TRACEE ELLIS ROSS

Published Jun 9, 2020, 11:25 AM

Today's guest on "LOVE SOMEONE with Delilah" is probably most well-known for her her starring role as Dr. Rainbow "Bow" Johnson, on the ABC comedy series, "Black-ish", now in it's 6th season! Or maybe you watched her when she hosted Lifetime's "The Dish," or when she played Joan Clayton in the UPN/CW comedy, "Girlfriends." However you came to know the work of Tracee Ellis Ross, you know she has got some wicked talent!

She joins me today to talk about her new movie, and about her single, "Love Myself" from the soundtrack, We have a fantastic conversation about strength, resilience, being true to ones self, and how it is a perfect combination of our differences and that which we have in common that make this world such a beautiful place. Or as Tracee puts it, "It's not about a color BLIND world, but a color FULL world,. That's where all the humanity and the robustness of life comes from!" Join us! ~ Delilah

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Hi there, Welcome to Love Someone with Delilah. That the title of my podcast is going to tie in so perfectly with what we're going to talk about today and who we're going to talk with today. Today, we are going to have the pleasure of talking with an amazingly multi talented, beautiful, strong woman. Some of you may know her name, some of you may recognize her work, and if you're some of the ones that don't, I promise you will be looking her up after you listen to this. She's the daughter of a celebrity songstress heard often on my radio show, but she is so much more than just a famous singer's daughter. You're probably familiar or with her starring role as Dr Rainbow bo Johnson on the ABC comedy Blackish now in its sixth season. Before that, she hosted Lifetimes the Dish and played Joan Clayton in the up n c W comedy Girlfriends. And that's only a couple of the items on her very very impressive, very long resume. Today, we have Tracy Ellis Ross with us to talk about her new movie Out the High Note, and more specifically her single And I said, it's going to tale in perfectly with the title of this podcast, Love Someone. The single is called Love Myself and that is the lead off the soundtrack. The lead song off the soundtrack Welcome to Love Someone with Delilah Tracy Ellis Ross. Do you know how how excited I am when Jenny told me that I got to talk to you. Thank you, thank you for agreeing to view with us. Oh my god, I'm so excited. The name of your show is It's so perfect, isn't it Given the name of the single that we're going to be talking about, you know, that's like perfect kissmith there. So before we get started and start talking about the movie, do you have ever have this weird thing happened where you're like looking for sandals or a pedicure stay at home pedicure kit and all of a sudden ads start popping up on your cell phone? Does that happen to you? Yeah, because it's an actual thing, Delilah. There is a service that people can corporations can pay for where they can hear and there's like different tiers. I can't remember what it's called, but there's different tiers like if you, for example, our Breakfast Cereal, you can pay to just put an ad in if somebody talks about food, or you could be even more specific, if someone talks about breakfast, or even more specific, if someone mentioned cereal, then your ad will go into their feed. But I'm not googling breakfast cereal? Are they literally they can hear you? Okay? How do they know that that I love sappy love songs and sappy movies Because I'm not kidding you. Your movie it comes up in every feed I'm on and I'm already like, I can't wait to see it, I'm dying to see it. But every five minutes I'm seeing new clips from your movie? Is it reading my mind? It's because the name of your show is Love and the World, and the energy and frequency of the world is connected to your heart, specifically Delilah. And they know that you're gonna love the movie, so they just keep inundating you with it because they don't want you to forget. It's crazy because I started seeing ads for your movie that we're going to talk about the High Note probably I don't know, a month ago, and I was saying to young we're in quarantine. How am I going to see this thing? And we're in and then all of a sudden, it's like it's gonna be on pay per view, you can watch it. I'm like, how did you know? I was thinking that it's crazy. I don't know. Somebody in your head, somebody's in my head. Somebody is in my head. It's it is weird. Now, let's talk about this movie that I'm seeing all the ads for. Did they just like take out the best clips to put in the ad? Uh? You star in it with Dakota Johnson, who looks like she plays the part beautifully? What what is this movie about? And what about the story resonated in your heart? I am so I cannot. I cannot tell you the patients that I and then when this pandemic hit, I'm like, what's um? So, I'm so