Latest / Mathis Family Talks / Is Black Hollywood Going Backward? | Ep. 10

Transcript

Is Black Hollywood Going Backward? | Ep. 10 · Mathis Family Talks

0:00
Speaker 1: This is a game called Greenlight, Rewrite, or Pass. Delise
0:04
Speaker 1: knows best. Delise goes into struggling production companies and fires
0:09
Speaker 1: everyone she believes in slowing down development.
0:13
Speaker 2: Greenlight, I would have watched that.
0:15
Speaker 1: Let's see how that will go. So let's say you
0:16
Speaker 1: walk into a company and you notice that you have
0:18
Speaker 1: to let Gregory go. Yeah, let's do a test.
0:21
Speaker 3: So Gregory, my goodness.
0:24
Speaker 4: You have incredible charisma.
0:27
Speaker 2: Thank you.
0:27
Speaker 3: And I think you would do a much better job
0:30
Speaker 3: at the front desk because the computer skills that are
0:34
Speaker 3: needed for this job are just so tedious. People need
0:40
Speaker 3: to see your face.
0:41
Speaker 2: The last part.
0:42
Speaker 1: Would be like, and, you know. There's no front desk
0:45
Speaker 1: open here. So you would.
0:47
Speaker 3: Have to find a.
0:48
Speaker 5: I am going.
0:50
Speaker 2: To recommend you to another front desk. Across the street.
0:54
Speaker 3: That's a good one.
0:57
Speaker 2: To be in.
0:58
Speaker 1: Another front desk.
0:59
Speaker 2: I'm Judge Greg Mathis. And I am Linda Mathis. Welcome
1:05
Speaker 2: to Mathis Family Talks.
1:09
Speaker 1: Hey, what's up?
1:13
Speaker 4: All right, welcome back to Mathis Family Talks.
1:16
Speaker 6: Today, we will be diving into a little bit of
1:19
Speaker 6: the history of Hollywood, specifically with Delise James, who is
1:24
Speaker 6: an extraordinary executive producer, entertainment executive. She, for over a decade,
1:31
Speaker 6: she actually was the vice president of Mathis Productions slash
1:35
Speaker 6: Telepictures Entertainment, which has been responsible for a host of hits,
1:39
Speaker 6: including the legendary Judge Mathis TV show.
1:44
Speaker 4: What else?
1:44
Speaker 6: Trap Queen series on BET Plus and a number of
1:48
Speaker 6: other projects.
1:49
Speaker 4: So we are happy to have you here.
1:50
Speaker 3: Happy to be here.
1:51
Speaker 2: Thank you. Three movies. Don't forget that. Yeah, three movies. Look,
1:56
Speaker 2: I knew I was going to forget something. It's too
1:58
Speaker 2: long of a resume.
1:59
Speaker 3: It's all good. I'm sure we'll talk about it.
2:03
Speaker 2: She was at Fox before that as a studio executive.
2:06
Speaker 2: So on and on and on and on. You have
2:08
Speaker 2: anything else to add there? Because I know you just... Um,
2:12
Speaker 2: superior executive.
2:14
Speaker 1: Okay.
2:14
Speaker 4: Oh, I love that.
2:16
Speaker 3: I received that. Thank you, judge.
2:18
Speaker 2: Yeah.
2:18
Speaker 6: So talk to me a little bit then about how
2:20
Speaker 6: you and my dad, cause I don't really know the story,
2:23
Speaker 6: even how you and him started working together.
2:25
Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
2:26
Speaker 5: Okay.
2:26
Speaker 3: So we owe that to Laritha Jones.
2:31
Speaker 2: Yes.
2:32
Speaker 5: Yeah.
2:32
Speaker 3: I got a phone call from Laritha and she was like,
2:35
Speaker 3: are you familiar with judge Mathis? And I'm like, of course.
2:38
Speaker 3: And she's like, he's looking for a new development executive.
2:41
Speaker 3: And I was like, okay. And I had just come
2:43
Speaker 3: off of a maternity leave because my position, well, not
2:47
Speaker 3: my position, but Fox, my division at Fox got shut
2:50
Speaker 3: down while I was on maternity leave. So I didn't
2:53
Speaker 3: have a position to go back to. So I was like, oh,
2:55
Speaker 3: I'll stay home and take care of my son. When
2:57
Speaker 3: do you have the opportunity to be home? You know,
2:59
Speaker 3: especially as a black woman and a young black woman.
3:03
Speaker 3: And so when Laritha called, it was perfect timing because
3:05
Speaker 3: I was ready to get back into the workforce and
3:07
Speaker 3: flex my development muscles. And so I met with the
3:10
Speaker 3: judge and Gus Blackman and I, I think that was
3:14
Speaker 3: like a three-hour meeting.
3:16
Speaker 2: We were probably having more fun than interviewing.
3:21
Speaker 5: If it was three hours, she talked for two and
3:23
Speaker 5: a half.
3:23
Speaker 2: I was going to get to that, but now you're
3:25
Speaker 2: laying it up. It was, I'm telling you. What was
3:28
Speaker 2: your impression?
3:29
Speaker 6: I mean, obviously you probably saw him on television cracking jokes,
3:31
Speaker 6: so you knew he had a big personality. But meeting
3:34
Speaker 6: the man for the first time, especially a three-hour meeting,
3:37
Speaker 6: what was that like and just adjusting to working with
3:39
Speaker 6: him and his jokes and his personality?
3:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, for me, it felt really comfortable. You know, sometimes
3:45
Speaker 3: you meet figures who are on TV and they're larger
3:47
Speaker 3: than life. And he just was really down to earth.
3:51
Speaker 3: And so I responded to that. And I'm from New York.
3:53
Speaker 3: I'm from the Bronx. And so I felt like there
3:56
Speaker 3: was like almost like a kinship, even though it was,
3:59
Speaker 3: you know, Detroit and the Bronx. You know, like we
4:01
Speaker 3: have conversations about that.
4:03
Speaker 2: Believe me, she needed that Bronx. background for the first
4:08
Speaker 2: year or two. You know who I am. I'm a
4:12
Speaker 2: skeptic of everybody. I don't trust people. So I'm accusing
4:19
Speaker 2: her or looking behind or whatever. Thinking she doing something. Oh,
4:26
Speaker 2: I knew it.
4:27
Speaker 5: She must be tough. If she lasted, she was tough.
4:31
Speaker 2: Yes.
4:31
Speaker 3: Thank you.
4:32
Speaker 4: Was that an adjustment?
4:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was a lot of show me your work product.
4:35
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, I got this work product.
4:37
Speaker 4: I'm quick.
4:38
Speaker 3: Let's go.
4:39
Speaker 2: So you filled up to the task then. I did.
4:40
Speaker 2: It wasn't intimidating for you.
4:42
Speaker 5: It wasn't.
4:42
Speaker 3: That part was not intimidating at all.
4:44
Speaker 2: Yeah.
4:45
Speaker 3: I think for me, it was more adjusting to the
4:48
Speaker 3: politics of, in Warner Brothers, which was a different environment
4:53
Speaker 3: than Fox. You know, all the studios, sometimes people lump
4:56
Speaker 3: them in to this similar box, but it was a
4:59
Speaker 3: very different environment. And so the judge really helped me
5:02
Speaker 3: navigate that.
5:03
Speaker 4: Okay.
5:04
Speaker 3: Yeah.
5:04
Speaker 6: Did y'all have a lot of battles y'all had to
5:06
Speaker 6: fight together? Any crazy stories? Because I know how this
5:08
Speaker 6: industry can be when you're pitching projects.
5:10
Speaker 2: She told me once, that sticks out. I believe you
5:14
Speaker 2: told me you had Queen Latifah committed to a show
5:18
Speaker 2: we were going to do. And I come to find
5:22
Speaker 2: out that wasn't true. So it didn't happen. I didn't
5:26
Speaker 2: hear from Queen Latifah. And I think I called an actor.
5:29
Speaker 2: So I might have been, she's going to blame Gus
5:32
Speaker 2: or somebody else.
5:33
Speaker 3: I mean, we're not going to throw.
5:35
Speaker 2: Gus under the bus.
5:37
Speaker 3: I mean, he's not here to defend himself.
5:40
Speaker 2: Perhaps her agent. You know, they say things on managers.
5:44
Speaker 2: But regardless, Queen Latifah was not produced.
5:47
Speaker 3: I don't remember that.
5:49
Speaker 2: Everybody talk to no Queen Talifa.
5:51
Speaker 3: It's very possible.
5:53
Speaker 2: Latifah.
5:54
Speaker 3: It's very possible, but I don't remember.
5:56
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's your friend.
5:58
Speaker 2: That's how I found out. I'm not going big time, y'all.
6:04
Speaker 2: Let's say I went and talked to her personally. I
6:06
Speaker 2: was definitely tasked.
6:08
Speaker 3: A lot with, attaching talent to projects.
6:15
Speaker 2: Because that's how the industry works.
6:16
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a huge part of getting your projects
6:20
Speaker 3: sold and across the finish line. Back then, now more
6:24
Speaker 3: than ever, but still back then. And so I don't
6:26
Speaker 3: remember Queen Latifah. I mean, more recently, there was an
6:29
Speaker 3: LL Cool J attachment that had to happen. And even
6:33
Speaker 3: though the judge had a relationship, I took the initiative
6:36
Speaker 3: to make that relationship happen and connection before we brought
6:40
Speaker 3: the judge in.
6:43
Speaker 2: And before I called him, I directed you all to him,
6:48
Speaker 2: knowing that we have goodwill together and we're buddies. But
6:52
Speaker 2: I don't do that unless I know it's something someone
6:56
Speaker 2: would be interested in, or it would take them to
6:59
Speaker 2: another level.
7:00
Speaker 3: That's right.
7:01
Speaker 2: And he's already a listener, so it wasn't as if
7:05
Speaker 2: I was going to reach out for a.
7:07
Speaker 5: Yeah.
7:08
Speaker 2: Now, hold on, hold on.
