Latest / The Breakfast Club / Best of full interview: Phylicia Rashad Talks Respect, The Rhythm Of Acting, Chadwick Boseman's Brilliance + More

Transcript

Best of full interview: Phylicia Rashad Talks Respect, The Rhythm Of Acting, Chadwick Boseman's Brilliance + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Breakfast Club, Yes, Sister One, the most dangerous morning show
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: to Breakfast Club, charlamagnea God, just hilarious. DJ Envy's not in,
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: but Laura le Rossa is filling in for him, and
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: we got Royalty in the building. Man, we have a
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: woman who has represented you know, black people, especially black
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: women correctly forever.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Miss Felicia Rashad is here. How are you, queen?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I am good, good to see you.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: I'm a little star strugg too.
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: I mean to keep staring at you, but I cannot
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: believe I'm sitting here across from you and just and
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: like it's.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Because we even watching you on TV. You always carry
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: yourself in such a regal.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Man. Then when you walk in the room you feel
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: it even more. It's like whoa.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: I was telling him, all right, mama walking in the room,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: straightening up, okay, clean, make sure everything all right?
• 0:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah? Do you have and I know you have this
• 0:53
  Speaker 5: effect everywhere you go. Are you used to people acting
• 0:55
  Speaker 5: like this?
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Oh? You all?
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Or what?
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Can I just say? We are as a people respectful
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: yeah to each other? Yes, yes, yes, ma'am, yes we are,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Yes we are, But not the others we are as
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: a people.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, yes, And you're here for I mean, we're
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: gonna talk to you about a lot of stuff. You're
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: making your Broadway directorial debut and purpose. Yes, how did
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: that feel? Well?
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: It was wonderful. It's not the first time I've directed.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: This is the first time I'm directing in a Broadway theater.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: But this play and this cast, it's a real gift.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: You'll come and see. Yes, Yeah, yes, I hope you'll
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: come through. Brandon Jacobs Jenkins is the playwright. He received
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the Tony Award last year for his play Appropriate And
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: This particular production originates in Chicago at the Steppenwolf Theater,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and the Steppenwolf has its own ethos, its own legacy
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: for theater as it was formed by actors. So it's
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: ensemble work, and that's the best work. Absolutely ensemble work.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: But then that spirit I watched it move through the
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: cast into everybody, the designers, the production office and staff,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: the theaters, we all, it's it's everybody. It's one. We
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: call it collective intention. Yeah.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: When I think about the thing that you and your
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: your sister have done, ms. Debbie Allen, you know, I
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: just wonder what did y'all dream of when y'all was kids,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: when y'all was just two little girls growing up? Like,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: what did y'all play about? What did y'all think about?
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: What did y'all imagine?
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: We We grew up in Houston, Texas. Our father, doctor
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Andrew Allam's a dentist. Our mother, Vivianaires, is a poet.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: We grew up with a poet. We grew up with
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: a visionary. And it was about freedom. It was about
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: pardon me, It was about realizing your full potential as
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: a human being. Can you imagine things like this? Teaching
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: dual children like this. She would teach us things like.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: She have aphorisms, and she'd give them to us to say,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the universe bears no ill to me, I bear no
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: ill to it. And we repeat that the universe fair
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: is no ill to me. I bear no ill to it.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: If we just go around the universe, fair is no
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: ill to me. I bet when you teach a child
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: like this, when you teach a child, be true, be beautiful,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: be free. She would say things like this to us,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: and she'd say things like thinking requires thought, Thinking requires thought.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: We would say it, But these seeds were planted by
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the time I was eleven years old. Yes, oh, Debbie.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Debbie was nine years old, and she said to my mother,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I did dance classes, and you're not doing a thing
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: about it. You're not doing a thing about it. Wow, Well,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: you know legal segregation at that time. My mother took
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the railing off the side of the stairs going upstairs.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: She took the handrail and had it attached to a
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: wall in what was supposed to have been the dining room.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: And she hired this teacher who had come from the
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: New York City Ballet, a Caucasian man, to come and
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: teach Debbie in the house. Her ballet classes were there.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: This is this is how we grew. We grew like this.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: And he gave Debrah a book about ballet with photographs
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: of all the famous dancers, and we would look at
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: that book all day. Every day. My mother would take
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: us to exhibitions, to lectures things we couldn't understand. She
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: knew we couldn't understand it. She told us later, I
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: knew you wouldn't understand what was being said, but you
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: were present and the seeds were being planted. When we
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: were growing up. She didn't want us scarred by the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: ignorance of racism, and it was all around us. It
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: was legal at that time. But as little little children,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: if there was somewhere we wanted to go and we
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: were restricted, she'd explain it like this. She'd say, oh, well,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: that's a private club for members only, and we're not
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: members of that club. And then she'd do something else.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: She'd invite all our friends into the living room. She'd
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: teach us music. She'd teach us to tumble, she'd teach
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: us things like this, she'd teach us coral speech. And
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: that's how we grew. And at that time, music education,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: This is very interesting. In a time of legal segregation,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: music education was free and in the schools, and the
