Latest / The Breakfast Club / More Than an Actor: Marcus Callender on Writing, Producing & Being a True Creative | Part 1

Transcript

More Than an Actor: Marcus Callender on Writing, Producing & Being a True Creative | Part 1 · The Breakfast Club

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm a homegirl that knows a little bit about everything
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and everybody.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: You know, if you don't lie about that.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Right, Hey, y'all, what's up. It's Laura la Rosa and
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: this is the latest with Laura l Rosa. This is
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  Speaker 1: your daily dig on all things pop culture and a
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: timid news and all of the conversations that shake the room.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Now today I'm bringing you, guys, another conversation that was
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: guaranteed to shake your room, but also shake your faith
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: a little bit, your motivation a little bit. I'm sitting
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  Speaker 1: down with Marcus Callender, who is not only an actor,
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  Speaker 1: he would actually be a He would be so annoyed
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  Speaker 1: if I only called him an actor.
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  Speaker 3: But he is a creative.
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  Speaker 1: He's a multi hyphenate, an actor, director, writer, all around
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  Speaker 1: storyteller who has been able to make impact both on screen,
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  Speaker 1: behind the camera and now behind the script with his
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  Speaker 1: play Spades Spae's The play is Everything Black, bold conversation,
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  Speaker 1: nuance comedy, put into one Spades game and put on
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  Speaker 1: a live stage. You guys will know Marcus Calendar who
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: played Power, who played Oliver Power grant On Wu Tang
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  Speaker 1: in American Saga. He also played Ray ray On ghosts
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  Speaker 1: from Power book two. Y'all remember we lost Raino because
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  Speaker 1: of Ray Ray. But if you don't know him, or
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  Speaker 1: if you're just finding him, I'm so happy to introduce
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  Speaker 1: him here in conversation on the Latest with Lona Rosa.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: This is part one.
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  Speaker 1: First of all, let's let the people know who you
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: are and who these voices are that they're hearing and
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  Speaker 1: you know, for the visual people seeing.
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  Speaker 3: So introduce yourself.
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  Speaker 2: Marcus Calendar born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and I am the writer and director of Spae the play.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Some of y'all might know me from Power. I played
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  Speaker 2: Rey Ray. I was the guy that killed the little girl.
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  Speaker 2: I know you're gonna ask, why did you have to do?
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  Speaker 2: It was in the script. Some of y'all might know
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  Speaker 2: me from Wu Tang and American Saga. I play Power
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  Speaker 2: Oliver Grant, who's one of the co founders of Wu Tang,
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  Speaker 2: And I've done a bunch of other stuff, but those
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: are the like, the main two things people recognize.
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  Speaker 3: They stop you on the street about.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So when people ask you why did Real Ray kill
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  Speaker 1: Tarik's sister and you say it was in the script,
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  Speaker 1: how does the conversation go after that.
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  Speaker 2: They'd be like yo, man, like, but you did your thing,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: you know, like for real, for real? Can I get
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: a picture of you? You know, like yo, like I
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  Speaker 2: hated you for a long time, you know. But I
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: take that as like, look, you know, if people see
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  Speaker 2: me and still think that I'm that character, I guess
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  Speaker 2: I did a good job in portraying that, you know
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  Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So but I think also to the
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: beauty in that is that people get to meet me
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  Speaker 2: and you know, sense my energy because I'm a pretty
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  Speaker 2: down to earth person, I don't you know. I know
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: some celebrities give off that whatever, but I'm a pretty
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: down the earth person because you know, I understand what
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  Speaker 2: the journey is in this kind of career, you know
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  Speaker 2: what I mean. This wasn't handed to me. This is
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: something I had to work for, work very hard for.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm cool, I'm approachable. I'm from Brooklyn, you know
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: what I mean. I'm in New Yorker still at the
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: end of the day, So like, don't come at me
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  Speaker 2: too crazy, you know what I'm saying.
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  Speaker 1: But that era of power is like cemented in so
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: many people's Like like I remember waiting for Power to drop,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: like the new episodes, and I mean there's all these
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: different iterations of it and chapters of it now, and
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  Speaker 1: I think there are still some people that do that.
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  Speaker 1: But I feel like those early days of Power, when
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: we had Tarique and Raina and Tasha and ghosts like
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  Speaker 1: y'all was really in people houses for real, people's homes
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  Speaker 1: for real, for real, had us waiting all talking on
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  Speaker 1: Twitter together.
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  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, Like watch parties in there
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  Speaker 3: one hundred percent? What was it like for you? Because
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: you're on both sides.
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  Speaker 1: You're your creator of you know, these conversations and film
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  Speaker 1: and theater and all these things, but also you're an actor.
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  Speaker 1: What was it like being that like intertwined with culture
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  Speaker 1: where people lived and breathed for your next episode?
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  Speaker 2: Oh man? Well one it was power where I started
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  Speaker 2: being recognized on the train or like everywhere I went,
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  Speaker 2: and like especially when that episode dropped, like I literally
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: had to like hide my.
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  Speaker 4: Face all the time, you know what I mean?
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  Speaker 2: Because Yo, you the dude from Yo Way, Yo. That's crazy,
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  Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. And I remember when it
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: happened because the episode leaked Effort and you know, so
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: people saw it before it officially came out, and I
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: remember being I was in LA at the time, and
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: like some friends hit me like, yo, yo, son, I
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  Speaker 2: saw you on this episode. That's that's you killing the
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  Speaker 2: little girl that I said, Wait, how the fuck you
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  Speaker 2: know that?
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  Speaker 4: That's not supposed to be information yet.
