00:00And so to me, like, being successful means being selfish.
00:13I am just trying to blow up some steam.
00:16So if you could just let me.
00:20This TV show is Sex and the City, but more modern.
00:24So in your opinion, what is change in these 20 years if something is changed?
00:36Feminism?
00:39Well, I just think, like, the show, like you said, it was of its time.
00:44You know, Sex and the City was so fabulous.
00:45But it was really focused on dating and how to, you know, find a man and how to keep a
00:51man.
00:52And this show is, you know, like, I think we've grown beyond that as women.
00:56I think that we're now not, we don't need to be so concerned with how to change ourselves
01:01or what we need to do in order to find love.
01:03Like, we've, this show is about four women who have established that what they expect in
01:09relationships and, and they're in, you know, good supportive relationships with men who
01:15support them.
01:16And that's not really the issue.
01:17It's really more about, like, their friendship with each other and, and thriving together
01:23in, in Harlem.
01:26Do you agree?
01:28I do.
01:29Sorry.
01:29Yes.
01:30No, I agree.
01:32And I also think, like, this story is authentically set, like, in Harlem, which I keep saying has
01:40its own identity, and it has its own lifeline and its own heartbeat.
01:44And there are so many things that are authentic to Harlem, being that Harlem is the fifth character
01:49in the show, and the backdrop of the show.
01:51Um, the experience there is very different than, I think, like, Sex and the City, where,
01:58which is just so more generally Manhattan, right?
02:01Um, but yeah, I think, to Amber's point, like, it's not about, it's not about dating.
02:07It's a much more, uh, friendship focus.
02:10And, and, um, everything that these women experience is to make them better.
02:17So it's not just about the men, it's about their careers, it's about their friendships,
02:21it's about their relationships with their family members.
02:23It's a, a more, sort of, diverse, um, depiction of being a woman, 2020.
02:32I, I love that these women, uh, have success.
02:36They, they say and do what they want, but, uh, they, they're not apologetic.
02:41How freeing was, uh, play characters like these women success, but, uh, we, we, we're proud
02:49of it.
02:50We don't have to apologize for that.
02:52How freeing was it?
02:54It was super liberating.
02:57I mean, cause I think women are conditioned to apologize for a lot of things or just constantly
03:02take care of other people before themselves.
03:07Right.
03:07Um, and if you're not doing that, it can be viewed as like selfish, but I think on our
03:13show, being selfish is a positive thing because you're doing things for yourself to be better
03:20also for others.
03:22If you're not good to yourself, how can you be good for the world?
03:26Right.
03:26Like it can't just always be about taking care of everybody else.
03:30And I think all of these women are making choices that serve like being the best version
03:37of themselves.
03:38And sometimes that means, you know, being super honest when it might be easier to just
03:43like coast, right.
03:44Or it might mean drawing boundaries with certain people, or it might mean like pushing certain
03:49people out of your life.
03:51Like those are all kind of tough, tough things that you have to do, but they all serve that
03:55purpose of, of being, of serving self and being unapologetically your best advocate.
04:04Mm-hmm.
04:06And, um, you, you were saying, you both were saying that this TV show is mainly about, uh,
04:12friendship.
04:12I love this for women.
04:15They really are there for each other.
04:18So how important is to have friends like this?
04:21And how lucky are people who have friends like your characters?
04:26I mean, I'm just so glad to see that we're just another show that's normalizing female
04:32support of each other.
04:34You know, we're just women who don't have to step on each other to get what we want out
04:38of life.
04:38We, we love and, and, um, are here for each other and are each other's biggest advocates.
04:45Um, and I, I just feel like that's, that's what my real relationships are like in real life.
04:51So it's just nice that that's, that's depicted on this show.
04:55Mm-hmm.
04:56Uh, I think that the fifth, um, character of the show is the city, of course, a city, uh,
05:03a part of the city that maybe we don't see, uh, you were saying that before, uh, we don't
05:09see so much often like Manhattan or other, other areas.
