Latest / Mathis Family Talks / Diarra Kilpatrick: From Linda Mathis' Classroom to Diarra From Detroit | Ep. 15

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Diarra Kilpatrick: From Linda Mathis' Classroom to Diarra From Detroit | Ep. 15 · Mathis Family Talks

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We go way back.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: D.R.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Was four years old. I was her teacher. Yes, you
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: were my first teacher. Yes, my first teacher.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: Now, I got to ask before we move on.
• 0:09
  Speaker 4: Do you have any funny stories growing up with my
• 0:11
  Speaker 4: mom or when she used to watch you?
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: You know, I just, I really do remember. I remember
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: exactly where y'all lived. Yep, no townhouses. I remember sitting
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: downstairs and they would be getting ready upstairs. I just
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: remember I got in trouble once.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Uh-oh. Yes, I told y'all. I'm Judge Greg Matthews.
• 0:30
  Speaker 5: And I am Linda Mathis.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Welcome to Mathis Family Talks. All right, y'all.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: Welcome back to Mathis Family Talks. Today, we have with
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: us some family. Diara Kilpatrick. She is an Emmy-nominated actor, writer,
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: creator now, producer. all the great things. And we're going
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: to get into more of it later today, but welcome.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: She's family.
• 0:59
  Speaker 5: She's family. Yes.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: From Detroit.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: D.R.
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: From Detroit.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you. It feels really good to be here. I
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: walked in. I'm like, this is actually a Detroit house.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Even though we're high in the hills.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I instantly was looking for the plastic on the couch.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: There was none. There was none.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: We took it off. For me.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: For company. I'm so happy you're here with us. Diara
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: and I have a background. Yes.
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: A background from way, way, way back.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: We go way back.
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: Diara was four years.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Old and I was her teacher. Yes, you were my
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: first teacher. Yes, my first teacher.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: I was a preschool teacher in Detroit Public Schools at
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Bates Academy. It was called Alonzo Bates Academy for the
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Gifted and Talented.
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: So we know what that produced.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: But you also used to watch her.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Also, I think, right?
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: I did.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I feel like I owe you guys such a tremendous
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: thank you, especially now as a mother knowing what that
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: meant to my mother because my mother was a single parent.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: She was going back to college at the time. So
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: she was working full time. She was getting her college degree.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: She was probably making like.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: $ 12, 000, $ 15, 000 a.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Year at that time.
• 2:13
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: And I was four years old. I went to this
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: big school because it was preschool to eighth grade.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Yes, it was.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And you were just supposed to leave the kids early.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: If they were early, they would just kind of leave
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: them in like a room or something. And she just
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: didn't feel comfortable leaving her baby in that big school.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: So you said she would drop me off at y'all's house.
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: Yes, in the morning time.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: And in the morning.
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: And you would ride to work with me.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: And you would drive me to school. And that is commendable.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I mean, because even on the show, I play a
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: teacher that does the most. But do you feel like
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: at that time that was the most like to actually
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: let a kid sit in your.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Oh, I always felt that as mothers, we had to
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: help each other out.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Because, I mean, I could see the school being like,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: you can't do that. You're not supposed to do that.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: Nowadays, for sure. We didn't ask.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: We didn't ask. We just did.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: But nowadays, I mean, you married to somebody in law.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Like that wasn't necessarily a good idea. Literally, if I
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: had failed out even innocently or something, we could have
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: been trying to own. This could have been mine. You
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: know what I mean? Like to do something out the
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: goodness of your heart like that. And now being a
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: mother and especially like my son, I would drop him
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: off for school and I ask him, how was your day?
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: What'd you do?
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: And sometimes he doesn't give me the blow by blow
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: that I want. So it's like, when you're dropping your
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: kid off, you really just want to feel inside that
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: they're safe. So thank you for doing that for her.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: That was a big deal.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: Like I said, it was mommy to mommy.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: And like I said, I understood how she felt because
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: nobody wants to have their child in that bigger room
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: at four years old.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I didn't know, but at the time you were,
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: Coming in the mornings and Linda was taking you to school,
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: I was building a relationship that ultimately became very strong
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: with your dad.
• 4:03
  Speaker 7: Wow.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that either.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: And it started about 85.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: And by 95, when I ran for judge, he was
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: one of my strongest supporters and gave me a lot
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: of resources. So I knew you didn't know that, but
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: I said, I'm going to let her know how close.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Me and her dad and what he did, how he
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: was a big part of my campaign.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: It's a full circle. I mean, then I might have
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: been a part of your campaign, too. 95, okay.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, whatever campaign he was working on, he did
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of voter education and trying to get the
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: vote out and strategy and all of that.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: A lot of times on the weekends, I would go
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: with him and you know, I love to go canvassing.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I love to go door to door and knock on people's,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: knock on people's door and tell them who they should
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: vote for.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: They did the same thing. We did the same thing.
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: It was so fun.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: He had us working with Jesse Jackson Jr.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: In Chicago at seven years old. Yeah, in Chicago, we
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: were out there doing door to door in the cold.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because who can say no to a little kid?
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: Exactly, you can't. You got to open the door and
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: at least hear him out.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Hear him out, right. And then you sound so intelligent.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Can I offer a vote? Can I offer someone that
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: you should vote for for Wayne County prosecutor? And here's
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: some reasons. And here's my information. Yeah, I love that.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: So we're family in two ways. Now, I got to
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: add before we move on.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: Do you have any funny stories growing up with my
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: mom or when she used to watch you?
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: You know, I just I really do remember. I remember
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: exactly where y'all lived in those little places downtown.
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: Downtown at the time, yeah.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Yep, no townhouses. I remember sitting downstairs, and they would
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: be getting ready upstairs. I just remember I got in
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: trouble once.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Uh-oh.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Because I was four, and now I so get it. Like,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I was four, and I was like, they would be
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: upstairs getting ready for the day, and I think you
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: would turn the TV on for me, and I would
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: just kind of sit downstairs. And it was a little dark, and,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: you know, it's Detroit, how dark it is in the mornings.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: And I would be nervous, so then I would go
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: sit on the steps. Because I felt closer to them. Like,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I felt like, oh, they're up there getting ready, but
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I'm going to sit on the steps and just wait.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: And you can run up the steps if somebody comes through.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: You can just run.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Up the steps.
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Detroit kid. Well trained.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: So I'm sitting there and then I think you went
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: by and you were naked. And she was pregnant. And
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: first of all, that's the first... naked pregnant body I
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: ever saw. So that stayed with me. I thought about
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: that when I got pregnant.
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: I hope he didn't traumatize you too much now because
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: I was out there.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Not at all. You were good and pregnant. And I
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: remember you were just like, I said get back downstairs.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: And now, like.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I can't, I can't, because you were saying, you were like,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: my husband could come by.
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: I work on that all the time.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: You know, my husband could come by and da-da-da. And, like,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: even as a kid, I totally got it. Because it
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: would be weird if I was like, I saw Mrs. Mathis'
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: titties today.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: And you were talking about how it could be litigious
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: these days. Could you imagine telling that story?
