August 13, 2024 • 46 mins
In our second interview, we welcome the legendary Billy Dee Williams to the show. Mr. Williams tells us about his passion for painting, how to play heartthrob, and why he doesn't believe children should work.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Donald, you're finally in four K and you look so handsome.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Fuck your sale machine, Zach.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I want to thank you for leveling up. Finally, thank
you Daniel for assisting himsure this will be the first
episode ever. I believe maybe there's another one of fake doctors,
real friends that we can put on YouTube in well
high resolution. I'm not living my hair today. I wish
it was better for this monumental moment. You look great.
(00:27):
Center part. No one likes. No one likes the center part, Donald,
Daniel Alfalfa, who does.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Zen z is all about the middle part. They don't
like a side part.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I have so much to George McFly Alfalfa, Alfalfa. I
went to Game seven, guys, and I I don't think.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I want to miss set to Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
You're mad that your friend got to go to game seven.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
No, I'm not mad that you got to go to
Game seven. I'm mad because of the outcome you put
the fucking juju.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You're gonna blame it on me. You're gonna blame the.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
One and it said you're the one that said, look, guys,
let's hope for game seven because then I get to go, right,
I said, yes, fuck game seven.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Let's win it in six. That's the way to go.
And then all of you.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Guys are like, no, come on, Donald, don't you want
them to go to game seven?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, in this story, I'm the reason they lost.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
You in my story, in our story, in the you
and I story, you are the fucking reason they lost
because you just had to go to a game, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, I really had to go.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I gotta tell you. You're gonna think this is crazy
because of my whole history of not loving sports, But
I gotta say I really have fun going to MSG.
I'm a regular now. It's a it's a great stadium.
I think I might be going tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
To the next stadium. It's an arena.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Oh whatever, fine arena.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I think I might be going to the Rangers game tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
The Rangers were also.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Your bad luck for New York. Every game you go
to they lose.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Yo.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
You're such a bringing that Jersey shit up in there, man,
bringing that.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You're saying I bring. You're saying I bring New Jersey energy.
That's ruining New.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
York's Bridge and Tunnel crowd. You bring that Bridge and
Tunnel crowd.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
You don't know that is the new Yorker's negative term
for people who don't live in New York. They call
us bridge and tunnelers.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Because you claim New York like it's yours, but really
you got to take a bridge and a tunnel to get.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Up and I don't take any bridge or tunnel to
get to Manhattan. That's where I live now.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
When you were younger, this is how you know. This
is how you know. Motherfuckers would be like, where are
you from? And you'd be like, oh, I'm from New
York and it'd be like, oh really, what part? Oh well, really,
I'm from Jersey. I'm from like right across the river.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
That's how all you Jersey motherfuckers be acting, and don't
act like you don't.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I grew up up in New York City, and I
know how you talk.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I know, but I now, do you agree now that
I'm a proper New Yorker?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
You a transplant? I'll give you that.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
What the fuck you talk? I leave heear since like
ninety nine, Okay, I mean, I mean I'm officially a
New Yorker and.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
The okay, I'm about to say, what are you are?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I pay taxes. I pay taxes in LA which I
guess means you spend six months, right, That's how they
figure out where you're, wherever you space, wherever you spend
six months, you have to pick. You have to pick.
So I think I spend six months and a day
in LA.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
At least I love New York. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
It's so fun right now, dude. It's eighty degrees out.
People now are fucking happy, right Daniel?
Speaker 4 (03:49):
You know I got the T shirt and by the way,
we're matching zact we call each other before this.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I know I just changed into this. I went and
bought a shirt.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Are the ladies wearing short shirts right now?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Everyone? The men are in their tank tops, the ladies
are in their sun dresses. Everyone's got a little bop.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Is the jiggle out?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Everyone's jiggling.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
There we go. You would go wrong.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
You can't go wrong when the city's jiggling. When the
jiggling is I'm gonna tell you something right now, jiggling baby,
Go ahead, baby, that's all I gotta say.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Everyone is Is it jingling or jigglingggg? Everyone's jiggling. Everyone's
feeling themselves. Oh yeah, there was an energy, right Daniel,
you know what you feel? It I feel it very much.
So I was walking around green Point earlier today.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I got my radio Bakery hat and it was nice.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
It was nice point.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Where's green Point at Brooklyn? You grew up.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You're bragging about your New York status and you don't
even know where green Point is.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
It sounds very caucused.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
What does that mean? What caucas Yes, I'm not go
you made up a word.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
For waitness caucus caucus.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I went to dinner with Johnny c McGinley last night
in New York.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
He's in New York too.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, Johnny came to New York for an event he's doing,
and we had a really fun dinner. I'm gonna try
and bring him to the Rangers game tomorrow. Wouldn't that be.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
A hockey Detroit Red Wings fan?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
He loves hockey, and I think I'm trying to get
us both into the garden tomorrow since you know I'm
a regular. Now I got the hookup, I found the hookup.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I'm gonna tell them that you're a fucking bridge and tunneler.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
You need to be nicer to me, because there's gonna
come a point where you're gonna want my MSG hookup
and I'll be like, I don't.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Know I've senior seats. I'm good. I think I can
do better.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Really listen to you, really, yeah really? As a New Yorker,
I don't have like Spike Lee seats. Are you saying
that you have like Spike Lee level seats? I don't
have that.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I've sat on the floor a few times at MSG.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
You know that meme where Mariah Carey says I don't
know her? Yeah, that's what's gonna happen when you try
and get my MSG hook up.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I'm not calling your MSG hookup. I'm gonna I got
all right.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I just want you to know if and when a
time comes where you're like, hey, Zach, can I have
your MSG hookup, I'm gonna do the Mariah carry I
don't know her.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Okay, So the next time you try and get tickets
to an MSG event and your hookup doesn't come through,
I'm gonna pull the Celine Dion shit on you.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
What's that sleep? What's that where the.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Window roll where she rolls down the window to listen
for a second, doesn't like what she hears, rolls the window,
the car drives off.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
I told I was sending Donald pictures of all this.
They call it Celebrity Row. All the celebrities that were
on Celebrity Row. They had Tracy Morgan, Ben's.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Morgan was up in there, Ben Stiller, Brian Fellows was
in the.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
House, John Stewart, Spike.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Lee, of course, Jason Bateman.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, well that there were lots of stars in the
in the house. But on Celebrity Row, I didn't it
was Bateman on that initial like Spike Lee Row.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I don't know. I don't know. All I know is
I know.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
It was fun. It's a blast, you jig.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That was not a blast. The game was horrible.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, the game was horrible, but I don't I'm not
going to take credit for it. I'm not going to
sit here and say it's my fault.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
But it is. But okay, we should probably get the
show going. We got to.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, you guys, we have a big show today. We
have Billy d Williams, the legend. We are so excited
and honored that he's decided to come on the show. Donald,
you know, we need to talk to him about his
illustrious career, not just being Lando.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Oh no, I'm a huge fan of his. Actually, I
followed him for a really long time.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And you guys have something in common in that you
both came up and began very young in New York
City as actors.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yes, I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
All right, here we go one. Donald's gonna count us in,
and then we're going to bring in the legend. Billy
d Williams.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Say stories that show we made about a bunch of
thos nurses.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
He said, he's a stories.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Net, so yea.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yea se.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well, welcome mister Billy D Williams.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
It is sounderous.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Applause, thunderous applause for the living legend, Billy D Williams.
We're so honored to have you on our show. We
know that you are out and about talking about your
new biography, What have we here, Portrait of a Life.
Thank you so much for joining us on on Fake Doctors,
Real Friends.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Oh, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
One fun thing for us. That's a connection. I don't
even know if you remember doing it, but Donald and
I were on Scrubs for many, many years and you
did a very very fun cameo for us. Do you
remember doing that.
Speaker 6 (09:04):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, I use the footage
whenever I do these conventions.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Oh really, Yeah, that's so is it me screaming?
Speaker 5 (09:23):
You are hysterical?
Speaker 2 (09:26):
You are you?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Your reaction is hysterical. Anyway, I'm well, man, I'm really well.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Thank you for asking.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
The last time I saw you was that celebration I
think in Chicago. That's the last time I saw you. Yeah, right, yeah,
I got a picture from there too. And we look
good together, man, I'm not gonna lie. We look real good,
like I would say, father and son. Just gonna put
it out there, just gonna put it out there for
those listening.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Nice, nice to hear.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Thank you, Billy. Do you go to a lot of
those I mean, obviously, you know you're known for so
many roles. One of the most popular is, of course, Orlando.
Do you go to a lot of those conventions and
and and see the fans, because I know fans are
just so excited whenever they see you.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
You know, I've done quite a few of those over
the years, and I have I have a good time.
