November 21, 2025 • 51 mins
Two of the most influential voices of our generation come together for a conversation rooted in purpose, discipline, calling, and destiny. In this powerful episode, Bishop T.D. Jakes sits with Denzel Washington — Academy Award–winning actor, director, producer, and one of the most respected figures in Hollywood — for an intimate, spiritual, and deeply revealing dialogue about the journey that shaped him.
From his early childhood in Mount Vernon to becoming one of the most acclaimed actors of all time, Denzel shares how faith, obedience, and divine instruction guided every step of his path. He reflects on the prophetic words spoken over his life when he was a young man, the moments God redirected him, and the quiet convictions he followed long before fame and success arrived.
Bishop Jakes and Denzel explore the tension between ambition and surrender, ego and purpose, success and assignment. They unpack the power of spiritual grounding, the importance of aligning your gifts with God’s intention, and the discipline required to stay focused in a world full of distractions, temptations, and noise.Denzel opens up about the responsibility of platform, the weight of influence, and why he treats acting as a form of ministry — a way to serve, inspire, and reflect truth.
He discusses the roles that changed him, from Malcolm X to Training Day, Fences, Glory, The Equalizer, and The Great Debaters, and how collaboration with legends like Spike Lee, Viola Davis, Morgan Freeman, Sidney Poitier, Chadwick Boseman, Jamie Foxx, Michael B. Jordan, and Oprah Winfrey helped shape his artistic evolution.
The two also address discipline, fatherhood, manhood, and the importance of surrounding yourself with people who challenge you, sharpen you, and keep you accountable. They speak on the dangers of isolation, the rise of digital dependency, and the urgent need to strengthen emotional and spiritual resilience in an era dominated by social media, AI, and cultural fragmentation.
Denzel reveals how he prays before every role, how he navigates spiritual warfare in Hollywood, and why he believes you must protect your anointing at all costs. He reflects on legacy, gratitude, marriage, loyalty, and the power of redefining success — not through fame or money, but through service, character, and obedience to God’s calling.
This episode is filled with wisdom, humor, reverence, and clarity — a masterclass on purpose, leadership, calling, and the courage to live a life anchored in faith. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, creator, believer, leader, or someone searching for a deeper sense of direction, this conversation will uplift you, challenge you, and remind you that destiny requires discipline.
Featuring reflections on icons such as Will Smith, Tyler Perry, Samuel L. Jackson, Maya Angelou, Angela Bassett, Barack Obama, Don Cheadle, Regina King, Cicely Tyson, Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle, and more — this dialogue bridges entertainment, faith, culture, and transformation.
This isn’t just an interview.It’s a spiritual experience.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've said it before. You never see a U haul
behind a hearset. You can't take it with you.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
You know, no matter on your last day, it doesn't
matter how much money you have. So that you know
the Egyptians tried to take it with them.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Yeah, all they got was rob right right.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
So hello everybody, I'm Tdjakes and I'm extremely glad to
have you here at my Next Chapter podcast. It is
so exciting and so fulfilling that you're going to listen
in today and learn something that may change your life
or change your perspective. As I present to you none
(00:36):
other than being comfortable Denzel Washington. Today, I'm joined by
a man whose talent has inspired generations, an Academy Award
winning actor, director, and storyteller. But beyond the accolades, Denzel
Washington is a man anchored in faith, family, and service.
(00:57):
In this conversation, we talk about staying grounded when fame
and fortune is trying to pull you away from what
truly matters, why less is more and the power of
having a strong partner, and he closes with a heartfelt
prayer that reminds us where our strength really comes from.
(01:25):
Chapter one, Staying Grounded, I think there's a whole section
of people that didn't come to hear me that came this.
I'm going to thank you back to many many occasions
(01:49):
you and I have been in conversation. You might not
remember this. You're having breakfast. I think we're in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
What seasons?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
More seasons.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
He's just sitting there having breakfast like people, and I
came down there to have breakfast. I walked past, I thought,
and we entered into a conversation that I sat down
and re enjoyed it. We had great fellowship and great fun.
And You've always been a very touchable, down to earth
(02:25):
person who seems to pay little attention to all the
tremendous accolades that have been afforded to you. Is that
part of the secret sauce that has kept you grounded
and added to the longevity of your career that you
did not allow the hype to inflate the way you
(02:46):
see yourself.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
My mother, God rests soul. She made it to ninety seven.
She yeah, she just passes past year. And she she
owned a beauty shop, a beauty polluxcuse me, okay, she
owned a beauty Paulot, not a salon, a beauty polo
and I had done one or two things and I'm
feeling myself and I came in.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I said, mon, did you think, oh this was gonna happen?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And you know I was going.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
She said, what did you say? All the people been
bringing for you?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
She started calling me superstar, So she said, okay, superstar,
why don't you grab that bucket and go cleaning windows?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Superstar? When you finished with that, superstar?
Speaker 5 (03:29):
So I got the message, you know, I got the message.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
That grounding is something that's rare. Today we see people
rise up like Xenos and then crashed like nuclear bombs.
You have the added advantage of looking back over decades
and decades of being relevant. Longevity is important to success.
(03:58):
When you start talking about longevity, there are many many
people out here who want to have longevity, regardless of
their profession, whether it is in corporate America, whether it's
in the faith realm, whether it's on the stage.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Longevity on the stage, I.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Tell people the lights are bright, but the heat is hot.
Yeah yeah, okay, it's been hot. It's been hot on
that stage. Many many people who started with you melted.
How did you make it?
Speaker 4 (04:30):
How do I? How did you make.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It by the grace of God. I mean, I don't
take any credit for it.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
It's nothing I did a special you know, been knocked
down a few pegs and recognize it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
But I just didn't put me first. Just put God first.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And He's carried me through the ups and the many downs.
You know, the things you hear about and the things
you don't hear about.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
You know when you think about that. We were at
Teller Perry Studios for the dedication of the Teller Perry
Studios and we were talking the Sunday morning I spoke.
I talked about the difference between people who walked through
a door which is an opportunity, and other people who
turned that door into a platform through which other people
(05:24):
are able to access their dreams. Without question, you have
had many doors open to you, but you have also
created many platforms and introduced to the world many many talented,
gifted people without which your influence would not have happened.
You didn't have to go that extra mile to do that.
(05:46):
You could have enjoyed the limelight of the door and
walked away. Is there a sense of fulfillment that you
get out of creating that platform or is it purely
from a business perspective.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I love seeing other people do well, always have.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I grew up in the Boys Club now the Boys
and Girls Club, and I was a counselor there, and
I you know, I came up in the club as
at first as a camper and then as a counselor,
and I always enjoyed seeing other people do well. It's
interesting that I ended up in this business with It
appears that you're out front.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
That's not even my nature.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Actually, you know, the funny thing about it is when
you think about when the public thinks about you, they
think of you as an actor. When I think about you,
I think about you not only as an actor and
an entertainer, not only as an icon in our community,
but I also see you as a businessman. Because what
the public doesn't realize is that entertainment is a business.
(06:53):
And you have been successful not only at acting on screen,
which a lot of people do. You have been successful
at the business of entertainment. Can you talk to me
about the business atispect.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I tell people all the time they call it show business,
they should call it business show, no business, no next show.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Absolutely explain it.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
No business, no next show. And you know you have
to deliver.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I mean, it is a business, it's a dollars and
cents business, and you have to deliver.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And you have to know your worth, and you have
to be able to negotiate from the perspective of knowing
your own value. If other people know the value to
want you, but you don't know the value to know
who you are yourself, it's it would appear to me
it would be quite difficult to be successful if you
don't at least have some sense of the equity that
(07:47):
has accrued behind your brand and consequently negotiate from the
leverage of understanding that equity.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
At what point did it hit you.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
That I am worth more than how I'm being handled?
And how did you negotiate into the next stream of
opportunities without allowing people to prostitute what God had given you.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I'm just not I'm just that guy, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I'm not scared to say no, you know, and you
have to say no sometimes, you know. And it's the
nose that I said that have really gotten me. You
know wherever I am now professionally, and the money really
(08:35):
didn't scare me. You know, I've said it before. You
never see a U haul behind a hearse. You can't
take it with you, you know, no matter on your
last day, it doesn't matter how much.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Money you have.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So that that you know, the Egyptians tried to take
it with them RCT. Yeah, all they got was robbed
right right, So you but you can leave it here.
And I'm not just talking about the money. I'm talking
about what God has blessed me with I can I
can leave here, you know. And that's that's what's important
(09:10):
to me, is to at this point in my life,
just to be in that number you.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
You appear on a lot of platforms, a professor running
in the presidents of college when they introduce you beginning
to talk about you started on stage not too long ago.
