Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Rushion Interviews P-Valley star Nicco Annan (Uncle Clifford) talks black & queer representation on screen!

Transcript

Rushion Interviews P-Valley star Nicco Annan (Uncle Clifford) talks black & queer representation on screen! · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: My guess is Nathaniel Nicole and was born in on
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Speaker 1: Army base in Germany to a Black Southern woman born
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Speaker 1: in the West African man from Ghana. Nicole, as he's
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Speaker 1: affectionately known, was raised in Detroit, Michigan, the Motor City.
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Speaker 1: He just mystifies the myths around Southern black men, black
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Speaker 1: gay men, and those identifying in the non binary space
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Speaker 1: and if they live four lives that they can lead.
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Speaker 1: Nico originated the role of Uncle Clifford in the popular
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Speaker 1: show P Valley and played that characters is twenty eleven
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Speaker 1: to date. He is the only character that played the
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Speaker 1: Clifford as well as on the television show P Valley
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Speaker 1: the Stars Network. The award winning series P Valley is
0:40
Speaker 1: back for season two. P Valley. If you don't know,
0:42
Speaker 1: It's an engrossing drama, family, friendship, and survival. Every Sunday
0:47
Speaker 1: you can catch it temp M, Eastern and Pacific. This
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Speaker 1: season is richly crafted. Characters deal with sacrifice, ethical dilemmas, identity, family, love, trust,
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Speaker 1: and betrayal while also facing the aftermass of the decision
1:00
Speaker 1: from season one. Please work for the Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
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Speaker 1: For the first time, Nico man, how are you doing,
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Speaker 1: my friend, I'm great, I'm great. Thank you so much
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Speaker 1: for having me here. First of all, my first time.
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Speaker 1: Hopefully won't be the last. Oh no, no, no, no,
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Speaker 1: I mean mad if you're the last, because you're you're
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Speaker 1: a star. You are a star. You are an individual, brother,
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Speaker 1: you know your an individual. That Let's let's talk about
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Speaker 1: the character because you know in your bio they said
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Speaker 1: you've been playing this character or character like this since
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Speaker 1: eleven So that means that character did not originate on
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Speaker 1: the television series. I've seen you've been playing it before.
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Speaker 1: That give us some background history on your character and
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Speaker 1: how did they get to that point, because, like I said,
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Speaker 1: you know, because you have some great you know, designs
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Speaker 1: and your beard and all that stuff that you're not
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Speaker 1: wearing right now. I have a beard. I've been right
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Speaker 1: there the movie. They cut my beard in a certain way.
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Speaker 1: And so let's let's talk about that character development because
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Speaker 1: I'm sure it was inspired a lot by your own imagination. Um,
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Speaker 1: it was inspired a lot by my own and my nation,
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Speaker 1: but primarily from Coulatori halls imagination. Uh. Coulatori Hall is
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Speaker 1: our showrunner and the creator of this universe that she
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Speaker 1: has here, um, but here in p Valley. This actually
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Speaker 1: started a little earlier than two thousand and eleven. Back
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Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine. Um, yeah, I was living
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Speaker 1: in New York at the time. I was in after
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Speaker 1: I was choreographing and directing, so I was doing all
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Speaker 1: three and I was in between gigs and I received
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Speaker 1: the invitation to go to Quatori's house. Uh, she was
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Speaker 1: having a salon series. She used to have this thing
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Speaker 1: called black Mondays because in the theater it's dark on Mondays.
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Speaker 1: So they in theater language we say it's black um,
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Speaker 1: because all the lights are off. And so what happened
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Speaker 1: was she was she had a writing fellowship at the
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Speaker 1: Lark Theater Company. It's an off Broadway house in New York.
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Speaker 1: And through that salon series, it was a group of writers, actors,
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Speaker 1: musicians that just got together to read or talk about
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Speaker 1: their ideas and new material that they had and a
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Speaker 1: collective so to speak, kind of like James Baldwin's or
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Speaker 1: Herston you know, the Renaissance group back in the day. Um,
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Speaker 1: they were creating their own version of that. And essentially
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Speaker 1: what happened there was a lot of networking that was
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Speaker 1: happening across the platform among all these different black artists.
