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Speaking of Curves: Meet Leah of Tyler Perry's Assisted Living, Actress Courtney Nichole!
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Oct 31, 2024
Heyyyy Boo Hey! We are sooo excited for our latest Speaking of Curves guest to join us! You may have seen her face as she called out two vandals who were spray-painting “Black Lives Matter” on a Starbucks location during a Los Angeles protest. But did you know that she is also a teacher-turned-actor? Yup, and Courtney Nichole, of Tyler Perry's Assisted Living, joins us today to talk about her role, representation, and her passions around social justice and body positivity! She is one to know and quickly love! So, pull up a chair, grab your coffee and a friend on Thursday, October 1st at 12pm EST as we chat with Chicago native, Courtney Nichole!
View Video Transcript
0:05
hello hello hello welcome back to speaking of curves i'm marie denae the creator and owner of the
0:11
kirby fashionista i missed you guys on tuesday you know life happen the moon everything's going
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on right now like but today we are back with an uber fun guest i know that we're gonna have a
0:23
great time today but before i introduce our guest as you're joining us make sure that you share join in let us
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know where you're tuning in from let us know if this is your first time share with a girlfriend invite her over
0:36
to come and have a conversation with us um today we're gonna you know when we started the um speaking of curves
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it's all about showing support and love to the plus size community indie designers influencers people in
0:49
the community that we need to show love to and support especially now especially as like the world is like
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crumbling around us for some people and we're trying to figure out how to stay encouraged how to support
1:03
how to make sure like our plus folks are here sans pandemic and so today
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we are back with a fun guest and we're gonna like i hope you're ready because i'm i already know we're gonna be
1:15
laughing and giggling all the way through but um miss courtney nicole is an
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actress and you may know her as mama leah on be on tyler perry's assistant living which
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just kicked off but she's been in various shows you may even know her from earlier this year
1:34
when she was the one who checked those folks who was trying to vandalize starbucks with the blm she checked them
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you know you probably saw it it went viral there's almost like a million hits on it right so we're going to have a conversation um
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make sure you say hello um and you got a couple of you guys are already jumping and saying hi
1:52
and do me a favor and welcome me in um welcoming or join me in welcoming miss
1:58
courtney nicole hello darling oh you're muted baby
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you're muted
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i'm doing wonderful i'm so happy to be here with y'all today so excited that you have joined us i mean
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like and you're like all this yellow come through color and vibrancy
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you're in california right now so it's echo early in the morning it is it is and it's already hot girl
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look it's already the morning beat already come on sis i hope you go
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yes yes i hope you're gonna take some pictures don't waste this beat we are not cause this is an all-day look
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honey i'm gonna make the husband take me on a date we can go somewhere get them
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look
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especially black love we got to show it you know right now is a beautiful time to show
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our expression of love for each other you know what i'm saying um i think that we've gotten a bad rap
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sometimes but a few of us are trying to make this thing work so we're doing it yet well well thank you oh we have keisha
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said congratulations ms keisha said congratulations girl thank you girl
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i appreciate that yes and so for those of you guys who for those of us who are just
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meeting you for the first time who are kind of already in the plus space and you are really like a i don't want to
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say rising star because you've been in this game for a minute but you have a very strong presence in this new
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show this new series for those of you guys who don't know your journey because you're used to be a teacher yes yes you went
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from being a teacher in chicago you're born and raised in chicago when you're raised in chicago
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so tell us a little bit about yourself okay sure um so i'm like born and raised in the shy um on the
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south side you know when you say you're from chicago they like what's side what side are you from right so
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outside of chicago i grew up in um the hundreds uh the hunnids as they say uh roseland
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area i went to kenwood academy so if there are any like broncos out there
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listening repping my high school and then after that my mom so see now i wanted to go
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somewhere where it was hot i was like i'm tired of the snow and chicago is not like
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girl it's like post traumatic stress disorder trying to get that snow off the car you know like i'm oh but um so
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and my mom really wanted me to go to an hbcu so i looked those up and i ended up going
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to alabama a m in hanksville alabama i majored in education
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and uh just to take even a little step back so you know like when you're younger like i think um i used to say i want to be a star
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like i want to be a model and i want to be an actress and i think you know you get to a point in life where you start looking around
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and you start being realistic okay right and you know i was like oh you know how to
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tell boys that everybody can't play football and everybody can't play everybody's not going to make it to the nba in the nfl i was like well maybe
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maybe i can't be an actress maybe i don't need to pursue that maybe i'm not and you know i i was lucky to
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have a passion for education and kids i've had some wonderful teachers in my life that made
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an impact you know on my on my journey um hey from south africa i see it popping up
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um and um so i i did that so i was like all right i'm gonna teach right i love the kids i want
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to be a positive influence to my community um and give that same love that i
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received and um i think that