• 6:56
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was like, and I never, and I remember, like,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: The whole thing. So I didn't even ever say anything
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to my mother because even at that age, I knew
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: it was like, oh, I wasn't supposed to see those titties.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: But it was a beautiful thing. And I promise you,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: I think I told you this. When I got pregnant,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: I remember looking at my body like, oh, I'm Mrs.
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: Mathis now.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Look how beautiful I am.
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: I'm glad I was the first that you saw.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: You know what's crazy, though?
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: So we both, you know, I went to Bates also.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know if you knew that. I also was
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: in Mosaic Youth Theater. And I also went to Country Day,
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: which I know you graduated from Country Day.
• 7:35
  Speaker 7: And Greg is an actor right now.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: So we had the same experience for real.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: We had twin experiences, which is so crazy.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Greg from Detroit.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting because, I mean.
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: It was going from Detroit public schools like you to
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: Detroit Country Day. It's a culture shock. It is really going,
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: you know, Bates was the best, one of the best
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: schools in Detroit.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Deep.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: But even with that, it was under-resourced compared to going
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: to Country Day. And so I wonder if you had
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: a similar experience and if any of that's reflected in
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: your art at all, too.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: You mean just the culture shock of Country Day? Country
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Day was a mess. Country Day was really hard for me. Because,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: you know, like, being at Bates, Bates, I heard you
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: say it was the best. It has been the greatest
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: educational experience of my life. Country Day, NYU. Going to
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Thailand to study, period. Bates Academy has made the biggest
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: impact on my life because it was like, they let
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: us know it was amazing to be black and it
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: was okay to be great. Like those, when you hear
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: those things about girls, they're reading drops off when they
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: start getting interested in boys or something. No, it was
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: none of that. It was like, you better catch up.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Everybody better catch up. Like it was just, it was,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: So it was almost importance to excel at something.
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: And so we engaged the Academy for the Gifted and Talented.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: That's right. Amazing school. So when I got to country day,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: just the culture was different. It was so white. And
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: I can remember my freshman year being in a class
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: about world history. And they were like, what do you
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: guys know about Africa? I just remember they were like,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: just break out in groups. And let's just say, talk
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: about what you know about Africa. And I remember being like, well...
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: The first man came from Africa and those kids were like,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: what are you talking about?
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: He's the country day kid. I got a story too
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: after yours.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: I'm going to tell you.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: There were so many. I remember learning about slavery and
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the white kids would be like, if this went on,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: someone would have said something.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: Lord have mercy. Please tell me that.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: They didn't know anything, let alone a microaggression. So when
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: you're walking around and they're like, hey, Moesha, I'm like,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: fuck you. I was like, it was not... really didn't like,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I really did not love the experience of being there.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: And so I think that a lot of it definitely
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: wasn't its way into my work because I became an
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: observer in a lot of ways. And I think that's
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: sort of a hallmark of my work is that there's
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: always kind of a critical eye on society.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: On culture.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: But yeah.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Let's make it plain. Was it racism?
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, of course it's racist. I mean, we're in America.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Was that what caused you the most discomfort or dislike
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: it the most?
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: I think, you know what it was, is that being
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: at Bates, you really, and being from Detroit, you really
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: forget that you are a quote minority. I remember when
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I would hear that term minority, I was like, what
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: are you talking about? Beyond just the numbers, like I
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: learned like, oh, it's not that many of y'all here.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Y'all just in Detroit. Right. But also just culturally, and
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: when you talk about the impact of black culture, it
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: feels like it is, it does not feel like it's
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: in the margins. It feels like it is the thing.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: And even when it wasn't, it was like we were
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: all watching Living Single. Nobody told me the rest of
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: the country was watching Friends.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: And I don't know, I've been asking.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: Just to answer your question, I learned quickly at Country
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: Day I had something to prove to them students because
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: similar to you, one of my first classes freshman year,
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: I remember this kid's name.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to say it.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: I remember the name, too. As much as I want to.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: As much as I want to.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: You say yours.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: I'll say mine.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: First, you know, freshman year, first class, we all introducing ourselves.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: They say, where are you from? Where are you from?
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: What's your name? And this is when you had gotten
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: on television. So you were making money at that point.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: So you were able to move us out to a
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: nicer neighborhood. They, you know, we I say my name
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: is Greg Mathis Jr. I'm from Bloomfield Hills. One of
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: the students, the student next to me says in front
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: of the whole class, no, you're not.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: I said, well, yes, I am.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: Why would you say that? He said, you're not rich enough. Assumed,
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: you know, because country, they had a lot of scholarship
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: students assumed that I was probably their own scholarship and
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: didn't belong there like the rest of them.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: And this was also the racist practice, too. Yes, they
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: assume if you black, you're their own scholarship. And I
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: was actually a scholarship. But they used to make you
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: play an extra sport if you were on scholarship.
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: Really?
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Oh my God. Yes.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: If you're on scholarship, it was kind of like you
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: had to earn your key.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: If you're poor and black, you must be good in sports.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: So we're going to work y'all twice as much.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: That first meeting, they were like, so what sports do
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: you want to play? I'm like, sports. And I know
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: they was looking at my leg, like I got long
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: legs and stuff. Child, I don't play sports. I was
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: looking at them like, um, I remember saying, um, I
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: like kickball. That's like saying you want to play tag.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I remember that. I was like, well, I like kickball.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: So you had to play the two sports. I couldn't
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: get credit for mosaic or for theater. And so I
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: ended up running cross country. And when they saw me coming,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: they were so excited. And when I tell you I...
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: ran my black ass around that cross-country field so slow.
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was once passed by a fat girl
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: on a knee brace. Like, I was running so slow
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: because I thought it was racist that I had to
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: play the extra sport.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: That's that Detroit resource for you. Correct. That you learned
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: from the inner city of Detroit.
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: I'm going to give you something, but it's not going
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: to be what you want.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: That's right. Right.
• 13:15
  Speaker 7: So I have a question.
• 13:16
  Speaker 6: Like, growing up, Were you always the storyteller type, or
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: were you kind of the quiet one with the storytelling
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: going on in your mind?
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: I was definitely not the quiet one. Definitely talks too
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: much on my report card, girl, probably. But I've always
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: liked stories. You know another person we have in common,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Ron Milner?
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: His daughter was at Bates at the same time as Iman.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, Iman. And he was a huge playwright. He had
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: things on Broadway. I believe he wrote your life story.
• 13:47
  Speaker 7: He did.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: He was like this fantastic playwright. And we used to
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: do these plays.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: He opened the door to my success on television. I'll
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: say that.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Ah, inside. Shout out to him. He's passed over.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: The great Ron Milner. Go ahead.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: But he had just come back from New York maybe
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: around this time, and we were doing plays at Bates,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: and they were like, maybe Ron should come, and he
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: should help the kids with the play. Now, Ron was
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: very crotchety and very much a Detroit Negro.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: So he wasn't playing no games. He didn't care. We
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: was fourth, fifth, sixth.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: I was surprised to learn he was like that, but yeah.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: They were like, the kids would come out, he'd be like,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: can't do nothing with this kid next.