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  Speaker 2: So I came back to New York. I got invited
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  Speaker 2: to some watch parties and shit, and you know, going
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  Speaker 2: there and like experiencing the people and whatnot was kind
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  Speaker 2: of like a surreal moment for me.
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  Speaker 4: Like it was, as I said, it was the it
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  Speaker 4: was time.
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  Speaker 2: Like Okay, now I'm being recognized outside of you know,
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  Speaker 2: I'm being recognized on the street, you know what I mean.
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  Speaker 2: So like getting used to that and acclimated to that,
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  Speaker 2: because you know, as I said, when you're from New
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  Speaker 2: York and you can see somebody staring at you, the
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  Speaker 2: first thing you're thinking is like, yo, what you're looking
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  Speaker 2: at you? You know what I mean. So like for
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: a while, it's like, Yo, why people keep staring at me?
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  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. It's like, oh, yeah, the show,
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  Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. So that was that was
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: an adjustment period. But at this point I'm used to it,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, I show love all the.
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  Speaker 1: Time, and you know, so now people aren't recognizing you
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: can't go on the train because people want beef, they
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: want to step on your tims. And for you as
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  Speaker 1: an actor at that point, does it put pressure on you?
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  Speaker 3: Because you know, we.
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  Speaker 1: Had you for some time, but then we didn't have
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  Speaker 1: you anymore and a certain point in the eend season?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, pressure, what kind of pressure?
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  Speaker 3: Pressure?
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  Speaker 1: Like I mean, because you know more about the script
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  Speaker 1: than where the story is going than we do. Right, So,
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  Speaker 1: you know, people are getting to know you, they're starting
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: to recognize you, but you know that you're not gonna
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: be on the show forever eventually or did you know
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: that at that point when people were recognizing you know.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: I knew. I mean even before we shot the episode.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Courtney Camp she she called me personally and was like, look,
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  Speaker 2: you know this is what we're gonna do with your character.
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  Speaker 2: We're gonna kill you off, damn right, you know what
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  Speaker 2: I mean, Because I'm like, I could have you know
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying, I could have been Rainy having for
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: another season. She was like, yeah, we're gonna I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I didn't know. I didn't okay. So I didn't know
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  Speaker 2: I was gonna kill Raina until the table read of
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  Speaker 2: that episode, because they, you know, they're pretty top secret
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  Speaker 2: about the script, like you don't see it until the
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  Speaker 2: table read.
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  Speaker 3: And the table read is how far out from actual
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  Speaker 3: shooting we shoot.
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  Speaker 2: We do the table read probably like a week before
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  Speaker 2: we shoot it. So I came to the table read.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I'm highlighting my lines before and I'm reading
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  Speaker 2: the thing and I'm like, oh shit. I remember like
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  Speaker 2: looking up and like everyone was looking at me like yeah,
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  Speaker 2: everybody's gonna hate you now that I said, Yo, what
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  Speaker 2: like me, okay, okay, cool, this is interesting. All right,
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  Speaker 2: I'm gonna be a villain. Okay, I'll take it. But
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize like how much of an impact it
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  Speaker 2: was gonna be. So, you know, we did the table
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  Speaker 2: read and then right before we started shooting. That's when
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Courtney was like, yeah, so we're gonna we're gonna be
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  Speaker 2: cause I think I did like two more episodes. It
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  Speaker 2: was an episode where I killed her and then the
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: next episode Get Comfortable, Yeah exactly. She's like, look, we're
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: gonna kill you off, but look we love the work
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  Speaker 2: you're doing.
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  Speaker 4: Da da da da da.
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  Speaker 2: I said, okay, cool, you know, like it was honor
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  Speaker 2: the that y'all chose me to even do this part.
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  Speaker 2: Because that's another thing too. I don't know if a
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: lot of people notice, but originally I was supposed to
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: just do one episode in season three. I did the
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: I was in the last episode of season three. I
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: was just supposed to do that episode. But Courtney liked
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: my work so much that after we filmed, she said, look,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I want to bring you back for next season. And
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: you know, in this business, you hear that all the time.
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  Speaker 2: You know, people say hey, we're going to bring you back,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: and it's like, all right, cool. So I didn't necessarily
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: believe her until you know, my reps hit me, hey
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: they want to bring you back. I said, all right cool. So,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: you know, coming back to it, it was like, all right,
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  Speaker 2: you know, now I got some time to like really
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  Speaker 2: develop this character, see where I want to take where
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: I want to take it, you know what I mean.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: And that's when I you know, I was shooting that
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  Speaker 2: with Anika Noni Rose was in that because she played
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: jukebox and you know, so that was cool to work
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: with her. And I mean, fifty is in it, So
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: that was cool to work with them. But you know,
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I approached it in the best way I know how
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  Speaker 2: I tell people all the time, every character is in you.
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  Speaker 4: But what makes it was going to make it different.
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  Speaker 4: It's simply you.
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  Speaker 2: There's only one you on the planet, you know what
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: I mean. So for me, it was just kind of like, okay,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: like what's my version of this?
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  Speaker 3: Right?
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: What happens in actor's mind when you get that moment
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: and it's big and everybody's talking about it and your
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: phone's ringing crazy, and then you're not on the show anymore.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: So now it's like, I mean, you're not new kid
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: at school because you got the work under your belt,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: but you got to figure out what's next now, Like
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: how does what's that mental journey?
