Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Yo, it's effective immediately. I'm DJ Head.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: What up, hip hop nation? It's your favorite homegirl, Gina. Views.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: We have two special guests in the building. Gina.
One of the. Oh, let me get this right. The number one most watched English television show, global is that. That's clocking it.
She teaching me Beauty in black is on Netflix right now. We have the illustrious Crystal Stewart here.
And man, the ever so rich Rico Ross.
Hey, you was having a lot. We was having a lot of rich conversations.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: I'm like, whoa.
[00:00:39] Speaker D: Because my name means rich.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: It does.
[00:00:41] Speaker D: Yeah. That's.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: I didn't even know that. That's crazy.
[00:00:43] Speaker D: Rico means rich.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: You got a lot of fun fact. Speaking of which, I would be remiss if I didn't bring this up. Two things that I wanted to bring up with you, Rico. First and foremost, you a legend. You know what I'm saying?
Because you were in the aliens movie and you're the first guest that we've ever had on our show with your own action figure.
[00:01:02] Speaker D: Oh, sweet, sweet. Love that.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: That's crazy. I'm a nerd. Like comic con. I know, you know, you indulge in that world and stuff like that. That's number one. So that's super fire.
[00:01:13] Speaker C: You had an action figure.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: I didn't know he had an action figure.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: Yeah. That's so good.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: First guest ever that I've ever interviewed with your own action figure.
[00:01:19] Speaker C: Action figure.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: I've been doing this 20 years.
[00:01:21] Speaker D: And the crazy thing about it is it looks like me because they had pictures. And this was when 3D was really coming out. And when they sent it to me, I was like, damn, that looks just like me.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: So how did you have to get like a. You had to get scanned for that or.
[00:01:35] Speaker D: They had me send them a number of pictures.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Photographs, okay.
[00:01:38] Speaker D: Then they put it through the printer, and then they sent me a little head and said, what do you think? And I said, that's it, man.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: That's it.
[00:01:46] Speaker D: Then they made them in mass.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Then they made them in mass.
[00:01:48] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Okay. Well, yeah, if you got one of those laying around, I'll take collectible. You know what I'm saying? Also, you being one of the. I don't wanna. I'm call you a video vixen, but.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: Oh, shoot.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Hold on. Are you learning? Are you learning right now?
[00:02:01] Speaker C: I'm learning.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:02] Speaker C: We gonna be interviewing together.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Okay. So fun fact is that you in the saving all my love for you video with Whitney Houston.
[00:02:11] Speaker D: I am the guy she was saving.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: All her love for, Rico.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: I Wanna know? I mean, first of all, anything you tell me about Whitney Houston. Cause my mom played Whitney and Vanessa Williams ad nauseam in my house growing up. So anything you could tell me about that would be fire.
Just give me one, one good one that you.
[00:02:28] Speaker D: The first thing was when I met her, she hadn't done.
This was her first number one hit.
Saving all my love for you. And so she was just this beautiful sister and just full of life, man. And we had fun. She hadn't acted a lot. And I got cast in. They said that they had cast a model, but he was too good looking.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: So they brought me in.
[00:02:48] Speaker D: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, hold on.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Because. What does that mean?
[00:02:55] Speaker D: That's what I was saying.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: What did that mean?
[00:02:57] Speaker D: What are you trying to tell me as a backhand compliment if I ever saw one?
[00:03:01] Speaker B: What does that mean?
[00:03:02] Speaker D: But she was cool, man. And we had fun shooting. And then when we came to the acting part, I coached her a bit. And if you look at the video when we're in the booth, we're just playing around and the camera's rolling and we're just having fun and she came to life. But the one story I'll tell you, that was most impressive. She was singing a song. I'm in the booth and she's singing out there. I'm playing the producer and she's just lip syncing. And the director. We shot about three takes and the director said, it's not working. Can you really sing? And she says, oh, of course I can sing. And when she started singing, let me tell you, brother, I said, that woman is special. I don't know what she's gonna do with her career, but that's special right there. And that video shot her up to number one.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: That's what's up first.
[00:03:43] Speaker D: Number one.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Because they cast somebody that was less good looking.
That's crazy as hell.
[00:03:49] Speaker C: Shot to number one.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: That's fucking crazy. I ain't never heard of that before, but thank you for that.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Have you been on Twitter lately?
[00:03:56] Speaker D: I don't go on Twitter.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Well, your thirst trap's all over Twitter.
You're a big hit.
Oh, they love Horse.
[00:04:04] Speaker D: You know, I don't understand why G. Cause this man's in his 60s.
In the script, he's 70s.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:12] Speaker D: And they. And they love him though. I. I don't get it, but I.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Take it it's your mobility.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Now, Crystal. Can I. I'm one. I'm a fan.
[00:04:22] Speaker C: Are you a fan?
[00:04:23] Speaker A: I'm a Fan. Okay, okay.
I'm a fan of Mallory, but I'm also, I'm a fan of Crystal Stewart.
[00:04:29] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Ms. USA to me is like one of them things that people don't really. I guess I don't want to say they discount the talent that it takes to do that and the discipline, because I'm not in shape. You know what I'm saying? I'm a dad. Bye. With no kid.
Just keep it in the book. Right. So from that standpoint, and then transitioning into acting, I guess, is that like, is it any different or is it like similar in a sense where you have to showcase who you are on camera?
[00:04:56] Speaker C: It's similar because you have to showcase who you are on camera. I was modeling before pageantry. Modeling, you're selling a product. Right. And with pageantry, you're selling yourself. And so when I go into acting roles, into auditioning, I think of that as far as competition as well. But just competing with myself and being the best that I can be at it. So I just take those, you know, different values and things that I learned from Padry and contributed to acting as well.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: Word. So it's like almost the same muscle.
[00:05:20] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, a lot.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: Is it being fake though?
[00:05:23] Speaker C: Because it's what being fake?
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Not like. Well, not because it's like acting is a. I look at it like a trade, it's a craft. Like, I look at it like being an electrician. You have to study and learn and all of the things.
[00:05:34] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Whereas being, I guess, yourself is not. So I don't know if you're like pretending because you're smiling all the time, even if you have a bad day. At least that's what I heard from my model homegirl.
[00:05:45] Speaker C: Yeah. With pageantry, you know, it's still the same. You work in the same muscle because you have to train for it. People don't understand that. It's a sport, pageantry, you're competing, it's a sport. You have to train in fitness, mentally, because you're getting asked questions, you know, physically as well, and wardrobe, all those things. So it really prepared me for the training aspect of acting is.
And also the nose. I lost like five times in Texas before I won five times.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: And you take rejection well.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: Uh.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: What'S your sign?