My wife and I flew up to New York and
saw you on.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Stage Caesareen years ago, seventeen years ago time.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yes, that was just the other day to me. Now
that's a blur. You walked down on that stage and
you were back at home again, back where you started from.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
What made you go back to the stage and did it?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Was it nostalgic for you to be on that stage.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
More than that was as much as that is, the
foundation had to get back to the you know, like
here on stage, the audience will tell you that night
right wrapped out, they feel about you, and you know,
it's a humbly experience, and I just wanted to get back.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
To the to the foundation. Between nineteen ninety and.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Two thousand and five, I was doing the best I
could to help my wife to raise our kids, and
they were at an age where I couldn't leave California
for weeks at a time, you know, because you can't
commute when you're doing a.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Show on Broadway.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
So I just chose not to do any plays on
Broadway for about fifteen years.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Chapter two, Less is More. When I saw you.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
In the car getting ready to leave the hotel in
New Orleans, I think you were shooting Safe Room, Safe
House at the time. To me, that was an amazing movie,
largely because of the scenes that had no words. Mind.
(11:13):
The greatest actors I have ever seen are people who
can convey messages without script, and you are absolutely amazing
at conveying.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Got a script.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
You know, people don't understand the hardest thing to do
as an actor is to listen.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
The hardest thing to do as a human being to listen, so.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And to be quiet and actually not do a whole lot.
You know, we go to cameras on I gotta.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Yeah, yeah, acted up.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
Less is actually more, Less is actually less is more.
Please write that down, because less is more. One of
the big mistakes that I think that church actors make
is that they go overboard. The real pros understand that
less it's more.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
If it feels good to you, it probably isn't any good.
That's the truth.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
If you if you're feeling so good about yourself, then
you're too self aware. Yeah, so you're probably not as
good as you think because you're.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Too busy thinking who look at you? Yeah, I'm acting.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Now, that's funny, and it shows, and it shows, it
shows to the audience. I was sitting there screaming at
the TV set because I was just mesmerized.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
In fact, I teased you about it.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I told you that you died so well that I
was ready to commit your body to the ground.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
And that's said, which, yes, you know what, that's my
favorite death of mine.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yo, you you diedro That is training day those I.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Started saying as just as for as much as dear
Libertor the brother was dead. Okay, this guy died for
like five minutes. He just he just died. I seen
people now all the time, I thought he was dead.
I got my robe, I got my sash, and I
started to enforced by sayings and dearly departed brothers pass
(13:21):
from death.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
He was gone.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
And you said to me at the time, and you said,
I died too. Well, now they're trying to do a
sequel and I can't get me there. And we laughed
about it and we talked about it. Was it was
an amazing thing. Uh when you you, when you think
of Antoine Fisher, you introduced, thank you what was amazing.
(13:47):
Not not only did you you produced it, you directed it.
You brought new talent to the stage that we had
not known. I think he delivered one of his greatest
performances up under your.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
And people don't realize the young woman in there by
the name of Viola Day Listen.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
I was coming down.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, yeah, I realized Vola Davis got her star playing
his mother. She plays his mother, and the that.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
No line, no lines, no lines, but she had one line,
you want to eat.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Yeah, but can't nobody outcry Viola Day Listen. Baby girl
can cry, and she can cry. I start crying. I
don't even know what I'm crying about. How did you
cast those two unheard of people and then direct them
(14:44):
in a way that you got the best out of them?
Because now the reason I asked this question, whether you
are in film or interested in entertainment, this is really
about how do you get the best out of the
people you choose in the positions you hold. So don't
just listen from an entertaining aspect, but from an informational
(15:04):
aspect to understand how do you choose people who are
going to play a role in your organization A and B?
How do you get the best out of them? Should
have every leader, every pastor, every manager, every entrepreneur in
this room, because some of the time we suffer because
we got the wrong cast, we hire the wrong people.
(15:27):
Some of the times we suffer because we have the
right people, but we lack the ability to get the
best out of them. You have to do both of
them in order to be successful. Teach us how to
do that.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Get out of the way. It's it's easy to say,
but hard to do. I can't play the part. Derek
played the part. I Olda played the part.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Sometime we want to, we want to do it all
get out of the way, you know, get out of
the way.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
That's a modest answer. I'm not gonna let you off
that because anybody can get out of the way. Get
out of the way. We can get out of the way.
I understand that you are saying not to try to
make the actor be you, but that ignores the fact
that you had to select somebody who had.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
That thing in them.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
How do you look at someone and see in them
things that has yet to be unearthed out of them?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
When I'm casting, always tell the casting people, I only
need one. I only needed one, Viola Davis, I didn't
need ten. So and I know it when I see it,
and I and I know it when I haven't seen it.
So when it walks in the room, then when she
walked in the room, I knew, and I knew.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
So it's a good thing. It's a it's an instinct thing.
More than I look for this, this, this, this.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
This just yeah, it's not a checklist. Okay, it's not
a checklist.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I think I know what good acting is.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
You got to know what you're looking for, which is
a note worth taking. You got to know what you're
looking for because I think a lot of times we
don't know what we're looking for. We're interview people, but
we know the job description, we know the title, but
we don't know the temperament, the talent, and how well
they will fit into the continuity of our organization. So
(17:27):
we hire people who have the right education, but they
are toxic in the organization. Are you hearing what I'm saying.
You have to know what the temperament is that you're
looking for. Again, you'll know it when you see it.
But whether you know it or not, you are casting
in your office, in your church, in your acchoir, in
your leadership. Anybody can come in to congregation, I don't care,
(17:51):
but whoever's going to be on the team already know
what temperament a person I need in that team. And
I'm not just looking at their bio. I'm looking at
their body language, their personality, their work ethic, how congenial
they are with people, how sensitive they are.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
I don't need a.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Drama queen running a conference. I don't need you creating problems.
I need you solving problems. And so I can clearly
delineate what I'm looking for an individual he has a
list of criterias that he's saying that he has, that
he knows in his head that he's looking for in
the actor, and that he will know it when he
(18:31):
sees it. You cannot regulate that over to somebody else.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Nelson Mandela said, a leader, like a shepherd, sends the fast,
nimble sheet out front so that the rest will follow,
not realizing they're all being led from behind. So a
leader leads quietly from behind.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
You know, you don't have to out front, and I
don't have to out act everybody and out you know,
we want to we want to do it all. We'll
get out the way. Let me say, you know, but
that's pretty good advice from mister Mandela.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Yeah, yeah, I would think so. I would think so.
Chapter three, Faith, When you start thinking about August Wilson,
the body of his work, the magnitude of his impact
(19:33):
on the Broadway stage, off Broadway stage at a time
that black people were not being recognized, the body of
his work ended up in your hands, of which fences
is one deposit. What made you make yeah, yeah, give
it up for fences. What made you make the decision
(19:57):
to buy the body of his work or to all
the buck.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
The family came to me the family.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yet his widow, Costanza, said, we'd like you to take
care of August plays.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
For us and make films. I said, I'm just a
man for the job, you know, So that's that's what
I'm doing.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
What made you give that answer, because it's the truth.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
What did somebody say? What said you're not conceded? You convinced?
I mean, I'm a bragging I mean I was the
right one in the right place at the right time,
with the right power, in the right position to get
things done, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
And you got them done.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I'm getting them done. I'm getting them done.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
With one by one, You're getting them done.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And then what made you make the decision to keep
so much of his original cast and take them from
the stage to the screen. These are decisions. What I'm
asking him is how do you make this because that
has a lot to do with defining the success of
your leadership. How do you make decisions? And some people
(21:08):
hold positions, but delegate decisions.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Say that again, some people hold.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Positions, but delegate decisions.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Okay. And while I want everybody's input into the decision,
my style of leadership, the final decision is going to
be mine, Okay. I welcome your input. I'm not a dictator.
I want to hear your input, and I will adjust
my decision if your information shifts the outcome. But at
the end of the day, I don't want people making
(21:40):
decisions that I have to live with because at the
end of the day, it's not going to be your
name in the paper, it's going to be mine. Correct,
and I want to know right about it. Are they're
not going to write about your staff. They're going to
write about you, And they're not going to attack your staff.
They're going to attack you. They don't know the name
of your staff. They're gonna come after you. And so
(22:01):
you you want to be in You want to hire
people that are smart enough that they bring you brilliant ideas,
But you have to decide are those brilliant ideas worth
the consequences of those ideas?
