Yeah.

You know, still a young woman on her journey, trying to find her way and find herself in very transactional relationships.

Um, but I think to, to create a fully flawed and, and fully embodied character, you, you do have moments where you not only wanna see, um, her winning and being so strong in the workplace and being this woman who can run a company, but she's also someone who wants to be loved and held, and there's a vulnerable side to her which I think we get to see more of in season two.

Mm

... just this, this countryside life that we find ourselves in.

A lot of the sayings, a lot of just, just the isms of the culture, I didn't know.

So for me, it was just having to just come in and try to learn as much as I could and be embraced by them and, and, yeah, kinda keep my eyes and my ears open 'cause I had no clue, just like Cameron.

It's just like, "What is this? A lot of this is weird, like, what's going on?" But it's new, and it's, you know, things that are new are weird to you until you figure them out, and then you feel like you understand.

Did you watch? Did you go back and watch a bunch of that in order to prepare for your character?

Yeah.

I think also, too, I was very little in the '80s, but watching, like, my parents and the, the women in my family in the '80s and seeing how lady-like they were and how they dressed, how they carried theirselves.

Um, also the music helped me.

Yes.

I always go back to Vanity 6, Nasty Girl.

That's like who Cameron is.

So a lot of, like, Sade and, uh, Whitney Houston, and just going back to the time of when I feel like Cameron was, like, out and about and how her life felt.

That works.

Yeah, it works.

I was able to bring all of who I am to it, and also I just kind of stay open and ask questions from them because it is such a world that I'm not familiar with.

Um, but I, I love it, and I, I love that I get to play Cameron and just kind of get to represent her and just represent women, 'cause she's so strong and she's so smart, and I know she's glamorous.

Mm.

And originally Jilly and the Queen were meant to come on set and walk around, and, and it was, they were, J- Jilly was meant to take the tour.

And obviously Jilly sadly passed away earlier before, but the Queen still came, and we sat down at the O'Hara sort of family table and had tea and cake, and it was, we were looking at each other like, "How, is this, what's going on? Is this really happening? How are we, how are we here? What's hap- where, how have we got here?"

Mm

... and wanting to be like Rudy Huxtable, and also thinking, like, that Phylicia Rashad as Clair Huxtable was, like, the epitome of a beautiful brown Black woman.

She was smart.

She was educated.

She was sassy.

She was beautiful.

She was demure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And just go for it.

The more you just go for it and you commit and you just set out to get it done right the first or second time, you know, then hopefully...

You know, I would say that our directors are, are pretty, just compassionate to the fact of how sensitive it is to us and how vulnerable we are.

So we try to get it done in a speedy manner too, where we're not playing around too much and trying to find things on the day.

So the more prepared you are, both the actors and crew, I think it makes it a lot easy- easier.

We are heavily protected with our intimacy coordinator, so that helps.

Is that something that you've dealt with in your acting career, or just actually in your everyday life?