Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's to show that she
Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's given me
Speaker 1: advice on many occasions in indicasion, didn't notice I'm not broke.
Speaker 1: You know. He'll be interview with celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and
Speaker 1: industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do, it's
Speaker 1: what he likes to share. Now it's time to hear
Speaker 1: from my man, Rashan McDonald. Money Making Conversations. Here we come.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversation master Class. I am your
Speaker 1: host with Sean McDonald. I recognize that we all have
Speaker 1: different definitions of success. For you, it may be the
Speaker 1: size of your paycheck. Mine has inspired people to accomplish
Speaker 1: their goals and live their very best life. It's time
Speaker 1: to stop reading other people's success stories and start writing
Speaker 1: your own. People always talk about their purpose or gifts.
Speaker 1: If you have a gift, leave with your gifts and
Speaker 1: don't let your friends, family, or coworkers stop you from
Speaker 1: planning or living your dreams. I guess it's a thing.
Speaker 1: You're Nicole and was born in on army base in
Speaker 1: Germany to a black Southern woman born in the West
Speaker 1: African man from Ghana. Nicole, as he's affectionately known, was
Speaker 1: raised in Detroit, Michigan, the Motor City. He just mystifies
Speaker 1: the myths around Southern black men, black gay men, and
Speaker 1: those identifying in the non binary space and if they
Speaker 1: live four lives that they can leave. Nico originated the
Speaker 1: role of Uncle Clifford and the popular show P Valley
Speaker 1: and played that characters is twenty eleven. To date, he
Speaker 1: is the only character that played the Clifford as well
Speaker 1: as on the television show P Valley the Stars Network.
Speaker 1: The award winning series P Valley is back for season two.
Speaker 1: P Valley. If you don't know, It's an engrossing drama, family, friendship,
Speaker 1: and survival. Every Sunday you can catch it temp M
Speaker 1: Eastern and Pacific. This season is richly crafted. Characters deal
Speaker 1: with sacrifice, ethical dilemmas, identity, family, love, trust, and betrayal,
Speaker 1: while also facing the aftermass of the decisions from season one.
Speaker 1: Please work from the money Making Conversation master Class for
Speaker 1: the first time, Nico, how are you doing, my friend,
Speaker 1: I'm great, I'm great. Thank you so much for having
Speaker 1: me here. First of all, my first time hopefully won't
Speaker 1: be the last. Oh no, no, no, no, I'll be
Speaker 1: mad if you're the lad because you're you're a star.
Speaker 1: You are a star. You are an individual, brother, you
Speaker 1: know you're an individual. That Let's let's talk about the character,
Speaker 1: because you know in your bio they said you've been
Speaker 1: playing this character or character like this, So that means
Speaker 1: that character did not originate on the television series I've seen,
Speaker 1: you've been playing it before. That give us some background
Speaker 1: history on your character and how did they get to
Speaker 1: that point, because, like I said, you know, because you
Speaker 1: have some great you know, designs and your beard and
Speaker 1: all that stuff that you're not wearing right now. I
Speaker 1: have a beard, I remember right there the movie they
Speaker 1: cut my beard in a certain way. And so let's
Speaker 1: let's talk about that character developed because I'm sure it
Speaker 1: was inspired a lot by your own imagination. Um, it
Speaker 1: was inspired a lot by my own imagination, but primarily
Speaker 1: from Coltori halls imagination. Ulatory Hall is our showrunner and
Speaker 1: the creator of this universe that she has here, um
Speaker 1: but here in p Valley. This actually started a little
Speaker 1: earlier than two thousand and eleven. Back in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine. Um, yeah, I was living in New York
Speaker 1: at the time. I was an after I was choreographing
Speaker 1: and directing, so I was doing all three and I
Speaker 1: was in between gigs and I received the invitation to
Speaker 1: go to Quatori's house. Uh. She was having a salon series.
Speaker 1: She used to have this thing called black Mondays because
Speaker 1: in the theater it's dark on Mondays. In theater language,
Speaker 1: we say it's black um, because all the lights are off.
Speaker 1: And so what happened was she was she had a
Speaker 1: writing fellowship at the Lark Theater Company. It's an off
Speaker 1: Broadway house in New York. And through that salon series,
Speaker 1: it was a group of writers, actors, musicians that just
Speaker 1: got together to read or talk about their ideas and
Speaker 1: new material that they had and a collective so to speak,
Speaker 1: kind of like James Baldwin's or Herston you know, the
Speaker 1: Renaissance group back in the day. Um, they were creating
Speaker 1: their own version of that. And essentially what happened there
Speaker 1: was a lot of network thing that was happening across
Speaker 1: the platform among all these different black artists. It was
Speaker 1: not necessarily somewhat none of us at the time we're
Speaker 1: on Broadway or had big major motion picture deals. And
Speaker 1: literally was about conversation and who is it that has
Speaker 1: points of access and just different ideas. So one of
Speaker 1: her co writers in the fellowship, Dominique Marisso who they
Speaker 1: both since have been like Tony Award nominations and all
Speaker 1: these accreditations and awards decorating them. Um. She said, I'm
Speaker 1: looking for a person that kind of houses this uh,
Speaker 1: feminine energy yet a masculine energy, have this idea for
Speaker 1: this after and it was all these things. And when
Speaker 1: I got there, there were five pages. Man, there were
Speaker 1: five pages, and on those five pages only two of
Speaker 1: them Uncle Clifford was in. There was two different scenes
Speaker 1: and it was the description of Uncle Clifford Um emerging
Speaker 1: from the shadows of the club, eyelashes like butterfly wings,
Speaker 1: and nails like ego talents, Uncle Clifford Um. And so
Speaker 1: that's how it all started. Now, how tall are you
Speaker 1: because you're you're you're not a small to I'm definitely
Speaker 1: a man of size. I'm six too, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. As they say corn branded, they just said, Nicole,
Speaker 1: you know, because your your body was introduced in the pilot.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, we used saw that real
Speaker 1: look and everything so so nudity. That was nudity. How
Speaker 1: did you feel with a comfortable moment? For you? You
Speaker 1: have to prepare for that moment. Talking about that in
Speaker 1: the pilot scene, I think you always have to prepare
Speaker 1: for any person and that you know, you know that
Speaker 1: as an artist in general, where you are using your
Speaker 1: body to tell the story, you're using your soul to
Speaker 1: tell the story. Um, I know as an artist I
Speaker 1: am especially I'm gonna tell you this, being a man
Speaker 1: of a certain age, I think in my twenties it
Speaker 1: was it could have maybe messed me up a little
Speaker 1: bit more because it was more into the constraints of
Speaker 1: what people sought I should be. But I'm a grown
Speaker 1: man now. You know. The thirties, you know they taught
Speaker 1: me how to really be who I am and to
Speaker 1: have a level of self acceptance. But in regards to
Speaker 1: the show and how the nudity works, it's a The
Speaker 1: show takes place in this club called Pink, and it's
Speaker 1: a strip club. And so we're talking about these people
Speaker 1: who are marginalized and definitely have an idea they know
Speaker 1: what they're doing, and they're working in the sex work industry,
Speaker 1: and it just made sense that in this industry there's
Speaker 1: a level of awareness and comfortability of being in one's
Speaker 1: body and now stepping outside of that as the actor
Speaker 1: and the artist. I had to ask myself the question
Speaker 1: and I proposed it to the producers in my camera
Speaker 1: test for the series. The TV series, it was more
Speaker 1: so they said how do I feel about it? And
Speaker 1: my question to them was, when was the last time
Speaker 1: that you saw a full figured body, male or female,
Speaker 1: dark skinned being made love to on the screen. And
Speaker 1: I felt that that image of someone being full, you know,
Speaker 1: and being shown love, being made love to, being loving,
Speaker 1: I thought that that was just a revolutionary visual. So
Speaker 1: I was definitely open to it, you know, and there's
Speaker 1: a process to get to it. But yeah, yeah, like
Speaker 1: to say, I always tell people will come on my
Speaker 1: show and also the people watch or listen to show.