Speaker 4 (22:14):
In my world, that's how I do it. In your world,
what made you make.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
The decision to keep these people who had never been
on screen as far as I know, had always been
on stage, and yet you brought them on stage.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
And then I'm going to tell you what they told
me about you.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
You're talking about fences now, Well, well, because they were
great actors, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley, Henderson, Michael t when
they were all great actors.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
And and I'm loyal. You know, we got the.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Success that we had on stage together. Why should I now?
Now we had to we had to recast little Girl
because she she uh you know, and and uh and
one of the part because the kid grew up.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
But they do that, Yeah, they do that. They got it.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, it is relieving. Actually they keep coming back though,
Minter here, so I won't come in now. You brought
them to the stage. I interviewed them while I was
doing the talk show in Hollywood. This is what they
told me about you. They told me that you were
(23:32):
as much a director, producer as you were a pastor.
They said you started every morning of course, that's prayer.
They said they were spiritually enriched up under your leadership
because of your.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Consciousness of God.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Now, Look, I've been on the set a few times myself,
not nearly nearly nearly nearly what you've done.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
But it is not normal to start the day with prayer.
It's not. No, it is not normal to start the
day with prayer.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Well, I don't know what other people do, but I
need on the.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Set, I'm not talking about it in your personal life,
to have the boldness of faith to bring a crew
together and say, let's pray before we start.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
I'm not seeing a lot of people do that in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Or well, we were down, We're Orion Charlotte for that.
You know, it's funny. It's funny Orange people.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Talk about Hollywood like it's a place where evil things have.
Los Angeles is a city. There's no place called Hollywood.
We don't all get together and have Hollywood meetings. Yeah,
Hollywood is a street in Los Angeles. I'm in the
movie business right in the Hollywood. I don't even know
(25:01):
what the Hollywood business is.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I don't know how to do that. I make movies,
I do plays, I direct.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
And that's that being.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Said, and that is absolutely true. And I've been on
both sides of the street. I don't demonize what is called,
quote unquote Hollywood. I'm just saying, in the course of
during business, not every person in business brings the cast
together and has prayer.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
That doesn't happen. Why does that happen with you?
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Because I was raised right, I don't know that. You know,
my father was a minister. I know your father father
was a minister.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
He's a PK. Y'all give it up, piks.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Church of God in Christ, Church of God.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
My mother grew up in uh well, I folks, not
old enough Kelly Temple in New York City.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Okay, my mother grew up in that church.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
And see you at home.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I see.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Evidently being raised in the faith, that you still are
involved in the faith. You still have been a loyal
support of Lost Angeles. You've done some amazing things down
through the years. You have helped Bishop Blake in amazing ways.
You have helped many people start and launched their careers.
(26:27):
You have financed historically black colleges. You have been extremely philanthropic.
You have a different rhythm in your soul. Is that
coming from your faith?
Speaker 1 (26:41):
That's sad that you say that. I have to even
say that because that's what we all should should do. Yeah,
it shouldn't be. There's nothing exceptional about.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Should should emphasis on the words should, But you know
without it sitting there talking to me, that that is exceptional.
That very few people have the kind of temperament, especially
that last had long and started that young. We have
not seen you. We've seen you do sexy scenes, but
(27:11):
we have not seen your body. You have not prostituted
yourself in any film at any time.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Oh, you haven't seen all the movies that.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah, I saw you down to your drawers, but I
don't recall. Okay, let's let's keep it real.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
A little bumping and grind.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Yeah, yeah, you did a little bumping and grinding, but
you never you you?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, that's terrible.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, this out to take. We're gonna keep it real
for a minute. You didn't put your everything out there,
let me say it like that to get a role.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Why didn't you? And are you glad you did?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I had a mentor in college my senior year when
I really just started acting, and he talked to me
about never having to compromise, you know, myself, and.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I remembered that that that wasn't necessary, and I got
that guy.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
I mean, I've just been blessed beyond measure. I found
out early in college that I had this unique ability
so and things that were happening in my life.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Some people maybe have heard me talk about a woman
prophesied when I was twenty years old. She said, boy,
you're gonna travel the world. And preach to millions of people.
She didn't say you're gonna be famous. She didn't say
you're gonna win Oscar. She didn't say any of those things.
She said, you know you aren't going into the travel.
By the way, I was flunging out of college. I
had a one point seventh grade point average. I was
(28:49):
in my mother's beauty shop. And the reason I was
in her beauty shop was because I was not in school.
I was not in school that semester, and this woman,
Miss Ruth Green, had this prophecy that that.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Is coming true.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Uh huh, it's coming true.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
It's coming true.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I talked to you on the phone, and I tell
you that I believe that you have something down inside
of you beyond the I thing from a spiritual perspective,
that is awakening. If you agree with that, tell us
what that feels like. And that has shown up in
(29:31):
your work, It has shown up off camera. What is
evolving in you now from a spiritual perspective.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
It's just that it's evolving, you know. I remember talking
to Bishop Blake years ago. I said, well, you know,
should I should I become a preacher?
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Should I?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
He said, no, No, you have your pull pick.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
You know, and and and use it.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
So I do have everybody talk about a platform. I
got a pretty I guess, big platform, whatever you call it.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Yeah, he got a pretty. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
So I try to try to use it for good.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Use it for good, use it for the chapter four
A Great Way.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
One, Buffett says that if a man toward the autumn
of his life, and this is a poor quote of it,
but it's pretty close, uh has still maintained the respect
and love of the people who matter most, he is
(30:43):
a successful man. You live and work in an industry
where the falling apart of the home is the headlines
of the week, and people swept and swap in relationships
all the time. It is very difficult thing to be
who you are and still be a father, and still
(31:06):
be a husband. And yet somehow you have been graced
that the people who matter most still respect you. Tell
us how.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
I have a great wife. That's the answer. I have
a great Listen.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
My wife is from right here, North Carolina. She was
a child prodigy. She was the Van Kliburn competitor, one
of the world's best young pianists.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
At nine years old.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
She was the first black woman that was supposed to
be Miss North Carolina at a time when they couldn't
let a black person be. She had gotten whatever it's
misrunner up, the first runner. They couldn't even let her
be first runner up because if Miss North Carolina fell out.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
She couldn't go to all the places.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
In this state.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
That yeah, yeah, so her father was an educator.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
They had one of the top This was back in segregation,
before integration. They had one of the top schools in
North Carolina, the top debating team. One of the best
schools in North Carolina was an all black school from Newton,
North Carolina.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, I think that's such a great answer, is one
that I could really relate to. Having a great wife
has a lot to do with whether vacand store. And
it's always nice when she's cute, but it's not nice
when she's cute and not great.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
God a witness sowere.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
So a word up to the fellows. A lot of
times you have more emphasis on cute than great. But
what makes the relationships sustainable is great rather than cute.
And I think that one of the problems that we
have with longevity is that it is expensive to be
a great woman in a world where women spending billions
(33:44):
of dollars looking cute. It is more expensive to be
a great woman because a great woman absorbs a lot
of shock, a lot of a lot of pain. A
great woman bites her tongue at times that other women
(34:09):
speak their mind. It is expensive to be a great
woman to know when to speak and when to shut
up and go the other way. A lot of women
who started clapping when he said that you had to
really do inventory. Is he talking about you? Because because
I really do think a lot of the credit goes
(34:32):
to holding things together. It's unfair, it's probably not right,
but the contill is true to having a great woman.
We come up sometimes to get the bow, but really
the woman is the glue. At least at my house.
Serena is the glue. She is the glue and the
staples and the safety pins and the stitches.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
And everything else.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
You know, I couldn't my wife. My wife is consistent.
Uh huh, yes, consistent, consistent. She made breakfast every morning.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
For the children, they had a little Bible study every morning.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
She drove them to school every morning.
Speaker 5 (35:22):
So she when I was out running making the movies
and you know, killing the line and bringing the meat
home a compet yeah, combat you know, but she was
doing that.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
It might be our generation, but I can say that
I could take your statement and put it right on
Serena having prayer with the kids every morning, making sure
everybody got something to need, and still doing her day,
and still doing her thing, and still building her business,
and still went back and got her degree, and still
supportive of me, and still got her hair done. You
have to be a bad woman to be a great woman,
(35:56):
multi talented. In fact, a great woman is a corporation
and one person, she is a corporation on herself. If
you are a great woman, you are a corporation. Whether
you start a business or not, you are a complete corporation.
Give yourselves a hand if you think you are a
(36:18):
great woman.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
And let me let me say this to the to
the guys, for the guys out there. You gotta have
vision to see potential instead of well it ain't working
right now.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Let me go over here, right, let me go here,
Let me go over here. You know.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
I helped my wife's pedigree, come on her pedigree.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
You know, she.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
She raised me up out the ghetto a little bit.
