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PANEL: From Hulu’s The Other Black Girl, to Freeform’s Cruel Summer and Disney Channel’s Marvel's Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, the stars from some of Disney’s newest TV series talk about their new shows, careers and what’s next for them.
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00:00Good morning. We are a small but mighty crew. Happy first day. Welcome to the
00:07first day of a wonderful weekend of programming. I am Erica Bennett, Chief
00:12Marketing Officer here at Essence Ventures and I'm really excited for this
00:16next panel. I've been spending a lot of time with these young women. Today we're
00:21going to be talking about some of the rising stars in our industry and I've
00:26got four incredible women for you all to meet today. One has been dubbed the next
00:35Scream Queen by Jason Blumhouse. One has been on a multiple People's Choice
00:43nominated show. One is a top five finalist on the X Factor and one is an NAACP
00:54Image Award nominee and this is all before they've even been on the shows
00:58we're going to talk about today. So the kids are all right. So I'm going to go
01:05ahead and introduce our panelists. Our first panelist, she stars as the alluring
01:13and enigmatic Isabella on the new hit show on Freeform, Cruel Summer. The show is in
01:21its second season. If you guys have not watched it, it is so good. She's also a
01:27singer, an actress, a filmmaker and a changemaker. Please help me. Welcome to the
01:33stage. Lexi Underwood.
01:49This next panelist, this show is so great, you guys. She is on the show, Marvel's Moon Girl and the Devil Dinosaur. I don't know if you guys have checked it out, but it's an animated show.
01:52This show is so great, you guys. She is on the show, Marvel's Moon Girl and the Devil Dinosaur. I don't know if you guys have checked it out, but it's an animated show and she voices the character of Lunella Lafayette.
02:06She's one of the smartest, the character, she is as well, but the character is actually one of the smartest characters in all of the Marvel Universe and she's the first teenage black superhero for the Marvel Universe.
02:25In addition to voicing this incredible character, she has, lost my place. She has voiced many other, many other shows. Please help me welcome to the stage, Diamond White.
02:46Welcome.
02:56This next rising star was touted by Blumhouse as the new Scream Queen. She's in the new Insidious series and she plays Nella in a new show coming out on Hulu called The Other Black Girl.
03:13Please help me welcome to the stage, Sinclair Daniel.
03:21And last but certainly not least, we have another star from Hulu's The Other Black Girl.
03:27She plays Hazel. She was a fan favorite on a little show called Tom Swift and has also played on Riverdale, which we all know and love.
03:42Please help me welcome to the stage, Ashley Murray.
03:44Good morning, after, I don't know, it's dark in here. Hi!
03:57It's technically still morning.
03:59Is it? Oh, okay, good morning.
04:02Okay.
04:03What we do for fashion. I'm like, how do I say it?
04:06Okay, so ladies, I'm so excited to be up here with you guys. Give it out for these incredible actresses.
04:15You guys, in just a few, I mean, you're so young. In just a few years, you've accomplished so much.
04:22You know, you're now playing significant roles on major television shows for major networks.
04:31How meaningful is it for you to play your character?
04:33So can you each talk a little bit about your character more and tell us a little bit more about what it means for your particular show?
04:41Okay. For me, I know when I read the script for Moon Girl, her being the first black superhero in her own series,
04:53it was just cool to know that finally the representation that I needed growing up was there.
04:59I didn't grow up with a cartoon that showcased this beautiful black girl with hair that looks like mine.
05:04And in the series, she goes through a lot of the same kind of things that I experienced growing up.
05:10So just knowing that now all the younger black girls and people of color can have a show where it's like she's black
05:17and she's the smartest superhero in the Marvel universe, I think that's really cool.
05:21And I'm just really proud to be a part of it, a part of the history.
05:26Yeah, I love that. That's amazing.
05:29Ashley, you want to go next?
05:32You still had your mic up.
05:33Yeah, well, I'm going to chime in for whatever you have to say.
05:35All right. Well, on this current show, The Other Black Girl that's coming out in the fall,
05:41this is the first time that I've ever played a character that wasn't in high school.
05:45Thank you for calling me young.
05:48And it is also an archetype that I didn't think I'd be able to play.
05:54It's the first time that I've ever had imposter syndrome on any job.
05:58So apparently it went well since it's coming out.
06:04But yeah, I really loved the character because it was unlike anything I'd ever done before.
06:09It stretched me as an artist and as a person.
06:12And it also reminded me that the thing that I am often most looking for in any job is the empathy in that character.
