July 30, 2024 • 51 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 producer 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 calmly 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 waiting for this podcast. I've been praying.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
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.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
You all know him so much love When you bring up.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
His name, his work, I don't want to. I want
to give him every second of this podcast because he
drops so many jewels.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
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, 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.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So and Joe, like people are craving right now.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I just want you to know if I have the
black Box every single moment, and that just brings so
much joy.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
But we're going to talk about that first. I want
to start with you.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
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?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Me and what was it?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
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 brambo Is enough into Zaki Shange and
A Scott was the director changed my life. I was like,
whatever they're doing, I want to be a part of
(06:10):
it in some way, and then the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
What was that moment like for you?
Speaker 4 (06:17):
The very first play I saw was Early.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Victorious, and at that time I didn't That was in
high school and I wasn't thinking about acting at all.
I think what changed it for me was the very
first acting class I had.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
I'd never been an actor before, and I remember sitting
down next to this.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
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.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I'm really really being very stupid right now.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And the teacher got up and she gave us whatever
kind of improv that she wanted us to do. And
when I finished the improv, I 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 them my capting director friends, is that like,
after the class, you're supposed to get I guess, a
(07:28):
contract to an episodic.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Or a leading role in film, and I respect Like.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
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 focused on, you know,
Adolph Caesar, the solid work of their Yeah, so can
(07:57):
you speak to these people?
Speaker 5 (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. The same thing
is true with acting. You have to learn what the
tools are, how to use them, and you have to
(08:22):
be trained otherwise what may or may not happen is
you 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 you've given yourself is a place
to go around and around the circles, doing the same
(08:43):
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. You know, what contribution do
you think you can give to this story? 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
(09:05):
script and here's the character.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
That they want you to read. 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.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Thomas Carter was the director producer, 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
them yes, I'll read this other character for you, but
this is a character I'm really interested in.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
And then brought that to.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Four So you said something I love.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
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?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Because I mean, you know, for me to.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
As an audience, because that you know, I was it
was early in my casting career.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
But watching that film, there's.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Certain films in the history of filmmaking, American history of
filmmaking that's Edge in Stone, and that's a film that's
edge in Stone. Generationally, you know, that's I'm sure ninety
nine percent of the time, that's the first thing people
hit you with where they talk to you, right, So
that is beyond legendary. What what was that film like
(11:21):
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.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
So what he's allowed the audience.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
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 sand 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. Basically,
the film.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
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 by David Stetherin in order to
recapture him and take him back something that's very familiar
to us in our history, which is again what John
(12:45):
was doing. And so that to me was the hope
that I had for 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. But that was that
was a sign of the times.
Speaker 2 (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 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
(13:28):
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 2 (13:47):
Know, when when when I imagined.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
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.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Was there someone you know?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
You got something that bite off? How was it?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
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.
So babies were really important to me. Dogs, animals, anything
that was learning for the very first time in their
environment was it was important to me. And what John
(14:33):
did when we he never gave the whole script to
anybody else. So when they 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 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
(14:53):
lot of them thought that I had written the script
and not John, that John was just the director. But
because it was so 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 I said, 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
(15:16):
scene and then they would have to respond to what
I did or did not do, certainly the fact that
I wasn't speaking.
Speaker 2 (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. Only I did,
which is something actually similar that we did in a
way with Scandal.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Harry.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
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 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.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
She's Phidoulgal.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
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
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 were they. 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,
(17:11):
when 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 as TV, I'm going to do mono fantastic,
And so that that opening scene really did establish their relationship.
(17:33):
And and just recently, I think Shonda had it on
had that particular scene on Instagram and as an explanation
as an expl and as an explanation of that scene,
she said that up until that point, Carie's character was
kind of strad straddling between being white and being black.
She said, when when Rowan slash Eli showed up, that
(17:56):
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 1 (18:10):
Yeah, 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.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Voice, I'm actually entertained.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
So I was entertained one but two Emotionally, 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 he going to do?
Speaker 5 (18:41):
Now?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Somebody's gonna die, you know. And then it was just
you know, knowing you, not knowing you.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
How I know you now, but I didn't know you
at that time, towards the end, it was like, here,
where did you find him? Because I cannot fight if
he like evidence in your dn DA of this villain.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
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, I went
out to LA for you know, pilot season 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
(19:30):
dealers and goo 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, episode arc or whatever. Before I made
that call, my agents called me and said.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
We just got a call from ABC. They'd like to
talk to you about scandal.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I got the call from the producer, and the producer
started off the conversation by saying, by 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 2 (20:23):
So Joe. The most played I guess add to.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Story on my Instagram is when you talk about manifestation,
can you share.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That with the audience?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
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 long it comes true. But there it was, and
(21:38):
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.