[00:06:15] Speaker C: I cried all the way home. Virgo.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: Happy birthday.
[00:06:18] Speaker C: Yeah, just two days ago, September 20th.
Uh huh. I'm like, don't actually.
It keeps me fighting though. No. Keeps me fighting and going. I always tell people, patience, persistence and perseverance, those are my three P's That I, you know, when I get a no, I just keep going and keep pushing. I don't like no's.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: During season one of Beauty and Black, we talked to Richard Lawson.
[00:06:40] Speaker C: Ah, did you?
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And we asked him what is, what were his initial thoughts when he first reads a Tyler Perry script? Okay, what are you guys initial thoughts when you first get that script?
[00:06:51] Speaker C: When I first. You go, I didn't have mine.
[00:06:53] Speaker D: But when I first got the script, I got the script. I think it was maybe a week or a week and a half before we're supposed to start shooting. And it's 16 one hour episodes, so I think I gotta read two a day just to finish it before we start shooting. And I read the first two and I was like, I gotta find out what happens in three.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: I read the third one, I was.
[00:07:13] Speaker D: Like, I gotta find out what happened in four. So the first time I sat down there, I read four episodes. And I knew at that point, just reading it that this is gonna be something. Yeah, it got me just reading it. I was like, it's gonna be something.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: Oh, go ahead, sorry.
[00:07:27] Speaker C: Oh, no. But with mine, I was reading it, you know, look at the character. And that was the first time to get ready for the script and to audition for it. And then the first part I was like, oh, Mallory's super nice. She's, you know, in the auditorium and feeling dropping.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: So you peel them layers back, girl.
I got to the third page and.
[00:07:45] Speaker C: She flipped the script talking about nappy headed. I'm like, what in the world?
I'm like, I don't know if I could do this. The other part I could do. I was a page, I can do all that stuff. But then this mean role, because I did, for better or worse, comedy stuff like that. And to do Mallory was different, but I was up for the challenge.
[00:08:00] Speaker D: So, yeah, I'll say this about the first season. I came to Crystal and I said, crystal, have you ever received an Emmy award? She says, no. I said, I think you should get ready to say that.
Because it's one thing, I mean people, you see a beautiful woman and you think, okay, that's her, that's her talent, that's all she's bringing. And then to get cast in a character like this, where you get an opportunity to show the layers, like as you said, as you peel the layers back and to be able to deliver that. And when I saw her performance, I just thought, this is something that people should acknowledge.
And I was talking to Tyler about it, he says, you know, a lot of Times they don't give him any love. For some reason, they don't give me any love. I says, well, we're gonna change that.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Yeah, we're gonna change that.
[00:08:45] Speaker C: We gonna be up there together.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: You are so amazing as a character that I thought that that's who you really were.
[00:08:52] Speaker C: Really?
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, that's how good of a job you're doing. Like, you. L.
Mallory's. Mallory and Kimmi, you guys are my favorite. I actually wanna see y' all be friends at some point.
[00:09:01] Speaker C: You do they need to link up.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Cause it kinda if during season one, we saw how Kimmy kinda idolized Malorie. And then even with Kimmy coming into the office, it kind of like, it seems. It's like, you know, like, I don't fuck with you like that, but I respect you. Like, it's like the way, like, you looking at her, like, all right, I recognize game.
[00:09:22] Speaker C: Mallory finds her, like, a worthy opponent now.
Okay, you good? I like that. I like the competition, you know, Mallory. So, yeah.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: How much of your clapbacks are scripted and how much are improv?
[00:09:37] Speaker C: So the majority are scripted. So the majority are scripted. People have been asking that sometimes Tyler, when we're in the mode and going, I'll throw an ad lib in there now to give him an idea, and he'll, like, throw some more out there. And some of them like, Tyler, I'm not saying that. He's like, cuts. I'm like. Like Jim Crow. Mm.
Y'. All.
I was like, I'm not saying that. Crystal, say the line. You smell like Jim Crow. Who says that?
[00:10:01] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:10:02] Speaker C: Who says that?
[00:10:03] Speaker B: What? You tell the driver he smell like he been here all day or something.
Something.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Driving with your head out the window.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: You told Roy. You told Roy. How can the church save you when your mama gave birth to the devil?
[00:10:14] Speaker C: Yes, you. Girl, I forgot about that one.
[00:10:17] Speaker D: When she told him to put his head out the window, I thought she was talking just figuratively. She was. No, literally, put your head out the window.
[00:10:24] Speaker C: That would mean what she said.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Some of the stuff Mallory say sound like what Kendrick was saying to Drake last year. Like, you be getting the one liner.
[00:10:31] Speaker C: Off these one liners. People ask about these. So the majority are scripted, but I just have to make sure I deliver it and it lands well, you know? Cause sometimes they'll be laughing and I'm like, she's serious.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: You took any of them insults back home in the what? Have you took any of them insults back home?
[00:10:46] Speaker C: A little bit.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Cause I done said some stuff. You done Said in the group chat.
[00:10:51] Speaker C: In the group chat. No. Yes. Sometimes I would like to take a little dead.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Do you ever have to reshoot those because people are laughing? Or, like, do you break character and laugh? Because when you told that man to put his head out the window and drive the car, I lost it.
[00:11:04] Speaker C: That took us, like, ten takes.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Okay, I'll bet.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:06] Speaker C: Cause everyone was laughing. No, absolutely laughing.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: And his stupid. He's driving like this. I'm like, he really put his head out. I was like, I would have walked home. That would have been it for me. Like, you got this.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: He was getting directed. Cause he was like, I put my head out. Put your head out the window, you know, and she looking dead serious. So. No, the lines are funny, and we laugh at them and have a good time with it, and they know it's not me to say those things, so they laugh at me even. I don't even curse. I'm not a curser.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Really?
[00:11:35] Speaker C: I said darn one time. They, like, cut crystal. Mallory would not say darn it.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Wait, wait. What? You mean you don't have road rage? You never experienced road rage or, like, cussing your head?
It counts.
[00:11:48] Speaker C: That counts. It's just not a cursor. I really like if I don't say the B word.
[00:11:53] Speaker D: Well, you say it like you had experience.
[00:11:55] Speaker C: I know. Yeah. I really don't. I'm not a big cursor. You know, it's a little Southern.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: I admire that.
We're actually doing this thing on our show where we're. Okay. So we're allowing the audience to challenge us for us to avoid using profanity.
[00:12:10] Speaker C: That's so funny.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: We use a lot of profanity because we're on serious, so we can say whatever the fuck we want to say.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: I love it.
So my mom just. She just found out what I do for a living.
