Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here. Now before you start freaking out on me, I'm well aware that Loretta Devine might seem like a strange choice for an interview subject on this site, but quite frankly I don't care. I love this woman to death, and I'm not afraid to throw you guys a curve ball every once and a while. There is something about Devine's presence in a film or TV show that just makes me feel good about life. She's a solid acting talent, she can sing like an angel, and just about one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. On the television side of her career, she's starred or guest starred on nearly every show David E. Kelly has ever done, including her outstanding work on “Boston Public,” which isn't the first place I saw her act, but it was the first time I realized just how talented she was. She's got a recurring part on “Grey's Anatomy” and is about to co-star with Jonny Lee Miller (TRAINSPOTTING) in a new series “Eli Stone,” which premieres right after “Lost” at the end of January. Most people first took notice of Loretta as Glo in WAITING TO EXHALE, but since then in roles of ever conceivable size she's popped up in THE PREACHER'S WIFE; HOODLUM; URBAN LEGEND (yep, she even made a horror film and one of its sequels); INTRODUCING DOROTHY DANDRIDGE; WHAT WOMEN WANT; I AM SAM; CRASH; last month's THIS CHRISTMAS; and her new film with Ice Cube, Tracy Morgan, and her old “Boston Public” costar Chi McBride, FIRST SUNDAY. And a lucky few saw Ms. Devine star as Lorell in the original Broadway production of “Dreamgirls” (she also has a lovely cameo as a jazz singer in the 2006 film version). Now I'm not going to lie and say that FIRST SUNDAY is a particularly good movie; it's not. But when Loretta Devine is allowed to shine, it gets just a little bit better. She's one of the great living character actors, and there's basically no role she can't make her own. And in our brief conversation, we cover a little bit of everything. I do a lot of interviews because I know you guys will dig them, but this one I did for me. I hope you'll indulge me, and maybe even a few of you share my love of this remarkable woman.
Capone: I don't usually say this to people I interview, but I want you to know that I really do admire your work and follow it as best I can.
Loretta Devine: Well, thank you so much for that.
Capone: You've had such a long career and done so many films and television roles, do you find it funny what parts or movies fans remember you from when you get to meet them?
LD: Oh God. That's so true. I'm here in Chicago now pushing this film FIRST SUNDAY, and everybody is talking to me about HOODLUM because we filmed that here, and they holler “Pigfoot Mary” [here character's name in the film], so it's really amazing. And I did WHAT WOMEN WANT here too. But most of all, people remember WAITING TO EXHALE more than anything.
Capone: I certainly first took notice of you in that film, but my touchstone projects that you're in are anytime you work with David E. Kelly.
L.D.: Oh God! [laughs]
Capone: Any time you pop up on one of his shows. I was a loyal “Boston Public” fan, so it was really fun seeing you and Chi McBride working together again in FIRST SUNDAY. Tell me about your working relationship with David E. Kelly. I know I just spotted you on “Boston Legal” last month…
L.D.: I knew that when he called me to do “Boston Legal” that it would an incredibly long monologue, because David can write the longest monologues, and the joy and the challenge of doing it is how many takes does it take to get it, you know? I absolutely fell in love with him when I was doing “Boston Public.” He's such an unusual man, and he used to be drive by and say, “Loretta, you're going to be in love with a midget next week.” [laughs] And I'd be like, “David!” And he's say, “You don't believe me? Wait until you see this scene.” He was extraordinary, and I do try and keep in touch with him to some extent. We still send each other Christmas cards and such, but I really miss him. It was truly a joy doing “Boston Public.”
Capone: I know he's a big gan of musical theatre, so he must have known who you were when he hired you, about your history in “Dreamgirls.”
L.D.: Oh yes. He told me that he'd seen me in “Dreamgirls” way back when he was a young kid. And he also gave Jennifer Holiday work on “Ally McBeal.” He was truly a fan of that show, and I was so glad to know that. I got a chance to sing a lot on “Boston Public” because of that. This new show I'm doing called “Eli Stone,” it comes on ABC on January 31, it has a lot of music in it too. I feel so blessed to be able to sing and dance again.
