QLS Classic: Anika Noni Rose

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is Sugar Steve from Questlove Supreme. This March, we're
celebrating women's history at QLs, something that we've done for years.
Back in March of twenty twenty one, we spoke to
Anika Noni Rose about her acting, singing and voice work.
She discussed growing up in Connecticut, working on Dream Girls,
and landing a life changing audition for Disney's The Princess
and the Frog. This is a powerful and sincere conversation

(00:25):
that is worthy of hearing, and I hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Oh, I didn't know you say it was up Hi
Ceo in the Corn's it.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
That's funny. I thought I was visible for about six minutes,
and I was like, oh, I'm just a blank square.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
So we're just talking about the salt and pepper Lifetime,
The salt Lifetime.

Speaker 5 (00:54):
Deep Salt Pepper, Deep Salt Pepper.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Did you watch it yet? Protect Come on, brother, I
was on time for that thing. Man's thirty seconds. Thirty seconds?

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Okay, the salt and pepper story, it was, I mean,
it was cool for Lifetime. I thought they cast salt
real good pepper. I wasn't really too convinced on Pepper.
I really was not convinced with Tretch. I really liked
the way they cast Herbie love Bug and the twin
although it hasn't really been documented that Herbie love Bug

(01:31):
has a twin brother does have a he has a brother.
I don't know if it's his twin brother, but Herbie,
Herbie does have a brother. It looked like it was
the lookalike was in his uh it was in the
he was in the shoot video. I want to say
his brother is was in the shoot video. I can't
remember which scene, but anyway, Yeah, I mean it was

(01:52):
a little too long. I felt like it probably could
have been like two hours. I mean, you know, if
it was Jackson, it was hours long.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
It was three hours.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
And mind you, let's contrast that with the Jackson's story
being four hours.

Speaker 6 (02:05):
So that was multiple movie nights.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Okay, yeah, the jack Nat was five yes, yes, yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:11):
So did you learn anything about salt and pepper at all?
Not that you didn't know, but just anything I didn't
know that, uh, pepper was not pepper. Salt had to
eating disorder.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
They kind of they kind of hinted it that, you
know what I'm saying that was the new information, but yeah,
that was it, and you know it was I watched
that ship on a Sunday afternoon of my couched Nigga.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
Hey man, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Welcome to the show. So yeah, this is Quest Love
Supreme and uh I'm yours quest though. That was that
was our cold open take a little hot take on
the Salt and Pepper Lifetime movie.

Speaker 8 (03:00):
Am as this episode airs in women's history mo yeah
yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Anyway, so we have a sugar Steve with us. I
have a hell we have unpaid bill and we have
Laya with us as well. Our Esteem guest today, Great,
thanks for asking, but oh okay, how you doing, Steve? Great? Okay,
nice weather. I like I like this sweater. It's it's
a champion hoodie. It's not a sweater. Okay, Well they

(03:28):
can't see you on the on on. I mean it's
a very expensive sweater, Steve. Can I please introduce the
guest anyway? Our steam guest today is an amazing, versatile,
award winning actress who stage credits range from Carl Jones
to Raising His Sun to Eli's Coming Carolina Change, which
she won a Tony Award and her TV credits so

(03:51):
many Ladies, Number One Detective Agency. She played Wendy Carr,
one of my favorite TV shows. I missed The Good
Wife so much, Like that's one of my favorite shows ever,
and I wish we're still here, even though you know,
the the not the reboot, but a good fight is
sort of okay, you know, but anyway. We also can't

(04:12):
forget her role as a jukebox character on everyone's favorite
guilty Pleasure Power, not to mention Little Fires Everywhere. She
also did The Quad and had a cool bucket list
check as a voice on The Simpsons. Uh, not to
mention her movie credits are just his own point. This
past Christmas, she started in Netflix's amazing jingle Jangle The

(04:36):
Christmas Journey, which hopefully will last for years and decades
and decades and decades.

Speaker 6 (04:41):
Christmas story.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, definitely, my all, my niece's nephews enjoyed it. Not
to mention, there's dream Girls for colored girls only. And
also yes, she starred as Princess Tiana as the first
Black Princess and the historical Princess and the Frog for Disney. Incidentally,
she is the youngest inductee dever be honored as a

(05:05):
Disney legend. I want to know what a Disney legend
is and do I qualify for my four seconds? Now
I'm playing Anyway, Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to our show.
Oh my fellow Academy a member. It's it's like a
secret society that only people know. Anyway, Welcome to Coest
Love Supreme, Anika Noni Rose, thank you, thank you for coming.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
I wanted to ask, how how have you made out
in the past year. You know this, this this year
has been difficult on a lot of people, and it's
been an adjustment for artists in all mediums like and
for singers, for you know, actors, and for pretty much
anyone in the arts is it's been an adjustment. So

(05:50):
how have you been adjusting to the past year or so?

Speaker 4 (05:55):
I the past year was rough. It was it was
a rough year, you know, And then you sort of
feel funny even saying that, because it's been rough for everybody,
like heavy, for everybody in lieu of work. I've been
really lucky because I'm a voiceover artist. So even when

(06:18):
I can't do something where you see me on a set,
I can still do voiceover work. So that's a blessing,
you know, to be able to do that. And I've
started doing some film work as well, which was weird
and still feels weird to be on a set because
I still sort of feel like, don't be that close
to me. So professionally, I would have to say that

(06:42):
I've been I've been pretty lucky in that respect, you know. Personally,
it's taken some adjusting too. It's been wild. It's been
a frightening year. It's been a year full of really
intense anger. If there is an emotion on the emotional scale,

(07:08):
I don't think that we've been saved from it this year.
I think we've done that whole circle. So, you know,
I'm grateful to be healthy, especially as an asthmatic. I'm
very grateful to be healthy. I'm grateful that my family
wasn't touched as often as some people have been by

(07:29):
COVID and that type of loss. But I've lost friends
and I've lost family, and it's been a really shit year.
To be perfectly honest.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
No, we welcome that honesty, you know.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
You know, I'm grateful for the possibility of change and
we'll see, you know, how just how much people are
able to do. But you know, January twentieth, when everybody
finally got inside and the doors were locked and the
cameras were gone, I felt like I could breathe a
little bit. I just wanted everybody to go inside. I

(08:03):
was like, this is great, can you now go inside? Everyone, everybody.
I want Mama inside, I want to step children inside.
I want everybody inside. So I was really I felt
like it felt like at the end of the move
of a movie, like a movie shoot when I've been
wearing a corset and I have to take that course

(08:23):
and get to take that courset off for the last day.
It felt like I have been wearing a corset for
four years and I finally got to take that thing
off and get a deep breath in. I felt like
I could just breathe a little bit.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
That is a very great metaphor. We've all been wearing
spanks for the last four years.

Speaker 6 (08:46):
West trainers.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Waist trains and on Bill and the face like, I
was like, do we have to translate this for you?

Speaker 5 (08:58):
Like no, no, no, I'm hyptop type clothing.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
You know, I admire you for, you know, the transparency
and the honest honesty about it because you know, this
has been a hard adjustment this past year, and for
a lot of us, this forced us to deal with
ourselves and to deal with the people in our lives,

(09:22):
like to really get to know them. I mean, if
you're quarantining alone or with the partner, your children or
your family members and that sort of thing. So this
was an adjustment for you know, a lot of us,
and you know, a lot of us didn't didn't make it,
you know, through the past year wiser or you know,
I know a lot of people that are in this

(09:43):
field that have given into to panic and fear and
that sort of thing. And sort of what three divorces
going on right now? Like three's going through divorces? Yeah wow, yeah,
you know, I hope for you that you know, it
was at least a lesson. But for the voiceover work,
was it more of a pivot for you? Or was
it what you were always doing or was it something

(10:06):
new that you weren't exactly prepared to make, you know,
something as serious as far as your career is concerned.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
It's something that I've always been doing and that I
really enjoy doing, and then it became something that I
was also really really grateful to be able to do
you know, outside of just saying, oh yeah, I get
to do voiceover. I'm a voiceover artist. That's fun and
I'm glad to do that. It became something to be
really grateful for during this past year.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Can I has what experience does that entail? I took
one hand. I did one time of trying to do
voiceover work, and you know, I kind of I'll say
I was unprepared. It was like an American Express card
and I realized that like the inflections that you have
to have and you know, read things sustinctly, so I

(10:59):
well like.

Speaker 6 (11:00):
What I do a little bit too. I would.

