You will want to be best friends with 'Girls Trip' breakout Tiffany Haddish
Tiffany Haddish, breakout star of the raunchy comedy Girls Trip, is not really surprised that her story about taking a swamp tour in New Orleans with costar Jada Pinkett Smith and her husband, Will Smith, went viral recently.
The comedian, who stars in TBS's upcoming sitcom The Last O.G. alongside Tracy Morgan, told Jimmy Kimmel a seven-minute anecdote about taking the Smiths on a Groupon-purchased excursion during filming that had the host and his audience in stitches — something she expected simply because she, too, found the whole outing hilarious.
"I was so amused by the story," she told Mashable. "I'm like, I wonder where the people are that were on the boat. Are they tweeting it? Are they talking about it?"
She also had a feeling that the R-rated Girls Trip, about four longtime friends who spend a long weekend together in New Orleans (where hijinks most certainly ensue), was going to be a hit.
"When they were testing the movie, people were hitting me up on Facebook that I didn't even know — and some people that I did know — they were like, 'Oh my god, this movie is amazing!' So I was like, 'Okay, this many people hitting me up on Facebook off of the test screenings?' It's probably really dope," she told Mashable. "And then when I saw it and I peed on myself a little bit, I was like, 'This gonna do alright. This gonna be ok.'"
The 37-year-old actress, who recently wrapped the third season of NBC's now-canceled Carmichael Show, said on a panel with her Last O.G. costars that the past few weeks (since Girls Trip's release) has been a whirlwind — but one she's ready to embrace.
"I feel like a foster kid who has been in the system for a long time and when they turn 16 somebody adopted them and said, 'You can go to college and you ain't got to pay no student loans.' I'm happy! I'm super happy," she told reporters. "I've been accepted, finally, after all these years of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. People seeing it now: She ready!"
She admits she's still waiting on her bank account to reflect her new movie star status — "They say it's nine months. It's like a baby. I'm waiting for the delivery," she joked — but "I'm the same old Tiff."
The actress made headlines of a different sort, though, when she told the Los Angeles Times that she would still work with Bill Cosby. "I'll drink the juice. I'll take a nap. I don't give a damn," she said in the interview.
But on the Last O.G. panel, she clarified her comments.
“It was a joke,” she said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been interviewed. You go through about 27 interviews and you’re supposed to be humorous — sometimes you are going to make some bad jokes.”
What she meant, she said, was that “I’m not afraid to do any kind of role as long as it doesn’t compromise my morals. I don’t agree with what he did, but I’m not afraid of the big bad wolf. That’s what I was trying to say, and I was trying to do it in a humorous way.”
While she's working on The Last O.G., the comedy game show Face Value for BET, and more, Haddish has a few dream projects now that she's becoming a household name.
"I'm so happy the world is finally being exposed to [my work]," she told Mashable. "I can't wait for them to see The Last O.G. and see Face Value and all these other shows that I've got coming and more movies where they can go, 'Wow, this girl is versatile. She's the black Meryl Streep. And then Meryl Streep will be in a movie with me and she'll play my mom and it'll be crazy! Then Meryl Streep will be my best friend and Whoopi Goldberg can be my auntie."