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Like that's a great question.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: You know, this is my job. This is the latest one.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Laura the Rosa the podcast.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: No, that's that's real ship right there. Because there is
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: pressure if you, especially if you allow it, because that
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: you know, in our community especially, it's all about what's next,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: what's next, what's next? What's next? It's like, damn, I
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: just shot this shit? Can I you know, let it
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: breathe for a second. So yeah, there was that pressure
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: of like, okay, what's next. Fun fact, I didn't work
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: for about a year after I shot Power, and I
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: was confused by that, you know what I mean, Because
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: here I am like, okay, like I did this role.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: It's fifty everybody's paying attention to that exactly.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: You know, everyone's recognizing me. But I was not booked.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: I couldn't book a gig for shit, why not, I don't.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: It was out of my control, you know what I mean,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Like because I moved to La shortly after thanks to
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Courtney Kim when I finished. I finished filming Power on
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: my birthday of that year. I forget what year that was.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: I think it was like two thousand and like seventeen
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: or something like that. Yeah, and it was my birthday
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: on the last day of filming, and I remember she
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: came to me, she was like, you should move to La.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: I said, yo, people tell me that all the time.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: She said, no, you should, Like you will work a
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: lot out there, like you know, there'll be a good
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: city field. This is when La was La. La ain't
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: the same no more.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: No, I was living there during that time, and.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: So I was like, okay, I'll think about it. And
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: then I wasn't working. I'm you know, in not working.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: I was depressed, you know what I'm saying. Because it's
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: like yo, like because I had just finished shooting Power
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: and I was doing a show called The Breaks. I
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: was literally shooting both these shows at the same time.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Like one day I'm on Power, one day I'm on
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: So I was booked. So for all of it to
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: just come to a halt, which was extremely confusing to me,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: and I couldn't fathom it. And I was at home
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: one day I took a nap. I took a nap.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Right before I took a nap, I said, Lord, I
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: need a sign something like what is going on? So
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: I took a nap and I woke up to this
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: offer to go do a workshop in Connecticut for a play.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: And I was like, okay, all right.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: It's something, you know what I mean. I read the script.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: I liked the script. I realized that the playwright who
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: wrote it I worked with him on another workshop like
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: a year or two ago, and he just remembered my
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: work from there. That's why you always got to bring
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: one hundred percent to whatever you do. Don't ever think
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: that something is too little or too small to give
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: you all because you never know. So when I realized
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: it was him, I was like, oh shit, this is
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: the guy he remembered me. Wow. Okay, So I said,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: all right, cool, I'm gonna go and do this workshop.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: At this point, I hadn't done a play in a
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: very long time. I was just doing TV, so getting
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: in that environment again was an adjustment. But I remember
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: the day I got there. I like, I was like
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: staring into the abyss and something just hit me, like
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: a ton of bricks. You need to move to LA.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Like it just it just hit me. I feel like
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: it was this guy speaking to me. It's like, you
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: need to move to LA. And I immediately called my manager.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: I said, yoah, I think we got to do the
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: LA thing. She said, all right, cool, I'll set up
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: some meetings boom. I said, all right cool. So I
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: did the workshop. The workshop was cool. That was a
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: dope experience. And then shortly after I came back from
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: the workshop, I went to LA to take some generals,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: like some general meetings with like casting directors, producers. I
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: was supposed to be there for two weeks. Two weeks
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: turn into a month because you know, one meeting followed
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: up with another meeting, followed up to another meeting. I
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: signed with a new agent, Like I got all these
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: things on this La trip. And that's when right before
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: I came back, that's when the power, the episode of
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: power leaked. So it was just a lot going on.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: And you know what I'm saying. So I came back
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: and you know, Basket and all of that. But in
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: that trip to LA was when I decided, Okay, yeah,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: I'm definitely gonna move out here. Because like every person
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: I was meeting with there like you're moving out here, right,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, I didn't know how I was
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: gonna do it. I didn't have the money to do it.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: That's the La story, man, I didn't know how. That's
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: how it be.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: That's how it be. But at the same time, too,
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: it's it's but at it's it's about trusting, trusting that
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: that intuition, you know what I'm saying, Trusting what God
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: placed in me, you know what I'm saying, Because in
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: my head, I'm like, there's no way I had that
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: epiphany to move to LA and he ain't gonna make
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: a way. And lo and behold. You know, I got
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: the money to go out there. I had just enough
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: to you know, to survive for a couple of months,
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: thank god. You know.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: I got some friends out there, you know.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: I was able to stay with family, you know, people
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: who I love. So you know, I went out there.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: I was there for the pilot season of that year,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: and I tested for two pilots. I'm thinking, okay, cool,
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: I'd have moved out here. I'm about the book show
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: up exactly. You know that show New Amsterdam or NBC. Yes,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: I was almost on that show. I was tested for
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: that show. I thought I was gonna get it. I
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: was convinced I was going to get that role because
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: when I did the screen test, the producers were like, Yo,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: how'd you make that look? They literally said, Yo, you
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: made that look easy. So I'm walking out like, yeah,
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: I got this. And then I didn't get it, you
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. So it was you know, and
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: that's the thing too, It's true what they say. There's
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: way more nose than yes, it's you know what I'm saying.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: So I didn't get that. I was up for this
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: other show on the c W. I didn't get that.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: I mean but that show didn't end up going forward anyway.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: But you know, I had I had these two shows
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: that I was up for didn't get I was almost
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: up for this other show, but they weren't with Lorenz Tape.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: But understandable. I love Lorenz, you know what I'm saying.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: But that's a good Like, oh, they didn't book me,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: they book Lorenz. He's a legend, you know what I'm saying.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: So like the fact that the casting directors and producers
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: or whoever are debating between you and Lorenz Tate a
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: lot of times too.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: For us as talent, just being in a conversation in.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: The room is a win, even though you can't pay
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: your rent with that exact you know what I'm saying,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: But I mean, that's a great either or to be
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: in exactly.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: So it was like, okay, cool. I mean I didn't
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: get the rolls, but like I'm like this close and
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: that's but okay, I didn't book these jobs, but I'm
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: still in LA, you know what I mean.
