July 10, 2024 • 42 mins
Meagan Good continues her conversation on Club Shay Shay, picking up where she left off in the first half of her episode. She talks about her approach to getting into character and emphasizes the importance of research and understanding a character's experiences and mentality. She also shares a personal anecdote about how her decision to become celibate aligned perfectly with the role she was playing, making the portrayal more authentic.
The discussion then shifts to the evolution of comedy and the increasing sensitivity of audiences. Meagan feels that this has impacted the art form. She and Shannon reflect on the importance of humor in addressing real-life events and situations.
Meagan also expresses her love for horror and thriller genres and cites her admiration for the actress who played Jamie in the Michael Myers movies as an early inspiration. She explains the appeal of these genres and highlights the intensity and raw emotion involved in survival scenarios.
Throughout the episode, Meagan's passion for her craft shines through as she discusses the wide range of roles she has tackled and her excitement for challenging and unconventional projects. She shares that Tyler Perry was the first person to pay a fair wage in the entertainment industry.
She also reflects on pivotal moments from her youth that shaped her faith and journey in the entertainment industry. From her early days attending "God's Gang," a youth group led by her acting coach, to navigating personal tragedies and spiritual growth, Meagan shares how these experiences influenced her path. She opens up about her journey with Christianity, the challenges of maintaining faith through life's trials, and finding strength in her beliefs.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you for your coming back. Part two is underway.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Do you do anything in particular to help you get
into character when you play a role.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Yeah, it depends on the character.
Speaker 4 (00:11):
It depends on where I need to go to find
this person's experience, to understand their mentality, to figure out
their trauma, or figure out their greatest passion. So whatever
research that is. And sometimes it's it's researching a person
as a character study. Sometimes it's researching personality types or
(00:34):
you know, whatever it may be.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
But yeah, I just you know, because.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
You know your role, you was like really tough, you
like guys, you were like and so I mean I
read that, you know, to help you get into this
character you abstained.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well I was upstaining already.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
For you to play that.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Well, yes, yes, I actually had just decided to become
celibate and have been celibant for months at that time
with my ex husband, and I decided to become a
celibant before him, and then when we got together could
to find out he was celibate.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
And then I got this movie and I was like, well, I.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Know exactly what she's doing right now is I'm literally
living this So yeah, wow, yeah, I know it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
It's crazy, the love you knowing.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
What you doing? He dies? Now you do Anchorman will fail?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Could you do those jokes now?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Which was.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I mean the same jokes that you told like come
black jokes? Yeah, I mean the comedy you know.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Like, oh, comedy shifted quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
People have gotten very very sensitive.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yeah, And I think it's a it's you know, to me,
most of it.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I understand.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I understand some of it, but I also feel that
it's taken away so much of the artistry and the
things that we laugh about amongst ourselves at home.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Anyways.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
It's kind of it's just gotten very very sensitive for me,
which I think is unfortunate because it takes away a
lot of the art. And comedy is art, it is
it's a very specific kind of gift. And I think
the best version of that is when you're talking about
real things, you know, and so yeah, exactly exactly so
(02:15):
to me, stuff in Akerman was funny as hell, you know,
but I noticed some people was offensive. I am very
inappropriate and you know, me and my sister laugh and
stuff that it's just wrong. We should not be laughing
at Maybe, I don't know, so I enjoy inappropriate comedy.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And you know, you've kind of done a lot of
different acting. Was there a particular genre that when you
were growing up says I kind of want to do this.
I want to do drama. No, I kind of want
to do comedy. Not I kind of want to do
a horror knock comedy, whether any particular genre or you
just says like, hey, I can do it all.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I'm wide ranging, so hey.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Let me try a little bit of both. But I
do love horror movies, really, thrillers.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I've been in a lot of them. Really, I just
you know, I'll be looking at this. I'm like, but
How'm a die on this one? It's gonna be but.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
One miss call?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I just love them. I think that
growing up, one of the things that really made me
want to be an actress was the little girl who
played Jamie and the Michael Myers movie Okay and me
and her about the same age. I think she's about
a year older than me, And I just thought, does
nobody else realize this little girl is really acting? Like
if you go back and watch it now, her performance
(03:30):
stands up and it's unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
There's that there's not an award for that because she
acted her ass off.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
But it's interesting because survival is one of the highest
things that we can feel and experience outside of love,
you know. And I think that figuring out, you know,
how a character is going to survive and all the
different things that you go through as you are in
a space of just literally trying to make it, I
(03:58):
think really interesting.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And I just kind of love that world.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
And I like to be scared, and I like the
inappropriate things, as I said, And so yeah, I think
I always was just like I just want to get
a good screaming. I just want to be stabbing in
the chest and be climb upstairs. I just want to, like,
you know, just something crazy.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
It just makes me havy.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I don't know, you do, know, Megan, Like when we
do those horror movies, we don't really make it to
the end.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
But see what Kai wheeling.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
But I would say, But but for me, I actually
was excited about the diocese.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
What I'm saying. I mean, but not the first not
the first one.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
You well, only one miscalled it.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
I died in the first scene and they shot that
after the fact as.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
A cameo for the beginning opening thing, and I.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Thought, well, this is really cool, right, yeah, but but
horror all things made equal.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
You love the drama, you love the comedy, but it's the.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Horror and horror and the thriller.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
How do you I mean, I'm trying to figureut, how
do you how do you tap into that? How do
you like? Oh, let me go in? Here? Are you here?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Because, like I said, survival is one of the greatest
human emotions. You know, we're all doing that every single day,
and then in a heightened circumstance. I think that it's
interesting when you discover what you would and what wouldn't do,
or you discover what a character would and wouldn't do.
But my characters, the ones that I played, it ain't
ben No, like.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Hello, I wouldn't even do that. If he was in
the script, I'd be like, y'all come on.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So you were three striped with us? This three three
striped with Monique face. I love David and Orty, Mike Yep,
Anthony Anderson.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
What's it like? More worker with more? I've had more
on here and and imprecious. Yeah, you know, TV is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I don't know your relationship with her, but I thought
she was unbelievable in all of her role, and I
think he had a.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Good id to. I mean, I don't keep up with
all the thing anything.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Things with people are people, and honestly, people be miserable
and I'm just so please get your whole life. Just
stop projecting your things, go get help or just you know,
does somebody give you a hea love on you?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
That's that.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
And I'm saying that about people who say stuff about her,
not about her. I think that she's wonderful. I think
she has a beautiful heart. She has always been kind
to me and goes out of her way to love
on me and has always been consistent with me no
matter what I had going on.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
That's it for me. I don't care about nothing else.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
That's how you dudge the person about how they treat you.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yes, that's it, and how they treat my mama if
they meet my mama.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
But I don't care about all the other stuff because
that that's other people's stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So you an Obama effect with Cat? What's it like
working with kat?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
On said, Cat's sweetheart. He's a sweetheart. I see his interview.
I'm leaving it at that. I'm leaving it at that.
That's what I am gonna say. I'm sorry, but my
man is sexy to me very We just need to
be all the way clear on that.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
You know what, I forgot all about that. I forgot
about that my pay Okay, okay. The TV shows that
you've been in the Game Star Molisha Lawen Order.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Cole Damn, Famous, j Jackson, Touched by an Angel, Carlem
Raising Dad with Bob Saget. Of all the shows, I mean,
Lawn Order, Still Going Mosha was unbelievable. What was your
What was your favorite? What was your favorite show that
you were in?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Oh? I have to say Harlem, ruly yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
And it's because, well, first of all, it's the best
experience I've had as an actress in my entire life,
hands down.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I love Tracy Oliver, the creator of the show.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
I love you know, Mimi Pharrell, Amy Kim Scott, I
mean just everybody who was apart everyone who's a part
of creating that show. And I love the girls and
that show very very much. I absolutely adore every single
one of them. Genuinely, they are my sisters. And to
(08:07):
have that relationship to come on to a set, you know,
I remember me and Grace Bryer's talking about some kind
of like horror stories and things that we've been through.
