Latest / The Breakfast Club / The Angela Bassett Blueprint
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Let's get, let's get, let's get to it, time to
- 0:01Speaker 1: do it.
- 0:02Speaker 2: I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything
- 0:04Speaker 2: and everybody. You hear that exclusive? You know she don't
- 0:07Speaker 2: lie about that, right?
- 0:07Speaker 3: Lauren came in hot.
- 0:10Speaker 2: Hey y'all, what's up? It's Lauren LaRosa and this is
- 0:13Speaker 2: another episode of The Latest with Lauren LaRosa. This is
- 0:16Speaker 2: your daily dig on all things pop culture, entertainment news,
- 0:19Speaker 2: and all of the conversations that shake the room, baby. Now,
- 0:23Speaker 2: I want to get right on into a conversation that
- 0:25Speaker 2: is going to shake the room. The incomparable legendary iconic
- 0:32Speaker 2: miss angela bassett uh angela bassett is outside okay looking
- 0:37Speaker 2: good as always but she is actually everywhere right now
- 0:42Speaker 2: uh promoting american horror story so she sat down for
- 0:46Speaker 2: a conversation with lindsey davis over on abc news it's
- 0:50Speaker 2: called all access with lindsey davis And Lindsay Davis does
- 0:53Speaker 2: a really good job during this All Access interview series
- 0:57Speaker 2: that she has where they go beyond the headline and
- 1:00Speaker 2: they get into real in-depth conversations with talent about career
- 1:04Speaker 2: and journey. And y'all know I am always here for
- 1:07Speaker 2: those conversations. I think they just feed the soul and
- 1:10Speaker 2: feed the spirit the way that they need to. And
- 1:12Speaker 2: this one did that for me. So I wanted to
- 1:13Speaker 2: share it with you guys. So Angela Bassett, they kick
- 1:17Speaker 2: off the conversation talking about all things work and career
- 1:20Speaker 2: for her. And one of the things that I thought
- 1:23Speaker 2: was so amazing to hear, but wasn't surprising to me though,
- 1:27Speaker 2: because I think Angela Bassett has accumulated the type of
- 1:30Speaker 2: career that you feel the intention from. But I do know,
- 1:35Speaker 2: you know, like when Angela Bassett started acting all, you know,
- 1:39Speaker 2: these years ago, jobs are few far in between. So
- 1:42Speaker 2: it's always amazing to me how even in a scarcity,
- 1:46Speaker 2: like a scarce industry at the time when there weren't
- 1:49Speaker 2: a lot of things available to To hear actresses, you know,
- 1:53Speaker 2: like our OGs be like, but I was still intentional
- 1:56Speaker 2: because I understood what people that look like me needed
- 1:59Speaker 2: and did not need any more of. Angela Bassett kicks
- 2:02Speaker 2: this off literally talking about the fact that she would
- 2:05Speaker 2: choose certain roles for certain reasons. She even talks about,
- 2:08Speaker 2: you guys remember that Michael Jackson movie that Angela Bassett
- 2:11Speaker 2: was in, right? Which, honestly, very successful portrayal of Michael
- 2:15Speaker 2: Jackson's mother. She even talks about how she was told
- 2:19Speaker 2: before she took that role that she should not do it.
- 2:21Speaker 2: But because of her care for what her career says
- 2:26Speaker 2: and does and how it can change lives, she fought
- 2:29Speaker 2: back against that. Let's take a listen.
- 2:31Speaker 3: You know, I was talking to a friend of mine
- 2:34Speaker 3: last evening. And somehow I reflected back on the Jacksons
- 2:39Speaker 3: when I portrayed Katherine Jackson. And I was saying that
- 2:42Speaker 3: I remember being called, you know, into my agent's office
- 2:46Speaker 3: and they were saying, you know, we don't think you
- 2:49Speaker 3: should do this role, this project because, you know, it's
- 2:54Speaker 3: Michael Jackson and the headlines are saying this and that, wacko,
- 2:59Speaker 3: you know, bubbles, the chimp, that sort of thing. And
- 3:02Speaker 3: I listened and I said, but I grew up you know,
- 3:06Speaker 3: they were my youth. I grew up and I'm not
- 3:08Speaker 3: playing that character. I'm playing their mother. And no matter
- 3:12Speaker 3: what you think, they love and revere their Black mother.