06:19And I would say that you did that flawlessly, darling.
06:23Since we're on the same show, I guess I'll just speak to that.
06:29Playing a character like Nella was so exciting for me because I saw a lot of similarities immediately between me and this character.
06:37You know, only black person, let alone black woman at your job in a corporate space.
06:45And you want to do well, but you also want to stay true to yourself.
06:48And I think that's just something that, you know, black women in general have to always think about as we are climbing these ladders in life.
06:57And so it was so much fun and at times really real playing a character like that.
07:05But ultimately extremely rewarding.
07:08And I'm excited for people to see it.
07:09When I first read the script for Cool Summer, I was just so excited about the fact that, number one, there was going to be a black female lead like in the show just because the first season there wasn't really a black female lead in the show.
07:26So, number one, just a mere fact that me as a black actress was, you know, able to kind of like tackle that space and the way in which like tonally they tell those stories.
07:35I was incredibly excited.
07:36But then also diving deeper into who Isabella was.
07:39I was so excited because she's just such a complex and layered character.
07:43And I feel as though sometimes, especially as young actresses, I don't know if y'all feel this, but it's kind of rare that we like really get material like that.
07:51We were able to dive deep and like really explore this character.
07:55And for Isabella, for Cool Summer, you know, it's three different timelines.
07:57So it's also three different, very drastically different versions of her.
08:01But each different, each version of her is so different.
08:06And she has something so special and so unique in every version of her that makes her just so incredibly fun to play.
08:13But being able to just tell that story and seeing it all unfold was truly a blessing.
08:17Yeah, I had the pleasure of watching all the shows.
08:22And what I love is they're all genre breaking in some unique way.
08:29On Cool Summer, Lexi talked about it, they have three different timelines that they're navigating from a story perspective.
08:35So you really have to, as a character, get ahead of the character, get behind the character and be in the present all at the same time, which is truly fantastic.
08:45On your show, I mean, she's smart.
08:50And fighting on behalf of her family and community, which is incredible, and doing it all through STEM and science, which is amazing.
08:58And The Only Black Girl hasn't come out yet.
09:01I got a sneak peek of it.
09:03I can't wait for it.
09:05But it's unlike any TV show I've seen on television.
09:10It's very, it's kind of get out, it's kind of devil wears Prada, but a really great storyline.
09:16So I love that, what does it mean to you all, I'll start with you, Lexi, maybe, to be a part of a show that is genre bending?
09:26And how has that impacted how you show up in the show and how you show up as a black woman in the show?
09:34That's a really good question.
09:36Specifically for Cool Summer, when it comes to the genre breaking of it, I think that that's why season one did so well.
09:45Because we haven't really seen a show or a story be told in that structure before.
09:51As an actress, it is incredibly exciting always when you are brought a piece of, you know, work in which you can, like, stretch yourself not only as an artist, but also just as a human being.
10:01And it is a lot that goes into it.
10:05I feel as though this was the first time where I've really had to not only put, like, my full, full, full trust into myself and my instincts, but also the people around me as well.
10:14I think that it's tricky sometimes trying to navigate it.
10:17But being able to do it was just so incredibly cool.
10:21And I hope that we see more of those kind of stories being told because the structure of it is really cool.
10:26Yeah, I agree.
10:27Diamond, you have voiced a lot of characters on a lot of different shows.
10:31I was so impressed with your resume.
10:34Oh, my goodness.
10:36This one's special.
10:38You sort of started to talk about it.
10:42But can you share more about, like, why you were so drawn to this one in particular?
10:50Well, I mean, it's the first of its kind.
10:52And just, like, knowing that Disney and Marvel collabed on something that's so, like, game-changing for the younger generation is really cool.
11:04And I've been allowed to bring my, like, there's an episode about Lunella where she gets her first perm.
11:11Her hair today gone tomorrow.
11:12That's my favorite episode.
11:14I got, too.
11:15And it's like, we've never seen that ever.
11:18No.
11:18I went.
11:18It's so cool.
11:19Yeah.
11:19I went crazy.
11:21And Jennifer Hudson voices my hair in that episode.
11:24It's amazing.
11:25It's, I don't know.
11:26It's honestly just so cool.
11:28And we get so many different, like, Marvel nuggets, too.
11:31Like, Marvel's taking the show really seriously.
11:33So, I don't know.
11:35I just hope it sticks around for a long time so I can see more black experiences shown through Lunella Lafayette.
