Photo: Getty Images
Tyler Perry’s Sistas spinoff Zatima is now streaming on BET Plus.
In an exclusive interview with iHeartRadio personality Jazmyn Summers, the spinoff's stars, Devale Ellis and Crystal Renee Hayslett, opened up about the making of the series, their on-screen chemistry, their real-life love lives, and what it's been like working with the legendary Tyler Perry.
Keep scrolling to read our full interview.
HOW REAL IS THE ON-SCREEN CHEMISTRY BETWEEN YOU?
Devale: I would say it's real because we're really friends. We talk on the phone probably three or four times a day. She's my youngest son's godmother. It's easy to go to work and build something that's already there. I legitimately love Crystal as a person. So what you see is real because we love what we do, and we love each other.
YOU’RE BOTH GORGEOUS AND YOU ALL HAVE SOME STEAMY LOVE SCENES. HOW DO YOU STOP THAT CHEMISTRY FROM BECOMING REAL?
Devale: It's called discipline. There are beautiful women everywhere. I haven't had a costar yet that’s not beautiful. But I love being married and I love monogamy. So it's easy for me.
Photo: Getty Images
IN THE EPISODES CURRENTLY STREAMING, FATIMA’S BEST FRIEND BELINDA TRIES TO GET AT ZAC, AND FATIMA PULLS A GUN AND SHOOTS AT HER. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?
Crystal: Belinda is stirring things up in the household for sure. And she's trying me and my man, and I don't like it. So I do pull a gun out of my purse and shoot it at her and I say, if I wanted to kill her she’d be dead. That was a warning shot. But stay tuned to see what happens next.
ZAC SEEMS TO HAVE A LOT OF WOMEN FROM HIS PAST COMING BACK INTO HIS LIFE, INCLUDING A STRIPPER THAT SAYS SHE IS THE MOTHER OF HIS CHILD. TELL ME ABOUT THAT.
Crystal: It's crazy because Atlanta is so small, like in real life too Zac has a long list. We're still trying to figure that number out. How many, Zac?
Devale: Five. That's the number. The fifth.
DEVALE, LET'S TALK ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING BOOK ABOUT YOUR MARRIAGE. WHAT CAN WE EXPECT?
Devale: the name of the book is We Over Me: The counterintuitive Approach to Getting the Relationship You Want with the One You Love. It's a collection of trials and tribulations [my wife and I] gone through since being 18 years old up until now. We've been together 20 years. It’s saying how we created the love that we wanted. We learned that having empathy and looking to serve each other is the only way you can find the relationship you want. So it really tears down all of the societal norms they try to create about being the ideal couple. Because we don't feel we are the ideal couple. We feel like we're perfect in our imperfections.
CRYSTAL, ARE YOU BOOED UP OR SINGLE?
Crystal: Free and single here to mingle.
IS IT CHALLENGING DATING NOW THAT YOU’RE A STAR? HOW DO YOU SEPARATE THE CLOUT CHASERS FROM THE REAL ONES?
Crystal: You know what, I have to thank God for my level of discernment. It may take me a minute to listen to it, but when I have that feeling, I can kind of tell when people are around for the wrong reasons. And you have to get rid of them very quickly, especially with everything that I have going on. I don't have the energy and space to allow that to come in. But it is hard. It's very hard.
Devale: I am her level of discernment.
SO DEVALE IS LIKE YOUR BIG BROTHER CHECKING OUT YOUR POSSIBLE BOYFRIENDS? DOES HE HAVE TO APPROVE THEM?
Devale: That's who I am for Crystal, her brother, and her father When she's dating, we are dating. She is just a great person, and her heart is so huge. I told her I don't need you coming to the studio pissed off because somebody just messed up. They messing up the bag now. Okay. So we gonna go into this date together. I meet her guys that she's dating, and I'm in there like, mm-hmm yes or no. I wanna know because if they disrupt her peace, then they disrupt our peace.
Photo: Getty Images
HOW HAS IT BEEN WORKING WITH TYLER PERRY?
Devale: You don't get too many opportunities in life to work opposite a creative genius who is also a fiscal genius — 'cause the man is a billionaire, right? It's also worth a billion dollars to sit here and see how his mind works. And when I tell you, watching him work is brilliant. He sits back on the monitor — there's four different screens going — he's editing while he's filming. He knows every single detail, costume, set deck. He knows everything. And on top of that he's managing and writing. That's why he's a multi-billionaire.
CRYSTAL, YOU WENT FROM BEING A STYLIST FOR TYLER TO GETTING A SMALL PART ON SISTAS, AND THEN YOU JUST BLEW UP. HOW HAS WORKING WITH TYLER CHANGED YOUR LIFE?
Crystal: Oh my goodness. Tyler changed my life when I started working at the studio, and being a part of that art was already life-changing. But when I started working for him personally, my life completely changed. Styling is such an intimate job, and being around someone as brilliant as Tyler, as Deval spoke, I'm telling you the conversations that I've heard, the tables that I sat at with him, watching him day to day, how he handles business, how he treats people, how he takes care of people, has all rubbed off on me. I'm super grateful to have had those years of really being able to study under him and learn so much so that now that I'm in this position, I'm able to handle it with Grace., I'm able to know what to do with it and how to honor it.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
You can catch Jazmyn's entire conversation with Crystal and Devale on her Youtube channel.
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