00:00Hi, I'm Lorraine Toussaint, and you're watching In Studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
00:08Lorraine, how's it going?
00:09Good. How are you?
00:10Good. So great to have you.
00:12You too.
00:13The Village, season finale tonight. It's been a ride.
00:19Now, I have to tell you, I binged it. I couldn't watch just one. I had to keep going.
00:24That's nice.
00:25Now, with all those short stories, are you on set every day with everyone, or are you filming your stories
00:32once a week?
00:33Oh, no. I shoot maybe four days in each episode, and each episode is about eight days.
00:43And so that's kind of nice, because I'm a mom, and I get to take my daughter to school and
00:49pick her up and other things, too.
00:51That's so great.
00:52Great. Now, for those that don't know, it's a drama based on just people loving people, and that's just such
00:58a great message to spread these days.
01:00Yeah, it is.
01:01Yeah. And the cast, you guys are not only a family on film, but it seems on film. Who says
01:09that these days?
01:10On film. Yeah. On film.
01:11But it's, you know, you guys have a lot of chemistry. Do you guys hang out off, you know, off
01:17camera?
01:17You know, some of the, hmm, some of the younger people hang out.
01:22Yeah.
01:22They go partying, and I've heard a few, one or two drinking bouts, who shall remain nameless.
01:35But, and we've actually made dates to go bowling.
01:38Okay.
01:38We've actually had a cooking night.
01:42I've actually had the cast and Mike Daniels over for dinner, and we do a fair amount of hanging out.
01:52Yeah.
01:52That's so great.
01:53Now that you mentioned it, we actually do.
01:55Yeah.
01:56You actually like each other.
01:57I mean, we really like each other. Isn't, isn't that a novelty?
02:01Now, you have had such a great and long career so far. You are one of the lucky ones.
02:07Can you share one of your best experiences on set? Doesn't have to be with the village.
02:13Just looking over your 35 years in the business.
02:17Best experiences on set? Gosh, I've had, I've had so many.
02:25Maybe when I did Any Day Now on Lifetime, that was a very special experience with Nancy Miller and my
02:33pal, Annie Potts.
02:34We were, we were formidable, Annie and I, and Nancy Miller was so generous.
02:40There was so much collaboration there, and it felt incredibly empowering to have a say in the content.
02:52Mm-hmm.
02:53And how we approached that content, and we were always pushing that envelope. That was, that was special.
02:59Yeah.
02:59Orange was special because of the girls.
03:03Right.
03:03The, it was a tough gig, but the part that wasn't tough were those ladies.
03:09Oh my gosh, and they've become that.
03:11Such a talented group.
03:12Oh gosh, and.
03:13Yeah.
03:14They, they pushed me, and I pushed them, and they pushed me, and I pushed them, and we, we all
03:19kind of brought this level of authenticity and this level of work that you, you just, everybody brought their A
03:27game every day.
03:29And that was, that was kind of exciting.
03:31That's awesome.
03:32Yeah.
03:32What a dream.
03:33Yeah, it was.
03:34Um, now you recently had a film in theaters, Fast Color.
03:37Mm-hmm.
03:37I want to talk to you about that.
03:39Um, now you play a mother who helps guide the special powers of both her daughter and granddaughter.
03:45And, you know, in our research, we found that the director said that you were super involved in creating the
03:49character.
03:50Oh.
03:50So can you elaborate on the process, you know, in shaping Bo?
03:56Thanks, Julia.
03:57I love Julia Hart.
03:59Um, I really do.
04:02We met very early in the process of the film, and we had lunch, and, um, she had sent me
04:10a script, and the character of Bo was a wonderful sketch of a character, and I'm very good at, um,
04:24arcing a character and seeing where the holds are in the script,
04:28or in a, in a, in a role.
04:30Mm-hmm.
04:30And so I had a very frank conversation, which is very much my word, about the role.
04:38And I'll be darned if Julia didn't go away and write all of the things that we talked about.
04:45Uh, and suddenly sent, a year later, a year and a half later, sent this new script back that was
04:51so fully developed, and Bo was broader and more specific, and, um, great girl to play.
05:00I, that, the Bo that came back, I was excited to play.
05:04Yeah.
05:04Yeah, that, and, you know, I had read, you know, you weren't even involved in the set design, and, and
05:09what, what, you know, the space would look like for her.
05:12Oh, yeah.
05:13I'm, I'm very hands-on.
05:15And I'm very lucky that I'm at a stage in my career where people actually listen.
05:22And I don't play that card casually, but I am a creature of, of, um, specifics and of detail.
05:32And so, um, I go in, in very detailed ways, and I tend to collaborate with the different departments to
05:41make sure that everything is just right.
05:45Right.
05:46And that's how you get the best product out.
