Up next in 10
On this episode of Caren Glasser LIVE! meet Terrah Bennett Smith and Shelley Robertson, newly empty-nester moms, who are reinventing themselves. We go behind the scenes with the co-directors of Extraction, a Mission Impossible Meets Desperate Housewives web TV show about four mature imperfect Black Women on a quest to dismantle a ring of abusive men.
Their quest is an irreverent, funny, action-oriented, and emotional journey ... which hovers over their individual need to extract the darkness from their own lives and past.
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0:00
hello everyone karen glassy here and welcome to the show i welcome guests from all across the
0:05
globe who entertain wow and excite us and today is no exception
0:11
my guests are the co-directors and stars of extraction the series tara bennett smith and shelly robertson so whether
0:17
you're here live or on replay make sure you say hi in the comments and we'll comment right
0:23
back so a little bit of an introduction about our guests tara is a native new yorker and has enjoyed a rich and multi-faceted career
0:30
in the entertainment industry having worked as a director producer actress singer songwriter and
0:36
screenwriter she recently returned to her first love acting and singing and is currently scheduled to star in a
0:42
new television series my suite life and is recurring on the umc series stuck
0:48
with you tara is tara is also the founder and ceo of royal one entertainment a management and
0:54
production company and serves as network production supervisor for gwen studios and my favorite her claim to
1:01
fame is being the proud mother of three exceptional young adults shelley
1:06
her television credits are extensive and most recently include guest starring on swat the rookie this
1:13
is us and lucifer to name a few by the way i love lucifer she can also be seen on apple
1:19
tv's the morning show he received an la weekly nomination for
1:24
best actress for joe lewis blues and an naacp theater award
1:30
nomination for long time since yesterday with a great run at the national black theater festival
1:35
in north carolina and again my favorite thing is watching her two kids pursue their
1:40
artistic passions is the wind beneath her wings welcome to the show
1:47
hi thank you thanks for having us oh i am so excited that you're here and
1:54
truly i the best part of what who you guys are is how much you love your kids and i i totally resonate with that
2:02
i i am i'm so excited that you're here so guys if you're on live or in replay regardless of whatever
2:07
it is make sure you say hello and if you're just tuning in we are talking with tara bennett smith and shelly robertson
2:14
so let's jump right in you guys are the co-directors of the new show extraction series so
2:21
what the heck is extraction the series what is it about well i'll let shelley take that who's
2:27
the creator and writer of it so shelley i think shelby just dropped out so we're gonna have you go ahead first
2:33
well i'll talk a little bit about it uh we were brought together by a friend of ours nikki crawford who wanted to do
2:38
some projects and shelly had this idea for this series about four women who uh
2:46
well three of us who are abstract we're looking to extract uh i'm trying to put it the best way
2:52
without giving away everything to extract um women out of situations or
2:58
people out of six situations of abuse and what we end up finding out is that we end up extracting
3:03
our own demons and looking within to find our own dark demons because we all have demons
3:09
and um it's oh there she is okay she is uh one of the things that i when
3:15
in your description of the show you make a point of saying it's mission impossible meets desperate housewives
3:22
i love that shelly can you hear us i can't i can't can you hear me so we
3:29
just yeah we're starting to talk about the show and what it was and i know that tara wanted you to jump right in and
3:34
talk about the show itself um you should talk about the show itself
3:40
uh extraction it's extraction is really i don't know what tara told you but um
3:47
it's about a lot of things you know the underlying theme obviously is um uh about
3:54
uh domestic abuse and what of what women can go through but it's primarily a very
4:00
character-driven um drama with comedy um and some of the
4:05
comedy is is is broad but so it's a it'll be interesting to see how the audience takes to that especially because the
4:10
subject is so serious and so it's really about these characters and how they decide they've come from
4:16
um some really interesting and heavy lives and they come together
4:22
to kind of conquer the world and and destroy all these people that are taking
4:28
advantage and abusing these women um and they do it in a very it's very farcical
4:33