- 3:17Speaker 3: And I think that's an ethos that is most definitely
- 3:22Speaker 3: something I want to put into the realm, into the air.
- 3:26Speaker 3: The love, respect, and reverence of a mother and a
- 3:30Speaker 3: Black mother. And that's why I chose that role. It
- 3:33Speaker 3: went on to, you know, have 40 million viewership, 40
- 3:37Speaker 3: million eyes viewing it every evening. So it turned out
- 3:41Speaker 3: to be a great move, but it was more than
- 3:46Speaker 3: just the role.
- 3:47Speaker 2: It's what the role represented. Now that movie was in 1992.
- 3:54Speaker 2: Angela Bassett started acting. It was back in college because
- 3:57Speaker 2: she talks a bit about, you know, being on college
- 3:59Speaker 2: campuses and, you know, you know, what inspired her and
- 4:03Speaker 2: how the theater inspired her. But Angela Bassett, I mean,
- 4:06Speaker 2: a lot of people will point to the Tina Turner,
- 4:09Speaker 2: What's Love Got to Do With It in 1993 as
- 4:12Speaker 2: one of Angela Bassett's like big major roles. But I
- 4:16Speaker 2: know in my world of things, like I remember watching
- 4:20Speaker 2: Angela Bassett play Michael Jackson's mom. But I don't know.
- 4:25Speaker 2: To me, she's always felt like an icon. And hearing
- 4:28Speaker 2: her say that at that point when she was building
- 4:31Speaker 2: to even get to that status or be regarded in
- 4:33Speaker 2: the way that she is, there was pushback. But she
- 4:35Speaker 2: went against the grain. It's like the flip of the coin.
- 4:39Speaker 2: You know, you think about a lot of actors and
- 4:41Speaker 2: actresses and just creatives in general who come from, you know,
- 4:45Speaker 2: these decades where... if you got a shot at something,
- 4:49Speaker 2: you needed to grab that shot and run as fast
- 4:51Speaker 2: as you could because it wasn't happening for everybody the
- 4:54Speaker 2: way it was happening for others. The fact that she
- 4:56Speaker 2: was so intentional during that time, it's almost like a
- 5:00Speaker 2: form of like resistance or advocacy. And I know now people,
- 5:05Speaker 2: you know, love to talk about, you know, putting black
- 5:08Speaker 2: people on television and what we don't have as far
- 5:11Speaker 2: as like, you know, what we see on TV when
- 5:12Speaker 2: we turn things on and, And other people will point
- 5:17Speaker 2: out the tragedies of the things that we do have
- 5:19Speaker 2: to watch when we turn things on. Like, you know,
- 5:21Speaker 2: people be so mad at like the Zeus's and the
- 5:24Speaker 2: loving hip-hops and all of that because it's like the
- 5:27Speaker 2: counter conversation to what Angela Bassett is talking about here.
- 5:30Speaker 2: And I understand all of it, but I think it's
- 5:32Speaker 2: so much easier now to talk about, and let me
- 5:36Speaker 2: not say easy, because you still hear actors and actresses,
- 5:41Speaker 2: black actors and actresses talk about Their fight to be
- 5:44Speaker 2: able to tell certain stories and break through certain stories
- 5:47Speaker 2: and get support on certain stories. But I think it's
- 5:50Speaker 2: a bit different now because we have all these other
- 5:53Speaker 2: means and ways to get our creative out. We can
- 5:56Speaker 2: literally set our phone up. and talk about whatever we
- 5:59Speaker 2: want and post it to a platform for free. You know,
- 6:02Speaker 2: there's a lot of like these smaller budget films that
- 6:04Speaker 2: are breaking through in the mainstream and that are really,
- 6:09Speaker 2: it's basically getting to a point where if they don't
- 6:12Speaker 2: want to allow you to do it, you can go
- 6:13Speaker 2: figure out a way to do it on your own
- 6:15Speaker 2: anyway and figure out some real money around it. Like
- 6:18Speaker 2: that's why whenever I talk about like black television and
- 6:21Speaker 2: black creators or any of that, you're not ever going
- 6:25Speaker 2: to really hear me down like, a Zeus network or,
- 6:29Speaker 2: you know, people's decisions to be on, like, a love
- 6:30Speaker 2: of hip-hop. Certain shows might not be my cup of
- 6:34Speaker 2: tea of things I like to watch or whatever, but,
- 6:37Speaker 2: you know, I do get into my ratchet TV. I love,
- 6:38Speaker 2: you know, certain shows and certain things. Like, I was
- 6:41Speaker 2: hooked on Blueface and Krishan's reality show. Talking about Angela
- 6:45Speaker 2: Bassett and Blueface and Krishan in the same... Crazy.
