Talk2SV

Sherri Shepherd Voices Her Views
on Love, Life and Madagascar 2
Comedic Actress and Daytime Talk Show Co-Host costars with Stiller, Rock, Schwimmer and Pinkett Smith

During the summer of 2005, “Madagascar” scored big with both domestic and international audiences, racking up more than half-a-billion dollars at the worldwide box office, making it the top family comedy of the year. Once the fancy-footed lion, quick talking zebra, anxiety-ridden giraffe and smart ‘n saucy hippo were released into theaters around the globe, these four New York friends—better known as Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria—became the most popular quartet of the season.

So now, the reappearance of the zoosters is considered to be one of the most highly-anticipated returns of this film season. Armed with some of the most well-regarded African-American performers in the business—comic giant Chris Rock; the versatile and gorgeous Jada Pinkett Smith (along with her spunky daughter, Willow); multifaceted Cedric The Entertainer; the hugely talented and sorely missed Bernie Mac; comedic actress and daytime talk show co-host Sherri Shepherd; and the couldn’t-be-hotter recording artist will.i.am.

For Alex’s Mom, the filmmaker’s wanted the voice of the lioness to be soft but strong, with some toughness and compassion in her heart…a perfect role for Sherri Shepherd, they agreed.

Per their description of her: “Sherri Shepherd brought this great quality to the role and her contribution was pivotal, because she has to stand up between the fighting father and son and be strong, without being brash.”

Ever candid and receptive to her growing throngs of fans, Sherri Shepherd is discovering a heightened level of visibility from her engaging presence on ABC’s The View. We chatted about her career, her candor and her love life, shortly after the premiere of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa --

Sandra Varner (SV): How was the premiere?

Sherri Shepherd: Ah, it was so good. I had my nieces and nephews with me and they were so excited. I asked what did they think about my role in the film and they said, “I was cool.” While they were being very calm about it, I know they will go back to school and tell all of their friends that their Auntie Sherri is in Madagascar 2 (laughter).

Talk2SV: You mentioned that Ben Stiller recommended you for this project. When did you join the cast and was it later in the process?

Shepherd: Yes. The role was given to me but I think Ben was one of the reasons they called me in for the role. I am not one of the voices you would consider because they (film animators and such) typically think of much bigger names for a role like this one.

Talk2SV: But you have become a very big name on celebrity rosters and your stock has risen …

Shepherd: Has it? (laughter)

Talk2SV: Indeed.

Shepherd: Well I think he became a fan of mine; I think Ben watches The View but I still had to audition for the part; I gave him a big hug and told him I knew he had something to do with me getting the role.

Talk2SV: This is a family-friendly comedy and a good match for your personality; clearly you are so passionate about being a mom and a regular person. However, your presence on The View has opened so many career doors and heightened your public profile. Talk about the impact The View has had on your personal life.

Shepherd: It’s very interesting because I still take the subway (in New York) everywhere I go. Whoopi (Goldberg, Shepherd co-host on The View) said to me, “You know, you won’t be able to do that much longer …” but, I still do it and I’ve been on that show for a year-and-a-half. My mode of transportation is the subway and I carry the stroller down with my son; we don’t do the cars and everything. I come home and I still get on my MySpace page and communicate with people. Friends encourage me to get out more and be social but I’ve never really been that kind of person; I’m more of a work horse type actress. There are times when people say to me, “you’re on TheView” and I think to myself, ‘yeah, I am.’ It really doesn’t cross my mind much until I go out and people recognize me. I do have to say that now, in my second year on the show, people are starting to notice that Star (Jones) is not on the show. I still get people walking up to me thinking I’m Star. A young lady said the other day, “Hi, Miss Jones” and I simply say, ‘I’m Sherri Shepherd.’ So I think this year people will recognize there is someone else (African American) on the show aside from Whoopi Goldberg.

Talk2SV: As a result of this increased visibility, anything you say, anything you do is up for discussion by anyone and essentially under the microscopic scrutiny of the viewing public; how do you make the adjustment and switch gears?

