- 1 week ago
Niecy Nash looks back on the moments that shaped her career and reflects on her journey to find her place in the industry. From getting her start in 'Boys on the Side' to joining the 'All's Fair' cast, Niecy breaks down some of the most memorable highlights from her life.
All's Fair premieres November 4th with three episodes streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers in the US and on Disney+ internationally. New episodes stream weekly on Tuesdays.
All's Fair premieres November 4th with three episodes streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers in the US and on Disney+ internationally. New episodes stream weekly on Tuesdays.
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00:00We were trying to cover up our kibbles and our bits.
00:02It just wasn't working out.
00:04And I remember JB looking at me saying,
00:06come on now, Cora.
00:08We look damn good.
00:10Let's do it.
00:11And I was just like, ah!
00:13Hey, y'all.
00:14I'm Niecy Nash Betts.
00:16And today I'm looking back at some of the moments
00:19that have shaped me and my career.
00:27It's a sick lady in the bathroom.
00:30Is she with somebody here?
00:31She's outside.
00:32I was so happy to play the woman in the diner.
00:37And my scene, my first time out, was with the Whoopi Goldberg.
00:43Is that your friend in there in the bathroom?
00:45Yeah.
00:46Girl, you better get in there.
00:47She in there throwing up.
00:48Whoopi kept laughing.
00:49Every time I came out of the diner and said the line,
00:52and I said, oh, my God, I'm going to get fired
00:54because this lady is laughing and the director is getting frustrated.
00:57Kids, do not do this.
01:00Before I exited, I prayed.
01:02I said, Lord, I need this lady to keep a straight face
01:05because I don't want to lose my job.
01:07I come out.
01:08I say the line.
01:09She laughs again.
01:10And I say, stop.
01:12Hold up.
01:13Time out.
01:14Don't do that.
01:15Do not do that.
01:17And the director was like, what's going on?
01:19And I said, well, she's messing up the scene.
01:22And Whoopi Goldberg said, no, no, you didn't.
01:24I said, girl, yes, I did, because they're not going to fire you.
01:27Needless to say, we got it all worked out.
01:31And now me and Whoopi Goldberg are practically best friends.
01:35Hey, Whoopi.
01:37My favorite thing about being a cop is that I get to slap men around.
01:43Ha!
01:43I love it.
01:44Rayneisha Williams.
01:45Let me tell you something.
01:47I loved this job and character so much.
01:51It has been more than 20 years, and I am still called back into duty to play Rayneisha.
01:59So I have the baby hair and the booty at home with the uniform on standby at all times.
02:07And with this one, I had never heard of, like, Groundlings or Second City or any of the improv troops.
02:15So I just kind of lied my way into the audition.
02:19And I don't know if I was necessarily the best girl for the job at the time during the audition process.
02:27But what I do know is that I was comfortable in my skin.
02:31And I've always been funny.
02:32So, I guess, look, I was going to say, I guess it worked out.
02:37Ha!
02:37But we know it did.
02:39Huh?
02:39I think my most iconic quote from Reno 911 was when I said, well, baby, when the edges is in Africa and the back is in China, them continents don't meet.
02:51Go on and get you some hair that blend in.
02:54Reno 911 was a totally improvised show.
02:58So anything you hear us say came straight from the dome.
03:02I know you thought I was on your side while you were sashaying around in that little fancy mansion in Bel Air.
03:08But I've been on to you.
03:10I was a scream queen.
03:12Listen, Denise Hemphill is another.
03:15She was a security guard, not even a cop.
03:18But I loved her so much.
03:20And also with this character, Ryan Murphy gave me the freedom to improv and play around, make some things up.
03:28The girls were lovely.
03:29But at the end of the day, to this day, I still believe it was that damn Zaydee Williams.
03:35If you know, you know.
03:37That's not evidence.
03:38I just like the show.
03:40Hashtag cahoots.
03:41It wasn't hard for me not to laugh because I am the most unflappable person on the set.
03:45I don't care how funny it is.
03:47If you laugh, you ruin the take.
03:49So I'll just hold it until they call cut.
03:52And, you know, I laugh later.
03:54The scene that lives rent-free in my mind is when I come back to get into my police car and my partner has been stabbed up.
04:05And I say, Shondell, why you got a knife in your neck?
04:11Because she's dead.
04:18That's a good one.
04:20Oh, Desna Sims in Claws.
04:23In this particular scene, I was throwing Virginia out of my shop, who was played by Karrueche Tran.
04:31I love this scene so much because Karrueche is annoying in real life.
04:34I'm just going to say it.
04:36I said it and there it is.
04:37She knows she's annoying.
04:38I'm not speaking out of school.
04:40Anybody who followed my social media at the time said, oh my God, this girl just wears Nisi to death.
04:45And does.
04:46So I was happy to throw her around to give her a little taste of her own medicine.
04:52And I think I said to her in this scene, I think I called her a skank rag from Okeechobee.
