April 10, 2025 • 45 mins
In this heartwarming episode, we sit down with rising star Laya DeLeon Hayes, who’s shining bright alongside the legendary Queen Latifah in CBS’s hit series The Equalizer. 🌟🎬 Laya shares her early determination — from knowing she wanted to be a child star at just 6 years old, to voicing the beloved Doc McStuffins, and how her parents made the bold move from Texas to Hollywood to support her dreams. Being educated through a mix of elementary school, homeschooling and the Chesneee school program
Laya opens up about being biracial, linking with VP Kamala Harris and the DNC, embracing her Filipino and African American heritage, and the importance of representation both on and off screen. She gets candid about her deep love for Black horror, the magic of filming in Brooklyn, and what it feels like to be recognized on the streets of New York. 🖤🌆
This is a heartfelt convo about purpose, passion, and the power of dreaming big.
🎧 Tap in and get to know the young queen who's just getting started — and don’t forget to stream The Equalizer Sundays at 10P on CBS. 💥📺
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
All Right, welcome to another episode of Gracias Come Again.
Today we're sitting down with actress Leah Leon Hayes.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome, Hi, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I am so happy to have you. It's like, it's
crazy because you go from watching someone on television to
having them right across from you. You currently start in
the equalizer alongside the icon, the goat, the great Queen Latifa. Yes,
a legend, the legend, all that good stuff, right, all
the words.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I was. I was reading one of your interviews and
it was just.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Like you still don't kind of like get used to
like being in her space, Like does it still feel
kind of like, wow, it's Queen Latifa.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I mean, I think sometimes I think we all have
those moments when like your dream comes true and like
you're working on this show consistently, and then you kind
of take a minute to like look back at your
career and your life and you're like, wait, I cannot
believe that this is happening. Sometimes I think about eight
year old me and I was watching like Chicago and
seeing Queen lantive in Chicago, or my mom like she
(01:08):
used to watch Set It Off all the time when
I was a kid, so I can remember, like.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Sorry if anybody hasn't seen Set It Off, but like
just three times by now you could talk about it.
So I remember just like seeing those things as a kid.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
And now that I'm able to work with her and
learn from her, it is very dreamlike.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Still now we're getting a season five correct, Oh.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
We're yes, girl, Yes we are. We're in season five
right now. It's airing and we're filming it at the
same time.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Oh, really, do you do both?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Okay, so it's season six that I'm I'm anticipating, okay.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Exactly, which we'll still we still have some time before
we figure out if we'll have another season.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
But what's been really.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Amazing manifesting it for you. We do not want to
equalize it to go anywhere. I love that show.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Good. That makes me happy. And we're on Netflix now,
which has been That's where I've been been watching you.
Oh gosh, that makes me so happy.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It comes up first. Netflix either knows my behavior or
the show is just all the way up there and
in viewership.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Is that algorithm knows The algorithm knows what you like immediately.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And you know, it's because I've always liked crime shows.
I've always liked shows, you know, where female leads. I
love what she's doing. But I find that with the
Equalizer it just feels more like family oriented, and you know,
it's like it's not just about bad guys and killing
them and getting them off the streets. Then we have
(02:29):
like those moments you know, between you and your mom
and your great aunt. Right, yeah, that circle is just
so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I mean, this is the first time that I've ever
seen on network television that there's three generations of women
and one home, which is really beautiful because also in
my life while filming the show, I had three generations
of women in my home as well, so one to
be able to represent that on television just made me
very happy. And then exactly what you're saying, I think
(02:58):
why people gravitate so much to our show is like,
of course, we.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
All love the action.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
We love when the Equalizer gets to equalizing and she's
killing the bad guys and doing.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
All the stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
But I think the fact that you bring it home.
You start the episode with us in the kitchen or
in our living room, and you end the episode with
her also coming back to her family, either in the
living room or kitchen wherever. And I think in that
way it resonates with our audience, especially because at the
center of it, it is about a woman who yes,
wants to bring justice to good people in the world,
(03:30):
but also wants to make the world a better place
for her family as well.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So I'm always so happy when she makes it home.
I'm like, yes, I know, and.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Looks amazing by the way, well time, Like she always
has the good outfits onto.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So Ponytail be doing what is supposed to be doing.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
I do.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I love it because it just feels real. You know.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It's just like I love Queen Latifa. It's just she
represents as a born, you know, raised New Yorker hip hophead,
kind of like tomboy. She was everything, Like, she just
felt so good. I remember watching her as a kid
riding a motorcycle. I'm like, I could do that.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Oh yeah, And I think she still rides motorcycles sometimes.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, yeah, she Like I saw her on the show
on a bike and I was like, I wonder if
that was really her.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah. We did an episode in season three and it
was about like a biker crew.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I think in Brooklyn or Harlem.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
That's the one with Big Daddy King.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
This one with Big Daddy k Oh, my gosh, and
he's incredible. Shout out of Bigdaddy Kan because he was
wonderful to work. I don't even think I had any
scenes with him. I just shadowed that day because I
wanted to meet him so bad.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I saw him walk on, I said, wait, wait, is
this Big Daddy Kane that I'm looking at right now?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And I went online. I said Big Daddy Kane. They
equalized and it said sure enough. Yeah, And he looked
cool too. He had the leather on the and it just.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Felt so organic and like so natural.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
He did good. He did good, good acting jobs. Big
Daddy King.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
No.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
With Queen Latifa, it's just like.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
She's she's one of those people I'm gonna eventually during
COVID they did an event and they were like, honey,
can you come and you're gonna be moderating and Queen
Latifa's gonna be there. And I wasn't able to make
the date due to medical reasons, and that hurt me
so much.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Only this was my chance, This was my chance.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
But I know what's gonna happen again, but I remember it.
It made me feel so depressed. And then it was
COVID and people were dying and I was going through
my own thing, and I was just like.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I got a chance to meet Queen Latifa. Oh yeah, yeah,
it's gonna happen. I know it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen.
We're manifesting that that's easily gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
But she's just such a badass. I love her so much.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Well, it's crazy you bring up like COVID and the
Queen Latifa COVID correlation.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
This is how I'm going to bridge that gap.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Is we I auditioned for the show right before COVID.
So I auditioned literally I think late February of twenty twenty,
and so that's right before it was right before we
did a chemistry read. I did it with Queen Latifa
again like that end of February, booked it, and then
they flew me out to Brooklyn. Literally the week of
(05:56):
Lockdown was when we were supposed to film the pilots,
so we never even got to finish the pilot.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
We did like two table reads.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Before Lockdown, and then I got a call from one
of the first ads at the time who was like, hey, girl,
we're not going to be able to film this much love.
You need to go home now because COVID is starting
to happen.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Went home. I was like, I don't know what's going
to happen with the show.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
It was kind of crazy because it was like, oh
my god, I got the opportunity that I've been dreaming
of for so long, and now I won't even.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Be able to film our first episode.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So how it was before COVID was like, you do
the pilot and then you hopefully it gets picked up
and then you have a show. But we didn't even
get to do that pilot, so we had no idea
what it was going to be.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Thankfully they picked us up without a pilot.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I was just going to say, so you got picked
up without a pilot?
Speaker 1 (06:41):
We did. Yeah, they believed in it a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
They wanted this show to happen, and I'm happy they
made it happen too. Now let's go a little bit back.
You've been at this since you're a child.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yes, girl, a long time.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I met your parents. They look super cool, super young
and hip. Was this their idea?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
They were like, this kid has something. How did you
end up you know, acting?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, no, I this was fully my idea.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I mean it's hard to kind of say that because
even though it was my idea and I wanted to
do it, of course you need a support system, especially
at the.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Age of eight years old.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I was just gonna say, well, I'm like, but when
you're like a third grade yeah, literally, I was so,
you like, obviously I need my parents there. But it
kind of started when I was six years old. I
knew for a fact that I was not a very
sporty child. I mean, I grew up in Dallas, Texas,
so in the twenty tens, all the kids were like playing.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Soccer or like softball, and I was.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Like, I'm not into any of this. I don't want
to be an athletic girl. But I found cheerleading. I
said I didn't want to do athletics, and I ended
up being a cheerleader when I was six. Loved it
so much, and that kind of led me to dance.
Dance led me to being on stage, which led me
to want to sing. And by the time I started singing,
I was wanting I was watching a bunch of Disney
(07:59):
Channel and Nicolo and of course at the times.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Up right there.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Oh yeah, you're talking about singing. I was talking about
your third grade talent show. That video you posted your
singing that's.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
All from Wicked. That's my third grade talent Is that
where it started?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And don't win that part because it's on her Instagram
and you want to see what I'm talking about it is.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
You're right, I sang popular from Wicked at my third
grade talent show. And I think at that point I
had kind of already made the decision that I wanted
to act.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
How did you decide at that age? I couldn't even
decide the color of my socks. It's just one of
those things.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I had this amazing acting coach, like when I was
eight years old. I can remember doing like private lessons
with her, and she was so mesmerizing, like the way
that she talked about acting and film and theater.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Name.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Her name is Catherine Hart of Heart and Soul Studio.
