Transcription
And look at who we got here with us as well. Uh, actors, best-selling author, Gabrielle Union in studio. Have a new book out. It is coming out tomorrow. It's called "You Got Anything Stronger?" Your book before this was called "We're Going to Need More Wine." Is your next book "Make It a Double?" I mean, what is... I'll give you ten percent for that. Thank you. Thank you for that.
Explain the title to us there, um, of the new book, "You Got Anything Stronger?" Because, you know, I like to have my books feel like a conversation over, you know, at first a glass of wine, perhaps. But now, with this book, I leave nothing on the table. So I'm like, "You got anything stronger?" You know, because you might need a stiffer drink for, for what I'm talking about.
I think we can all understand that where you're coming from. We know you're back to work. You were in Europe. We saw your daughter, Kaavia James. Looks like Paris. Uh, it worked out well. Tell us about the trip.
Oh, we had a wonderful trip. It was in four parts. Uh, first couple weeks we were on a boat. First week was with our parents, and then the second week was the couple's trip. And then we met everyone in Paris. And then we finished up in Burgundy with just me and Dwyane. And it was unreal. The longest vacation I've ever had and the most amazing vacation I have truly ever.
That sounds pretty awesome. It, great, absolutely needed. And Dwyane, I don't know who this guy is in retirement, but the happiest, most romantic man. Like, he's something out of, you know, Bridgerton. This is amazing.
Let's talk about the book. The first essay is about having Kaavia James be a surrogate. You're very open about your feelings of failure around that. Was that hard to write?
It wasn't hard to write. It was hard to write knowing other people would see it, and the fear of judgment, and the fear of being completely kind of naked and vulnerable with it. That part is, is terrifying. But the more I realize that my vulnerability is my superpower. And, and into the sharing of your vulnerability and being radically transparent, it creates community. Because every time, you know, I've been a little cagey or I've just outright lied, what it does is it closes the door on creating community. And it just allows people to continue to feel like they're alone. So with this book, I'm like, here I am. Take me as I am. I'm giving you the full tea, all of the tea. But know that I know you're not alone. I know you might feel like alone because a lot of us feel like we are drowning in plain sight. And people are walking by us holding life preservers, watching us drown. And with this book, I want to say, I see you. Here's a life preserver. You know, we can, we can together save ourselves.
How could that Gabrielle Union have made your character and "Bring It On" different? Because you do write a letter, essentially, to your character, almost apologizing for, for what you felt the character at the time needed to be, but you think it was a mistake.
I do think it was a mistake. I was given full range to do whatever I wanted with, with Isis and "Bring It On." Um, and I chose respectability and, and to, to be classy and take the high road because I felt like that would make her the appropriate, the right kind of Black girl. Black girls aren't allowed to be angry, certainly not, you know, demonstratively angry. And I muzzled her. And, you know, so last summer, it was the 20th anniversary of "Bring It On," and we're doing all these panels with, you know, Kirsten Dunst and Peyton Reed, our director, and our writer. And we were talking about a sequel. And we're all like, we should do a sequel. But this time, it should focus on, you know, the Clovers and Isis. And should be written by a Black person. And I realized that I need to come to grips and acknowledge where I failed Isis. When given full control, I made her appropriate.
So what would she have done?
Oh, red, red, uh, the, the Toros for filth. I would have been like, yeah, when you had to do your own work, it wasn't enough. You came in second. Take that L. Take that L. You know, I would have, I would have allowed her to be angry. I would have allowed her her full humanity. And part of being a full human is the ability to express rage when harmed, you know what I mean? When you don't, when you don't really allow yourself the full, your full range of emotion and you muzzle your own emotions, it allows people to think, well, maybe what I did wasn't, it somewhere else. It comes and it comes out somewhere else. It's misplaced. So I would have given her all the anger. And the other weird thing was around last summer, there was this meme going around about movie villains. And Isis was a villain. I had muzzled her. I made her gracious, like this, you know, decent, you know, kind leader. And I was still a villain in that movie for making her want accountability for the theft of, of their work product and, and the cultural appropriation. And I was still a villain. I did all that shape-shifting for a character. It's not even real. Realizing I was doing that to myself too. And I wasn't allowing myself the full range of, of my humanity.
But you'll get to fix all that in the sequel, which is coming.
Oh, listen, like everyone's getting read for filth. Uh, Isis will pull no punches. "Bring It On" takes on a whole new minute. Like, bring it all. Bring it back in the open. Bring it on.
All right. There are some fun stories in the book as well, including a, a dance battle with Bruno Mars.
Yes. Yes. It was an epic, epic night. It's one of those nights that when people are like, I have FOMO, I'm like, you probably should have. Because it, this amazing Atlantic Records party. And Bruno was, he had just had like a hit, you know, but people knew him, but it wasn't, you know, the fact that he was performing for the label should tell you everything. He wasn't like the Bruno Mars we see today. And I had all my girls assembled, you know, including Serena Williams, who is, you know, FYI, everything at karaoke. And exactly who you want to tag in, in a dance battle. And we're on the dance floor. We're kind of vibing. And then through the crowd comes this little whirling dervish of a person. And there's Bruno Mars with his full band. And they were like, are you ready? I'm stretching out. I'm like, oh, I live for these moments. Um, and then we had this dance-off, this epic dance battle with Bruno and his team. And it was, it was amazing.
Yeah, we missed out. Yeah. I was like, you got certain.
Yeah. You wrote a book about Kaavia James called "Shady Baby." Yes. What's her favorite book now?
"Shady Baby." It wasn't at first. She was like, you know, I guess she was like, I don't really see the likes. Um, but then she was all in. And so she, she started preschool, uh, not too long ago. And they were like, and your name is Kaavia James, right? And she was like, Shady Baby. I was like, way to stay on brand.
Your character. [Laughter] It is so good to see you. Good to have you back here in studio. We want folks to know the book, "You Got Anything Stronger," is out tomorrow. And Dwyane McMahon, Bridgerton treatment from Gabrielle Union this morning. It's good to have you.
All right. Well, hey there, GMA fans. Robin Roberts here. Thanks for checking out our YouTube channel. Lots of great stuff here. So go on, click the subscribe button right over, right over here to get more of awesome videos and content from GMA every day, anytime. We thank you for watching and we'll see you in the morning on GMA.