You're listening to Comedy Central as I live in breathe. One of my favorite people in the whole world. Gabrielle Union, Welcome back to The Daily Show. I've been wonderful. I've been wonderful. Is that is that? Is that Africa? I smell on you? What is that? What is that? What is familiar to me? Not now? What is happening here? How was your trip? You just go back? It was amazing?
It was amazing, you know, of course I had I had called Trevor as one does when you when you go to the motherland, and I was like, tell me where to go? One does like everyone just called Trevor, I'm going to Africa. I feel like you pick up I do I do? You do? You actually pick up the phone like, yeah, let me give you some suggestions. But we start off in Tanzania, then went to Ghana, then Namibia and then to your home countries. That's amazing. Yeah,
but this was this was a different trip. This is a big trip because you were learning, you were exploring. You also celebrating. They wrote fiftieth birthday, but that's not right though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, as you've seen me drop it low and you see how long it takes me to get back. You know, you know, you know are like Yo's please, I don't think so. I feel like you are one of those people who is eternally young.
You are, You're You're so curious about life. You know everything you do, whether it's in the writing of your books, whether it's in you know, how you travel the world, what projects you engage yourself in, you know, in Broadway productions. I mean, this film is another example of that. We've seen Garrielle Union in so many different types of movies. Forgive me if if if I'm wrong in saying this, but I've never seen you like this. I've never seen
you in a role like this. I can see why people are saying, oh man, if the Oscars are not watching this movie, then they're not watching movies because you you play a character in a movie that is so touching, painful and brilliant, and it's it's the story of a young black man, as we saw just in that in that preview, whose mother basically says, because you are gay, I'm going to disown you, and he goes off to join the Marines, and her hope is that this will
this will turn him straight talk me through you know how you even get into this project and everything that the story was because it has a lot more do with real life than most people would think, way too much to do with real life than I like, Um, elegants. Bratton are director, writer, other producer. He came to me sent me this scripts him along with Effie Brown, and they're like, what do you think of the script? I was like, this is a winner. I absolutely want to
be a part of this. I will come on as an executive producer. I know how I can be additive. And he's like, great, Um, I want you to play my mother. Oh. I tend to you know, when the when I come across people who behave and speak like this, I tend to read them for filth. Um. I tend to not be inspired to want to play them in a film. Uh. And I just didn't think that I was the right fit. And he said, no, it has to be you. It can only be you. And later I come to I came to find out that you know,
him and his mom had been estranged for about eighteen years. Uh. And he knew that I was one of his mom's favorites and he knew that if I played her. She couldn't deny him, and she would, she would reconnect. Unfortunately, we got greenlit February. His mom passed February, So I'm not only playing a real person. I'm playing my director and writer's mother who has passed and they've had, you know,
a pretty fraught relationship. And I just wasn't I just wasn't sure this was the right time for any us. And he assured me, he said, no, we we have to tell this story. We have to tell the story, and and we know that you can do this. And I was like, and he was like, you know, the black community has known that you've had the range to do this. Uh. And I had to admit to myself that I had put myself in a in a cage, in a box and decided what I could do and
couldn't do. You had type cost yourself and the rules that you could play because of the rules that were afforded to you. Absolutely right. Yeah, So I had to break out and give myself the opportunity to try to, I don't know, to try to grow creative. It's terrifying, it's absolutely terrifying. I don't want to ruin this man's story.
You know with you know, pulling it like an isis from bringing on you know, I don't know what he's expecting yet, and yet I feel like I feel like, you know, it seems so perfect and it seems so obvious now because because when you see you in the film, I can see I can see what he saw I
you know I, And it's interesting. I would love to know how your your opinion of his mom changed in hearing his story and his side of it, because to your point, there are many scripts, and there are many stories that are told of people that give us an idea of them, and then once we're forced to be them in some way, once we're forced to empathize and get into their lives, our opinion of them changes. Taught me through that change, because you don't play her like
somebody that you hate. You don't play her like somebody that we even hate. So I'd love to know what you understand differently about her that doesn't condone her views on her son being gay, but in some way, empathy, you know, creates empathy in us. For her, I had to find her humanity and I had to figure out how to keep the love not just on the set
as a producer. But the love between these characters, and the more I talk to parents who struggle in the way that she struggles, they none of them deny that they love their children deeply, and a lot of them truly believe that by rejecting their child or denying their identity, which unfortunately denies their humanity, is the way to love them properly, is the way to protect them, is the way to save them. Which sounds very backwards, right, but
that's firmly in their hearts. They believe that. And the more I started asking about her background, she was orphaned at ten. She was a top student, she was a top athlete, and she just wanted people to think that she was good and worthy and deserving. And I was like,
now that's where I can relate. You know. We we have these conversations often where all the shape shifting that you will do to get someone to say, oh, yeah, you right, whether it's a relationship or a business opportunity, or just how you move through the world surviving as a person of color in this in this world, you
will minimize yourself. You will barter with anything to try to get this much closer to the power structures or opportunities or whatever, and that we had in common because I've bartered with many things, just not my kids, but I've bartered with my soul plenty of times. You know. We talk about soul sacrifices and those those more list that you will never get back, that that that live in your memory, that you that you're ashamed of, and I have those as well. And I was like, Okay,
now I figured out how I can get in. How do I keep the love in this space but still show that this is the most unhealthy way of showing your love for your child, And hopefully I can be a mirror to some parents. I don't think. I don't think to hope for me. I think we will be I think it's it's it's brilliant. I mean, it's accessul. The film is phenomenal. The story that you tell is phenomenal. It is everything. And as I say, if if the Oscar's people don't come knocking, I'm I'm gonna be free
in like a few weeks. I'm just gonna go chase them. You you call me and you let me know, you know, I answer the phone. You have. I want to chase the people You're phenomenal. Thank you so much for joining me on the show again. Thanking Gabriel Union. Everybody. Make sure to catch the film The Daily Show with Trevor Noah ears editions. Subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast