Latest / The Breakfast Club / REPLAY Spades the Play with Marcus Callender Part 1

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REPLAY Spades the Play with Marcus Callender Part 1 · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's get, let's get, let's get to it, time to
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: do it.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: and everybody.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You hear that exclusive? You know she don't lie about that, right?
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Lauren came in hot.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Hey y'all, what's up? It's Lauren LaRosa and this is
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: another episode of The Latest with Lauren LaRosa. This is
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  Speaker 2: your daily dig on all things pop culture, entertainment news,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: and all of the conversations that shake the room, baby. Now, today,
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  Speaker 2: we are going to get back into a conversation that
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: we actually had here some time ago on The Latest
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: with Lauren LaRosa. But the reason why we are revisiting
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: this conversation is because... my guy marcus calendar you guys
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: know him from the wu-tang series he played power on
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: the wu-tang series but he's an amazing playwright um and
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: overall creative just made a major announcement i saw it
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: all over the trades variety all the places uh spades
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: the play which is what we had a conversation about
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: is a play that he created himself and decided to
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: bet on himself with after deciding that hollywood wasn't doing
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: it for him and wasn't doing enough for him this
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: play follows a close group of friends In their 20-somethings
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: who get together every week for a spades game at
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: a friend's house. But as the cards are dealt and
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: a banter starts going, y'all know how the black people
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: do when we play in spades. It turns into really
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: honest conversations about everything from love to friendship to all
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: the blurred lines that happen in between the two. And
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: he is now going on a five-city tour. It launches
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: this month. And it's going to be hit in major
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: venues in Washington, D.C. He'll be at the Culture House.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: In LA, he'll be at Amazing Grace Conservatory. Atlanta, he'll
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: be at Cam Kirk Studios. New Orleans, he'll be at
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  Speaker 2: Firehouse Loft. In Miami, he'll be there during Art Basel.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: So you can catch the play after you're listening to
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: this conversation. If you're interested, catch this play via tickets
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  Speaker 2: at posh.vip backslash g backslash spades to play. Now let's
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: get on into the convo. And at the end of
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: this conversation, if you love what you hear and you
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: believe in this young man the way that I do
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: and now the world does, Make sure you check the
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: play out. Let's get into it. I'm sitting down with
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  Speaker 2: Marcus Callender, who is not only an actor. He would
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: actually be... He would be so annoyed if I only
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: called him an actor. But he is a creative. He
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: is a multi-hyphenate, an actor, director, writer, all-around storyteller who
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: has been able to make impact both on screen, behind
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: the camera, and now behind the script with his play, Spades.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Spades the play is... Everything black, bold, conversation, nuance, comedy,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: put into one spades game and put on a live stage.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: You guys will know Marcus Callender, who played Power, who
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: played Oliver Power Grant on Wu-Tang and American Saga. He
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: also played Ray-Ray on Ghosts from Power Book 2. Y'all remember,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: we lost Raina because of Ray-Ray. But if you don't
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: know him or if you're just finding him, I'm so
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: happy to introduce him here in conversation on The Latest
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: with Lauren LaRosa. This is part one. First of all,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: let's let the people know who you are and who
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  Speaker 2: these voices are that they're hearing and, you know, for
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: the visual people seeing. So introduce yourself.
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  Speaker 1: Marcus Callender, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I'm
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: a Pisces.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I am the writer and director of Spays
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: the Play. Some of y'all might know me from Power.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: I play Ray Ray. I was the guy that killed
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: the little girl. I know you're going to ask, why
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: did you have to do it?
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: It was in the script.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: Some of y'all might know me from Wu-Tang and American
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Saga I play Power Oliver Grant who's one of the
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: co-founders of Wu-Tang um and I've done a bunch of
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: other stuff but those are the like the main two
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: things people recognize.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: They stop you on the street about yeah so when
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: people ask you why did Ray Ray kill uh Tariq's
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: sister and you say it was in the script how
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: does the conversation go after.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: That they be like y'all man like you did your
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: thing though. Like for real, for real. Can I get
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: a picture of you?
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: You know, like, yo, like I hated you for a
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: long time, you know, but I take that as like, look,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: you know, if people see me and still think that
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: I'm that character, I guess I did a good job
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: in portraying that, you know what I'm saying? So, but
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: I think also too, the beauty in that is that
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: people get to meet me and, you know, sense my energy.
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  Speaker 1: Cause I'm a, I'm a pretty down to earth person.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: I don't, you know, I know some celebrities give off that, whatever,
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: but I'm a pretty down-to-earth person because, you know, I
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: understand what the journey is in this kind of career.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
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  Speaker 3: This wasn't handed to me. This is something I had
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: to work for, work very hard for.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm cool. I'm approachable. I'm from Brooklyn. You know
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: what I mean? I'm a New Yorker still at the
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: end of the day, so, like, don't come at me
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: too crazy. You know what I'm saying?
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: That era of power is, like, cemented in so many people's, like, Like,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: I remember waiting for Power to drop, like, the new episodes. And,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's all these different iterations of it and
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: chapters of it now. And I think there are still
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: some people that do that. But I feel like those
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: early days of Power when we had Tariq and Reyna
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and Tasha and Ghost, like, Y'all was really in people's houses.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: For real.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: People's homes. For real, for real. Had us waiting, all
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: talking on Twitter together. You know what I'm saying?
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Watch parties and everything. 100%.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: What was it like for you, because you're on both sides.
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  Speaker 2: You're a creator of these conversations in film and theater
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: and all these things, but also you're an actor. What
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: was it like being that intertwined with culture, where people
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: lived and breathed for your next episode?