- 6:49Speaker 3: But.
- 6:50Speaker 2: I'm saying the reason why I don't down those things
- 6:52Speaker 2: is because I feel like at the end of the day,
- 6:55Speaker 2: it takes something. And it takes a lot sometimes for
- 6:58Speaker 2: you to even get to a point where your business
- 7:00Speaker 2: is sustainable and is doing that. And it's putting things
- 7:03Speaker 2: out that are actually reaching people. And Zeus is doing that.
- 7:06Speaker 2: But it is a way different type of conversation when
- 7:10Speaker 2: we don't have all of the Zeus networks or the Instagrams,
- 7:13Speaker 2: the Facebooks, YouTube. YouTube is literally right now putting it
- 7:18Speaker 2: out there. Well, they didn't put it out there, but
- 7:20Speaker 2: there are sources that are saying that YouTube is currently
- 7:23Speaker 2: going after creators and saying, hey, let's do basically a
- 7:27Speaker 2: development deal. Let us give you some money to further
- 7:30Speaker 2: develop this idea or, you know, this show that already
- 7:34Speaker 2: lives on our channel. So you won't take it to
- 7:36Speaker 2: like the Netflix's and the other streamers in the world.
- 7:39Speaker 2: That is amazing because during Angela Bassett's time, you, you
- 7:42Speaker 2: had to work with what people were giving you. And
- 7:44Speaker 2: that's why it's like, I commend, you know, people like
- 7:47Speaker 2: Angela Bassett and, and you know, that are from these
- 7:50Speaker 2: areas where you didn't have a lot of choices, but
- 7:54Speaker 2: they still made the choice to be intentional in things.
- 7:57Speaker 2: Another one of the things though, that I thought was
- 7:59Speaker 2: so amazing about this interview was the, That Angela Bassett
- 8:05Speaker 2: has this mindset around, you know, how it is being
- 8:09Speaker 2: a black actress in Hollywood and certain things happening and
- 8:13Speaker 2: not happening. She talked a bit about not being able
- 8:16Speaker 2: to get work after that 1993 film for Tina Turner,
- 8:19Speaker 2: What's Love Got to Do With It? Let's take a
- 8:21Speaker 2: listen to that.
- 8:22Speaker 3: You said that after Tina Turner, you had a hard
- 8:25Speaker 3: time getting a role.
- 8:26Speaker 2: Why was that?
- 8:26Speaker 3: Well, it was about 18 months after that, after the
- 8:30Speaker 3: role came out. Remember, it was during a period of
- 8:33Speaker 3: time where I guess roles were few and far between for,
- 8:38Speaker 3: you know, a woman of color, you know, of a
- 8:41Speaker 3: certain hue. And there wasn't very much like, oh, this
- 8:46Speaker 3: is the character. It's open to anyone, you know, the character.
- 8:51Speaker 3: We need white, 30, you know, the breakdown, the breakdowns
- 8:55Speaker 3: as they would come out. And it was the leading role,
- 8:59Speaker 3: a showy role. So are you going to make a
- 9:02Speaker 3: lateral move? Are you going to go upward? Or, you know,
- 9:07Speaker 3: what's the trajectory after something like after you've reached the ceilings?
- 9:12Speaker 2: Now, I will say, people have always yelled and screamed
- 9:16Speaker 2: to the top of their lungs how Angela Bassett should
- 9:18Speaker 2: have won an Oscar for what's Love Got to Do
- 9:20Speaker 2: With It, her portrayal of Tina Turner.
- 9:22Speaker 3: I agree.
- 9:23Speaker 2: She did not win the Oscar during that time for that, though.
- 9:28Speaker 2: She was nominated, but she did not win the Oscar.
