Getting to know Tracee Ellis Ross of black-ish! #ABCTVEvent #GoodDinoEvent #blackish

Disclosure: I attended this event as part of an all-expense paid press trip for Disney.  However, all opinions are completely my own. #ABCTVEvent  #GoodDinoEvent

During my whirlwind trip to LA I got to visit the set of black-ish and meet Tracee Ellis Ross.  We were treated to a nice breakfast and preview screening of an episode of black-ish.  We then made our way to the set and were greeted by Tracee on our way.  What an absolute breath of fresh air she was, she shook each of our hands and introduced herself, I am pretty sure I was barely able to say my name, can we say ‘star struck’!!

We walked over to the set and Tracee was kind enough to give us a personalized tour, stay tuned for the post coming up recapping it all.  While walking from room to room of the Johnson home Tracee was kind enough to take our questions.

When we joked about the size of the rooms in the house being rather large Tracee explained to us that the big rooms are nice for shooting and rather different from the set she worked on for Girlfriends.  Those rooms were smaller but they were open, each room had a wall missing, which is not the case on the black-ish set.  This set has less set up time for shots as they’re only able to shoot from one side or through the door.  This is a plus, as Tracee explained, shooting a 22 minute show takes five days, much to the shock and surprise of Tracee’s friend, who assumed it’d take maybe four hours.

I must admit, before these set visits and learning more about how TV shows/movies are made, I didn’t know all that went into a day for a celebrity while on the set.  They work long hours, Tracee said she is often on set long before I’m awake and is still working after I’m at home relaxing for the day. 

I really liked this episode – Church.  In terms of funny, I just thought everybody was so funny.  I thought the writing was great.  I thought the direction was great.  I felt like, even just the little moments between the kids and that, just overall it was a great one.  I loved the N-word episode just because I thought that writing-wise, that subject was handled pitch perfect in my opinion.  And that was such a difficult, how do you make that funny, and somehow they did, and yet we weren’t laughing at the word.  And I thought that was just so beautifully handled and the fact that it was introduced through Jack was so interesting and such an interesting way to flip that on its head where even for my character, which I liked, she had such a stanch clear no hate speech whatsoever, but when it was her kid, she got tangled, and I just thought that was so real.  Like she all of a sudden was a little bit on the fence like maybe it’s okay. So I thought that was really well handled and then, I had one other I was going to say. 

Oh, I thought that the kids were magical in the Halloween episode.  I did not see them shoot that.   I don’t know if you saw that episode, but when they were attacking the kids and it went into slow motion, I just was crying with laughter.  I couldn’t believe how funny that was.  It was so funny.  And then, little Kayla, God, I was like what’s happening?  It was so funny to me.  So I would say those three right now.”

“Man at Work” – Dre has always looked out for the crew he grew up with, but when his childhood friend Sha (guest star Faizon Love) comes to stay at the house for a few days, Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross) thinks he is taking advantage of Dre’s generosity. Meanwhile, Daphne Lido (played by Wanda Sykes), the now ex-wife of Stevens & Lido’s founding partner, gains control of half of the company and wants to start inserting herself in company business. When Daphne starts to question Charlie’s work ethic, Dre must decide who he remains loyal to.”

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