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, man.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Well, one, it was power where I started growing being
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: recognized on the train or like everywhere I went. And like,
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: especially when that episode dropped, like I literally had to
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: like hide my face all the time.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Cause people like, yo, you
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the dude from your way. Yo, that's crazy. You know
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying?
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  Speaker 3: And I remember when it happened cause it, the episode
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: leaked at first. It ain't, you know, so people saw
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: it before it officially came out. And I remember being,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: I was in LA at the time and like some
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: friends hit me like.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Yo, yo, son, I saw you on this episode. That's
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: you killing the little girl? I said, wait, how the
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: fuck you know that? That's not supposed to be information yet.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: So I came back to New York. I got invited
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: to some watch parties and shit. And, you know, going
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: there and, like, experiencing the people and whatnot was kind
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: of like a surreal moment for me.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Like, it was, as I said, it was the first.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Time, like, okay, now I'm being recognized outside of, you know,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: I'm being recognized on the street.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Right. You know what I mean? So, like, getting used
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: to that and acclimated to that because, you.
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  Speaker 3: Know, as I said, when you're from New York and
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: you see somebody staring at you, the first thing you're
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: thinking is.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Like, yo, what you looking at?
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  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? So, like, for a while
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  Speaker 1: it's like, yo, why people keep staring at me? You
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying? It's like, oh, yeah, the show.
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  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying? So that was an adjustment period.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: But at this point I'm used to it and, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I show love all the time.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: And, you know, so now people are recognizing you. Can't
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: go on the train because people want beef. They want
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: to step on your Timbs. And for you as an actor,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: at that point, does it put pressure on you? Because,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: you know, we had you for some time, but then
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: we didn't have you anymore at a certain point in
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: the season.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Does it put pressure? What kind of pressure?
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Pressure, like, I mean, because you know more about the
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: script and where the story is going than we do, right?
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: So you know people are getting to know you. They're
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: starting to recognize you. But you know that you're not
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: going to be on the show forever eventually. Or did
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: you know that at that point when people were recognizing you?
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: No, I knew.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, even before we shot the episode, Courtney Kemp,
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: she called me personally and was like, look, you know,
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: this is what we're going to do with your character.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: We're going to kill you off. I said, damn.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Because I'm like, I could
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: have been raining havoc for another season. She was like, yeah,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: we're going to.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I didn't know. I didn't, okay, so I
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: didn't know I was going to kill Raina until the
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: table read of that episode.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Because they're, you know, they're pretty top secret about the script. Like,
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: you don't see it until the table read.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: And the table read is how far out from actual
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: shoot date?
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: We shoot, we do the table read probably like a
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: week before we shoot it.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, gotcha.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: So I came to the table read, you know, I'm
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: highlighting my lines before and I'm reading the thing and
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: I'm like, oh shit. And I remember like looking up
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: and like everyone was looking at me like, yeah.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Everybody going to hate you now that I say, yo, what?
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Like me.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Okay. Okay, cool. This is interesting. Right.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I'm a, I'm a be a villain. Okay. I'll take it.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: But I didn't realize like how much of an impact
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: it was going to be.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Um, so, you know, we did the table read and
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: then right before we started shooting, that's when Courtney was like, yeah,
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: so we're going to, we're going to, cause I think
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: I did like two more episodes of, It was the
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: episode where I killed Raina and then the next episode where.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: And he like, don't get comfortable.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. She's like, look, we're going to kill you off,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: but look, we love the work you're doing.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: I said, okay, cool. It was an honor that y'all
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: chose me to even do this part because that's another
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: thing too. I don't know if a lot of people
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: know this, but originally I was supposed to just do
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: one episode in season three. I was in the last
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: episode of season three. I was just supposed to do
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: that episode. Courtney liked my work so much that after
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: we filmed, she said, look, I want to bring you
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: back for next season.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: And, you know, in this business, you hear that all
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the time. You know, people say, hey, we're going to
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: bring you back. And it's like, all right, cool. So
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily believe her until, you know, my reps
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: hit me. Hey, they want to bring you back. I said,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: all right, cool. So, you know, coming back to it,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: it was like, all right, you know, now I got.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Some time to, like, really develop this character, see where.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I want to take it. You know what I mean?
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: And that's when, you know, I was shooting that with
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Anika Noni Rose was in that because she played jukebox.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: And, you know, so that was cool.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: To work with her and 50s in it. So that
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: was cool to work with them. But, you know, I
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: i approached it in the best way i know how
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: i i tell people all the time every character is
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: in you but what makes it what's gonna make it
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: different is simply you there's only one you on the
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: planet you know what i mean so for me it
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: was just kind.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Of like okay like what's my version of this right
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: you know what i'm saying.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: What happens in an actor's mind when you get that
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: moment and it's big and everybody's talking about it and
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: your phone's ringing crazy and then you're not on the
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: show anymore. So now it's like, I mean, you're not
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: new kid at school because you got the work under
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: your belt, but you got to figure out what's next now.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: What's that mental journey like?
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: That's a great question. You know, this.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Is my job. This is the latest with Lauren LaRosa,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: the podcast.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: No, that's real shit right there because there is pressure.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: If you especially if you allow it is that, you know,
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: in our community, especially it's all about what's.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Next, what's next, what's next, what's next. It's like, damn,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I just shot this shit. Can I, you know, let
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: it breathe for a second. So, yeah, there was that
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: pressure of like, OK, what's next?
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Fun fact, I didn't work for about a year after
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: I shot Power and.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: I was confused by it. You know what I mean?