Speaker 9 (11:07):
Not like.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
What what does good voice over work entail? As far
as having to I assume that if you get called back,
that means you're good enough to to work again.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
So you know, it's different. It's different for depending on
what type of voiceover you're doing. Like if you're doing
a commercial and they call you to be your voice
because your voice is because you know you are questlove.
They just want to hear your voice. So there's some
things that you don't have to worry about. You don't

(11:41):
have to create a character, but you still have to
read whatever it is that they've given you in a
way that gets the whatever emotional tone that they want,
how does it push their product the best way. So
in that respect, you know you have to be ready
for that. If you're doing a character, they're looking for

(12:03):
actors most of the time, unless, of course, you're being
called in to be yourself. They're still looking for you
to be an actor, but you still get to be yourself,
which takes a little bit of that onus off of you.
But I would say if they're looking for a character,
if you're talking about a cartoon or an animated feature,
or even a voice over for a feature film, there's

(12:27):
acting involved because you need to know how to put
forth the emotion the information that they need to have.
And I think that what trips people up is that
they think, oh, oh well, let's just I'm just going
there and talk. It's gonna be fine. And it's a

(12:49):
lot more than that. And it's also tiresome because if
you are doing a whole feature or something like that,
they may want you to lay that whole thing down
in one day and by the time you're done, you're like, thanks,
that was that was really nice.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
And it's also very competitive too, because unlike in some ways,
even more so than acting, because we're acting, you can
kind of age out of.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
A role, so to speak.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
But in voice acting, I mean, hell, Nancy Cartwright been
playing Bart Simpson for thirty years, you.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
So once you get in those roles, you kind of
stay there, and if you're there, you.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
Can stay there. But it is extraordinarily competitive. It is
becoming more different by the day and more competitive by
the day because it's becoming more compartmentalized by the day
as well. So it's very interesting watching the shift. But
to be able to be on The Simpsons was so

(13:50):
much fun and I got to be so silly, and
anytime I get to be silly, I am very happy.
And you know, Princess Gianna was a huge, huge honor.
But I love doing voiceover for me. I love being
able to create a character. I love when somebody listens
to something and they don't realize it's me, or they
figure it out real late. That that gives me a kick,

(14:12):
Like I feel real honored when that happens, and that's
exciting to me.

Speaker 6 (14:16):
And that's the difference. That's what Creed Summer taught us.

Speaker 8 (14:18):
Y'all remember like that is why Anika is in the
cree tribe of things where you can't tell them, where
you can do all kinds of different characters and whatnot.
But then there's just the voice over a voice over artists,
which is sometimes like you said, just direct what you're.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
Talking about a commercial where they're like, hey, we want
to know who this person is because they want to
sell their project product on that person's voice. And look,
trust if Nike or Apple or any of those people
want to be like Ana, it would be great to
I'll be there before they finish the sentence. I'll be

(14:52):
right there, right there, direct deposit form in hand.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yes, I wish I knew that ahead of time, because
I think I came there prepared to do like my
dom Pardo uh impression. Then when I when I asked
my manager, like, so what they think, They're like, they're
going to roll with da da da da, I was like,
where I mess up? And they were like, they just

(15:18):
wanted you to sound like you were mere. And I
was like, oh, you know, I was talking like this
the whole time and no, no, no, no, So now
now now I know that, Okay, Yeah, but there would.

Speaker 4 (15:27):
Be another chance for you because your quest love and
they see you on TV all the time and you
are distinctive and now you know, well common can.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Sell a I I think you can say okay, okay, okay,
all right, because because you have uh kind of both
feet in all of these uh areas of acting? Is
it one? Is it? Is it highly unusual to not

(15:59):
just concentrate on one particular medium like strictly television or
the Broadway stage or movies like are you just one
of those supernatural people that will just take whatever comes
your way? Or you know? Or is it highly unusual
for a person in the acting feeld to sort of

(16:21):
stretch out to all three different arenas. I'm sure there's
more than three, but I know TV, right.

Speaker 4 (16:28):
And I think that when you can do that, you're
lucky to be able to do that. So I think that,
you know, and let me not say that it's just luck,
because somebody is going to be like, oh, excuse me, ma'am.
You know, there's a lot of training involved, there's a
lot of work involved to be the actor or performer

(16:48):
that I am. And I've been lucky for the time
that I've been here, that I was here at the
perfect time to be able to be in the running
to be Princess Tiana, because five years beforehand or two
years beforehand, two years afterwards could it wouldn't have been me,
you know. But also there is an adjustment of your

(17:14):
craft depending on what you're doing. You're not doing the
same thing on stage necessarily that you're going to be
doing on film that you're going to be doing on television.
And it's not something that I can be clear about,
but there are tiny adjustments. And there are some people
for whom they're amazing on film and they get on

(17:36):
stage and you're like what. And there are some people
who are on stage and you're like, I've never seen
anything like it, and they get on film you're like oh,
and you know, so there are there's a translation that happens.
And if you are somebody who is able to translate

(17:56):
to different mediums, well, it is again a blessing. It's
the work that you've done, but it's also you know,
you're lucky to be able to do that, because there
are people for whom they are magnificent actors in either realm,
but they get on screen and your face looks funny
and you don't know why your face looks funny because
your face looks great in person, but the screen will

(18:20):
change your face, Like you get up there and you're like,
wait a minute, why does my eye look so high
on that side? Those things happen on screen, So the
reasons that people don't make it on screen aren't always
about their talent per se. There's always something that can
make it not work for you. So I'm glad to

(18:41):
be able to do all three things. And it was
a plan for me to be able to do all
three things because I like to do all three things
and I'm somebody who I get tired of doing the
same thing over and over, Like it's important to me
to be able to stretch out and try something different
and be in a different space because I get ant
see and I want to be able to challenge myself.

(19:03):
And basically, anytime you see me doing something different, it's
because I was like, yeah, I want to try that.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
Let me see if I can do that well, and
I jump in which one edges out more like what
do you prefer? Do you prefer the stage? TV or movies?

Speaker 6 (19:25):
I what was the last or or movie or movie?

Speaker 1 (19:30):
But then again there's also voiceover so I mean it's like.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
For I love stage, and you know why, you know
that feeling being on stage, live in front of people,
and the challenge that it is to yourself every time
you're on a stage, how much better it makes you
having to do that, wanting.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
To do it.

Speaker 4 (19:52):
I love stage and I love film, and that's a
different type of challenge, and it's also finite, which is
sort of level. But on stage you have more control
over what you're doing, over the performance that you're giving.
And I really feel like stage is the place where
I sharpen my pencil, where I hone my skill, so

(20:14):
that when I step out to do something else, I
know that I have grown a new limb from the
time that I spent live on stage.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
Oh, I was gonna ask, have you ever given any
consideration that thought about like singing, like making the nikoonni
Rolls album?

Speaker 1 (20:32):
Like is that a is that a dream of fashion
of yours?

Speaker 4 (20:36):
I love to sing.

Speaker 8 (20:37):
I have.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
An album that I've been wanting to do for several
years and I just don't quite know how to do it.
And then I have a different musical project that I'm
actually in the works of planning now. So yes, I
love singing and I don't know. And I think probably

(21:00):
even when I started, when I started as a performer,
I wanted to be I wanted to be like a
Grammy winner. I said, by the time I was twenty one,
I want to grabby That's what I wanted to do.
That's what I didn't know that I wanted to be
an actor, and that feeling came later. And then I've
just been really really focused on this part of my

(21:21):
career and I think that it is it is a
loss to me inside of me to not sing as
much as I used to, even and definitely that is
in my plans. I just have to some things I
need to figure out. That's a help I need.

Speaker 6 (21:39):
I need some help which a genre of passion.

Speaker 4 (21:44):
That's probably part of the problem. I just love to say.
So I need to focus, you know. And I have
a focus on something I did. I did a concert
series a few, oh god, several years ago now very
bad at time, and it was a tribute to my grandmother.

(22:06):
And I would like to turn that into an album.
And I always wanted to do some sort of like
poppy thing, some sort of pop R and B. I
love rock. I would love to put out a rock song,
so like I'm not, I don't feel like, oh well,
I would only do you know what I mean?

Speaker 8 (22:25):
Because you have a song out now right that's really
popular from the Jingle Jangle down here.

Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yes, and John Legend wrote this song. It's called Make
It Work, and it is such a brilliant piece of writing.
And he is so interesting because his soul, I think,
is one hundred and two years old and right he

(22:52):
puts all of that into his music. So what Make
It Work gave me was R and B and got
bull and a henta pop and a tap of rock
all up in one thing. And it gave me intense
musical joy to be able to sing it. I love

(23:12):
it so deeply. And it was so smart with regard
to the movie because it was talking about many different things.
It was talking about making the relationship work between me
and my dad, but it was also talking about him
making his creation work and making his life work again.
And what John managed to do in the music is

(23:39):
he has a work song in there, like an actual
work song from time in the Fields. You can feel
it in the bass and the movement of that song,
and it talks to you in a way that I
don't know if people realize they're being spoken to. It
comes from the inside. And you know, music moves you

(24:01):
in wavelengths because your body moves on wavelengths. So when
people are like, oh, I hate a musical, but then
they go to a musical and they're like, god, I
kind of even amazing. They've got caught because of what
the music has done to your body and the wavelengths
that your body moves on. And when music is really good,

(24:22):
it seeps into your body that way. And I think
that that's part of what he created with that song
having written it, and it was my great joy to
be able to come in and partner with him and
take it to the next place of that vocally. It
was an amazing experience for me, and I loved it.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
I wanted to know what before you said that, you know,
the stage is what caused you more of all the
avenues that you can do your craft. I wanted to
know that, even it's weird that that's your choice, even
though like a thing. Think a lot of times stage
actors get not dismissed, but I mean there's really no

(25:07):
glamour or glory in it so much. You know, like
the baccolades that a movie actor or a television actor
would get this hardly, you know, extended to the Broadway world,
and at that there's so much pressure because you kind
of have to deliver out the park every night, Like

(25:29):
there's no such thing as a bad night or one
false newe you know, especially with musicals, Like how hard
is it to preserve your like and basically to hit
it out the park every night when you're on stage,
Like how much pressure is that?

