(upbeat music)
- Hi, this is Maria Golo from The Hollywood Reporter,
and I'm in studio today with Niecy Nash.
- Yeah you are. - Hi, how are you doing?
- Hey girl, hey.
- Are you enjoying this cupcake weather?
- That's what I call it and yes I am.
(laughs)
Ready to go get my man and do just that.
(laughs)
- Niecy, you're the star of Claws on TNT.
- Yes.
- An amazing television show. - Thank you.
- It is so visually stunning, and so exciting,
and we're into it, season two, let's talk about it.
- Whatchu' wanna know, boom, let's do it.
(laughs)
- What happens in the end, no just kidding.
(laughs)
- Okay so, I play Desna Simms,
and I run a nail salon by day,
and I launder money for the Dixie Mafia by night.
So that's really what the story is about.
It's about my rise in the Dixie Mafia
to becoming a queenpin and getting that done
with a rag tag band of manicurists.
- (laughs) Yes, yes-- - Interesting.
- I feel like this season the women
are having to come together even more
and band together because things are going off the rails.
- For sure. (laughs)
Season one, my character was really trying to get out
of this life, season two, she's leaning in.
- Right.
- And doubling down with a new mentor
that's making the ride a little wilder.
- (laughs) Yes, we also have one
of the craziest scenes I've seen in awhile--
- Which is?
- The most hilarious and dangerous Russian wedding.
- Oh, that.
- (laughs) What was that like to film that?
- In our world, in Palmetto, which in southern Florida,
which we lovingly call Palghetto.
When the Russians show up, we thought the Dixie Mafia
was bad, the Russian mafia has taken
our show to a whole 'nother level.
So with the Russian mafia coming now,
it really is off the chain, you are like,
they are not to be played with,
so it makes everything intense,
so even if you're at a fun setting like a wedding,
you have to be on guard the whole time.
- Right. - Yeah, for sure.
- I have never seen a show with so many amazing
hair, makeup, costumes and of course, manicures.
What is it like to actually get prepared for the show?
- Listen, okay, when we get to work,
especially if we're starting a new episode,
you got wardrobe fittings, and so everything in our world
is heightened, you know what I mean?
If it's tight in real life, it's extra tight in our world.
The colors are vibrant, and every character has her own
style, it's very niche onto that specific character.
And so the hair sometimes has jewelry in it,
or you could end up in something that
if you were walking down the street
people would be like, my God, where are you going?
But in our world, it makes perfect sense.
(laughs)
Of course you're wearing a bikini and a fur coat, why not?
- How do your sound engineers feel about
all the accoutrements (laughs)?
- It's not easy, especially for characters
like Virginia, played by Karrueche Tran,
because she's always in a bikini
or something that's the size of a bandaid--
- (laughs) She has nowhere to put her--
- So they have to be very creative.
- (laughs) Yeah, so do you understand the process
of money laundering, because I don't quite understand it.
- Well, you have to funnel it.
You have to wash it through preferably a cash business
to make it look like it's legitimate money,
and then you use that money to either fund your lifestyle
or your use some of it to buy more things like drugs,
in our world, we're in the pill business,
so we use it to buy more pills from more manufacturers
to make more money, but we wash it,
make it look clean, through the nail salon.
- Yeah, and now you are laundering so much money
in this season that you get to the point
where you can't just do it through the nail salon,
so your Russian partner decides to start funneling
it into a male strip club, correct?
- And then there's that.
(laughs)
And then there's that, but this is another thing
about our show, originally when we started out season one,
there was always a strip club,
it was just for men to go and watch women,
and it was called She She's, and in season two,
with the women taking over the business,
the name got changed to Hammer and Pickle.
(laughs)
And now women can come and watch the men dance.
Things done changed, things are changing season two!
- I love your musical number with
the doctor and the...
Guys, it's crazy (laughs).
- Don't give it away!
- I won't, I won't, speaking of doctors, Dr. Gregory,
your love interest, you kind of get pulled away
from him for a while at the beginning there,
what's to be expected for the new season with him,
since it's a very complicated relationship?
- It's very complicated--
- He seems to make you very happy, though.
- At the end of season one, we found out that
the doctor is not exactly who he presented himself to be.
We found that out in the season finale.
So in season two, we begin with Desna still being in the
dark about the truth of who he is, but she's so very happy.
And you know how it is, girl, they tell you one thing,
you lean in, you're so there for it,
and then the next thing you know
you have that moment where you say,
who are you, you know what I mean?
So at some point she's going to find out,
just in the beginning she's very happy,
and you're gonna get to see that.
We want him to be better, we'll see.
Will he turn it around and become what I thought he was,
or will he not, that's the question.
(laughs)
- One of the great things about this show
is it really shows women standing up for themselves--
- Oh yeah.
- In ways that you don't see on many shows.
- Oh yeah, yeah.
- How important is it for you to not only be on a show
where women stand up for themselves,
but to be on a show with so many female
cast members but also crew members?
- It's great because a lot of times
there's a story in the media that women don't get along.
Not only do the women in the cast get along,
but we get along on camera and off.
So it's a story about women who love each other,
and it's a story about women who are taking
their rightful place, they're getting out
from underneath the thumb of men,
and we're doing badass things that typically have only
been reserved for men for the most part in television.