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Because here I am like, okay, like, I did this role.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: And it's 50 Cent. Everybody's paying attention to that.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Exactly. You know, everyone's recognizing me, but I was not booked.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: I couldn't book a gig for shit.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Why not?
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I don't, it was out of my control. You know
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: what I mean?
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Like, because I moved to LA shortly after, thanks to
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Kourtney Kim. When I finished, I finished filming Power on.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: My birthday of that year. I forget what year that was.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I think it was like 2000 and like, 17 or
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: something like that. Yeah.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: And it was my birthday on the last day of filming.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: And I remember she came to me. She was like,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: you should move to LA. I said, yo, people tell
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: me that all the time. She said, no, you should.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: Like you will work a lot out there. You know,
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: there'll be a good city for you. This is when
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: LA was LA.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: LA ain't the same no more.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: No, I was living there during that time.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: And so I was like, okay, I'll think about it.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: And then wasn't working. You know, in not working, I
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: was depressed.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: Because it's like, yo, like, because I had just finished
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: shooting Power and I was doing a show called The Breaks.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I was literally shooting both these shows at the same time.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Like one day I'm on Power, one day I'm on
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: The Breaks.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Living your dreams.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: So I was booked.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: So for all of it to just come to a halt.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: Was just, was extremely confusing to me and I couldn't
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: fathom it. And I was at home one day, I
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: took a nap. I took a nap. Right before I
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: took a nap, I said, Lord, like.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I need a sign. Something. Like, what is going on?
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: So I took a nap and I woke up to
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: this offer to go do a workshop in Connecticut.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: For a play. And I was like, okay, all right.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: It's something. You know what I mean? I read the script.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I liked the script. I realized that the playwright who
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: wrote it, I worked with him on another workshop like
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: a year or two ago. And he just remembered my
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: work from there. That's why you.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: You always got to bring 100% to whatever you do.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: Don't ever think that something is too little or too
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: small to give you all because you never know. So
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: when I realized it was him, I was like, oh shit,
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: this is the guy from, he remembered me?
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Wow, okay.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: So I said, all right, cool.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: I'm going to go and do this workshop. At this point,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: I hadn't done a play in a very long time.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: I was just doing TV. So getting in that environment
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: again was an adjustment. But I remember the day I
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: got there, I was like staring into the abyss. And
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: something just hit me like a ton of bricks.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: You need to move to L.A. Like it just hit me.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I feel like it was just God speaking to me.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: It's like, you need to move to L.A. And I
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: immediately called my manager. I said, yo, I think we
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: got to do the L.A.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Thing. She said, all right, cool. I'll set up some
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: meetings and boom, boom, boom. I said, all right, cool.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: So I did the workshop. The workshop was cool. That
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: was a dope experience. And then shortly after I came
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: back from the workshop, I went to L.A. to take
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: some generals, like some general meetings with like casting directors, producers.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I was supposed to be there for two weeks. Two
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: weeks turned into.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: A month because, you know, one meeting followed up with
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: another meeting, followed up to another meeting.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I signed with a new agent. Like I got all
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: these things on this L.A. trip.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: And that's when, right before I came back, that's when
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: the episode of Power leaked.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: So it was just a lot going on. And you
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying?
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: So I came back and, you know, basking in all
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: of that. But in that trip to L.A. was when
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: I decided, okay, yeah, I'm definitely going to move out here.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Because every person I was meeting with, they're like, you're
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: moving out here, right?
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: I was like, yeah. I didn't know how I was
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: going to do it. I didn't have the money to
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: do it.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: That's the L.A. story, man.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? I didn't know how.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: That's how it be.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: That's how it be.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: But at the same time, too, it's about trusting that intuition.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? Trusting what God placed in me.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: Because in my head, I'm like, there's no way I
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: had that epiphany. to move to LA and he ain't
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: going to make a way. And lo and behold, you know,
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: I got the money to go out there. I had
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: just enough to, you know, to survive for a couple
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: of months. Thank God, you know, I got some friends
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: out there, you know, I was able to stay with family,
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: you know, people who I love. So, you know, I
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: went out there, I was there for the pilot season
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: of that year.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: And I tested for two pilots. I'm thinking, okay, cool.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: I done moved out here. I'm about to book a show.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Time, baby, we up.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Oscar's up next.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Exactly. You know that show New Amsterdam on NBC?
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: I was almost on that show. I tested for that show.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: I thought I was going to get it. I was
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: convinced I was going to get that role because when
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: I did the screen test, the producers were.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Like, yo, how'd you make that look? They literally said, yo,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: you made that look easy. So I'm walking out like, yeah,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I got this. And then I didn't get it. You
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying?
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: So it was, you know, and that's the thing too.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: It's true what they say. There's way more no's than yes's.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Right. You know what I'm saying? So I didn't get that.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I was up for this other show on the CW.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I didn't get that. I mean, but that show didn't
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: end up going forward anyway. But, you know, I had
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: these two shows that I was up for, didn't get.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: I was almost up for this other show, but they
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: went with Lorenz Tate. But, Understandable. I love Lorenz. You
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying?
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: But that's a good, like, oh, they didn't book me.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: They booked Lorenz. He's a legend. You know what I'm saying? So, like,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: the fact that the casting directors and producers or whoever
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: are debating between you and Lorenz Tate, a lot of times, too,
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: for us as talent, just being in a conversation in
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: the room is a win, even though you can't pay
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: your rent with that. You know what I'm saying?
