Tiffany Haddish is giving fans a different insight into who she is. Her new Peacock docuseries, Tiffany Haddish Goes Off follows her and her three closest childhood girlfriends – Selena Martin, Shermona Long, and Sparkle Clark – as they travel together on a 4-week-long adventure exploring Africa and their connection to the continent. Throughout the series, viewers see them bonding, confiding, confessing, and growing on this journey. This raw, vulnerable and unpredictable version of her on this journey results in laughter, heartfelt and relatable feelings, as well as real-time self-healing.

Blavity’s Shadow and Act spoke with all four ladies about this life-changing experience, why doing it together was a no-brainer, and what takeaways they want viewers to have. 

So Tiffany, I’ll start with you. I love the docuseries. Why did you choose to take this journey with your friends as opposed to doing it solo?

Tiffany Haddish: Well, solo is fun, but not as much fun as with my friends. Also, like, who am I gonna talk to? Myself multiple times? Like, who am I gonna ask about, ‘Oh, we saw this person in the club and blah blah blah.’ Lik,e who am I gonna do that with? Myself? That’s it, I mean, that’s whack. Even though I would answer me, and all that, but still, it’s more fun to be with the people that I know keep me safe, that actually care about me and love me, and I want. Especially Black families [and] Black friend groups, to travel together more and to have more experiences together. 

I mean, back in the 1990s, when we were coming up, I don’t remember us going on a lot of family vacations or seeing our parents go on trips like that. So to be able to do that now is like such a big deal. It’s so cool. We work hard. Everybody here is successful in their own fields of professionalism, and the fact that we are able to do that, that I was able to call them like two months before and be like, ‘Y’all, I’m gonna take y’all to Africa.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, OK, Tiffany, you always say that.’ And I’m like, ‘No, for real, we’re going to Africa.’ Like it’s amazing. It’s fun.

Now, Tiffany has such a lovable and out-there personality. As a public figure, everybody has their own views, but knowing Tiffany so personally, what did you guys hope or what do you guys want viewers to learn about her that you guys have grown to know and love?

Sparkle: Oh, that Tiffany is a real person, like she has a heart, and that she cares for people. You see her giving back, even helping people with food and groceries, just getting to know that softer side of Tiffany, the Tiffany that we know and we love.

Selena: And her intentions are pure. She has good intentions behind everything that she does. And like Sparkle said, she’s a real person, you know.

Shermona: I concur.

What would you ladies say was the biggest revelation you experienced during the trip, and how did it aid in your personal growth?

Tiffany: Well, my personal growth was a spiritual growth, inner growt,h and strengt,h and finding out who I am, as an individual, and then sharing that with these ladies here, like just having that spiritual connection and just getting to know everybody, like, emotionally.

Shermona: So I feel like I was getting back to my youthful self. I didn’t just have a baby, I have a 5-year-old, but I feel like ever since I had my son, I haven’t been like 100% myself. I think I’m still like maybe around 90%, but taking that trip just helped me to find out more about myself get back to my old fun self.

Tiffany: You’ve been in mommy mode for so long. So going on that trip, it was like, ‘OK, you’re able to let independence a little bit more like for self. She relaxed a little bit on the mama mode. She was kind of always, before she was a mama, she was a momma.

And how has it been stepping into Tiffany’s world? Obviously, you guys had the documentary film crew following you. What was that experience like just in terms of filming?

Sparkle: I was loving it. I love all the chefs, the private chefs, all the beautiful homes [and] the cameras following us. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m a star.’

Selena: I felt the complete opposite.

Tiffany: You (Sparkle) was a whole person famous. I have never seen Sparkle wear big glasses in my life. It was bad. She fits right in perfectly. Sparkle got this.

Tiffany Haddish Goes Off is now streaming on Peacock.