Speaker 1: That's a process, you know, this is never you know,
Speaker 1: you have to meet with your other cast members and
Speaker 1: set boundaries about what makes you feel comfortable and makes
Speaker 1: that other person feel comfortable so it can feel natural.
Speaker 1: I'm sure this has happened with you on this series
Speaker 1: as well. Correct. Absolutely, we definitely have intimacy coaches and
Speaker 1: h the intimacy coach is the interact in the media,
Speaker 1: in the middle the media that works between different actors,
Speaker 1: the directors, what the script demands and what how do
Speaker 1: we get there. It's really great. So I'm talking to Nicole,
Speaker 1: I'm calling my friend, you know, uncle Clifford. Uncle Clifford,
Speaker 1: because if somebody who comes into your life super confident,
Speaker 1: but also it's surrounded by a world of people, not
Speaker 1: just women, but the world of people, customers who really
Speaker 1: don't don't know what. They live in a fantasy world,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that fantasy world can be cruel. But I
Speaker 1: would tell you this is what I really like about
Speaker 1: this show, p Valley. You see the word strip, you
Speaker 1: see the word black. You just think you're gonn to
Speaker 1: a ton of nudity, And that is not the case.
Speaker 1: It's the story, is the characters, is the is, the
Speaker 1: is the lateness the lines talk about that because that's
Speaker 1: what people initially think. Correct, The stereotype is when you
Speaker 1: just black club, chip club, here, nudity, new dig and
Speaker 1: that is not the case. I in fact, the nudity
Speaker 1: when I watched the series, it comes so casual that
Speaker 1: I don't notice it because I'm so engaged into the
Speaker 1: character's storyline. And that's really a blessing, correct Nicle, It's
Speaker 1: it's more than a blessing. I felt like it's a
Speaker 1: it's a necessity in the way that we had to
Speaker 1: tell the story. This is definitely I think that Tori
Speaker 1: really wanted to make sure that there's definitely the fact
Speaker 1: that women and female bodies have really been looked at
Speaker 1: and used in a certain way in cinema specifically and
Speaker 1: over sexualized. But here in this world, I think that
Speaker 1: there's something that we call the female days, and that's
Speaker 1: something that's always asked of people that the different directors
Speaker 1: that are coming on the show. That's something that we
Speaker 1: think about as a cast um and the female gaze
Speaker 1: that does not only pertain to the female body. But
Speaker 1: how is it that you can see the world without objectification? Um.
Speaker 1: I think that through that space you you get to
Speaker 1: see the athleticism of these pole danswers and to see
Speaker 1: what it takes to physically do the things that they
Speaker 1: are doing to haul themselves up this pole, to to
Speaker 1: to fly around, to walk on the ceiling and on
Speaker 1: clouds that's actually the big metaphor for the show, the pole,
Speaker 1: the poll. There's a line that always says, sometimes rising
Speaker 1: feels like falling, and falling feels like rising. So the
Speaker 1: poll is actually meant to be the metaphor for life
Speaker 1: and in a way that we as black people, especially
Speaker 1: black Southerners, have existed and made it through the day.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
Speaker 1: with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's return to Money Making Conversations
Speaker 1: Masterclass with Rashan McDonald or Nicole. He brought up the pole. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm chasing that key Shaw. Don't don't get too don't
Speaker 1: don't don't move too fast because I gotta get to
Speaker 1: them outstanding credit Shaw and Mercedes. Okay, but let's first
Speaker 1: go with Keyshaw. My my, my, my my. I'm just
Speaker 1: talking from an athletic stampon am I talking from a
Speaker 1: sexual stample? What I'm seeing that she does on that pole,
Speaker 1: it has to be moth dropping to the cast. And
Speaker 1: where did they find her? And what is her background
Speaker 1: as an athlete because she has that gymnastics in her background? Correct?
Speaker 1: Why do you say that because of the fact she's
Speaker 1: so comfortable on the pole. She's flexible, she's able to
Speaker 1: she's able to manipulate it because, like I said, I'm
Speaker 1: not doing it justice. You have to watch the series
Speaker 1: to see what she's able to do. As far as
Speaker 1: from a from a Ballaridas standpoint, she is really poet
Speaker 1: poetic on that pole, you know where where Mercedes is
Speaker 1: a force, not saying she's not sexual, but she's a force.
Speaker 1: Is It's like watching a running back and a wire receiver.
Speaker 1: A wire receiver flows, you know what I'm saying. That's key, Sean.
Speaker 1: A running back can flow too, but they can hit
Speaker 1: that whole and if you hit him, then you can
Speaker 1: knock you off. That's Mercedes. That's right. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: That's right, So and so so. So you're gonna give me, Nicole.
Speaker 1: I know, yeah, you're gonna give me. I watched this show. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to get you know What's what? What's
Speaker 1: I love that you are actually saying that you you
Speaker 1: use the football metaphors and comparisons, and it definitely is
Speaker 1: accurate all of the dancers. The thing about it is
Speaker 1: in the strip club, every dancer has a different style.
Speaker 1: Some of the dancers are like twerkers, So like, there's
Speaker 1: a group of our core dancers and some of them
Speaker 1: run what in the club is called twerktown. In tworktown
Speaker 1: are like, you know, the platform stages that are within
Speaker 1: the actual club, not on the main stage with the
Speaker 1: pole and some of the girls who worked there like toy.
Speaker 1: But then when you talk about Miss Mississippi, who is
Speaker 1: played by Shannon Thornton, she is that character is meant
Speaker 1: to be like the masterpiece she's based off. She's called
Speaker 1: Miss Mississippi because she moves like water, and her moving
Speaker 1: like water is rooted in the African deity of Yema y'all,
Speaker 1: Yema y'all, being the goddess of water and of power.
Speaker 1: You know, Mercedes is that like you mentioned, Mercedes is
Speaker 1: played by Brandy Evans. I'm gonna say Brandy Norwood, Brandy,
Speaker 1: that's not not my friend and sing about my friend.
Speaker 1: The actors Miss Brandy Evans, and she her style of
Speaker 1: dancing is definitely much more athletic. It's definitely much more physical,
Speaker 1: and it also lends to the personality of the dancer.
Speaker 1: You know, where there's levels of aggression or where there's
Speaker 1: a level of fluidity. I think that dance being a choreographer,
Speaker 1: and Brandy being a dancer, and Shannon having dance before.
Speaker 1: None of them dance as uh, pole dancers, but we're
Speaker 1: physical dancers. Ell Rika Johnson who plays All the Night,
Speaker 1: she has an extensive background in martial arts, So there
Speaker 1: was a level of physicality that all of us had
Speaker 1: in our bodies. Then what has to happen is that
Speaker 1: we go through a training program. We go through boot camp.
Speaker 1: We literally go through bootcamp, just like all of the
Speaker 1: Marvel characters, just like we're gonna do an action movie.
