Actress Erika Alexander on flexing her comedic muscles in ‘Reggie Dinkins’

0:00Erika Alexander:From KCRW Santa Monica and KCRW.com, it's The Treatment.

0:13Erika Alexander:I'm Elvis Mitchell. Welcome to The Treatment. We know actor Erika Alexander from her roles in the Oscar-winning film American Fiction, and more importantly, the groundbreaking show Living Single. Without it, there'd be no friends. She's currently starring in the NBC comedy series The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins with Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe. Our interview took place at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Your character is Tracy's character's ex-wife and manager, and they've known each other since they were teenagers, basically.

0:49Elvis Mitchell:Yeah, they fell in love in the neighborhood, and they both went to college, and he was a college football star, and she was athletic, too. She was in track. Yeah.

0:58Erika Alexander:And but she also sees the whole picture, which is because funny, she's the kind of character who would normally be like this of the filmmaker, like narrator of this thing. So to have somebody who's as big an infant as Tracy's character be that because Daniel is as much in need of attention as Tracy's character is.

1:16Elvis Mitchell:Yeah. So Daniel is playing the documentarian who is down on his luck. He's had an Oscar. He had an Academy Award. But since then, he just kind of flamed out.

1:26Erika Alexander:Well, he flamed out spectacularly in the ways that play out in the season on YouTube.

1:31Elvis Mitchell:Yeah, it's really awful. And so he's looking for a comeback. And then you have Tracy Morgan's character who bet on his own games, but for himself to win. But it doesn't matter. He got caught. And so he's been out of it for a while. And his reputation has, you know, tanked. And he's trying to rehabilitate himself. He wants some kind of redemption. So if you see this, this is a huge redemption story that's going to go on and on and on because it's filled with flawed characters. but it can't help but be funny because they're trying really hard.

2:00Erika Alexander:I mean, we're talking about her playing an adult, but there's an episode where she gets to sort of literally revisit her childhood. And I sort of love the joy that you had when you finally sort of let go and let that little girl out. That was really great to see.

2:12Elvis Mitchell:Yeah, Elvis is talking about an episode where my character, Monica, Daniel wants her to open up. So Daniel plays Arthur Tobin. So he takes her to her old neighborhood and says, hey, maybe this will bring it out of you. And she's like, look, I know your tricks. I don't like it. You know, I'm not that type of person. And then, of course, that's what happens is that she starts to remember when it was really hard. And it's always been hard for them. And we get to start to see what animates her, why she's so desperate for things to work. And she's a black woman and she wants order and control. And that's exactly what the world won't give her.

2:46Elvis Mitchell:So at least it's on brand.

2:47Erika Alexander:It's also in kind of subtextual terms, a story about narrative, because that episode is very much about a narrative that was put out versus the real narrative. and this thing that she's kind of keeping from herself, too. I'm trying to give the episode away. Okay, okay. But there's a piece of information about Tracy's character, about Reggie's football game.

3:06Elvis Mitchell:Oh, yeah, yeah. So there's all these things that they've been keeping secrets because it would just embarrass them more. And she accidentally sort of, you know, lets one fly. And it makes them mad and it makes things hard, but it just shows how long they've been avoiding and there's all these landmines psychologically that, you know, she has no idea that she stepped into it because she didn't mean it. And then she, of course, immediately is trying to back it up and, you know, act like it's no big deal. And, you know, the camera sees everything. And then there's Arthur Tobin like, hmm. And, you know.

3:39Erika Alexander:Jazz, as he puts it.

3:41Elvis Mitchell:Yeah. He thinks doing filmmaking is like jazz. And he's rat-a-tat-tat-tat. To see Daniel Radcliffe, who's hilarious. Let me just say, Daniel Radcliffe is hilarious. He really is. He's really hilarious. It's great to see him. You know, obviously, I'm, you know, a different generation. I didn't necessarily grow up with the Harry Potter movies, but I admire somebody who's come out of it so fully human and so willing to recreate himself and put himself in a position. You know, here he is in this family in the show that's a black family. You'll see very clearly why he's there and what, you know, the tie that binds, you know, the things that we all have in common.

4:22Elvis Mitchell:But I think even as a cast, we have many things in common. And I wouldn't have known it to imagine that we could be together. But that just shows you how smart Tina Fey and Sam Means and Robert Carlock are.

4:34Erika Alexander:She is so willful that sometimes she can't see things that are right in front of her. and there's an episode that sort of ends with a bunch of guys who are literally tripping all over themselves trying to get her attention that she didn't see. And I love that this character is, so wants to do the right thing that she can't do the right thing for herself.

