00:00Hi there. How's it going? Good. Thanks so much for being here today.
00:07Pleasure to meet you. Very nice to meet you. Please sit down.
00:09Sure. Have a seat.
00:14You're watching EW Lightbulb, presented by Glade.
00:17Gabrielle Union, thank you so much for being here for EW Lightbulb.
00:20Thank you for having me.
00:21So you start off, you're working in a lot of teen comedies.
00:25You're doing a lot of TV shows.
00:27What's the process kind of been like as you've been kind of evolving through the last few years of your career?
00:33I think people associated me with being a teenager for so long, like kind of like into my 30s.
00:39It was a tough transition to be sort of taken seriously as an adult actor when you're a grown ass person already.
00:47And you were a grown ass person when you were doing the teen movies.
00:49So that transition took a while and it's been a challenge.
00:53But, you know, it was trying to like, okay, now I did that, like, what else can I do?
00:57What else is out there?
00:58You know, it seems as if like right now, just in the last couple of years, you've had what seems to me like a really kind of incredibly rejuvenating portion of your career.
01:04You have being Mary Jane and you just had a fantastic role in top five.
01:08Is it a renaissance that's happening right now?
01:10It's nice. I'm like Kale.
01:13Been around, but they, you know, oh, Kale's good.
01:16It's like, oh, that's nice.
01:18I need Kale's publicist because Kale is everywhere.
01:22It's been nice to sort of be rediscovered and, but at the same time, I always kind of kept working.
01:28So my accountant wasn't freaking out.
01:30I was sort of under the radar just enough to kind of become bright and shiny and new all over again, which is, I'll take it.
01:36Your roles on being Mary Jane and top five are so different in a lot of ways.
01:39Is your process sort of different depending on the type of role or on?
01:42You know, it's a lot of it is who you're working with and you have to listen.
01:46Like most of comedy is listening and reacting and what timing comes in as well.
01:51But depending on who you're working with, working with Chris Rock is different than working with Kevin Hart is different than working with Eddie Murphy is different than working with Martin Lawrence.
01:59They all have different beats and their timing is so different.
02:03It's like a double, it's like getting in on a double dutch.
02:06So you're like, okay, okay.
02:07Oh, there we go.
02:08Now I'm in.
02:09Now I'm in the groove.
02:10Now I'm in the groove until you screw up and then you got to hop out and start over again.
02:13Yeah.
02:14A lot of it is I watch, I'm a, I'm a, I love to study people as a sociology major.
02:18I did a lot of field study where I'm just watching people and taking notes.
02:22And I sort of use that in, you know, in, you know, with my job.
02:26So each time in a way is sort of like an entirely new experience.
02:29Well, and you had, I had to be an action hero and a love interest and a victim and a hero and shoot people and, you know, be like, why didn't he call me?
02:39Like, it's super easy.
02:41But like, those are, you know, like the Michael Bay jobs, those are my favorite because I get, you know, I was growing up as an athlete.
02:47I get to be physical.
02:48I get to kiss cute boys.
02:50I get to, you know, do cool stunts.
02:53And there's some acting in there.
02:55Sure, sure.
02:56One of the things that I really love about, about Mary Jane as a character is that on one hand, here's someone who is so, from the outside is so well put together in every way.
03:05I mean, literally part of her job is being, you know, one of those well put together people you see on television.
03:09And yet so much of it is also about the, fragility is the wrong word, but there's a lot of like real emotion happening in her personal life.
03:16What's it like sort of exploring those two sides of the character on a weekly basis?
03:20Well, anytime you don't have to play a perfect character is awesome.
03:24So I love that she's freaking normal.
03:27You know what I mean?
03:28I love that she goes home and changes out of fabulous clothes into, you know, sweatpants and Uggs and takes out her cutlets.
03:35Comfy, comfy clothes.
03:36Yeah.
03:37And, you know, wraps her hair.
03:38What's the collaboration like between you and Mara Brock Akil?
03:41Because I know that like, as she said before, that the character takes a certain amount from her life.
03:45I mean, like, what's it been like sort of building that character together over the course of a couple seasons?
03:49Yeah, I mean, well, a lot of it is I just, I'm like, oh, that's what's happening.
03:53But like, if there's certain things like I'll ask, like certainly about wardrobe or about intention before the scene starts.
04:01Like, you know, what the goals are and where she's trying to head.
04:04And we definitely collaborate.
04:06A lot of her isms are things that, you know, I've added that Mara's like, yes, go for it.
04:13Yeah, that's good.
04:14But I mean, more than anything, I want her to be normal.
04:17I want people to go, oh, I do that.
04:19Like, that's what I do.
04:20I mean, I hadn't been that interested in it earlier in my career.
04:23I didn't even think to mine for the truth.
04:27It was, it had not crossed my mind until later in life.
04:32I can see, you know, some of my past mistakes through her, you know, through my character.
04:38When I was meeting with Mara and Saleem about, you know, Mary Jane, this role that has changed my life so much and challenged me.
04:44It was the exact moment that Whitney Houston passed away.
04:47And we were in the Four Seasons Lounge and you literally see all these phones lighting up and people gasping and crying and running out.
04:53And at that moment, I was just like, what do I stand for?
04:57I want to do good work.
04:58I want to do work that challenges me and that I'm proud of.
05:02And that hopefully, maybe through putting truth and honesty and realism into my work, it gives at least a cool enough response from other people that they're like, she's all right.
05:14I mess with her, like, she's cool.
05:19Watch all of EW Lightbulb, presented by Glade.
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