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Speaker 1: It was not necessarily somewhat none of us at the
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Speaker 1: time were on Broadway or had big major motion picture deals.
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Speaker 1: And literally was about conversation and who is it that
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Speaker 1: has points of access and just different ideas. So one
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Speaker 1: of her co writers in the fellowship, Dominique Marisso who
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Speaker 1: they both since have been like Tony Award nominations and
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Speaker 1: all these accreditations and awards decorating them. Um. She said,
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Speaker 1: I'm looking for a person that kind of houses this
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Speaker 1: uh feminine energy yet a massline energy, hap this idea
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Speaker 1: for this character. And it was all these things. And
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Speaker 1: when I got there, there were five pages. Man, there
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Speaker 1: were five pages, and on those fide pages only two
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Speaker 1: of them Uncle Clifford was in. There was two different
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Speaker 1: scenes and it was the description of Uncle Clifford Um
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Speaker 1: emerging from the shadows of the club, eyelashes like butterfly
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Speaker 1: wings and nails like ego talents, Uncle Clifford Um. And
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Speaker 1: so that's how it all started. Now, how tall are
4:32
Speaker 1: you because you're you're you're not a small six to six.
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Speaker 1: I'm definitely a man of size. I'm six too. You
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Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. As they say corn brand fish,
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Speaker 1: they just said Nicole. You know, because your your body
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Speaker 1: was introduced in the pilot. You know what I'm saying,
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Speaker 1: We use saw that real look and everything so so nudity.
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Speaker 1: That was nudity. How did you feel with a comfortable moment?
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Speaker 1: For you? You have to prepare for that moment. Talking
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Speaker 1: about that in the pilot scene, I think you always
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Speaker 1: have to prepare for any person that you know. You
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Speaker 1: know that as an artist in general, where you are
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Speaker 1: using your body to tell the story, you're using your
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Speaker 1: soul to tell the story. Um, I know as an
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Speaker 1: artist I am especially I'm gonna tell you this, being
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Speaker 1: a man of a certain age, I think in my
5:18
Speaker 1: twenties it was it could have maybe messed me up
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Speaker 1: a little bit more because it was more into the
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Speaker 1: constraints of what people sought I should be. But I'm
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Speaker 1: a grown man now, you know. The thirties, you know
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Speaker 1: they taught me how to really be who I am
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Speaker 1: and to have a level of self acceptance. But in
5:37
Speaker 1: regards to the show and how the nudity works, it's
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Speaker 1: a The show takes place in this club called Pink
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Speaker 1: and it's a strip club, and so we're talking about
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Speaker 1: these people who are marginalized and definitely have an idea.
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Speaker 1: They know what they're doing, and they're working in the
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Speaker 1: sex work industry, and it just made sense that in
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Speaker 1: this industry there's a level of awareness and comfortability of
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Speaker 1: being in one's body and now stepping outside of that
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Speaker 1: as the actor and the artist, I had to ask
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Speaker 1: myself the question and I proposed it to the producers
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Speaker 1: in my camera test for the series, the TV series.
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Speaker 1: It was more so they said how do I feel
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Speaker 1: about it? And my question to them was when it
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Speaker 1: was the last time that you saw a full figured body,
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Speaker 1: male or female, dark skinned being made love to on
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Speaker 1: the screen. And I felt that that image of someone
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Speaker 1: being full, you know, and being shown love, being made
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Speaker 1: love to, being loving, I thought that that was just
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Speaker 1: a revolutionary visual. So I was definitely open to it,
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Speaker 1: you know, and there's a process to get to it.
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Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, like you say, I always tell people
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Speaker 1: will come on my show and also the people at
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Speaker 1: your listening to show. That's a process, you know, this
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Speaker 1: is never you know, you have to meet with your
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Speaker 1: other cast members and set boundaries about what makes you
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Speaker 1: feel comfortable and makes that other person feel comfortable so
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Speaker 1: it can feel natural. I'm sure this happened with you
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Speaker 1: on this series as well. Correct. Absolutely, we definitely have
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Speaker 1: intimacy coaches, and the intimacy coach is the interact in
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Speaker 1: the media, in the middle the media that works between
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Speaker 1: different actors, the directors, what the script demands and what
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Speaker 1: how do we get there? It's really great. So I'm
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Speaker 1: talking to Nicole, I'm calling my friend, you know, Uncle Clifford.