Shout out to her.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
She's like, really the reason. I mean, her and my parents,
of course, are the reason why I'm here. Because I
was so taken aback by how magical she was to
me at the time, and all of it felt so much.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
It literally is like knowing.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
How much you like to play house or play pretend
when you're a kid, you know, dress up as a
princess when you're that age.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And that's what it all felt like to me.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
It all felt very magical and uh just like I
was having a good time.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
So by the time I.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Did my third grade talent show, I had probably already
been in acting lessons for a year year and a half, okay,
and I was singing popular everywhere, like I did it
at my recitals and you were like, it was my
go to song. It was my go to song, not
and probably like at Last by Edda James, but I did.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
That was a song. It was a song. It was
a song.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
But I sang popular and won that talent show girl.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Oh you won? Oh I won best overall. Don't Forget,
Don't Forget, and uh yeah, after that.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I literally moved to La I think maybe six not
even six months, after like two months my dad included, right,
Mom and dad, and it was amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
They believed believe.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
You, They believed in me, and you're in and you're like, mom, Dad,
we need to go to LA.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Well that was not that was definitely I think my
dad and I I think my dad had definitely seen
something in me, and he was like, I want to
be able to foster your dream and your talents and.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
No he was he was like, I want to give
my daughter a fair shot.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And so I love him for that.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
It was Yeah, I in retrospect, I'm like, dude, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
What did what did your parents do for a living
when this was happened? They had to quit their jobs
and everything.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Right, not necessarily.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
So the most amazing part about this, and this is
kind of how like the stars aligned for us at
the time, was my mom was in a corporate job
and she was a really hard worker, and so we
didn't even get to spend that much time together. So
me and my dad were really the ones conspiring with
this acting.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You would come home and you guys had a whole
plan map down.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
No.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Literally, she would come home and she'd be like, why
are you guys like doing plays and filming ourselves?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
She said, what is this white board?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
What is this white board? The crime shows? I was
literally we were conspiring. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
But my dad was like a tire salesman at the time,
and so he got his job to transfer him to
Los Angeles. Okay, Dad, Everything really worked out for us,
and it was difficult, of course, like being that young,
and I wasn't aware of all the you know, logistical
and financial things that were also going to be just
want to act?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I just don't want to act.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I just knew like all you could get in Texas
was print work and like kid modeling, and I did
not like kid modeling.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I wanted to do commercials. That's where you booked your
Chuck e Cheese photoshoots.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You do your research car.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
What do I Stalkstoh you stalk?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yeah, No, that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I did my Chucky Cheese brochure and that was like
the first thing that I ever booked. Yeah, and it
was amazing. I just got to play ski ball all
day paid and get paid, yes, which I got a
good lego after that with my first my first paycheck.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
So then you land in La.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yes, what what's the first step to getting you booked?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Busy and working? So do you remember all this?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
All of this kind of gets blurry for me because
I was a kid and I was just having so
much fun. I honestly was thinking in my head I
don't know if you've ever seen Victorious, but in Victorious
they're at Hollywood Arts, and I was like, where's Hollywood Arts?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Like you want to see the Walk Game, Disneyland all
that stuff. It was like just being a kid in
a candy store.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
But I do know because I was a very competitive kid,
and I think I had I don't know, a good
amount of ambition at that age. And I had gotten
a manager before I had moved to California from singing
popular at not my third grade talent show, but one
of those recitals I was just talking about. I ended
(12:44):
up getting a manager through one of our contacts in Texas,
and by the time I was out, you know, you
just got to go into the pool and try to
find an agent so that you can get opportunities.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
It was a very different world then.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
I'm not really sure what it would be like now,
but uh, being a child actor in the twenty tens
in Los Angeles, California was like what everybody was trying
to be, so uh it felt like a TV show
in itself, sitting there waiting to talk to an agent
and doing a cold read in front of them. But again,
I think it's amazing to start that young, because so
(13:18):
much of it just felt like I was playing.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah, now, Doc Mix Stuffings. Yes, eighty four episodes.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Oh my goodness, you know the precise episodes. I want
to applaud you for that. This is a lot of work.
It was a lot.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
How did you land that role?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Like, out of a million people in the whole world,
how did they decide you're the voice for Doc Mix Stuffings.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Well, I got out to California in June of twenty thirteen,
when I was nine. I booked Doc Mixed stuff Ins
November twenty thirteen, so it was so quick, Like moving
in LA was like I was doing commercials and guest
star appearance appearances and co stars on Gray's Anatomy and
(14:20):
Cougartown exactly. Yeah. And then I got an audition for
a voiceover project. Now, frankly, I had never done voiceover
before in my life. I did not know voiceover was
something you could get into as an actor. And it
was for Doc Mix Stuffans and the show had already
been on, so I was aware of it.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Oh, you knew what it was exactly.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I was the second doc so I had seen the
TV show before, and I watched it that's the thing.
Like before school, I would watch doc mix stuffans, and
so I was like, if I'm going to do one voiceover, like,
I want it to be this one.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I got a booked out, were you like?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I was freaking out? Man?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
It was also like just being a kid and thinking
of Disney and and that whole world just seemed otherworldly
to me.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So it was all really exciting.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
And I had been trained to sing and I had
been trained to act, and then I got a wonderful
voiceover coach in La who helped me with the audition,
and the process was maybe like a month and a
half if I can remember correctly, And.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
So what you would keep going back to read different things.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
So you basically do like a voiceover audition would be
like over your phone and then you would send it
via email. So are you reading something? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Is it a different voice or is it just your voice?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I mean at the time it was my voice, Like
I sounded like high pitch stock mixed stuff ins when.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I was nine. So you can't do it today, right, Well, we.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Could try, but I feel like you guys might end
up in a voice crack.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I don't know if y'all want to hear that.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
But yeah, so you would get an audition like you'd
get audition sides, and then I was also given a
song that I could sing, and it was a song
that probably had already aired on Doc.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
You send it in via email.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
And I would go to this voice coach and he
would send it for me. And then after that, I
got like a call maybe a week or two later,
and they were like, we want to bring you in
for callback. You go in in person, they give you
different sides and a different song.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
You sing it. You know, you get another call.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Back, I guess, or like a producer session and you know,
they kind of play and see how how you act
with redirection. And then after that point, I can't really
remember how long it was from my last audition to
when I booked it, but I got the call that
they wanted me as the voice of Doc and.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I love this. I was so happy for you, Like
it's happening right now. It is really crazy.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Just to think about it in retrospect, it's quite It's
really sweet.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
And I made a bet with my dad, you.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Know, it was fun, but he was like, you know
it if you book DOC makes stuff ins where what's
one place you want to go to. I was like,
I want to go to Disney al LAWNI in Hawaii. Oh.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I was gonna say, what is that.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
It's like, yeah, it's like there the resort in Hawaii.
And I had never been to Hawaii, and so he
was like, what do you want? I was like, I
would like to go to Disney. Alani then just threw
it away. I was like that, you know whatever. But
then I booked it and we got to go to
Disney Alani.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
He did, he did right by me, he show did
he sure did. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
A year later we were in and we were at
Disney Allani. You mom and dad, Oh yeah, whole family. Yeah,
we were there. It was wonderful. I met your parents.
Where are they from? I love it there Originally the South? Yeah,
North Carolina? Uh huh, North and South Carolina. My mom's
from North Carolina, my dad's from South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
And your mom is Filipino. She is She's gorgeous. Absolutely,
she is so gorgeou.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I love them so much. I love her. She's like
the baddest you've seen her.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I said, I did nothing with my outfit today because
Lea's mom came through and she ate.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
No, but she looks so cute. She looks up the
purple eyeshadow, going, I see you.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I do.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I really love it. I like just a little dab
of color. I can't just do a brown.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I think it's perfect. I love it.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
But your parents they met North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, they met in North Carolina. They met.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
I like to find out about the people that made
the person I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Oh that's sweet.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Yeah, they met maybe in like two thousand and two.
They tell their love story all the time. Yeah, they
met in like CPR class, which.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Is real clazy. Yeah, random is dead.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
It was so random and like super intimate low KEI
like for me, she was like his partner.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yes, like doing the highlight.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
No.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
I didn't even know if they want this on air. Okay,
we'll think, we'll ask them.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
But that's cute.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
It's such a cute that I meet my husband. Well,
there was definitely like you are from him. There was
more conspiring from my father on his.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Oh oh okay, okay, I thought he was just random.
I can see why he would conspire.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, he was like he still remembers the outfit she
was wearing. Oh oh no, he was. He was into this.
He was into it.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
He wasn't paid somebody to want that's my partner.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
How much you need a hundred you have? It's crazy
you say that. I feel like I should stop try
Bye bye bye bye. Mom and Dad are dope.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
They're fly fly, and they're responsible for you being on
this earth, yes, and your career, because without a good
support system, how can we get anywhere?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Right exactly?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
I mean like you need a It becomes even more
clear to me as I get older just how important
a support system is and tries.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, especially being that young.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I'm only twenty years old, so I'm young.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
You're a baby, still a baby, very vulnerable to predators
in the industry, you know exactly, These people are out
here looking for victims.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I don't mean to make this dark, but it is. Oh,
we know Hollywood. We know Hollywood, and we hear the
stories and we see the documentaries. So I love that.
You know you have your parents, they're with you.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, it is the reality of what I do and
and just how the business and that part of the
industry is like in a lot of ways, it does
feel like a separate thing too, because when you fall
in love with your passion or with your art. Your
art is your art, you know, and you create things
because you love it. And then on the other side
(20:17):
of that, there's still a business aspect. There's still people
who are being able to pay their rent off of
what you do. You know, they're people who.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Want something from you exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
So it's important to have one people who are able
to bring you back down to earth and back down
to reality and also protect you.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And you know, for sure, and I feel like mom
and Dad are both hyper aware of what's happening and
they look like they have the street smarts on lock.
We need that. That's business and common sense. We need
all of it. When you are a child actor and
when you're a young person dealing with agents, lawyers, managers
(20:55):
that you know, yeah, they represent you, but ultimately their
interests is very much themselves high priority exactly.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
And like I mean, of course, at eight years old,
I wouldn't understand you're making money. That's also the thing.
You're making a large sum of money at a very
young age. And people also want to get paid as
well for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And me being you.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Know, again, like twenty, I'm still young. But there's so
much that I don't know about that world as well.
And so the fact that you know, as I'm learning,
there's people that I can learn from and also people
who will look out for me and have my best
interest at heart is like, I am so grateful for Cherish.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Cherish.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Now I want to talk about the Angry Black Girl
and her Monster. Can we talk about this movie?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Please? Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I feel like you love this movie. I looking at
your social media and looking at your post, it's like
you have like a did you write for it? Did
you produce for it? What is your attachment to this movie?
Because I feel like it's it wasn't just a role.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Uh that's like a good observation. Yeah, I love it.