You know, I had one foot in the street, you know.
So it's a balance, the balance, tell.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
The truth, shape the devil.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
I was throwing rocks at the penitentiary, now.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Yeah, no question.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
The thing about it is, at different stages of life,
you raise each other, right, at different stages of life,
your parent, your partner, depending on what is going on
at that particular moment. And people have given up on
(37:29):
parenting their partner because it has become popular to replace
rather than to develop.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Chapter five, Get out of the way. How much of
who you are affects what you do? Let me say
it like that.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
I don't know. I mean, I don't examine myself.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Really no, no, I don't you know.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
I know where it got it from. I know what
I'm supposed to do with it, and that's good enough
for me.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
I don't keep notes sort of, you know, talk to
myself and too much about I try to get out
of the way. I try to get out of the way.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Man man goes down to the ocean, okay, tries to
fit all the knowledge of the ocean into his little
brain instead of just jumping in the water and enjoying himself.
Faith is jumping in the water. Ego is if I
don't understand it, it doesn't exist. To think we can reduce.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Everything to our level of understanding is ego on steroid.
Our dare any of us I know what's best?
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Oh? Really?
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Okay? Good luck.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
You know three times since we've been talking, you have
said get out of the way.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
And if I had to entitle this, this, this talk,
this masterclass, I would have to call it get out
of the way. And and that is so simple and
yet so profound, and yet so difficult to do, because
often we worship at the shrine of our own point
of view.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Say that again, you worship at the shrine from our
own point of view?
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Yes, wow, yeah, ain't gonna be in presidence of my
saying come on now and give me a bring. But really,
I do think that that is actually that is idolatry
at its highest form, is to think that the way
that you see it is the way that it is.
(39:48):
What I try to do with my life is to
understand your perspective. While other people talk about what you do.
I always wonder why I always want to empathize, even
with my enemy, to make sure that my enemy is
not a friend in disguise or or somebody who has
(40:12):
been hurt in such a way that they react in
a way that, yes, wounded me, but not intentionally. I
try not to smack a patient.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Pastor A. R.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Bernard talks about that when people come to him or
come at him or at anyone with anger.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Yeah, first thing you ask is.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
Who hurt you?
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Yeah, because that's usually where he's brilliant.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Yeah, yeah, he's brilliant. Who hurts you?
Speaker 3 (40:43):
That is not generally the first thing we ask when
we are offended, but it might be a good takeaway
to take with you from this meeting instead of deciding
I don't deal with her, I don't like him, I
can't stand them. They're eager, they're stupid, they're hateful, they're demand.
Maybe the first question to ask is who hurt you?
(41:08):
Because I think it's easier to love things you understand,
and if you can begin to understand the other person's perspective,
it changes how you pray for them, it changes how
you handle them, and it most importantly leaves the door open.
(41:28):
The most amazing thing I'm appreacing you minute. The most
amazing thing about the prodigal Son story to me is
not the prodigal son I know what it is to
drift away. I also know what it is to be
the elder brother and stay and feel ignored. I stayed
in one ministry for seven years and only preached twice,
and my big job was clean the baptism post.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
So I understand the older brother.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
I understand the prodigal son because I have gone on
a few adventures in my life. I'll keep them to myself,
but I have. But the star of the text is
the father, because he left the door open for the
sun to come home. And I find very few people
in life leave the door open for change. Six passing
(42:12):
the baton you you have, in a lot of ways
left the door open for other people to come behind you,
for other people to experience change, for other people to
have careers. You talked about the level of training that
you have. I talked about the level of training, the
scholarships that you've given the other people that created massive careers.
(42:36):
His name escapes me right now, the guy who played in.
Speaker 7 (42:38):
Black Panther that everybody yeah, yeah, yeah, it's interesting you mentioned.
Speaker 5 (42:42):
That because I was about to tell a story about
No I was I was.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
I was on Broadway and.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
They had a screening of black panther. So I told
Ryan Cooler, the director, that I was going to come.
So I snuck in because I didn't want to deal
with the red carpet. I'm low key person. I going
to take pictures and all that. So I went in
the back way and Ryan Coogler and Chad were there
(43:11):
talking and.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
He's like, Oh, you're just the person I wanted to see,
and I said, yeah, I wanted to see you too,
because he owed me some money. But when I sat
in the audience, when I sat in the audience and
watched that film, I understood that the baton had been passed.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
You know, I looked at them.
Speaker 5 (43:34):
I said, boy, these young boys are gone. To the
tune of a billion dollars that move ended up making,
I said, they're gone.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Now.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
You know, when you run a relay race and you
hand the baton off, you don't stop. As soon as
you hand it off, you run behind the person. So
I handed it off and I'm running behind him. But
I know I'm not gonna make it all the way
around the track.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Now, none of us knew that. Who that's good that
Chad wasn't good.
Speaker 5 (44:03):
Right there?
Speaker 1 (44:04):
That's good right there, that's good.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Right there.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
That's good, right there.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
Oh that's good man. I'm ready to go over here
twenty dollars or dollars of the day.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
But I had to.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
I had to.
Speaker 5 (44:15):
When I watched the movie, I had to shed a tear.
I mean I sat there and I shed a tear.
I'm like, these young boys are gone. Yeah, you know,
not make anything out of myself. But Sidney took it
a certain distance. I took at a certain distance.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
And now they're gone.
Speaker 4 (44:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're gone.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
And I think and my son's one of them.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Yeah, that's the greatest feeling in the world when you
and my daughter. Remember I said, so, Olivia Washington, just
remember I said so.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
It's just too to be at this stage now and
not be jealous, to be at the stage and not
being this to be at the stage and be glad
to see younger men and women coming up and grabbing
the baton while you are yet running. You are not
(45:14):
angry or jealous or competing with them. You're kind of
running to make sure they're okay. Go on, God God,
I enjoy coaching Who's next more than being who's next?
Speaker 4 (45:30):
You too?
Speaker 1 (45:31):
You do me too?
Speaker 4 (45:32):
That stage I find is.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Not always prevalent in our generation, because some in our
generation are still wrestling with who am I outside of
what I do? And if I am not this, then
I don't see a role, but I see a clear path.
I'm happy to be Timothy's Paul. I'm happy to be
(45:58):
ruthe SNAILI. I'm happy to be elicious Elijah, because I
know what it is to be young and run and
have no one to talk to, and have no safe
place to lay your head, and have nobody to pull
me over into the corner and say, don't slap.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
Nobody on stage, did you see them? You need somebody.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
And you're not really a father until you care enough
to chew me out, And you're not really a son
until you can be chewed out and still come back
to my arms and understand. Father love doesn't sound like
mama love. And we have a generation of people who
have been raised to the tune of a mama love,
(46:46):
and they don't. Anytime you see something hearts, they see
you as an enemy and react and fight you rather
than I understand. It takes energy to care, It takes
energy to argue, It takes energy to confront. You have
sat in your seat at the Oscars and let that
go down. But you got out of your seat.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
No, I couldn't have sat in my seat the way
I could have sat in my.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Seat, No way you considered your seat. Tell me why.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
That's just not who I am.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
It's not who you are. That's exactly my point. That
you just prove my point. That's not who I am.
You understand who you are, and you're comfortable enough in
your own skin that you're concerned when another rate, when
another runner trips. That's exactly my point. First of all,
(47:41):
it's good to see you.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Good to be seen by you. Friend of mine used
to say that.
Speaker 5 (47:48):
I used to love that anytime somebody would say good
to see you, So good to be seen by you.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Yeah, it is good. It's good to see you after
the Oscars, after all the stuff you went through, after
every thing you're handled, to jump on the plane to
flo out here on the Red Eye with no sleep
and come up on the stage to talk to a
group of people that you don't need and you didn't
have to. It's absolutely stellar. I want to thank you.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
This is the this is the this is the I
don't know if I said it up when I was
up here. Man gives the award, God gives the reward.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
Yeah, this is the reward for me.
Speaker 5 (48:24):
Really, you know, well, awards are good, but this is better.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
This is this is this is food for me.
Speaker 4 (48:34):
Good. It's food for us? Is it not food for us?
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Denzel's prayer. I hope it doesn't put you on the spot. Really,
but I'm gonna put you on the spot. And I
only ask you to do this because you do it
every morning for your cast and your crew. I am
not gonna ask you.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
To That's bow our heads. That's bow our heads. Dear
Father in heaven, we thank you.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
We know that to whom much is given, much is expected,
much is required, and we know that you require from
each and every one of us our undivided love for you.
You are our beacon of light.