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: schools had instruments that students could use. I studied viola.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Debbie played the bass violin, if you can believe it,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: the littlest thing in the school. They had to sit
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: her up on a stool, had to sit that child
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: up on a stool, and her little fingers, her little hands.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Couldn't you know a bass player usually had big hands.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: You should have seen Debbie up there. She never missed
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: a beat and she never played a sour note. She
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: played that thing like she had created in herself. This
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: is how we grew We grew up in surrounded by
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: a community that cared for its children. And I mean
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: we were safe. Yeah, we were safe. We felt safe.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: We didn't I didn't feel fear as a child. Our
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: mother was a great example of that too. One night,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: somebody tried to break in the house, and my mother
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: was awake and she heard the clamor. She went out
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: the back door and walked her way around to where
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: this man was trying to come through the window. And
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: she stood right there and she said, you could get
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: arrested for that. You know. He scared Jesus and read
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: we grew up to be fearless, but not to be stupid.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: Expound on that, fearless but not stupid.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, look, if you see a rattlesnake in
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: front of you, come on, that's right, that's right, don't
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: be stupid. If you see a car come in your way,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: don't be stupid.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, I love that.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: I love the story you just told, because as you
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: were talking about it, I'm like, man, how do you
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: teach freedom the black kids in the country that wasn't
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: providing you that freedom at the time.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you how. I'll tell you how. A poet,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: a visionary hmm. You have to look inside, and you
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: have to teach young people to look inside. There's nothing
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: but freedom. So much distraction today, one thing and then
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: another to make anybody, not just African American children, but
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: anybody feel separate from its creation, separate from the one
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: who created everything that is separate from one's own self.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: In the midst of majesty nature, in the midst of
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: presence distraction, pay attention to that.
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: You're gonna be stealing your quotes.
• 9:47
  Speaker 6: But the rest of the month, every day there is
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: a depositive note, and the Charlemagne is over there writing
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: down everything and his mind.
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: Going to you, be quoting you for the rest of
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: them month.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: I know it.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you don't you know, we knew history. You
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: teach history, but you don't identify with the Middle Passage's
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: who you are. That's not who you are, That's not
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: who anyone is. That is what happened. But people survive
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: that because of who we are as human beings. Right now,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying it. Right now, we need all the people. Yeah,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: all the people.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's since the community you're talking about growing up
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: in Houston. You need that. You need to be able
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: to teach kids' freedom. You need to be able to
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: instill security and safety in kids. And that can only
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: come from come from It.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Comes from home and in teaching. You know, it's shared
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: with others. You know, children are not born into this
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: world fearful. No human being is born into this world
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: fearful or filled with hate. Nobody's born like that. You
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: have to learn that stuff. You know, there's a song
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: from a Broadway show. You have to be carefully taught,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: carefully taught. Well, you can be carefully taught the right
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: way too.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: What was your mother's upbringing like? Because she seems like
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: she was so still and so short of herself. And
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: I'm sure she had, you know, experienced a lot.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: My mother grew up in Chester, South Carolina.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Ay, I'm from Talk Carolina. I was born at Charleston
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: raith Inn, a small town called monst Corn.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: You the people, ye, okay? You the people? Okay. So
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: it was a small mill town, right. Her father was
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: a blacksmith, one of his brothers was a mortician, and
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: the other brother was a barber. And these businesses had
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: been owned by her grandfather. It was an agricultural community, right,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: But there was a school there that had been founded
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: by the presbytery. There was such a number of such schools,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: pardon me, that had been founded by the Presbytery for
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: the descendants of freed African people throughout the South. This
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: school was Brainerd Institute. And in this school there was
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: this classical education administered by black people. My mother was
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: always interested in music. Oh, she was quite the pianist.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: She's described herself to me once as saying, she was
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: a little girl swinging high on the swing, looking up
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: at the sky and dreaming big dreams. That's how she grew.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Her mother passed away when she was When my mother
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: was nine, she lost her mother. And she said, as
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: she sat at her mother's funeral and listened to the
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: things that people were saying, she decided none of them
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: were intelligent enough to tell her anything to do. She
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: would chart her own course at nine, at nine at nine,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: and she did, and she did. It was not an
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: easy life, but there was this spirit in her, living
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: in her, burning in her, that carried her through. Her
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: first publication is by this collection of porns. Her second
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: publication Hawk. If you read Hawk, you will understand how