- 9:30Speaker 2: But she did end up going on in January of
- 9:34Speaker 2: 2024 to receive an honorary Academy Award. At the 14th
- 9:38Speaker 2: Governor's Award, which was, you know, it put her in
- 9:41Speaker 2: the position where she followed Cicely Tyson, another great who
- 9:45Speaker 2: in 2018 as an actress won the honorary Oscar. And
- 9:52Speaker 2: that put that put Angela Bass as the second black
- 9:54Speaker 2: woman to do so. But the people are like, you know,
- 9:57Speaker 2: that is great. And we are always going to champion her.
- 9:58Speaker 2: But she should have wanted back then um now i
- 10:03Speaker 2: say all that to say you're being intentional about what
- 10:06Speaker 2: you put out and what you take on You're showing
- 10:09Speaker 2: up and doing all the work. And then the accolades
- 10:11Speaker 2: are still not coming. And I remember when Michael B.
- 10:14Speaker 2: Jordan and Delroy Lindo took the stage during the Oscars
- 10:19Speaker 2: and Angela Bassett was nominated at that time for an
- 10:23Speaker 2: Oscar and it did not happen. And they took some
- 10:26Speaker 2: time to just real brief, real quick to acknowledge her.
- 10:30Speaker 2: And I remember how big of a conversation that was
- 10:32Speaker 2: because it was like, yo, how, how intentional was, How moving,
- 10:36Speaker 2: how influential, how hard does she have to fight to
- 10:38Speaker 2: get what she deserves? And I think what I'm saying
- 10:42Speaker 2: is so wonderful because y'all are like, yo, she's saying
- 10:44Speaker 2: it was hard to find work. How is that wonderful, Lauren?
- 10:47Speaker 2: It was her mindset in this for me. When she says,
- 10:51Speaker 2: when Lindsay asks her, do you believe that things have
- 10:54Speaker 2: changed for black actresses and black actors? And she's like,
- 10:56Speaker 2: you know, yeah, you know, because you can do it
- 10:58Speaker 2: on your own, which is what I was talking about
- 11:00Speaker 2: as we opened this segment. To be all of these
- 11:05Speaker 2: years in it, in an elder statesman in the sport,
- 11:09Speaker 2: and one of the greats, but also one of the
- 11:11Speaker 2: people who publicly the world has watched work so hard
- 11:15Speaker 2: and be the top 1% and excellent at your craft,
- 11:19Speaker 2: and be looked over and not given what you deserved
- 11:21Speaker 2: countless times, but to still have this... regal piece of
- 11:28Speaker 2: hope and optimism because you, I mean, literally you do,
- 11:32Speaker 2: you have, she has seen things change since the nineties, right?
- 11:36Speaker 2: Of course. But to overlook all of that, you know,
- 11:43Speaker 2: and still get up and do the work every single
- 11:45Speaker 2: day and still have this attitude where it's like, yeah,
- 11:48Speaker 2: but things have changed and we have so much more opportunity.
- 11:52Speaker 2: We don't even got to wait for the door to
- 11:53Speaker 2: open anymore. We can open it ourselves. I think that's
- 11:56Speaker 2: amazing to hear because I feel like a lot of
- 11:59Speaker 2: times when I'm listening to people that are in certain spaces,
- 12:03Speaker 2: I was going to say like their takes or answers
- 12:05Speaker 2: to a question like this would have been a little
- 12:07Speaker 2: bit jaded. And I don't even know if that's it, right? Like,
- 12:11Speaker 2: I don't know if it's jaded. I think, I think
- 12:15Speaker 2: everybody in the, when you think about like a civil rights,
- 12:19Speaker 2: like the civil rights movement or, you know, protests and
- 12:22Speaker 2: boycotts and certain things, I think everybody has a role
- 12:25Speaker 2: in the fight. I think, you know, this makes me
- 12:29Speaker 2: think about Issa Rae. She was at, you know, a
- 12:32Speaker 2: woman's event in L.A. that Variety put on about a
- 12:36Speaker 2: week or so ago. And she was talking about how
- 12:40Speaker 2: everything that's going on right now when it comes to
- 12:42Speaker 2: being a creative and just what's happening in our world
- 12:44Speaker 2: and how devastating things feel financially and creatively, it's all
- 12:48Speaker 2: men's fault. She actually says particularly white men. Let's take
- 12:51Speaker 2: a listen.