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a little bit of what happened is is as i continue to tell my babies that they can live
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their dreams you know and try to instill in these children not to stop and
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continue to you know just live out whatever whatever that big dream is it kind of
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just manifested that belief in my dreams even more it kind of
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reminded you like girl you over here telling these kids to chase them dreams like what are your dreams probably were
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kind of face to face with what you were saying it was a mirror right it was like okay well if you put in the mirror on them turn around and
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look at yourself courtney right so i started back um
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as an adult getting back into the industry right and then i was teaching in atlanta um but they
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called atlanta the hollywood of the south i was like well this is the first place right like so i was like all right let's pull up
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we're gonna go get some head shots we're gonna uh do the thing we're gonna get back to active class
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right and um so i did that and for a long time i was doing both things i was teaching
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and i was still um uh like acting and trying to do what i could like you
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know when you're working in the independent market you want to you know start working on some good things you know
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like like swat right like swat now i was how was that uh with samara
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was so wonderful i'm i'm so sure girl when i saw the script i was like
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you know when you because you don't know all the time what you who you're gonna be working with when you audition i was like bro
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what did you say right here it's with shamar more come on
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okay oh wonderful though does he does he smell wonderful he smells good he uh
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he hugs well he smiles
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and he probably looks you directly in your eye he was he was wearing my bearings like
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let me just focus okay go ahead girl let me test a little t so the director for that episode his name
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is billy um and billy is like uh if you look him up on his page he is like he's big one
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of those bigger than life people and so after the first take he kind of came and whispered in my ear he was like
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hey so when you do the line i want you to run your finger down his face i was like oh my gosh this man it's called what
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what you trying to do to me you're trying to set me up get me kicked off the set for sure
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and he was like no no no do it like that he was like we do it all the time and of course it wasn't the tape that they were
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going to use but they like to have it so i went and i did it again and as soon
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as we cut like shaman just started cracking up right so i it's something they do to him all the time but i was
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like oh that was super sweet but man you know he's sexy i'm just so sick he's
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sexy so you've done slot now you're on tyler perry's assisted living which just
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debuted yeah and this journey for you
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from you know from where you recognized your dream to now you are a featured star in this
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series how does that feel especially when you look around you at your co-stars
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because you got you got commands over there so i'm gonna take it a step back to the
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when they told me in the room what i was gonna be working on and and who i was gonna be working with
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like so mark swinton is in this meeting you know he's the executive producer over there right
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and he's like so do you know tamil and david man and i said honey honey what are you asking me
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right like that's like asking me am i black
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i mean because i remember them from kirk franklin days yes yes yes
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i know them yes singing in the choir honey with all of them right
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so i um i was like okay and then they went to go mention you know uh j anthony brown and i'm like like i
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grew up in chicago like i said he used to be on a time during the morning show like that man has worked for years so i
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was like of course i'm very familiar with j anthony brown i'm a fan and i was just
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like okay and then they hit me with who my husband was gonna be right i'm like okay nain lin from the plastic
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cup boys you know i'm like oh my gosh and then me no pressure
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no no no and then with tyler perry right so you can imagine my first day on set
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just trying to keep my nerves together and be professional okay right right right i said now this man don't hire me i
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can't get on here and act like i'm star struck right i still gotta come in and do my job right but when did you start taping this
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um we started taping in january so it was right before the pandemic um for you as an actor going through
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like it with your own kind of visibility with your own uh career kind of
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clashing with like the world right so for me being a media platform
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and you know for me everything went and you know having to do all these pivots
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and kind of having to reassess and re-evaluate where your priorities
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are in this once you were starting to tape and the world pause
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and we get hit with um you know blm the peak blm like how was
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that journey through this for you because you have a an amazing show you're you
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know now like around all these giants and you're like oh my gosh like how did that journey feel uh
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so a couple of things marie like i mean i think like a lot of us that are on
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social media we're like oh well i don't really use my platform for this right i rather just you know you know
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have my nice pictures you know and have a great presentation um but i think the morning that i woke