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: You can't.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: But, I mean, that's a great... Either or to be in.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: So it was like, okay, cool. I mean, yeah, I
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: didn't get the roles, but, like, I'm, like, this close.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: And that's, but, okay, I didn't book these jobs, but
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: I'm still in L.A.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And one thing people don't
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: tell you about L.A., yeah, it's.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: All sunny and all that, but when you ain't doing shit,
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: that shit really gets to you.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels like, especially because you're so far away from, like,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: the people you know and like the ways that you
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: were just like you know real quick I could go
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: do this real quick if I'm back home or like
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: whatever it feels so lonely it's like you're in a
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: room and it's like echoing and you're trying to figure
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: out like what do I do to turn the noise
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: down exactly I was in that space when I first
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: moved to LA for about like six seven months and
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: I was just like what is going on and then
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: people the move to LA itself people are just like
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: oh Look at God. You done moved to LA.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: You done moved to LA.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: You got it. You made it. Yeah, so it's like,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: you know, opening up about it not going the way
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: that you want it to go is tough. And explaining
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: to family why it's not going the way you want
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: it to go is tough. Having to act for things
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: in the meantime. It's like such a process. But I
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: think for anybody that has done it, it definitely is
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: like survival of the fittest, but it makes you a
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: different type of hungry about your career.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Exactly. That's a good word. Hungry. Yeah. I feel like
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of folks ain't hungry. You know what I mean?
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: People just want the result.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: They want the end goal as opposed to knowing, understanding
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: what the journey is. The journey is way more interesting
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: than the goal.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: Because every time I reach the goal, I'm mostly thinking
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: about what it took to get here.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Right. You know what I mean? It's like, okay, yeah,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: this is great. But like, man, I did this, I
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: do this, I do that, I.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Do this to get to this point. And it allows
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: you to appreciate it more. I feel like when people
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: get things too quick, they don't understand, you know, they have,
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: they don't have an appreciation for it.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: So they fumble it.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: They think they're entitled or they think it's just always
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: going to be that way.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: So at the same time, it is a blessing that
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: I had to go through the journey that I did.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: But in that time after, you know.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Not booking these gigs, I'm still in LA and I'm like, okay, well,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: what the hell am I going to do?
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Cause after pilot season, It's a little slow in terms
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: of auditions. It's mostly like independent films and all of that. Right.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: So I'm just like, okay, well, what the hell am
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: I going to do with all this time? I started
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: dating this girl. That's a distraction. You know what I'm saying?
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: And it's expensive.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: And it's expensive.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: It's expensive. Yeah.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Especially in L.A.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: It's like $ 25. Yo. I know she wanted to go
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: to town. Come on now. Mm-hmm. I like Room on
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: a Wednesday.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: You know, she's on TV now, funny enough. Oh, really?
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: What show?
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: That's an off-camera conversation.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Were y'all auditioning together?
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no. I mean, I would help
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: her with auditions and stuff like that. She knows who
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: it is. But anyway.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: You watch the show she's currently on?
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, so it ended bad.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: I don't watch it because she's on it. That's just
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: not my kind of show to watch.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay. So it's like a Zeus Network thing?
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: No, no, no.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you watch it, though. Love Me Hip Hop? No.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: So she don't have the audition for Love Me Hip Hop?
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: It's a TV show, a scripted show. They're in their, like,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: sixth season right now?
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: It's not D.R. from Detroit then.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: No.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Because that's, like, second season. I'm going to figure this out.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Okay. Beautiful girl. Amazing woman. You know, nothing bad to
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: say about her. It just didn't work out. And she's
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: a Scorpio. You know what I'm saying? Anyway, so I'm
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: in L.A. I'm like, okay, what am I doing? I
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: go to this party. It was on Easter. Easter. As
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: soon as I walked in, I saw people playing space.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, shit. Hmm. I need to start.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: I need to get back into the script because I
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: had put the script down for like almost two years.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: So you wrote the script when you were in L.A.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: or before you moved to L.A.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: I started writing the script in 2015.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Got you.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: So 10 years ago.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: I started writing the script. When I first started writing it,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: it was just a one act.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Explain to the regular people what the one act means.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: Typically in a play, you know, you'll have like two acts.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: In a play, in a full length play, you'll typically
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: have two acts. So one act is just, you know,
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: kind of like just the first half of it. I
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: didn't think it was going to be a full length
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: thing when I first wrote it. It was just something
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: that I was inspired to write because I was learning
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: how to play spades at the time.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Yes. When I started writing it. So I was inspired
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: to write it. I knew I wanted to get into
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: writing at some point, but I didn't think... I could
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: do it cause I didn't go to school for it.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: And you know, like, you know what I mean?
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: I had a bit of imposter syndrome, but I just
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: started writing it and it just kind of poured out
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: of me.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: So I did a, I did a stage reading of it.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: This is in Brooklyn at this spot at the time
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: it was called the Kimberly project in Bed-Stuy. And we
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: had a pretty big turnout. This is before like Instagram
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: was Instagram for real.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: So the fact that we got so many people there
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: off a word of mouth, was a really big deal
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: so we did the reading and like the biggest feedback
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: people were like we.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Want more we want more like it's got to be
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: longer so i was like all right cool i'm gonna
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: do that but then i started filming something else so
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: i kind of put it.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: To the side what were you filming that's where i
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: started filming the breaks got you the breaks so i.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Started filming that so i got caught up in that
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: and then power came along so i was just all
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: in that um so with this downtime I go into
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: this space and I see the script.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, I see people play the space. I'm like, okay,
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: this is going to give me something to do.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Because I was.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Tired of running into people like, what are you working on?
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: That's the number one question people are going to ask
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: you in Los Angeles. So what are you working on?
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: What are you working on or what do you do?