I mean, you know, to get a call to say
we want you to play Dick Gregory.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Off Broadway, it was amazing. It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
And then to be on the telephone with Dick to
talk with 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.
Speaker 5 (22:17):
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 low 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.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
It wasn't a very large theaters, and I knew he
was going to be the audio in the audience. 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. So you know,
it's you know, it's that old saying that everybody says
in the street, right, what goes around comes around, So
(23:26):
what you put out there comes back.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
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 with
Dick Gregory, the stamina that you needed every night to
(23:51):
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 important is it
for actors to have that discipline under their bout?
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 zact 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.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Who had mostly done TV and film, and what he did,
I think it was some thoughts of a colored Man.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Was that? 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.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
So so that and the other question.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Was smina of a one man chef.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
So you know what, maybe I'm just a fool. I
didn't even think about what that was going to be.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
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.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
And it was Edgar.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Medya Rather who invoted it and come south. And so
the last words that Medgar Ever said before he died
was turn me loose. And that's why we call the
show turn me Loose. So there was that emotional content
to it as well, that the whole show was in
a way a kind of homage to Medgar Evers, which
(27:29):
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 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,
(27:51):
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 2 (28:00):
So that's beautiful. Well, Joe, the times spit by like
we have seriously three minutes.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
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 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.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
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. That 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, don't do it.
That you that you should do the things that really
(29:14):
you are drawn to do, and that may make it
more difficult, but you will you will be clearing a
path for yourself.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
And then don't be afraid to experiment.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
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, and
(29:51):
then for just to be a little bit more specific
for the actors out there, there are questions that we
ask ourselves every single a 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.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
It means who am I? Excuse me, who am I?
In the depth of my soul?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Where am I going doesn't necessarily mean just physically where
am I going? It also could mean psychologically where am
I going? 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 5 (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.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Get what he wants? And those those are the most
important part of those questions.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Mm hmm, sooe, my heart is full. I am so
grateful for all this information. I know that my actors
appreciate love this more than anything.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
I'm going to bring on two of our actors right now,
who I have questions?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
For you.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
Well, and.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Let me see.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
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. Devra Spears,
Joe Wooden, Hey, Deborah, Hey, thank you for being here.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
It's such a pleasure in taking my question.
Speaker 7 (32:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Weren't for that show.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
I literally sent her an email.
Speaker 7 (32:35):
After watching that show, she replied, and I've been taking
training from her ever since, and before that I was
going in a whole nother direction.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
So thank you.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Well, you are in good hands. Let me tell you,
Oh my.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
God, oh my god. Yes.
Speaker 7 (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 saund 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 old 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. I start off by doing hair and
then that seemed to me to be to have a
kind of dead end to it.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
You're only taking.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
But so seriously as an actor when you're doing musicals.
So I 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 a different light.
So I think the challenge I think probably is not
(34:02):
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.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
It's important to you.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
You have something you're trying to say, and then in
doing so, people are going to say, as 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 2 (34:40):
Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (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 8 (34:48):
La Helloo, welcome Landa.
Speaker 6 (34:51):
You are up next.
Speaker 9 (34:54):
Almost the more and it's so nice to see you
on screen. I have seen you many years on the ski.
I have witnessed your amazing talent.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
My question for you is me.
Speaker 9 (35:05):
And Debor 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 cardcase.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
At one point in the movie, I have to answer.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
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 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,
(36:14):
that means that 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 what's wonderful about being
an artist is that that is the the the bulk
(36:36):
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 be a stand up to Median.
I had never done stand up before. In my life,
the the other parts of his life, talking about the
(36:59):
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
drink may have come from, and incorporate those kinds of
things into the show as part of his character.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
That was huge.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
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 was a.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
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. So
(38:04):
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 anymore.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
So, but it's those kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
I think that that become the challenges in our lives
to find a way 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, that was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Thank you, Elsa, thank you, absolutely, thank you, and I
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 8 (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 4 (39:44):
Pleasure to be here for sure. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (39:48):
So when you already Sam and Action, Oh you're funny, yes, funny,
funny man?
Speaker 5 (40:03):
What should I say?
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Boy?
Speaker 5 (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 5 (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
(41:22):
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.
You've had the world laid out for you and you
(41:43):
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 mean, what I created? And you can sit here
and talk about what a great lay she is all
(42:05):
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 that she's
(42:26):
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 falls too far from
(42:47):
the tree. You will always be send it her grants,
disappointing boy fits. You will always be the formidable Olivia. Hope.