Speaker 4 (25:49):
Musicals are particularly exhausting, but it's also life giving, Like
you leave the stage, you finish your show. For me,
it takes hours for me to become tired. I am
so high when I leave the stage, you know, like
my energy is moving. And I get home, I make

(26:10):
something to eat, and I talk on the phone or
read something. I'm up for hours. It takes me hours
to fall asleep because of the energy coursing through my body.
But it's exhausting, and it takes an extraordinary amount of discipline,
which I don't I don't know that people who haven't
done it realize that, which is why it sometimes conquers

(26:31):
people who haven't done it and are like, yeah, let's
do that, and then they're like, oh my god, it's
show number four. I'm about to die because it's a
murderer like that if you don't know how to pace
yourself for it. So depending on what you're doing, Like
for me, if I'm doing a musical, I want nine
hours of sleep period. I don't want to talk to

(26:51):
people about it. I don't don't call me in no
single digit am. No, I'm not trying to get up
to do nothing with you. No, we're not going one
out at night because I have to make sure that
somebody one hundred and fifty dollars or however much they
spent is worthwhile when they come to that stage. And
it's that's my job. And I take too much pride

(27:15):
in what I do to ruin it by being out
at a bar or out doing whatever. And look, some
people can do that. I can't. I'm speaking about it.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
The show is done, and no, I.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
May go out to get something to eat, but what
you will not see me do is talk.

Speaker 5 (27:35):
Done.

Speaker 4 (27:36):
I'll be at a restaurant eating, But if I'm talking
to somebody, I'm talking in their ear, like I'm in
their ear right here, real quiet, because you're going to
I'm gonna lose my voice trying to speak over the
din of a restaurant. You stress your voice so badly
that the next day your voice is tired, not from
the show you did, from the talking you did after.

(27:58):
So I am really I go home most of the time,
and I drink an extraordinary amount of water. I probably
drink about two leaders of water a day, no less,
to make sure everything is moving. I eat it super

(28:20):
properly and well, because I can't afford to be sick
at all.

Speaker 6 (28:24):
You're vegan, no dairy.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
I am not vegan. I would like to be that person,
but that's where my discipline doesn't quite get that far.
I need a piece of meat, you know, and not
every day, but I need some meat or I'm cranky
and tired. But I do you know, I cut back
on I don't eat a whole lot of fried stuff.

(28:48):
I don't eat a whole lot of spicy stuff. I
don't eat a whole lot of heavy, heavy stuff. Why
because those are the things that get on your body
and say, ooh you've had fun, you ate really well,
how about some reflux for tomorrow. So those are all
things that I'm thinking about when I'm performing and somebody

(29:09):
is going to be like, Oh, you don't have to
do all that. I never had to do all it.
I do this, I do that. That's great for them,
and I wish I was that person. But for me,
it involves a whole lot of discipline, and I'm not
bitter about it because it's the thing that I love
to do, so it always feels worth it.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
That's weird to hear because the time that I was
involved with the cast of Faila, they would go super hard,
like every.

Speaker 10 (29:36):
Night, like that's like a thing and a star thing.
I think like you get to a certain age, you
can't party that hard when you're like, you know, a
lot of the ensemble kids don't feel like they need
to save the voice as much as the word stopped
you right there.

Speaker 4 (29:51):
Bill Present said something that I'm a now I can
understand why you wouldn't have to you about to be muted.

Speaker 5 (30:14):
Canceled.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
I have never This has always been the way that
I approached my job. It's my job and I and
you know, FELA was an amazing show with amazing artists
in it. Also a dance heavy show. I don't think
it was as vocally heavy as it was dance heavy,

(30:38):
and it's a different type of singing because it's also
choral singing. So everybody singing except for uh, what was
his name, Sasha Sar who was Chef's Kiss magnificent. So
it's choral singing, so you have a whole lot of
voices that can fill that thing out. And if and

(30:59):
again let me make this clear, no shade whatsoever. But
if one choral person is singing at level six or
seven on a Tuesday night, the audience isn't going to
know that one choral person is singing at six or
seven unless that person has a solo. So when you're

(31:20):
in a show that you can do choral work, I
think you have a little more space. You can lean
on that day what you said.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
The person.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
That is next to you in a different way. But
if Sar would go out drinking every single night, Sar,
I'm gonna have a different show the next day, you
know what I mean? And he was, oh god, they
were magnificent in that show.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Wait, speaking of Bill good, well, now he's canceled build
instead of yeah, wait a minute, because Ninka, I was
looking on your your credits and I saw Hamilton there.
Explain this to me when when was your run with this?

(32:16):
Because I didn't do a run.

Speaker 4 (32:19):
I helped workshop Hamilton.

Speaker 9 (32:21):
Ah, So I did the original table like the the
last not the last workshop, but the second to last
workshop to Hamilton.

Speaker 4 (32:33):
We did a workshop up at Vassar at New York
Station Film, which was amazing, and then I did A
Raisin in the Sun and I couldn't really do anything
while I was doing A Raisin in the Sun because
it was a three hour tour and I was it

(32:57):
was just a really busy and heavy show and dramatic,
and I didn't have a lot of space to do
other things while that was happening. They were still doing
work another workshop for it after that, and they got
the lovely Renee Goldsbery and she ended up being blessed
with the role. But that's how those things happened, you

(33:18):
know what I mean. Like sometimes sometimes.

Speaker 10 (33:22):
Bill, I was I was not at that. I thought
you were going to bring up being on the Sesame
Street float, which is what you and Anica have in
common other than many other things.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
No, but I mean she when I read that she
was in the initial Hamilton thing, I was like, wait
a minute, Bill, that's that's your whole world I did.

Speaker 10 (33:39):
I didn't know that I wasn't. I wasn't there during that,
but I know that Anica was the first Angelica many
many moons ago.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Wow. Oh okay, yeah, okay. I was just confused because
when I read that, I was like, wait a minute,
I could.

Speaker 10 (33:50):
Have sworn it was to make a record a mirror,
and she was not there when we made that record,
and that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
I was like, wait, was I in ruined?

Speaker 4 (33:59):
It was so crazy? Is that Renee and I actually
did the good fun together? And she is so amazing
and beautiful and fantastic. And to watch her, you know,
step up there and get that Tony and give that
beautiful speech afterwards. I was so happy for her because

(34:21):
she is such a good person as well as being
you know, stupendously talented and not too painful on the eye.
She's she's a lovely human being. So, you know, sometimes
you lose out on a role as somebody, and with
no rationality at all, you're sitting at home mad at

(34:42):
the person. It has nothing to do with that person
and you, but you have a little mad you home,
sending them to no mad cussing under your breath. But
she is somebody for whom you really can't begrudge anything.
She's so good at what she does. She's such a
lo person. She is, She's really a blessing. So I

(35:05):
was really really happy for her. Does that mean I
was not sad that I didn't get to do it now,
But it does mean I had a great time when
I did do it, and I was happy that the
person who ended up getting to do it was somebody
really beautifully fitted to what it was.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Oh nice, I mean you wanted Tony previously for Carolina Cheams.
What was that like to I believe that that world
is very not unpenetrable, but just very hard to get
a seat at the table, just based on my limited
experience of being in that world, So I mean, what

(35:45):
did it feel like to get the acknowledgment?

Speaker 4 (35:46):
At least it was one of the most amazing moments
of my career because it was the last thing that
I expected. I just had no idea that that was
what was going on to come from that role. And
even when at the time people were like, oh, we're
coming to see your show, I was like, well, it's

(36:07):
not really my show. I come in at this point
in time, but come to see the show, because the
show is amazing and everybody was phenomenal in it. I
was stunned when I got nominated and then when I won,
I I if you ever get to see that video,
Like my head dropped, Like they said my name, they

(36:27):
said my first name. I didn't even hear my middle name.
My head went down. And then I was just focused
on not tripping.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
As I got to the stage, Everyone's like, don't fall,
don't fall.