Speaker 4 (49:29):
In this darkness.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
And we say thank you and thank you and thank
you and thank you and thank you not just for
what you've done, but what you are going to do
what we can't see. Thank you for guiding our steps,
thank you for protecting us when we're getting here and
when we leave here today, just thank you for all
that you've done.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
And I pray and I know that out there.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
In this audience. I just feel the people in this audience. Lord,
I feel the Lord, I feel the Lord. Hallelujah, Hallelujahlujah.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
I feel them, Lord, and I know that it's I
know you want to touch them all.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
I pray that something we set up here touches them
and and and makes their relationship with you stronger, better, tighter, Yes, Lord,
more loving these things we ask in your Son's name,
and we pray, and we know, we know, we know,
(50:38):
and we thank you.
Speaker 4 (50:40):
Amen. Amen, you just.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
Got prayed for by the word and only.
Speaker 4 (50:47):
Xabington. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Pray My pleasure, my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (50:57):
Hey everybody, I want to take this time to thank
you for watching the Next Chapter podcasts. If this conversation
inspired you, helped you reflect on an idea, or spark
something new inside of you, make sure to like comments
and subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. Remember, life
(51:21):
isn't about how you begin, It's about how you finished.
Strong to start your next chapter without right here.
Speaker 4 (51:31):
Every week
I've said it before. You never see a U haul
behind a hearset. You can't take it with you.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
You know, no matter on your last day, it doesn't
matter how much money you have. So that you know
the Egyptians tried to take it with them.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Yeah, all they got was rob right right.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
So hello everybody, I'm Tdjakes and I'm extremely glad to
have you here at my Next Chapter podcast. It is
so exciting and so fulfilling that you're going to listen
in today and learn something that may change your life
or change your perspective. As I present to you none
(00:36):
other than being comfortable Denzel Washington. Today, I'm joined by
a man whose talent has inspired generations, an Academy Award
winning actor, director, and storyteller. But beyond the accolades, Denzel
Washington is a man anchored in faith, family, and service.
(00:57):
In this conversation, we talk about staying grounded when fame
and fortune is trying to pull you away from what
truly matters, why less is more and the power of
having a strong partner, and he closes with a heartfelt
prayer that reminds us where our strength really comes from.
(01:25):
Chapter one, Staying Grounded, I think there's a whole section
of people that didn't come to hear me that came this.
I'm going to thank you back to many many occasions
(01:49):
you and I have been in conversation. You might not
remember this. You're having breakfast. I think we're in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
What seasons?
Speaker 4 (02:00):
More seasons.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
He's just sitting there having breakfast like people, and I
came down there to have breakfast. I walked past, I thought,
and we entered into a conversation that I sat down
and re enjoyed it. We had great fellowship and great fun.
And You've always been a very touchable, down to earth
(02:25):
person who seems to pay little attention to all the
tremendous accolades that have been afforded to you. Is that
part of the secret sauce that has kept you grounded
and added to the longevity of your career that you
did not allow the hype to inflate the way you
(02:46):
see yourself.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
My mother, God rests soul. She made it to ninety seven.
She yeah, she just passes past year. And she she
owned a beauty shop, a beauty polluxcuse me, okay, she
owned a beauty Paulot, not a salon, a beauty polo
and I had done one or two things and I'm
feeling myself and I came in.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I said, mon, did you think, oh this was gonna happen?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
And you know I was going.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
She said, what did you say? All the people been
bringing for you?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
She started calling me superstar, So she said, okay, superstar,
why don't you grab that bucket and go cleaning windows?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Superstar? When you finished with that, superstar?
Speaker 5 (03:29):
So I got the message, you know, I got the message.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
That grounding is something that's rare. Today we see people
rise up like Xenos and then crashed like nuclear bombs.
You have the added advantage of looking back over decades
and decades of being relevant. Longevity is important to success.
(03:58):
When you start talking about longevity, there are many many
people out here who want to have longevity, regardless of
their profession, whether it is in corporate America, whether it's
in the faith realm, whether it's on the stage.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Longevity on the stage, I.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Tell people the lights are bright, but the heat is hot.
Yeah yeah, okay, it's been hot. It's been hot on
that stage. Many many people who started with you melted.
How did you make it?
Speaker 4 (04:30):
How do I? How did you make.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
It by the grace of God. I mean, I don't
take any credit for it.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
It's nothing I did a special you know, been knocked
down a few pegs and recognize it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
But I just didn't put me first. Just put God first.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And He's carried me through the ups and the many downs.
You know, the things you hear about and the things
you don't hear about.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
You know when you think about that. We were at
Teller Perry Studios for the dedication of the Teller Perry
Studios and we were talking the Sunday morning I spoke.
I talked about the difference between people who walked through
a door which is an opportunity, and other people who
turned that door into a platform through which other people
(05:24):
are able to access their dreams. Without question, you have
had many doors open to you, but you have also
created many platforms and introduced to the world many many talented,
gifted people without which your influence would not have happened.
You didn't have to go that extra mile to do that.
(05:46):
You could have enjoyed the limelight of the door and
walked away. Is there a sense of fulfillment that you
get out of creating that platform or is it purely
from a business perspective.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I love seeing other people do well, always have.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I grew up in the Boys Club now the Boys
and Girls Club, and I was a counselor there, and
I you know, I came up in the club as
at first as a camper and then as a counselor,
and I always enjoyed seeing other people do well. It's
interesting that I ended up in this business with It
appears that you're out front.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
That's not even my nature.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Actually, you know, the funny thing about it is when
you think about when the public thinks about you, they
think of you as an actor. When I think about you,
I think about you not only as an actor and
an entertainer, not only as an icon in our community,
but I also see you as a businessman. Because what
the public doesn't realize is that entertainment is a business.
(06:53):
And you have been successful not only at acting on screen,
which a lot of people do. You have been successful
at the business of entertainment. Can you talk to me
about the business atispect.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I tell people all the time they call it show business,
they should call it business show, no business, no next show.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Absolutely explain it.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
No business, no next show. And you know you have
to deliver.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I mean, it is a business, it's a dollars and
cents business, and you have to deliver.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And you have to know your worth, and you have
to be able to negotiate from the perspective of knowing
your own value. If other people know the value to
want you, but you don't know the value to know
who you are yourself, it's it would appear to me
it would be quite difficult to be successful if you
don't at least have some sense of the equity that
(07:47):
has accrued behind your brand and consequently negotiate from the
leverage of understanding that equity.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
At what point did it hit you.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
That I am worth more than how I'm being handled?
And how did you negotiate into the next stream of
opportunities without allowing people to prostitute what God had given you.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I'm just not I'm just that guy, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I'm not scared to say no, you know, and you
have to say no sometimes, you know. And it's the
nose that I said that have really gotten me. You
know wherever I am now professionally, and the money really
(08:35):
didn't scare me. You know, I've said it before. You
never see a U haul behind a hearse. You can't
take it with you, you know, no matter on your
last day, it doesn't matter how much.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Money you have.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So that that you know, the Egyptians tried to take
it with them RCT. Yeah, all they got was robbed
right right, So you but you can leave it here.
And I'm not just talking about the money. I'm talking
about what God has blessed me with I can I
can leave here, you know. And that's that's what's important
(09:10):
to me, is to at this point in my life,
just to be in that number you.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
You appear on a lot of platforms, a professor running
in the presidents of college when they introduce you beginning
to talk about you started on stage not too long ago.
My wife and I flew up to New York and
saw you on.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Stage Caesareen years ago, seventeen years ago time.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yes, that was just the other day to me. Now
that's a blur. You walked down on that stage and
you were back at home again, back where you started from.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Number one.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
What made you go back to the stage and did it?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Was it nostalgic for you to be on that stage.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
More than that was as much as that is, the
foundation had to get back to the you know, like
here on stage, the audience will tell you that night
right wrapped out, they feel about you, and you know,
it's a humbly experience, and I just wanted to get back.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
To the to the foundation. Between nineteen ninety and.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Two thousand and five, I was doing the best I
could to help my wife to raise our kids, and
they were at an age where I couldn't leave California
for weeks at a time, you know, because you can't
commute when you're doing a.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Show on Broadway.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
So I just chose not to do any plays on
Broadway for about fifteen years.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Chapter two, Less is More. When I saw you.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
In the car getting ready to leave the hotel in
New Orleans, I think you were shooting Safe Room, Safe
House at the time. To me, that was an amazing movie,
largely because of the scenes that had no words. Mind.
(11:13):
The greatest actors I have ever seen are people who
can convey messages without script, and you are absolutely amazing
at conveying.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Got a script.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
You know, people don't understand the hardest thing to do
as an actor is to listen.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
The hardest thing to do as a human being to listen, so.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And to be quiet and actually not do a whole lot.