05:00Please don't even ask me to break it down.
05:05Because I can't.
05:06So what was it like playing a character who's kind of a villain sometimes?
05:10Do you think Desna was a villain?
05:12Well, I don't see Desna as a villain.
05:15I think she was a writer.
05:16I think she was a badass.
05:17One of the things I loved about creating that character is because she was a woman over 40, not married like many of my friends at the time, having sex for her own pleasure.
05:29I was very insistent on her wearing her hair in a wild, natural style, which wasn't on TV then.
05:36I just wanted my friends to see themselves in this character.
05:42If Claws got another season, I probably would like to see how Desna would, what she would be like as a full queen pin.
05:52And whether or not her and Roller, played by Jack Kessie, would ever run it back.
05:58A lot of people think that this little thundercat just came in here and picked me up and turned me every which way but loose.
06:04I gave myself permission to feel what I felt in the moment.
06:09That's right.
06:09Red Table Talk.
06:11When I got married, the world had never seen me date a same-sex partner.
06:18So there was all this speculation.
06:21There were a lot of rumors.
06:23And I said, you know what?
06:24I don't want to keep having conversations all around town.
06:28Let's pick one place, go there, tell the story, and be gone from it.
06:33And we chose Red Table Talk because at that time, in 2021, that was the place you went to spill your own tea.
06:42In this interview, I said that Jessica fell in love with me because I'm a praying woman.
06:49And that is still true.
06:50I feel like you have to be connected to your faith in order to be in an industry that comes with a lot of hard knocks, a lot of judgment, and know for sure that you're walking in your purpose.
07:06Jessica and I's first date was over crabs and wine.
07:11I make crabs for Jessica every weekend.
07:15And when we sit down to that big tin of crabs, we always give each other a look.
07:21We don't always speak on it, but it's like, you know what this started.
07:272022 Essence Magazine cover.
07:30Myself and my spouse.
07:32Now, in 52 years of the magazine, it was the first time there was ever a same-sex couple on the cover.
07:41This is what I feel like was one of the most iconic moments for me as a queer black woman.
07:47It's going to be at the airport when you show up.
07:50It's going to be at the grocery store and the drugstore when you walk in there.
07:55I even found it at a bookstore by my house.
07:57Matter of fact, I have it like the size of a jumbotron in my own house.
08:02Oh, yeah.
08:03Never get tired of looking at it.
08:05It was the idea of the magazine for us to be naked on the cover.
08:09We were supposed to be on a closed set.
08:12It was freezing on the rooftop of this building.
08:15Shout out to photographer Rob Hector because he took this photo.
08:19And there were so many people around and we were trying to cover up our kibbles and our bits.
08:25It just wasn't working out.
08:26And I remember JB looking at me saying, come on now, Cora.
08:31We look damn good.
08:33Let's do it.
08:34And I was just like, ah.
08:37And my spouse wasn't lying.
08:41They came out great.
08:42Every day I am determined to beat them.
08:45And every night I'll crawl in the bed feeling beaten.
08:49Oh, the rookie.
08:51Which ultimately led to rookie fads.
08:55Nathan Fillion is one of the kindest human beings I've ever met.
08:59He is so gracious and so kind.
09:03And so I started on The Rookie, I think, with a two-episode arc.
09:08And then that rolled in to me doing The Rookie Feds, where I played FBI agent Simone Clark.
09:16And she used her people skills in her job quite a bit.
09:21She was a non-traditional FBI agent.
09:26How's that ex-fiancee of yours?
09:28Oh, man.
09:29When I started the show, I knew that they wanted to make a spinoff.
09:36But it had to, you know, get baked into the original series somehow.
09:40Fun fact, this is the show, the spinoff, that did not survive the strike.
09:49I was in Miami hosting an event, and I had to introduce Jessica on stage because she was
09:55performing at the same event.
09:57And right before I went up to introduce her, I got the phone call from my agents that said
10:03this show didn't survive the strike and it's not coming back.
10:05My lip was trembling.
10:07The tears were starting to form in my eyes.
10:10And Jessica was saying all the right things.
10:11She was like, hey, listen, you're going to get them on the next one.
10:14You're still great.
10:15And then I heard her voice crack and like, everything is going to be all right.
10:19And I said, oh, my God, that means you got fired, too, because she was my love interest
10:25on the show.
10:26I just have fond memories of it because it was a show where we actually got to work together.
10:32Both of my daughters were on the show.
10:34So it was good to have a chosen family on the show, but to also bring your family to work
10:42as well.
10:43So this is the end of the road.
10:44Is that what you want?
10:46No.
10:48Our relationships are about timing.
10:52And I guess this just isn't ours.
10:55In this scene right here from Rookie Feds, we broke up.
10:59And we are so tethered to one another that after the scene, the scene is over.
11:06It's all said and done with.
11:07And she giving me the eye.
11:09And I said, what's wrong with you?
11:10So you don't want to be with me?