Don't try to use what I made to make yourself
(43:08):
into a men. You're a oh.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Mm hmmy, So Joe, I don't have I don't have
anything to say.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
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 without over without pushing it too hard.
But he brings all those a contrasts boy and man,
my daughter just belongs to me, and then finally coming
(44:13):
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.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
So I even like the fact that you were looking
up at at him.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
All I want to say is Tony because I don't
remember the president's name. But but 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
(45:22):
have an outhlage anything you've can given everything. And then
when he says and the fact 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
(45:42):
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 alumni, thank you so much, Sam.
Speaker 4 (45:57):
I thank you Sam, absolutely yes.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah, and thank you Elsa, and we could just bring
on Deborah and Yolanta.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
You guys can.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
All come on and thank you again for your questions.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
And I cannot just like, I.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
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 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.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Spirit was like ask Joe, It's like, Joe, how are
you still here? Right?
Speaker 3 (46:40):
Well, 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.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Yes, that's beautiful. Well, Joe, I want to just give
you mad love. Matd 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.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
We will be back and we will let you know
when we'll be back.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
But thank you for your support and I know that
you're going to hold on to this and replay this
because you missed Joe.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
I know you miss Joe. We miss you, guys. 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 2 (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.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
We just overall want to celebrate you and give you
a big mad love.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
This week's Kudo's Corner puts a spotlight on spirited actor
Devon Niki Thomas. Theater goers in 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
(48:20):
The Trip, and this June, she will lead the cast
of Is God Is at Washington, 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 subperson,
(48:45):
Devon is in pre production for her first short film,
The Sixth Stage, which she will shoot this spring. Kudos
to Devon, Nicki Thomas, and now it's time to get love.
I want to address jealousy, just to be brutally honest
(49:06):
and uproot. Jealousy is something that you know. I think
it's one of those human 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
(49:29):
a positive thing. It's very toxic. I want to flip
this jealousy thing. I want you, 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.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
It's not about actors being like anyone else. It's about you.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
Embracing the beauty and the uniqueness that you have. No
one out there is like you, no one can 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.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
I'm competing against, there's so many people that 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.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
Thank you,
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 producer 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 calmly 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 waiting for this podcast. I've been praying.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
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.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
You all know him so much love When you bring up.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
His name, his work, I don't want to. I want
to give him every second of this podcast because he
drops so many jewels.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
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, 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.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So and Joe, like people are craving right now.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I just want you to know if I have the
black Box every single moment, and that just brings so
much joy.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
But we're going to talk about that first. I want
to start with you.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
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?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Me and what was it?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
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 brambo Is enough into Zaki Shange and
A Scott was the director changed my life. I was like,
whatever they're doing, I want to be a part of
(06:10):
it in some way, and then the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
What was that moment like for you?
Speaker 4 (06:17):
The very first play I saw was Early.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Victorious, and at that time I didn't That was in
high school and I wasn't thinking about acting at all.
I think what changed it for me was the very
first acting class I had.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
I'd never been an actor before, and I remember sitting
down next to this.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
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.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I'm really really being very stupid right now.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And the teacher got up and she gave us whatever
kind of improv that she wanted us to do. And
when I finished the improv, I 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 them my capting director friends, is that like,
after the class, you're supposed to get I guess, a
(07:28):
contract to an episodic.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Or a leading role in film, and I respect Like.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
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 focused on, you know,
Adolph Caesar, the solid work of their Yeah, so can
(07:57):
you speak to these people?
Speaker 5 (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. The same thing
is true with acting. You have to learn what the
tools are, how to use them, and you have to
(08:22):
be trained otherwise what may or may not happen is
you 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 you've given yourself is a place
to go around and around the circles, doing the same
(08:43):
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. You know, what contribution do
you think you can give to this story? 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
(09:05):
script and here's the character.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
That they want you to read. 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.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Thomas Carter was the director producer, 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
them yes, I'll read this other character for you, but
this is a character I'm really interested in.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
And then brought that to.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Four So you said something I love.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
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?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Because I mean, you know, for me to.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
As an audience, because that you know, I was it
was early in my casting career.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
But watching that film, there's.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Certain films in the history of filmmaking, American history of
filmmaking that's Edge in Stone, and that's a film that's
edge in Stone. Generationally, you know, that's I'm sure ninety
nine percent of the time, that's the first thing people
hit you with where they talk to you, right, So
that is beyond legendary. What what was that film like
(11:21):
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.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
So what he's allowed the audience.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
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 sand 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. Basically,
the film.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
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 by David Stetherin in order to
recapture him and take him back something that's very familiar
to us in our history, which is again what John
(12:45):
was doing. And so that to me was the hope
that I had for 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. But that was that
was a sign of the times.