It's fun, it's enjoyable.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
It's always nice to meet people that have given you
a lot of support throughout the years. I mean, if
you relied on the people in Hollywood to give your accolades,
a lot of trouble and meet the people who've given you, know,
(10:46):
all of this support throughout As I said, throughout the years, do.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
You ever have people come up to you and just
ask you like I remember being go Long as a kid,
you know what I mean. That was one of my
favorite movies as a youth about Negro League baseball. It
was you, Richard pryor James ol Jones and you guys
were playing baseball for the Traveling all It was being
Along in the Traveling All Stars.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I remember this.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Being Go Along in the Traveling All Stars and motor Keke.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I remember. I remember watching this movie thinking this is
one of the best movies ever, and think this came before.
A lot of your stuff came before. So we can start.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
We can start with Brian's song if you want to,
but all of the stuff that you did before Lando.
I remember when you did Lando. My the way my
parents reacted. They were from Harlem, you know, they well
not from Harlem. They moved to Harlem from you know,
one from DC, one from Springfield, Massachusetts, and they wound
(11:50):
up in Harlem.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And you are a legend in Harlem, you know.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
What I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
You are a Harlem legend. I have pictures.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
I also grew up in Harlem.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I grew up in house kitchen as well, but I
grew up at the National Black Theater in Harlem, and
that was where I got my start at a very
young age.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And I just.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Remember when Empire came out, we all went to the
movie theater to support you. I'll never forget that. I
will never forget myself. Barbara and Tyr, my mom, my dad,
everybody we went to the movie theater to support you,
and we didn't really even know you. You were just
somebody from the neighborhood. That was a legend, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Really?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, one hundred and twenty fifth Street and fifth National
Black Theater. Do you know it?
Speaker 5 (12:36):
No, I have no idea. I never heard of it.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
You're breaking my heart, Billy, do you break in my heart?
Speaker 1 (12:44):
But Billy, you and Donald had that in common, and
that you're both were very young getting involved in the theater, right,
I mean I read that you started in your first
play was at seven years old.
Speaker 6 (12:55):
Yeah, I was in a Broadway musical where I was
six and a half years old.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
My mom got me started in the show business.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
How did that come about?
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Well?
Speaker 6 (13:06):
She she was inspiring a performer. She studied opera for
many years and she had great dreams of becoming a
movie star, but of course in those days that wasn't
really possible. And she was working at the Lycean Peter
in New York City at the time for Ben Boyer
(13:28):
and Max Storton. They were the Broadway managers and producers
and they were doing this musical like court Vile at
the time. You know who court Vile is? No, Okay, Well,
he wrote three penny opera with berkel Brett.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Oh wow, he.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Wrote the music.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
And they were doing this this musical, the Five Brown
of Florence, and they were looking for a little boy
who played this page boy to the Duchess, and the
duchess was being played by Latte Leny. You probably have
no idea who she is. Lenny was married to Kurvile.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
She was the original pirate Jenny in threepenny Opera. Wow.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
Anyway, so you could look all that stuff up and
it's all really quite interesting.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
They were looking for a little.
Speaker 6 (14:30):
Boy up to a cast in this role, and they
realized that my mom had this little boy, and so
she had me auditioned. They took me down to the theater.
There was George S. Kaufman, John Mary Anderson and all
(14:50):
of these notable people at that time. And they had
me walk cross stage one time two times, and they said, Billy,
that's fine, great, but I I was. I became really
enamored with the whole idea of being on a stage.
So I decided I wanted to do it the third
time and they said, well that's okay. Well I insisted
(15:14):
and I started crying. So I always said I crawed
my way into show business. Well that's how I kind
of all started.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
You knew right away. You knew at seven years old.
I like this feeling that was. It's funny because Donald
and I have that both in common too. My first
audition was it eight, and Donald, you started way younger.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I started five.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Actually, well, no, I was doing I remember traveling to Seattle,
Washington with the National Black Leader doing a play When
the Lion Roars that we wrote with our teacher at
the time, and it was one of the things that
I was homeschooled until third grade. So a lot of
my my introduction into education and you know, community was
(16:01):
through theater, which is which is which sounds amazing. It
sounds like what your life was, you know, I like
I I find I find it really awesome when kids can,
you know, be hold themselves accountable at a very young age.
That's a very powerful thing for a kid to have,
(16:22):
a very powerful tool for a young child to have.
And I think that's really awesome that at seven you
knew exactly what it was you wanted to be.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
Yeah, you think it's a powerful tool.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
And one experience, and I was very happy that they
didn't have any more experiences.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Really after that.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
What do you mean?
Speaker 5 (16:42):
I think kids should just simply be kids and go
to school and interact with other kids.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
That if they want, if they wanted to, I did
all right, I thought I did all right.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
I think it great.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Now, Billy, you did you You went to LaGuardia.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
High School, Well, Laguario. It wasn't LaGuardia at that time.
It was Music and Art High School.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
Yeah, it became LaGuardia when I joined with Performing Arts.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, it moved right because it was uptown.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
Later on when I went there, it was up by
City College.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I think it became a Philip Randolph or something like that, right.
Speaker 6 (17:26):
I had no idea, but anyway, it was part of
the City College campus.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
And when you were there were you I know you
just said you didn't want to do any more child acting,
But you did you do any acting in high school?
Or do you ad you focus on painting?
Speaker 5 (17:43):
Well, yeah, I was.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
I was a painter and that's why I went to
music and I my sister and I so painting was
pretty much my focus at that time. I didn't stump
back doing the whole show business stuff until I was
like about eighteen nineteen.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Is that when you realize that's what you wanted to do.
Speaker 6 (18:02):
I just sort of followed my instincts, and I followed
what life was handing me in those moments. So I
was busy running around trying to make out with a
lot of ladies.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I was about to say, man, at that age, at
eighteen nineteen, you wanted a handsome miss motherfuckers on the
planet stayed one hundred bro.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
I left the musical art in high school.
Speaker 6 (18:26):
I went to a school called the National Academy and
designed for the fine arts. I spent two years on
a scholarship painting, and when I was about eighteen nineteen,
I was nominated for a Googen Hide and also won
a Hall garden, which is comforable to a Google hid.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
But that's pretty much what I was doing at that time.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
And then somehow I segued my life, so segued back
into the world of theater.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
So I did a lot of theater in those years.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
When did you realize that you were being considered for
such I mean, obviously you must have known that you
people thought of you as a very handsome man. That's
not happened to me or Donald.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
I'm waiting for my It hasn't.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yet happened to us. But we're wondering when you realized
that you were such a sex symbol to people.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Well, when I walked out of the room, yes, So
how did call forty five come about?
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Like what happened that all of a sudden you were like,
you know what this is? Because I remember those commercials
as a youth. Also, I remember the bull I remember you,
I remember works every time.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I remember how did that come about?
Speaker 6 (19:47):
They asked me to the smokest person for at that time.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
So when I look at like Zach and I we
work with T Mobile right now, that's the brand that
we do a lot of really cool commercials with and
stuff like that. We look at it like we're happy
that the contract is still going. Did you know back
then how long your contract was going to be? Because
that Mo Liquor owes you a debt of gratitude.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
You're the reason why it's sold. Why it's sold.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Everyone wanted to cool. Everyone wanted to be cool, you.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Did you know that it was going to last that
long when you first signed on? Was that the deal.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Last than ten years? So? But I don't know. I
just did it and I enjoyed it. I had a
lot of fun doing it.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
All right, We're going to take a quick break and
we'll be right back with more Billy Deane Williams.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
Well, you take a look at my one of my paintings.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
That's beautiful whole time.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
It's gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Love it. Do you still paint often?
Speaker 6 (20:54):
I'm not doing as much as I should be doing,
but I still work at it.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
It's really really beautiful. Do you ever show your work
in a gallery?
Speaker 6 (21:02):
I saw my work at a number of galleries throughout
the years, but not recently.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, I really liked that one behind you.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
I have like over three hundred. I'm in my studio
right now, actually, but I have over three hundred paintings
stored away wild.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Can you tell us about the one behind you?
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Well, this is a sort of, in some small way,
is expressing something about my sister by deceased insisting.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Another gigantic moment in your career was the legendary Brian song,
which I remember being an enormous moment in television. I
believe it like broke all records. You wrote that down,
Joel wrote down for us.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
What the what the million live viewers?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, fifty five million Americans tuned in to watch Brian's song,
which I don't think is something that's happened very often
on the planet. What do you think it was about
that film that resonated with so many people.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Well, I've always regarded that whole experience as an act
of love. It was a very one of the rare
special moments in my life or anybody's life. Really, I
don't know, you know, it's it just resonated with people.
It was a beautiful love story between two guys with
a two straight guys.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
It had all of the elements of athos and fun and.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
It was about, you know, two guys who from two
different backgrounds coming together in a really beautiful, wonderful way,
which has always been very difficult for people to express.
