00:00I love being a woman. I think women are the most powerful, amazing humans on the planet.
00:08Shaking your booty.
00:10It's all it takes sometimes.
00:11You're shaking your hair, face, ass.
00:15How many of us have gone to therapy and to healing because we want a man?
00:25I mean, you're no stranger to, you know, hosting red carpets.
00:28You are the front and center of Glitz and Glam.
00:31How does it feel now to be able to host an event that's primarily focused on women?
00:36I love being a woman. I think women are the most powerful, amazing
00:45humans on the planet. The ways in which women have evolved are leading in all areas,
00:52and particularly in music. I'm insanely excited. I mean, the women who are performing,
00:57the women we're honoring, I'm a fan. I'm a fangirl.
01:01And I just can't wait to celebrate and have a party with everybody.
01:04I agree. And I mean, you, of course, are such a pillar of representation.
01:09You so fiercely advocate for humans to be all on the same level.
01:14And I've been noticing myself a big shift, especially in music,
01:19that women get to express themselves however they truly are.
01:23We see it with all the pop girls lately.
01:26Why do you think now is the time where we see women kind of expressing themselves
01:32in their full potential, in their full capacity?
01:34I'm older, so I think about artists like Tina Turner or Madonna.
01:39I think a lot about Madonna when I think about this moment and how much
01:43control she took over her career of every aspect of it and how she was represented.
01:48And more and more women are having that control
01:52artistically. And when they have that control, then it's not about an executive
01:58or someone else telling them what to do. It's coming from them.
02:03And we feel it as an audience. And the empowerment becomes something that's
02:08really real when you can own your masters, when you can have more control and more.
02:13And I think the independent aspect of music, the artists who get to be independent,
02:19have really given space to those artists who may be on bigger labels to kind of
02:24be a little bit freer. And they're leading the way in a lot of ways.
02:28And so that's just really exciting.
02:29I agree. And our lineup this year, I feel like, is a really good depiction of that.
02:32We have Tyla, Glorilla, Erykah Badu, Meghan Trainor, Gracie Abrams.
02:37They are these girls that did not let anyone define them.
02:41They define themselves. They don't fit themselves in boxes.
02:44I mean, I saw you have quite a bit of a reaction to a few of these girls.
02:48Are you loving the lineup this year?
02:49I'm obsessed with the lineup.
02:50It's so, like, Erykah Badu has been a part of my life for a really, really long time.
02:55So much of her music and her image. She's just a fashion icon.
02:59But she's just such a spiritual, like, you just listen and there's just wisdom.
03:05And it feels like the music comes from the heavens. It comes from the spirits.
03:10And that's so incredible. I can't wait to see what she wears.
03:13I can't too. And just, I hope, I mean, just even hearing her speak.
03:18She's anointed. She's anointed and she comes from, everything comes from that anointed place.
03:23Even when she's having fun, even when she's, like, a little silly in an interview or she may,
03:27kind of, read somebody and, like, I just think about, you know, the turban when she came out
03:31with the turban all those years ago and how she's just allowed herself to evolve and be herself in
03:37every aspect and have fun, so much fun with it. And, I mean, Glorilla, what is it? Hair, face.
03:44Everything.
03:46Attitude. Like, she just embodies, like, fun and confidence. And every time I see her,
03:53I'm like, this girl has it locked in. I can't even believe she's new.
03:57Her work ethic, her just, like, love of music and just putting the music out and just
04:03making us feel it. I mean, what do you know about me? You know, it's, she's just,
04:08she's one of those girls.
04:09Hypes herself up in her music too. And I love it. We can all
04:14take a note from her book, you know?
04:15Yeah. The smart artists, if they hype themselves up, then when we're singing along,
04:19we're hyping ourselves up. In this moment too, now, one of the big things I turn to is music.
04:25When the news is just depressing or just catastrophic, I put on music. And music is
04:32that thing, that universal language that can take us there. It can take us to a moment in our lives
04:39that, where we cried or we laughed. And it reminds us of an old lover or a moment in our,
04:45a moment with our girlfriends. And music is just that. It's so powerful and it's so crucial now,
04:54more than ever. Like every aspect of music, but when we can kind of, when I can put something
04:58on and dance to it and like, shake my groove thang. God, I sound so old. Shake my groove thang.