um it's very irreverent um it's funny it's emotional it's a little bit of
4:39
everything so they can't really fit into a particular genre and so
4:45
what i like about how shelley wrote it yeah well yes what i what i love about how shelley
4:50
wrote is she told the stories from various she told stories from various sides from the sides of a male too because they're men
4:57
who are dealing with issues as well you know who you know it's it's touched upon so it's not just
5:02
women it's it's people in general who are dealing with you know a lot sometimes abuse or being in abusive situations and how
5:10
sometimes the abuse feeds itself you know down the line those who've been abused to enter abuse
5:16
and so i i'm also very excited to see how um how it's taken and and how people uh
5:23
gravitate towards it in that way because like you said abuse is a very serious subject right
5:29
um and i'm fascinated by the fact that that um you guys have
5:34
collaborated together that's a really big part of what this is all about not just with you as the actresses and
5:40
and the talent but your kids are involved as well um let's talk a little bit about that let's talk about uh the collaboration
5:47
women working with women i i don't know about you but we hear horror stories i hear horror stories how women can't work
5:53
with women you know we're the worst to each other but clearly that's not the case you guys
5:59
um are collaborating with each other you're working with each other how is that experience been
6:06
you know i think anybody collaboration is challenging i don't care who you are i don't care if you're doing it with
6:12
family i don't care if you're doing it with your mate collaboration can be challenging and especially creative
6:17
collaboration i think women kind of get um a a bad rap but you know you know the the men
6:25
have a hard time with collaborating in partnerships as well so i you know i won't claim that you know you know we
6:30
we've had this like heaven on earth experience tara and i have worked really really well together
6:36
you know we we kind of have and maybe it's because we we too were the mothers right you know
6:41
so we we understood and understand how you know no means really nothing um
6:48
how you know you you know you you go to bed when you're done and you get up when you need to
6:54
um there's certain things that come with producing a project that i think um really you know that correlate
7:02
with producing chipping apparently yes absolutely it's like it's like you got to do
7:08
there's no it has a butts about it you know so and i and like you're saying shelly i think
7:14
and karen i think the thing about being a mother especially mother multiples you know not just one child
7:19
right and one child is fun you know but when you add that two in the equation my friends who first had their first
7:25
child and they're like oh they're so much fun girl when they have to put when they had to pull two car seats out the car
7:30
the game it was a game changer this is so much work and i got to carry two car seats so
7:36
it i think the thing is that when you're a parent you you remove the like you were saying
7:41
shall you move the no and i can't get this done to how do i get this i
7:47
have to get it done and the stopping of it and so it no longer becomes a personal thing
7:52
it's technically business we we get down to business and as a parent you get down to business
7:58
and if these kids need to eat what do i need to do to make sure they can eat today or if they need to get
8:03
here and i need to get there what do i need so it's no it's not about a personal thing it's about this is my business is running this
8:10
household with these children partner or no partner you are a mom you are a multitasker
8:15
and you will have to do 50 things at once and so you're wired that way we're wired when we're
8:20
pregnant that we're not going to get any sleep it happened exactly and you're not just acting in this in the show you are
8:26
co-directing this this and co and producers on it and wrote it um and and like you know at
8:33
the fifth hour we've raised i mean i hate to say it but i love to say i'll keep it to saw him like my son
8:39
showed up and we needed guys to lift the furniture and they you know helped with the truck and lifting the furniture then shelley's
8:45
daughter showed up she was the first state gee phenomenal she's a little tiny petite little thing and she had me scared she
8:51
had me scared some days because he wasn't playing and then when we had we had some challenges getting
8:56
the music finished she's like let me check with my son he did the music he took the music over and then
9:02
recently we went we needed another another edit on the trailer and then my son was like i'll give you an
9:07
edit on the trailer so five hours he put together an edit on a trailer we're gonna show that trailer in just a
