The UB Interview: Kellita Smith Talks In The Cut, COVID-19 & Learning From Bernie Mac

Kellita Smith is one of Hollywood’s most talented and versatile actresses with a groundbreaking comedic performance opposite Bernie Mac and currently starring in the sixth season of Bounce TV’s In The Cut opposite Dorien Wilson as Cheryl, the beauty salon owner and newlywed.

The award-winning actress was born in Chicago and raised in Oakland, California.

Smith starred in SYFY’s most watched and highest rated drama series Z Nation as the former National Guard Lieutenant Roberta Warren, who is the powerful leader of the Westward-bound survivor group.

Kellita currently co-stars in feature film, Influence, written by NY Times best-selling author, Carl Weber. Showing now on BET+

Smith won the BET Comedy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress on FOX’s Peabody and Emmy award-winning comedy series The Bernie Mac Show, based on Mac’s stand-up comedy and unique take on parenthood.

She starred as First Lady Katherine Johnson on The First Family in addition to recurring and guest roles on Martin, Living Single, Sister, Sister, The Jamie Foxx Show and more. In feature films she starred in Hair Show opposite Mo’Nique, Fair Game, King’s Ransom, Roll Bounce and Three Can Play That Game.

Smith began her acting career on the stage in regional production of Tell It Like it Tiz. She won an NAACP Theatre Image Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the play Feelings at The Hudson Theater and received NAACP Theatre Award nomination for Best Actress in The Thirteenth Thorn at Complex Theater. She was recently named a lifetime member of the prestigious Actor’s Studio.

Recently Aries from UB had a chance to speak with the hilarious Kellita Smith, while we’re all being quarantined due to COVID-19. Kellita told us about the new season of the Bounce hit series In The Cut plus she tells us how she’s dealing with the coronavirus pandemic .

Kellita also gets candid about being the first black lead on SYFY with Z Nation and she tells us one of the most important things she took away, from working with the late great Bernie Mac.

UrbanBridgez.com: In the Cut is in Season 6, what can viewers expect from the rest of this season?
Kellita Smith: More funny which is good. I have to remember because to tell you the truth, we shot season 6 and season 7. We shot season 6 in October and we shot 7 in January. So I gotta be careful that I don’t tell you about season 7 yet (laughs). In season 6, my character Cheryl gets to experience what it means to feel some insecurities in her marriage. At the same time, still try to be funny. I told them, I hope this works y’all. When I read it I was like, oh wait are y’all trying to let me go? (both laugh)

UrbanBridgez.com: What’s the best part for you, shooting In The Cut?
Kellita Smith: I think the great thing about exploring, what it means to be a comedic couple. With the ups and downs, it keeps it real and honest. The great thing with Dorian and I…since we’ve known each other since forever. We find our funny, we find ways to be playful even if it’s written against the grain you know. Or a little harsh, we will find a way to make it playful. Get it back to the point, where we get to laugh at it. I always feel good when we walk away from the table and we’re laughing. I really love working with the cast and I do what I love, so that’s the best part.

UrbanBridgez.com: How have you and your family been dealing with the Coronavirus, do you have any words of encouragement to all of us during this time?
Kellita Smith: I say watch comedy and stay away from the propaganda. What you don’t wanna do is to start to create anxiety. You also don’t want to eat all of your quarantine groceries in two days like I did (both laugh). That’s why I had to go find me a Spin Bike. I had to take a class on Zoom. What it can do is get to you, but you just have to get creative. I’m playing a little racquetball in my garage. I’m reading different things about self. I’m also studying certain actors that I’ve always loved their work. Just really finding ways to make this time more cultural for me and more inspiring. So when I come out of this, which I’m looking at as cocoon time. So I can come out like a butterfly. And stay 6 feet away people, I had to tell this one dude to back up! (both laugh)

UrbanBridgez.com: What did you enjoy most about Z Nation?
Kellita Smith: First of all, how lucky was I to get a role like that? That part! It was the executive producer Karl Schaefer, who’s the best thing. Because he had the foresight to take a chance. Think about it, it was 6 or 7 years ago when there wasn’t a lead black female on TV yet outside of Scandal kinda. And none for SYFY, like I’m the first. The great thing is I had enough sense when I was broke in the 1900’s to take some martial arts classes. Which came in handy. That’s what you do when you have down time, you have to get creative. Going back to the other question, you don’t want to take in in and absorb it as a negative. Gotta find a way to get the positive out of it.
Back then did I know Z Nation was going to come about, no. But I did something that I was led to do due to some incidences that happened to me in the past. Where I wasn’t able to defend myself. Then I get a show where they ask can you do martial arts? I was like bet, do you want me to stand up (laughs).