Speaker 1: There's about three to four months before we actually start
Speaker 1: filming that everybody goes to pole classes. You're going to
Speaker 1: stretch classes. You gotta get your hips open, gotta get
Speaker 1: the back, you gotta do all the conditioning because it
Speaker 1: tears up your hands, your knees, you get a lot
Speaker 1: of bruising and things like that. Um and some of
Speaker 1: the girls are definitely sharing some of that background on
Speaker 1: social media that you know, you guys get to see
Speaker 1: a what it all takes. Because the show and the
Speaker 1: world is kind of meant to be our own kind
Speaker 1: of urban circus ol lay so to speak. Well, that
Speaker 1: terms used actually in the serious as well circus like
Speaker 1: and it's used the Mississippi. Her character Keyshawn's role because
Speaker 1: she's married to a guy, won't give too much of
Speaker 1: the story away. But somebody she shouldn't be. She shouldn't
Speaker 1: I should use were married. She said she's living with
Speaker 1: a guy who she has a child with is not
Speaker 1: creating a comfortable home life for her, and that they
Speaker 1: slides into the who I really love this guy who
Speaker 1: plays the role of Diamond. You know, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: not often that. Did you see a show where the
Speaker 1: bouncer is sensitive but but dangerous? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, like I look at Diamond, you know,
Speaker 1: a diamond. You know, it's like I feel that I
Speaker 1: could lose his he could crush me, but then he
Speaker 1: can also pick me up and take me and rescue
Speaker 1: me at the same time after he's crushed me. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Nicole, So talk about those characters.
Speaker 1: When you see a character like a Diamonds character and
Speaker 1: then then being able to develop out, how how special
Speaker 1: do you feel in the role from episode to episode
Speaker 1: to episode. I feel great, I feel blessed, I feel
Speaker 1: really uh, I know that this is a special term
Speaker 1: as an artist. UH, as an actor, you don't always
Speaker 1: get roles that are so rich and that are really
Speaker 1: rooted in a level of truth that represents your community,
Speaker 1: that can represent a fraction of your life that you
Speaker 1: have been through. I think that this show, it definitely
Speaker 1: takes all the different marginalized communities all and the marginalized
Speaker 1: within the marginalized. You know. One of the beautiful things
Speaker 1: and attractive points to me about this project is that
Speaker 1: it wasn't just the women who come in and out
Speaker 1: these doors. You talked about the bouncer, our Diamond. UM.
Speaker 1: That's the character's name, and Diamond is played by Tyler Lepley,
Speaker 1: and Tyler is able to bring the level of sensitivity
Speaker 1: as well as complexity to the role coming as a
Speaker 1: former um UH armed officer, the officer in the of
Speaker 1: the law but armed forces UM and what that did
Speaker 1: to him being in the war and that that postpartum
Speaker 1: that comes from there. UM. I think that it's also
Speaker 1: he's he's a route man, you know, he's a black
Speaker 1: man and a Southern man that was raised in knowing
Speaker 1: the powers of the earth and very strong African medicine.
Speaker 1: UM and how that works, and sometimes you don't get
Speaker 1: to see that in an urban body, you know, in
Speaker 1: a contemporary body, like what does that look like? You know,
Speaker 1: it's not some kind of who do hokey magic. It
Speaker 1: is literally something that's rooted in tradition, like have you
Speaker 1: ever swept your grandmother slip by mistake? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So that salt goes over the show. You know,
Speaker 1: left left, the person on the floor, person on the floor,
Speaker 1: get that, you know exactly those things so um that
Speaker 1: those kinds of things and southern Southern uh isms are
Speaker 1: woven into this story and that actually is a part
Speaker 1: of where Cotroy started her writing. Her writing has always
Speaker 1: used and highlighted Southern culture and all of its capacities
Speaker 1: to make it so here here's the thing that really
Speaker 1: First of all, I'm a former sitcom writer. I've done
Speaker 1: a lot of productions in my life. It's definitely a
Speaker 1: show that about to do ultimate compliment. The writing, the
Speaker 1: dialogue is incredible. I mean, this is this is just
Speaker 1: that writing room are The writers on the show have
Speaker 1: created a world that is so authentic that is incredible,
Speaker 1: and that when I when I when I when I
Speaker 1: look like a little Murder. I'm waiting for his music,
Speaker 1: you know it is, so I'm waiting when is it
Speaker 1: gonna draw? Are they going to drop a CD for this?
Speaker 1: Are they a soundtrack for this? Yes? Yes, they literally have.
Speaker 1: We have. Uh it's on all platforms right now. It
Speaker 1: goes episode by episode, so there every time there's new music,
Speaker 1: it is out there. And it's not only the music
Speaker 1: of the character on this show, like Little Murder, but
Speaker 1: the music of the Southern artists that we have gotten
Speaker 1: to be on the soundtrack. The show literally is meant
Speaker 1: to be a platform for the community. I think that's
Speaker 1: something that a lot of people were a little shocked by.
Speaker 1: But even one of our writers that writes music for
Speaker 1: a Little Murder, the artist's name is new Money. Money
Speaker 1: is a brother. New Money is a brother. He was
Speaker 1: working with us during season one and you know what
Speaker 1: he was doing. He was working at the food station.
Speaker 1: He was making our omelets. He was making in One
Speaker 1: morning we were there getting our breakfast, and you know,
Speaker 1: he told our found Jay Fons Nicholson, who is the
Speaker 1: actor who plays a Little Murder, and he had told her.
Speaker 1: He was like, yo, man, I know you're playing a
Speaker 1: rock on the show. You know, I got some music.
Speaker 1: I got some music. So we got some music. Oh
Speaker 1: that's what's up. That's what's because people say that to
Speaker 1: you all the time. And so what happened was he
Speaker 1: handed him and he sent him some music. He uh,
Speaker 1: you know, deemed them the music or whatever. Our farns
Speaker 1: went to gonna listen to the music. He heard it,
Speaker 1: he played it for one of our producers, Patrick Patrick
Speaker 1: Ian Polk, one of the k EPs. He then for
Speaker 1: that Entpretory Hall, and before you knew it, the song
Speaker 1: was worked in. He was brought on board. He's a writer.
Speaker 1: And here we are in season two and this brother's
Speaker 1: life has changed. So again, just like I got put
Speaker 1: on with this project through a level of networking across
Speaker 1: from knowing Dominique Marie So someone who I went to
Speaker 1: high school with. She then knowing Coutre Hall, who was
Speaker 1: someone she's in a writer's uh program with at the
Speaker 1: Lark Theater And here I am and then Antoine a
Speaker 1: k a new money. He was just getting a job,
Speaker 1: just get a job, but still connected to your passion
Speaker 1: speaking it. That then turned into something where he now
Speaker 1: as a writer and a musician himself has elevated his platform,
Speaker 1: and it's bringing all this music to you. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just it just it's a testament to how we
Speaker 1: can move back to the community. I'll change that the
Speaker 1: music is fantastic, that the characters are fantastic. You know,
Speaker 1: when you say Grandmall, I'll be remissed, Nicole, if I
Speaker 1: don't bring up Okay, I've really remiss if I don't
Speaker 1: bring up that character. Bro. I just come on, come on.
