Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Serayah rising Actress and Singer seen on "Empire", starring in Bishop TD Jakes new Lifetime movie, "Envy: A Seven Deadly Sins Story"
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Welcome to money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
- 0:07Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
- 0:10Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
- 0:13Speaker 1: advice to many occasions. In occasion didn't notice, I'm not broke.
- 0:17Speaker 1: You know. He'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry
- 0:20Speaker 1: decision makers. It's what he likes to do. It's what
- 0:23Speaker 1: he likes to share. Now it's time to hear from
- 0:25Speaker 1: my man, Rashan McDonald money making conversations. Here we come.
- 0:29Speaker 1: Welcome to money Making Conversations. I am your host, Rashan McDonald.
- 0:33Speaker 1: Let's be real here. It's time to stop reading other
- 0:35Speaker 1: people's success stories to start writing your own. I always
- 0:38Speaker 1: tell people who listen to watch my show to lead
- 0:40Speaker 1: with their gifts and don't let your age, friends, family,
- 0:43Speaker 1: or coworkers stop you from planning or living your dreams.
- 0:46Speaker 1: My interviews I do on money making Conversations for you.
- 0:49Speaker 1: I invite celebrities, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and industries decision makers on
- 0:54Speaker 1: my show to discuss their careers because I consider what
- 0:56Speaker 1: they're doing is successful and what better way to get
- 0:59Speaker 1: advice from successful people. My next guest is what I
- 1:02Speaker 1: call young success, Srea. She's an actress, singer, dancer, and
- 1:06Speaker 1: model known as the singer Tianna Brown that she portrayed
- 1:10Speaker 1: on Lee Daniels hit Fox TV series Empire. Sirea is
- 1:14Speaker 1: starring on the upcoming of Lifetime original movie. She told
- 1:16Speaker 1: me her first lead story role Envy, a seven Deadly
- 1:21Speaker 1: Sins story. But that's not all she's doing besides this
- 1:24Speaker 1: new movie. V Next up for Surrea, she's co starring
- 1:27Speaker 1: in the upcoming BT movie Favorite Son, directed by the
- 1:30Speaker 1: one and only Robin Gibbons, which is expect to be
- 1:33Speaker 1: released this year. She has a new single coming out
- 1:36Speaker 1: soon called tell Me About My Sif featuring my Moore
- 1:39Speaker 1: Rick Ross. Sorea was also just recently announced the Jordan
- 1:43Speaker 1: the Stars dramma series. This girl busy. Who's managing her?
- 1:46Speaker 1: Who's managing her? I want to manage her. She's doing everything.
- 1:49Speaker 1: Joe the Star dramma series, Black Mafia Family executive dude
- 1:53Speaker 1: by the one and only fifty stance, not fifty cents
- 1:57Speaker 1: in a recurring role, please working in one the man coversation.
- 2:00Speaker 1: I tell you she's a rising stars. She's beautiful. She's fantastic.
- 2:02Speaker 1: I just saw her in her star and roll envy
- 2:05Speaker 1: a seven Deadly Sin story. Please work with the money
- 2:07Speaker 1: making conversations, sarea, Hi, thank happening? What an intro? Thank you?
- 2:15Speaker 1: First of all, First of all, girl does the word Okay.
- 2:18Speaker 1: You know, I've been fortunate this business, manage a lot
- 2:20Speaker 1: of big talent, work with a lot of big talent,
- 2:23Speaker 1: and I know when the resume starts to come together,
- 2:25Speaker 1: and you and we always shut down during the pandemic
- 2:28Speaker 1: and it all call us all, God, how did you
- 2:31Speaker 1: really handle the pandemic? And then to b start, you know,
- 2:35Speaker 1: putting yourself in the position where you've got all these
- 2:37Speaker 1: properties that are happened in one and they will extend
- 2:40Speaker 1: into two. Let's walk through that pandemic shutdown and then
- 2:44Speaker 1: starting to come out of it, out of that pandemic funk. Yeah,
- 2:49Speaker 1: so interesting. The pandemic hit us all, and you know
- 2:51Speaker 1: we're all unprepared and not ready for that one, especially
- 2:56Speaker 1: not to be out of commission for nearly a year
- 2:58Speaker 1: or more for some people. UM Empire ended abruptly two episodes,
- 3:06Speaker 1: shy of finishing our sixth season, our six in final season.
