Club Shay Shay - Meagan Good Part 1

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

Multi-talented actress Meagan Good joins Shannon Sharpe at Club Shay Shay for a candid and gripping conversation. She opens up about her tumultuous journey growing up and navigating the entertainment industry. Meagan shares an intense story from her time on a Nickelodeon show, detailing how a fight escalated into a dangerous brawl, making her question her actions and seek peace. Meagan discusses facing racism at school and being unfairly targeted by teachers. She also shares the emotional impact of losing possessions given to her by her father, who had a background in the LAPD. Reflecting on her acting career, Meagan talked about her early roles in the cult classic "Friday" and working with icons like Chris Tucker and Ice Cube. She also shared valuable advice from Michael Clarke Duncan about treating everyone on set with respect. Despite numerous challenges and tough choices, Meagan underscores the importance of authenticity and not compromising oneself for success. She highlights her resilience, the lessons she’s learned, and the meaningful relationships she’s built throughout her life and career. Celebrating 30 years in the business, Meagan expresses gratitude and hope for 30 more years, emphasizing the importance of love and support in her journey. She shares stories about her experiences as a young black actress in a predominantly white industry. Meagan also recounted facing intense pressures on set, including a difficult experience with a director that almost made her reconsider her acting career. This moment, however, reinforced her determination to succeed. Throughout the conversation, Meagan’s resilience shines as she speaks about her mother’s wisdom, God’s guidance, and the significance of humility and confidence. She recounts her growth in the industry and her determination to be recognized for her talent. In this interview Meagan also touches on her experiences with homeschooling due to her acting career, the guidance she received from industry veterans, and her decision to focus on movies over TV shows to explore diverse characters. Despite the adversities, Meagan’s journey is a testament to her strength and the valuable lessons she’s learned along the way. Join Shannon Sharpe and Meagan Good in this heartfelt and inspiring conversation, celebrating her incredible career and the strength she’s shown in overcoming obstacles and staying true to herself. #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You and Obama fed with cat. I seen his interview. I'm going to leave it at that.

I'm going to leave it at that. But that's what I am going to say. I'm sorry, but my man is sexy to me. We just need to be all the way clear on that. Sacrifice, hustle pay the price Want a slice, got the roll of dice That's why all my life, I've been grindin' all my life Hello, welcome to another episode of Club Che Che I am your host, Shannon Sharp I'm also the proprietor of Club Che Che

The lady that's stopping by for a conversation and a drink today She has 30 years in the film industry One of Hollywood's most sought-after actresses She's delivered iconic performances in over 100 films, TV shows and commercials. She's headlined Hollywood's biggest blockbuster blockbusters and helped generate over one billion at the box office. She was in a film that was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. An award winning actor, writer, producer, producer director a gifted performer talented model new york times best-selling author she's a stalwart in the entertainment industry the multi-talented

making me i like that thank you did i do you right you did i didn't even know about the one what was the multicultural um uh were you, the library of Congress. Yeah. What film is that? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Oh, okay. You're doing it.

Yeah. So you know what? Since we popped something on you, you didn't know. I have my own Kanye. This is a shade by the portier is named after my grandmother. Uh, Porter in French is the portier. So I named it after my grandmother and I want to toast, love to toast your success 30 years in the business yeah hopefully 30 more amen thank you thank you

oh that's nice that's very nice well thank you very much megan thank you for stopping by I understand that you're extremely busy with you you know your time your energy your movie career is doing great and for you to give me a few moments of your time today I greatly appreciate that I greatly appreciate you you know what so let's get right into it you've been at this thing you started like when you were four years old did you know you always wanted to how did how did the've been at this thing you started like when you was four years old did you know you always wanted to how did how did the commercial aspect of this thing start you know what's interesting is as i i grew up in santa clarita california back when it was called canyon

