Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Lee Daniels & Andra Day Talk New Film, Faith Thrillers, Mo'Nique, Jussie Smollett + More

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INTERVIEW: Lee Daniels & Andra Day Talk New Film, Faith Thrillers, Mo'Nique, Jussie Smollett + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club Morning, everybody in stee j n V,
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Jess hilarious, Charlamagne the guy.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: We are the Breakfast Club. Now.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Jess is on maternity leave, so Laura Lossa is holding
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: it down with us, and we got some special guests
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: in the building. New film Deliverance is on Netflix August thirtieth.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, we have Lee Daniels and Andre Day.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Welcome Andre, Lee, Andrew.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: You working, and and I said, and Day, Andrew you
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: And I know.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: Some people do say you literally character character, you always
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: get it right. You were seriously just asking her?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: He has never said I'm always in her character when
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: she's working, but I am always even Billy Red.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: How are y'all feeling? First and foremost, how y'all feeling good?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: I feel like good?
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Really, yeah, I feel good.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I'm always good.
• 0:59
  Speaker 5: When did y'all develop this chemistry?
• 1:00
  Speaker 6: Because it's clearly can't be just something that's you know, done,
• 1:03
  Speaker 6: when y'all are working like you must have liked we're
• 1:06
  Speaker 6: each other.
• 1:07
  Speaker 5: We're together.
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: I told her, I was like, you stuck for like right.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I didn't want her for I didn't want to beat
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: her for Billy because she hadn't acted before. Yeah, I
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: really didn't, you know. And then she didn't want to
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: do Billy.
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: I hadn't acted before.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: And then I met her, Yeah, talking to the mic,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I met her, and then I fell in love with her,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and then we just sort of like we it became
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: kismet and then you see what that chemistry is like
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: you always see what the chemistry is, like what it
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: is on screen, and what she was was what Billy
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: was was the lovely hair for each other.
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, same, it was. We had.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to do it either because I was
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: just you know, scared to act and because I had
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: never done it before and I do respect the craft.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: But I was like, well, let me just meet with him,
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: because you know, at the end of the day, it's
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: a great person to meet, Like he's a legend, and
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: maybe he wants music for the movie something like that,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: you know, And we did. We literally just fell in love.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: And also that day fell and I love Billie Holliday,
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: like that's where the day and my name comes from.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: And so I saw in him. He was a huge
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: fan of Lady Sings of Blues, but he had discovered
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: newly her story how she was fighting against racial terror
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: in America, singing strange fruit like to the detriment of
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: her you know, her life was in danger, and so
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: he really wanted to tell that story vindicate her legacy.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: And that was just like Wow, that's amazing. And then
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: you know, you don't often meet people who believe in you,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: sometimes even more than you believe in yourself, and that
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: is That's how Lee has been in my life. So
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: at this point it went from like Hey, I don't
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: know how to just like I trust him and when
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: it comes to anything.
• 2:40
  Speaker 6: So Lee, as a director, do you have like actors
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: and actresses that are like amused for you, like sort
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: of like when the painter finds a favorite color of
• 2:49
  Speaker 6: favorite hue, they use it in all their art.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, any Yes, Monique is one of them. Nicole Kitman
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: is one of them. Glenn Close now is one of them,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Andrew is certainly one of them. Uh, They're a group
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: of people that Taraji p Henson, there's a group of
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: actors that you just know that. No, I'm a nigga
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: that know that. I you know, I don't I'm not
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: politically correct when I'm talking and you know, I come
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: from a specific generation that you know and and and
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: that they that they protect me from myself, and I
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: don't know how to Sometimes I don't know the rules
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: of today.
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: I don't want you to. I want you to be yourself.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: And sometimes because there's things that that he could have
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: said twenty years ago that would be fine that he
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: can't say now, they would try to quote unquote.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Sixty five you know how to.
• 3:42
  Speaker 7: Know how people did? I love watching you in interviews.
• 3:46
  Speaker 7: You don't do a lot of them, though, Is that why?
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: Okay?
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Because because I know that you know this, this this
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: new cancel coach something, I'm like, like, my right before
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: I pushed sin, I got social media. I have to
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: hire what. I gotta hire a social media person out
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: to tell you not to push. I literally have to
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: hire a social media person because I'll say the wrong word. It. Yeah,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: it's really crazy. That's not how it started.
• 4:15
  Speaker 8: And for you, let me tell y'all.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: He turned the whole phone off. He said, just.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Now, how was Monique doing?
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: You mentioned Monique? How was she doing?
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: She's great? You know what? And that made me take
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: a look at this that interview that you know when
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: she was up here called them Leonard.
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: It was fantastic getting back together with her. It was
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: part of the reason that we did the film. For
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: me was I think we're in some dark time. I'm
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: always a step ahead of it. I think I'm a
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: little psychic because I'm a little ahead of everything that's happened.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: And I remember when I did Empire, it was really
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: too uh because I was experiencing so much homophobia from
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the from from from my own people. It was hard
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: enough to get movies made as a black man when
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I came into Hollywood because it was sort of pre
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Spike Lee and posted black exploiterra era, exploitation era, and
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: but the homophobia was really real, and I dealt with
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: it with my own people. So anyway I did, I
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: did Empire, and that, you know, i'd even know what
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I was doing. I was expressing my feelings, you know.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: And the same thing with with this right here, this,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I feel we're in dark times. I know that we're
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: in dark times, and for me, it was about finding
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: my higher power, you know. And after I did the movie,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: there was a group of us that were summoned to Uh,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to Biden's We were trying to figure out how to
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: get him into office as black men voting for him.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: And so it was Chris Rock and Sam Jackson.
• 6:04
  Speaker 6: Wasting your time t he was table you know what
• 6:09
  Speaker 6: I mean?