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: I grew. This is an inner journey. This is an
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: allegory of freedom, which parallels flight through space without a vehicle.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: It was published eleven weeks before the launch of sputnik Ie.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: Wow, what did you learn from your your father, because
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: you said he was a dentist.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, my father. My father was born on the back
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: porch of a farm in Lovedale, Louisiana. He was one
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: of nine children. His father worked on the railroad. He
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: was a fireman on the South Pacific Railroad. And his mother,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: you know, was housekeeping. Right. My grandfather put great emphasis
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: on education, and he made sure that all of his
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: children went to college.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Imagine it, especially in that time.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Imagine it. So my father was a very kind and
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: generous man. He was what was called a man's man.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Men loved him and trusted him. He was always the
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: treasurer of the dental Association because they said, if text
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: takes care of the money, we're in good shape. He
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: was organized, he was very clean. He loved music, he
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: loved theater, he loved the arts. He came to see
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: any and everything we did, whatever it was. He was
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: very supportive. He was he was so handsome. He was
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: so handsome, and he was so good. He did things
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: that people didn't know he did. He was like that.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: And in his office he dealt with people's pain and
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: anxiety every day, and they came to him and trusted him.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: And when they couldn't pay, he'd work out a payment
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: plan for them that was convenient for them. They didn't
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: have to go anywhere and incur interest rates. He would
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: work that out for him. When my father passed away,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: at his viewing, the line stretched out of the mortuary, wow,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: all the way down the street, all the way round
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the block. And when the last person came, he said,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: he looked at and me. He said, you don't understand.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: You don't understand. That's my dentist mmm. And that motiicaide as.
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: I remember.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: That motiicaid on the way to the cemetery, stretched as
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: far as the eye could see. He was so beloved.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Joe, thank you.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: So that's why I asked, just because you know when
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: you look like I said, you know you we look
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: at Felicia Shade and Wie Allen, two strong queens. Somebody
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: had to raise them. Somebody had them still that in
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: them and as a father raising four beautiful black girls.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm just always thinking about you know what,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: should me and my wife being stealing in them all
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: the time, just so they grow up to be.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: Strong black women. When you love them, my mom says,
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: all the time.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: When you love them, that's all you know. My father,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: if I can remember one great instruction, my father gave
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: me two great instructions. He said, and I was a
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: little girl, he said, never let anybody run over you.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Who's five years old? And he told me that, never
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: let anyone run over you. And then later on in life,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: he said, always know the balance of your bank account
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: and keep your own money.
• 18:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah, what can you tell us about to start without
• 18:32
  Speaker 6: spoiling it?
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: You know the Broadway?
• 18:35
  Speaker 6: But what can you tell us about the story of
• 18:37
  Speaker 6: purpose without giving it all the way?
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: I know you don't want to.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, this is wonderful family family drama, and there's humor
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: in it. A young man is recalling a visit to
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: his home and on this night of nights, so much
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: happens in one night, and so much is revealed in
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: one night, and some things are resolved. It's uh, That's
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: all I'm gonna tell you, except to tell you that
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: cast Harry Lennox mm hmmmm. Okay, the Tanya Richardson Jackson
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: mm hmm okay, Glenn Glenn Davis mm hmmm, Alana Arenas
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: and John Michael Hill. It's the most it's the most
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: incredible ensemble that I've ever witnessed. Each one is a master,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: each one and the inimitable Caro Young, who was Louty
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Bell in Pearly Victorious last season, that's her cast. People
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: come at the end of the play and have various reactions.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: One woman said, ooh, that scene at the dining room table.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Who that was my family's thanksgiving for the past time?
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: Relatable?
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Right, and she was not an African American woman. People
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: see themselves and that's when we know we are really
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: doing our best work. When you see yourself.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: I was gonna say, speaking of doing your best work,
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: I think you know, for a lot of us and
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: watching you on television, the iconic role of Claire Huxtable
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: and just what that image of you know, having a
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: mom that was just so graceful and so like everything
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: that you.
• 20:55
  Speaker 7: Were in that show. Do you like in real life?
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: Is there ever, sure was there at the time for
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: you to like upkeep like a certain like I don't know,
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: like an image or like just anything that people try
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: to house. No, like so not in your house, but
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: like in real life, like in Hollywood and other roles
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: you were taking in, like you know what I mean, Like,
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: did you ever feel like because I think for us
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: like you are like the perfect like image of like
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: a black woman. Like so I always wondered if you
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: felt that pressure.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: No, light is not heavy, M carry light, share light.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Light is not heavy.
• 21:38
  Speaker 6: Even in even in interviews. But I understand what you're saying.
• 21:42
  Speaker 6: Even in interviews back then, you would still have the
• 21:46
  Speaker 6: same deposition, the same grace when you know, outside of
• 21:52
  Speaker 6: that role.