- 12:52Speaker 3: This is all men's fault.
- 13:00Speaker 1: Like it's rich white men to be specific for this moment.
- 13:05Speaker 1: And I hate that I'm not passing the Bechdel test,
- 13:07Speaker 1: but it is hard to feel like a powerful.
- 13:10Speaker 2: Woman when men keep fucking everything up.
- 13:16Speaker 1: So that's where I'm at, just like mentally. And that's
- 13:20Speaker 1: why I wrote a speech that sounds like this. But
- 13:23Speaker 1: it is very hard to feel inspired when you feel
- 13:27Speaker 1: helpless and useless.
- 13:29Speaker 2: Now i remember people being like well why it got
- 13:32Speaker 2: to be men's fault this is the problem it's like
- 13:34Speaker 2: why all the gender wars and then me listening though
- 13:37Speaker 2: as a black young woman in this figuring it out
- 13:41Speaker 2: i instantly understood what she meant because i knew that
- 13:45Speaker 2: she was talking about the fact that If we're looking
- 13:50Speaker 2: from the top down, we're talking about, you know, not
- 13:53Speaker 2: even just the studios in Hollywood, but a lot of
- 13:55Speaker 2: these institutions. And even just like where our country is
- 13:58Speaker 2: founded from, it's white men who traditionally have always been
- 14:02Speaker 2: in a position to change things and make things the
- 14:04Speaker 2: way that they want it to be. But at the
- 14:06Speaker 2: same time, while that is happening, we're in it and
- 14:08Speaker 2: we have to work and thrive in it. Issa Rae.
- 14:11Speaker 2: just signed this amazing deal with Paramount. She has new
- 14:15Speaker 2: projects coming out. And I saw people saying, well, how
- 14:18Speaker 2: dare Issa Rae when you're working with the white men?
- 14:21Speaker 2: But it's like, what else is her other choice? And
- 14:24Speaker 2: in this moment, I think Issa's role in the fight
- 14:27Speaker 2: is to be the person on the front lines saying
- 14:29Speaker 2: those things while also walking back into those meetings and
- 14:31Speaker 2: having to work and negotiate and partner with the same
- 14:35Speaker 2: white men that she is being very specific about. The
- 14:37Speaker 2: same way it's like we're here and we're in America
- 14:40Speaker 2: and we complain about a lot of things here, but
- 14:41Speaker 2: we ain't leaving because white men make it easier, more
- 14:44Speaker 2: convenient or just, you know, not as appeasing to us.
- 14:48Speaker 2: It's literally the same thing. But with Angela Bassett, I think,
- 14:51Speaker 2: you know, at first, because when I heard her answer,
- 14:54Speaker 2: I'm like my first thought for like the last, like
- 14:56Speaker 2: I would say this interview came out, you know, a
- 14:58Speaker 2: few days ago. I sat on it a bit because
- 15:00Speaker 2: I was like, why would she say yes? Like, yeah,
- 15:03Speaker 2: we can turn on our phones, but there are so
- 15:04Speaker 2: many people out here who trying to get by, trying
- 15:07Speaker 2: to get these stories told. And it's just not happening
- 15:10Speaker 2: just because you can turn on a phone. But at
- 15:12Speaker 2: the same time, I had to understand the different roles
- 15:15Speaker 2: in the fight. She comes from a position of she's
- 15:19Speaker 2: seen so much more than we have. And even though
- 15:23Speaker 2: things are not perfect, she's acknowledging the little bit of
- 15:26Speaker 2: change and opportunity that we do have. Because as an
- 15:30Speaker 2: elder statesman, she's here in the fight to remind us,
- 15:32Speaker 2: you can get through and come up on the other
- 15:34Speaker 2: side and do it so gracefully. and continue to provide
- 15:37Speaker 2: a living and a family and have a family and
- 15:40Speaker 2: provide for them and do all the things with understanding
- 15:43Speaker 2: that there are so many different ways that you can
- 15:46Speaker 2: fight back against these things. With her, it's the roles
- 15:50Speaker 2: that she took. It's the things that she fought to
- 15:53Speaker 2: be able to do even when people told her like, oh,
- 15:54Speaker 2: that makes no sense. Well, it makes sense for me
- 15:56Speaker 2: because I know what my people need to see, which
- 15:59Speaker 2: then would motivate a woman like Issa Rae to get
- 16:02Speaker 2: into the business and to be now on the front
- 16:05Speaker 2: lines and a person calling out things like she did
- 16:09Speaker 2: at the Variety Women's event. Something as simple as the
- 16:13Speaker 2: ability to be a storyteller and to have platform can
- 16:18Speaker 2: be so powerful and impactful if done the right way.
