Full Transcript for INTERVIEW: Taraji P. Henson Talks 'STRAW,' Protecting Black Women, Tyler Perry, Oprah, Sobriety Journey +More

you, baby, because I can't take on your trauma while I'm trying to get over mine. Yeah, and you not trying to heal yours. I can't help you. I'm not qualified yourself. Oh my god, the peace that I found, like, you know, even somebody asking me to come out, the first question I asked, is is it going to disturb my peace? Because you know, when you're young, you just you gonna have phone mall a little bit. It's like I gotta go, and then you find yourself going why did not? Why did I just stay home? You know, no more of those moments because I'd rather be home with my fat frenchies. 00:03:19 Speaker 5: You don't always want to ask you as being an advocate for mental health ever made you feel more exposed than being just a public figure in Hollywood. More exposed, Yeah, because you tell you tell more of yourself being a mental health advocate, because you probably if you was just Taraji in Hollywood, who wasn't that you wouldn't have to probably give up so much. 00:03:36 Speaker 4: That's true. But I kind of always been that, So I wear my heart on my sleeve. So I just I don't know if I feel any different. I'm still looking at this wall, but go ahead. 00:03:46 Speaker 1: I want to ask, when did you get to the point where you don't have to come out for the BS? 00:03:52 Speaker 3: Right? 00:03:53 Speaker 1: It's weird. We just had this conversation the other day where it was like I got to a place a couple of years ago where I just say no. Before it was like I felt like I had to do it, I had to show up, I had. 00:04:01 Speaker 2: To go and sometimes things up your piece. 00:04:04 Speaker 1: But now to the point where if I feel like the energy is gonna be off or I just don't, I'm not going. 00:04:10 Speaker 4: No. It is my favorite word. I love saying that word no, and that said I don't owe your explanation. Like when I was with our forever first Lady Michelle Obama doing her show She was like, no, it is a complete sentence, and it absolutely is. 00:04:25 Speaker 2: When did you get there? 00:04:27 Speaker 3: When? 00:04:27 Speaker 2: When did it click? 00:04:28 Speaker 4: Which trip was it? The first one? The first one when I went alone, the first one, because that that refocused me, recentered me. I was. I didn't I felt outside of myself before I went to Bali. That was a well needed trip because I was literally losing myself. I didn't even know who I was the joy. I'm a I'm the one that brings the life to the party, you know, and I become I was like tight all the time, not happy and complaining a lot. That's just not me. Even my team noticed, they were like, is everything okay? You don't you seem a little you know, And that's just not in my DNA. So I had to unplug and just go away and be with myself and in the middle of a rice field. 00:05:22 Speaker 5: You want to share that with the world that I started seeing that people need to hear that. 00:05:26 Speaker 4: I think sometimes when they see public figures, they think we have it all together because we've you know, we've found some money or whatever. You know. People think that money heals and money will bring you more problems than you had when you were broke. I often find myself saying, damn I missed when I was broke and dreaming because everything seemed possible, you know, but then when you make it and you you get behind the Wizard of Oz curtain and it's like, oh, it ain't what it seems. 00:05:58 Speaker 3: Straw. 00:05:59 Speaker 4: Yes, a very moving film. 00:06:01 Speaker 6: Thank you, Yes, listen, what did you What did you channel? 00:06:07 Speaker 4: Because you you are healing, you mean your healing journey. 00:06:10 Speaker 6: But to put yourself in a role like that, you had to go back. You had to go back. That was a trying day. So the movie was like it took place one day to deal with all that in the day and to have to embody that much trauma. 00:06:25 Speaker 4: Because I don't want to give away to ending. 00:06:28 Speaker 6: It's gonna fuck you. What what did you pull from? Did you have to go put yourself back where you were, where you were going through everything? 00:06:37 Speaker 3: Executives. 00:06:40 Speaker 4: I am a single mother, you know. I moved to Hollywood with my son, who was a toller at the time of seven hundred dollars in my pocket and just a pocket full of dreams and Jesus and so I've you know, humans, we all have can have a moment where we can snap. You know, I think what made me different from Jenia's that I've always had a support system. So I have a sister circle where they'll talk me off the ledge, you know what I mean. But have I ever got to the point where I wanted to snap? Yes, that's why I went to Bali, you know what I mean. So, but she didn't have the resources, she didn't have the support, so all she had was the voices in her head, and she literally reached them her point where she just couldn't take it anymore, and things just got out of control and she