UrbanBridgez.com: Or you want me to demonstrate sitting down (laughs).
Kellita Smith: That part! (laughs). I can do it in pumps! The great thing is there wasn’t an African american woman in that region. We shot in Washington and I had to do my own stunts. So that’s all me, there is no other person.

UrbanBridgez.com: I didn’t know that.
Kellita Smith: I know, they didn’t know it either. They were like oh my god, look at how much money we’re saving (laughs).

UrbanBridgez.com: You have to tell us about one of your fondest memories, while shooting The Bernie Mac Show?
Kellita Smith: I miss Bernie man, and I’m going through menopause, so everything makes me tear up. So forgive me. But I really, really miss him. The person, his kindness, his jokes, the gentle man that he was. He was always a gentlemen. We had to be on set at 5 am, his pants had creases in them, his shirt was tucked in, his belt was up high, smelling like cologne. I was lucky if my socks matched (both laugh). He was just him. And the camaraderie we had, just the unfolding friendship we had. I felt very, very lucky to have the friendship I was able to develop with him. To have booked that job and to have had time with a man who left too soon. I sure could use a joke right now.

UrbanBridgez.com: What’s something the great Bernie Mac taught you about the business, that you’ve used all these years since?
Kellita Smith: Great question, you know no one really ever asked me that question. So thank you. He taught me how to be a lead on a show. Because when it came to the lead on Z Nation, it was everything that I saw him do. How to protect your cast, how to protect the crew, how to ingratiate everyone that comes. How to appreciate what you have before you. All of those things, I kind of feel like I demonstrated throughout Z Nation. We were being threatened with not getting a fifth season. The union was going to shut it down because of whatever was going on. I choose to be an artist and what I did is held a conference meeting to employ to the entities that were having their differences or conflicts. Which are bigger than them. You have a crew of 87 people including myself. That have invested not only four years, but also the fact it’s the first time an African american woman lead on a network. There’s no way I’m going to have a mark, if I don’t make it to the fifth season. Then there was a season five. So when to stand up and when to voice yourself and even when to fall back you know. Bernie also gave me courage to realize that I have comedy timing. I have something that can’t be taught, it’s either something you have or you don’t.

UrbanBridgez.com: Out of all of your roles and there have been many from Martin to the Jamie Foxx show, what was one of your favorite earlier in your career?
Kellita Smith: All of them, shhh, it’s hard to get one (both laugh). All of them, it’s so hard to say. Oh my god I have goosebumps, all of them. Because it’s a process to get a job. Then when you land one, oh my god it’s amazing. And it was poppin back then, I was like baby I came to L.A. at the right time! Like a good old gambler (laughs).

UrbanBridgez.com: Lucky, Lucky! In about two more years and it will be your 30th year in Hollywood, what’s been your biggest reward from your career?
Kellita Smith: The checks, let me see (laughs). I would have to say that I took this chance. I took a chance on me, I believed in me. But when it gets to 30, it has to be a point where it’s more than a check, it has to be more self you know. It’s so much that goes into being an artists period. Not even just acting, even if it’s singing or being a musician or a painter. There’s so many other people who can do it too. There’s so many other people who have the beautiful gift. But who has the courage to say me? I’m gonna take a chance on me.

UrbanBridgez.com: What’s next for you?
Kellita Smith: Getting out this damn quarantine, just playing (laughs). I do think this whole universal pause is giving everyone a chance to reset. Giving us a chance to take our game up. I’m an actor so I will never quit. There are certain things that I’m more diligent about now. Creating jobs for not just myself, but for other people. Which means executive producing. And really, really making a mark in this stand-up game. It’s standing up having a conversation, so I’m altering it. Not getting up to tell jokes.

UrbanBridgez.com: Any last words you want to share?
Kellita Smith: Take this time to nurse yourself and to better yourself. Because when it’s time to get back out there, let’s just be better people and better teachers.