05:05Shake your tail feather.
05:06Take a tail. That's even older. Tina Turner. It's everything. It's everything because it's
05:13like this, like, how do we in the face of the catastrophic, like, find our joy,
05:18find our freedom? And sometimes putting on a song and just shaking your booty.
05:22It's all takes sometimes.
05:23You're shaking your hair, face, ass.
05:28Everything. Everything.
05:29Just to quote Glorilla. Yeah. Shaking it all.
05:32Literally.
05:33It's a really exciting time right now. And I think women are really running-ish. So it's a
05:39really great time to be hosting. I just, I just feel like women are the evolution and women are
05:46setting so many standards around how we should be evolving and changing and growing psychologically,
05:54emotionally, spiritually, politically. And it's a beautiful thing.
05:58It really is. It is. I mean, shifting gears now. I mean, it is just the beginning for you for 2025.
06:06What a year. You have Clean Slate coming out. A really powerful story about, you know,
06:14family dynamics within the trans world. And, you know, you're producing and you're
06:20starring in the show. And I co-created it.
06:22And you co-created it. How immersive was that?
06:25I'm your daughter, Desiree. I've always been Desiree.
06:31So Clean Slate is the realization of a dream 15 years in the making.
06:36I've produced a number of non-scripted and documentary projects,
06:39but it's always been my dream to co-create, produce a scripted program,
06:46film or TV show that I star in. And this is the first time that that's happened.
06:49It's been seven years of pitching. We started working on the show seven years ago.
06:54And finally, February 6th, it'll be streaming on Prime Video.
06:59And it's a story about a woman, Desiree Slate, who returns to her hometown of Mobile, Alabama,
07:05which happens to be my hometown, and to reconnect with her dad, who she has not seen in 23 years.
07:12She left when she was 17 because she was bullied and she didn't think she would survive because
07:16she was really bullied as a kid. She was assigned male at birth, but knew that she
07:22was trans and she moved away, went to New York, found herself,
07:27transitioned, and now it's time for her to reconnect with her dad and begin the healing
07:33process from some of her childhood trauma that she hasn't fully been able to do in New York.
07:38You have to kind of go to the source. She, like me, earlier in my life, I've gotten better at it.
07:43She's found in her therapy, because Desiree goes to therapy like Laverne does,
07:48and she found in her therapy that she continues to choose unavailable men.
07:52And so her therapist is like, well, maybe you need to go to the
07:55first unavailable man in your life. It always starts from there.
07:58Her dad. And so she's back in Alabama because she wants a man. No, that's not the only reason.
08:05But that's a good, you know, I want a man and I want a functional relationship, so I need to heal.
08:11Yep.
08:11How many of us have gone to therapy and to healing because we want a man?
08:16And it's always that. It's always like some breakup or traumatic event within a man,
08:21and then they're like, what is your relationship with your father like?
08:24And it's like, all right, well, let's buckle up.
08:26Yeah. And the beautiful thing about it is that it's funny, and really,
08:30ultimately, it's a show about family, and it's about a father's unconditional love for his
08:34daughter. I should note that it's Norman Lear's final family comedy, the legendary Norman Lear.
08:40We met seven years ago and pitched the idea to him and he came on to produce with us. So we got
08:47to go into pitch meetings with the legendary Norman Lear. He was 96 years old when we met him.
08:51All the more special. Wow.
08:52So I really want to honor Mr. Lear. Well, he didn't like to be called Mr. Lear. Call him
08:58Norman. To honor Norman and just how he immediately said yes to this story and his legacy, to be a
09:07part of his legacy. I grew up watching all of his shows, like Good Times at Jefferson's, Facts of
09:12Life, One Day at a Time, What's Happening, All in the Family. I watched all of these shows,
09:18and these shows changed culture. And to be a part of that legacy with Clean Slate is,
09:24I just got goosebumps. So thank you, Mr. Lear. Thank you, Norman, for supporting us.
09:30And I feel his spirit with this.
09:33100%. I mean, all the more healing. I think that's a big theme that really stuck out to me
09:38in this, is very rarely does somebody get to create a story that connects with them.
09:46Relive it in some ways.