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Speaker 1: Uncle Clifford, because it's somebody who comes into your life
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Speaker 1: super confident, but also it's surrounded by a world of people,
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Speaker 1: not just women, but the world of people, customers who
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Speaker 1: really don't don't know what They live in a fantasy world,
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Speaker 1: and sometimes that fantasy world can be cruel. But I
7:55
Speaker 1: would tell you this what I really like about this show,
7:58
Speaker 1: p Valley. You see the word strip, you see the
8:01
Speaker 1: word black, you just think he goes see a ton
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Speaker 1: of nudity, And that is not the case. It's the story,
8:06
Speaker 1: is the characters, is the is the is the lateness.
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Speaker 1: The lines talk about that because that's what people initially think, correct,
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Speaker 1: and the stereotype is when you just black club, chip club,
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Speaker 1: you nudity New Digies, and that is not the case.
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Speaker 1: I in fact, the nudity when I watched the series,
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Speaker 1: it comes so casual that I don't notice it because
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Speaker 1: I'm so engaged into the character's storyline. And that's really
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Speaker 1: a blessing correct nical, It's it's more than a blessing.
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Speaker 1: I felt like it's a it's a necessity in the
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Speaker 1: way that we had to tell the story. This is
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Speaker 1: definitely I think that Tory really wanted to make sure
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Speaker 1: that there is definitely the fact that women and female
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Speaker 1: bodies have really been looked at and used in a
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Speaker 1: certain way in cinema specifically and over sexualized. But here
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Speaker 1: in this world, I think that there's something that we
8:59
Speaker 1: call the female days, and that's something that's always asked
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Speaker 1: of people that the different directors that are coming on
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Speaker 1: the show. That's something that we think about as a
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Speaker 1: cast um and the female gays. That does not only
9:12
Speaker 1: pertain to the female body. But how is it that
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Speaker 1: you can see the world without objectification? Um. I think
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Speaker 1: that through that space you you get to see the
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Speaker 1: athleticism of these poll d answers and to see what
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Speaker 1: it takes to physically do the things that they are
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Speaker 1: doing to haul themselves up this pole, to to to
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Speaker 1: fly around, to walk on the ceiling and on clouds.
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Speaker 1: That's actually the big metaphor for the show. The poll,
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Speaker 1: the poll. There's a line that always says, sometimes rising
9:43
Speaker 1: feels like falling, and falling feels like rising. So the
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Speaker 1: poll is actually meant to be the metaphor for life
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Speaker 1: and in a way that we as black people, especially
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Speaker 1: Black Southerners, have existed and made it through the day.
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Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations math
10:00
Speaker 1: her Class with Rashan McDonald. Now, let's return to Money
10:06
Speaker 1: Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashan McDonald. Nicole, he brought up
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Speaker 1: the pole. Now, yeah, I'm chasing that, Keyshaw, do don't
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Speaker 1: get too don't don't don't move too fast because I
10:22
Speaker 1: gotta get to them outstanding credit Shall and Mercedes. Okay,
10:27
Speaker 1: but let's first go with Keyshaw. My my, my, my my.
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Speaker 1: I'm just talking from an athletic stample. I'm not talking
10:34
Speaker 1: from a sexual stample. What I'm seeing that she does
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Speaker 1: on that pole, it has to be moth dropping to
10:40
Speaker 1: the cast and where did they find her and what
10:43
Speaker 1: is her background as an athlete because she has that
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Speaker 1: gymnastics in her background. Correct, Why do you say that?
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Speaker 1: Because of the fact she's so comfortable on the pole,
10:53
Speaker 1: She's flexible, she's able to she's able to manipulate it because,
10:58
Speaker 1: like I said, I'm not doing it justice. You have
10:59
Speaker 1: to watch the series to see what she's able to do.