05:48Well, it, it, yes, it is actually for me.
05:51Yes, it is, because then it's very specific.
05:56Now, a lot of fans know you, um, and are petrified of you from your character on Orange is the
06:02New Black.
06:02I wish my daughter and my teenager was.
06:05Has she seen the show?
06:07No.
06:07Okay.
06:08Saving it for when she's, like, 16 and starts dating or something.
06:11Oh, there you go.
06:13Watch out.
06:14Not for her, but for the date.
06:16That's right.
06:17That's right.
06:18Um, the show is about to go and, you know, release their final season.
06:23Yes.
06:23Um, how do you want to see it all end?
06:25I don't know.
06:27I don't, I don't have, I'm not invested in Orange anymore.
06:31Yeah.
06:31Um, I'm just invested in my friendships, but I haven't watched, ever.
06:39Do you watch your projects?
06:41Never.
06:41Never.
06:42Okay.
06:42And so, um, I've, I've glimpsed to see what the girls were up to on occasion, but, um, it isn't
06:48personal to Orange.
06:49I, I don't kind of have time to watch a lot of, very much.
06:53That's fair.
06:54You have a lot of projects.
06:55I do.
06:56In the works.
06:56Uh, another one I want to talk about, Sprinter, with Will and Jada Smith, um, now they were producers.
07:04Can you tell us a little bit about that project?
07:06You know, I'm a Caribbean girl, and, um, my mother came to this country as an immigrant, and this was
07:11a story of something called the, the, the barrel babies, which is, um, children left in the Caribbean where their
07:18parents came up to the United States to work and sent home barrels, literally, of stuff.
07:26Clothes, and shoes, and all sorts of, everything from sugar to sneakers to, and there were several generations of children
07:35in the Caribbean that were called barrel babies, and, so this was a story that was, um, close to me.
07:42I, I, I know, I was not a barrel baby, but I, my mother came to the United States and
07:48left me behind for two years.
07:49I knew what that felt like to be on that end, and almost as an homage to my mother, I
07:55wanted to play this character because I got to explore it from the other end, from my mother's end, and,
08:01and how tough that is to leave your children behind.
08:04When all these scripts are coming to you, do you try to find a personal connection? Is that what speaks
08:09to you, jumps out at you from a script, and that would therefore make you sign on?
08:14Oh yeah, it's very personal, and it's, it's very intuitive, and, um, it's usually something I'm interested in working on,
08:24uh, quality in my life that I want to explore in a, in a broader kind of way, in a
08:32braver, broader way.
08:33Uh, often times the role will give me the vehicle to do that. Uh, it's always some personal thing that
08:45makes me go, yeah, and also I like, I like roles that, that, that scare me.
08:51Uh, conversations about diversity and inclusion are kind of a fever pitch these days. Have you seen any changes on
08:57sets that you've been on lately? I mean, you work with some of the greats too, so.
09:01Oh yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm working with a lot more women directors, and I love working with women directors because
09:08the, the tone of the set is different, it's safer, it just feels, um, easier, um, and a female director,
09:22and will often have female producers, and they will, in turn, hire female crew members,
09:29and there's, it's thrilling to be on the set with, um, this kind of diversity of, and, and once women
09:38are on board, usually there are people of color on board.
09:42Um, I'm seeing more and more of that, certainly in the indie world, and it's slowly seeping into, you know,
09:50the, the, the network world.
09:53Yeah.
09:53But, um, I'm loving it.
09:55Um, I wanna talk about Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which is coming out later this year.
10:01Uh, Guillermo del Toro wrote that screenplay, co-wrote that screenplay. Um, what was your, can you give us your
10:07best tease of the film and what your character is going to be like?
10:13I play an 80-year-old blind woman in the grips of a vision, of a very violent vision.
10:23Um, and well, Guillermo del Toro calls, I love saying his name, you say yes.
10:30Absolutely.
10:31Yes, Guillermo, I will do it.
10:33Um, again, it was something that I'd never done before.
10:38Right.
10:39Um, playing that kind of age.
10:41Mm-hmm.
10:42And I, I was particularly flattered that he called me to play this 80-year-old woman.
10:49Um, and that was, that was, you know, that was, I, I hope you like it. Yeah.
10:56Um, man, you have so many projects we cannot wait to see.
11:00You're almost, you know, you're having a Lorraine Assange is what's happening here.
11:04Lorraine Assange.
11:05Lorraine Assange, I love that.
11:06That's a great point.
11:07I love that.
11:08Um, be sure to catch the Village Finale tonight, and, uh, you'll probably want a box of tissues
11:13because, uh, I'm pretty sure you'll need it.
11:16Yeah.
11:16Bye everyone.
11:17Bye everyone.
11:18Bye.
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