"He was a really sweet and sensitive man, but most people didn't really get to see that side. And he was very generous. He would give you the shirt off his back," she said.
He "loved to be at home [in Chicago], loved to just enjoy his home and his family. Loved having family and friends over, for gatherings - it didn't matter, he would make a party."
It's fitting then that Robert Small's film, "I Ain't Scared of You: A Tribute to Bernie Mac," which premieres Sunday on Comedy Central, feels a bit like a party, too, one the guest of honor left entirely too soon.
There's footage from Mac's early career as well as clips illustrating his rise to "Kings of Comedy" and then sitcom fame and plenty of funny (and some touching) interviews with Mac's friends and co-workers - Chris Rock, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Cameron Diaz, Carl Reiner and D.L. Hughley, to name just a few - many conducted by Mac's daughter Je'Niece, who's also writing a book about her father.
"Bernard had passed away close to two years I believe" when Small called her, "introducing himself to me, because I had never met him," said McCullough, who became an executive producer on the project.
"He said he felt Bernie was such a great comedian and it would be such a shame not to have anything done on him in remembrance of who he was."
She readily agreed to help.
When Small showed up to collect tapes and pictures, "I wasn't able to take him around, but my daughter was" and he filmed her behind the wheel as they toured her father's old neighborhood.
"She did a really good job" and Small, McCullough said, decided to have her interview some of her father's peers, many of whom knew her from her time working as his assistant.
When I remarked that their daughter was good on camera, she laughed.
"Yes, she is. Like her father."