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up and saw the video of the modern day lynching of george floyd
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my soul had no choice right so even while i was getting together this morning with makeup and stuff my
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mom and i and you know the team here we were having a conversation about um just the fact that i've always been a
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person the type of person to speak up right i root for the underdog i'm not gonna let anybody be bullied in my
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presence and i just had this overwhelming um sense in my spirit that you know like
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i had to be a part of this movement and another thing that solidified it for me was um raven drummer the casting director for
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tyler perry studios she does something called an actor minute monday so you know if you're into acting
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check her out go to her page and um she posted and she said that
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artists have always been at the the peak you know what i'm saying a a
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part of the voice of the movement you think about nina simone you think about harry belafonte
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think about you know uh muhammad ali you know um like so many of those greats
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like even arthur ashe you know what i'm saying with tennis like so many of them stood up right when it was
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it was probably kind of scary for them especially and i was like well who am i what i've
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been saying is who am i not to shine right who am i not to speak up why would i sit back and be quiet right now
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and i just i couldn't allow myself to do it in the moment like this this viral video that went out like it wasn't
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if you if you're watching it you can see that i walked up on those young ladies
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and the mama in me and the teacher in me was not about to stand for that not on
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my watch sweetheart will you be out here playing these games we're not doing that and you know what what what kind of even
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amplified it for me was that i looked around and i saw people not saying something and i'm like the whole point in us being
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out here right now marie is for us to be speaking up for these people who can't speak right now that man said
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he couldn't breathe he was on the ground and he said they're gonna kill me
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and i could not walk away from that moment without saying anything to those young
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ladies they needed to know and understand where we're coming from when we talk about black lives matter
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and it's not a game it might be a game for you with your little spray cake spray can but it's not for me so
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you know and so after that i think i was it was a little interesting moment for me because the show hadn't come out yet
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and you know i was wondering uh how it would be received but i knew that i i i could not not
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speak and um luckily it's all god
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um i gave me this voice and he wouldn't have given it to me if he didn't want me to use it right right now now
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does did this kind of uh empower you afterwards speaking up
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absolutely um like i said i went to sleep that night i woke up and then it was viral right so
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i've had my my followers grew after that right uh i've had
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a few people that are allies i can consider them allies or what we would we when we use the term allies and
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honestly they like really hit me up they send me information they send me people to follow they
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ask me questions you know if i'm able to answer i able to i try to answer the question or
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send them a resource um so i think it has empowered me even more to you know to speak up and you know
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like i was saying about my faith is that it's just that he allowed this to happen at this time
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right he knew he knew i he he made me teach for 13 years
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he allowed me to use those experiences to be able to talk now what grade did
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you teach i taught um i've taught from third to eighth grade i'll bless you the babies the babies
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yes and the babies that think they're grown but they are grown now and they hit me
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up in my dms girl look but they're proud of me so that's so
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awesome i've had so many of them like hit me up and they're like when i saw you on the tv i screamed i'm so proud of you you know and so i
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just hope that it speaks to them and so i just know all of this is meant to be
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i have a platform at a time where i'm able to talk about some things that i'm passionate about
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film and television education and our youth and that just is an awesome sweet spot
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for me and i i'm definitely going to use it to our advantage
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now let's pivot a little bit okay and let's talk about because you are a plus woman yeah and you're a
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plus woman in entertainment you're a plus one in entertainment in a time where resources are limited
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access is limited so it's kind of like double double double like layer layer layer layer
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like for you how has this journey been being a plus woman in
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in the acting space in in the in hollywood it has been interesting right it isn't
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always easy right you're talking about when we have a photo shoot right for something that's coming up um
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does the person that you know does the the fashion design they know how to pull the right things
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right or am i gonna get to a rack where everything is you know too small right for me do they know what fits my
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curves and what what looks good on me right um and so um i took a class
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a pdp class and one of the things that i think that class highlighted for me is that the belief that i can work
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right where i am ooh now what is pvp so it's professional development program
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it's a class it's called a richard lawson studios and um you're you're making short films and
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you're auditioning right and just seeing yourself every week and talking about
