17 years since Bernie Mac’s death, his former co-star put her foot down regarding questions about the late comedian. Actress Dee Dee Davis, best known for her role as Mac’s youngest niece, Bryana ‘Babygirl’ Thompkins, on his hit sitcom, responded to a curious viewer of a recent live stream who asked how his untimely death affected her.
“Do you wanna know how a death affected me?” Davis asked. “How does death affect you? I'm sorry. Y'all be asking like the dumbest fucking questions.”
“I have to reiterate… My name is Dee Dee. Yes, I'm the little girl from the Bernie Mac Show. Also, I'm not little anymore. l have two children. I'm 29 years old, grown as fuck.”
She further asserts, “I do not like questions that relate to Bernie's passing. I feel like that's ignorant. I feel like that's rude. I don't sit here and be like, ‘How'd your grandma’s passing affect you?’”
The actress later took to Instagram to reflect on the moment, writing, "Really working on my responses, an insensitive question get an insensitive answer."
Davis has always been protective of Mac’s name. In response to a fan’s criticism of her decision to join OnlyFans, saying the comedian would be “rolling in his grave,” she responded, “Well believe it boo, Link [in] bio. And one thing we’re not gonna do is disrespect him, and talk about him turning in the grave, be respectful.”
Mac died on August 9, 2008, at 50 after going into cardiac arrest.
Outside of his stand-up work and his eponymous sitcom, Mac also had a prolific movie career. He appeared in Ocean's Eleven and its two sequels, the first Michael Bay-directed Transformers movie, Friday, and had a voice role in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. He earned two Emmy Award nominations for The Bernie Mac Show, which ran from 2001 through 2006. He married Rhonda McCullough in 1977, and they had a daughter together the following year.
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