-Welcome back to the show. You look great.
I always love having you here.
I really want to talk to you about this.
Congratulations, by the way, because you graduated Harvard.
-Yeah! -This is a big deal.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-You came on this show when you first got into Harvard.
-Yeah, four years ago.
-And you did it on time. -I did.
-You crushed it, buddy! Yeah! -Thank you.
-Here you are on graduation day.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And here's your -- here's your mom,
very proud mom, on graduation.
-I love it. -Yeah.
I'm so happy for you. I'm so proud of you.
-Thank you. -What was your major?
What did you major in? -Ooh. This is my favorite part.
'Cause I get to say, "Oh, my God, I graduated from Harvard,"
but I get to follow it up with, "In social studies."
Which -- Just a bruised ego because of it.
-Yeah, because it just sounds like --
-It sounds like a fifth-grade class.
-Yeah, it does actually. Yeah. -It sounds like when we learned
all of our basic facts... -That's it, yeah.
-...was social studies.
-I loved social studies, yeah. -Yeah.
-But now you have -- you have free time on your hands.
I don't know how you did both, because you were working
on "Grown-ish" as you were doing this.
-Yeah, because -- I mean, the funny thing was,
I took a gap year when "Grown-ish" season one happened.
-Yep. a-And you know how shows work.
I've been to shows where we've pulled up episode seven,
and they're like, "They didn't tell you? It's canceled."
So, suddenly we get season two,
and I was planning to go to school.
And I didn't know for sure if I wanted to take another year off.
I get to campus. And I was in a Cornell West class.
I was like, "Oh, my goodness. I have to be here right now."
So, then my manager had the lovely job of calling Disney
to be like, "So, she's full-time enrolled in school."
-Oh, my gosh. -But luckily, I was surrounded
by a lot of supportive -- -How did you do both?
You just flew back and forth?
-I'd take a suitcase to my Wednesday class...
fly, work Thursday, Friday.
and then fly back Saturday or Sunday.
-Wow. That's so wild, because I was talking to you backstage,
and you were like, "Yeah, so, all these events and things..."
Like, I would see you at the Met Gala,
and while you were there, you're thinking,
"I have an essay due tomorrow." -Oh.
The amount of mental free space I have --
I think I'm slightly incoherent
because there's too much brain space now.
-You're like, "This is fantastic."
-I have all thoughts firing at all times.
But, yeah, I used to be at the Met like,
"My paper on the Frankfurt School is due,
and I only got through 50% of the readings before this."
-Are you good with free time? Are you --
-I'm so bad. -You're bad?
You need to pack it in. -I'm so bad.
Yeah, because everyone that I've talked to says I need hobbies.
So I've been on a mission for some hobbies.
-Oh, interesting. What are you leaning towards?
-I love music. I don't think I was musically built.
But I love music.
-You can build it.
-Hmm. -What are you thinking?
-So, all of my hobbies, I feel like
are pretty evidently tied to when I'm on genius.com too much
watching producer videos, explaining like --
In the back of A$AP Ferg's "Plain Jane"
is an actual train running from the subway station.
So, I went from that video and then downloaded,
like, a $100 software to become a producer.
-Wow. -But I realized you need
musical abilities for the software.
-You have the software, though. -I have the software.
-So you're starting there.
How about an instrument or something?
-Yeah, I'm rocking with a glockenspiel right now.
-Now, I don't think
anyone's ever said that ever in their life.
"Rockin' with a glockenspiel." It rhymes.
I think it's -- It's like a xylophone type of thing.
-Yeah, yeah. -Wow.
-I have a glockenspiel and a dream right now.
It's just me in my room.
-Wow. A glockenspiel.
Yara, of all the things. -And a talk box.
Because I had seen that cover of Stevie Wonder
doing "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Close to You"
on the talk box, and I was like, "I need one of those."
-Wait. Is that one of those, like --
[ Imitating talk box ]
-I didn't realize that you needed an instrument
to generate sound.
I thought it just kind of worked independently.
-So are you using it with the glockenspiel?
You're like -- [ Imitating talk box ]
-I actually -- I have a keyboard
that I also can't play, that I connect it to.
-Will you promise next time you come on
we'll bring and play with one of those three instruments?
Please? -Yes. Give me some time.
-Alright. And we'll work on something.
-But this would be motivation. Like, I have a deadline.
-Alright. Good. Yeah. A little motivation.
Do you keep in touch with any of your students from school?
-Yeah, I have a lot of wonderful friends that I made at school.
-Good. Do they know, like, kind of what you do?
-For sure. I would even bring some of my friends
to events with me, which is, I think, my favorite part,
was being able to take, like,
some of my homies from school or home.
-Yeah. Yeah. And go ahead and take them to a big event.
Like, what, like a...? -Oh, I mean, one time --
I mean, one of my friends, Anishka,
we went to a Golden Globes after-party some years ago.
-Yeah. -And I was doing
a really bad job of explaining what they're about to walk into,
which is, I guess, the equivalent of a fever dream.
All of the people that you see on TV
in one place just acting really normal, and so...
-Yeah, no, you're not really ready for that.
-No.
-So, who did you run into when you walked in?
-So, I remember taking her, and it was just all of the Avengers.
[ Laughter ] -It's all of the Avengers.
It was like, "What is going on right now?!"
-In one place. -Wowzers.
