Angela Gibbs Actress, Director & Writer Stars In Bounce TV Series FIND
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Welcome to Power Player lifestyle magazine. My name is Layla Christine and we have the amazing dr moshi Lewis and we have a special guest today, her name is Angela Gibbs and she is just hot to trot, she's an actress, a director, filmmaker, a mother, a grandmother, an artist and etcetera etcetera etcetera. Angela Welcome, thank you for having me. It was like who is she talking about? You said grandma like uh that's right, that's right, Jima, Jima, Jima, that's right, that's right. I learned something new. I worked with Angela with the Hollywood from my mother marla, it's beautiful. Yeah, it was wonderful. You look this up. Yeah, yeah, it was, it was momentous occasion and you guys work with your son as well and it just felt family, you know, I love it when you are working hard with people that you enjoy working with. It makes it fun. That's right, that's hard. At least you know it was a beautiful time. Yes, so we're happy to have you, thank you. I'm like I'm gonna let you go ahead. I hear I'm in for some questions. Good ones. I like to go back. I'm kind of a historian. I like to go back in time. Let's start at the beginning and where you grew up and how you got interested in this business business. Okay, I'll try to I'll try to streamline it a little bit but I grew up in Detroit and I grew up in a time when Motown was flourishing. I have as a matter of fact I grew up next door to Levi steps mother, the leader of the four tops mother. So I grew up with the grandchildren were all you know hanging out and so we see smoking different people come through you know coming over to visit the mom of course you know Levi. And so we all and I bring that up because we all had dreams of being something you know larger than who we were right. We were kids with dreams. As a matter of fact we had a group called the the Boys with the Monte goes. My mother at that time was Margaret. She was nowhere near television at that time. She was our manager and she kept trying to get us to sing songs like boys from were like no that's what we were singing. She was the manager. We we did the Y. W. C. H. But anyway one of two of the guys who was in the Monte goes they went on to sing with Radio and Ray Parker Jr and Coco Carmichael. So they went but they moved on to L. A. And then not too long after that we moved to L. A. And I was in drama in I went to catholic school so I was in drama in grade school just because I don't know, I just flourished there. I just liked it and I remember even back then being angry because they wouldn't let me play scrooge and I was like I could do better than he can but it's a role for a boy, I could play a boy, you know, even though I was shy, that was one place I wasn't and believing that I really was shy. So we moved out here and I got into drama again in high school and then we found a place called Pastor. My mother found it and pass La Performing Arts Society of Los Angeles, that's what it stood for. Was started by a black guy, uh named Banta Whitfield. As a matter of fact, Lynn Whitfield married him, that's where she got her last name back then. We all had african name, so his name back then was moved to Chico and um the guy who played Rollo on Sanford and son Nathaniel Taylor, he was jihadi, he was there uh, who was on room 2 22 she was there. So a lot of the blacks that were working Roger Mosley, uh, was there, that's where we met him. And um we all, I think we paid $2 for a clipboard and it was on Manchester and Vermont ironically, years later I would open the theater after coming back from college on that same block. My mother ended up giving back to the very community that started our careers, my mother was in there. So we started acting and um Mantel went on to work at the National Endowment of the Arts. So he left and the workshop started kind of, you know, floundering a bit, so Rogers said, I know of a place and what's called the fundy, why don't you all go down there with me? I did my mother, you know, I was 16 at the time 17. We went down there and we got in a play and a guy named max julien came down to see the play and I was playing Angela Davis and I was like, I said 17 and he fell in love because I reminded him of a younger version of his wife at the time who was the beautiful Vonetta McGee. Right? Not Lynette Mckee, Vonetta McGee. Right. And um, uh, so he was doing a movie called Cleopatra jones. He had just gotten its soul and he wanted um veneta to play Cleopatra but they want a tall, you know, you know a woman. And and so they hired Tamara Dobson but he still got some perks and one of the perks was he could, he could pick a couple of other actors and he picked me. So now imagine this. I'm no, I'm like almost about 18 actually not 17 because I was working at this store, a little clothing store. I go to lunch. I come back and the manager said somebody called you from Warner Brothers and you have a movie and I thought she was playing, you know, she's like, no, no, really like this is the number call and they hired me sight unseen but they asked me to come in, I went in and they said we just want to meet you and can you read a line or something but max Julian loves you and wants you to play this role and I got an agent because of max and then, and then Roger said, okay, I'm gonna give you my agent and between Roger mostly and max julien my career started right? I got in the *****, it was just one sec. And So my ***** card says 1972 that I've been in this business a lot. So that was the beginning. Yeah, tell us about a memorable world that you really felt like, gosh, I've truly arrived, okay, it has to be uh this is us. I played there was a storyline that sterling K Brown who is amazing, there was