country in the 80s okay um so we were like one of one black family for a long time so i was almost like 13 ish okay um and in and in that um in that time you know for me it was almost like 13 ish. Um, and in, and in that, um, in that time, you know, for me, it was more like, uh, there was a little bit of bullying and different things going on. And my mom was like, you know, okay, well, hobby wise, what is it that you want to do that can be your thing, your safe space? And I was like, I want to act. And she was like, okay. So then she put me into acting me and my older sister, the Maya. Um, I was four, she was six okay so then she put me into acting me and my older sister Lamaya okay um I was four she was six and it just started off as commercials everything from Cheerios or Pringles to Barbie to whatever you could think of and uh and then from that you know when you say started

from the bottom uh it went from like being next to the person who was like the lead person on set my mom like just get next to her and have a lot of energy so you do that you know and the next thing you like an extra yeah oh yeah i was an extra for a long time really yeah yeah and then and then that led to being on camera and that led to one line one line led to two what you know three lines led to a scene a scene led to four scenes four scenes led to you know being a a regular or a guest star or something like that and then from so on and so on so yeah i started from the bottom built my way all the way yeah because you started from the bottom did you ever become discouraged because you didn't get the speaking parts originally and that you like just had to stand there and smile and put on your best face

your best foot forward did you ever get discouraged like i don't know mom no i actually felt it a challenge okay i was like y'all gonna see me. Give me a chance. And it's interesting because I don't really know where I get that from. But, you know, I had a lot of teachers that were like, oh, you're not going to. That's not a realistic career or, you know, honey, no. And I'd be like, just wait one day you'll see. And I've just always kind of had that mentality. So for me to continue to just grow and grow and grow, it's been a blessing. And I think a slow, steady climb, I think is healthy for any actor, but any person in general,

because it teaches you along the way to have humility, to remember where you came from, to understand, especially within this industry, this thing goes up and down. You could show up one day to a club and you're standing outside for 45 minutes you could show up next month and have a movie out and walk in with five guys and get a free table and a bottle and then you can come back six months later and not have a movie out and wait for 15 minutes you know and so all of that um along the journey has allowed me to have perspective and and remind me this is not who i am it's just what i do and I get to do it. Where did you develop this confidence from? Because it seems you are a very confident

young woman that you understand that like, you know what, it might not happen today, but tomorrow is a different day. How did you remain confident even though you weren't getting those speaking scenes in the beginning? i think my mom is you know and and god really like just knowing that god's timing is perfect timing and as they always say with the kids you know uh people's rejection is god's protection and um my mom just always saying like just wait just keep doing your best keep putting your best foot forward just show up um and then you know there's always the the reality of like you have to carry the crown before you wear it and and then i think once you've worn it, you got to remember sometimes to carry

it again for someone else. And so my mom has always instilled that in my sister and I. And for me, it's just never been, it's never been a question. I remember being like 19 and being like, Lord, I didn't even ask you if this is what you have for me. So let me ask you first. And then once I got that confirmation but that it was bigger than just being in the industry is about using your platform for something greater than you but when i got that confirmation then i was like there's nothing nobody can tell me i was like it's just a matter of time so do you remember your first commercial and that audition i remember the first commercial on set okay i was four it was a marshall fields commercial and i was like a little girl with a bunch of little kids like out on a picnic.

And they had a little dog that was trained. And the guy was holding the food just above the camera to get the dog to kind of spin around in a little circle. And that's just what I remember about it. I mean, you've been in over 60 televised commercials. Yeah. What do you remember? What was your favorite commercial? What do you remember most about doing that? My favorite commercial was probably a pringles commercial okay and it was like uh

pringle pop got the yum yum yum with a kick a kick of calcium i'm talking young to the maximum plus the whole kick a kick a kick of calcium anyway so uh it was about the pringles having more calcium right uh and we did a lot of dancing and i remember that vividly because one i was the only black kid, which was often the case. But, two, it was the first time anyone got me into fitted jeans. And I was 14. And before that, I was, like, straight up, like, TLC, cross-colored, like, you know, Jabot, Boss, like, just my cousin's shorts. Right.