Capone: It's funny you bring that show up because last year I interviewed Jonny Lee Miller about a film he had done, and I asked him about the show as a courtesy. I don't think ABC had announced its fall lineup yet, so he was still waiting to see it the network had picked it up. And the more he described what the show was about, the more interesting it sounded.
L.D.: Oh, it's a good show.
Capone: How many episodes were you able to shoot before the writers' strike began?
L.D.: We finished the first 13. So we're hoping to last for a while.
Capone: What is your role on the show?
L.D.: I play Patti, his legal secretary. And I've been working for him for eight years. We're very close; he's like a son to me. I hate the girl he's engaged to, so I'm always trying to mess her up and set her up to look bad. Natasha [Henstridge] plays that role, and she's also the boss's daughter; the boss is played by Victor Garber, and he sings too in the show. It's incredible. It's a wonderful show, and we're so hoping that it gets legs to last a while. We had so much fun making the first 13.
Capone: Now that I've seen commercials for it, I see that George Michael is on it too sometimes.
L.D.: They were using a lot of his song catalog, because the show is all about belief and faith. If you want to see anything about the show, you can go to YouTube and see clips. Jonny Lee Miller's character, Eli, he has visions and there's a question as to whether he's a profit or not, and he's a lawyer. And before he started having these visions, he was such a risqué lawyer; it was all about the cars and the women and the money. Once the visions start, everything that he does changes and not for the good necessarily. When he goes to be checked out, someone eventually tells him he's probably a profit and eventually he believes that. So a lot of the first couple of episodes are about that. And he hears George Michael singing “you gotta have Faith.” And as the show goes on, you find out what that's the song that he's connected to. I don't want to give it away totally.
Capone: With FIRST SUNDAY, the writer-director David E. Talbert has built his career on mixing humor and drama and the spiritual elements in his plays and musicals. How familiar with his work were you before you made this film?
L.D.: I did the table reading for this particular film three years ago, and Katt Williams and I are the only two actors he kept for the film. David is an extraordinary writer, first of all. This is his first time directing a movie, but of course he's directed so much theatre he has an incredible talent working with actors. I've known David for years, and I've seen his shows and plays. He's sort of like Tyler Perry; he's actually been out there before him, so I'm so glad he got this break. He has this great equality in doing film, where there's something beautiful and painful going on at the same time, all the time. For instance when Durell [Ice Cube] is talking to his son, and in the background LeeJohn [Tracy Morgan] is holding a gun on people. He has this incredible way of filming people, and there's so much laughter going on that sometimes people miss the lines because there's also such a message in his work. So I was really excited to be a part of it because of that.
Capone: The scene between you and Tracy Morgan where you're giving him the hot meal is very funny, but it's also very touching. I don't think I've ever seen Tracy emote like that before.
L.D.: I'm the old veteran actor, right? And this is Tracy Morgan's first time where he's not trying to be so funny. So he was so nervous about doing that scene. And that tear that you see in the scene when he started crying, that was true emotion. And he was like, “Come on, come on, we gotta get this before I lose it.” It was so exciting working with him because he puts so much into it, and I think he's going to really happy with the results as far as people enjoying his work.
Capone: I said it before, but I really was thrilled to see you and Chi McBride working together again.
L.D.: I know. I've done HOODLUM with Chi and “Boston Public” with him, and I don't know what else we've done together, but it's amazing how many times we've ended up working together.
Capone: I'm guessing that more than a few audience members who saw the film DREAMGIRLS didn't quite understand the significance of your cameo. What went through your head when [director] Bill Condon asked you to be in the movie?