God, bless her heart, she was just trying to do the best she could with what she had, you know. And I in particular, I am drawn to characters who are voiceless and need a voice because I am such a big personality. I like to breathe light into those characters because I feel like those characters are real. You know, Tyler Perry and just pulled us out of the sky. These women exist, These people exist, and they need to see themselves, and they need to know that they're not alone and that people do see them. 00:08:00 Speaker 7: To make you mad when people tell Tyler Perry to stop showing those women on camera, I. 00:08:04 Speaker 4: Think that's their own trauma's trigger because in the community black community, we don't deal with it, you know what I mean. So if you're forced to look at it, often you will be triggered. So the first thing you're going to one to say is I don't want to see it, but there are people out there that need to see it. He's forcing real conversations in the community. That's why I'll never stop working with him. 00:08:27 Speaker 5:

So for a person that doesn't work on themselves the way you do, when you got to go on an intense emotional journey for a four day shoot, what is your approach to that? 00:08:35 Speaker 3: Like, how do you prepare for like those inevitable triggers. 00:08:37 Speaker 4: I have trained well, I think out of necessity. I've trained my instrument. My body is my instrument, just like you know, a musician has a guitar, they know how to hit the notes. I have a know and off switch. And I think that's because I was a mother very young and when I would work and come home, I didn't have time to process and deal with the character that opportuny because now it's homework. He got eat, I got a science fait project, you know what I mean. So I had to turn it off, so I'm just trying. I Literally, you ask anybody that I've worked with. I could be in the middle of a singing, balling my eyes out and they'll yell cut, and I'll be like, what a fried chicken? Or I have these games that I play on my iPad to because I have to separate myself from the character. I cannot stay again that is that character's trauma. I can't take that on. I just can't because I have my own shit to deal with. So literally, when they yell cut, I'm back to Taraji just like that. 00:09:39 Speaker 1: Is it easier to shoot a four day movie because you did this movie in four days, right? Or is it more difficult because you got to do everything in those four days. 00:09:46 Speaker 4: It's taxing, But I like it, especially when the subject matter is so heavy, because I don't have to stay in it long like I you know, that fourth day, I was like, oh my god, I gotta do this again, you know what I mean, because it's not comfortable. Showing a character's trauma and pain is like showing you some of my trauma and pain and it's healing, but having to open up those wounds, it's not comfortable. It's not comfortable to be in that, but it is healing. 00:10:15 Speaker 8: There's a visual reference in the movie. 00:10:17 Speaker 7: I think what I call it is a visual reference to Annie Lee's Blue Monday. Yes, that's exactly it. Okay, So I'm not crazy, no talk, Okay. So even visually showing things like that in a film and it being like that's like that image is so iconic and you're speaking without speaking when that scene happens, when you're looking at a script. Is that something that's already there when you and Tyler Perry are discussing. Perry came up with that all on his own, okay, Yeah, and he nailed it. Oh. 00:10:44 Speaker 4: I know the painting too. 00:10:45 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:10:45 Speaker 4: And I've had Blue Mondays, you know where I just felt like, shit, I don't want to do it today. I think we all understand that. That's why that painting hits, especially for black women. 00:10:59 Speaker 5: How did your advocacy for mental wellness inform your portrayal of Janaia's. 00:11:03 Speaker 4: Psychological understanding her breaking point and understanding what it is to just be going through the motions barely hanging on by a thread, Like I get that, I understand what that looks like. That's why at the end when they go back, you kind of you like, oh, you can see exactly when she snaps it's crazy. I ain't trying to do it is crazy. 00:11:30 Speaker 6: Somebody in the movie said it's more expensive to be poor. 00:11:34 Speaker 4: Oh my god. Okay, So prime example, Tyler said when he was homeless, he called his mother and was like, can you send me twenty dollars? She said, you need to bring your black ass home because it's gonna cost me fifteen dollars just to send you twenty dollars. Damn. And I don't think people really understand that. 00:11:57 Speaker 1: I wanted to know, without giving too much a way, what's the message in Straw that you hope sticks. 00:12:02 Speaker 2: With people after the credits roll? 00:12:03 Speaker 1: So there was women unity, There was so much about it. What's that one message that you want people to get it and understand. 