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Back to One

A podcast about acting -- just the work. by Peter Rinaldi

“It’s the Essence That Does the Job”: Cassandra Freeman, Back To One, Episode 370

Cassandra Freeman has made her mark in everything from drama to laugh out loud comedy across film, television, and the stage. She is best known for her feature roles in Spike Lee’s Inside Man and Chris Rock’s I Think I Love My Wife. She has also starred in The Last O.G., NBC’s The Enemy Within, and Marvel’s Luke Cage. And now she just finished her four-season run as Vivian Banks (Aunt Viv) on the hit Peacock show Bel Air. On this episode, she explains how she came to trust her intuition, how research into African traditions of performance shifted her paradigm, the “thievery” of over-direction and how it robs her of “discovery,” the words that every actor should hear from their director, why it all starts with a prayer, and much more.

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