thrilled that people are finally going to be able to see it. I'm I'm so proud to what we did. And when I went to see it, when I went to see the screening, I was like, this is a feel good movie. Man. When was the last time I went to the movie theater or like saw a movie that was just like Major Heart feel all warm and fuzzy, And that's this movie. See. I'm watching the little clips that have been released, and it looks like a feel good movie, but it also looks like such an empowering movie. Like I'm sitting there cheering you on and cheering on your character. And there's one line that's in the clip that keeps coming up in my feed when you say only five women over fifty had a number one hit and and only one of them was black. And I'm like, prencient sister, Yeah, I you know, Um, it's so crazy that, at first of all, I love that you say that it's like an empowering movie. That was really one of the things that drew me to the role is the idea, the story of this woman who was at a place in her life where he didn't want to keep playing it's safe and didn't want to keep being who he thinks the world wants her to be, but instead the who he is and let her think her her dream out, you know, the kind of voice that she wants to have. The trailers look wonderful, and and I was so empowered when I heard you saying that, because a couple of years ago, I was inducted. And I'm not trying to make this all about me, because it's not, but I was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. Okay, I was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. And I found out I was the first woman inducted in the Radio Hall of Fame since Kate Smith for singing the national anthem No No. And I'm like, wait a minute, I've been I've been on the air for you know, a very long time. And I hear a lot of other women on the air, really good talented women on the air. Why has am I the first one inducted in twenty seven years or thirty seven years or whatever the crazy number was. And uh, you know the the old adage a woman has to work twice as hard to get half the recognition as her male counterpart. Fortunately for us, that's easy. We're used to works are being, choice is efficient, well multitasking. We need to pause here, Tracy for a brief moment so that we can share a message that helps to make this podcast possible. Hold on, when we come back, we'll talk about what it means to change the world one heart at a time. I told you I'm sheltering in place with five of my kids. Um, my husband and I are the only two, uh that are Caucasian. Everybody else in our household is a person of color. My in laws are Costa Rican. We just adopted a young woman who is Hispanic, and then my other children are are all um African and African American. And because you're such a strong role model and such a beautiful woman, and my four teenage girls, UH need that need that kind of UM positivity. M hm. You know, I think, UM, your household sounds like our world. You know, UM, we we all UM, there's such an inclusivity and how we love each other and the reality of that human connection. And UM, a moment like this in a pandemic UM, we get to see a glaring light on the inequity that exists in our world. UM. And I do think that stories like this, UM that allow us to see see different um representations of what it is to be a woman, UM, and to be a black woman, and those different kinds of journeys. Told you the face and being usum of different kinds of people is so important. You know. I know that inclusivity and diversity have become such buzzwords, but they are there because of the need and the desire for all of us to see ourselves mirrored back to ourselves in a way that we see possibility. We understand ourselves a little better, and we understand each other a little bit better, both in our uniqueness that each of us have, that our cultures and our identities and um, and you know, the legacies that we all come from and how beautiful they are and how they actually add something to our world and make our world a more interesting and wonderful place. But also how we are the same. You know, both things are true, and one doesn't discount the other. You know. I always say, it's not like to me, it's not about a color blind world, but a colorful world. That's where all of the humanity and the robustness of life comes in as we get to really see all of um, what our world has to offer, different cultures and traditions and all of that that makes our world a better place. So yeah, I do. I think it's wonderful that you have a family that looks like our world. Um, and that you guys will get to show up and see a movie and I love it. Um. How old are your teenagers? Uh? Well, baby d and my youngest is eleven going on fifteen. Uh. And then I have a fifteen year old, sixteen year old, and twenty one year old all with me right now. Amazing. Well, I don't know what kind of hair they have today, have curly coil hair? Oh, we have every kind of hair