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: One thing people don't tell you about LA.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all Sonny and all that, but when you
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: ain't doing shit, that shit really gets to you, you
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: know what I mean.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like, especially because you're so far away
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: from like the people you know and like the ways
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: that you were just like, you know, real quick, I
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: could go do this real quick if I'm back home
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: or like whatever.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: It feels so lonely.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: It's like you're in a room and it's like echoing
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: and you're trying to figure out, like what do I
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: do to turn the noise down?
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I was in that space when I first moved to
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: LA for about like six seven months, and I was just.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: Like what is going on? And then people the move
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: to La itself. People you're just like, oh, look at
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: God got a move to LA.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: You made it.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you it's like, you know, opening up about
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: it not going the way that you wanted to go.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: It's tough and explaining to family why it's not going
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: to the way you wanted to go. It's tough having
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: to act for things in the meantime. It's like such
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: a process. But I think for anybody that has done it,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: it definitely is like survival to fit this. But it
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: makes you a different type of hungry about your career exactly.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: That's a good word hungry. Yes, I feel like a
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: lot of folks ain't hungry, you know what I mean.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: People just want the result. They want the end goal
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: as opposed to and understanding what the journey is. Journey
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: is way more interesting than the goal, you know what
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, Because every time I reach the goal, I'm
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: I'm mostly thinking about what it took to get here,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. It's like, Okay, yeah, this
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: is great, but like, man, I did this, I do this,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: do that to get to this point, and it allows
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: you to appreciate it more. I feel like when people
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: get things too quick, they don't understand, you know, they
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: have they don't have an appreciation for it, so they
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: fumble it, you know what I mean. They think they're entitled,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: or they think it's just always going to be that way,
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So at the same time,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: it is a blessing that I had to go through
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: the journey that I did. But in that time, after
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: you know, not booking these gigs, I'm still in LA
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, Okay, well, what the hell am I
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: going to do? Because after pilot season, it's a little
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: slow in terms of auditions. It's mostly like independent films
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: and all of that. So I'm just like, okay, well,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: what the hell am I gonna do with all this time?
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: I started dating this girl. That's a distract action, you
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: know what I'm saying.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: And it's expensive, and it's.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: It's expensive so especially in LA, like twenty five dollars.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: Yo.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: I know she wanted to go to town. Come on now,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: I like room on a Wednesday.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: You know she's on TV now funny enough, Well, what's
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: show that's that's that's an off camera conversation.
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: Were y'all auditioning together? No?
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: No, no, no no no, I mean I wild help her
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: with auditions and stuff like that. She knows anyway.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: You watch the show she's currently on. Oh so it
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: ended bad?
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: I didn't. I don't watch it because she's on it.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: I just that's just not my kind of show to watch.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Okay, so it's like a Zeus network then no, okay.
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: I'm sure you watch it though, No, a TV show,
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: scripted show that they they're in.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: They're like fifty six seasons.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: It's not Dear from Detroit. Then that's like second season.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna figure this out.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Beautiful girl, amazing woman, you know, nothing bad to say.
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: About it, Just and work out. And she's a scorpio.
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Anyway, So I'm in La. I'm like, okay, what am
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: I doing. I go to this party. It was on Easter.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: As soon as I walked in, I saw people playing space.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: I'm like, oh shit, hm.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: I need to start. I need to get back into
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: this script because I had put the script down for
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: like almost two years.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: So you wrote the script when you were in LA
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: or before you moved to LS.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: I started writing the script in twenty fifteen, so ten
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: years ago. I started writing the script. When I first
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: started writing it, it was just a one.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: Act, I explained to the regular people with all that means.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: So typically in a play, you know, you'll have like
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: two acts and a play and a full length play
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: you'll typically have two acts. So one acts is just,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: you know, kind of like just the first half of it.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: I didn't think it was gonna be a full lend
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: thing when I first wrote it. It was just something that
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: I was inspired to write because I was learning how
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: to play spades at the time. Yes, when I started
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: writing it, so I was inspired to write it. I
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: wanted to I knew I wanted to get into writing
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: at some point, but I didn't think I could do
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: it because I didn't go to school for it, and
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: you know, like you know what I mean. I had
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: a bit of imposter syndrome. But I just started writing
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: it and it just kind of poured out of me.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: So I did a stage reading of it. This is
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: in Brooklyn at the spot at the time it was
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: called the Kimberley Project in Bedstide, and we had a
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: pretty big turnout. This is before like Instagram was Instagram
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: for real, you know what I mean. So the fact
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: that we got so many people there off of word
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: of mouth was a really big deal. So we did
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: the reading and like the biggest feedback people like we
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: want more, we want more, Like it's gotta be longer.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: So I was like, all right, cool, I'm gonna do that.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: But then I started filming something else, so I kind
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: of put it to the side where I started filming
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: the breaks. So I started filming that, so I got
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: caught up in that, and then power came along, so
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: I was just all in that. So with this downtime,
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: I go into this space and I see the script.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, I see people playing space. I'm like, okay,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: this is gonna give me something to do, because I
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: was tired of like running into people like what are
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: you working on? That's the number one question people are
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: going to ask you in Los Angeles? What are you so?
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: What are you working on?
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: What are you working on? Or what do you do?