05:13So how, how important it was for you, uh, to play in the city, feel the city.
05:20Now we are all at home.
05:21So I really dreamed of being with you in the streets.
05:26So I was being there.
05:29It was really important to Lee.
05:30I know that our, our show creator, she, she was like, we're not shooting this in Atlanta
05:35and pretending it's Harlem.
05:36You know, like we're going to be in Harlem in the heartbeat of it.
05:39But she, unfortunately we didn't get to do all of the things that we wanted to do.
05:42She wanted to really take us out on the town and show us the Harlem that she, you know,
05:48that she was raised in, that she grew up and spent her, you know, her twenties and thirties
05:52in.
05:52Um, but, uh, we put as much of that into the show as we could.
05:57And we went to like real restaurants and real bars and, you know, really filmed in the streets
06:02of Harlem to give it the most authentic feel that we could, because Harlem, like you said,
06:07is, is another character in the show.
06:09And, um, it has such a beautiful identity that hasn't really been depicted in TV in a
06:15long time.
06:15I think people have an idea of what they think Harlem is, but it's so, it's so different
06:20these days.
06:21And so we wanted to highlight how, uh, how colorful it is and, um, different than other
06:27parts of Manhattan.
06:28Yeah, I, I lived in New York for like six years and every borough has its own identity.
06:34And it's also like every borough kind of feels like its own city.
06:37Um, and Harlem is no different.
06:39It's also historically a black neighborhood.
06:41Um, and I think that there's a lot that people don't see.
06:45Like, I mean, we film at Red Rooster, which is like a super hot restaurant, um, that, um,
06:53has like a lot of traditionally like black cuisine, but with like a modern American
06:57twist, um, we go to like Yotenga and like dance to like really cool, like Nigerian music
07:04with these Nigerian dancers.
07:06Like there's this really fun dance scene.
07:08Um, we go to like famous Harlem parks and like the, you know, the guys outside playing
07:14basketball and shooting hoops.
07:16Like there's a heartbeat, there's a heartbeat to Harlem that is very specific to Harlem.
07:21And there's so much beauty there that I feel like in television in a narrative format
07:25has been untapped.
07:27Um, so yeah, I think, and the mute, like there's music, like, you know, music that people play
07:33on the streets, music that it was created in Harlem by Harlem raised musicians.
07:38Like it's just, it's such its own beast.
07:44Last question.
07:45Your characters, all the four characters are, have success.
07:51So I want to ask you in your opinion, what's the real meaning of success, especially today
07:58and especially for, for women?
08:01Um, going after what you want without making any excuses.
08:09Um, I think that these women are successful.
08:12They've been lucky enough to be supported by the people in their lives, by their family
08:16and their friends in order to, but never had to, um, apologize for being ambitious
08:22and wanting whatever it is that they want out of life.
08:25I think that that's success.
08:26I mean, you success can look like so many different things, but as long as you're fulfilled
08:30and you're happy, then you've had a successful life.
08:33Yeah, I totally agree with Amber, like being able to be unapologetically, um, serving what's
08:44best for you.
08:45Right.
08:45Like, and not having that being viewed as a bad thing.
08:48I think women are often raised to be like caretakers or conditioned to be caretakers,
08:55or that's what we see on TV is like, we're always supposed to be taking care of somebody
08:59else or putting other people's needs before our own.
09:01And when we don't, sometimes, you know, you hear the word selfish and you think it's
09:04like a bad thing.
09:05Um, but if you're not serving yourself and, and presenting the best version of yourself,
09:11you can't be good for other people.
09:13And so to me, like being successful means being selfish.
09:21Okay.
09:22Right.
09:23Like serving yourself so you can serve others.
09:26Okay.
09:27Perfect.
09:28Thank you so much.
09:29Great job, by the way.
09:30I mean, good work.
09:31Bye.
09:33Thanks.
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