- 3:11Speaker 1: So it's sent me home to l a Um much
- 3:15Speaker 1: like the rest of the world, pretty much in shock. UM.
- 3:18Speaker 1: And the year continued on as we know it, just
- 3:22Speaker 1: trying to figure out health and family and figure out
- 3:24Speaker 1: what's what's next. Thank god. Um I I did like
- 3:29Speaker 1: I don't know, a hundred self tape auditions throughout quarantine,
- 3:32Speaker 1: and and you know, towards the end when things started
- 3:35Speaker 1: opening back up is when I kind of broke through
- 3:38Speaker 1: in UM. I landed my first leave roal Mvy, which
- 3:41Speaker 1: is the first thing I shot out of quarantine back
- 3:44Speaker 1: in December something like that. UM. So that was basically
- 3:50Speaker 1: how it happened for me. Quarantine was very much of
- 3:53Speaker 1: a test um in a trial. UM. I learned a
- 3:58Speaker 1: lot about myself and a lot of my family. It
- 4:01Speaker 1: was a much needed break though, because I was going
- 4:04Speaker 1: for six seasons straight of Empire, which is like six
- 4:07Speaker 1: years UM and it was definitely a much needed break
- 4:10Speaker 1: that I needed for just to be still and be
- 4:14Speaker 1: in the moment. But you're the amazing thing about because
- 4:16Speaker 1: we all know Hollywood is and you know, you can
- 4:19Speaker 1: get on the series and you started buy a new car.
- 4:22Speaker 1: That might be the biggest mistake because they can get
- 4:24Speaker 1: canceled and to be on a series that you know
- 4:26Speaker 1: this just I mean, it was a rocket ship launched
- 4:29Speaker 1: for that series because it did something that never happened
- 4:31Speaker 1: in the history of television. It grew every week. It
- 4:34Speaker 1: just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and so
- 4:38Speaker 1: and you on that launching pad, tell us how it
- 4:40Speaker 1: affected you. It is all positive, but nobody you know you.
- 4:43Speaker 1: You just get on the show. First of all. You
- 4:44Speaker 1: get on show it happy to be working, first of all.
- 4:46Speaker 1: Let's get that out the way. Happy to get to working,
- 4:48Speaker 1: to pay some checks, and you wanted to keep working
- 4:50Speaker 1: so you can build some momentum and put some money
- 4:53Speaker 1: in the account and call yourself a working actor or actress.
- 4:56Speaker 1: Talk about this, that whole beginning portion, the Empire explosion. Well,
- 5:03Speaker 1: for me, you're absolutely correct. For me, starting Empire was
- 5:08Speaker 1: very different. Was my first kind of TV role um
- 5:13Speaker 1: and UM. It was just that so many first experiences
- 5:18Speaker 1: dealing with Empire and in the new faith the newfound
- 5:22Speaker 1: success around it. Obviously, by the third fourth episode, we
- 5:27Speaker 1: were the leading numbers um TV since I think they
- 5:31Speaker 1: said since the Coffee Show. So it was it was
- 5:35Speaker 1: huge all over the world, which which also made it
- 5:39Speaker 1: differently because it was you know, main TV Fox, so um,
- 5:43Speaker 1: it was a lot of adjusting for me. I was
- 5:45Speaker 1: nineteen at the time, and Um, I was coming straight
- 5:49Speaker 1: from college at that time, and I was I was
- 5:54Speaker 1: just you know, taking the punches as they roll and
- 5:57Speaker 1: and learning so much and working so extremely hard on
- 6:01Speaker 1: that show. I a lot of my earlier performances on
- 6:05Speaker 1: the show was um dancing dance, big dance numbers, and
- 6:10Speaker 1: so I would rehearse, you know, twelve sixteen hours, shoot
- 6:15Speaker 1: for sixteen to eighteen hours while wearing heels, while having
- 6:20Speaker 1: to reside lines. But it was it was boot camp
- 6:23Speaker 1: for me, Um, to be honest, And I'm so grateful
- 6:27Speaker 1: for the experience though, because I know what hard work
- 6:30Speaker 1: is and how to make you know, something's glamorous, its empire,
- 6:34Speaker 1: how to make that happen. Yeah, it's really wonderful because,
- 6:38Speaker 1: like you said, uh, coming from African American perspective, to
- 6:42Speaker 1: see the explosion of color program a brown color program,
- 6:46Speaker 1: African American programming. You know, I'm so happy that you
- 6:49Speaker 1: got the experience disawakening of Hollywood where you have options
- 6:53Speaker 1: and to be in a series of Lifetime you know,
- 6:56Speaker 1: it is executive produced by Sean Robinson, The Bishop TV
- 6:59Speaker 1: Jake's lifetime Starry role. Okay, now did did did Empire
- 7:04Speaker 1: prepare you for the star in roles Sorea? Um? Empire
- 7:09Speaker 1: definitely did. I would say I would give thanks to
- 7:12Speaker 1: Empire for so many, so many gross spurts in my career. Um, definitely,
- 7:19Speaker 1: I've had a lot of training. Um, I've I've always
- 7:23Speaker 1: wanted to get better at my craft. So on my
- 7:26Speaker 1: off time, I was taking acting classes actually by Tasha
- 7:30Speaker 1: Smith at her acting school and she's also was on Empire. Yes, Um,
- 7:37Speaker 1: I love her, I adore her. Um, but I was
- 7:40Speaker 1: always I'm always looking to get better at everything I do.