And we sat there on the couch and we barely
knew each other, and I was doing her show that
she was doing, and she afterwards, we sat and prayed
together and we just said, you know, I hope the
guy that we get to do a show together, because
we will cover each other and love each other. It
(08:28):
would be the best experience ever. Cut to a year
and a half later, she's cast as Quinn. I'm getting
ready to go in and test for Camille. And as
I'm going to test, I meet sorry Jerry, who plays Tie,
and me and Jerry instantly, I'm like, oh, I love
this girl. I absolutely adore her.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
And then I go to the bathroom and I'm running
my lines. A Shanika walks in and Shanicko goes, do
you remember me? And I said from where? She said
about four years ago, I was on FaceTime where you
were working on the show.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
And it was that show that I had a bad
experience on, And she said, and I had a mutual
friend and he called me and I told you I
was a fan of yours and I loved you, and
I wanted to work with you. One day, you said,
let's place both of our hands on the screen. This
claim it in Jesus name, that we're going to work
together on something. And then we were both testing and
we both got it. And so it's just everything about
the writing. I love the character, I love how I've
(09:21):
grown as an actress. I love working with them. I
love everybody involved in creation, down to the crew. Everybody
in the crew.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I absolutely adore it. It's just been the best experience.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I haven't heard you speak, but you've seen you a
very spiritual person. When did this come about? Have you
always been like this?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Well? I didn't grow up in the church.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
When I was about twelve, I started going to a
youth group that my acting coach shout out to. Carnetta
Jones was my acting coach from age eleven to twenty six,
and she was a youth group leader was called God's Gang,
which is now the name of my production company.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
And I had some friends.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
There were two girls in school especially who looked out
for me when people would try to bully me. And
those two girls and one of their older sister and
a five year old girl. They were babysitting in. Another
friend of theirs left youth group that night and got
into a car accident, and their friend passed away. The
(10:27):
little girl who's about to turn six passed away. One
of the girl's older sister, oh, she passed away. To
that pray and then and then the girl whose younger
sister was it used to look out for me. She
got severe brain damage. And the other girl who used
to look out for me had to get reconstructive surgery
and all this stuff. But we went to this uh,
(10:48):
I forget what it's called. Would you kind of like
go out into the you know, woods and you camp
and stuff, and you you know, pray and blah blah.
And I remember that night her like calling out to
God and crying and saying why. And then she got
saved that night. And so I was just like, well,
how how do you go to God instead of away
from God when something like that happens?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Right?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
And it just made me curious.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
And because I had so much respect for her, and
because she looked out for me the way that she
had shout out to Alicia, wherever you are in the world,
I love you, she it kind of put me on
my path.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Her example did and so.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
After that I became a Christian, and then I was
like a Bible stumper and like super religious and very judgmental.
I remember when my sister lost the virginity. I was fourteen,
she was sixteen, and I went to her. I was like,
I just don't want you to go to Hell.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I was that kid. None of my friends told me
when they lost their virginity. Everyone's like, don't tell Peggan.
You know. Of course I was the last lose my
virginity at nineteen.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
And then at that time, you know, I kind of
you know, there's all these phases of getting to know
God and maturing. My prayer used to be like, please
let me look like one of the lead seekers from
in Vogue. He actually aswered the prayer, shout out to invoke.
But then, you know, as you get older, your prayers mature,
your relationship with God matures, You start to get perspective
(12:08):
and learn and and so mine has always been a journey,
you know, and in these last two years has been
especially a journey. But it's been it's such an incredible journey.
The place that I'm in now, where I just have
such a freedom in God and just such a trust
that God knows my heart and knows who I am
even better than I do.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
And so yes, it's been a really, really beautiful thing.
It's a really beautiful journey.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
The last two years where your faith has been tested
the most, for sure.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Not this past year. This past year, I'm like, Lord,
I knowed you're gonna do what you do and I
trust you and making sure that I was there to
give that to Jonathan. That's what I felt that I
was there to do. Yeah, my faith is never a
wavered in that, you know, in that instance, but going
(13:02):
through the divorce that shook me to my core.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I was just like, but Lord, you asked me to
be Celiban, I was you know, you told me to
marry I married that person. I try to do everything
to the best of my ability and know I didn't
do everything perfect, but I don't know that I could
have done anything different, if I'm being honest.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
And so.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I was just like, why is this happening?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
My greatest fear was for my husband to leave me
after ten years of marriage, the way that my dad
and my mom separated, and that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
And it's just like, I.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Don't understand this and so it was a lot of prayer,
a lot of evaluation, a lot of learning about myself,
even it was a lot of.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Realizing the place that we both were in. It was
a lot of a lot of just like rediscovering God
and realize that sometimes.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
The way that we see or understand things, it's not
that it's not true, it's just you do come into
different seasons. And I had to accept that if this
isn't something I've chosen, but it's something that God has allowed,
then God has allowed it for a good reason.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
And I think that we both have grown from it tremendously.
I think that.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Now.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
I think that at the time I was so mad
at a Devona, but now I think what he did
was very brave, and I think that it was a
very scary thing to know that the church and all
the people and everyone was going to be like, well,
this is.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Not what a man of God or a woman of
God does, you know? And and of course there are
a lot of people who are like, well, Mage must
have done something, and I'm like, what you know? But
I think that I.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Think that in order to grow to the place that
we've grown, I think we absolutely were supposed to be
married for that amount of time, and I think we
got the best the benefit out of it.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
And I think he taught me a lot and I
taught him a lot, and we took a lot, we
gave a lot. But we're still friends.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
And you know, as he said that the love is,
you know, transitioned into something else, but it's still love.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And I don't regret anything.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
And I'm super thankful for the time that we were married,
and I'm super thankful for what I learned. And I
think that I love now in a different capacity because
when your absolute worst fear happens, now there's nothing to
be afraid of anymore.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
In that situation, You like, I prayed for this, I
was everything, everything God, everything you asked me to do,
I did.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Did you feel at that moment that as the marriage
is starting to dissolve, did you feel like a failure.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
No, I don't think so, because I I feel like
we had almost ten successful, full years of marriage.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I feel like.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I feel like I got so much from it that
has made me better and has helped me grow, and
I feel that he feels the same way. So I
don't feel like it was a failure by any means
I just didn't understand it.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
So I was like, but this you say forever, it
means you know, and and that wasn't the case, you know.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
But I think that part is the part that I
struggle with the most because I would have never gotten
a divorce under any circumstances. And I don't know, I
don't know if that's always the right thing, you know.
And it's not that anything bad was going on. Nobody
was cheating, nothing like, you know. And I won't get
into why we divorce, but I don't know if being
(16:50):
married for the sake of.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Just societal because society said you, well, because.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Of religion, you know.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
I think I think you really have to have a
relationship with God and see how God is moving you.
And sometimes it's not going to make sense to anybody else.
And that's okay, it's not for it to make sense
to anybody else.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
You just have to be in tune with prior to
being married to someone. A minister, yeah, you being in
being a woman of faith belief. Would you have felt
this way had you not grown through that about not
necessarily like being married?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Oh no, I think that still would have been like, no,
you get married it's in the world.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Y'all better work it out. You figure out, you better
do something, and I think if you can, you should.
But again, I think that sometimes God moves us in
ways that it may seem contradictory to other people's perception
or how they see or read the word or literally
(17:52):
what it says. But I think that's why we have
to be very clear on having a relationship with God,
not just a religion with God. We have to be
very clear on hearing from God. And that's got to
be the compass period the relationship with God and not
the relationship where you not really hearing that and you
just want to do what you want to do and
(18:13):
you want a reason to do it or an excuse
to do it, but really knowing if that's what you're
hearing God to tell you to do. No matter what
anybody thinks or anyone says you got to move away,
God is telling you to And.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
That's just that.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Outside of your closest friends, your support, do people or
did people know that you had such a close relationship
with God.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I think people see what they want to see.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
If you go back to every Men's magazine that I
was on the cover of, and you realize that I
never wore a bathing suit, I never wore lingerie. And
then you look in those interviews from nineteen ninety nine,
two thousand and one, two thousand and four, two thousand
and you will always see that I always said I
am a Christian, I believe in God. I'm not to
do anything that would disappoint God. God is my compass.
