CMR
Cafe Mocha with Loni Love, Yo-Yo, and Angelique. On the line is a woman that we absolutely love, absolutely miss for so many years. Loni, go ahead. It’s none other than Sunshine herself, Lela Rochon Fuqua. And for the people who are the younger people who don’t necessarily… remember your earlier work. Can you talk about some of the pivotal roles? Like goodness gracious, your role with, uh, Eddie Murphy.
Oh yeah. My first, I did two movies with him. My first movie was Harlem Nights I played the role of Sunshine and yeah. And, um, yeah, that, that became a name that stuck that character stuck real hard. And, um, And we did Boomerang together, you know, all of us, me, Eddie, Hallie, Robin Givens, David Allen Greer, Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell. We were all in that. That’s a classic. That’s a classic. It was a good time. Why they don’t do movies like that anymore? You know, why don’t they, Lela? I don’t know. And it’s like they, not only do they not really do them, they don’t spend the kind of money they used to spend.
I mean, I don’t remember, but I would say the budget for that was over $50 million easily. Wow. They just don’t spend the money they used to spend. Wow. It’s just such a shame because a movie like that, first of all, it’s a classic. Absolutely. You know, it used to have so many black talent. I had to give it up to Eddie Murphy because he, it was that, remember that period where he was just doing a lot of movies and he would put a lot of black people and it was just, they all became classics. So, um, You were just awesome in that. Well, thank you. Thank you. I think going back to your question, it’s a lot of politics involved with pictures now because you have a lot of male stars. And then it kind of became a thing in the early 2000s where they were forced to have, you know, non-Black female leads as co-stars. They became other races and other things. They take the big African American movie star and put him with a Latino girl, white girl, you know, and those roles kind of went like that, which is unfortunate, you know
Yeah it is unfortunate because, um, sister sale too. And it’s quite evident because of this new bet plus original series, Carl Webers. oh, I cannot speak today this new BET plus original Carl Weber’s The Family Business, New Orleans. Let’s talk about your character, Big Shirley. Big Shirley. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Big Shirley. You know, she’s big and powerful. It’s not necessarily big, but it’s big. You know, she’s a tough lady. She’s a tough lady. And it’s something I wanted to do. She’s strong. Yeah. And she’s a business owner and she owns her own casino in New Orleans. And it’s sort of passed down through generations. And I run the casino with my son, Brandon T. Jackson, who all y’all know him from, you know, Tropic Thunder, Percy Jackson, Roll Bounce if you want to go way back. But it’s a good time. It’s a real good time.
And this is an offshoot of the family business, the original one. How did you feel and why did you take this role and come back to us through television? Well, I took this role because I read it and I couldn’t believe it was written for a woman and a Black woman because this character could be a man. And I was watching other women who were in sports You know, I love Your Honor. I love the character Mo on that. I loved Griselda with Sofia Vergara. There are a lot of like female gangster characters that I was seeing. And I didn’t feel like I had seen one that I could do. And when they called me and they sent me that script, I said, oh, my God, I love her. This is a stretch. This is challenging. This is something I haven’t done before.
You know, all those reasons. And I knew it would be hard. I knew it would be difficult. And I became, when I signed on to do it, I also became an Executive Producer. So to have a little bit more control and power over the project and try to elevate it as best I could. It’s Cafe Mocha. We’re talking to Lela Rochon Fuqua about the new series coming soon. It’s called The Family Business New Orleans. We’ve got more coming up. Cafe Mocha with Loni Love. Yo, Yo, I’m Angelique. We’re talking about The Family Business New Orleans, a new show coming to BET Plus with the star of the show, Leela Rashan Fuqua. I want to ask for fans of the original Family Business. Who is this new family? How are they related? How is it a spinoff?
Well, it’s full of surprises, but basically we are family. And it hasn’t really been given away how I’m related, but we’re related to the Duncans. And my casino, Brandon and I, we really get into some trouble. We’ve moved away from the family because we’re trying to run an honest business in New Orleans. And of course, you know, we’ve run into a little trouble. trouble. So if there’s trouble, you know, you’re going to call your gangster relatives to handle it, right? And I’m very against that. But Brandon kind of goes behind my back and does it anyway. And that’s when they get a little bit involved.
I mean, if you watch the original Family Business on BET+, you’re going to love this one. It will premiere January 23rd, two episodes exclusively on BET+ and the series will continue with one weekly episode. And then the finale will be Thursday, March the 6th. And, you know, some of the other cast, of course, you have Brandon T. Jackson, you have Lila, Benjamin Stevens, Pooch Hall, Quincy Brown, David Banner, Yvette Nicole Brown, Orlando Jones. What was it like working with this fabulous cast? You know, it was… It was amazing because, you know, Brandon was the spinoff from that show. And then I signed on to play his mother. So it’s Brandon and I, executive producing. And we were just able to get such a good cast. You know, it was almost surprising. But I just think it kind of set the tone and a lot of people wanted to come play with us and watch.
