Interview: Sherri Shepherd

There's no crowd harder to please than a bunch of fifth graders, even if you are on The View. Sherri Shepherd found that out after she did Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Even though she regularly gabs opposite Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg, playing Mom to Alex the Lion in was a new challenge that she willingly accepted. Sherri was excited to talk to ARTISTdirect about the latest installment of Madagascar, phone calls from Barbara Walters, and how to win over a middle school crowd.

How similar is your character in Madagascar to you?

It was very interesting going into the audition for the movie. I thought I was going to be really big and loud with the lines and have jokes. The director said, "No, this is a woman whose son has been violently taken from her and returned after many years. He could be taken again." I had a son who I was flying back and forth to L.A. every week. That remark just hit me, and I started sobbing. I was crying and the director was like that's where we need you to be. That's where I played it from: the fierceness of being a mother and protecting my child, not wanting to let go, and doing whatever it took to keep my family together. That's a lot different.

Would you want to be involved in another installment of the Madagascar series?

I would love to do a Madagascar 3. The thought of being immortalized in every fifth grader's mind across the world is so exciting to me. [Laughs] I took my nieces and nephews to see the first movie and they loved it so much. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I'd be able to say to them, "Auntie will be in Madagascar 2." They're coming to the premiere tomorrow, all of my nieces and nephews. I have 17 of them. I can't wait to see their faces. There's not a lot that makes a kid smile. I went to talk to a fourth grade class, and they were not feeling the fact that I was on The View. They could care less. You know, trying to make a bunch of kids laugh, that is the hardest comedy club in the world. They were looking at me like, "When is the lunch bell going to ring, because you are not funny." I wasn't even supposed to talk about Madagascar, but I was trying everything. I just said, "I'm going to be in the movie, Madagascar, and they all erupted." They screamed. They wanted their mothers to meet me. They wanted the gym teacher to meet me. They wanted to take pictures. They drew me pictures. I was a star. I was thinking, "Please don't cut me out of these films, because these kids are going to kill me!"

Was voice acting a big challenge?

Voice acting's different because people can't see you. On stage when you're doing a stand-up or doing a movie, you create the world. People can visualize it, but they're looking at you. During voiceovers, you do it with your voice. Then they add a character to it. They melded a lot of who Sherri is with this character. There are a lot of things that the lion did that Sherri does. I could tell. You really have to create that imagery with your voice. Hopefully I created that.

Do you like living in New York?

It's funny because I ride the subway around the city. New Yorkers don't care who you are. They've got to go home, pick up their kids from day care, make dinner all they want to know is, "Anybody sittin' in this seat?" because they're tired and they want to sit down. They don't care about who you are and the little T.V. show you're on. In New York, nobody helps you. I've got my son in a stroller, and I have to walk up those stairs and down those stairs. I'm the one screaming, "Nobody's going to help me up these stairs?" By the time I get down, I've climbed those stairs with 50 pounds in my arms.

Are you excited for the next season of 30 Rock?

I'm so very honored that ">Tina Fey has written me a part on 30 Rock and that every year I've been on that show. Tina Fey saw me on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. She called me up and said, "I have a character written, would you like to do it?" You don't say no to Tina Fey as you don't say no to Barbara Walters. Barbara had seen me guest co-host. I filled in for Star Jones a few times, and then Barbara called me at home. I heard, "Hello dear, this is Barbara Walters." I was like, "Who? Shaneequa, is this you playing around on the phone? Damn, this isn't Barbara Walters! Stop acting stupid!" [Laughs] She was like, "No, this is Barbara Walters, dear." I yelled, "The one with Fidel Castro!?" When Barbara Walters says she wants you to be on the show with her you don't say no.

Is being on The View still a real trip for you?

I sit at that table. I look to my right and there's Whoopi Goldberg who has won every award known to man. I look to my left, and there's one of the most powerful women in the world. I can't believe I was a legal secretary and I'm sitting with these women. Then there are some really gorgeous men that have come through. I feel like I'm going to wake up and be at the law firm I used to work at. I'm going to say, "Girl, I dreamed I was on a talk show interviewing Brad Pitt and I did a movie." [Laughs]

You keep pretty busy it sounds like!

When you love what you're doing, it doesn't feel like work. I'm having so much fun. When I start to get tired and I feel a complaint coming out of my mouth, I feel like I could be at the grocery store going, "Would you like paper or plastic? You want me to bag up the toilet paper with the bananas?" It perks me up right away. Anytime I hear that clacker and "Action!" I just light up.

As a mom, do you feel like you have a good sense of what the kids laugh at?

You know, I think I do. Kids will love the visuals and the silliness of it. Adults will love the fact that there are so many wonderful themes in there of friendship, of love, of family, and the fact that it's okay to be different. Don't let anybody minimize the gift that you bring to the table. Kids just like it. I took my son to see it. He's three, and it was a private screening. I said, "There's mommy!" He went, "Mommy! Poopy in the diaper, Mommy!" [Laughs] I choose to believe that he was so excited that he pooped in his diaper [laughs] because that one works for me.

—Rick Florino
11.03.08

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