I've been hiding it for a long time. So she tuned into the show. She told me, regina, I cannot believe you cuss this much. Like, so I'm like, you know what? For moms, I might have to stop.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: Cursing, but what do y' all do? Okay, so when you do curse, you have to put money in the pot. Like, what's the.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: We're trying to figure out the. Well, we're letting our listeners decide how they want to penalize us.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: For our profanity.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: So that's still a work in progress. We haven't worked it out yet.
[00:12:49] Speaker C: And I'm like, what we gonna do? Look.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Yeah, we.
There it is. That's it.
Thank y' all for technology.
Now, from a beauty and black standpoint, you kind of kicked this whole shit off because you killed that old lady, right?
[00:13:11] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Okay, so wait.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: No, the people don't wait. Yeah, no, yeah, they saw that one.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that was season one all the way.
[00:13:18] Speaker C: Killed her.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: What you mean?
[00:13:19] Speaker C: She left her to.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: What do you mean? That's vehicular manslaughter.
[00:13:24] Speaker D: Rory finished it, though.
[00:13:25] Speaker C: Roy finished it.
[00:13:25] Speaker D: Rory finished the job.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: So now we fast forward into season two, and for me, me and Jeanie was just talking about this. Like, did we forget about the lady?
[00:13:33] Speaker B: Like, yeah, we done forgot about.
[00:13:35] Speaker C: Where is he?
[00:13:36] Speaker B: Her t. Body.
[00:13:38] Speaker C: It's like where everybody go. They just dropping off.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Y' all got rid of the white people quick.
The white people.
[00:13:44] Speaker D: Regina, you better stop it.
[00:13:45] Speaker C: Wait, no, she was in the hospital.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: Yeah, she passed.
[00:13:50] Speaker D: But I don't think she gonna make it.
[00:13:51] Speaker C: She ain't make it.
[00:13:52] Speaker D: I don't think she gonna make it.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: For me, watching this Bellery, I don't know what family would be comparable. And when I was explaining this, I was explaining this to one of the homies about the show. Because I'm like. He's like, you watch. Because it's a stereo. It's a trope, right? You watch these. The soap operas. And I'm like, bro, this shit different.
[00:14:10] Speaker C: I don't know what soap opera he.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: I was like, well, they don't know. He doesn't watch the show. And I'm like, no, you gotta watch it. Cause they thinking beauty and black. They're thinking, like, oh, it's a stereotypical, like, soap opera. I'm like, nah, this shit cracking. This shit is cracking. Like, I'm into it, right?
And so as I'm explaining to him, it's like, if you were to take. If the Addams Family was black, but rich, right?
But rich, though, right? But rich. Way better, right? And then. Cause he's an older dude. I'm like, yeah. So if you picture the Addams Family but black, but they, like, live in Bel Air. You know what I'm saying?
I gotta use this, right? And he was like, oh, so it's like a twisted family. I'm like, yeah, bro.
From your standpoint, Rico, like, taking an approach of being one of the founding members of this, right? Did you do any research to help you prepare for that? Like, looking at any real world things like businesses, entities, anything like that?
[00:15:04] Speaker D: You know, strangely enough, I was looking at this series called Succession.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: I just.
I said billions. I said Billions and Succession and Adams family Yeah, I need to go watch that. It's white people, but it's cool. It's good though.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: I'm not racist.
[00:15:18] Speaker C: Now there's white people.
[00:15:21] Speaker D: So I'm watching this show and I'm falling in love with the father.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:27] Speaker D: And I'm putting it out there. Not even realizing I'm putting it out there. But I want, I want to play a character like that. I want some of that. And then this, this job comes along.
So that was, that was kind of like my initial research. I'm watching this show and I'm watching. I work with Brian Cox on another movie years ago back in England. And I just remember watching that show and I just thought, I want, I want something like that. And then this comes up and I read the description and it says it's a 70 year old man and he's ill and he doesn't, he's old for 70. And I, and they offered me the part and I was honest with them. I said, listen, when you first meet me, this is not what comes across.
They said, well, don't worry about it. Tyler picked you personally and we'll make it fit. And so then we go in and I come to the studio and I'm wearing shoes. I've trained here and at ucla. I've trained method and I've trained Shakespeare in London. And I'm trying to find this character and I started with the shoes, see if we can find it. I can get the walk. And then I had some old clothes and I said, okay, it's feeling a little bit. And then Tyler says, try, try a cigar.
I get the cigar. I don't smoke, so I start smoking cigars just to get the feeling of it. And then lastly he said, why don't you try a cane?
And when I got the cane, I was like, I said it all, I got you now.
[00:16:43] Speaker C: I got you, I got you.
[00:16:45] Speaker D: And that's how I found the character.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: How did you find Mallory?
Cause you don't even curse, which is right.
[00:16:51] Speaker C: Right. Which is crazy. No, I think I mixed a bit of, a little bit of Dynasty, a little bit of Cookie from Empire.
You get what I'm saying? You gotta mix the bougieness, right? And get a little hood in there and put it together. Shout out to Taraji. And then you got. Right. Shout out to Taraji. And then you have Mallory.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: I didn't even put that together. That's good.
[00:17:16] Speaker C: Yeah, cuz she has some, you know, Mallory got a little side too. Yeah.
[00:17:20] Speaker D: And I had, I had, I had done the first, the first season of P. Valley, I played this character who. Who the character description was half pastor, half pimp. And then. Interesting, right? And then the COVID came and they felt insecure about flying me in because I could fly in Covid, and so they kind of wrote the character off. So between playing Study in Succession and then being in P Valley, I felt like, okay, I got this world.
[00:17:53] Speaker C: Yeah, you play it so well.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: Why does Horace trust Kimmy so much?
[00:17:59] Speaker D: You know, I think he. Kimmy wasn't the first person that was down on their luck that he. He kind of pulled out. Mallory was the first person.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:18:09] Speaker C: Remember, they adopted me.
[00:18:10] Speaker D: So I think that he has.
He didn't have a daughter. He had two sons. And I am a father of two daughters. And a father and a daughter have special relationships. He didn't have a daughter. He had two sons. And the two sons were disappointing. So I think when he finds a young girl who has potential, who has fight, who has grit, who's intelligent, I think there's that. He.
[00:18:35] Speaker C: He.
[00:18:35] Speaker D: He's drawn to that.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:37] Speaker D: And. And, and, and he, He. What do they call? Save a. He wants to save a captain.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Yeah, there you go. That's what it is. Yeah.
[00:18:47] Speaker D: He's got a bit of saber. Ho.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Well, no, not even that. And a dude, too, cuz.
[00:18:54] Speaker D: Save a Puerto Rican.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: What's the point? Is he Puerto Rican?