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: Oh my God.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: He was cold-blooded. He was getting into a Miss McDonald
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: because it was theater. She was like, this is a
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: children's play. And he was like, I don't care. It'll
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: be great. And I looked up and I was like, finally,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: someone who understands me You know, and he felt the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: same way. He was like, this one I can work with. Like,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: bring her over here, you know. And so he actually
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: ended up, they actually politely asked him to leave. You know,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: he actually was too hard on the kids. He was
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: too hard on the kids. But he recognized in me
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: really young that I had a talent for writing, for acting,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: and he was the first person who, once they politely
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: thanked him for his services at the school, he invited
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: me to come on the weekend to do a professional
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: reading of his play, Urban Transitions. And he was the
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: first person to write me a check for acting, for
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: doing that. So I think even young, I was the
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: kid that they understood could get up in front of
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: other people and talk and, you know, and perform. And
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: that was kind of always my reputation from really young.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: And that's crazy because I've heard you talk about before,
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: I think, that when you got to NYU, there were
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: people like, oh, you don't speak proper enough, I think, right?
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: I know, yeah.
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: Which is crazy.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: Like, how was that transition for you going from?
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Well, it wasn't. They were trying to teach me to
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: speak standard American English, you know, and I didn't realize
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I had a really strong Detroit accent. accent you know
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: like like I do yeah I didn't even know because
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the kids in Detroit were like oh she speaks so
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: proper that then I got to NYU and they were
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: like what is going on you know so I just
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: had to to learn how to speak standard American English
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: whatever that was but the gag was when you graduate
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: nobody's asking dark-skinned, 20-something black girls to speak, to do Shakespeare,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: you know? So then it was like, okay, you'll be
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: going out for hoe number seven, Vawanda, you know? And
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: you're like, then you have to kind of unlearn what
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: you just learned. So it was... It's an interesting thing
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: about being flexible and how to add tools to your
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: kit as an actor without changing who you are. Because
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it really is who
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: you are. I think that's going to pop.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: So what was the transition? You left after high school,
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: went to the prestigious NYU, and then came into your career.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: Do you see a big difference in terms of disconnecting
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: from Detroit or being more attached to it? based on
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: the amount of time you were raised there?
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: You know, it's funny because I really was like excited
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: to get out of Detroit. I remember the summer before
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I went to college, like dating boys. I remember I
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: would like dated boys and I was kind of like,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: I'm never going to see you again. You know, like
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: I just remember like having this like very free way
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: of like, hanging out before I left. Like, oh, you're
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: so cute. Like, I was very bold. And I was never, ever,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: ever like that before. It was just that one period
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: in time. And it was because I was like, this
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: is where we part. Like, I knew I wasn't coming back.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: And then as soon as I left Detroit and got
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: to NYU, I remember being hit with almost like a
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: survivor's guilt because I was surprised once I got to
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: NYU how the students there weren't as talented as I
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: thought that they were going to be. And coming out
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: of Mosaic, you know, it was some chicks, 13 years old,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: they open their mouth and start singing, and God herself
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: walks out.
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: And then even growing up in the church is just different.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: You see so many talented people in the choirs, or
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: at least, you know, we went to Greater Emmanuel, which
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: was the Clark Sisters Church, so it's like we got
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: a gospel concert every Sunday.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Truly.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, truly. And so I remember... understanding almost immediately
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: how special of a place Detroit was. And it's funny,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: I've been telling stories about Detroit ever since. So even
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: though I'm not there, I don't live there, I feel
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: really connected to the place, and I feel almost like
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: a cheerleader, a champion, like a storyteller, a griot of Detroit.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: I would like you to maybe talk to viewers a
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: bit from your viewpoint about who D.R. is.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: The character?
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: Ooh.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Um, you know, she is a woman who, um, is
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: finding a new part of herself and that is the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: becoming a private eye. Like she's a teacher. She's going
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: through this divorce from this character played by Morris Chestnut
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: when we first meet her, which, you know, would spin
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: anybody out, you know, that's a bad day for anybody. Um,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: and yeah, In sort of coping with that, she finds
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: herself becoming a private investigator. That's like the sort of
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: big picture of it all. And I think so many
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: times in life, we go to school, we become defined
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: by our profession, and then we think that's who we
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: are and that's what we're going to be until we die.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: But this really is a woman who's kind of like
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: birthing a new version of herself in not quite her midlife,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: you know, in her between quarter and midlife. And so
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: she's real spunky. She's very Detroit in that she's very passionate.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: She got a lot of heart. And, you know, so
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: I like to think about her as like a Jessica Fletcher,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: you know, from Murder, She Wrote. Like I say, more
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: public schooling, you know, and she also has a healthy... Libido.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: But I just want to touch on that. Thank you
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: for portraying Detroit on television in a way where we
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: have a school teacher who also has to live on
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: the edge and deal with the pathologies in Detroit. Because
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: you can't be one way in Detroit. There's no one
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: single dimensional and survive in Detroit. You have to be multi-dimensional.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: It's a lot of poverty in Detroit. for decades since
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: the auto industry fell. And as a result, we got
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: a lot of poor folks.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Did it fail or did it fail us?
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: They were divested. Yeah, they divested from Detroit.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: They failed us.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: Yes, there you go. They failed us by going to
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: Mexico and Canada.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you. I think that's also really inherent in
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the black community, too. And I think sometimes on television,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: they like to separate it out where it's like, this
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: is a TV show about people who sell drugs or whatever.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: And then it's like, and this is a TV show
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: about black people who go to brunch and And I
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: think most of us know both.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: That's correct.
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: I always say that. That's correct. You know, it's someplace
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: in our family or in our friends is there.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And it's difficult. And you do sort of.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: You used, you know, you do chat, you do code
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: switch within our own. I don't know what the word
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: is within our own community sometimes moving between the two.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: But I think that many of us are dealing with that.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: You know, how do you how do you have a
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: life that includes that? that includes everybody. Cause you might
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: have some people that you're not going to go on
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: vacation with, but you still want them in, in your life.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: And you, and so that is something that I think
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: as black people, like we were kind of figuring out.
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: That play you did, the one woman play, tell me
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: the name of it.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: The devil is beating his wife. Oh my goodness.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: I had no idea how good you were until then.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: I said, then I said, oh, She's going to make
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: it out here. You did a fantastic job. How many
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: characters did you play? A lot.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: A lot.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: A couple old ladies, some men. I was just so amazed.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: And so it's been a long time.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: A lot of times people think that it happened overnight
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: for you.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: I did a lot of theater, which you came to
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: see one of. I did. I used to do a
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: show called Disaster Day on MTV where I was like,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: people were on a hidden camera show and someone had,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: had hooked them up on a blind date, and then
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: they would just be a disaster and would see how
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: long they would last on the date before they got
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: up and left. I did that for a long time
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: where I would just play a disastrous date. I did
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: two seasons of a show called Perry Mason on HBO
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: where I played.