11:03
Speaker 1: As far as from a from a Ballaridas standpoint, she
11:07
Speaker 1: is really poet poetic on that pole, you know where
11:11
Speaker 1: where Mercedes is a force. Not saying she's not sexual,
11:14
Speaker 1: but she's a force. It's like watching a running back
11:17
Speaker 1: and a wire receiver. A wire receiver flows, you know
11:21
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. That's key, Sean. A running back can
11:24
Speaker 1: flow to but they can hit that whole and if
11:26
Speaker 1: you hit him, then you can knock you off. That's Mercedes,
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Speaker 1: that's rights say so and so so. So you're gonna
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Speaker 1: give me, Nicole, I know you're gonna give me. I
11:34
Speaker 1: watched this show. Now, I'm not trying to get you
11:36
Speaker 1: know what's what? What's I love that you are actually
11:38
Speaker 1: saying that you you use the football metaphors and comparisons,
11:43
Speaker 1: and it definitely is accurate all of the dancers. The
11:46
Speaker 1: thing about it is in the strip club, every dancer
11:49
Speaker 1: has a different style. Some of the dancers are like talkers,
11:54
Speaker 1: so like, there's a group of our core dancers and
11:57
Speaker 1: some of them run what in the club is called
12:00
Speaker 1: tworktown and talktown are like, you know, the platform stages
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Speaker 1: that are within the actual club, not on the main
12:07
Speaker 1: stage with the pole, and some of the girls who
12:10
Speaker 1: worked there like toy. But then when you talk about
12:12
Speaker 1: Miss Mississippi, who is played by Shannon Thornton, she is
12:17
Speaker 1: that character is meant to be like the masterpiece she's
12:20
Speaker 1: based off. She's called Miss Mississippi because she moves like water,
12:24
Speaker 1: and her moving like water is rooted in the African
12:28
Speaker 1: deity of Yema y'all, Yema y'all, being the goddess of
12:32
Speaker 1: water and of power. You know, Mercedes is that like
12:36
Speaker 1: you mentioned, Mercedes is played by Brandy Evans. I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: say Brandy Norwood, Brandy, that's not not my friend, and
12:46
Speaker 1: sing about my friend. The actors Miss Brandy Evans, and
12:50
Speaker 1: she her style of ranting is definitely much more athletic.
12:54
Speaker 1: It's definitely much more physical, and it also lends to
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Speaker 1: the personality of the dancer. You know, where there's levels
13:02
Speaker 1: of aggression or where there's a level of fluidity. I
13:06
Speaker 1: think that dance being a choreographer and Brandy being a dancer,
13:11
Speaker 1: and Shannon having dance before. None of them dance as uh,
13:15
Speaker 1: pole dancers, but we're physical dancers. El Rika Johnson who
13:19
Speaker 1: plays All the Night, she has an extensive background in
13:22
Speaker 1: martial arts, So there was a level of physicality that
13:26
Speaker 1: all of us had in our bodies. Then what has
13:30
Speaker 1: to happen is that we go through a training program.
13:32
Speaker 1: We go through boot camp. We literally go through boot camp,
13:36
Speaker 1: just like all of the Marvel characters, just like we
13:38
Speaker 1: need gonna do an action movie. There's about three to
13:41
Speaker 1: four months before we actually start filming that everybody goes
13:44
Speaker 1: to pole classes. You're going to stretch classes. You gotta
13:47
Speaker 1: get your hips open, you gotta get the back, you
13:49
Speaker 1: gotta do all the conditioning because it tears up your hands,
13:52
Speaker 1: your knees, you get a lot of bruising and things
13:54
Speaker 1: like that. Um and some of the girls are definitely
13:57
Speaker 1: sharing some of that background on social media that you know,
14:01
Speaker 1: you guys get to see of what it all takes.
14:03
Speaker 1: Because the show and the world is kind of meant
14:06
Speaker 1: to be our own kind of urban, circus ol lay
14:10
Speaker 1: so to speak. Well, that terms used actually in the
14:12
Speaker 1: serious as well circuss like and it's used the Mississippi.
14:16
Speaker 1: Her character Keyshawn's role because she's married to a guy
14:20
Speaker 1: won't give too much of the story away. But somebody
14:22
Speaker 1: she shouldn't be She shouldn't I should use were married.