7:09
Speaker 1: Now, you all know that I... Like to get to
7:12
Speaker 1: the real juicy stuff.
7:13
Speaker 3: Yes.
7:14
Speaker 1: What's the worst idea he's ever had?
7:15
Speaker 3: Ooh, the worst idea.
7:19
Speaker 1: You know, be honest.
7:22
Speaker 2: She can't come up with one.
7:26
Speaker 3: I mean, it's tough for me because I was always,
7:29
Speaker 3: even when I was an early development executive and a
7:32
Speaker 3: junior exec, I'm always looking at what's that morsel of,
7:37
Speaker 3: within the idea. What's that nugget that you can turn
7:40
Speaker 3: into something great?
7:41
Speaker 2: And that's what she's been the best at. Me giving
7:45
Speaker 2: her a shell and she turns it into the real deal.
7:51
Speaker 2: And sometimes the elements of the shell that I give her, well,
7:56
Speaker 2: don't you? And she does it so nicely. And I
8:02
Speaker 2: can't speak today.
8:03
Speaker 1: You okay?
8:07
Speaker 2: Y'all just tired.
8:09
Speaker 4: Well, I guess you did just get in town, I guess, right?
8:12
Speaker 2: Well, that five hour, but other than the five hour,
8:14
Speaker 2: how about a late night?
8:15
Speaker 5: I don't know where we at that late night.
8:17
Speaker 4: Well, y'all went out on the town to the vibrato.
8:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we didn't stay there all night. We went
8:23
Speaker 2: at an event. Oh, no.
8:26
Speaker 1: But to go on a positive note, what was the
8:30
Speaker 1: project and the moment that you all had and you,
8:34
Speaker 1: you know, got green lit or completed where you were
8:36
Speaker 1: just like, damn, we really did this.
8:40
Speaker 2: Trap Queens, which is now in its fourth year of original,
8:44
Speaker 2: and now they're also playing the reruns.
8:49
Speaker 1: And explain Trap Queens for people.
8:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great project.
8:51
Speaker 2: Trap Queens was shown on BET +, and then they
8:54
Speaker 2: later showed those seasons on Linear BET on the cable channel.
8:59
Speaker 2: But it's essentially a show about women queenpins who got rich,
9:06
Speaker 2: went to prison, came out, changed their lives, and then
9:10
Speaker 2: helped to change the lives of others. Glad to say
9:14
Speaker 2: that most of them help women who have formerly been
9:18
Speaker 2: incarcerated or their children. So it's like going back and,
9:22
Speaker 2: you know, that's what I'm about. And so, boom, I
9:25
Speaker 2: know one of the things, I'll tell you one of
9:27
Speaker 2: the things that happens Patty Turner, who's like a sister
9:33
Speaker 2: to me in Detroit, she has so many crooked friends
9:37
Speaker 2: from her early days in Detroit. Like all of our
9:40
Speaker 2: early days, we got crooked friends. So she got crooked
9:43
Speaker 2: girlfriends that went ahead and became rich and came home
9:47
Speaker 2: and were doing things. So she comes to me a
9:50
Speaker 2: couple of times, I need you to help such and such.
9:53
Speaker 2: Throw me a few hundred or whatever. So I did
9:56
Speaker 2: that twice. And then it said, ding! Ding! I see it.
10:00
Speaker 2: of them are going to be coming home because of Obama.
10:03
Speaker 2: And Patty know them all. Yep. So we started out with,
10:07
Speaker 2: was it six women in Detroit over the course of
10:10
Speaker 2: the series? Yes. And that's how it really came about.
10:14
Speaker 2: We had been speaking years earlier about having a show
10:18
Speaker 2: called that showed former women that were, that's boyfriends. Correct.
10:25
Speaker 2: Were big dope dealers.
10:26
Speaker 3: Yeah.
10:27
Speaker 2: And we showed their afterlife when the money ran out.
10:31
Speaker 4: Yeah.
10:31
Speaker 2: That's what we were going to cover.
10:33
Speaker 3: That was drug princess diaries.
10:35
Speaker 2: Yeah.
10:36
Speaker 3: And BET passed on that.
10:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.
10:38
Speaker 6: And that's what I was going to ask too, because
10:39
Speaker 6: I know y'all had to fight to get a lot
10:41
Speaker 6: of these projects to the light of day. I mean,
10:43
Speaker 6: Hollywood just did not understand a lot of the work
10:46
Speaker 6: from what I understand that you.
10:47
Speaker 2: All were trying to do.
10:48
Speaker 6: You have people tell you point blank. Nobody wants to
10:50
Speaker 6: watch criminals on television. Nobody wants to hear about a
10:53
Speaker 6: criminal overcoming their obstacles.
10:55
Speaker 2: Nobody wants to watch that.
10:58
Speaker 6: What's the maybe craziest pitch meeting y'all had that just
11:01
Speaker 6: went completely off the rails and just didn't work?
11:04
Speaker 3: Man, that didn't work? I feel like once we get
11:07
Speaker 3: in the room, right? I feel like with my development,
11:11
Speaker 3: like research and pitch materials, and the judge's ability to
11:16
Speaker 3: understand the business, the strategy, and he's a showman. When
11:20
Speaker 3: we got in the room, we nailed it. And so
11:23
Speaker 3: if they didn't buy it, that was for some other reason.
11:27
Speaker 3: But we literally delivered in the room.
11:30
Speaker 2: And the fact is, you know more about the number
11:33
Speaker 2: of production companies and how many shows they've come out. But,
11:37
Speaker 2: you know, of course, we know Tyler Perry, we know
11:39
Speaker 2: Oprah and many others. But We had six shows come
11:46
Speaker 2: to air, Mathis Productions. Six television shows actually air. And
11:51
Speaker 2: as you know, the odds are about 10,000 to one
11:55
Speaker 2: to get a television show aired. And then we've had
11:58
Speaker 2: three movies we've done. And so I think we've achieved
12:02
Speaker 2: a lot of success, but let me, maybe, maybe not.
12:05
Speaker 2: I mean, where do we fit in the scheme of
12:08
Speaker 2: small black production companies bringing stuff to air over a 12,
12:14
Speaker 2: 15 year period, six television shows and three movies. Would
12:18
Speaker 2: you say that?
12:19
Speaker 3: I'd say we're doing really well, especially when you put
12:22
Speaker 3: it in the context of us being a small.
12:24
Speaker 2: Black, a two person operation.
12:27
Speaker 3: Production company, uh, And we don't have outside investors.
12:32
Speaker 2: Correct.
12:33
Speaker 3: So all of the capital that went into producing a
12:36
Speaker 3: lot of those materials came from you.
12:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.
12:39
Speaker 3: You know, I think we would. We did a lot,
12:42
Speaker 3: considering it was a two-person operation. I feel like if
12:45
Speaker 3: we had a bigger team and more resources, we could
12:49
Speaker 3: have done way more. But I'm very proud of the work.
12:51
Speaker 4: That we've done.
12:52
Speaker 6: I am, too, because one of the things I noticed
12:54
Speaker 6: about the work you all have done is a lot
12:56
Speaker 6: of times when you come into Hollywood a certain way,
12:58
Speaker 6: reality television, they try.
13:00
Speaker 4: And keep you in a certain bucket.
13:01
Speaker 3: A thousand percent.
13:02
Speaker 6: Y'all have done reality. Y'all have moved on to feature films,
13:07
Speaker 6: TV shows. I mean, every single corner of the industry,
13:11
Speaker 6: I think, Yeah.
13:12
Speaker 2: How?
13:13
Speaker 3: The feature part was challenging because we knew that with
13:18
Speaker 3: the American Gangster Trap Queen series that some of these
13:22
Speaker 3: stories were more expansive than 42 minutes, right? Like the
13:28
Speaker 3: judge knew also. He was like, no, we're only telling
13:32
Speaker 3: a very small aspect of their story. There's more meat
13:35
Speaker 3: on this bone. And so we were telling BET over
13:38
Speaker 3: and over and over again. But because they were really
13:40
Speaker 3: focused on the success of the series, they were like,
13:42
Speaker 3: we'll get to it. And I think it wasn't just
13:45
Speaker 3: we'll get to it. We want to focus on the series.
13:48
Speaker 3: It was really like, you guys don't do features. You
13:51
Speaker 3: don't do film. So we're not going to focus on that.
13:53
Speaker 3: So when they actually went and started developing their first one,
13:57
Speaker 3: that's when we were like, oh, wait a minute. What's happening?
14:02
Speaker 3: You do understand the power of what this could be.
14:05
Speaker 3: So I went and read one of the Save the
14:09
Speaker 3: Cat books and created a treatment, which is something that
14:13
Speaker 3: you need when you're pitching a scripted series or feature film.
14:17
Speaker 3: So I wrote a treatment for our two features that
14:20
Speaker 3: we did after that for Tanesa and Dwayne Curry and
14:24
Speaker 3: submitted it to one of the execs at BET +.
14:26
Speaker 3: And that's how we were able to start that conversation.
14:29
Speaker 3: But they didn't take us seriously in the feature space before.
14:32
Speaker 6: And what was it that made them take you seriously?
14:34
Speaker 6: Do you think it was just the persistence?
14:36
Speaker 4: It was just my writing was so good.
14:37
Speaker 3: For sure.
14:40
Speaker 2: The showman and the executive.
14:43
Speaker 1: I'm going to close.
14:44
Speaker 2: You put me in that room. Anywhere in the sphere
14:48
Speaker 2: of what they're looking for, I'm closing. Hi, what was
14:51
Speaker 2: your experience? You co-starred in one of the movies, Dwayne Curry.
