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Will Packer Interview · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: I'm a real, real celebrity, joined the Breakfast Morning. Everybody
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Speaker 1: is DJ Envy Angela Ye, Charlomane the guy. We are
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Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club. We have a special guest in the
0:14
Speaker 1: building this morning. That's right, mister Will Packer, Yo, a
0:19
Speaker 1: lot of money looking like money. Okay, success generated about
0:23
Speaker 1: a half a billy for Hollywood the past decade. He
0:27
Speaker 1: has great teeth. Get me robbed outside, Gotta get back.
0:31
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying that that was a comfortable
0:33
Speaker 1: environ You know New York. You know what, I don't
0:36
Speaker 1: have a lot of business in New York. First of all,
0:37
Speaker 1: thank you for saying that about my teeth at twice
0:42
Speaker 1: a day. Kids, Absolutely, thank you. Doctor King in Atlanta,
0:46
Speaker 1: you know, uh, New York. I love New York man.
0:50
Speaker 1: It's just, you know what in my side of the business.
0:52
Speaker 1: You know, I'm producing film and TV, and I'm I'm
0:54
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, I'm in the A and I'm in Hollywood.
0:57
Speaker 1: You know, I'm my office is in LA and I
0:59
Speaker 1: live in Atlanta, and I go back and forth, and
1:01
Speaker 1: but I'm up here now because it's like the network
1:03
Speaker 1: up fronts as this is where like all the shows,
1:05
Speaker 1: you know how you're looking. You say, oh, why they
1:06
Speaker 1: pick up that show? Why they cancel that show? This
1:09
Speaker 1: is where that's all determined and announced. All the big
1:11
Speaker 1: networks are here and they're selling their shows to the advertise.
1:15
Speaker 1: So this is like a little behind the scenes of
1:16
Speaker 1: how the business really works. So I'm up here because
1:18
Speaker 1: I got two new shows, one on ABC, one on NBC.
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Speaker 1: Up front? Did you attend, sir? Both of them? ABC?
1:25
Speaker 1: I go to I gotta see what everybody else is doing.
1:27
Speaker 1: I went to Fox. I snuck in CBS. I gotta
1:29
Speaker 1: see what it is. You know, So you got two shows?
1:31
Speaker 1: Come into show? Yeah, man, um, I see the one
1:36
Speaker 1: on NBC and ABC. Ye. People are talking by the way,
1:41
Speaker 1: that looks hilarious. Oh, it goes there, it goes there.
1:44
Speaker 1: It's it's a funny show. It's it's like it's this
1:46
Speaker 1: white dude, just like like really neurotic jewish white dude.
1:50
Speaker 1: His best friend is black. His wife is like mix,
1:53
Speaker 1: you don't really know what she is. She's ethnically ambiguous.
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Speaker 1: And the black dude does stand up and the white
1:58
Speaker 1: dudes are as a professor and all they talk talk
2:00
Speaker 1: about his race and sex and politics and stuff that
2:03
Speaker 1: like everybody else would consider awkward conversations like they go there,
2:06
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So it's crazy like in
2:08
Speaker 1: the opening episode, like, uh, they're about to hire this babysitter,
2:11
Speaker 1: but then the babysity it turns out to be hot,
2:13
Speaker 1: so it's like, can we hire her? And then the
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Speaker 1: black dudees like I think I saw on huts porn
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Speaker 1: star Exactly what would you do if your babysitter was
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Speaker 1: a porn star, Because then it's weird, like Okay, she's hot,
2:21
Speaker 1: but then you see her holding the baby that was
2:25
Speaker 1: the thing, but they needed babysit. It's so bad and
2:27
Speaker 1: wife was like, well she ain't doing it no more.
2:29
Speaker 1: I mean it's really bad. And it was like debating it.
2:31
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. It wanted to go. My
2:32
Speaker 1: wife just asking that the other day. So about this
2:34
Speaker 1: old pair, do you wanted to be young and old?
2:35
Speaker 1: I said, old, old, nold temptation. You know, you know
2:43
Speaker 1: we we disliked you, me and you disliked you for
2:45
Speaker 1: a while. What happened Charlemagne came back and had a
2:49
Speaker 1: big head after being in a movie. Yeah, yeah, right
2:51
Speaker 1: along in a big movie. Bill. I don't know that
2:56
Speaker 1: we would say star. I don't know if that's exactly accurate,
3:00
Speaker 1: but but we're going to keep going. Starting came back
3:03
Speaker 1: and he's had a big head ever since. Okay, there's
3:06
Speaker 1: people are recognizing him when he goes out. Is a
3:08
Speaker 1: resume for the movie? I have an It was all method.
3:15
Speaker 1: Actually was about the face to walk, you know, the
3:18
Speaker 1: way I held the fold. If you if you love
3:22
Speaker 1: his line and ride along, wait till you see his
3:23
Speaker 1: line and ride along too. Wait I'm saying, and um,
3:29
Speaker 1: you know every starting power. So you guys both ride
3:32
Speaker 1: along too. That's my I was like, dain't got it?
