Tracee Ellis Ross Met Ryan Coogler, and Awkwardly Had No Idea It Was Ryan Coogler

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | May 9, 2018 |

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | May 9, 2018 |

Black-ish is killing it right now, but it’s also killing us. The family sitcom is usually stand-alone in nature, but the last few episodes have taken up Dre and Bow’s separation, and it hasn’t been that funny. But it has been genuine, and painful, and it’s doing something that family sitcoms have never really done: Raising the prospect of divorce, the painful realization of a couple who recognize that they just don’t work together anymore, and the impact it can have on their children.

It’s been a whopper of an arc, and my son — who watches mostly sitcoms and light dramas — is getting his first real taste of serious, weighty human emotions outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Black-ish is also making a very strong case for an Emmy this year, although if Dre and Bow don’t reconcile at the end of the season, I don’t know what I’m going to do.

None of this has anything to do with Tracee Ellis Ross’s appearance on Seth Meyers, however. On it, she just tells a fun, fantastic story about how she met Ryan Coogler at a TED talk and asked him to do the Wakanda Forever salute with her, having NO idea that she was actually speaking to the director of Black Panther, and the awkward situation that ensued.

She is a goddamn delight.