The Spirited Actor - Joe Morton

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me
Tracy Moore. I was a casting director for film and
TV and commercials for over thirty years. I transitioned to
a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New
Jersey Drive with executive producers Spike Lee and director Nick Domez.
I auditioned every rapper from Biggie Smalls to Tupac, and

(00:24):
I realized that rappers and musical artists they needed help
transitioning to acting. My clients consist of musical artists from
Buster Rhymes to Eve, Missy Elliott, Angela Yee from The
Breakfast Club, and Vanessa Simmons, to name a few. I
also coach sports stars and host as well. I feel

(00:45):
I have the best of both worlds. As a casting director,
I know exactly what they're looking for, and as an
acting coach, I can coach you to be remembered in
that room. Now I know, I know actors want to
get the job. I get that, but being remembered by
casting director that is powerful. And now it's time for
meditation of the day. Don't be nervous, work calmly, joyously,

(01:11):
recklessly on whatever is in hand. Henry Miller, I just
want to say to you guys that again, the joy
is in the journey and anything that you are pursuing
in life, but specifically speaking to actors, the joy is
in the journey. You have to learn to extract the goodness.

(01:33):
You may not have gotten that role, but continue to
embed in your mind that there is a role out
there for you. The problem that I see, the challenge
that I see in my experience with actors is that
it's easy to just go within and tear yourself and
rip yourself apart when things don't go your way or

(01:53):
you don't get that role. Understand, Timing is everything, and
so blessed, so grateful to have Joe Morton on the
show today because as much as I wanted him in
the beginning of Inside the Black Box and I wanted
him to go, today was the day for him to

(02:14):
come on, and what a phenomenal day it was. Timing
is everything, and it's not always in your time. Learn
to appreciate, love the time in which you have to
work commonly to keep building the truth in your mom
that there is a role out there for you, that

(02:34):
you are pursuing a career in which you will attain
as a working actor. Today, I will not let useless
thoughts occupy my mind about my path. Before we get started,
I'd like to remind everyone to look out for my
new show, Inside the Black Box. I'll be co hosting

(02:58):
with the great Joe Morton. We'll be on Crackle Network
real soon. I'll keep you posted. Welcome to the Spirited
Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore. You are in for
a spectacal treat today. You need to get whatever you
have that you document information, pen and paper, recorder or

(03:22):
your phone, whatever. This is a monumental podcast.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
I have been.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Waiting for this podcast. I've been praying. What I do
know in this process is that it's all in timing,
and timing is always perfect. Ladies and gentlemen, I want
to introduce you to a phenomenal actor. You all know
him so much love When you bring up his name,

(03:52):
his work, I don't want to. I want to give
him every second of this podcast because he drop so
many jewels. You'll need treasure chess to collect all the
info that he's giving you right now. So, without any
further ado, I'd like to introduce you to my friend,

(04:14):
my partner, my ride.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
And die mister Joe importantly, Hello, Hello.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Hello, I'm so happy you are here, Joe. I knew
that the day was going to come, but I was
just patient when that day was going to be. So
and Joe, like people are craving right now. I just
want you to know if I have the black Box
every single moment, and that just brings so much joy.

(04:45):
But we're going to talk about that first. I want
to start with you. I want to talk about one
of the questions that I asked on the show is
that did you choose acting or did acting choose you?
Where did it begin.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
It's a little difficult to answer that question only because
I entered Hosting University as a psychology major. They took
us around the canvas to show us what that was
going to be like. And then she goes into the
theater and they put on a skit about what our
first year was like. I don't remember anything about the skit.
I don't even think it was very good. But when
that skit was over, I couldn't get up out of

(05:22):
my seat. I sat in that theater looked at the worklight.
I have been writing music on guitar and writing songs,
and I thought to myself. I liked doing that, maybe
I could be an actor. So eventually I got up
out of my seat, walked to the registrar's office, and
changed all my majors from psychology to drama.

Speaker 4 (05:40):
So I guess the answer to your question is acting
took me.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
And what was it? Because I know I have an
experience in my life where at twelve years old, my
mother took me to on our Broadway in San Francisco
for colored girls who considered suicide. When brainbow is enough
into Zaki Shange and A Scott was the director changed
my life. I was like, whatever they're doing, I want

(06:09):
to be a part of it in some way, and
then the rest is history. What was that moment like
for you?

