Kandi Burruss on Leaving ‘RHOA’ and Landing a Role on ‘Reasonable Doubt’
Kandi Burruss is in the midst of another career renaissance. After rising to fame as one-fourth of the ‘90s R&B girl group Xscape, Burruss’ next turn in the spotlight came as a cast member of the longstanding Real Housewives of Atlanta reality series, on which she starred from 2009-2023.
In March, Burruss announced she was departing the Bravo franchise after a whopping 14 seasons, a decision she says was borne out of her desire to seriously pursue an acting career.
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“I no longer wanted to just be able to be a guest star,” Burruss tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I wanted to be able to audition for a role that’s more substantial on whatever project it may be. So I decided that I was going to go ahead and step out on faith, because this was my contract year. It was my year that I could actually make the decision for myself.”
Though Burruss already had other irons in the fire at the time — Xscape’s The Queens of R&B Tour with SWV this past summer and her role as a producer on the upcoming Broadway play Othello, starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal — it’s portraying the character of Eboni Phillips on season two of Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt that has been most affirming for Burruss at this point in her acting career.
“It was another tap on my window to say, ‘you did the right thing.’” she says.
Below, Burruss chats with THR about getting into character for the dramatic role on the legal drama and why she doesn’t believe her departure from RHOA marks the end of the franchise.
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How did the role of Eboni Phillips come to you?
I feel like it was meant to be. I just happened to be on the same flight with Raamla [Mohamed], the creator of Reasonable Doubt, and we exchanged information. She actually was coming to Atlanta to do this season and in my mind, I thought they had already figured out who they were using for everything. But I still reached out because I wanted to get to know her for future projects. And she was like, “Hey, what type of stuff would you want to do? What type of role would you really love to play?” And I was telling her how I would love to have a role where I could really show my acting chops, where I could really dig deep, it wasn’t something just funny or easy. I wanted to show people I really do this. I thought we were just having regular conversation. I didn’t think anything was gonna happen so soon, but maybe a week or so after we talked, my team hit me and they were like, “They want to see you for this role.” So I was excited, especially once I got a chance to find out who Eboni was. She’s everything we talked about.
What did getting into the headspace of Eboni look like?
The thing about Eboni is that she’s a woman who’s dealt with substance abuse issues. She was in an abusive relationship with a man who was successful, powerful and he took her kid away. It was so many different things. But I had a lot of people I could pull from, and other stories I could tap into. I’ve had family growing up who were dealing with substance abuse, so I saw that all the time. I actually dated somebody who had issues with prescription medicine. Sometimes we would have conversations and then he’d just [doze off], and I didn’t understand it at the time, but that was something I pulled from for Eboni.
Then before I started working on the show, I saw something on social media about this girl who had dated an athlete and they had some issues, and he took her kid away and got full custody. She didn’t even have visitation; she’s a real-life Eboni. And when I saw the story, I felt for her then because I was like, “Dang everybody’s talking junk about her, but that has to be tough for somebody to be able to take your kid and they’ve got all the money in the world to keep fighting you and you don’t have it like that.” So I pulled a little bit from all these different places and it came together.
Did you know your character would have a multi-episode arc?
I knew I was going to be on more than one [episode], I just didn’t know how many. I was excited about that, because you never want your story to just end and [the audience] doesn’t really know how, what came up, where did she go? There’s hope for Eboni. It’s open-ended, right? You don’t know what could happen. But in any show that is as great as this one, you always hope it’s a way they can bring you back.
Have you had that conversation yet with Raamla?
No, we didn’t have that conversation at all. But I have to say that it was one of the best sets that I’ve been on. I don’t know if I can say this, but they do fun stuff. They have an ice cream day. They have all kinds of cute things that they do for their cast. I’m like, “Hey, y’all have fun over here. I like it.” I feel like anytime you do a show where it continues the cast and the crew, they do become like family. But I feel like Raamla and the team that runs it, they definitely go out their way to make everybody feel special.
How does it feel to have this role under your belt now after also joining The Chi a few seasons back and, what prompted you to take acting more seriously?