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: What do you do? You know what I'm saying. So
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: I was tired of not having anything to say, so
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: I said, you know what. Literally the next day, I
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: went back to the script. At the time, the script
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: was like one hundred and eighty something pages. There was
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of pages, and I had
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: some friends over to read it. I said, look, you know,
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: I just want I need to hear this out loud
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: because I need to see where I want to go
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: with it. They read all one hundred and eighty something
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: pages of it, shout out to y'all. And from there
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: I just kind of like started diving into that. Like
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: that became my focus. You know what I'm saying. I'm like, okay,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm going to employing myself, you know what I'm saying.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: So I said, look, so I'm a dive into that.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: So I started working on that. I did. I did
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: a reading of it in LA and I want so
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: I was going to produce it in LA that was
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: going to be like where I first produced it. But
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: then I booked a play in New York. See that's
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: another thing too. I went so long not working. The
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: minute I dive into my own shit, now all of
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: the opportunities come.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: Which play, did you?
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: I did a play called Fabulation, written by Lenn Knowledge
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: at the Signature, really big off Broadway Theater company. It
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: was actually like my dream theater company. To work at.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: The Signature is where I got some of my first
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: bearings into theater, you know what I mean. So you know,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh shit, I'm about to go do
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: this play in New York. All right, cool. So the
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: plan was to go do the play and then come
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: back and produce Spades. While I was doing the play
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: in New York, that's when I booked the Bo Tang.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: So it kept me in New York York. So I said,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: all right, well, shit, okay, I'm gonna stay in New York.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: So I kind of once again put space to the.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Side, because now Wu Tang is like that after when
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: that series dropped too exactly, people were also very tied
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: to it, just because people wanted the story exactly, and
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: it was timely and it was all the things. So
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: now your star is, you know, rising again because of
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Wu Tang. And what was that experience like because you
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: were going through this like very mental depressing period of
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: like why is this not? Like God, am I supposed
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: to be here? And then boom you're back up again.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: So you're high up on the hill now, So what
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: is that like for you as.
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: Town Let me tell you something.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: It was December twenty first or twenty second when I.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: Got the cold that I got that role.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: It was how I approached that entire process was like
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: unlike how I approached any other show that I auditioned for,
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: because you know, sometimes you know we'll get apart, but
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: we're getting audition, We're like, well I want this, Like
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna make sure I know all my lines for
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: the audition. I'm going to be perfect. Those be the
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: ones you never get, the ones where you're like, man,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: i'm gonna just you know, I'm gonna just do it.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: So with this one, when I read the script, I
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: was like, oh, ye, I could do this in my sleep.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: It's New York niggas, I'm from New York. Yeah, I
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: could do that. I didn't know Power was a real person.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: I thought it was a fictional character. But I was like, okay, cool,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: I could do that. It's funny his name is Power
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: because I was on Power. Okay, that's cool. So I
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: did the audition, I did a I sent the tape.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: I sent the tape. I was also but I was
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: also up for another you see what you see? You
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: see the theme here. There was a lot going on.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: I was up for another role. They were going to
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: bring back NYPD Blue on ABC. Remember that show. Yes,
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: so I was up to be on that show. I
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: wanted to be on that because it's ABC. You know
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying, Like, who's cool? Network television?
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: We're talking about which is normally a bit more stable.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: It's more stable. Just more money, yes, just more money.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: So I wanted that, and it would have kept me
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: in New York still. So I was like, okay, cool,
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: I want that shit. So the same day I found
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: out that I didn't get that, I found out I
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: had a call back for the Wu Tang shit catching. Okay,
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: all right, well something. I went to the callback for
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Wu Tang and I remember going in there. We had
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: to do it, and this is before twenty twenty. I
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: had to do it to a computer to Rizza in
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: La So I go to the office to catching directors like, okay,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: so you know we have Riz on the laptop.
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: He's coming in through zoom, so you gotta do the
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: audition to the computer.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what you know what I'm saying. Like at
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: the time, it was like I ain't never done that.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, and it's Rizza. But like
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: at the same time, like I thought it was. I
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: thought I was at a disadvantage because I'm not in
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: the room. It's always different when you're in the room.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: They could feel your energy and all of that. I'm like,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: there's no way this is going to translate over a
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: computer screen. But I did. I did it. I only
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: had to do each scene once. I didn't even have
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: to do it again. I remember after the casting director
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: was like, really, good job.
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: I was amazing. I was like, thanks, all right, cool.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: I left. I went to my friend's house. As soon
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: as I got off the train, my agent calls me.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: This is like forty five minutes later. My agent calls me.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: She's like, hey, they want to test you. I was like,
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: I just left the motherfucking aut that shit right. But
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: I knew in that moment that I had to roll
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: because I was like, I've never gotten.
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: That's not true, that's not true, New Amsterdam.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: I found out they wanted to test me probably like
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: fifteen minutes after my got you, I was in.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: The room test you. For those who don't know, the
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: talent side of TV means.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: What okay, So when you do a screen test, it
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: basically means, hey, we love you, we want you for
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: this role, but we also want this person for this role.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Also considering this person, We just want to see how
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: what makes the most sense on camera? You know what
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: I mean? Visually?
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: Who else were they to the role of power?
