Star of 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' Nene Leakes recently sat down with The Insider to dish chat it up about her new role on Glee, whether or not she'll be joining The Housewives of Beverly Hills, and upcoming business ventures. Check out the interview below.
On her new role on the hit FOX show ‘Glee’
I'm on ‘Glee’ and I play a character called Roz Washington. She’s the synchronized swim coach and she’s nemesis to Sue Sylvester, who is Jane. She’s very strong willed; she’s very straight forward; she’s not afraid of Sue Sylvester and she’s there to take somebody’s job.
On if she’s going to get into the pool
I've been really worried about the water; the pool is super big. I was just like,” Lord, have mercy!” I’m not that kind of swimmer. I was like, “I’m a black girl, I can’t get my hair wet.” I don’t know yet but I’m sure they’re coming up with a way to put me in the water and I’m just going to die. I don’t know yet; they haven’t told me yet but I’m walking around the pool and I’m thinking “Lord, have mercy please don’t let anybody push me in this pool.” It ‘s huge; it really is a big pool; it’s from 4ft-10ft so it’s a pretty big pool.
On her acting career
A lot of people don’t know that we did a show “Before They Were Housewives” and I would come to Los Angeles for pilot seasons every year. One year I bumped into Robi Reed-Humes, who did a lot of casting for Spike Lee at the time, she got really known from doing that. She was casting a film with Cuba Gooding Jr. called "Fighting Temptations" and she cast me in that film and I was able to get my sag card that way. Then I had a small part in "The Parkers" & "Girlfriends."
Then it kind of phased out for me. I wasn’t getting any auditions anymore and I really wasn’t coming out here to try. Then I met the producers of “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” so I’m saying all that to say I was into acting long before I became a reality star. I would absolutely love to continue to act. Whether or not I leave reality TV, I don’t know. I can say this negativity pulls your energy down.
On if she’ll transition to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
[Laughs] Stop it. I don’t know if I would transition and work with the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. They’ve never done that before [but] that would be interesting if Bravo pulled that off. Right now, I think they like me in Atlanta. I would give them a run for their money.
On who she’s dating
Myself. You know I will never have a public relationship again I don’t think. That’s one of the regrets I have; is putting my personal relationship out there. Greg and I aren’t totally done. Who knows what the future holds. I don’t know about putting my relationship out there but do I have secret admirers, of course.
On expanding her brand
I'm working with a branding licensing company where right now I have a wine out called Miss Moscato. I just opened up my own restaurant, which is called “Famous Famiglia “ in the Sacramento airport. I plan to open up other restaurants. I’m doing a lounge called the ‘L,’ which is for Linnethia and I hope to do clothes, shoes, lashes and everything that I could possibly do. Make-up and perfume; I would love to do all of those things.