I was, like, you know, stringing around my waist with, like, a belt to make them jeans for me. And I used to get sent home all the time because my clothes are too big and it was the first time I put on some tight pants and I just liked them so much I wore them to school the next day and the boys was like I do you know after that yeah the rest is history did you ever freeze did you ever get stage fright or were you always a natural that the cameras you like i don't even really see the cameras i'm like i'm on my own i'm at home i'm in my room i'm in front of my mirror i got a brush and i'm just doing this did you ever have stage fright um i think i always the first time on a job like the first day i always have first day of school like jitters you know like nerves and you just want to get it right and you just want to figure out the character

and you just want to be in tune with everything that needs to happen. I don't think I've ever froze before. I think the only time I've frozen is when I was working on this job that was a very, very big director, a very, very expensive job, and I just felt a lot of pressure. I was the lead, and it was kind of an iconic remake of something, reboot of something. And there were just so many hands in the pot and so many different people giving me directions.

And as a child actor, you just learn to kind of do what you're told. And so when you have four different important people telling you to do something completely different, even at 34, I kind of just didn't know how to navigate that and like who to please first. And I just started to get so stressed out that I started to actually just forget my lines and completely forget them and that was probably the most challenging job I've ever worked on because it was just it took me it took me until this young black director came in and was like I know who you are I know what you can do trust yourself I'm not gonna bother you for me to go okay and then from there on it was you know great experience that was the reassurance that you needed yeah that you could do this yeah you

were doing great at this yeah but you were hearing too many voices yeah and also the and also to just stand up for myself and just be like look y'all one of you come and tell me you guys decide what the four of you guys want to do and then some one person probably the director because that's the only person who should be talking to me while i'm filming just come tell me what what you know you need me to do and i mean it was it was very pivotal for me because i walked away from it initially going yeah i don't know if i want to act anymore really yeah because it was it was you got that discouraged yeah it was it was almost traumatizing because there there was one director who came on that was yelling at me. Like there was a stunt that we were doing and he told me no matter what not to stop.

And I was like, well, if it looks like someone's going to get hurt, then I'm going to stop. And then also it went from the stunt guy doing it to the actor doing the stunt. And in one case, I felt that me running up and grabbing this guy from behind we were both going to fall down the hill so I stopped and he just came out of the tent and was like don't stop I just screamed at me and it's the first time in my professional career where I was like what do you want me to do like I flipped out because I was like yo y'all I am so nice I am so calm I am so easygoing like this dude was like wowing and I was like you know what at some point at some point and then after that everyone was like

because they know they knew me and they knew that I'm like trying to you know really easy going and for you to snap like that yeah you probably had it up to here not here but up to here listen I was donezo because it's just you know it was completely inappropriate and

anybody else wouldn't have thought twice about saying you don't talk to me like that but because i came from the background i came from and possibly because i was a black woman i just was a little bit you know and then once i said look that's enough um but but it was interesting because he left to film something out else and had to come back like on one of the last days to film a scene with me and after I filmed the scene with him I realized that I was like sweating profusely and my hands were shaking because that's how like under he brought that on yeah he almost made like gave me like an anxiety to just yeah so anyway I made it though was that the first time was that the

moment that you decided that you needed to stand up for yourself? Yeah, I think so. That was probably the first moment because the first thing he did before that was embarrass me in front of the crew because I had this big dialogue and I was going over and then he was like, just say it. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee.

No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes. We'll talk every single game, every single week, but I can't do it alone, so I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Claibon, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook, Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic, and of course, Colleen Wolfe. This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window. Why would they trade him away?

Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl. I don't know why, Colleen. Catch the podcast at NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal every day. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And I was like, yeah, I'm about to. And he was like, no, everyone hold your work.