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, this is before we understand that.
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: Meeting that he needed to step years ago, you need
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: to step me.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: What what made you think that? Because I was because
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: he's been saying for a long time and people were
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: saying that we were were not representing and this, that
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: and the other. But we've seen it and felt.
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: A year ago I was saying he should step down, and.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: He was giving me hell for I was really I
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: was giving you that.
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: Did you walked in that meeting and he was like, what, No,
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: this is.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: The president of the United States. Whoa But he was
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: he would come back with very much like alertness. He
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: was like he would be like this and say is
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: he there? And then you come up and go, I've
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: done more for black people than any president in the
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: United States of America, including Obama. And he started listing
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: off the facts and listing off the facts and like
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: I think we the teeth was like, well, you should
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: tell people this. You should be out in the streets
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: telling people this because black men need to understand this,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: and and he said, I'm too busy trying to stop
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: nuclear war.
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: Now, see, I'm glad you said continue I'm saying.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: He said, I'm too busy trying to stop nuclear war
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: to go out and promote myself and what I'm doing,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: because I'm doing the work. And then I realized that
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: in that moment how serious he was, because he got it,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: got real somber in there. And I said, this is
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: the reason why I'm doing my movie, because it like
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: this boom right now going by, we better be able
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: to find it. I don't care whether it's Allah for me,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: it's Jesus is Buddha. We need to find our higher power.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: And that was the purpose of me trying to do
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: this film.
• 7:43
  Speaker 6: Right now, I said, what I was saying about, I'll
• 7:44
  Speaker 6: talk about earlier this week. There's so much casual conversation
• 7:47
  Speaker 6: about nuclear war, and like everybody's so focused and distracted
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: about the nonsense, like Donald Trump and you almost had
• 7:54
  Speaker 6: a call the other day and Donald Trump literally said
• 7:56
  Speaker 6: on the call, we should be worried about nuclear warming
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: because North Korea is crazy, China's crazy, Russ crazy. All
• 8:02
  Speaker 6: the take is one maniac to push a button, and
• 8:04
  Speaker 6: we focused on all the nonsense that he said instead
• 8:07
  Speaker 6: of like, no, listen to what he said just now
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: and to hear that Biden said that to you, that's crazy.
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: It's terrifying.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was terrible, and so because we could be
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: going tomorrow, and so for me, it was really about
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and that was part of Monique too. You know, part
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: of the healing of it all is like, you know,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: who cares whether I don't care what I did, I mean,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: whatever it was that I upset you about, I upset you.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I'm sixty five years old. I don't want to. I
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: want to make sure that I'm good. You know that
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: this is as much I can spread as much love
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: and do as much healing as I can. And that
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: was part of the whole journey of this of this film.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: It's about break down. What it's about for people that
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: don't know you're good at it really good.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: It's uh, you know, okay, So you know where do
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: I start with this? It's it's really well, first of all,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: it's a story about this single mother, single black mother,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: and she's really she's dealing with a At the crux
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: of it, there's spirit, like he said, trying to scare
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: you to your higher power. But there's also a lot
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: of generational trauma. So it's this idea that she's trying
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: to be the best mother that she can be. She's
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: trying to pour into her kids with all the tools
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: that she's been given, which is not much, but she
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: has been given a lot of pain. And so her
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: mother has now moved into the house with her, so
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: she's kind of faced with that trauma daily. But her
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: mother is also a product of trauma. So it's definitely talking.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: It's physically she is fighting demons, right. The kids are
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: actually possessed, and so you have that element, that horror
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: element in there, but she's also battling her own personal demons.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: And I love the metaphor that the demons that we
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: don't deal within ourselves, they will absolutely possess our kids
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: in future generations and robos of our futures. It's really,
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: you know, one of the things I say, and we've
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: talked about the genre a lot, because that's the cause.
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: Is it thriller? Is it horror?
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Is it?
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: I think that for people to think that this is
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: solely a horror movie, they would be remiss to walk
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: away from it based on just that there's it's a
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: faith based thriller, it's a family drama, it is a
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: horror movie. So there's a lot of elements, but it's
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: based on a true story. Ultimately, it's based on the
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Haunting of a house in Gary, Indiana, the Amazon LaToya
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: and LaToya amens, but loosely based off of that. Lee
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: really did a great job of just creating new characters
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: in their own life. So I think there's a lot
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: of lessons in it. There's a lot of healing in it.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: There was a friend of mine actually who went to
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: one of the screenings, and I actually saw her in
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: church that following weekend and I had asked her if
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: she goes here? She said no, I watched the movie
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: and then I showed up here on Sunday. And so
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of healing and transformation, as
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: he said, regardless of what your faith is. But you know,
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: she's she's a budding alcoholic. You know, she's dealing with addictions.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: She's trying to cope in a bunch of ways. She's
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: trying to be better than the generation that came before her,
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: which is what we're all trying.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: And so Basically it's about yeah, I think that, and
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: then we think that she's abusing her kids. Mm hm,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and uh so social services comes, the cops come, the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: principal come, take the kids away, and there's it. And
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: then they see a little kid walking up upside down
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: behind the wall, so they realize that. But they still
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: got to take the kids because the kids are being
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: abused in the house. And so it's, uh, she's fighting
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: social services because they will not believe that she's not
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: beating her kids and the demon in the house. It's
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: about black women not being believed, and it's also about
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: it's also it's also about finding she has to she
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: has to find her higher power to fight that demon
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: that's in the house.
• 11:44
  Speaker 6: And I like y'all talking about horror, right, because it's
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: not just the demons that are the horror, Like you said,
• 11:48
  Speaker 6: it's the generation of abuse. It's the alcoholism, it's the poverty,
• 11:51
  Speaker 6: it's the addictions.