Speaker 5 (36:40):
There's a lot of wires. Don't tell you that on
the heel.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
And you haven't eaten for six hours freezing because yeah,
and you're not trying to drink nothing because your dress
is fitted and you're not trying to have come up
put a pinch, so all those things. But I did
have a lunar bar in my purse. Oh I always

(37:09):
have a snack. I'm the one a snack because otherwise
I'm cranky.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
So you established that you're angry, Like.

Speaker 4 (37:25):
But my friend, my friends like, NA, we're just going
to carry some snacks for you because you don't really
know how to act after a certain impoortant time. And
I was like, no, but I can't even deny that.
So I had snacks but you know, what was amazing
to me was that it was a collection of my

(37:49):
peers who said, you, you did something that stands out
that is worthy of recognition. And I looked out into
Radio City Music Hall and the people in the balcony.
I could see them barely, but I could see them
like they stood, and I could hear. At some point

(38:11):
my hearing came back, like I got to the stage
and then I could hear this wave of applause and
I could see the Oh, the woman who wrote the music,
Jantia Sorri, was climbing over somebody else to grab them.
While it was happening, my brother was in the audience,
my grandmother was there, and both of my parents, and
I think I was so very moved and full, and

(38:37):
I think that you know those times when you just
have no idea, like I didn't even know when nominations
came out, and I try not to know because I
feel like it's stress. Live. I don't need that stress.
You know, it's so rare that we're in a position
where we were nominated for something and then go ahead
and get it. That's something else, So I don't need
to be thinking about Oh, April second is blah blah.

(38:59):
That's stress you don't need, so I just go on
about my life. But I had zero idea that that
was going to happen. And it was phenomenal. It was phenomenal,
that feeling, and it led to me being in Dreamgirls
because Bill Condon saw Carolina change and then he came
back and saw me in Pearly and that's how I

(39:21):
got to audition for Dreamgirls.

Speaker 6 (39:24):
Like it was an audition.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
The audition it was. It was interesting because I was
such a knucklehead and I was so new. They had
asked me to audition, and I said, well, you know,
I'm actually supposed to perform at the Library of Congress
and I told him that I would and I can't
pull out of that because you know, it's a performance

(39:50):
that I said I would do, and so let me
know when you have a second round of auditions. That
could have gone so wrong. So they did. They did
let me know, and they were like, but now we're
in Los Angeles, and I said, well, I'm guess I'm
gonna fly myself to Los Angeles. And that's not something

(40:12):
that I do regularly. I really generally feel like if
somebody really, really wants you in something, a company they'll
send for you. Yeah, but if you really really really
want something and you have to decide what that thing is,
then then bring yourself and go get it. And my

(40:32):
point of view was I'm coming to get this. So
I flew myself out. I did an audition. It was
a great audition. It was months before I heard from them,
like it must have been three months I think it was.
And then they wanted me to come to a callback
and they flew me out for the callback and there
was a limo that met me at the airport.

Speaker 8 (40:53):
And I was like, what, I didn't notice really happy
by this time? Where were they in the casting process?
Like had some people been casting and some hadn't, or
like where were they by the time you got I
wish that I.

Speaker 4 (41:04):
Could tell you, But you know what I was concerned
about myself, Eddie Murphy, you know already in there. I
think they were already there from the beginning, but we
weren't auditioning with them, and they were still trying to
figure out who the girls were going to be together.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
You know.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
And there are so many reasons why I may not
have gotten that job. I'm short, I am five two
and a half Beyonce, I think it's five six. Jennifer
is five and nine. You might not have seen me
on screen, so it was you know, it was me
and five and literally five and a half inch heels

(41:47):
through that entire movie, so that we could all be
on screen together. And those are some of the things
that people don't know happened. When you're casting something. You
got the Lollipop Guild me to say so anyway, so
I went, they flew me out, and I auditioned again,
and I sang ain't no Party live and with no music,

(42:11):
and and then it was like another three months and.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
And I was like, well, you know, you start three
months waiting, like how are you supporting yoursel are you
still working as an actress like making money and stuff?

Speaker 4 (42:25):
You know what, I've been very lucky that I've never
done anything else with this. I've never waited at a table.
I've only done this.

Speaker 6 (42:33):
Straight from school.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
And I'm.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
Grateful for that because I've seen people at restaurants, you know,
people come in getting real entitled about their medium, well Hamburgers.
So I'm grateful for that. And I have a lot

(42:58):
of respect for the people who can deal with the
public feeling special about their Hairburger. So I've never had
to do anything else, but I have been broke, and
at that time, I really wasn't having much money flow
coming in because I didn't have a stage job in
that moment, and I remember, but I still had to

(43:21):
get my hair done because your hair is your face,
so you have an audition, your hair need to be right.
So I was getting my hair done. I was under
a hair dryer and my phone rang and my agent
was trying to talk to me, and I was like, what.

Speaker 6 (43:35):
I can't hear, I can't. You gotta be calling you.

Speaker 4 (43:42):
So I got out from under the dryer and called
this person back and they told me that I had
gotten the role. And I was sitting in the hair hairdresser,
tears running down my face because I wanted it so
badly and I felt like it was for me like
I felt it in that moment. Sometimes you're wrong, though,

(44:06):
and I was so thrilled that this was the next
thing that I was going to do because I knew
that music and I knew that show really well. And
then Anthony Manguela, who did the Number one Ladies Detective Agency,
saw me and Dreamgirls called Bill Condon to ask what
kind of person I was, and that's how I got

(44:27):
the audition for Number one Ladies. So everything is sort
of connected.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
I see, I want to know. I know that you
worked with the great Debbie Allen. She's one of our
bucket list hopefuls for this show. What was it like
working under her direction for Kat on a high ten roof?

(44:56):
First it was this all black version of it, which
is unusual. Like, what was it like? And also with
James L. Jones was in that book, right, Yes he was.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
That was my big daddy, and Felicia was, Yeah it was.
It was great working with her because you're working with
somebody who knows the stage like the back of her hand.
You're working with someone who has no pretense. You're working
with someone who will occasionally pull your hair to make

(45:27):
a point. And I love her. I love her deeply.
And the fact that she came to me with that
role was I mean, it's something I never thought I
would do, not because I didn't think I was able
to do it. I just never thought that I would

(45:48):
be considered for that role. I mean, you're talking about
a sacred cow Tennessee Williams, who would have ever thought
a black Maggie would grace a stage.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
And that's the role Elizabeth Taylor played correct.

Speaker 4 (46:03):
Yes, And I loved that play and I loved those words,
and I loved that woman, Maggie. She's an amazing and
tortured soul. And Debbie said, you know, would you like
to do this? And I said absolutely. And I will
really be grateful to her forever for giving me that
opportunity to stretch myself like that and to be an adult,

(46:26):
like a full blonde woman on stage, which until that
point I had not really done. I was playing kids
most of the time and really young people, and this
was somebody who all the youth had been sort of
sucked out of her. She was and she was a woman,
and she traveled the world in womanhood before she was

(46:50):
even a woman. So this was something that it was
perfect in my life space because I had known disappointment
at that point in time, and I had known pain, hurt,
and Debbie knew, she knew that peace, and she knew
that stage, and she just she just set me free
in that space. I and I'm really, really to this

(47:11):
day very grateful for her. And she's somebody you can
laugh with, but also who has done her homework and
you know that you can have an in depth and
fruitful conversation about the art of it with her.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
So okay, one question I had for you, Anita, I
was specifically concerning your time at FAM.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
You it's not too many, we won't.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
Get too many HBCU grads, you know, to show I'm
as I graduated North Calina Central, and yeah, FAM, he
was actually one of my schools. I was, you know,
I got like a seventy two, but I wasn't going
all the way to down Florida. But yeah, oh yeah,
that's right. Yeah, like you too, So yeah, just tell

(47:56):
us about that time, you know, going to FAM, and
just what that experience was like for you and how
you think that influenced your artistry.

Speaker 4 (48:04):
Well, I wanted to go to an HBCU. I didn't
know which one I was going to, but I knew
I wanted to go, and I had already been accepted
at a couple of other schools that were, you know,
traditional schools. But I had family who went to Howard,
I had family who went to Hampton, I had family
who went to FAM, and so I was familiar with

(48:27):
these schools and I don't know. I wanted to go
someplace that was small enough to build a program and
have individualized attention if you needed it. That was important
to me because say, Howard Grade School, fantastic school, huge, so.

Speaker 6 (48:54):
That much smaller.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
It's the department is much smaller.

Speaker 6 (48:57):
Oh, the department.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
The department is much And I was coming from Connecticut,
and that's another reason why I wanted to have a
an HBCU experience, because that wasn't my growing up experience.
Like in my particular neighborhood, I was one of two
black folks and I don't know if the other person

(49:22):
knew that.

Speaker 5 (49:23):
They were wanting to.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Connect Bloomfield.

Speaker 4 (49:29):
Oh, beautiful town, gorgeous town and a great growing up
and I'm happy to have had it. But it was
important to me to have that experience. And I, you know,
and I grew up in a family who made it.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
You know.