I love this movie so much. I love Angry Black
Owner Monster. I loved the team that worked on it.
I didn't write on it at all, but I had
such a wonderful collaboration with the director bamani Ja's story
and Vikaria just.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Felt like my baby. She really did feel like mine.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I wanted so badly to just protect her, and I
took it very seriously from the start.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Not really knowing what it was gonna be.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
We had no idea that we were gonna end up
going to south By Southwest, which is where we premiered,
and we had no idea we were gonna be nominated
for NAACP Image Awards. I saw that none of that.
We had no idea what it was gonna be. All
I knew is I had never starred in a movie
before where I was like number one on the call
sheet and this pressure, right, Yeah, it's like this pressure
(22:46):
and the good pressure though, like the excitement and the
nerves that you get when you're working on anything. But
I just felt such a closeness to Vikaria, the character
I played, and to the story. And then to add
on the fact that, like the cast was so wonderful
(23:07):
to work with, and just a little tidbit about that
movie too, what was so cool again in the way
the universe, just the lines. It felt like a homecoming
for me. We filmed in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is
where I was born. Yeah, and I was like fifteen
minutes away from my grandparents' house. Then we premiered at
south By Southwest in Austin, Texas, which again not raised
(23:27):
in Austin, but was raised in Dallas, Texas. So just
felt very full circle. So yeah, it holds a very
special place in my heart.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Did you visit grandma and grandpa while you were filming?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Of course, yeah, No, I visited my grandmother. I visited
my family members out there.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
You would like film a scene where you're getting chased
by a monster and then at the end of the
day you could go have dinner with your cousins.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Now, where can people stream that movie today if they
wanted to watch it after listening to this episode?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Oh, I believe it's on Disney Plus Plus, and I
think it's also on Amazon to purchase as well.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
You can rent it on there too.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
It's definitely a must watch. Do you feel like it
kind of like do you remember Swarm when it came out? Oh?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, I never I never got the chance to see it.
Though it was good.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I feel like if you loved Swarm, you're you're definitely
gonna love this movie. It's it gives like the same
similar type of vibes. It was an amazing project too.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Oh good, I want to I love Dominique Fishback. I
think she's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
She's amazing, And it was just the whole correlation of like,
is it is she a Beyonce fan?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Is she not.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
It was just like Beyonce fans descended on this movie
like it belonged to them. Yeah, yeah it was. It's
what it was giving. And I absolutely loved this. So
if you watched Swarm and you loved.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
It, that does what we need.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
We need more black horror anyway, and like black psychological horror,
anything that feels original and different.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I'm like all.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Four And so Jordan Peel's your guy, Jordan Peele, and
also so many amazing like filmmaker filmmakers, but I love
Jordan Peele.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Shout out Jordan Pielen. Anything he puts out is for me.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
It's exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
But there's so many wonder black filmmakers and black movies
and like so much of us just aren't looking, which
like is amazing that we were able to like be
able to create them and now be able to like
talk about it on this pod.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
And it's what we have to do, you know, Like
I say, if we don't support the projects that are
made for us, then they're gonna start coming.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
It's like, Okay, yeah, we put out this show, but
nobody watched, so it was canceled, and that's what we
don't want, right But like, look at the Equalizer, how
long it's been running and it has to do with
viewership and people. And now it's on Netflix and it's
I feel like through Netflix it's going to reach like
a whole new level because you know, once people you know,
lock in with some young on Netflix.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
No, it's true, You're so right. I mean I look
at what happened with Friends.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
That show is so old. Yes, all of a sudden,
young people watching Friends. I'm like, good is this?
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Well? You hear about it all the time too, where
like shows get canceled and then they're put on a
streaming platform and then they're like revived again and they
get another season. It's like incredible just what like streaming
has the ability to do. But also on top of that,
like to have such a strong and solid fan base
with our Equalizer fans, with us not even being on
(26:07):
a streaming platform before Netflix was like has been such
an amazing and beautiful thing to experience.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Because to exist on television where people have to tune
in week after week, it's totally different than binging.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Totally different, and like people don't want to do it. Yeah,
appointment exactly, It's an appointment.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
People sometimes they want to do it. They want to
binge twenty episodes in one sitting, and they want to
watch when they want to watch.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
They don't want to be like, Okay, what day and
time does their show where?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Or Sunday? I think at ten pm?
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Now?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah, so it's like every Sunday people are like, oh,
I have to remember no, this is This means that
people are truly invested in the show and that they
love it and they go home and they're like, nah,
I got to be home or I got to be
by a TV Sundays at ten pm.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I think that's so special and important, especially now when
I mean obviously with phones and social media, like our
attention span gets quite small, and like we want and
we want them now. But every time I have somebody
come up to me and they say, like I watch
every Sunday, it makes my heart so happy, so so happy.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Where do you feel like you recognized the most in
New York? Oh gosh, I.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Get recognized a lot out here, especially depends on where
I film.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Out here, like the show because it feels real.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
The number one thing I hate is New York shows
that aren't film in New York. Yeah, that's just said,
I'm like, I can't watch the show.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I'm sorry. This is not New York born and raised
New York. I'm like, this is not a Brooklyn stoopid.
This is in Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
No, Like, if that's the case, just film it in Hollywood,
like it's really okay. Also, don't make it a love
letter to the city if you're not in the city.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
You know, but ours is filmed right in Brooklyn, so I.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
See the streets. I was like, Darren Dumbo, Oh yeah,
I was like, I love it.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
It was funny.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
I was parking, like in Midtown a couple of weeks ago,
and I parked right in front of our Equalizer sign
that said we were going to be filming on Monday.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
You were like, so I can't park it because You're like,
come on, job, you're messing me up.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
I wanted to park here exactly. I'm like, do I
have to pay for parking?
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Still?
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Darn it? Yeah? Now that's so dope.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
And you know, I love you know, the representation the show,
what it gives you know, family, you know, black women,
brown women. It's just it just feels so good and
I love watching it.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, and I'm a crime show watcher and I'm a
Dayline NBC, Like I love anything crime related, but I
feel like the Equalizer just gives me. It humanizes the
show the way it needs to be, because you know,
you can't just watch somebody kill kill kill kill kill.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
And also just like when your mom got well, when
Queen Latifa got kidnapped, Lila was going through.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Hill Yeah, oh girl, she was going through it. She's
gone through it a lot show. Yeah, I know. I'm like,
you canna be fine. Mom's gonna come back. You got
a badass mom. She gonna survive. She gonna be okay
with your THEA.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
She's just funning out to him, like, girls, come on, relax,
Like I'm part of the family.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
I need you to calm down. Relax. She don't need
to move.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
We just needed you in like season two of Equalizer
when that happened, to come in and be like, hey, girls,
calm down, she's got it, she's got it under control.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Make it back home. No.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I mean sometimes I will watch the episodes like with
my family and we'll be over there stressed and I
will have like read the scripts already, and like I
know what's gonna happen, but then it makes a turn,
and to see it on camera, I'm like, wait, oh
my gosh, wait, how does this end again? So there's
a lot of twist and turns that keep us.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
How do you feel watching yourself back? Can you or
You're like I could have done that differently. I don't
want to watch like or you not that critical of yourself.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I wish I could lie and say I was one
of those actors. I was like, no, it's completely fine.
It's so stressful. It really is stressful to watch my myself.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Thank you. People don't understand.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I don't like to hear myself back sometimes and I'm
like I could have pronounce that differently, and people don't
get it.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
When I was on doc, I like could not listen
to the episode. I didn't want to hear it. I
was like, I can't listen to my voice seeing myself
on screen, it's cool. Like again with Angry Black Girl.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
When I got to.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
See it in theaters, I was like, wow, this is amazing.
I've never seen my face. So with my entire family,
my mom and my dad, they were there and then
just like our entire crew and cast too, because it
was south By.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
It was the first place we saw it.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Oh okay, which is so nerve wracking, Like, next time,
I need them to send me that movie first before I.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Who's in?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
He? Who here?
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I was like, are they gonna scream? Are they gonna laugh?
Like what's gonna happen?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
No? I was the week before the premiere of Anything.
The premiere of Equalizer was I was horrified. The same
with Angry Black Girl. Horrified, like praying every single night,
so nervous, like I was like it was my baby,
like that I was going to see because it's.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
You when you create art with your persona, where it
be your voice, your acting, art, fashion, whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
If people don't like it, they didn't like you. I
know it feels that way. It's like, oh my god, why,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
I think my mentality kind of shifted after the movie
came out because with Equalizer, I was so nervous. I
was like, oh my god, I was sixteen, but I
was thinking in my head, what if people think I'm
bad or like what if I'm not happy with the performance,
Like what if they don't like the show. There's just
all these things that go through your head and then
with the movie, I was also feeling that way because
(31:39):
that was like, Oh my gosh, it's my face. And
then you were lead and I'm a lead and I
haven't seen it at all. I at least seen a
trailer for Equalizer, but I adn't seen like anything Frankry
Black Girl. And then I think, like a couple of
days before the premiere, maybe like two days before, I
was like, oh wait, it was my baby. It's not
my baby any more. This is for them, this is
(32:01):
for the audience now. So like I had the most
amazing time filming. Whatever anybody thinks about the project at
this point, great, you can think it, but it has
really nothing to do with me, because my experience was
so singular, like nobody else will ever be able to
know what that was like. And for the viewer, it's
supposed to be uh, it's supposed to be theirs now.
(32:22):
They're supposed to take what they take from it, and
it is.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
It's kind of like music when artists make an album exactly,
it's like this belongs to you us, it's yours. You
consume it whichever way you want, your perspective, you relate
to it, whichever which way I guess.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
I guess it's kind of like the same.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Yeah, it is completely and it's very freeing. When you
sit back and you think of it that way, it's
like you're like, that's it, it's over enjoy it, enjoy.
I was like, oh wait, I think I can sit
back and enjoy my movie maybe and just enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
It felt so real and it just felt so strong.
Thank you, it's good. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
School. How have you been able to go to school?
