EXCLUSIVE: @TerriJVaughn Shares Details on TV One Film ‘Girlfriends Getaway’

Ladies, grab your besties, a big bucket of Kettle popcorn, and your favorite bottle of wine and tune into TV One this Saturday (Aug. 30) for the premiere of “Girlfriends’ Getaway.”  The girl-flick is a heartwarming comedy starring four of Hollywood’s most familiar faces: Terri J. Vaughn (Meet The Browns) as Sophie, Garcelle Beauvais (The Jamie Foxx Show) as Vicky Holmes, Malinda Williams (Soul Food) as Camille, and Essence Atkins (A Haunted House 2) as Lauren.

The 2-hour film starts off as a birthday trip for the sophisticated, successful business owner, Vicky Holmes (Beauvais) and her boyfriend. But, little did Vicky know, she was leaving the states as a single woman. Making the best of an awful situation, Vicky invites her longtime friends to come along. Unfortunately, when the crew arrived in Trinidad, there would be a lot more than birthday shenanigans happening.

Sophie (Vaughn), the pregnant friend, would eventually be kidnapped while in Trinidad. A $10,000 extortion plot ensues and the girls find themselves with only 24-hours to save their friend or risk being put in jail.

Girlfriends’ Getaway is directed by former Tyler Perry Studios EVP, Roger M. Bobb, of Bobbcat Films. Bobb also serves as the film’s Executive Producer with Angi Bones as Producer. The film script was written and co-produced by Nina Holiday Entertainment.

Recently, STACKS Magazine had the opportunity to interview Terri J. Vaughn, cast member and co-producer of the film. Vaughn is a veteran actress with an impressive resume of on-screen and off-screen projects. She paved a major lane for herself when she starred as the hilariously awkward character Lovita Alizay Jenkins on “The Steve Harvey Show.” From there, Vaughn has went on to star in “All of Us”, “Soul Food” the series, “Daddy’s Little Girls,” “Meet The Browns,” and numerous other film and television projects. She’s a three-time Image Award winner and is highly respected in the business for her talent and professionalism.

During Vaughn’s one-on-one, she shared more behind-the-scenes insight on the new film, her character Sophie, and her business venture Nina Holiday Entertainment.

After reading the synopsis, Girlfriends’ Getaway seems like it’s going to be hilarious. What made you decide to write a script like this?

My producing partner, her name is Cas Sigers-Beedle, she actually wrote the script and for our production company Nina Holiday Entertainment. We came up with the script because we wanted to create a fun movie. We get to go and see movies like “The Hangover,” “The Bridesmaids,” but we never get to see Black movies like that, especially with Black women. So, we wanted to create that opportunity to give me and some other actresses an opportunity to get that comedic feel on film.

Right. I was thinking that too. We don’t get to see many all-girl, all African-American story-lines like this one too often.

We get to see Black men do it every once in a while, but, we never get to see women do it…ever.

When planning the characters, did you already have a cast in mind? Or did you host a standard auditioning process?

No. Well, the great thing about being a producer in my position – coming from acting – I have a lot of friends who are actresses. So, it was not necessary to do any auditioning. I know first-hand what these ladies can do. I knew that they were funny. I knew that they were great actresses. I know that they are professional. So, it was just a matter of finding out who was available out of ALL my friends. These four, when I called them, they were like, “Yeah!”

Of course, after they read the script, it was on and popping. It was great to be able to do it with my friends, which was another huge blessing on this project.

Did you film on location in Trinidad?

Yes. The film was shot on location in Trinidad. We were there for a month and I was five months pregnant while making this movie. Thank God it was easy, breezy. I didn’t have any complications at all other than being tired, which everyone got tired with long hours and stuff. But, it was great. I had no complaints.

Tell us about your character, Sophie.

Sophie…she’s like the “balance” in the bunch. You know, like you have that one friend that everyone else is friends through that one friend. That’s her. She’s the one that everybody is linked through. Some of the girls wouldn’t necessarily hang out with each other if it wasn’t for Sophie, my character.