Speaker 4 (06:17):
The very first play I saw was Early.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Victorious, and at that time I didn't That was in
high school and I wasn't thinking about acting at all.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
I think what changed it for me was the very
first acting class I had.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
I'd never been an actor before, and I remember sitting
down next to this young one young man who showed
me his equity card, already showed me his SAG card,
you showed me his whatever other union cards he had,
and then asked me if I ever had acted before,
and I thought to myself, I must be in the
class school of professionals. I'm really really being very stupid
right now. And the teacher got up and she gave

(06:55):
us whatever kind of improv that she wanted us to do.
And when I finished the improv, loved every second of it.
I thought, oh, well, clearly this is what I meant
to do.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
So in training, right, because you dropped so many tools
on the show, and just in conversation that I have
with you, I want you, from your perspective to tell
these actors because what I find in classes and a
lot of my casting director friends is that like, after
the class, you're supposed to get I guess, a contract

(07:29):
to an episodic or a leading role in film, and
I respect Like. I grew up in New York City
in nineteen eighty three Negro Ensemble Company, National Black Theater,
So I grew up around actors that I saw weren't
focused on the fame and making it. They were more

(07:51):
focused on, you know, Adolph Caesar, the solid work of
their Yeah, so can you speak to these people?

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (08:00):
Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (08:00):
I mean, you know, when young actors come up to
me they always, you know, say well how do I
get started? I always usually say get some training. Go
go someplace and get training. If you wanted to be
a doctor, you have to go to medical school. If
you want to be a carpenter, or somebody has to
show you how to use those kind of tools.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
The same thing is true with acting.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
You have to learn what the tools are, how to
use them, and you have to be trained otherwise what
may or may not happen is you then begin to
just rely on your own personal charisma, and that may
get you to a certain point, but then after that
you have no place left to go in that you've
given yourself, no engine in which to drive forward. All

(08:40):
you've given yourself is a place to go around and around.
The circle is doing the same old thing, Whereas what
training allows you to do is break down a script
even decide whether or not you want to do that script.

Speaker 4 (08:52):
You know, what contribution do you think you can give
to this story?

Speaker 3 (08:55):
And in playing whatever character, let's say your agent or
you decide you want to try out for which is
another thing. Actors often feel like the agent says, well,
here's the script and here's the character that they want
you to read.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
It's very It makes absolute sense to me for an
actor to say, I'll read the character that they're asking
me to read, but really, you know what, I like
this character over here much better, and I think I
could do a better job and actually pursue both those things.
I mean that happened to me. There was a series
called Equal Justice. Thomas Carter was the director producer.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
And when I went in, they had a character that
they wanted me to read, and I said to Thomas,
I'll read it for you.

Speaker 4 (09:35):
I said, but this lawyer is somebody I really understand.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
And eventually Thomas let me read it because they couldn't
find anybody else that they liked. So when I finally
read it, he took and this was like what nineteen
Jesus seventies. And he was having a hard time because
his fear was if he takes this television drama and

(10:01):
he puts a black man at the lead, that the
the audience will will will perceive it as a black show, right,
So so that was his that was his problem.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
Fortunately he gave me the part. We did two seasons.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
But again I made the choice in terms of saying, yes,
I'll read this other character for you, but this is
a character I'm really interested in And then brought that
to for.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
So you said something I love. You said contribution, you know,
and making decisions as an actor to the work. What
is the contribution that this for you? What was the
contribution in A Brother from Another Planet? Because I mean,
you know, for me to as an audience, because that

(10:49):
you know, I was it was early in my casting career.
But watching that film, there's certain films in the history
of filmmaking, American history of filmmaking. That's Edge in Stelle,
and that's a film that's Edge in steone. Generationally, you know,
that's I'm sure ninety nine percent of time, that's the

(11:11):
first thing people hit you with where they talk to you, right,
So that is beyond legendary. What what was that film
like for you? Because we had never seen anything like
that before.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
No, when I when I was told about the script,
it was described in a way that didn't make any
sense to me. And then when I was actually given
the script and read it, I thought, oh, my goodness,
John actually has written a character that is black but
knows nothing about what it means to be in the

(11:45):
United States in Harlem and be black. So what he's
allowed the audience to do is go into a community
that they also don't know and learn as he learns.
So that was that was for me, the big contribution
of this film and of this character that this guy
had to learn as he went along.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
He had to learn.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
I mean, the one thing that I do with that
character is he never understood the handshake. Every time somebody
extended a stand with the handshake, he had no idea
what to do with that. It didn't make any sense
to him. But on the other side of things, he
was also looking for his own people who had also escaped.

Speaker 4 (12:21):
For those young people who don't know the film.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Basically, the film is about a black slave that runs
away from his planet and makes his way to Earth
as an escaped slave, and is then pursued by two characters,
one played by John Sales, the other boy David Stetherin,
in order to recapture him and take him back something
that's very familiar to us in our history, which is

(12:44):
again what John was doing. And so that to me
was the hope that I had to this film. It's
interesting because at the time, I think one of the
major critics said that he wished that John would take
his homemade movies and keep them in New Jersey.

Speaker 4 (12:59):
But that was that was a sign of the times.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Right, wow, right, that's true to.