[00:18:57] Speaker B: What's the little Angel?
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Angel.
[00:18:59] Speaker C: Angel.
[00:19:04] Speaker D: I think that's part of it is that he's got a sensitive side, and maybe that's why the audience like him, because he may be the one person that is not into it just for himself.
He's actually. If he finds somebody that he fucks with, then he's going to do everything to protect that person and to help that person rise up. And at the end of the day, at that stage in his life, he's not thinking about today and tomorrow. He's thinking about legacy.
And when you think about legacy, how do you want to be remembered? Who do you want to leave to take over what you've built up so that it doesn't just disappear?
And it just happens to be that these women are coming with it and these guys are out there chasing drugs and chicks.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Speaking of which. Because I couldn't remember his name. Angel. That's.
[00:19:46] Speaker D: What.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Has that been a conversation? Because I noticed. I forgot who I talked to. I talked to somebody from another show and they have a family and stuff, and they were saying that I guess his spouse was leery by him playing a character that was Bisexual or homosexual, whatever. Is that a conversation for you or like in your real life or is.
[00:20:06] Speaker D: That as an artist?
Because I'm six' three and close to £200, most of the characters I've gotten offered in my life has been alpha males.
Alpha males. And as an artist, you wanna play something different. You wanna show that you have that range. So I've wanted to play gay characters in the past. And when this came up, I was like, the thing for me, if I'm gonna play a gay character, I'm gonna, if I'm gonna accept that role, I gotta make it work and I gotta find. I mean, I'm looking at him like he. Halle Berry when I'm. When I'm looking at him.
Cause I want that to be real for me. I want it to be real for the camera when they look in my eyes. I did have a conversation with my wife because my wife was more uncomfortable with me than I was.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: So that was a conversation.
[00:20:50] Speaker D: That was a conversation, yeah.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Okay, was it, I mean, was it. I mean, obviously it's pleasant, but is that a tough conversation to have or is it just like.
[00:20:58] Speaker D: No, it wasn't. It wasn't a tough conversation. She just thought it was a conversation that needed to be had and she just thought it was something that needed to be put in the contract.
The limits on it.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: Oh, understood. I'm picking up what you putting down. All right.
[00:21:13] Speaker B: Speaking of your wife, was it ever revealed why Horace and Olivia divorced?
Or is it because of the affair with Norman?
[00:21:23] Speaker D: It hasn't been revealed. And that's the beauty of doing a series. There's so many.
This is an ensemble piece and there's so many backstories to be told.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: Yes. Cause that's what I almost feel like. I kind of need a prequel to find out where the division between Rory and Mallory came in. Where did you guys start? You know, when did it get so shaky? How did the family get so corrupt? You know, like, it feels like I kind of need like, Regina, we got you, you got me, we got.
[00:21:52] Speaker A: Okay, exclusive.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Right, Right, right now.
[00:21:54] Speaker C: We got you covered.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: Do Rory. I keep calling him Rory. Do Roy and Mallory, do they really love each other? Cause it feel like Mallory don't fuck with him, but he kind of want his. He want his girl?
[00:22:05] Speaker A: No, his whore.
[00:22:06] Speaker C: His whore.
It's in the contract, you know, they have to stay married. There's different provisions in the contract.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Oh, they want their bread.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: It's a business relationship.
[00:22:15] Speaker C: Uh huh. For the most part. I do believe at some point she did when they were younger. And then some things happened to make her hate him. To me, when you hate someone that much, there was some love somewhere. You know what I'm saying? Cause why do you hate that person so much then? You know, Unless there was some love. So at some point, my character story or arc that I make for myself is that they were.
When they were younger. And then some things happened within the relationship. And now Mallory is focused on the money and keeping the business apart.
Yes.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: I'm curious to know what.
What is the most common misconception that you get based on because of this. This huge character you play?
[00:22:57] Speaker C: This. That I'm like her. People, they. They feel I am Mallory. They were like, there's no way. She's nice.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: People don't want to ask for photos.
[00:23:05] Speaker C: And they'll. They'll. I was afraid of that, to be honest, but I was like, they are about to hate me or, like, throw something at me when they see me. But everyone's actually been really, really cool and nice and want photos and things like that. And then when they meet me and. And I talk to them, and they're like, oh, you're nothing like Maddie. I'm like, no, I'm just acting.
[00:23:22] Speaker D: That's what I was saying early on when I saw the first season. Because I know her as Crystal. And to play that role so convincingly, that says something, you know? And people. I look at social media, they talk about her like a dog.
People. There's some haters out there, and they hate Mallory.
And that is a testament to her talent to create a. That's so believable that people can't separate the two.
[00:23:48] Speaker A: How do you deal with that? How do you deal with the social media? Do you even care? Do you?
[00:23:52] Speaker C: Honestly, that's what.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: Cause on social media, I follow you. Look, you're very nice.
[00:23:56] Speaker C: Thanks. I'm gonna try to be a little. You know. But honestly, I have a manager that takes care of a lot of the things for me. Cause I try not to get entangled with that, because with pageants, that helped me a lot. People can love you one moment and then hate you the second, another second. And I just don't pay attention to it. I look at the good things. They'll tell me what I need to know, and then I go from there. So social media.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: I wanted to know if you got the same backlash from acrimony.
[00:24:22] Speaker C: Yes and no. Cause they kept thinking that I took.
I forget the character, Taraji's husband, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm like, wait a second. You know, she left him. It was just five minutes too soon, but she left him. And, you know, she saw his potential and then ran with it. But there was a little bit of backlash from that.
[00:24:42] Speaker B: That movie. I want to get back to Beauty and Black, but your character, Taraji's character, and the guy that played her husband that you guys, all three of y', all stirred up so much arguments in my group chats.
[00:24:56] Speaker C: Okay, what were they?
[00:24:58] Speaker B: Because of who's right and who's wrong.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: Should Taraji have stayed? Should Taraji have, you know, Taraji have stayed? The whole. Just the dynamic of everything. Is your character. Is she wrong for stepping in and not being a girl's girl? Like, that was a. That was a big conversation and people were divided like politics.
[00:25:16] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Over that movie.
[00:25:17] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. They were definitely divided from it. And it's funny because I'm like, gosh, she. You know, she tried. I think she couldn't get out her head, the cheating that he did, you know, early on. And then she had other people in her ear. Yeah, I think that was the main thing. I'm like, nobody talking about them.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: Uh, yeah.
[00:25:32] Speaker C: In her ear. Telling her to live.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: The raggedy ass sisters.
[00:25:36] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: You know, just go home and worry about your niggas.