- 16:22Speaker 2: I think about that all the time. There's a lot
- 16:27Speaker 2: of people out here who are amazing at what they do,
- 16:30Speaker 2: You know, they get accredited and acclaimed by all of
- 16:32Speaker 2: the award shows and all the, you know, the major
- 16:35Speaker 2: outlets and the critics and the reviews. But then you
- 16:39Speaker 2: have an Angela Bassett and you have an Issa Rae.
- 16:43Speaker 2: And those are the type of creators and people, just
- 16:47Speaker 2: not even about what they do for work, but just people,
- 16:49Speaker 2: the cloth that they're cut from. That when I'm thinking
- 16:51Speaker 2: about career, I'm like, yeah, boom, boom. there like what's
- 16:56Speaker 2: the impact what's the longevity what's what's my role in
- 16:59Speaker 2: all of this and and where do i come in
- 17:03Speaker 2: another thing that i took from this too though was
- 17:05Speaker 2: just the preparedness of it all um you know they
- 17:08Speaker 2: talked to her about 9-1-1 they talked to her about
- 17:10Speaker 2: american horror story um and just all of the current
- 17:13Speaker 2: work that shoot it's everybody's talking to her about wakanda
- 17:17Speaker 2: um and returning to wakanda potentially in black panther 3
- 17:20Speaker 2: but And she talked a lot about when she took
- 17:24Speaker 2: the role for what's love got to do with it,
- 17:26Speaker 2: how prepared she had to be, like the discipline she
- 17:29Speaker 2: had to have. And a lot of times, you know,
- 17:32Speaker 2: I'm on here with you guys and I'm talking about
- 17:34Speaker 2: the discipline it takes to do anything, you know, whether
- 17:38Speaker 2: it's breaking down this news or going into the interviews
- 17:40Speaker 2: with you guys and trying to find. the balance of
- 17:45Speaker 2: the discipline with like everything else that is not in
- 17:48Speaker 2: line with my discipline or just understanding like what my
- 17:51Speaker 2: tunnel vision should look like at each phase in my career.
- 17:55Speaker 2: And I'm listening to her talk about what it took
- 17:57Speaker 2: for her to get into that, you know, get into
- 18:00Speaker 2: that discipline pocket. And the fact that she didn't even
- 18:02Speaker 2: know that if she had it in her and I'm like,
- 18:03Speaker 2: but you were Angela Bassett. But it reminded me that
- 18:07Speaker 2: in the moment, it may not feel as perfect or
- 18:10Speaker 2: you may not feel as perfectly prepared as you need to,
- 18:13Speaker 2: but rising to the occasion is in you and not
- 18:16Speaker 2: on you. And this is why people say, you know,
- 18:23Speaker 2: entertainment and song and word and poetry can literally change
- 18:29Speaker 2: lives because I don't know if y'all hear in my voice,
- 18:33Speaker 2: but the way that I'm talking about this interview and
- 18:35Speaker 2: the things that it inspired in me and the conversations
- 18:37Speaker 2: it made me have with myself, and with my peers
- 18:39Speaker 2: like this is this is how you use platform and
- 18:43Speaker 2: I don't even know if Lindsay Davis think thought about
- 18:46Speaker 2: it you know this this high or this like you
- 18:49Speaker 2: know spiritual when she did it I don't even know
- 18:51Speaker 2: if Angela Bassett when she decided to get into acting
- 18:55Speaker 2: she said she went to go see James Earl Jones
- 18:56Speaker 2: and she was just moved let's take a listen to
- 18:58Speaker 2: that So.
- 18:59Speaker 3: Let's go back to Angela as a teenager and you
- 19:03Speaker 3: see James Earl Jones perform in Of Mice and Men.
- 19:06Speaker 3: What was it about that that perhaps changed your trajectory?
- 19:12Speaker 3: He was just compelling and ferocious and larger than life
- 19:19Speaker 3: and believable. And the entire world, I bought into it.