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna tell you the one that sticks with me.
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: When you told uh Saundra's boyfriend Elvin that is iconic.
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: And then when Vanessa wanted to go to Baltimore, I'm
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: friend to.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: See the wretchet.
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: Oh my god, when I tell you those are my
• 22:11
  Speaker 6: two like key episodes. Right, Well yeah, because I'm from
• 22:16
  Speaker 6: Baltimore and I done snuck out the house. And you
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: know I don't done all that. You ain't knocked Vanessa out.
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: I got knocked out a few times.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: But.
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: Well yeah, right, that's it. Also I also want to
• 22:31
  Speaker 6: bring up the movie bee Keeper. Oh my god, how
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: is that working with Jason Stathum.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Oh he's such a good person. Yeah, oh yeah, so generous,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: so kind, amazing to a fault. You know, that was
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: a great experience.
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: That was a great movie because it also like talks
• 22:54
  Speaker 6: to what's going on these days. Like it's so I know,
• 22:58
  Speaker 6: y'all you probably didn't see it. So The Beekeep is
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: a movie about an older woman who is robbed of
• 23:04
  Speaker 6: her her retirement funds, everything cleared, her bank accounts, fraud
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: a lot of frauds. She took a phone call from
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: this company that acted as if they were trying to
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: like help her with some type of banking information, and
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: she like kind of fell forward and ended up now
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: and Beekeeper did? Is this the question I always have?
• 23:25
  Speaker 6: Did the woman kill herself? Or did she killed herself?
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: Not because she lost her money.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: It was other people's money she lost, Okay, And do
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: you know that maybe six months after that filming, I
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: read of such a thing in the newspaper. Wow, oh wow,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: this was a man. Yeah, and he was so embarrassed.
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: But the greater problem here is access, Yes, yeah, so
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: much access to people is all of that necessary? Is
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: it good?
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: No?
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: No it's not. No man, no it's not. And as
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: we see it moving towards more, think about that.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, how do how do you now a days like?
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: Because I mean you obviously pick and choose what you
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: want to do with your roles. Like I watched you
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: in dar from Detroit and I was like, the one
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: thing we all in the car and you were talking
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: about the temptations, all of them.
• 24:34
  Speaker 7: I'm gonna tell you right now, I felt bad watching that.
• 24:36
  Speaker 7: I'm like, I don't think I'm supposed to hear her.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: Yes, but it's so funny though.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: The first time I saw the clips, they didn't tell
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: me it was from a TV show.
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: Yeah, he thought that you were really reflecting all your life.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I said, damn she slept. No, No, that was a character, Darling.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: That was a character. As actors, we play these roles.
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: When you choose a character like that, where it's like
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: it's a lot different than how we've seen you or
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: how I've seen you anyway, and different things that you've done.
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: What's you're thinking behind it? Is it because you want
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: to you want people to see you in the different
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: lights or is it just I just want.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: To do see what she was doing. Yes, that's why
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: I chose the characters because of what she was doing. Yeah,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: people get all caught up in funny stuff. Yeah, what
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: was that woman doing.
• 25:32
  Speaker 7: She was rescuing people.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: She was rescuing people. She was living with the deepest
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: hurt that a mother can have, that she lost her
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: child because she was not paying attention, and in her
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: heart she felt that her child was alive somewhere. And
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: this is years later, but just in a moment of
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: being too tired and too annoyed and too you distracted
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and wanting to do something else, she turned away and
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: in that instant, her child was taken from her.
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: And so she said about the saving people, she went
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: on saving people, open one day somebody would save her son.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: M hm.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: So I choose people because I choose a character because
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: of what people are doing.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to go back to something just said.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: She brought up the Elvin scene, right, because that was
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: a role.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: Well, when you.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: Schooled Elvin on I guess the marital, the marital, how
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: much input did you have on that scene and what
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: were you trying to convey when you saw it on paper?
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: What did you say to yourself, Oh, I know what
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: I can do in this scene to convey a larger message.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, I didn't say anything. I just said I just
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: said the lines.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: It was just as it was there.
• 26:50
  Speaker 6: Oh, it was there, but it was the way you
• 26:52
  Speaker 6: deliver it, you know.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: So it was like battle rapping.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: It was so, you know, it was this is this
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: is a part of your training as an actor. Language
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: and how you use it, you know, And there's rhythm
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: in this pace, and so much is conveyed in that way.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: If you said it another way, it wouldn't be as effective.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: If you tried to say it like you were singing
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the lazy No, it wouldn't work.
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: It wouldn't hit like a black mama.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: What would in writers' rooms like though, because it felt
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: like a black experience with black writers writers.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: The thing was to write a human story, to write
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: about human behavior, the truth of human behavior. That's what
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: makes comedy and theater real, the truth of human behavior.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: You don't have to make something up. If you're writing
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: about something that's real.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: You can take a different perspective on it, and your
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: skills as a writer, you know, show up in your
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: language or your you know, those things that writers do.