3:37
Speaker 1: Right along? He does? He does the same line, but
3:42
Speaker 1: even better. Where do you get the inspiration for these movies?
3:48
Speaker 1: You know why? It comes from everywhere? Like So, as
3:50
Speaker 1: a producer, a lot of people don't even know what
3:52
Speaker 1: like a movie producer does. So my job is to
3:54
Speaker 1: bring together all the people that actually make the movie.
3:57
Speaker 1: So I'm like the general man jo on the football team. Right.
4:00
Speaker 1: I gotta bring in my director, got to bring in
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Speaker 1: my actors. I gotta find a financing now, I gotta
4:04
Speaker 1: find the writers who will go. So a lot of
4:06
Speaker 1: times I'll have an idea for a movie, and then
4:08
Speaker 1: I'll go get the right writer to go and actually
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Speaker 1: execute it and put it together. It sound so simple.
4:13
Speaker 1: I have an idea for a movie, let me get
4:14
Speaker 1: someone to write it. Because we all have ideas. Everybody
4:16
Speaker 1: thinks they can produce and direct a movie until you
4:19
Speaker 1: know it's crazy though, you actually you can. And I
4:22
Speaker 1: say that to people like these days, like there's nothing's time.
4:25
Speaker 1: You can go take your smartphone and you could actually shoot,
4:28
Speaker 1: and you can edit on your laptop or your or
4:31
Speaker 1: your tablet, and you could actually make a movie. But
4:33
Speaker 1: people don't have to. People don't have to. That's right.
4:36
Speaker 1: Your first one's gonna be garbage, that's what. And I
4:39
Speaker 1: tell people who want to get in this game, I'm like,
4:40
Speaker 1: you know, just go out and start shooting stuff because
4:42
Speaker 1: the first is gonna be hot garbage. The second we
4:44
Speaker 1: will be a little less hot garbage. But then you know,
4:46
Speaker 1: you get better and better east time. A lot of
4:48
Speaker 1: people don't have the drive to really do that. That's
4:49
Speaker 1: the truth. You have millions of dollars, you gotta make this,
4:53
Speaker 1: you know, fifty million dollars, you know, ride a long
4:55
Speaker 1: type move. I'm like na make a like ten thousand
4:58
Speaker 1: or make a hundred dollars movie. Just make a movie
5:00
Speaker 1: for nothing, you know, and just see what if people
5:02
Speaker 1: watch it, if it's good. A lot of people don't
5:04
Speaker 1: know you've been doing it since the nineties. I've been
5:06
Speaker 1: in it, man, Yeah, I've been in it. Yeah. Man.
5:08
Speaker 1: I went to family down to tylahas she graduated from there.
5:11
Speaker 1: I made my first little movie there, and then I
5:12
Speaker 1: made a movie called TWA That was the first one
5:14
Speaker 1: that went in there. I actually saw that movie, remember
5:17
Speaker 1: that yet that was the hustle. I made that little
5:20
Speaker 1: movie and literally like it was like a three time
5:23
Speaker 1: they had a couple had a three you know who
5:24
Speaker 1: was in Gary Doordan. Yeah, I just saw him imagine
5:29
Speaker 1: Palmer and Kenya More, Kenya More. That's right, that's when
5:32
Speaker 1: she was in. Yeah. Would you put her in anything now? Um,
5:36
Speaker 1: if it was right role. You know, I don't work
5:39
Speaker 1: with a lot of reality stars, um, just because there's
5:42
Speaker 1: so many And that's nothing against him at all, but
5:45
Speaker 1: there's so many like like actors that are out there
5:47
Speaker 1: and like getting in the game, and like that's interesting
5:50
Speaker 1: because La, You've worked with Lila and she came up
5:53
Speaker 1: parents said she stopped doing her show because she feels
5:55
Speaker 1: like there's a stigma attached to being a reality star,
5:58
Speaker 1: and it was hard for her to get wrong. A
6:00
Speaker 1: lot of people in the industry view that as what
6:02
Speaker 1: you do and your talent, and they say, you know what,
6:05
Speaker 1: we'd rather have somebody that can separate themselves because as
6:08
Speaker 1: reality you're known for like playing yourself as an actor.