a storyline that his mother had died, she was an addict who cleaned up carried him, you know, to full term, but then when she had him that night she wanted to hit and then she flatlines. So the father grabs the baby and runs out because he realizes they're going to take the baby and you know the doctors and paramedics are there. So you think she's gone, so you fast forward season five and you find out that after he ran off she came back with fiber and so she's older now that's me. So I play Randall's mother and um I died, but I always wanted to find him, right? It's just a heartbreaking story, but there's a moment where he and I are in the water, that's where I used to go and scream, so when she, he ends up out in the water because he knows that's where I used to go and I meet him there, but now I'm on the other side, but I meet him there and I helped him get rid of all that pain he's been carrying. It was just a beautiful moment. It was, you know, I've always asked for roles that pushed me, expand me, that that scared me, you know, because if we're not scared like what are we doing and and and maybe scared is not the right word, but you know, um you know, there's a quote by ruby dee that says God makes me so uncomfortable that I do the very thing I fear, I remember that and I just love that, like if I'm nervous about it, that means that you know, I'm gonna do my homework, I'm gonna do a deep dive and I remember leaving that job um oh my God, sterling was such a generous actor and it was him, he and I all day and Um I remember and the young sister who played Jennifer C. Holmes who played the younger version, I loved watching her and learning her and her mannerisms, so I and she was just a wonderful actor and human being as well and I remember after shooting, I went home and everybody had been hitting me up like how did it go? I couldn't talk. All I could do is go to bed, I went to bed at 8:00 at night and I didn't wake up till eight o'clock the next day, I was emotionally drained, right and but I was very proud of that role and so, but then I didn't know what I had done, so I was like, you know my agent and you know coach, I coach, but I get coached because I don't want to be in my bubble, I want to continue to be pushed and expanded so they all call it, how did it go? Like I have no idea and I don't know if I messed up, you know Randall gave me a high five and the director seemed happy, you know she was, I don't know, I don't know, I really didn't know and they said you know, if you could tell me everything you did, I'd be worried that you don't know means you were there, you were present in the moment with him, let's talk about that as actresses and especially when you're on screen, does it take a lot of energy? You know, like once you, you're on set for maybe 10 hours or 12 hours, it's exhausting once you go home and yes and some, some people take it home with him, but do you take it home, do you just as soon as you get home, you're like, look, I got to shut it off, just bring myself back to who I am instead of being in character character. Yeah, yeah. You know, I um that's a that's a great question because sometimes, and sometimes not, it takes a minute for me. Sometimes unwind, I try to put on music and start that unwinding process on the way home. Um but sometimes I am emotionally exhausted and I don't really want to talk and even though I live alone, I usually have family there and they know and they can come in, it's like I gotta go lay down or I need to be still for a minute to get some of that stuff off of me and then sometimes I'm good, I'm good. By the time I get home, we want to know what's hot with you right now, as far as like some of the tv productions, whether you're acting or producing or a combination of both. Oh my God, what's new? What's hot like right now, 2020 to Angela's plate is list, right? I it's a beautiful plate, you know? Um I don't want to say this school in case God wanna throw something else on that, you know? But it, it is pretty, I am not taking on anything else to put it like that right now. So um there's a show that I'm on that I'm really proud of and um it was created and um written and directed by a black woman Kendra joe based on a black woman's life. And um Cedric, the entertainer is one of the producers we shot it in, and Atlanta B Simone, who another one that has millions of followers, just amazing and very generous. She's the star and I play her mom, and then Marquita Price plays her cousin. My sister is kim cole, she's the truth is the truth. And so she's marquitos. Mom, B Simone's mom, they're cousins, were sisters, and, you know, it's called Finding Happy, Finding Happy premieres, saturday the 24th at that's right, So please tune in. And it's all about finding Happy, finding happy so happy. How do you find your happy in this actual show? Well, you know, finding happy really is about women, young women. I mean, you know, be Simone's character is really the driving force and her cousin as well. Um and then there, but also, as older women, we're still finding our happy and I love that we're not just an appendage and were not pushed into a stereotype, we're just, we're this age and we're just old and broken down, we're still trying to get it on, we're still trying to said, that's right, Well, that's exactly, but it's about, you know, this women who are working on having a career, but want to have a life with you, want to have a family and not being able to find, you know, that man, and is that where you're happy? Is is your career, where you're happy is like, where is your happy? Can you have the career and the man or the woman with the kids and the business, can you have it all and travel and just do everything and if you have none of it right now, can you be happy? Yes. Right, That's