Regina Hall refused to say a joke at the expense of Whitney Houston on her hit show Black Monday, she recently revealed.
The ESSENCE cover star was recently part of The Hollywood Reporter’s Comedy Actress roundtable, where she spoke about her career and her character in Showtime’s Black Monday. Hall brought up how a joke about Houston’s drug habit came up in the script, and she refused to take it on.
“There was a joke…I think about drugs and it was about Whitney Houston. And I was like, I don’t want to say that,” she explained.
“Artists give so much,” Hall continued, “and so to make fun of what was a challenge and an illness [didn’t feel right.]”
Houston died of a drug overdose in 2012 after struggling with addiction for years. She was 48.
Hall said the writers on Black Monday appreciated her feedback, recalling that “the great thing about our writers is they were like ‘Absolutely, we’ll just do something else’.”
Black Monday centers on the worst stock market crash in Wall Street history on October 19, 1987. Hall plays Dawn Darcy, the fictional first female head trader on Wall Street, with a sharp tongue and an even sharper mind. Back in April, it was renewed for a second season, premiering in 2020.