Speaker 1: That's my girl right there. Man. You know, she started
Speaker 1: on Netflix's Family Union and so many other series. You know,
Speaker 1: been around up, came from the University of Houston. We're
Speaker 1: back in Houston, Texas, back in the day. A k
Speaker 1: A true and true tell us absolutely my friend. I've
Speaker 1: used to Texas absolutely so seeing her and seeing her
Speaker 1: play this this this uh this role which is as
Speaker 1: is Isaiah Washington who was on the first season. He's
Speaker 1: from Houston, Texas, Missouri City, which is a suburb of Houston, Texas.
Speaker 1: So to talk about that relationship and her character. Working
Speaker 1: with Loretta divine, I always say, is simply divine. Um.
Speaker 1: I had on a vision board to work with her,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know what project. You know, this was
Speaker 1: just something that I just always loved her spirit and
Speaker 1: her zeal um. When I met her it was even more.
Speaker 1: It was even more. She is such a rich treasure,
Speaker 1: like she's like a national treasure to to to us
Speaker 1: as a people. I can't, I can't. I wanted to
Speaker 1: just say to me, but I don't want to hold
Speaker 1: her to myself. Um, when we work together, it is awesome.
Speaker 1: It is so much fun. We always have a level.
Speaker 1: I tend to do this generally when I'm playing Uncle Clifford.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of improv that happens prior to We
Speaker 1: always do improv scenes prior to the scene to get
Speaker 1: us in the flow, because we just want to be
Speaker 1: in the moment um. I am from Detroit, as you
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, but my family is rooted in the South.
Speaker 1: You know, Detroit is just nothing but up south, you know. So,
Speaker 1: so there's a level of comfortability that we have with
Speaker 1: one another, and we really just bounce off and she's
Speaker 1: able to really just be there and drop in. Sometimes
Speaker 1: we are actually forget that, you know, we're not really
Speaker 1: related in real life. You know, She's amazing. I'm talking
Speaker 1: to Nicole. He's one of the stars and an incredibly
Speaker 1: popular series of stars that were called The p Valley.
Speaker 1: You can catch it every Sunday night at Tempi. I'm
Speaker 1: Eastern and Pacific time. I always try to educate myself.
Speaker 1: I always try to uplift. I always trying to bring
Speaker 1: information to the show that we all need to be
Speaker 1: aware of and also learned. There's a level of respect
Speaker 1: we have to have for everybody. And in your introduction,
Speaker 1: I said, he just he demystifies the myth around Southern
Speaker 1: black man, black gay man and those identified in the
Speaker 1: non binary space and who lived four lives us. As
Speaker 1: we close out this interview, please explain to us exactly
Speaker 1: the importance of that and what are you trying to
Speaker 1: What am I trying to say when I say that
Speaker 1: what I just said, I think what you are saying
Speaker 1: to me. How I receive it is that it is
Speaker 1: a new day. It is a time where we regardless
Speaker 1: of how you identify, I think at the time when
Speaker 1: we can see all of us, when we can acknowledge
Speaker 1: all of us, and when we can talk about it. Um.
Speaker 1: I come from the time from when it used to
Speaker 1: be the question of are you sweet or do you
Speaker 1: have sugar in your tank? Or back in the day,
Speaker 1: even red some said from the side, he was like,
Speaker 1: you know, he's a little You know, there were things
Speaker 1: that people always talked about. And I think that the
Speaker 1: importance of today is that we really get to be
Speaker 1: able to meet each other human being to human being.
Speaker 1: The character that I play Uncle Clifford is non binary,
Speaker 1: and that's a person who is equally accepting of all
Speaker 1: of the things that cannot be held into a restrictive box.
Speaker 1: And I think when you have a question of how
Speaker 1: someone identifies you, simply do that you can ask. That
Speaker 1: is the level of respect. Because one of the things
Speaker 1: I find with play Uncle Clifford that no matter who
Speaker 1: you are or where you come from, you respect her.
Speaker 1: I think you respect her because you see her. So
Speaker 1: you see this body that is six too. You see
Speaker 1: this dark skin, these fool that you see this beard,
Speaker 1: but you see this pretty face, and you see these nails,
Speaker 1: and you're like, what's going on? But you see someone
Speaker 1: walking with the level of confidence and clarity even more so,
Speaker 1: and it's not even about any kind of bravado, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? I think because when you see
Speaker 1: a woman that is walking in her full femininity, I
Speaker 1: don't think that she has to be soft, or she
Speaker 1: has to be in a pants suit to have authority.
Speaker 1: You know I'm saying what I mean. And you don't
Speaker 1: think that a brother that he has to be wearing
Speaker 1: a move to be in touch with his feelings. You
Speaker 1: can be who you are in your sweatpants and your
Speaker 1: athletic socks, in your business suit, in your MoU all
Speaker 1: of the things come on, come on, especially for us
Speaker 1: as a community. I feel so proud for this moment, honestly, brother,
Speaker 1: because there are people who still have high levels of homophobia,
Speaker 1: absolutely for sure. But what I do know about this
Speaker 1: ton that I'm living in and its project, is that
Speaker 1: there are people who are willing to make a change,
Speaker 1: that are opening their minds, that are opening their their
Speaker 1: minds not only to the l g B t Q
Speaker 1: plus community, in the full spectrum that we have, you know,
Speaker 1: between bisexual, pan sexual trends as well as pan sexual.
Speaker 1: You know that I like it all. I think that
Speaker 1: I think that people have really stigmatized sex workers and
Speaker 1: pole dancers for so long, and then they watch this
Speaker 1: program and they're like, Oh, they're real people just like me.
Speaker 1: They're going they're working their way through school, they're taking
Speaker 1: care of their children, or they're helping their their grandparents,
Speaker 1: their caretakers. You know, you can go to the dentists
Speaker 1: and you not know that your dentists used to be
Speaker 1: up on the pole, or your dentists used to be
Speaker 1: diamond at a club. We all have a history, but
Speaker 1: we also have the power to read right our future right. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: But Nico, I want to thank you. First of all,
Speaker 1: I want to give you a voice. I wanted to
Speaker 1: say thank you for allowing me to be entertained every Sunday.
Speaker 1: And if I miss it on Sunday, I see it
Speaker 1: don't repeat on my streaming. But well, you know, the
Speaker 1: thing I like it as we close this interview out
Speaker 1: is that your character is not over the top. It's
Speaker 1: a character I found very realistic, you know. And but
Speaker 1: you just playing who you are, And I think that's
Speaker 1: what you just said, just being the person who you are.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be a dressed a certain way.
Speaker 1: You can were You're the same person in a in
Speaker 1: a cool locks, you're the same person. And short, you're
Speaker 1: the same person. Address you same person a suit, same
Speaker 1: person with the blood wig. You're the same person. It's
Speaker 1: just being administered in a different look. And that's the
Speaker 1: exciting part about this show is that p Valley is
Speaker 1: a show with a different look, is set in a
Speaker 1: small town, fictional city in Mississippi. The music is great,
Speaker 1: the acting is great, the drama is great. More importantly,
Speaker 1: you will fall in love with the characters. If you
Speaker 1: can't find stars network, find it opp that app But
Speaker 1: importantly on Sunday Night, dropped it app so you can
Speaker 1: see this show. Thank you for taking the time to
Speaker 1: come on Money Making Conversation master Class. You are a star,
Speaker 1: and not only on P valid but you're just a
Speaker 1: star in real life. Thank you, my friend, Thank you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. We'll be right back with more money
Speaker 1: Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. You are now tuned
Speaker 1: into the Money Making Conversations Minute of Inspiration with Rushan McDonald. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Sean McDonald for Money Making Conversations with your daily
Speaker 1: minute of Inspiration. This week I sat down with artists, author,
Speaker 1: co owner Reach Records, and Three Strands Films partner L Craig.
