October 31, 2024 • 39 mins
In this episode of the Done There, Been That podcast, co-hosts Mike Hill and Ephraim Salaam engage in a conversation with actor Omar Dorsey. Omar explains his journey in the entertainment industry, the challenges of typecasting, and the dynamics of marriage and fatherhood in Hollywood. Omar shares personal anecdotes about his upbringing, his acting career, and the importance of setting boundaries in relationships. The guys also talk about the significance of resilience in the face of life's challenges and the value of personal growth.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Y'all. This is being inflection collective.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Father of us are connective, reflective, perspective, perspected, defensive, shad
no captain despect facts of kick back here fit that.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Back. I've in here another episode of that.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Then there have been that podcast on Inflection Entertainment Network,
and I Heeart Radio. I am your host, Mike Hill.
I'm from Salon, hanging out with my man. Ready for
another wonderful episode.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Bro, Yeah, look, we're rolling. It's fun. I like working
with my boy.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Of course, a love work.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
We got like a bit of a marriage ourselves, like
a Hollywood marriage.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And you gotta be waitful, right, we're not married.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
No, not that anything would be wrong if we were marriages,
but we're not.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
But we're not.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
We're just like platonic brothers in a marriage like a
bond that we do have a work relationship.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So we're talking.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
About marriages in entertainment, in a relationships in entertainment, right, yes,
And so I had to bring him a man who
has a wonderful story himself. He's he's a movement by himself,
but he's a force when he's with his wife.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
You remember that. That's pretty good. No, that's a song
that's saying, this is my friend, my man.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
You may have seen him in Queen Sugars Hollywood, but
he's been in Everything and Jangle, he was in Selma
and now he's on Bookie Bookie Shudio second season.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Man, check that out.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Man, I'm talking about the one, the only Omar Dorsey
hanging out with us today.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
In the crib.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
What's happening? Man and his brother go back? Man stars
tell it's all good. It's all good. But we said
double day, we double dy. We'll get into that in
this second two as a matter of fact. Man, But
I want to talk to you because, first of all,
it's get into your acting crib man.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Like, I love what you do. Man. Everything that you
do is wonderful. Man. You're just a hell of an
actor or whatever. Man.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
But how how how was acting overall? How is that
changed your life and your perspective life? You know, I'm
a creative person man.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Luckily, Man, I was raised by a woman who was
the theater director, my mother, doctor Naiolwen Dorsey.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Man.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
She always poured into me the craft, poured into me
the art and the love of it. So when I
was a little kid, Man, I used to go to
the theater to watch her direct, and I was looking up.
I'm like, I want to be just like that person.
I want to be just like that person. I want
to be on stage doing that. This was like when
I'm two years old, you know, So my mother started
teaching me monologue. The first one she taught me was
(02:30):
a twenty third songs, The Lord is my Shepherd, I
shall not want. I used to do that as talent shows,
and I used to always win either first or second place.
I was a three year old doing the twenty third
songs with all the vibrado of an ether speech, you know.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
What I'm saying. So, but it was but my mom
taught me.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
To started teaching me about Shakespeare when I was seven
to eight years old, by Birch's Off Break all these
different Lorraine Hansbury and all of this stuff, and taking
me to theaters, and then you know, went to performing
out of high school, got cultivated that way, you know,
went to the school with some amazing actors, went to
school with Dorian Mysic, went to school with Erica Ashmea.
She rest in peace. I love her with all my heart.
(03:06):
She just passed away a couple of weeks ago. I
went to school with you know, Childish Gambing. I went
to the same school. Lloyd went to the same school. So,
uh is in Decatur, Georgia. Yeah, right outside Atlanta. Yeah, man,
So you know, just just and even after that, I
was a member of this amazing theater group called Freddie
Hendrick youuth on south of Atlanta with one of our
mutual friends.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Uh, she gonna kill me, Candy.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Candy Barriss was a member that uh uh Keenan from
Ken he was Ken of Thompson, Sorry, Kennan. Yeah, but
so many people came out of that theater group.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Man.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
But yeah, that's just how it was in Atlanta, man,
you know, just getting all of that and then transition
from that, you know, went to college, you know, study
theater in college, went to grad school and studied filmed.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
As I was gonna be a director, it's too hard,
too much work.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
So the first joint I ever got coming I was
still in college. I got the movie road Trip, and
I played the leader at a black fraternity road Trip.
And then that was the first movie I forget auditioned for.
My acting teacher was the one that's like, hey, man,
they're doing this movie out here. You should go ahead
and audition for it. Audition for it. Got that, man,
and it's just been running ever since then. And man,
that's amazing. Look so I'm looking at your size right,
(04:16):
look like a linebacker, full back? No sports Yeah, I
played sports man. Yeah, but I wasn't gonna My brother
was a performing arts high school.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, but I still played football. Is there they have
football there? Yeah? Yeah, I just the performing arts was
a part of the school. They just did the halftime
show was over there. Times.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
My brother was was way better than me. He played
defensive tackles, so he was He might have been Defensive
Player of the Year for the Cap County back in
ninety two. But uh, you know, but that wasn't my calling.
Yeah you know what I'm saying. Yeah, but you know
I loved that because so many times, yeah right, we
get put in. I said, just like I s I'm
(05:01):
sure people walk up to you who you play for?
Like I tell you this, this is real. Like in
my career, I had to throw away a lot of
the boxes they tried to put me and they wanted
a picture hold me. Man, you know, so a lot
of times, you know, on Ray Donovan, I played a
bad guy, but I played a bad guy with some flair.
(05:22):
Same thing on Raisin Kayman when I played Cardier for Reid.
There's a lot of flair to that guy, but I
in people's minds or he looks like he's a thug.
He looks like this, that and the other. But I
always try to play against type. Yeah, you know, That's
what I've always wanted to do, because Forest Whitaker was
one of the.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
People who I looked up to, like, yeah, he's big.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
You've seen Forest back in the day especially, he looked like,
you know, he's a big cat, you know what I'm saying.
Before he lost a lot of weight. Man, But I
was like, yo, this is the guy who I look
up to, Yafiet Codon if you know what he is.
But these are the people who I looked up to,
bigger dudes who always had some dignity and class about themselves. Right,
And you don't have to play the same same thing
over and over. You don't have to be with people's
(06:02):
perception of you is. And especially coming from a place
of me doing summer Stock theater, doing Shakespeare one one
week and the next week I'm doing August Wilson, you know,
so I never put myself in a box.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
But you got that timber, you got that Shakespeare, in.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
No doubt, and I hit them in the head with
some of this King Lear.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
They ain't gonna know what happened. Bro, I was talking
to you.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
I don't know if you know Anthony Hemingway a great
writer director, but he was we were talking to on Saturday.
He was like, oh ma, I got a project for you.
You hit him in the head with this Shakespeare. They
don't know what's happening.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
But then before, before you got married, obviously we get
into that and just single days, did you ever, you know,
come on to a lady and.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
All the so we call Shakespeare the bar and how
do I love thee Let me count the ways I
hit him with Emily Frost, I hit him with anything, man,
I hit them with a.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
SunNet, and they had no idea what you were talking,
what I was saying. I just performed it.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I've never heard the kter, dude do this before you
deck doing this? Man?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
That was a little that was always my figure. That's
how I got my wife. Tell you the truth, I
was but I hit her with some of that man.
You know what's so crazy on Raisin Kane. If y'all
ever watched me play Cardier on Raising Candy season two,
when I was talking to rock the one Patina Miller,
you know, she was like, we would love interest, and.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
That's how I got her. I was doing, I was
doing until she got me in the elevator exactly. Sorry
if you have great season. It was a tremendous season.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
But I got her, you know, on that Shakespeare on
him and that's what and me and I uh, Sasha
paying great writers the show run of that show. He
was like, I know you like that Shakespeare. I said,
I love it. I got something for you. So yeah, man,
but yeah, I used to hit him with that mic.
Yeah you got that voice he walk up.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah. And I used to sing opera back and sing
smoking cigars. Oh watch what some of that figure figure
figure ship the Barbera of de Ville. Oh no, hear
me a look just a little bit. Just I can't
do it in more for the cigarettes scratch now that
(08:08):
I did. I did. I sang opera Conelian Man, Wow, yeah,
I am so you are a renaissance man man for sure.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Man, you did you had It was a show that
came out It didn't last long. I don't think it
was you know, the Big Show, the wrestler, Yeah, wrestler, Yeah,
didn't didn't you. I didn't work with Big Show.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Now. You never worked with Big work with Paul White. Now.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
I could have swore you were on a because I
had auditioned for a show and I can't remember the
name of it.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
This is back.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
This is years ago when I thought that that was
going to be an actor, which I clearly am not.