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: What do you do? You know what I'm saying? So
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I was tired of not having anything to say. So
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I said, you know what? Literally the next day.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: I went back to the script. At the time, the
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: script was like 180-something pages. It was a lot of pages.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: And I had some friends over to read it. I said, look,
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: I need to hear this out loud because I need
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: to see where I want to go with it.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: They read all 180-something pages of it. Shout out to y'all.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: And from there, I just kind of started diving into that.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: That became my focus.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? I'm like, okay, I'm going
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to employ myself. You know what I'm saying?
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: So I said, look, I'm going to dive into that.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: So I started working on that. I did a reading
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: of it in LA. And So I was going to
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: produce it in LA. That was going to be like
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: where I first produced it. But then I booked a
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: play in New York. See, that's another thing too. I
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: went so long not working. The minute I dive.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Into my own shit, now all of a sudden these
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: opportunities come.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Which play did you book?
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: I did a play.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: Called Fabulation written by Lynn Nottage at the Signature.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Got you.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: Really big off-Broadway theater company. It was actually like my
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: dream theater company to work at. The Signature is where
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: I got some of my first bearings into theater.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? So I was like, oh shit,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I'm about to go do this play in New York.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: All right, cool.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: So the plan was to go do the play and
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: then come back and produce Spades. While I was doing
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: the play in New York, that's when I booked Wu-Tang.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: So it kept me in New York.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: So I said, all right, well shit, okay, I'm going
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: to stay in New York. So I kind of once
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: again put space to the side.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Because now Wu-Tang is like that. I remember when that
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: series dropped too.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: People were also very tied to it just because people
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: wanted the story. And it was timely and it was
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: all the things. So now your star is, you know,
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: rising again because of Wu-Tang. And what was that experience like?
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Because you were going through this like very mental depressing
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: period of like, why is this not? Like, God, am
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: I supposed to be here? And then boom, you're back
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: up again. So you're high up on the hill now.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: So what is that like for you as talent?
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you something.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: It was December 21st or 22nd when I got the
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: call that I got that role. It was how I
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: approached that entire process was unlike how I approached any
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: other show that I auditioned for. Because sometimes we'll get
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: a part or we'll get an audition.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: And we're like, I want this. I'm going to make
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: sure I know all my lines for the audition. I'm
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: going to be perfect.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: Those be the ones you never get. It's always the
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: ones where you're like, nah, I'm going to just... You know,
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: I'm going to just do it. So with this one,
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: when I read the script, I was like, oh, yeah,
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: I can do this in my sleep.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: It's New York, niggas. I'm from New York. Yeah, I
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: could do that. I didn't know Power was a real person.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: I thought it was a fictional character. But I was like, okay, cool.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I could do that. It's funny his name is Power
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: because I was on Power. But, okay, that's cool.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: So I did the audition. I sent the tape. I
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: sent the tape. I was also, but I was also.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Up for another. You see the theme here?
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: There was a lot going on. I was up for
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: another role. They were going to bring back NYPD Blue
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: on ABC.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Remember that show?
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: So I was up to be on that show. I
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: wanted to be on that because it's ABC. You know
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying? Hulu's cool. This is network television we
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: talking about.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Which is normally a bit more stable.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: It's more stable. It's just more money.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, 100%. You know what I'm saying?
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: It's just more money. So I wanted that. And it
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: would have kept me in New York still. So I
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: was like, okay, cool. I want that shit. So the
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: same day I found out that I didn't get that,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: I found out I had a callback for the Wu-Tang shit.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Gotcha.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, well, something.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: I went to the callback for Wu-Tang, and I remember
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: going in there. We had to do it, and this
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: was before 2020. I had to do it to a
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: computer to RZA in L.A. So I go to the office.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: The casting director's like, okay, so... You know, we have
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: RZA on the laptop. He's coming in through Zoom, so
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: you got to do the audition to the computer.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: I'm like, what? You know what I'm saying? Like, at
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: the time, it was like, I ain't never done that.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? And it's RZA.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: But, like, at the same time, like, I thought I
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: was at a disadvantage because I'm not in the room.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: It's always different when you're in the room. They can
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: feel your energy and all of that. I'm like, there's
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: no way this is going to translate over a computer screen.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: But I did it.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: I only had to do each scene once. I didn't
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: even have to do it again. I remember after, the
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: casting director was like, really good job.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: That was amazing. I was like, thanks. All right, cool.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I left.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: I went to my friend's house. As soon as I
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: got off the train, my agent calls me. This is
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: like 45 minutes later. My agent calls me. She's like, hey,
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: they want to test you.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: I was like, I just left the motherfucking audition. Right.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: But I knew in that moment that I had to roll.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Got you.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Because I was like, I've never gotten, that's not true.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: That's not true.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: New Amsterdam, I found out they wanted to test me
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: probably like 15 minutes.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: After my audition.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Got you.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Now he's in the room.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Test you for those who don't know the talent side
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: of TV means what?
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: Okay, so when you do a screen test, it basically means, hey,
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: we love you. We want you for this role, but
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: we also want this person for this role. Also considering
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: this person. We just want to see what makes the
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: most sense on camera.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Visually. You know what I mean? Visually.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Who else were they testing for the role of power?