6:10
Speaker 1: You want people who can become other characters. It's not
6:13
Speaker 1: to say they're not talented people out there, but like
6:15
Speaker 1: Lie is talented, a Lie works hard. Like Lie is
6:18
Speaker 1: somebody that's like taking acting classes and has a coach,
6:21
Speaker 1: and she's very very serious about it. So it's not like,
6:24
Speaker 1: you know, the reality thing was something she did. It's
6:26
Speaker 1: not who she is. No, let me running the resume
6:28
Speaker 1: down for people who may not know you produced Takers Did,
6:31
Speaker 1: which was a big movie like a Man one and
6:33
Speaker 1: two ride along about Last Night, No Good Deed, the
6:36
Speaker 1: Wedding Ringer. Yeah, they see your executive producer spreared out
6:38
Speaker 1: of content that man coming out August. Yeah. How did
6:42
Speaker 1: you go from you know, just being the guy that
6:45
Speaker 1: did twar in the nineties or early two thousands to
6:47
Speaker 1: being the go to guy in Hollywood achieve grime? Man,
6:49
Speaker 1: that grind just not stopping. You know. The first the
6:52
Speaker 1: first like big movie was Stomped the Yard. That was
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Speaker 1: my first one. Yeah, and it was like, you know,
6:57
Speaker 1: I went to a black college. I was in a fraternity,
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Speaker 1: So I made a movie about something that we knew
7:00
Speaker 1: college family, Florida and dam University. Uh. And you know what,
7:04
Speaker 1: that was the first one that like made Hollywood take note.
7:07
Speaker 1: But to even get to that point was because we
7:09
Speaker 1: made that little movie TWI and we made money outside
7:12
Speaker 1: of Hollywood, spake money without them. You see them be
7:16
Speaker 1: absolutely Are they doing a Stump the Yard TV show
7:20
Speaker 1: now or something not serious about that? I wonder what
7:25
Speaker 1: makes you pick your talent? Because you put Terrence Jay
7:26
Speaker 1: in Stump the Yard early, you put them in think
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Speaker 1: like a mane one in two. Yeah, Like what made
7:31
Speaker 1: you see something in Terrence Jay? You know what? Terence
7:33
Speaker 1: is a hustler? Man. I tell you true story with Terrace.
7:36
Speaker 1: Terrace was on one oh six right, and I was
7:39
Speaker 1: doing a table read that's where you get the whole
7:41
Speaker 1: cast together for the movie. We had like basically most
7:44
Speaker 1: of the cast out in LA and I said, yo,
7:46
Speaker 1: t I have a couple roles that haven't been cash.
7:48
Speaker 1: Yet I'm doing a table read in LA. I know
7:50
Speaker 1: you're shooting in New York. If you can make it
7:52
Speaker 1: and just read this role alongside the actors, you probably
7:55
Speaker 1: not gonna get the role. But the studio was that
8:02
Speaker 1: there was littlely no chance team was gonna get this role,
8:05
Speaker 1: you know, because I mean, you know, I had Kevin Harder,
8:07
Speaker 1: had Taji, I had Michael Eally, you know, and he
8:09
Speaker 1: was so he came in just for the table read
8:13
Speaker 1: and he took off work like Stephen Hill knows the
8:15
Speaker 1: story now, but he liked lied and said he was sick,
8:18
Speaker 1: flew to LA for this table read, got in the
8:20
Speaker 1: room with the actors and killed it. Like while everybody
8:22
Speaker 1: else was just reading the lines. You know what I'm saying.
8:24
Speaker 1: Terrence had memorized that I was acting it out and
8:28
Speaker 1: he did so good, Like he had that little small
8:30
Speaker 1: window of opportunity and he just ran with it. Yeah,
8:32
Speaker 1: and that's direct, Like, Yo, Who's who's that guy that
8:36
Speaker 1: was reading the role of Michael? Who is he? I
8:38
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, we should consider him, and
8:40
Speaker 1: he gave me the ammunition I needed. He got that wrong. Wow,
8:43
Speaker 1: that's interesting. Kevin hard too, like it's like you two
8:46
Speaker 1: have a chemistry like dream snoopad in the nineties. Yeah,
8:48
Speaker 1: I got to keV become like I guess you're mused,
8:51
Speaker 1: so to speak, dude, work ethic because keV keV like
8:54
Speaker 1: worked so hard and go so hard and like I'm
8:56
Speaker 1: the same way. So we just we just connect on
8:58
Speaker 1: that level, you know what I mean, Like just like
9:00
Speaker 1: on some real professional stuff, like we both are like, yo,
9:04
Speaker 1: let's go get it. Like I'll never forget the day
9:06
Speaker 1: Ride Along opened, we were everybody was like, yo, we
9:10
Speaker 1: opened number one. We made like forty plus million dollars kicking,
9:13
Speaker 1: and me and keV had to get up like six
9:15
Speaker 1: am the next one to do promo shoots for about
9:19
Speaker 1: last night with our next movie that was opening, and
9:21
Speaker 1: we was like, yo, we'll celebrate later. We gotta get
9:23
Speaker 1: it like we did one, Let's get two, Let's get three.
9:26
Speaker 1: Like he's he's always thinking four or five steps ahead.
9:29
Speaker 1: And with keV, people don't know it, but keV was
9:31
Speaker 1: in the game for a minute and was losing. Was like,
9:38
Speaker 1: that's the worst people we have ever made. Like people
9:40
Speaker 1: wrote Kevin Hart off for dead like true story. I
9:43
Speaker 1: went to Hollywood like would think like a man. I
9:46
Speaker 1: was like, yo, Kevin Hart, I want to put him
9:47
Speaker 1: in it. He would be great as this central role.