Speaker 4 (49:42):
I was very clear about who I was and where
I came from and what my history was. I didn't
know if I would ever I don't think I would
ever have the opportunity again after this time to be
surrounded by my own culture. So that was important to
me to have that experience, and it was I think
it was a good experience. It was a good place

(50:03):
to be on stage. I studied theater, so I didn't
study acting necessarily specifically. I studied theater so that meant
I was acting. If I wasn't acting, I was doing
costuming or directing or fighting. Yeah, I was doing everything.
And I think that that was a gift to me
as an actor, because it made it very clear that

(50:25):
there are a lot of other things happening around you
that make the thing work. It ain't you. You know, you,
you are the reason the one thing that you're doing
is happening. But you can't just do that, you know
what I mean. And so I think it made me
very appreciative of everything that happened all around me.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
And and.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
The band was exquisite U and I knew the band
before I had gotten to the school, and I had
seen them live before I got into the school, and
they were you know, it was just such an amazing
culture to be a part of and to be proud
to be a part of. And there are a lot
of HBCUs with some good bands, but then there's fam you.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
Did this? Did you did this? Prepare you for your
time on the quad? On BT.

Speaker 4 (51:27):
Because you know what was amazing about my time on
the Quad is that I was playing a woman who
was from Connecticut who was thrown into the HBCU experienced
And did they.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
Know your did they know your history when writing this
character or it was just a coincidence.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
Rob Hardy did. Rob Hardy did, but a little bit
of coincidence. And it was really interesting and great for
me to be able to bring that aspect of myself
to what I was doing. And I had spent a
lot of time in academia because because of family, and

(52:04):
my grandmother was a teacher, and so all of those
things sort of came to ahead. But the HBCU thing,
most assuredly, I think you have to live it to
know it, and you can read about it and you
can watch some video, but you sort of have to
live it to know it. And I was grateful to
be able to bring that part of myself to that space.

(52:28):
And we had a couple of writers on staff who
were HBCU people, and Rob Hardy, who also went to family,
was one of the creators. So it was luck that
all of that came together in one space. And she
was a pretty fun character to play.

Speaker 8 (52:51):
Can I ask a random role question because it was
two roles I just wanted to ask you about, and
one of them is very random, but it's still one
of my favorite episodes of this brandis Law and Order.

Speaker 6 (53:04):
Yes, Law and Order SVU. I wanted to ask you
about that.

Speaker 8 (53:06):
And I wanted to ask you about what that now
that I know, I mean, I knew you were from Connecticut,
but what that meant as an East Coast actor? What
that means to East Coast actors in a way? And
was that something that you felt like you had to do?
It was on a bucket list of sorts in a way,
because it's I feel like everybody has run through Lawn Order.

Speaker 4 (53:24):
It was not, And it was a badge of honor
to be the only New York actor that I knew
who had never been on Lawn Order. I was like,
apparently they don't want me, and I'm the only New
York actor they don't want, So I'm going to turn
that into an honor instead of being like, y'all do
I can't even be dead in the park like people

(53:46):
die every.

Speaker 6 (53:46):
Week, right you?

Speaker 1 (53:52):
Okay? I didn't even get that.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
So it took years before that happened. And and it
was a great and interesting role. And the guy who
wrote it, Oh, it's Matthew's last name. I can't think
of his last name, but I'm gonna figure it out
right now because that's rude. He he was so good

(54:16):
and I'm looking him up right now. That's why I'm
trying to multitach my mind. He saw you on David Matthews.
David Matthews wrote that episode. Warren Light is a really
good dude, and they love theater people. But David wrote
something so interesting with this character, this woman, this Marriam Dang,
who was based on a real person who had had

(54:37):
that situation happened to her. And I cannot remember the
real woman's in the beginning, Okay, I researched her, I
pulled her up. I listened to her accent over and
over again to find this woman and it was an
interesting accent. It was different for me to do, but
it was fun. It was fun to do, and it

(54:57):
was just it was something different for me to do.
And then I now, I can't say I'm the only
one who they didn't want.

Speaker 8 (55:11):
My second world question was just about going to be
about jukebox and the way that character was brought to you,
and if it was brought to you, if you auditioned,
and why it took.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
It took me four episodes to realize it was her.

Speaker 6 (55:22):
Oh my god, you were just That's when I was like, oh,
she's you.

Speaker 5 (55:26):
Just all things are kind of flying by you mirror.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
Like, like, no things, No, you're still in the doghouse. Yo,
I'm gonna come back.

Speaker 10 (55:36):
I'm gonna come back. Wait till we get to the
Princess of the Frog. I got Betty questions, but literally
literally and all kinds of ship.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
There's a point where you know where I guess you
were going to Kiltaric or whatever. And when I watched
the credits to the end, I was like, no, that's
not her, let's get out of it. And then I
realized that was you and I had to rewatch that
episode again. Yeah, I totally did not make that you

(56:03):
until you really lost yourself there.

Speaker 4 (56:06):
For me, that is See, that's my favorite compliment. I
love that. I loved jukebox. I loved jukebox.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Courtney put you to do it, or like how I
met her. She's one of the nicest people ever.

Speaker 4 (56:22):
Also from Connecticut. Courtney and I have mutual friends, and
we met at a game night and Courtney also wrote
on The Good Wife? What so she knew me from
The Good Wife? I didn't know her at that point.
And then we met at this game night and had

(56:43):
a great time. And when we met, we were like,
we like each other. We should go to lunch. And
so we went to lunch and she was like, you know, Anka,
if there was a is there a role that you'd
want to play that you feel like no one would
ever give you? And I was like, huh, well yeah.

(57:08):
She was like, well what is that? I was like,
I would like to be a complete badass, preferably on
a motorcycle, which I don't drive. I don't ride motorcycles.
But I'm thinking this is something new when I would
have given me and you know, just completely like wild
and the outside of anything somebody would think of me for.

(57:30):
And this was years before before power had even happened.
And she was like, oh, that would be really cool.
I'd love to see you this way and I was
like yeah. And so cut to a couple of years later,
I'd get a call saying, would you be interested in
She's a cop, She's a rogue cop. She's a lesbian,

(57:53):
she's sort of murderous. I said, yes, yes, I would,
I would be absolutely. I mean, you ain't got to
tell me nothing else. Thank you. I loved her. I
loved her because she was ruthless and interesting and different,
and it's something I would never be in life, you

(58:13):
know what I mean, Like I would never want to
do the things that she did in life. But that's
one of those times where you can do all the
horrible things on screen and have fun with it. And
I got to mush fifty cent in the head, like
we guessed the mushif.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
More than mush fifty cent in the head yo.

Speaker 6 (58:31):
And the accent I heard a DZ accent.

Speaker 4 (58:32):
I appreciate it, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
It was really really fun for me. And it was
so well written. The episodes were so well written. And
that was that, honestly, was another moment where they were
just like, so, how you want to do it? And
I was like, oh, really, let's go. I just got

(58:56):
to go. And I have been in New Yorker for
so long, you know, I'd lived in New York for
a really long time, and I've always been I grew
up on the East Coast, so you know, Thank god,
I haven't had to really spend time with those people,
but I've definitely seen those people, and you recognize them
when you see them, when you look into their eye
and you see like they are not worried about doing

(59:21):
away with you. It would not bother them. You've seen
those people. So I loved her. I loved her, and
thank you.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Okay, So if you can, can you completely walk me now?
I feel safe asking this question because people already know
on the show that my animation watching activity is very,
very low, with the exception of occasional few, so I

(59:56):
don't feel bad when people ridicule me for not you
never saw the Lion King. Yes, I've been through all that,
So can you walk me through the process now? And again,
I know this is a very historical pivotal, not even
for you, but just for history. Love it, keep going,

(01:00:20):
keep We didn't see Princess at the front, But what
I'm asking is to please walk me through the process
of how that role came to you.

Speaker 5 (01:00:35):
And it's the best ship ever. I have daughters and
it's just great.