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: It was a.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Reimagining of Perry Mason with Matthew Rhys, who a lot
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: of people are watching right now on Widow's Bay.
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: He played Perry Mason, his investigator. And I got to
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: play like a housewife in the 30s. And I also
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: started writing. And so that I would be in the room.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I was in the room on The Last O.G., which
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: was the Tracy Morgan, Tiffany Haddish show. I also acted
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: on that show.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Why don't you give us the stages you went through
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: from conceiving the show, et cetera, et cetera, all the
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: way to it airing.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: I also knew that I wanted to act in the show. Mm-hmm.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: And so I wanted the show to be able to
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: go places that would be fun for me as an actor.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: And that might be why it does go to so
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: many different places as well. Because, you know, I'm like,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: I want it to be actor friendly. I think when
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: actors are having fun, it's fun to watch. So I'm pregnant.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: I'm in a pandemic. The year is 2020. And I
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: had this idea and I just decided to write a
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: pitch for it. And I wrote it out. Um, my
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: son was then about five or six months and I
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: got a call from Kenya who had known me from
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: my writing.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: And he said, I'm going to BET Studios. We're starting
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: to make these shows. We want to make premium black content.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Do you have any ideas? Great. And I'm like, I
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: do have an idea actually. And I do have a pitch. And, um,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: so I met with, with the, the team at Plus.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Gave them the pitch, and we were initially going to
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: go all around the town and pitch this idea for
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: this show.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: Kenyan had already attached himself to it.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Right, Kenya, BET Studios, and then we were going to
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: go around and find a streamer. But what happened was
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: because BET Studios was across the hall from BET Plus,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: which was a streamer at the time, they said, if
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: you do it here, we'll give you a script to
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: series deal. And you don't have to go around and
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: pitch it all over town.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: If you do it at Plus.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: If you do it at BET Plus.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And so we thought about that and, you know, decided
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: it might be nice to just have a bird in
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: the hand, you know, and just go ahead and develop
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the show there. So we never actually pitched it around.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: And so then I wrote the pilot. They picked up
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: the show for eight episodes. Mm-hmm. And then we went
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: and made the show. And that part happened fairly quickly.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: The fastest of any development process I've ever had. Now,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: after we made the show, we hit the writer strikes. And,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: you know, there's been a lot of people have written
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: about how long it's taken for the second season to
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: come and all that. But the initial development process was
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: really fast for television. What is it like collaborating with
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Kenya on this project? You know, Kenya, I think we've
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: gotten to a place where we have a lot of
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: respect for each other. I don't know that we ever
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: figured out how to disagree well. And I think that
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: that is really important in any kind of relationship. And
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: you talked about my husband who runs a show.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the reasons why we
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: work so well together. And I think why spouses work
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: so well together sometimes, too, because you figured out how
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: to disagree. You figured out how to do hard things.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: You figured out how to talk to each other. You
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: figure out all those things before you step into... the workspace.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: And so that just makes everything, I think, or at
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: least in our case, flow much easier. What I will
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: say about KB is that he's very smart and very funny.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: And he really wanted to make sure that the show
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: was grounded because the show is very, goes to some
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: crazy places.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: Oh my God.
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: It's great though because it keeps you locked in and
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: you got to pay attention.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we always say like when the episode starts, you
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: won't necessarily know where we're going to end and where
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: it's going. And so I think in the beginning, especially,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: he really helped kind of infuse that idea and kept
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: that idea at the forefront of my mind of like
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: just making sure we don't go off into like complete
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: wackadoodle land that we really. And so for me, I
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: was able to really ground everything together. in the journey
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: of this particular black woman, and I think that helps
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: us go all the places that the comedy takes us.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: How much work do you actually have to do beyond
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: the acting? I remember, you know, I've executive produced a
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: bunch of shows that have come to air, but all
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: I do is create and sell and show up every
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: blue moon as executive producer. Now, I know you're three,
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: executive creator, executive producer... An actress.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: So do you do all three things heavily?
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: People keep asking why I don't look like Cashdow from behind.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: It's because I have worked my tail off. No, it wouldn't,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't have mattered. That was never going to happen
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: for me. Um, I work really hard on the show.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Miles and I both do, but you know, as the creator, it's,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: it's my responsibility to an EP to sort of make
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: sure that the world feels authentic. The world feels the
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: way that, um, I sort of see it. So when
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: we're in the writer's room, I'm really running the room,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: and I take the last pass on all the scripts,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: and I write a lot of the scripts.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: So what's your husband doing? Not his job. The showrunner, no,
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: that's not the showrunner's job.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: So there's so many things because Miles is also, you know,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: fantastic in the room and writes a lot of scripts. And,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: you know, he will usually take a pass even before
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: it gets to me if somebody else was first tasked
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: with writing it. But also, you know, we have these
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: pages and then it has to turn into a show.
• 28:57
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: But this season, you know, while we're shooting, we're also
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: prepping two episodes behind camera. But he was really the
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: one who every single day is meeting with our line
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: producer and making sure that we're on budget.
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: And looking at the bottom line.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: Mom, she got your back. I was trying to imply
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: that you got her doing all the work. And she's
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: making it very clear that, no, my honey, my hubby
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: is working harder than anybody on the show, including me.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: You have a good spouse, a great wife.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I'll say I worked the hardest. Did you meet at NYU? Yeah,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: we met at NYU.
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: We were just talking about that. He swears that we had.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: this meeting the first time that I just don't remember.
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: At NYU or before NYU?
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: At NYU. Okay.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: He claims he sat down next to me and we
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: had a conversation and he said I was very dismissive
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: of him.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Boy, that's why you don't remember. That's why you don't remember, right? Right.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: But I'm like, why would I be dismissive? He's like,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: we were here. I'm like, I don't need that. He's
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: from the Bay.
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: Where you all live.
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: But does it get hard? Do you ever have to
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: be like, okay, I'm turning it off when I'm at home. Like,
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: don't bug me about work.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: I don't want to do.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: When we're in production, there's no, it's not possible. And
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: we're also writing on the weekends, and it is not possible.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, he'll try to say, could I please just
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: have some coffee before you start in? But I'm definitely
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: the one.
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: Okay, so you're the one. Oh, I'm the one.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: As soon as he wakes up, I'm like, so I
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: was thinking, you know that problem, that story problem we're
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: having in episode six? What if, maybe we need to
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: add something here, and I'm going to do it in
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: the scene tomorrow just so that we can tee that up. No,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: you are me.
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: Elliot's always like, can we just not talk about this
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: right now?
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: Can we just do something else for a little bit?
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Miles was in front of the camera one time when
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: you did American Coco.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: Does he like being behind or in front better?