[00:25:41] Speaker D: Regina, your mama listened to this.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: You said your mama listened. Sorry about that.
[00:25:47] Speaker C: You know, they weren't talking about, you know, them putting those things in their ears. So I feel they were wrong, you know, and if she just would have held on just a little longer. But sometimes it's difficult when you're just with a guy, you know, for so long, you see him, you're trying and all this stuff, and it doesn't work out for them. At that time, you leave and then somebody else come in and get all the fortune.
[00:26:06] Speaker B: That's a good point to bring up. I think I'm gonna start an argument in the group chat today about the sisters.
[00:26:10] Speaker C: The sisters.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: I forgot about the sisters.
[00:26:13] Speaker C: They were the ones.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: I got a question about the future. Just. I mean, you could oblige. I've never had a chance to sit down and talk to Mr. Perry, as people would say. So I gotta ask people who are in proximity, is there. This is a rumor again? I be on Reddit sometimes.
Is there a truth to there being like a Tyler Perry universe, like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where you see beauty and black characters start to, like, mix with other characters from other productions? Have you heard of that?
[00:26:43] Speaker C: I've Heard of the Tyler Perry universe? Have you heard of it?
[00:26:46] Speaker A: Have you heard of that? It's a thing.
[00:26:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:49] Speaker D: Well, I've only. This is my first project with Tyler.
I wasn't really that familiar with a lot of his work. I lived out of the country for 13 years, and so that was part of it.
So this is the first. This is my first job. But when I stepped on set, I realized that most of the people in our cast had worked with him before, and some of them a number of times. So there is a kind of Tyler Perry family, the universe. That would be an interesting thing. I did talk to him about another project, and he goes, rico, we got a long way to go with this one.
I don't know.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: You've heard of that, though, before.
[00:27:23] Speaker C: I've heard of the universe, yeah.
I didn't dive into it too much, but I've worked with him before on For Better or Worse, Acrimony, of course, and a couple other things. And sometimes I feel if he believes in you and sees your potential, he wants to continue to work with you and create this universe for you.
[00:27:40] Speaker D: The other thing is he shoots at. He is the Elon Musk of filmmaking without being the asshole.
He does it completely different from Hollywood, and not every actor can make that adjustment.
Normally, when you shoot a show, you may walk in, and the first day of shoot is usually a light day because people are trying to figure things out. You may have five or six people pages to shoot that day. The first day we walked in, there was a stack of papers over an inch thick. And I'm thinking, are they just giving me the first episode or what's going down here? And they were going, no, this is the shooting schedule for today. It was 81 pages.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: Damn.
[00:28:22] Speaker D: And I remember my butthole tightened up so tight, I was like, let me tell you, let me tell you, let me tell you. And this is the way I got through that.
I got through that day like this. The same way you walk a thousand miles, you take one step at a time. So I says, I'm gonna learn this first scene. I'm gonna go in there and I'm gonna kill it. And then I'm gonna work on the second scene, and I'm gonna go in there and I'm gonna kill that one. And I'm. And by the end of the day, it'll all be done. And that's what I did. And from that moment on after the first day, I was like, I got you now. Yeah, I'm good now.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: How was that? 81 page view.
[00:28:56] Speaker C: I'm like, I went in gorilla style.
We gonna just try to make this thing work. It's a lot. It's a lot.
[00:29:04] Speaker D: And even while you're changing clothes for the next scene, you've got a reader there going over lines for the next scene so that you get in there and you're more familiar with it. And at the end of the day, you've shot all the. You shot 12 hours or 14 hours. They say, okay, this is what we're shooting tomorrow.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: Be ready.
[00:29:19] Speaker C: Do it all over again.
[00:29:20] Speaker D: And you gotta do it all over again. And so what I would do is I'd try and learn my paragraph, my long lines, but there's no way you can learn all of that. So you basically try and make yourself as familiar as possible. And with a lot of veteran actors, A lot of veteran actors are so used to shooting at the slower pace that they can't handle this pace. So I think when he finds somebody, they can handle it and adapt and thrive in it. But, yeah, it makes sense that he wants to use them again. They're proven.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: What's you guys.
So my favorite Beauty in Black moments is always the boardroom.
[00:29:50] Speaker C: Ah. With everybody.
[00:29:51] Speaker B: Yeah. It's so explosive. But we also get to see all the characters on screen or the majority of all the characters on screen at the same time. What are you guys thoughts when you are shooting those boardroom scenes?
[00:30:01] Speaker C: When am I lying? When am I.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: She just worried about her shit. She like, you know what? I'mma hit my cue.
[00:30:06] Speaker C: I'm like, hit my cue. Okay, go.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: All right.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: It never seems like y' all acting. It seems so real.
[00:30:14] Speaker C: We're like a family. I mean, it's funny. Cause outside of the show, we're super close in, like, family. So getting into the boardroom, we like being in a boardroom together. And these scenes are normally pretty powerful.
[00:30:25] Speaker D: But, yeah, I think because we're so cool off camera and we know each other, that we can look each other in the face and say some of the most horrible things, because we know that that's not us. This is a character, and it frees you up. I mean, when I had to tell my son that you let another man climb on your back and fuck you.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: Yeah, that was crazy.
[00:30:49] Speaker D: You know, and the venom that I'm saying this with, and I have two sons, I would never say anything like that to my.
And to say it with that type of venom, you know, it does require you to put yourself in a different space for that moment, to the point where afterwards I Almost wanna come and hug you afterwards.
[00:31:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:09] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:31:10] Speaker C: Like, I love you.
[00:31:11] Speaker D: We good?
[00:31:11] Speaker A: We good, Right? Right? We're good, Right?
[00:31:13] Speaker C: Right, Right.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: I was just gonna say we didn't get a timeline on the affair. Does Horace think that one of his sons are not his?
[00:31:22] Speaker D: Why you all up in my business like that?
Why you, Regina?
[00:31:29] Speaker B: I'm on my third time watching the season, so I done. I done felt every.
[00:31:35] Speaker D: The second half hasn't even come out yet. Why you trying to spoil it for people and stuff?
[00:31:40] Speaker B: We about to find some. Supposed to be some teeth.
[00:31:41] Speaker D: Y.
Tyler said. Tyler says if you like the first season, you know, buckle. Buckle up.
[00:31:47] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:31:48] Speaker D: Buckle up for the second season. I can't wait till y' all see the. The next eight.
[00:31:51] Speaker C: Part two. They're not ready for part two.
[00:31:54] Speaker D: Part two.
[00:31:54] Speaker B: Crazy.
[00:31:55] Speaker C: Part two is crazy.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Cause part one ended cutting up a body in the shower.
Like, what's going on?