00:12:09 Speaker 4: That we should move with grace at all times because you never know what somebody's going through. Never judge a book by its cover, because you never know what battles a person is a fighting You just don't and really see people, really don't just throw how you doing, and you know, really wait for a response and really ask the question to want to know you know, connect with people say hi, how are you? You know, and really mean it, because that could save a human's life, just that human interaction, especially for people who feel unseen. 00:12:43 Speaker 5: Only when Tyler even was casting you for that role, did he even know what you had went through? Because if I write a role about somebody getting to their breaking point, knowing somebody already had got on, it feels kind. 00:12:52 Speaker 4: Of Tyler and I are friends of verse, and so we talk all the time about personal things, and so he knows a lot about But he said when he started writing, he just had to. He was going through his own thing and he had to get it out and on the page. And then he said, as he was writing, he saw me, and he'll bring me a lot of projects, and I'll be like, you know what, time, I don't think this is for me. I think this is somebody else's blessing, you know. And then he'll just keep writing. And when he got straw, he said, he hit me. He said I got one for you, and he sent it to me and I read it. I said, this is it. This is the one. So that's kind of how we operate. 00:13:31 Speaker 2: How do you not fight somebody over Tyler? 00:13:34 Speaker 1: How do you not fight because they attacked time, but one because he does so much for people and he's so good to especially our community, and I think a lot of times people don't see that, and even people that he don't know that he doesn't know. Excuse me. 00:13:51 Speaker 2: He helps so much. He talks to, he godes, he mentors, and you guys are so close. 00:13:55 Speaker 3: How do you not just say you know? 00:13:58 Speaker 4: Because his action speaks louder than

the because this man owns a studio. What you got? Every raise that I've gotten and how I've whenever I'm treated the best in this industry is always by him. Every raise that I've gotten has come from a black man. 00:14:14 Speaker 8: Tyler Perry. 00:14:16 Speaker 4: He doubled my quote in Straw four days of work, which is so important for when you go on to that next he understands that that man has helped. He does so much that we don't even know because he's not even talking about it. 00:14:30 Speaker 6: Yeah, you filmed two movies at the same time, Fight Night and Straw. Right, did you find the two characters bleeding into each other? 00:14:39 Speaker 4: It's not at all totally different. He was the first director to challenge me in that way because I was in the throes of Empire. When he called with acrimony, and I was like, Tyler, I don't know. It's being a thesbian. I don't know if I can get into this character. He was like, girl, with your instrument, you can do it. He was like, you're gonna come down here, We're gonna shoot it in five I was like five days. He said, you can do it. If anybody can do it, Taji, you can do it. And he challenged me. He knows I love a good challenge. That's I lean into roles. That scared the shit out of me because I have to grow in some way or change or be transcended or something. And that's what I want from my audience. And if I'm not doing it as the artist, then how is the audience going to transform? So I lean into challenges and he knows that about him because he's a virgo as well. And so now I'm a pro ad it because of Tyler. So when he called this time, I didn't even think about it. I was like, great, four days in and out, Okay, let's go. 00:15:36 Speaker 5: In the industry is finally catching up to your arrange? Are you still underestimated in certain rooms? 00:15:42 Speaker 4: This is an actress no, I think they get it. I think I'm at a really particular point in my special place in my career where I've done so much that I can't just do anything anymore because y'all will be like, why should do that? You know what I mean? And so you know, it's just looking for that right material and it doesn't come like that, so that my fans are frustrated because I'll post a pretty picture and they're like, that's cute. When your next movie coming out, like, I have to be very particular about what I'm choosing now, and some of this stuff doesn't exist and I have to create it, and so that takes a little longer. 00:16:20 Speaker 8: What age were you when you did Empire? 00:16:23 Speaker 4: That was ten years I was forty five. It was twenty fifteen. 00:16:28 Speaker 7: The reason why I asked you that is because I saw your interview where you talked about your overseas and how people received you overseas, and you realized then how big like us overseas were like that whole thing, And I'm wondering right now in your career, you just said you can't do anything, and you get into these different levels so early in your career, even though you've been our Taraji forever. What are new experiences that you're having just in your celebrity life at where you are right now in your career that we might have thought that you've already experienced before. 