Schooling or yeahne or oh yeah, I forgot to.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Talk to me.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
I know we've talked about everything.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
We don't talk about you moving get a job at
eight years old.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I guess people do want to know about that. Yeah,
I was.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I was in public school until Ixas, Yeah, in Texas
and for like maybe one or two semesters in LA.
But after fourth grade I was homeschooled. DOC required it.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
In a way.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
It seemed like one of those things I was going
to take me out of the running if I wasn't homeschooled.
And then I did what I was on, like the
Disney shows are on Gray's Anatomy and some of the
more dramatic TV shows. When I was younger, we just
had a studio teacher, so I had kind of gotten
my flow with homeschool and it worked for my schedule.
And then it was amazing because everyone in LA was
(33:49):
also homeschooled too, so we were kind of just growing
up in this.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Little bubble together.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
And then when I moved to cal I mean, to
New York, it was like my bubble was popped and
people were like, girl, what's do you go to school?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Like, what's the vibe? Is the same thing I just
did right now? Right?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
It's like, oh wait, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
No, but I I did this thing called the chess be,
which is something that a lot of child actors do
when you hit like fifteen, and you can basically work
like an adult, which in retrospect also kind of crazy,
and in New York.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
They really don't allow it.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
So I had worked so hard to do this chess
be and then I would still do like school hours
while on set for Equalizer and work a limited amount
of time when I was below the age of eighteen.
So yeah, that was kind of It was more just
like homeschooling and having a flexible schedule.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Do you watch like high school shows or like high
school and movies and you're like, I miss it, like
I wish I would have done that.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
I don't think I've ever felt that. I don't think
i've ever felt that. With high school in particular. I
loved high school musical though, and so I would love that.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
And then well, I'll tell you this, that's not a reality.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
You're not going to get that.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Yeah, And I had just a lot of friends who
were I had a good amount of friends who were homeschooled,
and then a good amount that were in public school
too at the time, and who were also actors. And
I don't know the experience. I think I wanted prom
and I wanted homecoming prom stuff we see on.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
TV exactly, and I would go to those with my friends.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So you kind of like got to experience it in
a way completely.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
And also again like I think LA in itself is
just such a bubble for kids who are that age.
It was such a specific experience at the time, like
pre COVID where we would have those types of parties
and those types of like get togethers with everyone because
our audition cycle in a way was our schooling and
it was our way.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
I love this making friends.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
It was again like in retrospect, it's like, oh gosh,
that was strange, but for us it was very normal
at the time.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Now, I want to shift to Kamala Harris. How did
you end up involved in the DNC and the campaigning?
How did you end up linking with Vice President Harris
or her team?
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Oh, my gosh, it was so that experience was really wonderful.
I ended up I was nominated for an NAACP Image
Award this past year for Angry Black Girl and a Monster,
And they had this beautiful like Sunday brunch and they
invited a bunch of actors to come speak to younger
(36:25):
creatives as well, just about our experience. And I met
so many wonderful people that day. And one of the
people that I met was a part of the DNC,
and they got me involved kind of that way, really
early on within Joe Biden's campaign at the time, so
before Kamala was even in the running, I started working
(36:45):
with the DNC.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
I went to the White House for their Juneteenth.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Festival all that, and I was really inspired to kind
of speak up for just gen Z and the importance
of voting because it was my first time voting in
a present dential elections.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I was very excited.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
And it was one thing when like Biden was in
the running, but when we knew Kamala was in the running,
I think.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Just everything it was gifted.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
It was as black and brown women, we saw ourselves,
you know, daughters of people, you know, immigrants, Like it
was just it just resonated in so many different ways.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Oh yeah, especially like just being a woman in this
day and age, and like seeing another I'm black and
Filipino as you know, and like just to see another
mixed race woman on in this position of power was
like the biggest, the biggest.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Position was so hopeful, especially again just after the it's
hard to talk about this now, but especially after the
five six, seven years that we had already gone through,
like with the pandemic, and then I was also seeing
like strike last year it was in the acting industry. Yeah,
(37:58):
so it was just like a beacon of hope.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
It was what it looked like.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
It's just like, Okay, the light at the end of
the tunnel, it's.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Here and it's obvious. That's what it felt like to
me and from where I was. But yeah, I got
to work with the campaign. I went to the DNC
in August and I spoke with the Youth Council and
I got to meet just so many wonderful people and
speak to a lot of young people who are interested
in voting or were scared about what was going to
(38:24):
happen in the next few years, and we all just
got to come together. I did canvassing events in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
That's good, you know, boots on the ground.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Boots on the ground exactly. And it's a very different
I mean to I'm kind of used to acting, and
I'm used to being on screen or being on stage
doing that whole thing, and it takes a certain amount
of vulnerability to get on camera and to be as
honest as you can through another character. But I had
(38:54):
never felt so vulnerable when speaking to certain volunteers or
certain people who are part of the campaign. It inspired
me so much just to want to do better, just
as a person for our country and for just our civilians,
just for like the people who are going to be
impacted the most, I mean now by who will be
(39:16):
coming into office. But again, I think, if anything, it
just shows us that the fight continues, and when we
come together, special things can happen. And in that way,
being an actor. Art can also heal in that way
as well.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Oh no, it definitely can. I say it all the time.
You know, the arts, whether it be theater, music, movies.
You can be going through the worst time in your
life and you just put on that one movie and
you can escape reality.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Exactly. It's therapy. It's therapy, and to create it is therapy.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
I mean, like one of my favorite eras is I
mean for music especially is the seventies. I love the
seventies so much, and I love like that post Motown
sound a lot, and like when Marvin Gay put out
What's going On and Stevie Wonder had like his amazing albums.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
These these old you know, icons and music and they
were music was music.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah, when the music was music.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
But Stevie was like on his thing, and you know,
you had all these incredible artists who were just so
moved and impacted and angry about the times that they.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Were living in and down to speak about it.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
And down to speak about it.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
And in that way, I go back and I listened
to those albums still within this time, and I'm like, Okay,
there was hope then and there is still hope now.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
I love that you were involved, and I'm like, you know,
gen Z needs it. You know, it's like, yeah, you know,
we have a lot of influencers, we have a lot
of TikTokers, but who is really you know, speaking out
about what's important and you know, putting yourself out there
and aligning yourself with a candidate.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
A lot of people don't like to touch politics, It's.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
True, and especially when you're given a platform as well.
Like the amazing thing about being an influencers you have
people who will listen and say with being on TV
and being an actor and a musician, whatever, you have
a platform.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
And I think to be.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
In a privileged position like that, you can use it
in such a valuable way and you shouldn't be able.
You shouldn't take advantage of that. You should take advantage
of it in the way that you speak out on
the issues that are important to.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
You and you can make change.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
You know, it doesn't just your influence and your popularity
and your celebrity doesn't just have to be to gain
you know, financial and just to you know, have clout
and just to be in all these poping places. You
can stop down and be like, I'm going to make
a difference.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Exactly, and like those things are hollow.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
Like if you think about it, like the status and
like the image, and even like the idea followers whatever,
it's it is quite hollow, you know, very much so.
And then when you you still think about it, there's
a lot.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Of power within it as well.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
There is, and that means that, okay, well, people are
being impacted by this. And then when you look at
the real world, when you look at these political candidates
or government or this country whatever, you see people are
impacted by the things and decisions that people make.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Exactly. So it's like, yeah, it's it is. On one
side of.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
It, sure it's hollow, and then on the other side
of it, it's like, okay, well, also at the same time,
people are impacted by it. And so with that being said,
it's not it's not something that you should take lightly.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Don't take it for granted, don't take it if you're influencing,
influence for better exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Now, what are we working on for twenty twenty five?
For you equalizer? You're currently working right, you're shooting.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Yes, currently working on the Equalizer. Thank you so much
for taking this time out to come meet with you.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
Oh goodness, of course, I'm so happy that. I'm so
happy you had me. I'm having a great time.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
But yeah, Equalizers season five we're working on right now,
and so.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
You're working in airrings simultaneously.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Yes, we've done that since season one, so yeah, especially
with COVID, it was such a crazy time and schedule,
but we're filming it at the moment and we're having
a great time. And then I really want to do
more films as well. Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
was of course like my first one, and I'm just
hoping to continue that within the next year, doing more
(43:23):
movies and working with amazing directors as well. And then
speaking of podcasts, I'm hoping to do my own this
year as well.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
You're going to I'm going to, Yeah, do you have
a name?
Speaker 2 (43:35):
I feel like I feel like that's the first step
towards making it a reality.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I feel like I'm not sure if I should say it.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yet, don't say it, but that's step one.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
That's step one.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Yeah, name, and then everything else just trickles down from
there exactly.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
So you have the name, it's going to happen. Okay, beautiful,
Because I have the name that I'll keep a secret.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Keep it a secret.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Well, we'll see it when you announce it. Yeah, but
I'm excited. I'm excited for it.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
I started hosting these dinners last year, okay, and I
hosted my first dinner, and it was to bring again
because I grew up in California and I grew up
with a lot of young actors, but the competition aspect
was such a big part of everything, and so it
was hard to make friends. It was hard to find
sisters and community that way. And as I've gotten older,
(44:22):
I found such community and those people now. And because
I'm in LA and New York, I want to be
able to just bring women of color together in one
space so that not only can we talk about our
creative ambitions and feel safe to be able to talk
about those things, but also at the same time we
can build friendships as well.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
So I love that. I want the podcast to be
kind of an extension of the dinner.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
So, and it's gonna be thank you whatever you need,
you have questions, launching, anything you need reach out. I'm like, here,
this is what you're gonna do, and this is how
you're gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
I really appreciate that I will.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
I will because I want to love what you got
going on here, and you've been so lovely for this time.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
All right, So we're gonna watch you on the Equalizer
Sunday nights, ten pm. Yes, we're going to follow you
on social media. What's your Instagram?
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Sure, it's at Leah Delion Hayes, which is my name
l A y A d e l.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
E o n A s h A y e y s.