I mean, you know the racial differences, you know, on
the ethnicity differences.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
And it worked.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
It worked because well, I think one Jimmy and I
had a great chemistry and uh, and so that really
people responded to that.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
I don't know, it was It was just a beautiful story.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
It makes me think of Donald and I in some
ways because our characters are on Scrubs. We're not only
best friends, but the show allowed us to show emotion
that even in the year two thousands, people still were
We're not. It wasn't a common occurrence to show two
straight guy friends being so close, being so open with
(23:48):
their love for each other. It feels like it's it's,
you know, a similar thing. I don't know, Donald, if
you've ever thought about that.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Sports does that though, man, Sports has a way of
of of of touching people. This is actually a real story,
and if I'm correct, the monologue you do at the
end of the movie is verbatim. It was like, it
must have felt like doing a play. You know what
he said, it's documented and now you're playing this character.
(24:15):
Did you and James ever hang out after that, like,
I mean, God rest his soul. But did you guys,
were you guys buddies after that? Because the chemistry that
you have in the film is amazing.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Oh, actually were two different people.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
He was more of a gangster, just a sweet little boy.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
So it was a very quiet area loving.
Speaker 6 (24:37):
He was loving in his own way, but we were
we were not compatible, but hanging.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
Out with each other.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
He really was a gangster. I were listening to this
audiobook that's about the making of Godfather and as called
leave the Leave the Gun, Take the Canoi, and Uh,
it's incredible how he knew the world. It seemed like
he was very familiar with the world of the movie.
And then when he got the part, he went even
further in to do quote unquote research. Hanging out with
(25:05):
the fellas.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
Yeah, he had was pretty much a part of the
Las Vegas group.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
I think, I mean, I've known a lot of gangsters
in my life, but I'm not a gangster.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
I think he was much more into that kind of lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Now a Brian song, It's amazing he went from one
enormous thing to the next because Brian's song was such
an incredible phenomenon. And then when you joined the Star
Wars world with Empire Strikes Back. I mean, nothing could
have been bigger than that. Was that? Was that a
big life change for you when all of a sudden
you're being recognized. I'm sure everywhere.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
I mean all of the movie roles came after that too,
like so many movie roles came after that.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Well, I did a lot of movie roles in a
few I mean, Ladies Sings.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Blues, great movie, one of my favorites.
Speaker 6 (25:56):
A movie called It, which was a kind of an interest,
and there were others. I expressed a lot of it
in the book because of the kind of exchanges I've
had with the people that I have worked with, which
I thought were pretty interesting. It was a kind of
part of a life lesson. But certainly I'm just daddy
(26:21):
and kind of a husband. I did, so, I don't know.
Your stories are a lot more.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Interesting, oh, I know, But our audience is so bored
of hearing about our stories. Believe that's why we have
to have interesting people like you on to tell us,
because Donald and I have shared them every anecdote in
our lives so far.
Speaker 6 (26:39):
Well, I've had a pretty extraordinary life, you have. I
like most people I think, starting at a very early
point in my life.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
My life, to me is a very eclectic.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
I always see it, as I always say, I see
myself as the full spectrum of colors. When I did Lando,
for instance, and I heard the name cal RISI I thought, wow,
that's interesting.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
It's in our median name. And I thought, let me
see what I can do with this.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
And and then of course when I got the Kate,
that sort of solidified everything that was into the Earl
Finn Row. So I put those ideas together and I
came up with I thought was bigger than life, special
kind of a character.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
He's my favorite character in the whole universe. That's who
I identified with growing up, and I appreciated. I've seen
a lot of your movies, actually, the one you did
with Sylvester Stallone, Were you Guys Are Chase Yeah Night,
Were you Guys are Chasing Dude through the subway and
all of that stuff.
Speaker 7 (27:54):
Yes, he was probably one of the best.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Ever, was his Yeah. And then you and you and
Richard Pryor did a few movies together, but Bingolong and
then Lady Sings the Blues.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
I think you know, your performance in that is amazing
Bingolong is one of my favorite movies as a kid.
I really enjoyed that movie. It was because of the
way my dad reacted when he watched the movie and
the way my mom reacted to you guys, there was
like three legends.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
That movie was a in my opinion, a very special experience.
At the time when Paramount was distributed movie, they thought
they weren't very accommodating in the sense that they didn't
know what to do with the movie about a bunch
of black guys running around the country playing baseball.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
But I always felt that at some.
Speaker 6 (28:53):
Point or another that movie would have resonate in a
very interesting, in an historical way.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
It was a lot of fun to do that movie.
Speaker 6 (29:04):
I really enjoyed it, not always because of the actors
I was working with, but we worked with a real
baseball players from the Negro leagues, and that was a
lot of fun.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
It was very interesting.
Speaker 6 (29:19):
I followed and I used to go out and watch
them all the time in Central Park. We used to
go out and watch some the Cuban baseball players.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Yeah, way back in the day before you were born.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Well, I mean that was but that was my dad
and I's bond was sports. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
If it wasn't Bengolong in The Traveling All Stars, it
was the fish that Save Pittsburgh, you.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Like, that's how my dad and I expressed love for
each other when we were a kids and when I
was as a kid. And so it's going to sound crazy,
but the fact that Darth Vader and Lando cal Rissian
were in a movie and Richard Pryor was the comic
relief in it, I just thought I couldn't fathom, Like,
as a youth, how is this put together? How did
(30:03):
they make this happen? And I was kind of young
when Ladies Sing Sings the Blues came out, But then
as a grown up watching it, I mean, you personify cool.
You are what you know a lot of these cats
out here are trying to do now?
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Uh, you know you're.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Gonna let my hand fall off. Like there's so many
amazing moments in that movie. And you know, I wonder
do you do you and Diana ross Epper still talk?
Do you guys say hello to each other every once
in a while?
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Well again, yeah, you.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Guys had magic too, like you have, like your.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Chemistry, chemistry. Yeah, man, it really worked very well.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Let's take a break.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
We'll be right back after these fine words. Donald, you
kind of touched on it, but and Joelle too, Billy,
you know, for Dwell and Donald are massive Star Wars
universe fans, and I just thought you could just just
speak to a little more both of you about what
(31:10):
it felt like to see, you know, an African American
man entering in and being one of the leads in
something that you were so passionate about it. And Donald,
you've spoken before about how you felt like you saw
yourself entering the world of that space.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Well, Star Wars didn't become Star Wars until Lando shows up,
you know what I mean. Star Wars was watching a
bunch of white people run around with blasters and stuff
like that and guns, and it was cool and stuff.
But then when Lando shows up, it was like, oh shit,
I can be in Star Wars too, you know, I
can be I could you know? Oh and he gets
to fly to Millennium Falcon. Okay, well, you know, and
(31:48):
that became one of the reasons why I became an actor,
because I knew at a very young age there's no
way I'll be able to do all of that stuff
in real life. Fantasy is the way to go be
coming in, you know, And for me it was that.
And I didn't see myself until that moment. And then
(32:09):
as an adult, you know, the decisions that Lando Calrissian
has to make. Those are real life decisions, real big
boy decisions. And you know I would react the same
way I would. You know, It's just I don't know, man,
It's one of those things.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
You wouldn't turn Han Solo in, though, dom I.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Would turn Han Solo into a heartbeat to save a
whole city of people.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
That's like you saying to me, dude, I'm coming into
New York and I'm like, all right, come through, but
I know that when you get there, you're probably gonna
get arrested by the cops. And I don't say nothing
because if I say something to you, they're gonna probably
arrest me. But if if not, only are they going
to arrest me, they're going to fucking destroy the whole
(33:00):
city that I'm.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So, you don't false Orlando for his well, no, he
did the right thing.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
He protected millions of people in Cloud City.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
And no, and and and and Billy d has the
greatest quote ever line ever nobody died.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Well, I love how passionate you you are about it,
and I'm sure Billy, you run into people that are
this passionate about it all the time. It meant so
much to so many people.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
So it's all very interesting.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I didn't know that you studied with Sidney Portier man.
Speaker 7 (33:33):
That's that's he was at one point he was teaching,
just prior to his whole life changing and becoming a
big movie star.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
So you you you and him were working together before
the fame.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
Yeah, well I knew Sydney. There's a ten year difference.
I'm eighty seven. He was when he may passed. I
guess he was about eighty six. Yeah, I knew him
through friends of mine back in those years. He was
that time, I think with another company. I don't know
(34:13):
it was your company or some other.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
No, he was with the Harlem Actors Workshop. That's something
that's not the.
Speaker 6 (34:19):
Right, okay, And it was I think working as a
dish washer at one of the restaurants and one hundred
and twenty fifth Street.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
He did one television show.
Speaker 6 (34:33):
I think called A Man of Ten Feet Tall, and
then that same television show he ended up doing with
John Cassavetti's it was called The Edge of the City.
He was, I guess, in a sense, the chosen one
at that time in those years. He was quite brilliant.
(34:59):
And the thing I always liked about Sydney it was
that he was very much a part of the new
genre of actors at the time that were involved with
Stanislavsky and Bull and you know, the method and all
that sort of stuff. He brought a whole new spirit,
(35:21):
a whole new way of approaching acting as far as
black actors were concerned.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Were you heavy into method, Oh, very much so.