A lot of people don’t really know as a kid that I was in performing arts school for drama. A lot of us in Atlanta — Xscape, OutKast — we all went to the same high school. Yes, I did sing. I met my group members there, but I was in the program for the theater part. I also was in the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta at the same time, so it’s always been a dream of mine to be an actress. It’s just that my music career jumped off first, so that’s what I put all my energy into.
But a lot of my friends and people that I was in the program with, they started to be on major TV shows, they were on Broadway, there are multiple people who I was grew up with who had success that I felt like, dang, we were acting together and y’all went and did this. It’s not that I haven’t been able to be successful in my own right, but my heart was into one day being an actress and I never really went after it like I felt I should have. So in my late 30s, I geared everything towards that. I was like, I’m going to do this because I feel like it’s never too late to go after something that was a dream.
I had changed agencies at the time, and I told them what I wanted to do. Shortly thereafter I got the audition to do Broadway. I was Mama Morton in Chicago. I had a couple other smaller movies that I was in. And actually, McKinley [Freeman] was in one of those with me, so it made me feel good that it was a familiar face [on set] even though we didn’t have any scenes together. But The Chi and now Reasonable Doubt, those are the first major shows that I’ve been able to show: Okay, she’s not playing.
Did that desire to act play into your decision to step away from the Real Housewives of Atlanta?
Yeah, definitely a small part of that. What people don’t understand is that I was on Housewives for 14 seasons and I had multiple spinoffs, and when you’re under contract, they have what they call first position. So if I audition for other things I have to ask them for permission, and if the scheduling conflicts then they can tell me, “no you can’t.” And if you’re gonna audition or you get a major role on another show, then that network wants first position. I no longer wanted to just be able to be a guest star. I wanted to be able to audition for a role that’s more substantial on whatever project it may be. So I decided that I was going to go ahead and step out on faith, because this was my contract year. It was my year that I could actually make the decision for myself instead of in the past they were able to just say, “Oh, we have another option, so you’ve got to come back.”
This year I was able to make the choice. And I’m not gonna lie, I already knew I had a lot of great opportunities coming up. I had announced at the top of year I wasn’t coming back, but my group, we had already been in talks about doing a tour this summer. I had already been in conversations and I’m a producer now on Othello, starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, coming to Broadway. I knew those things were already happening, so it was a little bit easier stepping out on faith when you already know you’re going to be moving and shaking. But when I was blessed with the opportunity to do Reasonable Doubt, it came after the announcement, so it was another tap on my window to say, “You did the right thing.”
Fans and critics have suggested that your departure, as well as Kenya Moore’s, could signal the end of the Real Housewives of Atlanta. What do you foresee for the future of the franchise?
I don’t think it has to be the end. I think that show can keep going and going and going, because it’s an audience for somebody. Now, maybe it may not be the same fans. Maybe some people might fall off, but I’ve seen it happen multiple times. When we first lost Kim Zolciak people were like, “Oh, nobody’s gonna watch the show,” and the ratings went up. Then the first time Nene [Leakes] left people were like, “Ohhh,” and the ratings were still good. I would say it wasn’t until the last four years that it was kind of [iffy], but reality TV as a whole has been dropping. But the streaming has still been huge. So it really hasn’t changed. People think it’s changed just because the regular TV numbers aren’t the same, they don’t get the streaming part of it. I think as long as they have good people that they’ve brought on — and I’ve still got friends over there, so from what I’m hearing, it’s still gonna be good. We’re gonna have some good stories, some wild stuff to happen. It’s just gonna be different than what you’re used to.
Going back to The Chi, there’s a lot of online conversation about the series being overlooked in terms of critical recognition, especially given how long it’s been running. Why do you think that is?
I think people sleep on how huge of a following The Chi has. We’re in season seven and I think we are [one of] the longest-running Black dramas. I’m not talking about comedy, there are sitcoms that have been on a little bit longer, but as far as a drama series with an all-Black cast, and that is huge for any show. The way that they’ve been able to change the storylines and how the story unfolds each year and who becomes more important this season and then it changes to this person, they are doing a hell of a job. Shout out to my birthday twin Lena Waithe. We go hard or we go home on everything we do. So, no, we don’t get the recognition that we probably deserve but it’s still going so it’s still an opportunity.
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