'A Black Lady Sketch Show' star Gabrielle Dennis says we almost didn't get that epic season 3 opening

• Season three of "A Black Lady Sketch Show" opens with a spoof of "The Purge."

• Gabrielle Dennis told Insider the skit was almost cut due to COVID-19.

Season three of "A Black Lady Sketch Show" opens with a celebrity cameo-filled purge-style race down the street that is comedy gold. But star Gabrielle Dennis told Insider that the sketch almost didn't happen.

"The funny thing is we were supposed to film that sketch last season, but because of COVID and the restrictions because of how many...extras were in there, we couldn't do it," she told Insider earlier this month of a sketch called "Product Purge." "So it was exciting to get in there and do that."

During the sketch, the cast, guest stars — including Jemele Hill, Holly Robinson Pete, and Kyla Pratt — and a number of extras on the HBO comedy race down the street to their local beauty supply store where they have mere minutes to exchange all the hair products they purchased the previous year.

"For 364-days, we have suffered with half-used hair products that have gathered dust, sitting around in our beauty cabinets, taunting us," creator Robin Thede's character says to set up the scene, before encouraging the women to "take control" and race to the beauty supply store.

When they arrive, a bored cashier, perfectly played by Michaela "MJ" Rodriguez, is more worried about her lunch break and taking selfies, rather than their bleeding wallets.

"It was just fun and exciting to just see all of these actors come in and play with us," Dennis reflected, "and everybody did such an amazing job and it was just fun."

Dennis even laughed thinking about Rodriguez's time behind the cash register in the beauty supply store where Rodriguez's character taunted the ladies, desperately trying to return their unused hair products, by going on-and-off lunch break.

"MJ, she milked it. She had a good time. She was really messing with us, but it was a good time," Dennis added.

Although Dennis has strong comedic chops, she's been acting in more dramatic roles since 1990, having stints on "The Game," "Rosewood," "S.W.A.T.," "The Bobby Brown Story," "Luke Cage", and other projects.

She joked, "My favorite genre to work in is, who wants to pay Gabrielle?"

While leaping from role to role, Dennis is also taking time to learn from those behind the scenes of "A Black Lady Sketch show," including the Thede and producer Issa Rae ("Insecure"), telling Insider that in 10 years she hopes "to be in the same lane" as them.

"I'm surrounding myself with these amazing women. It would make no sense for me to not pick up something and learn something from them and be inspired from them," she continued. "I know that the doors are open to me and I can't wait to open them and kick them down."

"A Black Lady Sketch Show" airs on HBO Fridays at 11 p.m. ET.