in the world. Girlfriend. I have a line of hair product for curly coile anti textures called Powdered Beauty that they should look up. The farm we're at is ten miles out in the Sticks, but there's a little town like twenty miles away in southern Oregon. And I was driving through the town the other day because I just dropped my mother in law off at the hospital to have a procedure done. And she's Hispanic, and although she's been here a long time, she doesn't speak English well. And they wouldn't let me go in to translate for her, and they don't have a translator there. So what what they said is, we will call you on her cell phone and then we will talk with you, you know, so you'll be able to tell us everything. Okay, So we do that. It takes about an hour, and then they said it's going to be about two hours. So I took my father in law and we're driving down a side street and I see a backyard that looks like a little paradise. It's like this fabulous little garden of beauty and wonderment. And I am passionate about gardening and and I'm trying to encourage everybody to plant a garden because it's good for your soul. And I had to pull over. My father in law was like, you know, ask me in Spanish what are you doing? And I have to pull over. I have to I have to see this beauty and if they're there, I have to tell them how much I love it. So I pull over and there's two men in the backyard working in this beautiful little um shangar law. It was like a shangar law. And I just said, I need to tell you how beautiful this little, this little heaven is. And they responded to me and they had a very strong African accent. And I said, oh, my gosh, are you from West Africa? And they're like, yes, how did you know that? And I said, well, I've been there thirty two times and I have six children who are also from there. So we start talking. When we get back in the car, my father in law looks at me, says, Delilah, there's probably only two people from West Africa for a thousand miles and you find them. But we we just had this connection instantly over gardening and over my kids. So I went back. I've got a flock of chickens and I took them two dozen eggs. A couple of days later and the mom came out and she's and I had my daughters in the car, and she says, oh my gosh, who does their hair? I need someone to do my hair. And I said, I do their hair. She's like, no, you don't. I said, yeah I do. She's like that, that is impossible. Your fingers are white. Your fingers are white, was her comment. Like, yeah they are, but they've been they've been doing hair for a long time. So what's the name of your product, because I'm gonna get her some too. It is called um Pattern Beauty as this pattern like a pattern A T T E R N beauty and um pattern Beauty dot com is the website and you should go check it out. The mission of my brand is both to meet the unmet needs of the curly coilant texture community and also to create a paradigm shift and offer another space for us to see ourselves in our true beauty UM and and power, and so it's a combination of both. The website reflects that there's a glossary of terms that kind of redefines UM a lot of the terms that are you used and and shares them in a more celebratory way, imagery that allows us to really embrace who we are in our in our authentic beauty and products that UM you know, support hydrate, moisturize, create, UM popping and juicy girls. You do it all. You know. When Janey came to me and said, I got to talk to you, she said, Talila, here's the thing. This woman is smart enough, like she's brain surgeon smart. She's like rocket scientist smart. She's like wicked wicked smart. She's business smart. And she's also incredibly talented. And we started laughing, going if we weren't in radio, what what would we do? Because we're not that smart. You're good, But the the world is filled with incredibly smart and extraordinary people UM, and many UM women and black and brown full don't always get the space UM for their power and intelligence and contributions to be celebrated and look that and so thank you so much for sharing your time with us, your love with us, your music with us, on Love Someone with Delilah, Tracy, lovely to talk to you. I'm glad that you are safe out in the middle of nowhere. When I'm no longer in the middle of nowhere and you're somewhere, I'd love to bring my girls to come and meet you. But until then, I think you'll be amazing and I'm so excited for you to see the high Note. I can't wait to hear what you think. Then I can't wait for you to hear all the music um and I hope that it makes you feel good and that you can have it, create a little event with your family and get dressed up and watching. Thank you, Tracy, God bless you, and I'll talk to you soon.

LOVE SOMEONE with Delilah

In a world that can feel divisive and bleak, it's easy to get caught up in feelings of hopelessness, 
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