'Living Single' star Erika Alexander recalls being 'embarrassed' during a classic scene
"Living Single" fans can never forget when Kyle serenaded Max with "My Funny Valentine." Neither can Erika Alexander.
The 53-year-old actor played Maxine "Max" Shaw in the sitcom and shared for the first time what she personally felt during the scene with TODAY.com in May ahead of the show's 30th anniversary on Aug. 22.
"People don't know: I was actually very embarrassed," she said of the scene.
The classic scene is from Season Two, Episode 15, and shows Max swooning over Kyle, whom she’s declared as her nemesis, as he seductively sings the ballad right in front of her at a bar that their friend group frequents. Kyle is performing onstage as Max sits at a front-row table with Khadijah (played by Queen Latifah, whose real name is Dana Owens), Regine (played by Kim Fields) and Synclaire (played by Kim Coles).
Max fans herself and fidgets as she unsuccessfully tries to hide how riled up Kyle (played by TC Carson) is making her. Fans love the serenade because it prompts Max to get real with herself, admit her feelings for Kyle and later start a real relationship with him.
Alexander told TODAY.com why she felt embarrassed during the scene.
"Look at (Queen) Latifah and they're just looking at me like this," she said, making googly eyes. "They're in it. And they're not in it as their characters. They're in it as themselves. That's their personality, the way that Dana was looking at us."
“I never said (it), but I looked at it and realized how embarrassing it was to do that scene in front of them,” she added.
In the scene, Khadijah, Regine and Synclaire exchange glances between themselves and Max and Kyle.
"So, you liked it?" Regine asks when Kyle finishes.
"Well, it's nothing to throw a parade over," Max says, barely catching her breath that Kyle just took away.
"So, what's with all the confetti?" Khadijah asks, throwing into the air some scraps of napkins Max had ripped up during the performance.
"Max, you know he boiled your potato!" Synclaire practically shouts with her hands on Max's shoulders. Everyone laughs except Max, who continues wiping the heat and passion from her face and neck.
Alexander said Latifah, Coles and Fields showing up as themselves in the scene while she was in character made her feel left alone with Carson, who was in character but seducing her.
"I was performing, and happy to be, but I was very embarrassed as Erika that I was having to be all sorts of gooey," she added.
"Living Single" ran for five seasons on Fox, and lives on in reruns and streaming. At the time of her interview with TODAY.com, Alexander said there were plans to mark the 30th anniversary.
"I think that the Warner Bros. might be planning a party," she said before the Hollywood actors and writers' concurrent strikes.
"So stay tuned. We’ll see. We have some things coming up, if not this year, inside of the next year, that might be interesting," she teased. (The show’s creator, Yvette Lee Bowser, told TODAY.com earlier this month that there are no public celebration plans due to the strikes.)
When asked if the plans she referenced included rebooting the show, Alexander didn't say no.
"I can’t really say that that’s what it is," she said. "But stay tuned."
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