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: I think he prefers being behind. He is not auditioning.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Like if I was like, here, do this thing, he
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: would do it. But yeah, no. But we met in
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: theater school. You know, the program that we were in,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: you had to act and do the directing and the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: costume design. And Dominique as well, our costume designer. We
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: were all in the same program. So we all speak
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: the same language. I am so moved by how much
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: the show is connecting with people. Like, I've been on
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: threads talking to people about the show, and they've been like, no,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: this show gets me in my soul. Like, people are
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: so connecting with it. And that, honestly, that feels the
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: best almost of anything.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: I got an idea for the biggest episode.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Tim, we were trying to get you on the show.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: That's my, I'm about to tell you. It's crime, so
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: you need a judge.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: But let me, do you know that we tried to
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: get you on the show?
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: No.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I think you were.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: Who you call?
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Warner Brothers told us to kick rocks. Not you especially.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: This last year.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: I wasn't with them, that's why. It was a blip.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Because we had it in the cut and everything. In
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: episode four, when we're in the shootout in Brightmoor and
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: we end up in this house... Your show was playing
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: in the background.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: I see what you changed it to. You changed it,
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: didn't you?
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: We changed it because he was the only one who
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: called us back. What's his name? Price is Right.
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I saw that.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: So we had it in the back. We had it,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: and I loved it because I just loved that the
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: dad was sitting there watching you. And I was like, oh,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: this is such an Easter egg for our Detroiters. And
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: it kept cutting back to you. And we went to
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Warner Brothers. We said, can we please use this clip?
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: They said, yes.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: No. Oh, they wouldn't let you use the clip. Okay,
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: I'm talking about personally appearing.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: In there as a judge like I.
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: Did in Madea Goes to Jail. And I'm still getting
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: residual checks. So I won't miss the residuals from y'all.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: That's why I want to be on there. I still
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: get $ 15. Every three months from going on Madeen. That
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: was 20 years ago. Thank you, Tyler Perry. Thank you,
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: Tyler Perry.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: That's right. Get you a cup of coffee once every month.
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: How did you manage to get John David Washington on
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: the show? That was crazy.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Well, I spoke to Denzel. Me and Denzel go way back. Um, no,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: that was crazy.
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: That was just, yeah, the character.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: That was just a mistake. They put, I had no
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: idea that when you dress me up like a man,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: you take that comment.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: And I'll just laugh.
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: So there was a, I don't know if you remember,
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: the Mason episode when they were in the Freemason temple,
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: they dressed.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: Up as men.
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: And there was this meme going all around the internet
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: with people putting DR dressed up as a man right
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: next to John David Washington.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: I'll show you the picture. It's identical. It's so crazy.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: You better stop talking about this. It's not identical.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: No, no, no. Even I, who should be offended, was like,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: all right, y'all got me. Do you know them?
• 33:51
  Speaker 7: Oh, yes.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Because y'all know how fancy black people are.
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: It's like his beautiful mother, Pauletta.
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: That's why.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: I do look like Pauletta, but you got to let
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: me come one time to the house dressed up like
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: him and give her a hug and see what she says.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: And see if she's like... If she does a double
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: take or what happens. I'm coming with y'all next time
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: y'all go to the Washington.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was too funny. It was.
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: That's your Halloween costume. You already got it covered.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: There you go. You got it covered.
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: Does your husband Miles, he's the showrunner, get jealous you
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: surround yourself with all these fine men? I mean, you
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: got Morris Chestnut, Shannon Wallace, and then you got Method Man.
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: Brian Terrell Clark. I mean. All right.
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: That's what you say. Yep.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: They're all right. They okay.
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: That's what I tell him.
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: I'm like, I don't... It's better when you get home.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I don't really get it. You know, I mean, people
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: are making it method, man. What does he do? Does
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: he rap?
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: Studio made me cast him.
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: It's just crazy how.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: Many people you have on that show that's from our
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: era or some of my favorites.
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: You know, it's just crazy.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Who's your... Okay, tell us. Who's your favorite?
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: Well, I mean, Felicia Rashad.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, I thought you were talking about Method Man. Oh,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to say that.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: Len Thurman. Len Thurman.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: Oh, he is so funny, too. He has me cracking up.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: He's a good friend of ours. Yeah, he's the best.
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: You know, he's best friends with Ron Milner.
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: Yes, I do.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: I was about to say, the way y'all describe Ron
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: makes me think that.
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: Glenn's character makes me.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: Very best friend.
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: There you go.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: What was the character you're saying?
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: Ron.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: He plays Ron. That character is named after Ron. Even
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: though he's a bad guy in the show, Ron was
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: a great guy. But yeah, there was that sort of energy.
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: And by the way, to give Ron his honor, he
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: was trained by Langston Hughes. Oh, wow. Well, there you go.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: That was what was so great about being young around
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: him is he talks about that and he would talk
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: about writing the show for Denzel and Ruby Dee. You know,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: he just was full of so much knowledge and experience
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: about theater that I just used to like sit there like,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: tell me more. But yeah, the cast is stacked. We
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: have all the way from like Glenn Turman, who is
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: acting royalty. You know, also Detroit royalty in a way,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: because he was married to Aretha.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she was.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: At one point. And then we have the new kid. Like,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: we have Skilla Baby. You know who that is?
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: Uh-huh.
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: He got cashed out.
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: He got cashed. Skilla Baby did an appearance with Skilla Baby.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: He think he the hippest man in the world. You
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: can't tell him he don't know somebody from Detroit. Skilla
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: Baby come and do an event in Detroit. No, he
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: actually is cool as Skilla Baby. Huh? I'm cool with it, man.
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: It was either Juneteenth or the mental health. Yeah, it
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: was Juneteenth.
• 36:23
  Speaker 5: I'm trying to take Jade's credit now.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: What's your favorite skillet song?
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: He's trying to take her credit.
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: Thank you, D.R. What's your name? I don't know the
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: names of half of the songs I like.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm similar. I had to have a whole long
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: tutorial on the difference between DaBaby and Lil Baby, and
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: I still don't know.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I told him, I said, you know, I can't
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: keep up with all these babies.
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: Oh, I know DaBaby is shorter. Yes. Yes. Right?
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: Oh, no, I was just going to say, I got
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: one more question about the show.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: Them outfits.
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: I've been, you know, who's behind these outfits you've been wearing?
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: So our costume designer is named Dominique Dawson.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: She's fantastic, obviously. Yeah, I mean, I think it's, look
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: at your daddy.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Look at your mama. Show the people your boots. Woof, woof, woof, woof.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: They're so fly. I mean, look how fly these Detroiters are.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: You know, it would be inauthentic for us to be
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: up there just in some basic ensembles. So, yeah, we
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: put that ish on. And our costume designer, Dom... It's
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: someone who I've been working with for a long time.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: We went to NYU together.
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: We were roommates.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: You were roommates? Yeah. Now, is she making the outfits too, though?
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: Because a lot of the dresses and shirts seem like
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: they have a similar African-inspired design to them.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Well, we did use a lot of African designers. But no,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: she doesn't make the clothes. But we do have a tailor.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: And that is a big difference. A lot of people
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: have commented on the fashions. And just so they know,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: every dress that I wear is tailor-made. I mean, even
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: though it's off the rack, they cinch that to my body,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: and that does make a tremendous difference when you put
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: clothes on. You go shopping, you're like, why isn't it
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: working in the same way? So if you find a
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: great dress, make sure you have it tailored.