She’s very particular to an EXTREME about cleanliness. She kind of has a little phobia about germs and stuff. And she’s pregnant and keep everybody from arguing. So she’s the peacemaker in the bunch. It was really fun to play her.

Who were some of the male actors that were cast for the film?

Actually, there was only the four lead women that were cast out of the states. Everyone else was cast out of Trinidad. So, they are all new faces. The girls are the leader of the pack.

So this was good for the island, the country, their community…

Yes, it was huge. I can’t wait for you guys to see the film because the Trinidadian actors that we used, they were so good. So, this is going to be huge for them.

 

Is there a particular incident or fond memory of something that happened during production that you’d care to share?

You know, we did a lot of stuff outside of the filming. One particular outing, we went to these caves. We are all pretty physically fit, we exercise. With me being five months pregnant, I don’t know what I was thinking…but anyway. We went on this hike to these caves. It was like a real cave. I don’t think we were expecting it. Like it had bats and everything in this cave. We were a little creeped out when we first got there because there were bats flying around. The deeper we got in, there was a lagoon in there that was just beautiful. People jumped in the lagoon inside this cave. It was just something spiritual about being in that cave. Later on, we found out that that’s where a lot of the slaves were hidden during slavery. The slaves that were brought over there were hid in those caves. So, it all made sense.

That was beautiful. We had a lot of beautiful moments like that.

What type of relationship dynamics will we see in this film? Will we see a little bit of cattiness, etc.?

Yes, you are going to see all of it. You are going to see all the stuff that happens when you get a bunch of women together. You’re going to see tears. You’re going to see laughter. You’re going to see some support, some back-stabbing. You’re going to see all of it and we are able to address it in a fun and serious manner.

Please tune in it is going to be great. We are inviting everyone to get their girlfriends and have a Watch Party with us. We’ll all be having watch parties at our house and tweeting while we’re watching it. So, we’ll like to have a nationwide Watch Party with women across the nation.

Nina Holiday Entertainment, does it produce films only? What other areas of business do you focus on? What other projects should we look out for in the near future?

We are a production entity. We are a story-telling house. We are an entertainment company. We create product for film and for television, commercials, corporations, and it’s just me and my partner Cas Sigers-Beedle. She is more of the writer. We produce the products together. We come up with the products together and it’s been a beautiful thing. Our first project was a documentary called “Angels Can’t Help But Laugh,” where we sat down with 25 Black actresses that talked about the different ups and downs and struggles of being a woman, a mother, being Black in this industry and how do you stay relevant. That was our very first project that we did together. From there, we’ve had several movies that premiered on the GMC Network, then Up TV Network, and now TV One.

We also did a film that premiered on Netflix, “Hamlet and Hutch,” that starred Burt Reynolds two summers ago. It’s a family movie about a dog and a man going through Alzheimer’s, who was played by Burt Reynolds. So, that was an amazing experience to be able to work with such a legend.

As for yourself, what other projects are you currently working on?

Besides being pregnant with my third child and, first-and-only girl being due in October, I’m producing that right now. [laughs] But besides that, I just got finished directing my first half-hour sitcom pilot starring Bruce Bruce, Carl Payne, and myself. We are finishing up the edit with that. We are going to take that out in the entertainment world and see if somebody loves it as much as we do. We’re hoping that they will and we’ll get a TV show on the air.

“Girlfriends’ Getaway” airs on TV One, Saturday, August 30th 8/7c.

Follow Terri on Instagram and Twitter @TerriJVaughn. To learn more about Nina Holiday Entertainment, follow them on Twitter @Nina_Holiday and Instagram @NinaHolidayEnt or visit www.ninaholidayentertainment.com.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our interview with Terri J. Vaughn, were she gives advice to women aspiring to become the next Hollywood starlet or reality star.