Speaker 4 (13:03):
Have a black to have a black man.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Because at one at one point in the film, he
discovers that these kids who live in his building are
are shooting dope, and he doesn't understand one why.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
You would do that. So he actually shoots up some
step himself to understand what the experience is. And then
once he understands the experience, he then sets out and
and kills the dealer. So again he becomes someone who
he goes from someone who is learning about the world
that he's in to someone who actually becomes active in
that world.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
And ladies and gentlemen, what's so brilliant about the film
is he does not speak at all.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
He does not speak at all, right, not a single
word here is because you.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Know, when when when I imagined, you know, when I
first saw the film and I was sort of going
through and didn't even know you but going through the process,
and like what I you know, was there someone you know,
how like when you are speaking to another actor and
it's your point of view, they're shooting, they have the
actors standing by the camera. You got something that bite off?

(14:07):
How was it? So you know what was you know? What?
Does that make sense?

Speaker 4 (14:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (14:12):
I mean what the two things that well, what I
kept doing is I was to is looking for any
any person, anything that was learning for the first time.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
So babies were really important to me.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
Dogs, animals, anything that was learning for the very first
time in their environment was it was important to me.
And what John did when we he never gave the
whole script to anybody else. So when they were when
they came on the set, they only had their scene,
and all John would tell them is he's not going
to talk to you. Wow, He's not going to talk

(14:46):
to you. So it really became a kind of improv
you know what I mean, where the actors would come
on and I mean a lot of them thought that
I had written the script and not John.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
John was just the director.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
But because it was so the the dialogue was so
perfectly black, that they thought, oh, this black man who
doesn't speak in this movie must be the one who
wrote it. Like say, no, no, no, that white man over there,
he's the guy who wrote this thing. But that's how
we did it, is he would only give them their
scene and then they would have to respond to what

(15:19):
I did or did not do, certainly the fact that
I wasn't speaking.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
So that's so fierce because it was genuine, it was authentic.

Speaker 4 (15:27):
It was just it was absolutely authentic.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, oh my god, and before your time, because curb
your enthusiasm, you know what I.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Mean, like before Yeah, exactly exactly in.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Terms of improv and not having a structured script.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
I mean, there was a structured script, but they didn't
have the entire blueprint as you will.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
Only I did, which.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
Is something actually similar that we did in a way
with Scandal. Harry. None of the other actors is knew
where we were going, including Terry Washington. Wow, because I
remember when I got the job. She was so excited.
She said, oh, you're one of my favorite actors. She
said that You're the only one of the few actors

(16:11):
that I've called my parents to say he's going to
be on the show.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
And then she said, and I hope we have some
scenes together, and I said, yeah, I do too. Let's see.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
And you know what, it makes so much sense because
I mean, I love Carrie as the actress. She's phidoulgal.
Because there are seeds right where there is sheer terror
in her eyes and it's and and when you think
about like what you're saying now, you know every actor

(16:43):
has the hebgb's and gets nervous, but she's authentically playing
in those moments.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
We didn't we didn't know what their relationship was, so
that when we shot the end of season two, we
shot it at least five different ways because we didn't
know how a strange did they like each other? Did
they not like each other? Hawpen was the last time
they saw. We didn't know answers to any of those questions.
So we had that to establish. And then at the
beginning of the very first scene in season three, when

(17:11):
we pick up from that point, yeah, we're sitting in
the car. We don't really know each other, and I've
been given and I've been given a two and a
half page monologue, which which to begin with was like
really just a TV I'm going to do mono fantastic,
And so that that opening scene really did establish their relationship.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
And and just recently, I think Shonda had.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
It on had that particular scene on Instagram and as
an explanation as an expert and as an explanation of
that scene. She said that up until that point, Terry's
character was kind of stradling, straddling between.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
Being white and being black.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
She said, when when Rowan slash Eli showed up, that
was definitely being black, which is why she put in
things like you know, you have to be twice as good,
you know, on the hell Water. All those kinds of
things were purposely put into that monologue to let you
know the black guys finally showed up in this show.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
I mean I was addicted, Like I had already been
watching the show, but when you came on. The one
of the things that I feel was, I know that
I'm entertained. When I don't see a boom or I
don't have anything going on in my inner voice, I'm
actually entertained. So I was entertained one but two Emotionally,

(18:32):
you and Carrie took me on emotional roller coasters when
you showed up, like I literally would jump like, oh.

Speaker 4 (18:38):
My god, why here, What's I going to do?

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Now?

Speaker 5 (18:42):
Somebody's gonna die, you know?

Speaker 1 (18:45):
And then it was just you know, knowing you, not
knowing you. How I know you now, but I didn't
know you at that time. Towards the end, it was like, wait, here,
where did you find him? Because I I cannot fight
if he like evidence in your DNA of this villain.
Where did he come from?