• 28:14
  Speaker 6: Yeah, what do you do to channel roles like your
• 28:19
  Speaker 6: role and fall from grace, like when you're the villain,
• 28:21
  Speaker 6: What do you do to channel those roles?
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Everybody's a human being, right, Yeah, okay, m she's just
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: a nasty human. This is a person who is sick.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Her whole perspective is warped. You've got to be sick
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: to mistreat another person. I'm sorry. You cannot be sane
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and do hurtful things to people. You just the sane
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: person won't do that.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: Do you agree that one of the four agreements is,
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: you know, don't don't take offense to things, don't take
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: things personal.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: Because what you do.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: What somebody does to you is not a reflection to you,
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: is something that's going on internally with them. It's hard that,
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: you know, to put yourself in that position, but you
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: really got to.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Know that sometimes you want to just clutch somebody, shake
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: them real good.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: My daddy used to say, you'll stop taking everything personal
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: personal once you realize that it's a bunch of people
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: out here on cocaine, like people out here doing all
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: types of stuff that you have no idea about.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Where was your father from.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Monk's corner, South Carolina. All my family in South Carolina, Mama, daddy, everybody.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: It's the best because you know.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: It's like if you ever been to the International African
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: American Museum. Oh you were there, I'm bugging yes, you
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: were there for the grand opening. I didn't get to
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: meet you'll want to meet y'all was on the other side.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's right there on the port where, like
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: I think fifty percent of all enslaved Africans came through.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: So that's like home for a lot of us.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: And don't know that's right, And don't.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Know another thing I want to ask you about when
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: you ran down on Vanessa, who are what were you
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: channeling in that moment, because I'm sure you, I'm sure
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: you and your sisters knuck out the house a couple
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: of times and Mama had to get on.
• 30:11
  Speaker 7: You never snuck out.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: I didn't have to sneak. Yeah, I didn't have to sneak.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah it was good. I didn't have to. But it
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: was good not to have to do that. Yeah, you know,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: sometimes it might have stayed a little too long or
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: we didn't have to sneak. It was it was, it
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: was fun. It was you know, it was an actor,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: and you understand human behavior, you understand feelings. It's it's
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: the way you develop yourself. This is the craft. This
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: is what we do. And uh, I guess if you
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: do it in a certain way, people think it's you.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's why they can't see you playing a role
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: like in a Fall from Grades, like mister Shott is
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: a villain.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: No, it's she was.
• 31:02
  Speaker 5: We have to detach the actress from the character.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know. And as an artist, you don't
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: want to sing the same song or play the same tube. Yeah,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: you don't want to paint the same picture forever. You've
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: got a paint box. You want to use those paints
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: and do a different scenes because we have range. Well, yeah,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: and you want to express humanity in whatever you do
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: at least I do.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: You know you can't.
• 31:38
  Speaker 7: I was going to say your time at at Howard.
• 31:40
  Speaker 7: I'm on HBC. You graded went to Delaware State?
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: Have you ever heard of it?
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Yes?
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: Wow?
• 31:46
  Speaker 7: The police thing next exactly right.
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: But the freedom that you were talking about earlier, I remember,
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: like I was raised in the household where my mom
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: was very much like that. But going to an HBCU,
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: I remember that being the first time where I was like, oh, okay,
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: the world like really needs me. And it was because
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: of like teachers and counselors and stuff that kind of
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: had the same spirit that you have. I wonder, like,
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: for you, what was like one of your favorite things
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: about walking on campus every day with those students as
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: a dean.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: As the dean ooh, walking on campus. Everywhere I looked,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I was reminded of my time there as a student,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: and I was reminded of my friends, and I was
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: reminded of the things that we did and the time
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: in which we were living as students. It was an
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: important time. Doctor King was assassinated in my sophomore year.
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I watched these things happen. So much unfolded on
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: that campus. I remember when Muhammad Ali came and spoke
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: on the steps of Frederick Douglas Hall mm hmm. And
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: I remember him standing there and he said, look at me.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Can't you see that I'm free? And you could. Oh.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: They were great people. There were great. Oh. The instructors.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: When I tell you about instructors I had at Howard University.
