Hi, OWN family.
My name is Eva Marcille from OWN's newest holiday
movie, "A Christmas Fumble."
You're watching OWN's "20 Questions."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So I do have a nickname.
My family calls me Lulu.
Why? I don't know.
Well, I do know.
There was a little cartoon when I was a little girl, called
Little Lulu, and she was just the most
precocious little girl.
She got into all kinds of stuff.
And so my family started calling me Eva Lu.
And to this day, I still have aunts,
my oldest brother, or one of my older brothers--
still calls me Eva Lu.
Ugh, I hate it, but yes, it's one of my nicknames.
The advice that I would give to my teenage self
is that you are fine just how you are.
And I would remind my teenage self
that there's going to be this crazy thing called social media
when you get older.
Disregard it.
Just enjoy it.
It is not real.
It is just for fun.
It's like a cartoon.
That's what I would tell myself.
My most pivotal moment on my journey
while becoming an actress--
I remember I was shooting "House of Pain" with Tyler Perry.
And Tyler decided that he wanted to expand the show,
and my role on the time--
I played a reoccurring guest star.
And I remember Tyler asking me, would
you like to play this role, or would
you like to play this role?
And you have to imagine, for a young girl,
who had a dream of maybe being some kind of a fashion designer
or an actor that was able to pay their bills,
to have the opportunity to work with someone like Tyler
to ask me what I wanted to do-- that is
when I think things really started to change for me.
I often reminisce from my time on "Top Model," because it was
the launching pad, the springboard,
the beginning of the world learning who Eva is.
And it was the beginning of me defining who Eva is.
One of the most memorable moments
I remember on "America's Next Top Model" was, we were doing--
I think it was a fashion show or a photo shoot.
And we were looking for clothes.
And my girl, Toccara--
still my girl to this day--
she couldn't find anything to wear,
because they didn't have anything in her size.
And she was getting discouraged.
And I found myself frustrated.
And I had clothes that I could wear.
I just couldn't for the life of me
understand why there weren't clothes for her to wear when
we all knew what we were doing, and we all knew who were
participating, and the sizes.
And that was my moment where I decided that--
what kind of a person do you want to be in this business?
Do you want to be a helpful person?
Do you want to be a light?
Do you want to be someone that just--
if it doesn't-- if it doesn't bother you,
it's not your business, you're just going to go on about it?
Or are you going to stand up for people and for yourself?
And I decided at that moment, I'm going to stand up
for people and myself.
So I went over, and I told them they
did not have the right clothes.
And until we figure something out, none of us
can do this shoot, because she deserves the same things
as everyone else.
That forged a relationship and a bond with Toccara
and I to this day, but it was the first glimpse
of me realizing how discriminatory this business is
and how much we to have to stick together.
Joining the "Housewives" franchise-- oh, my goodness.
It was crazy.
Never did I expect--
I remember watching this show.
I never thought I'd be on it.
I used to watch "Orange County" in "Housewives,"
and I remember seeing a lady named Vicki Gunvalson, who
decided to wake up one Saturday morning and go and buy a yacht,
because she felt like it.
And I, struggling actress-model, trying
to figure it out for myself--
I thought, that is one hell of a bad way to spend a Saturday.
That is an extraordinary thing.
And so that show was the show that
ended up creating all the huge franchise
and all these different cities.
So I didn't think I'd ever be on the show.
I thought I just liked watching it.
But then, I found myself moving to Atlanta,
and I was recently pregnant and had already had a child.
And the timing just worked.
And I must say, Atlanta Housewives
has given me a lot of stuff--
drama and strife-- but it has given me
some of the most beautiful things to never be compared to,
which would be my friendship with Cynthia
Bailey, Kenya Moore, and Kandi Burruss Tucker.
Those three women, I bleed for.
Those are my girls.
And so I love "Housewives" for that reason alone.
So crossover from reality to scripted programming-- well,
if you were in the year of 2002, you
would first have to know that you
were even on a reality show.
We didn't even know what we were doing back then.
Tyra started "America's Next Top Model,"
I believe, in, like, 2001, 2002.
And so when I did it in 2003, we didn't even
know what we were doing.
I knew that I loved fashion design,
and I felt like this would maybe help
me with a career in fashion.
But while I was on the show, we had
a challenge with Taye Diggs.
It was an acting challenge.
And I absolutely loved it.
I had so much fun, and so after doing "Top Model," and now,
I'm modeling, and I'm going to my castings
and my photo shoots.
I remember getting a call to my agency asking
me to audition for a show that Taye Diggs was doing,
called "Kevin Hill."
And I was thinking, well, that was an acting challenge.
But like, he really wants me to play this character?
So I read for it, and I got the role playing Taye Diggs'
girlfriend for eight episodes of a show,
shooting in Vancouver, Canada.
