The star of She The People at Netflix, Terri J. Vaughn, got her start as a professional actor in Friday, the 1995 stoner movie featuring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker.
Vaughn auditioned for the the sister-of-Craig role, Debbie. "Through the whole audition process I kept getting callbacks," she recalls. "On the last callback I go in and it's just me. In walks Nia Long. Then they come out and tell me, 'We're not going to give you that part, but if you're interested we want to give you something because you're really good. So that was that part."
The Debbie role went to Long and Vaughn was given a cameo as China. Her scene is on the porch as Craig (Ice Cube) and Smokey (Tucker) hang out.
Vaughn was 26 at the time. She's since appeared in The Steve Harvey Show, All of Us and Meet the Browns until her latest, She The People, in which she plays Mississippi Lt. Gov. Antoinette Dunkerson. Created by Tyler Perry and Niya Palmer, it's an eight-episode political comedy that uses broad humor to make its points about how backwards the Southern state is when it comes to the history of slavery. One of the biggest gags is the Confederate flag pillows at the Lt. Gov's plantation mansion. They make Antoinette, her feisty mom Cleo (Jo Marie Payton), fast-talking cousin Shamika (Jade Novah), her hilarious boyfriend Basil (Dyon Brooks) and every visitor to the house uncomfortable, but are never removed.
By Ep. 8, Antoinette finally has the nerve to challenge racist Gov. Harper (Robert Craighead). Part 2 of Season 1 streams Aug 14.
While Antoinette is straight-laced, her family members aren't. In the first episode, she asks Cleo, "Mama, have you been smoking weed?"
"I don't smoke weed," Cleo sayss. "I chew it!"
In Ep. 3, while Shamika and Basil share a blunt in the mansion, Basil tells Antoinette, "You need to hit this weed because you're stressed out." She doesn't.
In Ep. 7, Basil makes his case to Antoinette for legalization:
"All I need for y'all to do for me is to get weed legal here so I can get high when I want to."
Maybe Antoinette will if she gets the chance to be governor.
Clearly, Vaughn has come a long way since Friday.
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