- Apparently, Sylvester Stallone was watching BET,
late at night, and saw me on 106 & Park or something
and called Ryan in the middle of the night and said,
"this is our girl."
So I'm grateful that (laughs) that Sly watches BET.
(subtle rhythmic beat)
It's like nothing really matters to him right now.
Including me.
I made a film called Dear White People which Ryan Coogler,
the writer/director of the first Creed,
saw and we met at the Sundance Film Festival
and later I knew he was making this film called Creed.
I didn't even know if it was about the band.
I didn't know if there was any part for me in it,
but I was such a fan of Ryan's work,
so I was like, I want to be in Creed.
And then I learned that there was this singer,
and that it was a part of the Rocky franchise in a way.
And so I went in to meet with Ryan and with Mike,
and we had a chemistry read and I think it went well.
In the first Creed, you literally hear Bianca
before you see her, you hear her music,
so to me that's always been like the North Star.
She's this person that cannot exist without creating.
That's her way of sort of connecting
to herself and to the world.
So it was really important to me that, you know,
insofar as they were making a family
and they had evolved in other ways,
that she was continuing to make her music.
And that also the ways in which she's matured
could be expressed sonically in her music.
So it's always begun there for me
and that was like a deal breaker for me.
So it was great to get to come in again
and perform and write original music,
'cause that's always the way in to play her, I think.
(tense dramatic music)
It's not just us anymore, D.
It turns out it's really fun to have a baby
when you can return them to their parent.
You know, one of my favorite things
about getting to do what I do
is that I get to pretend to be things that I'm not.
It's fun to explore that, to be like,
do I like this, does this feel good?
And to have a pregnant belly and to be very method about it
and just eat for two or three months was a joy. (laughs)
You know, my reps are, like, just this
as I'm watching them work out.
It was good. (laughs)
I'll do that anytime.
What do you have to prove?
- It's not about that.
You wouldn't be any good to anybody
if you didn't do what you love.
- We were saying to each other,
it feels like this time around,
both the characters and us, as people, are just adulting.
Obviously, he and I are not expecting parents,
but I think there's a sense of, you know,
we're having the real conversations with ourselves
and with our friends and with our cohorts
about legacy and what we want it to be.
I think we're both in a space
where we've been working for a long time
and feel like we don't want to be a cog in something moving.
We want to be a part instrumental to the organism.
And so we're both active and wanting to produce
and really look at our industry
and figure out how to create systemic change.
And so it just feels like, yeah,
we're just more grown-up than the first time around.
And it was good to get to, I hope,
project that onto the screen.
When I was making Selma with my castmates,
we would have these conversations
around the work that we wanted to do.
And so many of us had a dream to play,
whether it's Langston Hughes, or Eartha Kitt,
or Angela Davis, and one thing that I was asking myself
and those coworkers at the time was,
what about creating iconography,
our new iconography in film.
Fictional characters that we can look to and aspire to.
And I think so often as black people and people of color,
we look to people that have existed before
because we just don't see enough of ourselves
as new fictional icons on screen.
And so the idea of continuing to get to do that.
To obviously honor where we've come from,
but to create a new future of big ideas.
That's something that I'm sort of looking to and hoping for.
We're stepping into massive shoes with what Will Smith
and Tommy Lee Jones do in those films.
The space that they occupy,
this space of satire and wit.
They can talk about things like immigration and race.
They're so tongue-in-cheek,
and I think it's really important
to also talk about those things
inside of a world that feels so fictional
and silly that you can laugh but in a subversive way,
you're also ingesting ideas that are important.
So I love that about the films.
They're just so good, so we're both
trying to work and make it good.
It's not done as often now, but I love the idea,
and I'm in no way comparing Chris and I to them,
but, you know, of like a Hepburn and Tracy,
the idea of actors that can work together
on so many movies during the breadth
of their career and do new, dynamic things.
So when we were thinking about it like that,
we'd always be like, alright,
how do we make this different,
how do we mess with this rapport?
So, in this one, I guess in Thor we were
also kind of an odd couple too
so maybe that's just our thing.
I mean, we are, he's like a huge Australian person
and I'm not, so I think we're naturally just like,
one of these things is not like the other.
But hopefully, hopefully we're finding something
new and fresh this time around.
Chris and I have so much fun doing improvisation
and just getting to do comedy in that way
and getting to do a performance that feels big and physical.
I have had a moment where I'm like, I think I'll do standup.
But I can't promise that I was entirely sober
when I thought that. (laughs)
I maybe had a drink or two and then had a tight five
going in my mind, like, ah, I'm so funny.
Listen, it's going to be an MTV exclusive
if I get my act together.
I'm bringing it here first, yeah.
(trendy music)