14:25
Speaker 1: She's she's living with a guy who she has a
14:27
Speaker 1: child with is not creating a comfortable home life for her,
14:31
Speaker 1: and that the slides into the who I really love
14:34
Speaker 1: this guy who plays the role of Diamond. You know,
14:37
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, not often that. Did you see
14:39
Speaker 1: a show where the bouncer is sensitive but but dangerous?
14:45
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You know, you know it's
14:46
Speaker 1: like I look at Diamond, you know, a diamond. You know,
14:49
Speaker 1: it's like I feel that I could lose his he
14:52
Speaker 1: could crush me, but then he can also pick me
14:55
Speaker 1: up and take me and rescue me at the same
14:58
Speaker 1: time after he's crushed me, you know, San Nicole, So
15:01
Speaker 1: talk about those characters. When you see a character like
15:04
Speaker 1: a Diamonds character and then then being able to develop out,
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Speaker 1: how how special do you feel in the role from
15:11
Speaker 1: episode to episode to episode? I feel great. I feel blessed.
15:17
Speaker 1: I feel really uh. I know that this is a
15:20
Speaker 1: special term as an artist. UH, as an actor, you
15:23
Speaker 1: don't always get roles that are so rich and that
15:27
Speaker 1: are really rooted in a level of truth that represents
15:31
Speaker 1: your community, that can represent a fraction of your life
15:34
Speaker 1: that you have been through. I think that this show,
15:37
Speaker 1: it definitely takes all the different marginalized communities all and
15:42
Speaker 1: the marginalized within the marginalized. You know. One of the
15:46
Speaker 1: beautiful things and attractive points to me about this project
15:49
Speaker 1: is that it wasn't just the women who come in
15:51
Speaker 1: and out these doors. You talked about the bouncer, our Diamond. UM.
15:56
Speaker 1: That's the character's name, and Diamond is played by Tyler
15:59
Speaker 1: left League, and Tyler is able to bring the level
16:02
Speaker 1: of sensitivity as well as complexity to the role coming
16:06
Speaker 1: as a former um uh armed officer, the officer in
16:12
Speaker 1: the of the law but armed forces, UM and what
16:15
Speaker 1: that did to him being in the war, and that
16:19
Speaker 1: that postpartum that comes from there. UM. I think that
16:23
Speaker 1: it's also he's he's a route man, you know, he's
16:28
Speaker 1: a black man and the Southern man that was raised
16:31
Speaker 1: in knowing the powers of the earth and very strong
16:35
Speaker 1: African medicine, um and how that works. And sometimes you
16:39
Speaker 1: don't get to see that in an urban body, you know,
16:43
Speaker 1: in a contemporary body, like what does that look like?
16:46
Speaker 1: You know, it's not some kind of who do hokey magic.
16:49
Speaker 1: It is literally something that's rooted in tradition, like have
16:52
Speaker 1: you ever swept your grandmother slept by mistake? You know
16:57
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So that thought goes over the show absolutely,
17:02
Speaker 1: you know, left the person on the floor, person on
17:05
Speaker 1: the floor, get that, you know exactly those things so
17:10
Speaker 1: um that those kinds of things in southern Southern uh
17:14
Speaker 1: isms are woven into this story. And that actually is
17:18
Speaker 1: a part of where Cotroy started her writing. Her writing
17:21
Speaker 1: has always used and highlighted Southern culture and all of
17:24
Speaker 1: its capacities to make it so here here's the thing
17:27
Speaker 1: that really First of all, I'm a former sitcom writer.
17:30
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of productions in my life. It's
17:33
Speaker 1: definitely a show that about to do ultimate compliment. The writing.
17:42
Speaker 1: The dialogue is incredible. I mean, this is this is
17:46
Speaker 1: just that writing room are The writers on the show
17:50
Speaker 1: have created a world that is so authentic that is incredible.
17:55
Speaker 1: And when I when I when I when I look
17:56
Speaker 1: like a Little Murder, I'm waiting for his music, you
18:00
Speaker 1: know it is, so I wait, what is it gonna drop?
18:03
Speaker 1: Are they gonna drop a CD for this? Are they
18:06
Speaker 1: a soundtrack for this? Yes? Yes, they literally have. We have.