00:16:56 Speaker 4: I don't know. I guess for me, it's always because I people always go do you not know who you are? Like I went to the girl. I still like to go to the groceres. 00:17:06 Speaker 8: So by my own damn produce, like by Empire, you were iconic to us. 00:17:10 Speaker 4: Okay, thank you, But you know, after so many years of being told by the industry, oh, no one knows you overseas, and then I get overseas and they're like, did ogi please please? Picture? That still throws me, Like I just came back from can and it's the age range for me, it's like the Grandma all the way down sometimes to the great grandchildren. And I'm leaving Connor and I forget, you know, I'm overseas. I'm like, don't nobody know me? And all of a sudden I get crowded by this group of people and then over in the corner, I see these young boys and it's like a soccer team or something. They're standing there with their camera and I just I don't even think they spoke fluent English, but they knew exactly who I was because one of them and I was like, babies, come on, and they all gathered. I'm telling I'm like maybe ten, but that always throws me when the babies know who I am. You know, I'm just like, dang, I'm still relevant. 00:18:14 Speaker 3: Fifty four years old? You ever want a young girl? When black women? 00:18:18 Speaker 7: He was like, the age you remind me asking that? The reason I asked I tell people my age. 00:18:24 Speaker 4: Because I hate that women we feel ashamed of age and when men can have beer bellies balding, sorry. 00:18:38 Speaker 7: I gave, and then we can kind of seehere the like, but you understand what they. 00:18:44 Speaker 4: Can and then they can have a young thing on there and we let that pass and we have to be ashamed of our age. No, I'm not doing it. 00:18:51 Speaker 1: At one point, you were flirting with leaving Hollywood. You said you were tired with the bullshit, the. 00:18:55 Speaker 4: Little ball before I went to the first time, Yeah I had, I remember, I had gotten too a better place. But see, that's what happens when you give so much power over to humans. See, I know God chose me. I'm called chosen and covered. So when you know that everything's not gonna be easy, you know, I had to get back to that. That's what got me to Hollywood with seven hundred dollars in my pocket and my toddler, because I knew I had a calling and I just stirred away from that. But I'm back. 00:19:29 Speaker 2: You feel appreciated more. 00:19:31 Speaker 4: I do, I do. I don't. Look, you know, it's like it's interesting because you go, I didn't get it nominated for this award again, that's did you see the powerful talk that Denzel did about how he got bitter? I mean that was me. That was me, and it particularly happened after hitting

figures. I was like, what do I have to do? Like you know, y'all didn't see the rain. Yeah, I'm still playing cookie. And then I gave you a rocket scientist like what? And that hurt a little bit, But again it hurt because of the power I placed in man's hand. But if you step back from that and take that power back, Look how many black girls are coding now? Not even black girls, young kids, kids, period. Like So that's what I always wanted, and that's what I asked God. I said, I want longevity and I want the work that's going to affect lives in a positive way. I want the work that people are gonna study long after I'm gone, like I did the greats that came before me, you know, And when you ask that's specific. It may not be the awards, you know. I figure if I keep working, that shit'll come. But what's rewarding to me? Or when fans come up to me and go bay whatever? That last it touched me. It made me change the way I, you know, think about things like that's rewarding to me. 00:21:05 Speaker 5: Was on the phone yesterday and she was just saying how much of a fan of you she is? 00:21:09 Speaker 3: I mean, but I'm just like, there's nothing wrong with expressing that. 00:21:13 Speaker 5: Share that with her because you just existing provides that inspiration. 00:21:17 Speaker 3: And then she's shamed me because I was just like, I was like, you damn right. We saw Toaji. 00:21:20 Speaker 5: I saw to Rogi in the theatters for baby Boy, and she was like you saw baby Boy in theats. 00:21:26 Speaker 4: She made you feel older. 00:21:28 Speaker 7: I've never thought about baby Boy in a movie theater about. 00:21:33 Speaker 4: Crazy my son. 00:21:40 Speaker 7: But I don't know just how you feel, but I feel like wanting to be in entertainment being television like it's you think of you because you're able to be. 00:21:48 Speaker 4: It always seems like you've been able to be yourself. 