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: Those are all horror. Precious was a horror movie, to.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: Absolutely I agree.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Some people say it was a comedy.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: No.
• 12:08
  Speaker 7: I think to his point, if you were a daughter
• 12:10
  Speaker 7: and you grew up in a household with a mom
• 12:12
  Speaker 7: who is dealing with her own things and doesn't know
• 12:15
  Speaker 7: how to mother you through that. You watch something like
• 12:18
  Speaker 7: President it make you be like, oh, shoot, I remember
• 12:20
  Speaker 7: that feeling like it does give that. I felt like
• 12:22
  Speaker 7: that watching this definitely okay.
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: So how do you not get traumatized?
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: I you know, I don't know that I didn't get traumatized. No, No,
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: I mean I'm a praying person. I'm a person of faith,
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: so I think that, you know, even going into it,
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: you know, there has to be like intention, right, I
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: think this if this was just sort of exploiting you know,
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: black pain, if this was exploiting kind of the demonocral.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: I believe in the spirit, realm, right, I'm a Christian,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: I'm a believer. So even initially when he first brought
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: it to me, initially it was a yes, just because
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: at this point I had just really again fallen in
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: love with this person. I'm like, I trust him completely,
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: I'm excited about everything he's doing. But my only hesitation was, oh,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: do I want to do something that.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: Deals with that?
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Obviously, if you've come from any type of church background,
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: it can be very very they're very strong opinions about
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: why would.
• 13:11
  Speaker 6: You don't turn exactly?
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: So they you know, like you said, people feel like,
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: oh they can jump on you. They can do But
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: I think we also have this misconception that we're never
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: supposed to look into that world or talk about that world.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: But for me, the scriptures that I read, I'm like,
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: it's all throughout it. And I think what I loved
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: about this, and what I loved about Lee's goal is
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: that he didn't want to just kind of, you know,
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: marinate in that area. He wanted to show a story
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: of overcoming and that's what she does. And so for me,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: it was really it was praying going into it, like
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: I I what I will say is that I I
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: had a hesitation just because of the the subject matter,
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: but I prayed about it, and I was reminded in
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: prayer that it's like, if you believe what you say
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: you believed, then that means you have authority over these things.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: You know they are they are under your foot. And
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: if you're going to be a light, then you have
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: to go into dark places. And so I really love
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: that represented in the movie. And so I think that's
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: probably why we prayed a lot.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, I knew that's the reason why you were
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: You were right for it. Because you were a believer,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: you really believed. And there's a scene in the film
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: for those that have seen the film when she's fighting
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the devil where she just breaks out in tongue and
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the ad my white a d was like, Okay, so
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: this isn't scripted, let's do we cut? Do we do whatever?
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: You know, and she's speaking in tongue and I'm like,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: this is God working. We're gonna let it be gonna
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: until she's tired.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: Oh you really went into speaking in tongue like that?
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, Okay, that was That was her and so
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: and so That's when I knew she was right for
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: the role. I mean, I knew that there was only
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: one person that could play this role, and an actor
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: that really believed, that believed. Is it true?
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: Y'all had a preacher on set every day every day?
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? We were terrified. I mean, like,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: my mother didn't want me to do this movie. In
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: the beginning after Precious, I was offered this film and
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to do it because you know, I
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: felt like I was revisiting it already with a woman
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: that was abusing her kids. But more importantly, I know
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: how I work and I demand the truth. I work
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: from a place of like I'm an open portal. I'm
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: an open portal and and and I know what comes
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: to me and when I give out, and I said,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: this is gonna this is gonna land in my spirit.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: And so and that's why I sat on it for
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: such a long time, y'all. I didn't want to do
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: the movie after Precious and I just realized that it's
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: not about the darkness. It's really about finding your light
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: and about finding a higher power.
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: And yeah, what do you because you you're with this
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: material longer than anybody, from beginning to end.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: My sister, I haven't talked about this yet, but my
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: sister is in the scene. Who's done all my movies
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: with me, every one of my movies. She's in my movies. Uh,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: my sister was in the chemo scene with Glenn, and
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: the following day she was diagnosed with you know this
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: lung cancer.
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: No, it was it was dark.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: You got popped in your face, remember that. Yeah, it
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: was the fire she's putting out, a fire of demons.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: And then that's the thing that happened. My dog died.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: It was everything that Yeah, Jesus, Yeah, it was it
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: was everything that you think. And that's with praying practically
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: before every scene. Now, Netflix was like when they when
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: we first busted out in prayer, Netflix was like, I'm sorry,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: but we're gonna have to call HR because.
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: We can't pray.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I go, Okay, So I got to
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: make an announcement to three hundred people those that don't
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: want to pray steps, but please, you gotta let us press.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: We got to ask permission to pray. Now. Break.
• 16:46
  Speaker 7: It's different where we come from because we're rooted in
• 16:49
  Speaker 7: that right. But so a question for you with your
• 16:52
  Speaker 7: crazy with Leah, how is she right now?
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: How is she doing that?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Not Leah my sister, you know, my sister Lea who
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: does Wow, she's beautiful. Yeah.
