Episode 2 – Shanola Hampton: “You Got It"

Actor Shanola Hampton talks about being an activist, tackling various social issues in Shameless, and her favorite takeaways from the show.

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Episode Transcript

(00:06):
This is On the Edge, apodcast series from the Creative Coalition featuring conversations
with an edge and chats with personalitiesfrom the world of entertainment. Now here's
your host, Creative Coalition CEO RobinBronk. Hi everyone, I'm Robin.
Thanks for tuning in today. Wehave the privilege and the fun of sitting

(00:29):
down with one of the stars ofShameless. And you also will have seen
her in Reba in Popular and Scrubs, Criminal Minds, and she was a
face model for a hit video game. Please join me and welcoming Shinola Hampton.
So you grew up in South Carolina, Summerville, South Carolina, which

(00:52):
is right outside of Charleston. Areyour parents from the South? My parents
are from the South. My dadgrew up in a place called Hands,
South Carolina. Some people say Givvings, but given South Carolina, which is
a really country, country, country, small town. It's where my church
was. And then my mom grewup in Summerville, which was the upper

(01:15):
echelon when they were growing up.So she was a city girl. My
daddy was the country boy. Andthey met when they were in middle school
and they were the love story,you know, back then you just stayed
together. Ye. So growing up, did you know you wanted to be
an actor? Did you? SinceI was five years old, Yeah,
they used to do talent shows atthis place called Rawlins Elementary School, and

(01:37):
it was the only place in townthat had like the stage, and everybody
would go there for the talent show. It was the yearly talent show.
And I pretended one day my momgot me this cloth. I remember going
to go get it, this pieceof material that was kind of shimmery shiny
that she wrapped around me, andthose little plastic heels you have as a
kid in this terrible wig, andI pretended to be Diane Ros sing and

(02:00):
missing you, I'm missing And itwas so much fun. And I loved
being on the stage and I sangwith my sisters, pleased to sing in
the church a lot together. ButI just felt like the stage was my
home. I thought I was goingto be a Broadway star though ever since
I was five years old, thisis all I wanted to do. I
knew I wanted to do it.But my dad is very big on education.

(02:23):
All of my sisters are educators,and they have degrees all the way
up to their doctors. I stoppedthat the masters are Fine Arts because Daddy
said I had to. But sowhen I told him I wanted to a
major in theater, he was like, how are you going to work?
Then Daddy said, well, yeah, that's good. I thought you were
going to do it as a hobbyand I said, no, I want
to do it for my life,and he said okay, and then he

(02:44):
took me in to audition. Atwent the university, which was the most
nurturing, wonderful. It's just thebest because it's not too big. Everybody's
a family. You have the opportunityto learn and grow, but also to
have individual reality, which I struggledwith a lot at my program. My
master's program really that nurturing feel.It was hard going from Winthrop to University

(03:07):
of Illinois because I was so usedto one thing, and some of the
toughest years of my life was actuallygetting my master's a Fine Arts. So
I was just happy that I gotit. You weren't tempted after undergrad to
just go to New York or goto all How did you resist that?
Of course I was, but Ihave a father who's very big on education.
It was one of those things whereit was like, well, you

(03:28):
have to at least get your master'sbecause at the time had one sister who
already had our doctorates and the otherone who was working on our doctorates,
and it's sort of kind of thepassage of life in our family. So
I did that and I auditioned,and quite honestly, he did me a
huge service by really pushing for meto get my masters to Fine Arts because

(03:49):
it allows you to teach to thecollege level. So in my mind,
up until that point, I onlysaw myself as an actor. But I
fell in love. When you're ata major university like that, you each
undergrads, and I found this lovefor teaching that watching other people get it,
showing them the arts, even doingthe syllabus. All of those things

(04:10):
to me I fell in love with. So I said, well, hell,
if this acting thing doesn't work out, I can be a college professor,
not a wonderful life, be reallyhappy, you know, when you
actually care about the human being.Sometimes that's all they want is somebody actually
care and not be going through themotions. And I found that so many
different students that I could think ofthat I just fell in love with them.