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things that you normally wouldn't talk about and seeing yourself right and in certain ways and i mean like say
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for instance like watching the show i'm always doing this i got my chin back and you know normally we're like oh trying to get rid of the chin but i'm
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like that's my chin and i'm good with that kid right like okay
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confidence and like learning how to own every bit of your body as an actor in the space
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that takes work marie that takes a lot of it for your angles you have to like right
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it's technique it's contouring
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and it's the self work you know what i'm saying it's just like because it's about representation
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like what are we talking about right now we're talking about you know black lives matter and representation on television
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right but we're talking about representation in all things and one of the reasons why you know i felt so passionate about this
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and and making sure that i was an example for women right we want to see people that look like
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us ourselves so i want to see somebody that got all of what i got on tv right and used it right and just a
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shout out like while we're talking about it i want to shout out my tyler perry studio family because
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looking at this show like it's something that i'm proud of right i think the wardrobe did a great
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job like we were talking about making sure i didn't feel like i was always
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tucking and hiding or whatever they put me in things that were comfortable and i was able to be they have me
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looking good i'm able to play and have a a beautiful relationship with my television husband you know so we need
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to see that not just skinny women have husbands honey we got home part and they like it and he
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like all of it right you know what i'm saying so come on somebody
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yeah so i want to represent for us you know what i'm saying we don't have to be perfect i just
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it but and it takes work but we're here so i'm glad the industry is evolving and
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i'm glad to be here at the at the brink of this and helping them evolve so you know i'm curious as you're like
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so because you you have been kind of how do you say like very fortunate to be surrounded in a
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work environment that gives you the tools like the the clothing like the the love and support in the sense that
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you're able to confidently kind of show up and be in this space especially
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when you first started you know you you look over there and there's david and tamla man you're like oh my gosh
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like you know or you look over there and there's tyler perry you know you have all these different folks and then you're like you know
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you're yourself you're as a plus person as an actor as someone you have all of these things that are kind of going
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through your head like how do you kind of find your center in that
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um how do you find your center um you know i a great support system one
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right like i mean of course we keep god first and we work on ourselves but i think
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a great support system is is so important um you have to have some people around you that are willing to help support you
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and lift you up um because it can be very interesting in this industry
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right and and um so i just pray that my circle is tight right and and i pray for discernment so if i have
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to kick some people out then i know how to close the circle back up because he said no weapon formed against you self prosper he didn't say it
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wouldn't come you know what i'm saying when it comes i need my support system and my base to
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you know have that like there's an actress uh braley i don't know if you know her but the other day she was talking and she said
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you need to have your business team together right and i was listening and i was like okay and she was like and if you can't afford
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a team then you need to get about three or four your good friends or family and near your business team at first and
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that's what i have like my auntie my mama and my sister cousins that's like the first line of defense so
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when i'm checking pictures somebody says something honey i'm texting them
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like for the show tyler perry on the first day prayed and he was like you know we have
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to pray for our haters too because they're out there you know people have their opinions about you know him and
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and his in his and his uh films and television and plays right but you always have people in their
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opinions so when the comments started to come in up in the thread
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that weren't so nice and friendly you know after you've gone and done all this hard work
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about it if that's what y'all got to say like that makes me emotional now i'm a crier but i'm just like you're not
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even looking at all of what we had to do to get here i mean okay right and i think
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you know especially now it's like the it's it's like there's so much other like there's other things that are like happening
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great right now you gotta be talking about this oh whatever you want to say about
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the show so my auntie called me she facetimed me and she was like don't you get in those
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comments don't you get in there you don't they always tell you don't read the comments
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i know but sometimes especially when it's new you can't help it because i'm excited i wanna
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i wanna see if people love the show you know what i'm saying are y'all laughing with me like it's like
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like you i've i've worked in this industry for 12 years before i got this moment to be on television
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so for you to get on here and because you have a little time you want to throw all of these things
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out there it doesn't feel good i'm here no it doesn't no it doesn't but let's go but let's
