get to the network callback.
There are three of us, totally different people.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
But I had already hit it off with James Avery,
who I observe and our auditions were always fun and delightful,
and we had a chemistry, so I was confident, but
I didn't know what they were looking for, so I
was not overconfident. After I read for the network, I
(24:07):
went home and I guess I prayed, and Tim was
out in LA with me that time, and we just
sat around and we said, Okay, we'll find out tomorrow.
And tomorrow was the longest getting there I was. It
was eight o'clock in the morning, it was ten o'clock
(24:29):
in the morning, and no phone had wrung. Finally, about
ten thirty that morning, they called and said you got it.
I cried, Oh was That's thrilled. And it was also
the first television show that I had done it. I've
(24:51):
been working in television for ten to twelve years. That
was the first time I had done it before a
live audience. It was going to be wow, wow w KRP.
The episodes that we shot were a lot of film based.
They were kind of offset doing film based, so I
really hadn't worked before a live audience. And I was like,
(25:16):
in New York and high school.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Wow, but you had your theater training though, right the yeah, yeah,
But when.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
You start on a sittim you don't know. You have
to learn how to wait for the last right. You
can't just keep talking.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Right right and talk over it.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
You can't talk over the last right. You got to
let it breathe during rehearsal. We have the writers who
supposedly laugh, but they laugh at.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Anything, right, Yeah, okay, true.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I was welcome at Fresh Prints as if I had
been in television for forty years and was queen of whatever.
I mean. They treated me with such respect and such
that's great. I was greeted with dozens of red roses
in my room with me and welcomed me. It was
(26:22):
really really wonderful. And after the first scene, huh, I
settled in so and it became very comfortable to do.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
When you know, that's really great to know that you know,
you were welcome because the transition, you know, was unorthodox
so to speak, right, I mean in television world, because
I don't know, and I tried to remember this, but
did anybody address it? Like you know, I just feel
(26:55):
like we were given the information there was going to
be a cast change. Did it happened? And then it
was like, okay, well, we're just all gonna believe that
you are on viv now Like it was just you know,
did it feel like that on the set.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
It just felt like I had been there the whole time. Wow,
they did address it, and it's one of my favorite episodes,
which is my too. Yeah, in the kitchen with Dandy,
Jeff comes and brings it a present for the baby.
Uh huh and this is my first scene, first day
(27:34):
and he brings the present and calls him the wrong
name that I correct him right, And he looked at
me and he says, you know, you should look different
since you had that TAKEE and Will broke the fourth wall,
looked right into the camera and just shrugs and it
went on. There was never mentioned again.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah. I thought that was brilliant the way you guys
addressed it. Yeah, I bravo. You know I told you
that twenty eight minutes was going to fly by, and
they just gave me the five minute morning signal. Oh
my god, Yes, I'm telling you so. I already knew. Listen,
we're gonna we are coming back because we're going to
(28:15):
fast forward. We're going to address this audience of actors.
Need to hear the history, need to hear the journey,
the perseverance, like you know, just the pearls of wisdom
that you have blessed them with in these twenty five
(28:36):
minutes that have flown by so far. So I do
want to extend an invitation and have you back so
that you know, we can even delve into character development.
Because one of the shows that I was a part of,
Eve's show in the beginning, I did the pilot and
(28:58):
at that point I had decided as an acting coach
that I wanted to settle back in New York. And
I have been on the road between Eve and Buster
for like six years. So when I found out that
you were JT Jason George's mom, oh my god, I
wanted to come back. I was like, man if I
(29:18):
had known Daphny was gonna be on that show, Like,
so I want to talk about that, because we didn't
even talk about that. There's just so much of your
work that is important for actors to know and to
embrace and and hear these stories. You know at a
time where I love where you said that you know actors,
(29:41):
you you will be chosen. You know you you want
to be chosen, and so but there's also other entities.
There's a studio we need to talk about. So I
am going to invite you back on the show, Daphne.
I love it, okay, So I am going to check
(30:02):
the calendar. I so appreciate you, love your time and
all of your energy. This morning. I could talk to
you all day like it really.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Was, because you have such a spirit that I just
admire so greatly and have always admired. I they mentioned
your name and I just light up. I said, oh yeah,
that's just as hon it.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Oh thank you, damning me. I got little tears growing
your buy. I appreciate love me oh always always, Like
you know, my first the first show I ever had.