And there you have it.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Make sure you follow, make sure you watch and stalk
her whole life because when that podcast drops, we got
to make sure we support her too.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Yes, thank you, thank you, I appreciate it. And Grassiers
Come Again. I will if you'll have me. Of course.
That was amazing, Thank you so much, Thank you so much.
It was so lovely to meet you and so great
and you know again.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Grassiers Come Again is a production of Honey German Productions
in partnership with iheartmcuntura podcast Network
Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
All Right, welcome to another episode of Gracias Come Again.
Today we're sitting down with actress Leah Leon Hayes.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome, Hi, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I am so happy to have you. It's like, it's
crazy because you go from watching someone on television to
having them right across from you. You currently start in
the equalizer alongside the icon, the goat, the great Queen Latifa. Yes,
a legend, the legend, all that good stuff, right, all
the words.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I was. I was reading one of your interviews and
it was just.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Like you still don't kind of like get used to
like being in her space, Like does it still feel
kind of like, wow, it's Queen Latifa.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I mean, I think sometimes I think we all have
those moments when like your dream comes true and like
you're working on this show consistently, and then you kind
of take a minute to like look back at your
career and your life and you're like, wait, I cannot
believe that this is happening. Sometimes I think about eight
year old me and I was watching like Chicago and
seeing Queen lantive in Chicago, or my mom like she
(01:08):
used to watch Set It Off all the time when
I was a kid, so I can remember, like.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Sorry if anybody hasn't seen Set It Off, but like
just three times by now you could talk about it.
So I remember just like seeing those things as a kid.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
And now that I'm able to work with her and
learn from her, it is very dreamlike.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Still now we're getting a season five correct, Oh.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
We're yes, girl, Yes we are. We're in season five
right now. It's airing and we're filming it at the
same time.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Oh, really, do you do both?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Okay, so it's season six that I'm I'm anticipating, okay.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Exactly, which we'll still we still have some time before
we figure out if we'll have another season.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
But what's been really.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Amazing manifesting it for you. We do not want to
equalize it to go anywhere. I love that show.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Good. That makes me happy. And we're on Netflix now,
which has been That's where I've been been watching you.
Oh gosh, that makes me so happy.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It comes up first. Netflix either knows my behavior or
the show is just all the way up there and
in viewership.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Is that algorithm knows The algorithm knows what you like immediately.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And you know, it's because I've always liked crime shows.
I've always liked shows, you know, where female leads. I
love what she's doing. But I find that with the
Equalizer it just feels more like family oriented, and you know,
it's like it's not just about bad guys and killing
them and getting them off the streets. Then we have
(02:29):
like those moments you know, between you and your mom
and your great aunt. Right, yeah, that circle is just
so beautiful.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I mean, this is the first time that I've ever
seen on network television that there's three generations of women
and one home, which is really beautiful because also in
my life while filming the show, I had three generations
of women in my home as well, so one to
be able to represent that on television just made me
very happy. And then exactly what you're saying, I think
(02:58):
why people gravitate so much to our show is like,
of course, we.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
All love the action.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
We love when the Equalizer gets to equalizing and she's
killing the bad guys and doing.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
All the stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
But I think the fact that you bring it home.
You start the episode with us in the kitchen or
in our living room, and you end the episode with
her also coming back to her family, either in the
living room or kitchen wherever. And I think in that
way it resonates with our audience, especially because at the
center of it, it is about a woman who yes,
wants to bring justice to good people in the world,
(03:30):
but also wants to make the world a better place
for her family as well.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So I'm always so happy when she makes it home.
I'm like, yes, I know, and.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Looks amazing by the way, well time, Like she always
has the good outfits onto.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So Ponytail be doing what is supposed to be doing.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
I do.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I love it because it just feels real. You know.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It's just like I love Queen Latifa. It's just she
represents as a born, you know, raised New Yorker hip hophead,
kind of like tomboy. She was everything, Like, she just
felt so good. I remember watching her as a kid
riding a motorcycle. I'm like, I could do that.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Oh yeah, And I think she still rides motorcycles sometimes.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, yeah, she Like I saw her on the show
on a bike and I was like, I wonder if
that was really her.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah. We did an episode in season three and it
was about like a biker crew.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I think in Brooklyn or Harlem.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
That's the one with Big Daddy King.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
This one with Big Daddy k Oh, my gosh, and
he's incredible. Shout out of Bigdaddy Kan because he was
wonderful to work. I don't even think I had any
scenes with him. I just shadowed that day because I
wanted to meet him so bad.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I saw him walk on, I said, wait, wait, is
this Big Daddy Kane that I'm looking at right now?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And I went online. I said Big Daddy Kane. They
equalized and it said sure enough. Yeah, And he looked
cool too. He had the leather on the and it just.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Felt so organic and like so natural.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
He did good. He did good, good acting jobs. Big
Daddy King.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
No.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
With Queen Latifa, it's just like.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
She's she's one of those people I'm gonna eventually during
COVID they did an event and they were like, honey,
can you come and you're gonna be moderating and Queen
Latifa's gonna be there. And I wasn't able to make
the date due to medical reasons, and that hurt me
so much.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Only this was my chance, This was my chance.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
But I know what's gonna happen again, but I remember it.
It made me feel so depressed. And then it was
COVID and people were dying and I was going through
my own thing, and I was just like.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I got a chance to meet Queen Latifa. Oh yeah, yeah,
it's gonna happen. I know it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen.
We're manifesting that that's easily gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
But she's just such a badass. I love her so much.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Well, it's crazy you bring up like COVID and the
Queen Latifa COVID correlation.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
This is how I'm going to bridge that gap.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Is we I auditioned for the show right before COVID.
So I auditioned literally I think late February of twenty twenty,
and so that's right before it was right before we
did a chemistry read. I did it with Queen Latifa
again like that end of February, booked it, and then
they flew me out to Brooklyn. Literally the week of
(05:56):
Lockdown was when we were supposed to film the pilots,
so we never even got to finish the pilot.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
We did like two table reads.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Before Lockdown, and then I got a call from one
of the first ads at the time who was like, hey, girl,
we're not going to be able to film this much love.
You need to go home now because COVID is starting
to happen.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Went home. I was like, I don't know what's going
to happen with the show.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
It was kind of crazy because it was like, oh
my god, I got the opportunity that I've been dreaming
of for so long, and now I won't even.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Be able to film our first episode.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So how it was before COVID was like, you do
the pilot and then you hopefully it gets picked up
and then you have a show. But we didn't even
get to do that pilot, so we had no idea
what it was going to be.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Thankfully they picked us up without a pilot.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I was just going to say, so you got picked
up without a pilot?
Speaker 1 (06:41):
We did. Yeah, they believed in it a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
They wanted this show to happen, and I'm happy they
made it happen too. Now let's go a little bit back.
You've been at this since you're a child.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yes, girl, a long time.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I met your parents. They look super cool, super young
and hip. Was this their idea?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
They were like, this kid has something. How did you
end up you know, acting?
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, no, I this was fully my idea.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I mean it's hard to kind of say that because
even though it was my idea and I wanted to
do it, of course you need a support system, especially
at the.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Age of eight years old.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I was just gonna say, well, I'm like, but when
you're like a third grade yeah, literally, I was so,
you like, obviously I need my parents there. But it
kind of started when I was six years old. I
knew for a fact that I was not a very
sporty child. I mean, I grew up in Dallas, Texas,
so in the twenty tens, all the kids were like playing.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Soccer or like softball, and I was.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Like, I'm not into any of this. I don't want
to be an athletic girl. But I found cheerleading. I
said I didn't want to do athletics, and I ended
up being a cheerleader when I was six. Loved it
so much, and that kind of led me to dance.
Dance led me to being on stage, which led me
to want to sing. And by the time I started singing,
I was wanting I was watching a bunch of Disney
(07:59):
Channel and Nicolo and of course at the times.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Up right there.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Oh yeah, you're talking about singing. I was talking about
your third grade talent show. That video you posted your
singing that's.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
All from Wicked. That's my third grade talent Is that
where it started?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And don't win that part because it's on her Instagram
and you want to see what I'm talking about it is.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
You're right, I sang popular from Wicked at my third
grade talent show. And I think at that point I
had kind of already made the decision that I wanted
to act.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
How did you decide at that age? I couldn't even
decide the color of my socks. It's just one of
those things.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I had this amazing acting coach, like when I was
eight years old. I can remember doing like private lessons
with her, and she was so mesmerizing, like the way
that she talked about acting and film and theater.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Name.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Her name is Catherine Hart of Heart and Soul Studio.