So I know, no, man, he's done some background all right, yeah,
okay for a right shows.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
And so I was watching it and I was like, oh,
they picked this motherfuck.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I don't remember I remember. I mean, I've done so
much it's too I'm gonna look it up and I'm gonna.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Tell you man. Yeah. But but I was like, yo,
a lot of people be saying that.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
I'm like, every time I went on the audition, I'm
in the sweating, I'm doing the thing, and they didn't
hire you like you. I used to hate on the
most with the rappers, man the rapperuse.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
This was back in the nineties. I was like, I
can't get a job.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I can't get it getting job because of the job,
because and I'm not mad at it.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
The producers got to make their money. Exactly, I'm gonna
get this dude from the cat. I'm about to know
what this guy is. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
But like I used to hate on them all the time,
but but I always but I realized is that when
it's your time's your time. So it's like, you know,
it's it was meant for you. It's meant for you.
Like you said, your paying game is nasty. Yeah, so
that's what it is, man. Yeah, so you just have
to buy your time. It's a lot of people us
sol kept who kept falling off, people that came in
the game with They start and they'll fall off, and
(10:05):
they'll fall off, and you know, you got gevity is
what it is.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Man.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
People don't understand like coming from an athletic background and
being in the locker room and playing in the league,
it's like entertainment, right, it's rarefyed their right right to
get in. It's hard for sure to stay in. It's
damn near impossible. And so to be able to play
for that long and people like, what's the secret, man,
(10:31):
what's the secret? First of all, you always got to
add value. Secondly, you gotta be consistent. Yeah, you got
to show up. You got to show up, man, You
gotta show up.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
You gotta show out. So what you the last year
don't matter if you ain't putting on the man, I
promise you. Whatever the ship you did back then, it's
gone don't matter because it's a boy coming in from
s m U.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Do you know all of it with the Berry White
vote got all of that, man, And that goes with
not just professional but in your personal life. You got
to evolve as a person. The evolution and the evolution
is so key, man, and you know you go through
the situations you just talked about your beautiful White Chrystal. Congratulations.
By the way, he's a newly We just had a
(11:15):
baby boy May.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
And on Mother's Day. On Mother's Day, Yeah, what's his name?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Ye had two kids previous, two daughters. Man, they've grown
too grown. Okay, what's what's fatherhood like for you?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Right now? Man?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
As you know, like you said, two grown children and
now you got an infinite home.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
You know, it's funny because I had my kids and
you know, my girls in my twenties, my early twenties, right,
and I was struggling so bad, right, and it's just
like how am I going to put two pennies together
to like, I gotta go back to work and my
work at that time, my wife had to go back
to work, and it's like, well, we gotta put this
baby in the daycare. I don't know these people, but
(11:55):
you know they ended up they God blessed. We had
some great daycares at that time, and they great people
watching over our daughters, you know, while we had to
go back to work, and to now be in a
position to be like, Okay, well I just got finished doing.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Season two of my show.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
My wife is on hiatus from her show, so we
can actually sit here for a couple of months and like,
you know, be here with our kids in this early
formative time, you know what I'm saying. Already just started
going back to work this week. She's directing Doctor Otissey
right down the street and at Paramount. But I'm back
at home, you know, and Lord is in the blessing business,
so we got a nanny, you know, money, So it's
(12:37):
like that's a blessing to be able to it's fun.
I was talking to my daughters about it.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
I said, Yo, yeah, I missed that I missed out on.
They't missed out on it. Trust me, they still hit
me in the pocket.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I tell you what.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
In colleges they been, they have but they have a
good time. You know, because my youngest is in college now.
My daughter, my oldest went to Howard and you know
she went. He was skating over that. She ain't have
to worry about no books or nothing. She was chilling man,
especially at Howard and everybody at Howard that time with
Quinn Shakar was on. I was coming into the administration office.
You know what I'm saying. Yeah, me and Common being
(13:08):
an administration office together, and that's something. And call me like,
hey man, my boy, because this song was studying theater.
Uh my daughter was studying theater, so you know we'd
just be comparing notes and everything.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, man, how do you deal with that? Man?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Because being in new way and once again your your
wife's beautiful wife, Crystal great directors, wonderful shows herself, whatnot
being married to somebody who's also in the spotlight. Being
somebody that's also uh, you know, a part of Hollywood.
Even though you guys have separate schedules, still being able
to come together, be a parents to your newborn now
(13:44):
and then still finding time for one another.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
You know, I tell you something, man, the most beautiful
role I've ever seen Crystal play is as a mother.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Man.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Her, what she's doing over these last four months has
been it's been beautiful. I never thought I could be
more in love with somebody than with her than I
already was. But just watching her doing what she's doing
right now, man, I have admiration for her. I never
thought I would even have, just knowing how hard she
works in her professional career and then being a wife,
(14:12):
just seeing that same due diligence that she's given to
our son. Man, I am over the moon with her
right now, you know. But yeah, just put it together.
It takes a team. I said, Like you said, man,
I've been I've been married before, so I was like,
I ain't never doing this again unless I can build
an empire with somebody. And when I met her. I
met her, I remember it was doing Toronto Film Festival.
(14:34):
We were premiering the movie Harriet and I Sawry and
I was like, that's the most beautiful woman I ever seen.
She was so bad.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Right.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
A dude walked up to me and was like, I'm
a big fan of yours. I was like, I appreciate it.
Man just kept talking to a look at her, this,
that and the other. My man was like, yo, man,
you know you just this? I said, who said Westy Snipes? What?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Wow? What the reason? I'm actor? I was so focused.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So I had to kiss Wesley asked for the the
night because it was a double mic was Premierre that
night too, and I was like, oh, man, so I
was talking to Wesley and everything, you know, But yeah, man,
I was just was mesmerized just by her and then
not even knowing she was a director at the time,
and I was like, she's just bad, you know what.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
I'm there, and then not even knowing she was from
the crib. I ain't know she was from Georgia, you
know any of this stuff. Man, But said, yeah, Shakespeare,
you know what I'm saying. And then it's sweighty because
what it was is one of her friends was a
makeup artist of a of a movie me and my
Herscheley did probably about thirteen fourteen years ago, Uh, the
(15:34):
wrong Man. We were the two leads merciall lead, two
time Oscar winning bad Boy. But it was a film
that we were the two leads in and she's like, yeah,
it's my friend Crystal. Start chopping it up. And then
later on I was I was about to direct my
first short. She was like, oh, you know my friends
and director. I'm like, oh, word, I think I know
every black female director because Queen Sugar, all we had
was female directors.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Like that, what was up?
Speaker 4 (15:56):
She's like, yeah, I directed. I said, well, what your
director said, I'm American director of American soul right now.
I was like, oh, you're the real director? Is the
leader that showed and she's like a director of green Leaf.
I'm like, how do I not know you? But in
time I realized I knew exactly who she was because
I saw the plays that she was directing in Atlanta.
(16:17):
I saw like all of she transitioned from the stage
to television and film, and I knew her work and
I knew her as not Crystal Robus in it, but
that's Crystal Clear. Everybody everybody always raved about Crystal Clear
in Atlanta. And I went to her houseband that was
like that's a Crystal Clear, Like, hold baby, are you
Crystal Clear? And she's like yeah, I said, do you
know those are my brothers. Those are my people. And
(16:39):
find out we had the same mutual friends all this
whole time, and we've been in the same rooms for
fifteen seventeen years.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
You know what I'm saying, Yes, what if you would
have met her then.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Yep, I would have I would not have been ready.
She plays no games, no games with her, you know
what I'm saying. So we met at the same child
after in the same page in the book of life. Wow,
there's such a taboo thing about Hollywood marriages, right, right,
they always start off grade and it is this and
(17:12):
it's that, right, how do you navigate and how do
you plan to just keep it fresh, keep it tight,
keep it you guys against the world, and not let
those outside forces in Hollywood, which they do, seep into
your relationship.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
The thing about it, though, is I don't even consider
myself despite my name on Queen Sugar Hollywood, that part,
you know what I'm saying. At the end of the day,
I think of myself as a down South Georgia boy.
And my wife thinks of herself as the Georgia peach,
you know. And you know when you have that inside
of you, and it's I don't care about the glissen,
(17:49):
the glamor in any of that stuff. Man, Just I
care about the work. Honestly. I don't go to no
Hollywood parties. I'd be with Mike we be yo. Like
when we were together two or three weeks ago. Man,
it just felt like we was back at the crib.
We was no Paparozzi, none of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
It's just like nah, man, we just I want my people,
you know, I don't like to do any of that,
you know, any of.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
The glitz and glamor.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
I mean, unless it's any time or and I'm nominated
or my wife is nominated, you know, or the rest
of it. Man, they can have it. And I'm at
a certain age right now, and I'm a two time
loser already. Like you said, you've been married, you know what,
I've already understood what all that was. So now it's
real time. It's empire building time. You know, it's not
time to be I've been famous. Yeah, I don't need
(18:34):
nobody to come up. Like you said, I was the
man in high school. You know what I'm saying that
I was a man in college, and I was a
man when I was twenty two and then when I
got on television, I was the man. You know what
I'm saying. So it's the person. Now I'm the man.
