This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:10] Robert Bannon: It's the round table with me, Robert Bannon. Well, when you ask me about people I want to interview, people whose voices I adore, people whose work I have loved my whole entire life. I love our next guest. She is amazing. She makes me feel so good and seen, and when I hear her voice, I just melt. I'm sure she is so tired of people singing to her on the street. The songs will haunt her forever. Forever. We may sing to her anyway. I don't even care. She's coming to us all the way from across the pond, as they say. And she's got a great new show that she's in, and she's got so many things up her sleeve. And we're gonna talk about it all. I'm so excited you're here. Hi, babe. How does one go from Hawaii to New York City to be a big old theater?

[0:55] Keala Settle: And you're not originally a like you were an RB singer, you said you could sing up and down and around. I mean, that was my original. That's when I was growing up, that's where the release for me as a mixed race kid was. That's where I found it was in a lot of gospel music, a lot of RB music. Um, there's a deeper level when you get to some of that music that it spoke to me and accessed a place in me that I was afraid of for a very long time, but really, really loved and loved to express it when I could. And I think through different situations that I had with my mom growing up, because my mum bless her, she's no longer with us, but that's okay. She kind of really is, so I'll never be able to get rid of her, and that's okay, that's fine.

I've dealt with that. Um, I've done the work for that. Um exactly. Um, she had a lot of dreams for her kids, and one of them for me was at the time to be a recording artist, and I was like, but we're living in the United States, mate. I can do what I want to do, and basically did anything that would kind of upset her. So and the biggest thing that upset her at the time was going into theater, and I said, Oh, she's upset, keep going. So I did it, I kept going into and then she passed away in like 2015, and I went, Oh, done that, but I didn't know what I didn't know what you know what else to do, and so from that point on, I've just kind of been working it out and trying to figure out what that means for me.

[2:45] Keala Settle: Yeah, working, period. I mean, working out here in the streets. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm very grateful for it. Don't get me wrong, because I mean the streets, it's very barren at the moment for everyone. So, yeah, I'm very very grateful for all of that. Did you think that your movie career was even a realm of possibility? Was that something that was on your dream list? You were a Broadway bona fide Broadway star by the time you did start.

[3:13] Keala Settle: Very kind to say that, thank you. You're very kind I saw this. This is so good. I mean, come on, that's it. That's Broadway starter. You're very kind to say that. And then the movie the movie career just kind of took off and exploded. And what does it feel like when you join something that kind of has a life of its own?

[3:34] Keala Settle: Um, to be honest with you, everything that's happened to me since doing what waitress was, which was um I'm very grateful to have been a part of that, um was post my mother passing away. So she actually passed away during the opening in Cambridge. And um I remember just kind of going, well, I don't have to do this anymore. And then all of a sudden got to really started kicking off. So I it's I I'm gonna say this and take it for what it's worth. Um I know I'm not a normal like actor person, I don't have normal like actor stories, oh that's such an active thing to do, or this or this or that, because my life is for me has always been since that point in time dealing with the fact that there was a career there that I made up to upset my mother, and then she was gone, and I had to accept the fact that there was a lot of great stuff that I had an opportunity to do.

A lot of mates that I still have in my life that are my tribe, my family, um, no matter where I go, or no matter where I am or what version of me exists, all of the versions of me. So it's um it's very much a thing of at the time I was petrified, scared, completely scared, because I didn't know really anything about it, and I didn't know uh uh what kind of impact anything like that would have at all because I just I don't know. So I just did it and kind of went, you know, where's my $500? I've gotta go back into, you know, I've gotta go to rehearsals for waitress because we're opening waitress across the street, and uh left it at that, and then did you care?

[5:31] Keala Settle: It's I list of box of my to-do list, my list of ticking boxes is a lot of let me see if I can do this. If I can do it, great. I did it next. What else can I do? Because it was always ingrained in me to when someone told you, like my mother, saying, You can't do this, you can't do that. It's like, tell me again, tell me again, because I'm gonna go do it and I'm gonna do it to the ends of the earth if I can, and then it just became a thing of what else can I do? What else can I do? What else can I go into? What other thing can I? So, as far as a list, for the for other people that are probably looking at this and looking at what they would deem my life or career or whatever, it is a thing of those are and would be things that are on a checklist of what you'd want to do.