Shout out to her.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
She's like, really the reason. I mean, her and my parents,
of course, are the reason why I'm here. Because I
was so taken aback by how magical she was to
me at the time, and all of it felt so much.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
It literally is like knowing.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
How much you like to play house or play pretend
when you're a kid, you know, dress up as a
princess when you're that age.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And that's what it all felt like to me.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
It all felt very magical and uh just like I
was having a good time.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
So by the time I.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Did my third grade talent show, I had probably already
been in acting lessons for a year year and a half, okay,
and I was singing popular everywhere, like I did it
at my recitals and you were like, it was my
go to song. It was my go to song, not
and probably like at Last by Edda James, but I did.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
That was a song. It was a song. It was
a song.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
But I sang popular and won that talent show girl.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Oh you won? Oh I won best overall. Don't Forget,
Don't Forget, and uh yeah, after that.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I literally moved to La I think maybe six not
even six months, after like two months my dad included, right,
Mom and dad, and it was amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
They believed believe.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
You, They believed in me, and you're in and you're like, mom, Dad,
we need to go to LA.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Well that was not that was definitely I think my
dad and I I think my dad had definitely seen
something in me, and he was like, I want to
be able to foster your dream and your talents and.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
No he was he was like, I want to give
my daughter a fair shot.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And so I love him for that.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
It was Yeah, I in retrospect, I'm like, dude, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
What did what did your parents do for a living
when this was happened? They had to quit their jobs
and everything.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Right, not necessarily.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
So the most amazing part about this, and this is
kind of how like the stars aligned for us at
the time, was my mom was in a corporate job
and she was a really hard worker, and so we
didn't even get to spend that much time together. So
me and my dad were really the ones conspiring with
this acting.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You would come home and you guys had a whole
plan map down.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
No.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Literally, she would come home and she'd be like, why
are you guys like doing plays and filming ourselves?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
She said, what is this white board?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
What is this white board? The crime shows? I was
literally we were conspiring. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
But my dad was like a tire salesman at the time,
and so he got his job to transfer him to
Los Angeles. Okay, Dad, Everything really worked out for us,
and it was difficult, of course, like being that young,
and I wasn't aware of all the you know, logistical
and financial things that were also going to be just
want to act?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I just don't want to act.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I just knew like all you could get in Texas
was print work and like kid modeling, and I did
not like kid modeling.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I wanted to do commercials. That's where you booked your
Chuck e Cheese photoshoots.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You do your research car.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
What do I Stalkstoh you stalk?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yeah, No, that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I did my Chucky Cheese brochure and that was like
the first thing that I ever booked. Yeah, and it
was amazing. I just got to play ski ball all
day paid and get paid, yes, which I got a
good lego after that with my first my first paycheck.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
So then you land in La.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yes, what what's the first step to getting you booked?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Busy and working? So do you remember all this?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
All of this kind of gets blurry for me because
I was a kid and I was just having so
much fun. I honestly was thinking in my head I
don't know if you've ever seen Victorious, but in Victorious
they're at Hollywood Arts, and I was like, where's Hollywood Arts?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Like you want to see the Walk Game, Disneyland all
that stuff. It was like just being a kid in
a candy store.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
But I do know because I was a very competitive kid,
and I think I had I don't know, a good
amount of ambition at that age. And I had gotten
a manager before I had moved to California from singing
popular at not my third grade talent show, but one
of those recitals I was just talking about. I ended
(12:44):
up getting a manager through one of our contacts in Texas,
and by the time I was out, you know, you
just got to go into the pool and try to
find an agent so that you can get opportunities.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
It was a very different world then.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
I'm not really sure what it would be like now,
but uh, being a child actor in the twenty tens
in Los Angeles, California was like what everybody was trying
to be, so uh it felt like a TV show
in itself, sitting there waiting to talk to an agent
and doing a cold read in front of them. But again,
I think it's amazing to start that young, because so
(13:18):
much of it just felt like I was playing.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah, now, Doc Mix Stuffings. Yes, eighty four episodes.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Oh my goodness, you know the precise episodes. I want
to applaud you for that. This is a lot of work.
It was a lot.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
How did you land that role?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Like, out of a million people in the whole world,
how did they decide you're the voice for Doc Mix Stuffings.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Well, I got out to California in June of twenty thirteen,
when I was nine. I booked Doc Mixed stuff Ins
November twenty thirteen, so it was so quick, Like moving
in LA was like I was doing commercials and guest
star appearance appearances and co stars on Gray's Anatomy and
(14:20):
Cougartown exactly. Yeah. And then I got an audition for
a voiceover project. Now, frankly, I had never done voiceover
before in my life. I did not know voiceover was
something you could get into as an actor. And it
was for Doc Mix Stuffans and the show had already
been on, so I was aware of it.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Oh, you knew what it was exactly.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I was the second doc so I had seen the
TV show before, and I watched it that's the thing.
Like before school, I would watch doc mix stuffans, and
so I was like, if I'm going to do one voiceover, like,
I want it to be this one.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I got a booked out, were you like?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I was freaking out? Man?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
It was also like just being a kid and thinking
of Disney and and that whole world just seemed otherworldly
to me.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
So it was all really exciting.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
And I had been trained to sing and I had
been trained to act, and then I got a wonderful
voiceover coach in La who helped me with the audition,
and the process was maybe like a month and a
half if I can remember correctly, And.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
So what you would keep going back to read different things.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
So you basically do like a voiceover audition would be
like over your phone and then you would send it
via email. So are you reading something? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Is it a different voice or is it just your voice?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I mean at the time it was my voice, Like
I sounded like high pitch stock mixed stuff ins when.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I was nine. So you can't do it today, right, Well, we.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Could try, but I feel like you guys might end
up in a voice crack.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I don't know if y'all want to hear that.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
But yeah, so you would get an audition like you'd
get audition sides, and then I was also given a
song that I could sing, and it was a song
that probably had already aired on Doc.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
You send it in via email.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
And I would go to this voice coach and he
would send it for me. And then after that, I
got like a call maybe a week or two later,
and they were like, we want to bring you in
for callback. You go in in person, they give you
different sides and a different song.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
You sing it. You know, you get another call.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Back, I guess, or like a producer session and you know,
they kind of play and see how how you act
with redirection. And then after that point, I can't really
remember how long it was from my last audition to
when I booked it, but I got the call that
they wanted me as the voice of Doc and.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I love this. I was so happy for you, Like
it's happening right now. It is really crazy.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Just to think about it in retrospect, it's quite It's
really sweet.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
And I made a bet with my dad, you.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Know, it was fun, but he was like, you know
it if you book DOC makes stuff ins where what's
one place you want to go to. I was like,
I want to go to Disney al LAWNI in Hawaii. Oh.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I was gonna say, what is that.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
It's like, yeah, it's like there the resort in Hawaii.
And I had never been to Hawaii, and so he
was like, what do you want? I was like, I
would like to go to Disney. Alani then just threw
it away. I was like that, you know whatever. But
then I booked it and we got to go to
Disney Alani.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
He did, he did right by me, he show did
he sure did. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
A year later we were in and we were at
Disney Allani. You mom and dad, Oh yeah, whole family. Yeah,
we were there. It was wonderful. I met your parents.
Where are they from? I love it there Originally the South? Yeah,
North Carolina? Uh huh, North and South Carolina. My mom's
from North Carolina, my dad's from South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
And your mom is Filipino. She is She's gorgeous. Absolutely,
she is so gorgeou.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I love them so much. I love her. She's like
the baddest you've seen her.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I said, I did nothing with my outfit today because
Lea's mom came through and she ate.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
No, but she looks so cute. She looks up the
purple eyeshadow, going, I see you.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I do.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I really love it. I like just a little dab
of color. I can't just do a brown.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I think it's perfect. I love it.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
But your parents they met North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, they met in North Carolina. They met.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
I like to find out about the people that made
the person I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Oh that's sweet.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Yeah, they met maybe in like two thousand and two.
They tell their love story all the time. Yeah, they
met in like CPR class, which.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Is real clazy. Yeah, random is dead.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
It was so random and like super intimate low KEI
like for me, she was like his partner.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yes, like doing the highlight.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
No.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
I didn't even know if they want this on air. Okay,
we'll think, we'll ask them.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
But that's cute.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
It's such a cute that I meet my husband. Well,
there was definitely like you are from him. There was
more conspiring from my father on his.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Oh oh okay, okay, I thought he was just random.
I can see why he would conspire.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, he was like he still remembers the outfit she
was wearing. Oh oh no, he was. He was into this.
He was into it.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
He wasn't paid somebody to want that's my partner.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
How much you need a hundred you have? It's crazy
you say that. I feel like I should stop try
Bye bye bye bye. Mom and Dad are dope.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
They're fly fly, and they're responsible for you being on
this earth, yes, and your career, because without a good
support system, how can we get anywhere?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Right exactly?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
I mean like you need a It becomes even more
clear to me as I get older just how important
a support system is and tries.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, especially being that young.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I'm only twenty years old, so I'm young.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
You're a baby, still a baby, very vulnerable to predators
in the industry, you know exactly, These people are out
here looking for victims.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I don't mean to make this dark, but it is. Oh,
we know Hollywood. We know Hollywood, and we hear the
stories and we see the documentaries. So I love that.
You know you have your parents, they're with you.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, it is the reality of what I do and
and just how the business and that part of the
industry is like in a lot of ways, it does
feel like a separate thing too, because when you fall
in love with your passion or with your art. Your
art is your art, you know, and you create things
because you love it. And then on the other side
(20:17):
of that, there's still a business aspect. There's still people
who are being able to pay their rent off of
what you do. You know, they're people who.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Want something from you exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
So it's important to have one people who are able
to bring you back down to earth and back down
to reality and also protect you.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And you know, for sure, and I feel like mom
and Dad are both hyper aware of what's happening and
they look like they have the street smarts on lock.
We need that. That's business and common sense. We need
all of it. When you are a child actor and
when you're a young person dealing with agents, lawyers, managers
(20:55):
that you know, yeah, they represent you, but ultimately their
interests is very much themselves high priority exactly.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
And like I mean, of course, at eight years old,
I wouldn't understand you're making money. That's also the thing.
You're making a large sum of money at a very
young age. And people also want to get paid as
well for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And me being you.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Know, again, like twenty, I'm still young. But there's so
much that I don't know about that world as well.
And so the fact that you know, as I'm learning,
there's people that I can learn from and also people
who will look out for me and have my best
interest at heart is like, I am so grateful for Cherish.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Cherish.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Now I want to talk about the Angry Black Girl
and her Monster. Can we talk about this movie?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Please? Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I feel like you love this movie. I looking at
your social media and looking at your post, it's like
you have like a did you write for it? Did
you produce for it? What is your attachment to this movie?
Because I feel like it's it wasn't just a role.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Uh that's like a good observation. Yeah, I love it.
I love this movie so much. I love Angry Black
Owner Monster. I loved the team that worked on it.
I didn't write on it at all, but I had
such a wonderful collaboration with the director bamani Ja's story
and Vikaria just.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Felt like my baby. She really did feel like mine.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I wanted so badly to just protect her, and I
took it very seriously from the start.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Not really knowing what it was gonna be.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
We had no idea that we were gonna end up
going to south By Southwest, which is where we premiered,
and we had no idea we were gonna be nominated
for NAACP Image Awards. I saw that none of that.
