0:00

Now's the time to save 30% on

0:02

wedding jewelry, only on bluenile.com. Make

0:04

sure your wedding ring is the

0:06

one with your pick of diamond

0:08

and lab-grown diamond bands. All hand-finished

0:11

and graded for excellence. Or surprise

0:13

her with something Blue shall love

0:15

for life, like a stunning pair

0:17

of sapphire earrings. Blue Niles jewelry

0:19

experts are available 24-7 to help.

0:22

From fit questions to style advice. Right

0:24

now, get up to 30% off at

0:26

bluenile.com. When

0:31

you need mealtime inspiration, it's worth

0:33

shopping Kroger, where you'll find over

0:35

30,000 mouth-watering choices

0:37

that excite your inner foodie. And no

0:39

matter what tasty choice you make, you'll

0:41

enjoy our everyday low prices. Plus, extra

0:43

ways to save, like digital coupons worth

0:45

over $600 each

0:48

week. You can also save up to

0:50

$1 off per gallon at the pump

0:52

with fuel points. More savings and more

0:54

inspiring flavors make shopping Kroger worth it

0:57

every time. Kroger, fresh for everyone. Fuel

0:59

restrictions apply. People act like

1:01

it's wrong to want fame. You

1:04

think anyone who's famous didn't want to be famous?

1:07

Do you think Meryl Streep didn't want

1:09

to be famous? Hi,

1:13

I'm Ramona Shelburne, and you're listening to the Let's

1:15

Talk Clip podcast, where we follow along and react

1:17

to the FX series, Clipped. Just a reminder, these

1:20

are spoiler-filled conversations, so if you haven't watched the

1:22

show yet, you might want to hit pause on

1:24

this and go check it out on Hulu. Today,

1:27

we're talking about the third episode of

1:29

Clipped, titled, Let the Games Begin. In episode

1:33

three, TMZ publishes the tape of

1:35

Donald Sterling's racist tirade. The

1:37

Clippers' players and Coach Doc Rivers scramble to

1:39

decide if they will boycott their playoff game.

1:41

Meanwhile, Vistaviano starts

1:44

building her brand. Joining

1:46

us on the podcast today, the

1:48

woman, the icon,

1:51

who plays Vistaviano, Cleopatra

1:54

Coleman. Thanks for having me. And

1:58

CP3. The man

2:00

who plays the captain of the

2:03

Clippers, Jay Alphonse Nicholson. Thank

2:05

you so much. Such a pleasure being here. Thanks for having

2:07

me. Cleo, when you first read

2:09

the scripts and you were approached about playing

2:12

this character, what was your take on who

2:14

Vistaviano was and

2:17

what you could bring to this role? Well,

2:19

Gina's such an amazing writer, and I

2:22

remember very distinctly in the first scene

2:24

that we see her, she was described

2:26

as someone who has a lot of

2:28

charisma that pretty much everyone ignores, and

2:31

that was like a huge key for me.

2:34

And it just described so much of

2:36

what was going on with her. And

2:38

I just ended up having

2:40

a lot of compassion for her, also

2:42

just finding her really fascinating and interesting.

2:44

And I was rooting for her. How

2:47

much research did you do for this role

2:50

before you dove in? I did do

2:52

some research on V. It was my first time

2:54

playing a real person, but it's kind of interesting

2:56

to get to play someone where there's like video

2:59

and imagery and stuff that

3:01

I could actually look

3:03

up and try to reference the voice

3:06

and get ideas for makeup and

3:09

think about how I want my hair done

3:11

and my manicure even. It was

3:13

really cool to be able to have details

3:16

like that. And I remember

3:19

thinking, oh, I remember this.

3:22

And yeah, it didn't take me long

3:24

to completely remember V and just the

3:26

surface idea of her, which we kind

3:28

of like scrape off

3:30

in this series and reveal

3:33

a lot more about her

3:35

as a human being. So we're gonna switch over to

3:37

Fonz. What do you remember about

3:39

this whole thing back in 2014? Where

3:42

were you? And then how did this project and

3:44

this role come to you? Yeah,

3:46

so, man, I definitely remember

3:48

it just because Chris Paul was from North

3:51

Carolina and it was kind of the talk

3:53

of the town and him being the advocate

3:56

that he was at the time to change

3:58

that situation was really cool to see. I

4:00

was in New York and I was

4:03

just working as an actor. I was a street

4:06

drummer in the subways of New York at the

4:08

time. And so it was all entertainment for me.

4:11

And this role came to

4:13

me by way of Alexa Fogel,

4:15

who is an amazing casting director.