11:41I do, too.
11:42It's a great show.
11:43So, Sinclair, you started to touch on this.
11:47But, you know, we have all been the only black girl in the room.
11:54The other.
11:55Or the other black girl.
11:56The other black girl, yeah.
11:56The other black girl.
11:58We've all had that experience.
12:00How did you bring your personal experience into the show?
12:04And how did you pour that into your character?
12:06Yeah, you know, this show is heavily based off of a book by Zakiya, a genius author who's over there.
12:18And we were so lucky to have her with us.
12:21But for me, what it meant, you know, pulling from my own experiences and putting them onto screen,
12:29instead of coming from the place of I'm going to re-traumatize myself in pursuit of art,
12:37it was way more like how do we take these very real experiences, make them funny, make them relatable,
12:45you know, condense them a little bit, lean into parts that maybe as a person,
12:51if you're explaining it to somebody, they might not see why something hurt you or affected you in the way that it did
12:57and really getting into those moments, which I thought was very special
13:01because it's just, it was such a validating experience.
13:05Because like you said, a lot of us, if not all of us, have been the other or the only black girl.
13:11And, you know, there's not a lot of people talking about when there's just two of you.
13:16People talk about being the only one, but when there's two, I think it gets a little more complex and complicated
13:21and we really get to get into that relationship in the show.
13:23So it was an honor.
13:24I was just going to say, it's an interesting dynamic between your two characters.
13:28Yeah.
13:28Do you want to talk a little bit about that, Ashley?
13:32Yeah.
13:32So when we started making the show, it was a very, it makes it very easy to do my job.
13:40It also reminded me of like, oh, I've been Nella.
13:44And while I haven't been Hazel fully, there are parts of her that I definitely connect to.
13:50And the dynamic of our relationship, which you will see play out in the show, which Sinclair kind of spoke to,
13:57that dynamic of there only being two.
13:59And the whole we know the crab in a barrel mentality, how your surroundings and the circumstance can end up pitting you against each other
14:07when that doesn't actually need to be the case.
14:09You see flickers of that, but there also is that connection of hope that, wow, I'm not alone anymore.
14:18Wow, I have someone I can lean on, hope someone I can turn to, someone I can trust.
14:22So, I mean, I could talk about, I could talk about our dynamic all day.
14:27Anyway, I will say that there is one scene that we had to do.
14:31I don't know if you remember this.
14:32Which one?
14:33Well, I can't say exactly what it is.
14:35Oh, okay, okay, okay.
14:36But there is a scene.
14:37And once we completed it, I walked up to Sinclair and I asked her if she could give me a hug because I started crying.
14:43Because the situation that played out was something that was highly uncomfortable for me.
14:50Because it wasn't something that I, as Ashley, would ever engage in.
14:55And yet, Sinclair, being the wonderful actress that she is, had her reaction to it because we were at work.
15:01And I completely forgot who I was and where I was.
15:05And immediately I was like, oh my God, please hug me.
15:08And in that moment, I could let that go and I knew that I had someone that I can trust.
15:13Sinclair has been one of the best scene partners, one of the best people,
15:17one of the most professional artists that I have been so lucky to work with.
15:21She's going to make me cry on this panel.
15:22It's true.
15:23This is, yeah, it was a joy.
15:25There's always so much glue for the lashes.
15:28I know, really.
15:30Sorry.
15:31I mean, what I love to see is, despite the tension between your characters that sometimes exist,
15:37I don't want to give everything away, but despite that, that there's a very beautiful relationship off screen.
15:44Yeah.
15:45And incredible community.
15:47That you have in other black women as they're coming up, particularly on your respective channels.
15:56You all, I mean, you've talked about your leadership on set.
16:03You all have just have such command of your careers at such a young age.
16:08What advice do you have for others as they're coming up in their careers?
16:14Not, you know, whether they want to act or be in STEM or, you know, be in the media industry.
16:20What advice would you have for kind of taking command of your own journey and destiny?
16:26I'll start here.
16:26Yeah.
16:27I would say advice that I have when it comes to taking command of, you know, your voice and your destiny.
16:34For me, it definitely took a while.
16:35Naturally, I was always just a very shy person growing up and still am.
16:39And I still sometimes struggle to use my voice, but especially in those moments, I remember I'm very big on, like, what's for me is for me.
16:47And if I'm, you know, in the room, if I'm here, that means that I'm supposed to be here.