- 7:45Speaker 1: So that was something that I self invested in on
- 7:48Speaker 1: my off time to make sure that when I got
- 7:51Speaker 1: any other type of role, I would be ready for
- 7:54Speaker 1: it and I know how to attack it, you know,
- 7:57Speaker 1: head first. Um. For me, it was it was more
- 8:01Speaker 1: of a destiny thing how I ended up on the Empire.
- 8:05Speaker 1: So I didn't go to acting school. Uh, but I
- 8:09Speaker 1: definitely invested myself into time into doing that on my
- 8:13Speaker 1: off time. Okay, now, okay, now, so you told me
- 8:15Speaker 1: some information. You said, Rashan it was a destiny thing
- 8:18Speaker 1: about umpire. I didn't go to acting school, but you
- 8:21Speaker 1: left that, so how did you get the role? Yes,
- 8:24Speaker 1: So basically what happened is I was I had just
- 8:29Speaker 1: enrolled into college. Um, I was going to a community
- 8:35Speaker 1: college in in l A. And my one of my
- 8:37Speaker 1: good friends called me. And I was doing some modeling
- 8:41Speaker 1: at that time, some print work. I just did not
- 8:44Speaker 1: have a theatrical agent at the time, which a theatrical
- 8:48Speaker 1: agent helps you get roles in on TV and uh words,
- 8:53Speaker 1: speaking characters and things like that. So, um, my friend
- 8:58Speaker 1: called me and he's he's kin of Lee Daniels. And
- 9:03Speaker 1: he said, you know my uncle Wholice Lee Daniels. I
- 9:06Speaker 1: didn't know this. This is this is getting out of hand. Okay,
- 9:10Speaker 1: so he's kid too, you know some country talking, you
- 9:14Speaker 1: know that, right, he's kid to lead Daniels. I didn't
- 9:17Speaker 1: know New Daniels. You know all Lee Danyers at that point,
- 9:20Speaker 1: you know Oscar all this stuff. This is Lee Daniel,
- 9:23Speaker 1: Lee Daniel. And so your little Nathan ye behind at
- 9:26Speaker 1: community college because seeing Dan look beautiful continue with just
- 9:30Speaker 1: I'm just sitting up there all up with yeah, yeah,
- 9:33Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Yeah. And so he told me. You know,
- 9:38Speaker 1: he's like, you know, they're they've been looking for this character.
- 9:41Speaker 1: They've been auditioning, you know, they've auditioned all over the
- 9:44Speaker 1: world at this point for for the whole cast of
- 9:46Speaker 1: Empire UM, and they haven't found their girl. And I said, well,
- 9:51Speaker 1: of course I would love to audition. You know. I
- 9:53Speaker 1: sent him all my stuff and he sent it to
- 9:56Speaker 1: the people of Powers that be UM and they said, yeah,
- 9:59Speaker 1: let's here. She has a great look. And I auditioned
- 10:02Speaker 1: about two or three times and we got a call
- 10:06Speaker 1: from Lee Daniel saying, she we love her, She's perfect,
- 10:10Speaker 1: she has the audition for Fox. UM. So I auditioned
- 10:14Speaker 1: for Fox. I went to Fox Network and Beverly Hills
- 10:17Speaker 1: and I auditioned there and I got the role, and
- 10:19Speaker 1: they shipped me to Chicago first first flight out of there.
