Thank you so much for being here.
I'm so excited to talk to you.
This is your first time with us on the show.
This is my first time with you.
Happy to be here with you, man.
This is awesome.
And, seriously, I've been really excited to talk to you.
And there's so many things I want to get into.
But first and foremost, so I watched the show
and you're a dancer.
You've been a dancer before, right?
Because the episode we have, studio, I saw you dancing.
You're a dancer, right?
Well, yes.
You know what?
I trained for a lot of my life in dance.
And it's crazy because even when I was in college,
I decided I'll just take a few dance classes, but by the time
I graduated, I thought I was minoring in English.
They told me I took so many dance classes,
I actually minored in dance, and I hadn't noticed.
So I was an acting major, dance minor.
So good luck, right?
All right.
So you have to make some work but, yeah, I've
been dancing for a long time.
I haven't danced in a few years now.
Right.
But it was a major part of my life.
Yeah.
And, of course, we're kind of forced to spending quality
time at home and a lot of people have been taking up hobbies
during quarantine.
And I've seen you've been posting up some of your rhymes
online.
[LAUGHS] Yeah.
So what moved you to do that?
Well, have you been into poetry or did you do like rap before?
Yeah.
I used to rhyme growing up and people
would say that I could do it.
But I don't know if I thought that they were just being nice.
I don't know.
You know what I mean?
Be hard on yourself.
But I love it, and I'm a child of the hip-hop generation
so I love rhyming, and I've always listened to rap music.
That's just a part of what it was for me growing up.
Absolutely.
And so we would have-- everything always
turns into a cipher.
I don't know if people know what a cipher is.
But people gather around in a circle
and it's kind of like a pass the mic situation and then
you jump in and you kind of flow, right?
Absolutely.
So I realized that I was able to flow.
And so, for some reason, with the quarantine,
I just got the flow back and I just
started posting them on Instagram.
Hey.
We're loving it.
Just kind of close your eyes and send and there it was.
Hey.
We're loving it though.
We're loving it.
And then also just to switch gears,
so you just recently posted on Instagram that you're single.
Right?
Now have you been spending time on the dating apps
or how has that been going?
I'm not good at the dating apps, tWitch.
I'm not.
So I don't do dating-- because you know what?
I feel like I'mma put it on the men.
Y'all don't know your angles.
Yeah.
So I'm not good at picking these pictures.
One moment you're like "eh," and then you
see that person in person and they're gorgeous.
What in the world is wrong with them?
You know what I mean?
So I just skipped it a long time ago.
I'm not good at choosing from the pictures
and I just need it to be in person,
so it's a lot better for me now that the quarantine is sort of
lifted a little bit and we know how to be safe
and we're testing and doing all the things.
That's the world that's better for me.
Absolutely.
Now let's talk about "This Is Us," man.
We love you on "This Is Us."
I love you and Sterling as a couple.
Y'all are like our favorite couple on the show.
How is it working with him?
Oh.
Good.
[LAUGHS]
But I also want to ask this though.
Sorry.
Let me reformulate that question because, obviously,
for those that watch the show, and I'm a fan of Sterling.
He is incredible.
But Beth provides such a balance for him and y'all chemistry
on screen.
So please tell me about that.
What is that like?
Sterling.
His acting skills, you try to pull them along.
You know what I mean?
And I mean, listen.
I am blessed.
Truly.
I really have.
What I know I will consider for the rest of my life,
one of the best scene partners to have.
And I know that and I'm fortunate in that way when
Sterling came around.
And not only do I have that but I have a very good friend.
You know what I mean?
So that's my partner right there.
We make it do what it do every time we get a chance to
and we enjoy being with each other
and we work off of each other's energy.
And I couldn't ask for somebody who's more dedicated
and it means something to them, to bring something to the table
every time.
I can go on and on about SK and that's real.
So, yeah, it's a joy for me to work with him.
Even on the days where it's like, wow,
how are we going to do this?
How are we going to make this work?
It's a joy to figure it out with him.
Absolutely.
And we have to go to break but I want to say
this real quick before that.
Phylicia Rashad plays your mom on this show.
Talk about legend, being just surrounded
by legendary actions.
Please talk about that for just a quick second.
Yeah.
Well, Phylicia-- so many of us, of course,
know her from "The Cosby Show."
I know her as a personal mentor and just such a dynamic artist.
And not just an actor, she's an artist.
And to have her on set, sometimes I'm like,
thoughts run through my mind.
I'm just going to be honest.
Like, wow, OK.
Let me make sure my skills are going and I'm doing this right.
You know what I mean?
And your head is like, let me make sure I'm nuanced today.
Right.
Absolutely.
Phylicia knows and she can see if it's honest not.
So it's been an amazing thing because as an actor,
I always feel like you never stop learning.
So to have somebody like her on set to be acting with,
I'm also getting a chance to learn from.
Absolutely.
Also a very good dear friend of mine so it's been pretty dope.
And the fact that she became best mom.
They cast her.
Nobody asked me anything.
And they cast her and they didn't even
know what our relationship was, so that just goes to show
it was just meant to be.
Absolutely.
Process.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Well, we love to see it.
We love to see it.
We're going to take a short break
and we're going to play a game when we come back.
More with Susan when we come back.