We had no idea what it was gonna be. All
I knew is I had never starred in a movie
before where I was like number one on the call
sheet and this pressure, right, Yeah, it's like this pressure
(22:46):
and the good pressure though, like the excitement and the
nerves that you get when you're working on anything. But
I just felt such a closeness to Vikaria, the character
I played, and to the story. And then to add
on the fact that, like the cast was so wonderful
(23:07):
to work with, and just a little tidbit about that
movie too, what was so cool again in the way
the universe, just the lines. It felt like a homecoming
for me. We filmed in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is
where I was born. Yeah, and I was like fifteen
minutes away from my grandparents' house. Then we premiered at
south By Southwest in Austin, Texas, which again not raised
(23:27):
in Austin, but was raised in Dallas, Texas. So just
felt very full circle. So yeah, it holds a very
special place in my heart.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Did you visit grandma and grandpa while you were filming?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Of course, yeah, No, I visited my grandmother. I visited
my family members out there.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
You would like film a scene where you're getting chased
by a monster and then at the end of the
day you could go have dinner with your cousins.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Now, where can people stream that movie today if they
wanted to watch it after listening to this episode?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Oh, I believe it's on Disney Plus Plus, and I
think it's also on Amazon to purchase as well.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
You can rent it on there too.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
It's definitely a must watch. Do you feel like it
kind of like do you remember Swarm when it came out? Oh?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, I never I never got the chance to see it.
Though it was good.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I feel like if you loved Swarm, you're you're definitely
gonna love this movie. It's it gives like the same
similar type of vibes. It was an amazing project too.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Oh good, I want to I love Dominique Fishback. I
think she's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
She's amazing, And it was just the whole correlation of like,
is it is she a Beyonce fan?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Is she not.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
It was just like Beyonce fans descended on this movie
like it belonged to them. Yeah, yeah it was. It's
what it was giving. And I absolutely loved this. So
if you watched Swarm and you loved.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
It, that does what we need.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
We need more black horror anyway, and like black psychological horror,
anything that feels original and different.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
I'm like all.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Four And so Jordan Peel's your guy, Jordan Peele, and
also so many amazing like filmmaker filmmakers, but I love
Jordan Peele.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Shout out Jordan Pielen. Anything he puts out is for me.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
It's exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
But there's so many wonder black filmmakers and black movies
and like so much of us just aren't looking, which
like is amazing that we were able to like be
able to create them and now be able to like
talk about it on this pod.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
And it's what we have to do, you know, Like
I say, if we don't support the projects that are
made for us, then they're gonna start coming.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
It's like, Okay, yeah, we put out this show, but
nobody watched, so it was canceled, and that's what we
don't want, right But like, look at the Equalizer, how
long it's been running and it has to do with
viewership and people. And now it's on Netflix and it's
I feel like through Netflix it's going to reach like
a whole new level because you know, once people you know,
lock in with some young on Netflix.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
No, it's true, You're so right. I mean I look
at what happened with Friends.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
That show is so old. Yes, all of a sudden,
young people watching Friends. I'm like, good is this?
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Well? You hear about it all the time too, where
like shows get canceled and then they're put on a
streaming platform and then they're like revived again and they
get another season. It's like incredible just what like streaming
has the ability to do. But also on top of that,
like to have such a strong and solid fan base
with our Equalizer fans, with us not even being on
(26:07):
a streaming platform before Netflix was like has been such
an amazing and beautiful thing to experience.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Because to exist on television where people have to tune
in week after week, it's totally different than binging.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Totally different, and like people don't want to do it. Yeah,
appointment exactly, It's an appointment.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
People sometimes they want to do it. They want to
binge twenty episodes in one sitting, and they want to
watch when they want to watch.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
They don't want to be like, Okay, what day and
time does their show where?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Or Sunday? I think at ten pm?
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Now?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah, so it's like every Sunday people are like, oh,
I have to remember no, this is This means that
people are truly invested in the show and that they
love it and they go home and they're like, nah,
I got to be home or I got to be
by a TV Sundays at ten pm.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I think that's so special and important, especially now when
I mean obviously with phones and social media, like our
attention span gets quite small, and like we want and
we want them now. But every time I have somebody
come up to me and they say, like I watch
every Sunday, it makes my heart so happy, so so happy.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Where do you feel like you recognized the most in
New York? Oh gosh, I.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Get recognized a lot out here, especially depends on where
I film.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Out here, like the show because it feels real.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
The number one thing I hate is New York shows
that aren't film in New York. Yeah, that's just said,
I'm like, I can't watch the show.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I'm sorry. This is not New York born and raised
New York. I'm like, this is not a Brooklyn stoopid.
This is in Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
No, Like, if that's the case, just film it in Hollywood,
like it's really okay. Also, don't make it a love
letter to the city if you're not in the city.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
You know, but ours is filmed right in Brooklyn, so I.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
See the streets. I was like, Darren Dumbo, Oh yeah,
I was like, I love it.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
It was funny.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
I was parking, like in Midtown a couple of weeks ago,
and I parked right in front of our Equalizer sign
that said we were going to be filming on Monday.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
You were like, so I can't park it because You're like,
come on, job, you're messing me up.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
I wanted to park here exactly. I'm like, do I
have to pay for parking?
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Still?
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Darn it? Yeah? Now that's so dope.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
And you know, I love you know, the representation the show,
what it gives you know, family, you know, black women,
brown women. It's just it just feels so good and
I love watching it.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Yeah, and I'm a crime show watcher and I'm a
Dayline NBC, Like I love anything crime related, but I
feel like the Equalizer just gives me. It humanizes the
show the way it needs to be, because you know,
you can't just watch somebody kill kill kill kill kill.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
And also just like when your mom got well, when
Queen Latifa got kidnapped, Lila was going through.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Hill Yeah, oh girl, she was going through it. She's
gone through it a lot show. Yeah, I know. I'm like,
you canna be fine. Mom's gonna come back. You got
a badass mom. She gonna survive. She gonna be okay
with your THEA.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
She's just funning out to him, like, girls, come on, relax,
Like I'm part of the family.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
I need you to calm down. Relax. She don't need
to move.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
We just needed you in like season two of Equalizer
when that happened, to come in and be like, hey, girls,
calm down, she's got it, she's got it under control.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Make it back home. No.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
I mean sometimes I will watch the episodes like with
my family and we'll be over there stressed and I
will have like read the scripts already, and like I
know what's gonna happen, but then it makes a turn,
and to see it on camera, I'm like, wait, oh
my gosh, wait, how does this end again? So there's
a lot of twist and turns that keep us.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
How do you feel watching yourself back? Can you or
You're like I could have done that differently. I don't
want to watch like or you not that critical of yourself.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I wish I could lie and say I was one
of those actors. I was like, no, it's completely fine.
It's so stressful. It really is stressful to watch my myself.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Thank you. People don't understand.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I don't like to hear myself back sometimes and I'm
like I could have pronounce that differently, and people don't
get it.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
When I was on doc, I like could not listen
to the episode. I didn't want to hear it. I
was like, I can't listen to my voice seeing myself
on screen, it's cool. Like again with Angry Black Girl.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
When I got to.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
See it in theaters, I was like, wow, this is amazing.
I've never seen my face. So with my entire family,
my mom and my dad, they were there and then
just like our entire crew and cast too, because it
was south By.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
It was the first place we saw it.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Oh okay, which is so nerve wracking, Like, next time,
I need them to send me that movie first before I.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Who's in?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
He? Who here?
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I was like, are they gonna scream? Are they gonna laugh?
Like what's gonna happen?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
No? I was the week before the premiere of Anything.
The premiere of Equalizer was I was horrified. The same
with Angry Black Girl. Horrified, like praying every single night,
so nervous, like I was like it was my baby,
like that I was going to see because it's.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
You when you create art with your persona, where it
be your voice, your acting, art, fashion, whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
If people don't like it, they didn't like you. I
know it feels that way. It's like, oh my god, why,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
I think my mentality kind of shifted after the movie
came out because with Equalizer, I was so nervous. I
was like, oh my god, I was sixteen, but I
was thinking in my head, what if people think I'm
bad or like what if I'm not happy with the performance,
Like what if they don't like the show. There's just
all these things that go through your head and then
with the movie, I was also feeling that way because
(31:39):
that was like, Oh my gosh, it's my face. And
then you were lead and I'm a lead and I
haven't seen it at all. I at least seen a
trailer for Equalizer, but I adn't seen like anything Frankry
Black Girl. And then I think, like a couple of
days before the premiere, maybe like two days before, I
was like, oh wait, it was my baby. It's not
my baby any more. This is for them, this is
(32:01):
for the audience now. So like I had the most
amazing time filming. Whatever anybody thinks about the project at
this point, great, you can think it, but it has
really nothing to do with me, because my experience was
so singular, like nobody else will ever be able to
know what that was like. And for the viewer, it's
supposed to be uh, it's supposed to be theirs now.
(32:22):
They're supposed to take what they take from it, and
it is.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
It's kind of like music when artists make an album exactly,
it's like this belongs to you us, it's yours. You
consume it whichever way you want, your perspective, you relate
to it, whichever which way I guess.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
I guess it's kind of like the same.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Yeah, it is completely and it's very freeing. When you
sit back and you think of it that way, it's
like you're like, that's it, it's over enjoy it, enjoy.
I was like, oh wait, I think I can sit
back and enjoy my movie maybe and just enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
It felt so real and it just felt so strong.
Thank you, it's good. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
School. How have you been able to go to school?
Schooling or yeahne or oh yeah, I forgot to.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Talk to me.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
I know we've talked about everything.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
We don't talk about you moving get a job at
eight years old.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I guess people do want to know about that. Yeah,
I was.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I was in public school until Ixas, Yeah, in Texas
and for like maybe one or two semesters in LA.
But after fourth grade I was homeschooled. DOC required it.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
In a way.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
It seemed like one of those things I was going
to take me out of the running if I wasn't homeschooled.
