Teyana Taylor, one of the stars of Tyler Perry’s latest film, Tyler Perry’s Straw, said she was able to channel her character, Det. Kay Raymond, through Kay’s signature bob.

“It was the bob. I knew, right? That little flip at the end? I said, ‘Yes, I’m doing this, I get to step out…and do something,'” she said jokingly to Blavity/Shadow and Act Managing Editor, Trey Mangum, during our cast interview.

How Teyana Taylor transformed into Det. Kay Raymond in ‘Straw’

On a more serious note, she reflected on how her character might be completely different from Inez, the role she played in her breakout film A Thousand and One, but both are grounded in motherhood.

“Of course, I came from a heavy role with A Thousand and One, but I was like, I get to be on the other side, but I’m still a mother. I’m still a Black woman, but now in a different space,” she said. “It goes to show that no matter how many characters you take on, one thing that is all the same is that we are still mothers before anything, you know? So you are a mother before your struggle. You are a mother before the gun, the badge… the bob—all of the things. We were all mothers, and we showed up for one another. It was real sisterhood. It was sisterhood that was filled with compassion and it was empathetic, and I love that.”

What to know about the plot of Tyler Perry’s ‘Straw’

Taraji P. Henson stars opposite Taylor as a mother who has reached the edge of her sanity while trying to care for her sick daughter in a world that seems not to care. According to the synopsis, “Pushed to the brink by a world that seems indifferent to her existence, she’s forced to confront impossible choices in a society that offers her no safety net.”

Also starring Sherri Shepherd, Sinbad, Rockmond Dunbar, Ashley Versher, Mike Merrill and Glynn Turman, Tyler Perry’s Straw is now playing on Netflix.