But when you're in the moment, you're going, Wow, this is weird and new, and and when you go into hindsight, that's when you kind of think, Do you know what? I do remember as a kid really wanting to tour the world, and I had no clue it would be like this, or like with these people, or you know what I mean? So the universe has a really if you believe in it, which I do immensely, it just really has a crazy way of absolutely adhering to what your dreams and goals are, even if you forget in the presence of now, because now we're so full on, even more so than ever before. But if you stay the cause, whatever that means, and just keep going, um you all of a sudden you turn around and go, Oh, just tick all of these boxes, didn't I do all of that?

And then just and it makes space for so many other things that go beyond the industry, you know, or go beyond what you know, then you start to kind of go, right, case in point, this show that I'm doing, this drag show, which I never thought in a million years I would do.

[7:33] Keala Settle: So when someone sends you a message saying, we'd really love you to play the baddest boss woman in the world, um, there's no no one else will ever ask me to do that again. I mean, come on, it's been Helameir and Olivia Coleman, Claire Foy, and Elder Storns, and no one's gonna ask a Polynesian girl who was born in Hawaii, which happens to be the 50th state in the United States of America, to go, why I'm playing her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. I said absolutely I'm gonna do it because I purely because of who I am as a human and where I come from and all of the things that make up who I am, she was and will always be the epitome of that. Um and I we were talking this last weekend because we just closed the London show and we're going into Manchester, um, which is where my dad's from.

My dad is from Manchester, so I I have a very, very, very big place in my soul and my heart for up north up there, um, because that's part of who I am. Um we were talking, and uh the Queens and I, and um Noel and Lucinda who play Charles and Camilla respectively, saying, Do you know what? I think that if Princess Die was still alive, and her late Majesty was still alive, if they were given one day a week or a month to be incognito and not be who they had to be, they would have bought all the VIP tables, she would have brought her Corgies, and they would be getting pissed.

[9:10] Keala Settle: Yeah. Because it's such a good show. It's it's such a celebration, and I'm not trying to be disrespectful. It is literally the show, you you would never think that it works because of the name of it. And not only does it work, it celebrates the humanitarianism of this beautiful woman, but also there's no lies in it. It's just everything's already come out. We're not telling anything that no one knows about, you know, we're just simply celebrating a time period and a place and people and everything that was happening, you know, all at the same time, and doing it with five fantastic drag queens who, in their own right, have fought their own and forged their own paths to become who they are, to play those different versions seamlessly of Princess Diana, all of the different versions of her.

It's beautiful, and it's and nobody you don't expect anything. Um when people leave, I mean, my agent left, and like the next week, she was like the three days. Can't get over that show. I really love that show. And I was like, Well, I wouldn't steal you wrong, would I? It's just it just feels really good, and in the world that we are currently in, which I'll leave it at that, we're dying for that. We're just desperate for it, and I've always said that. If there's any way that I can, no matter what, if it's to millions of people or five people, or a dog, or a cat, or a pet, or someone who's in need, if there's any way that I can somehow help alleviate what wherever they're at, whether it's by myself or with other people in an ensemble, I'm happy to do it. I'm happy to do it.

[11:01] Keala Settle: And it is you that whole place, we were just gelling and vibing just because of the experience and the subject matter. It was it's just great. I can't wait to go to Manchester to do it. People can get tickets to go see it in Manchester. Who knows where the show is gonna end up? Because this show can go for well, they're talking about it, and to be fair, I said I sort of backed them up on it. I said, Look, none of like I said, this is all you can find this in Wikipedia, Google, whatever, any of the you know, history books, whatever you want to call it, but it's just a really feel-good show, and where we're at, if we popped in somewhere and just screamed and sang and danced and you know, like did all of that all over little bit of little tiny places, little pockets, not only in this country, but possibly elsewhere. Hey, that's um, yeah, I'm happy for that. I would be happy to do that.

[11:59] Robert Bannon: I would cast you, I would cast you as the queen. I don't we don't need Judy Dance, we got you.

[12:05] Keala Settle: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I just look, I'm already happy to do it.

[12:10] Keala Settle: Everyone's done it in their own right, and everyone has a way to do it. And anyone I think who ever gets asked to do any kind of version of her late majesty, it's that's that's a massive thing. It doesn't matter how big the show or how small the show is. That was an is. That was a person that was a woman who had a very young age, um, her life that she knew completely changed in the blink of an eye, and her whole and she worked so hard and diligently at it. Um, and was I'm sure other people will say she wasn't a human because you have your royalist and your non-royalist, and I'm neither. I just really can relate to a woman who is doing it all, and I know that behind closed doors they're trying to not have to pay the price to do it, if that makes any sense, uh, personally.