(04:30):
I just loved them and wanted themto do well. Because I'm teaching
the introduction of theater class. Mostof the people that just there because they
need that credit. By the endof it, they love theater and that
was a really cool thing. Yousee to be involved in issues too,
and both your character, I'm shamelessyou have so you have the love of
the arts. Who did you comefrom a family who cared about issues?
It's interesting. My grandfather on mymother's side, he was a great activists,

(04:56):
a great activist. He marched witheveryone and did everything. And he
was a minister as well. Mydad's a bishop. So I come from
a line of people that are ministry, which means we tackle great issues and
have a great care for the world. So that's something that was embedded in
me. My grandfather would want theblack community to vote, and so we
would ride around in his station ragoncar and he would put a horn at

(05:19):
the top of the car. Hewas a tall, slender man with the
deepest voice, dark dark man,and he would say, get out and
vote. If you don't have aride, I will pick you up going
down the street. Get out andvote. If you don't have a ride,
I will bake you up. Wethought, for this ride, we
must use it, Yale, Andso I learned that very very early on.

(05:44):
My mother was very big on women'sissues and advocating for women and making
sure that she was a selfless giver, meaning she gave without needing to be
recognized for giving of herself health.She passed away when I was sixteen from
cancer, breast cancer. Even asshe was ill, she still took care

(06:06):
of my cousin who had AIDS atthe time when AIDS was running rampant,
and I was there to take careof him. And I saw quite a
bit of things when I was reallyyounger. Gave me an empathy for a
people who suffered and who had healthissues, and she did that. And
then her father, my grandfather,talked about how to stroke and she was

(06:28):
still taking care of them. SoI've seen a lot of things, But
the biggest thing I've seen in mylife is this love for humanity and this
love for wanting to take care ofothers and putting others before oneself without meeting
the recognition, which I think isthe most important thing. That's an amazing
thing that she gave you. Youknow, the creative potion were all about
issues and how do we use theentertainment industry to take on a social cause.

(06:54):
Who promote an issue to make achance. She moved the needle in
a positive direction. And one ofthe things is obese and the issue of
obesity, as it's a disease,it's a disease that affects more women than
men. It's a disease that isvery prevalent. And I was thinking about
being Southerners in the South where everythingis trying right. So in Shameless this

(07:15):
last season you started taking on issues. We're looking at this issue of obesity
now because it's the last shame andblame disease. It's a disease that affects
four out of ten people, sohalf the viewers, and yet television you
haven't really dealt with it. It'snot one of the things that would be

(07:35):
on my list of diseases until westarted learning about it. It was saying
that affects half of America, andyet it's the one where we avert ourize.
I think that that's what's really wonderfulabout the creative coalition. It's because
now that you know it's come tolight in this platform with so many different
artists doing and creating different projects.Now we can make it be more at

(08:00):
the forefront, and the next Shamelesswill come along and deal with different issues,
and this is the way to startthat. What's the toughest challenge to
an issue or even if you're goingto take this issue of obesity, I
think that the toughest challenge is makingit makes sense for the script. I
think that's what Shameless did very wellbecause we lived in the world to the
present. I think a lot oftimes in the work that we're seeing in

(08:24):
the movies in the television industry,we're in that specific world, but not
of this world that we live in. So it's important. This is us
actually probably is the closest thing thatwe've seen that is dealt with it or
as disgusted, and that's a majorplatform because it's been a major show for
those two characters and them going throughthe different things throughout the years. So

(08:46):
that would be one of the onesthat has done and done it well.
Again, that's more of a presentlife world. But no one ever wants
to be preached to, not abouttheir mental health issues, not about obesity,
not about any of these. Noone wants to feel like they're being
preached to. What they want isan aha moment. What Shameless did well

(09:07):
when we tackled mental illness was giveour character a mental illness and watch and
battle through it and then so havea productive life and get his husband and
have a life after that. Butall the struggles that led up to seeing
it, diagnosing it, getting thehelp for it, falling from getting the
help, going back and getting up, the entire struggle of what happens,

(09:28):
and then you have an idea ofthis character still living and still having the
struggle with that. That's where wehave to really get to. We got
to get to a place where wehave it, where people are seeing it,
but they are seeing it in away that they don't feel like they're
getting a sermon. And Shameless didit. You all did it so masterfully.

