We’re always happy to see Tracee Ellis Ross. Our current favorite TV mom and best friend in our head is always good for a laugh, a brilliant quip or a fashion statement. But now she’s put an image in our heads that we simply can’t shake—that is, unless it happens.
In an irreverent new interview with Elle.com, the actress and director riffs on her love for travel, what’s next for Black-ish, and what—and whom—she’d take to a desert island. “A very tall, bearded and tatted-up lover. Let’s say an artisanal king. ... Tequila, a man and my glasses,” she tells Elle.
But after watching her dazzle—literally—in Drake’s “Nice for What” video, our favorite takeaway from Ellis Ross is that she’d gladly play the role of video vixen again for a short list of her favorite artists.
Listen, I would be in a Rihanna or Beyoncé video in two seconds. I’d be in a Kendrick Lamar video and a Childish Gambino video too. Let’s put Rihanna and Childish Gambino at the top of that list.
But her thirst is not without conditions. After all, she’s a star in her own right; no more of this ensemble-cast mess for her:
I want to do a Rihanna video but only if it’s just me and Rihanna in the video. I don’t want to be background for Rihanna, I want to be a leading role, a leading role opposite Rihanna. There should be two of us, bad ass ladies that are running the world and maybe end up as lovers in the end.
Great. Now we’re dreaming up Janelle Monáe-and-Tessa Thompson-worthy video treatments, just so we can make this happen (seriously, did no one think of casting Ellis Ross in Ocean’s 8?). All we can hope is that this interview somehow makes its way to Rih Rih, because Black-ish-meets-Bad Gal is a mashup we’d like to see.