[00:32:02] Speaker D: Hey, just say no to drugs.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: That's all right. Just say no. For real.
[00:32:04] Speaker D: Just say no.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: Speaking of cutting up a body, Ms. Debbie Morgan.
[00:32:09] Speaker D: Debbie.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: Morgan. Debbie is firing this.
[00:32:12] Speaker D: She killing it.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: She did such a good job.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: She acts like full mob boss.
[00:32:17] Speaker D: She is killing it.
You know those dimples? That was a line that I just threw in. Don't let the dimples fool you.
And that was the one that we had to take over because she even started laughing.
But she walked in that room and she got in the middle, and she's got these dimples. And I said, you see that one in the middle?
Don't let the dimples fool you.
[00:32:37] Speaker A: Like, y' all relationship is crazy. But also the scene with you and her at the restaurant.
[00:32:41] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: And she was trying to hit on the big dude, Barney.
What? She called him. She called him. I forgot what she called him. But she's trying to hit on him, and she's, like, drunk. She's completely inebriated.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: She opened that jacket.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: Yeah, she's completely inebriated. And you keep a straight face the whole time. And I'm like, it's no way I would hold it together.
[00:33:01] Speaker C: Oh, we were laughing. Yeah, we had cut. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause she was acting. She was, you know, acting drunk. She was so funny doing those scenes. And seeing Barney almost about to crack up too. He's like, okay, cut. Go ahead and get your laugh out.
And then I'm like, wait, did we get. I don't know if they got to that scene yet. Okay, no.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: If you don't know the line.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, no, I just wanted to know about that. And Then also, like, this is just a fan question as far as, like, the.
The explosive scenes that Gina was talking about. Cause when we had Richard Lawson here, I was like, how do you look at somebody and say the most crazy shit ever?
And then they say, cut. And y' all just go to lunch, you know what I'm saying?
[00:33:40] Speaker C: You peeing on people and stuff.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: You literally. I was literally about to go to that.
[00:33:43] Speaker C: I was doing it.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: That's where I was going. You peed on this, man. I know it wasn't real pee, but still, just the fact that, like, we wouldn't be cool. Like, we not cool. It ain't good. We ain't friends. We gotta run a fair one.
[00:33:57] Speaker D: I gotta tell you, when I'm on set, I don't play around as much as I would on other characters because the character is so different from me.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: Okay, gotcha.
[00:34:06] Speaker D: And so the cane. I'm with it whether the camera's gone or it's not gone. So much so that the props guy said, listen, I give you this cane just for you off camera. And then we'll keep this one for on camera. Because I find it a little hard to jump in and jump out. And my character's so.
So vicious sometimes that I'm not all buddy buddy in between shoots. As a matter of fact, it was a couple weeks into the shoot before one of the actors realized that I didn't need a cane.
[00:34:34] Speaker A: Word?
[00:34:35] Speaker D: Yeah. Tyler started playing some music, and we started dancing, and she was like.
[00:34:41] Speaker A: We.
[00:34:41] Speaker B: Need that cane all this time.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: Ursula.
[00:34:43] Speaker D: Ursula.
[00:34:43] Speaker C: Oh, really?
[00:34:44] Speaker D: She was like, I thought you were really, really handicapped.
[00:34:47] Speaker C: You always had it. He always had his cane.
[00:34:48] Speaker D: Yeah, I was helping.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: Now when we saw you walking through the hallway, I'm like, oh, he made it out of Thailand.
[00:34:53] Speaker A: That's why I got a lot of.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: Hell needs to cane.
Why is the family so mean to.
Is it Varney the lawyer?
Mallory's the only one that's nice to him.
[00:35:04] Speaker C: Why are they so mean? Cause you are.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: Is that another backstory that we'll probably get even?
[00:35:08] Speaker D: Well, I think, you know, the family has its own personal problems, and it's somebody to blame it on. You're supposed to be the guy that's supposed to be making it all work, and it's not work.
It really isn't his fault. It's the family. He's just a fall guy, but he's the fall guy. He's the one guy you can point at that, you know? Come on. You're the lawyer.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:27] Speaker C: And he's insecure because he knows he's sleeping with the bosses.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: He has skeletons.
[00:35:31] Speaker C: Yeah, so he has skeletons. So he's a little sensitive and standoffish. And Mallory, that's the soft side that you can see of her befriending Barney in this season, which, actually, me and Terilla are really good friends. So it's fun to play that role and be nice to see someone for a change. But it was nice to see the evolution of the relationship.
[00:35:49] Speaker D: Yeah. And I also think, you know, Varney's character, he's very smart. My character says he's very smart. And my character even kind of wishes that he was my son. If I had a son like this, he would handle business. So there's a frustration. I look at him and I'm like, but I got these two knuckleheads.
[00:36:06] Speaker A: You know, speaking of. You brought up skeletons. I think Mallory is one of the only ones with no obvious skeletons. Other than murder.
[00:36:15] Speaker C: But. Yeah, what murder is somebody that's murdered.
[00:36:18] Speaker D: That's kind of a big one, though.
[00:36:19] Speaker A: No, I mean, that's. But that ain't about knocking people off. Just.
[00:36:22] Speaker C: Yeah, just like that. Yeah.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: Mallory's also. It seems like Mallory is the one person who's like, you're married into the family, but you're also the one. I keep seeing you. Malorie's also the one who's trying to maintain the peace within the family.
[00:36:34] Speaker C: Yes. Cause she's trying to keep this company afloat. She's the only one basically running the company. The boys aren't doing anything. Horace has been sick. She's doing everything, you know, so trying to keep everything afloat. I think her skeleton is. Why is Mallory so mean?
[00:36:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:49] Speaker C: Where is this coming from? And that's something I had to. I'm like, you know, I would ask Tyler, why is she so mean? Like, where is she?
[00:36:55] Speaker A: Where's she pulling that from?
[00:36:56] Speaker C: You know, where is she pulling that from? And then once I found out, if you go back when she said, you know, she was adopted and all these things, okay, why were you adopted? And why were you adopted at such a young age? You know, what happened?
And you guys should see some of that in Part two.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: That sounds like another series, a prequel to Mallory, because Mallory a Leo.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: She's a Leo.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: Mallory a Leo.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: My last question is constructive criticism from, I guess from Tyler or on set. Like, what's some of the things or lessons or something that you guys have taken and implemented into it?
[00:37:33] Speaker C: Good question.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Cause I remember talking to two people who done production. They're like, no, he's hands on. Like, don't. You could change some shit, but don't change my words. Like, specifically. So is there anything that stands out to you guys?