14:56
Speaker 6: And that's why I asked the question because I worked
14:59
Speaker 6: in politics in D.C. for 10 years, but when I
15:01
Speaker 6: came out here, it was with a reality television show
15:04
Speaker 6: with the family. And I was blessed with the opportunity
15:08
Speaker 6: to work with you all on the Fighting to Be Me,
15:10
Speaker 6: the Dwayne Curry story. That was one of my first
15:12
Speaker 6: feature films as an actor. And I just know how
15:15
Speaker 6: difficult it is still to have this industry take me
15:17
Speaker 6: seriously as an actor because I came in through the
15:21
Speaker 6: reality tv route and so i just had you got
15:24
Speaker 6: to prove yourself you got to prove yourself i got
15:26
Speaker 6: to continue to train i got to continue to audition
15:29
Speaker 6: and i got to do the work and.
15:30
Speaker 3: You got to take the initiative yes like that's what
15:32
Speaker 3: we learned and i think with all the changes that
15:35
Speaker 3: have happened especially since the strike there are more opportunities
15:39
Speaker 3: for people to wear multiple hats where it wasn't that
15:42
Speaker 3: way before.
15:42
Speaker 6: And i think we'll get to that later which is
15:44
Speaker 6: a great point about the different avenues where you can
15:47
Speaker 6: release your work. And that's what I've had to do
15:49
Speaker 6: is working with smaller creators with different budgets that it's
15:53
Speaker 6: not always going to be a studio project. You have
15:55
Speaker 6: to create for yourself and you got to find your
15:57
Speaker 6: community and put your work out there and be willing
15:59
Speaker 6: to take those risks.
16:00
Speaker 1: And so I want to go migrate to learn more
16:05
Speaker 1: about you, Delise, and have people learn more about your
16:08
Speaker 1: path to the executive room. You know, I did some
16:12
Speaker 1: research and we'd never spoken about this, but you used
16:18
Speaker 1: to be an NBA dancer.
16:20
Speaker 3: Yes, sir.
16:21
Speaker 2: Yes. A strip club dancer. I never knew that. I
16:27
Speaker 2: never knew that.
16:28
Speaker 5: How did you get this research?
16:30
Speaker 2: Were you there? You did tell me that.
16:34
Speaker 1: I do deep research for every guest that comes on
16:36
Speaker 1: this show.
16:37
Speaker 2: He's like, I'm a professional. What club?
16:39
Speaker 1: Thank you.
16:41
Speaker 3: Madison Square Garden.
16:42
Speaker 6: Oh!
16:44
Speaker 2: They got strip clubs in there?
16:46
Speaker 1: The Dolan Suite.
16:48
Speaker 2: The Dolan Suite. Dolan Suite. No, we're very, I was
16:52
Speaker 2: very proud to know of your early success as a
16:59
Speaker 2: cheerleader for the New York Knicks. Knicks. The Knicks that
17:03
Speaker 2: just won. Told y'all she ain't let me sleep, so
17:06
Speaker 2: I can't speak.
17:08
Speaker 3: And then the Nets.
17:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the Nets as well. Mm-hmm. So go ahead, Amir,
17:12
Speaker 2: finish your question.
17:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, and so that's just like a, I thought
17:15
Speaker 1: that that was so beautiful because there are so many
17:17
Speaker 1: people who are like, I didn't go to school for this.
17:20
Speaker 1: This wasn't my lifelong dream. Or like, I pivoted a
17:24
Speaker 1: certain way and then I got back into the career
17:26
Speaker 1: that I wanted. And you followed so many paths of
17:29
Speaker 1: what you wanted to do. And so I just want
17:31
Speaker 1: to hear that story and kind of, you know, tell
17:33
Speaker 1: your story.
17:34
Speaker 3: I'll try to make it concise. So I grew up
17:39
Speaker 3: in the Bronx and I went to Hofstra. And I
17:42
Speaker 3: majored in TV at Hofstra. I started as a journalism
17:45
Speaker 3: major and then quickly realized I was not about the
17:49
Speaker 3: journalism life and I wanted to switch to TV and
17:52
Speaker 3: TV production. And so I ended up getting an internship
17:56
Speaker 3: at HBO while I was there. I think it was
17:59
Speaker 3: junior year. And when I got out of college, I
18:03
Speaker 3: got a job at HBO. They were like, come back.
18:05
Speaker 3: You were great. We loved you. And then that took
18:08
Speaker 3: maybe about two or three months when I got out
18:10
Speaker 3: of college, got a job at HBO. And then I
18:12
Speaker 3: worked there for a couple of years and got promoted
18:16
Speaker 3: and I was doing well, but I didn't feel like
18:19
Speaker 3: it was my purpose. And I was, you know, 24
18:22
Speaker 3: and I was like, oh, I don't know what I
18:24
Speaker 3: want to do with my life. And I really had
18:27
Speaker 3: this kind of bug in my ear that it was
18:29
Speaker 3: something more. And it's weird. My path took a different turn.
18:33
Speaker 3: I joined a network marketing company. because a black woman
18:37
Speaker 3: at my job who I really respected was like, oh,
18:39
Speaker 3: there's this company of young black people who are trying
18:42
Speaker 3: to take over the world and become wealthy. And they
18:45
Speaker 3: were all coming from backgrounds like mine, right? They were
18:47
Speaker 3: all coming from the hood in various cities around the country.
18:51
Speaker 3: And so I joined that company. I did really well.
18:53
Speaker 3: I became the first black RVP in that company. ACN
18:57
Speaker 3: is what it's called, Tag Team Marketing. And from there,
19:00
Speaker 3: I got introduced to personal growth concepts. and books about
19:04
Speaker 3: personal growth, like Les Brown and Tony Robbins that I
19:07
Speaker 3: had never heard of before. And those things really helped
19:10
Speaker 3: shift my perspective on what I could be in my life.
19:14
Speaker 3: And one day with Tony at one of his crazy seminars,
19:18
Speaker 3: he was like, write down everything you've ever wanted to
19:20
Speaker 3: be in your life. And at the top of my
19:22
Speaker 3: list was to be an NBA dancer. Now I had
19:25
Speaker 3: auditioned to be an NBA dancer right out of college,
19:29
Speaker 3: because it was just a thing that you're a New Yorker,
19:31
Speaker 3: you're a dancer, that's what you do. And I didn't
19:33
Speaker 3: make it past the first round. I basically got typecasts.
19:36
Speaker 3: They were like, no. And so I was like, I
19:39
Speaker 3: guess I had always had that dream, and it was deferred, right?
19:43
Speaker 3: Because I didn't want to be a starving artist. So
19:46
Speaker 3: I got the job, I went to the audition, booked
19:48
Speaker 3: the NICs, It was crazy. 400 plus women. I hadn't
19:54
Speaker 3: danced really in six years. So it was crazy. And
19:59
Speaker 3: so that was kind of a shark tank. And I
20:01
Speaker 3: didn't really enjoy that experience, but it was a beautiful experience.
20:05
Speaker 3: My parents got to come see me in the garden
20:07
Speaker 3: and So the next year, I switched to the Nets.
20:11
Speaker 3: And I say switched, but I had to audition. And
20:13
Speaker 3: that was an incredible experience. I'm still friends with some
20:15
Speaker 3: of those girls to this day. I stayed with that
20:18
Speaker 3: team for two years, and from there I got opportunities
20:20
Speaker 3: to tour the world as a background dancer with different artists.
20:25
Speaker 3: Deborah Cox, Ultra Nate, I've even done an award show
20:29
Speaker 3: for Beyonce, I've danced for Tyrese. So I've had this
20:34
Speaker 3: really incredible experience of traveling the world being from the Bronx, right?
20:39
Speaker 3: Like my first show, I had to get a passport
20:42
Speaker 3: because my passport had been expired. I hadn't had one
20:44
Speaker 3: since I was a child. My first show was in Istanbul, right?
20:48
Speaker 3: And so the time for me booking the job to
20:51
Speaker 3: getting on that plane was like five days. And that
20:56
Speaker 3: blew my mind and changed my life. And so from there,
20:58
Speaker 3: I was coming back home to the Bronx and I
21:00
Speaker 3: was like, oh, this just doesn't feel right anymore. And
21:04
Speaker 3: we ended up having shows in L.A., Which led me
21:07
Speaker 3: to move to L.A. And then I danced in L.A.
21:10
Speaker 3: for a few years, traveling, went to Japan, did different
21:12
Speaker 3: shows in Japan for extended periods of time for Suzuki,
21:17
Speaker 3: I think at the time. And then I was like, OK,
21:20
Speaker 3: I want to start a family like I'm not going
21:21
Speaker 3: to be able to do that on the road. Like
21:23
Speaker 3: I got to figure it out. And so that's when
21:25
Speaker 3: I called HBO in LA and I was like, hey,
21:28
Speaker 3: I used to work at HBO New York. I checked,
21:31
Speaker 3: my bosses were still there. They were like, oh yeah,
21:33
Speaker 3: tell them we love you. And so then I got
21:35
Speaker 3: a job at HBO within like a month of deciding.
21:38
Speaker 3: So for me, it's all, it's been like kind of
21:41
Speaker 3: trusting my gut and my instincts and just taking that initiative.
21:44
Speaker 2: And from there, like, Let me ask you, your internship,
21:48
Speaker 2: were you paid while you were in college?
21:51
Speaker 3: So I was in college. I was a junior. And
21:54
Speaker 3: I will say this. I went to a PWI. And
21:58
Speaker 3: so it was hard for me to get an internship.
22:01
Speaker 3: I had applied to like five or six different companies.
22:04
Speaker 3: But I had a friend who also worked at the
22:06
Speaker 3: on-campus sports channel station that we worked for who had
22:10
Speaker 3: gotten three. He was a black male. And he got
22:14
Speaker 3: three internships. And he didn't want one. And the one
22:17
Speaker 3: he didn't want was HBO because it only paid a
22:20
Speaker 3: $ 500 stipend for the summer. And I was like, I'll
22:23
Speaker 3: take that.
22:23
Speaker 2: So no, you didn't get paid.
22:26
Speaker 3: And so he connected me with them and they were like, yeah, sure.
22:29
Speaker 3: And that's how I got there.