I'm her man now you know what I'm saying. So
that's the difference of it. Now, Man, I don't need
any kind of anybody giving me any kind of agulation.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Man, I don't need that. But she gave you the
former respect.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
We was talking about this something before we actually had
a discussion about this.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
She did something that.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
A lot of people in Hollywood don't want to do
because they feel like they made a name for himself.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
You talked, she was Crystal Clear. Yeah, she was Crystal Roberson.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
You make a name for yourself, and now she's taking
your last name, no doubt about it was that special
for you? I mean it wasn't something that I knew
your personality. I know, it's not something that you was
the man. But is that something that was special? What
does that mean for you? For her to take your
last name?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
It meant a lot, right because she's made her name.
She's Crystal Roberson.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Man.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
That woman was Crystal Robertson, Executive producer of the TV
show of Queens, executive producer of the new season of Genius,
that's nominated.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
For all the awards.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Director on the Guilderdasis nominated for a million Emmys. You know,
the director of all of these things. Her name is
Crystal Roberson. Yes, she was like, no, I'm taking She's like, yo, nah,
she said she was taking my name. I was surprised
because I was like, you know, she's a modern woman.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
I wouldn't have been I would have tripped about it, like, yo,
you your your blood is on that roverson name. She's like, no,
I want I want your blood on my I want
that Dorsey on my name. So I was like, she
do she married and if she wasn't, I would say
keep her away from me.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So so so we actually a double dated when I
was with Todd Candy.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
We never got the call was Fly's like, I can
get on, we can get on the plane. You know
that I see this that I don't like to be excluded?
Can I next time?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Next time? I mean, you don't you find somebody?
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I think, but you know, one of the things being
in a marriage like that, like you said, like you
have somebody, you got somebody that was in the spotlight
for a while and she's not dancing anymore, right, so,
but now you have somebody's in the spot Like one
of the things I learned, man.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I kind of got a little turned off.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
And this is just my personal thing has done there
been that about being with somebody who's also in the spotlight,
and not that that I don't mind. I want that
person to thrive and shine or whatever. But I just
think the attention sometimes that's brought to you, the outside attention.
Sometimes we can ignore it. We can shield ourselves and
insulate ourselves from it.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Man.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
But the noise, especially who I was married to, and
how public that is. Because being on a reality show,
people has to know your reality.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
That's the trick that. Man, that's got to be very
hard man. You know, I uh, you and Todd and
I used to be like, man, how can they do it?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Man?
Speaker 4 (21:38):
You know, you were meant to a supermodel who was
on the biggest reality show in the.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
World, and I used to watch. I was like, man, dude,
that's got to be hard.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Now, my wife, she's the face of Essence magazine, but
she's not on television. She's behind the scenes. She's directing,
producing and writing, you know, so she don't want to
be that She's like, I let me let the work
speak for itself, you know. But because she is married
to me, and because she is a beautiful woman, and
because she's highly successful.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
You know, they put the spotlight on her.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
She shines, but she's not the person who's always in
front of the camera like that.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
That's just recognizable people understand. So how does she deal
with that? Like because like they always ask, like, how
does a man deal with a famous woman in the spotlight?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Right?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
And he might not be somebody that's in front of
the camera, but she's getting to shine or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
How does she deal with that?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Because you know, you're sex somebody.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Yeah, women love me and it was really hard. It
was hard on her at first. She was just like, Yo,
why don't like these women are real bold. They just
push you about the way and just come to hug
on you and stuff. I said, it's the character that
I play. I said that it makes them feel something.
And so like when they see me, they just want
to you know, they want to feel it. But then like, yo,
(22:54):
this is my wife, this before, this is my lady.
It's my lady Chris. Hey, you know how I'm o Mark,
this is my lady Crystal. You know what I'm saying.
And now it's like, yo, now they sort of know
us as a tandem.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
But did they take a time because time, Yeah, because
I've dealt with that even after Cynthia, because I became
a little bit more popular after. Right, So dealing with somebody,
even dating somebody, they're not used to somebody coming up
and trying to take a picture on arguing, and there's
a fine line between like okay, well you got to
be respectful to the person with but also inviting not
(23:25):
an asshole.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Right right, yeah, yeah, so it is that and it's
like you was like, take a picture, you take a
picture of my wife.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yoh, okay, take a picture with us. Yeah, you know
what I'm saying. Don't hand your phone to my wife.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Disrespect that to take this picture. Like, no, no, she's
gonna else, She's gonna be in the pictures. This man
over here with this tuning bro exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
When I when I was when I met my wife,
she was on tour Beyonce, but she toured with everybody,
and and it was one of the situations where me,
being an athlete and bold women would just while we
were together would be like does she cook.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
For you, like in front of her.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah, no, it was out of control. This might be
light skin, but she got a little thub.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Oh she is.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
She is a thing, right Like I learned a lesson
from her because me being the athlete in the spotlight,
I always wanted to be kind to people, right right,
I'm just a natural nice guy. So people would come up.
Like I was at an autograph signing and this woman
(24:44):
came in and she had made me like a quilt
with like my number on it and all of that,
and she was just like, you know, I'm a really
big fan. I made this for you. And I was like,
you know what, thank you, this this is beautiful. Thank
you so much.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Man. It was such a nice thing.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
She was just like, look, I you know, I followed
your career and and Renee's right there and she just
going and I'm just being cordial. Right at the end
of the night, She'll be like, so you can't see
it because you're you right, you're just being you naive.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
A little bit, but oh I can see it.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Oh yeah, you feel like like she it's on them.
The first night we ever went out and Dall was
playing for the Broncos at the time, it was Clinton
Portis's all white party.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
So we're there, We're at the club. It's popping. She
goes to the bar to get a drink. Three seconds
she took three steps, somebody came and sat down. Hey
blah blah blah. So she got it, and I'm just like,
oh shit, here we go. She got the drink, she turned,
she saw the girl. She came, she said down. She
was like, hey, how you doing. I'm your niece. And
I was like.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yeah, yeah, and I.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Was like, all right, thank you, I'm just my girl.
I'm gonna go back. And then I was looking at it.
I was just like and she was like, what I said,
You're not mad. She was like, I'm not worried about that.
That's kind she said, I'm not worried about that.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
In other words, it tastes because secure woman.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Well, yeah, because I didn't want to have to deal
with the you know, I don't you know, I don't
know her. I do know her, but it was like,
it's just she was like, look, I came with you,
I know I'm leaving with you. But what she did
explain to me as we got deeper and we got engaged,
and then finally married is you have to set a boundary.
(26:40):
You can't allow women to come into your space right
with ill intentions, because the further you let or the
closer you let them get to you, the bolder they
become and the less they value me. And I didn't
understand that at first because I'm just being me, Hey, yeah,
(27:01):
I take a picture. And it was one time I
was a girl I had some dealings with UH. I
started at a game and I was like, hey, how
you doing. This is my uh this is my fiance
and she was like, hey, how you doing and she
was like, all right, I see you later. I was like,
all right, I talked to you later. And then she
was like, but you won't, right.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
She was like, you you.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Won't talk to her later and I was like, yeah,
I know, but I that's just it's just right.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
But she was like she doesn't know that, right, Like, no,
you won't. But it would have just like all right,
nice to see you.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
But I'm like she was like, I'll see you later,
and I was like, okay, i'll see you too, or
I'll talk to you later. But it once again, I'm
not knowing that's sending the wrong message. It has nothing
to do with it and insecure. It's just about how
I carry myself so I don't open myself up to
unsolicited issues.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And I had to learn that within the relationship.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So how did you start making her feel more secure
when she had those doubts in me?
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Again?
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Like I said, I bring her into the conversation all
the time, Like I didn't think about it before when
we first started dating. I'm like, hey, how you doing. Yeah, yeah,
it's just a fan, you know what I'm saying. She
was like okay, but and then it's it took her
a conversation. She was like, you know, I don't really
like it's like, yo, you're my dude, but these women
are like, oh, you're my husband in my mind, right,
But like what am I supposed to say about that?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
You know? I was like, you're right.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
So anytime somebody who I see is a little bit
too uh jubilant, this is my this like it's my
girlfriend right here? Yeah, hey man, yeah, you know, just
keep it like that and keep people at arms length.
And she told my wife told me the same thing,
and she's like, you gotta she said, you're a king,
Like you know, it's like me and my whole cruise
like people would like to be around y'all. She was like,
(28:48):
you can't. Everybody can't have access to the King. Can't
do it, you know. So I was like, oh, okay,
it made sense, right. You don't you don't see it.
