Take Ten: Teyana Taylor Talks ‘One Battle After Another’s Deleted Scene, ‘All’s Fair’ Season 2 And Why She Retired From Music

This week’s Take Ten guest is Teyana Taylor.

The multihyphenate actor-director-singer-choreographer-dancer (phew!) is hot off her stint in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, and on the eve of the Golden Globes, for which she is nominated in the Supporting category, we chatted about her culinary ambitions, the music that always makes her happy, and a One Battle scene that ended up on the cutting-room floor.

We also get into why she chose to retire from her music career at one stage, and why, although many people told her it was a bad decision, that “leap of faith, that faith walk” changed her life. “If I would have stayed stagnant, being shelved or underused, or just staying put in one box, I would never have known how many other doors were open for me,” she says.

In One Battle, Taylor plays Perfidia Beverly Hills, revolutionary and partner to DiCaprio’s Bob. When Sean Penn’s character Col. Steven J. Lockjaw becomes obsessed with Perfidia, a chain of far-reaching, calamitous events ensues.

Taylor says she learned a great deal from being on the set with Anderson, especially when it comes to her own directing career (she is set to direct her first feature, Get Lite, starring Storm Reid, and has previously directed music videos and the short Escape Room.)

With another new career strand on deck as a chef too, Taylor explained how she’s so dedicated, she even studied for culinary school exams in the car on the way to the One Battle premiere (with her focus on how to make the perfect post-party margarita).

Taylor is also currently gearing up for Season 2 of All’s Fair, Ryan Murphy’s show about a group of lawyers in which she stars alongside Niecy Nash, Kim Kardashian, Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts and Glenn Close.

“I look forward to how our characters grow and how they blossom,” Taylor said of the upcoming new season alongside her co-stars whom she calls “sisters,” but one of her best memories of working on Season 1 was “the group chat. I would tell you the name but it’s way too provocative.”

To find out which of her One Battle co-stars she’d love to sing karaoke with, the movies and shows she’s obsessed with this season and which ’90s film made a huge impact on her, click on the video above.