[00:37:47] Speaker C: That's one of them. He wants you. He gives you a little leeway, but he likes you to stick with the script. I mean, he'll let you ad lib a tab, but if you go too far, he's like, really back. This is what the script says. He'll ask the script reader.
I have to think a bit. Seems like you have yours written down.
[00:38:02] Speaker D: When I read a script, I usually read it. I read it two times. I read it first time to get the story. I read it the second time just from my character's point of view. And by the time I finish the second time, I'm making choices. And when I walk in, I feel like I know this character even better than the writer now, because I'm playing him, I'm breathing the life into him. So when I come on set, a lot of times when I'm reading it the second time, I'm changing lines.
And as I'm changing lines and I read it, and I keep reading it, I end up often going back to the original lines because I find out actually they actually work better. But I give myself the freedom to play around with it. And if I get on set, and when I get on set, I did find this with Tyler, with the veterans, the older actors, that he would give us enough rope to hang ourselves.
[00:38:49] Speaker A: Damn.
[00:38:49] Speaker D: And if it didn't work, he'll say, go back to the script. But he would give you that leeway to play around if you were so inspired.
And at the end of the day, he also knows that he's gonna edit it the way they wanted to edit it. And if it didn't work, he can cut it out and go back to the script. But I did find a lot of times I would change lines and then end up changing them back to what he had written.
The one liberty I did take is I took away some motherfuckers and some niggers because I felt like there were a lot of them in the script. And I felt like my character had such a.
Such a presence that he didn't need that.
When you're playing an alpha character or you're playing a king or something like that, it's not.
You don't have to shout.
As a matter of fact, I based my character partly on my father. My father was a big man in the community. He was a big man as well. And he was also A Golden Glove boxer. And when people would start talking loud and shouting and whatnot, he, he would lower his voice and then they would get quiet so they could hear him.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: I could see that in your character.
[00:39:54] Speaker D: And so that's what I, that's what I kind of use as my foundation. And so I don't say as many of the N words and the F bombs as written because I feel like when I do use them, I want them to count.
[00:40:08] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I added some in my.
[00:40:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: I knew it. Right? I knew it.
[00:40:14] Speaker C: You just don't cuss away if that's what going to do.
[00:40:16] Speaker A: She's like, oh, it doesn't have to be me. I'm going to curse.
[00:40:18] Speaker C: I know. I'm like, it's not me. So we let's. First of all, no, no, I did.
[00:40:22] Speaker D: Not know you, you added some.
Oh my God.
[00:40:26] Speaker C: Every once in a while I'm like, oh, no good.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: I'm kidding.
[00:40:30] Speaker C: No, no. I wanted to, I made sure, I wanted to trust the process. Cuz this was such a different role for me. And sometimes Mallory would just have to go completely crazy or you know, cuss someone out or say all these things. I'm like, I don't want to say this or do this. And I'm just trusting what Tyler, you know, wrote and how he sees this character and just diving all the way into it, you know, embracing it and putting a little twist to it, you know, being a bit more stoic, you know, and in a way a little mix of my personality because I don't yell either.
Personally, I'm not a, you know, that type of person. So a lot of times, even when I say the lines, the one liners, people are like, you know, how do you see it with such a straight face? That's kind of how I am. You know, naturally I have a dry sense of humor, so you would think it's a funny line. You're supposed to laugh at it. But Mallory's dead serious.
It means everything she's saying, you know, so just trusting the process and what Tyler has written for these characters and embracing it and trying to find your way through it and navigating it and looking at, I get to play and act with Rico Ross. Yeah.
You know, and Debbie, you know, enriched these veterans, these legends. He always feeds just great things into me and positivity, like what he said, you know, he did he text me that, you know, look out for your Emmy. And he would always say that, oh, Crystal, you're doing so great. Love you. All these positive things. So to be around that, it makes you better. It makes you want to be better, too.
[00:41:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: Another thing that stood out to me about. About your character is your T's are enunciated.
One thing you gonna do when you say shit, you be like, shit.
[00:42:05] Speaker C: But you hear the country accent, you hear the text.
[00:42:07] Speaker A: That T is gonna hit every time.
You know what I'm saying? I'm gonna go fix your shit.
I was like, she meant that.
[00:42:17] Speaker C: Mean it, right?
[00:42:19] Speaker D: I also think that's one of the things that brings this character to life and makes it real is that she's this beautiful woman. She's got this powerful position, but there's a little bit of country in there somewhere.
[00:42:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:31] Speaker D: And when you put all those together, it's a real person. That's a real person.
[00:42:35] Speaker B: She's such a boss.
[00:42:37] Speaker D: Such a boss.
[00:42:38] Speaker C: Something, something.
[00:42:39] Speaker D: When she. When she. The first season, I remember when you kept saying, kill.
[00:42:43] Speaker C: I can't say it.
[00:42:44] Speaker D: Kill. I was like, she is serious about that.
I will kill.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: Kill.
[00:42:50] Speaker D: I was like, she is.
[00:42:50] Speaker B: It's the Texas Queen.
[00:42:52] Speaker C: I know it's supposed to be from.
[00:42:53] Speaker D: Chicago, but it works. It works, girl.
[00:42:55] Speaker C: There's certain words I cannot say, right?
[00:42:57] Speaker A: Like what?
[00:42:57] Speaker C: Like anything. Let's say Kyle. A name. Kyle. Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, Kyle. What else? It's the diphthong that I try to work on, and I'll hear it like, the shit.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: That was great.
[00:43:15] Speaker C: I can't. That's how I. You know, it's the Texas in me. The diphthong, they call it. I cannot get out.
[00:43:20] Speaker D: It works. I think it works for the character, though. It makes her real. You know that there's some street in that woman.
[00:43:26] Speaker B: It's relatable.
[00:43:27] Speaker D: There's some country in there, and you probably don't want to get her to go there.
[00:43:32] Speaker B: Tyler Perry. I've always admired Tyler Perry.
Work ethic. Way back from the place and then even up to now, getting his own studio, being on Netflix.
[00:43:42] Speaker D: And he's a genius in that.
I mean that in the serious. In the literal definition of it. The man is a genius. And we don't use that word with him. We use it with people in tech and stuff like that. This man is a genius.
[00:43:57] Speaker B: Watching the have and have nots, for better or for worse, sisters. Anytime I see the credits, when it comes up and it says written, directed, blah, blah, blah, Tyler Perry that. I literally. I feel like I'm not working hard enough when I see that. And it always upsets me when something new comes out and I see that Tyler gets So much flack for the way he depicts black black women on screen. And it's like these roles are actually relatable roles, even though, yes, it is dysfunction. But this regular. And this is where we. I'm from the hood. This is where I come from, so I recognize the people that are, you know.