• 17:04
  Speaker 7: I'm from Delaware, so yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm from Delaware though,
• 17:09
  Speaker 7: So y'all are like, we know you guys, like you
• 17:11
  Speaker 7: guys went to Hollywood, you did all this stuff, so
• 17:14
  Speaker 7: familiar with the family.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: My sister Girly who I created Empire, got you to
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: my sister Girley who I created Empire after Cookie. The
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: character of Cookie, she was a drug dealer and so
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: that turned her life around and everything, and she was
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: I'm really proud of her. She she turned her life
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: around and she works for me in locations she does.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: She was just diagnosed during working for the films. It
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: was devastating.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Would you dive into another movie like this because it
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: seems so dark? Again, I don't do scary movies, but
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: it just seems so dark, and it's like it's hard
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: to get out of. I started watching. I don't do
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: scary movies. So when it starts getting a little crazy,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: I know, I start hearing noises and.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: It's a little scary. I think that, I think that.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I don't think that I will do it again because
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: it takes all Like you said, it's like all consuming.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: They're gone, I'm in that edit room. I'm still hearing
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: noises and so and and and then also it's difficult
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: to it's a different type of a film for me
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: to do. You know, it's a different, whole different experience
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: because dramas like this boom boom boom, boom boom boom,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: and I got that down. This experience is like it's
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: like a slow dance, you know, you got It's like
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: it's a whole different sort of thing that you're doing.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: And I don't. I just did it as an artist
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: that just sort of grow.
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: I love it, though.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: I think you ended up really creating almost a subgenre
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: of horror. Like we've been talking about this a lot,
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: and that's why I say it's it's not a typical
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: horror movie.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: It's very I.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Don't know what it is.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: It's like a soulful, dark thriller.
• 18:52
  Speaker 7: Like it's like it sits with you, like I want
• 18:55
  Speaker 7: to watch it with my mom and my grandmom because
• 18:57
  Speaker 7: we got some stuff we need to talk about.
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: But at the same time, you might jump a little bit. Yeah.
• 19:01
  Speaker 7: And one of my questions for you, after seeing seeing
• 19:04
  Speaker 7: parts of it I didn't watch the full thing, was
• 19:06
  Speaker 7: when you because we're precious the mom, the daughter had
• 19:09
  Speaker 7: the issue. Now you see this here again from your life,
• 19:11
  Speaker 7: Where does that come from? Or is that just something
• 19:13
  Speaker 7: you think is something that needs to be addressed, or
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: is that something personal to you?
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: It's just.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's all. Everything that you see is a part
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: of my life. Everything is part of my life. It's
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: personal and and what I do is I live my
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: demons out through through all of my works. So everything
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: you see on screen is a part of what it
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: is My life experience the Glenn Close character. Her character
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: was written she was black, so I tried to separate
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: it because I really wanted to separate myself from LaToya Amens.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: So I made this character white because I have so
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: many mixed race friends. What is it like to be
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: a black girl with a white mom? What is it?
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: We all we all know that black we all know
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: that white girl, white woman that only days black men,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: that has black children. We've never seen her on screen before.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Glenn Close plays that chick with the baby hair and
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the jewelry and cut off shorts and this you know,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: to me, that was And I'm so proud that she
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: was able to delve into that because that's a character
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: that we've never Black people know her. I don't think
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: white people. I don't think white critics will understand the film.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: White critics will never understand oh completely. What is Glenn
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: What is this? She's a g for attempting to play
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: this role.
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: The beef between well two questions.
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: What was the beef between Monique's character and the grandma
• 20:31
  Speaker 6: And did that relationship in the movie reflect what you
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: and Monique was going through at the time.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: The beef between the grandmam that was real. They caught
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: that right. It was just that, you know, you know,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the grandmom knew that Monique was not right, and Monique
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: didn't like the grandmom didn't care that the grand mom knew,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: so that it was that type of energy. And No,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: that had nothing to do with me what me and
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Nique was going through at all. Going back to work
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: with Monique was was like being on a bike and
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: and it was great, man, it was just great. She
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: she's phenomenal. And what I loved about this right here
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: in this race here is that imprecious. She was the
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: abuser in this she's the social worker in Gucci and jewelry,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: looking beautiful going after the abuser.
• 21:29
  Speaker 7: The conversation that you and Monique had. We saw the
• 21:31
  Speaker 7: picture you posted when y'all were out to dinner. Y'all
• 21:33
  Speaker 7: were reflecting. You said, just now it was like riding
• 21:35
  Speaker 7: a bike, like it's just something you naturally get to
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: do after a while.
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: Did I post that to you posted.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: That riding bike.
• 21:41
  Speaker 7: No, The picture and I just you're riding the bike
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: made me think about it because you said, y'all were
• 21:47
  Speaker 7: reflecting all your friendship, Like, what's the what's the moments
• 21:49
  Speaker 7: that you guys reflect on during this that helped her,
• 21:52
  Speaker 7: not even help her, because Monique is amazing on screen,
• 21:54
  Speaker 7: but kind of like helped the working relationship in real life.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: Like what are y'all reflecting on?
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Is it?
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: Remember, Precious?
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Is it?
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: Like? What is that conversation? Like at that dinner, At.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: That dinner we had already it was just having fun.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: We were just eating and having.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Fun, already squashed your beef and problems, worked on the film,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: and at that dinner, it.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Was just like, can you believe this is over with?
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: This movie is over with? You know, here's the thing, Monique,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: we not only did I want to make sure that
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: she was good, but I wanted to make sure that
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: we worked again and that she was paid well for
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: what it was. It was really important to me that
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: she felt it.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: But now you hear more and more artists talking about,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: you know, they're finally getting their value, they're finally getting
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: their work.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: What do you say to that?
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Because she deserves not just Monique, I mean a lot
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: of black actresses and actors of coming up here recently,
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: but like we're finally getting out.
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: Saying it's because of Tyler Perry parents.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: I think that I come from a generation and the
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: last generation of just we were just so happy to
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: get in the door. I don't think you understand, like
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: they weren't doing black cinema. I was just lucky to
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: get I was blessed to be able to tell stories
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: like Monsters Ball, Are you kidding me? Like? Are you
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: kidding me? Like? They laughed me out of every studio
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: in Hollywood when I came to them with masters. But
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: who wants to see a fat kid at the end
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: died by what? No? With a mixed race what like?
