Roselyn Keos life inspired a major motion picture.
What did she learn?
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Everybodys like, Whats your passion?
Honestly, my passion was just to make money.
Shes talking about credit cards the way some people talk about their favorite NBA team.
She told everything toNew YorkMagazines Jessica Pressler to writean article upon which the movie was based, after all.
(Although at the time, she also claimed shed made it all up.)
Keo has the kind of slick, hyperaware charisma thats not easy to fake.
Lets talk over here, she said, her eyes narrowing.
And she draws you in.
Even if she ran up my cards, Id still respond to her texts.
Shes just the kind of person you want to keep talking to.
Were talking about credit cards because were talking about the hustle at the center ofHustlers.
If he has an American Express Platinum, Platinum has no limit.
But just because theres no limit doesnt mean he has that much buying power.
Neither the magazine story nor the movie is a tale of pure avarice.
Theyre parables about women with lots of curves but not lots of options.
Im thinking me and Jordan Belfort should do some motivational speaking together.
I tell her she could out-Belfort Jordan himself; her story is much funnier.
They want to get to know you.
Theres a glimmer in her eye, the kind that comes only from total proficiency.
The way she saysdraining!
As a stripper turned single mother turned scammer named Destiny, Wus character isHustlers moral center.
Keo just seems pragmatic.
My mom wasnt able to help me.
Who knows what kind of person I wouldve been if she was there to back me up.
In real life, Keo and Foxx havent spoken since.
Today Keo says she doesnt go out anymore.
Shes again in a relationship with her daughters father.
Go ahead!, she says, laughing.
She learned her lesson.
Now every time we fight, I dont threaten to leave him.
I have to bite my tongue and make it work for my family.
Theres lots of shopping and bags and apartments that look like chic hotels.
Today she shops at Lululemon and Fashion Nova and watchesGood Girlson Netflix.
But there has to be a hustle, right?
It cant all be gym days and after-school pickups.
Oh, my hustle, Keo begins, grinning, is for the PTA.
I do a lot of fund-raisers for my school.
There isnt a lot of drama, thank God.
Were just all about school, work, and children.
Keo went to a J.Lo concert recently.
I think women like that are the ones who look at me like, Omigod, youre a criminal.
She dont pay my bills.
Like Hes putting this hurdle in front of me for a reason.
And when it happened, of course, why, why?
And I knew what I did was wrong, you know?
But I accepted it and changed from it.
This redemption narrative seems awfully saccharine to me, and I tell her that.
What do you mean?
Her eyes again narrow, and she looks at me with a curiosity that feels almost like a test.
Im rooting for you.
See, but thats crazy, she says.
I think a lot of women are rooting for me even though I was wrong.