You don't see like I'm just like, but I'm with you.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I'm learning something from y'all, man, because I think that's
been my biggest problem of just allowing access. I've always
said you got to set bound They've always said you
need to set boundaries. So you need to set boundaries,
you know what I mean? People hitting you up, saying
nice things and compliment.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
You know, you give a.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Heart sign, you know, nothing nothing more heart sign that's
sending the message.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
You know, you're letting them know that.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Like, but I'm thinking, hey, thank you, because that's when
you say thank you, the heart comes up, the prayer
hands come up, you know what I mean. So I'm
thinking that's what the damn emoji is supposed to be.
Hard thank you, you know. But so I'm learning something
from y'all. So I just need to be an asshole that.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Us getting no very eloquent in the way. That sh
it don't work for me.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Thought so I had one one one one time I
tried to do that and seriously, one of my marriages,
I don't know which one it was, one of my marriages.
I told this girl. She came, bah blah, blah blah,
try to holler at me. I said, I'm sorry, I'm married. Right, Oh, no,
you see, you see what I did wrong?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yes, you see. I ain't even realized I did something wrong.
I said, I'm horrible. I said, I'm sorry. I said,
She said, why are you sorry? Why you sorry? You married?
Why are you so?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Why you got to tell you something like I'm just like,
it's like, I'm sorry, no, thank you, Like I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
No, it's the way.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
That okay, it's acting I'm sorry i'm married, or I'm
sorry but i'm married. I don't know, or just i'm married. Oh, oh,
I'm sorry. Just has to drop.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Was your wife with you? My wife wasn't?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
No.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
I told her about it, and I told her, I said, hey,
I told her, I'm sorry. She said, what did you say?
I said, I'm sorry, I'm married. Well, are you sorry
that you married? I'm like, no, I'm not saying it
that way. I'm not sorry that I'm married. I'm telling her,
I'm sorry to disappoint her. Listen, listen, well, damn this one.
I've been listen, man, listen here.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Whenever I'm out and I'm getting attention, right, I would
come home and I'll tell my wife I was hot
on the street today. I can't tell, so it becomes
a joke, like I'm hot on, I was hot on.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
She's like, what you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
I was like, man, I was at the It's Coffee
bean and the lady came up next to me.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
I was like, oh my god, you're so big strong.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
She was checking me out, like she'll laugh because she
knows that I'm bringing levity.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
To the situation.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
And y'all been together so long, so Long's a level
of trust. Their trust there, and that's the whole thing,
if you build your foundation on trust and honesty. The
first thing my wife and I talked about the night
we met. She told me I don't believe in marriage,
(31:49):
I don't want kids, and I don't believe in monogamy.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's the first.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
And I was like, I mean, okay, I just met you, right,
I told her. I said, look, I don't smoke, I
don't drink, but my only vice is women. So we
built our courtship on flat out honesty. Now, don't look
at us. Twenty one years later, married Mary, kids and monogamous. Right,
(32:20):
But it started there like there was no expectation to
be perfect, right, Like, I put my flaws out there.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
She told me how she was feeling.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
And we built a relationship based on Oh, I can
be honest with you, and oh, you can be honest
with me. And now we can talk about anything. I
can talk about how I was being hot on the street.
She can come home and be like, man, somebody you
know they tried to get me in the grocery store today.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Like it.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
But the level of trust is so strong that now
we find joy and amusement in that.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
She find I'm still me, so you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
It Attraction doesn't stop, right, It's just how you deal
with it and and and how you present it to
each other and how you protect each other.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Right man, all right, we got to wrap things up. Man,
We have to well I love real quick before we
get into our final segment. Man, Like, okay, so you're
a great actor, she's a great director. Yeah, when we're
gonna see y'all to collaborating on something.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
We got things in the works. But but what we're
really doing right now, we're taking your right My wife
just sold two TV shows Amazon, so we're just right now.
What we're trying to do is just create. Man. You know,
I want to be a I want to be an employer,
not an employee.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
But you know I'm available. Ay, come on, man, it's bro.
You already know that. Man, I'm available for you.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah, so we get we get right at the end
of the show, Man's we call it unfiltered man, straight up.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Like we would have done. There have been that podcast. Man.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
So, is there been a time in your life where,
over a course of anything that you've gone through that
you can say you've done there.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
You've been there, done there and been that.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
I've been homeless, you know, been a person who couchsurfed,
you know, trying to chase a dream and you know,
realize that dream and the people who helped me while
I was couch searching.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Man, I am forever in the debt. You know.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
My brother Shay Rowntree, love them with all my heart.
My sister Natasha Ward, great casting director you know, used
to pick me up take me to auditions.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Man. So I've been down bad times in my life.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
So one thing that I can always know is I
can hit rock bottom, but I can always stand back
up that part, you know. And if you can, if
you understand that part, then then disguy is the limit,
you know. So yeah, absolutely, that's a beautiful thing. Is
that's beautiful and it's.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Powerful because look, this journey in life, it's not going to.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Always be great, nah, right, But how do you respond
to the times that aren't great?
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Right? Right? Easy to celebrate? Right, it's easy, very easy.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Yeah, it's second nature to be jubiling and to celebrate
and for things to go your way. But real character
comes from when you got to grind.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
You got to grind, yeah, right.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
One of the things that I equate to anything I do.
So I was a seventh round draft pick, and so
I had a mountain to climb just to even make
the team, let alone start all the way to the
Super Bowl that rookie year. And so what I learned
(35:37):
that lesson I learned in that one year my first
year of football. I take that and I use it
in everything I do in life. I treat every situation
in life like I'm a seventh round draft pick.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah, and it changes.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Your perspective and your focus and your work ethic and
anything you do. I approach it like unexpendable and I
don't have to be in here, right, and I just
attack attack, So everything I do, I do it like
(36:13):
I'm a seventh round draft pick, you know what. And
that's something like that that gives you so much. You
have so much belief in yourself when you can do that.
I have friends the same way who went to Juilliard,
who went to NYU, who went to USC who went
to Northwestern. I went to the State University of Georgia,
(36:34):
and I had to get it from the mud, get
it out of the mud. And nobody knew who I was.
When I first started working. I moved to LA nobody
knew who I was. Nobody asked me to come out here,
you know. But to be able to work your way up.
It's a lot of young actors who I work with,
they're like, yo, you do know, like you're one of
our favorite actors because you got it out of the mud,
(36:56):
and we saw you ever since you had the one
scene and road trip. We see when you're with the
bus driver on drum line, and we see your career
is so you give us all hope. I wasn't a
guy who came out of Juilliard who just had the
whole world placed in front of me, you know, I
had to be So I feel like the seventh round
draft or maybe even the undrafted free agent. That part,
you know what I'm saying. So that's the part that
(37:18):
that gives you that little extra thing in your gut. Yeah,
that's your purpose, man, it's your purpose.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
And that's what makes it so much better because that ride,
if you've gone through, what you've overcome, gives you a
little bit more proud of yourself as well.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Definitely, and always say that.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
You know, darkness is not great, but it's good for
you sometimes because without the darkness, you can't tell how
great the light.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
You don't know what the light.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
You don't even know what the light is, you don't
know what happens is unless you've been sad.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
You got to go through these times in order for
you to grow to get better.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Man.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
So that's why I always use the term I say,
burdens turn out to be blessings if you learn the lessons.
You're right, yes, So you go through these times in
order for you to understand what you have to deal
with on the next level and how to handle it
on the next level.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Man. So man, I applaud you and everything. Man, you're
my guy. Bro.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
I didn't know about the whole Shakespeare to kill that man,
not on single I'm going to give me a couple
of them lines. Man, I want to think my man,
Oh my dors he hanging out and see on the
been that podcast.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Man, thank you fellas. I appreciate him. It is fun.
I'm coming back the three Man We Baby come over
once a week and and and and Bookie.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
Season two starts December to sixteenth only on Max HBO Max.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Looking forward to that man and everything that you do. Man,
he's great and christal and everything.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Thank you man. We appreciate her as well. Man.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
And congratulations once again on the Baby Boy show. Junior
man doing this thing? What are you keeping you up
at night?
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Oh? God boy? You know what can take care of this?
Speaker 4 (38:55):
You know we don't have the night nurse anymore, so
we just got the nanny now, so we can't be
that twenty four hours of today.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Whoa, I'm wasn't be getting up like if I'm up
you you up. Everybody, Yeah, everybody up? Oh man, thank you,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
I appreciate it. I appreciate it. All right.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
That's another edition of the Done There Have Been There
podcast on our Heart Radio and Inflection Entertainment Network. I'm
Mike Hill, me from Salon, and of course make sure
you subscribe and hit the notification button on your page,
just let you know when every one of these editions
come out.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Man, you don't want to miss it. Man, this ship
is fire. Want to miss it.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
We teaching y'all shit about life, man, So come get
some of this knowledge.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
We'll see you next week, y'all.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
This is the inflection collective part for a connective, reflective,
live perspective, respected defensive ship shot no captainspect facts of
kick back just here for stund there fit that
Y'all. This is being inflection collective.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Father of us are connective, reflective, perspective, perspected, defensive, shad
no captain despect facts of kick back here fit that.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Back. I've in here another episode of that.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Then there have been that podcast on Inflection Entertainment Network,
and I Heeart Radio. I am your host, Mike Hill.
