Up next in 10
Sanaa Lathan called into Sway In The Morning to talk her new Netflix series Hit and Run. She also gets into dating and speaks about the importance of dating yourself.
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Sanaa Lathan Talks New Netflix Series 'Hit and Run' | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
https://youtu.be/exYbtyir6og
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0:00
[Applause]
0:02
hey citizens what up it's the movie
0:04
junkie db and if you remember this
0:06
morning we started talking about
0:08
relationships and she's been in some
0:10
films that touch on the topics such as
0:11
loving basketball brown sugar and of
0:13
course the best man franchise she got
0:15
bit by a vampire and gave birth to the
0:17
day walker wesley snipes in blade she
0:19
tried to kill denzel washington out of
0:21
time she was a badass and alien vs
0:23
predator she even earned a tony award
0:24
nomination for her work in the broadway
0:26
play a raisin in the sun her talents
0:28
were passed down from her parents
0:29
eleanor and stan lathan who helped open
0:31
a lot of doors for people working today
0:33
in entertainment she's here to talk
0:35
about her role in the new series hit and
0:36
run available now on netflix welcome her
0:38
back citizen i sway in the morning
0:40
sonali fans
0:42
[Applause]
0:50
[Music]
0:57
tonight i mean you know i just came back
0:59
from the bay i was wondering
1:00
yeah well considering all the
1:02
circumstances and um you know we're
1:04
starting to break through i got a chance
1:06
to take my 96 year old grandmother out
1:09
to lunch yesterday she hasn't been out
1:11
in a while in in oakland california and
1:14
it landed today i said i gotta catch my
1:17
red eye because sonal is on the show
1:18
tomorrow i don't want to have them tracy
1:20
to have all the fun
1:22
yeah
1:23
plus i feel like
1:24
this is what's up it's heather plus i
1:26
feel like sway's voice just changed yeah
1:29
right all right
1:30
yeah it went up a notch he was all right
1:33
this morning
1:34
talking about nas and now he'll i'm like
1:36
who is this person on the phone right
1:38
now so i knock it off yeah i love it i
1:42
love it i love it
1:44
you know so now i'm just trying to give
1:45
you my best meeting right that's all
1:48
that is let's not bring up why are you
1:50
single why against wayne
1:52
you know sometimes
1:55
just thought i'd throw that out there
1:56
but sometimes you know folks you know
1:58
when you're in you in a situation
2:01
it might not be their time it might not
2:03
be their season
2:04
to be able to identify what's in front
2:07
of them so they may not appreciate the
2:09
package they have and so exactly
2:13
that's why i'm seeing also now
2:15
you get that right
2:17
i get it i get it
2:20
i you know
2:21
sometimes you just have to date yourself
2:22
you know what i mean there it is you
2:24
think about that too
2:26
yeah yeah date yourself you know what i
2:28
mean you know sometimes that's the
2:30
healthiest thing to do
2:33
date yourself how do you date yourself
2:35
you've dated yourself obviously
2:37
where did you take you
2:39
how do you date yourself
2:41
well you know i mean i think it's about
2:44
just
2:45
you know the problem with i think a lot
2:47
of relationships is that people don't
2:48
really know themselves
2:51
and so
2:53
if you're in a relationship with another
2:54
person
2:56
and you don't know yourself
2:57
how can you give
2:59
anything that's true and authentic to
3:01
that other person right
3:02
so i believe i always tell
3:05
people all my young
3:07
like you know little mentees and younger
3:09
sisters sorry i just
3:11
ran and got my dog and put her in the
3:13
room so she wouldn't bark so i'm out of
3:15
breath
3:16
um i always tell them they should you
3:18
know it's not always about being in a
3:20
relationship when you're
3:21
growing up sometimes you gotta just
3:24
sit
3:25
in solitude sit with yourself get to
3:27
know
3:28
who you are what um
3:31
what you really want because there's a
3:33
lot of noise coming at us
3:35
through societal
3:37
propaganda beliefs
3:39
all of that and sometimes you just have
3:41
to everybody is different and everybody
3:42
has to find out who they are so that
3:44
they can
3:45
attract
3:46
the best out of somebody and also choose
3:49
what they really want you know a lot of
3:51
times people don't they're just kind of
3:52
going with the program and not really
3:55
going with what they
3:56
who their authentic self is does that
4:00
make sense yeah that's yes indeed you
4:02
could have been it sounded like you was
4:04
right with us this morning on the show
