As Black-ish kicks off its final season, the entire cast has been reflecting on their journey together—on and offscreen. Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross have played the lovingly hilarious couple Dre and Bow for the past eight seasons, but Anderson recently revealed that before this, Ross was not too fond of him for almost a decade.
The Barbershop actor shared the story in a recent interview with Parade. At the 2005 VIBE Awards, in which the respected comedians co-hosted, Anderson recalled, “As we were walking onto the stage there was a loud sound over the speaker, and I said, ‘Tracee? Did you fart?’ The audience loved it, but what I did not know is how offended Tracee was by that comment.”
When he appeared on her 2011 series, Reed Between the Lines, the 51-year-old noticed all of his scenes were with the Girlfriends star. Yet, when it was time to film his close-ups, she left saying, “The stage is Anthony’s!” He assumed it was a sign of respect, thinking, “Oh, my God, I’ve never been treated like this before! I was a guest star on her show, and she was just giving me her set!”
But later, he realized it was because she didn’t want to be around him. It wasn’t until the first season of Black-ish that Anderson was finally back in her good graces.
“We laugh about it now. There’s nothing that I would not do for Tracee. We work the same, we learn the same, we are there for one another, and we have the ability to work with such fearlessness when we’re together, because we know that we will never allow the other to fall,” he expressed.
The final season of Black-ish premiered on Tuesday (Jan. 4) on ABC and all previous seasons are now streaming on Hulu.
Watch Anderson and Ross relive the early days of their onscreen chemistry via her audition tape below.