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Retta is promoting the second season of Good Girls, which is airing now on NBC and wraps pretty soon, on May 5th. It has already been renewed for a third season. I’ve seen about three episodes. It’s funny and I like the ensemble especially but it didn’t draw me in. She was on Colbert for the first time, where she revealed the origin of her name. Her full name is Marietta Sirleaf but a boyfriend in college called her Retta, which she hated and told her friends about so of course they teased her with it. It was easier to say and it stuck. She also said that she graduated pre-med from Duke and that her parents told her if she was going to be an actress not to half ass it. She didn’t and it sounds like her dad was so proud of her.

How her dad learned she was starting to makeup
My first thing was [on] Jenny Jones’ talk show. She had comics on the show. The day it was airing my dad had a barbershop appointment. Apparently his barbershop watched Jenny Jones so when he came in [they said] do you have a daughter that’s a standup? He was like the cool guy for a month in the barbershop.

Her dad used to lend out tapes of her TV appearances
He started taping my stuff. He worked at Conair corporation. He used to take my videos to work with a sign off sheet and if people wanted to see his daughter they would sign out the tapes. It was like his own little Blockbuster, his Retta-buster.

On not remembering meeting Robert Redford
The first time I went to the Golden Globes I was [drunk]. They had Moet on the red carpet I was very stressed. We get there and there’s no food. The only thing on the table is breadsticks and a giant thing of Moet. Jim O’Heir [Jerry on Parks & Rec] was pouring me drinks. I was blasted. The next day [someone] said ‘Jim said you met Robert Redford.’ We go to our table read. I said ‘Jim why did you tell Hadley that I met Robert Redford’

‘Bitch you did. Remember someone stepped on your foot? That was Robert Redford.’ You [said it was cool because he was Robert Redford] and you called him ‘homie.’

[From The Late Show]

I love that she told the story about her dad getting lauded at the barbershop for her appearance on Jenny Jones. She did tell that story in another interview but this time she added the detail that her dad taped all her TV appearances and lent them out. That’s really sweet! As for the story that she was so drunk at the Golden Globes she can’t remember meeting Robert Redford, that sounds so scary and I would be embarrassed to admit that! I only have a couple of stories of blacking out and there’s just one I will ever repeat. You get this horrible sick feeling trying to remember what happened. That said, it doesn’t mean she’s got a problem or that it was a typical blackout, it’s more like she was just wasted and didn’t remember that one incident in a busy night. It sounds like a one-off for her. Maybe she doesn’t drink much or that particular drink with a combination of not eating did it to her. Also this reminds me of Lily Tomlin saying she doesn’t remember meeting Andy Warhol! To be that famous and connected.

Here’s the interview!

This is Retta at the NBC Golden Globes after party in 2014. This might have been the night!

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