4:05
you you need to do radios oh really i
4:07
miss you yeah yeah
4:09
i might have to listen back
4:11
okay that's what's up so now layton is
4:13
here it's interesting because
4:15
this this series on netflix um called
4:18
hit and run
4:20
yo you've been picking some great
4:22
projects and now salute to you you know
4:24
what i mean you know some rappers some
4:26
rappers are dope rappers but they pick
4:29
wack beats you know what i mean so it
4:31
don't work
4:33
and some actors are dope actors but
4:35
they'd be in whack projects but you be
4:37
you be picking some good ones and i'ma
4:40
stay in this in this conversation the
4:41
part of the premise of this this netflix
4:44
series is
4:46
the character you play your old
4:47
boyfriend
4:49
your ex-boyfriend your ex-lover comes to
4:51
you for help
4:52
because something tragic happened to a
4:55
member of his family i won't tell
4:56
everything i want folks to to go out and
4:58
watch it
5:00
and it made me think even as we talk
5:02
about this and you decided to help him
5:03
out you decided to you know what do you
5:06
need yeah
5:07
yeah yeah
5:08
is that real real is that real list i'm
5:11
sorry go ahead
5:12
is that realistic well this is the thing
5:14
you have to naomi i play naomi who is a
5:18
like a really brilliant journalist who
5:20
works for new york magazine and she's at
5:23
a stage in her life where she
5:26
is feeling very frustrated in her job
5:30
they're not she's kind of hit a glass
5:31
ceiling and she's trying to get to the
5:33
next level in her job she's hit a
5:35
stagnant place in her marriage
5:38
and
5:40
she's just not feeling satisfied she's
5:42
wanting something and so then in comes
5:44
this x of hers from 20 years ago there's
5:48
like nothing really going on
5:49
but he has
5:52
he wants to her to help him solve this
5:54
murder
5:56
and as she kind of because she's an
5:58
investigative journalist as she kind of
5:59
goes on the path of solving the murder
6:01
she gets hooked
6:03
and she can't let it go because one
6:05
she's a journalist and that's her job
6:07
and that's what she loves to do but two
6:09
it could help her get a story that takes
6:11
her through that glass ceiling
6:14
and because her husband has you know
6:16
they're at a place in their magic been
6:18
together for a long time and they're not
6:19
you know
6:20
it's just that kind of stale place she's
6:22
not really making him a priority you
6:25
know she's not she's she's she's putting
6:27
her career first and so
6:30
you know
6:31
it's juicy there's layers there's layers
6:39
the guys will love it too there's a lot
6:41
of you know action and
6:44
a lot of
6:45
gruesome
6:47
bloody fight scenes
6:49
i had to turn my head but um it's really
6:51
well done i really had a great time
6:53
shooting it
6:55
hitting around you guys on netflix
6:57
for extra 20 years ago called you
7:00
how
7:11
exactly exactly that's listen that's
7:13
naomi that's not me all right okay
7:16
just to be clear
7:18
i'm twisted i'm an actress this is what
7:20
i do for a little dude i did want to ask
7:22
sonato which way he just he said that
7:24
you're picking great roles um just
7:26
watching your career i know you've done
7:28
like a lot of different projects but i
7:30
was just wondering and you probably
7:32
can't talk about a lot of stuff but are
7:35
you also as much as you're doing stuff
7:37
on screen are you also like just like
7:40
pulling that lever and throwing the
7:41
hammer down to do stuff behind the
7:43
camera like producing directed like
7:46
absolutely
7:48
dope that's yeah actually i understand
7:51
i'm about to direct my feature debut um
7:54
now
7:56
it's called on the come up it's it's um
7:59
by a
8:00
a great novel by angie thomas
8:04
of the same name called on the come up
8:06
about a 16 year old freestyle rapper who
8:08
um it's kind of a coming-of-age story
8:10
and about her finding her authentic
8:12
voice it's a beautiful script
8:14
and i'm directing it um
8:16
she wrote angie thomas
8:18
yes angie thomas wrote the hate you give
8:22
did you guys see the the hate you did it
8:24
was that a couple years ago it was a
8:25
great movie
8:26
and um anyway so
8:29
we'll be shooting that later this year
8:32
um over the pandemic i shot a short in
8:34
my in my house
8:36
with my dog
8:38
and um so i'm definitely getting behind
8:41
that it's just a natural progression i
8:43
think after being on set your whole life
8:45
you know it's like you wind up realizing
8:48
i think i had a rude awake awakening uh
8:51
several years back when i worked with
8:53
like three directors in a row where i
8:55
