Phylicia Rashad Interview - Part 4 of 5

View the full interview at http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/phylicia-rashad On working with Bill Cosby on The Cosby Show, Phylicia Rashad recalls: It was just beautiful from the beginning.  Bill gave us the greatest instruction.  He said, do not try to be funny, just tell the story. Phylicia Rashad played opposite Bill Cosby on both The Cosby Show and Cosby and received her third Primetime Emmy nomination for the TV movie A Raisin in the Sun.  In her Archive interview, Rashad recounts childhood memories growing up in Houston, Texas and in Mexico City, Mexico.  She describes her parents and acknowledges the accomplishments of her mother, poet Vivian Ayers.  She vividly recalls when she decided to be an actress, after the attention she received (and her later understanding of the beauty of communication from the heart) following a reading at a local music festival.  She notes her studies at Howard University and the start of her acting career in New York City.  She acknowledges her work on Broadway and how she briefly became a regular on the daytime television serial One Life to Live.    She speaks in great detail about the role and series for which she is most associated, Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show.  For The Cosby Show, she talks about auditioning for the part, describes her character, discusses working with Bill Cosby (and the cast), and outlines a typical workweek on the series. On Bill Cosbys penchant for ad-libbing she explains: You had to be able to follow him. You had to be able to dance with him.  Because he was very spontaneous. And there would be some great, marvelous stuff that could not have been written.  She then talks about her work in the spin-off series A Different World.  She recounts working on subsequent series Cosby, and gives her impressions of her co-stars, particularly Madeline Kahn.  She comments on some of her later work, including the television movie A Raisin in the Sun, for which she reprised her Tony Award-winning role.  Phylicia Rashad was interviewed in New York, NY on October 22, 2007; Jim Colucci conducted the two-hour interview. . To see the entire interview collection, visit http://emmytvlegends.org

Category:

• Documentary
• Entertainment
• Classic TV

Starring:

• Phylicia Rashad
• Jim Colucci

Tags:

• Phylicia Rashad
• Bill
• Cosby
• The
• Show
• Raisin
• in
• the
• Sun
• TV
• legends

[alexist46235]

phylicia rashad means so much to me....im only 12 yrs. old and she means so much and she'll always hav e aplace in my heart....i love her for clair,lenna,and ruth and so much more but mostly i really love her for Phylicia Rashad

[jocelynatlanta]

I love her!

[rockferryluv66]

-cough- I totally did not cry when she talked about Madeline Kahn, nope. Hope my sarcasm covers my tracks well. >_< Both are such lovely women and I can only hope to one day be as graceful, as poised, as dignified as those women are. Yes, I say 'are' because there will never be another Madeline Kahn, may she rest in peace. :)

[privatedancer06]

Love that the interviewer gives her the floor!!!

[iLoveeTempestt]

Damn ! i Just Fell More In Love With Tempestt, She Was The Smart One !

[Xio305]

Oh Wow, I had always loved her role Lena in Raisin in the Sun; but never would I have taken soo much from her performance if I hadn't seen this interview. Who knew she was as brilliant to TRULY understand Lena like that; down to why her family, that plant, and why she held on to her husbands memory so much. This has made me love Phylicia ssoooooooooo much more =)

[ShangoJamal]

@kaatt211214 OK, so then I am NOT the only person who played that part over 50 times, just so I could hear her voice and watch her expression as she drove ol' Brother Kenny right on into her point And what a point she made. Thus, Miss Rashad put down the ax and picked up a Tony.

[kaatt211214]

"Eleven children! Did that happen choppin' wood?" She has such a way of making people comprehend and finally realize her reasoning behind things that she says and does! It's PHENOMENAL!!!

[aeropostalebunny1]

Aww ! She Called Tempestt Her "Little Genius" !

[LhalaluvzJanet]

at 21:56 she reminds me of myself, I so would have done that. haha hhmmm...

[1lain]

Phylicia Rashad should have went with her instincts and turned the role down for Raisin in the Sun, I saw it and it was not for her. The thing that struck me the most was that the show's characters were very low on energy, the original version had that in abundance.

[DamonesIsLegend]

This is yet another great part of the interview.

The Madeline section touched my heart!