00:21:50 Speaker 7: So when we were like, I know for myself, when I heard you talk about that before that first body trip, not feeling like enough, I'm like, wait, what, Like she's been the this is how you can be the girl from where are you from? 00:22:00 Speaker 8: Run away? 00:22:01 Speaker 7: Whatever you want to call it, But like you're in Hollywood and you're graceful in your career impacts. So I'm glad you're out of that because I was like, what this is? 00:22:10 Speaker 8: Dteragp intem like it was. 00:22:12 Speaker 4: Actual burnout because of the work. You know, people go, you work a lot. I too, because the math ain't math and the zeros ain't adding up, you know. And so because you see somebody working a lot a lot of times when it's us, it's because that one job is not gonna cover you for the year. I wish I could just do two films and be like, I mean, I'm kind of to that point now, you know what I mean. But there are actors out there that's just one job a year because that's how they get paid. And I don't think people really understand the breakdown of the math. You know, fifty cent. If somebody goes they made ten million dollars, right, you got to remember Uncle Sam's coming to take half of that off the top, and then you have to pay your thirty or forty percent whatever you're paying your team off your gross. So you're not taking home ten million dollars. I know it sounds amazing, but you're not taking it home. Somebody gets paid one million for a film, they not seeing that one million in their bank account. Do the math, you know. So that's why. So I think a lot of it was burnout and frustration because once I lifted my head and was like, why do I have to work so much? You know, I just got burned out. That became bitter. 00:23:26 Speaker 5: You know a lot of people thought you were kicking Thiland Oprah's back in during the Color Purple. 00:23:30 Speaker 4: Oh my god, why would they think that. 00:23:32 Speaker 5: I guess that they were the producers of the film, and they thought that when you were complaining about the pay. 00:23:36 Speaker 4: You know, they had bosses, right, thank you? And when have you ever seen me drag another woman, particularly a black woman? Ever? I'm ten toes down for us. Never? And then the fact that blogs, and I think it was just a campaign so that this black movie wouldn't do well, right, because to say I even saw some bits about it was my fault that the film didn't do well? Oh yeah, I saw that. What how did? How did? How? How? 00:24:08 Speaker 7: They tried to say that you because of the conversation you raised about the money and things that weren't right. It pivoted the focus to people aren't going to go see the film. They care more about what is Taraji saying? 00:24:17 Speaker 8: Is it true or not? 00:24:18 Speaker 4: That's you know that total now I know it is. 00:24:21 Speaker 7: But I'm gonna tell you what the conversation, what you're referring to. We're telling jess what the most. 00:24:25 Speaker 4: And me and Oprah, I have such a love and a fondness for her. She just texted me the other day commending me on a job well done in Straw. So that was all fixtures like and to draw a wedge between us. But see, I'm not gonna let you do that because I went to her defense right away. Y'all not gonna do that to this woman. All of this what she does, I mean, like, stop it, stop that. 00:24:47 Speaker 3: Even with Tyler, Tyler is the person that pays you the most. 00:24:50 Speaker 4: What I'm never gonna not work with Tyler. That just is that's insane to me. I enjoy working with him. I really really do. We have fun on that set. I love that he challenges me. I understand. I'm never gonna turn my back on us. You know, people that go to the Tyler Perry films is a huge population of us. Like, so for me to say I'm not gonna do it time about, that's me turning my back on us. I would never speaking of black women in relationships your character and Strolgian and during her like worst moment, black women in the movie still like get around her and heller around her even almost like

forcibly, but like not really because they identify with her absolutely. 00:25:33 Speaker 7: What is you know, not even the importance? But like when people watch those moments throughout the movie, what do you want them to take from that? 00:25:40 Speaker 4: That we need each other and we're more powerful when we support each other. I'm a huge you know how I am with the sister girls, you know? And I told this to the Spellman Lady graduating class of twenty twenty five. The last thing I said to them was like, ladies, like we are more powerful in numbers. We need to support each other. Do not air your grievances with another sister in public. You got a problem with her, pull it to the side. That's between you and her. To fix that is not for the public to weigh in with their shallow opinions. I said, it's black women. We take too many bullets from society. Why why would I be another obstacle for another sister to get over. I'm just not gonna do it. 00:26:36 Speaker 8: Earlier today. I need it to depend on her. How we've had this. 00:26:40 Speaker 4: I'm glad. That's beautiful, and that's growth and more of that. But it breaks my heart when I see sisters go at it in public. It does something to me because we have enough to overcome. Why should it be another sister like we got the same struggle. 