Mind you, there's like 200 people outside. He said, everybody stop. Everyone stop what you're doing. Say the line. And I was like, and I was just so caught off guard that I started saying it, but I was like fumbling through it. And then he was just like, you've done it a hundred times. You've done it a hundred. Like he just like reprimanded me like I was a child in front of the whole group.

So there was that moment. And I cried about that. So the next time he came for me, he got what he asked for. I am a Leo after all I'm as kind as they come baby I try to make the best atmosphere for everybody and just best quality of life and just love but I was like okay I reached my don't push you yeah because I'm close to the end I'm trying not to lose my head, that's what's up. And then you were the extra. You were in the movie, Dookie Howell, Neil Patrick Harris, Sherman Hemsley, who's most known to be named for good,

Jefferson. He had a show called Amen. And being an extra, do you like maybe try to steal a scene? Do you like? Oh, yeah. You try to not necessarily steal a scene. You just try to make sure that whatever you're doing counts. OK, because if you do that and they might be like, you know what, this kid is good.

Let's move them up to a principal role. Let's make sure they're on camera. OK. And that's literally how I made my way up. Really? Yeah. So you you you you elevated where you bump some kid down. Oh, no, I would never I would never push anyone over, kick anyone over, step over anybody to get to where I'm going. But I would never push anyone over kick anyone over step over anybody to get to where i'm going I'm, just making my own lane, right? What do you what do you remember most about those about those days in your first acting i'm talking Not I understand that tv ads are one thing but then now you're on a tv. Are you on a sitcom? You're on a tv television series. What do you remember remember most about that? Well, you know what's interesting is is I did TV probably up until I was like 19. So the last two things I did was Cousin Skeeter and Nickelodeon, which I did for almost four years.

I grew up on that show with Robert Rashad. And then I switched over because there was a strike at the time. And I just said, I don't want to do more TV. I just want to focus on movies. Cause Terrence Howard had said to me, you know, when you finish this show, I want you to be a young woman who travels the world and plays different characters and jumps all around as all these different things. So my, my advice to you is don't do a TV show again until you're married and you have kids and you want something that's a lot more stable. You want to know the character you're going to play, where you're going to go every day, all those things until then travel the world and play different characters.

So I came out of that show saying, I don't want to do TV, and then there was a strike. So I did a show with Brie Lawson and Kat Dennings and Bob Saget, who I loved so much. And then I actually left that show to go do

Deliverance for Mima, and that was the beginning of my, you know, trajectory of my film career. You were you were homeschooled yeah basically your entire um a high school high school yeah just high school yeah just high school i read where you got bullied did you get homeschooled because you got bulleted and it was the safe space for you to be at home or what what caused that uh i got homeschooled because i wasn't a nickelodeon show and because it was too hard to go to school juggle yeah yeah um but uh but you know i mean i'm never one to back down from a fight so if someone's bullying me i'm not gonna let them bully me out of submission right um but

uh but yeah it was mainly just because i was working so much as an actor it just made more sense yeah i read that you got jumped do you think it had something to do with you being on that nickelodeon show uh yeah yeah it very much did we but it took five though it did take five that no no because when i realized it was all coming from my face i was like oh no we're not gonna do that so i actually laid down on the ground and back then that's when the big clunker shoes were popular i started kicking people in the gut. Anybody who came near me, I just spin around kicking them in the gut. And it's so funny because I ran into this girl some years later and she had told a mutual

friend of ours that she had just beat me up. And I was like, no, you and four other hookers beat me up. What is you saying right now? And it's crazy because after that fight happened i went looking for that girl all around town because i was like i just want to fight just you and the lord told me not to do it and i did it and i found some of her friends and then some guys came and then i had some of my guys come and the next thing you know people have shanks and all kinds of things going out and we have a huge brawl inside of Jerry's Deli.

And I broke the back of my nail back, breaking a chair on someone's back. It was choking my friend. And by the time we got out to the parking lot, somebody pulled up on a motorcycle with a gun and threatened to shoot us all. And we all went running like cockroaches. And then I was in the bushes praying. And I was like, Lord, I didn't listen. And this wasn't right. And now everybody else's life is in danger.