I've always talked about God, and I think that sometimes
(19:06):
when people go, oh, well it's to cover a men's magazine, Well,
for me, that's not a conviction of mine. I don't
feel that God is concerned with what I'm wearing. And
so if that is not my conviction. It says in
the Bible, have he who has faith have it to
himself before God? Happy is he who does not condemn
himself and what he proves meaning, And then it goes
on to talk about if you don't really believe that
(19:27):
that's what God approves, then you are sinning. But if
you really believe that between you and God, then that's
that period.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
That's what that is for you. And so that's the
tatoo I have he which even that is like.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Oh you should have PERI shit, But well, for me,
it's a reminder to not go too far down the
religious rabbit hole and stay in the relationship with God.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
God, what do you say? And so for me, I
never had a conviction about that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
My feeling was like, I want to get this, these
words that I'm saying about God and how much I
love God and how God is the head of my life.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I want to get this to the people who are
going to pick up this magazine because I'm.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Not going to get to them any other way, and
most of the other people in the church, they're not
going to get to them at all. So if I
feel comfortable and I don't feel like I'm doing something wrong,
then I'm just going to be authentically me and I'm
going to reach other people that other people don't just
by being who I'm called to be and being authentically that.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Before you take a role, do you always pray on it?
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Majority of the time, sometimes I just feel my spirit
I'm like, okay, good, I feel good about this. If
I'm not sure, then I pray about it. If I've
ever felt the God's like no, that's not what I
want you to do, then I just want to do it.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Period. Even if I want to do it period, I
want to do it.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Yeah, So it's easy when you have that kind of
faith and you say you've been walking what since.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
You were about nineteen, I've been saying since I was twelve.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Twelve, Yeah, Lusty Virginia in nineteen, So you've been You've
been on this role, been on this road for the
better part of two decades.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So the highs and the lows.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
You never questioned, like, is God's will and whatever he decided,
whatever his with Yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Think that, I think, I I think that I've I
have to accept that because you can't accept one thing
and not accept the y. And so I trust God
and and and even like you know, when when the
divorce happened, I was mad at God.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I was like, what kind of what? I was so mad?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
But I was just like, but you never questioned me.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
I did.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I didn't question if I was going to be okay.
I questioned, well, why why do it? What was the point?
And we are Yeah? And then also I was like,
you knew this was my worst fear, Like why you know?
Speaker 4 (21:52):
And then you know, over the years and it's you know,
almost almost been like three years now, so over the years,
I'm always revealed a lot more, And every time I'm
revealed a lot more, I'm just really ingratitude and thankful
that I married someone that was so wonderful and that
is so wonderful, and that we had that time, and
(22:12):
that we grew together and just all the things, and
so I don't believe that anything's in vain. That's probably
the only moment where I was just like, okay, Lord,
you know right. But now I'm like, okay, learn, thank you.
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(23:29):
Have any actor actresses giving you tips? I remember I
had Terry Crews on here and he said that he
was struggling remember his lines and going through his line,
and he said to Shina Arnold said, won't you sing them?
Say Terry, you like to sing, won't you? Won't you
just sing them, memorize them like that? Have anybody given
you pointers to help you relax?
Speaker 4 (23:49):
So it just the best advice I ever got was
from Lorenz. Tape on my Steed and I was nervous
about this scene. I was trying to get into it
and we'd already taken like two tapes.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
And he just grabbed me. He was like sis. I
was like yeah, yeah. He was like fuck it, okay,
And I was like, what do you mean. He was like,
fuck it. And I realized that he was like, just
don't overthink it. Just it's in you.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
It'll come out. Don't try to get there, don't try
to figure it out. Just live and breathe it and
it's just going to come right out of you.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And it did.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
And so now I tell that, you know, when I'm
around younger actresses or actors, I'm like, fuck it, it'll come.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
It's in you. You wouldn't be here if it wasn't
in you.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
So I read that you said that I think you
about fourteen ten or fourteen, that you've been in your
family's provider from the time that you were like fourteen
to some degree.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah, I mean my mom managed my sister and I,
so you know, we went out and we did our thing.
My sister was in a big singing group isis at
the time in the nineties and two big hits, and
so me and her both you know, but at a
certain point in time, you know, as things fluctuate and
things are happening, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
And for clarity, my father has always paid child support.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Didn't go back and heat the boss pretty clear.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I's always paid a child sport.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
But yeah, for a long time, a lot of the
income that was coming in the house was primarily yet
just working.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
How did that make you feel?
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I mean, because like I remember growing up and working.
I was making twenty five thirty dollars a week, working six,
you know, five and a half, six days a week,
and I remember coming home and giving my grandmother ten
dollars fifteen dollars.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
It's not much, but it was.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And I looked at me, I said, like, man, I'm
nineteen years old, I'm a provider. And it gave me
a sense of accomplishment. Yeah, and to this day that's
what I am. I'm a provider for my family. Did
that give you a sense of accomplishment because you're a
child at the end of the day, he's still a child, yeah, yeah, yeah,
And a lot of the was coming into the home,
it's courtesy of you.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Well, I looked at it like.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
My mother before that time had did everything on her
own with an older brother who had special needs, and
then me and my sister, and then ultimately when she remarried,
you know, my stepbrother, and then she adopted my younger sister.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
When I was fourteen, I was four years from being
out of the house.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
And so my mother has been such a provider for
everybody on every level that it was nothing for me
to want to do it for her. And then also,
you know, again she was doing the work, she was
managing us, and when me and my sister said, you know,
can you quit your job? We want to pursue this
full time, she had to have enough faith to be like, Okay,
I believe that my children can do it and we
(26:36):
can keep this household afloat. So, you know, even when
I was working, there was times when I wasn't working
and Lamayah was overseas touring with her group, and she
would come home and she'd bring her money home. And
so our household was just one of whoever's got it
is all of ours. We take care of each other.
We are, you know, a tribe, and we always protect
and take care of each other, you know, And so
(26:58):
there was definitely a sense of acomplishment, but it also
was a sense of like, uh, safety, and just knowing
that we always look after.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Each other and we always feel look after each other.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
You is there any actors in Hollywood? No?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Before I get to that, you said, like the pay
because you hear a lot of you know, you hear Taraji, Yeah,
you hear a lot of black a Viola Davis who
have the egoch. We hear a lot of black actors
actresses talking about the discrepancy of pay yep.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, have you experienced that?
Speaker 3 (27:32):
For sure? For sure? It's interesting because.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
You know, I remember talking to Jonathan about a project
and he asked me what my quote was and I
told him and he was like no, He was like
absolutely not no, And I kind of knew, but I
also was like, I know how much I've worked my
life to even get to that point, right, But the
(27:59):
discrepancy a discrepancy, And it actually disappoints me that people have,
you know, made fun of Taraji or whoever, like crying
and saying because because it's not right, and people don't
realize that. They're like, oh, well, you're an actress. You know,
you're rich and famous. You're wearing nice dresses and rings
and stuff. And I'm like, no, baby, doll, let me
explain something to you. We go to work sometimes fifteen
(28:21):
eighteen hours a day, and the energy, the work that
we do, the giving that we give of ourselves, everything
around it is a lot of work and then not
just that. You walk out of the house and you
work a lot more just walking down the street or
doing press for a project. And you see people and
athletes whatever is getting paid what they get paid for
(28:43):
their talent and for and their work ethic and everything
they bring to the table. Why do black actresses not
deserve that? And we are working very, very very hard.
I've retired my entire life. I have never not worked hard,
so especially in the real home of when it's being
compared to what other people were getting. I remember the
(29:04):
same show i'm talking to you about. You know, I
was the lead on that show, but I was number
two on the call sheet, and the guy who was
number one, who's a white gentleman, such a sweetheart and
incredible human being, he was like, this isn't right.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
He was like, you should be number one on the
call sheet.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
And I was like, yeah, I know, you know, but
it's it's just there's so much of that that people
have to speak up and you know, and it's unfortunate
that they have to be somewhat of a martyr for
people to start paying attention.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
And then it's like, Okay, don't just pay attention, y'all.