You were on that show as well, So I appreciately
love your support. And I know the actors, all of
the actors listening and my studio family in here. They're
(30:50):
walking away with some jewels, so they're excited that you're
coming back. Excellent, excellent. So you have a wonderful day,
and thank you so much. Tell and I said, Hi,
give him a hug. Okay, and we're going to be
back with class in session on The Spirited Actor Podcast
(31:12):
with Me Tracy Moore. Welcome to The Spirited Actor Podcast
with Me Tracy Moore, and we are at one of
my favorite segments. Class in Session, Lean Amado and Melissa
Capri Hey give it up for him. Hey, thank you.
And also I do want to mention that I do
(31:33):
have a book called The Spirited Actor Principles for a
Successful Audition and it can be purchased Actor's House dot com.
I mean author's House, I apologize Author's House dot com
and also Barnes and Noble Amazon. I wrote this for you.
This is for you. This is my gift to actors. Okay,
(31:54):
so check it out. Thank you, and I'll sign it
for those of you who are so subscribed to the
Spirited Actor podcast on iHeartRadio, I will sign your book. Okay,
incentive Okay, Class in session. So we have a scene,
and you know how we do. I'm gonna read everything
(32:17):
the slugline action and our ladies here are going to portray.
The characters are Mary and miss Wise. Interior and we're
going to start right there. Okay, excuse me, Interior child
Psychiatrist's office day. Mary looks worse than ever. Her hair
(32:40):
and clothing are disastrous. She rocks somewhat anxiously on the
edge of her seat, like a desperate salesman looking to
close a deal.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Abuse, Yes, miss Johnson, abuse.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
There's no drugs in my No drugs because Precious, no,
damn well, I willpa asks Bright Blue if she brings
some drugs in my.
Speaker 5 (33:06):
I am referring to inappropriate acts of a physical and
sexual nature involving Precious.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Why don't you just say that that? Okay? When did
the first start?
Speaker 5 (33:20):
Yes, according to Precious files, she's had two children by
your boyfriend, the late Carl Kenwood Jones, who is also
her father. You've been calling her saying that you want
to be reunated with your daughter and grandson, and then
you want them to come home. Well, I think you'd
better explained just what happened in that home.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Precious waits nervously.
Speaker 6 (33:44):
Well, I Precious belong at home because I'm a good mother.
She had everything, and then told her that pink and
white baby carriage, little pink booty socks, dresses, everything I
put on her pink. Precious, she's so smiling and healthy.
(34:04):
They don't go by. I don't throw up her wheels
in the air. I take her up and down one
hundred and twenty fifth Street. I mean, Karl loved Precious.
I dreamed of the day we was gonna, you know,
get married, get housed with grass color TVs all.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
In the rooms.
Speaker 6 (34:21):
Precious that she was born about the same time as
Swestsun that got killed. You remember him, don't you?
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Precious?
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Precious looks at a loss.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
He born some summer time, by the same time as you.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
I was born in November. As far as I know, that's.
Speaker 6 (34:38):
Right, my little Scorpio child. Scorpio's crafty, and I ain't
say they lied, just you can't.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Always trust them.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Precious looks embarrassed beyond embarrassment.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
Miss Shunson. When did the abuse happen? How often?
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Where?
Speaker 5 (34:59):
And when? When you first aware of what was going on?
Speaker 3 (35:03):
When?
Speaker 6 (35:04):
I don't know when it starts when I remember it.
She's still little? Yeah three? Maybe I give her bottle.
I still got milk in my precesses, but not from her,
but from car sucking.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I give them titty precious bottle. Hygiene you know.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Excuse me, uh huh, you mentioned something about hygiene connection
with this, Wise can't go on.
Speaker 6 (35:39):
I bottled her titty m bottle are better for kids, sanitary,
But I never get dried up because Carl always on me.
It's like that you know, child man, a woman got
got both. What you're gonna do when in bed? Put
(36:00):
it on one side of me, on the pillow, call
on the other side of me.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
This Wise looks as if she's stopped breathing.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
I think that was the day it started. So you're
me the Then he reached over the Precious. He said, Carl,
what you're doing? He said, shut your big ass up.
It's good for her. I say, stop it, Karl. I
want him on me. I never want him to hurt her,
and I didn't want him doing anything to huh.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
I want him my man.
Speaker 6 (36:30):
For myself to text me up on my child me
me God damn it said y'all, you can't blame me
for this shit happened in the Precious on me. I
love Karl. I loved him. He had daddy, but he
wasn't my man.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Mary can't help but to shoot a look of anger
at Precious while missus Wise pauses to regain her composure. Scene.
This is a very very I want to pull on
both of you, guys. This is a very difficult scene.