Shepherd: I’m just now learning that people listen and hold onto every little thing. I’ve talked about spending time in jail, having abortions and I’ve talked about these things for years at women’s conferences and in my stand up routine. But when it got picked up in later years it went out everywhere! A blurb was used to describe me as a baby killer and all these things and I said to myself, “Oh my God!”

On the good side, it’s like more people are getting inspired, I think, but on the bad side I’ve never censored myself and I’ve always been an open book. So now my father may call and say, “You’ve got to watch what you say.” [Earlier] One of the hardest things was calling my father saying, ‘Hey dad, this is about to hit the newsstands and it’s probably not something I’ve told you before but your daughter was not the virgin you thought she was when she got married.’ That was probably the hardest phone call I had to make because my father never comes to the conferences I speak at and this is not something you sit down with your dad and go, ‘yeah, I was with a bunch of guys at one point in my life.’ So I had to call my dad who is a deacon at his church and go, ‘D-a-d-d-y, I’ve been through some stuff.’ My father said, “You mean you got evicted that many times! Why didn’t you call me?’ Yeah, I am learning that this thing I’m on called The View is huge.

Talk2SV: How are you using your celebrity to benefit other causes and campaigns?

Shepherd: One organization that I am very committed to is The March of Dimes because they work so hard to try to prevent premature births. That is very close to my heart since my son was born prematurely at five months; that’s a charity that I am there for to do whatever I need to do. If I can get the word out and if it helps them to say Sherri Shepherd of The View, use it. Another cause that I would like to get involved in is diabetes and I am learning more about the disease. Just before I started The View, I was diagnosed with Type II Adult Diabetes. My mom died at age 41 from complications of diabetes and I am 41.

Being 41, it hit me, Oh my God, I could go and I’ve got a two-year-old. God showed me a vision of my son lying in bed crying wanting to know where heaven was because his mommy was there. It (the vision) was so traumatic and so vivid. So immediately I realized I had to get my health together because I could die and that was a big reality. I went about doing whatever I could to fight off the complications that are caused by diabetes; this is something that is very big in the African American community, very big in the Latino community and I felt that I have to let my brothers and sisters know because I have people in my family who have dealt with this.

In my stand up routines one of my jokes is that I thought everybody had an uncle with a cut off leg who rolled up to the dinner table for some macaroni and cheese. I thought everybody was like that; I didn’t know it was diabetes. In my family everybody just used to refer to it as “the sugar or somebody had the sugar” and I didn’t know what that meant. I had to learn that it had to do with what they were eating.

Then I realized, ‘Hey wait a minute, we can change this.’ So when people ask me how I lost the weight, I would tell them. I stress to mothers their importance because their children need them. I lost my mother when I was 24 and she was 41. Your mother is your rock. There are times when I want to call my rock and let her know about a role I booked or just go out and have fun and buy earrings; I don’t have anybody to do that to; when women come up to me and say they are borderline (diabetic), I beg them to do something about it. I let them know that they’ve got to get it together.

Talk2SV: Finally, how does your expanded visibility factor into dating?

Shepherd: Oh, it’s awful, oh my God!!! It’s hard because now you’re like in this really visible position and somebody comes up to you and flirts and you think to your self (a) I don’t know if he thinks I’m cute (b) if this young guy is an actor and he’s just winking (c) if I look like an older woman with some money or (d) if he just knows that I’m on The View! There are so many different options and it makes you really withdraw because you don’t know. And I’m just like, aw man, this sucks! Then you have to ask yourself if he’s gay?

Of course you have friends telling you to get an older man who doesn’t want any kids and who will accept your son. Then I go, ‘Wait a minute! Why I gotta get an old man now!’ Then if they’re younger and they come at you … the other day I was in an H&M and a cute Puerto Rican boy was just winking at me and my girlfriend was like, “Talk to him!” Yeah, and then I go home to meet his family and as soon as he goes to the bathroom his momma would ask me, “Now what do you want with my baby? Huh? You can’t even have kids!” Then I’d have to tell her, wait a minute, my uterus is in my glove compartment and I’ll put it in whenever I want to! I got the money to do it (laughter). It is really not a good climate right now because you don’t know who to trust.