Speaker 4 (01:00:45):
I was in l A doing Carolina Change after we
closed the New York Rule, the New York Run We
did a soft tour just LA and San Francisco, and
that was all I did, because by then I had
done over three hundred shows. And while I was in La,

(01:01:06):
the Disney people came to see it at the mark
Taper and they were like, we'd love to have a
meeting with you, and I was like yes, because I
had always wanted to be a Disney voice, not necessarily
a Princess. I really didn't care what I was going
to be. I just wanted to be a voice. And
so I had this meeting and I told them that

(01:01:28):
I would love to be anything, and I could be
a fleet even and I had a sound for the
fleet or the ticket, and they probably thought I was insane,
and from that meeting I was a couple of years later,
three years later, two years later, they called me for

(01:01:51):
to audition for The Princess and the Frog and I
read that the piece that they gave you, because they
don't give you the whole thing, and I was like, oh,
I know this girl. I am this girl. I am
from a small town where nobody did the thing that
I wanted to do. I spent my growing up and

(01:02:14):
trying to do what I do being told you know
that it wasn't perhaps possible. I knew who this girl
was and I was a hard worker. So it took
three auditions over I don't know, must have been a
year that those auditions happened. One was the first one

(01:02:38):
was the day after the Dream Girl's premiere in LA
So you will see no pictures of me at the
Dreamgirls premiere party in La because I went back to
my hotel room and I worked on that audition and
I think I sang everything in my book when I
went in there, because I was like, I'm going to
get this wrong. And the second one was some time later,

(01:03:02):
and I also crazy. I was working on a show
in Australia and I got a call back for the
Princess and the Frog, and I was in Oh God,
I was in New York. I was flying out to Australia.
I think the next two days I was flying out
and my audition was going to be I had to

(01:03:26):
go to Australia, unpack a bag, shoot for one day,
get on another plane, go back to LA And the
day after that was my second audition. That sounds crazy
because it was. However, I didn't care because I wanted
that role and I was like, if I have to

(01:03:48):
turn around and get dressed on this plane and gargle
my way to Bourbank, I'm coming to get this role.
So we did that, and then time went past, and
I think I will It was two thousand and six,
so I was we were doing the Oscars telecast for
dream Girls, and Randy Newman was there because he of

(01:04:08):
course had something that was nominated. And I'm looking at
him because he had been in the room audition.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
I'm like, hi, toy story sixteen.

Speaker 4 (01:04:17):
And I'm just hoping he's gonna say something positive to me,
and he was like hey. And some more months went
by before I got the word, and that one I
got the word walking down the street in New York,
headed to the bank with a sad piece of check

(01:04:38):
in my hand. I don't know what. I just know
it wasn't it wasn't exciting, but I was happy to
be putting it in the bank. And I got the
call walking down Broadway that I had gotten that role,
and they were like, you should where are you. I
was like, oh, oh, broa, where and they were like,
you should come to our offices so we can celebrate.
And I bopped myself to the Disney offices and had

(01:04:59):
an intense, tearful, fabulous celebration and you know, three years
of making later it came out.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
Wow. So it took three years from that point wow
for it to come out?

Speaker 4 (01:05:11):
And was that really what you were asking me? And
I gave you an hire?

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
Okay, we lived for this is the rabbit Hole Central.
We we lived for those things.

Speaker 10 (01:05:24):
Wait can you talk about can you talk about Princess
and the Frog? Like the music so like straight out
of New Orleans and like just the whole process of
like getting into that vibe. Also Randy Newman known for
like the medium shuffle sort of getting himself out of
that and writing things that are very you know, New
orleansy as it were, And like, how did what was it?

(01:05:45):
What was your approach to that and how did you
feel about like being that character?

Speaker 4 (01:05:49):
I loved being that character.

Speaker 10 (01:05:51):
Because the singing, like the acting and the voice stuff
is great in that show, but the singing and like
you know, you're always trying and Disney stuff to be
the next great Disney songs because these songs are are
so high. This is coming from a guy who works
a saysme street. Disney songs are so high on the
you know, on the thing of great songs, Like, did
you feel a sense of purpose? I feel a sense
of that you had to to be up. I mean,

(01:06:13):
you're always up to a certain level. I'm not going
to say that, but like, did you feel a sense
of having to push it over the top?

Speaker 5 (01:06:18):
Like what was what was that? I don't want to
get canceled again.

Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
No, my finger is hovering, but I didn't. I have
to tap themw button. I'm glad.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
No.

Speaker 4 (01:06:32):
I felt a sense of responsibility towards the character. I
felt a strong sense of responsibility towards her because I
wanted her to be as honest and as real as possible.
And I felt like it was something that I was
old as a little black girl in this country who

(01:06:54):
grew up on Disney. I felt like it was something
that my parents' generation were old, having never seen that.
And I felt like it was something that was old
to the generation coming up behind me, that this person
be real, that she be relatable, that she be honest.

(01:07:18):
And there were things that we talked about as we
went through it. You know, musically, I wanted to hear
the youth in her voice, particularly as we started the
movie and the wonder in her voice, and I wanted

(01:07:40):
her to be true to the sound of that era.
So the movie starts with a tiny song the evening
star shine and right, so make a wish and hold
on time. There's magic in the air to night and

(01:08:05):
anything can that was flat thing can happen. So I
wanted that beginning to definitely be as magical and whimsical
as possible. And as we went through almost there, you
got her spirit in there, and you got her soul
in there. That last note that I was able to

(01:08:29):
just I was given the space to just hold and
go with it. And then at the end, when she
sings down in New Orleans, which Doctor John had sung
towards the beginning of the movie, I felt like it
was important to hear the maturity of who she had
become and the journey that she had gone through. So

(01:08:51):
it's still her, but you know, we all sing differently
for different occasions, different feelings, different moments. I really put
some a little bit of her gut in that song
because I felt like she was freed of some things.
She was freed of the responsibility that she had put
on herself. She was a she was more open to

(01:09:13):
just having some fun. She had found love, which she
didn't expect, and she had achieved her dream. And I
feel like that is an opening up that happens that
takes you from being a girl to a young woman.
And I wanted that to be heard in her voice.
So when you get to that down in New Orleans, sorry,

(01:09:36):
down in New Orleans, in the Southland, there's a city
way down on the river. I wanted to use some
more of the bottom part of the voice and some
more and to let some more dirt for lack of
a better word, come into to her voice for that song.

(01:09:57):
And that was important to me, and we had a
conversation about it because I didn't want her to be
to spend a whole movie singing in this place. I
didn't want not from New Orleans, you know what I mean.
And I felt like it was important to the truth
of who this young woman is and would be to

(01:10:20):
have that space today.

Speaker 1 (01:10:21):
Were you allowed to sort of drive what your character
was or did you have to have like a conversation
with the Disney people, because I, you know, I would
think that at least when you're dealing with the Hollywood
superpower like that, they're always thinking about middle America and
we don't want to scare them off, and you know
that sort of thing.

Speaker 4 (01:10:40):
So yeah, no, I wasn't worried about Middle America. You know,
she's from New Orleans, so I was worried about New Orleans.
And she is me, so I was worried about representing
you know, who we are. And they wanted it to

(01:11:01):
be as true to form as possible. They really did,
and so I was given the space to say, you know,
I don't think this would be this doesn't really make
sense to me for this reason or the other. And
I was heard when I said those things. Now, mind you,

(01:11:23):
I didn't write the story, so it's not like the
necessarily the story was going to change. But if I
said that something culturally didn't sit well, or if I
said that, I know, we had a big talk about
the scene in the I think I'm free to say this,
the scene in the swamp where when Princess Tianna was

(01:11:46):
a frog still and Navin was a frog and they
were being hunted, and there was when we first did
that scene, my concern was, I said, what we don't
want in this scene is for it to feel like

(01:12:06):
a slave hunt, because you know, black folks are always
going to think about and feel that feeling when you've
got these real what's the good word, like hick white
dudes with two teeth and a net and some dogs

(01:12:29):
running after us. Very important to have the tone of
that scene correct. And we talked about it, and I
talked about it and they were like, oh, you're absolutely right.
So it made a difference in how that scene moved
and the words that were used and how the chase happened.

(01:12:52):
And I'm and I'm glad that I was working with
a group of people who were open to hear that.
And you would think, well, of course they would, because
they want to make some money, but you'd be surprised
the amount of times that people don't listen to you.

Speaker 8 (01:13:08):
As you were saying it to you, I was thinking
to myself, they listening, and I was wondering if that
anybody in that room that looked like you though that
was helping to write that story. But I'm guessing that
that's why you had to provide that expertise, because.

Speaker 4 (01:13:19):
Well, I mean, I think we had one black writer,
maybe two, but they weren't always there with us. And
I think when you're dealing with large entities that you
do the best you can to make sure that you're heard,
but sometimes it's hard to be heard. And look, I

(01:13:45):
don't know what conversations happened before I said that, so
let me make that very clear. I don't know what
conversations happened. But sometimes it's hard to be heard from
the inside of the room. Sometimes something has to come
through from the outside of the room for people to understand, Oh,

(01:14:08):
this isn't just so and so who I work with
every day. This really is something that you know will
be a universal thought issue, you know, problem feeling. But
I don't know what they talked about beforehand, but I
know that for me that that was something that we
really needed to talk about. And I'm glad that they

(01:14:30):
heard me. And they were really wonderful during the process,
like really wonderful Peter del Vaco, Ron Clements and John Musker,
who are amazing and they also did a Little Mermaid,
so it was an amazing production team. And I did
feel listened to when I spoke, I'm and I'm glad

(01:14:53):
for that. And I think it's only smart of people
who are creating something in a culture that isn't theirs
to listen to the person who in the room, for
whom it is now, am I from New Orleans? No,
but as a black woman who grew up in this
country and knows her history and has family in the South.
There are things that I'm going to bring to that
that they never would have listened to there. First of all,

(01:15:14):
not even women, so we can start there. You know,
it was a group of men, but they were good dudes.
And there were other things that we talked about, like
I asked for Tiana to be left handed, and they
were totally into that. Yeah. Right, And that's something that
you just don't I am, and it's something you just
don't see, you don't get to see. It was important

(01:15:36):
to me that she not have a cookie cutter body.
I was like, you know, this is a black girl,
so let's make sure that you know, we don't want
it to look like porn, which sometimes cartoons can do
to people. But she need to have a booty because
let's be true to form. Let's make a real person,
not just paint something that's there. And to be clear,

(01:15:59):
this wasn't a fight. They asked me the things that
I that I thought of that I felt were important,
and those were you know some of the things that
I talked about, but not all of them. But those
are the things that you will see immediately, and that
our hair not be straight. Those are things that you'll
see immediately. And it was and I have now taken
you all the way to Wonderland because I think I'd

(01:16:21):
forgotten what the question was that I got.