I'm from Salon, hanging out with my man. Ready for
another wonderful episode.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Bro, Yeah, look, we're rolling. It's fun. I like working
with my boy.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Of course, a love work.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
We got like a bit of a marriage ourselves, like
a Hollywood marriage.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And you gotta be waitful, right, we're not married.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
No, not that anything would be wrong if we were marriages,
but we're not.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
But we're not.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
We're just like platonic brothers in a marriage like a
bond that we do have a work relationship.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So we're talking.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
About marriages in entertainment, in a relationships in entertainment, right, yes,
And so I had to bring him a man who
has a wonderful story himself. He's he's a movement by himself,
but he's a force when he's with his wife.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
You remember that. That's pretty good. No, that's a song
that's saying, this is my friend, my man.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
You may have seen him in Queen Sugars Hollywood, but
he's been in Everything and Jangle, he was in Selma
and now he's on Bookie Bookie Shudio second season.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Man, check that out.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Man, I'm talking about the one, the only Omar Dorsey
hanging out with us today.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
In the crib.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
What's happening? Man and his brother go back? Man stars
tell it's all good. It's all good. But we said
double day, we double dy. We'll get into that in
this second two as a matter of fact. Man, But
I want to talk to you because, first of all,
it's get into your acting crib man.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Like, I love what you do. Man. Everything that you
do is wonderful. Man. You're just a hell of an
actor or whatever. Man.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
But how how how was acting overall? How is that
changed your life and your perspective life? You know, I'm
a creative person man.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Luckily, Man, I was raised by a woman who was
the theater director, my mother, doctor Naiolwen Dorsey.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Man.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
She always poured into me the craft, poured into me
the art and the love of it. So when I
was a little kid, Man, I used to go to
the theater to watch her direct, and I was looking up.
I'm like, I want to be just like that person.
I want to be just like that person. I want
to be on stage doing that. This was like when
I'm two years old, you know, So my mother started
teaching me monologue. The first one she taught me was
(02:30):
a twenty third songs, The Lord is my Shepherd, I
shall not want. I used to do that as talent shows,
and I used to always win either first or second place.
I was a three year old doing the twenty third
songs with all the vibrado of an ether speech, you know.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
What I'm saying. So, but it was but my mom
taught me.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
To started teaching me about Shakespeare when I was seven
to eight years old, by Birch's Off Break all these
different Lorraine Hansbury and all of this stuff, and taking
me to theaters, and then you know, went to performing
out of high school, got cultivated that way, you know,
went to the school with some amazing actors, went to
school with Dorian Mysic, went to school with Erica Ashmea.
She rest in peace. I love her with all my heart.
(03:06):
She just passed away a couple of weeks ago. I
went to school with you know, Childish Gambing. I went
to the same school. Lloyd went to the same school. So,
uh is in Decatur, Georgia. Yeah, right outside Atlanta. Yeah, man,
So you know, just just and even after that, I
was a member of this amazing theater group called Freddie
Hendrick youuth on south of Atlanta with one of our
mutual friends.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Uh, she gonna kill me, Candy.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Candy Barriss was a member that uh uh Keenan from
Ken he was Ken of Thompson, Sorry, Kennan. Yeah, but
so many people came out of that theater group.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Man.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
But yeah, that's just how it was in Atlanta, man,
you know, just getting all of that and then transition
from that, you know, went to college, you know, study
theater in college, went to grad school and studied filmed.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
As I was gonna be a director, it's too hard,
too much work.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
So the first joint I ever got coming I was
still in college. I got the movie road Trip, and
I played the leader at a black fraternity road Trip.
And then that was the first movie I forget auditioned for.
My acting teacher was the one that's like, hey, man,
they're doing this movie out here. You should go ahead
and audition for it. Audition for it. Got that, man,
and it's just been running ever since then. And man,
that's amazing. Look so I'm looking at your size right,
(04:16):
look like a linebacker, full back? No sports Yeah, I
played sports man. Yeah, but I wasn't gonna My brother
was a performing arts high school.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, but I still played football. Is there they have
football there? Yeah? Yeah, I just the performing arts was
a part of the school. They just did the halftime
show was over there. Times.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
My brother was was way better than me. He played
defensive tackles, so he was He might have been Defensive
Player of the Year for the Cap County back in
ninety two. But uh, you know, but that wasn't my calling.
Yeah you know what I'm saying. Yeah, but you know
I loved that because so many times, yeah right, we
get put in. I said, just like I s I'm
(05:01):
sure people walk up to you who you play for?
Like I tell you this, this is real. Like in
my career, I had to throw away a lot of
the boxes they tried to put me and they wanted
a picture hold me. Man, you know, so a lot
of times, you know, on Ray Donovan, I played a
bad guy, but I played a bad guy with some flair.
(05:22):
Same thing on Raisin Kayman when I played Cardier for Reid.
There's a lot of flair to that guy, but I
in people's minds or he looks like he's a thug.
He looks like this, that and the other. But I
always try to play against type. Yeah, you know, That's
what I've always wanted to do, because Forest Whitaker was
one of the.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
People who I looked up to, like, yeah, he's big.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
You've seen Forest back in the day especially, he looked like,
you know, he's a big cat, you know what I'm saying.
Before he lost a lot of weight. Man, But I
was like, yo, this is the guy who I look
up to, Yafiet Codon if you know what he is.
But these are the people who I looked up to,
bigger dudes who always had some dignity and class about themselves. Right,
And you don't have to play the same same thing
over and over. You don't have to be with people's
(06:02):
perception of you is. And especially coming from a place
of me doing summer Stock theater, doing Shakespeare one one
week and the next week I'm doing August Wilson, you know,
so I never put myself in a box.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
But you got that timber, you got that Shakespeare, in.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
No doubt, and I hit them in the head with
some of this King Lear.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
They ain't gonna know what happened. Bro, I was talking
to you.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
I don't know if you know Anthony Hemingway a great
writer director, but he was we were talking to on Saturday.
He was like, oh ma, I got a project for you.
You hit him in the head with this Shakespeare. They
don't know what's happening.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
But then before, before you got married, obviously we get
into that and just single days, did you ever, you know,
come on to a lady and.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
All the so we call Shakespeare the bar and how
do I love thee Let me count the ways I
hit him with Emily Frost, I hit him with anything, man,
I hit them with a.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
SunNet, and they had no idea what you were talking,
what I was saying. I just performed it.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I've never heard the kter, dude do this before you
deck doing this? Man?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
That was a little that was always my figure. That's
how I got my wife. Tell you the truth, I
was but I hit her with some of that man.
You know what's so crazy on Raisin Kane. If y'all
ever watched me play Cardier on Raising Candy season two,
when I was talking to rock the one Patina Miller,
you know, she was like, we would love interest, and.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
That's how I got her. I was doing, I was
doing until she got me in the elevator exactly. Sorry
if you have great season. It was a tremendous season.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
But I got her, you know, on that Shakespeare on
him and that's what and me and I uh, Sasha
paying great writers the show run of that show. He
was like, I know you like that Shakespeare. I said,
I love it. I got something for you. So yeah, man,
but yeah, I used to hit him with that mic.
Yeah you got that voice he walk up.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah. And I used to sing opera back and sing
smoking cigars. Oh watch what some of that figure figure
figure ship the Barbera of de Ville. Oh no, hear
me a look just a little bit. Just I can't
do it in more for the cigarettes scratch now that
(08:08):
I did. I did. I sang opera Conelian Man, Wow, yeah,
I am so you are a renaissance man man for sure.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Man, you did you had It was a show that
came out It didn't last long. I don't think it
was you know, the Big Show, the wrestler, Yeah, wrestler, Yeah,
didn't didn't you. I didn't work with Big Show.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Now. You never worked with Big work with Paul White. Now.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
I could have swore you were on a because I
had auditioned for a show and I can't remember the
name of it.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
This is back.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
This is years ago when I thought that that was
going to be an actor, which I clearly am not.
