Latest / Mic Drop Comedy / Lou Diamond Phillips - Honoring Indigenous Talent in _Gangland_ _ The Daily Show

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Lou Diamond Phillips - Honoring Indigenous Talent in _Gangland_ _ The Daily Show · Mic Drop Comedy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for the sign that said, please stand up. No, no.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: I ain't Slim Shady.
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  Speaker 2: That's all you.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's awfully sweet. That's ridiculous. Thank you.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: So, thank you for joining me, by the way.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: A thrill, Josh. Thank you so much for having me, brother.
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  Speaker 2: You are an icon of the sort of modern Western. Like,
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  Speaker 2: you've been in Young Guns. There's Gangland.
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  Speaker 1: There's Longmire.
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  Speaker 2: There's so many different things. And I'm wondering what... specifically
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  Speaker 2: draws you to the genre?
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  Speaker 1: Good roles.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, first of all, I grew up in Texas.
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  Speaker 3: My dad was in the military. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 3: my dad in that particular performance. He's kind of turned
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  Speaker 3: into Foghorn Leghorn now, but I love him. But raised
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  Speaker 3: with some manners, a code of honor, some ethics, all
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  Speaker 3: that stuff. And you look at a show like Longmire
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  Speaker 3: where my character, Henry Standing Bear, embodied all of that.
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  Speaker 3: And whether it's old school Westerns like Young Guns or
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  Speaker 3: sort of the neo-Westerns like Longmire or Gangland, these are
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  Speaker 3: stories of morality. And they're hopefully aspirational. And the characters
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  Speaker 3: are people that we can look up to, you know,
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  Speaker 3: everyday heroes.
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  Speaker 1: And so that, you know, that appeals to me.
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  Speaker 2: It seems like you look at older Westerns and there's
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  Speaker 2: this aspect of like a big wide sort of unknown.
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  Speaker 2: And when you look at the earliest Westerns, people still
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  Speaker 2: felt that way about the people that were in the
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  Speaker 2: movies they were watching. Not just like the character and
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  Speaker 2: the morality side of it, but just actually like what
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  Speaker 2: is the middle of arizona you know exactly and so
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  Speaker 2: i think that now we're just in this like new
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  Speaker 2: this new side of uh what makes up a western
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  Speaker 2: yeah and and i'm i'm wondering how you think they've
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  Speaker 2: evolved from like what they used to be to what they.
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  Speaker 3: Are now oh yeah you know in the in the
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  Speaker 3: 70s and i love this man this is a great
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  Speaker 3: line of questioning in the 70s you know you had
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  Speaker 3: you know butch cassidy and You know, a little big man,
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  Speaker 3: one of my particular favorites. And all of a sudden
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  Speaker 3: you had these revisionist Westerns that started looking at.
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  Speaker 1: Things from both sides of the line.
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  Speaker 3: You know, gangland is about indigenous people. You know, it's
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  Speaker 3: about gangs, which happen in practically every ethnic community in
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  Speaker 3: this country. You know, but this is on the res.
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  Speaker 3: It's very much like Training Day, Denzel's Training Day on
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  Speaker 3: the reservation.
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  Speaker 1: And and. It still tells big themes.
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  Speaker 3: It has big characters, life or death situations. And it's
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  Speaker 3: interesting that you say that because we shot this in
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  Speaker 3: Oklahoma on Cheyenne Arapaho land, so massive thanks to them.
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  Speaker 3: And the land is part of it. You think of
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  Speaker 3: John Wayne out in Monument Valley or something. We shot
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  Speaker 3: this in Oklahoma and froze our nuts off.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't have to cut mine off like Louis Black.
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  Speaker 1: It just falls right off in Oklahoma. That wind comes
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  Speaker 1: sweeping down the planet. Oh, my nuts. But, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it informs the performance. You know what I'm saying? Being there,
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  Speaker 1: being in the middle of that.
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  Speaker 3: That's why we shot both Young Guns in Santa Fe.
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  Speaker 3: Longmire shot just outside of Santa Fe. It really is
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  Speaker 3: a connection to the land that helps to tell that story.
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  Speaker 2: And so it's much more than a background or an aesthetic.
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  Speaker 1: It's like... It's another character.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's beautiful.
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  Speaker 3: Vincent Greshaw, amazing director, brilliant director. And this cast is unbelievable, guys.