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: They didn't want to see that kind of stuff. So
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I had to go get drug money to develop this story.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Y'all know my history. Y'all saw it up there with
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Damon Dash. I had to go into the streets to
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: get my art done, and I didn't care about it
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: at all because the art was going to live and
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I would do anything. I would fall on the store
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: from my art. Hollywood wasn't fucking with me at all.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: No studio. Every single solitary movie I've ever done has
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: been independently financed. The first time I stepped into a
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: anything was was with Empire Answer to the Suits studio.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: I was like, what I got to answer to people. Okay,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: that was you know, that was the first time.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Why do you think the street dude understood you more
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: than Hollywood at that time or was it one of
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: those things they.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Were like, here's a thing, right, I can't really scream
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: homophobia with black men all the way because you know again,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: you know that was where my support came from financially,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: because they see you for what you are, which is
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: a creative genius, creative genius you know, who can help
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: them do greater things with their money. Like you know
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: what I mean, what does sexuality.
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: Have to do with it?
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: Question?
• 24:38
  Speaker 7: Another question for you and for both of y'all. When
• 24:40
  Speaker 7: the Demon reveals.
• 24:42
  Speaker 6: They made a movie about demon.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: You can't wait to this crush run over?
• 24:51
  Speaker 7: When the Demon reveals himself to Ebony in the car
• 24:56
  Speaker 7: and then she gets out she runs off. Is that
• 24:59
  Speaker 7: symbol symbolizing like how you know there's things going on
• 25:02
  Speaker 7: and then you kind of ignore, like you can't ignore it?
• 25:04
  Speaker 7: Or like was it not even that deep? And like
• 25:06
  Speaker 7: why it wasn't.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Even that It was like it was a slow It
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: was a slow It was like an onion onion up opening,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: like this is coming, It's coming. It's coming and again,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't. Again. I don't look at it
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: as a as a horror.
• 25:21
  Speaker 7: You are so annoying because you said it's all right,
• 25:39
  Speaker 7: back to the one, back to girlfa table broke.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Uh the it is? You know it's again? You know
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I don't again. It's a faith based thriller. And I
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: think that the minute we start looking at her, it's
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: not hard because if you come in with Netflix even
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: wondered that they wanted to jump scare every two seconds.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I said, that's not me. I don't know how to
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: do it. I'm I am, and I want to examine
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the human condition. So it's a slow sort of burn
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: into hell. Yeah, you think you're watching precious and I
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: yanked the rug from under you, and you're really watching
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: a thriller. Why do you think it's so hard for
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Ebony to do? Right? A white woman called you. Can
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: you imagine your white mother calling you Ebony?
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: No, we remember we talked about that.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: We were actually going to put that as a line
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: in the movie too, because it was just like what
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: kind of white woman named her child Ebony? Like she
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: was just so excited to have black kids. But I
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: think I mean, listen. You know, it's a really interesting question.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: Why is it hard for Ebony to do right? Why
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: is it hard for any of us to do right?
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean? Like, don't we all struggle
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: with it to some degree?
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: You know? So I think that, like I said, you know,
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: I don't know that, and I don't know that she
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: always thinks that she is doing you know what I'm saying.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: So this is when you actually, when you just spoke
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: about that scene where the demon kind of finally manifest
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: in the car and she's running and she's paranoid. I
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: think she's again we're dealing with a movie where and
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: this is often a thing in culture, right black women.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: You know, we were talking about believing black women. Black
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: women are believed, But I thought about it the other
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: day and I was like, honestly, they're rarely even listened to,
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. So I think I hate
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: when people are like, oh, black women allowed, and da
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: da da. But also we have had to work to
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: take our space and to make our voice heard and
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: to actually get people to listen to not just our
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: struggles but our triumphs and our support. You know, Like
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: I always remind people, there would be no I have
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: a dream speech if it was not black women who
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: actually organize and put that event together. So I think
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: we see a similar thing in Ebony is that she's
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: not I think it's hard, she's not being believed, and
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: it's a lot of pressure. You know, it's not you
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: can't it's a lot of weight to hold, and sometimes
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: you're gonna stumble, you know what I mean, and you
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: need help. And I think in that scene in particular,
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: you know, for me, it was just like she is
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: not even sure of what she's seeing. So forget society
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: or the social worker DCS, her mother, you know, forget
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: all of those people believing her. She's now kind of
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: questioning herself. Am I actually losing my mind? Am I
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: going crazy?
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: That's what you feel that so much all the time?
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: Am I crazy? Am I doing too much? Am I exactly?
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: And am I to fright the power?
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Today? Yeah?
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: I'm trying. I was like, oh, okay, I felt that.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: Am I You're constantly questioning yourself, even if you don't
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: have to do with demons. It's just like, am I
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: going crazy? Am I doing too much? Am I insecure?
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: Am I losing my mind. So I think that she's
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: a human, you know what I mean, She is definitely
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: a human.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: You know. We never talked about that.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but you you wrote it in there. There's a
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: lot of things.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: He was just telling me the person. I didn't do
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: much directing in that scene because you just sudden knew it.
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: And now I'm not gonna let him do this. He
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: always give his credit away. Yes you did.
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: You are always doing amazing directing and a lot of directing,
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: and it is amazing.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: But you just did it. I remember that there's a
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: scene where she's outside. She's like this, you know what
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, why why she should be doing that? But
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I haven't directed her to do that.
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: But that's the question.
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: The constant like am I actually crazy? You know what
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: I'm saying. So, and I think that's why. You know,
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: it's like anxiety, and I think that's what leads to
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: like addiction. Right, we see her struggling with alcoholism. So,
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: but she's trying. I don't think she's always not doing right.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: I think she genuinely thinks she is doing right and
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: then and she's just she's a human, you know what
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, She's really trying.