4:18

And she just told me, hey, I think you'll

4:20

be great for this part. I know you're from

4:22

North Carolina. I know you are

4:24

familiar with Chris Paul and his

4:26

legacy and what he's built. And so I want you to

4:28

send in the tape. And I did, similar

4:31

to Cleopatra, have not played a real

4:33

person before. Just a little nervous about

4:35

that process, but understanding like, hey, of

4:38

course, I'm not going to be exactly who Chris

4:40

Paul is, but I can just spring the mannerisms

4:42

and book the role and the rest is

4:45

history. What is it

4:47

about Chris that you related to in

4:49

real life and also in this

4:51

show? In real life, being

4:53

a father and understanding wanting to create a

4:55

legacy for your family and for your children

4:58

and being from North Carolina, knowing that it's

5:00

a small town compared to a lot of

5:02

other places, compared to LA, compared to the

5:04

larger places in the world and America. And

5:07

so being able to come from a small

5:09

town and build a life for yourself, I

5:11

could relate to that. Basketball, there was nothing

5:13

we can relate to. I'm not a basketball

5:16

player by any means, but able

5:18

to make it look good, you know? And

5:20

then with the role and also the leadership,

5:23

I try to find myself to be

5:25

a leader in certain situations and whether

5:27

that's my cast or whether that's the

5:29

friend groups that I belong to, just

5:31

always holding myself to a certain standard.

5:34

And CP3 does that no matter what team

5:36

he's on. And so it was very awesome

5:38

to be able to put that on screen

5:41

in a way that's very relatable that I think

5:43

to audience members and also to the people

5:45

who are familiar with his journey. I just wanted to

5:48

make sure I was as similar to that as possible.

5:51

This is for both of you. In this episode

5:53

three, the tape is out. There's

5:55

no going back to the way things were for

5:57

any of the characters. And

12:00

so a lot of pressure on

12:03

these gentlemen to, yeah, come

12:05

out and say something, what they're going to do

12:07

in it, that's not their job, right? At the

12:09

time, that's not their job to make this decision.

12:12

They're thinking about their livelihood. They're thinking about how

12:14

to take care of their families. And so we

12:17

can only imagine what that pressure was like. You

12:19

know, if I was to compare it to something,

12:21

it would probably be like FedEx and having a

12:23

manager who's just treating all the black guys different

12:26

than the white guys. And it's like, what's

12:28

that about? And having to have a meeting with

12:30

your guys at FedEx. And so that was a

12:32

real-life situation that's happened for me. And although it's

12:34

not the NBA Player Association, I did feel like,

12:36

hey, we stood up to somebody that we felt

12:38

like was causing issues or not respecting who we

12:41

were. I

12:43

understand it to a certain extent. And

12:45

understand wanting to be quiet, but also understanding somebody

12:48

who wants to say, you know, forget that. I

12:50

want to stand up and make something happen. OK,

12:53

so let's go to the other scene in episode 3 that

12:55

I think is fairly iconic. In

12:58

my mind, everybody is going to be

13:01

ordering this costume for Halloween. And

13:03

that is when the tape comes out, the

13:06

paparazzi have gathered around V's house in Beverly

13:08

Hills. She

13:10

has this moment, like the stage is finally

13:12

hers. And she

13:15

decides to roll on out in some

13:17

roller skates. That shit on my mind,

13:19

baby, you're right. You got

13:21

to go. You got to go. You

13:23

got to go. Dude,

13:26

I am not that good at roller skating, it

13:28

turns out. Like

13:30

those skates, you don't understand. I

13:32

can rollerblade, but rollerblades go up to

13:34

your ankles. These skates are

13:37

like sneakers with wheels. So

13:39

there's no support. And so I'm like

13:41

going down this driveway. It

13:44

was kind of awkward. But I think we could lean

13:46

into that. I just

13:48

think that's such a funny choice on

13:50

her part that showed like a lot

13:52

of humor about fame and just about

13:54

the whole paparazzi situation. And

13:56

then it was also really bizarre to film

13:58

too because we had pretend. paparazzi, but then

14:00

we'd also had some real paparazzi on set,

14:02

so it was really kind of confusing at

14:05

times about what was real

14:07

and what wasn't. Yeah,

14:10

it was fun. I mean, obviously that's like

14:12

very iconic. It's something that everyone really remembers.

14:14

So I was excited to

14:16

wear the visor and the

14:19

jean shorts and my roller skates.

14:22

It's an amazing scene, and you couldn't write it

14:24

any better than she really did it in real

14:26

life, but Gina might have. Gina

14:29

might have written it better because the conversation

14:31

that you have with Deja and the argument

14:33

you have with her, I think is a

14:35

really powerful one and kind of encapsulates all

14:37

the stakes that are there for

14:40

V at that moment. Why won't

14:42

you come out and say Donald's a racist?

14:44

What are you talking about? Look at my

14:46

Instagram. Hashtag be the change. Hashtag no hate.

14:48

You are a black woman. Why

14:51

won't you say it hurts to hear him talk about

14:53

us like that? You

14:56

weren't hurt when he was buying your spicy meatballs

14:59

at Rock Sugar. When

15:01

he bought you a Louis Vuitton coin purse. There

15:04

isn't a soul in America who

15:06

hasn't earned from a Donald Sterling.