Speaker 6 (35:31):
I'm part of that generation.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
He was quite inspiring. But there were others too. There
were people like Wanaandez.
Speaker 6 (35:43):
There were people like Frank Silvera, who was one of
my favorite actors at that time. As far as I
hesitate to use the term black actors, to me, just
simply wonderful.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Did you ever get to work with any of them?
Speaker 5 (36:00):
Only? Never work with Sydney never, except you know, through teaching.
Speaker 6 (36:05):
I never worked with Frank Solvero, never worked with on this, No,
but I always I have tremendous admiration for the way
they approach the craft.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
What do you credit Billy to you looking and looking
like you're forty five years old. Still, what is the secret?
Because Donald and I complain about our wrinkles and we're
forty nine and fifty and you just look so incredible,
And so many people don't stay as lucid and clear
and work and have the full life that you have.
(36:42):
I mean, is there anything you look back on and
go you recommend people do to have a longevity like you?
Speaker 5 (36:48):
Well, you just live at the watch life and you know.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
It's like, okay, it's nature not nurture, right, yeah?
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Or both are both Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
We're both okay, Well, you're looking credible. I want to
remind everyone Billy's book is called what have We Here?
A Portrait of a Life, and it's on shelves now.
Billy d thank you so much for taking the time
to be with us. We really really appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (37:19):
Well, thank you very much, Thank you for inviting. Have
a wonderful good very well, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Too, be blessed, Thank you, and I.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
God, he's such a legend. And uh, I was just
happy for you because I know that what An impacts
that movie and and that role.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
His career is very much like mine. And you could
hear it in what he was saying, you know what
I mean. He called Sydney the chosen one.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
There are a bunch of people, you know that as
an actor that you sweat. You know, he's in my opinion,
I think it's a blessing. If Sidney Portier is the
actor that you sweat.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Yeah, I think it's a blessing, you know what I mean.
And you know, I was very lucky to get to
work with a lot of my idols. I got to
work with Denzel, I got to work with Billy d Williams.
I've got to you know what I mean. These things
don't these things don't happen. And in hearing his conversation
about his life, he didn't get to work with the
(38:27):
people that he wanted to work with.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
You know, that inspired him.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
And so I just from listening to him as much
as he inspired me, I realized how lucky I am to,
you know, get to do the things that I want
to do. Yeah, that's one and two. You know, as
as you become, as you get older, you can't just
focus on this acting ship for the rest of your life. Man,
(38:53):
you got to find something else to satisfy you. And
he's so lucky and blessed to be able to fall
back on art, you know, by the.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Way, that's that's the thing you guys have in common too,
that that that you know, you do your animation. He's
you know, painting sounds like it's been his lifelong passion.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Yeah, yeah, for since. I guess it's what he wanted
to do instead of being an actor.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
And I wish I had something like that. I need
to pick something up like that.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
What about photography, No, I do.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
I shoot a lot of pictures and I love photography,
but I I I lately I've been thinking as I watch,
as I always say, as I was listening, I was
thinking of his love of painting and you know, your
love of animation. I'd love to have something that I
you know, whether it's you know, playing the piano, or
or something that I that I can fiddle with in
my house besides my peep.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Well, I'm gonna be honest with you. Fiddling with my
peep is one of my favorite things to do.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
I know you're very good at it.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I'm very skilled, I'm a master.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
I can't do that now because I have a really
bad tennis elbow?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Hold on, what does your elbow have to do with
fiddling with your peep?
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Well, fortunately, it's only it's my left hand that's really bad.
So I unless I'm doing the stranger, I'm fine, but I.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Have to say no stranger, Daniel, you were gonna give
me some tips for my from my tennis.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
By the way, audience, I learned as a fake doctor
that I always assumed that tennis elbow had to do
with your playing so much tennis and your armors. They
just call it that because it's the muscle on the
back of your forearm that gets strained. But Daniel, what
do you do for it? Because mine not the blue
hurts just hashtag getting old, hashtag getting old.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
But don't worry, I'm suffering from it as well, so
you know it's hardly an old thing. But my doctor
recommends that you do more lifting, more strengthening of that spot.
I know, but you know the reason it's called tennis.
So so right now, well it comes from that muscle.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
For me, it's the kind of like explosive motion of
for me throwing a frisbee, and if you play tennis,
it's swinging a tennis racket, and if all of the
exercise on that is just from this kind of like
explosive motion, you're really working that muscle really hard. At
least that's what I'm learning.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
So doing something. I got this ice leave on the
internet that helps. The sleeve is good. I have. I
have a compression sleeve that I wear whenever I play. No,
this is a ice one. You put it. It's the jelly.
It's that jelly material and it's a sleeve and you
put it in the freezer and then you slide it
on and it feels real nice. Well that's all.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
I'm sorry elbows. I'm so sorry you guys, your elbow herts.
But you lost me just now, me and the rest
of the audience.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Just like this.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
No, there are listeners out there who have occasional tennis.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
It's like maybe for listeners right now, I agree exactly
the plenty there's plenty of times where you're talking about
some fucking video game no one gives a shit about. Exactly, Daniel,
how quickly you turn on your time.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
I know that no one gives a shit about what
I'm talking about. Hey, I as I'm aware that when.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
I'm talking about plenty of times where I just leaned
back in my chair and let you all talk about
fucking some fucking bullshit video game.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
I know I mentioned Ultimate Frisbee, and I'm really talking
to two of our listeners.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Ultimate Frisbee. You've got a bunch of stoners out there
listening to us. Hell, there are a bunch of people
that are like, yo, fuck, it's eighty degrees in New
York right now, I'm going outside fucking.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Throw some frisbee in sheep's meadow. Ultimate Frisbee, Well, I
think I've mentioned this. It was invented at Columbia High
School my Homa mono, which you can google if you
don't believe Joel Silver. I believe.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Wait, Joel Silver, the producer, Yes, created Ultimate Frisbee.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Yes, at Columbia High School.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Did you play Ultimate frisbee, Daniel?
Speaker 4 (42:44):
I played in college and I still play now three times.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Do you play frisbee golf?
Speaker 6 (42:47):
Ever?
Speaker 4 (42:47):
I played frisbee golf sometimes hit a disc golf.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Can I ask you guys a question, because I've never
played ultimate frisbee?
Speaker 1 (42:52):
What is sure soccer with the frisbee?
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Basically yeah, Oh you can't run with it. We can't
run with it when you have, but you.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
Correct kind of plays it, kind of plays like soccer
and football where you throw it into an end zone.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Oh so there's no there's no throwing it into its
no goal.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
But first step is you get very high.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
Any anytime you play any freaking game created in a
meadow a field like Hackie Sack and or frisbee, you
gotta be high first.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
The first step, the first step of ultimate Frisbee is
you pull the bong here.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Yes, right.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Then step two is you meet your friends at the park.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
No no, no, no no no. Step three, when you
get to the park, you smoke a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yes, and then once you're once you've gotten into the park,
you you pull another bong here.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
Supporting evidence for this, there's no better rolling tray than
an upside down frisbee, no better a.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
High walls. You don't lose your ship. You don't lose
your ship.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
All right, Well, everyone, that's our show, Thank you so much.
You know, uh, I really appreciate Billy d coming on
the show. He's eighty seven years old. He doesn't have
to fucking talk to us. But yeah, he took a
day time.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
He took day time. Yeah, he did. He got a book,
and you guys should all go out and read it.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Yeah, go check out his book. I'll bet you in
the book, he expounds, expounds.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
That's correct, that's correct, Joell.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
I want to thank you for I want to give
you your flowers, because not only did you get us
Billy D Williams, but you also did a wonderful job
producing this segment and helping us navigate all our questions.
And I really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
And Dan, you're fine too, Thanks.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Daniel, thank you for getting this HK or HK four K.
There you got HK. That's where I'm from. Hell's Kitchen.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
All right, everybody, that's our show. Donald, do you have
any final things you want to tell all these lovely people?
Do you want to thank them for tuning into our podcast?
Speaker 2 (44:54):
I do want to thank them for tuning into our podcast.
I also want to thank Billy D Williams, such a
wonderful guest. Thank you very much. I feel like I
know you more than i've ever known you before.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
And we are honored. We know that you're eighty seven
and you don't have to suffer fools, and yet you
suffered our.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Fooledom, our foolishness.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
I wish fool them was a word.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
It can be, it is now. I mean, who says
it Isn't you just made it up?
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Do you want to come with me and Johnny C
to the Rangers game tomorrow night? I know somebody to
get you to ask.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
I thought you were going to ask me something completely different.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
What did you think I was gonna say?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Do you say, do I want to come?
Speaker 3 (45:32):
And I was gonna say absolutely stories. I'm not sure
we made about a bunch of tops and nurses.
Speaker 6 (45:44):
Said the stories.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
So yeah, round here, yeah, here for you.