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: The thing the scene that we was just describing, you know,
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: you questioning yourself. That is something that black people constantly do, right,
• 29:25
  Speaker 6: because there's all of these things that we know are
• 29:27
  Speaker 6: on top of us. We know that we're being oppressed, right,
• 29:29
  Speaker 6: but then there's other society will be like, you're bugging sexism, homophobia,
• 29:35
  Speaker 6: please right?
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: Exactly, it's always chopped up to conspiracy or you know
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: what I'm saying, And it's we're supposed to act like.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: And honestly, sometimes I just wonder, in order to survive
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: and not lose your mind, you kind of almost have
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: to sort of be on autopilot for a little bit,
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: you know, because you're right, we do know the food
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: is killing us, right, we do know politics are probably
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: not really actually working for us, but we're required to
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: show up and vote otherwise we're not doing our civic
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: duty or not, you know, and of course those things matter,
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: but there's a there's an era of that where we're
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: supposed to act like we don't know that other things
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: are happening above us. I'll say above us, but I
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: don't like saying that. Maybe just in the realm where
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: we at, you know, so, and I think so we
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: see that exemplified in the movie.
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: She kind of it's like you feel fractured.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: So I think she captured the depression right, and the
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: and the addiction right, you know, as a as a
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: recovering addict or as an addict. She captured the truth
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: of what it's like to wake up every day and
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: to fight depression and to get up out of bed
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: and not want to do drugs or to drink. She
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: captured that wholeheartedly with accuracy, I think, even better than
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: you did in Billy Holliday.
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: It was actually, first of all, when you said that
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: on set, I was ready to cry, but it was
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: harder and it was funny because I was questioning myself.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: People were like, Billy Holliday will be the hardest role
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: you ever play. So okay, I was like, Nigga, does.
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: A lot wear me out right now? And I kind
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: of was like, am I crazy? Or have I just
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: lost it? Am I am? I? Maybe? Yeah, She's just.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: She required me to deal with like you said when
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: you watched it, the same way. Playing her, she required
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: me to deal with things in my personal life, to
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: talk to myself about things and I couldn't.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: And for my faith to grow and to change.
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: I don't think I could have played her if I
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: did not almost have my own therapy, you know what
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: I mean?
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: Surrounding it?
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: What do you want people to get out of this movie?
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: What do you at the end it is, what do
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: you want them to get out of it?
• 31:32
  Speaker 5: Really?
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: That you have to find because tomorrow isn't promised. You
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: have to find there's no This is not a joke.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Especially you have to sitting down with Biden, this sleepy ass,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: So why y'all got mad when I told them to
• 31:44
  Speaker 6: step down? He just goes back to what I'm saying.
• 31:46
  Speaker 6: I'm gon t Let me tell you anotherhing about this movie.
• 31:49
  Speaker 6: Let me tell you another thing about this movie. This
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: movie shows you that I mean, I do like to
• 31:55
  Speaker 6: this movie that if you don't deal, if you don't
• 32:01
  Speaker 6: acknowledge your demons, you have to acknowledge them. Once they
• 32:05
  Speaker 6: reveal themselves, you have to acknowledge them. And that's how
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: you deal with them when they say, you can't heal
• 32:09
  Speaker 6: what you don't reveal. So when these things reveal themselves
• 32:11
  Speaker 6: to you, you have to deal with them.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: So that goes back what I'm gonna talking about depression
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: And something that really hit home was when you were
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: bold enough to like sit there and say that we
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: get depressed, that this is this is real and uh.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: And that's when I had a new found respect for
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: what you do because it's like nobody that's that's something
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: that's me, like coming out of the closet, you know
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: what I mean.
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: That people don't Yeah, we don't talk about me. We
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: don't talk We can't talk about it. Yeah, yeactly for sure.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Even though we all deal with it for generations. Like
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: my dad.
• 32:46
  Speaker 6: My dad was going to therapy two and three times
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: a week, he was on ten to twelve different medications,
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: and he tried to kill himself back in the day.
• 32:53
  Speaker 6: I didn't find none of this out until twenty eighteen
• 32:56
  Speaker 6: after I started talking about my own issues.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: So imagine if he would have opened up to me when.
• 33:01
  Speaker 6: I was a child, when I was hiding in the
• 33:03
  Speaker 6: woods because I was having bad panic attacks.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: Because it and how was he received in the community
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: like with that right, because at your father at the
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: time going to therapy, that's crazy. I mean, talking to
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: like my elders and parents about therapy right now was
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: kind of like, oh, well, you know, we don't really
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: That you're from a small town, so everybody had to know.
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: I wonder if you didn't talked to people about it.
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: Well, you know when I asked my mom, I said, Mom,
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: you know that was going through all that. My mom
• 33:27
  Speaker 6: exact words was, I thought he was playing crazy to
• 33:29
  Speaker 6: get a check.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Because I love my father.
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: I love him so much.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: I was talking to him about therapy the other Danny
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: he told me. I was like, Dad, you can't hold
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: on to everything right because things faster, they sit, they
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: did it.
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: He was like yeah, he was like yeah. I was like, so,
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: you know, I want.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: You to just think about therapy and don't think about
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: it in terms of it's not that you're crazy.
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: It's just you check in with your health.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: You get your heart looked at, you get so why
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: would you not get your mind looked at it? It
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: has direct impact on your heart, on your body. He said, yeah, yeah,
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: well you know Nigga my dad's sophie from Detroit. He
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: really liked a nigga from Detroit. He was like, yeah,
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: you know, I've actually learned. He's like, I actually kind
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: of do my own therapy.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I've learned.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: I take it, and I put it in this box,
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: and then I like, you know, I basically a compartmentalize place.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: So I tuck it away real deep.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: I was like, right, I said, but all them little
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: prisoners are going to build up at a certain point.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: So he told me, he was like, I just tuck
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: it away, and I was like, Dad, that's suppression. I
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: was like, that's the opposite of what we're talking about.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: I was like, you got to talk about these things.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: So it's just different the mentality.