9:50
Speaker 1: It was like it was like, we know Kevin Hart.
9:52
Speaker 1: He's not a star, Like he's not a leading man.
9:54
Speaker 1: We're not hiring Kevin Hart. Like literally they told me that.
9:57
Speaker 1: And now all those people call me like you think
10:00
Speaker 1: you'll you think you dotely? Absolutely, did you know you
10:05
Speaker 1: could be a superstar? I did. I did, because the
10:08
Speaker 1: reality is that, and you guys noticed, like the streets
10:11
Speaker 1: know it before Hollywood does. Hollywood doesn't have their finger
10:14
Speaker 1: on any particular post. They're trying, you know, But my
10:17
Speaker 1: job is connect with real people, and real people were
10:21
Speaker 1: feeling keV way before Hollywood was taking notice. And that's
10:24
Speaker 1: what I brought. And I said, Yo, I'm telling you,
10:26
Speaker 1: this guy is building a fan base that is monstrous
10:29
Speaker 1: and will not stop. Now they're aware of it. But
10:32
Speaker 1: he went out there and he made his own just
10:34
Speaker 1: like we were talking about making a movie. He made
10:36
Speaker 1: his own through his whole digital stuff and through a
10:38
Speaker 1: stand up and you know all the movies that was
10:40
Speaker 1: on bootleg, Like I joke about it, but that got
10:42
Speaker 1: him in like a bunch of living rooms. People was
10:43
Speaker 1: watching the stand up way before Hollywood to know they're
10:46
Speaker 1: straight out of Compton. Yeah, man, I was filming that
10:49
Speaker 1: movie because I mean, it seems like there would be
10:50
Speaker 1: so much controversy about that movie and people wanting to
10:53
Speaker 1: be in and wanting to put their parts in their
10:55
Speaker 1: two cents in that movie, and then people being mad
10:57
Speaker 1: about what you say about them and how they portrayed
10:59
Speaker 1: in that movie. Biopics are are challenging, I will tell
11:02
Speaker 1: you that because you know it's a it's a true
11:04
Speaker 1: life story. But if there is an ever a biopic,
11:08
Speaker 1: man that the timing was right and the story needed
11:11
Speaker 1: to be told, it was this one. And I gotta
11:13
Speaker 1: give major props to f Gary Gray, the director, because
11:15
Speaker 1: you know, he's from that world. He knows it like
11:18
Speaker 1: that was his life. And this movie had been around
11:20
Speaker 1: a long long time and a lot of challenges were
11:23
Speaker 1: in the way of getting made, and it finally got made.
11:26
Speaker 1: And it's funny because it's um you know, obviously Cube's
11:29
Speaker 1: son plays him. And we were actually shooting right along too,
11:34
Speaker 1: in like Miami and Atlanta, and they were at the
11:37
Speaker 1: same time straight out of convers shooting in la and
11:39
Speaker 1: so in between takes, like Cube would have the tablet
11:43
Speaker 1: ie we got the technology now where we can actually
11:45
Speaker 1: watch what's going on on another set. Then between him
11:48
Speaker 1: and acting right along too, he'd be trying to see
11:49
Speaker 1: what the son was doing, you know what I mean.
11:51
Speaker 1: I was like, Yo, how are you doing this? This
11:53
Speaker 1: must be nerve racking, Like you got your you got
11:55
Speaker 1: the movie about you. First of all, this is your movie,
11:58
Speaker 1: your life, and then your son and it's playing you
12:01
Speaker 1: in the movie. You want him to do good, you
12:02
Speaker 1: want the movie to be good. You're trying to act
12:04
Speaker 1: in this other big action movie we're doing like, how
12:06
Speaker 1: are you doing it? And it was just crazy trying
12:08
Speaker 1: to balance all that, but it came together. Manum, it's
12:11
Speaker 1: it's good. I gotta give props to Gary and Dre
12:14
Speaker 1: and Cube, And you know, I can't wait for y'all
12:16
Speaker 1: to see that. You're working with a lot of old
12:17
Speaker 1: g's lately. I see I see you and LeVar Burton.
12:19
Speaker 1: They say, y'all remaking roots roots man actual And so
12:24
Speaker 1: that's gonna play on like I read Lifetime ay and
12:28
Speaker 1: in History Chat. Yeah, it's gonna be simulcast at the
12:31
Speaker 1: same time, it's gonna be really really big. I gotta
12:33
Speaker 1: tell y'all, like more than anything. I'm proud of everything
12:35
Speaker 1: I'm doing, but this is special to me. It's special
12:38
Speaker 1: because it's such an iconic film and there's a whole
12:41
Speaker 1: generation out there. They don't know roots, right, you know,
12:44
Speaker 1: like some people like our roots. It's like you're retelling
12:46
Speaker 1: the story. And I'm like, when you say retelling, that
12:48
Speaker 1: implies that you told it. But there's a whole generation
12:51
Speaker 1: that don't know it. They haven't seen it. Like all
12:53
Speaker 1: they know I saw a django, you know, that's this
12:58
Speaker 1: is the ultimate or Virgin's story, Like this is it.