Speaker 10 (01:16:25):
A quest love Supreme, where every tangent is a good tangent.

Speaker 4 (01:16:31):
Again.

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
No, this this brings a whole new level of respect
that you know was already there, but added more to it. No,
thank thank you for sharing that You're in Tyler Perry's
uh for Colored Girls with damn near half of Hollywood.

Speaker 4 (01:16:52):
What was that?

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
What was that whole experience like in doing that that movie?

Speaker 4 (01:16:59):
You know, it was interesting because most of those people
we I didn't see till the end, and I I
didn't I didn't see them. However, it was it was
actually a really good experience. And I'll have to say

(01:17:20):
that as far as how you're treated on a set,
Tyler had there were flowers in my trailer every morning
when I went into work, fresh fresh flowers that had
never happened before.

Speaker 1 (01:17:33):
And so that makes a difference.

Speaker 4 (01:17:35):
You know, all it says, is we care.

Speaker 8 (01:17:39):
Okay, and at the very least you're doing so much
heavy work that it kind of doesn't end up lifting
a ways.

Speaker 6 (01:17:45):
Okay, well, at least I'm starting my day off with
these flowers, because.

Speaker 4 (01:17:47):
Yeah, start up with something nice because you're going into
the ships that one. But that was a really lovely thing.
And we shot in New York and we shot in
Atlanta and it was pretty fast. But yeah, so I
didn't really get to Tandy and I became very close

(01:18:08):
on that set. For some reason, we ended up being
what year was that we ended up being connected of
two thousand and nine and Carrie and I became friendly,
but we didn't really get to find, you know, meld
and work together because it really as much of an

(01:18:30):
ensemble as it was. It was also you know, if
you know the original piece, which I'm sure you do,
it was monologues, right. It was singular stories that cut
together and touch each other in the corners. So but
what I am grateful like that monologue is such an
amazing and phenomenal monologue that I got to do in

(01:18:54):
the hospital, and I remember Tyler was like, oh, so
we're gonna do this shot and then that shot and
the other shot, and I started to do it. We
did a rehearsal, and then I went back to and
we didn't want to use a lot of time because
it was so emotional and I was coming off with
something else and going straight into that, and I was

(01:19:16):
supposed to go back to makeup, and I said, no,
I don't want any makeup. I want you to leave
my face as it is. I think it's important to
see her face. I don't want her to look nice
or better or falsely worse. I want you to see
her face as it is. And he did not fight

(01:19:37):
me on that. And then one thing that he did,
which I really appreciate it was he was like, you
know what, we were going to do different angles, but
you just do your monologue. And so instead of doing
different angles and cutting and doing this and that and
the other, I did a take and he got closer
and closer and closer and closer with the camera so

(01:20:00):
that it didn't have to be cut up and I
didn't have to find create that same emotional space because
I've waited now for fifteen minutes for a camera angle
to change or for a lens to change, which God
bless them those people are doing their jobs and they're
trying to make you look as good as possible when
the edit is done. But sometimes there is something to

(01:20:22):
be said for allowing the emotional space to live and
just showing it in its naked space. And I think
that that's something that's something that happened in that moment
that I think Tyler totally made. Well. Look, that sounds crazy,

(01:20:43):
but it felt like the right choice to me at
the time, and as an artist, it definitely was the
right choice for me to be able to do the
best that I could do in that space, you know what.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
You mentioned that, and then it also hit me that
well because I worked on it as well. You were
no no, no, no, not colored girls. I've worked on Roots,
you were on Kiss. I totally forgot I was.

Speaker 4 (01:21:12):
Episode four. I think I was, you know, which was
quite an honor to bring that, to bring that story
to the young people, people who haven't seen the original,
who didn't know about the original, And at first I
was like, why are y'all doing this again?

Speaker 1 (01:21:29):
What already?

Speaker 4 (01:21:35):
And not because it was about slavery, because listen, I
think it's important that people know about slavery. Here's one
thing There's a reason that the Jewish population teaches the
Holocaust all of the time, and they teach it all
of the time because it is important for young people
to know what happened so that it does not happen again.

(01:21:57):
We must move through the pain of the thing so
that we know how to keep it from coming back,
so that we are clear on our history, and so
for people who did not live the history know what
their lineage did and can teach themselves and their children
to do different things and make different choices. We must

(01:22:21):
tell the story of slavery. We must, and maybe we
want to tell it from a different angle. Okay, I
think that it's important to talk about It's important to
talk about the revolutions that happened on plantations. It's important
to tell this, to not just tell the story of bondage,

(01:22:43):
but to tell the story of the breaking freeze, to
tell the story of the moors, to tell the story
of the Sorry the oh. I can't remember shaking my.

Speaker 6 (01:22:53):
Head so hard because me and Fonte had this debate
all the time. I'm like, it's important.

Speaker 4 (01:22:57):
The mores is not the word that I wanted to say,
but the ah, what do they call the people in Jamaica,
and then Haiti who went off into the hills. And
I can't think of the name of the word. It
starts with the M. I can't think of it right now.
But see, that's why you have to keep telling. But
there are other angles to enslavement and to slavery. But

(01:23:21):
also what we need to do, like with Jingle Jangle,
is have stories in that time period where you see
people who are not dealing with bondage, because bondage was
not what we sprang from. Bondage is not the only
thing that happened to us. So I am somebody who yeah,
sometimes I'm like, oh God, I don't know the slave story,
but only because it's coming from the same angle. We

(01:23:44):
have to look at other angles. But we cannot afford
to not tell this story. And if we thought we
could afford to not tell this story, January sixth should
have taught us.

Speaker 1 (01:23:59):
Exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:24:02):
That's where I am.

Speaker 5 (01:24:05):
Making a gun.

Speaker 8 (01:24:07):
Because I make this point constantly and people always argue
with me about it, and I'm like, I don't understand
twelve years a slave with not the same slave movie
as Roots twelve you of the slave was really cause
I'm kind of different like, I've never seen the story
of a free man that guy kidnapp, Like, stop acting
like that's the same.

Speaker 4 (01:24:25):
It just was. So I'm just runs maroons. Want to
give me.

Speaker 8 (01:24:33):
Sorry?

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
Are you do you feel that you're now at the
place where you can well that you can create productions
and and and things that you want to do without
having without not having to go through the Hollywood shuffle.
It's like, are you past the place where it's like, no,

(01:24:57):
this particular company calls and we want you to fly
in the ref this role in that I'm learning now
through this show that there's two different types of processes,
Like you get called in and you have to read
and read and read and wait for a call back.
And then there's people that are like, I won't do that.

Speaker 4 (01:25:13):
There are times when I won't do that. There are
times when I won't do that because sometimes people want
to put you through hoops just to put you through hoops,
and there's too much tape for people to watch to
be putting folks through hoops for no reason of very
different roles, you know what I mean. It's not like
I've been doing the same role for twenty years and

(01:25:34):
you're like, but today we'd like you to be a magician,
and we've never seen you pull a rabbit out of
the hat. You know, there's a lot of tape for
people to look at. So there are some things where
I'm just like, no, no, I'm not going to do that.
There are other things that I would be willing to
and I do go in for. I mean, i'd like

(01:25:54):
to say that's over, but I don't know that it's
ever over, to be perfectly honest. There are things that
I get on offers for, and then there are things
that are like, we'd love for you to We love you,
You're amazing. We think, oh my god, you are our
favorite in this and we've got this amazing role. We'd
love for you to read what happened of Love? What

(01:26:18):
happened to that?

Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
So we love for you to read. It's sort of
the deal breaker that, like.

Speaker 4 (01:26:22):
Man, it depends on the on the role, on the project,
on how I feel about it. It depends. There are
a whole lot of variables that that go into that.

Speaker 1 (01:26:35):
So is there a genre that you haven't stepped into yet,
like the horror genre or I don't I don't know
if they call the Marvel world, like science fiction or not.
I don't know, Like I don't know what the It's.

Speaker 4 (01:26:46):
Just I'm supposed to do a horror movie. I was
scheduled to get on a plane two weeks after Quarantine
it and I'm supposed to be in Romania. But no,
it was a really it was interesting and different and
potentially a lot of fun. And now I think it's dead.