• 34:35
  Speaker 6: And another conversation. I hope this movie opens up to
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: this point. We're talking about some people definitely need therapy. Well,
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: some niggas need to exorcism. So how many niggas do
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: you know but actually need an exorcism?
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: I think so, I think so listen, we're working in
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: the team.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: I'm sure. But I think also that because I was
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: thinking about this as as I was watching, a lot
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: of church people will say there's too much cursing in this,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: there's too much like there's too much violence in this.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: How can this be a faith based anything? Because there
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: and then you get into the politics of the church.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: You know, you can get to the politics at the
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: church and just sort of deal with that bullshit, or
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: you can deal with spirituality and know that Jesus walked
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: with bookers drunks.
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've already gotten I literally got somebody hit me
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: the other day and was like, hey, you know, I
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: mean they asked politely, you know what I'm saying, but
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: it was like, hey, I don't understand how.
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: You're a believer and would do a movie about demons.
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: And I was just like, I remember, I think when
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: I get asked those questions, it's like, Okay, take a second,
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: take a beat. You could get offended, right, you know,
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: or you could just be like, there's not understanding here.
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: There's a lack of understanding. Maybe it's not on my part,
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: you know what I'm.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: Saying, But I think that I it's always interesting to
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: me as a believer. I'm like, I read scripture, you
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: know what I mean. I do devotion. Everybody scripture. I
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: was like, niggas demons in a Bible, Like, I don't
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: know what to tell you. There's crazy things like the
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: whole premise is not that this life is clean and
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: perfect and not scary and not what's that it's all
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: of those things. We just have somewhere to put it,
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: and as he said, if it's a different faith, you
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: got somewhere to put it, you know. Like, so that's
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: really and and something a why. We have a why
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: for how to navigate this craziness, you know what I'm saying.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: So the idea that we're not supposed touch those things,
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: to me is very, very weird and not realistic.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: Sometimes we use the demon thing to avoid the actual
• 36:23
  Speaker 6: issue though, right like when the grandma goes to the
• 36:25
  Speaker 6: past thing and tells us she thinks the house has
• 36:27
  Speaker 6: evil energy. It ain't just demon, just everything else you
• 36:29
  Speaker 6: talked about. It's the trauma, is the alcohol abuse, it's
• 36:32
  Speaker 6: the addiction. But it's like we'll talk about something supernatural
• 36:35
  Speaker 6: to avoid making better choices.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Right and unresolved issues with her daughter, because I think,
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: if I'm clear, I don't remember you and I talked
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: about this. But if I'm clear, you know, Alberta may
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: have changed. She received the Lord, you know what I mean.
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: She has transformed her life. And and that's why when
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: Ebane says to her, like you might have your little
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: church friends full, but I don't think we ever hear
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: a moment in there where Alberta goes to ebony and says, hey,
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: I'm really sorry for everything I did to you and
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: allowed happened to you. It's more like I don't want
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: to talk about that. I've transformed.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: Let me just be good to the grandkids and good
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: to everyone else around me.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: And that's the way it works.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really but it's hard because sometimes you need,
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: like you said, you just averting the issue. Sometime you
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: actually need to look somebody in the face and with
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: humility say I acknowledge what happened to you, what I
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: did to you, and I'm sorry.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Which was part of my
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: journey with Monique.
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, got you, Yes, you know, and you did.
• 37:25
  Speaker 5: It first, right.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I called her out of the blue, you know,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: I wondered her and I was working on this y'all
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: see that that other horror movie that she did. Yes,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: So this young this young filmmaker. I help a lot
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: of young filmmakers. Okay, So this young filmmaker called me
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: f out of the blue and said, listen, I'm working
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: on this movie and I need your help. So I said, okay,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: So I saw the potential in the movie. It was incredible.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: This kid was just incredible. And I worked with the
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: movie for free for six months because it was Monique.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: She didn't know it. Six months. I helped him edit
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: the film because it was a little independent film and
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: and I was like, this bitch is fucking good. She's
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: fucking real good. That was part of me realizing I
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: had to she had to work. She just had to
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: continue to People are missing out on her work as
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: an artist. And uh so finally I said, listen, you
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: don't notice, but I've been working on this movie. I've
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: been working on this movie for like four or five months,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: six months.
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: She said, you sneaky bitch.
• 38:29
  Speaker 7: I know, come here cuts him out.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: And so that that was the beginning of art of
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: my healing through this kid that I was helping with
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: his film.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and how did you how? I wanted to know
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: you know, I know you and Dame squashed your beef
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: How did you?
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: How did that happen? How did that healing happen?
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: That happened because I was told by my all white
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: team at the time time that I didn't know him
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: any money, and I knew in my heart that if
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: I owed the drug. Even though the movie didn't make money,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: the movie did not make money. So in theory, on paper,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: I didn't know him any money, but I knew in
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: my heart that I told him I was gonna pay
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: him his money. So it was a it was a
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: it was a man to mand thing. But I'm listening
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: now to Hollywood because I'm in I've done an empire,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: and I was like, Okay, this is the way to
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: white people with this. This is way he's supposed to work. No,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: it don't work like that. And so even though we
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: took a the movie took a hit, shadow Boxer took
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: a hit, I was you know I did. I did
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: the right thing with him.
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: Too, And how was that combination?
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Did take a public humiliation for me to understand that
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: I did the right thing. Otherwise I would have been
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: just scurtainy, and I don't think so MA would have
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: come to I would have had that come to Jesus,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: But he put it Jesus a little earlier.