If you watch the Breaking Bad's of the world,
or the Sopranos of the world, you could say,
oh yeah, guys do that, but now you get
an opportunity to see women do that.
Be unapologetic about who they are,
when it comes to sex and sexuality,
they do what they want for their own pleasure.
When it comes to sisterhood, some of the relationships
are complicated and challenged,
but they genuinely love each other.
And all work towards the common
goal of taking care of each other.
So I'm happy to be a part of it on so many reasons for that.
Not to mention the fact, and I'm gonna pull these air quotes
from Heaven, but most of us on the show are women
of a certain age, and we are still vibrant
and full and sexy and fun and funny
and all of those things, that's a good thing, too.
- Yeah, yeah, and you're an award winning actress
and producer and you've had such a wonderful
and long television career, can you give any pointers
on how to keep that consistency going?
- If you are an actor and you are in the business
and you want to have longevity,
my trick and I've always had at least two
and a half jobs at the same time.
I did Reno 911, Cleaned House and reoccurring on Bernie Mac
when I first entered the business,
and that's how my jobs have always been.
Most of them in triplicate, and the way you're able
to do that and have so much, listening?
Give, it's the law of reciprocity.
[Maria] Right, right.
- So when I get a job, I make sure I'm not the only person
who eats because I have a job, so I'm gonna make sure
the job is what I do, but my who is to be of service,
so I'm going to show up and make sure that other people
that I know, benefit from that blessing.
And when I keep paying it forward,
it just keeps turning itself over and coming right back.
- That's great advice. - That's the magic.
- That's great advice 'cause so many people in the industry
think that they're supposed to be getting something.
- No. - What am I getting?
- No, no, no, no.
- I've been here for long, what am I gonna get,
and you're saying you gotta give to get.
- Give, right, there you go, when the hand is open to give,
it's open to receive, that's the magic.
- Nice, okay, I'm gonna ask you now for that word
to describe the season finale.
- Dun, dun, dun, duh, haunting.
- Oo haunting, that's a good one.
Okay four quick questions before I let you go.
- Is this rapid fire, what is this?
- It's not too rapid fire.
- Okay, I'm ready, go.
- The first job where you said to yourself, I've made it.
- Wow, that's a good question,
I would probably have to say Getting On,
because it was the first time that I ever exited
out of comedy into drama and was nominated for an Emmy.
So when I realized that the industry was paying attention,
I was doing little things all the while
and I was like, my Mother is my biggest cheerleader.
"I saw you on TV last night, you looked good!"
That's what I was used to, but when the industry
turned around and was like, oh we see you,
I was like, uh-oh, there we go.
- Nice, best manicure of the season, describe it.
- Well our season isn't over yet,
but I do start with a very beautiful blood red, nail color
and I have a mink accoutrement tassel
hanging off of the nail, so that was pretty hot.
- I like that, very Russian (laughs).
Last piece of advice you got that was truly great?
- Walk in the truth, it will never fail you.
- Hm, who gave you that advice?
- Probably my Mother, followed by my grandmother saying,
"Baby, you don't have to eat the whole side
of a cow to know that it's beef, all it takes is a bite."
(laughs)
Marinate on it, you'll get it when you get home.
- And your worst audition story.
- My worst audition story actually turned out to be my best.
I had an audition and first of all,
I picked up the phone with no agent
and no manager, and I called somebody I met at a workshop,
and I said, this is Niecy Nash.
I said, I'm broke, I got baby and I need a job.
He said, "Be down here at three o'clock."
I drove across town and got there.
It was under five lines but it was a producer session
and the director was there so 15 people in the room.
I read the little line and he goes, "Thank you.
"I like her, can you have her read this and this?"
Two more, little bitty parts, this little, this small.
And the director goes, "Well, can you step outside
"and take a look at the lines?"
and I said, I don't need to step outside,
it's just this and this, right?
He was shoveling me out the door.
I said, don't push me, I got it.
The director said, "Just let her read it."
So I read it, and the man goes, "Thank you."
I said, you welcome, he said, "Thank you."
I said, don't mention it...
(laughs)
He said, "Thank you, you may go."
I said, oh, y'all are dismissing me, well, did you pick me?
And he said, "Someone will let you know."
I said, let me know when, I got a baby at home.
I looked at the casting director,
I said, did you tell them that I
told you that I got a baby at home?
He said, "Honey, you're gonna have to leave."
I said, oh, this is rude, y'all are so disrespectful.
Why would have me drive all the way from Compton
all the way out here to the Valley,
not to tell me you goin' give me a job?
I said, this is a shame, I said, y'all should be ashamed
of yourself, and I was fussing, and carrying on,
and cutting up, and I don't even know how
those people gave me that job, I really do not know,
but it was a movie called, Boys on the Side,
with Whoopie Goldberg and Drew Barrymore,
and I don't even know how I got that job
because I was in there cutting up,
I'ma tell your boss, you supposed to tell people,
because I thought it was like work.
You go in, you have an interview
and they're like, welcome to the company!
It was my first big time, but I ended up getting the job,
so my worst was kind of my best.
- That's amazing, do you recommend anybody do that
next time they go in for a (laughs)--
- Heck no, use me as example of what not to do!
Whatever I do, don't do it (laughs), don't do it!
- Niecy Nash, it's truly been a pleasure, thank you so much.
- Thank you.
- Claws on TNT.