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: You know, yeah, they feeling they pour in like you
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: never forget that, like they pouring into you in a
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: different way.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: And they're so well developed. They are deep, they are deep.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: So there was a time, you know, I was just
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: referencing back to my father's area dentistry. There was a
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: time when African Americans were trained, could be trained at Harvard,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: but they wouldn't hire them to teach. So these people
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: who were trained in these great quote great institutions went
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: to HBCUs to teach. You were receiving that education there,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: that discipline, those demands. They were serious about it. They
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: were so serious about it. There was there was an
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: instructor at Howard down in medical school, doctor Montague J.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Cobb.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: They talked about this man. He was legendary. My father's
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: friend said, oh, no, you don't understand. If we failed
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: the test, he would say, meet me in the lab tonight,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: And they'd all show up in the lab and while
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: they were going around doing what they were supposed to
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: be doing, he would pull out his viola and play
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: as he walked up and down the aisle. And my
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: father's friend said, you wanted him to play that viola
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: because that meant that he was pleased with what you
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: would do. I mean, they came, you know, people we
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: came through in a time that we should remember.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: I feel like that's a level of village. I don't
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: know if we have anymore.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Well, we can have it if we wanted, and we
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: can expand it. We can expand it to it include
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: our Hispanic family. We can expand it to include our
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Asian family. We can expand it to include our Caucasian family.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: We can expand it because we need all the people.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: That's a line from August Wilson's play Gim of the
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Ocean on Esther who on Essa says, I'm going to
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: show you what happened when all the people call on
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: God in the one voice. God got beautiful splendors, and
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: God got room for everybody.
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: Were you when you when you decided not to return
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: back to Howard did you feel like you didn't return
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: because your work was done there? Or was it just
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: like a personal decision because like business reasons, Like I
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: just felt like people like you, what we need you.
• 36:00
  Speaker 7: On campuses every day.
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: But I know it's probably it's a lot to do
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: well at once, But like, what was that like for you,
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: that decision not to go back?
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Well, I will always be connected. I will always be
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: connected to Howard University. As a matter of fact, next
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: week I will be in Washington, d C. For the
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: one night only reading of Chadwick A. Boseman's Deep Azure.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: He wrote that, So he was one of my students
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: early early on, when Al Freeman Jr. Invited me to
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: come and teach for a semester. So we were in
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: the studio doing the show Monday through Thursday and Friday morning,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: I'd get up and fly down and I'd teach. And
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: he was one of my students. Collecchi Susan Collecchi Watson
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: was one of the students. Camilla Fors one of the students.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: He was He was fearless, he was brave South Carolina,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: and and he was also very respectful. It's why I say,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: as a people, we are respectful people. We are naturally
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: you know. So anyway, he kept in contact with me,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: and after he had graduated, one day I received this call,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: I'm sending you something. Mister Shady would always call me
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: that I'm sending you something. Even after he had attained
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: fame and notoriety, he still called me mister always. So
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: he said okay, And what he sent was a copy
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: of the script that he had written hip Hop Theater.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Hip Hop Theater was born on the campus of Howard University,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: and he was one of the progenitors. He was one
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: of the innovators. And it's how can I say hip
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: hop language and rhythm through the voice and experience of
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: a class that.
• 38:02
  Speaker 7: It is grand, that's like the essence of an HBCU.
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: Like when you're saying it, it's like, okay, that's what
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: it's like when you go to like the cave for
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: like you and the parties, or it's literally like everybody
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: is so like astute, but like you, it's a vibe
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: like you can't describe it.
• 38:19
  Speaker 7: You got to just be there and it's real.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: It's real, and people are taking their education seriously right
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: But now with this AI business, I don't know, children
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: trying not to write their own papers to try to
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: do this what do they call it? This chet thing?
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: And who excuse me for stammering, but it puts me
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: at a loss for words like darling, don't you understand
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: why you're here now? If you wanted to do that,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: you could stay home. You should stay home because you're
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: taking up room that somebody else could be occupying. Who
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: really wants to.
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: Do the work.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, who really wants to develop? What about your intellect? Baby?
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Do you have no care or thought for your intellect
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: for expanding that? What about that? What about your worldview? Darling?
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Do you not care for that?
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, you're gonna give that to the chap too. All right,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Well let's see where you lad, Let's see where you
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: end up. So purpose the play. Yes, one of the
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: things that's said in this play by the patriarch, he said,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: he feels he feels that he has lost a communion
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: with God. He said, ancestors were in such close communion
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: with God and his creation. They knew how to do
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: things and how to take care of things, he says,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: And I think that I have I think that we
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: all have lost that. He says. Well, maybe it's old age.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know, But he says, he's very interested in
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: the things we used to do back home down in
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: the country, fishing and hunting and bee keeping and growing.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: You know, I was shocked, shocked to know that they
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: are children who don't understand that French fries come from
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: potatoes that are alone.
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: And those weren't the children that how it was okay,
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: but I'm shocked, but I'm shocked to know.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: I'm shocked to know from two pediatricians in two different cities. Right,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: they have books, you know, in their waiting rooms for
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: the young children. Young children come in and pick up
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: a book and try to scan it.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: M M.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Because the parents aren't giving them books, they're giving them
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: these little things. These things.