And after that, that particular guy actually ended up getting into a situation where someone shot him but didn't kill him but hurt him. And I found out where he was at. Because after that, I was scared for my life for like two weeks. I went to his hospital room and said, look, let's just squash the beef, blah, blah, blah. And about a year later, I'm on a TV show doing a reoccurring role, and he's one of the writers on the show, and we've been friends ever since. Wow. Man, you about that life growing up?

I'm a K-country girl, but I've been around a lot of crazy. I'm looking at your petite self, and you, like, okay, you're on TV. You're like, I ain't going to mess up my face. I ain't going to mess up my nails. And you were like, bought it, bought it. Because I just felt like I just couldn't believe that somebody had, like, taken it upon themselves to come into my space. And the reason that the girls did it is because they were like,

oh, aren't you that one girl from that TV show? And I was like, yeah. And they were like, oh, you think you all that? And I i was like yeah no i was like you you don't want to say that you think i'm all that and then they was like come outside i was like no i'm not going outside and then that became them jumping me so i i just couldn't let it be but now i know better because it ain't worth it if someone had actually gotten hurt you know i don't think i could live that down so i read that a teacher, she did something. She did tell your homework up.

She misplaced your homework. Which teacher? Because where I grew up in Santa Clarita, like I said, there was a lot of racism. So I had trouble with at least my fifth grade teacher and my sixth grade teacher. My fifth grade teacher actually slapped me on the bag. Uh, my mom got her suspended. Um, and then my sixth grade teacher just really picked on me. It's like, if I wore a lip gloss, she'd take my lip gloss, but she let the other little girls who didn't have the same complexion as me wear lip gloss. She'd take my things and put them in the

June box. And then in this particular instance, my dad had given me these coins. And because my dad was LAPD, my mom and my dad weren't together. We didn't always see our dad that often at that time. So anytime he gave me a collection of coins, it was like a really big deal to me. And the teacher took them and put them in the June box. I was supposed to get them back in June. And another little girl was like, oh, those are mine. I was like, no, those aren't. And she's like, yes, they are. And the teacher was like, stop lying, Megan. And I was like, why do I have to be lying? And it was just kind of always that situation. But the girl gave him back like three years later and apologized.

I didn't punch her. You got some anger issues. I did not punch her. But you thought about it. At that time, I don't know. I'm not aggressive in that way. I'm one of those people who, if you continue to mess with me and you get me to a certain point, then I'm upset that you got me to that point because it takes so much for me.

I'm so like, it ain't that serious. So let me get this straight. The June box is something, if the teacher takes something from you in September, October, November, they place it in this June box. And at the end of the year, when school is over, you get to get it back. Yes. Yes. So she took your coins that your father had given you.

Obviously, your mom and dad's not together. So it holds a little bit more sentimental value to you because he's not around every single day. Yeah. She places it in that. Yep. And then. And then she didn't keep no records or maybe she did, but she gave them to him. I stole it back. If I knew where that girl lived,

maybe, maybe you said in Santa Clarita where you grew up at a lot of times you were the only black child. Yeah. And there was so obviously if you're the only little black child in that area, probably you're going only black child in that area probably you're going to be one of a handful of in the high school so yeah you did you deal with a lot of racism in high school or with just isolated incidents um well definitely in elementary school quite a bit um and then in junior high uh a little bit that's around when when kids started busting in right like black kids started busting. But then it was kind of like in the beginning, it was like, the black kids was like, why you talk like that? And I'm like, talk like what? They're like, you're white. I'm like,

I don't talk like I'm white. They're like, yes you do. I'm like, how? Anyways, as I sound so crazy right now, my voice going high. But anyway, so I think for me, I almost felt like I didn't really fit in anywhere kind of growing up, which I think actually worked to my benefit because then I just kind of learned how to be authentically myself and unapologetically in that, but also how to be a chameleon and get along with anyone and go in any space and be comfortable. How are you in the role in Friday? 13. 13. Yeah.