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: They were testing? It was me, this cat named Antoine
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Harris who I did the breaks with, and I don't
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: remember the other person. So we did the test. They
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: said they wanted me to test, So I was like, okay,
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: but I'm doing a play. How the hell am I
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: gonna make it to LA Because you know, when you're
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: doing a play, it's eight shows a week. You only
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: have one day off, which is a Monday. So I said, yo,
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, do they know I'm gonna play? I can't
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: how am I gonna, you know, because what they do
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: in those scenarios, if you can't be there, they'll use
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: your audition tape as the screen test got you.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: But that kind of is it's you know what I mean,
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I wanna be Yeah.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: So they worked around my schedule, which is another test.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: That was another sign. I was like, Oh, they want
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: me for this. They scheduled it. It was so I
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: had two shows that Sunday. I did the two shows.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Then after the second show, I literally went from the
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: theater to the airport to LA I flew on a
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: red eye and did the test the next morning and
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: flew back to New York that same night. It was
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: just like, man, I felt like a rock star, you
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. So, but I remember how I
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: felt going into the test. I wasn't nervous, I wasn't
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: trying to put on I kind of just knew it
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: was mine, you know what I mean. I walked in
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: said it up to Rizza, said it up to Kim Coleman.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: Shout out to Kim Coleman. She was the casting director.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: I did the scene. I only had to do each
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: scene once and I left. I didn't you know, like
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, Like, I hope I did
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: the screen test, went back to New York to do
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: the play, and you know, but that also helped too,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: because I was locked in on that, so I wasn't
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: too distracted about are they gonna pick me or that,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: because I already had something to do. So I remember
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: the day I found out I got it. It was
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: like December twenty first second or something like that. I
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: went to lunch with a friend of mine. Shout out
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: to Megan. I went to lunch and I was telling her.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, I'm supposed to be finding out
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: today if I got the roll. But I was so
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: jaded at the time because you know, I had just
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: I've been through so much. The year's been crazy. I'm like,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: you know, it was raining that day too. I got
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: a little trauma with rain because the day I found
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: out I didn't get New Amsterdam, it was raining in
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: La in La, it on rain.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: Like that in l a number lie it rains in
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: southern California.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. It was just like, damn,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: it's raining again, damn saying, go get it. So I
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: left lunch and as I'm walking. It stopped raining. The
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: sun's coming out, and shit.
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, okay, okay.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: I remember I went to team. I went to the
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: T Mobile store to pay my phone bill. While I
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: was in line, my manager at the time, she calls me.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: She goes, she calls me. She's like, hey, I got
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: so and so and so. My agents they you know,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: they're on the line too. They only on the line
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: if you got the throw. So I said, wait, hold
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: on a second, let me step out side real quick.
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: What's up?
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: What's up y'all? I said, just give it to me.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: Don't try because sometimes they'll try to like play with
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: you and be like it's so unfortunately psych.
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: I said, just give it to me. They said, look,
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: they went to offer you this. I said, get the
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: fuck out it.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: I was on it was like mid town, like fifty
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: something street. I said, Yo, get the fuck out. I said, yeah, nigga, yeah,
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: because it was just it was the it was that
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: moment of like, yo, I've been through so much this year.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: This year has been so hard. So they ended on
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: this note was like here I'm about to be a
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: serious regular yo crazy on the Woo Tang joint.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: This is crazy, right.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: So more distraction to take me away from Spades, you
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, Because remember the plan was to
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: go back to La and produce it. So I just
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: kind of dived into Wou Tang. I did that. We
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: did that for three seasons. I was still working on Spades.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: And the guys were really really involved with you guys
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: to like, you know, developing the characters and on set.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: What was I mean?
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Because you say distraction, but I'm sitting here like all
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: this stuff you're learning in real time from all these
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: great people that didn't bring back to your players.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: I'm looking at it. But in the moment, I get it.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: I don't feel like that, right.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: But like talk about, you know, showing up on setting,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: you have Rizza and whoever else would come, and you
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: were like, these are superheroes to us.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I mean I was in a unique position because I
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: wasn't playing one of the rappers, right, you know what
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: I mean. I was playing the behind the scenes guy,
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: the business guy who a lot of people don't know about,
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean? So for me, it was like, yeah,
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: you know, meeting the you know, meeting the Wu Tang
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: was cool, but I need to meet Power. Where's Power? Never?
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Like he would never show up to Sad. I'm asking around, like,
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: Whi's bo. You haven't met pe? You gotta meet pe? P?
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Is this P is that? I'm like, all right, well,
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: where are you at? Where you at? I'm playing on
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: one day, we were like seven episodes in, so the
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: season's almost done. We like seven episodes in. We shoot
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: season one. We shot all of that in stat Island,
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: so we had to pause because it was raining theme
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: with rain. Yes, it was raining crazy, So we had
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: to pause filming for a couple of hours. And you know,
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: I get a knock on the door and the PA
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: is like, yo, you know you have a guest there.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: I said that Loland. He peeks his head over and
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: said what up? I said, oh shit, what suck y'all?
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: What's good? He came into my trailer. Our first conversation
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: was like three hours. We spoke for like three hours
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: just shooting the ship. Like we got along immediately, and
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: once we met, we've been locked in even to this
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: to this day, we're locked in.
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying?
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: What was it like?