L.D.: At first, I had such mixed feelings because they didn't want to pay me anything, and it was like “Come on.” And they weren't going to have all three women, and I really wanted all of us to be in it. And Bill called and explained that he was doing the same thing that he did in CHICAGO, that scene with Chita Rivera, where it was like a simple scene where everybody could go, “Oh my God.” And he wanted to get somebody from the original “Dreamgirls,” and I debated it, but I really didn't want to miss that part of history, the final chapter. And I felt so honored that Henry Krieger, who wrote the original music, he was the one who suggested of all that three that I be the one that he use, because I didn't know Bill Condon before then. But Henry Krieger knew my relationship with Michael Benett [director of the original Broadway production], who had said many times--and it's documented--that I was the only reason he did the show, because I begged him at the last minute. I sung him a song, and he said, “Okay, okay, we'll keep trying.” Because we did workshops of it for years before we actually did it. I think we were in workshops for two or three years before we got to Broadway. I was so proud of it.
Capone: What did you take away from that experience that you still carry with you today?
L.D.: First of all, you never dream that something you do when you're young is going to be so engrained in your life forever. This was almost 30 years ago that we created this show, and it's still having such an impact on my being. The music has been consistent; there have been road companies of that show for all of those 30 years, in high schools all over the country. And I'm not rich from it yet [laughs]. That you were part of something that had such an impact on the culture is a phenomenal more, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Jennifer Holiday, and myself. It didn't happen. I think they sort of excluded us, I don't know why, but they did. [Although the musical won six Tony Awards, it did not take Best Musical]. It was a very painful time; it was a joyous time. I thought it was a wonderful film, and it was like living it all over again to see it. But it was also painful to know that so much time had passed. I could have played my own mother, it's that long ago [laughs].
Capone: Just before the film came out, I was inspired to seek out on YouTube the clip of Jennifer Holiday's legendary performance at the Tony Awards, which I'd never seen it before. I broke down crying just from that one song.
L.D.: I know, Jennifer was phenomenal. You look at each person's career, and I feel like I was favored because I was the least important at that time, and I've been able to keep a career going.
Capone: What's your secret?
L.D.: I have no idea [laughs]. If I knew it, I would try and sell it, I could tell you. I love it so much, I love doing it so much, I think it goes on the screen and you can see that, I hope. That's part of what it is.
Capone: It's funny, a lot of our readers might know you best from your roles in URBAN LEGEND and URBAN LEGENDS: FINAL CUT.
L.D.: Yeah!
Capone: You haven't made too many horror films. What was that experience like for you? A lot of the actors in that first film have gone on to become quite famous since then.
L.D.: That was so funny because I had a manager who was very young at the time, who said, “We've got to introduce you to a new audience.” And I was like, “What?” And he said, “Yeah, we're going to get you a part in this horror film.” And I auditioned, and it was so amazing because every young person who was in those films has had an incredible career. Eva Mendes, Anthony Anderson, everybody has just kept chugging on. Tara [Reid] has had a really hard time with the papers and all, but her name is still known. Everybody has really done well, so I'm really proud of them for that reasons. And both lead girls, Alicia Witt is pretty well known, and the other young girl that's on “House”…
Capone: That's right, Jennifer Morrison.
L.D.: Yeah, she was in the second one, so it's amazing. Everybody is very serious about this.
Capone: And you mentioned someone else you've worked with many times before, Anthony Anderson.
L.D.: Oh I love Anthony. I've done a lot of stuff with him.
Capone: In addition to “Eli Stone,” you're in a film called SPRING BREAKDOWN with a fairly impressive cast of comedic actors.
L.D.: I have a very small part in that. I did that as a favor to a friend. I have no idea what that's going to look like, and I hope it gets done and released. I'll tell you, some of these things that I've done as favors to friends are really scary. That was one of them. I know the writer, and he wanted me to do this part, so it wasn't one of the things I had to audition for. But it was a very funny part in that movie.
Capone: Who do you act with in your scene?
L.D.: The kid from “Saturday Night Live” [she's either talking about Amy Poehler or Seth Meyers]. And it is a very funny scene.
Capone: Loretta, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.
L.D.: Thank you, and I look forward to reading your article. Take care.
Capone capone@aintitcoolmail.com