(09:50):
We just need one more season soyou can tackle this new issue that
were now it's an issue if itspeaks to again being from the South,
and I'm sure your dad being mydad, he's a bishop and he's super
cool and he really wants to tacklethings. We have another password that's under
him that is also a medical professional. So we try to speak to people

(10:11):
in the African American community. Shecomes and speaks and tries to get people
to eat better, monitor their cholesterol, which is one of the biggest things,
talk about high blood pressure. Hedoesn't shy away from talking about the
things. Now, some people outof a room of ten, maybe you're
gonna have two that listen, butyou got two that listened. They're very

(10:33):
big on being health conscious. Youknow, my mother in law and I
started walking again after she was awalker for a little while, and we
do it twice a week to startout, because she's now gotten in the
rhythm. Now that's up to threetimes a week. It's about not giving
these daunting tasks, not giving thisdaunting diet all right away. It's saying
slowly so that we can praise thoseaccomplishments, because then once you feel that

(10:56):
validation and you start to see alittle bit of results, it push as
you to go even further. Youcan't do everything all at once. Take
the pressure on me to start asecond career as a grassroots organizer. So
you're in graduate school, were theremoments when you're sid I'm gonna go to

(11:18):
LA, I'm going to go toNew York. Who I'm going to teach.
Where were you? Yeah, it'sinteresting. When I was finishing up
graduate school, what I told youwas quite a struggle for me to do.
It's one of the privates accomplishments becauseit was so hard to me,
a very dark period of my life, and I was able to finish it.
But I knew that when I wasin grad school I needed to see

(11:39):
the world because in my mind Iwas one tracked New York only. But
if you're going to go into somethingas a professional, you need to know
what the world is. Like.I was in You Have I, so
I knew the Chicago theater scene.I didn't know anything about LA I had
a person who was a professor atthe time say I have a student that
is in Los Angeles that will letyou stay with her for the summer.

(12:03):
And I said, that's amazing.And she's a casting director, Caroline Lean,
who I just sent a message sherecently to say, you really did
something you didn't have to do.You know, people extend something to you
they don't know you, they don'thave to do it. And she did.
She opened up her couch to mein her one bedroom and she allowed
me to spend the summer there.And to work as in a casting office

(12:28):
with her, and then I gotanother casting office job. And while I
was working at Urge Dawson and Kritzer, who I credit a lot of my
career too, they had me asan intern there and they just liked to
I was as a person asked meto audition for a show called Popular,
which was at the time on wbor one of you know that the network
with Ryan Murphy, and I gotthe job and they got my tap arty

(12:52):
and all of this happened in asummer, and then I booked another show
and so I was like, ohwait, sorry, in New York,
it looks like God say in LAAnd at the time, because you know
him from the South, I waslike, if I get on a soap
opera, I have a row.I have a raw. In my mind,
I wanted to be Drusilla's daughters,like that was my mission and that

(13:13):
would make it be successfus the onlyidea that I had for television at the
time, and so I petitioned formy last semester and graduate school in the
MFA program is a showcase semester.But I was already showcasing my talents and
getting these opportunities. So I finishedmy last semester there December and did my
credits as an intern in Los Angeleswhere I can audition in my manager who's

(13:37):
still my manager to this day,a Lissa Leeds, and it's been well,
we'll aige us over twenty years.Her husband at the time cast me
in one of his shows, AndyFickman, at the Tippany Theater on Sunset
it's no longer there, and hesaid, you got to meet this girl,
and she signed me as a client. This all happened in the summer,
and my husband, Deny, whoI was already arried too at the

(14:00):
time, moved to Los Angeles withone thousand dollars in our pocket. I
got married March, came to LosAngeles that summer. He did not want
anything to do with Los Angeles.He loved Chicago. First of all.
He's also from the South. Hewas like, I'm not going out there
with all those fake phony people andme being the woman that I am and

(14:22):
that I try to tell my niecesand god daughters and everyone else to be
have your own dream, don't followafter man. So I said, listen,
this is where I'm going, becausethis is where I see myself in
my career. We could neither figureout a long distance marriage or we'll be
done. But I'm going, wow, wait, what does he do?
Is he part of the industry?Well, he did a lot. We
met in the theater department at wentthe university. He's a fine actor himself,

(14:46):
and he did. He started aYouTube channel called the Dallas Cowboys Show,
where he became very popular from beingthis personality shingo. So he still
does that. Way before it wascool or even a title to be a
YouTuber, he was already a YouTubepartner. That's awesome. Yeah, he's
a really cool guy. And needlessto say, he finally decided to come.