was helping them you know i was upset
8:57
helping them with with the directing so
9:00
like okay now it's time for me to step
9:02
into that
9:04
you know that role as well
9:06
i love this and all that acting is my
9:08
first love yeah
9:10
congratulations
9:11
yeah george tillman jr is a good friend
9:13
of ours
9:14
when the hate you give came out we
9:16
definitely had had him on the show we
9:17
had amanda uh on stenberg on the show
9:20
with gina hall yeah yeah that's a great
9:22
movie great movie to hate you give uh
9:25
cinahl lathan is here rich nice is on
9:27
the line he won a tony with your dad
9:29
rich uh db uh tracy
9:33
hey how are you
9:34
tonight i'm doing good thank you you
9:38
good
9:39
how's kendaji
9:41
oh he's so good
9:43
you know it was
9:45
my brother he's an amazing dj and he
9:47
dj'd on that show but he's like a dj out
9:50
here working and the pandemic you know
9:53
was rough for djs because obviously
9:56
except for be nice
10:04
but um it was rough because you know
10:05
obviously there were no parties but he's
10:07
you know now that things are opening up
10:09
again he's he's busier than ever so i'm
10:12
really happy about him that's amazing
10:14
working with your dad auntie
10:16
dodgy was fantastic it's like i have a
10:18
new brother and and i'm i'm your brother
10:20
now it's like like your dad adopted me
10:23
basically so it was great oh i love that
10:27
being that you know when i first met
10:28
your dad it was 1984 beach street at the
10:32
roxy i was an extra i cut junior high
10:34
school to go to that about 15 of a cut
10:36
junior high school to go to roxy for the
10:38
beach street vaping in 1984. so now that
10:41
you're about to do your sort of fertile
10:44
your first hip-hop film directorial
10:47
debut are you gonna ask him certain
10:50
you know things about just directing
10:52
hip-hop from a perspective of that was
10:54
so new when he did it
10:58
yeah i mean you know he's funny because
11:00
i he's just he's such a
11:03
silly he's just like
11:05
he's like a philly dad he's just very
11:07
kind of it's very interesting because
11:09
with his kids he's very kind of um
11:12
very loving very supportive but
11:14
he kind of lets us do our own thing you
11:17
know what i mean he kind of comes from
11:18
that old school
11:20
mentality of like you know so we've
11:23
never none of us have really ever really
11:26
or at least i haven't i have never
11:27
really worked with him i hope that i get
11:30
the chance to work with him
11:31
but the first he was so excited when i
11:34
got the job and the first thing he did
11:36
say though was he's like you know you
11:38
got to take care of yourself because it
11:39
is going to be
11:41
you know people don't realize how
11:42
demanding directing is
11:44
you know how
11:45
it's just in terms of like
11:47
energy levels and you know just being
11:50
the center of
11:51
a production you got to just
11:53
really be on point with yourself because
11:55
you're holding it down for a lot of
11:57
people so that was to me that was great
11:59
advice and i'll be going back back to
12:01
him you know
12:02
definitely
12:04
okay so now i'll lay things here i just
12:06
like saying you're nice and all right
12:08
that's a swahili
12:15
it means work of art in um swahili it's
12:18
also arabic
12:20
um
12:21
it's a city in yemen i found out not too
12:24
long ago
12:26
um but my parents they were eleanor
12:28
mccoy and stan lathan back in the 70s
12:32
and you know with the whole
12:34
rediscovering your african roots and the
12:36
black movement back then
12:38
they were given african names so my
12:40
mother's name was eleanor but she was
12:41
given the name sana and so when she had
12:44
me she gave me the name sana ah oh
12:47
okay that's gorgeous yeah yeah powerful
12:50
yeah
12:52
you know what i'm reminded of listening
12:54
to you so now like you have truly built
12:56
a reputation where it doesn't matter if
12:59
you are front of camera behind camera if
13:01
your name is attached to a project
13:03
people trust it just off oh
13:06
so i really i want to congratulate you
13:08
for that so happy yeah because i love
13:11
hearing that thank you a pattern like
13:13
that takes a lot of work to be known for
13:17
consistent quality and i'm curious as a
13:19
black woman like is there a difference
13:22
in
13:23
i don't know maybe the way you you
13:24
celebrate a project or view its um value
13:28
when you do a film like hit and run
13:31
that's not centered on you being a black
13:33
woman you know what i mean like the fact
13:35
that you're black is just normal and
13:38
isn't like um uh highlighted really
13:41
