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CNN Live Today

Interview With Keshia Knight Pulliam

Aired May 17, 2002 - 10:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We knew her as lovable little Rudy Huxtable on the NBC award-winning series "The Cosby Show." You can keep the lovable, but lose the little now, because Keshia Knight Pulliam is all grown up. She's a college grad, and after a 10-year hiatus, she is returning to the small screen. This time, she plays Temple, a high school student on a mission in the two-hour coming-of- age drama, "What About Your Friends Weekend Getaway," which airs May 31st on UPN. Keshia Knight Pulliam joins us this morning to talk in the studio.

Good to see you.

KESHIA KNIGHT PULLIAM, ACTRESS: Good to see you.

HARRIS: Nice to have you in here face-to-face.

PULLIAM: Thanks for having me.

HARRIS: Why the all of a sudden coming back and doing this particular project after 10 years.

PULLIAM: For me, it was very important to take time off, to grow emotionally, physically, mentally, all of those as a whole person. I knew I wanted to continue acting, as well as directing, and producing and writing, all of it. So I had to go to school first. Then when I saw this project, it was the right one. It was a good marriage.

HARRIS: Wait a second, acting, writing, directing at age seven, you knew you wanted to do all of those things?

PULLIAM: Well, you know, when you're on the set, you're exposed to so many different entities behind the scene, and you -- it's just so interesting. So I guess I couldn't just narrow it down to one, and so when I went to school, I learned it all.

HARRIS: There you go, that's like going through life with somebody else's credit card.

(LAUGHTER)

Let's look at this movie you have coming out May 31st. We have a clip of it right here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) Alex told me that she can't go this weekend. And with all due respect, sir, it's just not fair. Alex has been doing really good. Her grades are solid, and she may have messed up a few times, but I promise that I will personally look after her and make sure that she does not get in any trouble whatsoever, you know, and might I add there will be chaperons even if we wanted to go wild, we wouldn't with able to, so we would really, really, really appreciate if you would please reconsider. And let Alex come with us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Everything but the tears there.

PULLIAM: Yes, I just pulled out all the stops. She wasn't going to let our girl come with us.

HARRIS: If we want to find out what happened, of course we have to watch the movie, but quickly, what's the theme here?

PULLIAM: Basically, it's a coming-of-age drama of three African- American teenage girls on their way to college. They're going to a college retreat weekend for scholarships. It's Temple, Alex and Brina, all very different, come from different backgrounds, you know, worked with a wonderful cast, as well as crew. The new director, Niva Durell. It was wonderful. I think everyone is going be able to identify with different characters that are in the movie. And really, you know, it's a drama that the entire family can sit down and watch and thoroughly enjoy.

HARRIS: And you can thoroughly plug it for us right here.

PULLIAM: May 31st at 8:00 p.m. UPN.

HARRIS: One last thing before we let you go, because we're kind of short on time because of the news.

PULLIAM: I know, well, you'll have to have me back.

HARRIS: You'll have to back, because I want to talk to you some more about your span of time at NBC. You guys are in the midst now of this anniversary lookback right now, and you're pretty busy with that, aren't you?

PULLIAM: I'm pretty busy between the retrospective show coming on this weekend and then my movie coming on the next weekend. Between the publicity tours and the stuff like that, it's been pretty busy, but I'm enjoying every minute of it.

HARRIS: How much fun is it getting back with everybody? This time around, you're not the little kid.

PULLIAM: This time around, I get to stay in the grownup conversations, too. So it's really great, and it's great how our relationships have kind of changed and matured over time, and it's really like having an older brother or sister, like Malcolm and Tempest, who I'm really close with, because you know, as you're younger, you go from the little pest sister to a friend. So it's really wonderful, and I love them all.

HARRIS: Good for you. One last thing real quick. Is it true the original casting of the character Rudy was supposed to be for a boy.

PULLIAM: Yes, it was supposed to be a boy.

HARRIS: How did you pull that off? How did you get them to change their minds?

PULLIAM: I don't know.

HARRIS: You just got it like that?

PULLIAM: Hard work pays off.

HARRIS: Listen, it's paying off for you bigtime. Keshia Knight Pulliam, thank you very much for coming in and talking to us. You're a great person. Good luck. We'll keep an eye on you, too, since you are in Atlanta.

PULLIAM: OK.

HARRIS: All right, take care.

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