Sanaa Lathan: "Lady Gaga Touched Me" (EXCLUSIVE)

The lovely Sanaa Lathan is starring in a new play written by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage, called "By The Way, Meet Vera Stark." The play is a seventy year journey through the life of Vera Stark, a headstrong African-American maid and budding actress and chronicles her tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold on to her career.

We caught up with Sanaa after her standing room only, sold out opening night this week for an exclusive interview. Check it out below.

Congrats on your opening night. How did it go?

It went really well, I'm having such a great time, it's such a great role. I get to go from 28 (years old) to 68 in the play. It's a comedy that deals with all types of different issues about Hollywood stereotypes and going after your dream. I'm just thrilled. It's truly been a charmed experience for me so far.

What goes through your mind right before you walk on stage? Do the butterflies ever stop?

There are different degrees of buttlerflies, on the day before opening night I actually could not sleep the whole night. I thought I would be cool because we actually had three weeks of previews, but I literally tossed and turned all night. I guess I was just really excited, but the butterflies were definitely intense on opening night. But when I am feeling nervous, I do more of a warm up on the stage before the show. That gets me in the zone and the head space of the character and not thinking of the other things that go on off stage.

What can some actors and actresses gain by doing more stage?

One of the things I love about stage is that there is a relationship between you and the audience. They are almost like another character in the play. You really get to feel them and their response, I love that energy of interplay with live people there to witness the story. You get the play the whole journey of the character from begining to end, that's very satifisying for an actor. A lot of times when you're doing a movie, you have to start in the middle of an actor's journey or you may start at the end and then go back to the middle, it's all out of order, then finally when you get to see the movie it's like a year later. So there is sort of a disconnect from the character. But with theater, you get that immediate feeling and I love that.