- As I live and breathe. - Oh.
Well, well, well.
TREVOR NOAH: One of my favorite people in the world.
Gabrielle Union, welcome back to The Daily Show.
How ya been? [cheering]
I've been wonderful.
Is that Africa I smell on you? What is that?
It is. TREVOR NOAH: What is that?
What is that. - It is.
TREVOR NOAH: Mm.
That aroma is so familiar to me.
[singing "circle of life"]
What is happening here?
How was your trip? You just got back, right?
- It was amazing. - Yes.
It was amazing.
You know, of course, I had called Trev,
as one does when you go to the motherland,
and I was like, tell me where to go.
TREVOR NOAH: You say as one does,
like everyone just calls, Trevor,
I'm going to Africa, OK?
Well, I feel like you pick up the phone.
I do. I do.
You do. You actually pick up the phone.
I do.
You're like hey, hey, yeah, let
me give you some suggestions.
But we started off in Tanzania, then
went to Ghana, then Namibia, and then to your home country.
- That is amazing. - Yeah.
But this was a different trip.
This was a big trip, because you were learning,
you were exploring, you were also celebrating.
They wrote 50th birthday, but that's not right though.
Yeah, yeah, 50th.
[sounds of disbelief] AUDIENCE: Damn.
[cheering]
Yes.
Yeah.
[inaudible] You've seen me drop it low,
Trevor, and you see how long it takes me to get back up.
[laughing]
So you know.
You know my hips are like, yo, no, she's 50.
TREVOR NOAH: Oh, please.
Please, I don't think so.
I feel like you are one of those people
who is eternally young.
You are-- you-- you're so curious about life.
You know, everything you do, whether it's
in the writing of your books, whether it's in how you travel
the world, what projects you engage yourself,
in Broadway productions, I mean,
this film is another example of that.
We've seen Gabrielle Union in so many
different types of movies.
Forgive me if I'm wrong in saying this,
but I've never seen you like this.
I've never seen you in a role like this.
I can see why people are saying,
oh, man, if the Oscars are not watching this movie,
then they're not watching movies, because you play
a character in a movie that is so touching, painful,
and brilliant.
And it's the story of a young Black man,
as we saw just in that preview, whose
mother basically says because you are gay,
I'm going to disown you.
And he goes off to join the Marines.
And her hope is that this will turn him straight.
Talk me through how you even get into this project
and everything that the story was,
because it has a lot more to do with real life
than most people would think.
Way too much to do with real life than I'd like.
Elegance Bratton, our director, writer, producer,
he came to me, sent me this script,
him along with Effie Brown, and they're like, what
do you think of the script.
I was like, this is a winner.
I absolutely want to be a part of this.
I will come on as an executive producer.
I know how I can be additive.
And he's like, great.
I want you to play my mother.
And I was like, ugh.
I tend to, you know, when I come across people
who behave and speak like this, I tend to read them for filth.
I tend to not be inspired to want to play them in a film.
And I just didn't think that I was the right fit.
And he said, no, it has to be you.
It can only be you.
And later, I came to find out that him and his mom
had been estranged for about 18 years.
TREVOR NOAH: Wow.
And he knew that I was one of his mom's favorites.
And he knew that if I played her, she couldn't deny him,
and she would reconnect.
[cheering]
Woo.
Unfortunately, we got green lit February 14, 2020.
His mom passed February 18, 2020.
TREVOR NOAH: Wow.
So I'm not only playing a real person,
I'm playing my director and writer's mother,
who has passed and they've had a pretty fraught relationship.
And I just wasn't--
I just wasn't sure this was the right time for any of us.
And he assured me.
He said, no, we have to tell this story.
We have to tell the story.
And we know that you can do this.
I was like--
And he was like, you know the Black
community has known that you've had the range to do this.
TREVOR NOAH: Right.
And I had to admit to myself that I had put myself
in a cage, in a box, and decided what I could do
and couldn't do.
TREVOR NOAH: You had typecast yourself and the roles
that you could play because of the roles
that were afforded to you. - Absolutely.
Right.
So I had to break out and give myself
the opportunity to try to--
I don't know-- to try to grow.
- Was it scary? - It's terrifying.
It's absolutely terrifying.
I don't want to ruin this man's story with pulling like a ISIS
from Bring It On, you know.
I--
[laughing]
I don't know what he's expecting, you know.
[cheering]
And yet-- and yet, I feel like--
I feel like, you know, it seems so perfect
and it seems so obvious now, because when you see
you in the film, I can see--
I can see what he saw.
And it's interesting, I would love
to know how your opinion of his mom
changed in hearing his story and his side of it.
Because to your point, there are many scripts,
and there are many stories, that are told of people
that give us an idea of them.
And then, once we're forced to be them,
in some way, once we're forced to empathize
and get into their lives, our opinion of them changes.
Talk me through that change, because you
don't play her like somebody that you hate.
You don't play her like somebody that we even hate.
So I'd love to know what you understand differently
about her that doesn't condone her views
on her son being gay, but in some way
creates empathy in us for her.
I had to find her humanity.
And I had to figure out how to keep the love not just
on the set as a producer, but the love
between these characters.
And the more I talk to parents who struggle in the way
that she struggles, they-- none of them
deny that they love their children deeply.
And a lot of them truly believe that by rejecting their child,
or denying their identity, which unfortunately denies
their humanity, is the way to love them properly,
is the way to protect them, is the way to save them, which
sounds very backwards, right.
But that's-- firmly in their hearts, they believe that.
And the more I started asking about her background--
she was orphaned at 10.
She was a top student.
She was a top athlete.
And she just wanted people to think that she was
good and worthy and deserving.
And I was like, now that's where I can relate.
We have these conversations often where
all the shapeshifting that you will do to get someone to say,
oh yeah, you, right, whether it's a relationship
or a business opportunity or just how
you move through the world surviving as a person of color
in this world.
You will minimize yourself.
You will barter with anything to try
to get this much closer to the power
structures or opportunities or whatever.
And that, we had in common, because I've
bartered with many things, just not my kids.
But I bartered with my soul plenty of times.
We talk about soul sacrifices and those moments
that you will never get back, that live in your memory
that you're ashamed of.
And I had those as well.
And I was like, OK, now I figured out how I can get in.
How do I keep the love in this space,
but still show that this is the most unhealthy way of showing
your love for your child? TREVOR NOAH: Wow.
Wow.
And hopefully, I can be a mirror to some parents.
I don't think-- I don't think hopefully.
I think you will be.
I think it's brilliant.
I mean it's exceptional.
The film is phenomenal.
The story that you tell is phenomenal.
It is everything.
And as I say, if the Oscars people don't come knocking,
I'm going to be free in like a few weeks.
I'm just going to go chase them.
You call me and you let me know.
You know I answer the phone.
I'm going to chase the people. You are phenomenal.
Thank you so much for joining me on the show again.
- [inaudible] - I love you so much.
[inaudible] [cheering]
Gabrielle Union, everybody.
Make sure to catch the film.