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: They were testing, it was me. Damn. This cat named
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Antoine Harris, who I did the breaks with.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: And I don't remember the other person. So they said
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: they wanted me to test. I was like, okay, but
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: I'm doing a play. How the hell am I going
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: to make it to L.A.? Because, you know, when you're
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: doing a play, it's eight shows a week.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: You only have one day off, which is a Monday. Mm-hmm.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: So I said, yo, I mean, do they know I'm
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: in a play? I can't.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: How am I going to, you know? Because what they
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: do in those scenarios, if you can't be there, they'll
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: use your audition tape as the screen test.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Got you. But that kind of is like.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? I'm like, I want to
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: be there. Yeah. So they worked around my schedule, which
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: is another test. That was another sign. I was like, oh, yeah,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: they want me for this.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Got you.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: They scheduled it. It was so I had two shows
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: that Sunday. I did the two shows.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Then after the second show, I literally went from the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: theater to the airport to L.A. I flew on a
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: red-eye and did the test the next morning and flew
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: back to New York that same night. It was just like, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: I felt like a rock star. You know what I'm saying?
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: But I remember how I felt going into the test.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: I wasn't nervous. I wasn't trying to put on. I
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: kind of just knew.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: It was mine. You know what I mean? I walked in,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: said what up to RZA said what up to Kim
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Coleman shout out to Kim Coleman she was the casting
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: director I did the scene I only had to do
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: each scene once and I left I.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: Didn't you know like I hope you know what I'm
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: saying like I hope I did the screen test went
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: back to New York to do the play Yeah. And,
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: you know, but that also helped, too, because I was
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: locked in on that. So I wasn't too distracted about are.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: They going to pick me or not? Because I already
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: had something to do. Right.
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: So I remember the day I found out I got it.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: It was like December 21st or 22nd or something like that.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: I went to lunch with a friend of mine. Shout
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: out to Megan. I went to lunch and I was
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: telling her I was like, yeah, I'm supposed to be
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: finding out today if I got the role. But I
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: was so jaded at.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: The time because, you know, I had just been through
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: so much. I've been through so much. The year's been crazy.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, it was raining that day, too.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: I got a little trauma with rain because the day
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: I found out I didn't get New Amsterdam, it was
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: raining in L.A.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, my God.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: In L.A. It don't rain like that in L.A.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Them boys lied. It rains in Southern California.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? Okay. It was just like, damn,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: it's raining again. Damn, that bitch ain't going to get it.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: So I left lunch. And as I'm walking, it stopped raining.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: The sun's coming out and shit. I'm like, okay, okay, okay.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: I remember I went to the T-Mobile store to pay
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: my phone bill. While I was in line, my manager
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: at the time, she calls me, she goes, she calls me,
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: she's like, hey, I got so-and-so and so-and-so. My agents,
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: they're on the line too. They only on the line
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: if you got So I said, wait, hold on a second.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Let me step outside real quick. What's up? What's up, y'all?
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: I said, just give it to me.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: Don't try, because sometimes they'll try to like play with
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: you and be like, oh.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: It's so unfortunately, psych. I said, just give it to me. Right.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: They said, look. They want to offer you this. I said,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: get the fuck out of here. I was on, it
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: was like midtown, like 50-something street. I said, yo, get
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: the fuck out of here. I said, yeah, nigga, yeah.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Because it was just, it was that moment of like, yo,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: I've been through so much this year. This year has
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: been so hard. So to end it on this note
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: was like, I'm about to be a series regular. Yo,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: this is crazy. On the Wu-Tang joint, yo, this is crazy.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: So.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: more distraction to take me away from Spades. You know
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying? Because remember, the plan was to go
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: back to L.A. and produce it. So I just kind
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: of dived into Wu-Tang. I did that. We did that
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: for three seasons. I was still working on Spades.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: And the guys were really, really involved with you guys too,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: like developing the characters and on set. I mean, because
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: you say distraction, but I'm sitting here like, all this
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: stuff you're learning in real time from all these great
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: people to then bring back to your play is how
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: I'm looking at it. But in the moment, I get it.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: It don't feel like that, right?
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: But, like, talk about, you know, showing up on set
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: and you have RZA and whoever else would come.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: And you were, like, these are superheroes to us.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, I was in a unique position because I
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: wasn't playing one of the rappers.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Right. You know what I mean? I was playing the
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: behind-the-scenes guy, the business guy. Mm-hmm. Who a lot of
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: people don't know about. Right. You know what I mean?
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: So, for me, it was like, yeah, you know, meeting
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: the Wu-Tang was cool, but I needed me power.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Where's power? Never, like, he would never show up
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: to set. I'm asking around. I'm like, Whisper, oh, you
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: haven't met P? Oh, you gotta meet P. Yo, P
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: is this, P is that. I'm like, all right, well.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Where he at?
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Where he at? I'm playing him.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: One day, we were like seven episodes in. So the
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: season's almost done. We like seven episodes in. Season one,
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: we shot all of that in Staten Island. So we
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: had to pause because Raining.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Theme with rain?
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: It was raining crazy.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: So we had to pause filming for a couple of hours.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: And so, you know, I get a knock on the
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: door and the PA's like, yo, you know, you have
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: a guest here.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: I said, who the fuck comes to visit me in
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Staten Island? And he peeks his head over and he said,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: what up? I said, oh, shit. What's up, yo? What's good?
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: He came into my trailer. Our first conversation was like
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: three hours.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: We spoke for like three hours just shooting the shit.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Like we got along immediately. Yeah. And once we met,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: we've been locked in. Even to this day, we're locked in.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: What was it like? Because on Power, the show Power,
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: you're playing a person that we don't know. This isn't
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: a real person. You know what I mean? But then
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: on Wu-Tang, you're playing a person named Power who is
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: a real person. And you have played him for almost
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: all of the season. And then you get to meet him.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: So how does your direction as an actor change when
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: you go from something that is based on a real
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: person or something that's not based on a real person
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: to based on a real person? And then even after that,
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: it probably changes because you then meet the real person.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: That's another great question.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: So season one is all about who these members are
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: before the group was formed. So it's just a lot
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: of like just backstory stuff.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? So like I was kind
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: of pretty, the performance I was given was pretty solid
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: for what was asked of me that season. Right. Because
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: we hadn't gotten into like Wu-Tang yet.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: So when I met him, it was like, okay, the
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: timing is good.