(15:09):
We found an area that suited bothof us and made a life.
But we started with one thousand dollarsin a dream. Wow, you're so
inspirational. So what do you feellike your moment of breakthrough was? But
it sounds like you were having them. It was just boom, boom boom.
I remember times when I would bebartending and I just wanted to say,

(15:31):
like, get national commercials. Itwas when you can make some money
on national commercials. National commercials couldpay for your life's out for the whole
year and commercials I never really gotall the way into. They just never
really book me, and I remembercrying in my car, I just want
to do this. God, ifthis is not what I'm supposed to,
just send me a sign and myhead to be on my staring willing.

(15:52):
Wouldn't you know it? A weeklater I would book something. Obviously,
my biggest breakthrough in the business,by industry standards, would be when I
booked Shameless eleven years ago. Butprior to that, there were those things,
those pilots, or those shows thatwould go one season and you think
you've arrived, and then the showdoesn't go to another season and you're back
barting. And Shameless is onto theeleventh season. When you read the script,

(16:17):
the pilot script, what did youthink? I thought, and this
is the truth. I laid inbed at my home and I said,
oh my gosh, what is this. I really was shocked at what they
were going to put on the airbecause it was so out of the box.
See Shameless. People have to understandwhen we started our show, the

(16:40):
industry was not what it is now, with all these risk gays, euphorias
and these other shows going. Wewere like Pioneers for what it meant to
think outside of the box. SoI said one of two things, and
it's one of the things that Ilook for now when I'm reading material post
shameless, I said, he's eithergoing to be hit, our people are
going to be angry either way.High risk, high reward for this show

(17:06):
like that, I'm so proud ofat the time, Showtime for being savvy
enough. It was on the edge. It was on the edge, and
they took it and they jumped,and they took a really big leap and
it was important. Not that I'mtaking credit for all the risk ay stuff
that's on, but your favorite episodefor V? My favorite episode for V

(17:29):
is when Kev's ex wife comes backand she's torn up because the X wife
comes back and V is so brokenbecause she thinks, you know, that
she's lost her keV. She comesin and she says, what are you
doing with her? And you knowwhat, you big dummy, That kid
is not yours, and VS,sitting at the Gallagher kitchen table, says,

(17:51):
say what now? And she takesher errings off and commences to whoop
that behind from the kitchen all theway to the dinner and trying not to
break the TV. It was soepic. I did all of my stunts
that for every single take. Itwas so important to me to do that,
to feel that, to feel thesourdis the next day. It was
so much fun because I really havein my mind that I want to be

(18:15):
a superhero at some point, sodoing my own sense was really important.
I was like training for this andthat to this day is my favorite episode
for Varnica. This last season,though. I loved the turn that Varna
to me, which really went backto your roots, driving around with your
grandfather, you know, getting peopleto vote. Was that meaningful to you?

(18:36):
Did you like it? What don'tyou think? Yeah? It was
meaningful to me because I feel likegentrification has been happening in such a rampant
speed, and so many people arebeing pushed out of their homes. And
we shot on a street that wasvery real. Those were real people with
children that we watched grow up with, a community that was a community and

(19:02):
a very tough neighborhood that you know, made their lives there and they've done
all of this work, and thenthese people could just come in and buy
it up so much so that itmakes them not have a place to stay
and be misplaced. So that wasimportant to tell that sort of if you're
not really in the city, orif you're not in these neighborhoods that are
being gentrified, it doesn't mean anythingto you. It doesn't. You don't

(19:26):
get it that you know, allof a sudden there's a smoothie bar,
and that smoothie bar has now madethe cost of living for these people have
been there for twenty thirty years notbe affordable or whatever it is. What
was brilliant about it that it tookissues like gentrification or like Alzheimer's or whatever
it's taking, and you explained it. You didn't dumb it down. You