And, you know, you had to see the ice cream truck with big big perm i mean big worm yeah and so what was it like because you know chris tucker ice cube phase on john witherspoon bernie mack yes were you on the set with uh um were you on the set with any of those guys other than tucker chris tucker and ice cube yeah uh you know what's crazy is is at that time michael clark duncan was um tiny lester stand-in and uh you know f gary gray was 25 years old first movie and basically for that those two scenes that i had the movie i was probably on set for almost three weeks waiting to shoot my scenes wow and so i spent a lot of time with everybody, but one thing I'll never forget is a tiny, I was eating a tuna sandwich and he said, can I have one? I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I went and I

made a one and I came back and then Michael was like, well, where's mine? And I was like, well, you didn't ask for one. He was like, yeah, but you didn't ask me if I wanted one. And I was like, oh, okay. And then he said to me, he said, just remember, as you go along in your career, make sure you treat every single person on set the same exact way. Everybody has a role and everybody has a job and everybody is important. And I was like, right. And that stuck with me. So I always did that and I've always done that. And then it was really cool to do Debs with Michael Clarke Duncan when I was 22, all those years later.

And, yeah, he was a wonderful person. Did you know Friday would be the cult classic? It's one of the it's one of the black films. If you got five black films and there are a lot of them, Friday is going to be in that collection. Yeah. Did you know what you were shooting at the time? I didn't. I didn't. I just was so happy to be there and to have a real line on camera in a movie um i was so nervous during my scene uh there was a few times where chris had to be like it's your line

it's your line it's your line i'm like right um man i hate him i was so nervous that i had what he and the boys always say you ain't got no one line just say line i was like right right right right um but he became like a big brother to me after that. Right. But yeah, I had no idea what it was going to become. And then you ease by you. Yeah. With Samuel L. Jackson. Yeah. What was that experience like? Well, that was the next year when I was 14. And I'll never forget that there was a table read about four years prior and I was 10 at the time, so I was actually playing Eve in the table read. Samuel Jackson was still playing the father role.

I think Maya Campbell was playing my role. And I forget who else was there, but the point is... Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast nfl daily with greg rosenthal five days a week you'll get all the latest news previews recaps and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee no dumb hot takes here just smart hot takes we'll talk every single game every single week but i can't do it alone so i'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Claiborne, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook,

Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic, and of course, Colleen Wolfe. This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window. Why would they trade him away? Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl. I don't know why, Colleen.

Catch the podcast, the NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal every day. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. After that, I was like, great, so when are we going to shoot this movie? And Miss Casey was basically like, well, we got to get the funding for it first. So every year I'd be like, Miss Casey, we get funding, we get funding, we get funding. And finally, when they got funding, I was 14.

So I was like, okay, I have to get Sicily. I have to be, you know. And so I went in, I got Sicily, which was beautiful. And then I remember Journey coming in. And four years prior, I had guest starred on On Our Own and played Jussie's love interest and had my first on-camera kiss with him and all that and so I remembered Journey and I was like oh my gosh and then we just totally vibed out in the audition and then we ended up getting it together and and then uh we were talking about Poe in the room and I was

like oh you know Journey's got a little brother that's the exact same age as poe and then casey went out there and saw him and then you know then it's me journey date so were there any roles early on that your mom that your parents wouldn't allow you to do um i'm sure there would have been but i think uh my mom just kind of always instilled in me like don't do anything you're not comfortable with um don't compromise yourself any in any way if you can look yourself in the mirror then you're okay but if you can't it's not worth it it's not that serious god would bring you something better and so growing up every time i turned down something that i wanted to do but i wasn't willing to do the nudity or i wasn't willing to do this or that god always did bring something better has that always

been your ethos has that always been the way you thought and says like you know what at the end of the day i still have to be able to look at myself and feel good about myself a thousand percent because i don't want i don't want um fame or any type of success but at the expense of losing my soul or not feeling good about who i am it is not that serious. It just ain't. You know what I'm saying? And so I think as long as I keep my integrity and my authenticity, what's supposed to be mine will come to me.