4:53Elvis Mitchell:Yeah, she doesn't know her own value. How many black women do we know have spent so much time putting out fires that they're not aware of their own sexuality, sensuality, that people might desire them? and I really think that that was really wonderful that Robert and Sam wanted to make sure that they explored that. What would that look like for her to have a rediscover, you know, rediscover herself, you know, in real time, not just as a mother, but as a grown-ass woman and, you know, somebody who not only wants to be loved, but is loving and also wants to have sex. She ain't no, you know, touch and feel museum.

5:34Elvis Mitchell:She ain't gone out to pastor. She's played by me, for God's sake.

5:41Erika Alexander:She ain't done yet. But it's funny, too, because it's this kind of stuff that's played for comedy, but not at your expense. Because it's about how devoted you are to everybody else, which is also the story of the plight of the black woman giving so much to everybody else that she can't take care of her own needs. I mean, and to do that, play that in that way, that it's playful, but there's a point to be made if you just pay a little bit of attention to it. I think it's kind of remarkable stuff to see you in comedy.

6:06Elvis Mitchell:I think so, too. And, you know, just to be clear, they're not about making messages. These cats are about funny. And these jokes come fast and quick. Like, if you don't like a joke, don't worry. Two seconds later, there's going to be one that's going to come that you'll dig and you'll like it. And yet, we know, you know, is the undercurrent. You know, the things that I hope that the audience would delight in and sort of say, yeah, that's kind of cool, but look at how funny that is still.

6:35Erika Alexander:It's The Treatment and my interview with actor Erica Alexander, who can now be seen in the NBC comedy series The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins. There's so much volume of comedy. It's one after another, after another, after another, after another. And also, you know, not done with an audience, so you're really basically just playing to the other actors. Do you like that challenge?

6:57Elvis Mitchell:It was tough. I spent the entire, so we did 10 episodes. And back in the day, like, you'd get an order for 26 episodes. Our first year doing Living Single, we did 27 episodes per year. That was a real heavy lift, especially for the writers. They had to be out in front of it all the time. And then there was the so-called hiatus, which was basically three months for everybody to recover. Or if you were Kim Fields, she would go and actually direct all of the Keenan Kells. That's what she was doing with her hiatus. We had to find that out. I didn't know that. But she's superhuman. It was tough because you rely on the audience.

7:32You see, even my thing is to go like this.

7:36Elvis Mitchell:That's not just my training. It's just that I depend on them for energy. And so it's a conversation and there is no wall. And in fact, especially in sitcom, you need that audience to not only tell you where the jokes are, but also they're in that room so they participate in the story. And when you don't have that, I mean, I'm sitting up there thinking, was that funny? And do I really trust these two white dudes to tell me what's funny for me? And do they even know what I do? And I have all these things going. It has nothing to do with their skin color, but it's the truth. I'm wondering, do they, you often know, do they know what I do?

8:17Elvis Mitchell:I've gone on other series where I've been asked to perform, and I'd say something real dry and kind of, you know, laid there down, you know, without any sort of niceties or sentimental, and then I'd get a note, yeah, she's not mad at them. And I knew exactly what that meant, that I would say now, let's do the same performance, but with a smile on my face to make them feel good. where I might say, no, that's not really, but, you know, that's good. Oh, that's not really, but okay, that's good. And that's not me. And I knew that they didn't know what I did, and I wasn't being allowed to do that. Not the case with Sam and Robert.

9:00Elvis Mitchell:They do have a type of comedy style that you do have to learn. And there's a vocabulary, and it's flying around real quick, and Bobby knows it because he was on SNL. Tracy knows it. they all know it and they brought in Craig Robinson and all these people and then I felt like the odd man out and so I thought to myself be humble and keep it moving because you'll figure it out Erica and they're going to tell you whether you suck or not and they haven't said that yet.

9:26Erika Alexander:From episode to episode I can see your your confidence in it I mean I can really see it and it's you feel like oh this train isn't going without me I'm on board this train now and Everybody's made a place for me. And by that episode that I was talking about, where you get to sort of see how the men are actually paying attention to, it's like the smile is earned rather than trying to sell something to the audience.

9:49Elvis Mitchell:Yeah, and I earned it for her because I did know. So if Monica looks like she doesn't know what to do, it's because she's being played by Eric Alexander, who doesn't know what to do. Come on, now. I don't know what to do. No, I'm not kidding you. I'm not kidding you. And I think people need to know that sometimes with experience, it doesn't necessarily magically open up things. In fact, you can get even more confused. People have expectations of you that like, oh, she's going to make me laugh. And I'm like, am I really? I'm just actually a girl. And I know I have an ear for something. You can hear things.

10:23Elvis Mitchell:There is something to jazz. I know how to improv in this, but I don't do it alone. I need somebody to throw me the ball and be ready on my toes. But I also have to know when I don't need to throw anything. I'm going to absorb that and someone else is going to pick it up. And it's really tough to trust your instincts. You can get flabby in those areas. I've done a lot of drama since then. I've done a lot of podcasting and things like that that aren't necessarily using those same muscles. And so here I am on an NBC series. I haven't been on an NBC series since Cosby Show. I haven't been on a network series since Living Single as a show regular.