Speaker 5 (46:00):
M
Donald, you're finally in four K and you look so handsome.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Fuck your sale machine, Zach.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
I want to thank you for leveling up. Finally, thank
you Daniel for assisting himsure this will be the first
episode ever. I believe maybe there's another one of fake doctors,
real friends that we can put on YouTube in well
high resolution. I'm not living my hair today. I wish
it was better for this monumental moment. You look great.
(00:27):
Center part. No one likes. No one likes the center part, Donald,
Daniel Alfalfa, who does.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Zen z is all about the middle part. They don't
like a side part.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I have so much to George McFly Alfalfa, Alfalfa. I
went to Game seven, guys, and I I don't think.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I want to miss set to Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
You're mad that your friend got to go to game seven.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
No, I'm not mad that you got to go to
Game seven. I'm mad because of the outcome you put
the fucking juju.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You're gonna blame it on me. You're gonna blame the.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
One and it said you're the one that said, look, guys,
let's hope for game seven because then I get to go, right,
I said, yes, fuck game seven.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Let's win it in six. That's the way to go.
And then all of you.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Guys are like, no, come on, Donald, don't you want
them to go to game seven?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, in this story, I'm the reason they lost.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
You in my story, in our story, in the you
and I story, you are the fucking reason they lost
because you just had to go to a game, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, I really had to go.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I gotta tell you. You're gonna think this is crazy
because of my whole history of not loving sports, But
I gotta say I really have fun going to MSG.
I'm a regular now. It's a it's a great stadium.
I think I might be going tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
To the next stadium. It's an arena.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Oh whatever, fine arena.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
I think I might be going to the Rangers game tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
The Rangers were also.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Your bad luck for New York. Every game you go
to they lose.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Yo.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
You're such a bringing that Jersey shit up in there, man,
bringing that.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You're saying I bring. You're saying I bring New Jersey energy.
That's ruining New.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
York's Bridge and Tunnel crowd. You bring that Bridge and
Tunnel crowd.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
You don't know that is the new Yorker's negative term
for people who don't live in New York. They call
us bridge and tunnelers.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Because you claim New York like it's yours, but really
you got to take a bridge and a tunnel to get.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Up and I don't take any bridge or tunnel to
get to Manhattan. That's where I live now.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
When you were younger, this is how you know. This
is how you know. Motherfuckers would be like, where are
you from? And you'd be like, oh, I'm from New
York and it'd be like, oh really, what part? Oh well, really,
I'm from Jersey. I'm from like right across the river.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
That's how all you Jersey motherfuckers be acting, and don't
act like you don't.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I grew up up in New York City, and I
know how you talk.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I know, but I now, do you agree now that
I'm a proper New Yorker?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
You a transplant? I'll give you that.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
What the fuck you talk? I leave heear since like
ninety nine, Okay, I mean, I mean I'm officially a
New Yorker and.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
The okay, I'm about to say, what are you are?
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I pay taxes. I pay taxes in LA which I
guess means you spend six months, right, That's how they
figure out where you're, wherever you space, wherever you spend
six months, you have to pick. You have to pick.
So I think I spend six months and a day
in LA.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
At least I love New York. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
It's so fun right now, dude. It's eighty degrees out.
People now are fucking happy, right Daniel?
Speaker 4 (03:49):
You know I got the T shirt and by the way,
we're matching zact we call each other before this.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I know I just changed into this. I went and
bought a shirt.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Are the ladies wearing short shirts right now?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Everyone? The men are in their tank tops, the ladies
are in their sun dresses. Everyone's got a little bop.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Is the jiggle out?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Everyone's jiggling.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
There we go. You would go wrong.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
You can't go wrong when the city's jiggling. When the
jiggling is I'm gonna tell you something right now, jiggling baby,
Go ahead, baby, that's all I gotta say.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Everyone is Is it jingling or jigglingggg? Everyone's jiggling. Everyone's
feeling themselves. Oh yeah, there was an energy, right Daniel,
you know what you feel? It I feel it very much.
So I was walking around green Point earlier today.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I got my radio Bakery hat and it was nice.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
It was nice point.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Where's green Point at Brooklyn? You grew up.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You're bragging about your New York status and you don't
even know where green Point is.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
It sounds very caucused.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
What does that mean? What caucas Yes, I'm not go
you made up a word.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
For waitness caucus caucus.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I went to dinner with Johnny c McGinley last night
in New York.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
He's in New York too.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, Johnny came to New York for an event he's doing,
and we had a really fun dinner. I'm gonna try
and bring him to the Rangers game tomorrow. Wouldn't that be.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
A hockey Detroit Red Wings fan?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
He loves hockey, and I think I'm trying to get
us both into the garden tomorrow since you know I'm
a regular. Now I got the hookup, I found the hookup.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I'm gonna tell them that you're a fucking bridge and tunneler.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
You need to be nicer to me, because there's gonna
come a point where you're gonna want my MSG hookup
and I'll be like, I don't.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Know I've senior seats. I'm good. I think I can
do better.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Really listen to you, really, yeah really? As a New Yorker,
I don't have like Spike Lee seats. Are you saying
that you have like Spike Lee level seats? I don't
have that.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I've sat on the floor a few times at MSG.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
You know that meme where Mariah Carey says I don't
know her? Yeah, that's what's gonna happen when you try
and get my MSG hook up.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I'm not calling your MSG hookup. I'm gonna I got
all right.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
I just want you to know if and when a
time comes where you're like, hey, Zach, can I have
your MSG hookup, I'm gonna do the Mariah carry I
don't know her.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Okay, So the next time you try and get tickets
to an MSG event and your hookup doesn't come through,
I'm gonna pull the Celine Dion shit on you.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
What's that sleep? What's that where the.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Window roll where she rolls down the window to listen
for a second, doesn't like what she hears, rolls the window,
the car drives off.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
I told I was sending Donald pictures of all this.
They call it Celebrity Row. All the celebrities that were
on Celebrity Row. They had Tracy Morgan, Ben's.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Morgan was up in there, Ben Stiller, Brian Fellows was
in the.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
House, John Stewart, Spike.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Lee, of course, Jason Bateman.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, well that there were lots of stars in the
in the house. But on Celebrity Row, I didn't it
was Bateman on that initial like Spike Lee Row.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I don't know. I don't know. All I know is
I know.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
It was fun. It's a blast, you jig.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That was not a blast. The game was horrible.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, the game was horrible, but I don't I'm not
going to take credit for it. I'm not going to
sit here and say it's my fault.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
But it is. But okay, we should probably get the
show going. We got to.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, you guys, we have a big show today. We
have Billy d Williams, the legend. We are so excited
and honored that he's decided to come on the show. Donald,
you know, we need to talk to him about his
illustrious career, not just being Lando.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Oh no, I'm a huge fan of his. Actually, I
followed him for a really long time.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And you guys have something in common in that you
both came up and began very young in New York
City as actors.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yes, I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
All right, here we go one. Donald's gonna count us in,
and then we're going to bring in the legend. Billy
d Williams.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Say stories that show we made about a bunch of
thos nurses.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
He said, he's a stories.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Net, so yea.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yea se.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well, welcome mister Billy D Williams.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
It is sounderous.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Applause, thunderous applause for the living legend, Billy D Williams.
We're so honored to have you on our show. We
know that you are out and about talking about your
new biography, What have we here, Portrait of a Life.
Thank you so much for joining us on on Fake Doctors,
Real Friends.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Oh, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
One fun thing for us. That's a connection. I don't
even know if you remember doing it, but Donald and
I were on Scrubs for many, many years and you
did a very very fun cameo for us. Do you
remember doing that.
Speaker 6 (09:04):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, I use the footage
whenever I do these conventions.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Oh really, Yeah, that's so is it me screaming?
Speaker 5 (09:23):
You are hysterical?
Speaker 2 (09:26):
You are you?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Your reaction is hysterical. Anyway, I'm well, man, I'm really well.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Thank you for asking.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
The last time I saw you was that celebration I
think in Chicago. That's the last time I saw you. Yeah, right, yeah,
I got a picture from there too. And we look
good together, man, I'm not gonna lie. We look real good,
like I would say, father and son. Just gonna put
it out there, just gonna put it out there for
those listening.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Nice, nice to hear.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Thank you, Billy. Do you go to a lot of
those I mean, obviously, you know you're known for so
many roles. One of the most popular is, of course, Orlando.
Do you go to a lot of those conventions and
and and see the fans, because I know fans are
just so excited whenever they see you.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
You know, I've done quite a few of those over
the years, and I have I have a good time.