- 10:24Speaker 1: Now Chicago one of my favorite cities, by the way,
- 10:27Speaker 1: So you're going to you're in great stumping grounds. Of course,
- 10:30Speaker 1: the winter. You learned some things about Chicago wintertime. You
- 10:33Speaker 1: better you better learn how to dress in Chicago for winter,
- 10:36Speaker 1: because it's not like any other winter. L a girl,
- 10:39Speaker 1: you learned that, right, Absolutely, I learned my lesson absolutely aflute.
- 10:45Speaker 1: Now here's the beauty of this conversation because you told
- 10:48Speaker 1: me earlier you're taking acting classes now with Tasha Smith,
- 10:51Speaker 1: So I meant that when you was auditioning, all that
- 10:53Speaker 1: was natural. Correct, Yes, okay, okay, Now let's let's talk
- 10:57Speaker 1: about confidence. What what allowed you? Because I can't act.
- 11:02Speaker 1: I'm gonna just be honest. I can't act. I can
- 11:04Speaker 1: do stand up comedy, I can motivate you, I can
- 11:07Speaker 1: interview you, but put the script in front of me,
- 11:09Speaker 1: I fall apart. What what? What natural skill did you
- 11:13Speaker 1: have allowed you to get to that audition? Because you
- 11:16Speaker 1: have to have confidence because they kept asking you to
- 11:18Speaker 1: come back, so you had no background on how do
- 11:21Speaker 1: I do? I change up? Do I get louder? What
- 11:24Speaker 1: do I do? Were you? Were you talking to anybody
- 11:27Speaker 1: in between the auditions, Surreya or what? No? No, no no.
- 11:31Speaker 1: At the time, it was me and my mom. She
- 11:33Speaker 1: stayed up with me going over lines, and we just
- 11:36Speaker 1: kind of took it to the approach that we think,
- 11:39Speaker 1: you know, it was pretty straightforward, um that we think
- 11:43Speaker 1: it should have and and it works the first time,
- 11:45Speaker 1: so we're like, let's do the same thing. UM. I
- 11:48Speaker 1: just made sure I was off book obviously that that
- 11:51Speaker 1: means that I memorized everything, and um, and yeah, I
- 11:55Speaker 1: went in there the second time and and we had
- 11:58Speaker 1: to because of the music show. We had to sing
- 11:59Speaker 1: and I had to sing rep and recite lines. You
- 12:05Speaker 1: got me killing. I can't wrap. I can't sing, So
- 12:08Speaker 1: your boys already out, you know, I'm already out. Okay.
- 12:11Speaker 1: It was very nerve wracking, but but I got through it,
- 12:15Speaker 1: and I think, um, well, obviously they loved it. And
- 12:19Speaker 1: you know what was really cool that you brought up.
- 12:21Speaker 1: I'm sorry not to go off topic too much, but um,
- 12:25Speaker 1: you brought up about African Americans, and it was really
- 12:28Speaker 1: dope that the character I just came as myself and
- 12:31Speaker 1: at this time I had big, my big, curly hair,
- 12:34Speaker 1: and that's just how my hair is. It was my
- 12:36Speaker 1: whole life. And that made such a huge impact that
- 12:40Speaker 1: I had no idea that would on TV because I
- 12:44Speaker 1: didn't realize that so many African American actresses didn't wear
- 12:47Speaker 1: their natural hair on TV. I didn't know that, and
- 12:50Speaker 1: so when I appeared with my big Afro box network, um,
- 12:57Speaker 1: it was I have so many young black girls in
- 13:02Speaker 1: in so many uh natural community and natural Uh companies
- 13:09Speaker 1: for hair that reached out to me and I it
- 13:12Speaker 1: was it was really awesome to UM have an impact
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- 15:12Speaker 1: Here's the funny part about it. A lot of people
- 15:14Speaker 1: thought it wasn't real. I'm sure right, because that wasn't
- 15:20Speaker 1: That's not normal. That's not normal, you know. But if
- 15:23Speaker 1: you've been we've been straight. Oh that's our hair, that's
- 15:25Speaker 1: she's wearing a wig. That's not our hair. That's not
- 15:27Speaker 1: a hair. And that's why, you know, watching the series
- 15:30Speaker 1: and watching you grow, because it's really interesting when I
- 15:32Speaker 1: watched young talent like you, because you're special, believe in
- 15:35Speaker 1: your special you gifted. And but I want to ask
- 15:38Speaker 1: this other question before we moved to the series and
- 15:40Speaker 1: talk about Envy A seven daily scenes, because I want
- 15:43Speaker 1: to talk about learning your audition as a natural actress,
- 15:46Speaker 1: natural instincts and followed your gut along with your mom
- 15:50Speaker 1: natural instincts. Then you got on the series and then
- 15:53Speaker 1: you went to Tasha Smith. What did you learn from
- 15:55Speaker 1: her classes that enabled you to improve as an actress
- 15:58Speaker 1: and prepare you for a series like that you're doing
- 16:01Speaker 1: it in thes Aernal Lifetime. Oh my gosh, so much.