• 40:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like, m.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: So, so here we go back to parenting. You will
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: leave that in the hands of somebody else and think
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: it's gonna come out right. I don't think so.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: The dramatic pause, I don't know this is a dramatic
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: pause that you'll be stopping. That's why i'd be just like,
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: speaking of dramatic pause, you call it a dramatic I'm
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: trying to figure out sometimes it's dramatic, Paul, but then
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: sometimes you really are done. So I'm just trying to
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: figure it out.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: She's speak.
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: We're in conversation.
• 41:35
  Speaker 7: That's right. The I had a question about the Deep Azure.
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: So the proceeds from the One Night Only are going
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: back to the College of Finding Arts at Howard. Yes,
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: what like today if Chadwick could see kind of like
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: you know, how the final product has come along and
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: everybody that's involved, Like what would his sentiments be?
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: How happy would he b two see all of this
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: coming to fruition from that first phone call that you
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: guys had about I'll.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Tell you his wife is very and he's producing partner
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: who was his best friend in college. They're very happy,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: and I'm very happy because it's happening, and it's happening
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: with a great cast of actors. I don't know if
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: you have that.
• 42:21
  Speaker 7: List, I can look it up.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: I don't know if we have the list. You look
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: it up, Mark, Yeah, I got it.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, you should look at it.
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: It's it's Isaiah Johnson, Yes, Amber Emmon, who plays as
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: your Greg. Alvarez Reed plays Tone, Joshua Boone plays Rod.
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: Lauren Banks the Street Knowledge good. Yeah, I'm gonna mess
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: this one up. At a sola isa Colo Aska Looming,
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: she said, what what you say?
• 42:55
  Speaker 7: Okay, knew I wasnna mess it up. I'm sorry.
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: Is the Street Knowledge evil? Jess Washington? Uh is stage directions?
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: These are all professionals.
• 43:06
  Speaker 7: Yes, and uh.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: God, we're so honored. Mm hmm, We're so honored and
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: our and our our honorary host committee. H I mean
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: you know who's on that mm hmm.
• 43:23
  Speaker 7: You can look it up.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Look it up and see. I mean, these are people
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: supporting this.
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: So the Honorary Host Committee, Ryan Coogler is the honorary chair,
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: Common Susan Khalichi Watson, don Cheto, uh Tony see Coats.
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry, tannahissee Coats, Camilla Forbes, Reginald Hudlington, Kenny Leon
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: and Terrell, Alvin McCraney.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's a whole universe, Yes, all to support Yeah,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: to support his legacy. Chadwick was he was really amazing.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Chadwick was an actor. Yes, Chadwick was a writer. Chadwick
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: was a director. Chadwick was a scholar. He studied many things.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: The etymology of words, oh, he was deep into that,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: into names and the meanings of them. He studied the Bible,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: not to Bible thump, but to understand its origins really
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: and its deeper meanings. And then he combined all of
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: that with you know, I hate to say it like this,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: but I'll say it like this with African cosmology. Why
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: do I hate to say it like that, Because Africa
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: is a huge continent and it is not a monolithic proposition,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: but there is a certain ethos that runs through all.
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: He was brilliant, very he was brilliant.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: There was nobody else to play back Black Panther.
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: But mm hmm, Chadwick, see how big we got him
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: on the door.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, And you know what he really cared about.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: He called me one day and this was after graduation.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: He was living in New York and he was so
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: excited and he wanted me to know what he was
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: doing and to come and see. And I was thinking, Okay, now,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: let's see what premiere is this, what film is this?
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: What play is this? It was none of that. He
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: was working with young people in the Schomberg Library and
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: he was so excited about that. M wow, yes he was.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: You know, you came up in an aramister, Shadwick, where
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: dignity and grace were everything. So do you have a
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: look at how wild Hollywood is now? You think to yourself, boy,
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: y'all got it easy. Y'all wouldn't have got away with
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: that my day.
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: Mm hmm.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: You have to look at Hollywood. I could look at
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: the way young ladies dress. What's the pan I'm not
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: talking about I'm talking about you know, the young ladies
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: are so beautiful. They're so beautiful, and something has happened
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: in popular culture, you know. And I don't mean to
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: be critical, and I hope young ladies listening don't take
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: this as personal criticism because I don't mean.
• 46:43
  Speaker 7: It that way.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: But you're young queens, beautiful and smart and brilliant and right,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: and it really I know I'm taken aback when I
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: see on a college campus young women dressed in strips
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: of clothing. I mean, male instructors don't like it. But
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: more importantly than that, and you correct me if I'm wrong, sir,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: No man wants his woman to be out like that
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: I grew up on method man saying wearing three fourths
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: of cloth and that was showing your stuff off boo.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: You know, it's like there's today's designers. I mean, there's ways,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: you know, there's there are other things.
