'A Raisin in the Sun' Roundtable

Within the story of Raisin, there's a tug of war between many things: assimilation and embracing your cultural roots, and whether to embrace religion, all of which Sanaa's character Beneatha struggles with.

LATHAN: Beneatha was ahead of her time. It was before the whole civil rights movement, before the black-is-beautiful movement. I think it was necessary to find that strength in who we were as a people at that time. I think now there is so much strength in that. Black culture in America... I feel like we do feel like we're beautiful, you know. Celebrating our individuality.

Having spent so much time together working on Broadway and then the film, you all seem to be sort of a family. Did you have any sort of rituals?

COMBS: Every day [Kenny] had his yo-yo on the set and his hat. And I would do my push-ups on the side. Not to get buff but just to have that anxiety and that shortness of breath.

LATHAN: We'd do shots before the scenes, tequila shots. No, kidding.

McDONALD: [Laughs] No, one of the rituals — do you remember this? — was between shows every Wednesday and Saturday we would get sushi. Sean and I had our rituals before each night: 11 kisses on the cheek. He would do 10 and then one for good luck.

LATHAN: Awww, that's so sweet.

COMBS: I don't know where it came from. [Laughs] It was just something that I had started, in the play, when I would get in the bed before the curtain would come up.

LATHAN: He would get on the intercom [and pump everyone up]. He's a great mascot...a great leader.

McDONALD: Motivational and very charismatic.

Were there any surprises filming it compared with performing on stage?

McDONALD: How hard it was. [On stage], you do it and then it's all done. I'm not living in one scene for 16 hours. And with the film, to shoot it from all of the angles...and then be told like a week later we didn't get all the shots we wanted. [But] you have to in order to get it right. And it's just hard to keep it up — to keep that tension, that emotion up, and to be able to cry every single time on cue — and then well, the sound man didn't get it, we were out of focus, someone sneezed, someone's phone went off, you know. And so by the end, you're just drained.

Sean, where do you hope this role is going to take you? Do you have some ideas about where you'd like things to lead?

COMBS: Yeah, I have dreams and aspirations as an actor. From Made to Monster's Ball to Broadway to Raisin in the Sun, I'm taking it step by step. Hopefully every time I'm up on the screen or on the stage, I'll get better as an actor. But I'm very, very proud of where I'm at and where I've come from, and I'm clear that, like any actor, I have a long way to go.

I'm also working on another piece for EW about Audra. What is she like?

STAMOS: I was at a dinner with her in L.A. [and] there were a lot of big names at the table. Steven Spielberg walks in and comes to the table and just beelines to her. I think he saw her in Ragtime or something and was just ''blah, blah, blah, ba, ba, ba, ba... You guys are fine, but ba, ba, ba.'' He just, pfffft, zeroed right into her. She's a force of nature.

LEON: Audra's just fierce, from the first time I saw her in Carousel. Like Sean [has] said, she's one of the most talented, diverse actresses in the country. And she can cry on a dime. When we're shooting, Phylicia would say, "I'm not Audra McDonald. We're gonna shoot this one time.'' [Laughs]

RASHAD: She's pure magic. And she's disciplined. It doesn't come from out of nowhere. This woman has gone through intense training to develop herself as an artist. She walks around like none of that ever happened.

STAMOS: Yeah, humble. Humble. Until she gets on stage, then it's like, ''Ha, ha — whoa.''

RASHAD: It's like, ''We don't know where she came from, but thank you, Lord.''