- 16:06Speaker 1: I learned, um technique. I learned different exercises in ways
- 16:10Speaker 1: to get into the character quicker, especially for auditions. UM.
- 16:16Speaker 1: I learned she she brought me out of my shell. Um,
- 16:20Speaker 1: Tasha brought me out of my shell for sure. I
- 16:23Speaker 1: learned how to just let go and be free in
- 16:25Speaker 1: the moment. And that's something that the Taragy and Terrence
- 16:29Speaker 1: actually told me as well. Um. But to be able
- 16:33Speaker 1: to put it on its feet and really do it
- 16:35Speaker 1: yourself is where you learn Okay, I can do this,
- 16:38Speaker 1: and when you have confidence that you know you can
- 16:41Speaker 1: do it. And I had to breakthrough UM class one
- 16:45Speaker 1: time and and and it was went really really well.
- 16:48Speaker 1: And from then on I said, okay, like I can,
- 16:52Speaker 1: I can. I can tackle anything, any role that comes
- 16:54Speaker 1: my way. And and and quarantine really strengthened me because
- 17:00Speaker 1: like auditions so much. I sent in so many self tapes,
- 17:04Speaker 1: so many salt tapes. And believe me, self tapes can
- 17:07Speaker 1: be UM not always uh the best thing to do
- 17:11Speaker 1: because you don't know because you're looking at the first
- 17:13Speaker 1: of all, you have no makeup on, you don't know
- 17:15Speaker 1: you dressed in the average. So really I was tall
- 17:17Speaker 1: self tapes like doing stuff in black and white because
- 17:19Speaker 1: I always tell you people the black and white era,
- 17:22Speaker 1: before they had color and explosion and blood, you really
- 17:25Speaker 1: had to act on black and white movies of black
- 17:28Speaker 1: and whitest and those are my favorite to watch. And
- 17:30Speaker 1: so sending in self tape footage, it's like you really
- 17:33Speaker 1: better be able to act when you're sending another because
- 17:35Speaker 1: there there there's nobody that uses just a blank wall
- 17:38Speaker 1: behind you because you want to keep me clean and
- 17:40Speaker 1: you just read the line and you deliver it. So bravo. Bravo.
- 17:43Speaker 1: Now let's talk about this series where you know when
- 17:46Speaker 1: you stepped up your game, Soraya, you know I'm saying
- 17:48Speaker 1: Kesa Joones. That's I got the name right, Keetsa Jones. Right,
- 17:52Speaker 1: just the Kesa Jones Third, the Keepsa Jones story, A
- 17:55Speaker 1: little sad little girl tell us about the Keetsa Jones
- 17:58Speaker 1: and the message of envy. Yes, so envy. We all
- 18:03Speaker 1: have dealt with that. I'm sure at some point in
- 18:05Speaker 1: our lives. Jealousy and envy, right, Um, Keisha has come
- 18:10Speaker 1: from a lot of loss in her life, and a
- 18:13Speaker 1: lot of struggle, and a lot of absence and a
- 18:16Speaker 1: lot of longing for something she doesn't have. So she
- 18:20Speaker 1: she her mom dies and she find finds her strange
- 18:24Speaker 1: father that she never knew. And the other thing that
- 18:27Speaker 1: she finds when she finds her father is how successful
- 18:30Speaker 1: he is and that she has a sister. She didn't
- 18:33Speaker 1: know this part you know of her life. And um,
- 18:39Speaker 1: envy comes with that because we're talking about a girl
- 18:42Speaker 1: that sleeps in her car and it goes to work
- 18:45Speaker 1: and take takes bird baths and goes to work. And
- 18:47Speaker 1: then she she learns of her dad and her sister
- 18:50Speaker 1: and they live in a mansion and they drive a
- 18:53Speaker 1: nice car, and they have a very respectful, beautiful, loving
- 18:58Speaker 1: relationship with each other. And she envies so much so
- 19:02Speaker 1: to where she does things that are out of her character. Um,
- 19:06Speaker 1: I really love that this is a T. D. Jake's production.
