Eve reprises the role of Terri Jones in Barbershop 2: Back in Business and she has nailed the character this time around. “For me it was fun, just to play her in a different way, and trying to have to suppress the anger. When I read the script and I seen her going to the anger-management classes, which were really male-bashing classes that were supposed to be helping her, that was just fun. Not to be as feisty. But it’s hard for her because she’s actually feisty. That’s just who Terri is.”
She says she can relate to the character, though she’s not as angry all the time. “I can definitely be feisty about my stuff. Just don’t play with me and we’re cool.” Did she base Terri on anyone? “There are certain similarities. Especially for the first one. Just being in bad relationships, and this one, getting over another relationship and just being done. I’m done with everything and I really need to be into myself.”
Eve agrees that it’s harder for actors to go into music, then it is for musicians to go into acting. “It’s unfortunate when actors try to sing because nobody gives them a chance. Like Jennifer Love Hewitt, she had a nice voice. Nobody cared. It’s like, don’t nobody care. It’s much, much harder for them. I think the music world is like, no. It’s very easy for singers and rappers to get into movies because it’s a fad right now. The door is definitely open, so it’s unfortunate. It’s always been that way.” She does double duty on this film. “Yeah, I have two songs [on the soundtrack]. One song with Mary J. Blige and one song with an artist named Keisha Cole.”
She says acting isn’t as easy as rapping to her. “It’s hard to just kind of get into it for me. Rapping is like, ‘okay, it’s a mic, it’s a beat.’ You know? I’m ready to get on stage. I’m ready to go. Acting, you just have to really be comfortable with it. Sometimes it’s really hard for me to just kind of breathe and be comfortable, so it takes me a little minute to get into it.”
Receiving good scripts hasn’t been too hard, she adds. “There are certain things that I have wanted that I haven’t gotten, yes. It’s the same process for me too. I get turned down. It’s not as easy as everybody would think but it’s pretty easy to get a meeting. If I want to meet somebody or if I want to get into something I’m like, ‘C’mon, we gotta have a meeting.’ There are certain things that make it a little easier.”
Eve also stars in her own TV show, which she actually wanted titled “The Opposite Sex” but UPN wanted to stick with her name. “It’s definitely different. It takes some getting used to because I’m used to being all over the place in a week. Getting up at the same time every morning and going to the same place everyday and seeing the same people everyday, it took some getting used to. Now I like it.”
Queen Latifah, who stars in the sequel and will have her own spin-off called Beauty Shop, has been a big motivation for Eve. “I grew up on her music, I watched her sitcom and I watched her movies. I’ve been fortunate to be able to meet her. She actually just did a cameo as my big sister on my TV show. She’s an incredible person. She has incredible drive. For me it’s just motivation, like wow, she came from hip hop and she’s respected in Hollywood.”
The Latifah episode will air sometime in February. “We just shot it actually. The episode is hilarious, but she plays my big sister who, for me, as her little sister, I love her. She’s my idol, but she always steals my light. So you see us going through her saving my behind, again, one more time. And then we fight. We actually have a fight on this episode. It’s hilarious. We get physical. We had a stunt coordinator and everything.”
Would she be up for a Barbershop 3? “If it’s done the right way? If it made sense, maybe.”
Barbershop 2: Back in Business opens nationwide on Friday, February 6.