You know, we go to cameras on I gotta.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Yeah, yeah, acted up.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
Less is actually more, Less is actually less is more.
Please write that down, because less is more. One of
the big mistakes that I think that church actors make
is that they go overboard. The real pros understand that
less it's more.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
If it feels good to you, it probably isn't any good.
That's the truth.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
If you if you're feeling so good about yourself, then
you're too self aware. Yeah, so you're probably not as
good as you think because you're.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Too busy thinking who look at you? Yeah, I'm acting.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Now, that's funny, and it shows, and it shows, it
shows to the audience. I was sitting there screaming at
the TV set because I was just mesmerized.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
In fact, I teased you about it.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I told you that you died so well that I
was ready to commit your body to the ground.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
And that's said, which, yes, you know what, that's my
favorite death of mine.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yo, you you diedro That is training day those I.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Started saying as just as for as much as dear
Libertor the brother was dead. Okay, this guy died for
like five minutes. He just he just died. I seen
people now all the time, I thought he was dead.
I got my robe, I got my sash, and I
started to enforced by sayings and dearly departed brothers pass
(13:21):
from death.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
He was gone.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
And you said to me at the time, and you said,
I died too. Well, now they're trying to do a
sequel and I can't get me there. And we laughed
about it and we talked about it. Was it was
an amazing thing. Uh when you you, when you think
of Antoine Fisher, you introduced, thank you what was amazing.
(13:47):
Not not only did you you produced it, you directed it.
You brought new talent to the stage that we had
not known. I think he delivered one of his greatest
performances up under your.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
And people don't realize the young woman in there by
the name of Viola Day Listen.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
I was coming down.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, yeah, I realized Vola Davis got her star playing
his mother. She plays his mother, and the that.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
No line, no lines, no lines, but she had one line,
you want to eat.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Yeah, but can't nobody outcry Viola Day Listen. Baby girl
can cry, and she can cry. I start crying. I
don't even know what I'm crying about. How did you
cast those two unheard of people and then direct them
(14:44):
in a way that you got the best out of them?
Because now the reason I asked this question, whether you
are in film or interested in entertainment, this is really
about how do you get the best out of the
people you choose in the positions you hold. So don't
just listen from an entertaining aspect, but from an informational
(15:04):
aspect to understand how do you choose people who are
going to play a role in your organization A and B?
How do you get the best out of them? Should
have every leader, every pastor, every manager, every entrepreneur in
this room, because some of the time we suffer because
we got the wrong cast, we hire the wrong people.
(15:27):
Some of the times we suffer because we have the
right people, but we lack the ability to get the
best out of them. You have to do both of
them in order to be successful. Teach us how to
do that.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Get out of the way. It's it's easy to say,
but hard to do. I can't play the part. Derek
played the part. I Olda played the part.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Sometime we want to, we want to do it all
get out of the way, you know, get out of
the way.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
That's a modest answer. I'm not gonna let you off
that because anybody can get out of the way. Get
out of the way. We can get out of the way.
I understand that you are saying not to try to
make the actor be you, but that ignores the fact
that you had to select somebody who had.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
That thing in them.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
How do you look at someone and see in them
things that has yet to be unearthed out of them?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
When I'm casting, always tell the casting people, I only
need one. I only needed one, Viola Davis, I didn't
need ten. So and I know it when I see it,
and I and I know it when I haven't seen it.
So when it walks in the room, then when she
walked in the room, I knew, and I knew.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
So it's a good thing. It's a it's an instinct thing.
More than I look for this, this, this, this.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
This just yeah, it's not a checklist. Okay, it's not
a checklist.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I think I know what good acting is.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
You got to know what you're looking for, which is
a note worth taking. You got to know what you're
looking for because I think a lot of times we
don't know what we're looking for. We're interview people, but
we know the job description, we know the title, but
we don't know the temperament, the talent, and how well
they will fit into the continuity of our organization. So
(17:27):
we hire people who have the right education, but they
are toxic in the organization. Are you hearing what I'm saying.
You have to know what the temperament is that you're
looking for. Again, you'll know it when you see it.
But whether you know it or not, you are casting
in your office, in your church, in your acchoir, in
your leadership. Anybody can come in to congregation, I don't care,
(17:51):
but whoever's going to be on the team already know
what temperament a person I need in that team. And
I'm not just looking at their bio. I'm looking at
their body language, their personality, their work ethic, how congenial
they are with people, how sensitive they are.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
I don't need a.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Drama queen running a conference. I don't need you creating problems.
I need you solving problems. And so I can clearly
delineate what I'm looking for an individual he has a
list of criterias that he's saying that he has, that
he knows in his head that he's looking for in
the actor, and that he will know it when he
(18:31):
sees it. You cannot regulate that over to somebody else.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Nelson Mandela said, a leader, like a shepherd, sends the fast,
nimble sheet out front so that the rest will follow,
not realizing they're all being led from behind. So a
leader leads quietly from behind.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
You know, you don't have to out front, and I
don't have to out act everybody and out you know,
we want to we want to do it all. We'll
get out the way. Let me say, you know, but
that's pretty good advice from mister Mandela.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Yeah, yeah, I would think so. I would think so.
Chapter three, Faith, When you start thinking about August Wilson,
the body of his work, the magnitude of his impact
(19:33):
on the Broadway stage, off Broadway stage at a time
that black people were not being recognized, the body of
his work ended up in your hands, of which fences
is one deposit. What made you make yeah, yeah, give
it up for fences. What made you make the decision
(19:57):
to buy the body of his work or to all
the buck.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
The family came to me the family.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yet his widow, Costanza, said, we'd like you to take
care of August plays.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
For us and make films. I said, I'm just a
man for the job, you know, So that's that's what
I'm doing.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
What made you give that answer, because it's the truth.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
What did somebody say? What said you're not conceded? You convinced?
I mean, I'm a bragging I mean I was the
right one in the right place at the right time,
with the right power, in the right position to get
things done, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
And you got them done.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I'm getting them done. I'm getting them done.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
With one by one, You're getting them done.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And then what made you make the decision to keep
so much of his original cast and take them from
the stage to the screen. These are decisions. What I'm
asking him is how do you make this because that
has a lot to do with defining the success of
your leadership. How do you make decisions? And some people
(21:08):
hold positions, but delegate decisions.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Say that again, some people hold.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Positions, but delegate decisions.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Okay. And while I want everybody's input into the decision,
my style of leadership, the final decision is going to
be mine, Okay. I welcome your input. I'm not a dictator.
I want to hear your input, and I will adjust
my decision if your information shifts the outcome. But at
the end of the day, I don't want people making
(21:40):
decisions that I have to live with because at the
end of the day, it's not going to be your
name in the paper, it's going to be mine. Correct,
and I want to know right about it. Are they're
not going to write about your staff. They're going to
write about you, And they're not going to attack your staff.
They're going to attack you. They don't know the name
of your staff. They're gonna come after you. And so
(22:01):
you you want to be in You want to hire
people that are smart enough that they bring you brilliant ideas,
But you have to decide are those brilliant ideas worth
the consequences of those ideas?
Speaker 4 (22:14):
In my world, that's how I do it. In your world,
what made you make.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
The decision to keep these people who had never been
on screen as far as I know, had always been
on stage, and yet you brought them on stage.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
And then I'm going to tell you what they told
me about you.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
You're talking about fences now, Well, well, because they were
great actors, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley, Henderson, Michael t when
they were all great actors.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
And and I'm loyal. You know, we got the.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Success that we had on stage together. Why should I now?
Now we had to we had to recast little Girl
because she she uh you know, and and uh and
one of the part because the kid grew up.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
But they do that, Yeah, they do that. They got it.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, it is relieving. Actually they keep coming back though,
Minter here, so I won't come in now. You brought
them to the stage. I interviewed them while I was
doing the talk show in Hollywood. This is what they
told me about you. They told me that you were
(23:32):
as much a director, producer as you were a pastor.
They said you started every morning of course, that's prayer.
They said they were spiritually enriched up under your leadership
because of your.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Consciousness of God.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Now, Look, I've been on the set a few times myself,
not nearly nearly nearly nearly what you've done.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
But it is not normal to start the day with prayer.
It's not. No, it is not normal to start the
day with prayer.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Well, I don't know what other people do, but I
need on the.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Set, I'm not talking about it in your personal life,
to have the boldness of faith to bring a crew
together and say, let's pray before we start.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
I'm not seeing a lot of people do that in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Or well, we were down, We're Orion Charlotte for that.