[00:44:33] Speaker D: You know, that's real.
[00:44:34] Speaker B: Exactly. And it's real.
Crystal, you specifically, being that you worked with him for so long, can you just speak to the love and support that he does have for black women that for whatever reason has been missed, you know?
[00:44:47] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, Tyler, I don't even know where to start. I can just speak for myself and how he's helped me and uplifted me throughout. For years now, and wanting to put black women in leading roles and pay them more than what most directors and producers, you know, would. Would pay as well. He's always been a great support system for me personally and business wise is really, you know, great friends as well.
But he definitely has the utmost respect for black women, utmost respect for black women and love for black women and wanting to see them in higher roles, higher positions and pay them adequately as well to suit that and make sure they feel that they're seen.
That's his main focus. I want to make sure, you know, and other people, I see you and I see your potential. I see your growth. I see where you can be. I see where you are now. And if he can help in any way, he will. And it's stuff that he does behind closed doors. People don't even know things he's done for me and other people that I talk to. And unless we say it, you know, no one would know it. He doesn't even care. He just wants to help and pour. He's such a giving person and such a loving and caring person.
People just have no idea how much he does for people. Behind the scenes, you only see what's in the public, but behind the scenes, he does even more.
[00:46:01] Speaker B: I can only imagine.
[00:46:03] Speaker C: He's a good, good person.
[00:46:03] Speaker D: I think now at this stage in his life too, he's thinking about legacy.
And every day when we.
When we come on set, we have a prayer in the morning time. And whether you're religious or not, we just hold hands and we pray. And he put us all on the same page and we start the day that way. But he's always putting us on game, putting us up on game. And he's talking about what we. Showing us our potential, telling us, this is what I did. And I started from nothing. Don't limit yourself even with this project here. He says, we don't know what this project's going to do. When it first came out, it may not go to number one, it may not go to the top 10, he says, but don't just look at America, look at the world.
This is Netflix, this is global. Look at what other countries are saying. He's always putting us up on game, and that's part of. I think what he wants to do now is he's lifting his community up and that's gonna be his legacy.
[00:47:00] Speaker A: My question is about not necessarily specific to Beauty and Black, but just as people, as human beings, being parents and being like, how do you balance family? Like me and Gina, we don't have kids.
I do music well. I've been in the music business for almost 20 years now. I've been in the music business. I'm in the studio, I'm on tour, whatever.
How the hell do you balance being a family person and having a career that's demanding? I mean, either one could go further. Cause I don't.
[00:47:27] Speaker C: I know what you was about to say. How the F do you.
[00:47:30] Speaker A: I was gonna leave the F bomb for you.
[00:47:32] Speaker C: Yeah, right. No, man, I was just talking to somebody. Two little kids that are 5 and 8 and I live between Houston and LA, and I have a daughter with special needs that I'm quite talked about. And it's. Remember I called you one time, we talked about it, you know, and talked about just life going through, divorce. I recently got divorced and just stuff. And I'm like trying to balance everything.
It's difficult, you know, I must say the least. But it's about prioritizing and organizing in yourself. And that's maybe the Virgo on me and having that release as well of someone that you can talk to, like, called Rico. One time I was completely stressed out, you know, frustrated about some things, but learning how to keep your cool and keep your focus and what are your priorities? My priority right now, my kids, you know, being fresh, you know, newly single and everything. And like, okay, I need to focus on them.
And then my career and then how do I push through this time and season in my life. But there's no to me playbook on how to balance all of it, because it's a lot. But we have different careers. You know what I'm saying? It's not like you have a 9 to 5, you can come home and do. It's, you know, it's difficult. And how do you organize that? I'm still figuring out to this day, I think I've been doing. I would. Hopefully. Pretty decent at it.
[00:48:53] Speaker D: No, it's a good question.
I do think that it's.
It's easier for male actors that are in a relationship.
[00:49:01] Speaker A: I can see that.
[00:49:02] Speaker D: Because the kids, they want their mom, and they expect their mom to be there all the time. I mean, she'll be on set and she'll be throwing out f bombs, and then we'll be going to the next scene. And she's in the car and she's going, oh, hi, buddy. How you doing, buddy?
[00:49:18] Speaker A: Buddy.
[00:49:19] Speaker C: She say, buddy. Hey, buddy.
[00:49:20] Speaker D: She calls him buddy all the time. And it's just, you know, she's. She's finding that balance with me.
My kids are older. I'm gone. I'm gone. You know, I let them know I'm gone, where I'll be and when I'll be back. But my kids are 30 years old, so they. They're doing their own thing. It's a lot easier for me. And even when they were younger, their mom was.
[00:49:39] Speaker A: Was.
[00:49:39] Speaker D: Was holding the fort down when I was away. And so I think it's a lot easier. It was a lot easier for me as a man handling it. I do wish if I. If I could go back, I. I would.
I think a lot of times when my kids were younger, I would even be at the park with him, and I would be watching my son. He'd go, daddy watch. And he'd jump off of a stair, and then he'd go back up, daddy watch. And he'd jump off. And he'd do that about 10 times. And I'm thinking, I need to be looking for work. What am I doing?
I think if I had to do over again, I would be more present during those times.
[00:50:09] Speaker A: I feel that that's how I am. And I like to ask questions like that. Cause I'm, like, complete. I don't have wife kids neither.
[00:50:16] Speaker D: No. You married to this gig right now?
[00:50:18] Speaker A: Oh, for sure.
[00:50:19] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:50:19] Speaker B: I'm looking, though.
[00:50:24] Speaker D: Man.
[00:50:24] Speaker A: Listen. Well, thank y' all for coming through, though. Like, Beauty and Black is really, really good. You know what I'm saying? I don't like nothing.
I don't.
[00:50:33] Speaker B: I'm looking forward to, like, tens of hundreds of seasons.
[00:50:37] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, please.
But. And, like, I appreciate just y' all being willing to share, you know, your life experiences and stuff like that. A lot of people be like, I don't wanna talk about the show.
But thank you, though. I appreciate y' all for being here. Rico Ross and Chrisa Stewart, you Welcome back anytime.
[00:50:56] Speaker B: Also, thank you for being. Cause I feel like one of the things that's lost on TV is seeing black families.
So thank you, you know, for being part of. Essentially, it's part of history that, you know, we don't have black families on tv. We don't have the Moeshas and my wife and kids and stuff like that anymore. But you guys are doing that for us. Point. Thank you for that.
[00:51:14] Speaker C: Good point. Thank you.
[00:51:15] Speaker A: All right, you guys, Beauty and Black. Go check it out. It's on Netflix right now. It's effective immediately.
[00:51:19] Speaker C: Yeah.
