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Says we're living under a plague of standing ovations. (:59)
 

Tavis: Anika Noni Rose is a Tony Award-winning actress who, of course, starred alongside Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls." Beginning Thursday night, you can see her in the new miniseries on the USA Network. It's called "The Starter Wife." The six-hour television event is based on the bestselling book by Gigi Grazer and it also stars Debra Messing. Here now, a scene from "The Starter Wife."

[Clip]

Tavis: Talk about role reversal. So that outfit - (laughs).

Anika Noni Rose: (Unintelligible), right?

Tavis: Is nothing like we saw in "Dreamgirls." You went for something dramatically different.

Rose: I did, I did. I like to really switch things up. Whenever I do a role I try to make it be something very different from the last thing that I did. 'Cause to me, it's boring to play the same person constantly. You can get real good at it, but it's not a challenge, and I need that in order to keep my creative juices flowing.

Tavis: Well, based on the costume, you succeeded.

Rose: Thank you. (Laughter)

Tavis: Night and day. Tell me, then, about the role and what attracted you to it.

Rose: Well, Lavender is somewhat of a - not even somewhat, she's totally a self-made woman. She's still climbing and still trying to find her place. She's going to school at UCLA, but she's also taking care of her grandmother, who has a dog who we meet later who she hates. And she works after school as a security guard in this - what do they call that? Planned community, basically, where Debra Messing goes to lick her wounds.

And she's a little skeptical of the friendship that Debra Messing is offering, because it's the type of community where nobody really speaks to her, so why would this woman speak to her? And then they become friends, and they sort of open up and there's a lot that they learn from each other as women. But lavender is very strong, and I like that about her. I like that she is able to, at some point, release that reserve and that cover that she has, and let that down and live.

Tavis: When I first saw the piece, the woman connect was pretty obvious. You had these two women, these two individuals who were connecting on that front. But the other thing it said to me was - and I didn't think the picture was particularly preachy in this regard - not preachy at all in this regard - but I think that subtly, there is this message of a Black woman and a White woman who are befriending each other, who are sharing on a level where both of them benefit from it.

And I thought about how valuable that is in a society where, to your point, people don't even speak in the same development, much less form friendships in the same development, much less across racial lines.

Rose: Exactly.

Tavis: That struck me, I don't know if in the filming of that, that made any sense.

Rose: I found it - I thought it was very important. And I think that it's attributed to a lot of things, not the least of which is the fact that Debra Messing is a character, because of the situation that she's in, having been kicked out of the world that she knows, is being forced to remember where it is that she came from. And to come back to that, because she was somebody who didn't grow up in a world where she had a silver spoon and everything was handed to her.

So she is able to come to Lavender and make common ground by opening herself up and coming to her as a person as opposed to a person with the Prada and a person with everything else. And then Lavender is able to step into that relationship without feeling uncomfortable and frightened, although we don't like to say it's fear.

But those things, when you're skeptical, when you're hidden behind things, it's a fear. It's a fear of being hurt; it's a fear of losing yourself and being too easy. She's able to step out from that and not be the strong black woman, but to be someone who is vulnerable, and share that with this woman. And they get to come together on that plane, and I think that that's a really important thing.

And we can all learn from each other in that respect. We're all operating under the same basis. We're all living, I think, with fears. They may not be the same fears, but ultimately the base is the same. And until we step away from that and come to each other open and ready to receive, then there's no way that we can be together and live together and grow together.

Tavis: Let me put you on the spot, then. So every one of us, to your point, live with fears. Is there a particular fear that you lived with for a period of time that you found a way to conquer.

Rose: You did. There's a word - is there a sign that says spot under me? You put me right on it. (Laughter)

Tavis: Yeah, I just - you don't have to answer that, but I just - every one of us lives with them.

Rose: I think I probably have a lot that I refuse to even - I just keep stepping. There's always the fear that I'm not going to be good enough. And that's good enough for myself, that's good enough in whatever role that I'm doing, that somebody's going to see it and be, like, what does she think she was doing?

Tavis: See, now, that strikes me as peculiar because the thing that I've said any number of times, the thing I respect most about actors, aside from the talent that the good ones really have, the thing I respect most is that you are in a business where nine times out of 10 you're going to get rejected.