18:11
Speaker 1: Uh it's on all platforms right now. It goes episode
18:14
Speaker 1: by episode, so there every time there's a new music,
18:17
Speaker 1: it is out there. And it's not only the music
18:19
Speaker 1: of the character on this show, like Little Murder, but
18:22
Speaker 1: the music of the Southern artists that we have gotten
18:26
Speaker 1: to be on the soundtrack. The show literally is meant
18:29
Speaker 1: to be a platform for the community. I think that's
18:33
Speaker 1: something that a lot of people were a little shocked by.
18:36
Speaker 1: But even one of our writers that writes music for
18:39
Speaker 1: a Little Murder, the artist's name is new Money. Money
18:43
Speaker 1: is a brother. New Money is a brother. He was
18:46
Speaker 1: working with us during season one and you know what
18:49
Speaker 1: he was doing. He was working at the food station.
18:53
Speaker 1: He was making our omelets. He was making in One
18:56
Speaker 1: morning we were there getting our breakfast and and you know,
19:00
Speaker 1: he told I'll found Jay Fons Nicholson, who is the
19:03
Speaker 1: actor who plays a Little Murder, And he had told
19:05
Speaker 1: her he was like, yo, man, I know you're playing
19:07
Speaker 1: a rock on the show. You know, I got some music.
19:09
Speaker 1: I got some music. So we got some music. Oh
19:11
Speaker 1: that's what's up. That's because people say that to you
19:13
Speaker 1: all the time. And so what happened was he handed
19:17
Speaker 1: him and he sent him some music. He uh, you know,
19:20
Speaker 1: deemed them the music or whatever our farns wanted. Gonna
19:23
Speaker 1: listen to the music. He heard it, he played it
19:25
Speaker 1: for one of our producers, Patrick Patrick Ian Pope, one
19:28
Speaker 1: of the k EPs. He then for that on Tator
19:31
Speaker 1: Hall and before you knew it, the song was worked in.
19:35
Speaker 1: He was brought on board. He's a writer. And here
19:37
Speaker 1: we are in season two and this brother's life has changed.
19:41
Speaker 1: So again, just like I got put on with this
19:43
Speaker 1: project through a level of networking across from knowing Dominique
19:48
Speaker 1: Marie So someone who I went to high school with.
19:51
Speaker 1: She then knowing Quatre Hall who someone she's in a
19:54
Speaker 1: writer's uh program with at the Lark Theater and here
19:58
Speaker 1: I am, and then Antoine a new money. He was
20:02
Speaker 1: just working getting a job, just get a job, but
20:06
Speaker 1: still connected to your passion speaking it. That then turned
20:10
Speaker 1: into something where he now as a writer and a
20:13
Speaker 1: musician himself has elevated his platform and it's bringing all
20:16
Speaker 1: this music to you. You know, it's just it just
20:19
Speaker 1: it's a testament to how we can move at the community.
20:22
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
20:25
Speaker 1: with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's return to Money Making Conversations
20:32
Speaker 1: Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. I've change the music is fantastic,
20:37
Speaker 1: that the characters are fantastic. You know when you say Grandmall,
20:41
Speaker 1: I'll be remiss Nicole, if I don't bring Okay, I'll
20:45
Speaker 1: re remiss if I don't bring up that character from Ive.
20:51
Speaker 1: Come on, come on, that's my girl right there. Man.
20:54
Speaker 1: You know she started on Netflix's Family Union and so
20:57
Speaker 1: many other series. You know, been came from the University
21:01
Speaker 1: of Houston. We're back in Houston, Texas, back in the day.
21:04
Speaker 1: A k A true and true tell us absolutely my friend.
21:09
Speaker 1: I've used to Texas absolutely so seeing her and seeing
21:13
Speaker 1: her play this this this uh this role which is
21:16
Speaker 1: as is Isaiah Washington who was on the first season.
21:19
Speaker 1: He's from Houston, Texas, Missouri City, which is a suburb
21:22
Speaker 1: of Houston, Texas. So to talk about that relationship and
21:26
Speaker 1: her character, working with Loretta divine, I always say, is
21:32
Speaker 1: simply divine. I had on a vision board to work
21:38
Speaker 1: with her, and I didn't know what project. You know,
21:42
Speaker 1: this was just something that I just always loved her
21:44
Speaker 1: spirit and her zeal um. When I met her it
21:50
Speaker 1: was even more. It was even more. She is such
21:55
Speaker 1: a rich treasure, like she's like a national treasure to
22:00
Speaker 1: to to us as a people. I can't, I can't.