So I know, no, man, he's done some background all right, yeah,
okay for a right shows.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
And so I was watching it and I was like, oh,
they picked this motherfuck.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I don't remember I remember. I mean, I've done so
much it's too I'm gonna look it up and I'm gonna.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Tell you man. Yeah. But but I was like, yo,
a lot of people be saying that.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
I'm like, every time I went on the audition, I'm
in the sweating, I'm doing the thing, and they didn't
hire you like you. I used to hate on the
most with the rappers, man the rapperuse.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
This was back in the nineties. I was like, I
can't get a job.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I can't get it getting job because of the job,
because and I'm not mad at it.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
The producers got to make their money. Exactly, I'm gonna
get this dude from the cat. I'm about to know
what this guy is. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
But like I used to hate on them all the time,
but but I always but I realized is that when
it's your time's your time. So it's like, you know,
it's it was meant for you. It's meant for you.
Like you said, your paying game is nasty. Yeah, so
that's what it is, man. Yeah, so you just have
to buy your time. It's a lot of people us
sol kept who kept falling off, people that came in
the game with They start and they'll fall off, and
(10:05):
they'll fall off, and you know, you got gevity is
what it is.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Man.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
People don't understand like coming from an athletic background and
being in the locker room and playing in the league,
it's like entertainment, right, it's rarefyed their right right to
get in. It's hard for sure to stay in. It's
damn near impossible. And so to be able to play
for that long and people like, what's the secret, man,
(10:31):
what's the secret? First of all, you always got to
add value. Secondly, you gotta be consistent. Yeah, you got
to show up. You got to show up, man, You
gotta show up.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
You gotta show out. So what you the last year
don't matter if you ain't putting on the man, I
promise you. Whatever the ship you did back then, it's
gone don't matter because it's a boy coming in from
s m U.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Do you know all of it with the Berry White
vote got all of that, man, And that goes with
not just professional but in your personal life. You got
to evolve as a person. The evolution and the evolution
is so key, man, and you know you go through
the situations you just talked about your beautiful White Chrystal. Congratulations.
By the way, he's a newly We just had a
(11:15):
baby boy May.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
And on Mother's Day. On Mother's Day, Yeah, what's his name?
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Ye had two kids previous, two daughters. Man, they've grown
too grown. Okay, what's what's fatherhood like for you?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Right now? Man?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
As you know, like you said, two grown children and
now you got an infinite home.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
You know, it's funny because I had my kids and
you know, my girls in my twenties, my early twenties, right,
and I was struggling so bad, right, and it's just
like how am I going to put two pennies together
to like, I gotta go back to work and my
work at that time, my wife had to go back
to work, and it's like, well, we gotta put this
baby in the daycare. I don't know these people, but
(11:55):
you know they ended up they God blessed. We had
some great daycares at that time, and they great people
watching over our daughters, you know, while we had to
go back to work, and to now be in a
position to be like, Okay, well I just got finished doing.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Season two of my show.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
My wife is on hiatus from her show, so we
can actually sit here for a couple of months and like,
you know, be here with our kids in this early
formative time, you know what I'm saying. Already just started
going back to work this week. She's directing Doctor Otissey
right down the street and at Paramount. But I'm back
at home, you know, and Lord is in the blessing business,
so we got a nanny, you know, money, So it's
(12:37):
like that's a blessing to be able to it's fun.
I was talking to my daughters about it.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
I said, Yo, yeah, I missed that I missed out on.
They't missed out on it. Trust me, they still hit
me in the pocket.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I tell you what.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
In colleges they been, they have but they have a
good time. You know, because my youngest is in college now.
My daughter, my oldest went to Howard and you know
she went. He was skating over that. She ain't have
to worry about no books or nothing. She was chilling man,
especially at Howard and everybody at Howard that time with
Quinn Shakar was on. I was coming into the administration office.
You know what I'm saying. Yeah, me and Common being
(13:08):
an administration office together, and that's something. And call me like,
hey man, my boy, because this song was studying theater.
Uh my daughter was studying theater, so you know we'd
just be comparing notes and everything.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, man, how do you deal with that? Man?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Because being in new way and once again your your
wife's beautiful wife, Crystal great directors, wonderful shows herself, whatnot
being married to somebody who's also in the spotlight. Being
somebody that's also uh, you know, a part of Hollywood.
Even though you guys have separate schedules, still being able
to come together, be a parents to your newborn now
(13:44):
and then still finding time for one another.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
You know, I tell you something, man, the most beautiful
role I've ever seen Crystal play is as a mother.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Man.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Her, what she's doing over these last four months has
been it's been beautiful. I never thought I could be
more in love with somebody than with her than I
already was. But just watching her doing what she's doing
right now, man, I have admiration for her. I never
thought I would even have, just knowing how hard she
works in her professional career and then being a wife,
(14:12):
just seeing that same due diligence that she's given to
our son. Man, I am over the moon with her
right now, you know. But yeah, just put it together.
It takes a team. I said, Like you said, man,
I've been I've been married before, so I was like,
I ain't never doing this again unless I can build
an empire with somebody. And when I met her. I
met her, I remember it was doing Toronto Film Festival.
(14:34):
We were premiering the movie Harriet and I Sawry and
I was like, that's the most beautiful woman I ever seen.
She was so bad.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Right.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
A dude walked up to me and was like, I'm
a big fan of yours. I was like, I appreciate it.
Man just kept talking to a look at her, this,
that and the other. My man was like, yo, man,
you know you just this? I said, who said Westy Snipes? What?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Wow? What the reason? I'm actor? I was so focused.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So I had to kiss Wesley asked for the the
night because it was a double mic was Premierre that
night too, and I was like, oh, man, so I
was talking to Wesley and everything, you know, But yeah, man,
I was just was mesmerized just by her and then
not even knowing she was a director at the time,
and I was like, she's just bad, you know what.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
I'm there, and then not even knowing she was from
the crib. I ain't know she was from Georgia, you
know any of this stuff. Man, But said, yeah, Shakespeare,
you know what I'm saying. And then it's sweighty because
what it was is one of her friends was a
makeup artist of a of a movie me and my
Herscheley did probably about thirteen fourteen years ago, Uh, the
(15:34):
wrong Man. We were the two leads merciall lead, two
time Oscar winning bad Boy. But it was a film
that we were the two leads in and she's like, yeah,
it's my friend Crystal. Start chopping it up. And then
later on I was I was about to direct my
first short. She was like, oh, you know my friends
and director. I'm like, oh, word, I think I know
every black female director because Queen Sugar, all we had
was female directors.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Like that, what was up?
Speaker 4 (15:56):
She's like, yeah, I directed. I said, well, what your
director said, I'm American director of American soul right now.
I was like, oh, you're the real director? Is the
leader that showed and she's like a director of green Leaf.
I'm like, how do I not know you? But in
time I realized I knew exactly who she was because
I saw the plays that she was directing in Atlanta.
(16:17):
I saw like all of she transitioned from the stage
to television and film, and I knew her work and
I knew her as not Crystal Robus in it, but
that's Crystal Clear. Everybody everybody always raved about Crystal Clear
in Atlanta. And I went to her houseband that was
like that's a Crystal Clear, Like, hold baby, are you
Crystal Clear? And she's like yeah, I said, do you
know those are my brothers. Those are my people. And
(16:39):
find out we had the same mutual friends all this
whole time, and we've been in the same rooms for
fifteen seventeen years.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
You know what I'm saying, Yes, what if you would
have met her then.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Yep, I would have I would not have been ready.
She plays no games, no games with her, you know
what I'm saying. So we met at the same child
after in the same page in the book of life. Wow,
there's such a taboo thing about Hollywood marriages, right, right,
they always start off grade and it is this and
(17:12):
it's that, right, how do you navigate and how do
you plan to just keep it fresh, keep it tight,
keep it you guys against the world, and not let
those outside forces in Hollywood, which they do, seep into
your relationship.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
The thing about it, though, is I don't even consider
myself despite my name on Queen Sugar Hollywood, that part,
you know what I'm saying. At the end of the day,
I think of myself as a down South Georgia boy.
And my wife thinks of herself as the Georgia peach,
you know. And you know when you have that inside
of you, and it's I don't care about the glissen,
(17:49):
the glamor in any of that stuff. Man, Just I
care about the work. Honestly. I don't go to no
Hollywood parties. I'd be with Mike we be yo. Like
when we were together two or three weeks ago. Man,
it just felt like we was back at the crib.
We was no Paparozzi, none of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
You know.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
It's just like nah, man, we just I want my people,
you know, I don't like to do any of that,
you know, any of.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
The glitz and glamor.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
I mean, unless it's any time or and I'm nominated
or my wife is nominated, you know, or the rest
of it. Man, they can have it. And I'm at
a certain age right now, and I'm a two time
loser already. Like you said, you've been married, you know what,
I've already understood what all that was. So now it's
real time. It's empire building time. You know, it's not
time to be I've been famous. Yeah, I don't need
(18:34):
nobody to come up. Like you said, I was the
man in high school. You know what I'm saying that
I was a man in college, and I was a
man when I was twenty two and then when I
got on television, I was the man. You know what
I'm saying. So it's the person. Now I'm the man.