We really pulled together a great cast of talented people, a lot of veterans. And we shoot very fast and very quick. And it’s a lot of dialogue. And everybody really rose to the occasion. And it was really fun because it was a lot of us who had been in the business a long time but never got a chance to cross paths or work together. I had never worked with Yvette. I’d never worked with Brandon before. Orlando actually used to write some sitcoms I did early, early on in my career. Wow. So it was just nice to see each other another way. And then Quincy is a whole new generation, which was nice. Yeah, it was a good time. Wow. I am just so excited. I mean, are you going to continue to do, you know, are you like back? Because it seems like you took like a little pause. Are you back into working or what? Okay.
Pause is a nice word, Loni. I took a long pause. I took a long pause. But I think what people don’t realize is how early I started. I did my first show when I was 19. And I didn’t really do Waiting to Exhale till I was 30. And then I did a long movie run. I don’t know, 15, 20 movies. By the time I had my daughter, I was tired. I was actually tired and needed a break from the business. So it just all kind of fit in. And I tried to have children and work, and that didn’t turn out well. So I had to sit it down. Doctors ordered me to sit it down. And I was able to have two beautiful children and raise them and actually be there for every moment and enjoy raising them. And that part of my life is done now.
And now it was less than a year that my son graduated from high school that I was. So, yeah. Do you feel you have time? It was just the timing was perfect. Do you feel you have to reintroduce yourself into this new industry or do you feel like you’ve set the tone already? Yeah. Um, you know, it’s hard to say. I think that I don’t need to reintroduce myself, but I need to reintroduce myself, if that makes sense. It’s a new generation that probably, I don’t know, the new generation, they watch the movies, the old movies over and over and over. So they kind of know as well. But, you know, this project for me was really for the culture. It’s for my people. It’s for my people.
It’s they’re the ones that I get the most. When are you going back to work? When are you going to do something? And it was nice to step out in a starring role that I could really own and really, you know, show out a little bit. And from here, definitely, definitely doing other things for sure. Well, we’re glad you’re back. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say the world was happy to be back.
The world was mourning you. you know because this new this new generation they look up to the 90s they look up to old films you see as they repost us all the time and so it was so good to see that you were getting back into the groove of things and respectfully raising your children’s the way you did I mean I think it was the timing is perfect I mean you were able to you know balance your life I think that that’s great and then to be able to step back. Was it hard stepping back like onto a set? I mean, you know how it went, but was it hard? Like, is it like riding a bike or what is it? You know, it’s just like riding a bike. You don’t forget. And then you do, you know, you get to see a lot of different sides to that coin. You see why some people really weren’t that successful and why others weren’t. It’s all about your discipline, your habits. Do you know your lines? Can you, you know, are you prepared? and, you know, there are a lot of young people who don’t study anymore. And I would say, you know, if they admire the 90s, they should admire the work ethic because we really worked hard. And this show was something where, oh, my God, we worked hard. It’s eight episodes, and it’s shot, you know, very quickly, within a few months, and it’s a lot every day. And…
I enjoyed the challenge personally. I really did. Because, you know, I’ve done some small things here and there along the way before this. But just being a lead in a show, in a series, it’s exhausting. But where I found it just simply exhausting before, I loved it. I just loved every minute of it. Because, you know, you want to wake up living and breathing something that you enjoy. And I enjoyed it. That’s all we want to know. Okay. I mean, January 23rd, only on BET Plus, Carl Webers, The Family Business, New Orleans, starring Lila Rashan Fuqua. I got it. Did I get it? Yeah, you got it. You got it good. You nailed it. Oh my goodness. It’s been such a pleasure. It’s been such a pleasure. I cannot, I am just so happy that, you know, to see you again.
I saw you at Yvette’s wedding. And then I also saw you, we were at the Triple Six premiere. You and I and Vivica Fox took a picture. So it was the, you know, it’s like, that’s what I’m saying. It’s nice to see people, you know, at events, you know, and just, she’s just the sweetest person, Angelique. She really is, so. She really is sunshine. I don’t care. Yeah. I’m back outside. I’m back outside. Everybody. We missed you. Okay. So definitely we’re going to have everybody check it out. And thank you again for calling into cafe Mocha Lela. We appreciate you. Thank you ladies so much. I appreciate you and keep doing what you do. You guys are fabulous. Thank you.