Do something about it, you know what I'm saying. And
so yeah, it is.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
It is a big thing and it's really not right
and it's really not cool, and you know, and and
what I will say, you know, thinking about Tyler Perry.
Tyler Perry is the first person who paid me what
I should get paid. Wow, first person and did not
(29:57):
link at I. You know, he said how much she want?
I said, let me, let me talk to my team,
you know, really quick, and He's liked, just tell me
what you want. I was like, Tyler, I said, let me,
just because I wasn't quite sure what to ask for.
And then you know, I was talking to Johnathan and
he was like, you should ask for this and I
was like, oh, I can't ask for that, and I
was like, I don't, like you know, it's like it's.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Almost a mentality.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
And then going back to the child after syndrome too,
it's like I don't want to lose the job, you know,
but it's like you forget what an asset you were.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Well, sometimes they make you forget.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Sometimes they make you feel like you should be grateful
that we even offered you the job, and you should
take whatever we whatever we're offering as the police just says, well,
you know, she's talented. There's a reason why we're offering
her the job, and let's pay her a fair wage.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, And so I asked Tyler and he said, I
was gonna give you that anyways. But I was like,
and then I started crying, and then I couldn't stop.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Were you crying? Let me see, I'm gonna let you.
I'm gonna let you tell me why you started crying.
And then I'm gonna tell you why I thought you
why I think you started crying.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Why did you start crying?
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Because I felt valued. I felt like someone wasn't just
sitting there and telling me unvaluable.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
They were actually showing me because actions obviously are much
bigger than words, and.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Because he was excited to do it for me.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
And then he said, he said, I want to make
sure you and he named a few other people who
was like, you guys have been doing this all your
lives and you should get what you deserve and.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
I'm gonna make sure that you get it. And that's
the kind of person that Tyler is.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
And so just that feeling of feeling valued and someone
not just saying it but proving it, that's exactly what.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I was gonna say. You started crying for the very
first time. Somebody saw the value in Megan Good and
they paid you accordingly. Yeah, yeah, you good emotional thinking
about it, don't you?
Speaker 3 (32:01):
I do, because I do feel I do feel that.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
A lot of people see the value in me and
some don't. But a lot of people do see the
value in me. But it doesn't mean that they're going
to treat me as.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Compensate you accordingly, Yeah, yeah, you have this persona people
look at you as like the cute girl, the cute lady.
You try to live that down. What means you cut
your hair? I mean people saw you. Oh yeah, you
cut your hair because did you feel that you in
(32:35):
order for you to be taken serious?
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah, you had this was a step. Well.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
I had this long kind of hair that I wore often,
and I just think that people were like, oh, she's
you know, the cute girl, the pretty girl, the safety girl,
the girl next door, the love interest. And I just
realized in order for me to get out of that space,
I had to show up differently, and you know, and
so that's what I did, you know, And even then
(33:01):
it still was a hard box to break. Out of
you know, But I look at stuff like Harlem, and
you know, it's it ain't about the way I look
at all. It's about who this woman is and all
her quirks and all her truth and all of her
searching and figuring out and the roles that now I'm getting, right,
I'm getting to play in my forties.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
That has been incredible. I think that. I think that's
the best part too, is like I truly am in
the second.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Act of my life and who I've lived many lifetimes already,
and I'm excited for what's going to come out of
me in this next year. What's going to come out
of me in every performance because of the things I've experienced.
What's going to come out of me when I have
kids with you know, all those things. What's going to
come out of me when you know I'm older woman,
when i'm you know, the sixties, seventies, All that's really
(33:49):
exciting to me.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
So, yeah, you mentioned you in this new movie Divorce
in the New.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Black, A divorce in the Black, divorce in excuse.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Me, divorce in the Black.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah, hmmm, what because divorced the Black. So obviously, if
I'm having to guess you a divorce. You divorce, how
much having gone through that, were you able to fall
back on and says okay, okay, and boom, here we go.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
All of it, all of it.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
Because even though she's in a very different situation than
I was in, it's still that reality of expecting that
your life is going to go one way and then
suddenly realizing it's going to go a totally different way.
And then you are trying to figure out what you're
(34:45):
supposed to do and having to re kind of learn yourself,
but realizing that you've also changed and you've grown, and
then you're having to rekind of calibrate your mind to
not be sad and not you know, like you have
to go through the sadness. You definitely have to go
through the pain and the crying and the process, which
is a process. I think to some degree, you never
(35:07):
don't like not have it in some way, shape or form,
as long as you don't let it make you bitter,
you let it make you better. But the process that
she had to go through to go, Okay, now I'm
in this next phase of life and I'm gonna embrace
this and I'm gonna get excited about this and I'm
gonna figure out what I want and what makes me happy,
and having complete freedom after that to be like, Okay,
(35:30):
it's my world, what I want to do with it,
you know. And so I think many of the moments
that Ava had there's a scene where I'm running and
you know, it.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Was just like I was just so there.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
I just I knew exactly where Ava was and I
was just so there with her, and I was pleased
to be able to gift her with the realist, truest
rosst emotion of what that reality was.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Is it easier to play a role when you're familiar,
not just a character, but you're like, I've been there,
I've done that. I actually know what a divorce is
going through in this very moment, I can see, I can.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Tell you what it's like.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Yeah, I think I think it is easier, although there
is your experience and their experience.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah, because you you might not have gone through the
reason why she got divorced, might not be the reason
why you got the divorced, So it has to be different.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
I mean, I'm reading that marriage gone wrong.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Maybe it's the bestic violence, maybe financials, or whatever the
case may be.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
But at the end of the day is that big
d Yes.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Yeah, And the only difference is how does this person
download and processing?
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Like, for instance, you know, with my character in Harlem,
it's the first time.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Where I go, Okay, she's a Gemini, so I'm going
to pursue all Gemini traits.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
So if Megan, if you came at her like this,
Megan might.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Get indignant and be like, but a Gemini is actually
going to go wait a second and get introspective and
a totally different gear is gonna hit for them. And
so that's the only difference is even though I can
understand where the character's at distinguishing the difference between not
just Ava and Megan's journeys, but Ava and Megan's mentalities
(37:21):
and their bandwidth for pain and their how much did
they you know, hide from their family, how much did
they share with the dynamic between her mother versus her,
you know, all those things that would probably be the
only thing.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
But do I think it's easier in general?
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Yes, because you already have a leg up, because you
already have such a rich will to pull from.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Should we should we view divorce as bad?
Speaker 3 (37:48):
I don't know anymore.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
I don't know prior to.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
You going through divorce? How did you view divorce happening
to you? How would you beautyful?
Speaker 4 (37:57):
I felt like for any other reason besides domestic violence,
I'm like, yeah, I better figure that out.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
But now I just I don't know. I think that.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
What I experienced made me less judgmental about an experience
that somebody else is having that I don't know what
it is, and I can't say that that it's bad
or good for anybody.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
All I can say is that it hurt a lot
for me. But I think that I think that it.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Also was a blessing to both of us in a way,
and not because it happened, but because if it had
to happen, and that was a part of our story,
we both got so much from it.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Did you feel you let people down?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Yes and no, because I think that.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
I think I felt that I let people down a
bit with the weight, because you know, I never said
to someone, well, this is what I think you should do,
and I never pursued making the.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Book like look how I did it, guys, this is
what you know. It was never that.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
It was always people asking it, inquiring, and me say, oh,
this is the spaces that I'm in this is what
God's telling me to do right now, and people being curious,
and from that coming a book talking about our experience,
not necessarily telling people to go do it, but saying
this is why it worked for us, and this is why,
you know, we believe in it. And I still believe
in the way, and I still believe that it worked
(39:27):
for us. I think that what didn't work for us
were the reasons why we ultimately, you know, divorce.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
But I think that.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
I think the weight allowed us to get the full benefit,
and I think it's the reason that we're still friends
to this day.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
I think it's the reason that we walked into the
room with both of our divorce attorneys and you look great.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Look at you.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
You've been working out. Yeah, you look great too. You
do this, you know, and they looking like y'all getting divorced,
and we're like, yeah, they're like, y'all just okay, you know.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
And when people when they see us, you know, we
see each other in the street, you know, people turns
up around us and I'm like, you know, it's just
like and it's genuine love. And I think a lot
of that really is because of the way and the
way that we got to know each other and the
quality of the human being and the trust that was there,
even if there, you know, was disappointment at the end,
(40:24):
I can look at Divan and say that's a good person.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Wow, And I'm thankful for that time.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Divorce in the Black will launch globally on Prime Video
July eleven.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Thanks for stopping by, making good ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle price,
want to slice.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
All my life? I grinding all my life, all my life,
grinding all my life, sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
That's a bay the price of one slice, that's a
police as well.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
All my life.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
I've done it all my life.