Speaker 3 (19:06):
Well that's an interesting question because that particular year of
the there the end of their season one.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
I went out to LA for you know, pilot season.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Uh, And I thought to myself, up until that point,
I played very deliberately, very purposely good guys, because when
I started in this business, it was mostly black guys
playing drug dealers and goog whatever, just.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
Bad guys of all kinds.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
And I said, I kept saying, no, I'm not going
to do that, and I played other kind of characters.
I went out to LA that particularly a purposely looking
for an intelligent bad guy. So I had I had
heard of scandal, I hadn't seen it. So I sat
there when I got to LA and I watched season
one on my computer and thought, Wow, this show is fantastic.

(19:54):
Maybe I'll call my agent and have them give ABC
a call and maybe we can work out some kind
of you know, s episode arc or whatever. Before I
made that call, my agents called me and said, we
just got a call from ABC. They'd like to talk
to you about scandal. I got the call from the producer,
and the producer started off the conversation by saying, by

(20:15):
the end of season two, the lines will clearly.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
Be that you are her father. I said, I'll take
the job.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
So Joe. The most played I guess add to story
on my Instagram is when you talk about manifestation, can
you share that with the audience? You when we run
inside the black Box, We're going to go into that.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
Right, I mean I think, well, just using inside the
black Box, right, you had something that you you had
something that you wanted for eighteen years. You wanted to
find a way to put that on the screen and
put that out in front of people.

Speaker 4 (20:54):
And look what happened.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Eighteen years later, you, you and doctor Day and Spruce
and all the rest of you got together. You put
together a pilot and invited me onto the show. I
went on the show simply because I thought, well, this
is a great idea. I love this, this is fantastic.
I would love to come on the show and talk
about all the kinds of things you guys wanted to
talk about. Later on, it turns out that you and

(21:16):
I are then the the co hosts of that show.
We do two seasons of the show. So that's what
I So that's manifestation, right, That is that is having
a vision of something, knowing that you have to be patient,
that things don't happen overnight, and it comes true for however.

Speaker 4 (21:35):
Long it comes true.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
But there it was, and I think the same thing
was true with a good portion and still to some
degree of my career of saying, these are the kinds
of things I'd like to sort of attempt to accomplish
as an actor or a director, and those things for
the most part up to date.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
I mean, you know, to.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
Get a call to say we want you to play
Dick Gregory Offway.

Speaker 4 (22:01):
It was amazing. It was amazing.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
And then to be on the telephone with Dick to talk.
What's funny because when I first got the gig, I said,
I want Dick's phone number so we can talk.

Speaker 4 (22:11):
And of course, usually in those circumstances, the producers always
say no, no, no, no, no no, you shouldn't talk to us. No no, no,
I'm going to talk to him.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
You give me his number. I'm going to find his number.
We got on the phone together and we talked, not
about the play. We just talked about each other's father
for about two hours. That's all we talked about. And
that's the law that I mean. And then during the
course of rehearsal, I never heard from Dick again, although
we sent him all of the be rights as we've
went along, and didn't see him again until opening night.

(22:43):
I just knew that, I just knew that he was
going to be in the audience. It wasn't a very
large theaters, and I knew he was going to be
the audio in the audience.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
I didn't know where.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
There was a section of the play where I'm talking
about Emmitt Till and when I when I'm sitting on
the aisle facing the audience, and I turned and who
am I looking at but Dick Gregory.

Speaker 4 (23:04):
And it's as if we had this.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Very personal privates, as if the rest of the theater
kind of disappeared and we just had this private conversation.
But again, looking for someone looking for an iconic character
to play, and there it was offered.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
So you know, it's you know, it's that.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Old saying that everybody says in the street, right, what
goes around comes around, So what you put out there
comes back.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Absolutely, I wanted to ask you about because theater is
my number one love and then TV and film? How
important it is what type of discipline that actors would
gain through the working in theater, because even working I
can only imagine, you know, as a one man show

(23:48):
with Dick Gregory, the stamina that you needed every night
to do that. You know, you you normally you have
a cast, you have some quote unquote relief, but that
was all you. So I guess it's a two part
one in terms of the stamina, how did you maintain
your stamina doing a one man show? And two how

(24:09):
important is it for actors to have that discipline under
their bow?

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Well, I'll do it the other way around. So it's
theater is enormously important. I think for actors. My son
at one point wanted to be an actor, and I said,
so if you do this when you come out of school,
you cannot go. I will not I will not support you.
If you decide you're going to do TV and film
right away, you have to do theater. Because if you

(24:34):
can do theater, if you can play a character for
three months, six months out of the year, eight times
a week and keep that character fresh, then you can
do anything. You can do anything. The only thing that
changes going from theater to TV and film obviously is
your physical size, because in theater you have to fill
the house. TV the camera and film the camera is

(24:56):
right there, but all the other portions of that discipline
are exact clean the same.

