Hi.
My name is Alana Arenas.
I play Gloria on "David Makes Man."
And these are my own 20 questions.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So when I was probably in elementary school or middle
school, I had a nickname of Skittles,
which is really weird when I think about it because I have
always been a peanut M&Ms girl.
But I think I was in a phase where for some reason,
I thought Skittles--
people thought they were cool, you know.
So I would be like, you know, give me some Skittles.
I want the Skittles.
But the thing about it is I only like the red Skittles--
I thought I would get a bag of Skittles
and look for the red ones. [LAUGHS]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) Ah, oh.
I cannot live without scented candles.
I love the atmosphere aroma creates for me.
I am most proud of myself any time
I don't go off on someone that creates an injustice towards me
in public like a stranger.
I really have a thing about justice.
I think it's a Saggitarius thing.
So when I feel like an injustice has been committed
and I feel like everybody know it's wrong--
you know what's wrong, and you over here defending it.
There was a part of me that has a really hard time just--
just eat it.
Just everything in your life is cool.
Keep it moving.
So whenever I resist the urge to be like, let's deal with this,
I feel proud of myself.
The advice that I would give to my teenage self
is to always have faith--
always have faith.
There is an African proverb that I red in--
oh, I'm blanking on his name.
But the name of the book is "A Long Way Gone."
And in the book, he says there's an African proverb that says,
if you die, it's because there were
no more good things that God knew would happen for you.
So I would tell myself that if you still breathing,
there's still some good coming.
So always have faith.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
If I could be something else besides an actor,
I would probably be a social worker.
And that sounds a little crazy even as I say it,
because I know social workers.
And they will let you know it is not easy.
And it's hard to work within certain established systems.
But I do think that I have a desire to sow into people.
And that is actually something I get to do as an actor, I think.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
All right, so when I want to get hyped, gospel is my genre.
I cannot pick one song because I have plenty.
And people can tell you if they have
recognized me in the street.
They can see me going crazy in my car.
You know, we're going to get into some good worship.
Now, if I were doing karaoke, I would probably flip that script
and do Mary J. Blige with the Lil' Kim
feature, because that bad little rap, that Lil' Kim coming,
if I told you once, I told you twice, I'm like, uh, you know.
So yeah, I'mma just keep it at that.
I would love to have Donny Hathaway perform
a private concert for me.
And I would so, so, so love for the day
that I get to sit down with my dad
and just talk about so many wonderful things
that have happened that I know.
His heart would just burst for joy about it.
If I were a superhero, my superpower
would be allowing myself and other people to have do-overs.
So just like I talked about maybe I went in on this person.
And they just-- you know, maybe I went in.
I didn't have to go in.
So I wish I had the superpowers to be like, you know, rrrt!
Let's go back.
Let's do that again.
And I wish I could walk up to people and be like, OK,
now, you know that was wrong, right?
You want another chance at that, let's do it.
Rrrt!
Let's go back.
The person who makes me laugh--
I'm going to say a great deal--
is Martin Lawrence.
I believe Martin Lawrence is a genius.
And if I see him, I just want to tell him,
you have blessed my life.
I can watch old episodes of "Martin" now and just holler.
I spent a lot of my younger days faithfully
tuning into "Martin."
And I just think that he's a comedic genius.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
One lesson that I can take away from "David Makes Man"
is there is hope if you decide there is.
I think that's one of the things that I really, really,
really appreciate most about Gloria
and I admire most about Gloria.
Gloria has a resilience that is not to be--
just not to be taken for granted.
It's really remarkable.
And I really appreciate that modeled in her.
OK, so my favorite scene to film this season of "David Makes
Man," it involves choreography.
That's all I'm going to say.
I'm always here for the choreography, ya all.
So I don't know if I can tell you or not.
But you'll know what I'm talking about, and it was my favorites.
So when I need to prepare for a day of work
within Gloria's storyline, the way that I do that
is by visiting her headspace.
So I like to create a headspace for my characters,
meaning it's a room full of memories.
And that might be comprised of the history
I created for the character, actual things
that have happened in the scripts
that we've all lived together.
I like to create a visceral headspace for myself
so that I can tap in and do what I need to do,
because I have to juggle the headspace
for being [INAUDIBLE],, the headspace for being white
[INAUDIBLE].
So I visit the headspace of who is this person?
Where are they coming from?
Where are they trying to go?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I would totally and completely be friends with Gloria
from "David Makes Man," because Gloria is the type of person
who inspires you to win.
Gloria is not going to allow herself--
and I don't think she will allow the people in her vicinity
for settling for disappointment and settling for essentially
like, humming and bumming.
You know, like, it ain't working out.
It's probably not going to work it out.
And I think Gloria's motto is aint nobody got time for that.
We get to live.
Let's live.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So one area of my life that I know
that I am really fully trying to own is always remembering--
always remembering that people are the prize.
If there's anything that I learned from COVID
is that when you need it most, if you have sewn
into your family, if you've sewn into the relationships that
matter most to you, if the whole world has to stop
and you just have to be surrounded with those people,
you will be greatly rewarded, right, because some of us
find out, like, man, I'm at home.
But that wasn't my story.
It actually made me realize that when you can get busy,
you can forget that the people in the relationships
around you.
That's the treasure of life, not chasing
after all of this stuff.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
If there were a fashion trend that I think that we should
really bring back, for me, it would be bellbottoms
and oversized shades.
And I don't even like shades.
But they just look so funky.
You know what I'm saying?
Just your fro and your bell bottoms and your shades.
Man, please.
If I was stranded on a island and I only had one album that I
could listen to over and over again,
it would be D'Angelo's "Voodoo."
I really feel like that man made music that I didn't know
was my music.
Like, before he came into the world,
I didn't know that, OK, I put my music in you.
Thank you.
Thank you, God.
Something that I learned about myself in this last year,
especially during COVID, is that you
will read so many encouraging words from other women who are
mothers, like ignore the mess.
Who cares about the mess.
Forget the laundry.
You don't need to do it.
I have learned that--
that I don't know that I can really turn that off.
I really get tired of looking at mess because it like,
represents confusion and chaos to me.
So as much as I want to embrace my sisters who are like,
let me go, relax, it's OK, there is a part of me that's like,
but I can't because it looks crazy.
So when I was a kid, I used to tell everybody
I wanted to be a lawyer because I
just felt like that's what every parents told their children.
And every parent wants it to hear, you want to be a doctor
or you want to be a lawyer.
So I know I cannot go in anybody's body.
I can't really get involved with strangers' bodies.
If you depended on me, it's not going
to happen before you like that.
So I was like, I'll do the lawyer.
And interestingly enough
[SNAP]
--I think I could be a great lawyer.
Ladies and gentlemen, I can watch "Martin"
over and over and over again.
I can quote it.
I can pull a scene out right now if you want to.
OK, I can do some quotes.
I just think it's so funny.
[LAUGHS] OK.
I think you should ask Akili--
if there's any other character that he
wanted to play on the show, who would it be and why?