For those of you who don't know this scene. It's
from a film Precious. There is abuse of the highest levels.
(37:17):
I can't even comprehend a child going through this, And
that was one of my questions with you, because I'll
address both of you.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
But.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Lean, as a psychiatrist, you're supposed to be neutral and
clearly in the actions excuse me, it's stated she's floored.
That tells us something about your disposition. Miss Wise can't
go on. Miss Wise looks as if she stopped breathing
(37:52):
this situation. And I'm sure you've been around a lot
of situations in this. You know this is your job, right,
This sounds like you've never had this experience. So where
do you where do you search to get this type
of experience with this?
Speaker 5 (38:10):
I definitely how to use imagination because for it to
be this extreme and I just pictured, you know, if
it was like I pictured my little sister if I
was younger, and when she was younger, and like I
had a hard time even like fathoming three years old,
(38:33):
like just the size of a baby at three years old.
But yeah, it's so it's so extreme that like the
only thing I can pull from is imagination. How to
create it because I have not experienced or or have
seen it.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
So and then there are maybe references of films, like,
you know, we're talking about abuse, so they play enough
every Saturday, you know Jennifer Lopez's films, Maybe there are
films like that. In reference to where women were being abused,
It's a very difficult subject. I mean, I can't imagine,
you know, being in a film and I know that
(39:12):
we're acting, but the truth of this is that this
young girl is being abused in the same bed with
her mom and her abuser. So for you, Julisa, how
do you prepare for a role like this where you
have no experience and you also have a child?
Speaker 6 (39:30):
Yeah, I mean I definitely as a coal read It's
like going through it, I was like, oh wait, all
of this is happening. Okay, cool, But like if I
was to do research and stuff on it, I have
to make sure that you don't judge the character, because
you can't play a character and judge it at.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
The same time.
Speaker 6 (39:45):
Right, So coming from the respective of an abused woman,
I have to think about, well, she had trauma, and
what are her traumas and what are her triggers and
going through all of that, it's like, okay, well, how
did she justify her actions or did she even feel
to fight in them, Like I just try to put
myself in the mind frame of the person and what
are her surroundings and what were the stakes? Like if
(40:08):
she didn't allow this to happen, would she be out
in the street?
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Well?
Speaker 6 (40:10):
What you know? Like, so none of it makes it right,
but it's like trying to make sure that like I
just put myself in their shoes as opposed to like
judging it from the outside, because you can judge anyone's
situation from the outside and you have no clue what's
happening on the inside, and you don't exactly know, not
that this would ever happen in my life, but you
don't know what would happen or how you react when
certain things come up.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
That's right.
Speaker 6 (40:32):
So and your past plays a role, your fears play
a role, like your stakes. All that plays a role.
So yeah, when I'm like if I was reading for
the first time, as you always say, the first time
you go through, Yeah, I'd be floored because it like
of everything that's happening, and I think about my child
and what would happen. But then I have to flip
the table and think about, Okay, where is she coming from?
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Right, what are the stakes for her.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
So and I like that statement that you don't judge
the care you can't judge the character. You don't know
this story behind it, right, And in this particular case,
you definitely were abused and molested as the mom some
that happened in your past. But I still think that
out of all the situations that you have had over
(41:17):
your career, you've never had this, And that's why it
was important for the writer to write she is floored,
to let us know the impact. And then there's kind
of a nonchalant sort of way in which you kind
of like have made this the new normal, an acceptable
(41:37):
quote unquote, which is really sick with you.
Speaker 5 (41:40):
Yeah, right, Yeah, I think about when I was when
you know, I was just reading this when I was here.
But we had when you had Derek Bernard on the show,
he talked about it, like the reminder about serving like
the relationships like in the you know, in our work.
So I was trying, even me as a therapist and
(42:01):
a psychologist, I was trying I'm sorry a psychologist. I
was trying to I was almost trying to like give
her the benefit of the doubt like before, like I
feel like my mind's already made up. I'm protective of precious,
like it's such such a special case. But I feel like,
like I feel like I was trying to like fight
to listen to her because I'm like, it's it's so
(42:23):
irrational that, like you said, like she's got it, Like
I feel like she's got to be coming from something,
you know what I mean. So I was really trying
to not to not judge her character and like hear
her even though my mind was made up. But I'm like,
but I was trying to hear her instead of just
coming from like a defensive standpoint.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Which is good because acting is a part of listening.
So she was giving you that breathing space as well.
So another thing that I wanted you to add, Leanne
about your preparation, what.
