Shannon.
How are you?
Hi. I'm so good, and thank you for having me.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to see you again. Again.
I'm seeing all of you guys again
as I spoke to all during the pandemic, which is a bit.
Oh, my gosh. We met two years ago.
Yes. Yeah, yeah. Wow.
Virtually every virtually that
Yeah. Congrats.
Yeah. Congratulations on the show again.
Thank you so much.
You now have a bit of a fan base.
You have some people interested in the show.
Have you guys got your head around the fact
that the show has gone out there now?
And now you have that fan base
and people are really excited to see where you guys are going to go next?
I'm still wrapping my mind around
how big this show has just blown up.
I just remember looking at my Instagram because that's
that's how we just got all of our information
because we were all kind of in our apartments and couldn't
go anywhere and just notifications started blowing up.
And this season filming in Atlanta,
meeting people and how excited they are and how much they love
like the characters in the show, it's it's been really incredible.
I'm so, so, so happy.
Were you anticipating it being this big when you first start,
when you first auditioned and everything else?
Did you did you did you sense that it was going to be something special?
Absolutely. That's why I had to audition.
Like, I read the script and I thought, this show is something special.
And it's something Hollywood has never seen.
There's no show like this on TV.
And I thought, I absolutely must be a part of this.
And it's just going to be such a such
a special moment and television history for sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
What was it like going back for season two?
Because now that you've got this,
you got the fan base because of this kind of expectation,
and you guys are obviously very excited to see where Katori [Hall] takes you.
What was your kind of takeaway when you got the scripts for season two
about the evolution of the show and your character?
Everything this season, I feel,
is just heightened and elevated from the hair and makeup and wardrobe
to how we expand on the characters storylines.
Just everything is just
put towards I
it an absolutely beautiful job and everyone in the writers room,
I would read the script and just be absolutely just shocked, gobsmacked.
I would watch some of the some of the footage
and I'm like, Oh my gosh, this looks like a kaleidoscope.
Just the way it's shot.
It's just visually stunning.
And I'm just so excited for this season.
Really? Really.
Yeah. I mean,
all the characters are so well-written that you've all got space debris.
It's not just like there's not like a star or two people who are the focus.
It's all of you guys.
There's this kind of
kind of refreshing in some respects that there's every facet of this world,
and these people are all given as much oxygen as everybody else. Yes.
Yeah, I love that. It's good, isn't it?
And what your character she's been through, she's on a journey.
You're all on a journey.
And this one idea I can imagine it was exciting for you to go back.
What were you anticipating was going to happen in season two
when you left her at the end of season one and had to wait
two years like everybody else to see where she was going to go?
Well, we had two years to really
to really think
about it and have all kinds of ideas of where it would go.
And and no matter what I thought, the script
took me in a completely different, completely different direction.
I was hoping that Keyshawn, in
some way this season would redeem herself
because we leave it on this
very interesting note at at the last episode of season one.
And I think I think audiences
Keyshawn is going to take them on a ride
like she does in some ways, redeem herself for sure.
I was going to say your character's arc is very interesting because she is
at that point where she kind of wants to do good and wants to redeem herself.
What was it like going back to season two in terms of seeing that evolution of her?
Because it's always good in a season to be a show
where you get to see the kind of evolution of characters and yours in particular.
She's you know, you hope that she gets to a point where she's kind of
happy and gets to redeem herself from from what happened in season one.
She she really does soar this season.
You see Keyshawn flood and it's
really fun to see this glow up
and all of this success from from
from her
viral moment last season with Lil Murda
They're now going on tour and she's just got all of this stuff going on.
She's her face is on on her own line of products now.
And it's it's really cool to see this
this newfound success that she has and watch her enjoy that.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
And the Lil Murda relationship is is an interesting one.
What was it like for you guys to play with that?
Because, again, it's the in season two, you get to expand on it.
You have to do more things than everything else.
But so it was like it's a relationship
that despite everything, it's it's a good one.
I guess in some respects.
Yeah.
It starts off as a business relationship.
And I think there's an understanding that
they are pretending they are presenting themselves as a couple.
And then
in season two, you really see this beautiful bond that
has has flourished and they are
now it feels like a brother sister bond this season for sure.
They get really close. Yeah.
And in among all that,
you've got this amazing ensemble and I had the pleasure talking to you
all a couple of years ago when you were all so excited
and you were putting the show out.
But also you had the,
I guess, the obstacle in some respects that you, you know, the pandemic,
but everyone was kind of at home, so everyone was so excited.
What was it like going back for season two?
Did you guys have like a shorthand?
Was it much more relaxed and much more easy to kind of do everything?
Because the guys have said to me that it was.
But also
you now have the rules and regulations that you guys have to have to follow.
It was
nice coming back because you feel like
you really like settled in and slipped into this character skin.
You have you have a good understanding of who
your character is
we've we built a rapport with each other, so there's a comfort level in that.
Like who I'm working with as far as my scene partners covered made it.
It was difficult.
It was difficult for sure, like the masks
and everything and just
the social distancing and all of that was it was challenging.
But we all got through it and and found ways to make it fun.
Are you hoping that you will get together for like at a premiere?
Because I know obviously you probably different parts of America
and everything else, but are you hopeful because last year you kind of
didn't get to or like last season, shall we say, we didn't really get to
really get to do it.
So I can imagine
there's a want to have a nice big party and a nice big celebration.
No, we have a premiere.
We have we have our first premiere.
Excellent. Ever.
Our first in-person premiere is happening soon and we are all so excited.
So I can't wait.
That's going to be good.
And the other thing as well is that that shows
the success of the show is when you guys kind of you've infiltrated social media.
You know, there's clips on TikTok, there's clips on Instagram, there's people
with fan pages and the hopes and dreams of what might happen
and all the fantasy elements and all that.
Have you guys kind of
do you kind of keep an eye on that and see what the fans are saying?
Because they always kind of want more, but also they're so in love
with the show that they just want to celebrate with everybody.
I have I have seen some of it.
There's so much of it that there's no way I can do so much of it,
but I
I've seen like they're girls who send me
who send me photos of themselves dressed up as Keyshawn
Lizzo has she had a party
and I think it was for Halloween and it hurt all of her friends.
We're dressed up as us.
So Lizzo was Uncle Clifford, and then you had somebody,
as his said to me, it was so fun and so cool.
P-Valley watch parties.
P-Valley birthday parties.
It's been in every post I've had up until we dropped the trailer.
It was like, Why are you on vacation?
Why are you not at the Pynk or it could be,
when are we getting a date?
So yeah, I guess that's a testament to the show in the sense that,
you know, you've kind of semi made it
when other celebrities are like, let's have a P-Valley watch party.
Let's all dress up as the, as the guys and put it on Instagram.
That's a bit mental now.
And in a strange way, it's a little bit strange. I guess.
You guys look good but strange
special.
I just didn't know how big the show would get and I didn't know like
even in trying on these clothes, I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is such a moment.
I feel like for Halloween, somebody, I made that comment
not thinking that people were actually going to dress like us for Halloween.
So that that was a little treat.
That's when you know you've made it.
That's when you know that that's the seal of approval right there.
Shannon, lovely to see you again.
Thanks so much. good luck with the show and enjoy your premiere.
I hope it goes well. I'm fine. Thank you so much.