22:30
Speaker 2: And this is an example I'm trying to show and
22:34
Speaker 2: demonstrate to other up and comers, young folks who are
22:37
Speaker 2: looking for success, that internship may be free. Yes. Mine
22:42
Speaker 2: was free. I drove from Eastern Michigan University, where we
22:47
Speaker 2: attended in my last semester. Well, no, took the Greyhound
22:52
Speaker 2: bus to downtown Detroit to serve as an intern at
22:57
Speaker 2: city council. But by the next year, I was on
23:01
Speaker 2: staff and that my political career was launched. So the
23:07
Speaker 2: benefit of a low-pay or no-pay internship in the field
23:13
Speaker 2: that you want to be in is invaluable.
23:16
Speaker 3: Agreed.
23:16
Speaker 5: You mentioned, and it seemed like it was really smooth everything.
23:20
Speaker 7: You got to let us know some of those obstacles,
23:23
Speaker 7: being a woman in this field.
23:26
Speaker 3: So, yeah, so my first job at HBO was, What
23:30
Speaker 3: led me to start feeling like I'm not sure if
23:33
Speaker 3: this is for me is that I got passed over
23:36
Speaker 3: for my second promotion. And it was a white woman who,
23:42
Speaker 3: in my opinion, she hadn't built the reputation I had.
23:45
Speaker 3: You know, it was a small studio for HBO that
23:47
Speaker 3: we worked at. I was known for delivering, finding the things.
23:51
Speaker 3: I was the one that you could count on. She
23:53
Speaker 3: didn't have that. She was just very like social.
23:56
Speaker 5: The blonde hair?
23:57
Speaker 3: Yes, ma'am.
23:59
Speaker 4: Uh-huh.
24:01
Speaker 3: So I felt very disillusioned. I was like, wow, is
24:04
Speaker 3: this what it looks like? And so I was like,
24:06
Speaker 3: maybe this is not for me. Maybe I need to
24:08
Speaker 3: pivot right now. This might be a sign that I
24:10
Speaker 3: need to pivot. And so then that's when I pivoted.
24:14
Speaker 3: I've had jobs over the course of my career where
24:16
Speaker 3: I was fired and let go, but I've always been
24:19
Speaker 3: able to get another job right away because it was
24:21
Speaker 3: usually something that was political.
24:23
Speaker 6: I have a question following up on the topic of
24:26
Speaker 6: womanhood in this industry.
24:28
Speaker 4: I know, and I got to get this right, Delise.
24:30
Speaker 4: I don't want to get in trouble like Kev on stage.
24:33
Speaker 6: So you are a member of one of my favorite sororities,
24:36
Speaker 6: Delta Sigma Theta Incorporated. Can you talk a bit about
24:40
Speaker 6: what that sisterhood has meant to you and how it's
24:43
Speaker 6: added to your journey in Hollywood? Because I know the
24:45
Speaker 6: Delta's run deep in this industry. So just curious what
24:47
Speaker 6: that's looked like for you.
24:49
Speaker 3: So for me, it's been, I mean, I started out
24:54
Speaker 3: at Hofstra, so I pledged undergrad. And so moving out here,
24:58
Speaker 3: I wasn't active. So I didn't become active until I
25:01
Speaker 3: moved out here again from undergrad. And it was some
25:06
Speaker 3: of the women who are in the business who I'd
25:08
Speaker 3: formed friendships with organically who were also my soul roars,
25:13
Speaker 3: who encouraged me to get active and join the chapter.
25:17
Speaker 3: And so that's what kind of led me back to Delta.
25:20
Speaker 3: Because I had fallen off of being active, which happens.
25:24
Speaker 3: It's a lifetime commitment. So even if you're not necessarily
25:27
Speaker 3: paying your money for membership every month, you're always a
25:31
Speaker 3: member of the organization forever. But it's been great. We
25:34
Speaker 3: have huge networking events now. I started a WhatsApp chat
25:39
Speaker 3: for Deltas in Entertainment. I think we have about 150
25:41
Speaker 3: women in it now. And so as you look across
25:45
Speaker 3: the landscape of media, we have deltas like Mara Brock Akil.
25:50
Speaker 3: There's a huge range of deltas in the business and entertainment.
25:54
Speaker 3: So it's been great.
25:55
Speaker 1: Okay.
25:56
Speaker 4: You're not going to plug that? I don't belong to
26:00
Speaker 4: a sorority.
26:02
Speaker 2: I thought we were talking womanhood and sorority. But yes,
26:07
Speaker 2: Alpha Phi Alpha in the house.
26:12
Speaker 5: Oh, nice.
26:12
Speaker 6: Okay.
26:13
Speaker 3: Is that where we're throwing it up? We're throwing up signs.
26:18
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's been great. You know, like it's important
26:22
Speaker 3: because we do go through so many struggles in this
26:24
Speaker 3: business as black women to have other women to commiserate with.
26:29
Speaker 3: And so we may go, you know, have maybe we're
26:32
Speaker 3: having a particularly rough week because we heard no a
26:35
Speaker 3: lot for projects that we really believed in. And so,
26:38
Speaker 3: someone's willing to go grab a coffee or a drink
26:41
Speaker 3: and just like, sometimes you need to vent. And then
26:43
Speaker 3: other times maybe you have a project that you've been
26:46
Speaker 3: noodling on and you can find women to collaborate with.
26:50
Speaker 3: And so that's the purpose of the group that I
26:52
Speaker 3: started within the organization is so that we can have
26:55
Speaker 3: those collaboration opportunities.
26:57
Speaker 6: And speaking of hearing the word, no, I'm, do you
27:00
Speaker 6: think that, um, What's the climate now for black projects?
27:03
Speaker 6: And I think you and my dad could probably weigh
27:05
Speaker 6: in on this.
27:06
Speaker 4: And you've been in the business for a while. I'd
27:07
Speaker 4: like to hear about that, yes.
27:08
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts, John?
27:09
Speaker 4: I know it shifts from time.
27:10
Speaker 6: And I would want to know maybe like then and
27:12
Speaker 6: now from when you all first started, like what that
27:14
Speaker 6: roller coaster is maybe like.
27:16
Speaker 2: What I see is the A-list movies have drastically eliminated
27:25
Speaker 2: opportunities for African-American actors. But the B-list movies, if you will,
27:32
Speaker 2: are thriving, led by, and I don't want more of
27:35
Speaker 2: the B-list series or what have you. I don't want
27:38
Speaker 2: to condemn. I like Tyler Perry. I like his, so
27:43
Speaker 2: I'm talking price when I talk that. Yeah, what the
27:46
Speaker 2: investment is. Yeah, a medium price series or a lower
27:50
Speaker 2: price series or film. It's where most of us have
27:54
Speaker 2: to operate in now. Hey, it was a big corporation
27:59
Speaker 2: that got rid of me, Warner Brothers, and now I'm
28:02
Speaker 2: with a much smaller company, Allen Media Entertainment, with a
28:12
Speaker 2: lot of different perks, or lack thereof. But I love it.
28:17
Speaker 2: But that's what I see the case being, and that's
28:21
Speaker 2: Detroit as well. We are B or B minus budgets. No,
28:26
Speaker 2: of course, closer to C and D budgets. But hey,
28:29
Speaker 2: people are watching them. So I think that, you know,
28:34
Speaker 2: like black rejection has always led to black unity. Yep.
28:42
Speaker 2: And that's what I like about it.
28:43
Speaker 3: All right.
28:44
Speaker 2: They rejected us. Let's Do our own thing.
28:47
Speaker 4: And you mentioned Tyler Perry. That's what he's doing.
28:50
Speaker 6: Great work leading in that space, along with you and
28:53
Speaker 6: a bunch of other black producers.
28:54
Speaker 2: That's what this time is all about. Bob Johnson and
28:56
Speaker 2: I founded an urban movie channel that we changed to
29:01
Speaker 2: all black. Yep.
29:03
Speaker 6: Yeah.
29:03
Speaker 2: And so that's where we have to go now. And
29:07
Speaker 2: then this might be a good follow-up, too, because I know...
29:09
Speaker 2: Because if we don't see ourselves, why watch you? Go ahead. No, yeah,
29:13
Speaker 2: that's a great point.
29:14
Speaker 6: And this, again, follows up to this, I think, which is,
29:18
Speaker 6: you know, recently we found out this week that a
29:20
Speaker 6: film we created and worked on, Fighting to Be Me,
29:23
Speaker 6: the Dwayne Curry story, which was unexpectedly pulled from Paramount +.
29:28
Speaker 2: We don't know.
29:29
Speaker 6: Exactly why yet, but it's no longer on their streaming service. And, Delise,
29:33
Speaker 6: you and my dad were EPs, and This was a
29:36
Speaker 6: project that I had an opportunity to act in, as
29:39
Speaker 6: well as a predominantly black production staff, a predominantly black cast.
29:43
Speaker 2: Transgender.
29:45
Speaker 6: The fact is that this is a film produced by
29:47
Speaker 6: a black woman-owned production company, Megamind Media, with Tressa Smallwood.
29:53
Speaker 6: And I just ask because I was also on the
29:55
Speaker 6: heels of actor-producer Yaya Mateen Yahya Abdul-Mateen II made a
30:00
Speaker 6: comment this week after his high-profile projects were shelved, Wonder Man,
30:05
Speaker 6: which did well, as well as Blade that was in process.
30:11
Speaker 6: He remarked that we should be asking more questions about
30:14
Speaker 6: what the business decisions are behind these decisions. And I
30:17
Speaker 6: just wonder if you all have thoughts about whether these
30:21
Speaker 6: are true business decisions. Do we deserve more transparency? are
30:25
Speaker 6: we dealing with a more serious issue of Black erasure
30:28
Speaker 6: in Hollywood and an inability to tell our stories authentically?
30:33
Speaker 2: I think it's Black erasure as well as gay erasure,
30:39
Speaker 2: transgender oppression.
30:41
Speaker 5: So anything that doesn't fit in the box, huh?
30:43
Speaker 2: Yes, and whatever doesn't fit in the conservative box.
30:46
Speaker 3: We're going to make a couple calls. But what I've
30:49
Speaker 3: read so far is that they're transitioning all of the
30:51
Speaker 3: content over to the Paramount Plus platform.