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: And I just leave something to the imagination. It would
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: be nice some things for my eyes only, you know.
• 47:51
  Speaker 6: And like you said, there are always of being sexy
• 47:53
  Speaker 6: without showing so much, please, and that's really not sexy.
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: I mean one of the most sexy is most beautiful pictures.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: As you I forgot what year it was, but you
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: got on like a basketball jersey, like and some popcorn.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: That is.
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: That iconic white jersey. Yes, that was Yeah, that was
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: a beautiful picture. That's like that is the epitome of sexy.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: Oh well, it's it's I think it has to do
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: with I think it has a lot to do with
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: what they're what they see, what they're emulating what they see. See.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: We we grew up in a time where you know,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: the the singers, these ladies were dressed down, these women
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: who they were wearing robes and gowns and dew right.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: Well it's a little different today. Yeah, so they're really
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: just emulating.
• 48:52
  Speaker 5: What they mhmm.
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: I thought it was from nineteen eighty seven. Madison Square
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: Guarden was jersey, it was, yeah.
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: I'm talking about yes, oh yes, what you were doing.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: I was there with Malcolm Jamal Warner.
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: To be here before you got here.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: Yes, congratulation, you know, try to give your icons they
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: flowers and celebrate them while they're still here.
• 49:22
  Speaker 7: Absolutely, whoa got her balloon.
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: Flowers?
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: We don't never do that.
• 49:32
  Speaker 5: Nobody here.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: You've been so gracious with your time, So I've just
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: got a couple more questions. What's the lesson you learned
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: way too late in life that you wish you figured
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: out sooner and you would teach the next generation.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: Now, this is gonna sound weird to you after everything
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: I've told you. The lesson that I learned later in
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: life was that I'm enough as a young girl growing up,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: you know, and young girls go through this. You'll know,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: you go through a period where you feel like because
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: and it's because you're looking outside yourself. You compare yourself
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: to everyone else you see, and you're not enough because
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: you don't dressed like that one, or you don't have
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: hair like that one, or you don't have legs like
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: that one. You can think of any number of things.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: Young girls go through. This kind of thing usually happens
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: around adolescence, where you feel like you're not enough. Part
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: of that had to do with my mother being so beautiful,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: my father being so handsome, and my sister being so cute,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: my brother being so whatever, And I just thought, well,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: when I was born, the Lord was doing something else.
• 51:16
  Speaker 7: I'm serious, What age was this that you felt like that?
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: And I was.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: When I was young, when I was oh ten, eleven, twelve.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: And that's a subtle thing that you'll carry with you
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: until you look inside yourself and you start looking inside yourself,
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: and that thinking vanishes and goes away, because is only
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: when we look inside ourselves that we see what beauty
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: really is.
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: So when did you get to that place of worthy?
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: When did I get to this? Please?
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: I think I was about thirty I want to say
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: I was about thirty four thirty five years old?
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: Wow?
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: And now I look back at those pictures of myself
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: and I say, what did.
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: You feel like that?
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah? The mind? Oh yeah, the mind. That's why it's
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: important to teach young people to look inside the mind,
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: the state of mind. And there's too much going on
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: right now that's so distracting for them. I don't know
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: how young people feel. If they listen to news reports today,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: they can't feel empowered. It's not meant to do that
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: for us, for anybody, but.
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: It never has though.
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: I mean they always say if it bleeds, it leads,
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: like they especially for black people, it never would telling
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: us anything to make us feel uplifted and empowered.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: All of humanity is in the same boat, my friend,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: nobody feels empowered by that.
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: None really.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: I was taught a very great thing. I heard a
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: very great thing from a great being some years ago.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: Make yourself great by making others greater. M m mhm.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: And that's what I would teach a young.
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: Person, make yourself great by making others greater.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: M yes.
• 53:49
  Speaker 7: Man, Well, thank you, not just for the interview, but
• 53:51
  Speaker 7: for your career things.
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you for being you like you know that.
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: It is not every day you get to meet people
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: that you you know, you grew up on and watched
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: and you know said to yourself, man, that person right
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: there is a pillar of our community and what we
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: need to be as a people.
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: And then you meet them and you're just as gracious
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: and regal in person. So just thank you.
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: Thank you to your mother and your father for raising
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: such a beautiful, strong woman, and I hope I can
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: do the same for my daughters.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: I think you are I think when they look at you,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: they know that they're loved and they're protected. That's all
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: they need.
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely make sure y'all go check out Purposes running
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: through on Broadway through July sixth.
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: It is Queen Felicia Rashad. Thank you for joining us
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: Wakens Up in the Morning Breakfast Club