9:13
little bit no you're not showing his trailer you're showing the first one yeah we have two but anyway i'm just
9:19
saying all that to say is that part of our conditioning as parents
9:24
helping to be guiding and and being parents that were very that were very nurturing plus guiding
9:29
plus allowing our kids and following their creativity and helping them to uh
9:34
broaden and enhance that paper it kind of paid for us back to us in the end when we needed them
9:40
memory producing two these are memories that you couldn't possibly make in any other way so you
9:46
are creating these lasting memories with your kids with the show itself
9:51
um and i think that that to me is is very very very powerful very powerful
9:58
what what made you do this particular show did you just wake up one day and said i
10:03
think we're going to do a show about five four black women who are going to talk about abuse and this is what we're going to do
10:09
what made you decide to do this actually um when we when the
10:15
at the time it was five of us when we all sat around the table and we're deciding okay what is what is it
10:20
that we want to do um you know it was okay well why don't you i i said i let's do a web series and
10:28
primarily because i had already begun one it was an action but i had already begun one and so i thought okay well let's do
10:34
this and then i thought well okay well i i wrote it i just come off of a project that uh i needed that that didn't fuel
10:41
me and so i thought okay well you know i'll write it and i had had an idea based off of
10:49
an old childhood friend that um uh that part of what she does
10:56
part of her passion is um helping women get out of abusive
11:02
relationships and i have been watching her journey for years
11:07
on on on social media and you know and you just you know watching you know
11:13
her talk about okay you know i forget what she calls it but it's like you know another butterfly wants to
11:18
leave the nest and so around what we have to just it's just watching her it just inspired me
11:24
and um so i decided to to write that and now when i wrote it um
11:31
i had already written something else and my daughter is a writer so she's a great first ad but she's a
11:37
writer and she's a great writer and so i gave it to her to read
11:42
and she loved the other one and so we when we came together again we ended
11:48
up reading them both and the ladies loved the other one too as well as wow um so i then i incorporated them
11:55
both into one um and so that's kind of how it you know how it came to be i'd like to
12:02
play the trailer i'd like people to see what this is all about i'm gonna pop the show right into our uh screen that we're in right now um
12:10
and let's take a watch
12:32
what happened happened i have to live with that it's time doc time for me to open my
12:38
eyes and you want to know something else i'm horny doc
12:44
i've highlighted some of the patients from the files that you just recently downloaded so we need to be ready for them
12:54
[Music] let's review this file [ __ ] we are not [ __ ]
12:59
damn it oh hell no we're closed what are you doing here dwp baby dwp it's not a coffee shop
13:08
well then what can i get there it's bigger than we thought doctors politicians crazy [ __ ] she's not a
13:15
[ __ ] i think you should just get over get over it only half of you is black
13:22
the other half cracks i hate these [ __ ]
13:39
well i i chuckle every time i see that i think we lost shelley she'll be back i
13:45
chuckle every time we see that i watched it over and over and over again especially the the phrase we're not [ __ ]
13:51
i i love that because again going back to the whole
13:56
woman thing you know we we tend to be called [ __ ] you know when when we're assertive and doing what
14:03
we're doing and i think shelley is going to join us in a second and she's back
14:13
my dearest friends she oh am i muted still no you're good you're good okay um
14:20
she that's one is she that's her word [ __ ] that she loves to call people [ __ ] and and
14:25
so with her you don't even she's been doing this for a hundred years yeah [ __ ] that's my [ __ ] so that's her
14:32
thing so it's kind of me when i when i was talking to her the other day i started laughing i was like that's renee's
14:37
character for sure you know um but you wanted to ask shelly about it about the term about her
14:45
carol no i'm just i i was saying that i i really enjoyed the trailer it made me chuckle i watched it multiple times as i was
14:52
getting ready for the show and i just love the whole idea that you know we call each other they we're not [ __ ] and
14:59
and that is that is several times in that trailer is is the word comes up and and it's how as how as women
15:06
sometimes we are perceived maybe not just sometimes uh but as assertive and and aggressive