Thank you for your coming back. Part two is underway.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Do you do anything in particular to help you get
into character when you play a role.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Yeah, it depends on the character.
Speaker 4 (00:11):
It depends on where I need to go to find
this person's experience, to understand their mentality, to figure out
their trauma, or figure out their greatest passion. So whatever
research that is. And sometimes it's it's researching a person
as a character study. Sometimes it's researching personality types or
(00:34):
you know, whatever it may be.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
But yeah, I just you know, because.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
You know your role, you was like really tough, you
like guys, you were like and so I mean I
read that, you know, to help you get into this
character you abstained.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well I was upstaining already.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
For you to play that.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Well, yes, yes, I actually had just decided to become
celibate and have been celibant for months at that time
with my ex husband, and I decided to become a
celibant before him, and then when we got together could
to find out he was celibate.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
And then I got this movie and I was like, well, I.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Know exactly what she's doing right now is I'm literally
living this So yeah, wow, yeah, I know it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
It's crazy, the love you knowing.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
What you doing? He dies? Now you do Anchorman will fail?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Could you do those jokes now?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Which was.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I mean the same jokes that you told like come
black jokes? Yeah, I mean the comedy you know.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Like, oh, comedy shifted quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
People have gotten very very sensitive.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yeah, And I think it's a it's you know, to me,
most of it.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I understand.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I understand some of it, but I also feel that
it's taken away so much of the artistry and the
things that we laugh about amongst ourselves at home.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Anyways.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
It's kind of it's just gotten very very sensitive for me,
which I think is unfortunate because it takes away a
lot of the art. And comedy is art, it is
it's a very specific kind of gift. And I think
the best version of that is when you're talking about
real things, you know, and so yeah, exactly exactly so
(02:15):
to me, stuff in Akerman was funny as hell, you know,
but I noticed some people was offensive. I am very
inappropriate and you know, me and my sister laugh and
stuff that it's just wrong. We should not be laughing
at Maybe, I don't know, so I enjoy inappropriate comedy.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And you know, you've kind of done a lot of
different acting. Was there a particular genre that when you
were growing up says I kind of want to do this.
I want to do drama. No, I kind of want
to do comedy. Not I kind of want to do
a horror knock comedy, whether any particular genre or you
just says like, hey, I can do it all.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I'm wide ranging, so hey.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Let me try a little bit of both. But I
do love horror movies, really, thrillers.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I've been in a lot of them. Really, I just
you know, I'll be looking at this. I'm like, but
How'm a die on this one? It's gonna be but.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
One miss call?
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I just love them. I think that
growing up, one of the things that really made me
want to be an actress was the little girl who
played Jamie and the Michael Myers movie Okay and me
and her about the same age. I think she's about
a year older than me, And I just thought, does
nobody else realize this little girl is really acting? Like
if you go back and watch it now, her performance
(03:30):
stands up and it's unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
There's that there's not an award for that because she
acted her ass off.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
But it's interesting because survival is one of the highest
things that we can feel and experience outside of love,
you know. And I think that figuring out, you know,
how a character is going to survive and all the
different things that you go through as you are in
a space of just literally trying to make it, I
(03:58):
think really interesting.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And I just kind of love that world.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
And I like to be scared, and I like the
inappropriate things, as I said, And so yeah, I think
I always was just like I just want to get
a good screaming. I just want to be stabbing in
the chest and be climb upstairs. I just want to, like,
you know, just something crazy.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
It just makes me havy.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I don't know, you do, know, Megan, Like when we
do those horror movies, we don't really make it to
the end.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
But see what Kai wheeling.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
But I would say, But but for me, I actually
was excited about the diocese.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
What I'm saying. I mean, but not the first not
the first one.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
You well, only one miscalled it.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
I died in the first scene and they shot that
after the fact as.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
A cameo for the beginning opening thing, and I.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Thought, well, this is really cool, right, yeah, but but
horror all things made equal.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
You love the drama, you love the comedy, but it's the.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Horror and horror and the thriller.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
How do you I mean, I'm trying to figureut, how
do you how do you tap into that? How do
you like? Oh, let me go in? Here? Are you here?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Because, like I said, survival is one of the greatest
human emotions. You know, we're all doing that every single day,
and then in a heightened circumstance. I think that it's
interesting when you discover what you would and what wouldn't do,
or you discover what a character would and wouldn't do.
But my characters, the ones that I played, it ain't
ben No, like.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Hello, I wouldn't even do that. If he was in
the script, I'd be like, y'all come on.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So you were three striped with us? This three three
striped with Monique face. I love David and Orty, Mike Yep,
Anthony Anderson.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
What's it like? More worker with more? I've had more
on here and and imprecious. Yeah, you know, TV is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I don't know your relationship with her, but I thought
she was unbelievable in all of her role, and I
think he had a.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Good id to. I mean, I don't keep up with
all the thing anything.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Things with people are people, and honestly, people be miserable
and I'm just so please get your whole life. Just
stop projecting your things, go get help or just you know,
does somebody give you a hea love on you?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
That's that.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
And I'm saying that about people who say stuff about her,
not about her. I think that she's wonderful. I think
she has a beautiful heart. She has always been kind
to me and goes out of her way to love
on me and has always been consistent with me no
matter what I had going on.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
That's it for me. I don't care about nothing else.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
That's how you dudge the person about how they treat you.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yes, that's it, and how they treat my mama if
they meet my mama.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
But I don't care about all the other stuff because
that that's other people's stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So you an Obama effect with Cat? What's it like
working with kat?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
On said, Cat's sweetheart. He's a sweetheart. I see his interview.
I'm leaving it at that. I'm leaving it at that.
That's what I am gonna say. I'm sorry, but my
man is sexy to me very We just need to
be all the way clear on that.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
You know what, I forgot all about that. I forgot
about that my pay Okay, okay. The TV shows that
you've been in the Game Star Molisha Lawen Order.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Cole Damn, Famous, j Jackson, Touched by an Angel, Carlem
Raising Dad with Bob Saget. Of all the shows, I mean,
Lawn Order, Still Going Mosha was unbelievable. What was your
What was your favorite? What was your favorite show that
you were in?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Oh? I have to say Harlem, ruly yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
And it's because, well, first of all, it's the best
experience I've had as an actress in my entire life,
hands down.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I love Tracy Oliver, the creator of the show.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
I love you know, Mimi Pharrell, Amy Kim Scott, I
mean just everybody who was apart everyone who's a part
of creating that show. And I love the girls and
that show very very much. I absolutely adore every single
one of them. Genuinely, they are my sisters. And to
(08:07):
have that relationship to come on to a set, you know,
I remember me and Grace Bryer's talking about some kind
of like horror stories and things that we've been through.