I'm her man now you know what I'm saying. So
that's the difference of it. Now, Man, I don't need
any kind of anybody giving me any kind of agulation.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Man, I don't need that. But she gave you the
former respect.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
We was talking about this something before we actually had
a discussion about this.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
She did something that.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
A lot of people in Hollywood don't want to do
because they feel like they made a name for himself.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
You talked, she was Crystal Clear. Yeah, she was Crystal Roberson.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
You make a name for yourself, and now she's taking
your last name, no doubt about it was that special
for you? I mean it wasn't something that I knew
your personality. I know, it's not something that you was
the man. But is that something that was special? What
does that mean for you? For her to take your
last name?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
It meant a lot, right because she's made her name.
She's Crystal Roberson.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Man.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
That woman was Crystal Robertson, Executive producer of the TV
show of Queens, executive producer of the new season of Genius,
that's nominated.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
For all the awards.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Director on the Guilderdasis nominated for a million Emmys. You know,
the director of all of these things. Her name is
Crystal Roberson. Yes, she was like, no, I'm taking She's like, yo, nah,
she said she was taking my name. I was surprised
because I was like, you know, she's a modern woman.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
I wouldn't have been I would have tripped about it, like, yo,
you your your blood is on that roverson name. She's like, no,
I want I want your blood on my I want
that Dorsey on my name. So I was like, she
do she married and if she wasn't, I would say
keep her away from me.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So so so we actually a double dated when I
was with Todd Candy.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
We never got the call was Fly's like, I can
get on, we can get on the plane. You know
that I see this that I don't like to be excluded?
Can I next time?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Next time? I mean, you don't you find somebody?
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I think, but you know, one of the things being
in a marriage like that, like you said, like you
have somebody, you got somebody that was in the spotlight
for a while and she's not dancing anymore, right, so,
but now you have somebody's in the spot Like one
of the things I learned, man.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I kind of got a little turned off.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
And this is just my personal thing has done there
been that about being with somebody who's also in the spotlight,
and not that that I don't mind. I want that
person to thrive and shine or whatever. But I just
think the attention sometimes that's brought to you, the outside attention.
Sometimes we can ignore it. We can shield ourselves and
insulate ourselves from it.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Man.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
But the noise, especially who I was married to, and
how public that is. Because being on a reality show,
people has to know your reality.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
That's the trick that. Man, that's got to be very
hard man. You know, I uh, you and Todd and
I used to be like, man, how can they do it?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Man?
Speaker 4 (21:38):
You know, you were meant to a supermodel who was
on the biggest reality show in the.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
World, and I used to watch. I was like, man, dude,
that's got to be hard.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Now, my wife, she's the face of Essence magazine, but
she's not on television. She's behind the scenes. She's directing,
producing and writing, you know, so she don't want to
be that She's like, I let me let the work
speak for itself, you know. But because she is married
to me, and because she is a beautiful woman, and
because she's highly successful.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
You know, they put the spotlight on her.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
She shines, but she's not the person who's always in
front of the camera like that.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
That's just recognizable people understand. So how does she deal
with that? Like because like they always ask, like, how
does a man deal with a famous woman in the spotlight?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Right?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
And he might not be somebody that's in front of
the camera, but she's getting to shine or whatever.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
How does she deal with that?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Because you know, you're sex somebody.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Yeah, women love me and it was really hard. It
was hard on her at first. She was just like, Yo,
why don't like these women are real bold. They just
push you about the way and just come to hug
on you and stuff. I said, it's the character that
I play. I said that it makes them feel something.
And so like when they see me, they just want
to you know, they want to feel it. But then like, yo,
(22:54):
this is my wife, this before, this is my lady.
It's my lady Chris. Hey, you know how I'm o Mark,
this is my lady Crystal. You know what I'm saying.
And now it's like, yo, now they sort of know
us as a tandem.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
But did they take a time because time, Yeah, because
I've dealt with that even after Cynthia, because I became
a little bit more popular after. Right, So dealing with somebody,
even dating somebody, they're not used to somebody coming up
and trying to take a picture on arguing, and there's
a fine line between like okay, well you got to
be respectful to the person with but also inviting not
(23:25):
an asshole.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Right right, yeah, yeah, so it is that and it's
like you was like, take a picture, you take a
picture of my wife.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yoh, okay, take a picture with us. Yeah, you know
what I'm saying. Don't hand your phone to my wife.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Disrespect that to take this picture. Like, no, no, she's
gonna else, She's gonna be in the pictures. This man
over here with this tuning bro exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
When I when I was when I met my wife,
she was on tour Beyonce, but she toured with everybody,
and and it was one of the situations where me,
being an athlete and bold women would just while we
were together would be like does she cook.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
For you, like in front of her.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah, no, it was out of control. This might be
light skin, but she got a little thub.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Oh she is.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
She is a thing, right Like I learned a lesson
from her because me being the athlete in the spotlight,
I always wanted to be kind to people, right right,
I'm just a natural nice guy. So people would come up.
Like I was at an autograph signing and this woman
(24:44):
came in and she had made me like a quilt
with like my number on it and all of that,
and she was just like, you know, I'm a really
big fan. I made this for you. And I was like,
you know what, thank you, this this is beautiful. Thank
you so much.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Man. It was such a nice thing.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
She was just like, look, I you know, I followed
your career and and Renee's right there and she just
going and I'm just being cordial. Right at the end
of the night, She'll be like, so you can't see
it because you're you right, you're just being you naive.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
A little bit, but oh I can see it.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Oh yeah, you feel like like she it's on them.
The first night we ever went out and Dall was
playing for the Broncos at the time, it was Clinton
Portis's all white party.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
So we're there, We're at the club. It's popping. She
goes to the bar to get a drink. Three seconds
she took three steps, somebody came and sat down. Hey
blah blah blah. So she got it, and I'm just like,
oh shit, here we go. She got the drink, she turned,
she saw the girl. She came, she said down. She
was like, hey, how you doing. I'm your niece. And
I was like.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yeah, yeah, and I.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Was like, all right, thank you, I'm just my girl.
I'm gonna go back. And then I was looking at it.
I was just like and she was like, what I said,
You're not mad. She was like, I'm not worried about that.
That's kind she said, I'm not worried about that.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
In other words, it tastes because secure woman.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Well, yeah, because I didn't want to have to deal
with the you know, I don't you know, I don't
know her. I do know her, but it was like,
it's just she was like, look, I came with you,
I know I'm leaving with you. But what she did
explain to me as we got deeper and we got engaged,
and then finally married is you have to set a boundary.
(26:40):
You can't allow women to come into your space right
with ill intentions, because the further you let or the
closer you let them get to you, the bolder they
become and the less they value me. And I didn't
understand that at first because I'm just being me, Hey, yeah,
(27:01):
I take a picture. And it was one time I
was a girl I had some dealings with UH. I
started at a game and I was like, hey, how
you doing. This is my uh this is my fiance
and she was like, hey, how you doing and she
was like, all right, I see you later. I was like,
all right, I talked to you later. And then she
was like, but you won't, right.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
She was like, you you.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Won't talk to her later and I was like, yeah,
I know, but I that's just it's just right.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
But she was like she doesn't know that, right, Like, no,
you won't. But it would have just like all right,
nice to see you.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
But I'm like she was like, I'll see you later,
and I was like, okay, i'll see you too, or
I'll talk to you later. But it once again, I'm
not knowing that's sending the wrong message. It has nothing
to do with it and insecure. It's just about how
I carry myself so I don't open myself up to
unsolicited issues.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
And I had to learn that within the relationship.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So how did you start making her feel more secure
when she had those doubts in me?
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Again?
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Like I said, I bring her into the conversation all
the time, Like I didn't think about it before when
we first started dating. I'm like, hey, how you doing. Yeah, yeah,
it's just a fan, you know what I'm saying. She
was like okay, but and then it's it took her
a conversation. She was like, you know, I don't really
like it's like, yo, you're my dude, but these women
are like, oh, you're my husband in my mind, right,
But like what am I supposed to say about that?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
You know? I was like, you're right.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
So anytime somebody who I see is a little bit
too uh jubilant, this is my this like it's my
girlfriend right here? Yeah, hey man, yeah, you know, just
keep it like that and keep people at arms length.
And she told my wife told me the same thing,
and she's like, you gotta she said, you're a king,
Like you know, it's like me and my whole cruise
like people would like to be around y'all. She was like,
(28:48):
you can't. Everybody can't have access to the King. Can't
do it, you know. So I was like, oh, okay,
it made sense, right. You don't you don't see it.