15:12
and all that other we must be a [ __ ] um but then of course it's not it's not always a negative
15:18
it's almost it can almost be endearing right yeah yeah yeah yeah but my girlfriend is
15:24
definitely here yeah that's how that's how uh renee means it
15:30
at the same time um at the same time she doesn't because when she's you know you know she
15:36
she's she's calling everybody a [ __ ] you know the people that she like the people she doesn't so it's it's um
15:42
um it's interesting because i know people that you utilize that word
15:48
a lot too but every time i hear it at me it affects me and not in a good way
15:55
right right i agree i agree and when i hear it i hear it negatively even though i know
16:01
that sometimes it is not said as a negative but i hear it negative and i don't know i
16:06
don't know why that is exactly but definitely if you're just tuning in guys we're lis we are talking with
16:11
tara bennett smith and shelly robertson about their new web tv series that is going to be
16:17
launching and coming live on friday we'll talk a little bit about that in a second um so the next question i really want to
16:25
ask you guys is why do you do what you do why did why did you become actors and actresses and
16:31
why did you decide to sing and why did you decide to become a director and a producer why do you do what you do tara you want
16:38
to go first yeah you know mine i think mine was
16:43
kind of a trajectory of following just because my mother wanted to keep us busy am i is it am i the only one here you
16:50
are the only one there oh oh okay i thought everyone went away um one of the reasons was growing up in
16:56
new york we were always involved in the arts as a way to keep us busy and off the streets so one thing kind of followed
17:03
the other you know you went from just doing it because it was important to keep you busy then
17:08
you do it because you start to oh i really love this then you do it because you move from
17:14
just doing small theater to television that become exciting then it's a career then for me the
17:19
career became i love acting and singing but i also want to kind of feel like what is behind
17:25
behind the camera and my behind the camera happened because i wanted a little more control over my life
17:32
yeah and not to have to be at the mercy of whenever other producers decide that i am or am
17:37
not right for something and um and it changed who i became as a person
17:42
and as an artist because when i was busy working on my own things when i walked into the room there was no longer this
17:48
care whether you i care of course whether you hire me or not but i come in with a different energy because i knew that i had other things
17:54
to do kind of like when you become a parent you know your your priorities shift a little bit
18:00
and yeah i can stay here for this audition but not if my kids are really hungry and you're taking your time i got to go deal
18:07
with them so it's kind of it became the same thing as far as um and then i can do projects that
18:12
matter to me projects i like to do projects with a purpose that's what i call it you know projects that have a purpose
18:18
that um whether it's just to make you laugh but within that very commercial comedy there's a message love that you
18:25
know and roles that i can play that are not just whatever they give me half the time and
18:30
sometimes they're great and sometimes they're not sometimes because i need some more money and sometimes it's just because well i
18:35
haven't worked in a while this would be nice for the resume but that's life some you know
18:41
sometimes it's great sometimes it's it's not as great as as the other time shelley why do you do
18:48
what you do why do i do what i do i um
18:53
you know my family actually i come from a performing family my father's my father all his
18:59
brothers all my gran my grandmother my great aunts my aunts they all sang they all performed um it was you
19:07
know it might be in church every sunday and then choir rehearsal twice a week and then but it was you know was
19:14
i come from a very performing family they all they had gospel uh gospel groups and they went on tour
19:20
when they were younger before i was born and so it was definitely in the blood but i wasn't really raised
19:25
to think that i could do that that it was viable so you know i went to college i went to to emory university in atlanta i got a
19:32
degree in political science i was working in um state government and um
19:37
and uh i was working in city government in atlanta georgia and decided to do some
19:45
modeling because i thought i could make some extra money and i was working on my master's degree at georgia state
19:51
in public administration yeah and i ended up getting an agent that i didn't know
19:56