-Yeah. -That's pretty untoppable.
-I mean, I think that's my favorite part,
is, like, having my friends' reactions.
And then I love that everyone's takeaway
is, like, "Everyone is so nice."
-Is there any...the Avengers where your friend was like,
"I've just got to go home"?
-Oh, I brought one friend, recently this summer.
We went to the -- When the "Renaissance" album dropped,
got invited to a "Renaissance" party here.
-Like a listening party?
-A listening party. And I didn't know.
I couldn't make any promises to be like,
"Uh, yeah, you're for sure going to see Beyoncé."
I feel like that's out of my lane,
to make those kind of commitments to my friends.
So I just thought, like, I'd be happy if we were just
listening to the album in a space together.
That'd be cool. -Yeah, that's fun, yeah.
Bring your glockenspiel, and everyone just plays along.
-I was ready for a jam session. -Yeah, of course.
-That was me playing the glockenspiel.
But, yeah, we walk in, and it's real casual.
I see some family friends
that have known me since I was, like, 7.
And then all of a sudden, everything just shifts.
And then in the first 20 minutes, I'm like, "Hi, Beyoncé.
This is my friend from Africana philosophy class."
-So Beyoncé is there. -She's there.
-And what is your friend doing?
-I mean, I think we were -- -She was cool?
-Yeah, 'cause there are certain people -- it doesn't matter
how often you meet them --
just always in awe of their presence.
-Beyoncé, of course. -Yeah.
-Are you kidding me? -But again, her takeaway
was, like, they're all like aunties and uncles.
Like, everyone was checking in on me.
I think my favorite thing is, if I go to a party,
people will text my mom like, "You know she's going to this?"
-Yeah. Exactly right.
-And she's like, "Yeah. I sent her off there."
-I love that. -Yeah.
-Can we talk about your movie that you're going to be in?
-Oh! -Or we're not allowed to?
-Yeah, let's do it. -I mean, this is pretty giant.
You play Tinkerbell. -Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I didn't know if we can talk about it.
-No, we can. -We can?
-Yeah, we can talk about it. -Okay, okay, okay.
I don't know when it's coming out.
I just know Disney's making "Peter Pan," right?
-Mm-hmm. "Peter Pan & Wendy." -And you play Tinkerbell.
-Yes, I play quite literally a small part in the movie.
[ Laughter ]
-Literally. That big. Yeah. -Yeah.
-What was that like? -It was incredible.
And I thought I was being punked the whole time
because, you know --
I know I'm being part of "Peter Pan & Wendy."
And you see, with "Avatar" coming out,
what behind the scenes of all these
CGI motion-capture movies look like.
So I was ready for the harnesses
and the suits with the dots on it.
-Yeah.
-They were on incredible sets in, like, Vancouver,
and I was in a garage in Burbank the whole time.
Motion capture -- -Hanging from, like, a rope?
And you're like, "Hi, everyone. I'm Tinkerbell!"
-I wish I could even say there was a rope involved.
-There was no rope involved? -No.
-You had to pretend you're flying?
-Yeah, because they realize --
I mean, the -- the tech is so advanced.
And, you know, to an untrained eye, which I am,
it looks like GoPros on some grip stands,
like, holding things together. -It's the future.
-And I had my castmates on little poles,
like, pictures of their face on little stands around me
for reference.
-So, you just acted with a bunch of -- Yeah, just --
-Sometimes, when I needed to act opposite somebody,
they had a life-size Kermit the Frog doll for me to work with.
-Because he's green? -Yeah.
-Like the green screen will -- All they see is his eyes.
-Yeah. -That's so funny.
Can we talk "Grown-ish"? This is part two of season five.
-Yes.
-This started today. Catch us up.
What do we need to know?
-What do we need to know? -What's happening this season?
-Well, I mean, it starts off, of course,
with me passing the baton to my TV brother, Marcus.
-That's awesome that, by the way, he joined.
-Oh, I was so excited.
I've been pitching this since season one.
So when they told me season five it was happening,
I was over the moon.
So, yeah, it's finally happened.
Junior is at Cal I, and Zoe is now a graduated
big sister that comes back for big-sister things.
But she's on her way, I think, to Tokyo,
when we catch up with the second half of season five.
And there's a little meet-cute with her guy, Aaron.
-Oh. -Yeah.
-Ooh. That's what I'm talking about.
Yeah, why not? Of course, Kenya Barris, we love.
He's coming on -- I think he's coming on this week.
-Oh, for "You People." I can't wait to watch it.
-Oh, yeah. He's brilliant. I want to show a clip.
Here's Yara Shahidi in "Grown-ish."
Take a look at this.
-How long is the delay?
I'm connecting in Hawaii to Tokyo.
-Hold on. Let me check.
-I'm just trying to get to Seattle,
and I'm three quarters of the way there.
It's your fault, ma'am. Is there a manager I can talk to?
I know you got the juice. -Air of superiority.
Defiant statements. Sexy-as-hell baritone.
It's not possible.
-She's not saying anything, guys.
Might as well pack your bags... -Could it be?
-...and go home because the flights are delayed!
-[ Gasps ]
Hahhh!
Aaron! -What?!
-Hi! -You've got to be kidding me.
[ Chuckles ]
-Now, that is exactly what you want.
Yara Shahidi, everyone.
"Grown-ish" airs Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. on Freeform
and is available the next day on Hulu.