22:02
Speaker 1: I wanted to just say to me, but I don't
22:04
Speaker 1: want to hold her to myself. Um, when we work together,
22:08
Speaker 1: it is awesome. It is so much fun. We always
22:11
Speaker 1: have a level I tend to do this generally when
22:15
Speaker 1: I'm playing Uncle Clifford. There's a lot of improv that
22:18
Speaker 1: happens prior to We always do improv scenes prior to
22:22
Speaker 1: the scenes to get us in the flow because we
22:25
Speaker 1: just want to be in the moment um. I am
22:30
Speaker 1: from Detroit, as you mentioned earlier, but my family is
22:34
Speaker 1: rooted in the South. You know. Detroit is just nothing
22:38
Speaker 1: but up south, you know. So so there's a level
22:44
Speaker 1: of comfortability that we have with one another, and we
22:47
Speaker 1: really just bounce off and she's able to really just
22:51
Speaker 1: be there and drop in. Sometimes we actually forget that
22:56
Speaker 1: you know, we're not really related in real life. You know,
23:00
Speaker 1: she's amazing. I'm talking to Nicole. He's one of the
23:03
Speaker 1: stars and an incredibly popular series of stars that were
23:06
Speaker 1: called The p Valley. You can catch it every Sunday
23:08
Speaker 1: night at temp m Eastern and Pacific time. I always
23:10
Speaker 1: try to educate myself. I always try to uplift I
23:13
Speaker 1: always try to bring information to the show that we
23:16
Speaker 1: all need to be aware of and also learned. There's
23:18
Speaker 1: a level of respect we have to have for everybody.
23:22
Speaker 1: And in your introduction I said, he just did he
23:24
Speaker 1: demystifies the myth around southern black man, black gay man
23:29
Speaker 1: and those identified in the non binary space and who
23:32
Speaker 1: lived four lives us. As we close out this interview,
23:36
Speaker 1: please explain to us exactly the importance of that and
23:39
Speaker 1: what are you trying to What am I trying to
23:41
Speaker 1: say when I say that what I just said, I
23:45
Speaker 1: think what you are saying to me. How I receive
23:48
Speaker 1: it is that it is a new day. It is
23:50
Speaker 1: a time where we regardless of how you identify, I
23:54
Speaker 1: think at the time when we can see all of us,
23:57
Speaker 1: when we can acknowledge all of us, when we can
24:01
Speaker 1: talk about it um, I come from a time from
24:05
Speaker 1: when it used to be the question of are you
24:09
Speaker 1: sweet or do you have sugar in your tank? Or
24:13
Speaker 1: back in the day, even Red Fox, I'm saying for
24:16
Speaker 1: the Tide, he was like, you know, he's a little
24:20
Speaker 1: You know, there were things that people always talked about.
24:23
Speaker 1: And I think that the importance of today is that
24:26
Speaker 1: we really get to be able to meet each other
24:29
Speaker 1: human being to human being. The character that I play
24:32
Speaker 1: Uncle Clifford is non binary, and that's a person who
24:36
Speaker 1: is equally accepting of all of the things that cannot
24:40
Speaker 1: be held into a restrictive box. And I think when
24:44
Speaker 1: you have a question of how someone identifies you, simply
24:49
Speaker 1: do that you can ask. That is the level of
24:52
Speaker 1: respect because one of the things I find with play
24:54
Speaker 1: Uncle Clifford that no matter who you are or where
24:58
Speaker 1: you come from, you respect her. I think you respect
25:01
Speaker 1: her because you see her. So you see this body
25:04
Speaker 1: that is six too, You see this dark skin, these
25:07
Speaker 1: fool that you see this beard, but you see this
25:09
Speaker 1: pretty face, and you see these nails and you're like,
25:12
Speaker 1: what's going on? But you see someone walking with a
25:15
Speaker 1: level of confidence and clarity even more so, and it's
25:19
Speaker 1: not even about any kind of bravado. You know what
25:24
Speaker 1: I mean. I think because when you see a woman
25:27
Speaker 1: that is walking in her full femininity, I don't think
25:31
Speaker 1: that she has to be soft or she has to
25:34
Speaker 1: be in a pants suit to have authority. You know
25:38
Speaker 1: I'm saying what I mean. And you don't think that
25:40
Speaker 1: a brother that he has to be wearing a move
25:45
Speaker 1: to be in touch with his feelings. You can be
25:49
Speaker 1: who you are in your sweatpants and your athletic socks,
25:53
Speaker 1: in your business suit, in your move. All of the
25:56
Speaker 1: things come on, come on, especially for us as a community.
