I have to ask you about 'Martin', of course.
-Yes! I mean, you gotta ask about it! -I have to!
Um, how much improvisation was involved on set? 4 00:00:12,929 --> 00:00:09,634 -All of it. A lot. -Okay.
Most...you know, Martin, what he would do
literally we would get scripts and you know, we'll do a table read,
Martin would read it but once those cameras start rolling
you do not know what that man is going to do.
I'm serious about the buckshots.
And I'm serious about the dropkick.
All I'm sayin', you know there's a couple of horse stables missing their tails.
That's why I will always thank Martin and give him kudos for teaching me how to think quickly on my feet.
He taught me a lot of comedic timing because you didn't know what he was going to do
so you had to be on it, you had to be on top of it. He may, you know, ad lib.
So I prefer that type, those moments, because I think they're very organic
and I think that's what makes a good show.
You know? Of course you must have structure as well.
But a lot of times -- you know, I tell actors all the time:
The only time an actor has power is when those cameras start rolling or when they step on that stage.
Then, you're on. You know? And what do you give at that moment?
So, Martin gave so much of himself, like, he would be sweating after scenes.
And they knew, the cameras just would continue to roll and most of the stuff was just thought off the cuff.
Can you think of any scene in particular from those seasons that just went completely...
Yes. Yes I can. I will share this story with you. One of my favorite episdoes
of 'Martin' was the, uh, where Brotherman stole the CD, he took the CD.
And it was the take off the Wesley Snipes movie, uh, what's that one?
- 'New Jack City'? - 'New Jack City.'
I'm getting old so, you know, things escape me. But Martin wanted a real dog for that scene.
You know, we're a black show on Fox, they're like "we're not getting you a real dog." 30 00:02:07,752 --> 00:02:10,880 Like, "it's going to be too much money, you're going to have to have the trainer. We don't have the budget for it."
So, Tim and Ray, which were amazing prop masters, uh, they were such great guys. Great team.
We came into work and Martin didn't realize like, you know, we're not going to have the dog.
So Tim and Ray came up with, you know, an alternate. They bought this big fake German Shepherd.
And they said "oh, so what do you think about this?" You know, "we know the network won't give
the money for a real dog so we got this." And we looked at them were like, "oh you're fired.
Bye, Tim and Ray! We're never going see you again! You think Martin's gonna go for that? Oh no."
It was so funny. But when we actually did the scene, Martin, you know, he was like "okay."
He told Tim and Ray, he said "this dog better not fall." Because I could see Martin's wheels turning.
Because he wanted to be able -- for the scene to be funny. And he's doing the scene and
the dog fell. And when the dog fell, he said "now lay."
Lay.
Girl, I almost peed on myself. He just -- Martin, his ability to just think so quickly on his feet
and be funny at the same time and just be realistic too, you know? I just, I love him for that.
And that was one of my favorite episodes because he just -- if you listen and watch it,
if you watch that episode, you can hear me doing this "Heheheh". But I can't move my mouth.
But that's what we did on 'Martin'. We would play with each other during the scene because
whoever laughed first was out. "Tag you're it." You know? So we would--
It's fun and we came to work literally to laugh every day. And we had a great crew
You know, everyone talks about the actors but we had an amazing team of people that made sure that we looked good.
-(Laughs) -Right. I mean I know you're an actor and you're professional, um, but --
Sometimes! Sometimes. It's good to be professional but, you know, you're going to work with
people every day, it's good to just hang loose sometimes.
Yeah, I want to know though, like, did -- because the relationship between Martin and Pam
was very much like, he just hurled insults at you all day.
- All day. - Obviously you have gave it back to him. But like, did it ever, for you, like
did you ever take it personally? Or just like, you took it as what it was.
Originally, Pam was written for a heavyset black woman. That's what the role was written for.
When I came in to read for it, they were like, "oh, wait a minute."
You know, because of course I had a nice body then. Hello! I wasn't, you know.
But, um, so all the jokes were fat jokes. And by the time we, you know, when I got the role
they said "okay, obviously we have to change the jokes." But they didn't realize that
I was raised by a lot of gay boys, a lot of gay men in my life. You know, out at church,
and, you know, doing theater. So I knew comebacks, you know, I was kind of quick with my comebacks and
Martin would say stuff, off the script, off the cuff and he would crack a joke on me and I'd crack one back.
So, it kind of developed itself. So the writers were like "oh my god, we gotta start writing this in."
- And that's kinda how that went.
- We have nothing in common. - Sure we do!
We're both built like men.
And did you have that banter off set?
Oh, off camera -- I always say, the people that watch 'Martin' now, they miss so much.
Like if you weren't a part of the studio audience, or if you weren't, during the times that we would tape --
because we would tape during the day, and then at night we would do it again for the studio audience --
and all the stuff that happens off camera was actually funnier than the stuff that was on camera
'cause, you know, we had the censor, this guy named -- I can't remember his name. What was his name?
But this guy, he would sit there, count the "damn"s and the "hell"s and all the stuff that we would say.
And Martin would say "hell!" and he would look at him. So you see Martin turning to the camera
he's actually talkin' to Roland, that's his name. His name was Roland and he was the censor.
And he was this black man, who'd just be standing there countin' off all of the curse words.
Because we would only get a certain amount. So, I think because we were prime time, we were very limited.
- I can imagine 'Martin' today would be totally uncensored. - Yeah.
But actually it would be a different show.
Some people, when you look at it, I know that there's been a suggestion that
there's a sort of light skin versus dark skin dynamic between the way Martin treats Gina and the way he treats Pam.
Who'll be the hat?
Yo, Pam. You should be the dog as usual.
Have you ever considered that, or do you look at that -- just in the way that,
the things he calls you sometimes in character?
You know why I never considered that? Because originally the role was all fat jokes
like I told you it was written...you know, which is not better.
But we as a culture go through that and it's, uh...I never was insulted by it
because, first of all, it's my job to be able to bring life to this role
and how do I keep a certain...because there were things that were written towards Pam
and Martin would say "Absolutely not. I'm not saying that."
So, there were fights that happened off camera that a lot of people don't know about.
Um, I would say no to your question only because what Martin and I had
was really organic so wherever that comes from is because of us
personally and not because of what we really saw in each other.
Uh, yeah, it wasn't derived from like...It just so happens that Tisha is very light.
And what happens is, people, you know, Tisha would go -- like girls would come and watch the show
in the studio audience and every time Tisha would talk they would suck their teeth.
They didn't want -- so people, they didn't want her to have the man.
They wanted, you know, me to have the man. It's like, you still get it on both ends.
You know, light-skinned women, you know still get the same treatment
It's different. We're treated differently but you still have to go through hurdles...
You're still black. So.
Either you're too black, not black enough. It's always something.
It's always something, so what do you do as an individual to, not change it,
but bring a different version or bring new life to it?
Let's change the narrative here. Let's stop talking about things that we're taught.
Let's talk about the things that we know.
And let's address the issues in a way where it's a happy balance.
Because we're always gonna go through racism. Racism is not going anywhere,
even within our own culture. But we have to teach each other
"Okay, why is it that I feel this way?"
"Why am I treating you the way that I'm treating you?" You know, why is it --
So, I think when you ask yourself questions, it allows you to get through life a lot easier
because you question yourself first before you question somebody else.
What are -- what's your intentions? Why do you feel this way? Where did it come from?