- 19:09Speaker 1: There's some faith in there that is really cool. It's
- 19:12Speaker 1: not overbearing, but it's definitely a streamline in the movie
- 19:16Speaker 1: where um, you know, Keisha has some some she's shooings
- 19:24Speaker 1: some faith issues with her relationship with God, and we
- 19:27Speaker 1: see her redemption at the end. And so I'm for
- 19:31Speaker 1: people to see this. Let me just talk about you
- 19:34Speaker 1: and this character development, because yea, I don't want everybody,
- 19:37Speaker 1: I don't want to gloss over the the the character changes.
- 19:42Speaker 1: You have to make the emotional changes because it is
- 19:45Speaker 1: as a faith based movie with all not heavy faith.
- 19:48Speaker 1: I would put it like that. It's not heavy faith,
- 19:51Speaker 1: but it's about envy and we all deal with it.
- 19:53Speaker 1: And your character is about, you know, being shown an
- 19:56Speaker 1: opportunity and how you deal with You have DC young Fly.
- 19:59Speaker 1: You know, he's he's like and he's like the look,
- 20:01Speaker 1: he's like that little negative spirit always telling people talk
- 20:04Speaker 1: about negative spirits and positive spirits. You know, you have
- 20:07Speaker 1: your your new found father, Elijah his character, he's your
- 20:11Speaker 1: positive spirit, and then you have DC young Flyer, he's
- 20:14Speaker 1: your negative spirit that's on your shoulder. And your father
- 20:17Speaker 1: keeps trying to let you know that there's a sense
- 20:20Speaker 1: of reality and trying to get you to buy into it.
- 20:23Speaker 1: But then you have DC young Fler telling you stick
- 20:25Speaker 1: to the six to plan. Stick to the plan, because
- 20:28Speaker 1: as we watch you drift through the movie, you start
- 20:30Speaker 1: you start going back and forth. Should you do this,
- 20:33Speaker 1: Should you come over to your father's side, who was
- 20:36Speaker 1: Aliger side of the world, or you should you stick
- 20:38Speaker 1: to the original plan. That's what d C c C.
- 20:41Speaker 1: Young Flier is talking about. So talk about that because
- 20:44Speaker 1: I thought that was key in me buying into your
- 20:47Speaker 1: your strong acting as well as me staying with the
- 20:51Speaker 1: movie because I know that was a hard role to
- 20:54Speaker 1: be able to deliver. And also you had to play
- 20:58Speaker 1: an evil spirit, a hunting person, so you you're a
- 21:01Speaker 1: lot of things going on there. You know, you played
- 21:03Speaker 1: the little you played the attractive person, you played the
- 21:07Speaker 1: young sister, you played the mom who had lost the child.
- 21:13Speaker 1: It was a lot of levels. How was you able
- 21:15Speaker 1: to pull all those things off. So I don't want
- 21:17Speaker 1: people to I don't want people to think that you're
- 21:19Speaker 1: doing Empire too. You're not. You're doing a really deeply
- 21:24Speaker 1: uh thought that role that it gives you a lot
- 21:27Speaker 1: of different levels, and all of them you play effectively.
- 21:31Speaker 1: I really appreciate that, um one, because I always said
- 21:36Speaker 1: anything I do after Empire, I wanted to be groundbreaking
- 21:41Speaker 1: in the way of people's perspective of me and and
- 21:46Speaker 1: and showing real acting chops. So I really appreciate that.
- 21:51Speaker 1: UM And that's what I really loved about this character
- 21:53Speaker 1: that she was. She had so manyse layers and she
- 21:56Speaker 1: was so flawed, UM, which which I enjoyed because that's real, right.
