Hall and her fellow co-hosts have been preparing and “really honing in on what the show”—taking place Sunday, March 27—will be. “It’s live! I think that’s the scariest thing is that it’s live,” the Girls Trip actress said with a laugh. “So it will be what it will be. We’ll see what life it’ll take on.” While the live aspect of the Oscars might be daunting, Hall’s new haunting thriller Master, written and directed by Mariama Diallo, is likely to have some viewers on the edge of their seats. In it, the Scary Movie album plays Gail Bishop, the first Black woman to become master of a residence hall at a predominantly white (fictional) New England university, where Black freshman Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee) believes she is being haunted by ghosts of the storied institution’s past. Continue reading to find out what Hall told Parade about her role in Master—streaming on Prime Video and in select theaters Friday, March 18—and what kind of professor she once was at a college in New York…
You’ve played Brenda Meeks in the Scary Movies and now Gail Bishop in Master. Did you grow up a fan of horror films?
I did. I actually do like horror films. I really do. I think growing up I probably watched a lot more slasher films like the Halloweens, the Friday the 13th. There was this movie Trilogy of Terror and it had the little doll…He had piranha teeth and a spear. [laughs]
I haven’t seen those! I have to admit, I’m a chicken.
Oh okay. Yeah. My mom’s a chicken too. She would have dreams of the Birds. Like, ‘Oh, I watched the Birds, it was so scary.’
So you don’t scare easily? Horror films are nothing?
No, they are, [but] where people are like, ‘Oh my goodness, I won’t be able to sleep,’ I just don’t have that. So, it’s not that they’re nothing, it’s just that I’ll still be able to sleep that night.
Your character Gail is the master of a residence hall at a university in New England. I didn’t realize that you were once a professor at a university in New York.
Yeah, at a college. The College of New Rochelle in New York.
Did you tap into your old academia roots for this role?
A little. Probably more of some of my professors who I looked up to who kind of inspired me. I had a professor, Professor Pamela Newkirk. I probably tapped more into her as Gail and what I knew she dealt with in facing tenure. Everything that she kind of dealt with… I don’t know what kind of teacher I was. I think I was good. I think I was good. I was kind of strict, but I think I was a pretty- I need to ask some students. No, maybe I don’t. I’m gonna take my own cue. I was a great professor. No [laughs], I think I was okay.
Do you ever miss teaching? Is it something you ever think about going back to?
No, no. Teaching, you have to really give it up to teachers. It’s a lot of work. I mean, you have to do your syllabus, you have to do papers and read them and there’s so much instruction that you have to give to do it well. But I always enjoyed students, you know what I mean? I loved watching students like do better and improve and watching them really get excited about their success, or do well on a test. There’s nothing like watching achievement and the joy that it brings. It doesn’t have to be huge—even if it’s like just doing better than the last time, or watching a student have a breakthrough and understanding, that part I did enjoy.
What was the most challenging part of playing Gail in Master?
I think Gail has such an emotional journey. And I think that you know making sure that what she dealt with and what she experienced that it resonated with audiences and that it was authentic to Gail because obviously what happens to Jasmine, there’s a way that Gail feels like it’s her fault, but there’s a part of her that really doesn’t know, you know, and kind of making sure that the humanity of who she is as a character, although it goes too much, it stays intact, you know. There’s so much hope and promise in the beginning, you know, when [Gail’s] like the first at this institution, but I think her understanding and realize all that she sacrificed and now what that has cost someone else, you know, all that she’s kind of ignored and dismissed as a reality that lives in Ancaster College.. I think, tapping into that.
In the film, you have the witch and these haunting elements, but to me, the real horror was the racism these women experienced. What do you think is the underlying message of Master?
I think it’s all of that. But I also think what resonates will be different for everyone. I know Mariama [Diallo] always talks about you know, the ghost of our history, the ghost of our past that haunt us that those are things that really when you think of Jasmine and when you think of Gail, that was actually probably more damaging than the ghosts, you know? I think sometimes the daunting reality of what’s really going on versus what you hope for, what you wish for and then on top of it there is a real ghost, so it’s which haunts more, you know, the ghosts of history or ghosts that are spiritual ghosts. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity Next, want to laugh? Here are 11 Comedies on Prime Video Right Now