Speaker 1: He discusses the purpose of his new YouTube series Protected Bag,
Speaker 1: not waiting on opportunities, and starting his own production company.
Speaker 1: Yes So Reach Records is an independent label. Man. I've
Speaker 1: been doing this since I was a kid, you know,
Speaker 1: coming out of college, and so you know that's that's
Speaker 1: over fifteen years of of running a successful label. By
Speaker 1: Guy's grace, we've always been profitable. And that's just a
Speaker 1: beautiful thing. One of the things that I would say
Speaker 1: is is UH, I realized early on I was not
Speaker 1: gonna sit around and wait for uh somebody to embrace
Speaker 1: what I was doing. If you want to listen to
Speaker 1: this full interview with a crazy it's available on money
Speaker 1: Making Conversations dot com. Now let's return to Money Making
Speaker 1: Conversations Masterclass with Rashan McDonald. Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Rashan McDonald. I recognized that we all
Speaker 1: have different definition of success for you and may be
Speaker 1: the size of your paycheck. Mine is aspiring people to
Speaker 1: accomplish their goals and live their very best life. It's
Speaker 1: time to stop reading other people's success stories to start
Speaker 1: writing your own. People always talk about their purpose or gift.
Speaker 1: If you have a gift, leave with your gifts. You
Speaker 1: know that your friends, family, or coworkers stop you from
Speaker 1: planning a living your dreams. My next gist is a
Speaker 1: person who leads with her gifts and shared her gifts.
Speaker 1: Her name is Felicia d. Henderson. She's tarted a Hollywood
Speaker 1: career right on popular sick comps. Then a major shift
Speaker 1: occurred because she's the creative Showtimes Emmy nominated series Soul
Speaker 1: Food television first multi season African American drama. Currently, she
Speaker 1: is the Shower, executive producer and head writer of the
Speaker 1: action field romantic drama First Killed, premiering on Netflix June tenth,
Speaker 1: to show pitts of family of vampires who are white
Speaker 1: against the family of monster hunters who are black. She's
Speaker 1: also developing the World War two drama Avenger Field for Peacock.
Speaker 1: The series stars Renee Zeger as Jackie Cochran, who co
Speaker 1: founded the school, who co found in the US Army
Speaker 1: first woman's only woman's pilot training program, and at the
Speaker 1: time of her death in eighty was the most accomplished
Speaker 1: American pilot male or female in American history. Please working
Speaker 1: to money making Conversations, massac Class. The one and only
Speaker 1: Felicia D. Henderson. How you do Felicia Hi god Worthy,
Speaker 1: how are you doing well? You know? For you right
Speaker 1: just after them on the East coast. I knew US coast,
Speaker 1: you know, but you was out here on the west coast,
Speaker 1: East coast doing Atlanta, Savannah, doing this amazing series called
Speaker 1: First Kill. That was that was interesting because of the
Speaker 1: fact that you know, this is a cool play on race.
Speaker 1: It's a cool play on kind of like a Romeo
Speaker 1: and Juliet play on romance. But how did the concept
Speaker 1: come to you? Thank you? And UM, I love it
Speaker 1: you say it's a cool play on these things. UM,
Speaker 1: because well, first, I'm gonna start with answering your question, UM,
Speaker 1: but why did this same to me? As Victoria Schwab
Speaker 1: also known as b. E. Schwab in her writing UM
Speaker 1: wrote a short story called First Kill and it's part
Speaker 1: of an anthology UM called Vampires Never Died and Um
Speaker 1: the Netflix liked it and hired her then to adapt
Speaker 1: it into TV show. So she wrote the pilot's script
Speaker 1: and then UM, Netflix called my manager and asked me
Speaker 1: to read it. And I was like, no, my cup,
Speaker 1: runneth over right. I don't have time for something new.
Speaker 1: And he said, you just have to read it. And
Speaker 1: I think two or three times I was like nope,
Speaker 1: and I'm finally He's like for me, you know, you
Speaker 1: have long time manager, longtime relationships. They get you for me.
Speaker 1: So I read it and I was like, I'm in
Speaker 1: let's set the meeting up and um and I. So
Speaker 1: I loved it, and that's how I've ben took the
Speaker 1: meeting with Netflix, met with Victoria, met with the folks
Speaker 1: at Belatrice uh Um, the other producers, and decided to
Speaker 1: come aboard. Never lets you where were you at with
Speaker 1: the development of the project, with the project already in
Speaker 1: motion or you were the early creative stages casting world.
Speaker 1: I want to aise to really get a full take
Speaker 1: of what first kill when you would introduce because you said,
Speaker 1: you know four times, so I knew they were moving
Speaker 1: along while you were saying no, sitting there, I'll thinking, well,
Speaker 1: no act truly because to Netflix is credit. They really
Speaker 1: realized they needed a voice like mine in the room.
Speaker 1: And I really appreciate that they knew that this cast
Speaker 1: is one it is um black, you know, um and so,
Speaker 1: and it is also at the center has two young women.
Speaker 1: So they really realized this was something that was missing,
Speaker 1: you know, from where they were so far creatingly. So
Speaker 1: what they had was Victoria's script, but they really had
Speaker 1: not moved forward because they were looking for basically and
Speaker 1: um so from the very beginning, um, you know, I
Speaker 1: got to take a look at the script and at
Speaker 1: what I know about cultural specificity to those characters. Um
Speaker 1: and and then from there I got to hire my
Speaker 1: writing staff, and you know, then from there at a
Speaker 1: group oh and higher than the director, and then as
Speaker 1: a group we started the tasting process. Um and um
Speaker 1: so all of that. You know, some like Jason Moore,
Speaker 1: who plays Jack Burns, was an actor that I worked
Speaker 1: with on The Punisher, to my Love, so he started
Speaker 1: look familiar. I thought it looked familiar. I know this
Speaker 1: guy from Punishing with one of my favorites. That's right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's from The Punisher. You know, I need him and
Speaker 1: so you know, um so it just started like that.
Speaker 1: You know. Juliet, the Juliet of Fairmont, who was played
Speaker 1: by Sarah Catherine Hook, was the first hired. We really
Speaker 1: thought we were going to have a hard time finding
Speaker 1: the right through we had, so that's where we started,
Speaker 1: you know, and outstanding, by the way, outstanding, and he
Speaker 1: had cal was also had shared the romantically who was
Speaker 1: African American, and so the whole process when I look
Speaker 1: at this series, you know, you know, you have to
Speaker 1: be sensitive because, like I said, I can, I can
Speaker 1: should down and say I'm a very talented writer, but
Speaker 1: you have a you have a world that is gay
Speaker 1: and lesbian. Okay, from a writer's perspective, did you was
Speaker 1: your was your writer's room balanced like that to be
Speaker 1: able to handle that conversation? Now that's a good question.