- 22:02Speaker 1: We all are so flawed and we have so many
- 22:04Speaker 1: layers in trauma that we've been through. UM. So for
- 22:08Speaker 1: each segment of the movie, I kind of broke it
- 22:11Speaker 1: down UM and I was able to connect myself to
- 22:17Speaker 1: those moments with real things that I've been through UM
- 22:20Speaker 1: and and having empathy for her and not playing her
- 22:24Speaker 1: so um like too vindictive. I feel like there is moments,
- 22:28Speaker 1: like you said, where she was starting to believe, like, Hey,
- 22:31Speaker 1: I can't have this life with my dad and maybe
- 22:34Speaker 1: they do want me around, and and maybe I am
- 22:36Speaker 1: accepted and they love me. And then she has these
- 22:39Speaker 1: moments where she feels a little rejected and she calls
- 22:42Speaker 1: you know, she calls DC young flies character and she
- 22:46Speaker 1: puts her back on the road. I think there's a
- 22:52Speaker 1: real polarity to her and in this movie, and that's
- 22:56Speaker 1: what makes it so interesting to me, is because you're
- 22:59Speaker 1: seeing this girl goes through all of these emotions and
- 23:03Speaker 1: but you also can relate to her um and by
- 23:06Speaker 1: the end, she does get her redemption and he don't don't, don't, don't, don't, don't,
- 23:10Speaker 1: don't get too much. Don't give it too much. Come on,
- 23:12Speaker 1: come on, don't give him too much. They need to
- 23:14Speaker 1: watch this because because you know, I enjoyed. First of all,
- 23:17Speaker 1: I'm joining the interview talking to you because I love
- 23:19Speaker 1: talking to young talent, and because there's such a future
- 23:22Speaker 1: ahead of you. And we don't know what the future is.
- 23:25Speaker 1: But you're a hard worker and if you stay true
- 23:27Speaker 1: to the course, and you have you brought up your
- 23:30Speaker 1: mom several times, so you have a foundation to fall
- 23:33Speaker 1: back on and your faith, and this movie is about faith.
- 23:36Speaker 1: It allows you and it's also a movie that is
- 23:39Speaker 1: uh all African American cast, but it's relatable to anybody.
- 23:43Speaker 1: I don't care if you're black, brown, white, you can
- 23:45Speaker 1: reach into this movie and realize, you see that character
- 23:48Speaker 1: Kesha Jones could be Lisa Lisa Epstein. Okay, that's that's
- 23:53Speaker 1: because they We all have those parts in our lives
- 23:55Speaker 1: that allows us to be disenfranchised and how do we
- 23:58Speaker 1: react when the opportunities given to us. And that's what
- 24:01Speaker 1: stood out for me in this role. And that's what
- 24:03Speaker 1: you was able to do. And when when I look
- 24:06Speaker 1: at you now, and there's a as a high level
- 24:08Speaker 1: of innocence that you show in this interview, and that's
- 24:11Speaker 1: that I think that allows you to do what you
- 24:14Speaker 1: do because when I when I look at people, and
- 24:17Speaker 1: I've been fortunately cast a lot of people, from Nick
- 24:20Speaker 1: Cannon too, to Kim Willard, to Gabriel Union and to
- 24:23Speaker 1: Roggi p Henson. You know Terence Howard, I know all
- 24:26Speaker 1: these people, and and you're coming from a body of
- 24:28Speaker 1: work where you had kind of like a masterclass working
- 24:32Speaker 1: with these two people because their their styles are different.
- 24:35Speaker 1: But that that to Roggi p Henson, she no joke. Now,
- 24:37Speaker 1: if you if you want to come on the series
- 24:39Speaker 1: now and learn somebody acting. Come on, I tell everybody
- 24:42Speaker 1: about Roggi, Pi Interna, Sorea both Taraggie is a force
- 24:47Speaker 1: to be reckoned with. Um. I watched her and Terence
- 24:50Speaker 1: many days when I was wrapped from work, and I said,
- 24:54Speaker 1: can I just stay and please just watch them do
- 24:56Speaker 1: this scene because they are so amazing and together, so amazing,
- 25:01Speaker 1: but so interesting separately in in her and Terrence are
- 25:07Speaker 1: just genius, and you know what it is to me,
- 25:10Speaker 1: It's just they're fearless and they attack each moment like that.