was really a television and film agent and he started sending me out and i was booking my
20:02
first job was like in the heath of the night with carol o'connor and harold rollins and i mean i just started booking and really union
20:09
work union jobs georgia atlanta wasn't what it is now you know
20:15
i was uh i was a big fish in a little pond when i decided to um to do to you know i eventually was
20:22
making more money at that than i was in my job and so decided you know this is really what i want to do
20:27
so wow yeah so i'm curious i want to ask both of you um do you have a favorite
20:32
role that you were in but that you'd look back and you go that was my favorite thing that i've ever done
20:40
yeah i i actually have a couple but i think mine i have a favorite role and favorite
20:46
experience okay and i think the role this is very was when i did this musical
20:53
in connecticut and it was nothing but it was i got to play tina turner and i realized
21:00
how much we had in common because i didn't even have to study her at all and i just and so that for me
21:07
was the best but i think my favorite favorite time was when was when i
21:15
first did broadway well kimberly says you have done it well shelley you're believing
21:24
him together he can yeah so i would say yeah and yeah and shelly
21:29
has done one police anyway for me i think my first great experience was
21:34
when i first did broadway that was like whoa and then i didn't really like it after
21:39
that because it took up my whole week it's nothing it was just me i just was like you mean i got to do a show
21:45
every day except monday so the idea was cute but the idea wasn't
21:52
cute because i didn't do anything but a show like a good idea at the time and that the actual reality of it not
21:58
not so much what is your favorite thing that you've done your favorite role your favorite thing
22:04
that you've done you know it's interesting that this is my favorite because it was actually also my hardest um my daughter was 10 months old
22:13
um i pretty much you know just got married um so it was in a new marriage with a 10
22:19
month old i was breastfeeding breastfeeding was not the end thing at that time 25 years ago like it
22:25
is now um and i got this gig you know we had just got the word that my husband's father had cancer
22:32
terminal um i got my father had just passed away
22:37
two months prior yes it was a home impressed me i got a baby i got an infant and i got you know a lead in
22:45
um a movie of the week called the ditch diggers daughters starring carl lumbley victoria dillard
22:51
it was right after uh set it off for kimberly elise i was playing the oldest sister kimberly elise was the youngest
22:57
it was monica calhoun it you know it was a it was a cast of these uh you know of really really
23:03
great artists and we were in north carolina for about three weeks doing this and i was
23:08
literally my whole family went i was breastfeeding so there were times on set when i don't know if you breastfeed
23:17
after 12 13 hour day when i would say to them i have to go and at that time
23:25
i'm like i have to go you know what i mean so it was very it was the it was the
23:32
hardest experience but it was an amazing experience because out of it i saw
23:37
how all of it was ever all the everything that i was going through was so necessary for the role i didn't have i
23:45
didn't have to work hard really i didn't have to everything was right you know it was a story about this father
23:50
that had these five daughters and he was a ditch digger and he he he wanted them all to be
23:56
doctors it was a true true story he wanted them all to be doctors and they all so he was hard on them and
24:02
they all became doctors to set me and uh and then the kimberly elise
24:07
character they went ahead with some fascinating story and then he passes away and the story so with
24:12
all this stuff that i was going on that was going on in my life um you know went into this piece
24:19
and um so it was it i still look back on that as uh and granted it was you know was
24:26
the lead so you know and it i've done a lot of guest stars um
24:32
but that was my first lead and it was probably my only lead on television character building it sounds like it was
24:38
character building as well it was amazing it was an amazing experience it truly was
24:44
wow go ahead no i just want to think it's just a testament to you know
24:51
the what when it's the decision to do what you love to do and pieces because sometimes people
24:56
unfortunately i know people have put off having children because they feel like it's just something that they they
25:02
want to wait until something happens with a career something happens with this right and and you you don't have to do
25:09
that yeah will it be a little challenging as life is yes but i think that you know like shelley
25:16