Speaker 1: Rashan Um. You know, I'm a big believer that the
Speaker 1: writer's room should have the experience that you're depicting on
Speaker 1: the screen, so you know somebody in that room. And again,
Speaker 1: you can't always have that. Obviously, if you're doing a
Speaker 1: show about aliens, you don't have alien you know, but
Speaker 1: you have someone in there who knows aliens more than
Speaker 1: anybody else, is an alien expert, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I thought it was very important that And I
Speaker 1: also having had the experience of being the only black
Speaker 1: writer in a room that might have a show that
Speaker 1: might have one or two black characters, And so I've
Speaker 1: had that experience where then they come to you and
Speaker 1: every time there's something for the black character to do,
Speaker 1: you know, they just got so when you do that,
Speaker 1: And so I also wanted to make sure there wasn't
Speaker 1: just one queer person in the room who everybody was
Speaker 1: looking at going and now we turned to you as
Speaker 1: the queer expert because you know, it's like like all experiences,
Speaker 1: there's no such thing as a monolithic experience or whatever
Speaker 1: it is that you are. And so it was important
Speaker 1: to me to have you know, men and women queer
Speaker 1: writers in the room. It was important to me to
Speaker 1: have black writers because more than to have white writers,
Speaker 1: it was important, you know, for all the experiences that
Speaker 1: I thought we were going to be depicted, right, honestly,
Speaker 1: there are no vampires. And I'm speaking to Felisha d Handens,
Speaker 1: so one of the top sitcom and dramatic writers and
Speaker 1: film writers in Hollywood, and her new series First First Kill,
Speaker 1: like I said, as as our action field romantic drama,
Speaker 1: and there's eight episodes long and the premiers June team
Speaker 1: and I'm an advocate. I you know, I get special
Speaker 1: access because you know who I am. So I got
Speaker 1: to be able to binge watch, so four episodes on
Speaker 1: four episodes on Saturday. And that's how four episodes on
Speaker 1: on Sunday. I called her in the middle because we
Speaker 1: are have a great relationship with long term friends and
Speaker 1: just told her I loved it. And that's just why
Speaker 1: I would tell you why I loved it, because first
Speaker 1: of all, it was engaging. It was it was entertaining,
Speaker 1: it was it misled me in a good way, you know,
Speaker 1: because I'm gonna know it all I think. And that's
Speaker 1: that's good writing, you know, that's good storytelling that you're engaged.
Speaker 1: And so when you look at it when you're developing
Speaker 1: these characters, because because you have these these monster hunters
Speaker 1: and then you have these vampires, they don't know each other,
Speaker 1: and then you're trying to create a relationship, and what
Speaker 1: what came out of it was a parenting story. Correct. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really wasn't very much about the family and m
Speaker 1: getting the opportunity to compare, you know, two very different
Speaker 1: households because you have warring families there that Populace and
Speaker 1: the Monogue for all intents and purposes, and so you
Speaker 1: get to go inside both of these young women's homes
Speaker 1: and see how the fact that they now want to
Speaker 1: do what they want to do as opposed to what
Speaker 1: they were raised to do, and see how each set
Speaker 1: of parents deal with the fact that their their child
Speaker 1: is not doing what they're told, and so in that
Speaker 1: way we tried very much um to have those experienced
Speaker 1: that part of the experience being incredibly normal because everyone
Speaker 1: who's a parent knows what it's like when you say
Speaker 1: go left and your child goes right. That's incredibly universal.
Speaker 1: So in that part, it's like, it is time for
Speaker 1: you to do what you're told. You're sixty, now you're
Speaker 1: But the thing that's different is like it's time for
Speaker 1: you to go your vampire, so it's time to go
Speaker 1: for your first kill. But how you're dealing with the idea,
Speaker 1: do what you're told, grow up and be like your family.
Speaker 1: That's of both girls are being told big like your family.
Speaker 1: You know, girls on their own road because because you
Speaker 1: dealing with the reason I say it's a really good
Speaker 1: parenting story because like our parents, we know how to
Speaker 1: make decisions and we feel our life is hid in
Speaker 1: the right direction. Juliet's father is a d A. The
Speaker 1: setting is Savannah, Georgia, which has that like you know,
Speaker 1: Savannah has that little is next to New Orleans. It
Speaker 1: has that little voodoo type vampire something's happening in the
Speaker 1: swamps type area app at look background look to it.
Speaker 1: And then you have these master Hunters who are at
Speaker 1: the top of the gil. You know, they're they're the best.
Speaker 1: They were brought into Savannah because they are here to
Speaker 1: do their job. So these are the parents d a
Speaker 1: successful lead Master Hunters. Then they have two daughters who
Speaker 1: are teens at that right age where they feel they
Speaker 1: are kind of grown, but they're not grown. That's what
Speaker 1: stood out to be the most in your writing room
Speaker 1: that you created with First Kill. What were just some
Speaker 1: of the fun journeys that y'all head putting each episode together?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, we have so much fun. And you
Speaker 1: know one of the things you said earlier about I
Speaker 1: always say when I'm putting the writing writer's room together,
Speaker 1: as Sean, I don't really need anyone who thinks like me.
Speaker 1: I already think like so I'm not one of those
Speaker 1: who tries to get a whole bunch of people who
Speaker 1: you know are gonna say, yes, you're brilliant. I also
Speaker 1: say my goal is to always be, you know, the
Speaker 1: dumbest person in the room, and I am really freaking smart,
Speaker 1: so that I am trying to, you know, elevate myself.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to elevate the material. When I bring this
Speaker 1: group together, and Victorian and I still have the ongoing
Speaker 1: battle all fun that. She's like, well, you know there
Speaker 1: are no such thing as straight vampires. What are you
Speaker 1: talking about? So we have this ongoing battle about all
Speaker 1: vampires being clear. No, Victoria, I were a vampire, I'd
Speaker 1: be a straight vampire. She's like, no, you wouldn't because
Speaker 1: of your vampire you were. We have these kind of
Speaker 1: fun conversations and then just people talking about as you know,
Speaker 1: the other writers in the room who are parents, like
Speaker 1: what they would do if their daughter did this thing?
Speaker 1: And so you know, I had my second my Coe
Speaker 1: is a mother of four children, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: what would you do? Joyce like drown him? I was like,
Speaker 1: what's like, my child do something other than what I
Speaker 1: told him to do. So you have that kind of
Speaker 1: fun stuff, and then you have the fun conversations about
Speaker 1: building the mythology, because the room really built that mythology,
Speaker 1: you know, from Whole Cloth, where the short story that
Speaker 1: Victoria wrote leaves off. The short story is kind of
Speaker 1: the pilot. We do the short story in the pilot,
Speaker 1: and then we have to create an entire series. And
Speaker 1: so being in that room and deciding to what the
Speaker 1: guild would look like, what would be the rules of
Speaker 1: the guild. How do you get into the you know,
Speaker 1: where do these you know, legacy vampires come from? What
Speaker 1: is their mythology? He's the biggest, baddest one. And to
Speaker 1: also be doing that where you unapologetically within our mythology,
Speaker 1: the legacy vampires. You know, it's a matriarchy. So to
Speaker 1: talk about strong women getting to do you know, what
Speaker 1: we do and happen being unapologetic about that because that's
Speaker 1: in the mythology, it's just all very cool. Well, the
Speaker 1: interesting thing about the series First Killers is preparation. Okay,
Speaker 1: because a lot of people there was a lot of action,
Speaker 1: lots of scenes. So how did that work out? Okay?
Speaker 1: Was there a period for training action training before we
Speaker 1: started production? And how did that production want to work
Speaker 1: when you're doing a series like that that is romantic
Speaker 1: but it's very heavy action field and because the stuff
Speaker 1: you after you're doing can't lead to injuries, so you
Speaker 1: can't just go out and add libit. So talk about
Speaker 1: that was you know you did the honestor so you
Speaker 1: used to violence, you know, violence on the street, so
Speaker 1: can't get no more violent than furniture. But then this
Speaker 1: is your personal project that the purpose purpose violence. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would tell you that before you asked that question.