Shepherd’s animated voice in Madagascar 2 is soothing and surreal --in real life-- her voice and views are very realistic.

More Celebrity Profiles

Monique Coleman and Sandra Varner

High School Musical 3 Star, Monique Coleman Has a Positive and Powerful Message On and Off the Big Screen

A motivating force, Monique Coleman (Taylor) is the background of the High School Musical cast. Talking to her in person, you quickly recognize why, Monique is positive, uplifting and charming.

Here’s some of what she had to say about the phenomenal film franchise and how it has changed her life--

Sandra Varner (SV) - This film is filled with so much energy, so much talent … what has this experience with Disney’s High School Musical franchise meant to you?

Monique Coleman (MC) - Thank you for saying energy and talent because funny enough, I feel like those are the two things that are “not” why I got here. I feel this has been a huge blessing-- that’s what this experience has been for me. Before High School Musical (the first TV movie), I was a struggling actress. I had done several guest starring roles on different television shows and actually just before the movie, I had just finished a film called “The Reading Room” where I got to work opposite James Earl Jones and that was a really awesome experience as an actress.

This experience (HSM3) has changed my life personally because it afforded me the ability to have an ounce of visibility to get my voice out there. And, that’s what really matters to me is to be able to speak positively; to be able to represent myself well and; also to play a character that is not typically represented by an African American girl. My character (Taylor) is the smartest girl in the school; she’s the student body president, editor of the school yearbook and ‘gets the date.’ So this experience has just shown me that you can achieve anything that you set your heart and your mind to and that situations do not have to change you for the negative. It’s your choice everyday to wake up, look in the mirror and see the same person if you so desire.

SV - I heard this project came to you at a pivotal point in your life; that you were having financial struggles and so forth …

MC - Oh, I was a mess (laughter). Just as I got the call for this movie, I came home, literally, to a 3-day eviction notice on my door, seriously. I hadn’t paid bills in a very long time and when I did, it got to the point where I would prioritize which ones would get paid. I was so broke; I would pay my car insurance and my cell phone bill because I didn’t want to get pulled over (by the cops). I wanted to make sure that I could drive so I could get to and from auditions because --if it came down to it-- I knew I could sleep in my car. As for my phone, because I needed to be able to get in touch with people to get those auditions, I kept that bill paid. That was really all that mattered at the time; I had absolute faith. I mean the kind of faith that you know … I’ll never forget even after the movie came out we went to Australia --I got to get my passport, I didn’t even have a passport-- we got back from that trip, the movie was a huge success and I was still on unemployment.

I got home and my unemployment check was in the mail and it was right before the 1st of the month. I was thinking, oh God, I don’t have my rent. I think my unemployment was something like $800 every two weeks; I looked at it and I said to myself, ‘Monique Coleman is this really what you want for yourself? Is this really what you think you’re worth …really? You just got back from Australia, staying at the Park Hyatt Sydney looking at the Sydney Harbor Bridge, The Opera House and traveling the world promoting a movie. Do you believe you’re only worth $800?’ Now, I had no other source of income, that was it and I said to myself, ‘No, I don’t believe that’ and I tore it up. I made up in my mind that that was it.

Three days later, literally the day before the 1st, we had our first bonus check from Disney and I haven’t had to go back to another day job or really struggle financially since. For me, that was about inviting abundance (into my life). I think that abundance is out there for everyone. Somebody’s gonna get it and you just have to claim it for yourself and decide that if someone’s gonna get it, why shouldn’t it be me? That (assurance) has to do with having self-worth to know that I have to look into the mirror and know that I am a person who would do the right thing with it. So yes, I’m going to invite as many things to come to me as possible and believe that I have enough people around me who will keep me on the right track. Yes, this movie got me out of a tight situation.