Speaker 4 (25:00):
Again, he gets back to that original question of training.
So if you've been trained and you've been in the theater,
the rest of it is easy. There's lots of actors
that we've seen over the course of the years who
are TV and film actors who try to do the
stage and the first thing that happens is what what
did they say? Can't hear them? Can't hear them because
they're not used to projecting their voice. They're used to

(25:22):
having a microphone do all that work for them. And
then even physically, they're not used to filling the house.
We had one young man on our show who.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
Had mostly done TV and film, and what he did,
I think it was thoughts of a colored Man?

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Was that?

Speaker 4 (25:37):
Was that the name of his show? Yes, he said that.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
When they started telling him to be bigger, he said
all the things that he had been trained not to
do with something of the things that he had to
do and that's I think what happens to a lot
of actors. Suddenly they realized, oh my gosh, no, no, no,
I have to figure out a way how to fill
this theater with not only my voice, but with my
body as well. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
So so that and the other question was.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Of a one man chew.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
So you know what, maybe I'm just a fool. I
didn't even think about what that was going to be.
Like we were, we rehearsed it vigorously.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
I also know that I have a tremendous amount of energy,
and so we rehearsed it, and it was it was
draining because it's very emotional. It's not just it's not
just the lengths. It's a ninety minute show, but it's
but you go from being a stand up comedian to

(26:39):
someone who loses his child, to someone who does interviews
in terms of the movement, to someone who loses which
is why the show was called Turned Me Loose. Medgar
Evers was Dick Gregory's one of Dick Gregory's best friends
and before he met Before Dick met Medgar, he was

(27:00):
terrified of going down South and he had never really
been down south, and it was Edgar Medga rather who
invited to them come South.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
And so the.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
Last words that Medgar Ever said before he died was
turn me loose. And that's why we called the show
turn Me Loose.

Speaker 4 (27:19):
So there was that.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
Emotional content to it as well, that the whole show
was in a way a kind of homage to Medgar Evers,
which is interesting because his wife had not seen the
show in New York. I think she felt when I
met her, she said she felt a little kind of
not abused, but she wasn't quite sure why we were

(27:41):
using that phrase, turn me loose, and she wasn't I
don't think anyone ever asked her. So she came to
see the show with a great deal of trepidation. When
she saw the show, she understood what we were doing,
and she and I had a wonderful, wonderful conversation. And
then later I met his son, who was a photographer
at one of the studios.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
So that's beautiful. Well, Joe, the times fit by, like
we have seriously three minutes. So I want you. I
just wanted you to give actors advice from an actor's
point of view. And also, for those of you who
don't know, Joe is also a director, and he has

(28:20):
been directing. He did episodes. I know people have talked
about are kind of people are missing it, but he
directed some episodes there, So Joe, can you give them
some tips from that perspective.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
You know, again, just to kind of go over a
lot of the things that we've been talking about. I mean,
for young actors, I think number one, keep in mind
training is of the most important. Number two things don't
happen overnight. That that careers are just that they take
time to develop. And in that regard, the more you

(28:53):
are clear about what it is you want from your career,
the clearer that path becomes. There will be lots of
people to tell you, well, you know, you should do
this commercial or or that you know the show or
this show or that show. If that's it's not if
that's not what you want to do.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
Don't do it. That you that you should do the
things that really you are drawn to do, and that
may make it more difficult, but you will. You will
be clearing a path for yourself. And then.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
Don't be afraid to experiment. I mean, I know a
lot of actors have tried directing and they don't like it.
I on the other hand, tried directing and just a
door of directing and just a door being able to
I mean, then the episode becomes like building a character.
But it's not just my character, it's all the characters
in that in that particular episode. So I think that again, yes, perseverance, patience, training,

(29:51):
and then for just to be a little bit more
specific for the actors out there, there are questions that
we ask ourselves every single day when we go through
our day. In my opinion, there are five of those
questions that I use every time I approach a script,
even as a director, and those questions are who am I,

(30:12):
where am I going, who do I expect to meet?
And the most and the two remaining questions are the
most important, which are what do I want? And to
what extent am I willing to go to get what
I want? So those are the kinds of things without
even thinking about it, did you ask yourself every single day?
And when you begin applying that to not only the

(30:34):
character in general, but to every single line that character has,
it becomes more and more specific in terms of where
that who that person is. You have to do that
kind of research obviously, because it doesn't just mean you know,
my name is so and so, and here's my job.
It means who am I? Excuse me, who am I?
In the depth of my soul? Right, where am I

(30:56):
going doesn't necessarily mean just physically where am I going?

Speaker 4 (31:01):
It also could mean psychologically where am I going?

Speaker 3 (31:05):
And then, of course what do I want? To what
extent am I willing to go to get what I want?
Those are clear because that is finally what the actor's
job and even the director's job.

Speaker 4 (31:14):
What What do I want out of this, out of
this scene?

Speaker 2 (31:17):
What do I want?

Speaker 3 (31:18):
What am I trying to achieve? What part of the
story am I telling trying to tell? And the same
thing for the For the actor, what is it this
character wants?