true. Because because Exactly, because it really starts within its it really does, you know, now, absolutely, we want the outside stimulation and support and validation, all of that, However, it has to start here. So we we, you know, we look at that too, but it's funny, it's a comedy every time I think about it started laughing because kim is just an absolute, of course I'm very quiet, sedate way, I can see this right now. They're like, no, we don't think the character is written where I am a deaconess with one ft still in spanish, wait a minute, did you say I'm preaching in the pulpit, but I still like my spandex though. And when he was like, oh, that's right. So, so that show and then I haven't a series now on abc and it's called Not dead yet, started Gina Rodriguez, if you all know her from, you know, for your virgin, but so many things. Um she's a boss, I'm telling you, she's the boss and I love her, she's the kind that was, you know, in the middle of the day and everyone's kind of you know fatigued or whatever and she's like I wanted to share that. I so appreciate all the background because we couldn't do this without you and I know you guys are being shuffled in and out but I really want you to know how much we mean. She's that person looks out, she's like wait a minute before we shoot you got something in your teeth, you know girl I got you your hair. Yeah no she looks out but it's a lot of fun. And um you know, all I can say is uh she writes Obituaries, it's based on a book called um the confessions of a 40 something year old f. Up and you know her life didn't really go the way she had Home fiance all of that went away comes back to town, everybody is doing well. But her she gets this job writing obituaries and ends up getting advice from unlikely sources that I'm just like hashtag obituary. Yeah it is so much fun and I'm like the Sage um you know kind of sassy older woman you know. Yeah. Come to for advice. No no but I have to say I am the Sage who needs who needs help too but it's a lot of fun. Um The E. P. S from this is us. Um they are involved in and it's just a great team. Um production wise, everyone is harmonious and they created that that that environment they said we decide that we can have fun and make a good product. So we're working with people that we enjoy. So yeah, nothing like working with people you enjoy because it makes the day. That's right. That's right. Finding our happy. So there's that Casey, johnson and David, Windsor, Dean, Holland McGee. Uh they all have an amazing track record. So we just pray that this show goes, it'll it will premiere in january talk about full circle and what network and then that's gonna be on abc again. That's right, That's right, That's right. So that's coming out. I'm really excited, really excited about that. And then of course the premiere on the september 24th and final Happy. Then I'm on a show called Hacks, we just got 17 Emmy nominations and when we want some and jean smart is like watching a master class and I get to I get to play with so Carl um plays my plays Marcus um and he's her business manager and whenever we're always in his house, we being me and lou nell with two of us together. So that's right. Right. Right. Well we got to have you back because you know, it's exciting to just know that there is more to the beautiful Angela gift because you are the daughter of a very powerful. I am Miss Marla get all that good stuff. So did your career get started before my career started first. Everybody it started first and I um was you know it was black as black, I'm black and I'm proud, it was the seventies and I was like and the casting couch was there and I was young, I was getting hit on and I just didn't know how to navigate that but I knew as an older sister that I you know I cared about what my little brothers thought of me you know I knew I was a queen back in you know at that age because you know we came out of the sixties and now we're in the seventies I went to Africa changed my name to and I just I just decided that right then acting wasn't for me so I left and while I left my mother's was the start step she we were always auditioning but I was on tv first and I had a pilot and I was on my this is the truth here everybody this is the real truth wrapping this up but it's the truth. My mother was like you got a dressing room that was you know san Francisco was my first tv show stand late it was a director but anyway I went away and she got on television and see Florence may well I want to bring up your okay one little thing though you in the midst of all that started writing and a little play 2 to 7 Yes yeah so no so let me tell you, let me tell you what, I didn't write it. That was written by Christine Houston uh Cambridge brought it to me and said talk to your mother and doing this play. My mother was busy, she was doing the jeffersons that she was trying to run a club and I was like, please baby, please baby, baby baby, please. And she didn't want to do it at first. I mean I said just do it for a couple of weekends. She got in that play, loved it, brought in, Betty Bridges brought in Regina King um how Williams my mother called in because with her name, other actors would come. That play was a hit and norman Lear heard about him, came on down, Brandon Tartikoff who was alive then came on down and the rest is history. See we're gonna have to have your mom. Yeah, we gotta bring her her, thank you for coming. We appreciate you for being a part of the power player lifestyle moment because you're a power player. Yeah, I didn't know elegance, your style, it's just wonderful. Yeah, I guess I have learned through my kids like they're like, you know, you you got it going on one of the originals, but thank you for having me on. Yeah, thank you and we appreciate it. It's around