It's fun, it's enjoyable.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
It's always nice to meet people that have given you
a lot of support throughout the years. I mean, if
you relied on the people in Hollywood to give your accolades,
a lot of trouble and meet the people who've given you, know,
(10:46):
all of this support throughout As I said, throughout the years, do.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
You ever have people come up to you and just
ask you like I remember being go Long as a kid,
you know what I mean. That was one of my
favorite movies as a youth about Negro League baseball. It
was you, Richard pryor James ol Jones and you guys
were playing baseball for the Traveling all It was being
Along in the Traveling All Stars.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I remember this.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Being Go Along in the Traveling All Stars and motor Keke.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I remember. I remember watching this movie thinking this is
one of the best movies ever, and think this came before.
A lot of your stuff came before. So we can start.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
We can start with Brian's song if you want to,
but all of the stuff that you did before Lando.
I remember when you did Lando. My the way my
parents reacted. They were from Harlem, you know, they well
not from Harlem. They moved to Harlem from you know,
one from DC, one from Springfield, Massachusetts, and they wound
(11:50):
up in Harlem.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And you are a legend in Harlem, you know.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
What I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
You are a Harlem legend. I have pictures.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
I also grew up in Harlem.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I grew up in house kitchen as well, but I
grew up at the National Black Theater in Harlem, and
that was where I got my start at a very
young age.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
And I just.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Remember when Empire came out, we all went to the
movie theater to support you. I'll never forget that. I
will never forget myself. Barbara and Tyr, my mom, my dad,
everybody we went to the movie theater to support you,
and we didn't really even know you. You were just
somebody from the neighborhood. That was a legend, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Really?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, one hundred and twenty fifth Street and fifth National
Black Theater. Do you know it?
Speaker 5 (12:36):
No, I have no idea. I never heard of it.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
You're breaking my heart, Billy, do you break in my heart?
Speaker 1 (12:44):
But Billy, you and Donald had that in common, and
that you're both were very young getting involved in the theater, right,
I mean I read that you started in your first
play was at seven years old.
Speaker 6 (12:55):
Yeah, I was in a Broadway musical where I was
six and a half years old.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
My mom got me started in the show business.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
How did that come about?
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Well?
Speaker 6 (13:06):
She she was inspiring a performer. She studied opera for
many years and she had great dreams of becoming a
movie star, but of course in those days that wasn't
really possible. And she was working at the Lycean Peter
in New York City at the time for Ben Boyer
(13:28):
and Max Storton. They were the Broadway managers and producers
and they were doing this musical like court Vile at
the time. You know who court Vile is? No, Okay, Well,
he wrote three penny opera with berkel Brett.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Oh wow, he.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
Wrote the music.
Speaker 6 (13:50):
And they were doing this this musical, the Five Brown
of Florence, and they were looking for a little boy
who played this page boy to the Duchess, and the
duchess was being played by Latte Leny. You probably have
no idea who she is. Lenny was married to Kurvile.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
She was the original pirate Jenny in threepenny Opera. Wow.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
Anyway, so you could look all that stuff up and
it's all really quite interesting.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
They were looking for a little.
Speaker 6 (14:30):
Boy up to a cast in this role, and they
realized that my mom had this little boy, and so
she had me auditioned. They took me down to the theater.
There was George S. Kaufman, John Mary Anderson and all
(14:50):
of these notable people at that time. And they had
me walk cross stage one time two times, and they said, Billy,
that's fine, great, but I I was. I became really
enamored with the whole idea of being on a stage.
So I decided I wanted to do it the third
time and they said, well that's okay. Well I insisted
(15:14):
and I started crying. So I always said I crawed
my way into show business. Well that's how I kind
of all started.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
You knew right away. You knew at seven years old.
I like this feeling that was. It's funny because Donald
and I have that both in common too. My first
audition was it eight, and Donald, you started way younger.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I started five.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Actually, well, no, I was doing I remember traveling to Seattle,
Washington with the National Black Leader doing a play When
the Lion Roars that we wrote with our teacher at
the time, and it was one of the things that
I was homeschooled until third grade. So a lot of
my my introduction into education and you know, community was
(16:01):
through theater, which is which is which sounds amazing. It
sounds like what your life was, you know, I like
I I find I find it really awesome when kids can,
you know, be hold themselves accountable at a very young age.
That's a very powerful thing for a kid to have,
(16:22):
a very powerful tool for a young child to have.
And I think that's really awesome that at seven you
knew exactly what it was you wanted to be.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
Yeah, you think it's a powerful tool.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
And one experience, and I was very happy that they
didn't have any more experiences.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Really after that.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
What do you mean?
Speaker 5 (16:42):
I think kids should just simply be kids and go
to school and interact with other kids.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
That if they want, if they wanted to, I did
all right, I thought I did all right.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
I think it great.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Now, Billy, you did you You went to LaGuardia.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
High School, Well, Laguario. It wasn't LaGuardia at that time.
It was Music and Art High School.
Speaker 6 (17:10):
Yeah, it became LaGuardia when I joined with Performing Arts.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, it moved right because it was uptown.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
Later on when I went there, it was up by
City College.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I think it became a Philip Randolph or something like that, right.
Speaker 6 (17:26):
I had no idea, but anyway, it was part of
the City College campus.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
And when you were there were you I know you
just said you didn't want to do any more child acting,
But you did you do any acting in high school?
Or do you ad you focus on painting?
Speaker 5 (17:43):
Well, yeah, I was.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
I was a painter and that's why I went to
music and I my sister and I so painting was
pretty much my focus at that time. I didn't stump
back doing the whole show business stuff until I was
like about eighteen nineteen.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Is that when you realize that's what you wanted to do.
Speaker 6 (18:02):
I just sort of followed my instincts, and I followed
what life was handing me in those moments. So I
was busy running around trying to make out with a
lot of ladies.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I was about to say, man, at that age, at
eighteen nineteen, you wanted a handsome miss motherfuckers on the
planet stayed one hundred bro.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
I left the musical art in high school.
Speaker 6 (18:26):
I went to a school called the National Academy and
designed for the fine arts. I spent two years on
a scholarship painting, and when I was about eighteen nineteen,
I was nominated for a Googen Hide and also won
a Hall garden, which is comforable to a Google hid.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
But that's pretty much what I was doing at that time.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
And then somehow I segued my life, so segued back
into the world of theater.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
So I did a lot of theater in those years.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
When did you realize that you were being considered for
such I mean, obviously you must have known that you
people thought of you as a very handsome man. That's
not happened to me or Donald.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
I'm waiting for my It hasn't.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yet happened to us. But we're wondering when you realized
that you were such a sex symbol to people.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Well, when I walked out of the room, yes, So
how did call forty five come about?
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Like what happened that all of a sudden you were like,
you know what this is? Because I remember those commercials
as a youth. Also, I remember the bull I remember you,
I remember works every time.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I remember how did that come about?
Speaker 6 (19:47):
They asked me to the smokest person for at that time.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
So when I look at like Zach and I we
work with T Mobile right now, that's the brand that
we do a lot of really cool commercials with and
stuff like that. We look at it like we're happy
that the contract is still going. Did you know back
then how long your contract was going to be? Because
that Mo Liquor owes you a debt of gratitude.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
You're the reason why it's sold. Why it's sold.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Everyone wanted to cool. Everyone wanted to be cool, you.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Did you know that it was going to last that
long when you first signed on? Was that the deal.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Last than ten years? So? But I don't know. I
just did it and I enjoyed it. I had a
lot of fun doing it.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
All right, We're going to take a quick break and
we'll be right back with more Billy Deane Williams.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
Well, you take a look at my one of my paintings.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
That's beautiful whole time.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
It's gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Love it. Do you still paint often?
Speaker 6 (20:54):
I'm not doing as much as I should be doing,
but I still work at it.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
It's really really beautiful. Do you ever show your work
in a gallery?
Speaker 6 (21:02):
I saw my work at a number of galleries throughout
the years, but not recently.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, I really liked that one behind you.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
I have like over three hundred. I'm in my studio
right now, actually, but I have over three hundred paintings
stored away wild.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Can you tell us about the one behind you?
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Well, this is a sort of, in some small way,
is expressing something about my sister by deceased insisting.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Another gigantic moment in your career was the legendary Brian song,
which I remember being an enormous moment in television. I
believe it like broke all records. You wrote that down,
Joel wrote down for us.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
What the what the million live viewers?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, fifty five million Americans tuned in to watch Brian's song,
which I don't think is something that's happened very often
on the planet. What do you think it was about
that film that resonated with so many people.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Well, I've always regarded that whole experience as an act
of love. It was a very one of the rare
special moments in my life or anybody's life. Really, I
don't know, you know, it's it just resonated with people.
It was a beautiful love story between two guys with
a two straight guys.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
It had all of the elements of athos and fun and.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
It was about, you know, two guys who from two
different backgrounds coming together in a really beautiful, wonderful way,
which has always been very difficult for people to express.
