You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Operation Aunties now available on AMC streaming channel All Black. It's an action packed dramedy which tells the story of a longtime friendship that is tested when a risk averse cryptocurrency expert and her retired detective best friend become vigilantes after discovering a cyber crime syndicate in their city.
Hey, I'm a mina.
Hope you got water?
Good?
It's about your niece. Amina's a salt case.
Oh my god.
Okay, we trace him to this larger operation.
There are guys who use a new ras sha at to traffic women in the crypto.
Coin Did you thank you?
We go after him and everyone else missed network.
Okay, vigilantes, there are some dangerous people that are part of this.
You owe me a spat day.
All we need is from sexy outfits. I know that's right.
By specializing in computer technology, you.
Can identify everyone involved in this. Detective got your service? Are you high? Yes?
Destroy This directed by Wendy Raquel Robinson, who you know from her time on the TV show The Game and also opposite Steve Harvey. On The Steve Harvey Show as principal Greer MS. Robinson, A pleasure to speak to you again. How are you?
Oh? I am fantastic. Thank you for that wonderful under Dutch.
Absolutely, and I'm also joined by Venerabull, comedic actress and co star Tisha Campbell, who you know from the House Party movie franchise, television classic Martin and opposite Eddie Murphy in another forty eight hours.
Ms.
Campbell is good to have you back on as well.
Yeah, thank you, glad to be here.
Tejer Let me start with you. I get great joy by watching the evolution and growth of your career over the years. What's it like to branch out into action with Operation Aunties.
I just love that Wendy saw me for this role and that I get a chance to do any and everything that I've ever wanted to do. Like during COVID isolation, I made a pack to myself because you know, you're by yourself and all you have is yourself to you know, I didn't have anybody in my ear telling me what I could or could not do, and so I made a pack to myself that I was going to try everything and make choices for myself, and this was one of them.
Wendy, my mother, my late father, and my sister are all Howard University graduates such as yourself, and I would be cussed out something awful if I didn't shout out Hu. You know, did you have any idea while walking down Georgia Avenue next to the Wonderbread factory in Washington, d C. That you'd be one day in the director's chair?
Wow? Thank you for that. You know what one thing that I love about Howard and that theater department. We had to rotate and do everything, and that goes from lights to sound to you know, hair, makeup, wardrobe. We had to do all of the practicoms and sit in every single chair as it came to not only theater, but all of the fundamentals from even the admin side of running a theater. So I do want to say that my days at Howard prepared me for a little
bit of everything. So as I smell the wonderbread that I now here is a whole food store and the evolution of it all it was. It was a wonderful time in my life and I'm just so grateful for the opportunity to have worked alongside such amazing talents as I walk those halls and Georgia Avenue as well.
All right, Winnie, let me stay right there with you. Let's get into Operation Aunties and the Mayhem included. What are the these Aunties in for?
Ooh, these Aunties are in for everything, just like you said, the Mayhem, the chaos, the comedy. But I also want to say it's an edutaining experience because we are dealing with some serious content, you know, in terms of the sex trafficking, which is very, very real. So we had to do a balancing act. And it's like, well, what do you do when the FBI or you know, those forces that are supposed to be handling things are not doing it in a timely manner. You take things into
your own hand and you become vigilant. And that's where we got the vigilantes for Operation Aunties. And I think the audience is in for a ride. You know, it's not often when you can get the tech world needs a little bit of comedy, a little bit of action, a little bit of you know, we got a little bit of everything. But it's a wonderful, delicate balancing act that is educating and entertaining for everyone. So I'm really
really proud of it. And it was a ride. It was a ride for me as a director and just pulling it all together so seamlessly. But I was surrounded by incredible talents of Tisha Campbell and Melissa Desosa and it just really made it. It made it a wonderful experience for me that I'm going to cherish forever.
Actually, Tisa, let me talk more about that balancing act with you. And I'm always curious to know how much leeway actors have to improvise on projects like this. Yes there's a serious undertone, Yes there's comedy. As I said at the top, it's a dramedy. So I'm going to ask you, in front of your director, Wendy Raquel Robinson, how free were you, Tisha Campbell, to improvise or have fun with your character?
Well, you know what, we only had ten days to film this what And so yeah, we had ten days to film this and TJ Ali the writer and Wendy carved out on wonderful story. So I kind of tried as much as I could to stick to that. There were ad lib moments, but for the most part, I didn't want to stray too far because this was an intricate story to tell, and I wanted to make sure that my contribution wasn't over the top and not going to take away from the story Wendy that.
I think that leads me right into my next question. Because if you're under a tight schedule, what you are with ten days, there are limitations and what you can do as far as shoots and reshoots. How did that figure into your calculus as far as directing a piece like this.
Well, you know what.
It all starts in the planning. They if you listen, if you don't plan, you're gonna fail. Because there were no opportunities to do a reshoot, that's out of the question. We had to make our days. So I worked very closely with the DP and Wow, we worked for hours just getting a solid shot, lists and just going play by play. I had a wonderful production and producing team, Letitia Fortune and Sheena Carter. They came through and just made sure that every tea was crossed, every eye was dotted.
We had back to back zooms with every department and just ensuring that the move the looks. So when we got to set, everything was just as we had planned it to be. Yes, there were a few glitches, you know, there were weather. Oh my god, it was almost a hurricane. You remember that night we were finale. We were shooting the finale, and it was a huge hurricane in Florida of the backlash of the brain and everything in Atlanta.
But the crew, we all came together. Nobody wanted to leave, and you know, we all stayed and we made it happen. So teamwork can make a dream work. And I really want to say that, not just because it sounds flowery, but everyone was so invested and it just all came together because there was no room for error. Was there was only room for adjustments. And I said, for every problem, there's going to be a solution, and we made it happen. One of the funniest things was how do we create
the brain of this massive computer? Because Melissa Desosa's character is like a Steve Jobs. How do you show the expansive world of this woman who has this crypto and you know, blockchain technology, and how do we show her world in basically where we were shooting, it was just a home that we used every single bedroom to create the world of this movie. And I got to give a shout out to our DP. He came up with the concept of creating the brain of this incredible computer.
He frosted two glass doors, and the brain existed behind these two basically two French doors that were just glass doors. But you know, we became very creative and we tapped into resources that we didn't have, and we made it work. And that's the one thing I walk away with, you know, most proud.
Of Operation Auntie is now streaming on the AMC streaming portion All Black. It is available right now. I want to thank my guests right now, Wendy, Raquel Robinson and Tisha Campbell. I enjoy you both. I loved you both over so many years, and I hope to speak to you again soon.
Thank you, Hi, thank you.
It's Later with mo Kelly KFI AM six forty. We're live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty