As “Barbershop: The Next Cut,” gets closer to it’s nationwide theater release date of April, 15, 2016, AllHipHop’s Los Angeles correspondent Kylie Krabbe was able to get some exclusive on set details from star Regina Hall on subjects as varied as what it was like to integrate the formerly all male Barbershop as newcomer, as well as the on set atmosphere between female rap stars Eve and Nicki Minaj. Read all about it below:
A lot has been made of the subject of violence and the possibility of violence between men and boys in this movie. What do you think a woman’s role is in that sort of a reality, via your character Angie, the new co-owner of the barbershop?
Women are nurturers and we’re loving. I think Angie actually is that in the counterpart to Calvin (Ice Cube). I think the presence of men is really important for other men to teach men ways to connect with one another so that there aren’t gangs that can come in and play a parental role. I think we see the importance of fatherhood positive role models and I think women, we’re balance. The reason it takes two to make one. I think they each play very specific and important roles.
You’ve worked on so many projects – comedic and serious, movies and television. How would you rate this experience on “Barbershop: The Next Cut” amongst them?
It was great. One of the great things about it is it was new, but it was also familiar because there was Malcolm ( Director Malcolm Lee) who I had worked with before and Cedric (Cedric The Entertainer) who I had worked with before and Cube who I had worked with. But also, it’s always scary to walk into somebody else’s franchise. I mean you don’t know. Are people going to like Angie or be like, ‘I liked it when it was…where’s Latifah?’ You don’t know how people are going to respond to a franchise with new characters. So this was great because it was kind of a mixture of a lot of different feelings, but it felt good when we were shooting it and you can kind of tell that. I was happy to watch it and see how it came out.
You seem to have developed a really tight relationship with your “Barbershop: The Next Cut” co-star Eve. You’ve even gone so far as to say that you want to manage her and help her to get out her next album which has been a bit of time coming. Can you tell us a little more about that?
Eve and I had done “With This Ring” last year. So we already had become friends before this movie and it was more like, ‘oh good, Eve is going to be there, so we’ll hang out.’ And then you end up loving the other girls too, like Margo (Margo Bingham) who’s in the movie. She’s wonderful. And Nicki (Nicki Minaj) we did love and we would have hung out, but Nicki traveled on weekends cause she had to go do concerts. She’d have weekends where she’d literally go to do a show as soon as the set wrapped and be back Monday to shoot.
So it was a very close knit cast on set amongst the men and the women?
Yeah. It was a close knit cast, which is kind of great because you needed them to feel close when you watched it.
Just now seeing the two of you together having a good time promoting “Barbershop: The Next Cut, ” you seem pretty emphatic with Eve about her need to get out some new music. Are you seriously going to try to be a part of that?
I’ve been encouraging (Eve) forever. I don’t think I’m going to be able to manage her but I’m really excited for her. She’s super talented and for me it was more just reminding her that people love her. I think sometimes you forget. She lives in London and she’s married and happy and still doing her acting and still shooting. Eve’s very creative on a lot of other things so I think you wonder, ‘do people miss me at all?’ So I’m like, we miss you. We miss you. People love you still. So it’s exciting. I mean, I think even when we first started shooting – that’s what I loved about seeing her and Nicki together. They had such a mutual respect for each other as musicians and artists and even (Eve) completely understanding (Nicki’s) twitch to acting and Nikki completely loving (and) knowing Eve as an example of somebody who had done that before. They had a pretty amazing dynamic.
Lastly – we loved your blue hair. You fought hard for that hair style with director Malcolm Lee, who initially wasn’t so sure about it as a part of Angie’s persona. Why is hair such an enduring and important part of creating all of the characters that you play – in this movie and others?
I feel like with women, we do our hair, it’s our thing. Especially as a black woman, there’s so many options yet none. So I’m always trying to figure out what is that? I mean, we do have this hair that can do a million things but maybe we always can’t do it. Maybe there’s not the time and then our hair is strong and yet specific, though it has a fragility to it and then it has a temperament. Then there’s finances. Our hair is a little, ‘do I add a hair? If I add hair, I’m going to buy hair. Is that hair expensive?’ It’s like I have full freedom to do whatever and yet I’m imprisoned by it. It’s a coin with both sides…. I’m like I can’t do anything with my hair but maybe it’s the work that I’d have to put into it to get it done.
So it’s a whole relationship?
It is. It is.
“Barbershop: The Next Cut” opens nationwide in theaters on Friday, April 15, 2016.
