The two stars discuss their roles in Peacock's thrilling new series, along with their unmatched on-screen chemistry.
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00:00I'm so glad he called me to go on this journey with him.
00:04I feel honored.
00:06I felt like there was real thought behind that.
00:08You told me that if I didn't call you.
00:10I was going to kill you.
00:11Yes.
00:11You act like you left a choice for what I could do.
00:14I'm glad you listened because you're still here.
00:17Goodness.
00:17It was a good choice, Daphne.
00:18It was a good choice.
00:20I'm thinking Black Vegas.
00:22Gamblin' with the women.
00:24You still need to reach out to the council of all the top Black bosses across the nation.
00:30Who the fuck is this?
00:31Chicken man.
00:32Chicken man.
00:32Chicken man?
00:33What's up?
00:34You don't speak chicken?
00:41So I wanted to ask you two.
00:42You've collaborated on a bunch of projects before in the past.
00:45How did this experience differ from other projects that you've collaborated with?
00:50It was a drama.
00:51It was a drama and I got to see my friend do what I always knew he could do.
00:55Be incredible as a dramatic actor.
00:58Drama, period piece.
01:00Drama, period piece.
01:01Yeah.
01:01I just knew he would kill it and I'm so glad he called me to go on this journey with him.
01:07I feel honored.
01:09I felt like there was real thought behind that.
01:11You told me that if I didn't call you-
01:13I was going to kill you.
01:14Yes.
01:15You act like you left a choice for what I could do.
01:18I'm glad you listened because you're still here.
01:20Goodness.
01:20It was a good choice, Daphne.
01:21It was a good choice.
01:24He's also a very smart businessman.
01:27Absolutely.
01:28Absolutely.
01:29So, Kevin, the character of Chicken Man, he takes a lot of risk in this film.
01:34How did you approach bringing that balance between Hustler and Family Man with this character?
01:39I mean, there's a lot of similarities.
01:45You better hope he don't whip that phone out on you while you're asking questions.
01:48So, there's a lot of similarities that I find in myself and Chicken Man.
01:53Those similarities are just like having the mindset to take the jump for the reward
02:00without understanding the true context of the journey, of the jump.
02:06Sometimes it's just like, no, I'm going to do it.
02:08I want to do it.
02:09And I'm willing to throw all my eggs in the basket.
02:11And the consequences shouldn't be consequences because I don't see myself not doing it.
02:16And your road to doing it, things don't go the way you thought they would.
02:19And sometimes you have to pivot and you have to adjust.
02:21And I found that Chicken Man, his ability to do that in real time, a lot of it came out of fear.
02:29A lot of it came out of fear from going, oh, my God, I didn't see it.
02:33I didn't see it not happening at this level.
02:36But now that it is here, I have no choice but to do this, this, and that.
02:41I have no choice but to truly embrace the moment and try my best to salvage the things that I have.
02:47So, you really see a man hit rock bottom in real time.
02:51You see his family basically get to the stage where departure is real.
02:58You see his partnership and alignment with another love of his life fall through the cracks.
03:04You see a misassociation of wrongdoing attached to real killers
03:10that have no problem with putting you on the ground.
03:13You see friendships that took the jump on my behalf to put me in a situation,
03:18get lost and overturn.
03:20Everything that once was in a blink of an eye turns into something that it no longer is.
03:25And I think that's something that so many people can relate to, right?
03:29Nobody's a stranger to turmoil.
03:31People are strangers to handling it correctly.
03:33And you just get to see somebody handle it, I would say correctly,
03:38by accepting that it is what it is.
03:40And it won't be something else unless you do something about it.
03:43And I can relate to that mindset with Chicken Man.
03:46Now, Taraji, I know you said that you made Kevin call you,
03:50but I wanted to ask after that,
03:53what was it about the character of Vivian that intrigued you the most?
03:56I just loved how, I'm a very emotional creature.
04:00Like if you haven't known, I got big mouth.
04:03I wear my heart on my sleeve.
04:05I'm gonna tell it like it is.
04:06You know what I mean?
04:07And Vivian, because she works around and she's in the world of men,
04:11she has to hold her words and her emotions close to her chest.
04:14She has to walk a very fine line.
04:16And that's heroic for me because I can't do it.
04:19That's why I'm a politician, because I'd be in jail talking about what happened was.
04:22So she understands her place.
04:28She's a woman who is very clear on where it is that she's going.
04:33Chicken Man is very important at some point in this journey for her getting there.
04:38And then when that falls apart, she has to rely solely on her,
04:41which she knew she could always do.
04:43But you never know what you can do until you're pushed in the corner.
04:48And Vivian comes out swinging, you know?
04:50That's how we all do.
04:51It's, you know, do or die.
04:53I ain't gonna die.
04:54It's something to do.
04:56That's pretty good.
04:58I appreciate you guys's time.
04:59Thank you so much.
05:02All right.
05:03Don't be stealing my shit.
05:05I said that was pretty good.
05:06If I was going to steal something.
05:07All right.