30:55
Speaker 2: BET.
30:56
Speaker 3: Yes, and so that could be, yeah, they're transferring it
30:59
Speaker 3: from the BET Plus platform to the Paramount Plus platform.
31:03
Speaker 3: And so they're saying that maybe there's a delay. in
31:06
Speaker 3: the transferring of all that. Like, it takes time. And
31:10
Speaker 3: so we'll see.
31:10
Speaker 2: We'll see. Tonisha, the first lady of BMF, have they
31:15
Speaker 2: been removed? No.
31:17
Speaker 3: So it's, you know, it's very, it's concerning and it's
31:21
Speaker 3: disheartening for sure. But I do think, to the judge's
31:26
Speaker 3: point earlier, like, this is a time for us to
31:29
Speaker 3: rally together and unify and start producing our own content.
31:34
Speaker 3: You know, and figuring out how we can fund it
31:37
Speaker 3: and where we can show it, where we don't have
31:39
Speaker 3: to be beholden to whatever the mandates are of the administration,
31:46
Speaker 3: whatever the, you know, when the wind blows.
31:49
Speaker 4: You have any favorites that are doing some of that
31:51
Speaker 4: work out right now?
31:52
Speaker 2: I know we talked about Tyler Perry.
31:54
Speaker 6: Any favorites we can name, like sitcoms, producers that you
31:57
Speaker 6: particularly like that are doing great work now in our community? Yeah.
32:01
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you mentioned him earlier, right? Like KevOnStage,
32:05
Speaker 3: I feel like he operates, he's operating in the system
32:08
Speaker 3: and also outside of the system. So I think he's
32:11
Speaker 3: doing a really good job of building a platform that
32:14
Speaker 3: feels authentic, that's resonating with the community.
32:17
Speaker 1: Is Mona.
32:19
Speaker 2: Mona Scott Young is she still producing those hip hop
32:22
Speaker 2: loving hip hop and has she added more and I
32:25
Speaker 2: know she well I know they brought that to a
32:27
Speaker 2: close but she's gotten into scripted projects also and I
32:30
Speaker 2: think she's been working with Zeus I want to say
32:32
Speaker 2: if I'm not mistaken potentially how about Carlos King Carlos
32:35
Speaker 2: King is doing great.
32:36
Speaker 6: Work yeah absolutely Carlos so name him yeah Carlos King
32:40
Speaker 6: I love his stuff he's a good friend too actually
32:43
Speaker 6: I love Carlos shout out to Carlos King.
32:45
Speaker 2: Um I'm the one that shouted him out. Don't take
32:51
Speaker 2: my credit.
32:52
Speaker 3: Give him that credit.
32:54
Speaker 2: That's right. You know how to play with my credit.
32:58
Speaker 2: What is it?
32:58
Speaker 3: Run me my credit.
33:00
Speaker 2: Oh, you know who else is really good? It's Drewski.
33:02
Speaker 6: Like, to your point, and I think it is an
33:04
Speaker 6: example of, like, not waiting on Hollywood.
33:06
Speaker 1: That's the part.
33:07
Speaker 6: Because Kev on stage, Drewski, they all took to the internet.
33:10
Speaker 6: They took to YouTube, and that's why they blew up.
33:12
Speaker 7: And I think it's fantastic that they have that venue
33:14
Speaker 7: to do that.
33:15
Speaker 4: And they're putting our people to work.
33:16
Speaker 3: We've been fighting these gatekeepers. Like, when you talk about
33:20
Speaker 3: content from back in the day and how easy it
33:23
Speaker 3: was back then, It was hard back then.
33:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.
33:26
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? It's harder now, but it
33:28
Speaker 3: was always hard for us, you know? And I think
33:31
Speaker 3: when you remove the gatekeeper piece, now you can just
33:34
Speaker 3: let creativity shine. People can tell their authentic stories. There's nobody,
33:38
Speaker 3: I'm not walking into a corporate office saying, I want
33:43
Speaker 3: to tell the story about a little black girl from
33:45
Speaker 3: the Bronx who's had these experiences. And they're like, oh,
33:48
Speaker 3: can we make her from Queens? And actually, you know,
33:51
Speaker 3: can she actually be this? You know what I mean?
33:54
Speaker 3: Can she be light-skinned versus whatever? Like, we don't have
33:58
Speaker 3: to deal with that, right? Like, we can just tell
33:59
Speaker 3: our stories from our perspective. And I think that's valuable.
34:04
Speaker 1: So everyone has that story of, like, why they got
34:06
Speaker 1: into it. You know, what shows inspired you all back
34:10
Speaker 1: then that was, like, your golden goose?
34:15
Speaker 6: I just remember coming out here and meeting Kenan and Kale.
34:18
Speaker 6: That was, my dad took my, you know, they introduced,
34:22
Speaker 6: my dad took us to, what was that?
34:25
Speaker 2: Ed DeBevics. You remember that place? Yes. Ed DeBevics. Our
34:29
Speaker 2: executive producer who brought me to television, Alonzo Brown. He
34:35
Speaker 2: arranged for us to meet Kenan and Kel.
34:36
Speaker 4: They were our idols at that age.
34:39
Speaker 6: I mean, we loved Good Burger, all the comedy movies
34:41
Speaker 6: they did, the.
34:42
Speaker 2: Skits and stuff.
34:43
Speaker 5: That was about 25 years ago.
34:44
Speaker 6: And we got to meet them in person. He took
34:45
Speaker 6: us to Ed DeBevics. And I just didn't, Those were
34:48
Speaker 6: my idols. That's what, you know, I love the funny,
34:50
Speaker 6: the humor.
34:51
Speaker 5: And they're coming back.
34:52
Speaker 3: Yep, they are.
34:53
Speaker 4: Jim Carrey was a big one for me also.
34:55
Speaker 3: Yeah.
34:56
Speaker 2: I had two tracks, and they were primarily, I wanted
34:59
Speaker 2: to see African Americans. I wanted to see black people. Right. Well,
35:02
Speaker 2: I received a lot of fulfillment, even as a child,
35:07
Speaker 2: watching black folks. And I'll tell you, I was inspired
35:14
Speaker 2: for television based on the change in It made in society.
35:20
Speaker 2: And that has been my objective is to change behavior
35:25
Speaker 2: in society. I call myself a bootleg Oprah. I try
35:29
Speaker 2: to influence the behavior of black folks, particularly in poverty
35:33
Speaker 2: and who need direction and uplifting. But I say the
35:37
Speaker 2: reason I viewed it in that way, because that's what
35:41
Speaker 2: touched me. The autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. is probably
35:47
Speaker 2: the most influential movie in my life. Remember, I grew
35:51
Speaker 2: up doing the riots. My formative years were doing the riot,
35:55
Speaker 2: black race riots. So I was, Dr. King's assassination. Those
36:01
Speaker 2: were the things that helped forge my, or form my view, worldview,
36:09
Speaker 2: and thereby my desires to see on television. And let
36:13
Speaker 2: me give a lot of credit to who I think
36:16
Speaker 2: has done more for advancing race relations using television than
36:22
Speaker 2: anyone in history. He recently passed. And Norman Lear. Norman
36:29
Speaker 2: Lear had all in the family. Showed a bigoted family,
36:33
Speaker 2: but a liberal white son-in-law. Right. and a class has,
36:39
Speaker 2: like I'm sure is the case now. And then what
36:42
Speaker 2: did it come with? Good times. Showing that a black
36:46
Speaker 2: family in the projects, the father was doing the best
36:50
Speaker 2: he can to have a job. He ran a structured household.
36:54
Speaker 2: The children were smart and committed. And so he showed that,
36:59
Speaker 2: that in poverty, in projects, we still live structured and
37:04
Speaker 2: productive lives. And finally, Well, he didn't make this one,
37:09
Speaker 2: but his final was the Jeffersons. Well, you show now,
37:16
Speaker 2: you show rich black folks.
37:18
Speaker 1: Moving on up.
37:20
Speaker 2: As you said, changing people's worldview of what's possible. Now,
37:23
Speaker 2: the funniest was, what do I like to watch the most?
37:28
Speaker 2: Red Fox. Sanford and Son. Sanford and Son. That's the
37:33
Speaker 2: one you used to have us watch. He's a comedian.
37:36
Speaker 2: He's a heck of a time. His timing is like that.
37:39
Speaker 2: Maybe where I try to find my timing because I
37:42
Speaker 2: know that's what impressed me the most.
37:45
Speaker 4: He's excellent.
37:45
Speaker 2: I said comic timing impressed me the most. Let me
37:48
Speaker 2: try some of that.
37:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, for me it was, I mean, Good Times for sure, right?
37:52
Speaker 3: Like I remember watching Good Times and some of it
37:56
Speaker 3: was good and some of it was traumatic. Like, I remember,
37:59
Speaker 3: was it Penny who got burned with the iron?
38:02
Speaker 5: Oh, her abusive mother.
38:04
Speaker 3: Yes.
38:04
Speaker 5: Some of it was like, dang.
38:07
Speaker 2: Wow.
38:07
Speaker 3: And it made me feel like, okay, my situation might
38:09
Speaker 3: be challenging, but dang, she got it worse than me.
38:13
Speaker 3: But it was really well done. But I remember a
38:15
Speaker 3: lot of the comedies, right? And so In Living Color
38:20
Speaker 3: was a big one for me. A Different World was
38:24
Speaker 3: one of my favorite shows, too. I mean, I had
38:27
Speaker 3: never seen anything like it. You know what I mean?
38:29
Speaker 3: Getting this window into the black college experience. I was like,
38:34
Speaker 3: at the time, I was like, what's an HBCU? I
38:37
Speaker 3: had no idea because I had gone to a PWI.
38:40
Speaker 3: And so it was really exciting to see that. And
38:42
Speaker 3: I'm so happy that they're bringing it back.
38:45
Speaker 6: Yep.
38:45
Speaker 3: And they're doing it in a new way. Did you
38:47
Speaker 3: see the trailer?