first it's like say something like
13:43
napoli ever after
13:45
or um the best man you know what i mean
13:47
where our identity of being black is
13:49
such a centerpiece like is there a
13:51
difference in the way you view it
13:54
well we celebrate it for me it's really
13:56
it's a project by project thing you know
13:59
for you know there's a lot of
14:01
i've been very intentional about the
14:03
kind of things i want to do and really
14:05
it's it's it comes from my gut if i have
14:09
like a high taste level i don't like to
14:11
watch a lot of stuff i either watch
14:13
reality tv or i watch great things you
14:16
know what i mean like right right
14:17
between
14:18
and so um
14:20
for me in terms of at this point you
14:22
know it's a lot of there's a lot of no's
14:25
and that's hard to do sometimes when you
14:27
don't know what's next so there's a lot
14:29
of faith involved um
14:31
for me it's can i sit down and read a
14:33
script cover to cover without getting up
14:35
without going on social media without
14:36
getting on a phone call does it make me
14:38
feel something is it something that i
14:40
would want to see
14:42
um so it's never like about oh
14:44
is this about um any particular subject
14:48
or i want to play this role it's really
14:49
a gut kind of
14:51
emotional feeling when i read the script
14:53
and you know sometimes those are few and
14:54
far between sometimes you just gotta you
14:57
know ride it out and and wait and work
14:59
on your own projects and
15:02
so but to hear that that is just that
15:04
compliment about that stamp
15:06
it means so much to me because
15:09
you know being in this business your
15:10
whole life it's not for the faint of
15:12
heart you know there's a lot of work
15:14
that goes on that behind a lot of
15:15
rejection um all of that so thank you
15:19
you're so welcome so welcome this is
15:21
such a great conversation guys
15:24
um
15:26
here comes that voice again
15:28
exactly i love that boy
15:31
thank you
15:32
oh man we're in trouble make it a
15:34
sweeper um
15:36
you want to jump in there
15:37
yeah uh sinatra she just talked about
15:39
like the the good and the bad and the
15:41
stuff you have to accept with being in
15:43
the business for a long period of time
15:45
um i'm sure you read about some of the
15:46
criticism that simone biles got for
15:48
taking time to focus on her mental
15:50
health do you see a parallel with actors
15:52
who step away from the business for the
15:53
same reason like cameron diaz who
15:55
retired and said she doesn't even miss
15:57
performing or like a kid in harrington
15:59
who said he needed to take a year off
16:00
after game of thrones ended
16:03
yeah and then triple all of that stress
16:06
when you're a woman and you're black
16:08
come on now i mean it's no joke
16:11
um any um i think life right now in this
16:14
world that we live in is hard for
16:15
everybody it's tough on mental
16:18
um on
16:19
people's mental i don't think we talk
16:21
about that enough um so when somebody
16:23
like simone biles
16:25
um does
16:27
you know prioritize her mental health on
16:29
a large scale as a black woman that is
16:31
so important to us as a community
16:33
because
16:35
of all of everybody we're the ones who
16:38
are bearing a huge psychic burden just
16:40
being you know black in america and so
16:43
for me i have to in order for me to be
16:46
here still i have
16:48
i have i've had so much help in terms of
16:51
you know when i was in my 20s i had like
16:54
a spiritual a black woman spiritual
16:56
mentor who got me through 10 years of
16:58
the business and then i went on i had a
17:00
life coach
17:01
now i have a therapist that i talk to
17:03
and there's we have to de-stigmatize all
17:05
of that especially in this world of
17:08
social media and covid and
17:11
and and really
17:13
you know own that we need to take care
17:15
of our minds
17:16
the way we take care of our bodies it's
17:19
cool to go to the gym it's cool to have
17:20
a trainer
17:22
you know you can go on youtube and but
17:24
we really need to get the mind if you
17:26
don't have your mind
17:28
you don't have anything
17:30
so
17:31
yeah
17:32
i'm proud of her for doing that and then
17:34
who's the tennis girl the other the
17:36
other young naomi osaka naomi naomi did
17:40
it too yeah yeah which is amazing yeah
17:43
this young ladies are powerful to be
17:44
able
17:46
[Music]
17:49
you know and they
17:50
and they get empowered by people like
17:52
you so now so um
17:55
we got some people on the line i really
17:57
want to talk with you i always make a
17:58
promise and as soon as i do that
18:00