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keep in that support system i just wanted to make sure yeah no no that's good so your support system
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having that we actually referenced that a couple interviews ago and someone was talking about how it's important to have
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your your group your your your circle yeah and i will say like i wouldn't have even
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started the kirby fashionista had i not had my circle because i lost my job on
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friday the 13th um in march 2009 and
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my girlfriends all my girls was like nah you're doing this now girl you you going like i don't even think i
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had time to like mourn and cry and be sad they were like go yeah no they don't give you an
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opportunity to breathe you just gotta jump right then your wings start filling out
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you know you built you're building your wings as you
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that's my birthday march 13th oh wow so you started and that's also the day
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that brianna taylor was murdered so i think we should always i just want to shout that queen out because she was another plus-sized queen
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and uh when i look at the just the beautiful pictures of her you know so that day good for you right because
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you got out on that thing and it's my birthday so i've had to deal with a few friday the 13th
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oh my god for me but that's the thing so i'm glad somebody
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pushed you out and you know what's funny so to go back to me teaching i had a teacher that came one of my
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fellow teachers on my team he came to him he and his wife came to a play i was doing when i was still
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doing both things right and he walked in my classroom one afternoon to tell me how great the show was or
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whatever and he looked at me he said so when you gonna stop doing both of these things part-time
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oh and i said wow so that was two-fold right for me
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because i never want to look at the kids and what i was doing for education is part-time
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because they need somebody full-time and i and not that i was giving them part-time energy but
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you know i knew what he was saying and it's interesting the next year i resigned from education
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and and uh moved to l.a you know it's interesting to that point like oftentimes we are
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given visions or given um motivations or dreams or or inspirations of the things we want to do
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and oftentimes we'll we'll only baby stuff in them or only you know dip our toes or we feel
26:59
like we need to have extra help to do them or we feel like we you know they have to be back here
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and one of the things that i've seen through this pandemic because i also feel because i kind of feel like it tells it's kind of
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like you're doubting that you're doubting the universe or you're questioning like the things that are for you right
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like when you don't just take that full step and how you're supposed to right right
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but what i've witnessed over this pandemic is there have been so many people who
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have pivoted who have shifted and who have leaned into those dreams
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loomed into those goals leaned into those ambitions and i'm curious to
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for you how did you or have you found yourself leaning into
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things this especially now like that you were kind of either thinking about
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wondering about but hadn't really done it um yeah absolutely uh one of the things like my husband and i
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are writing um a script right so um yeah and i this is something i've talked
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about for years um i had an incident with a student um i ended up having to have surgery uh
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and exactly and um so it's been on my heart and mind to
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try to figure out my way of telling that story and you know creating and it's something
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that just brings so much trauma to me it was an experience that i think every time i got close to it
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um i kind of stepped back and this time an opportunity to sit with
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my thoughts uh to sit with myself to sit with god sit with my husband it was like
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we can't continue to wait right and we have to create and be our own plan a
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right build it and they will come you know it's interesting it's it you know oftentimes we don't know
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how strong we are how dope we are how blessed we are like until we like
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take those steps of faith until we lean into and you know through this there
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have been you know i've seen many the indie designers like pivot to add masks and like add other
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things and their business is kind of rounded out and they're doing better now than they
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were doing pre print pandemic like you have um other creators who have like pivoted and
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launching new projects yeah this time is like a very interesting time where people
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just sat back and she said vo april said be your own plan
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a i like that come on girl come on april yes yes i mean that's that's real like you
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know and so you know how do you find this time to really learn how to be your own plan a that's i'm going
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to um absolutely i tell my friends we got to come out of this thing millionaires or
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have our millionaire plans together you know what i'm saying like you if you are sitting here and not
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coming up with your plan i'm not talking about thoughts we gotta write that thing down baby put it up on a wall put it up
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on a post-it note so you can see it and remind yourself how great you are who are you not to
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shine right i need you to be shining baby so the rest of us can shine and we have to lean into that
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um so i'm glad you're saying that and you know like uh one of my allies that i met right
30:26
started a magazine during this
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