11:12I said, what?
11:14No, you better stop.
11:15And I was like, you know I love you.
11:17You know I want to be with you.
11:18I had to say that.
11:20We hated even playing that we had to break up because we love each other.
11:26I think it's a fight going on next door and somebody is either being hurt or killed.
11:34Oh, wow.
11:35Now, Monster 2022, I played Glenda Cleveland.
11:42A few things about this.
11:43One, I said yes to Ryan Murphy before I knew what the show was because I trust him so much.
11:49He called me and said, hey, I've got this thing I want you to do.
11:52And I said, okay.
11:55Then he sent the scripts.
11:56And I was like, say what now?
11:59I didn't have any idea that this is what we were unpacking.
12:05I remember this was not too long after I had gotten married to Jessica.
12:10And people were like, oh, you know, you told your private business, you know, about having a relationship with a woman.
12:17And you're never going to eat lunch in this town again.
12:21Ryan called me.
12:22He said, as long as I'm alive, you will have a job in this business.
12:26And he sent me these scripts and working with Evan Peters.
12:31He's so intense.
12:33This one, I ended up being nominated for an Emmy for.
12:37And I think I was five times nominated when I got this.
12:42Fact check me.
12:43Yeah, I won an Emmy for playing Glenda Cleveland.
12:47And that was one of the most beautiful nights of my life.
12:50I hold space for this character.
12:52The thing that I connected most with in this character is the fact that I played this character at a time when so many black women were unheard yet over police.
13:06I talked about it in my speech, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor.
13:11And it was important for me to advocate for black and brown women whose voices had often been silenced.
13:21In an effort to get people back to your fading church, asses to masses was the only consummation you could get.
13:32Oh, now, grotesquerie.
13:36I played Lois Tryon.
13:37Let me tell you something about this.
13:39To me, in my opinion, this was my best work to date.
13:45You know, it is not easy playing an alcoholic, you know, because you don't want it to look fake.
13:51But there's also different levels that you can play depending on where the character is.
13:59It was very delicious as an artist to unpack this and walk through it.
14:06And Michaela Diamond, what?
14:08Who would not want this cute thing as a sidekick?
14:12You know, that's still one of my favorite people.
14:14We had a very, very big fight scene that was planned.
14:19And let me tell you right now, shout out to my stunt girl, JJ, Jeanette Branch, because she made me look very good in this fight.
14:35You know what I mean?
14:37I look like I got beat down to the ground.
14:40And I loved every minute of it.
14:42Between drama and comedy, I approach my roles the exact same way.
14:48I start at trying to find the intersection between that character and me.
14:54And then I build it out after I see the visual.
14:58Sometimes I even assign them a zodiac sign.
15:02And y'all know, you know, if you put one thing up about a zodiac sign, all the people who follow you got something to say about it.
15:08I do want to say that I do feel very, very blessed because there is a short list of people who can make you laugh and make you cry.
15:17And I am so grateful that I have that duality in my instrument.
15:22Thank you, Lord.
15:24You are not taking so much as a ballpoint pen out of this building.
15:28Enough edging, counselor.
15:30Let us come already.
15:32Emerald Green from All's Fair.
15:34First of all, when Ryan calls, you just say yes.
15:38All of these ladies signed on to be a part of this project without a script.
15:43That tells you how much faith and trust we have in Ryan Murphy.
15:48And then he wrote these characters based on our yes.
15:52I love Emerald Green.
15:54I love that she has three boys.
15:56I love that, you know, women who may have had fertility issues can see themselves in her.
16:04I love that she was a single mom by choice.
16:06The fashion is unmatched.
16:08And one thing I tell you about this, it was very important to me that Emerald show up in this particular world in things that were made by black designers.
16:19I wanted to make sure when I had this platform, other people who look like me could also benefit from the platform.
16:29So, there you go.
16:31You had a really powerful moment with Tiana at the Essence Women of Hollywood Awards.
16:35What did this reunion feel like to you?
16:37Oh, I love me some Tiana Taylor.
16:39Love, love, love.
16:40I presented her with the Essence Women of Hollywood Award.
16:44And we just had a very beautiful and genuine connection.
16:47And I don't play about her.
16:50You know what I mean?
16:51Not at all.
16:52That's one of those ones who you pick up the phone and we ride at dawn.
16:57Where am I meeting you?
16:58Because I'm pulling up.
17:00I'm very, very happy that these are the women that I'm on the ride with.
17:06Someone asked me what did I learn from the women during filming.
17:11And it's not even about what I learned, to be honest with you.
17:15It's the sisterhood that I gained.
17:17We are connected and bonded in such a real way off camera that it will probably serve me to the end of time.
17:28Them, thank you so much for having me.
17:31Be sure to check out All's Fair on Hulu.
17:34He wants to check out All's Fair on Hulu.
17:52For a living that's a real scene, there on Hulu is the am主 arm of the woman of the woman of the woman and of the woman.
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