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: So once we finished filming season one, that summer I
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: spent a lot of time with him.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, we went to, you know, I went to D.C.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: with him.
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: And me, like I was just traveling with, he was
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: just inviting me out. Yo, come to this, come to that.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: Because he's doing now, because, well, first of all, I
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: guess explain a bit for anyone who may not have
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: seen the series. Power's role in the Wu-Tang and then
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: kind of where he is now, like what his life
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: looks like now.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: So Power is the executive producer of Wu-Tang as well
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: as the co-founder of Wu-Tang. He was a part, he
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: was there from the very beginning.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: In the show, you see that, you know, Power's the
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: one that basically fronted the money.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: For RZA to make this album. You know what I mean?
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Because Power, you know, Power was a street nigga.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying?
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: He was a getting money nigga.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: And, you know, especially in the rap game, a lot
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: of the time we go to the, you know, when
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: we need that bread.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: We go to the street nigga. You know what I'm saying?
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: So that's who Power was. Power already had a name
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: for himself. He was already established. So it was kind
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: of like he recognized what RZA was doing and said, okay, cool,
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: I'm going to invest in that.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: That's going to be my flip. You know what I'm saying?
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: So season two is when we got into all of that.
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: So before we started shooting, shooting season two, you know,
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: I got to see, cause he's still, I mean, Wu-Tang
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: is still very much his brand.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? He has Wu-Wear, which is
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: the clothing line as well that he started.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: So, you know, he would do pop-ups a lot. So
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: he would invite me to these pop-ups. So I'm meeting people.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: I'm seeing him like at work in action. I'm talking
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: like down to like how he counts money. He counts
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: money like, You know what I'm saying? Like, so I'm
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: like just taking note of all of that. So in
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: spending time with him now, I'm able to refine my
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: performance because now I can add details.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Specificity. I'm big on specifics.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? I don't like general. You
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying? So like I was able to
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: pick up on little things.
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: How he dresses, how he, you know, like. Power never
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: ties his shoelace. His kicks is always super clean, fresh
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: out the box, laces, you know what I'm saying?
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Doughboy shit. You know what I mean? So I was
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: able to pick up on all of that. He sags
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: his pants a lot.
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: So even down to my wardrobe and how I wore it,
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: I'm picking up on all of these things. Sometimes I'll
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: be at a fitting and I will FaceTime him. I'm like, yo,
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: is this something you would wear? How you feel about this?
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: Down to how I wear the chain. He never wears
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: his chain on the outside. He always has it tucked in.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Just like little things.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: So in that, I was able to bring more to
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: the role, which I think paid off because now when
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: I meet people, they're like, yo, you.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Got peed down. Yo, you got peed down. You know
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying? And I heard that from Wu-Tang members.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? So to even get their
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: blessing was a big deal. Right.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: So then, okay, so Wu-Tang has happened at this point.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: put spades on the back end, your play, which is
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: honestly what we're here to talk about, but this all
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: is a part of the journey. We're going to get there, y'all.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: So at what point, so Wu-Tang happens, that's done. When
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: do you say, okay, I need to get this play
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: happening and it's going to be New York?
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: Okay. So finished shooting Wu-Tang.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: We finished filming in 2022, the end of 2022.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: And then Was it 2022 or 2017?
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: 2022.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: And then the writer's strike happened. Right after we finished filming. Yeah.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: It was like, what the fuck? It was like, yo,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: we just finished shooting this show. We feeling like, okay, cool.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: We off this show. What's the next thing?
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Did you have things on the table, like conversations and
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: stuff for other shows that were coming your way? It
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: was finally like, okay, this show led to boom. Yeah.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: I was doing this film. And we had to stop
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: production because I think production, I think they ran out
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: of money or something like that. But it was supposed
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: to be this really dope indie film that they offered
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: me this role and I was going to body this role.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: We had to end production on that. And then I
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: had a meeting with this producer for this other film.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: So it was just like, okay, okay. And then the
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: writer's strike happened. So everything kind of just came to
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: a halt. So it was just like, all right. okay,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: what do I do with this information? So it put
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: me in another depression again because it's just kind of
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: like when you're an artist and you're not doing your art,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: it fucks with you. You know what I'm saying?
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Are you doing anything actively for the depression? Like are you,
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: because I know like.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I was doing the things I'm not supposed to be doing. Meaning,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: you know... What?
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: Tell us. We want to know. You can't just leave
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: us hanging like that.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Look, man, I was, I was.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: You had vices. Huh? You're leaning into your vices. Yeah.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I was leaning into my vices. You know what
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: I mean?
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: I was, you know, messing with, you know, messing with
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: young ladies I shouldn't be messing with. Just kind of just,
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: I was just all over the place.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: So I was indulging in that, but that wasn't good.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: Because, you know, here I am not really staying focused
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: and letting distractions kind of get to me.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: And then I had my birthday party in 2023. I'll
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: never forget that day. I had my birthday party. I
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: invited everybody. I invited all my friends.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: All my little joints, all, everybody came out. And I
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: remember I didn't even like, it was, it was, it
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: was at this spot. Remember in the grill BK? Yeah.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I wasn't here during a time of all of that, like,
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: popping off. I just started coming around Breakfast Club guest
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: hosts and started in 2023.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: So I was a little new, but I knew of it.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: I would see people there.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, my homegirl Melissa, she owned that spot. So I
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: had my birthday there. It was an open bar. Like,
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: I basically threw my birthday, I threw a party for
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: people on my birthday.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Gotcha.