(19:51):
gave it texture and reality so wethe viewer could understand it right and see
it right. And I think thatthat was important, and I think it
was important to John Wells and allof our fabulous writers. So not only
do it this last few seasons,we've been tackling issues from the beginning,
we really truly have. And youknow, when you were dealing with a

(20:15):
family who has an alcoholic father andan absentee mother, that's a very real
family dynamic for a lot of people, either both cases are true or one
is true, So for us toreally talk about that and then at the
end of it, we don't complainabout it. You live through it and

(20:38):
you love through it, and youhave a community that you create to get
you through it. And I thoughtthat that was a beautiful theme throughout the
entirety of the Run of Shameless.Your character developed so much over the eleven
seasons. I mean, did youhave a hand in that? How did
you? I think life sort ofimitated art in a way. I knew

(21:03):
that Veronica and Kevin, specifically thetwo of us, we were more than
just the break from the drama comicreally and there was more to them.
But I also really love the evolutionof starting as sort of the sexual,
care free couple, and then themhaving the deal with infertility, and then

(21:23):
once they're done with that, havingto deal with postpartum, and then once
they've done with that, having todeal with what it looks like to be
back together, and then to growand to be business owners together, and
then to have to raise their kidstogether, and then to finally have what
they've been trying to get for elevenseasons, which is a real wedding.
Let's talk about you behind the cameraa little bit. Was that always something

(21:48):
that you wanted to do? Isthat recent? It's recent. My son
was born five years ago on Sunday, five years ago, and after he
was born, I felt like Ihad accomplished the things that I really wanted
to accomplish being on a show forthat long. People listening, and people
will understand, especially actors, wehave this thing where we have to time

(22:08):
when we can get pregnant because ofwork. As a woman, it's like,
well, I can't do right nowbecause it's private season. I don't
need to be strong. But thenif it goes, it's like there's this
thing that there's this luxury, thisgreat gift that you have where when you're
on a show you kind of havedebates. So I had accomplished that.
And crazily enough, people think thatthey wrote in me being pregnant on the
show because I was pregnant in reallife, But really Veronica was always going

(22:32):
to be pregnant and I happened tobe pregnant at the same time. So
I gave birth to my twins onthe show on a Friday, and birth
to my daughter the following Monday,almost the day that I gave birth and
there's a great picture of Steve Howieand my actual husband Darren beside me in
bed is Veronica, and it's likeput to Daddy with my big belly about

(22:52):
the birth. It was this beautifulthing. But anyway, I say that
to say, once I had myson, I realized that there was something
more that God was called and needto do more creatively that I wanted to
do more. I didn't know.I'm very hands on mom, so I
didn't know whether I would be ableto be on a set that long as
an After you go in, youwork your ship. If you leave director
stay from beginning to the end,and so I wanted to test it out.

(23:15):
I took it very seriously. Itgoes back to what we were talking
about earlier. My dad in education, So if I was gonna do it,
I needed to get really a master'sdegree in directing and to make sure
that I loved it and I understoodwhat that time commitment was. So for
seven weeks, I followed three differentdirectors morning tonight, twelve to fourteen to
seventeen hour days. I did notleave d ingle in and show up for
two hours and be like, hey, I shadowed you. I wanted to

(23:37):
really learn to soak it into bea sponge and learning from John Wells and
Civiltry and Anthony Hardwick and all ofthese great people. I just fell in
love with the entire process and Iworked really, really hard to get it
to understand, to problem solve inmy head as they were problems solved because
you don't want to be a chattyshadower. And then when they asked you

(23:59):
your opinion, you want to beable to have something to offer, obviously,
And I gotta tell you, Iam so in love with directing.
I am so in love with thatprocess. I am so in love with
the people behind the camera. I'mso in love with the prep. I
love the prep. It goes probablyback to me being a big geek.
I love working on something and thenhaving it come to life. I love

(24:22):
meeting with the geniuses who are sogood at what they do, who are
don't again back to what we saidearlier, do all of these things without
the need and really without getting anyof the recognition for why there is particular
lamp as placed there in the flowersand all of the things. I love
it. I love picking out whatcolor car is going to be in the

(24:44):
scene. I love trying to figureout what time of day are we going
to be at because we got toknow where that light is. I love
it. It gives me such ahigh, It gives me such a rush,
and I feel like I have metmy purpose in a more real way
than just being an actor, whichI still love. But gosh, darn
it, that fire, that directingfire that it's been ignited in me.

