Chatting with Tracee Ellis Ross About Her Role on ABC’s blackish #ABCTVEvent #blackish

I was invited by Disney on an all expenses paid trip for my coverage of the #GoodDinoEvent, #ABCTVEvent, & #LionGuardEvent.  All opinions are my own.

When I was in LA I was lucky to be able to visit the set of ABC’s blackish (watch for that post next week) and get a tour of the set by the beautiful, kind and talented Tracee Ellis Ross who plays Rainbow (aka Bow) Johnson.  It is not every day you get to tour a TV set, so to have a star of the show giving us the tour was so cool.

Right off I was so impressed by how kind Tracee was.  She took the time to shake hands and meet each and every one of us (all 26 bloggers).  That to me, just shows her character and how nice she is.  Then she took us onto the set where blackish is filmed.  I will be posting all about the set visit next week (12/9) so be sure to come back to read that post.

It was fun being able to walk through the house with Tracee as she talked about the set and filming the show.  The rooms are all complete with 4 walls and some of the walls are removable so the crew can film from different angles.  “This allows for less set up and takes less time which is fantastic” says Tracee.

A common myth is that since the episodes are short, that it is a fast and simple process to film each episode.  Each blackish episode is 22 minutes, but Tracee says “It actually takes 5 days to shoot“.

When asked how it is to work with such talented actors, Tracee said “They’re talented, but they’re wonderful people. It’s really joyful.”  And since Tracee plays the mom on the show, it is only natural to ask her what it is like working with the child actors.  She said: “They’ve been on the planet for less time than us and they’re not jaded. They just have a pure joy. When you see Miles and Marsai in the morning, they run towards you for a huddle up. It’s, it’s magic.” She also shared that “Usually between takes, there’s a lot of giggling and laughing and videos being taken and pictures and everything.”

A little secret about Tracee…she keeps scripts in the drawers on set so that she can look at them in between takes if she needs to.  She even opened a couple drawers to show us her hidden scripts, revealing that the Johnsons have a junk drawer! Yep a real junk drawer like all the rest of us, so glad to know I’m not alone 😉

She also picked up the jar of Peanut Butter M&M’s that were sitting on the counter and ate a few.  She mentioned that they will be featured in an upcoming episode, and then she jokingly said she wouldn’t normally eat them but she keeps coming back to eat them because they are there.

Which episode is Tracee’s favorite? She said it was hard to pick just one because she loves the show so much.  But some of her favorites are “Churched” and “Halloween” for their comedy and humor.  And “The N Word” for how well the topic was handled and presented while still being a funny episode without actually laughing at the actual word itself.

I truly loved being able to talk with Tracee, she is such a nice woman and so down to Earth which is refreshing.  She took the time to take individual pictures with all of us as well. What a sweetheart she is.

Also, while we were on the ABC lot, we had the chance to screen the upcoming episode of blackish “Man At Work” which is the episode that is airing tonight on ABC at 9:30/8:30c.  It is very funny and worth watching so be sure to tune in.

“BOW IS NOT HAPPY WHEN DRE’S CHILDHOOD FRIEND (GUEST STAR FAIZON LOVE) CRASHES AT THE HOUSE, AND THE EX-WIFE OF STEVENS & LIDO’S FOUNDING PARTNER (PLAYED BY WANDA SYKES) CHANGES THINGS UP FOR DRE AT WORK, ON ABC’S “black-ish”