Neal said she was attracted to this project for two main reasons: she is able to immerse herself into a character that radically differs from the roles she is famous for; and two, she couldn’t pass up a chance to work with Tinseltown titan Ed Weingberger, the legendary sitcom savant who is credited with bringing two venerated comedies to the small screen, “The Cosby Show” and “Taxi,” as well as the exemplar who created shows that highlighted black middle-class life so often absent on prime time, including “Amen,” “Sparks” and “The Good News.”
Neal has really enjoyed playing someone who is nothing like her in real life.
“My character, Jill Cooper, is a single mother and she has a lot of responsibilities. And she takes a lot of that responsibility into the workplace,” says Neal, known in urban circles from her work in the Academy Award-winning Hustle & Flow, as well as Rosewood, How to Be a Player, Paid in Full and especially “The Hughleys” sitcom. “Jill is very detail-oriented, she knows how many people are coming into the workplace, counting heads. And because she is the boss of her house, she tries to be the boss of the restaurant. But she is sassy and she’s fun.”
It’s almost as if Neal was meant to play in “Belle’s.” Neal’s first gig in the movie business was an off-camera stand-in for Robin Givens in the 1992 Eddie Murphy classic Boomerang. Today, one of Neal’s co-stars on “Belle’s” is Murphy’s daughter, Bria. Adding spice to the show is breakout reality star and social lightning rod Tami Roman and the show also comes with a steady diet of interesting cameos.
“We had the great Vivica A. Fox, and her character wanted to have sex with my dad but he refused her. And my daughter didn’t have a birthday party because all of the kids wanted to go to [Fox’s character’s] party and not my daughter’s party. So that was a cool one. We’ve had Wendy Williams on. We’ve had Dionne Warwick on the show. Hopefully, you will see some more great guests down the line. It was really, really good.”