Speaker 4 (31:25):
And to what extent?

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Given what the what the script seems to outline, what
extent is he willing to go to get what he wants?

Speaker 4 (31:34):
And those those are the most important part of those questions.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
So my heart is full. I am so grateful for
all this information. I know that my actors appreciate love
this more than anything. I'm going to bring on two
of our actors right now, who I have questions for you?

Speaker 5 (31:55):
Well, and.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Let me see. Let's Deborah and Yolanda, you guys can
come on. And Joe, this is Deborah Spears. She went
for wearing all black Joe in my classes and I
was like, you got to color in your life, but
I love it.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
Devra Spears, Joe Wooden, Hey, Deborah.

Speaker 6 (32:20):
Hey, thank you for being here. It's such a pleasure
in taking my question. And special thanks to you and
Tracy for the Inside the Black Box because honestly, I
wouldn't be here on this podcast if it weren't for
that show.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
I literally sent her an email.

Speaker 6 (32:35):
After watching that show, she replied, and I've been taking
training from her ever since, and before that I was
in going in a whole another direction.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
So thank you.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
Well you are in good hands. Let me tell you, oh.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
My god, oh my god. Yes.

Speaker 6 (32:48):
So my question is have you what experience have you
had in your career that has been a challenge for
you and what did you do to overcome that challenge.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
It is going to set maybe a little bit strange,
but most of my career has been a challenge. As
I said, I started off by turning down roles because
a lot of those roles were pimps and drug dealers
and sort of bad guys of all kinds of description
at a time when that's pretty much all you saw
male actors doing, either on stage or an in film

(33:20):
or whatever.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
So that became a thing.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
The other part of that, my particular challenge was because
I could sing. I found my way into the theater
by doing musicals, start off by doing hair, and then
that seemed to me to be to have a kind
of dead end to it. You're only taking but so
seriously as an actor when you're doing musicals. So I

(33:44):
stopped doing musicals and then started doing regional theater in
order to put together a dramatic resume, and then trying
to turn that around and come back and say, right,
somehow I want to be looked at in.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
A different light.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
So I think the challenge I think probably is not
too dissimilar for most other performers, or other.

Speaker 4 (34:05):
Actors or other artists in general.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
You know, if you or Van Goh, you spend your
entire life painting beautiful stuff that nobody recognizes until after
you die. So you have to sort of be willing
to take that challenge and understand that you have a
point of view which needs to be pursued. It's important
to you you have something you're trying to say, and
then in doing so, people are going to say, as

(34:28):
they do in this business very often, no, and you
have to be able either to accept that, reject it,
or push them inside and said, well, I'll talk to
you another time and move straight ahead.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Thank you, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
That was great.

Speaker 4 (34:42):
You're well.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
And Elsa Lathan she's back, so I'll let you take
it away.

Speaker 5 (34:48):
Luh, Hello, welcome Landa. You are up next.

Speaker 7 (34:53):
Almost the more and it's so nice to see you
on screen. I have seen you many years on the
sk and have witnessed your amazing talent.

Speaker 4 (35:02):
My question for you is me.

Speaker 7 (35:05):
And Debra was thinking the light along the same lines.
My question is, throughout your acting career and your theater career,
what has been your most challenging role and how did
you prepare to embody the difficult role?

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Probably Brother Another Planet being the first, because, as Tracy said,
he didn't speak, so I had to learn how to
communicate in a number of different ways without repeating myself.
I'll tell you another quick, short, little story. The production

(35:43):
designer had designed a kind of alphabet and the way
that you know, however, they structure their sentences, and she
wrote this beautiful car, because at one point in the movie,
I have to answer somebody's what looked like graffiti on
a wall but actually was from our planet, and I
wanted to answer it. So she wrote it, this whole thing,
and I said, oh, well, let me take it home

(36:04):
so I can actually personalize it, decide what these letters
are for myself, and blah blah blah. Did that, went home,
did all this work, decided what these letters were, came
back and showed it to her and said, so this
means this, and this means that, that means the other thing.
She said, that's terrific, but you're holding it upside down.
So challenges appear all the time, and I think that

(36:30):
what's wonderful about being an artist is that that is
the the the bulk of your career is to challenge yourself.
The other major challenge for me was Dick Gregor to
do research on him. My son said to me that
after he saw the show that he was surprised that
I could make him laugh, because suddenly I had to

(36:52):
be a.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
Stand up to Median.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
I had never done stand up before in my life.
The the other parts of his life talking about the
movement and talking about people had done. Those were so
human that they were easy, easier to comprehend. But to
listen to him, to listen to his timing, to listen
to understand where the idea of the cigarette and the

(37:14):
drink may have come from, and incorporate those kinds of
things into.