38:48
Speaker 2: I did see the trailer.
38:49
Speaker 3: It's so cinematic.
38:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got you.
38:51
Speaker 3: It looks high. The drama is pumped up, whereas before
38:55
Speaker 3: it was very clean. This is very dramatic and cinematic.
38:59
Speaker 3: So I'm excited about it.
39:00
Speaker 6: Which is probably a reflection of maybe the content we're
39:02
Speaker 6: seeing coming out and just how this new generation digest information.
39:06
Speaker 1: Kind of like how Bel Air was.
39:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
39:08
Speaker 1: Carlton in the closet doing drugs. Yes.
39:10
Speaker 5: That's another one they reimagined.
39:13
Speaker 6: Yeah.
39:13
Speaker 3: So I'm excited about that one too. I'm excited for.
39:15
Speaker 4: That one too, actually.
39:17
Speaker 2: All right.
39:18
Speaker 5: I remember we had our basic stations.
39:20
Speaker 2: What was it?
39:20
Speaker 5: ABC, CBS, and NBC.
39:22
Speaker 2: Didn't even have Fox yet, right? Right.
39:25
Speaker 7: And then as time went on, we got the other
39:27
Speaker 7: stations like Channel 20 or something.
39:29
Speaker 2: Independent stations.
39:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, the independent stations. But no, most definitely, those were
39:33
Speaker 5: my shows growing up.
39:34
Speaker 7: And they made a difference because we were able to
39:36
Speaker 7: see somebody who looked like us on TV.
39:39
Speaker 3: A thousand percent.
39:39
Speaker 2: See, Batman wore the mask, so we didn't know what
39:42
Speaker 2: color he was, so we watched Batman. And the Power
39:44
Speaker 2: Rangers did too, I guess.
39:45
Speaker 1: Yeah.
39:47
Speaker 2: But you know what you just made me think of, Mom?
39:49
Speaker 6: You told me a story one time, and I don't
39:51
Speaker 6: remember the name of the show, but when I was
39:55
Speaker 6: dealing with issues around my sexuality and my sexual orientation,
39:59
Speaker 6: you talked about seeing a family on television that shifted
40:02
Speaker 6: your view of what it could look like to have
40:04
Speaker 6: a LGBTQ child.
40:06
Speaker 5: It wasn't an African-American show. It was called Parenthood. I
40:12
Speaker 5: love Parenthood. Sally Field?
40:14
Speaker 3: It was a great show.
40:15
Speaker 5: Yes.
40:15
Speaker 7: And she was the matriarch of a family. And she
40:18
Speaker 7: had grown children. And one of her children was a son.
40:22
Speaker 3: And he was married.
40:23
Speaker 7: He was married to his partner. And I think they
40:27
Speaker 7: might have even had a child. But I looked at
40:29
Speaker 7: that and thought, just how different families can be. And
40:33
Speaker 7: it's not about, you know, it's about the love. And
40:37
Speaker 7: on that show, it was nothing negative. It was all
40:40
Speaker 7: about the love of that family.
40:41
Speaker 3: And they were.
40:42
Speaker 7: There at the family, you know, everybody just together at
40:44
Speaker 7: family gatherings. And I just thought, hey, if that happened
40:47
Speaker 7: to me, I'd be so cool with it. And you
40:49
Speaker 7: see what happened.
40:50
Speaker 3: I know.
40:51
Speaker 2: Look what you got yourself.
40:52
Speaker 4: Yes.
40:54
Speaker 3: I love that.
40:55
Speaker 7: So it just, it really shows the impact that TV
40:58
Speaker 7: and different movies and stuff can.
40:59
Speaker 5: Have on you.
41:00
Speaker 3: Yeah.
41:01
Speaker 5: Change your views.
41:02
Speaker 3: Yeah.
41:02
Speaker 7: And that's one thing you used to mention all the
41:04
Speaker 7: time about how just showing different families on TV, black families,
41:09
Speaker 7: you know, because some people don't have that interaction with people.
41:11
Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.
41:13
Speaker 2: Most folks in their assessment and observation of our community
41:20
Speaker 2: is based on stereotypes. And so when the stereotypes come,
41:26
Speaker 2: we have to work to defeat them. In this case,
41:29
Speaker 2: same-sex relationships... I think they have to show it more
41:34
Speaker 2: to normalize it on television so it won't be a
41:39
Speaker 2: big deal. It won't be so different. The only difference
41:44
Speaker 2: is what you do behind that closed door and how
41:48
Speaker 2: you feel about yourself. And back to Tyler Perry doing
41:53
Speaker 2: great work in this space.
41:54
Speaker 6: Beauty in Black is one of the biggest hits on
41:57
Speaker 6: TV today. And it has set multiple... same-sex storylines.
42:03
Speaker 2: And Lee Daniels was obviously a pioneer. Well, we know, yes.
42:09
Speaker 7: Do you think that has started changing now that we
42:11
Speaker 7: have the administration we have in the White House?
42:14
Speaker 2: You think that is? Oh, it has.
42:16
Speaker 6: I've heard explicitly from my friends, you know, producers, even
42:20
Speaker 6: Lee Daniels at his level. They are hearing that they
42:23
Speaker 6: are not green lighting anything with same sex storylines right now.
42:27
Speaker 6: So most of the new shows you see are being
42:30
Speaker 6: pushed by pioneers or already in development. But that is
42:33
Speaker 6: the word from a lot of the studios at this
42:35
Speaker 6: time is that that's just not going to happen under
42:37
Speaker 6: this administration.
42:38
Speaker 2: Amir, what's your thoughts? You've pitched shows and you've successfully
42:42
Speaker 2: pitched shows, Mathis Family. And I didn't make a call.
42:45
Speaker 2: I always tell people I did not make a call
42:47
Speaker 2: on Mathis Family's show that they aired on television. I
42:50
Speaker 2: wasn't too excited about doing it. I didn't think he
42:53
Speaker 2: would pull it off. I said, sure, son.
42:56
Speaker 3: Go ahead.
42:57
Speaker 2: That joker came back and said he had a deal.
43:00
Speaker 1: Well, I think Delise knows that when you're in a
43:03
Speaker 1: pitch meeting with Judge Greg Mathis, he runs the show.
43:08
Speaker 1: And he has sold his shows. He has sold it.
43:12
Speaker 1: And so what I wanted for our show was, since
43:15
Speaker 1: I did create it, me and Simone Spira, you know,
43:18
Speaker 1: we created this show, worked so hard for it. I
43:20
Speaker 1: wanted to be able to say that I did it.
43:23
Speaker 1: And also if it did not sell, I didn't want
43:25
Speaker 1: to be able to say, oh, dad didn't, it was
43:28
Speaker 1: dad's fault that it didn't work out. And so, you know,
43:32
Speaker 1: I think that in terms of green light and stuff,
43:38
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, it's, I haven't, I've pitched
43:42
Speaker 1: a few shows. I've developed shows with Delise and with
43:45
Speaker 1: you all. There's so many reasons why shows don't get
43:48
Speaker 1: picked up, but I think that the biggest thing that
43:51
Speaker 1: I have heard is that if you pitch to networks
43:54
Speaker 1: a show or topic or idea, you can't keep holding
43:57
Speaker 1: on to that idea if they say no the first round.
44:01
Speaker 1: They have a reason. You got to just start fresh.
44:04
Speaker 2: What if you go to a few?
44:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm saying.
44:07
Speaker 2: Go to a few, and then if that few, no
44:09
Speaker 2: one bites, then you get another project.
44:12
Speaker 1: Correct, yeah, and I say that you do your rounds,
44:15
Speaker 1: but some people, they'll go to Warner Brothers, they'll go
44:19
Speaker 1: to all these networks, and then they'll say, you know what,
44:22
Speaker 1: we changed this idea a little bit, let's take it
44:25
Speaker 1: back to Warner Brothers and see what they say. That's
44:27
Speaker 1: not productive.
44:28
Speaker 2: Unless they ask you to, right?
44:30
Speaker 1: Correct, but that was the biggest thing that I learned,
44:32
Speaker 1: is just like, you gotta keep it moving, you gotta
44:35
Speaker 1: keep finding new things to throw at the board.
44:37
Speaker 2: See, man, don't listen to his daddy. I told him,
44:40
Speaker 2: Tommy got in the business and we were on the
44:43
Speaker 2: development team. He worked for me. I said, we got
44:46
Speaker 2: to have 15 shows lined up a year. Didn't I? Yeah.
44:53
Speaker 2: How many shows get pitched a year?
44:54
Speaker 4: 10,000 shows pitched a year.
44:56
Speaker 3: 100 picked up?
44:57
Speaker 2: Because every day you get 200 shows pitched between production companies,
45:02
Speaker 2: studio development executives, agents, and directly to producers.
45:07
Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.
45:08
Speaker 2: So with all those, you got about 200 pitch today.
45:11
Speaker 2: So I might be closer to 5,000, but my point
45:14
Speaker 2: is it's in the mid to 10,000.
45:17
Speaker 1: All right. And so in terms of we're talking about Greenlight,
45:20
Speaker 1: I got a little fun game. You know, we got
45:22
Speaker 1: to make things a little fun and funny up in here.
45:24
Speaker 1: This is a game called Greenlight, Rewrite, or Pass. And
45:30
Speaker 1: so basically I'm going to give a show idea. And
45:32
Speaker 1: basically you say Greenlight, that could be a hit. Let's
45:35
Speaker 1: do that. Or Rewrite, which is, You're on the right path,
45:39
Speaker 1: but it needs some network notes.
45:41
Speaker 2: Now, before we hurt anybody's feelings, are these your ideas?
45:46
Speaker 2: I'm going to be shooting. We don't want to crush
45:49
Speaker 2: the tree, man.
45:50
Speaker 1: I'm going to be shooting out ideas.
45:53
Speaker 2: These aren't your concepts that you worked months and years
45:57
Speaker 2: to develop.
45:58
Speaker 4: Can we be honest?