00:26:57 Speaker 5: So the dynamic between you and Sherry Shepard and Leanna Taylor in the movie, that's the enhanced like the exploration the sisterhood and solidarity is. 00:27:04 Speaker 4: Absolutely Tyler wrote that, and he doesn't do anything by mistake, like he's a virgo. He's very calculated. 00:27:13 Speaker 8: Because I was wondering that dynamic was that something you brought in? 00:27:17 Speaker 4: But it was already there. It's already there. He wrote it like that, see, because you know Detective Raymond, who uh, Tiana plays so effortlessly that girl. Let me just say this about Tiana. She coming for everything, y'all. She's coming for everybody and everybody's next and everything. She what I love about her. I mean, she just leaves nothing on the table. She checks every box. She's just incredible. Have you seen the snippet for her new video Come As the mini movie that she directed. 00:27:52 Speaker 3: Yes, in front of the camera, behind the camera. 00:27:55 Speaker 4: Every gift that God gave her, she is using an I mean, sweetheart, I love her anyway. When she starts hearing my character Jania's story, she totally identifies because she's a single mother, so that touches her right. She's like, wait a minute and see for us. Do you have you ever seen that that series call is it The Center? It's called The Center, and it's about people who do these crimes. And there's this gentleman who's a detective and he goes to the why. There's always a why, and when you understand the why, then you're able to show compassion and give some grace because people just don't do stuff just because they're pushed to a point. I'm not excusing. Yes, I'm not excusing the

d that has been done. But if we can just understand why, the why. And that's why I'm always playing the why of my characters, because I want the audience to feel for the person. If I didn't play the why of cookies, she could have been just another sass, smart mouthed black woman. No one would have cared. But because I got to her why, everybody in the world could identify with her. Lays the cookie too. You know, do you. 00:29:11 Speaker 7: Think that the layers that we see in Jenia and Straw in her having to learn to be like actually admit that she's not okay and not just covering things up, and you talk about your personal life not being a life of a party anymore and being okay with that. 00:29:23 Speaker 8: Do you think that that. 00:29:24 Speaker 7: That's something that after watching this movie people can take on easily or like, what do you think people's journey to get to that point will be after watching this movie. 00:29:30 Speaker 4: Everybody's journey is different. Some people find it hard to very difficult to deal with trauma because it's it's not easy going through therapy. You gotta deal with the ugly shit first before you get There is no way to get over a storm or under a storm. You gotta go through it before you can see the sun. But the sun always shines, but you have to go through it. And that therapy journey is not for the week, and some people, unfortunately, spend their lifetime just dodging it. And it's unfortunate because your life can be so much better if you could just heal, because you find yourself, you know, almost like a Gerbil in the wheel. If you're not, because the same shit that you think you're running from, you're gonna wherever you are, wherever you go, there you are, and all your problems you cannot. 00:30:25 Speaker 8: You're not drinking or decision and not drink anymore. 00:30:28 Speaker 4: Okay, So I do have my wine, and I do I love my seven daughters, but I do take breaks. For five months, I had stopped drinking because I felt like I needed clarity. I needed to get rid of some negative energy that was in my life that I couldn't see because and not to say that I have a drinking problem or anything like that, I just think like you fast sometimes because you need to reset your system. I did this sobriety for like five months, and then you know, when I have to promote my wine and I do really like my seven daughters, but it's a it's low in calories, and it doesn't get you like plastered like you. I mean, I can sip it by the pool and still function, you know, But I do have moments where I fast from that as well, because I just think it's great for my mental because I'm I'm present. 00:31:23 Speaker 7: I was going to ask what presence did it bring before you at and prepare for this role? 00:31:28 Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, I was able to get up in the morning. And another thing I find when I don't drink is that I can work out, you know what i mean. Like, that's one vice that I pick up and I go hard with. I mean, I'm sure you've seen some of my videos that I'm pouring into myself because I'm present, you know, I'm not numbing out. 00:31:54 Speaker 5: What's one quiet decision to Roger you made that had the biggest impact on your career but never made. 00:31:59 Speaker 4: Headlines the biggest say that again, it was one. 00:32:01 Speaker 5: Quiet decision you made that had the biggest impact on your career but never made headlines. 