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: Be putting it on like, why I don't look like her? Exactly.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Think of all this dialogue. I write a lot of dialogue.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: But we also have a great room.
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: Is any of it improv? Because there was one part,
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: even when you were in the restaurant, like a white
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: person walked by and was like, oh, where can we see?
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: And you were like, oh, they come down here thinking.
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: This is a place. Oh, I'm in Detroit. That is Detroit.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: You know, we.
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: Live downtown Detroit now.
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: It feels like it was improv.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: So we say that all the time. Oh, really? Y'all
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: are down there.
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: We have a home downtown Detroit. We say it all
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: the time.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: It's crazy, right? It's crazy to get downtown and be like,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: why am I the only black person in this restaurant?
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: I am uncomfortable.
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: And they look at you like you don't belong.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: What you doing here?
• 38:50
  Speaker 5: We've been there all this time.
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: When me and your dad worked downtown, it was 90% black.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: Now it's 90% white.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: Everything.
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: Having all the fun as a kid.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: It's crazy.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: But yet you picked up. That was totally improvised. And
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: what was crazy was. The white girls, they were, you know,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: the background actors, they were supposed to just walk by
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: and look at us because we were being black. We
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: were being like, ah, ah, ah, right? All they had
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: to do was look. They looked with so much stank
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: on their face.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: I had to rewind it back.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes. But yeah, I just had to respond. because
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: that's how she, that's how she, that's what she gave out.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: So yeah, there's some, you know, I'm always like, can
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: we get what's scripted? You know, the writers spend a
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: lot of time. If you could maybe just get the words.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: But we have one of the most talented improvisers in
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: the world, Chris Powell, who plays Chris's cousin this season,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: and he's the roaster. He roasts everybody. And so we
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: have to let him do his thing as the spirit
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: moves him. And yeah, there's some improv, but it's a mix,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: but it is heavily scripted.
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: I saw an interview recently with Nico Anand, who plays
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: Xavier in this season. And he talked about how when
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: he was in drama school, he had an actor that
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: was like, no, he's a gay actor. Embrace your flamboyance.
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: Don't hide it. And it was kind of a battle
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: because other teachers at the same school were like, no,
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: he's never going to work if he does this. Could
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: you talk about like, and now he works a lot.
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: He works everywhere. He's kind of changed the game for
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: a lot of actors. I guess, could you talk about
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: your opinion on authenticity and how you can hold on
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: to it in an industry that maybe wants to erase it?
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: How to hold on to it. Yeah, I think that
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: that advice is really sound. You know, I think so
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: many people spend, waste a lot of time trying to
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: get rid of their accent, trying to get rid of
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: their nose, trying to get rid of whatever it is
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: that they think is going to make them more palatable
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: to casting or more castable. And I do think that
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: something about the way that God made you is going
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: to be the thing that's really going to connect with
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: an audience. That's really going to connect as truth. Like
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: it's one of those things, truth. You can feel it
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: all throughout your body. It doesn't even have to be
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: your live truth. But when somebody says something true, you
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: can feel it. So I think definitely, um be someone
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: said be the youiest you you could be like be
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: so you you just can't even i.
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: Catch criticism i catch criticism for remaining so detroit uh
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: you know a judge it is you're supposed to operate
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: at this elevated sense of self um prestigious um and
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: I'm basically the same Detroiter that I was when I
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: came out here or got into the business. So I
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: think that, and people say they've watched because of the authenticity. Because,
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: I'm Detroit on there.
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: I was on the phone with Delta the other day.
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: Louise from Cincinnati told me to tell you hello. She
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: gave me an upgrade too because of you. She found
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: out I was your son. But she said she has
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: watched you religiously because she said she don't always agree
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: and she don't always like it. But she love when
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: you give it to them people because she can tell
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: that it's you, it's authentic, and you're not holding back.
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: You are being yourself. And she said you do great
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: things and then you– are real with people.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: And that's what she watches. You are right.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: Usually.
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: And you're real.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: And it stretches.
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: That's important.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: It stretches people's imagination. And that's so important. It's like you,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: there's nothing oxymoronic about sounding like you come from Detroit
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: and intelligence.
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 42:42
  Speaker 7: Correct.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: And when you get sometimes, when I've got to L.A.,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: sometimes I'm like, what is going on with the black people?
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: Everybody relax. You don't have to cold switch that hard, ma'am.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: You look like you're going to hurt yourself.
• 42:57
  Speaker 5: No, but you know. I got to borrow that.
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: You be like, why are you talking?
• 43:07
  Speaker 5: Like, it's okay.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: I swear, it's okay. And it is because somewhere they think,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get the promotion. I'm going to be
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: more relatable. I'm going to be more palatable if I
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: have as close a proximity to whiteness as possible. And
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: it's not... Not always the case. And some people grew
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: up that way and they speak that way and that's fine,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: but you don't have to make a, you don't have
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: to scrunch yourself.
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: In my case, for example, I had a production deal
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: when we came out here with Warner Brothers and bringing
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: them shows. We were successful with six. And what occurred
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: was my vice president kept trying to get general audience
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: participants or actors not actors, but participants. We did non-scripted.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: And so I finally said, hey, they got us for
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: black folks. We can't out-white them. And sure enough, within
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: that same time frame, President tells me one time, he said,
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: you know, we really need some shows that's targeting the
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: urban audience. I said to myself, I knew what I
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: was talking about. We can't out-white them. They want you
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: for black stuff. In terms of developing and producing and writing.
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: Because those are people that are going to connect with
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: you and see your truth.
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: Correct. Correct. And so, yeah, I think that's important.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you got to be you.
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: You know, whatever that looks like.
• 44:41
  Speaker 7: You know, I always come in hot with the games.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I love a game.
• 44:44
  Speaker 7: So we're going to be the ones creating our alibis
• 44:47
  Speaker 7: right now.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 44:48
  Speaker 6: And you're going to be the investigator to choose which
• 44:50
  Speaker 6: one is the worst alibi.
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Ooh, okay, I like it.
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: I'm going to win all these. So the catchiest. I
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: was a criminal that didn't get caught much. But you
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: did get caught. Only once.
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: That was a big one. It only takes one time.
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: I think so many guys in jail.
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: These two are the same.
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: They leave all their criminal activity around.
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: These two are the same person right here.
• 45:17
  Speaker 5: That to a mirror.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: No criminal activity happening.
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: Not for him.
• 45:24
  Speaker 6: Well, so everyone, I'm going to say a scenario. And
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: the fact is, we're all guilty. The first scenario is
• 45:33
  Speaker 6: the Coney cover-up. You were sent to pick up six Conys.
• 45:37
  Speaker 6: You come home with four. And there's mustard on your shirt.
• 45:41
  Speaker 6: Explain yourself.
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: Coney Island hot dogs, for those who don't know.
• 45:45
  Speaker 5: I tipped over the curb.
