- If you were to die... - Mm-hmm.
And you were to come back as anything,
what would it be?
I would come back as a wealthy, powerful white man,
and I would start a movement to dismantle patriarchy.
Have you ever wondered how to find your center?
How to balance yourself?
I don't have a fucking clue.
But let me tell you, I think Miss Tessa Thompson just may.
We're gonna take a journey to figure out
how she does that little balancing act of hers.
Welcome to "Centerpiece"!
Thank you so much.
This is like the inner workings of my brain
manifested as a set.
It's like the garden of your mind.
Yeah! Oh, my God!
And now, let's take a journey to the center!
So, what kind of flowers are you drawn to?
I really like succulents.
I also love this idea of something that's beautiful,
but hard to touch or something.
Oh, a prickly.
A prickly guy. I like the prickly guys.
Okay. Like kind of like these.
You know, they don't look like they're--
They're bottlebrush. They're gorgeous, but they--
they bring you in, but they also say, like,
you know, "Give me my space."
Okay, now let's get into this
'cause I think this is talking about something here.
I like that.
Like I feel there's this balance to you.
As I see you in things, I feel like you have a sense of, like,
"I'm letting you in,"
but I'm also like, "Not too much."
So I think the same thing about characters in a way.
So, maybe that's my approach a little bit
is that I want to open up enough
to let the audience see everything
and also realize that there are some things
inside the character that I play
that are hidden even to myself.
Oh. Because we are just...
- Complex. - Endless.
The projects that you pick
I feel like they forward that conversation.
So, I'm wondering how do you pick a project?
I've been working now for over a decade,
and when I first started,
there was a such a limited scope of what you could be
as a young black woman,
in terms of what Hollywood wanted you to be.
- And that is just true. - 100%
Like I want to be able to occupy a lot of spaces
because that's something that we haven't been able to do enough.
What I'm hearing, if I may,
is there's like a fluidity to, like, how you work,
and there's a freedom to that fluidity.
Are those your Libra vibes?
- You like that? - I love that.
Maybe.
And now, let's go deep.
Dramatic lighting change.
Spring or Summer?
Spring.
Sister, Sister
- or "Moesha"? - "Moesha"!
I know. Moe to the...
"E" to the Moesha!
DC or Marvel?
Sir...
they'll come for me.
But, no. Marvel, sincerely.
Not just 'cause if I said the other,
they'd, like, fly down and...
Hemsworth or Michael B?
Oh, my God. Both.
- You've been busy. - I know.
It's a lot of work.
But I just mean if you could meld them.
All in one.
And lastly, probably the most important question,
if you were to describe me as a flower,
what would I be?
You know like those, um...
they're, like, blue and there's a little white part,
and then there's these little black squiggly things
that come out of it.
Is it a passion flower? Oh, my God!
- I'm totally there for that! - Yeah!
You stay here. I'll be back.
Or maybe you'll join me later, I'm not sure.
- But we'll figure it out, okay? - Okay, great.
It's so good to see you, all right?
- Have a good one. - Bye, Maurice.
All right. Bye!
See you. I'll just be here.
Girl, it's time to process.
Tessa talked about complexity and simplicity.
And that's what I'm working through as I'm building her installation.
I mean, she exudes balance and boundlessness...
stillness, but yet there's still some motion.
Light, and she still engages the darkness.
Her centerpiece is going to embody it all
and the vast array of who she is.
Or at least I hope so.
Are you ready for this?
No, I don't know if I am. I just got--I don't know.
Like nervous, excited.
You've been so generous
giving us, like, opening up,
sharing with us about balance and energies
and openness and endlessness
that I was like, "How do I synthesize this
in the form of a flower arrangement?"
Cue the curtain!
Oh, my God!
Wow!
We chose this area 'cause it was vast and endless.
It represents how we just go on in our complexities,
but it's also very simple.
- Yeah. - And spare.
- She spins around if you want it to. - She--does she really?
Yeah, spin her. Give her a whirl.
Oh, she's cool. She's mobile.
- Isn't that amazing? - Yeah, it's incredible.
I could live, like, really just live here
- for the rest of my life. - It's all right?
Yeah, it's beautiful.
It's better than all right. Look at it.
When you present yourself, you're always so, like,
you take up risk.
You kind of have a moment, but it's still so beautifully composed.
Like I just love that.
I mean, like, you're serving me hair.
You're giving me drama. You're giving me leather.
You're giving me lace, basically.
- Also, we matched this. - Well, you know.
And it sort of looks like a dance floor.
Get it double time!
Got--got--got to go!
- Bye! - Bye. Out.
- Thank you. - See you soon, okay?
- Love you! - Bye!