And we sat there on the couch and we barely
knew each other, and I was doing her show that
she was doing, and she afterwards, we sat and prayed
together and we just said, you know, I hope the
guy that we get to do a show together, because
we will cover each other and love each other. It
(08:28):
would be the best experience ever. Cut to a year
and a half later, she's cast as Quinn. I'm getting
ready to go in and test for Camille. And as
I'm going to test, I meet sorry Jerry, who plays Tie,
and me and Jerry instantly, I'm like, oh, I love
this girl. I absolutely adore her.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
And then I go to the bathroom and I'm running
my lines. A Shanika walks in and Shanicko goes, do
you remember me? And I said from where? She said
about four years ago, I was on FaceTime where you
were working on the show.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
And it was that show that I had a bad
experience on, And she said, and I had a mutual
friend and he called me and I told you I
was a fan of yours and I loved you, and
I wanted to work with you. One day, you said,
let's place both of our hands on the screen. This
claim it in Jesus name, that we're going to work
together on something. And then we were both testing and
we both got it. And so it's just everything about
the writing. I love the character, I love how I've
(09:21):
grown as an actress. I love working with them. I
love everybody involved in creation, down to the crew. Everybody
in the crew.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I absolutely adore it. It's just been the best experience.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I haven't heard you speak, but you've seen you a
very spiritual person. When did this come about? Have you
always been like this?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Well? I didn't grow up in the church.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
When I was about twelve, I started going to a
youth group that my acting coach shout out to. Carnetta
Jones was my acting coach from age eleven to twenty six,
and she was a youth group leader was called God's Gang,
which is now the name of my production company.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
And I had some friends.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
There were two girls in school especially who looked out
for me when people would try to bully me. And
those two girls and one of their older sister and
a five year old girl. They were babysitting in. Another
friend of theirs left youth group that night and got
into a car accident, and their friend passed away. The
(10:27):
little girl who's about to turn six passed away. One
of the girl's older sister, oh, she passed away. To
that pray and then and then the girl whose younger
sister was it used to look out for me. She
got severe brain damage. And the other girl who used
to look out for me had to get reconstructive surgery
and all this stuff. But we went to this uh,
(10:48):
I forget what it's called. Would you kind of like
go out into the you know, woods and you camp
and stuff, and you you know, pray and blah blah.
And I remember that night her like calling out to
God and crying and saying why. And then she got
saved that night. And so I was just like, well,
how how do you go to God instead of away
from God when something like that happens?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Right?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
And it just made me curious.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
And because I had so much respect for her, and
because she looked out for me the way that she
had shout out to Alicia, wherever you are in the world,
I love you, she it kind of put me on
my path.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Her example did and so.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
After that I became a Christian, and then I was
like a Bible stumper and like super religious and very judgmental.
I remember when my sister lost the virginity. I was fourteen,
she was sixteen, and I went to her. I was like,
I just don't want you to go to Hell.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I was that kid. None of my friends told me
when they lost their virginity. Everyone's like, don't tell Peggan.
You know. Of course I was the last lose my
virginity at nineteen.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
And then at that time, you know, I kind of
you know, there's all these phases of getting to know
God and maturing. My prayer used to be like, please
let me look like one of the lead seekers from
in Vogue. He actually aswered the prayer, shout out to invoke.
But then, you know, as you get older, your prayers mature,
your relationship with God matures, You start to get perspective
(12:08):
and learn and and so mine has always been a journey,
you know, and in these last two years has been
especially a journey. But it's been it's such an incredible journey.
The place that I'm in now, where I just have
such a freedom in God and just such a trust
that God knows my heart and knows who I am
even better than I do.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
And so yes, it's been a really, really beautiful thing.
It's a really beautiful journey.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
The last two years where your faith has been tested
the most, for sure.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Not this past year. This past year, I'm like, Lord,
I knowed you're gonna do what you do and I
trust you and making sure that I was there to
give that to Jonathan. That's what I felt that I
was there to do. Yeah, my faith is never a
wavered in that, you know, in that instance, but going
(13:02):
through the divorce that shook me to my core.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I was just like, but Lord, you asked me to
be Celiban, I was you know, you told me to
marry I married that person. I try to do everything
to the best of my ability and know I didn't
do everything perfect, but I don't know that I could
have done anything different, if I'm being honest.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
And so.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I was just like, why is this happening?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
My greatest fear was for my husband to leave me
after ten years of marriage, the way that my dad
and my mom separated, and that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
And it's just like, I.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Don't understand this and so it was a lot of prayer,
a lot of evaluation, a lot of learning about myself,
even it was a lot of.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Realizing the place that we both were in. It was
a lot of a lot of just like rediscovering God
and realize that sometimes.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
The way that we see or understand things, it's not
that it's not true, it's just you do come into
different seasons. And I had to accept that if this
isn't something I've chosen, but it's something that God has allowed,
then God has allowed it for a good reason.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
And I think that we both have grown from it tremendously.
I think that.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Now.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
I think that at the time I was so mad
at a Devona, but now I think what he did
was very brave, and I think that it was a
very scary thing to know that the church and all
the people and everyone was going to be like, well,
this is.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Not what a man of God or a woman of
God does, you know? And and of course there are
a lot of people who are like, well, Mage must
have done something, and I'm like, what you know? But
I think that I.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Think that in order to grow to the place that
we've grown, I think we absolutely were supposed to be
married for that amount of time, and I think we
got the best the benefit out of it.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
And I think he taught me a lot and I
taught him a lot, and we took a lot, we
gave a lot. But we're still friends.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
And you know, as he said that the love is,
you know, transitioned into something else, but it's still love.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And I don't regret anything.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
And I'm super thankful for the time that we were married,
and I'm super thankful for what I learned. And I
think that I love now in a different capacity because
when your absolute worst fear happens, now there's nothing to
be afraid of anymore.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
In that situation, You like, I prayed for this, I
was everything, everything God, everything you asked me to do,
I did.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Did you feel at that moment that as the marriage
is starting to dissolve, did you feel like a failure.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
No, I don't think so, because I I feel like
we had almost ten successful, full years of marriage.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I feel like.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I feel like I got so much from it that
has made me better and has helped me grow, and
I feel that he feels the same way. So I
don't feel like it was a failure by any means
I just didn't understand it.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
So I was like, but this you say forever, it
means you know, and and that wasn't the case, you know.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
But I think that part is the part that I
struggle with the most because I would have never gotten
a divorce under any circumstances. And I don't know, I
don't know if that's always the right thing, you know.
And it's not that anything bad was going on. Nobody
was cheating, nothing like, you know. And I won't get
into why we divorce, but I don't know if being
(16:50):
married for the sake of.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Just societal because society said you, well, because.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Of religion, you know.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
I think I think you really have to have a
relationship with God and see how God is moving you.
And sometimes it's not going to make sense to anybody else.
And that's okay, it's not for it to make sense
to anybody else.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
You just have to be in tune with prior to
being married to someone. A minister, yeah, you being in
being a woman of faith belief. Would you have felt
this way had you not grown through that about not
necessarily like being married?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Oh no, I think that still would have been like, no,
you get married it's in the world.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Y'all better work it out. You figure out, you better
do something, and I think if you can, you should.
But again, I think that sometimes God moves us in
ways that it may seem contradictory to other people's perception
or how they see or read the word or literally
(17:52):
what it says. But I think that's why we have
to be very clear on having a relationship with God,
not just a religion with God. We have to be
very clear on hearing from God. And that's got to
be the compass period the relationship with God and not
the relationship where you not really hearing that and you
just want to do what you want to do and
(18:13):
you want a reason to do it or an excuse
to do it, but really knowing if that's what you're
hearing God to tell you to do. No matter what
anybody thinks or anyone says you got to move away,
God is telling you to And.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
That's just that.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Outside of your closest friends, your support, do people or
did people know that you had such a close relationship
with God.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I think people see what they want to see.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
If you go back to every Men's magazine that I
was on the cover of, and you realize that I
never wore a bathing suit, I never wore lingerie. And
then you look in those interviews from nineteen ninety nine,
two thousand and one, two thousand and four, two thousand
and you will always see that I always said I
am a Christian, I believe in God. I'm not to
do anything that would disappoint God. God is my compass.
I've always talked about God, and I think that sometimes
(19:06):
when people go, oh, well it's to cover a men's magazine, Well,
for me, that's not a conviction of mine. I don't
feel that God is concerned with what I'm wearing. And
so if that is not my conviction. It says in
the Bible, have he who has faith have it to
himself before God? Happy is he who does not condemn
himself and what he proves meaning, And then it goes
on to talk about if you don't really believe that
(19:27):
that's what God approves, then you are sinning. But if
you really believe that between you and God, then that's
that period.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
That's what that is for you. And so that's the
tatoo I have he which even that is like.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Oh you should have PERI shit, But well, for me,
it's a reminder to not go too far down the
religious rabbit hole and stay in the relationship with God.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
God, what do you say? And so for me, I
never had a conviction about that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
My feeling was like, I want to get this, these
words that I'm saying about God and how much I
love God and how God is the head of my life.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I want to get this to the people who are
going to pick up this magazine because I'm.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Not going to get to them any other way, and
most of the other people in the church, they're not
going to get to them at all. So if I
feel comfortable and I don't feel like I'm doing something wrong,
then I'm just going to be authentically me and I'm
going to reach other people that other people don't just
by being who I'm called to be and being authentically that.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Before you take a role, do you always pray on it?