13:01
Speaker 1: This is like coming from Africa, kings and queens and
13:04
Speaker 1: warriors and how you end up from that into how
13:08
Speaker 1: we all sit in the studio today, you know. So
13:10
Speaker 1: it's it's uh, it's it's a hell of an undertake
13:13
Speaker 1: and I'm proud. We got some dope directors that were
13:15
Speaker 1: lining up that I'll be able to announce soon. And yeah,
13:18
Speaker 1: LeVar Burton from the original, you know, he's down with it.
13:20
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's something brought to them or they were
13:22
Speaker 1: going to do it and they were trying to find somebody.
13:24
Speaker 1: They brought it to me. Yeah, That's the thing, like
13:26
Speaker 1: how Charlotmagne was saying, when you get to kind of
13:27
Speaker 1: be in that position where Hollywood will come to you.
13:30
Speaker 1: So I'm very blessed that I was in a position
13:32
Speaker 1: they came to me. They were doing it, and they
13:33
Speaker 1: came to me to help, you know, bring my flavor. Now.
13:35
Speaker 1: You tweeted one time you said, how can we expect
13:37
Speaker 1: you have to behave? Behave? If they were descended from kings,
13:40
Speaker 1: queens and noble warriors, if they're unaware it's in their DNA.
13:43
Speaker 1: So I always wonder, why does Hollywood keep showing us
13:46
Speaker 1: the slave stories? Then why not show us when we
13:48
Speaker 1: were kings and queens and noble war Not a lot
13:51
Speaker 1: of stories about that, not a lot of stories about that.
13:53
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right. That's one of the reasons I want
13:56
Speaker 1: to do this. I mean, I'm gonna show the whole journey,
13:57
Speaker 1: and obviously slaver is an important part of it. But
13:59
Speaker 1: this is going to go where it begins. It's just
14:02
Speaker 1: going to start, you know, like the original in Africa.
14:04
Speaker 1: And here's the thing about Hollywood. Hollywood is a business.
14:07
Speaker 1: So at the end of the day, if people want
14:09
Speaker 1: to see that, and they'll pay to see that. You know,
14:11
Speaker 1: that's what they'll make. You know, you think it's like
14:12
Speaker 1: I don't think people will pay to see black people
14:14
Speaker 1: will be great and not a lot of stories. I
14:19
Speaker 1: think that a lot of the stories that are in
14:22
Speaker 1: a historical context about the black journey, the African American
14:27
Speaker 1: journey is um you know, based around slavery or civil rights,
14:31
Speaker 1: and those are important stories. There are a ton of
14:33
Speaker 1: those stories that haven't been told, but a lot of
14:35
Speaker 1: them have. And so this is one that is going
14:38
Speaker 1: to take it from a totally different direction. It's going
14:42
Speaker 1: to the original. Like my kids like, they don't want
14:45
Speaker 1: to see the original rules you know, it was made
14:47
Speaker 1: a long time ago. It feels like it's an old movie.
14:49
Speaker 1: It feels like it was made in the style of
14:52
Speaker 1: how movies were made and then they don't move as
14:53
Speaker 1: fast and not as interesting and not as exciting. I
14:56
Speaker 1: want to do a retelling and this for this to
14:58
Speaker 1: be that movie, like that definitive origin story. Like I say,
15:03
Speaker 1: you know that people can go, you can watch it,
15:05
Speaker 1: you know, watching in schools. Why and it's gonna be entertained.
15:07
Speaker 1: It's not like a history lesson and the foot getting
15:09
Speaker 1: cut off can look even more realistic. It's also remaking
15:13
Speaker 1: the whiz. Is that true? That's me. They're doing it,
15:16
Speaker 1: NBC is doing it. But everything, everybody wants to be
15:19
Speaker 1: in everything. What motivates you now, because obviously it's not
15:24
Speaker 1: bunny you know what it's it's um, it's the grime. Man.
15:28
Speaker 1: Here's the thing when you and I tell people this
15:30
Speaker 1: all the time, like if you if you hustle, you
15:33
Speaker 1: want to work hard, you want to like get to
15:34
Speaker 1: a certain level, you gotta start now, Like I don't
15:36
Speaker 1: care if you listen to me right now you're watching
15:38
Speaker 1: this on revote. Then you in a job that you hate,
15:40
Speaker 1: do that to the best your ability, because it's not
15:42
Speaker 1: like just when the opportunity pops all of a sudden,
15:45
Speaker 1: you're gonna know how to be great, and you're gonna
15:46
Speaker 1: know how to hustle. You're gonna know how to grind.
15:47
Speaker 1: Like no, you start that wherever you are, whatever you're doing, like,
15:52
Speaker 1: be the best, you know, janitor, be the best you know, consultant, telemarket,
15:57
Speaker 1: whatever it is like that grind and and to ask
16:00
Speaker 1: your question, you don't just turn it off, you know.
