Sheryl Lee Ralph Says 16-Year-Old Lauryn Hill Was 'Brimming with Talent' on Set of “Sister Act 2”
Sheryl Lee Ralph Says 16-Year-Old Lauryn Hill Was 'Brimming with Talent' on Set of “Sister Act 2”
Virginia ChamleeFri, June 19, 2026 at 8:59 PM UTC
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Sheryl Lee Ralph; Lauryn HillCredit: Jerod Harris/Getty; Sarah Morris/Getty -
Sheryl Lee Ralph is recalling working with a confident 16-year-old Lauryn Hill on the set of Sister Act 2
Ralph remembers Hill and Tanya Blount singing "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," which later made it into the film
In a recent interview, Ralph said Hill told her she would form a band called The Fugees
Sheryl Lee Ralph is recounting what it was like to work with a young Lauryn Hill while filming 1993's Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.
Ralph starred as Florence Watson — the strict, disapproving mother of Lauryn Hill's character, Rita — in the film.
In a career retrospective for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Ralph, 69, said of the film, "My god, to meet a 16-year-old Lauryn Hill. This was a young woman just overflowing, brimming with talent and confidence."
"You know, I thought I was confident," Ralph added. "No, Lauryn Hill was confident with a capital 'C.' "
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Sheryl Lee Ralph and Lauryn Hill in 'Sister Act 2'Credit: Buena Vista Pictures (2)
Ralph went on to recall a moment in between takes when Hill and another young actress at the time, Tanya Blount, were singing the gospel classic, "His Eye Is on the Sparrow."
"And I'm I'm like, 'Wow, this has got to be in the movie, right?' And it ends up in the movie," Ralph recalled.
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She continued: "But after the rehearsal, I'm sitting there, and Lauren says to me, 'Miss Ralph, I'm gonna have a band, and it's going to be called The Fugees.' And I was — this is me in my head — 'Sweetheart, I know you're going to have a band, but that name you might want to rethink.' "
Hill did indeed go on to form a band called The Fugees alongside Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel. The trio released their iconic, Grammy-winning album The Score in 1996, and their remake of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and "Ready or Not" dominated the airwaves in the late 1990s.
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Whoopi Goldberg starred in the two Sister Act movies, released in 1992 and 1993, as a singer named Deloris who is placed in a San Francisco convent by the Witness Protection Program after her boyfriend attempts to murder her. The first film follows Deloris' adventures at the parish, while the sequel picks up after she has resumed a singing career in Las Vegas and returns to the city to help her nun friends save the floundering school where they work.
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In 2024, during an appearance on The View, co-host Goldberg asked Ralph to return to the show for an upcoming Sister Act cast reunion. Not only that, she asked the Emmy winner to potentially star in the third sequel, which has been in the works for years now.
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