Speaker 4 (20:30):
Majority of the time, sometimes I just feel my spirit
I'm like, okay, good, I feel good about this. If
I'm not sure, then I pray about it. If I've
ever felt the God's like no, that's not what I
want you to do, then I just want to do it.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Period. Even if I want to do it period, I
want to do it.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Yeah, So it's easy when you have that kind of
faith and you say you've been walking what since.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
You were about nineteen, I've been saying since I was twelve.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Twelve, Yeah, Lusty Virginia in nineteen, So you've been You've
been on this role, been on this road for the
better part of two decades.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So the highs and the lows.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
You never questioned, like, is God's will and whatever he decided,
whatever his with Yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Think that, I think, I I think that I've I
have to accept that because you can't accept one thing
and not accept the y. And so I trust God
and and and even like you know, when when the
divorce happened, I was mad at God.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I was like, what kind of what? I was so mad?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
But I was just like, but you never questioned me.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
I did.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I didn't question if I was going to be okay.
I questioned, well, why why do it? What was the point?
And we are Yeah? And then also I was like,
you knew this was my worst fear, Like why you know?
Speaker 4 (21:52):
And then you know, over the years and it's you know,
almost almost been like three years now, so over the years,
I'm always revealed a lot more, And every time I'm
revealed a lot more, I'm just really ingratitude and thankful
that I married someone that was so wonderful and that
is so wonderful, and that we had that time, and
(22:12):
that we grew together and just all the things, and
so I don't believe that anything's in vain. That's probably
the only moment where I was just like, okay, Lord,
you know right. But now I'm like, okay, learn, thank you.
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(23:29):
Have any actor actresses giving you tips? I remember I
had Terry Crews on here and he said that he
was struggling remember his lines and going through his line,
and he said to Shina Arnold said, won't you sing them?
Say Terry, you like to sing, won't you? Won't you
just sing them, memorize them like that? Have anybody given
you pointers to help you relax?
Speaker 4 (23:49):
So it just the best advice I ever got was
from Lorenz. Tape on my Steed and I was nervous
about this scene. I was trying to get into it
and we'd already taken like two tapes.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
And he just grabbed me. He was like sis. I
was like yeah, yeah. He was like fuck it, okay,
And I was like, what do you mean. He was like,
fuck it. And I realized that he was like, just
don't overthink it. Just it's in you.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
It'll come out. Don't try to get there, don't try
to figure it out. Just live and breathe it and
it's just going to come right out of you.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And it did.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
And so now I tell that, you know, when I'm
around younger actresses or actors, I'm like, fuck it, it'll come.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
It's in you. You wouldn't be here if it wasn't
in you.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
So I read that you said that I think you
about fourteen ten or fourteen, that you've been in your
family's provider from the time that you were like fourteen
to some degree.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah, I mean my mom managed my sister and I,
so you know, we went out and we did our thing.
My sister was in a big singing group isis at
the time in the nineties and two big hits, and
so me and her both you know, but at a
certain point in time, you know, as things fluctuate and
things are happening, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
And for clarity, my father has always paid child support.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Didn't go back and heat the boss pretty clear.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I's always paid a child sport.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
But yeah, for a long time, a lot of the
income that was coming in the house was primarily yet
just working.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
How did that make you feel?
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I mean, because like I remember growing up and working.
I was making twenty five thirty dollars a week, working six,
you know, five and a half, six days a week,
and I remember coming home and giving my grandmother ten
dollars fifteen dollars.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
It's not much, but it was.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And I looked at me, I said, like, man, I'm
nineteen years old, I'm a provider. And it gave me
a sense of accomplishment. Yeah, and to this day that's
what I am. I'm a provider for my family. Did
that give you a sense of accomplishment because you're a
child at the end of the day, he's still a child, yeah, yeah, yeah,
And a lot of the was coming into the home,
it's courtesy of you.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Well, I looked at it like.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
My mother before that time had did everything on her
own with an older brother who had special needs, and
then me and my sister, and then ultimately when she remarried,
you know, my stepbrother, and then she adopted my younger sister.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
When I was fourteen, I was four years from being
out of the house.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
And so my mother has been such a provider for
everybody on every level that it was nothing for me
to want to do it for her. And then also,
you know, again she was doing the work, she was
managing us, and when me and my sister said, you know,
can you quit your job? We want to pursue this
full time, she had to have enough faith to be like, Okay,
I believe that my children can do it and we
(26:36):
can keep this household afloat. So, you know, even when
I was working, there was times when I wasn't working
and Lamayah was overseas touring with her group, and she
would come home and she'd bring her money home. And
so our household was just one of whoever's got it
is all of ours. We take care of each other.
We are, you know, a tribe, and we always protect
and take care of each other, you know, And so
(26:58):
there was definitely a sense of acomplishment, but it also
was a sense of like, uh, safety, and just knowing
that we always look after.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Each other and we always feel look after each other.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
You is there any actors in Hollywood? No?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Before I get to that, you said, like the pay
because you hear a lot of you know, you hear Taraji, Yeah,
you hear a lot of black a Viola Davis who
have the egoch. We hear a lot of black actors
actresses talking about the discrepancy of pay yep.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, have you experienced that?
Speaker 3 (27:32):
For sure? For sure? It's interesting because.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
You know, I remember talking to Jonathan about a project
and he asked me what my quote was and I
told him and he was like no, He was like
absolutely not no, And I kind of knew, but I
also was like, I know how much I've worked my
life to even get to that point, right, But the
(27:59):
discrepancy a discrepancy, And it actually disappoints me that people have,
you know, made fun of Taraji or whoever, like crying
and saying because because it's not right, and people don't
realize that. They're like, oh, well, you're an actress. You know,
you're rich and famous. You're wearing nice dresses and rings
and stuff. And I'm like, no, baby, doll, let me
explain something to you. We go to work sometimes fifteen
(28:21):
eighteen hours a day, and the energy, the work that
we do, the giving that we give of ourselves, everything
around it is a lot of work and then not
just that. You walk out of the house and you
work a lot more just walking down the street or
doing press for a project. And you see people and
athletes whatever is getting paid what they get paid for
(28:43):
their talent and for and their work ethic and everything
they bring to the table. Why do black actresses not
deserve that? And we are working very, very very hard.
I've retired my entire life. I have never not worked hard,
so especially in the real home of when it's being
compared to what other people were getting. I remember the
(29:04):
same show i'm talking to you about. You know, I
was the lead on that show, but I was number
two on the call sheet, and the guy who was
number one, who's a white gentleman, such a sweetheart and
incredible human being, he was like, this isn't right.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
He was like, you should be number one on the
call sheet.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
And I was like, yeah, I know, you know, but
it's it's just there's so much of that that people
have to speak up and you know, and it's unfortunate
that they have to be somewhat of a martyr for
people to start paying attention.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
And then it's like, Okay, don't just pay attention, y'all.
Do something about it, you know what I'm saying. And
so yeah, it is.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
It is a big thing and it's really not right
and it's really not cool, and you know, and and
what I will say, you know, thinking about Tyler Perry.
Tyler Perry is the first person who paid me what
I should get paid. Wow, first person and did not
(29:57):
link at I. You know, he said how much she want?
I said, let me, let me talk to my team,
you know, really quick, and He's liked, just tell me
what you want. I was like, Tyler, I said, let me,
just because I wasn't quite sure what to ask for.
