Exclusive: Eve Talks Barbershop: The Next CutPosted by Wilson Morales
April 12, 2016
Coming out this week is Barbershop: The Next Cut, the third installment of the Barbershop franchise.
Directed by Malcolm D. Lee from a script by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver, the film features the return of cast members Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Eve, Anthony Anderson, Jazsmin Lewis, Troy Garity and Sean Patrick Thomas.
New cast members include Oscar winner Common, Regina Hall, Nicki Minaj, Chyna Layne, Michael Rainey Jr., Deon Cole, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Lamorne Morris, J.B. Smoove, Tyga, Margot Bingham, Diallo Thompson and Isaiah John.
For Eve (nee Jeffers), this marks her first big role on the big screen since she appeared in ‘The Cookout’ back in 2004. Although she did the Lifetime film, ‘With This Ring’ with co-star Regina Hall in 2015, it’s rare to see her do films or music these days. The former rapper from Philadelphia has been married to Maximillion Cooper since 2014 and lives overseas.
In speaking with Blackfilm.com, Eve talks about returning to the franchise that launched her film career, and getting the inspiration to get back in the studio and create new music.
What were your thoughts When you first heard they were bringing this movie and bringing you back?
Eve: First I was like, “I don’t think I’m going to do it, maybe.” Because for years people would be like, “Oh, what if they did a Barbershop 3?” And I was like, “Don’t know, not sure.” Then when I got the call I was, “Wow. Okay, so we’re doing it.” I talked to Bob Teitel, who’s one of the producers, and I was like, “I don’t know.” He was like, “Let me just send you the script.” Once I read the script, it was a no-brainer. The script is so good and I love where they took my character, Terri. It was perfect.
Were you able to ad-lib anything?
Eve: I don’t think I needed to. That’s the other thing. I felt like they did a good job with her. As far as her life goals, involvement, being a mother, wife, having a new life out of the Barbershop and doing her own thing. I brought to it what I felt like I needed to bring to it as far as being in the scenes, but I was happy with the way they wrote her.
What was that feeling that first day? Seeing a lot of familiar faces again? And seeing the newcomers?
Eve: It was really nice. I was excited for that. Obviously, I know Cube and I love being on set with him. He’s just the best. Seeing everybody that came back, but also seeing Nicki and Common and Margot and Regina and all these new people, it was really nice. Everybody had the same energy. Everybody was excited to be there, so that helped.
The first Barbershop was your film debut coming in from the music industry. In this film, there’s Nicki Minaj, who has a big role than she had in ‘The Other Woman’ with Cameron Diaz. How did you work with her in terms of being on a different platform.
Eve: It wasn’t a conversation we had. I’m sure she worked with whoever she worked with. I think she came prepared. We went through our scenes. I think we tweeked accordingly, but not so much as people. More as we tweeked our characters. One of the biggest things we said to each other and to Malcolm about our situation was that we didn’t want it to be a typical girl fight over a dude. You get sick of seeing that. That was one thing that we were able to do like, why can’t we talk it out? Let’s be friends at the end of this thing. That was a big dean. Other than that, she came prepared. She did her thing.
Michael Ealy isn’t back for this film, and your characters were close in the last film. In this film, there’s Common and you’re a couple onscreen. Talk to me about establishing that dynamic with him for the audience.
Eve: It was important for Common and I that Common and I worked away from the set on our own and went over characters and talked about what we wanted to show people and what we wanted to come across. We really both wanted people to see that this couple, they’re going through stuff, but they love each other. They have a family. Misunderstandings happen all the time. Life is like that. Let’s show people though that this is a strong relationship. Nothing like some little bullshit over here and this little shit over here is not going to break up what we started, what we have as a family. Hopefully that shows across screen because we both, that was important to us.
When’s the last time you were in a setting where people, whether they know you or not, you just have a random conversation? People go into a barbershop and you’re going to talk to strangers and barbers about sports, politics, whatever.
Eve: I do it all the time. I travel a lot. I have those conversations a lot. I’ll be in a lounge, or on a plane, and I’ll meet people who have no clue what I do at all. They don’t have a clue, which I love, because then you can have a different kind of conversation. They might be directors of this company or whatever and I like knowing that. I like finding out what other people do. I actually have random conversations a lot.
Do you lie? When you know that you don’t know who you are? Do you make up something else?
Eve: I always keep it very broad. I always say I work in Entertainment. I keep it all the time. They’ll ask, “Oh, what is it?” I’ll be like, “Oh, I do a little TV” or whatever. I keep it very broad. When you’re traveling, especially people that I meet that travel a lot, they’re not really trying to find out your business. They’re in transit wanting to have a conversation with somebody else because they’ve been traveling for so long. It’s kind of nice.
You did ‘With This Ring’ with Regina. Obviously you’re working together here. We don’t see you so often in films anymore. Why not?
Eve: No reason other than I live on the other side of the world.
They don’t make films there?
Eve: It’s not that. I also made a conscious decision to step back a little bit because I just got married, I’ve become a wife, I live in a new country, I have 4 step-children. I needed to figure out what my footing was. It’s fixable, but it’s a new life plan. Where am I right now at this point in my life?
Do you want to get back in the game?
Eve: I do. Doing stuff like this and doing stuff like With This Ring, is always inspiring. Being with a great cast, a great director, great crew, that’s always inspiring. I definitely want to do more. I don’t want to just be in one movie a year. That’s up to me. I have to get on it.
For people who have not followed your career or your background, are you still in the music business?
Eve: Yeah, I am. Some exciting things are happening.
What’s next for you?
Eve: What’s next for me? Definitely music. Being on this set inspired me as well. Being around Common would be like, “You writing? What you doing?” Regina even randomly would be like, “You need to get in the studio.” Being on this set actually inspired me a lot. I’m excited about doing it.
What was the funniest scene you saw or you did?
Eve: There’s so many moments, honestly. I think a lot of my stuff. Not like the last two, a lot of my stuff was more serious than the last two were. We’ve had little moments, like the closet moment and all that kind of stuff. I wouldn’t call it comedic, but on set there were so many moments. Everybody I know that’s seen it in the cast really enjoyed it.