16:01
Speaker 1: So I'm driven because I want to make great stories.
16:04
Speaker 1: Because I want to hire new actors, you know, because
16:06
Speaker 1: I want to leave a legacy. You know, my kids
16:09
Speaker 1: push me. I just for me. That's who I am.
16:11
Speaker 1: You know, do you feel like more doors are open
16:13
Speaker 1: for people of color? Now? They've been talking about network
16:15
Speaker 1: television obviously, now you have two shows, you know, simultaneously,
16:20
Speaker 1: and they say Empire was a big part of it. Man, Yeah,
16:23
Speaker 1: Lee and Taragi and Terrence all the fam that was
16:26
Speaker 1: a big, big part of it. The reality is that
16:28
Speaker 1: diversity is business now, it's real business. Like, if you're
16:31
Speaker 1: a networking you're only I don't care what you are.
16:34
Speaker 1: If you're only selling the white people, you're losing. That's
16:36
Speaker 1: what it is. You know. If you don't have Hispanic autist,
16:38
Speaker 1: if you don't have black artis, if you don't have
16:40
Speaker 1: Asian audiences, then you're losing. Advertisers want everybody. So diversity
16:44
Speaker 1: is winning. Did you try to go to network television previously?
16:46
Speaker 1: But and it was a lot more difficult, And now
16:48
Speaker 1: you went and they're like, come on, we need stuff.
16:50
Speaker 1: You know what I didn't. This is my first year
16:52
Speaker 1: in television, so it's crazy because even in my first year,
16:54
Speaker 1: I sold two shows. So that's like that's huge, Like
16:57
Speaker 1: my team is amazing. Okay, but no, but just ask
17:00
Speaker 1: your question. It was like that though. Definitely there are
17:03
Speaker 1: people this is my first foray into television, but there
17:05
Speaker 1: are people that tell you they've been banging on that
17:07
Speaker 1: TV door for years with people of color that have
17:09
Speaker 1: been trying to get a network TV. And the reality
17:11
Speaker 1: is that there weren't not a lot of shows. You
17:13
Speaker 1: had like an air in the eighties, um late eighties,
17:16
Speaker 1: early nights where you had a lot of black shows
17:18
Speaker 1: and you had CW and up and that at first
17:20
Speaker 1: came out, but for a while it was a drought.
17:22
Speaker 1: There a lot of studies and people complaining about it
17:24
Speaker 1: because it was just so just white, just white, primarily
17:27
Speaker 1: white men. And that's what you saw came along. Yeah,
17:30
Speaker 1: it came in, and that's the day they the ratchetness
17:34
Speaker 1: to get it. That's you know, that's part of it too.
17:37
Speaker 1: We gotta show it off. Go back to the beginning.
17:39
Speaker 1: How did you start in the game and getting into
17:42
Speaker 1: everything that you do, because there's a lot of kids
17:43
Speaker 1: out there that was going to college, going to community college,
17:46
Speaker 1: going to whatever college, and how did they get their start?
17:48
Speaker 1: How did you get your start? I was in college
17:50
Speaker 1: right and I was majoring in engineering. I did not
17:53
Speaker 1: want to be an engineer. And a lot of people
17:55
Speaker 1: can feel me on this right now, I was in
17:56
Speaker 1: a major I didn't want to do. It wasn't my passion.
17:59
Speaker 1: But like I said, I was going hard. I have
18:02
Speaker 1: an engineering degree. I graduated magna coom law. Like I
18:05
Speaker 1: did my put the time in, put the work in.
18:07
Speaker 1: And while I was there, I met a cat from Philly,
18:11
Speaker 1: Rob Hardy, and he wanted to be the next John
18:14
Speaker 1: Singleton of Spike Lee was like, I want to be
18:16
Speaker 1: a director, and I helped him to make his first
18:18
Speaker 1: movie while we were still college students. We didn't know
18:21
Speaker 1: what we didn't know. We thought, oh, you make a movie,
18:23
Speaker 1: you send in the Hollywood, and that's it. When we
18:24
Speaker 1: send in Hollywood, and Hollywood was like, um, don't send
18:27
Speaker 1: us trash, no more right so um, but that was
18:30
Speaker 1: what started to hustle. And from that little movie we
18:33
Speaker 1: went out and we independently distributed it, and we hustled
18:36
Speaker 1: our way in the theaters and said, please show our
18:38
Speaker 1: little movie. And so the first one was called Chocolate City,
18:41
Speaker 1: and the next one was called TWI and after that,
18:44
Speaker 1: you know, the money is right now, not just kidding, mom,
18:51
Speaker 1: but you know what from the twis, I actually did
18:53
Speaker 1: a movie called a Gospel, which was a faith based movie,
18:56
Speaker 1: just to show we could have a little range, and
18:57
Speaker 1: then stomped y'arvis wanted took it over to I feel
19:00
Speaker 1: like your films are more diverse than see like a
19:03
Speaker 1: Tyler Perry. Is that by design? Definitely? I mean, you know, look,
19:09
Speaker 1: I love Tyler does what he does. We're different filmmakers.