45:59
Speaker 2: Right. Every single one.
46:01
Speaker 1: Every single one, to be honest.
46:03
Speaker 2: You wrote out these concepts.
46:05
Speaker 1: Yes, but I didn't.
46:05
Speaker 2: Let nobody go rule on your stuff.
46:07
Speaker 1: I did it in a week, so we'll see.
46:09
Speaker 2: I'll let your mama judge.
46:11
Speaker 1: And then we got passed, which is the project is
46:13
Speaker 1: bad and you can't save it.
46:15
Speaker 2: Oh, no, I thought these were. projects you may have
46:18
Speaker 2: been pitching in the past.
46:19
Speaker 1: They are.
46:20
Speaker 2: They are. In the last week, he said. That's what
46:22
Speaker 2: I'm saying.
46:23
Speaker 1: In the last week.
46:24
Speaker 7: You ain't pitched them to nobody in the last week.
46:27
Speaker 2: A studio.
46:28
Speaker 1: You don't know that.
46:28
Speaker 3: Amir is an idea factory.
46:30
Speaker 1: I keep you out of my business deals as we've spoken. No,
46:34
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. All right.
46:36
Speaker 2: You don't want me to tell you why you quit
46:38
Speaker 2: on me. You said I work too much. That's the man.
46:42
Speaker 2: You haven't seen anybody quit their job. They work too much.
46:45
Speaker 1: I lived with him and I worked with him. When
46:48
Speaker 1: I got home, I would be in bed watching a
46:50
Speaker 1: movie and he would come in. Yeah, I got this.
46:54
Speaker 1: I'm like, Dad, come on, man. It's boundaries. It's setting boundaries. Boundaries.
47:00
Speaker 2: Right.
47:00
Speaker 1: And he did not respect my boundaries.
47:02
Speaker 2: No, I work all the time in my mind.
47:04
Speaker 1: I know, it's not sad.
47:05
Speaker 4: I assume everybody else does.
47:07
Speaker 1: And you probably experienced that where you got a little mouthful.
47:10
Speaker 2: Because you didn't pick up in the middle of the night.
47:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was like, she.
47:12
Speaker 2: Could go home and not answer the phone. Facts. That's
47:17
Speaker 2: so funny. But I got to tell you, if you
47:18
Speaker 2: didn't have a family, I would have probably been calling.
47:20
Speaker 1: You at night.
47:21
Speaker 2: I didn't want to disrespect your husband and your child.
47:24
Speaker 3: I mean, you said what I was thinking. I was like,
47:26
Speaker 3: that's why he didn't probably call.
47:28
Speaker 6: When I worked for U.S. Senators, they would call in
47:30
Speaker 6: the middle of the night and you better pick up
47:32
Speaker 6: the phone. It's part of the job.
47:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I was going to also just add
47:36
Speaker 3: to that. Like when I first started... at HBO, CBS,
47:40
Speaker 3: and Fox. I was the first one in, the last
47:44
Speaker 3: one out. I was answering emails at midnight and 1 a.m.
47:47
Speaker 3: Because it's like, you're trying to, and especially, right, it's
47:50
Speaker 3: the black tax. Like, you have to stand out and
47:52
Speaker 3: be excellent and be better and more available than everybody else.
47:57
Speaker 3: And so that was my motto.
47:59
Speaker 2: So what we saying? Tell me what you came up with.
48:03
Speaker 1: So, first idea, and remember it's green light.
48:08
Speaker 3: Green light.
48:10
Speaker 1: Rewrite or pass.
48:12
Speaker 4: Copy.
48:12
Speaker 1: First show right here. Judge After Dark.
48:17
Speaker 5: Green light.
48:18
Speaker 2: Green light.
48:18
Speaker 5: That's all you need to tie.
48:22
Speaker 1: It up, right?
48:22
Speaker 2: Yep.
48:23
Speaker 1: Judge opens a relationship advice hotline after midnight. Couples call
48:27
Speaker 1: in with their mess and Judge gives them a ruling,
48:30
Speaker 1: despite Linda repeatedly minding everyone he has not qualified.
48:34
Speaker 6: Oh, can we green light this and add it to
48:35
Speaker 6: the podcast?
48:38
Speaker 5: That's green light.
48:39
Speaker 2: Green light. Green light. Green light.
48:41
Speaker 1: Linda?
48:42
Speaker 2: Green light.
48:43
Speaker 3: It's unanimous.
48:44
Speaker 1: And she butts in just like, just so you know,
48:46
Speaker 1: he don't know all that.
48:47
Speaker 2: He don't know the answers. Right.
48:51
Speaker 1: Here's the show. Finding Linda. Linda takes off on a
48:55
Speaker 1: luxury vacation with her girlfriends. Judge has 48 hours to
48:59
Speaker 1: figure out where she went.
49:01
Speaker 2: Pass.
49:03
Speaker 1: Rewrite.
49:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was going to say, I might have notes
49:05
Speaker 4: on that one, but I like the idea.
49:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a nugget in there.
49:09
Speaker 5: Depends on if it's a real search for Linda.
49:12
Speaker 2: He said pass. I'm going to be just as mad
49:16
Speaker 2: as I am trying to find her. So that's what
49:19
Speaker 2: they'll do. This son of a gun, where the hell
49:22
Speaker 2: could she have went?
49:24
Speaker 1: Dog is Linda.
49:25
Speaker 2: And stood out here searching.
49:27
Speaker 4: She sends you picture clues.
49:30
Speaker 1: She sends you picture clues.
49:32
Speaker 3: It could be like an eat, pray, love. She's on
49:35
Speaker 3: her journey. She's at the ashram.
49:36
Speaker 2: There's something there. There's something.
49:38
Speaker 5: I think that's a rewrite.
49:39
Speaker 3: Yeah.
49:40
Speaker 1: Judge Mathis, undercover boss. Judge puts an increasingly terrible disguise
49:45
Speaker 1: on and secretly works entry-level jobs to find out whether
49:49
Speaker 1: young people really don't want to work anymore or if
49:52
Speaker 1: these jobs are truly terrible.
49:53
Speaker 2: Green light.
49:55
Speaker 1: I would love to see you on the show, and
49:58
Speaker 1: it might sound boring, but just working at an insurance
50:01
Speaker 1: company and just on orientation day. you would just be like,
50:05
Speaker 1: this is terrible.
50:06
Speaker 2: This is exactly what I'm going to do. I get it.
50:09
Speaker 7: Oh, Undercover Boss, I love. They had a show like that.
50:12
Speaker 7: I think that's the funniest thing. You can catch people
50:14
Speaker 7: when they don't know.
50:15
Speaker 1: I think that the hardest part for that show is
50:17
Speaker 1: convincing companies to let him choose whether their jobs they
50:20
Speaker 1: offer are terrible or not.
50:22
Speaker 3: Right.
50:23
Speaker 1: There aren't a lot of jobs. Our next TV show
50:26
Speaker 1: is The Least Knows Best. Elise goes into struggling production
50:29
Speaker 1: companies and fires everyone she believes is slowing down development.
50:35
Speaker 2: Green light. I would have watched that.
50:37
Speaker 3: That's hilarious.
50:39
Speaker 2: And she'll do it so nice nasty. That's what I
50:43
Speaker 2: see her doing is nice nasty.
50:45
Speaker 6: I am known for a little nice nasty.
50:49
Speaker 1: Got it in there. Let's see how that will go.
50:51
Speaker 1: So let's say you walk into a company and you
50:53
Speaker 1: notice that you have to let Gregory go.
50:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do a test.
50:58
Speaker 3: So Gregory, my goodness.
51:01
Speaker 2: I've been doing great, right?
51:01
Speaker 3: You have incredible charisma.
51:04
Speaker 2: Thank you.
51:04
Speaker 3: And I think you would do a much better job
51:07
Speaker 3: at the front desk because the computer skills that are
51:11
Speaker 3: needed for this job are.
51:14
Speaker 3: Just so tedious.
51:16
Speaker 2: I type 120 words a minute.
51:18
Speaker 3: But they're so tedious. What you're bringing to the table,
51:21
Speaker 3: this charisma, it's limited behind the computer.
51:24
Speaker 2: What does tedious mean again?
51:24
Speaker 3: People need to see you. People need to see your face. See,
51:28
Speaker 3: that's why you don't need to be moved.
51:30
Speaker 4: You don't know what tedious means.
51:32
Speaker 1: And the last part would be like, and, you know,
51:34
Speaker 1: There's no front desk open here.
51:37
Speaker 2: So you would have to find a- I am going
51:42
Speaker 2: to recommend you to another network.
51:45
Speaker 5: Across the street.
51:46
Speaker 2: That's a good one. Another front desk.
51:50
Speaker 3: Teamwork.
51:51
Speaker 1: All right.
51:52
Speaker 2: Oh, here's this one.
51:53
Speaker 1: The real policy advisors of Beverly Hills.
51:56
Speaker 4: Okay.
51:56
Speaker 1: Greg hosts former congressional staffers who live in a mansion
52:00
Speaker 1: where they drink wine and scream at each other about
52:02
Speaker 1: healthcare legislation.
52:04
Speaker 2: Wow. And smoke cigarettes while talking about healthcare legislation.
52:09
Speaker 5: I'm going to pass on that one.
52:11
Speaker 4: That's a great show.
52:13
Speaker 1: Yeah.
52:13
Speaker 3: I think I'm going to go with Linda.
52:15
Speaker 6: Y'all don't want to see a bunch of nerds arguing
52:18
Speaker 6: in the mansion?
52:20
Speaker 2: Not at all. Only if they're arguing about politics and
52:23
Speaker 2: specific politicians. So that's a rewrite. If they're able to...
52:28
Speaker 2: To talk about specific politicians, then yes. Okay. Folks want
52:33
Speaker 2: to hear them old dirty stories about them dirty old men.
52:35
Speaker 5: They just told you they were going to be talking
52:37
Speaker 5: about health care.
52:39
Speaker 2: Well, that's the rewrite. He said they got to talk
52:41
Speaker 2: about dirty politicians.