26:02
Speaker 1: I feel so proud for this moment, honestly, brother, because
26:06
Speaker 1: there are people who still have high levels of homophobia,
26:09
Speaker 1: absolutely for sure. But what I do know about this
26:13
Speaker 1: ton that I'm living in and this project is that
26:16
Speaker 1: there are people who are willing to make a change,
26:19
Speaker 1: that are opening their minds, that are opening their that
26:23
Speaker 1: their minds not only to the l g B t
26:25
Speaker 1: Q plus community in the full spectrum that we have,
26:28
Speaker 1: you know, between bisexual, pan sexual trends as well as
26:33
Speaker 1: pan sexual You know that I like it all. I
26:37
Speaker 1: think that I think that people have really stigmatized sex
26:42
Speaker 1: workers and pole dancers for so long and then they
26:46
Speaker 1: watch this program and they're like, Oh, they're real people
26:50
Speaker 1: just like me. They're going they're working their way through school,
26:53
Speaker 1: they're taking care of their children, or they're helping their
26:56
Speaker 1: their grandparents, their caretakers. You know, you can go to
27:00
Speaker 1: the dentist and you not know that your dentists used
27:04
Speaker 1: to be up on the pole or your dentists used
27:06
Speaker 1: to be done and at a club. We all have
27:09
Speaker 1: a history, but we also have the poetry right, our
27:12
Speaker 1: future right. Absolutely. But Nicole, I want to thank you.
27:16
Speaker 1: First of all, I want to give you a voice.
27:17
Speaker 1: I wanted to say thank you for allowing me to
27:20
Speaker 1: be entertained every Sunday. And if I missed it on Sunday,
27:23
Speaker 1: I see it don't repeat on my streaming. But well,
27:28
Speaker 1: you know, the thing I like it as we close
27:31
Speaker 1: this interview out is that your character is not over
27:33
Speaker 1: the top. It's a character I found very realistic, you know,
27:37
Speaker 1: and but you just planning who you are, and I
27:39
Speaker 1: think that's what you just said, just being the person
27:41
Speaker 1: who you are. It doesn't have to be dressed a
27:43
Speaker 1: certain way. You can were You're the same person in
27:46
Speaker 1: a in a in a cool locks you're the same
27:48
Speaker 1: person and you're short. You're the same person. Address you,
27:51
Speaker 1: same person, a suit, same person with the blood wig.
27:54
Speaker 1: You're the same person. It's just being administered in a
27:57
Speaker 1: different look. And that's the exciting part of this show
28:00
Speaker 1: is that P Valley is a show with a different look,
28:03
Speaker 1: is set in a small town, fictional city in Mississippi.
28:07
Speaker 1: The music is great, the acting is great, the drama
28:09
Speaker 1: is great. More importantly, you will fall in love with
28:12
Speaker 1: the characters. If you can't find stars Network find it,
28:15
Speaker 1: drop that app. But importantly on Sunday Night, dropped it
28:19
Speaker 1: app so you can see this show. Thank you for
28:21
Speaker 1: taking the time to come on Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
28:23
Speaker 1: You are a star, and not only on P Valley,
28:26
Speaker 1: but you're just a star in real life. Thank you,
28:28
Speaker 1: my friend, thank you brother. I appreciate it. And if
28:31
Speaker 1: you want to see her here any episodes of Money
28:33
Speaker 1: Making Conversation Masterclass please go to money Making Conversation dot com.
28:36
Speaker 1: I'm Rashan McDonald. I am your host.