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  Speaker 1: It really is.
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  Speaker 3: Introducing a lot of young indigenous actors who are getting
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  Speaker 3: their first real breaks.
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  Speaker 1: James Whitecloud, who was in that. Elisha Pratt.
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  Speaker 3: Nathan Lane-Factor from Reservation Dogs. Just a wonderful cast. But
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  Speaker 3: there's a series of shots that Vincent did of the
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  Speaker 3: police car with the lights.
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  Speaker 1: On going through these vast areas. And you get that feeling.
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  Speaker 3: It's the Lone Ranger out there trying to keep everything
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  Speaker 3: together before it blows up.
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  Speaker 2: And so when you are acting in a movie like this,
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  Speaker 2: does it have an even more special place, not just
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  Speaker 2: in your heart, but in your hopes for its reach?
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  Speaker 1: Because of the native cast? Huge. I mean, first of all,
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  Speaker 1: thank you.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's an independent film, and we're seeing, you know,
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  Speaker 3: a lot of independent films break through now. We're seeing
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  Speaker 3: artists come from, you know, social media and a lot
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  Speaker 3: of different places. We, and I'm currently, I just got re-elected, woo-hoo,
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  Speaker 3: governor of the actors branch of the Academy.
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  Speaker 1: Congratulations. Yeah, thank you, brother, but that's our mission.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: You know, finding those artists, finding those storytellers from whatever
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  Speaker 3: community in the U.S. and around the globe that can
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  Speaker 3: tell these stories. And so my heart was with this
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  Speaker 3: one from the beginning because it's an indigenous story that
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  Speaker 3: employs an amazing amount of indigenous talent, both in front
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  Speaker 3: of and behind the camera. And it's one that has
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  Speaker 3: affected every audience that's seen it. We've won a number
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  Speaker 3: of awards at festivals. We're 100% on Rotten Tomatoes right now.
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  Speaker 3: And it's going wide very soon. But we need people
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  Speaker 3: like you in this show to help get the word
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  Speaker 3: out because, I mean, it's artisanal, man. I am hand-carrying
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  Speaker 3: this bad boy everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: You know?
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  Speaker 2: No, that's amazing. I mean, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes is wild.
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  Speaker 2: It means everybody, even because people, so many different people
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  Speaker 2: come to watch a movie. So then there are people
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  Speaker 2: who knew about the movie that were excited. Then there
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  Speaker 2: were people that were like, I'll give it a try.
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  Speaker 2: Then there's haters. And the haters, that means even.
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  Speaker 1: They were like, oh, yeah. Oh, it's good. It's good!
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  Speaker 2: And I'm curious in your journey with acting, how you
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  Speaker 2: sort of navigated what feels like a new era. There's
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  Speaker 2: this thing now looming over the industry, even if it's
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  Speaker 2: not materializing in the way that people are afraid of yet,
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  Speaker 2: of trying to be an actor or any sort of
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  Speaker 2: artist in an age of AI and trying to fight
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  Speaker 2: for your stories to be told while the people with
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  Speaker 2: money are just looking to do things cheaper and cheaper.
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  Speaker 1: And faster. And faster.
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  Speaker 2: And so what is your sort of thought process going
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  Speaker 2: into your art practice now versus years ago?
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  Speaker 3: You know, we're the sentinels. We're the sentinels making sure that,
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  Speaker 3: you know, that this doesn't take over, you know.
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  Speaker 1: And actors....
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  Speaker 3: You know, they're going to have a harder time replicating
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  Speaker 3: performances from living actors. I mean, you know, we have
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  Speaker 3: our first AI performance in Val Kilmer in that upcoming film.
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  Speaker 3: He will not be recognized by the Academy because it's
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  Speaker 3: not a human-based performance, you know, and we have set
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  Speaker 3: rules to do that where every performance has to be human-based.
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  Speaker 3: The Academy is now doing a lot of things that
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  Speaker 3: are making sure that we stay within those guidelines, you know,
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  Speaker 3: of what is, you know, human-generated. Now, yes, AI is
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  Speaker 3: going to be a tool. Many people are going to
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  Speaker 3: use it. We're trying to figure out how to navigate that.