Speaker 5 (42:54):
Was that that if I had time to prepare for this,
I would try to go to shelters or you know,
homes or centers for women who have been abused to
like really get a sense of the truth of it,
because I wouldn't want to play a characature in a
role like this.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Excellent, So observation, homework, research, all of that stuff is
about the preparation. And then of course you know you
need time. So I applaud these ladies because this is
all a code read so they are literally getting it
just as I'm getting it as well. Okay, so this time,
let's read it again. I'm not going to read any
action and we are just really focusing on building these characters. Okay,
(43:34):
whenever you guys are ready.
Speaker 5 (43:36):
Abuse, yes, mis Sehnston abuse.
Speaker 6 (43:40):
There's no drugs in my house. No drugs because Precious, no,
damn Well, I will ask Bright Blue if she brings
some drugs in my house.
Speaker 5 (43:47):
I am referring the inappropriate acts of physical and sexual
abuse involving Precious.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
Why'd you say that that? Okay? Okay? When did it go?
When did it start?
Speaker 5 (44:05):
Yes? According to Precious as files, she's had two children
by your boyfriend, the late Carl Kemwood Jones. It's also
her father. You have been calling her saying you want
to be reunited with your daughter and grandson, and then
you want them to come home. Well, I think you
better explain just what happened in that home.
Speaker 6 (44:29):
Well, I the Precious belong at home because I'm a
good mother.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
She had everything and told her at.
Speaker 6 (44:40):
Pink and White baby carriage, Little Pink booty socks, dresses,
everything I put on her pink, pascious. She's so smiling
and healthy. They didn't go by that didn't throw whole
wheels up in the air. I take up and down
the hunch ins with the fifth Street me and called loved.
(45:01):
I dreamed of the day we was gonna, you know,
get married, get housed with grass color TV and all
the rooms press. She born at the same time. It's
Westsun that got killed. You remember him, don't you, precious?
He born summertime, same time as you.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
I was born in November, as far as I know.
Speaker 6 (45:23):
Yeah, that's right, a little Scorpio child. Scorpio's crafty.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Look. I ain't saying they lied. They just can't always
trust them.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
It's Johnston. When did the abuse happen? How often and where?
And when were you first aware of this? Even going on?
Speaker 3 (45:48):
When?
Speaker 6 (45:50):
I don't know when to start. When I remember it,
she still little, and maybe around three.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
I give her bottle.
Speaker 6 (46:04):
I still got milk in my breasts, and says, but
not from hub, from Carl sucking. I give him titty
precious bottle.
Speaker 5 (46:12):
Hygiene you know, excuse me, h, you mentioned something about
the hygiene and connection with.
Speaker 6 (46:21):
I bridled her titty m bottle moore, better for kids, sanitary.
I never get dried up. It's Karl always on me.
It's like that, you know, child man, woman got both.
What you're gonna do? We in bed, So I put
(46:44):
on one side of me, on the pillow, Carl on
the other side of me.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
I think that's the day it started. So he or me.
Then you reach over the precious. I said, call what
you're doing?
Speaker 6 (46:58):
Said, shut your big ass up. It's good for her,
say I say, stop it.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Call.
Speaker 6 (47:04):
I want him on me. I never wanted him I
heard uh. I didn't want him doing anything to huh.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
I wanted my.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Man for myself. Sex me up. I'm my child.
Speaker 6 (47:17):
Hey god, damn it. See you can't blame me for
all that ship that pressure has happened on me. I
love Karl. I loved him here daddy, but he.
Speaker 3 (47:29):
Was my man.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
And scene wow, very very powerful. My wish is that
our our audience was able to pick up the tension
the relationship. Just you know, this was a really really
deep scene. Give it up for Liaan and Alisa. Thank you.
Wow wow brings it. You know, we need to pick
(47:56):
me up energy in here. Pick me up. I love
if you're looking for love. If you are looking for love,
you're going to love this book. The Spirited Actor Principles
for a Successful Audition by me Tracy Moore and I
share some insights and tips and love. So stay tuned
as we leave class and session, and we're going right
(48:19):
into Give Love. Thank you. Give love when you have
done all you can, when you have prayed and whatever
your religious belief, when you have fallen to your knees
and ask God to help you, when you have no
other resource, when you have nowhere else to go, stop
(48:45):
breathe and give it to God. Your plan doesn't provide
the relief and the comfort of God's plan. Relax, it's
already taken care of. Thank you for joining us on
The Spirited Actor Podcasts with me Tracy Moore. I look
forward to our next Spirited podcast. Thank you,
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