whenever you come on a bunch of guys
18:02
call so i'ma let them uh
18:06
dontrell what up man let me hear your
18:08
voice make sure your voice is right you
18:10
got dontrell on the line hey
18:12
what's going on what's going on hello
18:14
everybody how you all doing giving your
18:15
sonar boys
18:18
hello how you doing
18:20
i'm good how are you
18:22
i'm doing well i'm gonna let you know
18:24
first of all let me say i'm a first-time
18:26
caller long time listener this way and i
18:28
just need you to stop working with her
18:30
because i'm trying to make her my girl
18:31
you understand me
18:33
what's happening i'm not even flirting
18:35
dontrell i'm just appreciating i'm not
18:36
even flirting go ahead man my bad dog
18:39
it's all you
18:40
but i just want to let you know that i
18:42
am uh i am uh i have a big celebrity
18:44
crush on you and i will i would one day
18:46
like to meet you i am trying to be an
18:48
actor myself i have been you know
18:49
performing a couple of stage plays in
18:51
atlanta but uh yeah when i hit the scene
18:53
i i at least want to do something with
18:55
you one of these days
18:58
well we're going to be shooting in
18:59
atlanta later this year so you never
19:01
know now oh okay wow
19:06
i got to get in how can i get in now
19:08
that part you got to figure out
19:09
donatello you're the agent
19:11
don't get an agent
19:14
in the morning
19:19
how can i get in there
19:21
[Laughter]
19:24
armand on the line from chicago what up
19:26
armand hey hey how you doing
19:29
wearing bryson's hi mom
19:32
oh oh there now
19:34
i'm smiling from ear to ear one of the
19:36
most beautiful women
19:38
and when i see quincy i'm still gonna
19:41
punch him in the mouth pushing you down
19:43
[Laughter]
19:47
hilarious
19:48
thank you
19:52
that's an amazing actress and anything
19:54
you do i love it so i can't wait and
19:57
you're doing a movie about hip-hop so i
19:59
i can't wait for that for the project
20:03
all right thank you that means a lot
20:05
thank you
20:06
that's awesome
20:07
you keep blessing the world with your
20:09
greatness
20:11
i appreciate it thank you
20:13
man our guys man we got first of all
20:15
sonal we got the illest guys that tune
20:17
into this show they super dash they
20:19
stand up men they got jobs they got hope
20:22
they walk in faith
20:23
but man
20:24
they they bringing that game this
20:26
morning
20:27
hey man salute to you man i hear your
20:29
voice you a citizen come on sway in the
20:31
morning wow man they're bringing that
20:33
game
20:34
uh listen
20:35
um first of all thank you for being on
20:37
the show congratulations
20:39
uh on hit and run citizens it's on
20:41
netflix check it out is really great and
20:43
then as you're working on this next
20:45
project about this young lady who's
20:47
discovering her voice in hip-hop through
20:49
freestyling you realize right now we
20:51
have one of the most iconic lyrical
20:54
women to ever pick up the mic on this
20:56
show the one and only have the b
20:58
so if you need
21:01
[Applause]
21:03
you want to put on as a consultant put
21:05
her in the movie she's done big screen
21:07
movies as well
21:08
i think it would be a right fit so now
21:12
i'm not joking axe can dodgy actual
21:14
brother you're good
21:16
huh okay
21:17
i will you're a good agent i love that
21:19
thank you thank you and then have the
21:22
compliment
21:23
because aren't you forgetting stuff this
21:25
way he come to fine print he come to
21:27
find chris what's good you guys i
21:30
i mean i mean i won a tony award with
21:32
her dad on broadway for doing music
21:33
wouldn't you want someone to come and
21:35
help assist with the music as well i
21:37
mean your virgo brother yeah
21:39
that's right okay well listen i i you
21:42
know i came up on this call today okay
21:45
yeah
21:46
y'all really making sana practice her
21:48
sad card right now so now you ain't got
21:50
to commit to none of this stuff it's
21:52
fine
21:56
this show she got her own show on uh
21:58
urban view and um fly so
22:02
sirius xm fly so if you put her in the
22:04
movie you can all kind of promotion look
22:06
how we working right now
22:08
oh i love that stop playing
22:11
[Music]
22:13
okay but congratulations um yes on all
22:16
your success
22:17
and uh i want to enter in the interview
22:19
with something really special i want to
22:21
take them back to 2015.
22:24
there was a song called emotional
22:28
all right thank you guys so much have a
22:30
great week okay
22:33
okay give a round of applause this is
22:34
emotional featuring days low with sana
22:37
lathan
22:51
[Music]
#Arts & Entertainment