So that's a lot. I mean, there are a lot of women these days, especially for Gen X, which I am going, I'm so lovely that you think I'm strong, but I don't want to be. I'd like to take a nap. I would really like do you know what I mean? It's like please don't put please, please. We'd love to trust you, so let's get on with it. You know what I mean? Things like that. It's yeah, so it's yeah, it's just a real honor, and it's for me, because I'm in with these internationally renowned drag queens who have again made their own way into who they are and you know become and continue to be. It's such a self-esteem builder for me, such a self-esteem builder, because I have my own demons and my own, you know, like self-saboteurs, if you will, um to sit there and chat with them and talk with them, but also watch them perform and be everything without taking any liberties on anyone else, but unapologetically doing it with the class and the verve that they do it.

It's um it's so inspiring for me, not just as a human, but as a performer, because I know there are a lot of things I want to do that aren't really performance-based, but I know that I will always be that, and I would love to always be in that realm when I do it. Do you understand the way that you look at them? So many millions of women and men and the queer community, people out here, theater community, that you are that inspiration for them.

[14:32] Robert Bannon: You're working. You're you're very thank you, you're very kind to say that. And I have to be honest with you, I'm probably gonna drop a bomb right now, which I have to listen to because I can hear it forming in my head, and I mean I need to say it. The only way that I can and have now done, because there was a very long period of time that I could I ran, I ran uh because it was just me playing a character singing a song, and because I'm so good at disassociating and detaching, it was like, yeah, don't I mean eight shows a week, mate? You go up there and do your bit and then get on the train. You hope it runs, you hope on you you're on the express, or if you're on the local, don't get on the train that I ain't got any air conditioning.

Do you know what I mean? And go out. And for most of us, we used to live in Harlem. I know I did, so it's like you do it and then you go. And that this was no different. So when the studio was trying to form something around it and make, you know, well, she's this person and that person, and I was sat there going, hang on, I just played a character, just but you know, that's what I do, it's my job. I was, you know, I was around a lot of people who helped me hone my craft on Broadway and elsewhere, learning from like Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, some of the greats Tchaikovsky hearing all that music, and you're trying to put me in this box, and there's a song saying, Don't put me in a box. It's uh it's quite bizarre. So it's I've spent a lot of time. I mean think about it.

[16:09] Keala Settle: Um, so I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what that means and what that doesn't mean, and what I don't have to hold on to anymore with regard to that. And one of the biggest reasons why I did this job, uh, the Diana Mix tape, uh, was like I said, was because of the Queens that were gonna be on it. And in order for me to be able to continue to do what I do, what I love to do, I have to dig deep, and all of the things that I love about them that inspire me. I have to accept all of the things that you just said, and the only way that I can do that is to look up to them and then see what they're doing. It's very and it's very interesting in a society now that is so I'm the only one, stay away from me.

We do this, we do this way, don't touch me. I can do this all on my own. There's it's like we're the only people in an ecosystem of like an ecosystem that needs each other, and we're the only living thing that's like don't need it. What a bunch of bollocks. It's it's and I have to laugh at it. I used to get really huffy and puffy and cry about it, but now it's just like I have to laugh at it because it will always be that way, in which case my job will never die.

[17:26] Robert Bannon: No, you're working forever.

[17:31] Keala Settle: That you're not working in the world. I'm happy to do that because it's also the connection. I need like people talk about magic um as performers and as audience members, they'll come to you and say, Oh, that was so magic. And you kind of have to go, but love, it's only magic because you sat there and you accepted it. It's in the acceptance of all of that, and you feel that thing, that is the magic. I don't create it alone. Again, can't do it alone.

[18:00] Robert Bannon: That is beautiful.

[18:01] Keala Settle: I mean, it's so eloquent and beautiful, and it's so truthful about the artist's experience. You're just doing the job, and you hope that it resonates, you hope you get paid, you hope somebody likes it, and then it takes off and is something bigger. Do you like the UK before I leave? How's how's life over there?