Speaker 1: The fun part about this series is that you have
Speaker 1: the vampires who are somewhat invincible, okay, and then you
Speaker 1: have a young African American girl her name is cal
Speaker 1: on the show, and she is can be harmed, she
Speaker 1: can be hurt, she's vulnerable, she's a human, and that
Speaker 1: carries an emotion for you throughout the series of fear
Speaker 1: that something can go wrong. And that is really key
Speaker 1: in this series for me as a watcher, going don't
Speaker 1: go there, don't come on now, don't be stupid. Then,
Speaker 1: and so that was the that was the whole training process.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you I enjoyed it as a viewer
Speaker 1: but also as a friend. Congratulations, Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for Sean. I really really appreciate that because I'm know
Speaker 1: that you are a very critical watcher. You're a very
Speaker 1: critical viewer. I know that very well. So and then
Speaker 1: a lot to me to get that Sunday afternoon, Paul
Speaker 1: from you going I'm in. I also know you to
Speaker 1: be a very honest guy, so you would tell me
Speaker 1: I'm not in really really hard. Um. You know, everyone did.
Speaker 1: And I will tell you the two brothers. You know, Um,
Speaker 1: from the time that the actors arrived, they went into
Speaker 1: training with the stuff Apo and THEO. Yes, yes, Apolo
Speaker 1: Burns and Dominick Goodman place uh Apollo and Philip Mullins
Speaker 1: Junior plays THEO and they're both in incredible shape, and
Speaker 1: so it became a competition between them and they ended
Speaker 1: up being thickest things. Like they really did have that
Speaker 1: brotherly relationship and um. But they were like they were
Speaker 1: just always competitive with each other. And of course, particularly
Speaker 1: dominic was always asking can he do that stunt? You know,
Speaker 1: we also have stump performers, but he would often want
Speaker 1: to do that stunt and I do that, Like, no,
Speaker 1: you cannot. But they did their own stunts because they came,
Speaker 1: you know, ready to work that hard and um. And
Speaker 1: of course Amani Louis, she's a natural athlete as well,
Speaker 1: who places the life he burned, So they all there's
Speaker 1: natural athletes who already came with bodies ready, and then
Speaker 1: they worked really hard and wanted to everybody wanted it
Speaker 1: to just look really authentic, and so they worked really
Speaker 1: hard to make sure that it did, and I was
Speaker 1: just I was so so proud of them. It's the
Speaker 1: best past. They just all came and gave a every
Speaker 1: single day have to you know, battling COVID. Okay, you
Speaker 1: know that it's not a normal time. When this production
Speaker 1: was happening, people mashed up and you know, be tested.
Speaker 1: How did that play a role in frustration and this
Speaker 1: duction at the time it was going on it But
Speaker 1: on the screen you don't see that. All you see
Speaker 1: is a final result. No, you don't see those extra
Speaker 1: twenty hours a day that you know I was working
Speaker 1: because of COVID and that we started before there were vaccines,
Speaker 1: so you know it was but Netflix have very strict
Speaker 1: policies to keep us safe, and I was very strict
Speaker 1: about them, and you know I gave just I'm the
Speaker 1: set to let it every all the cast and the
Speaker 1: po we will be following this protocol because I promised
Speaker 1: my family I'm coming home as healthy as I left,
Speaker 1: and so we were very strict about it. But it
Speaker 1: did mean you know that it took longer because we
Speaker 1: could only work at shorter days to give people masks
Speaker 1: breaks since those things get get overwhelming when you're wearing
Speaker 1: them twelve hours a day and all of that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. You know. So it was the only ever
Speaker 1: frustrations that I ever had had to do with the
Speaker 1: challenge of, you know, producing this show during very challenging times.
Speaker 1: The actually you know, creative side of it was wonderful,
Speaker 1: amazing and fun, you know, every day. And because everyone
Speaker 1: was working so hard, um, it made the stuff that
Speaker 1: made it difficult, like working during COVID, you could get
Speaker 1: through it because we were all a team trying to
Speaker 1: make it. We'll be right back with more Money Making
Speaker 1: Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now let's return to Money
Speaker 1: Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashan McDonald. There's an interesting question,
Speaker 1: Felicia about the series. You know, because you know you
Speaker 1: you got you got eight episodes here, you know, you
Speaker 1: you go, you you put it on the wall, you
Speaker 1: try to develop his ar kind of characters connect and
Speaker 1: all this stuff. When did you feel at that point, go,
Speaker 1: I got it, and then you felt that magical moment
Speaker 1: this is special. I got it. That's one response and
Speaker 1: then this is special. Um. I think that I have
Speaker 1: to give a lot of love and big props to
Speaker 1: Jet Wilkinson our director, um Jet just oh my god,
Speaker 1: you know, and I met her on The Punishers when
Speaker 1: we first worked together. She directed an episode I wrote,
Speaker 1: and we just really clicked. And she was the first
Speaker 1: one person that I thought of, you know, because she
Speaker 1: had to be a woman. I thought it had to
Speaker 1: be a woman with the kind of experience that she
Speaker 1: has um in terms of doing you know, action, and
Speaker 1: she happens to also be so she's kick ass. And
Speaker 1: then she happens to be a queer woman, so Jet
Speaker 1: and a woman of color. So she brought all of
Speaker 1: that to bear on this and um watching her work,
Speaker 1: you know that you have you just go, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I can't believe what we're accomplishing in these conditions. But
Speaker 1: when I really felt for Shaun like we've got it,
Speaker 1: I was in editing, you know. It took me seeing
Speaker 1: it all being put together and then the visual effects added,
Speaker 1: and then Kurt far Far to write that killer score.
Speaker 1: You know. Enough whos love the music so much that
Speaker 1: there is a soundtrack coming out with the score. We
Speaker 1: have two official playlists of the music from the show,
Speaker 1: all being dropped on Friday, June tenth, um when the
Speaker 1: show drops. So it was seeing it all together going,
Speaker 1: I am so proud of this, Like I knew when
Speaker 1: I saw it all the like that feeling of like
Speaker 1: I know this is good, and I know this is good.
Speaker 1: I know we're speaking to a lot of people. I
Speaker 1: know people are gonna enjoy it, and they're gonna learn
Speaker 1: something and they're going to appreciate we're talking to Felicia D. Henderson.
Speaker 1: She's the executive producer, the showrunner, the head writer of
Speaker 1: the exciting action field romantic drama owned Netflix premier June
Speaker 1: tent is called First Kill. One of the things I've
Speaker 1: always admired about Felicia D. Henderson is her ability to
Speaker 1: pivot if she's if she's not a person that you
Speaker 1: if you're holding hands walking down the road, though she
Speaker 1: might veer off, so holy tight, Holy tight, because you
Speaker 1: actually who in her direction if she sees an opportunity
Speaker 1: that she's comfortable with. And that's that's what a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't do. They get fear stops him from shifting.
Speaker 1: How does it allow before I go into the Renee
Speaker 1: their winger project, how does that walking through silences? Some
Speaker 1: people say walking up, willing to come through, go through
Speaker 1: doctors to come out and potentially into the light. How
Speaker 1: do you how do you pull that off? Felicia? Um,
Speaker 1: you know what, I think that I have an interesting
Speaker 1: relationship with fear um and that a lot of times.