And then you know, I was talking to Johnathan and
he was like, you should ask for this and I
was like, oh, I can't ask for that, and I
was like, I don't, like you know, it's like it's.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Almost a mentality.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
And then going back to the child after syndrome too,
it's like I don't want to lose the job, you know,
but it's like you forget what an asset you were.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Well, sometimes they make you forget.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Sometimes they make you feel like you should be grateful
that we even offered you the job, and you should
take whatever we whatever we're offering as the police just says, well,
you know, she's talented. There's a reason why we're offering
her the job, and let's pay her a fair wage.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, And so I asked Tyler and he said, I
was gonna give you that anyways. But I was like,
and then I started crying, and then I couldn't stop.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Were you crying? Let me see, I'm gonna let you.
I'm gonna let you tell me why you started crying.
And then I'm gonna tell you why I thought you
why I think you started crying.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Why did you start crying?
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Because I felt valued. I felt like someone wasn't just
sitting there and telling me unvaluable.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
They were actually showing me because actions obviously are much
bigger than words, and.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Because he was excited to do it for me.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
And then he said, he said, I want to make
sure you and he named a few other people who
was like, you guys have been doing this all your
lives and you should get what you deserve and.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
I'm gonna make sure that you get it. And that's
the kind of person that Tyler is.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
And so just that feeling of feeling valued and someone
not just saying it but proving it, that's exactly what.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I was gonna say. You started crying for the very
first time. Somebody saw the value in Megan Good and
they paid you accordingly. Yeah, yeah, you good emotional thinking
about it, don't you?
Speaker 3 (32:01):
I do, because I do feel I do feel that.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
A lot of people see the value in me and
some don't. But a lot of people do see the
value in me. But it doesn't mean that they're going
to treat me as.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Compensate you accordingly, Yeah, yeah, you have this persona people
look at you as like the cute girl, the cute lady.
You try to live that down. What means you cut
your hair? I mean people saw you. Oh yeah, you
cut your hair because did you feel that you in
(32:35):
order for you to be taken serious?
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah, you had this was a step. Well.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
I had this long kind of hair that I wore often,
and I just think that people were like, oh, she's
you know, the cute girl, the pretty girl, the safety girl,
the girl next door, the love interest. And I just
realized in order for me to get out of that space,
I had to show up differently, and you know, and
so that's what I did, you know, And even then
(33:01):
it still was a hard box to break. Out of
you know, But I look at stuff like Harlem, and
you know, it's it ain't about the way I look
at all. It's about who this woman is and all
her quirks and all her truth and all of her
searching and figuring out and the roles that now I'm getting, right,
I'm getting to play in my forties.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
That has been incredible. I think that. I think that's
the best part too, is like I truly am in
the second.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
Act of my life and who I've lived many lifetimes already,
and I'm excited for what's going to come out of
me in this next year. What's going to come out
of me in every performance because of the things I've experienced.
What's going to come out of me when I have
kids with you know, all those things. What's going to
come out of me when you know I'm older woman,
when i'm you know, the sixties, seventies, All that's really
(33:49):
exciting to me.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
So, yeah, you mentioned you in this new movie Divorce
in the New.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Black, A divorce in the Black, divorce in excuse.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Me, divorce in the Black.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah, hmmm, what because divorced the Black. So obviously, if
I'm having to guess you a divorce. You divorce, how
much having gone through that, were you able to fall
back on and says okay, okay, and boom, here we go.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
All of it, all of it.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
Because even though she's in a very different situation than
I was in, it's still that reality of expecting that
your life is going to go one way and then
suddenly realizing it's going to go a totally different way.
And then you are trying to figure out what you're
(34:45):
supposed to do and having to re kind of learn yourself,
but realizing that you've also changed and you've grown, and
then you're having to rekind of calibrate your mind to
not be sad and not you know, like you have
to go through the sadness. You definitely have to go
through the pain and the crying and the process, which
is a process. I think to some degree, you never
(35:07):
don't like not have it in some way, shape or form,
as long as you don't let it make you bitter,
you let it make you better. But the process that
she had to go through to go, Okay, now I'm
in this next phase of life and I'm gonna embrace
this and I'm gonna get excited about this and I'm
gonna figure out what I want and what makes me happy,
and having complete freedom after that to be like, Okay,
(35:30):
it's my world, what I want to do with it,
you know. And so I think many of the moments
that Ava had there's a scene where I'm running and
you know, it.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Was just like I was just so there.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
I just I knew exactly where Ava was and I
was just so there with her, and I was pleased
to be able to gift her with the realist, truest
rosst emotion of what that reality was.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Is it easier to play a role when you're familiar,
not just a character, but you're like, I've been there,
I've done that. I actually know what a divorce is
going through in this very moment, I can see, I can.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Tell you what it's like.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Yeah, I think I think it is easier, although there
is your experience and their experience.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah, because you you might not have gone through the
reason why she got divorced, might not be the reason
why you got the divorced, So it has to be different.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
I mean, I'm reading that marriage gone wrong.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Maybe it's the bestic violence, maybe financials, or whatever the
case may be.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
But at the end of the day is that big
d Yes.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Yeah, And the only difference is how does this person
download and processing?
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Like, for instance, you know, with my character in Harlem,
it's the first time.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Where I go, Okay, she's a Gemini, so I'm going
to pursue all Gemini traits.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
So if Megan, if you came at her like this,
Megan might.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Get indignant and be like, but a Gemini is actually
going to go wait a second and get introspective and
a totally different gear is gonna hit for them. And
so that's the only difference is even though I can
understand where the character's at distinguishing the difference between not
just Ava and Megan's journeys, but Ava and Megan's mentalities
(37:21):
and their bandwidth for pain and their how much did
they you know, hide from their family, how much did
they share with the dynamic between her mother versus her,
you know, all those things that would probably be the
only thing.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
But do I think it's easier in general?
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Yes, because you already have a leg up, because you
already have such a rich will to pull from.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Should we should we view divorce as bad?
Speaker 3 (37:48):
I don't know anymore.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
I don't know prior to.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
You going through divorce? How did you view divorce happening
to you? How would you beautyful?
Speaker 4 (37:57):
I felt like for any other reason besides domestic violence,
I'm like, yeah, I better figure that out.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
But now I just I don't know. I think that.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
What I experienced made me less judgmental about an experience
that somebody else is having that I don't know what
it is, and I can't say that that it's bad
or good for anybody.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
All I can say is that it hurt a lot
for me. But I think that I think that it.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Also was a blessing to both of us in a way,
and not because it happened, but because if it had
to happen, and that was a part of our story,
we both got so much from it.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Did you feel you let people down?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Yes and no, because I think that.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
I think I felt that I let people down a
bit with the weight, because you know, I never said
to someone, well, this is what I think you should do,
and I never pursued making the.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Book like look how I did it, guys, this is
what you know. It was never that.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
It was always people asking it, inquiring, and me say, oh,
this is the spaces that I'm in this is what
God's telling me to do right now, and people being curious,
and from that coming a book talking about our experience,
not necessarily telling people to go do it, but saying
this is why it worked for us, and this is why,
you know, we believe in it. And I still believe
in the way, and I still believe that it worked
(39:27):
for us. I think that what didn't work for us
were the reasons why we ultimately, you know, divorce.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
But I think that.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
I think the weight allowed us to get the full benefit,
and I think it's the reason that we're still friends
to this day.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
I think it's the reason that we walked into the
room with both of our divorce attorneys and you look great.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Look at you.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
You've been working out. Yeah, you look great too. You
do this, you know, and they looking like y'all getting divorced,
and we're like, yeah, they're like, y'all just okay, you know.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
And when people when they see us, you know, we
see each other in the street, you know, people turns
up around us and I'm like, you know, it's just
like and it's genuine love. And I think a lot
of that really is because of the way and the
way that we got to know each other and the
quality of the human being and the trust that was there,
even if there, you know, was disappointment at the end,
(40:24):
I can look at Divan and say that's a good person.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Wow, And I'm thankful for that time.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Divorce in the Black will launch globally on Prime Video
July eleven.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Thanks for stopping by, making good ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle price,
want to slice.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
All my life? I grinding all my life, all my life,
grinding all my life, sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
That's a bay the price of one slice, that's a
police as well.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
All my life.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
I've done it all my life.
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