You know, it's funny. It's funny Orange people.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Talk about Hollywood like it's a place where evil things have.
Los Angeles is a city. There's no place called Hollywood.
We don't all get together and have Hollywood meetings. Yeah,
Hollywood is a street in Los Angeles. I'm in the
movie business right in the Hollywood. I don't even know
(25:01):
what the Hollywood business is.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I don't know how to do that. I make movies,
I do plays, I direct.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
And that's that being.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Said, and that is absolutely true. And I've been on
both sides of the street. I don't demonize what is called,
quote unquote Hollywood. I'm just saying, in the course of
during business, not every person in business brings the cast
together and has prayer.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
That doesn't happen. Why does that happen with you?
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Because I was raised right, I don't know that. You know,
my father was a minister. I know your father father
was a minister.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
He's a PK. Y'all give it up, piks.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Church of God in Christ, Church of God.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
My mother grew up in uh well, I folks, not
old enough Kelly Temple in New York City.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Okay, my mother grew up in that church.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
And see you at home.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I see.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Evidently being raised in the faith, that you still are
involved in the faith. You still have been a loyal
support of Lost Angeles. You've done some amazing things down
through the years. You have helped Bishop Blake in amazing ways.
You have helped many people start and launched their careers.
(26:27):
You have financed historically black colleges. You have been extremely philanthropic.
You have a different rhythm in your soul. Is that
coming from your faith?
Speaker 1 (26:41):
That's sad that you say that. I have to even
say that because that's what we all should should do. Yeah,
it shouldn't be. There's nothing exceptional about.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Should should emphasis on the words should, But you know
without it sitting there talking to me, that that is exceptional.
That very few people have the kind of temperament, especially
that last had long and started that young. We have
not seen you. We've seen you do sexy scenes, but
(27:11):
we have not seen your body. You have not prostituted
yourself in any film at any time.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Oh, you haven't seen all the movies that.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah, I saw you down to your drawers, but I
don't recall. Okay, let's let's keep it real.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
A little bumping and grind.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Yeah, yeah, you did a little bumping and grinding, but
you never you you?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, that's terrible.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, this out to take. We're gonna keep it real
for a minute. You didn't put your everything out there,
let me say it like that to get a role.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Why didn't you? And are you glad you did?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I had a mentor in college my senior year when
I really just started acting, and he talked to me
about never having to compromise, you know, myself, and.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
I remembered that that that wasn't necessary, and I got
that guy.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
I mean, I've just been blessed beyond measure. I found
out early in college that I had this unique ability
so and things that were happening in my life.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Some people maybe have heard me talk about a woman
prophesied when I was twenty years old. She said, boy,
you're gonna travel the world. And preach to millions of people.
She didn't say you're gonna be famous. She didn't say
you're gonna win Oscar. She didn't say any of those things.
She said, you know you aren't going into the travel.
By the way, I was flunging out of college. I
had a one point seventh grade point average. I was
(28:49):
in my mother's beauty shop. And the reason I was
in her beauty shop was because I was not in school.
I was not in school that semester, and this woman,
Miss Ruth Green, had this prophecy that that.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Is coming true.
Speaker 4 (29:05):
Uh huh, it's coming true.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
It's coming true.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I talked to you on the phone, and I tell
you that I believe that you have something down inside
of you beyond the I thing from a spiritual perspective,
that is awakening. If you agree with that, tell us
what that feels like. And that has shown up in
(29:31):
your work, It has shown up off camera. What is
evolving in you now from a spiritual perspective.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
It's just that it's evolving, you know. I remember talking
to Bishop Blake years ago. I said, well, you know,
should I should I become a preacher?
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Should I?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
He said, no, No, you have your pull pick.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
You know, and and and use it.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
So I do have everybody talk about a platform. I
got a pretty I guess, big platform, whatever you call it.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Yeah, he got a pretty. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
So I try to try to use it for good.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Use it for good, use it for the chapter four
A Great Way.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
One, Buffett says that if a man toward the autumn
of his life, and this is a poor quote of it,
but it's pretty close, uh has still maintained the respect
and love of the people who matter most, he is
(30:43):
a successful man. You live and work in an industry
where the falling apart of the home is the headlines
of the week, and people swept and swap in relationships
all the time. It is very difficult thing to be
who you are and still be a father, and still
(31:06):
be a husband. And yet somehow you have been graced
that the people who matter most still respect you. Tell
us how.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
I have a great wife. That's the answer. I have
a great Listen.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
My wife is from right here, North Carolina. She was
a child prodigy. She was the Van Kliburn competitor, one
of the world's best young pianists.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
At nine years old.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
She was the first black woman that was supposed to
be Miss North Carolina at a time when they couldn't
let a black person be. She had gotten whatever it's
misrunner up, the first runner. They couldn't even let her
be first runner up because if Miss North Carolina fell out.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
She couldn't go to all the places.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
In this state.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
That yeah, yeah, so her father was an educator.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
They had one of the top This was back in segregation,
before integration. They had one of the top schools in
North Carolina, the top debating team. One of the best
schools in North Carolina was an all black school from Newton,
North Carolina.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, I think that's such a great answer, is one
that I could really relate to. Having a great wife
has a lot to do with whether vacand store. And
it's always nice when she's cute, but it's not nice
when she's cute and not great.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
God a witness sowere.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
So a word up to the fellows. A lot of
times you have more emphasis on cute than great. But
what makes the relationships sustainable is great rather than cute.
And I think that one of the problems that we
have with longevity is that it is expensive to be
a great woman in a world where women spending billions
(33:44):
of dollars looking cute. It is more expensive to be
a great woman because a great woman absorbs a lot
of shock, a lot of a lot of pain. A
great woman bites her tongue at times that other women
(34:09):
speak their mind. It is expensive to be a great
woman to know when to speak and when to shut
up and go the other way. A lot of women
who started clapping when he said that you had to
really do inventory. Is he talking about you? Because because
I really do think a lot of the credit goes
(34:32):
to holding things together. It's unfair, it's probably not right,
but the contill is true to having a great woman.
We come up sometimes to get the bow, but really
the woman is the glue. At least at my house.
Serena is the glue. She is the glue and the
staples and the safety pins and the stitches.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
And everything else.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
You know, I couldn't my wife. My wife is consistent.
Uh huh, yes, consistent, consistent. She made breakfast every morning.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
For the children, they had a little Bible study every morning.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
She drove them to school every morning.
Speaker 5 (35:22):
So she when I was out running making the movies
and you know, killing the line and bringing the meat
home a compet yeah, combat you know, but she was
doing that.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
It might be our generation, but I can say that
I could take your statement and put it right on
Serena having prayer with the kids every morning, making sure
everybody got something to need, and still doing her day,
and still doing her thing, and still building her business,
and still went back and got her degree, and still
supportive of me, and still got her hair done. You
have to be a bad woman to be a great woman,
(35:56):
multi talented. In fact, a great woman is a corporation
and one person, she is a corporation on herself. If
you are a great woman, you are a corporation. Whether
you start a business or not, you are a complete corporation.
Give yourselves a hand if you think you are a
(36:18):
great woman.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
And let me let me say this to the to
the guys, for the guys out there. You gotta have
vision to see potential instead of well it ain't working
right now.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Let me go over here, right, let me go here,
Let me go over here. You know.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
I helped my wife's pedigree, come on her pedigree.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
You know, she.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
She raised me up out the ghetto a little bit.
You know, I had one foot in the street, you know.
So it's a balance, the balance, tell.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
The truth, shape the devil.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
I was throwing rocks at the penitentiary, now.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Yeah, no question.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
The thing about it is, at different stages of life,
you raise each other, right, at different stages of life,
your parent, your partner, depending on what is going on
at that particular moment. And people have given up on
(37:29):
parenting their partner because it has become popular to replace
rather than to develop.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Chapter five, Get out of the way. How much of
who you are affects what you do? Let me say
it like that.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
I don't know. I mean, I don't examine myself.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Really no, no, I don't you know.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
I know where it got it from. I know what
I'm supposed to do with it, and that's good enough
for me.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
I don't keep notes sort of, you know, talk to
myself and too much about I try to get out
of the way. I try to get out of the way.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Man man goes down to the ocean, okay, tries to
fit all the knowledge of the ocean into his little
brain instead of just jumping in the water and enjoying himself.
Faith is jumping in the water. Ego is if I
don't understand it, it doesn't exist. To think we can reduce.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Everything to our level of understanding is ego on steroid.
Our dare any of us I know what's best?
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Oh? Really?