And then I did what I was on, like the
Disney shows are on Gray's Anatomy and some of the
more dramatic TV shows. When I was younger, we just
had a studio teacher, so I had kind of gotten
my flow with homeschool and it worked for my schedule.
And then it was amazing because everyone in LA was
(33:49):
also homeschooled too, so we were kind of just growing
up in this.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Little bubble together.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
And then when I moved to cal I mean, to
New York, it was like my bubble was popped and
people were like, girl, what's do you go to school?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Like, what's the vibe? Is the same thing I just
did right now? Right?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
It's like, oh wait, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
No, but I I did this thing called the chess be,
which is something that a lot of child actors do
when you hit like fifteen, and you can basically work
like an adult, which in retrospect also kind of crazy,
and in New York.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
They really don't allow it.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
So I had worked so hard to do this chess
be and then I would still do like school hours
while on set for Equalizer and work a limited amount
of time when I was below the age of eighteen.
So yeah, that was kind of It was more just
like homeschooling and having a flexible schedule.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Do you watch like high school shows or like high
school and movies and you're like, I miss it, like
I wish I would have done that.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
I don't think I've ever felt that. I don't think
i've ever felt that. With high school in particular. I
loved high school musical though, and so I would love that.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
And then well, I'll tell you this, that's not a reality.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
You're not going to get that.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Yeah, And I had just a lot of friends who
were I had a good amount of friends who were homeschooled,
and then a good amount that were in public school
too at the time, and who were also actors. And
I don't know the experience. I think I wanted prom
and I wanted homecoming prom stuff we see on.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
TV exactly, and I would go to those with my friends.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So you kind of like got to experience it in
a way completely.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
And also again like I think LA in itself is
just such a bubble for kids who are that age.
It was such a specific experience at the time, like
pre COVID where we would have those types of parties
and those types of like get togethers with everyone because
our audition cycle in a way was our schooling and
it was our way.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
I love this making friends.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
It was again like in retrospect, it's like, oh gosh,
that was strange, but for us it was very normal
at the time.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Now, I want to shift to Kamala Harris. How did
you end up involved in the DNC and the campaigning?
How did you end up linking with Vice President Harris
or her team?
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Oh, my gosh, it was so that experience was really wonderful.
I ended up I was nominated for an NAACP Image
Award this past year for Angry Black Girl and a Monster,
And they had this beautiful like Sunday brunch and they
invited a bunch of actors to come speak to younger
(36:25):
creatives as well, just about our experience. And I met
so many wonderful people that day. And one of the
people that I met was a part of the DNC,
and they got me involved kind of that way, really
early on within Joe Biden's campaign at the time, so
before Kamala was even in the running, I started working
(36:45):
with the DNC.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
I went to the White House for their Juneteenth.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Festival all that, and I was really inspired to kind
of speak up for just gen Z and the importance
of voting because it was my first time voting in
a present dential elections.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I was very excited.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
And it was one thing when like Biden was in
the running, but when we knew Kamala was in the running,
I think.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Just everything it was gifted.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
It was as black and brown women, we saw ourselves,
you know, daughters of people, you know, immigrants, Like it
was just it just resonated in so many different ways.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Oh yeah, especially like just being a woman in this
day and age, and like seeing another I'm black and
Filipino as you know, and like just to see another
mixed race woman on in this position of power was
like the biggest, the biggest.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Position was so hopeful, especially again just after the it's
hard to talk about this now, but especially after the
five six, seven years that we had already gone through,
like with the pandemic, and then I was also seeing
like strike last year it was in the acting industry. Yeah,
(37:58):
so it was just like a beacon of hope.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
It was what it looked like.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
It's just like, Okay, the light at the end of
the tunnel, it's.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Here and it's obvious. That's what it felt like to
me and from where I was. But yeah, I got
to work with the campaign. I went to the DNC
in August and I spoke with the Youth Council and
I got to meet just so many wonderful people and
speak to a lot of young people who are interested
in voting or were scared about what was going to
(38:24):
happen in the next few years, and we all just
got to come together. I did canvassing events in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
That's good, you know, boots on the ground.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Boots on the ground exactly. And it's a very different
I mean to I'm kind of used to acting, and
I'm used to being on screen or being on stage
doing that whole thing, and it takes a certain amount
of vulnerability to get on camera and to be as
honest as you can through another character. But I had
(38:54):
never felt so vulnerable when speaking to certain volunteers or
certain people who are part of the campaign. It inspired
me so much just to want to do better, just
as a person for our country and for just our civilians,
just for like the people who are going to be
impacted the most, I mean now by who will be
(39:16):
coming into office. But again, I think, if anything, it
just shows us that the fight continues, and when we
come together, special things can happen. And in that way,
being an actor. Art can also heal in that way
as well.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Oh no, it definitely can. I say it all the time.
You know, the arts, whether it be theater, music, movies.
You can be going through the worst time in your
life and you just put on that one movie and
you can escape reality.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Exactly. It's therapy. It's therapy, and to create it is therapy.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
I mean, like one of my favorite eras is I
mean for music especially is the seventies. I love the
seventies so much, and I love like that post Motown
sound a lot, and like when Marvin Gay put out
What's going On and Stevie Wonder had like his amazing albums.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
These these old you know, icons and music and they
were music was music.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah, when the music was music.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
But Stevie was like on his thing, and you know,
you had all these incredible artists who were just so
moved and impacted and angry about the times that they.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Were living in and down to speak about it.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
And down to speak about it.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
And in that way, I go back and I listened
to those albums still within this time, and I'm like, Okay,
there was hope then and there is still hope now.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
I love that you were involved, and I'm like, you know,
gen Z needs it. You know, it's like, yeah, you know,
we have a lot of influencers, we have a lot
of TikTokers, but who is really you know, speaking out
about what's important and you know, putting yourself out there
and aligning yourself with a candidate.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
A lot of people don't like to touch politics, It's.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
True, and especially when you're given a platform as well.
Like the amazing thing about being an influencers you have
people who will listen and say with being on TV
and being an actor and a musician, whatever, you have
a platform.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
And I think to be.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
In a privileged position like that, you can use it
in such a valuable way and you shouldn't be able.
You shouldn't take advantage of that. You should take advantage
of it in the way that you speak out on
the issues that are important to.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
You and you can make change.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
You know, it doesn't just your influence and your popularity
and your celebrity doesn't just have to be to gain
you know, financial and just to you know, have clout
and just to be in all these poping places. You
can stop down and be like, I'm going to make
a difference.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Exactly, and like those things are hollow.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
Like if you think about it, like the status and
like the image, and even like the idea followers whatever,
it's it is quite hollow, you know, very much so.
And then when you you still think about it, there's
a lot.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Of power within it as well.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
There is, and that means that, okay, well, people are
being impacted by this. And then when you look at
the real world, when you look at these political candidates
or government or this country whatever, you see people are
impacted by the things and decisions that people make.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Exactly. So it's like, yeah, it's it is. On one
side of.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
It, sure it's hollow, and then on the other side
of it, it's like, okay, well, also at the same time,
people are impacted by it. And so with that being said,
it's not it's not something that you should take lightly.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
Don't take it for granted, don't take it if you're influencing,
influence for better exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Now, what are we working on for twenty twenty five?
For you equalizer? You're currently working right, you're shooting.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Yes, currently working on the Equalizer. Thank you so much
for taking this time out to come meet with you.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
Oh goodness, of course, I'm so happy that. I'm so
happy you had me. I'm having a great time.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
But yeah, Equalizers season five we're working on right now,
and so.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
You're working in airrings simultaneously.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Yes, we've done that since season one, so yeah, especially
with COVID, it was such a crazy time and schedule,
but we're filming it at the moment and we're having
a great time. And then I really want to do
more films as well. Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
was of course like my first one, and I'm just
hoping to continue that within the next year, doing more
(43:23):
movies and working with amazing directors as well. And then
speaking of podcasts, I'm hoping to do my own this
year as well.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
You're going to I'm going to, Yeah, do you have
a name?
Speaker 2 (43:35):
I feel like I feel like that's the first step
towards making it a reality.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I feel like I'm not sure if I should say it.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yet, don't say it, but that's step one.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
That's step one.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Yeah, name, and then everything else just trickles down from
there exactly.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
So you have the name, it's going to happen. Okay, beautiful,
Because I have the name that I'll keep a secret.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Keep it a secret.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Well, we'll see it when you announce it. Yeah, but
I'm excited. I'm excited for it.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
I started hosting these dinners last year, okay, and I
hosted my first dinner, and it was to bring again
because I grew up in California and I grew up
with a lot of young actors, but the competition aspect
was such a big part of everything, and so it
was hard to make friends. It was hard to find
sisters and community that way. And as I've gotten older,
(44:22):
I found such community and those people now. And because
I'm in LA and New York, I want to be
able to just bring women of color together in one
space so that not only can we talk about our
creative ambitions and feel safe to be able to talk
about those things, but also at the same time we
can build friendships as well.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
So I love that. I want the podcast to be
kind of an extension of the dinner.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
So, and it's gonna be thank you whatever you need,
you have questions, launching, anything you need reach out. I'm like, here,
this is what you're gonna do, and this is how
you're gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
I really appreciate that I will.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
I will because I want to love what you got
going on here, and you've been so lovely for this time.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
All right, So we're gonna watch you on the Equalizer
Sunday nights, ten pm. Yes, we're going to follow you
on social media. What's your Instagram?
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Sure, it's at Leah Delion Hayes, which is my name
l A y A d e l.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
E o n A s h A y e y s.
And there you have it.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Make sure you follow, make sure you watch and stalk
her whole life because when that podcast drops, we got
to make sure we support her too.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Yes, thank you, thank you, I appreciate it. And Grassiers
Come Again. I will if you'll have me. Of course.
That was amazing, Thank you so much, Thank you so much.
It was so lovely to meet you and so great
and you know again.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Grassiers Come Again is a production of Honey German Productions
in partnership with iheartmcuntura podcast Network
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