(25:06):
I just want to do more,and I'm desperate and hungry to do more
and to show people because people arehesitant a to hire an actor director,
so it makes me even more eagerto show them. No, no,
no, no no. By theend of it, you won't be thinking
of me as an actor. You'llsee that I'm a damn good director.
So you know, last couple ofminutes, what's on the horizon for you.
I'm excited. I am opening upa whole new chapter. I want

(25:29):
to develop projects that means something.I want to tell great stories and I
want to do anything that's predictable,and so I'm trying to really be diligent
and I think I found one thatI can do and brain to life that
will be either a smash or itwon't make it, but it's worth the
risk to me. I want todirect. I want to direct so much.

(25:49):
I want to finish up whatever seasonI'm doing a show, and then
I want to go right onto asett and then I want to direct,
and then I want to finish that, and then I want to go direct
another show. Then I want tofinish that, and I want to go
direct another show. Then I wantto be family. So that's what's on
the horizon. I'm feeling so goodand positive about not only where I am
in my career, where I amwith my family, where we are as
a unit, what we've been ableto my husband and I in the last

(26:12):
twenties of my years, been ableto accomplish together two kids from South Carolina,
small towns. Both of us wentto college together too in South Carolina
and came to a great Los Angeleswhich was like, oh my gosh,
and created the life that we've beenable to create together. But stay together.

(26:32):
It's such a big thing for usover twenty you know, twenty one
years so far married and that meanssomething to me. Whatever you're doing a
two career family, it's a lotharder than we were brought up to believe
absolutely. It's hard. Absolutely,So that's me in a nutshell. Girls.
Great. The last social I wasgonna ask you is how old were

(26:55):
you when you were riding around withyour grandfather voting that. I love that
image and I hope you can createa story or a movie about that about
that. Yeah, six years old. I can see the station wagon and
everything now had to be about sixseven years old. But you have to
remember it wasn't just one time.It was every time it was an election,
either local or on the national level. It started at six, but

(27:15):
it's spanned throughout most of my life. And did also you know, I
grew up in a family which washalf Republican, half Democrats, so I
was among the people who had thegreatest debates, which gave me a law
and an acceptance that I can thinkdifferently than you, but I can hear

(27:36):
you, even though the debates wouldget heated. After the heated debates,
we're gonna eat dinner. What wouldyou tell your twelve year old self?
What's that piece of advice? Ihad such a knowingness of what I wanted,
so I think I would tell herIt's be like you're gonna get it
all that right there in your head, that going to bed, and that

(27:59):
feeling that you feel here and herebecause it's the nighttime. Thought I would
just lay down, I whispered Brissa, and be like, you got it.
The name of the mini series withinour podcast is on the Edge.
So is it okay to be onthe edge? Is it okay to push
through the edge? Most definitely,you have to be on the edge.
You don't be a little black girlfrom South Carolina and moved to Los Angeles.

(28:22):
If you're not living on the edge. You don't go on a show
truly that was written for a whitecharacter in the British version and be the
only person of color and not beon the edge. You don't be number
seven on the call sheet on thatsame show and by the end of it.
Directing in the series finale season,if you're not living on the edge,

(28:48):
y'all come back next time, wherewe'll be joined by a multi multi
multi Emmy Award nominee and star ofthe iconic phrase Anatomy, now in its
eighteenth season. Chandra Wilson, theactress and director best known for her role
as Miranda Bailey, made her newYork Stage Review in nineteen ninety one.
But you gotta come back to hearthe rest of the story. I'm join

(29:12):
us. You know it's gonna befun. See you soon. You've been
listening to On the Edge, apodcast series from the Creative Coalition, hosted
by Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk.For more information on how you can protect
funding for the arts and harness thepower of the arts to promote social good,

(29:33):
visit us at the Creative Coalition dotorg.