IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson Stop Being Scared of Fighting with Your Partner with Sterling K. Brown and Ryan Michelle Bathe
6 snips
Mar 11, 2026 
Sterling K. Brown, award-winning actor known for This Is Us, and Ryan Michelle Bathe, actress and producer from The Endgame, share their 30+ year relationship perspective. They discuss why couples stay through hard stretches. They talk about balancing careers, parenting’s impact on marriage, handling intimacy on set, and supporting each other through uneven success.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Hard Years Don't Mean Failure
- Long relationships contain concentrated periods of difficulty but still yield overall success when partners persist.
- Michelle Obama: a 30-year marriage can include 10 bad years and still be worth sticking with for the better years that follow.
Acting Together While Not Speaking
- Sterling and Ryan once played husband and wife on Guiding Light while not speaking offstage.
- Sterling froze during a Lamaze scene until Ryan's on‑camera line ‘sponge baths?’ forced a genuine reaction that revealed their tension.
Treat Onscreen Intimacy As Choreography
- Treat on‑screen intimacy as professional craft and set boundaries by discussing expectations beforehand.
- Sterling and Ryan choreograph scenes, accept necessary attraction during performance, and trust their vows to prevent jealousy.