I mean, you know the racial differences, you know, on
the ethnicity differences.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
And it worked.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
It worked because well, I think one Jimmy and I
had a great chemistry and uh, and so that really
people responded to that.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
I don't know, it was It was just a beautiful story.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
It makes me think of Donald and I in some
ways because our characters are on Scrubs. We're not only
best friends, but the show allowed us to show emotion
that even in the year two thousands, people still were
We're not. It wasn't a common occurrence to show two
straight guy friends being so close, being so open with
(23:48):
their love for each other. It feels like it's it's,
you know, a similar thing. I don't know, Donald, if
you've ever thought about that.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Sports does that though, man, Sports has a way of
of of of touching people. This is actually a real story,
and if I'm correct, the monologue you do at the
end of the movie is verbatim. It was like, it
must have felt like doing a play. You know what
he said, it's documented and now you're playing this character.
(24:15):
Did you and James ever hang out after that, like,
I mean, God rest his soul. But did you guys,
were you guys buddies after that? Because the chemistry that
you have in the film is amazing.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Oh, actually were two different people.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
He was more of a gangster, just a sweet little boy.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
So it was a very quiet area loving.
Speaker 6 (24:37):
He was loving in his own way, but we were
we were not compatible, but hanging.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
Out with each other.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
He really was a gangster. I were listening to this
audiobook that's about the making of Godfather and as called
leave the Leave the Gun, Take the Canoi, and Uh,
it's incredible how he knew the world. It seemed like
he was very familiar with the world of the movie.
And then when he got the part, he went even
further in to do quote unquote research. Hanging out with
(25:05):
the fellas.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
Yeah, he had was pretty much a part of the
Las Vegas group.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
I think, I mean, I've known a lot of gangsters
in my life, but I'm not a gangster.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
I think he was much more into that kind of lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Now a Brian song, It's amazing he went from one
enormous thing to the next because Brian's song was such
an incredible phenomenon. And then when you joined the Star
Wars world with Empire Strikes Back. I mean, nothing could
have been bigger than that. Was that? Was that a
big life change for you when all of a sudden
you're being recognized. I'm sure everywhere.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
I mean all of the movie roles came after that too,
like so many movie roles came after that.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Well, I did a lot of movie roles in a
few I mean, Ladies Sings.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Blues, great movie, one of my favorites.
Speaker 6 (25:56):
A movie called It, which was a kind of an interest,
and there were others. I expressed a lot of it
in the book because of the kind of exchanges I've
had with the people that I have worked with, which
I thought were pretty interesting. It was a kind of
part of a life lesson. But certainly I'm just daddy
(26:21):
and kind of a husband. I did, so, I don't know.
Your stories are a lot more.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Interesting, oh, I know, But our audience is so bored
of hearing about our stories. Believe that's why we have
to have interesting people like you on to tell us,
because Donald and I have shared them every anecdote in
our lives so far.
Speaker 6 (26:39):
Well, I've had a pretty extraordinary life, you have. I
like most people I think, starting at a very early
point in my life.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
My life, to me is a very eclectic.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
I always see it, as I always say, I see
myself as the full spectrum of colors. When I did Lando,
for instance, and I heard the name cal RISI I thought, wow,
that's interesting.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
It's in our median name. And I thought, let me
see what I can do with this.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
And and then of course when I got the Kate,
that sort of solidified everything that was into the Earl
Finn Row. So I put those ideas together and I
came up with I thought was bigger than life, special
kind of a character.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
He's my favorite character in the whole universe. That's who
I identified with growing up, and I appreciated. I've seen
a lot of your movies, actually, the one you did
with Sylvester Stallone, Were you Guys Are Chase Yeah Night,
Were you Guys are Chasing Dude through the subway and
all of that stuff.
Speaker 7 (27:54):
Yes, he was probably one of the best.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Ever, was his Yeah. And then you and you and
Richard Pryor did a few movies together, but Bingolong and
then Lady Sings the Blues.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
I think you know, your performance in that is amazing
Bingolong is one of my favorite movies as a kid.
I really enjoyed that movie. It was because of the
way my dad reacted when he watched the movie and
the way my mom reacted to you guys, there was
like three legends.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
That movie was a in my opinion, a very special experience.
At the time when Paramount was distributed movie, they thought
they weren't very accommodating in the sense that they didn't
know what to do with the movie about a bunch
of black guys running around the country playing baseball.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
But I always felt that at some.
Speaker 6 (28:53):
Point or another that movie would have resonate in a
very interesting, in an historical way.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
It was a lot of fun to do that movie.
Speaker 6 (29:04):
I really enjoyed it, not always because of the actors
I was working with, but we worked with a real
baseball players from the Negro leagues, and that was a
lot of fun.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
It was very interesting.
Speaker 6 (29:19):
I followed and I used to go out and watch
them all the time in Central Park. We used to
go out and watch some the Cuban baseball players.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Yeah, way back in the day before you were born.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Well, I mean that was but that was my dad
and I's bond was sports. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
If it wasn't Bengolong in The Traveling All Stars, it
was the fish that Save Pittsburgh, you.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Like, that's how my dad and I expressed love for
each other when we were a kids and when I
was as a kid. And so it's going to sound crazy,
but the fact that Darth Vader and Lando cal Rissian
were in a movie and Richard Pryor was the comic
relief in it, I just thought I couldn't fathom, Like,
as a youth, how is this put together? How did
(30:03):
they make this happen? And I was kind of young
when Ladies Sing Sings the Blues came out, But then
as a grown up watching it, I mean, you personify cool.
You are what you know a lot of these cats
out here are trying to do now?
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Uh, you know you're.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Gonna let my hand fall off. Like there's so many
amazing moments in that movie. And you know, I wonder
do you do you and Diana ross Epper still talk?
Do you guys say hello to each other every once
in a while?
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Well again, yeah, you.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Guys had magic too, like you have, like your.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Chemistry, chemistry. Yeah, man, it really worked very well.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Let's take a break.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
We'll be right back after these fine words. Donald, you
kind of touched on it, but and Joelle too, Billy,
you know, for Dwell and Donald are massive Star Wars
universe fans, and I just thought you could just just
speak to a little more both of you about what
(31:10):
it felt like to see, you know, an African American
man entering in and being one of the leads in
something that you were so passionate about it. And Donald,
you've spoken before about how you felt like you saw
yourself entering the world of that space.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Well, Star Wars didn't become Star Wars until Lando shows up,
you know what I mean. Star Wars was watching a
bunch of white people run around with blasters and stuff
like that and guns, and it was cool and stuff.
But then when Lando shows up, it was like, oh shit,
I can be in Star Wars too, you know, I
can be I could you know? Oh and he gets
to fly to Millennium Falcon. Okay, well, you know, and
(31:48):
that became one of the reasons why I became an actor,
because I knew at a very young age there's no
way I'll be able to do all of that stuff
in real life. Fantasy is the way to go be
coming in, you know, And for me it was that.
And I didn't see myself until that moment. And then
(32:09):
as an adult, you know, the decisions that Lando Calrissian
has to make. Those are real life decisions, real big
boy decisions. And you know I would react the same
way I would. You know, It's just I don't know, man,
It's one of those things.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
You wouldn't turn Han Solo in, though, dom I.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Would turn Han Solo into a heartbeat to save a
whole city of people.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
That's like you saying to me, dude, I'm coming into
New York and I'm like, all right, come through, but
I know that when you get there, you're probably gonna
get arrested by the cops. And I don't say nothing
because if I say something to you, they're gonna probably
arrest me. But if if not, only are they going
to arrest me, they're going to fucking destroy the whole
(33:00):
city that I'm.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So, you don't false Orlando for his well, no, he
did the right thing.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
He protected millions of people in Cloud City.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
And no, and and and and Billy d has the
greatest quote ever line ever nobody died.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Well, I love how passionate you you are about it,
and I'm sure Billy, you run into people that are
this passionate about it all the time. It meant so
much to so many people.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
So it's all very interesting.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I didn't know that you studied with Sidney Portier man.
Speaker 7 (33:33):
That's that's he was at one point he was teaching,
just prior to his whole life changing and becoming a
big movie star.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
So you you you and him were working together before
the fame.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
Yeah, well I knew Sydney. There's a ten year difference.
I'm eighty seven. He was when he may passed. I
guess he was about eighty six. Yeah, I knew him
through friends of mine back in those years. He was
that time, I think with another company. I don't know
(34:13):
it was your company or some other.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
No, he was with the Harlem Actors Workshop. That's something
that's not the.
Speaker 6 (34:19):
Right, okay, And it was I think working as a
dish washer at one of the restaurants and one hundred
and twenty fifth Street.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
He did one television show.
Speaker 6 (34:33):
I think called A Man of Ten Feet Tall, and
then that same television show he ended up doing with
John Cassavetti's it was called The Edge of the City.
He was, I guess, in a sense, the chosen one
at that time in those years. He was quite brilliant.
(34:59):
And the thing I always liked about Sydney it was
that he was very much a part of the new
genre of actors at the time that were involved with
Stanislavsky and Bull and you know, the method and all
that sort of stuff. He brought a whole new spirit,
(35:21):
a whole new way of approaching acting as far as
black actors were concerned.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Were you heavy into method, Oh, very much so.