(01:27:08):
I would love to I miss comedy. I miss comedy,
and I think maybe people have forgotten that I can
do that, so I sort of miss that now. Sort
of I really do miss do income comedic things. I
would love to do a cute, little romantic comedy or

(01:27:30):
just a regular comedy. I love sci fi and I'm
glad you mentioned that. And I've got the rights to
a couple of book series that I am trying to
make happen, And then I don't have the right to
a couple of series that I'm friends with the authors,
and I'm like, I'm we are talking about moving forward

(01:27:52):
with me as part of their package without moving the rights,
but to have me as a producer and an actor
on it, because I sort of I love sci fi.
I love us in the world of sci fi. I
love anything that goes beyond the boundary that people have
tried to give us. And so I'm into those things

(01:28:17):
because I'm not into being told who I am allowed
to be. So that is always exciting to me when
I can find something that is outside of the space
that we have sort of been relegated to, because I
always say, and people are like, when I see a
sci fi movie and people are, you know, seventy five,

(01:28:39):
one hundred years into the future, and you've got one
black person, you a lie, you a lie. There is
no way that black people, and I mean throughout the
diaspora have been through the things that they have been
through and are here in twenty twenty one, and you

(01:29:00):
think we're not about to be here in thirty twenty one.

Speaker 6 (01:29:04):
If you here, we here, we started this time.

Speaker 4 (01:29:07):
We're here. So that is always a story that I'm
interested in telling and putting us in a space where
we have been told that we do not belong or
will not exist.

Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
I'm always interested in that awesome, awesome, real quick. My
last question is about Jingle Jingle, Like, what was the
experience for you and doing that film, And well, I
know it's important for at least my nieces and nephews
like they you know, they lost their minds over it
and seeing it. Yeah, but how did that project come

(01:29:41):
to you?

Speaker 4 (01:29:42):
David Talbert offered me that role, and it was so
funny because I think he was trying to get in
touch with me for like the better part of a year.
We just kept missing each other and I would have
missed out on something so great.

Speaker 6 (01:29:58):
No happy, but it success for him too, by the way, Yes.

Speaker 4 (01:30:02):
It's really great for him. And so we had a
Zoom meeting because I don't know where I was. I
think I was. I was in New Orleans shooting some
and so we met on Zoom and we talked and
then it was had to go up the flagpole and
then oh and while we were talking about it, I

(01:30:24):
had read a version of the script, which was an
fairly early version of the script at that point, and
I was like, this is cute and this is cool
and yeah, this is interesting. And then he was like,
and you know, it's a musical and I was like, oh, yeah,
I had heard it was a musical. That's cool. Well
who's doing the music and he said Philip Lawrence, phil

(01:30:49):
and John Legend And I was like and sold because
everything came together in that package. You've got this Chris
story with us centralized and normal but also magical, and
now you've got these amazing musicians connected to it. I

(01:31:12):
love Phil Lawrence. I think he is magnificent, and I
also love Bruno Mars, whom you know that he writes
for a lot, but he as a singer musician is
also beyond Phil himself. And I've already told you how
much I love John Legend and his work and how
he is able to translate story to song and a

(01:31:35):
song for a story. So all of those things sort
of just worked together, and it was a really wonderful
thing to be a part of another project that centralizes
Black children and our wonder, our ability to feel wonder

(01:32:00):
the joy of Christmas in a way that wasn't showing lack.
You know, there was family dysfunction, but that's important to
show too because we all have it. But the story
wasn't about what these people couldn't have, couldn't get, couldn't whatever,
aside from love, and they rectified that. The story took

(01:32:20):
place in the Victorian Age with these amazing costumes by
Michael Wilkinson, who's Australia. Randomly and phenomenal, and he mixed
all these African fabrics in with these Victorian costumes and
these amazing colors. And then the hair with Sharon Martin,
who I'd worked with on Half of the Yellow Sun,
and all the hair was natural and it wasn't like

(01:32:43):
there wasn't a commentary on it, because this is what
people's hair was supposed to look like, does look like,
looks like. So the amount of positive reinforcement within this
film without beating people over the head with it is
just fantastic. And then you know, again, to be able
to sing the songs that I was able to sing
was delicious. And I'll say this because we were talking

(01:33:06):
about make it work and it's not a way that
people have heard me sing before, and that for me
was quite the gift because I love to access that
part of my voice. And I think usually when people
are thinking of me, they're thinking of me as a soprano,
because that's you know, I am a soprano. However, I'm
also that you know, I'm also that gritty. I don't know,

(01:33:34):
you know, I'm not Fantasia, so I'm not I haven't
gone there yet. I think when I do that that's
the farewell concert, that'll be the last note. But I
also live in the deeper register of my voice and
I and I really enjoy being there. So there was
an aspect of my voice that I don't think I

(01:33:54):
had gotten to express before, and that to me was
really joyous to be able to do so the whole thing.
And I got to work with my Felicia Machad, who
I just love, love love. I got to see Madeline
come into being, which is always something that's amazing when
you see a little kid come into to being. Kieran Dyer,

(01:34:18):
who played Edison, who was a scream, was also magnificent,
and the lovely and very gentle Forrest Whitaker, so there's
there was nothing to not lack about it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:31):
Really wow, thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:34:34):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:34:36):
Our episodes can go on forever, but you know we
gottap up. We have to wrap up. We really thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:34:44):
I thank you because I have embarrassed myself in front
of you at least twice. I have shamed myself at
least the first time you were DJing at Hammy party.

Speaker 1 (01:35:00):
I do this yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:35:03):
Yeah, in l A.

Speaker 6 (01:35:05):
Okay, I can't.

Speaker 4 (01:35:06):
Remember what hotel it was, but anyway, and you were
going off the Year's Eve, No, No, the Emmys. The
Emmys was a couple of years old. And Kirk was
playing the hell out of this guitar. I mean when
I say he was playing the hell out of this guitar.
So he was playing it, and he lifted it over
this girl's head, and I think she was talking, and

(01:35:27):
I don't think he appreciated that at the time. So
he lifted it over her head and she was talking
to her, and and the and the guitar came over
her head. And he's playing the guitar in front of
this girl as if she was playing it and got
all of her attention and all of our attention. And
my mouth is open and my eyes are wide, and

(01:35:48):
I'm like, I can what's happening right here, right now?
This is amazing. And so I started you all were
going on a break.

Speaker 1 (01:35:56):
I think it was her Amazon. I remember this.

Speaker 4 (01:35:58):
It was like you root for the hotel being crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:36:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:36:02):
I was a little fanned out right. I was amped
by the music, and I was feeling very fanny, and
I was walking and talking and not paying attention, but
like running my mouth about how fantastic everything was. And
I don't remember who stopped me, But I was I
was being talked to. I wasn't talking at somebody's back

(01:36:22):
or anything. I wasn't being a crazy person. But I
was talking and running my mouth and I had to
be stopped. And I was like, what what's happening? And
it didn't occur to me that you all were going
into your.

Speaker 1 (01:36:34):
Dressing Oh really?

Speaker 4 (01:36:37):
And I was just walking and talking and like heading
into this dressing room with y'all and I was moretrified,
and I was like, these people are going to think
I'm insane and they are never going to speak to
me again. And it has lived with me for years.
So thank you for erasing that, Like you know, men
are blacking it from your memory to be of all

(01:36:58):
the roots.

Speaker 1 (01:36:59):
We definitely welcome you into our dressing room.

Speaker 5 (01:37:05):
I'm just.

Speaker 1 (01:37:11):
Thank you. Thank you so much for doing this for us,
and thank you for you know, we appreciate your your
talent and and sharing your story with us, and you
know we're proud of you. Thank you for coming on
the show.

Speaker 4 (01:37:23):
Thank you so very much. It was really lovely speaking
with all of you and getting to know you and
you know, outside of what you see of the person,
but really getting to see you. The person has been
a gift, all of you, and and Bill, I forgive you.

Speaker 1 (01:37:49):
All right, I'm still canceled, but thank you or viaf
like you and Sugar Stephen, and we have the same birthday.

Speaker 5 (01:38:01):
Nice job.

Speaker 3 (01:38:05):
Wow that's my wife's birthday. You got you and my
wife same birthday. And she's left handed as well.

Speaker 1 (01:38:10):
Yeah wow nice wow. Anyway, anything else, Steve, Nope, just
the birthday thing. Thanks, okay, okay, anyway where we have
a birthday burger group down there and and fontigolo and uncanceled,
uh Bill uh this quest left signing off for QLs.

(01:38:31):
We'll see you on the next go round. Thank you, yo,
what's up? This is Fante.

Speaker 3 (01:38:37):
Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at
QLs and let us know what you think and who
should be next to sit down with him.

Speaker 1 (01:38:43):
Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast, all right. Peace
West Left Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

(01:39:06):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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