52:42
Speaker 3: Correct.
52:42
Speaker 2: And stories inside the Beltway stories. Correct.
52:46
Speaker 4: That's the rewrite.
52:47
Speaker 3: We need the truth.
52:49
Speaker 1: But you only get the truth when you give them
52:50
Speaker 1: a little bit of wine.
52:52
Speaker 2: And a lot of bit of money. Fair.
52:56
Speaker 1: Free dinners.
52:58
Speaker 2: Free everything. The hookups.
52:59
Speaker 3: All the perks.
53:00
Speaker 2: All the hookups.
53:00
Speaker 3: Because they won't be able to work in politics after that.
53:03
Speaker 2: Exactly. That's my point. You got to make it worth it.
53:05
Speaker 1: Then this one is one of the, I think this
53:08
Speaker 1: will be a green light. This is the last one.
53:10
Speaker 1: The youngest Mathis. A reality show where Amir spends every
53:13
Speaker 1: episode complaining that nobody respects him and everyone calls him
53:17
Speaker 1: a know-it-all because he's the youngest child.
53:20
Speaker 2: Ah.
53:21
Speaker 3: So it's a little curb your enthusiasm.
53:24
Speaker 1: A reality show. It's just me sitting there talking about
53:27
Speaker 1: nobody respect me. We're going to.
53:28
Speaker 4: Pass on that one for sure.
53:30
Speaker 5: That's not even a rewrite.
53:32
Speaker 3: I tried to rewrite it for you.
53:34
Speaker 2: Nobody respect you or listen to you.
53:36
Speaker 3: That's why I felt it was like a little Larry
53:38
Speaker 3: David curb your enthusiasm thing.
53:40
Speaker 1: It would be if it wasn't reality.
53:42
Speaker 2: But you're sitting there by yourself. No. Rewrite, rewrite.
53:47
Speaker 1: So in this version, I would still know everything and
53:51
Speaker 1: know things, but y'all just wouldn't believe me because I'm
53:53
Speaker 1: the youngest child, right? Is that how that goes?
53:56
Speaker 2: Is that why you turned into a know-it-all dictator around here?
53:59
Speaker 1: I have slowed down. I've tried to slow down. I'm
54:02
Speaker 1: not going to let Greg talk because we got into
54:04
Speaker 1: a screaming match the other day. You were the only
54:07
Speaker 1: one screaming. You keep your opinions to yourself.
54:10
Speaker 2: About your behavior, you're hovering over us.
54:15
Speaker 1: I've tried to slow down.
54:16
Speaker 2: I have learned the words, yes, boss, yes, sir. He's terrible.
54:22
Speaker 7: Are we going to put both of y'all on the
54:24
Speaker 7: show together and y'all really rewrite it?
54:28
Speaker 2: Really? If Kamara is sweet as she is, I've never
54:31
Speaker 2: heard her say anything negative about anybody. She called the
54:34
Speaker 2: man a dictator.
54:36
Speaker 3: So you're just a perfectionist.
54:38
Speaker 4: That's what it is.
54:39
Speaker 1: Thank you.
54:39
Speaker 2: Control freak. But which goes with perfectionist. It's okay.
54:44
Speaker 3: I mean, it's connected, unfortunately. It's the yin and the yang.
54:48
Speaker 1: With this podcast, would you rather try and strive for
54:50
Speaker 1: perfection or just have a loosely podcast where everyone's rambling?
54:57
Speaker 3: Well, I think we're going for black excellence.
54:59
Speaker 1: Thank you.
54:59
Speaker 3: I mean, that's what we're here for, right? I mean,
55:02
Speaker 3: this is the Mathis family.
55:04
Speaker 2: This is.
55:04
Speaker 3: Right. We talk about black excellence.
55:06
Speaker 2: And we did a good job today.
55:11
Speaker 4: So we talked about a lot today.
55:13
Speaker 6: One thing that I want to bring it home with
55:14
Speaker 6: is like what the future looks like in this industry
55:17
Speaker 6: and what we can do for the next generation. I mean,
55:20
Speaker 6: there's so many amazing ways to get your work product
55:23
Speaker 6: out here today, like micro drama, smaller budget films. I mean,
55:27
Speaker 6: I think there's still something to be said about the
55:29
Speaker 6: discrepancy that black artists face compared to white artists. I mean,
55:33
Speaker 6: you have Tom Holland making $ 100 million off one movie
55:37
Speaker 6: while we're, you know, making micro drama still. But what
55:41
Speaker 6: does that future look like and how can we pave
55:43
Speaker 6: a better way for the new generation.
55:44
Speaker 2: I guess?
55:45
Speaker 3: I think it's a little bit of the Wild Wild
55:47
Speaker 3: West right now, you know, which is probably a good thing.
55:51
Speaker 3: It's going to be important. I think the youth are
55:54
Speaker 3: in a great place. they're not having to unlearn the
55:58
Speaker 3: way the business was done. So many of us who've
56:00
Speaker 3: been in the business for 15, 20, 30 years, we're
56:04
Speaker 3: now having to pivot from being reliant on studios and
56:08
Speaker 3: networks for funding to believe that if we have an idea,
56:12
Speaker 3: we can execute it. We have enough resources and we
56:16
Speaker 3: have enough of a circle of friends and people that
56:22
Speaker 3: to be able to execute an idea effectively. And so
56:25
Speaker 3: I think that's the part that is the future. And
56:29
Speaker 3: there are many ways to do that. Like right now,
56:31
Speaker 3: a lot of people are putting content up on YouTube, right?
56:34
Speaker 3: But that's also still, even though it feels like a
56:38
Speaker 3: great opportunity, we don't know if YouTube at some point
56:41
Speaker 3: will go away. So like now it's like, what are
56:44
Speaker 3: those things that we can do to create our own platforms, right?
56:48
Speaker 3: You look at what I think Taye Diggs just did,
56:51
Speaker 3: he created a micro drama platform, which is a big deal.
56:54
Speaker 3: Like he's a very well-known actor and people were shocked.
56:56
Speaker 3: They were like, Taye Diggs is getting into micro dramas.
56:59
Speaker 4: And Kiki Palmer has her key TV network, which.
57:01
Speaker 3: Is huge now. But it's like, it's, there is a
57:04
Speaker 3: space in it. And now they are the, they are
57:07
Speaker 3: the people. who are driving the culture in a new way.
57:11
Speaker 3: And I think that's exciting.
57:12
Speaker 6: It's that creator economy of if you have an idea,
57:16
Speaker 6: go for it, and you see people are being successful
57:18
Speaker 6: with it.
57:19
Speaker 2: In fact, YouTube has the largest viewership of any platform.
57:25
Speaker 2: They're moving the Oscars to YouTube. Wow.
57:28
Speaker 6: In 2028 or something like that, they're moving the Oscars.
57:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, and those are money splits. So I like revenue split,
57:36
Speaker 2: revenue share split. So I like that model. You make
57:40
Speaker 2: your own stuff. You cut a deal with it or
57:44
Speaker 2: you put it on YouTube. And as you increase with
57:47
Speaker 2: your viewership, you increase with your payments or revenue from them.
57:54
Speaker 3: Yeah. So it's exciting.
57:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.
57:56
Speaker 1: What do you all think you owe the next generation
57:59
Speaker 1: hearing this? Like, you know, do you feel a responsibility
58:04
Speaker 1: to give people guidance and advice and help this new generation?
58:09
Speaker 2: Yes. And one of the things I think we have
58:13
Speaker 2: an obligation to do is to give them the legacy
58:17
Speaker 2: information as well. History is always a guide to the future.
58:22
Speaker 2: And as you just said, who knows what's coming after YouTube.
58:26
Speaker 2: So we have to let them know to be flexible.
58:29
Speaker 2: We have to give them some history on how this
58:32
Speaker 2: entertainment industry has evolved. evolved and devolved. So in that sense,
58:38
Speaker 2: I think that's one.
58:39
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Delise.
58:40
Speaker 2: You're welcome.
58:41
Speaker 3: Thank you.
58:43
Speaker 1: Yay.
58:44
Speaker 7: About me thank you all this information that you should
58:46
Speaker 7: be thinking i guess yes i mean you know what
58:52
Speaker 7: i love okay what's that i love that the judge
58:54
Speaker 7: is consistent.
58:58
Speaker 1: Yes he is.
58:59
Speaker 3: I've known him for 11 years and he is consistent
59:03
Speaker 3: same way as you've heard today hollywood it's changing, but
59:08
Speaker 3: not dying.
59:09
Speaker 2: You have to take control of yourself. There are other
59:11
Speaker 2: platforms you can put your material on now. In fact,
59:15
Speaker 2: there are revenue sharing platforms. You don't have to wait
59:18
Speaker 2: and depend on a studio to pick your show up
59:21
Speaker 2: and wrangle with them about your pay. And the fact
59:25
Speaker 2: is that our community in particular, we've always been locked
59:29
Speaker 2: out to a much larger extent than any other community.
59:34
Speaker 2: And so now we're doing it for ourselves. Anytime they
59:37
Speaker 2: reject and lock us out of an industry, do it
59:41
Speaker 2: for ourselves is what we must do. We're doing it
59:45
Speaker 2: with All Black, the streaming network. We're doing it with
59:49
Speaker 2: Tyler Perry's production's We're doing it with Ryan Coogler and
59:54
Speaker 2: many others. Do for yourself and they'll come after you,
59:59
Speaker 2: in fact. Lastly, let's continue to fight for representation of
1:00:06
Speaker 2: our reality in television and in film. You know, one
1:00:11
Speaker 2: major studio has engaged in removing content that might be
1:00:16
Speaker 2: viewed as progressive or liberal. And so let's fight back.
1:00:20
Speaker 2: by coming together, working together to establish ourselves on other platforms,
1:00:27
Speaker 2: and then continue to fight and watch for those who
1:00:30
Speaker 2: want to erase and remove our images from society. I'm
1:00:36
Speaker 2: Judge Mathis, and that's my verdict.