Speaker 4 (37:18):
The show as part of his character. That was huge.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
I mean, when I discovered how to do it, you know,
I would go home and go yeah, finally got that right,
because it was all part of who he was and
could not should not have been taken for granted. So
at one point in the play, it's one of his
first appearances on TV.

Speaker 4 (37:38):
He was an athlete, he.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
Was a runner, and so I have him in the
dressing room and he's warming up to do this bit,
and so he's running in place and blah blahlah blah,
and in the course of kind of talking his way
into doing this stand up, he picks up a cigarette
and he picks up a drink and realizes, oh, that's
something I haven't seen before, And without saying a word,
he put together, or I put together his kind of persona.

(38:04):
So that's as if that was the very first time
anyone might have seen Dick Gregory with a cigarette and
a drink, which is also a challenge because in the
theater these days you can't light a cigarette anyhow so,
but it's those kinds of things I think that that
become the challenges in our lives to find a way

(38:24):
to tell the truth. We're finding that out more and
more just in living our daily lives. That truth is
now a matter of opinion as opposed to simply being
a truth.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
That was beautiful.

Speaker 5 (38:41):
Thank you, Elsa, thank you, absolutely, thank you, and I.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Want to thank the actors Deborah and Yolanda. Thank you
so much. You guys, hold tight, sit back. You're blessed.
Joe is going to hang out with us a little
more when we come back to the Spirited Actor Podcast,
meet Tracy Moore. We're gonna do class in session all right, Yeah, yeah,

(39:06):
that's how we're doing. Welcome back to the Spirited Actor
Podcast with me Tracy Moore, and you should be so happy.
We still have the phenomenal mister Joe Morton in the
house and we are getting ready to go into class
in session. I'm going to turn it over to Elsie
because we have a surprise for Joe.

Speaker 5 (39:26):
We do, we do. Thank you, Tracy, and so today
on class and Session we have a very special monologue
by mister Sam Bryce. Welcome Sam, one of our faves.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
Pleasure to be here for sure.

Speaker 4 (39:46):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (39:48):
So when you already Sam an action.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Oh you're funny, yes, funny, funny man? What should I say?

Speaker 4 (40:05):
Boy?

Speaker 2 (40:08):
You're a boy. You've been coddled and aired for, pampered
and hugged. For you, it's always summer time and the
living is easy. Daddy's rich and your mama's good looking.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
You're a grant.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
You got money in your blood. You are a boy.
I'm a man. I worked for every single thing I've
ever received. I thought, bled and scraped for every inch
of ground that I walk on. I was the first

(40:55):
person in my family to go to college, and my
daughter went to boarding school with the children of King.
I made that happen. And you, well, you quiet yourself
to sleep because daddy hurt your feelings, because Papa banked

(41:21):
the secretary, and it hurts. It hurt to have so
much money. You spoil, entitled, ungrateful little brat. You have
everything handed do you want a silver platter and you
squander it. You've had the world laid out for you,

(41:42):
and you can't appreciate it because you have never had
to work for anything. So now you decide that the
one thing that you want, it's my daughter, my child.
Mind what I made, what I created, and you can
sit here and talk about what a great lay she

(42:04):
is all that you want to get a response from me.
But guess what I am actually quite literally above your
pay grade, which means I know you think that you
love Olivia, but the truth is you love the faact
that she's a door marked exit. You love the fact

(42:25):
that she's your way out because you know, if you're
with Olivia, Pope, you don't have to fulfill your father's
dream of being president. If you're with Olivia, you no
longer have to be your father's son. That will never

(42:46):
falls too far from the tree. You will always be
send it her grants, disappointing boy fits will always be
the formidable Olivia. Hope, don't try to use what I

(43:07):
made to make yourself into a men. You're a oh.

Speaker 4 (43:20):
Mm hm, so.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
Jill, I don't have I don't have anything to say.
I want to give it on you.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
First of all, that was fantastic. That's not an easy
speech to do. The one thing that I enjoyed about
it the most is it wasn't over overlaid with anger,
because it wasn't about anger, it was about something else.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
The things that you did I thought were fantastic.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
If if you were to do that speech again, what
I would ask is that because you understand everything in
I mean, you clearly understand what that speech is about,
I would just make more out of the contrast between
boy and man, without.

Speaker 4 (44:02):
Without over without pushing it too hard.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
But he brings all those a contrasts boy and man,
my daughter just belongs to me, and then finally coming
up with his cowardice, the fact that if you're with
my daughter, you know that you don't have to be
what your father wants you to be.