• 39:58
  Speaker 6: I know you got to go in a few but
• 40:00
  Speaker 6: I want to ask you Lee about you know, because
• 40:01
  Speaker 6: you you've birthed a lot of people out here, right,
• 40:04
  Speaker 6: Jesse Smilett. What's that relationship like now? Because I remember
• 40:07
  Speaker 6: a few years ago they said, y'all were no longer
• 40:09
  Speaker 6: on speaking terms.
• 40:10
  Speaker 5: We text.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: We text each other. Uh, we text each other. Here's
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: a movie that's coming that's out. I think that's coming out.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen it yet. Uh. Look, it's it's so complicated, guys,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: it's so complicated. Life is so complicated because of the incident,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: because of the hoax, because it's themself. It's complicated. But
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: that whole situation was complicated. And I still don't know
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: what to believe. Honestly, I don't know what to believe
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: when people say he didn't do it. He did do it.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: God bless him on his journey.
• 40:44
  Speaker 5: And is there room for him to come back? Is
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: what I'm trying to get at.
• 40:47
  Speaker 6: And because because somebody like you, it takes other black
• 40:49
  Speaker 6: people to keep that grace in that door open for people,
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: other blacks that make mistakes.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: I work with him again, yeah, or I don't work
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: with him again.
• 40:57
  Speaker 5: Would you cast him in something?
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: H Yeah? I would cast him in something again. Got you?
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: It's a sun to me. You know, he was like
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: and he also represented me, and he also represented the
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: movement that we that I tried to to start, which
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know I was starting and I was
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: so busy worried about Cookie's hat and the music that
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: we were playing. This was before Insecure, This is before
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Black Panther, this we started that it was, it was
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: before all of it. The fact we didn't didn't even
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: know what it was. But I was so worried about
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: the the I was so worried about, like getting everything right.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: It's the phone right here, you know, on the set
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: that I didn't know what was happening in the zeitgeist.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's complicated.
• 41:43
  Speaker 6: Empire definitely ushered in the new Black renaissance in cinema.
• 41:47
  Speaker 6: But yeah, the only reason I asked that is because
• 41:49
  Speaker 6: we see white actors make mistakes and get chance after
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: chance after chance. It's like with our our people, they
• 41:55
  Speaker 6: just get thrown away, just started black ball, never work again.
• 41:59
  Speaker 6: But it takes people like you to make sure that
• 42:01
  Speaker 6: they keep working.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: H Yeah, well, we appreciate you, and the film Deliverance
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: is out on August thirtieth on Netflix, and thank you
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: for joining us.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: You guys are invited.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: Don't wait so long, I mean seven years probably.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: I don't right now. Today today's it's in theaters in theaters,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: It's on Netflix, August thirty.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you guys for joining us. Andrew, I know
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: you'll be here again because you're working.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: I'll see'll for Exhibiting Forgiveness. It was the next movie
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: that comes out in October. Yeah, what was it called
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: Exhibiting Exhibiting Forgiveness. Yeah, it's actually the painter. Have you
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: heard of Titus Kafard. Are you familiar with his work?
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: If you?
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: If you yeah, if you're yes, If you've not seen
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: his work, you should, Definitely. He's a painter, is actually
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: what he is. He's working in the Mad Everything. He's
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: from Detroit, actually, but he very similar. He tells truthful stories.
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: But he he has never done a movie before. He
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: just needed apparently painting was just not sufficing. He needed
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: a medium to be able to reconcile his relationship with
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: his father, who was definitely a victim of sort of
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: the crack epidemic, and so reconciling that relationship and and
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: learning how to forgive, and so he just started writing
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: his story down and he wrote a script. So this
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: is his debut, uh directorial debut, in its first time
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: writing a script. It's called Exhibiting Forgiveness. It stars Andre Holland,
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: Andre new ellis John Jokes and myself, and and he
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: just he really beautifully talks about that. Forgiveness is an
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: amazing concept. Obviously, we've seen it today, We've talked about
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: it so much today, but I think we forget how
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: hard fought forgiveness can really be. You know, it always
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: feels like you're letting someone get away with someone, or
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: you may get away with something, You're making yourself more
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: vulnerable to more pain. But so it really dives into
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: the idea that it strengthens you. But it is a
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: hard fought battle. So that's that's October.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: When it comes out Your life is hilarious.
• 43:58
  Speaker 5: You thought he was going to.
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: This man man and co. It was just like, okay,
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: acting it is. I was like, okay, here we go.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: She's one of the most phenomenal actors I've ever worked with,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: and I worked with all of them.
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: Truly, You're not gonna make me crying here, no, I really,
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: I really do love him. Between him and Missasha Smith,
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: who's also in this, I love her.
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: She She's just one conversation director.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: She's director director, an incredible, incredible acting coach, and a
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: phenomenal actor.
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: She also should be a motivational speaker.
• 44:40
  Speaker 7: She she she gets you together in a voicemade she
• 44:44
  Speaker 7: could when she tells you.
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: So, this is what cracks me up. This is how
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: she would have got Biden together. She just looked at
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: and be like, coach excessive. And she stopped and she
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: look at me and she was like, I'm like, so,
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: I finished doing a little work and I'm looking at
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: her for a respond.
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: She look at me, She's like, sys, it's terrible.
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: Might be top three realist niggas.
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: My favorite, but both of them are the same.
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: That's why I was like, I know, if I'm in
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: the coaching session, I'm not getting no bullshit. If I'm
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: on set, I'm not getting no bullshit. When they say cut,
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: I'm like, we got it. Like that's a good feeling.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: We appreciate you for joining us again. Thank you, sir,
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: Andrew Day Lee Daniels.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: It's the Breakfast Club.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: Good morning, wake that ass up in the morning.
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: Breakfast Club.