Tamala Jones & Erykah Badu Interview: What Men Want

Tamala Jones is best known for her role in crime drama Castle on ABC. She has also been in many films like Booty Call, The Wood, and Kingdom Come. In What Men Want she plays Ali’s (Taraji P Henson) best friend and the one who hires Sister (Badu) as their fortune teller. Erykah is best known for her singing career. She has won multiple awards, including 4 Grammys. She has also made her way to the big screen with films like Cider House Rules and The Land. In What Men Want she plays Sister the fortune teller that inadvertently gives Ali her powers to read men’s minds.

Screen Rant: I really enjoy this film. It was so funny, but it had a really strong message. Was that one of the reasons why you guys want to get involved in this?

Tamala Jones: Um, I can’t lie. I didn’t even look for the message. I just was cracking up from reading the script and then wanting to work with Taraji and Will and then finding out who, who else was involved. That’s what attracted me to the movie.

Erykah Badu: Being offered the role and I’m reading the character who was almost a caricature of myself was a big challenge because I wanted to be able to, uh, at this role and bring something new to who I was because as it was a challenge getting to do that and I was able to do that. And the way I was able to do that is because Adam Shankman, who is the director allowed us to just improv a lot of the. Yeah, the time.

Screen Rant: One of my favorite scenes was towards the end is when you were having your future told. And that’s just how to get, get a grasp of what was actually going on. So was that was totally improv. Everything was improv. That’s funny. Um, so have you ever tried learning a Tarot reading and uh, who did you get inspiration for creating Sister?

Erykah Badu: Um, I, like I said, Sister is just a bigger over the top version of who I am, what I’m interested in, and it’s coupled with what people believe. I am the persona that people believe I am in the mystique behind them. What actually is all of that. She got to be high. So all of that is kind of thrown into the pot of whose sister is. Um, but yeah, uh, I dabble in all of the, the arts that are sciences that help us get closer to nature.

Screen Rant: Yeah. I feel like this film, it’s screaming for a spinoff. Would you guys be interested coming back for a part two or spinoff maybe?

Tamala Jones: Yeah, definitely. As long as the Sister’s character is.

Erykah Badu: Yeah.

Screen Rant: That wedding scene was hilarious. Now if you had a friend like a like Ali that was, you know, it was just being truthful, would you like to keep, would you like to keep them around like that or would you rather you find out, you know, things like that?

Tamala Jones: No, I like my friends to be honest with me. I like that Ali told her before she went ahead and married that guy.

Screen Rant: Yeah, that’s really great. And the music was in this was great in this movie, you’re a huge in the music industry is. Can we see more beyond the silver screen and in the future?

Erykah Badu: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I would love that.

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