and myself and i'm sure you we found ways to manage and a whole lot of other ones we find ways to manage
25:22
it absolutely you know so that we can continue on with what we're doing and i think it also teaches your
25:27
children something you know it teaches it it services them in a way you know good role
25:32
anyway we become role models and children they can do anything that they want to do if they if
25:38
they just put their um their mind body and soul into it exactly
25:43
exactly we've been talking about um the show that that's gonna go live on friday i want to put it
25:50
up into the um the screen it premieres on friday at 6 00 p.m
25:57
that's pacific standard time guys yes it is so um as as you're watching
26:02
whether it is live or replay you're going to notice a link that just populated over in the
26:08
comments all you have to do is click on that and it'll take you over to the show where you can watch it on friday and i'm
26:15
going to go back out um and i want to let people know how they can get in touch with you guys and
26:21
so i'm going to be giving some instagram and some facebook and twitter twitter things out so first for
26:27
extraction for those who would like to and i encourage you to do this go check out
26:32
the extraction the series on the instagram uh go check out on facebook again the
26:37
link is sitting right in the comments right now extraction the series and i know you want to get to
26:43
know our wonderful wonderful talent and so i'm going to go ahead and show you how to get in touch
26:48
with uh shelly over on instagram i am shelley robertson um and on facebook you can also find her
26:55
there at shelly robertson just type in her name and finally on twitter if you happen to
27:00
be tweeters you can go over to our shell ray and find her there and tara not to forget you we
27:08
love you we have instagram for you so go follow tara on instagram the tara bennett smith
27:16
and on facebook at tara bennett smith and finally on twitter at tara
27:23
b smith i like to say you guys are everywhere you are everywhere
27:32
it was a good place to be everywhere any 11 minute thoughts you want to share with our audience before we say goodbye
27:38
we they know where to go they know how to go find the movie i encourage everyone to be watching i'm
27:44
going to be watching i hope that all of our viewers would be watching any last minute thoughts
27:49
uh my last minute's thought is thank you again for having us and we really you know as women we would
27:56
really just as people in general but we really would appreciate your support and you know to support us and go out
28:02
there and share and the message in the series the series is great it's it's it looks beautiful uh and we
28:10
could use all the support that you are willing to offer share the page and share with your friends and
28:15
it's also on youtube right it's also going to yeah it'll be on youtube yes well i don't have that link here
28:21
where he's on youtube as well okay and i don't want that link here so after the show we'll grab that link and i'll put that in the comments as well so people
28:28
can go watch it there as well if that's where they choose to go play um shelly any last-minute thoughts you
28:34
know again like tara said thank you so much karen thank you everybody that everybody that
28:40
supported this project you know for the you know the cast and the crew and you know people that have answered
28:45
late night calls people that have had this on the back people that have given us all kind of advice you know
28:51
it's not it takes a village to um to filmmaking is not easy and it takes a village to really kind of do it and to
28:58
bring something to life and um i you know i hope people are entertained by it i want people to
29:03
remember that part of the the foundation of this project is that nobody's perfect nobody's perfect
29:11
no not not villains not victims not no none of us and so you know uh
29:17
uh there will be times when you're watching this when you know you you're gonna be a little uncomfortable
29:24
and so i i'd appreciate it if you sit in it for a minute
29:29
and um and allow whatever perspective to kind of you know take over you and then share
29:34
that share that with us because we want to know what that is but thank you so much i love that michael says he's looking forward to it
29:41
thank you michael thank you michael we appreciate it michael's got a couple great songs in
29:46
the project oh my goodness yeah that's awesome okay well i definitely will be listening
29:51
for that we want to thank our audience we know that you have a choice as to how you spend your time and you chose to spend it with us today
29:58
and for that we are eternally grateful we'll see you next week on the next karen glasser live have a great day everyone
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