- 19:27Speaker 3: And I was so moved and devastated and in tears,
- 19:31Speaker 3: you know, at the end of the performance. And I
- 19:36Speaker 3: thought that was just the most powerful thing that my
- 19:38Speaker 3: 15-year-old self had ever experienced in the theater, in a
- 19:45Speaker 3: darkened room with others in a community of other folk.
- 19:50Speaker 3: sitting in chairs and uh it was it just changed
- 19:54Speaker 3: my life it's just a seminal moment and then to
- 19:57Speaker 3: um see him i'm in drama school years later walking
- 20:02Speaker 3: down the street on campus And he was in the
- 20:06Speaker 3: Yale Repertory production of Athol Fugard's play, Master Harold and
- 20:11Speaker 3: the Boys. And they said, oh, yeah, he's here performing,
- 20:15Speaker 3: you know, for six weeks. And I was like, oh,
- 20:17Speaker 3: my gosh. So I got to go backstage and work
- 20:21Speaker 3: backstage at the Yale Repertory Theater. And I told him
- 20:23Speaker 3: my little story.
- 20:25Speaker 2: You told him that he was the inspiration.
- 20:27Speaker 3: He was like, you were a baby then. Yeah. yeah
- 20:35Speaker 3: grown 19 year old now but yes yeah but he
- 20:38Speaker 3: was delightful and to see him over the years time
- 20:42Speaker 3: and time again i was we were honored that he
- 20:45Speaker 3: was at our wedding um because he and courtney had
- 20:48Speaker 3: worked together um of course in fences and it was
- 20:52Speaker 3: just he was just wonderful wonderful man and to speak
- 20:57Speaker 3: with him you know a couple of years ago before
- 20:59Speaker 3: he he passed still just as lovely as ever and
- 21:02Speaker 3: i was just like you're the reason netra that i
- 21:07Speaker 3: do what i do today you're the reason sir i don't.
- 21:09Speaker 2: Even know if when she the first time she saw
- 21:12Speaker 2: him on that stage if she knew that her career
- 21:15Speaker 2: would impact people that same way she felt it just
- 21:18Speaker 2: in her i don't even know if she knew that
- 21:21Speaker 2: but To be as blessed as she is in all
- 21:27Speaker 2: of this and be able to resonate and hit so
- 21:30Speaker 2: many different generations of people just through your words. But honestly,
- 21:33Speaker 2: with Angela Bassett, a lot of it is just with
- 21:35Speaker 2: her presence as well, too. It is something to be
- 21:39Speaker 2: studied and something to be watched. Literally. But before we
- 21:45Speaker 2: get out of here real quick, I do want to
- 21:47Speaker 2: mention to you guys that we are building out... the
- 21:51Speaker 2: visual aspect of the latest with Lauren La Rosa. And
- 21:53Speaker 2: I want you guys to be the first to know
- 21:55Speaker 2: when all of this stuff drops. So make sure you
- 21:57Speaker 2: head on over to my YouTube channel. Speaking of telling
- 22:00Speaker 2: stories and being impactful and really, really, really doing the
- 22:04Speaker 2: things and using the platform in a way that like
- 22:06Speaker 2: will stick with people for the long run. A good time.
- 22:09Speaker 2: I'm sorry, a long time, not a good time, is
- 22:11Speaker 2: what I'm here for. I want you guys to be
- 22:14Speaker 2: the first to know about all of that. So Lauren
- 22:16Speaker 2: LaRosa TV is my YouTube channel. When you go, make
- 22:19Speaker 2: sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel now. Now, when
- 22:21Speaker 2: you subscribe, make sure you also press that notification button
- 22:25Speaker 2: because we will be dropping some visuals over there on
- 22:27Speaker 2: Lauren LaRosa TV that accompany the podcast. But you guys
- 22:30Speaker 2: will always get stuff here exclusively and first on the
- 22:34Speaker 2: audio side of my Loretta's podcast. Thank y'all for rocking
- 22:37Speaker 2: with me. I tell you, every single episode, y'all could
- 22:39Speaker 2: be anywhere with any old body, but you choose to
- 22:41Speaker 2: be right here with me. I'll catch you guys in
- 22:43Speaker 2: my next episode.