Rose: We are.

Tavis: You go to these auditions all the time and you get rejected a whole lot more than you get said - you get rejected a whole lot more than you get affirmed.

Rose: Yes.

Tavis: And to hear you say that there is this fear that you might not be good enough in a business where you're getting rejected all the time anyway, is - that's a strange juxtaposition.

Rose: Well, I think that I made it very simple. I trained really hard at what I do, and I do think that I'm good at my job, that I have a craft. But I think that every time you do a new role, you have a premiere. And you don't know what it is yet. You know what you tried to make it be. On stage, I don't see what I do, so I trust in the feeling that I have when I'm doing it, and that's my critic.

When I'm doing a film piece or a TV piece, it goes through so many other hands by the time it gets to that screen, and you don't have a chance to make it better the next night. At the premiere for "Dreamgirls - " well, when we first watched it, which was before the premiere, I was sunk down to the bottom of my chair by the middle of the movie because it was so crazy seeing myself that large.

And you always have things about yourself that you don't like. I can't believe my lip moved like that when I said that. (Laughter) Ooh, girl, you got to stop doing that. Why do you - there's always self-criticism, which I think is even worse than the criticism that you face with a critic because it's you, and you know yourself, and you know those scary places. So, it's always freaky to go to a premiere, because there is always the fear that it didn't turn out the way you thought it does.

Tavis: On the stage thing, though, I would think - I'm not an actor, obviously, but I think on the stage thing, I would think that the beauty and the splendor of that is that you get affirmed rather quickly. You're in front of a live audience, and you know in a matter of minutes whether they liked it or whether they boo, they hated it.

Rose: But you know, there's also - it's very easy to get caught up in that affirmation. I think your affirmation has to come from you, and I think it's fantastic when the audience loves what you do, and that's - ultimately, you want that. But I think that we're living under a plague of standing ovations at this point in time. I think people will give a standing ovation because somebody untied their shoe beautifully.

So there's a way - (laughter). And which is not to say that I don't appreciate it if somebody's standing up for my performance, but I think that you can very easily, if you're not truthful with yourself, if you aren't your self-critic, you can get caught up in that and lose your self-critic, and lose that thing that gives you your edge.

Tavis: See, we just met for the first time for this conversation, and we are here already. I was just saying that same thing to somebody the other day that you get to a point where - I'm on the road speaking all the time. You get to a point where - and this is really bad for the President of the United States - when the president walks into the room, whether you like him or loathe him, everybody stands up 'cause he's the president.

Whether you hate the guy or not. You can get to a point, to your position here now, where you give a speech and at the end of it, just because you're a celebrity, just because you're a personality, people will, out of respect, stand up and applaud. And you walk on the stage knowing, "That was not my best speech. That was not my best performance." So I totally connect with you on the point about you're your own worst critic.

Rose: But I think also that it's important to remember that just because you know that it's not your best performance, to somebody, maybe, it was actually a life-changing thing. Maybe they saw something that really touched them. So you can't also just slap that down and be, like, "Oh, God, that was terrible." "You were great." "No, actually, I - "

Tavis: I wasn't, yeah. (Laughs)

Rose: "It wasn't that great." You can't do that to people, because you kill their heart.

Tavis: Fair enough.

Rose: 'Cause they're being generous and honest sometimes. So it's a fine line, and that's a difficult thing, I think, to walk. But I agree with you.

Tavis: In 20 seconds, tell me how, to your point about a particular performance being life-changing for somebody else, how was the "Dreamgirls" moment, the opportunity, life-changing for you? Professionally, personally?

Rose: A lot more people know my name. Professionally, it is -

Tavis: Are they saying it correctly, though?

Rose: No.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laughter) Yeah, a lot of people know your name, but -

Rose: I've tried. I've written it out phonetically.

Tavis: Why don't you say it right for them one time?

Rose: It's Anika Noni -

Tavis: Noni.

Rose: - Rose. Not Noni, not Noni, not Anika, not Anika. (Laughter) Anika Noni, you don't have a knee, Rose.

Tavis: There you go. You heard it, and the project is called "The Starter Wife" on the USA Network. It's nice to have you here.

Rose: Thank you, it's lovely to be here.

Tavis: Pleasure to meet you.