Speaker 2 (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 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
(13:28):
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 2 (13:47):
Know, when when when I imagined.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
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.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Was there someone you know?
Speaker 1 (13:59):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
You got something that bite off? How was it?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
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.
So babies were really important to me. Dogs, animals, anything
that was learning for the very first time in their
environment was it was important to me. And what John
(14:33):
did when we he never gave the whole script to
anybody else. So when they 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 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
(14:53):
lot of them thought that I had written the script
and not John, that John was just the director. But
because it was so 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 I said, 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
(15:16):
scene and then they would have to respond to what
I did or did not do, certainly the fact that
I wasn't speaking.
Speaker 2 (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. Only I did,
which is something actually similar that we did in a
way with Scandal.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Harry.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
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 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.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
She's Phidoulgal.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
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
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 were they. 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,
(17:11):
when 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 as TV, I'm going to do mono fantastic,
And so that that opening scene really did establish their relationship.
(17:33):
And and just recently, I think Shonda had it on
had that particular scene on Instagram and as an explanation
as an expl and as an explanation of that scene,
she said that up until that point, Carie's character was
kind of strad straddling between being white and being black.
She said, when when Rowan slash Eli showed up, that
(17:56):
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 1 (18:10):
Yeah, 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.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Voice, I'm actually entertained.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
So I was entertained one but two Emotionally, 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 he going to do?
Speaker 5 (18:41):
Now?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Somebody's gonna die, you know. And then it was just
you know, knowing you, not knowing you.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
How I know you now, but I didn't know you
at that time, towards the end, it was like, here,
where did you find him? Because I cannot fight if
he like evidence in your dn DA of this villain.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
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, I went
out to LA for you know, pilot season 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
(19:30):
dealers and goo 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, episode arc or whatever. Before I made
that call, my agents called me and said.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
We just got a call from ABC. They'd like to
talk to you about scandal.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I got the call from the producer, and the producer
started off the conversation by saying, by 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 2 (20:23):
So Joe. The most played I guess add to.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Story on my Instagram is when you talk about manifestation,
can you share.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That with the audience?
Speaker 1 (20:35):
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 long it comes true. But there it was, and
(21:38):
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.
I mean, you know, to get a call to say
we want you to play Dick Gregory.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Off Broadway, it was amazing. It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
And then to be on the telephone with Dick to
talk with 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.
Speaker 5 (22:17):
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 low 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.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
It wasn't a very large theaters, and I knew he
was going to be the audio in the audience. 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. So you know,
it's you know, it's that old saying that everybody says
in the street, right, what goes around comes around, So
(23:26):
what you put out there comes back.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
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 with
Dick Gregory, the stamina that you needed every night to
(23:51):
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 important is it
for actors to have that discipline under their bout?
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 zact 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.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Who had mostly done TV and film, and what he did,
I think it was some thoughts of a colored Man.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Was that? 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.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
So so that and the other question.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Was smina of a one man chef.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
So you know what, maybe I'm just a fool. I
didn't even think about what that was going to be.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
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.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
And it was Edgar.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Medya Rather who invoted it and come south. And so
the last words that Medgar Ever said before he died
was turn me loose. And that's why we call the
show turn me Loose. So there was that emotional content
to it as well, that the whole show was in
a way a kind of homage to Medgar Evers, which
(27:29):
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 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,
(27:51):
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 2 (28:00):
So that's beautiful. Well, Joe, the times spit by like
we have seriously three minutes.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
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 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.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
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. That 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, don't do it.
That you that you should do the things that really
(29:14):
you are drawn to do, and that may make it
more difficult, but you will you will be clearing a
path for yourself.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
And then don't be afraid to experiment.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
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, and
(29:51):
then for just to be a little bit more specific
for the actors out there, there are questions that we
ask ourselves every single a 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.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
It means who am I? Excuse me, who am I?
In the depth of my soul?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Where am I going doesn't necessarily mean just physically where
am I going? It also could mean psychologically where am
I going? 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 5 (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.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Get what he wants? And those those are the most
important part of those questions.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Mm hmm, sooe, my heart is full. I am so
grateful for all this information. I know that my actors
appreciate love this more than anything.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
I'm going to bring on two of our actors right now,
who I have questions?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
For you.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
Well, and.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Let me see.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
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. Devra Spears,
Joe Wooden, Hey, Deborah, Hey, thank you for being here.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
It's such a pleasure in taking my question.