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  Speaker 3: I think writers are probably a little more worried. Certainly,
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  Speaker 3: storyboard artists and production designers, visual artists, they're a little
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  Speaker 3: bit more worried about that. But once again, we're going
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  Speaker 3: to try to maintain that. And you talk about talking
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  Speaker 3: to a new generation of artists. It's like, I'm going
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  Speaker 3: to sound like an old fart, man, but I've been
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  Speaker 3: around for 40 years, and the reason is I love
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  Speaker 3: the work. I got into it loving acting, loving telling stories, directing, writing,
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  Speaker 3: all of that stuff I still do. And I do
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  Speaker 3: it the old school way. And you can get famous
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  Speaker 3: really quickly. You can make a lot of money really quickly.
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  Speaker 3: But is that going to turn into longevity? Is that
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  Speaker 3: going to become a career where you can talk about
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  Speaker 3: this again in 40 years? Or is what you are
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  Speaker 3: doing so trendy that everybody's looking for the next thing
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  Speaker 3: that comes along? Once again, as they say, don't build
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  Speaker 3: your foundation on sand.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: I think that there's something so interesting about actors who
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  Speaker 2: are willing to have this huge filmography, like 100 plus movies,
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  Speaker 2: 70 movies, like TV shows, and doing a little bit
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  Speaker 2: of everything. You feel like that love for the work
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  Speaker 2: that you have and that longevity of a career, do
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  Speaker 2: you look at those things as.
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  Speaker 1: Completely intertwined?
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  Speaker 2: Like, do you think that you would be able to
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  Speaker 2: do as much work if you didn't love it so much?
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  Speaker 2: I ask this because I feel like you are seeing
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  Speaker 2: more projects than ever.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And I feel like it's, maybe I'm giving myself too
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  Speaker 2: much credit, but I'd like to believe that I can
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  Speaker 2: kind of tell when someone's heart is in a project
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  Speaker 2: and when it's not.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And in a world where so many things are getting
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  Speaker 2: made and getting made just to be made.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, where do you think that that sort of
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  Speaker 2: puts you as you add on? Because you've got other
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  Speaker 2: things coming up.
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  Speaker 3: I get asked a lot, you know, what my favorite
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  Speaker 3: genre is, role, film, whatever. My stock answer is my
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  Speaker 3: favorite genre is the genre of employment. Thank you. It's
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  Speaker 3: a work ethic, you know, that comes from Texas, that
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  Speaker 3: comes from my dad. But, you know, I'm theater trained.
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  Speaker 3: I have a degree from the University of Texas at Arlington.
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  Speaker 3: And back then, man, you know, sometimes you were the lead,
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  Speaker 3: sometimes you were supporting. Could be comedy, could be Shakespeare,
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  Speaker 3: could be a mammoth. You could be running the spotlight.
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  Speaker 3: And I painted all the backdrops. So, for me, it
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  Speaker 3: was about loving so many different aspects of what we
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  Speaker 3: do and feeling really lucky that I continue to get
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  Speaker 3: to do it, you know? And so we got gangland and,
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  Speaker 3: you know, start the second season of Chair Company, you know,
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  Speaker 3: in a couple of months.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. You know, and there couldn't be more difference,
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  Speaker 1: you know?
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  Speaker 3: I just finished a wonderful miniseries called Count My Lives
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  Speaker 3: with Shane Lee Woodley and Kit Harington and Lindsay Lohan,
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  Speaker 3: Catherine Lanaza.
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  Speaker 1: I get to be a love interest. at my age,
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  Speaker 1: you know? So yes, I'm constantly looking for it.
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  Speaker 3: I never do anything that my heart isn't in, but
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  Speaker 3: I have to say that, you know, I mean, however
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  Speaker 3: the universe aligns, I'm getting roles that challenge me, that interest.
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  Speaker 1: Me, that, you know, really make me stretch.
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  Speaker 3: And I haven't repeated myself yet, only once, and it
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  Speaker 3: was called Young Guns 2. But, you know, I've been
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  Speaker 3: able to build fresh new characters for.
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  Speaker 1: Everything I've ever done. And, you know, I mean, that
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  Speaker 1: means a lot to me.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, will your characters challenge and interest us? And thank
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  Speaker 2: you so much for being here.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 3: I'm so glad.
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  Speaker 2: Gangland is in select theaters and all digital platforms July 10th.
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  Speaker 2: Move on to Phillips.