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Because on on Power, the show Power, you're playing a
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: person that we don't know, this isn't a real person,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: But then on Wu Tan, you're playing.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: A person in power who is a real person, and
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: you have played him for almost all.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: Of the season and then you get to meet him.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: So how does your direction as an actor change when
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: you go from something that is based on a real
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: person or something that's not based on a real person,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: to based on a real person, and then even after
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: that it probably changes because you didn't meet the real person.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: That's another great question.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: So season one is all about who these members are
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: before the group was formed, So it's just a lot
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: of like just backstory stuff, you know what I'm saying. So, like,
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: I was kind of pretty the performance I was given
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: was pretty solid for what was asked to me that
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: season because we hadn't gotten into like Wou Tang yet.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: So when I met him, it's like, Okay, the timing
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: is good. So once we finished filming season one that summer,
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: I spent a lot of time with him. I mean
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: we went to you know, I went to DC with
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: him with Miami, Like I was just traveling with He
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: was just inviting me out, Yo, come to this, come to.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: That he's doing now because well, first of all, I
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: guess explain a bit for anyone who may not have
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: seen the series Power's role in the Wu Tang and
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: then kind of where he is now, like what his
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: life looks like now.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Power. Power is the executive producer of Whu Tang as
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: well as the co founder of Whu Tang. He was
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: a party. He was there from the very beginning, you
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: know what I mean the show. You see that. You know,
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Power is the one that basically fronted the money for
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: Rizza to make this album. You know what I mean?
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Because Power, you know, Power was a street nigga. Got
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying. He was a getting money nigga. And
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: you know, especially in the rap game, a lot of
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: the time we go to the you know, when when
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: when we need that bread, going to the street nigga,
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. So that's who Power was.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: Power already had a name for himself, he was already established.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: So it was kind of like he recognized what Rizza
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: was doing and said, Okay, cool, I'm I'm gonna invest
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: in that. That's gonna be my flip, you know what
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: I'm saying. So Season two is when we got into
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: all of that. So before we started shoot shooting season two,
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: you know, I got to see because he's still i mean,
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: thank is still very much his brand, you know what
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: I mean. He has who Wear, which is the clothing
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: line as well that he started. Yes, so you know,
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: he would do pop ups a lot, so he would
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: invite me to these pop ups. So I'm meeting people,
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: I'm seeing him like at work in action. I'm talking
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: like down to like how he counts money. He counts
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: money like a minute, you know what I'm saying. Like,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: so I'm like just taking note of all of that.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: So in spending time with him, now I'm able to
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: refine my performance because now I can add details, you
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: know what I mean, specificity. I'm big on specifics. You
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: know what I mean. I don't like general you know
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So, like I was able to pick
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: up on little things how he dresses, how he you know,
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: like power never ties his shoelace, he always his kicks,
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: is always super clean, fresh out the box linkss. You
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, don't boy shit, you know what
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: I mean. So I was able to pick up on
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: all of that. He sacks his pants a lot, so
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: like even down to like my wardrobe and how I
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: wore it. I'm picking up on all of these things.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I'll be at a fitting and I will FaceTime
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: I'm like, yo, is this something you will wear? Like
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: how you feel about this? Down to like how I
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: wear the chain. He never wears his chain on the outside.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: He always has his tough thing, you know what I mean,
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: Just like little things. So I was so in that
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: I was able to bring more to the role, which
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: I think paid off because now when I meet people,
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: you know, they're like, Yo, you got billy damn. Like
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: to the yo, you got pee damn. You know what
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: I'm saying. And I heard that from Wu Tang members,
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean. So, like to even get
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: their blessing was a big deal.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: So then, okay, so Wu Tang has happened, or at
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: this point put spades on the back end your play,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: which is honestly what we're here to talk about.
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: But this all is a part of the journey. We're
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: gonna get there, y'all.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: So at what point, so Wu Tang happens, that's done.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: When do you say, okay, I need to get this
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: play happening. And you're gonna be New York.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, So finished shooting Boutee. We finished filming in twenty
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: and twenty two, the end of twenty twenty two, and
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: then was it twenty twenty two three, twenty twenty two,
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: and then the writers strike happened right after we finished filming.
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like what the fuck?
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: It was like, Yo, we just finished shooting this show.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: We finished, like okay, cool, we off this show. What's
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: the next thing?
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: Did you have things on the table, like conversations and
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: stuff for other shows that weren't coming round.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: It was finally like, okay, this show led to boom.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was doing I was doing this film and
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: we had to stop production because I think I think
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: production I think they ran out of money or something
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: like that. But it was like, but it was supposed
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: to be this like really dope indie film that they
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: offered me this role, and I was gonna body this role.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: We had a production on that, and then I had
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: a meeting.
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: With this producer for this other film.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: So it was just like okay, okay, and then the
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: writer strike happened, So everything kind of just came to
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: a hole. So it's just like all right, okay, what
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: do I What do I do with this information? So
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: it put me in another depression again because it's just
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: kind of like when you're an artist and you and
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: you're not doing your art, folks with you.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, are you doing anything actively
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: for the depression? Like are you? Because I know, like I.
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: Was doing the things I'm not supposed to be doing, meaning.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: What tell us we want to know. You can't just
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: leave us hanging like that.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Look, man, I was I was.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: You're leaning into your vices?
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I was leaning into my vices. You know
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: what I mean. I was, you know, messing with you know,
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: messing with young ladies. I shouldn't be messing with just
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: kind of just I was just all over the place.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: So I was indulging in that.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: But that wasn't good because you know, here I am
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: not really staying focus then letting distractions kind of get
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: to me. And then I had my birthday party in
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty three. I'll never forget that day. I have
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: my birthday party. I invited everybody. I've invited, all my friends,
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: all my little joints, all everybody came out and I
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: remember I didn't even like it. It was at this spot,
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: remember the grill BK.
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: I wasn't here during the time of all of that,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: like popping off. I just started coming around breakfast club
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: guest hosts and started in twenty twenty three, so.
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: I was a little new, but I knew of it.