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: Just think about it.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: Ooh, women are so good.
• 45:51
  Speaker 5: I'm trying to tell you what happened to the Coney's.
• 45:55
  Speaker 5: I came home with less than I was supposed to?
• 45:58
  Speaker 7: You know, you got to think of a good scenario.
• 46:00
  Speaker 7: I'm giving everybody 15 seconds.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: That's my preschool teacher right there.
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: Right. That came out too quick.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: Because y'all look like y'all was thinking too much.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: That came out too quick.
• 46:09
  Speaker 7: That was good.
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: The problem was I went to the Coney Island in Brightmoor.
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: And so as soon as I walked out the door...
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: Some guy came up to me and said, give me
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: the Coney's.
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: And I fought him off.
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: Two of them fell, got some mustard on my shirt,
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: but I was able to make it back with the
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: other four because I ran real quick. Shouldn't have went
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: to Brightmoor.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: I was going to ask, why would you go all
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: the way to Brightmoor when there's so many Coney Islands
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: right downtown?
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: Because my friend told me that this was the best one.
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: He said it's brand new. And he was like, you
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: got to go. I know it's in the hood, but
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: trust me, it's worth it.
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: That was good.
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: It's true.
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: Of course it's good.
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: I went to Coney Island.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: I picked up six Coney Island hot dogs, mustard and everything.
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: And on the way back, I tripped over.
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: The curb and two didn't make it.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: I believe you in them boots.
• 47:02
  Speaker 5: That's right. You got heels doing it every time.
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: Them boots is fly. It wasn't just the Coney's. It
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: was my drink also. Because I was, yeah, I was
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: coming out and I had, you know, you have them
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: in the little package with the drink and everything.
• 47:16
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: No. So I'm coming out, and a woman I haven't
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: seen in like 50 years, one of my mother's friends,
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: she saw me. She was surprised.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: She, ah!
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: And I was trying to hold it in one hand
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: and hug her at the same time. And boop, all over.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: Dang.
• 47:35
  Speaker 7: Well, you know what happened to mine, man?
• 47:39
  Speaker 6: I went to Eastside Coney, right? outside as a dude,
• 47:41
  Speaker 6: he's like, hey man, you got some change. So I
• 47:43
  Speaker 6: went in, you know, I was like, nah, bro, I'll
• 47:45
  Speaker 6: get you something. Can you get me something? I was like,
• 47:46
  Speaker 6: all right, I'll go get you something. So I went inside,
• 47:49
  Speaker 6: you know, came out. I didn't order an extra one,
• 47:51
  Speaker 6: but I was like, you know what, I had this one, dog.
• 47:54
  Speaker 6: He threw it at me.
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: I dodged it.
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: The mustard got a little bit on me, right?
• 47:58
  Speaker 7: And so then I'm like, bro, come on. He's like,
• 48:00
  Speaker 7: I don't want no food, man.
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: I want some crack.
• 48:02
  Speaker 7: And I'm like, bro, I'm like, dog, dog, hey, man.
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: I started talking to him, right?
• 48:06
  Speaker 6: And I'm trying, bro, even when you do crack, you
• 48:09
  Speaker 6: got to be healthy and eat.
• 48:11
  Speaker 7: So I convinced him to eat, and I gave the
• 48:13
  Speaker 7: second one to him.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: I don't believe that.
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: Because the crackhead wasn't going to eat it.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: The crackhead is.
• 48:23
  Speaker 5: Not going to eat.
• 48:24
  Speaker 7: The crackhead is not going to eat.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: But that was a whole movie, though.
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: That was fun. The last part got me caught up.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: It was the I convinced the crackhead. Once you gave
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: him what he needed, the fact that he stuck around
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: for a good meal.
• 48:38
  Speaker 7: She got the two at me.
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: She know crackheads as much as I do. So who
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: sounds most believable? Who sounds the worst alibi? Well, you
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: were the worst.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: I have to say these two were pretty good. Yours,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: I was a little tripped up on how old was
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: the woman. You said you hadn't seen her in 50 years.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: She was your mama friend. This is a 90-year-old woman
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: you saw on the street? And she went, oh, it's you!
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: By herself!
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: And then you just walked up and hugged. She didn't
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: have nothing. I don't know.
• 49:16
  Speaker 5: Now with your character on the show, what made you
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: pick Teacher?
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: My mommy was a teacher your mom that's what i thought.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: My mommy was a teacher and um you know i
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: had some incredible teachers i had some incredible and memorable
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: teachers starting with you and then you know even i
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: wonder what happened to her do you ever talk to
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: mrs mcdonald Not at all.
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: Mrs.
• 49:37
  Speaker 5: McDonald?
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: I can't remember Mrs.
• 49:39
  Speaker 5: McDonald.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: She was our black history teacher. She might have come
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: after you left, now that I'm thinking about it. But
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: she was the one who would help with the plays
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: as well. And we did a lot of black plays.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: And she was also like had that, y'all were cut
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: from the same cloth because that was my girl. Sometimes
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: at lunch, she would be like, come on, let's go
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: get something to eat. And we would go over to
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: Mary Grove College. She would take me off campus.
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: Right, right.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: No permission slip, no nothing. And we would go over
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: there and eat, and she would talk to me like
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: I was 45 years old.
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: Do you remember her? Yeah.
• 50:10
  Speaker 5: She came after I left.
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: Your mom told me, she said, you know, after she
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: left you, I was scared for her to go see
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Miss Baker, who was the kindergarten teacher.
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: I was scared for my students to go to Miss
• 50:22
  Speaker 5: Baker's class.
• 50:23
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 50:24
  Speaker 5: Because Miss Baker didn't smile very often. She didn't play.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: She didn't play.
• 50:28
  Speaker 5: But she was an excellent teacher.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: I have a photo of Ms. Baker in my house
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: because she was my kindergarten teacher. That's when we started
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: to read. She taught me how to read.
• 50:38
  Speaker 7: It was good.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: And when I think about that job, it was almost
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: 30 of us. And when we walked up out of
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: that class, we could pick up, I mean, the paper. Like,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: we could read. And now, you know, my son, that's
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: the first time I said, well, can he read? Have
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: y'all taught him to read yet? You know, and not
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: that we do a lot of reading at home, and
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: also boys are different, but I just realized they had
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: a big job.
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: I used to.
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: See your mom over the years, and she was so
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: proud of you going to NYU.
• 51:09
  Speaker 5: And then I saw her one time, and she said, um,
• 51:12
  Speaker 5: I'm leaving. I'm moving.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: I said, oh, I know you're moving to New York
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: with your baby.
• 51:16
  Speaker 5: And she said, oh, no.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: I'm moving to Los Angeles because I know that's.
• 51:22
  Speaker 5: Where Diara is going to end up. And I'm going
• 51:25
  Speaker 5: to be there already.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: And, you know, at least she would always say, you
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: followed me here, you know. But she tried to go
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: to New York when I went to New York. She
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: had a job in Brooklyn and everything.
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: Oh, she didn't tell me that.