16:51And oftentimes when it comes to social media, the industry, whatever it is, it's very easy to compare ourselves and be in this space where it's like, am I doing enough?
16:58Am I not doing enough?
16:59Why am I not doing this?
17:01But I've just come to realize that, like, it's what's for me is, like, always going to find me.
17:05And I just got to be cool with that.
17:08Yeah, I'd have to agree, especially, like, being black in the industry.
17:11I feel like it's hard to not compare yourself with this second.
17:18Because it's like, why?
17:19It shouldn't be a competition, especially between the people in the black community.
17:22Harrison is the thief of joy.
17:24Yeah.
17:26I would also just add, just keep going.
17:28You can't fail if you never stop trying.
17:30There's been times, like, there's always going to be a no.
17:33There's always going to be a no.
17:34But as soon as you get, like, the first yes, like, all it takes is just one little yes to get, keep your, you know, to keep you going.
17:42Just don't stop trying and find your own avenues.
17:45Kiki Palmer was talking about how she started posting videos online and that led her to all of her, you know.
17:50So, like, if it's not happening, make it.
17:53Like, post videos, do what you love, keep with your passion.
17:57And, um, yeah.
18:01Yeah, yeah, we're just going to move over that.
18:03That didn't happen.
18:04Yeah, that's all I got to say.
18:05Never picking up this mic again.
18:08Sinclair.
18:09I would just say trust yourself.
18:10This was my first project of this size by far.
18:14And I was thrown into the deep end immediately.
18:17And I was surrounded by people who obviously all were very invested in this project and wanted it to go well.
18:22And it's hard to take that pressure off your own shoulders.
18:27But like you said, what's for me is for me.
18:29I am here.
18:30And it took a few days.
18:32But after that, I was in it.
18:34And I was trusting myself.
18:37And it really helps to have somebody, you know, like Ashley, who has been in this business and who never disregarded a question I had and who was always open to helping me through things.
18:47Had personal experience to draw from.
18:49And I know not everybody has that.
18:51But if you can get yourself an Ashley, get yourself an Ashley.
18:53Or find one.
18:54Get you an Ashley.
18:54We're going to put that on a T-shirt.
18:57I'm going to close that out by saying there's always an Ashley.
19:01And if there isn't one, be one.
19:03And by that, I mean don't be afraid to be open.
19:06Don't be afraid to ask questions, to answer questions.
19:09And remember that 99% of the time, people are not thinking about you the way that you're thinking about you.
19:16So if you're concerned about a comment you made or a question you asked or a choice that you felt like was the right one and you think that everybody's judging you for it, nine times out of ten they're not.
19:26Because they're worried about themselves.
19:27So if you take that pressure off of yourself, that should allow you to open up to the people around you and recognize that everybody's worrying about the same kind of things you are, just on their own.
19:38And when you find that community, you're going to feel far less alone.
19:41I find that as someone who has experienced things of being the only and being stepped on and all these things, I can't look at someone struggling and not help.
19:54So just be open.
19:56Be kind.
19:58I love that.
19:59I love that.
20:00So wise.
20:02So wise.
20:04We're out of time, which is crazy.
20:06I feel like we're just now getting excited.
20:08We just got up here.
20:09I'm sorry?
20:10We just got up here.
20:11I know.
20:12I know.
20:12But they're telling me.
20:13You see that red light?
20:14Turn it off.
20:15Keep restarting it because we've been going over.
20:18But I enjoyed watching all of your shows.
20:22I want to make sure everyone at home, we're live streaming, everyone in the room, checks you out and supports you as well.
20:28So can everyone talk about where and how folks can see your show, Lexi?
20:34Yeah.
20:34So you can watch Cruel Summer on Freeforms.
20:37They come on Monday night at 10 p.m.
20:38And then you can watch them the next day on Hulu.
20:41Yeah.
20:42As for Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, it's streaming on Disney Plus and you can watch it on Disney Channel.
20:47You can watch The Other Black Girl on Hulu this fall.
20:59This has been wonderful, invigorating.
21:02I am so proud of all of you.
21:05You are incredible artists and more importantly, incredible human beings.
21:09Thank you so much for joining them.
21:11Please give it up for our incredible rising stars of Disney.
21:20It's cold up here.
21:23Here's the camera.
21:28BGM.
21:29Are you here?
21:30All right, everyone.
21:48Don't go anywhere.
21:49Coming up next, Inclusion and Influence, Black Women Executives at Disney in just a few minutes.
21:54Thank you so much.
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