Speaker 4 (44:21):
I would just say, deepen those moments in the speech.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
Not that you're I mean, you're in a good place,
but I would investigate making those places deeper only because
that is the heart of the speech, is the contrast
between who Rowan is and who this white southern president
is and the fact that you're even in the white

(44:44):
T shirt. I mean, that was part of what that
moment was about. Is Noan was if you remember he
was or I don't know if you ever saw it.
But he's in a T shirt chained to a chair,
So I even like the fact that you were looking
up at at him. All I want to say is
Tony because I don't remember the president's name. But but

(45:07):
but those are the moments I would look at again,
just go a little bit deeper in terms of the
contrast between boy and man, to look a little bit deeper.
When you talk about my daughter, what I made, These
are things that you made. These are things that you've accomplished,
and you're saying you have an anuthlage anything you've can
given everything. And then when he says and the fact

(45:28):
that you want to be with my daughter means that's
nothing but your cowardice. That's the fact that you don't
have to be what your father wants you to be.
You can you can escape all those things by being
with this black woman. And I think those were the things.
Those were the things I would just ask you to
just deepen a little bit more. But other than I
thought you to really really really fine job.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Oh spirit actor Alumna, thank you so much, Sam, I.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
Thank you Sam, absolutely yes.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah, and thank you Elsa. And we could just bring
on Debrah and Yolanta. You guys can all come on
and thank you again for your questions and I cannot
just like, I feel like I don't know how I
can ever repay you for being my partner on The
Spirited Actor. I mean, I'm inside the black box and

(46:22):
your support. You guys, we were together four years before
the show. We even signed that deal. First season, first
show walking out the door, Spirit was like, ask Joe,
It's like, Joe, how are you still here? Right?

Speaker 2 (46:40):
Well?

Speaker 3 (46:40):
Because what we were doing was important, you know what,
what what you had envisioned was important. You know a
lot of the actors that we talked to, you know,
I mean you saw one of them on the Oscars
on Sunday night, you know, Jeffrey right there he was, Yes.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
That's beautiful. Well, Joe, I want to just give you
mad love. Matt Hug thank you so so much for
coming on the podcast. Yay, and you guys stay tight,
hold on because we are coming back season three. We
will be back and we will let you know when
we'll be back. But thank you for your support. And

(47:19):
I know that you're going to hold on to this
and replay this because you missed Joe. I know you
miss Joe.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
We miss you guys.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Okay, all right, thank you so much Joe. Everybody put
your hands.

Speaker 3 (47:31):
Together for You're welcome. Thank you for inviting me. It's
been a great pleasure.

Speaker 4 (47:35):
Thank you, Thank you, Joe.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
And when we come back to the Spirited Actor Podcast
with me Tracy Moore, I'm going to give you love.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Welcome to Kudos Corner. Kudos Corner is where we come
together and celebrate a spirited actor, their work, their current work.
We just overall want to celebrate you and give you
a big mad love. This week's Kudo's Corner puts a
spotlight on spirited actor Devon Niki Thomas. Theater goers in

(48:08):
DC area have been graced by the talent of Devon
Nikki Thomas in numerous plays, including Helen Hayes nominated production
of The Bluest Eye and The Trip, and this June,
she will lead the cast of Is God Is at Washington,

(48:28):
DC's Consolation Theater. Law and Order fans recently saw her
share a scene with the show's new da played by
Tony Goldwin in his Law and Order debut episode. Also
a writer director sun Person, Devon is in pre production
for her first short film, The Sixth Stage, which she

(48:52):
will shoot this spring. Kudos to Devon, Nicki Thomas, and
now it's time to give love. I want to address jealousy,
just to be brutally honest and uprout. Jealousy is something
that you know. I think it's one of those human

(49:14):
characteristics that everyone has an experience up right. However, if
you choose to keep that emotion around you or in
your energy source, it's not a positive thing. It's very toxic.
I want to flip this jealousy thing. I want you,

(49:36):
instead of looking at someone else's career and wishing it
was yours, or thinking that they are not deserving of it,
take that energy and focus on the greatness in you.
It's not about actors being like anyone else. It's about
you embracing the beauty and the uniqueness that you have.
No one out there is like you, no one can

(49:58):
be you. Therefore, or when you are in a callback,
or when you're in your submitting to the casting director,
instead of thinking there's so many people out there that
I'm competing against, there's so many people that.

Speaker 4 (50:14):
Are better than me.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Instead of thinking that way, think about how when that
casting director sees your unique submission, how pleasantly surprised that
they're going to be. That you don't look like everybody else,
or you don't do the same performance that everybody else does.
You take the time and you work calmly, and you

(50:37):
focus on the work, and you focus on the uniqueness
that you can bring your interpretation of that character to
the table, and then you let it go knowing that
you are working on your craft, you are training, and
there is a role out there for you. Just wait,
it's coming. Trust me, don't forget to look out for us.

(51:00):
On our new show, Inside the black Box, my co
host will be Joe the Legend Morton. It's going to
be the Spirited Actor Podcast on Steroids. We'll be streaming
on the Crackle network. I'll keep you posted. Thank you
for joining us on the Spirited Actor Podcast with me
Tracy Moore. I look forward to our next Spirited Podcast.

(51:22):
Thank you,