19:11
Speaker 1: I think that what I've always tried to do is
19:13
Speaker 1: tell stories that aren't necessarily black, aren't necessarily about any
19:18
Speaker 1: particular ethnicity of culture, but then put black people in them,
19:21
Speaker 1: right like Uncle Buck, you know, or even like things
19:25
Speaker 1: like a man if you look that could be like
19:27
Speaker 1: a white cat white cast, you know what I mean,
19:29
Speaker 1: Like really like any of my movie, I mean, Takers,
19:32
Speaker 1: you know, originally was like all white. We like put
19:34
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, drifts and tip in it,
19:36
Speaker 1: you know. So for me, I love the idea of
19:38
Speaker 1: a universal story and then putting flavor in it. Because
19:43
Speaker 1: people with the NBC Show, it seems like you're trying
19:45
Speaker 1: to show that black and white people have more in
19:46
Speaker 1: common and we may think, yeah, the NBC show, you
19:49
Speaker 1: know what, it goes there, because I think that right now,
19:52
Speaker 1: on like social media, people are having like real conversations
19:55
Speaker 1: that they would never have before. You know, you can
19:56
Speaker 1: go on and you can tweet somebody that lives in
19:58
Speaker 1: Iowa that you wouldn't even never meet and give me
20:00
Speaker 1: your perspective on something, and they can give you theirs,
20:03
Speaker 1: and y'all having an interaction. And sometimes it's really raw, right,
20:06
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's like, you know, just real going there, and
20:09
Speaker 1: other times it's you know, more polite whatever it is. Though,
20:12
Speaker 1: they are conversations that are being had out there in
20:14
Speaker 1: the world. You can go look on your timeline right
20:16
Speaker 1: now as people saying all kinds of crazy stuff and
20:19
Speaker 1: all kinds of intelligent stuff and everything in between. So
20:22
Speaker 1: there's nothing like that on TV. There's nothing like that
20:24
Speaker 1: on TV that's having the real conversation, you know. Like
20:28
Speaker 1: in one scene in that new show, people are talking.
20:30
Speaker 1: The white dude is so proud because he finally learned
20:33
Speaker 1: all the lyrics to Empire State of Mind. And all
20:35
Speaker 1: he wants to do is I press his black friend
20:36
Speaker 1: because they got tickets to the jay Z concert, right,
20:38
Speaker 1: And so the only way and he's playing it and
20:40
Speaker 1: he's rapping. He's so proud of it. And he gets
20:42
Speaker 1: to the part where Jay says the N word and
20:44
Speaker 1: back he's like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. What you're doing? Man?
20:46
Speaker 1: He's like, nanah, I can't. I was just gonna wrap it.
20:48
Speaker 1: I wasn't going You should hear me saying like, I
20:50
Speaker 1: don't say the er. I can do the A like
20:51
Speaker 1: I've been practicing. Mind flag. He's like, dude, you can't.
20:53
Speaker 1: He's like, well, I can. I humm it can I
20:55
Speaker 1: He's like, nah, dude, you gotta seeing Alicia Keys part.
20:57
Speaker 1: You can't say any And he's like, what this rapper
21:00
Speaker 1: is a song? Why can't I? Like? It goes there,
21:02
Speaker 1: it does that in the conversation, why not you say?
21:04
Speaker 1: White guy like, that's not Zach from Saved by the
21:06
Speaker 1: Belt's Zach bell y'all, Mark, Paul Gosselin, I got Zach.
21:12
Speaker 1: You believe that I got classic cats in my joints. Man,
21:16
Speaker 1: you got to Uncle Buck coming with me a long
21:17
Speaker 1: and Mike Mike do it movies? How do you convince
21:20
Speaker 1: them to do TV? You know what it's it's good
21:22
Speaker 1: content and TV now is like because there's such good
21:26
Speaker 1: content on TV. You can't get movie stars, which is
21:29
Speaker 1: what they are. That's look, Taranti is a movie star,
21:31
Speaker 1: me along as a movie star apps movie star, but
21:34
Speaker 1: there's good content on TV and it's giving them opportunity.