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Okay? Good luck.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
You know three times since we've been talking, you have
said get out of the way.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
And if I had to entitle this, this, this talk,
this masterclass, I would have to call it get out
of the way. And and that is so simple and
yet so profound, and yet so difficult to do, because
often we worship at the shrine of our own point
of view.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Say that again, you worship at the shrine from our
own point of view?
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Yes, wow, yeah, ain't gonna be in presidence of my
saying come on now and give me a bring. But really,
I do think that that is actually that is idolatry
at its highest form, is to think that the way
that you see it is the way that it is.
(39:48):
What I try to do with my life is to
understand your perspective. While other people talk about what you do.
I always wonder why I always want to empathize, even
with my enemy, to make sure that my enemy is
not a friend in disguise or or somebody who has
(40:12):
been hurt in such a way that they react in
a way that, yes, wounded me, but not intentionally. I
try not to smack a patient.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Pastor A. R.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Bernard talks about that when people come to him or
come at him or at anyone with anger.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Yeah, first thing you ask is.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
Who hurt you?
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Yeah, because that's usually where he's brilliant.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Yeah, yeah, he's brilliant. Who hurts you?
Speaker 3 (40:43):
That is not generally the first thing we ask when
we are offended, but it might be a good takeaway
to take with you from this meeting instead of deciding
I don't deal with her, I don't like him, I
can't stand them. They're eager, they're stupid, they're hateful, they're demand.
Maybe the first question to ask is who hurt you?
(41:08):
Because I think it's easier to love things you understand,
and if you can begin to understand the other person's perspective,
it changes how you pray for them, it changes how
you handle them, and it most importantly leaves the door open.
(41:28):
The most amazing thing I'm appreacing you minute. The most
amazing thing about the prodigal Son story to me is
not the prodigal son I know what it is to
drift away. I also know what it is to be
the elder brother and stay and feel ignored. I stayed
in one ministry for seven years and only preached twice,
and my big job was clean the baptism post.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
So I understand the older brother.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
I understand the prodigal son because I have gone on
a few adventures in my life. I'll keep them to myself,
but I have. But the star of the text is
the father, because he left the door open for the
sun to come home. And I find very few people
in life leave the door open for change. Six passing
(42:12):
the baton you you have, in a lot of ways
left the door open for other people to come behind you,
for other people to experience change, for other people to
have careers. You talked about the level of training that
you have. I talked about the level of training, the
scholarships that you've given the other people that created massive careers.
(42:36):
His name escapes me right now, the guy who played in.
Speaker 7 (42:38):
Black Panther that everybody yeah, yeah, yeah, it's interesting you mentioned.
Speaker 5 (42:42):
That because I was about to tell a story about
No I was I was.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
I was on Broadway and.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
They had a screening of black panther. So I told
Ryan Cooler, the director, that I was going to come.
So I snuck in because I didn't want to deal
with the red carpet. I'm low key person. I going
to take pictures and all that. So I went in
the back way and Ryan Coogler and Chad were there
(43:11):
talking and.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
He's like, Oh, you're just the person I wanted to see,
and I said, yeah, I wanted to see you too,
because he owed me some money. But when I sat
in the audience, when I sat in the audience and
watched that film, I understood that the baton had been passed.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
You know, I looked at them.
Speaker 5 (43:34):
I said, boy, these young boys are gone. To the
tune of a billion dollars that move ended up making,
I said, they're gone.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Now.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
You know, when you run a relay race and you
hand the baton off, you don't stop. As soon as
you hand it off, you run behind the person. So
I handed it off and I'm running behind him. But
I know I'm not gonna make it all the way
around the track.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Now, none of us knew that. Who that's good that
Chad wasn't good.
Speaker 5 (44:03):
Right there?
Speaker 1 (44:04):
That's good right there, that's good.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Right there.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
That's good, right there.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
Oh that's good man. I'm ready to go over here
twenty dollars or dollars of the day.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
But I had to.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
I had to.
Speaker 5 (44:15):
When I watched the movie, I had to shed a tear.
I mean I sat there and I shed a tear.
I'm like, these young boys are gone. Yeah, you know,
not make anything out of myself. But Sidney took it
a certain distance. I took at a certain distance.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
And now they're gone.
Speaker 4 (44:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're gone.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
And I think and my son's one of them.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Yeah, that's the greatest feeling in the world when you
and my daughter. Remember I said, so, Olivia Washington, just
remember I said so.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
It's just too to be at this stage now and
not be jealous, to be at the stage and not
being this to be at the stage and be glad
to see younger men and women coming up and grabbing
the baton while you are yet running. You are not
(45:14):
angry or jealous or competing with them. You're kind of
running to make sure they're okay. Go on, God God,
I enjoy coaching Who's next more than being who's next?
Speaker 4 (45:30):
You too?
Speaker 1 (45:31):
You do me too?
Speaker 4 (45:32):
That stage I find is.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Not always prevalent in our generation, because some in our
generation are still wrestling with who am I outside of
what I do? And if I am not this, then
I don't see a role, but I see a clear path.
I'm happy to be Timothy's Paul. I'm happy to be
(45:58):
ruthe SNAILI. I'm happy to be elicious Elijah, because I
know what it is to be young and run and
have no one to talk to, and have no safe
place to lay your head, and have nobody to pull
me over into the corner and say, don't slap.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
Nobody on stage, did you see them? You need somebody.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
And you're not really a father until you care enough
to chew me out, And you're not really a son
until you can be chewed out and still come back
to my arms and understand. Father love doesn't sound like
mama love. And we have a generation of people who
have been raised to the tune of a mama love,
(46:46):
and they don't. Anytime you see something hearts, they see
you as an enemy and react and fight you rather
than I understand. It takes energy to care, It takes
energy to argue, It takes energy to confront. You have
sat in your seat at the Oscars and let that
go down. But you got out of your seat.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
No, I couldn't have sat in my seat the way
I could have sat in my.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Seat, No way you considered your seat. Tell me why.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
That's just not who I am.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
It's not who you are. That's exactly my point. That
you just prove my point. That's not who I am.
You understand who you are, and you're comfortable enough in
your own skin that you're concerned when another rate, when
another runner trips. That's exactly my point. First of all,
(47:41):
it's good to see you.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Good to be seen by you. Friend of mine used
to say that.
Speaker 5 (47:48):
I used to love that anytime somebody would say good
to see you, So good to be seen by you.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Yeah, it is good. It's good to see you after
the Oscars, after all the stuff you went through, after
every thing you're handled, to jump on the plane to
flo out here on the Red Eye with no sleep
and come up on the stage to talk to a
group of people that you don't need and you didn't
have to. It's absolutely stellar. I want to thank you.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
This is the this is the this is the I
don't know if I said it up when I was
up here. Man gives the award, God gives the reward.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
Yeah, this is the reward for me.
Speaker 5 (48:24):
Really, you know, well, awards are good, but this is better.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
This is this is this is food for me.
Speaker 4 (48:34):
Good. It's food for us? Is it not food for us?
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Denzel's prayer. I hope it doesn't put you on the spot. Really,
but I'm gonna put you on the spot. And I
only ask you to do this because you do it
every morning for your cast and your crew. I am
not gonna ask you.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
To That's bow our heads. That's bow our heads. Dear
Father in heaven, we thank you.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
We know that to whom much is given, much is expected,
much is required, and we know that you require from
each and every one of us our undivided love for you.
You are our beacon of light.
Speaker 4 (49:29):
In this darkness.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
And we say thank you and thank you and thank
you and thank you and thank you not just for
what you've done, but what you are going to do
what we can't see. Thank you for guiding our steps,
thank you for protecting us when we're getting here and
when we leave here today, just thank you for all
that you've done.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
And I pray and I know that out there.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
In this audience. I just feel the people in this audience. Lord,
I feel the Lord, I feel the Lord. Hallelujah, Hallelujahlujah.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
I feel them, Lord, and I know that it's I
know you want to touch them all.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
I pray that something we set up here touches them
and and and makes their relationship with you stronger, better, tighter, Yes, Lord,
more loving these things we ask in your Son's name,
and we pray, and we know, we know, we know,
(50:38):
and we thank you.
Speaker 4 (50:40):
Amen. Amen, you just.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
Got prayed for by the word and only.
Speaker 4 (50:47):
Xabington. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
Pray My pleasure, my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (50:57):
Hey everybody, I want to take this time to thank
you for watching the Next Chapter podcasts. If this conversation
inspired you, helped you reflect on an idea, or spark
something new inside of you, make sure to like comments
and subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. Remember, life
(51:21):
isn't about how you begin, It's about how you finished.
Strong to start your next chapter without right here.
Speaker 4 (51:31):
Every week
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