Theresa Randle

Interview, April, 1996 by Kitty Bowe Hearty

A struggling actress turns to phone sex for the fast money that will get her to Hollywood, but the job becomes an obsession leading to isolation and despair. So it is for the nameless heroine, dynamically played by Theresa Randle, of Spike Lee's new movie, Girl 6. "I needed an actress who had some range," says Lee, "and Theresa was the one." But "some range" hardly describes the scope of Randle's star turn. There's Girl 6's initial pleasure in a job well done and the rush of a money high. But as the phone calls start to matter to her, and her sense of reality breaks down, she edges toward an emotional precipice, and finally lands at rock bottom. It's the kind of role that would test any actress, but from the first frame to the last, Randle is clearly in control of Girl 6's wild and crazy ride.

Randle is the youngest child of a close-knit Los Angeles family that includes her mother and sister; her brother died of an AIDS-related illness in 1994. She has worked with Lee before, in Jungle Fever (1991) and Malcolm X (1992), and he offered her the part of Girl 6 over the phone, without an audition. "She's great," he says of his star, "but then, I was never worded about her performance."

THERESA RANDLE: One day, shortly after my brother died, my mom told me that Spike had called and I was shocked because I hadn't heard from him in a long time. So I called back, and he said that he was going to send me this script. I thought he was joking, but the next day I received a FedEx package from him.

KITTY BOWE HEARTY: Wasn't that first Girl 6 script quite explicit?

TR: The phone-sex dialogue was extremely realistic. I wanted a lead in a feature film, but I didn't know if I wanted it to be rated X. [laughs] When I called Spike, I told him I thought it had a good format but was kind of racy. He said that it was all going to change, and then he asked me if I wanted to be Girl 6.

KBH: Did you identify with Girl 6?

TR: I identified with the struggling-actress aspect, but her background was very different from mine. All I really knew about was the unemployment - that I could relate to.

KBH: Did the fact that Girl 6 was a black actress make the part easier?

TR: I never approached the part of Girl 6 from the standpoint of a black actress; that was just a given. And I never entered this business with that perspective. It wasn't until I got to Hollywood that being black became an issue. As far as I was concerned, as long as you knew what you were doing, you could go for anything.

KBH: How did you research the phone sex?

TR: When I first got the part, I wasn't allowed to tell anybody about it, so I was calling people to get information [about phone sex], but I couldn't say why and I kept going up against walls. Once I got to New York, Spike arranged for me to meet with some phone-sex people. They would make phone calls and let me listen. I wanted to know why it was that Girl 6 burned out. They said that women who get into it solely for the money usually burn out because they work themselves to death.

KBH: Why did Girl 6 get into phone sex?

TR: For the money. She wanted to go to Hollywood and she thought that it would be the quickest way.

KBH: DO you think it was about acting for her?

TR: That was the initial turn-on. She could playact with these people and sharpen her skills, but once she got involved with their lives and looked forward to their phone calls, she was no longer acting.

KBH: Is phone sex about sex?

TR: I though it was initially, but the more homework I did, the more I realized that it's about relationships. The majority of the callers enjoy having that unconditional relationship and knowing that every time they call, they know who they're going to be talking to and that they're not going to be looked down upon.

KBH: What do you think of the contention that Spike Lee can't write or depict a woman without making her a sex object?

TR: I'd never been cast as a sex object and that was the farthest thing from my mind when I got this part.

KBH: Is Girl 6 a sex object?

TR: I think that she just is. I think that if people are turned on by her, then that's just the flavor they enjoy. She's just a woman who enjoys being a woman.

KBH: Some people say that Spike only makes films about the racial climate in this country.

TR: Girl 6 truly is not about that.

KBH: You don't think this movie is about race?

TR: No. It just so happens that I am an African-American woman. Girl 6 could be anybody.

KBH: Why does the woman who runs the sex-phone office tell Girl 6 not to admit to a customer that she's black?

TR: Because the majority of the callers are white males assuming that they're speaking to the women they see on late-night television [phone-sex commercials]. Ad campaigns for phone sex usually don't depict black women except in black magazines.

KBH: How hard a part was this for you?

TR: It was extremely difficult. Aside from playing the character, I lived it. Spike was very clever. At the time I didn't know better, because I'm from L.A., but they had me staying in Battery Park City [Manhattan] - and it feels like no one lives there. I'd wake up in the morning, go to the set, come back, and just live in my head. It was easier for me to go into Girl 6's head than Theresa Randle's because my brother had just died. I was very confused.