And I went to Canada.
That's when I first met the beautiful and amazing Meagan
Good, who was also on the show, and Michael
Michele, and Taye, obviously.
And that was my transition.
I was still modeling, but that's when I was really
bitten by the acting bug.
I just loved set life.
I loved taking words from a page and turning them into a moment.
I love representation.
I loved it all.
And so I think getting that audition with Taye Diggs
for "Kevin Hill" is what transitioned
me from reality to scripted TV.
So reality television, I love, because it's just honest.
There's some things you literally cannot script.
You cannot write.
You cannot make certain things up.
And reality TV does the best at capturing those moments.
I mean, if you remember back on "Top Model"
when Tyra was yelling at this one girl, saying,
"we were rooting for you, we were all rooting for you,"
and you could feel the passion.
You can feel the intensity, and not because it was
rehearsed, because it was real.
And so reality TV gives us an escape.
It reminds us that we're not alone,
that we all make mistakes, that that girl over there
is just like me.
And so I think that great equalizer
helps us go through the day.
But then, when it comes to scripted,
because the day can be so scary, and the world can be so crazy,
scripted is just a nice escape.
It's escape from the elections.
It's escape from the pandemic.
It's an escape from family drama, and all that's going on.
You get to sit back.
I'm watching a couple of series right now,
and I'm just thoroughly enjoying escaping my reality
and jumping into their reality.
So I think both of them have absolute beauty, too.
It is just a matter of what you need fed at the time.
OK.
I am the biggest Oprah Winfrey fan.
I have had O's magazine since forever,
and yes, I was the original face of Apple Bottoms.
So when Oprah endorsed Apple Bottoms, I was like, OK.
So me and Oprah have a connection.
I went to school for broadcast journalism.
I think that Oprah is the most iconic woman of our day.
To have the luxury and the opportunity
to lead a film on her network, it was a dream come true.
I am one of those actors where I enjoy being a Black woman.
I enjoy acting for Black women, representing
Black women, from Black people to Black people.
I don't-- I'm not in for the mix.
I don't mind playing in all projects,
but I enjoy my Blackness, and unapologetically,
and that is why I am an artist to represent.
And so to do it on a platform on the Oprah Winfrey Network,
which is all about the upliftment and representation
of our people, I mean, it was like Christmas before we
even made the Christmas movie.
My favorite part of the Christmas season
is somewhere in between the food and the smile
on the kid's face.
There is something about the smile
and the joy on my children's faces
and my nieces and nephews at Christmastime, and my mom--
her hearty laugh-- and my dad, and just being with the family,
no matter what we have.
I mean, we did Christmas a few years ago when I first--
my husband and I first bought this house.
I didn't have a refrigerator, because it
wasn't delivered yet.
And we closed two days before Thanksgiving.
And we did the holidays without a refrigerator.
And we had the freezer, and it was just fine.
Because it's not about the money.
It's not about gifts.
It is about being together.
That's my favorite time of the year,
because I get to sit on my daddy's lap and watch TV.
It's so good.
So my holiday traditions-- when I first met my husband,
we decided--
we realized that both of us are very, very family-oriented.
And so I spend the holidays in my family, and he does his.
And so since we are now becoming family,
how do we make this happen?
My family is in Los Angeles.
His family is in Texas.
So we decided the first year we started dating,
we would switch out the holidays.
Thanksgiving, we would do with one family,
and then Christmas, we would do with the other.
So if we did Christmas with my family,
we would do Thanksgiving with his.
Then, we decided to start having children, buy a house.
Now, we have our own traditions.
I do Thanksgiving, Michael and I.
So we do Thanksgiving at our home in Atlanta.
And then, Christmas is kind of up in the air.
This year, we're going to go to the snow
and take the kids to the snow, because I'm off
of work, thank god.
But as long as we are together-- and there has to be
oxtails and a jerk turkey.
It is not a holiday without oxtails and a jerk turkey.
You got those two, then Merry Christmas.
Well, see, the holidays-- it's the trio for me.
So you have to have a little bit of meat,
but the real trio of it all are the yams, with the potato
salad, with the greens.
And you just get a little piece of all of that on one fork.
Oh, I-- oh, I've died and gone to heaven.
I love the holidays.
I love eating, obviously.
[LAUGHS]
My favorite part of filming "A Christmas Fumble"
was the bond that I made with D. Devale is an extraordinary man.
He is charismatic.
He is passionate.
He is honest.
He is so diligent.
He loves his wife like no man has ever loved the wife.
And his children-- he talks about them all day long.
His commitment to the project and just his openness
to trying new things, to--
I remember coming to him and saying, yeah,
I don't want you to say that.
He was like, all right, what do you want me to say?
All right, well, we'll do it like this.
