AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Let's face it, road trips can be tough, especially if the other people in the car aren't willing passengers. And who's worse than your ex-fiancee's mother who may have split you up? That's the chaotic setup of "Albany Road."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ALBANY ROAD")
RENEE ELISE GOLDSBERRY: (As Celeste Simmons) The most important meeting of my life, and I'm missing it. And I feel powerless.
LYNN WHITFIELD: (As Paula Henderson) You are not. You always have options.
GOLDSBERRY: (As Celeste Simmons) Renting a car and driving to D.C. - that was my Plan B.
WHITFIELD: (As Paula Henderson) All right, so it's now time to move to Plan C.
GOLDSBERRY: (As Celeste Simmons) Plan C? What's Plan C?
WHITFIELD: (As Paula Henderson) Common sense. Have you ever heard of that?
RASCOE: (Laughter) That is the one and only Lynn Whitfield, who plays the ex-fiancee's mother, who is stirring up all the trouble. And she joins us now from our studios in New York. Welcome to the program.
WHITFIELD: Well, thank you so much for having me.
RASCOE: Tell us about Paula and Celeste when we meet them at the beginning of the movie.
WHITFIELD: Paula is fairly - when we meet her - insensitive...
RASCOE: Yeah.
WHITFIELD: ...Woman.
RASCOE: Yeah.
WHITFIELD: And part of her schtick is to go through life, you know, bossing people around and getting where she needs to be. And she happens to have to share a car with her son's ex-fiancee from New York to Washington, D.C.
RASCOE: Yes. And then all of this kind of drama ensues because of this massive snowstorm. But like we hear in the clip, you two go back and forth. And that whole road trip, I loved. Both your character, Paula, and Celeste have very strong personalities.
WHITFIELD: That's a very insightful observation. Absolutely. They're both very good-hearted people as well.
RASCOE: Yeah.
WHITFIELD: But it just takes a while of them being stuck in this car to communicate enough and share enough of themselves to allow their compassion and their respect for each other to grow, to evolve, for them to share an understanding of each other, which is really so important in any relationship. Either, you know, get along or get away from each other.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: Or something.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: Well, and I should say, Celeste is played by Renee Elise Goldsberry, who played in "Hamilton" and so many other things. So talented.
WHITFIELD: So very talented, so very beautiful and so versatile and so entertaining in this film.
RASCOE: And the thing that she's talking about - like, when we played that clip, she's saying she hates feeling powerless. And I certainly hate that.
WHITFIELD: Well, yes. That's a very human experience.
RASCOE: Is there something that you do, like, in those situations? Your character was doing the prayer of serenity, which I do, too. But...
WHITFIELD: Yes.
RASCOE: ...Is there something that you do, yourself?
WHITFIELD: I do. It's kind of like the serenity prayer because I, for myself, am a Christian woman but not a churchified Christian woman. I just have that relationship. So when I'm - can't control it, I do kind of turn it over, you know?
RASCOE: Yeah.
WHITFIELD: And say, well, look, I don't know, but, God, you know. And sometimes it's just could you just fix this for me? I'm done. I can't - I don't know what to do.
RASCOE: Yeah.
WHITFIELD: And I think that is pretty much what the serenity prayer is saying.
RASCOE: Yeah. Well, I have to say, though, you know, I was so excited to interview you because, you know, I've, you know, watched you in so many things - you know, "Eve's Bayou," "Thin Line Between Love And Hate," you know, all these things. I have so many people that are, like, "Greenleaf," "Greenleaf," so - and, you know, obviously, "Madea's Family Reunion." Like, but you are known for playing these tough characters that are strong willed. A lot of times, they can be mothers who are very tough on their children.
WHITFIELD: Well, they're different, you know.
RASCOE: Yeah, they're very different. Yeah.
WHITFIELD: The woman in "Madea's Family Reunion" was very different from Lady Mae. I mean, I don't know many parents and many mothers who don't think they know what's best for their kids.
RASCOE: Yeah, yeah. I think I...
WHITFIELD: They might...
RASCOE: ...Know what's best, yeah. Yeah.
WHITFIELD: Yeah, they may not express it with the hyperbole and exaggeration as some of the women I've played. And funnily enough, if you meet a mother who doesn't think they know what's good for their kids, then we kind of think they're lame.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
WHITFIELD: Like, what do you mean you don't have an opinion? You don't - what? What? Excuse me? What - you're going to let them decide?
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: Have you learned anything about mothering from the roles? Like, 'cause you're a mother - have you learned anything about what to do or not to do from all the roles...
WHITFIELD: Yes.
RASCOE: ...That you've played?
WHITFIELD: I have. I learned early on that I wanted to listen to Grace Gibson, my daughter. And when she came out of college, she said, ma, I know I want to be an artist. I love music. This is what I wanted to do. She wanted to leave Columbia, leave that Ivy League and go to, you know, Berkeley College of Music. So, yes, I did learn from playing these mothers that it's important to listen and share ideas with your children or kind of it can cause you to lose intimacy with them.
RASCOE: You know, I don't know if you're online very much, but I - on Twitter, someone said, Lynn Whitfield may play evil, but she never played broke 'cause some of your movies, you were a little bit of a bad guy. But you've never been broke (laughter).
WHITFIELD: I don't know. I think after Josephine Baker it becomes, like, a typecasting thing because nobody, even if I try, does a director or a costume designer want to see me not well-dressed. But Paula was not a clothes horse.
RASCOE: She still looked good, though. Paula still looked real good.
WHITFIELD: But she was not in full beat all the time. And that was...
RASCOE: No, no.
WHITFIELD: ...Scary for me to not have all the concealer and sometimes have almost no makeup at all and still go about the work of the film. So that's why that little adage that they have on Twitter - oh, what was Twitter. I don't even go to anything that resembles...
RASCOE: X. Yes. X (laughter).
WHITFIELD: ... Twitter anymore. No, I don't know. Please.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
WHITFIELD: I'm making one with my finger right now.
RASCOE: Yeah (laughter).
WHITFIELD: I don't want to - I - no, keep it away, please. But it was very refreshing and liberating. And I think the result - it was worth the effort.
RASCOE: Well, I got to ask you - have you ever been on a road trip like this (laughter)?
WHITFIELD: I can't stand motoring. I don't know if it's because when I was coming up - and we would drive from Baton Rouge, say, to West Virginia where my other grandparents lived - you know, we had to stop at all of the places that it was safe for Black people to stop.
RASCOE: Black people - yeah. Yeah.
WHITFIELD: So I just - it left a bad taste in my mouth about motoring. But I can be in a car for an hour, and I'm like a 5 year old. Like, OK, when are we going to get there?
RASCOE: (Laughter) And so - yeah.
WHITFIELD: So I'm not - I don't really love road trips...
(LAUGHTER)
WHITFIELD: ...To tell you the truth. I'm probably closer to Paula's sensibility about it all. So I understand her crankiness. It's, like...
RASCOE: Her crankiness.
WHITFIELD: ...Just get me there, please.
RASCOE: Yeah. Yeah.
WHITFIELD: But, you know, side of the road is just not that interesting.
RASCOE: (Laughter) That's Lynn Whitfield. She stars in "Albany Road," which is in theaters now. Lynn Whitfield, thank you so much for joining us.
WHITFIELD: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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