Speaker 7 (32:24):
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.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Weren't for that show.
Speaker 5 (32:32):
I literally sent her an email.
Speaker 7 (32:35):
After watching that show, she replied, and I've been taking
training from her ever since, and before that I was
going in a whole nother direction.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
So thank you.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Well, you are in good hands. Let me tell you,
Oh my.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
God, oh my god. Yes.
Speaker 7 (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 saund 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 old 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. I start off by doing hair and
then that seemed to me to be to have a
kind of dead end to it.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
You're only taking.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
But so seriously as an actor when you're doing musicals.
So I 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 a different light.
So I think the challenge I think probably is not
(34:02):
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.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
It's important to you.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
You have something you're trying to say, and then in
doing so, people are going to say, as 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 2 (34:40):
Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (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 8 (34:48):
La Helloo, welcome Landa.
Speaker 6 (34:51):
You are up next.
Speaker 9 (34:54):
Almost the more and it's so nice to see you
on screen. I have seen you many years on the ski.
I have witnessed your amazing talent.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
My question for you is me.
Speaker 9 (35:05):
And Debor 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 cardcase.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
At one point in the movie, I have to answer.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
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 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,
(36:14):
that means that 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 what's wonderful about being
an artist is that that is the the the bulk
(36:36):
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 be a stand up to Median.
I had never done stand up before. In my life,
the the other parts of his life, talking about the
(36:59):
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
drink may have come from, and incorporate those kinds of
things into the show as part of his character.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
That was huge.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
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 was a.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
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. So
(38:04):
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 anymore.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
So, but it's those kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
I think that that become the challenges in our lives
to find a way 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, that was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Thank you, Elsa, thank you, absolutely, thank you, and I
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 8 (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 4 (39:44):
Pleasure to be here for sure. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (39:48):
So when you already Sam and Action, Oh you're funny, yes, funny,
funny man?
Speaker 5 (40:03):
What should I say?
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Boy?
Speaker 5 (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 5 (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
(41:22):
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.
You've had the world laid out for you and you
(41:43):
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 mean, what I created? And you can sit here
and talk about what a great lay she is all
(42:05):
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 that she's
(42:26):
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 falls too far from
(42:47):
the tree. You will always be send it her grants,
disappointing boy fits. You will always be the formidable Olivia. Hope.
Don't try to use what I made to make yourself
(43:08):
into a men. You're a oh.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Mm hmmy, So Joe, I don't have I don't have
anything to say.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
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 without over without pushing it too hard.
But he brings all those a contrasts boy and man,
my daughter just belongs to me, and then finally coming
(44:13):
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.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
So I even like the fact that you were looking
up at at him.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
All I want to say is Tony because I don't
remember the president's name. But but 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
(45:22):
have an outhlage anything you've can given everything. And then
when he says and the fact 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
(45:42):
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 alumni, thank you so much, Sam.
Speaker 4 (45:57):
I thank you Sam, absolutely yes.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah, and thank you Elsa, and we could just bring
on Deborah and Yolanta.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
You guys can.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
All come on and thank you again for your questions.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
And I cannot just like, I.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
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 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.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Spirit was like ask Joe, It's like, Joe, how are
you still here? Right?
Speaker 3 (46:40):
Well, 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.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Yes, that's beautiful. Well, Joe, I want to just give
you mad love. Matd 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.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
We will be back and we will let you know
when we'll be back.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
But thank you for your support and I know that
you're going to hold on to this and replay this
because you missed Joe.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
I know you miss Joe. We miss you, guys. 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 2 (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.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
We just overall want to celebrate you and give you
a big mad love.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
This week's Kudo's Corner puts a spotlight on spirited actor
Devon Niki Thomas. Theater goers in 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
(48:20):
The Trip, and this June, she will lead the cast
of Is God Is at Washington, 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 subperson,
(48:45):
Devon is in pre production for her first short film,
The Sixth Stage, which she will shoot this spring. Kudos
to Devon, Nicki Thomas, and now it's time to get love.
I want to address jealousy, just to be brutally honest
(49:06):
and uproot. Jealousy is something that you know. I think
it's one of those human 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
(49:29):
a positive thing. It's very toxic. I want to flip
this jealousy thing. I want you, 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.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
It's not about actors being like anyone else. It's about you.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
Embracing the beauty and the uniqueness that you have. No
one out there is like you, no one can 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.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
I'm competing against, there's so many people that 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.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
Thank you,
Popular Podcasts
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.