00:32:06 Speaker 4: Quiet decision. I mean, it seems like everything I do makes the headline because I thought me going to BALI was gonna be quiet, and it's still we're still talking about it. I think I talk about everything. I don't think you know, because I feel like if you have a story to tell, tell it. I try to keep my breakup. Gab. Oh, that's a good one. I'might have to call you back on that one. You have to call you back. Well, this is not even this is not even a question. 00:32:40 Speaker 6: But in watching Straw, I got John kevibes, Oh my gosh. 00:32:47 Speaker 4: Well. The difference with John Q is that he was very conscious and what he was doing. He was trying to save his son, and he was like, I ain't got no money. The insurance is not paying, so I'm gonna stick y'all up, you know. But it was like what you would do, what links you would go through your new mom for your kid. It hits you in a new way, doesn't it. When you become a mother, and it's real, like it's not about you anymore. Once you become a parent, you have this whole existence and being and human that you are responsible for. And if you are a responsible person, that's a very serious job for you. Like you know, before you were probably like I'm a you know, you know, a public figure. Now it's like I'm a mom first, you know. So it's different. Life is different when you have that kind of responsibility and you'll do anything for your child and you and the hurt that they feel, you feel it ten times more because you feel like it's my job to protect this child. And so when they're bully, you ready to go to wall because it's like, no, how dare you? You know? 00:33:58 Speaker 6: And Jeniah snapt but she kept going, didn't he Really she didn't know. 00:34:02 Speaker 4: She had no idea. She was operating outside of herself. 00:34:07 Speaker 3: A lot. 00:34:08 Speaker 5: We know a lot of things you do are super intentional because, like you said, you so, what's the most strategic thing you've ever done? 00:34:13 Speaker 3: That people mistook as emotional? 00:34:18 Speaker 4: Probably talking about the paying that because I have a crying about money. I tell you what, bitch, if you want to eat, you better speak the fuck up right. The squeaky wheel gets figged, mouth don't get fed right. And I'm gonna tell you who's not complaining about that money anymore? 00:34:40 Speaker 3: Because after that, Hollywood started coming. 00:34:41 Speaker 4: Correct, man, listen, they have to you do you want to hit my mouth again? I demanded that respect. This is my last question. Are you happy? I'm so happy. I can't expect people go you're glowing? Yes, because I am not dealing with nobody's a hell child at peace, the peace that I have been fighting for. I have it, and it has nothing to do with anybody, no other human. It's all in me. I love you. I love you. 00:35:12 Speaker 3: Do you even tell the unhealed people anything anymore? 00:35:14 Speaker 4: No? No, because sometimes they ain't ready to hear it. 00:35:17 Speaker 3: I will say, I hope you heal. 00:35:18 Speaker 4: I do say that, you know, I just cause sometimes they take that all right right, you know? So it's just for you to discover. 00:35:33 Speaker 8: Sweet well, thank you? 00:35:36 Speaker 3: Is this Friday? 00:35:37 Speaker 4: Netflix? 00:35:38 Speaker 2: Definitely check it out. 00:35:39 Speaker 3: And wait till you see what we do for you in this building. 00:35:41 Speaker 4: You see is it a bust? 00:35:44 Speaker 8: What does that mean? 00:35:45 Speaker 2: It is a bus like a. 00:35:48 Speaker 4: Is it? 00:35:48 Speaker 3: Yes? 00:35:49 Speaker 4: Don't put no badass wig on it. 00:35:51 Speaker 3: Like yesterday will be a bust. 00:36:00 Speaker 4: Okay, were in the situa of his table in the. 00:36:04 Speaker 5: Hall because people will see it whenever they want. So you have to go buy Angie Studio and. 00:36:08 Speaker 4: Coming it look like me. Don't like. 00:36:12 Speaker 2: The way waves when the way Wade statue that don't. 00:36:15 Speaker 4: Don't do that, yeah, because that's okay, not mine. And I met thank you. 00:36:21 Speaker 7: For your career than not ending the interview yet. I thank you for that, thank you, thank you for you. 00:36:26 Speaker 5: Yes, that's your career, you the person that you are, because your career has given you the platform to be out here being the mental health advocate that you are. And I think that that work is going out outlive probably anything, I hope. 00:36:36 Speaker 4: So yeah, that to me feels like probably why God set me up to be a public figure to get to that. Absolutely, yeah, so grateful, Thank you so much, guys. 00:36:46 Speaker 2: This is beautiful and gentlemen, it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, wake that ass up in the morning. 00:36:53 Speaker 3: The Breakfast Club.