- 25:15Speaker 1: So they're definitely my two um forever will be my
- 25:19Speaker 1: two go twos in my head, in the back of
- 25:22Speaker 1: my mind, I'll listen to them telling me just go forward,
- 25:26Speaker 1: just go for it, let it go. We'll great. Well,
- 25:29Speaker 1: I want to wrap talking about a couple of projects
- 25:31Speaker 1: that you have coming up. Favorite Sons directed, Favorite Song,
- 25:34Speaker 1: Excuse Me directed by Robin Gibbons, and also Black Maffia.
- 25:37Speaker 1: I know you can't tell us anything about that if
- 25:39Speaker 1: it's since movie attract us down, beat us up, but
- 25:42Speaker 1: let's talk about Favorite Son and what what what role
- 25:46Speaker 1: you playing that and also Black Mafia Family. Oh and
- 25:50Speaker 1: Favorite Son, Super excited because Robert Robin Gibbons directed this
- 25:54Speaker 1: and she's like one of my favorites. UM. So I
- 25:58Speaker 1: play UM a girlfriend and a choir member to the church. UM,
- 26:04Speaker 1: a girlfriend to one of the pastor's sons, UM. And
- 26:07Speaker 1: she also very larry character, which is awesome because she
- 26:10Speaker 1: goes through something in faith with her faith as well,
- 26:14Speaker 1: but more in the church because I feel like a
- 26:17Speaker 1: lot of people in church, UM, they're trying to put
- 26:20Speaker 1: the best foot forward as they should and they're trying
- 26:22Speaker 1: to live their life right now. That doesn't exempt them
- 26:25Speaker 1: from life like the rest of us. So I think
- 26:27Speaker 1: the character that I play on that on the movie
- 26:30Speaker 1: UM is a testament to that, and it's a testament
- 26:33Speaker 1: to not judge each other so crucially and to understand
- 26:37Speaker 1: that that life still happens to you. So there's some
- 26:39Speaker 1: there's some twists and turns in there with my character
- 26:42Speaker 1: once again, UM, you might, you might love her, you
- 26:45Speaker 1: might hater, but it's super dope. I play opposite of
- 26:51Speaker 1: Jonathan McReynolds and wrote Timmy um Mr Power Mr Power
- 26:56Speaker 1: or Mr Power, Mr Power h And he's a amazing
- 27:00Speaker 1: and so I'm so grateful to have shared the screen
- 27:03Speaker 1: with them as well, and that's gospel singer. And then
- 27:06Speaker 1: in in the BMF story, I played the baby mother
- 27:10Speaker 1: to uh Meach, which is one of the Flinnering brothers,
- 27:15Speaker 1: um and one of the main the main, the main
- 27:19Speaker 1: guys who made it all happen. UM. So uh yeah, well, well,
- 27:25Speaker 1: first of all, I know you can't tell too much
- 27:27Speaker 1: about that, you know, because it's it's but you've told
- 27:30Speaker 1: me enough to know. First of all, you're fantastic. April seventeen,
- 27:33Speaker 1: will be looking at your lifetime starring in the row Envy. Also,
- 27:37Speaker 1: you have a project coming out directed by Robin Gibbons
- 27:40Speaker 1: called Favorite Son and we're gonna see you in the
- 27:43Speaker 1: Black Mafia Family of Kohl the b MF, you know,
- 27:47Speaker 1: one of those big fifty cents projects. Again, thank you
- 27:49Speaker 1: for coming on the show. And now you have a
- 27:50Speaker 1: new single. What is does a single drop? Thank you?
- 27:54Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be here. Um. The single is
- 27:56Speaker 1: gonna drop in a couple of months. I don't have
- 27:58Speaker 1: a heart date, but I will definitely only let you
- 28:00Speaker 1: guys know, UM, but definitely be on the lookout for
- 28:03Speaker 1: that one because I'm so excited and everyone loves it
- 28:06Speaker 1: when they hear it's perfect for the summer time. Well,
- 28:08Speaker 1: you're you're awesome and they keep winning and tell your mom. Ha. No,
- 28:11Speaker 1: I don't know, but definitely when you you have all
- 28:14Speaker 1: the qualities of a great daughter and I feel fortunate
- 28:18Speaker 1: to interview, You're special and keep winning. Okay, thank you
- 28:21Speaker 1: so much. If you want to hear more money Making Conversation,
- 28:24Speaker 1: please go to Money Making Conversation dot com. I'll go
- 28:26Speaker 1: to my YouTube challenge just cry I Wishean McDonald. I
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