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: Because I wasn't even really, like, I was literally sitting
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: at the bar the whole party. Everyone's like, yo, this
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: your party?
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Like, why you not chilling? I said, I don't know.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: I'm just kind of chilling. Because it was another one
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: of those, like, my spirit told me, like, okay, I
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: should throw a party. It was my 33rd birthday.
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: I was like, something told me I should throw a
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: party or something.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: So I did it.
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: And I remember sitting there. I couldn't even enjoy it, really.
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: All I did was, like, watch people. That's all I did.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: I took some shrooms. You know what I'm saying? I
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: had my little shrooms. That's why you was sitting at
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: the bar. But, you know, I love shrooms, man. Shrooms,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: that shit will open your mind.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: Y'all got that. You know what I'm saying? That is
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: not my ministry.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: You would love it. It's a fantastic thing.
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: So, shrooms, I'm sipping my rum punch and shit. And
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: I'm just, like, staring at people and just, like, watching people.
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: And I'm just thinking to myself, I'm like, yeah, like,
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: I feel like most of these people are here just because,
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm on TV and, You know, I don't
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: know if, like, all of these people actually fuck with me.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? But that was something I
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: was thinking about. Yeah. And then, you know, after that party,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: I ended up, like, I ended a lot of friendships.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: Because it was starting, you know, people were starting to
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: show their ass. You know what I'm saying?
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: Off the rum punch that night? No, no, no, not
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: that night. I'm like, what happened at the party?
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: But just following after that. You know what I'm saying? Like.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, people, it's easy to be around people or to
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: be with you when you're up.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? When things are up, that's
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: when it's easy.
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: But when it's not like that, that's when people start
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: to show their true colors.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Right. And for me, I kind of was just like, yo,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: I need to kind.
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: Of like clear a space because I feel like some
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: of this energy is not helpful for me.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: It's not conducive. It's distractions.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Just energy I shouldn't be around. Yeah.
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: 2023 was a really tough year for me because it
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: was a.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Lot of purging, a lot of it, and a lot of, like,
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: realizations of, like, oh, shit, this motherfucker's been, like, this
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: whole motherfucking time. I couldn't see it because I was,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: you know, I just spent the last three years, you know,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: living on a high that I didn't have the moment to, like,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: really dissect and, like, really understand what was around me.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: So in that, You know, 2023, I was also in
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: a relationship, so I was just kind of like feeding
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: into that more than anything. I wasn't really feeding into
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: myself as an artist because.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't know what to do. You know what I mean?
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: I still had space, but I wasn't inspired to keep
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: working on it. When the writer's strike first hit, I
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: recorded the first two scenes on audio because I was
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: going to try to sell it as an audio book.
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: kind of thing because that was like one of the
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: things we could do in the writer's strike so I
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: did that I was supposed to meet with some people
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: they never responded back to the email so it was
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: just like it just kind of felt like yo nothing
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: is like going my way man like nothing.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying so then I had a
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: friend at the time.
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: We were supposed to do a reading of Spades in
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: Detroit And that ended up not happening because it was
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: more like funny business happening.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: It was another moment of kind of like seeing someone
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: who's supposed to be your friend. They're true colors. You
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: know what I'm saying? It was starting to feel like
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: she wanted to take my work and put her name
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: on it. Take the credit for my shit. But in hindsight,
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: I'm glad that happened because it lit a fire under me.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Because.
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: Even before that, you know, like, I try to pitch
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: this play to, like, different theater companies. You know, these
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: are all white institutions, you know, that are going to
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: take our stories and kind of dilute it and not
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: really give it that authenticity that it needs when it
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: comes to our stories, black stories, and how we tell
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: our stories. That's a whole other thing I'll get into later. But, so,
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm pitching it to all these theater companies.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: They're like, we love that. Okay, but what's up? Oh,
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: you know, we're going to do this other play.
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: I'm tired of waiting. So after that whole Detroit thing
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: fell through, I said, you know what? I'm going to
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: do this myself.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do this myself. And I said, ah!
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? It woke something up in me. Yes.
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: It woke something up in me. So I did a
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: reading of So Where the Play Is Now.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: I did a stage reading there last year, last September.
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: Same kind of formula with the whole theater and around
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: at the table, but, you know, except they had scripts.
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: And that was kind of like the launching of like, okay,
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: like I'm going to commit to producing this play.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Like I'm just going to commit to it. You know
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: what I mean?
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: Cause I got all this downtime. I'm not filming anything.
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: I need to do something. You know what I'm saying?
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Like, and what, what better way than to employ yourself?
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: So from that moment, I did the reading. Then after that, uh,
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: we did the reading at Dumbo house.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: And then from, Oh, so.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: That was still relatively like new when I saw that
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: Dumbo house. Okay, cool.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: So, You know, because the point of doing these readings
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: was to, like, get the word out. I wanted people
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: to start knowing about this play so that when we produce.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: It, it's like, oh, that's the play that I, you
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying?
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: So it's not, like, out of thin air. But some
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: people thought, I think I just wrote this play.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Not knowing, like, no, this
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: was a 10-year journey.
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: Got you.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: Now y'all stay tuned because this is only part one.
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: But if you're feeling inspired, if you're digging the story
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: in this conversation... I want to hear from you, my lowriders.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Make sure you at me. I'm Lauren LaRosa everywhere. And
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: check out Spades the Play. Now playing in New York.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: Visit Spades the Play on Instagram or on Posh for
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: your tickets.