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: I would see people there.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my homegirl Melissa, she owned that spot. So I
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: had my birthday there. It was an open bar. Like
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: I basically threw my birthday. I threw a party for
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: people on my birthday because I wasn't even really like
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: I was literally sitting at the bar the whole party.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: Everyone's like, yo, this is your party, Like, why you
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: not chilling? I said, I don't know. I'm just kind
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: of chilling because it was one of It was another
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: one of those like my spirit told me like, okay,
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: I should throw a party from my It was my
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: thirty third birthday.
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: I was like something told me I should, I should
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: throw a party or something.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: So I did it, and I remember sitting it.
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: I couldn't even enjoy it.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: Really. All I did was like watch people. That's all.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: I did.
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: Some shrooms, you know what I'm saying, My little shrooms.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: I saw you were sitting at the Star.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: But but you know that was like I love shrooms, man, shrooms.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: That should opened your mind.
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: Y'all got that. That is not my ministry.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: You would love it. Stick thing. So I'm shrooms, I'm
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: sipping my rum punch and shit, and I'm just like
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: staying at people and just like watching people, and I'm
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: just thinking to myself, I'm like, yeah, like I feel
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: like most of these people are here just because you know,
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: I'm on TV, and you know, I don't know if
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: like all of these people actually fuck with me, you
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. But that was something I was
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: thinking about. And then you know, after that party, I
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: ended up like I ended a lot of friendships because
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: it was it was stuf.
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: You know, people are starting to show their ass, you
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: know what I'm.
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: Saying, Like off the rum punch that night or no,
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: no, no not, I'm.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: Like, oh, it happened at the party, but just following
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: after that, you know what I'm saying, like, yeah, people,
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: it's easy people. It's easy to be around people or
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: to be with you when you're up, you know what
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: I mean. When things are up, it's that's when it's easy.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: But when when it's not like that. That's when people
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: start to show their true colors. And for me, I
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: kind of was just like, yo, I need to kind
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: of like clear space because I feel like some of
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: this energy is not helpful for me.
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: It's not conducive.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: It's distractions, you know what I mean, just energy I
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: shouldn't be around. So twenty twenty three was a really
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: tough year for me because it was a lot of
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: purging a lot of it and a lot of like
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: realizations of like, oh shit, this motherfucker's been like this
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: this whole motherfucking time. I couldn't see it because I was,
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: you know, I just spent the last three years, you know,
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: living on a high that I didn't I didn't have
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: the moment like really dissect and like really.
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: Understand what was around me, you know what I'm saying.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: So in that, you know, twenty twenty three, I was,
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: you know, I was also in a relationship, so I
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: was just kind of like feeding into that more than anything.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: I wasn't really feeding into myself as an artist or
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: because I didn't know what to do, you know what
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: I mean. I still had space, but I wasn't inspired
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: to keep working on it. During the like when the
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: writer Strike first hit, I recorded the first two scenes
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: on audio because I was going to try to sell
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: it as an audio as an audio book kind of thing,
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: because that was like one of the things we could
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: do in the writer Strike. So I did that.
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: I was supposed to meet with some people.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: They never responded back to the email. So it was
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: just like it just kind of felt like, Yo, nothing
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: is like going my way, man, Like nothing, you know
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So then a friend at the time,
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: we were supposed to do a reading of Spades in Detroit,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: and that ended up not happening because it was a
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: lot of it was more like funny business happening, you
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: know what I mean. It was another moment of like
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: kind of like seeing of someone who's supposed to be
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: your friend, they true colors, you know what I'm saying.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: It was starting to feel like she was she wanted
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: to take my work and put her name on it,
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: take the credit for my shit. But in hindsight, I'm
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: glad that happened because it lit a fire under me,
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Because even before that, you know,
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: like I try to pitch this play to like different
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: theater companies. You know, these are all white institutions, you know,
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: that are going to take our stories and kind of
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: dilute it and not really give it that authenticity that
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: it needs when it comes to our stories, black stories
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: and how we tell our stories. And that's a whole
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: other thing I'll get into later. But so, you know,
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: I'm pitching the to these theater companies. They're like, we
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: love that, okay, but what's what's up? Oh, you know,
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: we're gonna do this other play. We're I'm tired of waiting.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: So after that whole Detroit thing fell through, I said,
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: you know what, I'm just I'm gonna do this myself.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do this myself. And I said, you know
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: what I mean. It woke something up in me. It
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: woke something up in me. So I did a reading
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: of so where the play is now? I did a
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: stage reading there last year last September, same kind of
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: formula with the whole theater and around at the table,
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: but you know, except they had scripts. And that was
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: kind of like the launching of like, okay, like I'm
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: gonna commit to producing this play. Like I'm just gonna
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: commit to it, you know what I mean? Because I
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: got all this downtime, I'm not filming anything. I need
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: to do something, you know what I'm saying, Like, and
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: what better way than to employ yourself, you know what
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: I'm saying. So from that moment, I did the reading.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: Then after that we did the reading at Dumbo House,
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: and then from.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: Oh so that was still relatively like knew when I
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: saw that Dumble House.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: Okay, cool, exactly, so you know, But because the point
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: of doing these readings was to like get the word out,
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: I wanted people to start knowing about this play so
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: that when we produce it, it's like, oh, that's the play
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: that I you know what I'm saying, So it's not
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: like out of thin air. But some people thought, I
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: think I just wrote this play, you know what I mean,
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: not knowing, Like, No, this was a ten year journey,
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: Now, y'all stay tuned because this is only part one.
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: But if you're feel an.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Inspired, if you're digging a story in this conversation, I
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: want to hear from you, my low riders.
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: Make sure you at me.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: I'm Lauren lo Rosa everywhere and check out Spades, the
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: play now playing in New York. Visit Spades to play,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: on Instagram or on paj
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: For your tickets.