15:08

That's the way it is. I never judged

15:11

you, but if you're going to put out a

15:13

tape, let's talk about it. Let's

15:15

talk about the Klansmen in the room. So

15:18

the scene with Deja is the

15:20

scene where their friendship kind of

15:23

dissolves because Deja is trying to

15:25

let V understand the reality of

15:27

the situation. It's something that she's

15:29

not very focused on. She's very

15:31

much focused on other

15:33

things and her survival and those things

15:36

that I mentioned earlier. I

15:38

thought it was a beautiful scene. I

15:41

really loved that speech. I loved the idea of

15:44

what's so wrong about wanting to be famous

15:46

and the way that she's justifying herself, I

15:48

thought was really food for thought. Then

15:51

it's just kind of absurd.

15:53

She's got this posse of

15:55

people that she's hired to hang out with

15:58

her and it's funny. Also what

16:00

I love about this show is it's as poignant

16:02

as it is, like, bizarre and

16:04

funny and it'll

16:06

make you cry and it'll make you

16:08

laugh. I'm

16:11

gonna go back in time a little bit. I know

16:13

we're talking about episode three in this, but we haven't

16:15

really talked about the one scene where

16:17

everybody is in there together, which is the

16:19

white party scene from the opening episode. And

16:23

I know that must have been really fun for

16:25

everyone to shoot, but it's also, V gets to

16:27

interact with the players and the players

16:29

are gonna interact with Shelley and Donald and everybody's

16:32

all in the same place at the same time.

16:34

What was it like for all of you

16:36

guys to be in that together and

16:39

have scenes together in that one very

16:41

surreal, strange space? Anytime

16:43

you're filming a big scene and everyone's there,

16:45

it's really exciting. It was

16:47

like, you know, the table read day, everyone's

16:49

there and it's all coming together and it

16:51

was cool to just see everyone embody their

16:54

characters. And yeah, it was really

16:56

fun. It was incredible. It

16:58

was a day where you end up in

17:00

one of those Hollywood Hills that you've never

17:02

been to before and you're at

17:04

this massive house and it's like, okay, whose

17:07

house is this? We

17:10

had a couple of times like that, for me

17:12

anyway, where it was just, it

17:14

was like, man, this is crazy, but these people

17:16

live these lives every day. Donald

17:18

Sterling, this was his lifestyle for a long time.

17:21

But for us, it was really fun too, being

17:23

able to dress up in all white and have

17:26

a little party on set. You

17:28

know, you got to be careful, remember not to eat

17:30

the food and stuff like that, no matter how good

17:32

it looks. But it was fun and they had the

17:34

fake Madonna. And

17:40

all the things that come with TV magic and

17:42

so great couple of days on set and an

17:44

amazing view. I know, I remember that house out

17:46

in Malibu. I was like, I was thinking the same thing for once. I

17:48

was like, whose house is this in real life? Right?

17:51

It was a spot. I want to ask you guys

17:53

about one of my favorite scenes and I still like

17:55

every time I watch it I'm like, oh, it's

17:58

so true to life, but it's also still gives me

18:00

the shivers is when Donald comes in the

18:02

locker room and and Cleo you know

18:04

this is your this is your green dress moment. This is my

18:06

assistant V with

18:08

the beautiful birthday gown.

18:11

We're acquainted. But it's one of the things that

18:13

strikes me about the locker room scene is

18:17

V understands that she's violating a

18:19

sacred space here too. Like

18:22

when she walks in the room and the

18:24

players are having this is their sacred

18:26

locker room space she actually shows

18:28

some hesitation. And I'm

18:30

wondering just how uncomfortable that scene was

18:33

for you guys to film what your thoughts and

18:35

emotions were about each of your characters in that

18:37

spot and just sort of what it said about

18:39

Sterling in general and how he saw the team. Well

18:42

that seems like for V for

18:44

my character it did feel like a

18:47

great example of her position

18:50

you know to be involved with someone

18:52

that you don't agree with everything

18:54

that they do but you are

18:56

linked to them and dependent on them and

18:59

you have your own reasons for

19:01

that and you're participating

19:03

but you're conflicted and

19:05

not able to really act on that you don't really

19:07

have power in the situation. It was it was all

19:09

of that. And then for

19:12

me like Lawrence made it so incredible

19:14

because the way he came in and

19:17

told everyone to get out really

19:19

like felt very real. Everybody

19:21

up. Calm down. This is

19:24

my fucking team. You don't like it staying

19:26

your office. You get the fuck out of

19:28

here. Okay Papa Bear. I told you

19:30

it was your business. And then aside

19:32

from that just the filming of it was really fun

19:34

because I got to hang out

19:36

with Ed and Lawrence and all the players at the same

19:39

time which didn't really happen a lot. But

19:41

yeah it's it's also like a very

19:43

very uncomfortable situation and you could definitely

19:45

feel it. We had a lot of

19:47

actors that were maybe day players that

19:50

were featured in that scene that were

19:52

in vulnerable positions. So that

19:54

also made it feel really real. And

19:56

then just the way that Donald puts her in the middle

19:59

of it asking a question.