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00:00Hey y'all, it's Niecy Nash Betts, and I'm here with Ebony.
00:04I will say, I don't know if it's in as much spooky or scary
00:10horror, in as much as it's just a different tone, where
00:16people haven't seen me before.
00:18You know, I spent a lot of time trying to convince this
00:21industry that I wasn't just a one-trick pony.
00:24They were like, they met me doing comedy, broad things
00:27like Reno 911.
00:29I played Bernie Mac's sister on the Bernie Mac show.
00:32They were like, oh, we know what you do.
00:34I was Cedric the Entertainer's wife for many years on a show
00:37called The Soul Man.
00:39And I was like, but there is more.
00:42And it took me a while to get the industry to see me
00:46like I saw myself.
00:48And now that they know I can, you know,
00:51win awards doing drama, I think they forgot I was funny.
00:55I was like, oh Lord, I got to do a comedy real quick.
00:59But I like the fact that I get to thread the needle
01:02and taste multiple disciplines in the industry.
01:07I will tell you, though, in Grotesquerie,
01:09I'm playing something I've never played before,
01:12which is a woman with an addiction.
01:15So that's something I had to find in my bag.
01:21Something like Dahmer, where it's based in real life.
01:24You know, there's an onus and a weight that you already
01:28have to give it to get it right.
01:30Because you're giving a voice to real life people.
01:35I mean, people who have had an impact in this story
01:40in a very real way.
01:41So that in and of itself is a weight.
01:44But with Grotesquerie, because the story is not real,
01:50it wasn't as much emotional weight
01:53in as much as it was making sure I got it right.
02:00I push Black forward every day when I open my eyes.
02:04You know what I mean?
02:05I chose to share the best of myself and my love
02:12with someone who was also Black.
02:14You know, I've never gotten a job
02:16and not gotten somebody else a job who was Black.
02:20Um, I make myself available to people who look like me.
02:27Um, every day, whether it's I need advice, I need prayer,
02:32let me help pick up your spirits.
02:34I mean, I love being Black.
02:38I'm unapologetically Black.
02:40And I know that there is something so unique about it
02:47that unless you're Black, you just don't understand.
02:49I, you know, I live in the space.
02:51I love the space.
02:53And, um, I feel like what we were created for
02:58is to love, be loved, and be of service.