You don't see like I'm just like, but I'm with you.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I'm learning something from y'all, man, because I think that's
been my biggest problem of just allowing access. I've always
said you got to set bound They've always said you
need to set boundaries. So you need to set boundaries,
you know what I mean? People hitting you up, saying
nice things and compliment.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
You know, you give a.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Heart sign, you know, nothing nothing more heart sign that's
sending the message.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
You know, you're letting them know that.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Like, but I'm thinking, hey, thank you, because that's when
you say thank you, the heart comes up, the prayer
hands come up, you know what I mean. So I'm
thinking that's what the damn emoji is supposed to be.
Hard thank you, you know. But so I'm learning something
from y'all. So I just need to be an asshole that.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Us getting no very eloquent in the way. That sh
it don't work for me.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Thought so I had one one one one time I
tried to do that and seriously, one of my marriages,
I don't know which one it was, one of my marriages.
I told this girl. She came, bah blah, blah blah,
try to holler at me. I said, I'm sorry, I'm married. Right, Oh, no,
you see, you see what I did wrong?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yes, you see. I ain't even realized I did something wrong.
I said, I'm horrible. I said, I'm sorry. I said,
She said, why are you sorry? Why you sorry? You married?
Why are you so?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Why you got to tell you something like I'm just like,
it's like, I'm sorry, no, thank you, Like I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
No, it's the way.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
That okay, it's acting I'm sorry i'm married, or I'm
sorry but i'm married. I don't know, or just i'm married. Oh, oh,
I'm sorry. Just has to drop.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Was your wife with you? My wife wasn't?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
No.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
I told her about it, and I told her, I said, hey,
I told her, I'm sorry. She said, what did you say?
I said, I'm sorry, I'm married. Well, are you sorry
that you married? I'm like, no, I'm not saying it
that way. I'm not sorry that I'm married. I'm telling her,
I'm sorry to disappoint her. Listen, listen, well, damn this one.
I've been listen, man, listen here.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Whenever I'm out and I'm getting attention, right, I would
come home and I'll tell my wife I was hot
on the street today. I can't tell, so it becomes
a joke, like I'm hot on, I was hot on.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
She's like, what you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
I was like, man, I was at the It's Coffee
bean and the lady came up next to me.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
I was like, oh my god, you're so big strong.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
She was checking me out, like she'll laugh because she
knows that I'm bringing levity.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
To the situation.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
And y'all been together so long, so Long's a level
of trust. Their trust there, and that's the whole thing,
if you build your foundation on trust and honesty. The
first thing my wife and I talked about the night
we met. She told me I don't believe in marriage,
(31:49):
I don't want kids, and I don't believe in monogamy.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's the first.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
And I was like, I mean, okay, I just met you, right,
I told her. I said, look, I don't smoke, I
don't drink, but my only vice is women. So we
built our courtship on flat out honesty. Now, don't look
at us. Twenty one years later, married Mary, kids and monogamous. Right,
(32:20):
But it started there like there was no expectation to
be perfect, right, Like, I put my flaws out there.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
She told me how she was feeling.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
And we built a relationship based on Oh, I can
be honest with you, and oh, you can be honest
with me. And now we can talk about anything. I
can talk about how I was being hot on the street.
She can come home and be like, man, somebody you
know they tried to get me in the grocery store today.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Like it.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
But the level of trust is so strong that now
we find joy and amusement in that.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
She find I'm still me, so you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
It Attraction doesn't stop, right, It's just how you deal
with it and and and how you present it to
each other and how you protect each other.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Right man, all right, we got to wrap things up. Man,
We have to well I love real quick before we
get into our final segment. Man, Like, okay, so you're
a great actor, she's a great director. Yeah, when we're
gonna see y'all to collaborating on something.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
We got things in the works. But but what we're
really doing right now, we're taking your right My wife
just sold two TV shows Amazon, so we're just right now.
What we're trying to do is just create. Man. You know,
I want to be a I want to be an employer,
not an employee.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
But you know I'm available. Ay, come on, man, it's bro.
You already know that. Man, I'm available for you.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah, so we get we get right at the end
of the show, Man's we call it unfiltered man, straight up.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Like we would have done. There have been that podcast. Man.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
So, is there been a time in your life where,
over a course of anything that you've gone through that
you can say you've done there.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
You've been there, done there and been that.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
I've been homeless, you know, been a person who couchsurfed,
you know, trying to chase a dream and you know,
realize that dream and the people who helped me while
I was couch searching.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Man, I am forever in the debt. You know.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
My brother Shay Rowntree, love them with all my heart.
My sister Natasha Ward, great casting director you know, used
to pick me up take me to auditions.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Man. So I've been down bad times in my life.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
So one thing that I can always know is I
can hit rock bottom, but I can always stand back
up that part, you know. And if you can, if
you understand that part, then then disguy is the limit,
you know. So yeah, absolutely, that's a beautiful thing. Is
that's beautiful and it's.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Powerful because look, this journey in life, it's not going to.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Always be great, nah, right, But how do you respond
to the times that aren't great?
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Right? Right? Easy to celebrate? Right, it's easy, very easy.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Yeah, it's second nature to be jubiling and to celebrate
and for things to go your way. But real character
comes from when you got to grind.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
You got to grind, yeah, right.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
One of the things that I equate to anything I do.
So I was a seventh round draft pick, and so
I had a mountain to climb just to even make
the team, let alone start all the way to the
Super Bowl that rookie year. And so what I learned
(35:37):
that lesson I learned in that one year my first
year of football. I take that and I use it
in everything I do in life. I treat every situation
in life like I'm a seventh round draft pick.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah, and it changes.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Your perspective and your focus and your work ethic and
anything you do. I approach it like unexpendable and I
don't have to be in here, right, and I just
attack attack, So everything I do, I do it like
(36:13):
I'm a seventh round draft pick, you know what. And
that's something like that that gives you so much. You
have so much belief in yourself when you can do that.
I have friends the same way who went to Juilliard,
who went to NYU, who went to USC who went
to Northwestern. I went to the State University of Georgia,
(36:34):
and I had to get it from the mud, get
it out of the mud. And nobody knew who I was.
When I first started working. I moved to LA nobody
knew who I was. Nobody asked me to come out here,
you know. But to be able to work your way up.
It's a lot of young actors who I work with,
they're like, yo, you do know, like you're one of
our favorite actors because you got it out of the mud,
(36:56):
and we saw you ever since you had the one
scene and road trip. We see when you're with the
bus driver on drum line, and we see your career
is so you give us all hope. I wasn't a
guy who came out of Juilliard who just had the
whole world placed in front of me, you know, I
had to be So I feel like the seventh round
draft or maybe even the undrafted free agent. That part,
you know what I'm saying. So that's the part that
(37:18):
that gives you that little extra thing in your gut. Yeah,
that's your purpose, man, it's your purpose.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
And that's what makes it so much better because that ride,
if you've gone through, what you've overcome, gives you a
little bit more proud of yourself as well.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Definitely, and always say that.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
You know, darkness is not great, but it's good for
you sometimes because without the darkness, you can't tell how
great the light.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
You don't know what the light.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
You don't even know what the light is, you don't
know what happens is unless you've been sad.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
You got to go through these times in order for
you to grow to get better.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Man.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
So that's why I always use the term I say,
burdens turn out to be blessings if you learn the lessons.
You're right, yes, So you go through these times in
order for you to understand what you have to deal
with on the next level and how to handle it
on the next level.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Man. So man, I applaud you and everything. Man, you're
my guy. Bro.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
I didn't know about the whole Shakespeare to kill that man,
not on single I'm going to give me a couple
of them lines. Man, I want to think my man,
Oh my dors he hanging out and see on the
been that podcast.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Man, thank you fellas. I appreciate him. It is fun.
I'm coming back the three Man We Baby come over
once a week and and and and Bookie.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
Season two starts December to sixteenth only on Max HBO Max.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
Looking forward to that man and everything that you do. Man,
he's great and christal and everything.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Thank you man. We appreciate her as well. Man.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
And congratulations once again on the Baby Boy show. Junior
man doing this thing? What are you keeping you up
at night?
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Oh? God boy? You know what can take care of this?
Speaker 4 (38:55):
You know we don't have the night nurse anymore, so
we just got the nanny now, so we can't be
that twenty four hours of today.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Whoa, I'm wasn't be getting up like if I'm up
you you up. Everybody, Yeah, everybody up? Oh man, thank you,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
I appreciate it. I appreciate it. All right.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
That's another edition of the Done There Have Been There
podcast on our Heart Radio and Inflection Entertainment Network. I'm
Mike Hill, me from Salon, and of course make sure
you subscribe and hit the notification button on your page,
just let you know when every one of these editions
come out.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Man, you don't want to miss it. Man, this ship
is fire. Want to miss it.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
We teaching y'all shit about life, man, So come get
some of this knowledge.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
We'll see you next week, y'all.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
This is the inflection collective part for a connective, reflective,
live perspective, respected defensive ship shot no captainspect facts of
kick back just here for stund there fit that
Hosts And Creators
Mike Hill
Eunice Elliott
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