Speaker 6 (35:31):
I'm part of that generation.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
He was quite inspiring. But there were others too. There
were people like Wanaandez.
Speaker 6 (35:43):
There were people like Frank Silvera, who was one of
my favorite actors at that time. As far as I
hesitate to use the term black actors, to me, just
simply wonderful.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Did you ever get to work with any of them?
Speaker 5 (36:00):
Only? Never work with Sydney never, except you know, through teaching.
Speaker 6 (36:05):
I never worked with Frank Solvero, never worked with on this, No,
but I always I have tremendous admiration for the way
they approach the craft.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
What do you credit Billy to you looking and looking
like you're forty five years old. Still, what is the secret?
Because Donald and I complain about our wrinkles and we're
forty nine and fifty and you just look so incredible,
And so many people don't stay as lucid and clear
and work and have the full life that you have.
(36:42):
I mean, is there anything you look back on and
go you recommend people do to have a longevity like you?
Speaker 5 (36:48):
Well, you just live at the watch life and you know.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
It's like, okay, it's nature not nurture, right, yeah?
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Or both are both Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
We're both okay, Well, you're looking credible. I want to
remind everyone Billy's book is called what have We Here?
A Portrait of a Life, and it's on shelves now.
Billy d thank you so much for taking the time
to be with us. We really really appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (37:19):
Well, thank you very much, Thank you for inviting. Have
a wonderful good very well, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Too, be blessed, Thank you, and I.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
God, he's such a legend. And uh, I was just
happy for you because I know that what An impacts
that movie and and that role.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
His career is very much like mine. And you could
hear it in what he was saying, you know what
I mean. He called Sydney the chosen one.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
There are a bunch of people, you know that as
an actor that you sweat. You know, he's in my opinion,
I think it's a blessing. If Sidney Portier is the
actor that you sweat.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Yeah, I think it's a blessing, you know what I mean.
And you know, I was very lucky to get to
work with a lot of my idols. I got to
work with Denzel, I got to work with Billy d Williams.
I've got to you know what I mean. These things
don't these things don't happen. And in hearing his conversation
about his life, he didn't get to work with the
(38:27):
people that he wanted to work with.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
You know, that inspired him.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
And so I just from listening to him as much
as he inspired me, I realized how lucky I am to,
you know, get to do the things that I want
to do. Yeah, that's one and two. You know, as
as you become, as you get older, you can't just
focus on this acting ship for the rest of your life. Man,
(38:53):
you got to find something else to satisfy you. And
he's so lucky and blessed to be able to fall
back on art, you know, by the.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Way, that's that's the thing you guys have in common too,
that that that you know, you do your animation. He's
you know, painting sounds like it's been his lifelong passion.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Yeah, yeah, for since. I guess it's what he wanted
to do instead of being an actor.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
And I wish I had something like that. I need
to pick something up like that.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
What about photography, No, I do.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
I shoot a lot of pictures and I love photography,
but I I I lately I've been thinking as I watch,
as I always say, as I was listening, I was
thinking of his love of painting and you know, your
love of animation. I'd love to have something that I
you know, whether it's you know, playing the piano, or
or something that I that I can fiddle with in
my house besides my peep.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Well, I'm gonna be honest with you. Fiddling with my
peep is one of my favorite things to do.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
I know you're very good at it.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I'm very skilled, I'm a master.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
I can't do that now because I have a really
bad tennis elbow?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Hold on, what does your elbow have to do with
fiddling with your peep?
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Well, fortunately, it's only it's my left hand that's really bad.
So I unless I'm doing the stranger, I'm fine, but I.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Have to say no stranger, Daniel, you were gonna give
me some tips for my from my tennis.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
By the way, audience, I learned as a fake doctor
that I always assumed that tennis elbow had to do
with your playing so much tennis and your armors. They
just call it that because it's the muscle on the
back of your forearm that gets strained. But Daniel, what
do you do for it? Because mine not the blue
hurts just hashtag getting old, hashtag getting old.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
But don't worry, I'm suffering from it as well, so
you know it's hardly an old thing. But my doctor
recommends that you do more lifting, more strengthening of that spot.
I know, but you know the reason it's called tennis.
So so right now, well it comes from that muscle.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
For me, it's the kind of like explosive motion of
for me throwing a frisbee, and if you play tennis,
it's swinging a tennis racket, and if all of the
exercise on that is just from this kind of like
explosive motion, you're really working that muscle really hard. At
least that's what I'm learning.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
So doing something. I got this ice leave on the
internet that helps. The sleeve is good. I have. I
have a compression sleeve that I wear whenever I play. No,
this is a ice one. You put it. It's the jelly.
It's that jelly material and it's a sleeve and you
put it in the freezer and then you slide it
on and it feels real nice. Well that's all.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
I'm sorry elbows. I'm so sorry you guys, your elbow herts.
But you lost me just now, me and the rest
of the audience.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Just like this.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
No, there are listeners out there who have occasional tennis.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
It's like maybe for listeners right now, I agree exactly
the plenty there's plenty of times where you're talking about
some fucking video game no one gives a shit about. Exactly, Daniel,
how quickly you turn on your time.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
I know that no one gives a shit about what
I'm talking about. Hey, I as I'm aware that when.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
I'm talking about plenty of times where I just leaned
back in my chair and let you all talk about
fucking some fucking bullshit video game.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
I know I mentioned Ultimate Frisbee, and I'm really talking
to two of our listeners.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Ultimate Frisbee. You've got a bunch of stoners out there
listening to us. Hell, there are a bunch of people
that are like, yo, fuck, it's eighty degrees in New
York right now, I'm going outside fucking.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Throw some frisbee in sheep's meadow. Ultimate Frisbee, Well, I
think I've mentioned this. It was invented at Columbia High
School my Homa mono, which you can google if you
don't believe Joel Silver. I believe.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Wait, Joel Silver, the producer, Yes, created Ultimate Frisbee.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Yes, at Columbia High School.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Did you play Ultimate frisbee, Daniel?
Speaker 4 (42:44):
I played in college and I still play now three times.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Do you play frisbee golf?
Speaker 6 (42:47):
Ever?
Speaker 4 (42:47):
I played frisbee golf sometimes hit a disc golf.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Can I ask you guys a question, because I've never
played ultimate frisbee?
Speaker 1 (42:52):
What is sure soccer with the frisbee?
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Basically yeah, Oh you can't run with it. We can't
run with it when you have, but you.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
Correct kind of plays it, kind of plays like soccer
and football where you throw it into an end zone.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Oh so there's no there's no throwing it into its
no goal.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
But first step is you get very high.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
Any anytime you play any freaking game created in a
meadow a field like Hackie Sack and or frisbee, you
gotta be high first.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
The first step, the first step of ultimate Frisbee is
you pull the bong here.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Yes, right.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Then step two is you meet your friends at the park.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
No no, no, no no no. Step three, when you
get to the park, you smoke a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yes, and then once you're once you've gotten into the park,
you you pull another bong here.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
Supporting evidence for this, there's no better rolling tray than
an upside down frisbee, no better a.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
High walls. You don't lose your ship. You don't lose
your ship.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
All right, Well, everyone, that's our show, Thank you so much.
You know, uh, I really appreciate Billy d coming on
the show. He's eighty seven years old. He doesn't have
to fucking talk to us. But yeah, he took a
day time.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
He took day time. Yeah, he did. He got a book,
and you guys should all go out and read it.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Yeah, go check out his book. I'll bet you in
the book, he expounds, expounds.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
That's correct, that's correct, Joell.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
I want to thank you for I want to give
you your flowers, because not only did you get us
Billy D Williams, but you also did a wonderful job
producing this segment and helping us navigate all our questions.
And I really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
And Dan, you're fine too, Thanks.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Daniel, thank you for getting this HK or HK four K.
There you got HK. That's where I'm from. Hell's Kitchen.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
All right, everybody, that's our show. Donald, do you have
any final things you want to tell all these lovely people?
Do you want to thank them for tuning into our podcast?
Speaker 2 (44:54):
I do want to thank them for tuning into our podcast.
I also want to thank Billy D Williams, such a
wonderful guest. Thank you very much. I feel like I
know you more than i've ever known you before.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
And we are honored. We know that you're eighty seven
and you don't have to suffer fools, and yet you
suffered our.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Fooledom, our foolishness.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
I wish fool them was a word.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
It can be, it is now. I mean, who says
it Isn't you just made it up?
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Do you want to come with me and Johnny C
to the Rangers game tomorrow night? I know somebody to
get you to ask.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
I thought you were going to ask me something completely different.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
What did you think I was gonna say?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Do you say, do I want to come?
Speaker 3 (45:32):
And I was gonna say absolutely stories. I'm not sure
we made about a bunch of tops and nurses.
Speaker 6 (45:44):
Said the stories.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
So yeah, round here, yeah, here for you.
Speaker 5 (46:00):
M
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