And I think it'll come to me even easier because you weed out the things that you don't need to be concerned with anyways. Do you feel you've missed out on some roles because of the way you feel that you won't compromise your integrity? No. What's meant to be is going to be what's meant to be is going to be and and if i had done those roles would i feel as good as i feel now but i have the peace that i have in my heart now no and that's that you can't buy that that's

not for sale i've interviewed a lot of people that were kid actors and they a lot of them have some bad stories to tell do you have did you have any bad stories? I mean, I'm there you had you had the one director that you said that he yelled at Yeah but outside of that were they anything that you like that made you even maybe second guess was like Maybe this isn't for me cuz this yelling and all the the belittling and carrying on. I don't know if it's for me No, because I started doing it so young that it was the world I knew and the world that I lived in. So when I saw things that I didn't like, I just stayed away from it. Or if I saw people who had bad energy or were desperate for attention or whatever it was, I just kind of stayed out of their way and did my own thing.

And so it's all I've ever known. It's the job that I've had my entire life. So I understand some of the things that come with it. I just don't concern myself with those things. You've been making good, famous, basically your entire life. Right. Did you wish that you could do some of the other things that Kidd could do? Because you couldn't do because you were television you were in commercial so you just couldn't go play and you just couldn't

go hang out with your friends and by the looks of it didn't like you had a whole lot of friends you run them off i had friends i did but my best friend and i've been best friends for 27 years y'all still besties most of my friends i've had for 20 years plus wow yeah yeah and they're so you know they're true oh man they're just human beings, like some of God's greatest gifts to my life, truly. I think the only thing I missed out on was the college experience, which I kind of went back and forth on because that would have meant that I would have had to take a break. Right. And then I also had the mentality of like, so many of the things that I want want to learn i want to learn under people who are actively doing it for a living um and

and then i think i just i really would have wanted to do the reunions like the 10-year reunion yeah yeah yeah yeah i just love stuff like that and yeah yeah so but you um were you did you go did you have sleepovers did yeah yeah definitely i mean we weren't really allowed to sleep over anyone else's house but they could come you know um but yeah i mean in that sense there was always time to play to find time to hang out um my mom was definitely particular about who would obviously meet their parents and all those things but um in that sense that part of it was pretty normal outside of people recognizing you so in other words to make a long story short that you don't feel that you

missed out on anything even though you've had this long career and you know you was a tv show you was at movies and like a lot of normal kids did you ever want to play sports i'm very athletic Did you ever want to play sports? I'm very athletic and I do love sports, but I don't think so. I think I always knew I wanted to do drama. This is what you are. And yeah. And then I tried dance for a while, but I just was not good at it. So yeah, my older sister, Lamia and my younger sister, Lexi are both phenomenal dancers.

But I was just like, yeah, that's not the gift the Lord has given you, Megan. And that's okay. Right. not you it's not the gift the lord has given you making and that's okay right yeah you got served yeah so now i mean now the movies are starting to come with greater regularities it's like like you're working you wrap one and you're starting another wrap that one starting another because you have a stretch where you like for like a decade right you were in two couple of movies a year right right right yeah so now you're like okay did you ever like man your girl doing it you don't think that's not your personality no i think i had one moment where i did this movie and it was such an all-star cast and i just thought okay this this is going to be the one and you know i'm going to be out of here and this person who had did so many films that just always were number one box office hits this

is the one that flopped oh and i just thought to myself i was just praying about it i was just like i didn't have the right heart the right like you know i'm saying my mind wasn't right about it was like this one is going to get you out of here like what does that mean what does out of here mean what is it that you are trying to accomplish in your mind in that moment? And so I really had to check myself on that and really ask myself, like, what do I want? You know, what is my intention? And so I've never approached anything like that ever again. Forget what the calendar says.

