🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐
You might recognize Teyonah Parris from her breakout role as Dawn Chambers, the first recurring Black character in Mad Men. Or perhaps as the cunning, fame-hungry Coco in the 2014 film Dear White People. Or maybe from playing the fierce superhero Monica Rambeau on WandaVision.
But there’s nothing that prepares you for her indelible performance in They Cloned Tyrone as Yo-Yo –– a supersmart, take-no-mess sex worker with a tongue so foul she could make the Devil blush. Quickly establishing herself as an unstoppable force of nature in one of the film’s very first scenes, Parris is mesmerizing (and perhaps a little shocking) as she delivers raunchy dialogue with the swagger of a stand-up comic working blue. From her first minute on-screen until her very last, Parris shatters any notions that she’s here to play it safe. And for the Juilliard-trained performer, Yo-Yo is both a big swing and a home run –– made clear from the way she holds her own opposite Jamie Foxx and John Boyega.
Tudum spoke with Parris in June about toying with the stereotypes that are so adroitly sent up in the sci-fi comedy caper, the rap music she used to get into character, and what it was like working with one of her artistic heroes, Foxx.
They Cloned Tyrone is quite different from anything you’ve ever done. What made you want to be a part of it?
Well, I read the script back in 2018. And from that moment, I have been chasing this project down. I loved how the script was throwing up genres and world-building. I loved the social [and socioeconomic] commentary.
Yo-Yo makes quite an impression in her first scene. She’s talking trash, we learn she’s a sex worker, we learn she has big dreams. What was filming that first scene like?
Gosh. Well, first of all, let’s acknowledge the fact that I am opposite a legend. That scene was actually the first scene I filmed for the movie. I had no rehearsals with Jamie. So my first time working with him was in front of the camera. I was like, “Really? This is what you give me on my first day, my first scene, where I’m going toe-to-toe with Jamie Foxx?!” That line where Jamie says, “Calm your ass down, Yo-Yo, before your ass pass out!” — I really was about to pass out. I was so excited. I was starstruck. This is an artist whose work I’ve admired for so long. And I’m standing here with him? Acting in a movie? It was just on overload on so many different levels, but it was so much fun. And Jamie is such a generous artist and a generous human, I really started to calm down and live in it fully, and not, like, watch myself doing the work.
How much of what Jamie was doing was improv? How much of your work was improv?
He’s amazing. I felt very supported by him. I felt free to explore different choices with the character, although I might have been like, “What is he gonna think of me?!” So, I had to try to let those things go and really stay focused on the work and telling Yo-Yo’s story. But he went by what was on the page first. And if the moment arrived, he would start improv-ing. And I’d be like, “How did you think of that?!” I would start responding to things that are happening in real time and being able to pivot by watching him.
You’ve been great in so many roles in your career, but some would take umbrage at playing a prostitute. It used to be that a Black actor might play a prostitute or an addict at the beginning of her career but then refuse those roles later. Was any of that cultural baggage going through your head when you signed on to play her?
What I loved about Yo-Yo when I read the script is that while Juel (Taylor, director and co-screenwriter) and Tony (Rettenmaier, co-screenwriter) start with archetypes that fall into stereotypes, they then fall into full-fledged human beings with lives and ambitions and desires. We get to see how we can judge a person without actually knowing them. We learn who these people are. So no, I didn’t second-guess being able to have the opportunity to tell Yo-Yo’s story, because I’m drawn to films that have something to say, that speak for people who don’t always have a voice, that speak for communities that are often marginalized. I definitely am intentional when I pick projects. It’s important to me not only what the character has to say, but who the creators are. Juel was a first-time director, so I thought that was really exciting. So I didn’t think twice about being able to tell Yo-Yo’s story. I just loved that she’s a fully fleshed-out character. I love women who have a point of view, who are ambitious and who are deeply flawed — that’s more interesting. [We see] the things she’s striving to accomplish in life and the things she’s failed miserably at. We all have that. It’s what you do going forward and how you show up for your community and those you love that is ultimately what’s important. And she embodies that.
They Cloned Tyrone is a lot of fun but, as you said earlier, it’s loaded with messages and commentary. Which ones resonated with you most?
I think what’s interesting in our film is this idea of: “What am I in control of, and what am I not?” Poverty, the cycle of despair that the many members of this community have fallen into –– from the outside, people judge and say: “Well, you put yourself there.” So, while it’s a fictional story, it’s an allegory for our real life, how we look at communities, or at people in particular positions within a community, and say, “Why aren’t you rising above the circumstance?” And if you look into it, it could be other things that are at play. In our movie, is it a government conspiracy? But you apply it to real life, it could be anything, like, generational traumas. Sometimes things are made for me to believe as if I chose them, when I actually didn’t.
Do you have a favorite Yo-Yo moment?
When I think of how much fun I had, I think of the community we built on set and how we became like family very fast. We didn’t even have rehearsals as a group. We had some individually with Juel, but not as a trio. Our first time together as a trio was in front of the camera, which can be nerve-wracking. But my favorite Yo-Yo part was when she decided to come up with a plan in order to save herself so that she could save the community. When you see it, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
How’d you get into character? Did you watch Blaxploitation movies?
It’s so funny. I really pulled from so many different genres, because we are pulling from all over in this movie. I do remember moments in my trailer blasting Trina, [Crime Mob’s] “Knuck If You Buck.” Things like that to have that very, “You’re not gonna step to me! I’m bad, nobody can tell me nothing” energy I don’t always have.
There’s also physicality in this role. You’re running around and shooting and stuff. What was that like?
Well on a practical level, Yo-Yo has an inconvenient wardrobe for falling into a mystery and running around. Between the thigh-high boots, all the makeup and hair, it’s like, “Girl! Can you put on some sweats to go figure out what’s happening?!” It’s so over the top. It was like, “This might be a lot, no? We got yellow chaps, sky-high boots, leopard fur? OK! Then we go over to hair. Oh, big-ass Afro? Then makeup: that lipstick? Cheetah nails? OK!” Just embracing that this is who this woman is, this is normal for her. I had to find a way to become comfortable in that wardrobe. And that helped me get into character. She is so unapologetically herself. The film is so unapologetically Black. We go all the way in. I love her ambitions, her ferocity, her intelligence. She’s a bad mama jama, for sure.
What do you hope people take away after seeing this? How do you want them to feel?
First, I hope they enjoy the film and are entertained. And I want them to ask themselves questions. In the film, we talk a lot about the cycle of poverty and trauma. We touch on socioeconomic despair and what that looks like within communities. I hope that this film sparks conversations: “What do we have control over? What do we not? What are we made to think we have control of?” I just hope people are really engaged in conversation after watching our film.
They Cloned Tyrone hits Netflix on July 21.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