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she left that out. And I said, Mama, please,
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: let me spread my wings a little bit. Because I knew, like,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: me and my mama were like this. I really did
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: want the opportunity that I have to do my own
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: laundry and Be out in the clubs on the weekend. And,
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: you know, I just... I wanted that experience.
• 51:53
  Speaker 5: That was good that you knew you needed that.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So she beat me. She moved to L.A.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: first and then.
• 52:00
  Speaker 5: No, that's why she had that strategy.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: I got it now.
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: And you lost her in 2019.
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: I did.
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: How did that affect your life?
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, I have on false eyelashes right now. So you
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: trying to make me cry.
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: All right. It is... I mean... It must be addressed.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: But it's funny because I have to keep saying, I
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: did an interview the other day and the lady was going,
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: you have a child? You seem so carefree. You seem
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: so happy.
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: You do. It's beautiful. Thank you.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: But I'm like, I work at it because, you know,
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: the grief of losing my mom, all that stuff is hard.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: I could break down a crab right now. And I
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: think that year was so intense because my mom passed
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: December 6th. No, yes, December. No, she died December 7th, 2019.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: One year later, my son is born December 6th, 2020. Wow.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: So that year was like... It was like to lose
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: my mother and become a mother was such an emotional rollercoaster.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: And then to need my mom so bad in that
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: first year... you don't really need, there's like a brief
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: period where you're like, Ma, I got this. You know,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: I'm cool. And then as soon as they put that
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: little bitty baby in your arms and they go home
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: and raise it, you're like, where is my mother?
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: And so just having to move through all the milestones
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: with him, it's both really hard and really beautiful because
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: I get to do some of the same traditions that
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: my mom and I had. And, you know, I'm like, oh,
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: these are the cookies we used to bake every Christmas,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: or these are the cake we would make, or these
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: are the way we would snuggle up and watch stuff together.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: So it's beautiful because love, in fact, doesn't die and goes.
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: On and on. Do you feel like she's still with you?
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of a heavy feeling, isn't it? My
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: mother died 48 years ago when I was 18. And...
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: The feeling is still as strong. The connection is still
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: as strong as it was the day she passed. So
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: I'm giving you some encouragement in case that's happening now.
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: It's going to continue.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: Do you talk to her, though, your mommy?
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: Not necessarily. Maybe subconsciously, yes.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: I just started talking.
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: To my mama.
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: I started talking to her and I be mad too.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm like, I can't find babysitting or something. I'm like,
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: you just out there dead. You supposed to be watching
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: this damn baby. You told me to have a, Oh,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: have a baby. The R is the best thing. It
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: is the best love you'll ever know. And you are dead.
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: She is watching the baby. Now you are a judge.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: If CPS, if I said to CPS, well, my mother,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: her spirit is here. And what happened was she just
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: couldn't physically stop him from falling down the stairs. Yeah, no.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: But I started talking to her all the time. I
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: feel like she'd be talking to me through Anita Baker songs. Okay.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Anita Baker come on. I'd be like so frustrated. I'd
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: hear ba-ba. They're like, okay, mama, dang, okay, I know
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: what I'm supposed to do.
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: She's with you. Yeah, she is. She's not going to leave.
• 55:23
  Speaker 5: One last question I have.
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: In the show, Diara from Detroit, you know, it was
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: almost at the end, kind of went into legacy.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: Families leaving something for the future. What do you feel
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: your family has left you in legacy, and what do
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: you want to leave for your son?
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: These are really great questions and I'm going to cry.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: You know, one of the things we were hitting on
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: was about how black people aren't always passing down generational wealth.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: It's so much tougher. It's like going on a damn
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: scavenger hunt just to pass down generational wealth. And so
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: I've thought about that a lot, how, you know, because
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: of what happened in Detroit, my grandmother's house wasn't worth
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: very much. And there just wasn't that much to be
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: passed down. And so I think of my inheritance always
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: as the stories that they left me. Um, the way
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: that they taught me how to live the memory. Like
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: I can in one second, take myself from being in
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: anxiety to feeling safe by closing my eyes and visualize
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting in my grandmother's kitchen, eating my grandmother's food,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: sitting on my grandmother's couch, um, sitting between my mother's
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: legs when she blows my hair out. Like that is
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: an emotional inheritance that is as real as anything else.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: And damn it, I'm going to cash in on it.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: So that's why I tell the stories of my family
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: and tell the stories of my community because didn't nobody
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: leave me no check.
• 56:50
  Speaker 5: That's wonderful.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: So that is part of my legacy, a sense of humor.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: You know, you talk about my dad.
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: He is.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: has absolutely no sense. It's like, the man has.
• 57:02
  Speaker 4: So that's why they became friends?
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: That's why they say anything, anything might come out of
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: our mouths. That's the friendship. That's the friendship.
• 57:12
  Speaker 5: Anything.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: I remember, I will never forget, I'm still embarrassed. Me
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: and my dad somehow ended up in an elevator with
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: Yolanda Adams.
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: Bernard, by the way, is his name.
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: Bernard, yeah, with Yolanda Adams, the great gospel singer. Beautiful woman.
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: We're in this, oh, it's Yolanda. My daddy goes, it's
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: a damn shame.
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: She can hear him?
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting there like, what is this man about to
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: say to this gospel great? He's talking about, you sing
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: all that pretty music and the last thing I'm thinking
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: about when I'm looking at you is Jesus.
• 57:49
  Speaker 5: Oh my goodness.
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: Oh my goodness. That's killer.
• 57:59
  Speaker 5: Did she respond?
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: She was gracious. She just chuckled and moved on and
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: smiled her beautiful smile and was.
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: Like, okay. How old was he at that point?
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: A hundred.
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: No, no, no.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: He wasn't a hundred. He wasn't a hundred. He was
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: in his sixties.
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: Well, maybe you can't say it. You got to wait
• 58:21
  Speaker 3: until you're 70.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: Then you can say anything. Because he did that a
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: little bit on set. Now he's 85 now. So when
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: he met Felicia, I just kind of was like, he
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: really wanted to meet her. I want to meet Cosby's wife. Okay,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: first of all, before we go over here, her name
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: is Miss Rashad.
• 58:39
  Speaker 5: Okay, let's go.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Let's start there. But he was definitely about to say something.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: I said, Daddy, this is Miss Felicia. And Daddy, she
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: was so gracious. And then I just like ushered him
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: on because I could tell he was getting ready to
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: say something crazy. Now he can say it because he's 85.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: But at the time, no, he was not supposed to
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: say that. And you asked the great question about what
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: I want to leave on to my son. I just
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: really want to leave him with this feeling of being
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: a free black boy and I'm doing every I'm just
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: like I want him to feel so comfortable being himself
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: I just want him to feel like he can like
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: he can do anything.
• 59:24
  Speaker 5: I think as a mother that's what we want of
• 59:27
  Speaker 5: our sons.
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: They are from Detroit. Make sure y'all check it out.
• 59:33
  Speaker 5: On Paramount.
• 59:35
  Speaker 4: Plus.