- I wish I grew up in the church
and I just--I had a church voice.
- You really took it there because my superficial ass,
like, was just like, "I just want to be able to sing."
But yours is, like, "I want to move people."
Mine is, like, "I just don't want you to talk to me."
'Cause I can sing so good. - [laughs] Well, that too.
[whimsical music]
♪ ♪
- Hi, I'm Maurice Harris, and this is "Centerpiece."
[soft gospel music]
My next guest--
an amazing actress, director, writer-producer,
Ms. Rashida Jones.
[harp music]
♪ ♪
So we're here at the Underground Museum in the Purple Garden.
- I think purple has had a huge impact on me
in ways that I probably am not even aware of,
but it's such a familial color to me.
There's something indescribable and unintellectual about color.
- Yeah.
- And purple for me is like this-- it's a rich--it's like a heart color.
"The Color Purple," filming that movie,
I was nine when we went to North Carolina to shoot,
and that was the last family trip we had together.
We have a photo of us in the purple fields that are in the movie.
You can see there's, like, a foreshadowing
that there was something sad and something brewing.
And then my parents split up.
- Wow. I really feel like I'm getting a sense of who you are.
- Oh.
- You know, it's getting my juices going. - Good.
- But I think we need to dive a little deeper, if you will.
- Let's do it. I'm in.
- And now let's take a journey to the center.
[laughs]
Why do you make things?
What are you striving for?
- Running from pain? [both laughing]
- Right.
- Kind of. - Right.
Do you create space for darkness? - Mm...
That has been a lifetime journey.
I've learned through years of therapy with you...
- [laughs] Totally.
- And making things that, like, that's my friend.
And I can't--my depth and my darkness and my sadness
is directly related to my work.
- When and where were you happiest?
- Nature, for me, that's where the truth is.
So my truth is always in nature.
- I mean, I love a nature moment, a curated nature moment.
- Me too. You bring nature into the world.
- It's what I'm here for, you know? - Mm-hmm.
[tranquil music]
- And now let's go deep.
♪ ♪
Now it's gonna get a little real. - Mm-mm.
- Whitney or Mariah? - Whitney.
[organ music]
- Desert or sea? - Sea.
- Almond or oat? - Oat.
- Sparkling or still? - Still.
[somber organ music]
- If you were a season, what season would you be?
- Spring. [organ music]
- If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life,
what would it be?
- Inspiration.
- [clicks tongue]
- [laughs]
- You think you're cute. Okay, I see you.
[chuckles]
♪ ♪
Girl, it's time to process.
[soothing music]
My girl, Rashida, talked about nature
being the place where she feels most herself.
When I'm with her, I feel that deep sense of rootedness.
She talked about being in the purple garden for the last time with her family.
My centerpiece will reimagine that moment
and allow Rashida to see it again
with fresh eyes...
and to see herself, wild and deep,
bursting with color...
grounded and, yet, at the same time, floating above it all.
This one's gonna be special for a very special person to me.
[drumroll]
- I'm really excited. - I am, too.
- [giggles] - We've been working so hard.
I'm just so excited that you let us get insight to who you are,
and giving us more of your process
so that then it informs my process.
- Yes. - And now this is my gift to you.
Cue the curtains.
[drumroll]
- [gasps] Aww. Oh.
Oh, it's so beautiful. It's really gonna make me cry.
- I mean... - It's so beautiful.
- I was just really moved by when you were talking in the Purple Garden
about your moment with your family and that last beautiful portrait.
I just thought that was, like, such a beautiful visual.
I invite you into your purple garden. - Oh.
It just encompasses so much.
- Yeah, there's a lot going on. You're a complex lady.
- Thank you.
I take it as a compliment now. I wouldn't when I was younger.
- I just thought it was so wonderful of you
to, like, open up about the experience that you had with your family.
- Now I sort of have to come to terms with what that meant and that ending.
And everything worked out okay.
- Shall we? After you.
- Yes.
[whimsical music]
♪ ♪