21:37
Speaker 1: So for me, who wants to do both, it's a
21:39
Speaker 1: great time because I can work with some of these
21:41
Speaker 1: like a list top actors and bring them to my
21:44
Speaker 1: content where whether it's big street or small screen. I
21:47
Speaker 1: was how important is it for you to use your
21:49
Speaker 1: your platform to teach? It's really important. It's interesting because
21:52
Speaker 1: you know, I try to do it or not let
21:54
Speaker 1: people know. Because if you walk in the door, all right,
21:55
Speaker 1: I'm gonna teach you. Everybody sit down and you know,
21:58
Speaker 1: nobody playing attention. Nobody want to hear that you're on
22:00
Speaker 1: the panel coming up, right, aren't you? You do all
22:02
Speaker 1: these panels and stuff that I do. I do public
22:04
Speaker 1: speaking panels. I just did the commencement at my alma mater,
22:06
Speaker 1: fam you. I'm proud of that. I do a lot
22:08
Speaker 1: of that. Absolutely, um. But to your point, Charlotte Man,
22:11
Speaker 1: I tried to within the content, within the entertainment. You know,
22:15
Speaker 1: I try to have stuff in there that can elevate us,
22:18
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, it can take us and
22:19
Speaker 1: push us to the next level, because that's who I
22:20
Speaker 1: am at the end of the day. You know, like
22:22
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a smart black dude and I'm proud of yeah,
22:26
Speaker 1: and I do. Yes, that's like I think it's like
22:29
Speaker 1: Chatted get to the Sea. I think it sounds bigger
22:33
Speaker 1: than it respect to chat Town, like Barrock or nothing.
22:38
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was a slow day, chat I think. Yeah,
22:43
Speaker 1: you're the only booking Deer fan I know in the
22:46
Speaker 1: serious business. It's me. That's yeah, we had jamis. Now
22:48
Speaker 1: what say something? I can't. I gotta wait. Tampa fans,
22:56
Speaker 1: we cautiously you don't have the draft. Everybody's a super
22:59
Speaker 1: Bowl winner. Every team has got a chance. Every like
23:02
Speaker 1: it's Cleveland Brown fans like all this year, you know
23:04
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So I can't say nothing. But we
23:07
Speaker 1: do have a super Bowl though, we got ours, wet
23:10
Speaker 1: I got four five Dallas Cowboy fan, Yeah, I know,
23:13
Speaker 1: I live with a Dallas Cowboy fan, my fiance. Let
23:16
Speaker 1: me here's the thing about y'all, Like history is so
23:21
Speaker 1: far back, like I'm at least mine is current. You're
23:25
Speaker 1: going back to like the paleo if the era I
23:29
Speaker 1: just made up a word. Y'all was back, man, y'all
23:32
Speaker 1: was way way back. How does that work? A Tampa
23:34
Speaker 1: fan and the Dallas fan get U. It's a house divided,
23:38
Speaker 1: and she's serious about you got on my Instagram. You
23:40
Speaker 1: see like I got a little little like sports thing
23:43
Speaker 1: in my in my career. I got a Dallas Cowboy corner.
23:45
Speaker 1: I have to I gotta give. Let's be some fun bets. Yeah,
23:50
Speaker 1: she swears if if, if, if the Cowboys win the
23:53
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, she's getting the star tattooed. I'm like, not
23:55
Speaker 1: with me. If they win, that's I'll be back on
24:04
Speaker 1: this show. Y'all got what happened to? I don't know.
24:06
Speaker 1: I think she's Yeah, she's good. I appreciate you joining
24:12
Speaker 1: yoh fam, This is awesome. I appreciate y'all. Let me
24:14
Speaker 1: come on, let me just kick a little knowledge. You
24:16
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And I love what y'all are doing.
24:19
Speaker 1: What's in the immediate future? Uh? Straight out of Compton
24:22
Speaker 1: August fourteenth, Ride along too, January? Um, This Friday, eight
24:27
Speaker 1: thirty people are talking on NBC check that Joining out
24:31
Speaker 1: Friday hilarious fall on Fridays at eight thirty, and it's
24:35
Speaker 1: gonna be funny. Yeah, that one's coming out, and then
24:38
Speaker 1: Uncle Buck's coming out at the top of the year.
24:40
Speaker 1: That's mid season. Show Roots is coming out next Memorial Day.
24:45
Speaker 1: We keep it a pop, Yo, keep the radio show
24:48
Speaker 1: for your movies and TV shows. You can always just
24:50
Speaker 1: come film us because you know absolutely Tyler used to
24:52
Speaker 1: always throw like Tom join in yo. You know. I
24:55
Speaker 1: love that idea, y'all playing. I think that'd be great.
24:57
Speaker 1: I think it absolutely. Yeah, there we go. I love it,
25:00
Speaker 1: and we do. We got to do something different though,
25:02
Speaker 1: we need y'all Like, why do you look like that?
25:06
Speaker 1: I don't think you talked to your look a little
25:10
Speaker 1: crazy man. I don't think there was a vote take
25:15
Speaker 1: it on. How else did you get for ride along?
25:21
Speaker 1: There you go? But when you when you have a line,
25:23
Speaker 1: don't you have to get paid? Once you have a line,
25:25
Speaker 1: do you do that? People will do that. That's the
25:27
Speaker 1: extra trick. Like if you're extra and you say something,
25:30
Speaker 1: if they film it, they gotta pay you. That's the thing.
25:32
Speaker 1: But absolutely, we could have a silent radio show now.
25:41
Speaker 1: We would love to whatever. I love it, man, appreciate
25:43
Speaker 1: you All Family Breakfast Club when