When Regina Hall landed the role of Candace in The Best Man, she'd never acted in a feature film before. She'd also never danced in front of a room full of men for money, as her character was required to do during Lance's bachelor party, so the budding superstar needed a few pointers from the experts.
"What happened was the real stripper saw me in my rehearsal and said, 'You're not good, I don't believe you,' the actress said during our women's roundtable for The Best Man Of The ESSENCE cover shoot. "She was the girl who made the stripper costumes so she took me to her place in Brooklyn."
The impromptu strip club visit took place the night before Hall had to shoot her most memorable scene from the 1999 film. It was there that she learned the moves that made her appearance as Candy so believable. It's also where she picked up the tip that Sanaa Lathan said she's never forgotten after Hall shared it with her.
"She said put something on and look in the mirror and dance until you turn yourself on," Hall shared. "You can't turn anyone on if you don't believe it."
In The Best Man: The Final Chapters, Shelby, played by Melissa De Sousa, picks up Candace's stripper torch, delivering a surprising performance in one of the upcoming Peacock series' early episodes.
"I sent Malcolm a rehearsal and he was like, 'Melissa, no, you can't...This is not a cabaret actually," the actress said laughing.
We're not sure what De Sousa did in the end to switch things up, but her co-stars are big fans of the scene.
"First of all, the body is on point and the moves," Lathan said. "I was like, 'Oh right, she's a dancer, a serious professional dancer,' and you brought it. I can't wait for the world to see that."
Check out our full conversation with the women of The Best Man in the video above.