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see dkng.com slash promos for deposit wagering and eligibility restrictions terms and responsible gaming resources deliver some evil you got served roll bounce stop the yard yeah but it was really think like a man oh yeah with kevin hart chris brown grab your union regina hall taraji terence j gary owens steve harvey yes that was an all-star case that's a lot of personalities yes yes everybody's like important very important amen Megan how do you fit in how do you blend in like okay I'm here obviously they think I'm important because I'm here right but obviously Kevin Hart is Kevin Hart Steve Harvey Steve Harvey to Taraji is Taraji. So how do you fit in, but in the same time, you stand out?

You be humble and you be authentic. Nobody can be you the way that you can be you, and nobody can bring what you bring to the table the way that you bring it. If you stay in your lane and you do you, then you will stand out because that is you. There's nobody else in the world like you. But if you stay humble, you learn from others. You're able to teach. You're able to enjoy the space, the time with everyone. I don't believe in competition by any means.

And so for me, I'm really a girl's girl, but I'm also, you know, a guy's girl where I genuinely want to see everybody win. Um, as much of a Leo as I am, I also am a very, like, if somebody, you know, uh, if somebody wants to shine a certain way, I'm like, by all means, you got it. Cause I don't care because for me, I'm, I, I have a lot of self love and a lot of like, just, you know, I just know who I am and that's enough for me. And so, yeah, I'm just very peaceful in all situations, on all sets, with all people. I read that the very first time that you were in Vegas is that you were filming this movie.

Is that true? No. You had gone to Vegas before? Many, many times. Oh, hold on. Wait a minute. Many, many, many times. Oh, hold on, wait a minute. Many, many, many times. What?

See, you got a lot of secrets. Me? Yeah. Oh. A few? Of course. Of course. Everybody has secrets.

So when you're filming this movie, you understand all the characters and like, remember you said there was a movie before that you like, this is the one that's going to get me out of here yeah yeah did you know how successful that think like a man did you know it was going to be i think i i had an inkling but i didn't go into it with that what i went into it with was this is my first opportunity to really figure out like the comedy part of it because the comedy terrified me really you know i was used to playing the straight man i was used to doing more drama and all of that so when think like a man when tim story kind of gave me the opportunity to just like add things in and try different things and see if they work and see if it was funny and you know throw a bunch of stuff

up against the wall and sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesn't, but he allowed me the freedom and space to learn how to just jump and to know that that's the only way you're going to find the funny. And from there, you know, that experience and think like a man alone, Tim's story really set me up for Harlem. You know, he really was the teacher in the space that allowed me to figure out that my funny doesn't have to be like anybody else's funny. I learned that my funny is awkward funny. As I lean into my own brand of

what comedy is, the right people respond to it. That's all I went into it with was just like, okay, I just got to get free on this and I just got to conquer this kind of comedy thing and just have fun with it so you shoot it it wraps yeah premiere yeah what's going through your mind it came out so good i'm so proud of it people laughed at the things i added in like you know that kind of thing thing. And just being thankful to be alongside people that are great and gracious and the people that I love.

I've known Gabrielle since I was like 14. You know, Taraji I've known forever since like right after she did Baby Boy. I mean, Regina Hall. I mean, I just love her to pieces when i when i was going in for harlem i called regina and i was like look i'm about to go test for this will you run these lines with me because i want to know what you think and she was like girl but you funny i was like yeah but you're the best right so i just want to see what you think blah blah um michael ely who i absolutely adore kevin who has i mean that whole cast Terrence my brother like everybody is just people

who are great actors great talent and great human beings this concludes the first half of my conversation part two is also posted and you can access it to whichever podcast platform you just listen to part one on just simply go back to club shea profile and I'll see you there wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone,

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