[18:14] Keala Settle: You uh it is. I I mean I moved here in 2021 uh because I there were so many friends and family of mine who were passing away from COVID, and I knew that if I didn't leave, because I have been trying to get here for years, decades, and um because I was so young at the time, I was 14, 15 years old, and my mother was like, nah, you're not going there. Again, because she had her own plans, and so I never went, and then I realized if I don't go now, um, I'll never do it. And uh it was it was a horrifying experience for me once the dust settled. Um, because again, you can go anywhere and you're still gonna take you with you. And I knew that. I knew that. So I knew that I was in it for the long haul, in the sense of there's a lot of stuff that I have to unpack, and I'm still unpacking it, but I'm at a place now where I can actually come up for air rather than just literally hide away and sort of figure out how to get this monstrosity of an experience that I we all call life, um, into some somehow compartmentalized when in actuality none of that is required, and um, for me personally so it's a day to day thing i the trains here are shit so at night it's like it takes me forever to get home so for the last two weeks it's been like but um like I slept for four hours today and went great that's what I've got my dog's happy she's healthy she's passed out on the floor she's had a dinner that's all it's those kind of things um that's all I can ask for and I'll take gladly we're excited any chance that people can see you act and sing the Diana mixtape as it goes on uh and continues and we hope to see it many more we hope to see so much work I know you can you say there are other things you want to do but we love you we love you thank you thank you thank you but again it's also other ways to express my love for you for everyone else for the like for the actual human race um there's it's all artistic things that I'm going into to try and find my way in because there's some people can't hear this language do you know what I mean but some people can hear other languages like through food or through books or through um even ironically enough through science so it's it's kind of like finding those paths where I can connect to people that are just it's not just this industry that does it.

[20:54] Robert Bannon: There are so many other ways to do it because we are geniuses in that way that we have found those ways. People before us have done it. And we're just slagging it off. Everybody just wants to go to TikTok. Let's do this doing AI. Let's ask chat GPT what what kind of knickers I should wear today. Let's uh you know what I mean? It's just it's it's that kind of thing.

[21:16] Keala Settle: It's what kind of brush. Let's let's ask Chat GPT. I don't know. You know, take the bloody chance. Take the curve. We're supposed to it's supposed to not go right. It's supposed to not go right. And if it doesn't go right, you don't hang on to it like I have for so long. You learn from it and take it with you until it no longer serves you. And sometimes it doesn't serve you immediately, sometimes it doesn't serve you till 40 years later. But at least you're learning. You know what I mean? It's there's not a computer's not telling you what to do. Do you know?

[21:50] Robert Bannon: Um, if you're gonna feed me and sing to me, I'll sign up for that. Where's my experience?

[21:56] Keala Settle: She said, food and mute excuse. Hold on. I'm ready for it right now. I'm yeah, like I can't tell you because I'm looking I'm in it. Honestly, I'm so in it and really excited to be creating all this stuff because a lot of it is who I know. I know that I've it's for a long time I've been afraid of my own voice. And I don't know if you know Jacqueline B. Arnold, she's on Broadway right now, playing Mama Morton in Chicago. Um, she is one of my tribe and has been there through every version of who I have been and who I am now, and told me before I left. She said, You have so many stories that you're afraid to tell, to look into to reveal. And you we need those, so you need to go find those. And it was because of her that I said, okay.

[22:44] Robert Bannon: Well, we're ready for it. We uh below us, everybody, when you're watching and listening, click the links, make sure you follow and follow and all of the information that's to come, all the shows, all the things, all the different ideas, the next generation, the next iterations, and all. And now you have other things to talk about. Don't sing at her at the train station. Just have say, hey, how are you doing? There's girl, what are you cooking? What are you baking? What what's your technique? Like stuff like just when you see me, don't chase me. Just now, just yell across and go, vibes. How are you baking your cinnamon rolls? And I promise you, I will answer you across the way, going, I'm leaving the door in overnight.

Have a good night. That's what I'll do. That's what I'm doing. I love you. Your energy is amazing. I love it. I can't wait to see you. Some we look like we could be related. You could be my sister. Come on. See, the glasses is okay, girl. They are the same as it's fine. My show. It is such an honor to talk to you. We are such admirers in my house. My husband sings your music on the daily basis. We love you and adore you. Thank you for your light, your love, and your artistry. And we continue and we'll be rooting and cheering for you every step of the way. Thank you, my love.