11:00Elvis Mitchell:I've done, you know, featured parts and those types of things. But it's different.

11:06Erika Alexander:There's more of my conversation with actor Erica Alexander of the new NBC comedy The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins to come. I'm Elvis Mitchell. It's The Treatment. Hi, it's Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air. Hey, take a break from the 24-hour news cycle with us and listen to long-form interviews with your favorite authors, actors, filmmakers, comedians, and musicians the people making the art that nourishes us and speaks to our times. So listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY. Welcome back. It's The Treatment from the Sundance Film Festival, where I was joined by actor Erica Alexander, who stars in the new NBC show The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins.

11:53Erika Alexander:I particularly like the scenes you play with with Daniel. It's really great to see the guys, because you actually are playing sort of intent rather than just comedy. So it's like, oh, it's a different kind of music. And I like that, that it's not rhythms. It's actually people talking to each other, which makes it funnier to me and a different kind of comedy than we're used to from this group of people.

12:12Elvis Mitchell:Yeah, Daniel talks really fast and so do I. And, you know, Tracy was like, you guys talk fast. You know, I'm going to keep up with you. You talk fast. No worries. We do. And so when there's times that we're going that fast, he's very quiet, though. And he's very tightly wrapped. And I'm a little, you know, Monica's spazzing out like, man, I need you to do this. I need you to do this for me. And he's like, all right, you know. And it's nice, but we are both thinking very quickly. And we don't know if that's how it's supposed to be. It's just that's how the chemistry feels. And that's part of it.

12:55Elvis Mitchell:And sometimes it's what you don't do that's interesting. And you don't know until they put you together. And it's not rehearsed. It's just going off of pure gut. And that's his gut. And it's different. By the way, each player with Tracy, I'm different. Then Daniel, then Bobby. And same with, we have two other great stars in this, Precious Way and Jalen Hall. They're brilliant. And again, that's the producers. They figured out a really good cast. And then the chemistry is just, you know, that's kismet. That's up to the goddess. And it's nice when it happens.

13:35Erika Alexander:There is so much that's done in this show that's about sort of breaking boundaries about hard comedy. Because this show is really, it's hard comedy.

13:44Elvis Mitchell:Bam, bam, bam. Yeah, it's true. It's like, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. There's very little sort of like, hmm, uh-uh. And it's exhausting. I used to come home exhausted. And it was no time to be exhausted because then there was more to learn. And it just would go. So the minute we got there, you know, I'd go to Makeup and Hair. I don't know if Frederick is here. Shout out to Frederick who does my makeup. And we'd get in and then we'd start. And it was all the way till the end. Whether it was 2 o 'clock in the afternoon, we got done really fast. Or 10 o 'clock. You just held on for dear life.

14:18Erika Alexander:So often you place people who are kind of wrestling with patience, which I love to see in you and that you can bring so many different changes on that because that's kind of what comedy is you know the slow burn the person who can't really tolerate this was going to try to anyway and all that stuff has come to bear in Reggie Duncan

14:35Elvis Mitchell:but then you've seen many and I'm actually a bridge character in this big narrative we have here on earth in terms of Hollywood and you'd appreciate why you know black Hollywood because I know that even that is kind of trying to create a ghetto, a cultural ghetto that we're, you know, it's hard to get out of, especially being people who make the most mainstream culture the world has ever seen. But you see Diana Sands and those people like Regina Taylor, Lorraine Toussaint, Gloria Foster. These are people who raised me, Cecily Tyson, Latonya Richardson, Pauletta Washington. They raised me. You're seeing Whoopi Goldberg when you see me.

15:17Elvis Mitchell:She played my mother. Look at Max's hair that's Jumping Jack Flash. You know, these are direct connections to these people who raised me and helped me out, and not just women, men. And they didn't get their due. And they were more than ready. They were overqualified for the gig. So I don't take it for granted, and yet I go, why not me? I have to be ready and up for the challenge because if I am a product of what they built and what they sacrificed, then it's up to me to make sure that once I get there that the standard is not lowered, not on my watch.

15:54Erika Alexander:And those people, you learn from those people to not lower your standards because finally the only person to whom that matters is you, where your standards are, where that bar is. That matters to you because it's important for you to keep that standard aloft. And all those people you mentioned, there's a generational shift. I've talked to Alan Alda about Diana Sands and working with her on stage and all the pussycat and she didn't get to play that role in the movie. They gave it to Barbara Streisand instead. She didn't get a chance to do the things that she could and should have done. But you, by virtue, when you came along, people were more open to accepting and bringing you in.