Speaker 1: Even my younger sister we once had an argument and
Speaker 1: she goes, well, I'm not like you. You know, you're
Speaker 1: not afraid of anything. And I asked, said her, actually,
Speaker 1: I'm afraid all the time. I just moved despite my fear,
Speaker 1: and UM, I'm not gonna ever let it control me.
Speaker 1: And I also am a person who I am all.
Speaker 1: I'm just naturally inquisitive. So if I haven't done something before, um,
Speaker 1: if something looks interesting, too interesting to me, I always
Speaker 1: believe I can do it. So I'm like, I want
Speaker 1: to try that thing. I love trying new things. I'm
Speaker 1: at a point in my career that I only want
Speaker 1: to choose things that are significant in some way to
Speaker 1: me and my uplifting my race and my up women
Speaker 1: and my uplifting um groups that are not um you know,
Speaker 1: represented well or not enough. And you know, first my
Speaker 1: job always is too entertain but while entertained, I want
Speaker 1: to be fed myself on that a place where I
Speaker 1: want to be fed. So I'm always looking for what
Speaker 1: haven't I done that then could be interesting to me?
Speaker 1: And um, it's always scary petenue if you don't know
Speaker 1: what you're doing. But I take my full and whole
Speaker 1: self goin, let's go, you know. So it's a little fearful.
Speaker 1: I go anyway, and then once I make that leap,
Speaker 1: my eye is only on the goal. So no matter
Speaker 1: what happens, like with production on First Kill, you would
Speaker 1: be amazed at all that went wrong if I had
Speaker 1: time to tell you. And you know, people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's time to shut down or we're never gonna make it.
Speaker 1: It's time. And I don't talk to those people, right
Speaker 1: because I didn't come here to shut down, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. I came here to do a show.
Speaker 1: I will not leave until that show is done now,
Speaker 1: so that lens us to shift over to another exciting
Speaker 1: project's coming up. You know, when you look at the
Speaker 1: streaming and the cable and the first I only had,
Speaker 1: like I had a Direct TV and then I had Comcast.
Speaker 1: If the Direct TV, if the rain came too hard,
Speaker 1: you the direct TV went away. So I was that
Speaker 1: Comcast sitting over there. Okay, I'm still watch TV. Okay,
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for me, I've just over the Comcast. It's part
Speaker 1: of Peacock. So if you have Comcasts, you will get Peacocks.
Speaker 1: And so that means that I don't I have to buy.
Speaker 1: Already got Apple anywhere. I already got Disney Plus anyway,
Speaker 1: I alway got a Hulu anyway. I already got HBO
Speaker 1: Plus because I got the Disney, because I got Direct TV.
Speaker 1: So this is old Peacock. It's called Avenger Field. It
Speaker 1: starts an incredibly talented actress. When you're able to work
Speaker 1: with talent like that, you know you go because you're
Speaker 1: going from a very talented cruel. We are not no
Speaker 1: no dispersion unknown talent, you know. So I have excellent
Speaker 1: resumes to a bona fide, well known actress and res
Speaker 1: age zell Winker. That's where these projects being developed for
Speaker 1: talk about making that transition and how do you look
Speaker 1: at it differently? Um, you know what you try your
Speaker 1: best once you take it, and you say, you know,
Speaker 1: you try to bring your a game and anything you
Speaker 1: do right, But I certainly do. And so once I
Speaker 1: say I'm gonna bring you know, writing and producing are
Speaker 1: just the gifts that God decided I should have. So
Speaker 1: the way I say thank you for that is I
Speaker 1: bring my a game. I work as hard as I can,
Speaker 1: and so I want to be worthy of, you know,
Speaker 1: having been given the gift, and I want to be
Speaker 1: worthy of you know, a two time Oscar winning actress's ability. Right,
Speaker 1: So that's where I start. But once I do that,
Speaker 1: realize the opportunity, the blessing I've been given, I put
Speaker 1: it to the Cyrus Shawan because then I just have
Speaker 1: to focus on doing the best work I can. Because
Speaker 1: if I focus on, oh my gosh, this is for
Speaker 1: Renee's Elwig, then you know, your mind gets all screwing
Speaker 1: and then the pressure gets to you, you know, and yeah,
Speaker 1: if I do my best, it will be good enough
Speaker 1: for her. But if I focus on, you know, the
Speaker 1: stuff that I can control, you know, will she like it?
Speaker 1: Then I can't do my best work. So I've come
Speaker 1: to the table already knowing what an amazing honor it
Speaker 1: is to get a chance to write for Renee's Elwig.
Speaker 1: Like that's huge. I bowed down. She's amazed easy, and
Speaker 1: so I think God for bringing me to this place.
Speaker 1: And then I put it over here to the side.
Speaker 1: So that I can do the job that would be
Speaker 1: worthy of her by focusing on the job and words
Speaker 1: on it. Where my friend. As long as I've been
Speaker 1: on you, you pushed me and you've been focused, and
Speaker 1: from my focus, you refocused me. But more importantly, you
Speaker 1: know the fact that you're working on the series that
Speaker 1: I got to see on Netflix to somebody I love
Speaker 1: and I admire, and I've seen growing this industry transition
Speaker 1: from comedy and fearlessness. You know, refer the word fearlessness
Speaker 1: was out there. You were fierce. Okay, so let's go
Speaker 1: be real. Forget Beyonce's This is the real fears right there.
Speaker 1: So again, First Kill a premier on Netflix June. Team
Speaker 1: you gotta watch it, not because she's my friend, it's
Speaker 1: it's entertaining, it's funny. Is action feel for sure? Is
Speaker 1: a pretty cool take on Romeo and Juliet and um
Speaker 1: in this apparently movie that really really strikes you as
Speaker 1: something relatable to anybody who wants their child to have
Speaker 1: a better life than they had when they were growing up,
Speaker 1: and that's what they're fighting in this family of hunters
Speaker 1: and vampires is called First Kill on Netflix. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you. Felicia d Henderson than McDonald, I love you
Speaker 1: and I appreciate you having me on. I really really do.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much and we'll talk again on the
Speaker 1: other side. Absolutely alright. I want to thank everybody. If
Speaker 1: you want to see me or any of these episodes
Speaker 1: on my show, go to money Making Conversation dot com
Speaker 1: or Rashan McDonald. I am your host. Thank you. You've
Speaker 1: been listening to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald.
Speaker 1: Always remember to lead with your gifts. Money Making Conversations
Speaker 1: Masterclass is a presentation of thirty fifteen Media Incorporated. You
Speaker 1: are now tuned into the Money Making Conversations Minute of
Speaker 1: Inspiration with Rashan McDonald. Hire ra Sean McDonald for money
Speaker 1: Making Conversation with your daily minute of Inspiration. This week,
Speaker 1: I sat down with singer, songwriter, actress, producer and award
Speaker 1: winning artist you know take Me to the King, Tamler Man.
Speaker 1: She graced my show and talking about her new song
Speaker 1: He did it for Me, Tamla shares. There was a
Speaker 1: time she wondered when God was going to do it
Speaker 1: for her? How you interview with me? Why you ain't tied?
Speaker 1: I was that I took I took a few breaks breaks,
Speaker 1: but and then to working on the music. But you
Speaker 1: know what, you have to kind of work while it
Speaker 1: is day. You have to just keep going. Why you
Speaker 1: can because you don't know what we do, You don't
Speaker 1: know what's gonna happen, So you kind of have to
Speaker 1: work when it's time to work. And I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't time to play then you play.
Speaker 1: Tune in to hear my full conversation with Tamla Man
Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversation dot com.