09:48Which is hard. There are stories in the show that are taken directly from my life,
09:52I won't tell you which ones. Really?
09:54They're actual things.
09:56Was that a good, did you like doing that or did it make it a little hard?
10:01When I was working with Dan and we were just coming up with the storylines, I was like,
10:03oh my God, this happened. And so when we were coming up with the show and this return to
10:06hometown, I knew I had to have the church in because church is a huge part of my life.
10:12It was a huge part of my life as a kid. My mom, black folks in the South, church is everything,
10:18so a new church needs to be a big part of it. I knew all the stories, there's so many stories
10:24that we know from church specifically. And the house, the scenic design, I was triggered every
10:31day. It's fun coming up with the ideas, oh, this will be great, oh, this will be awesome,
10:35but then you have to live it as the actress. I wasn't prepared for how triggered I would be
10:41stepping into it. And then, so they're really grounded, serious moments, but it's also a
10:46comedy and I'm working opposite a legend, George Wallace, and he's just funny. He wakes up funny.
10:55So finding my own rhythm with him was really challenging. It's one of the hardest jobs I've
11:01had, I think because it's just so close. The closer something is, the more intense it is.
11:09I'm so, in this moment now, I'm just so grateful that I got to be a part of
11:16casting and putting a writer's room together, a really diverse writer's room, a really diverse
11:21crew. We had trans folks in hair and makeup, in wardrobe, on the crew. Our writer's room was like
11:28all people, all queer people, people of color, people from the South, trans people. We wanted
11:35a Southern thing, too. We wanted authenticity, so it wasn't just about race, class, gender. It was
11:39also like, are you from the South? Culture, yeah. Did you go to the church in the South?
11:43So we had writers who had that lived experience, so all the colors. I knew what
11:50the storylines would be, but just lines and nuances that our writers would come up with,
11:54I was like, oh, that's so good. It comes from knowing. It comes from knowing. And to hear our
12:00writers say that in jobs they've had since Clean Slate, they feel like they have to put parts of
12:05themselves in the closet or not bring their full selves to work, but with Clean Slate, they
12:10could bring all of themselves. Special. That is deeply special, and those are the kinds of
12:15environments I want to create. I was about to say, the biggest compliment, and must be encouraging
12:19for you as you move forward in your storytelling, your production, acting career, to want to create
12:27spaces like this for everyone to feel hard on the table, hard on the scene, I guess.
12:33What connects us is the ways that we struggle. Everybody's struggling with something,
12:38and I hope that folks can watch this show and understand some way that they can connect with
12:45these characters and just family. I love that. I love that, and it kind of leads me to my last
12:52question, which is, I mean, one you've likely heard before, but I think especially given the
12:57context of Clean Slate and everything you've accomplished. What would you tell young Laverne
13:03if you could go back now?
13:08It's often the same thing. I think it depends on the age of young Laverne, but I think it would be
13:14everything that is happening right now is for a reason. You might not understand the reason now,
13:21but you are divinely led. This is very difficult, but without a test, there's no testimony. You're
13:28being tested now. Everything that's happening is a lesson for you to learn to take into
13:36your higher powers dream for you, and there is a bigger dream for you. Don't ever forget that.
13:43Don't let that go. That dream is for you. It's waiting for you on God's time, not your time.
13:50Oh my goodness. Literally church here. Well, you didn't even need a church in Alabama. You were
13:56running it on your own. Well, I've always said that I left the church. I'm no longer religious,
14:00but I never left God. I never, you know, in going to college and questioning, like,
14:06organized religion, I certainly questioned that, but it was never, ever a single moment in my life
14:11where I had a doubt that there is a power greater than me. There is a God. There's a higher power
14:15that I am divinely guided. I've never had a doubt, ever. Neither do we, and I mean,
14:21thank you so much, Laverne. I can say personally, like, thank you so much for how you've inspired me
14:26and how much you've inspired my loved ones who are trans. Like, you are such a powerful force
14:33in entertainment and in the world beyond, and I'm so excited for you to be hosting Women in Music.
14:38I can't wait to see you there. I'm so excited. I'm just like, how many wardrobe changes can I do?
14:43As many as you want. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. As many as possible.
14:48I love it. Well, thank you so much, Laverne. I can't wait. Thank you.
Comments