And just being open to artistic changes, I think,
was the best part.
Somewhere between getting to work with Devale Davis
and getting to work with Roger Bobb, our director, who
is phenomenal.
When fans finish seeing "A Christmas Fumble,"
I want them to know that there is always a second chance
for love, always.
And despite how you might have lost your love,
be it to the world or be it through your own stupidity,
and you push someone away, there is redemption here, thank god.
There is redemption.
And so give love a chance.
Give love another chance.
Give it a second chance, a third chance.
There is no life worth living without love.
And this movie exemplifies that.
Well, self-growth.
So the area of my life that I am trying to truly own right now--
I have been extremely intentional
about, I would like to say, the past six or seven years,
but definitely the last five, which
is working to be the best version of myself
every single day.
Doesn't mean that I'm not going to mess up.
It doesn't mean that yesterday's mess-ups didn't exist.
What it means is that today, right now, I am going
to earn it every single day.
Yesterday's victories or failures are gone,
and all I have is what is in front of me.
What will I make of it?
What will it be?
And to live in the now, to live present, as a mother of three--
the best mom I could be to them is the best
woman I can be to myself.
And so when I'm full and whole, then it
allows me to be the best that I could be for them.
Any fashion-- oh, I would love for anything TLC and old-school
baggy clothes to start coming back, because these wrestling
suits and everything tight--
I'm over it.
I do not like these tight bras and tight pants
and tight shorts and everything's so tight.
I would like to get back to the baggy of things, please.
I want to go back to the '90s.
I would love to go back to the '90s, where being fashionable
was an essence.
You know, it was about style.
Fashionable today is all about designer.
So if your clothes have a designer label on it,
then, oh, you have fashion.
What about back in the day, when it wasn't real big labels, when
it was all about style, and how you put something together,
the way you took the little suspenders off
of your overalls, you know?
And Fresh Prince and Martin-- those
are great examples of-- that was style.
I want to get back to style and get out of this fashion.
Because everybody can afford the fashion,
but anybody can be stylish.
Don't laugh at me.
My karaoke song is "Tennessee Whiskey" by Chris Staples.
I know it's the most random karaoke song ever.
But it's either that or Bobby Caldwell's
"What You Won't Do For Love."
And Bobby Caldwell's "What You Won't Do For Love"--
fun fact about me-- my dad was his MD, his music director,
so the music you hear back there is my dad's music.
And my dad played the trombone, and so did I.
And I just know every single beat and-- do-do-do-do--
for the whole song.
So I do that song, because I know it in and out,
and I have my own little flavor.
So Bobby Caldwell's "What You Won't Do For Love."
I know, I just aged myself.
I'm sorry.
Oh, if I was a superhero, my superpower
would be to stop time.
Because it's the one thing that we need as people.
We don't need more money.
We don't need more resources.
What we need is more time.
So if I had the ability to manipulate time, be it stop it
in the middle of what's going on to give myself
an opportunity to think, to give the world
an opportunity to think--
just to freeze time, that will be my superpower.
If I could be anything else in this world,
I would be an attorney.
It's what I thought I was actually going to be,
which is why I went to school for communication
and criminal justice.
Because the world can just be a really sad place sometimes.
My husband is a former federal prosecutor
turned defense attorney.
And I love what I do.
I get so much fulfillment out of what I do.
But there is nothing like the joy in my husband's face
when he just got an innocent person that was looking to life
or 10 years or 15 years in jail, when he gets to reunite
them with their family.
There's nothing like it.
Even on Christmas, he leaves early in the afternoon just
to go to the jails to visit his clients
that he is trying to reunite.
So I think if there's anything that I did outside
of representing Blackness on screen,
it would be representing our people in a courtroom.
So if I was stranded on an island with only one album
to listen to for the rest of my entire life,
this is so difficult as I turn around and see all of my--
I have six record players in my house.
I collect every album.
My dad's a musician.
Oh, I'm sorry.
It would have to be Greatest Hits, all four sides.
Because I want the double album and a record player
of Bob Marley and the Wailers.
I think that will take me through the rest of my life.
I think I'll be OK right there.
That, or the "Exodus" album, "Movement of jah people."
One thing that you would not know about me from watching me
on television is that my first instrument
playing was the piano.
Then, I became very, very good first chair
at the trombone in middle school and high school,
played in college, and then decided,
who wants to be in a marching band at a historically Black
college? That's another career.
But then, I decided I'm going to teach
myself how to play the guitar.
So I went and bought a guitar one day and taught myself how
to play the guitar, so that I'm a little
bit more musically inclined, though I cannot sing at all.
Thanks for watching, OWN family, and subscribe to the OWN
YouTube channel, and be sure to catch "A Christmas Fumble,"
Saturday, December 10 at 9:00 PM.