June 30, 2020 • 46 mins
Chosen as one of Variety's "Top Ten Actors to Watch" and part of the new breed of leading men in Hollywood, Laz Alonso is starring in Amazon Prime's series THE BOYS. He can also be seen playing opposite Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba in their new series LA'S FINEST. He previously starred opposite Debra Messing and Josh Lucas in NBC's THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA. Laz's extensive television credits also include leading roles in NBC's DECEPTION and A&E's BREAKOUT KINGS.
Born and raised in Washington DC, Laz always knew he wanted to be an actor. He graduated from the prestigious Howard University School of Business, earning a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. After college, he worked on Wall Street as an investment banker at MERRILL LYNCH and began his acting career simultaneously, doing NY off-Broadway theater. He credits his ability to tackle so many different types of roles by his theater training. He now splits his time between Los Angeles and New York City.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
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 transition to
a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New
Jersey Drive with executive producers Spike Lee and director Nick Thomas.
I audition every rapper from Biggie's Balls 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 Ye 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. Meditation of the day. Talent
(01:06):
wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. Michael Jordan's
The entertainment business tends to glamorize people and create them
into stars. What we failed to remember is that you
cannot do this all on your own. At some point
in your life, someone whether it was an acting teacher
(01:30):
or a parent taking you to a Broadway show, helped
you along the way. As you grow in this business,
you should never forget the people who helped you and
continue to help you achieve your success. When you are
shooting a scene, it is the makeup artist that creates
that flawless look and the costume designer that finds those
(01:52):
stunning clothes. It is a team effort, but somewhere along
the line we forget and think we did it ourselves.
Begin now to make a conscious effort to be a
team player and know that when you win, we win.
I appreciate my teammates as I progress in this business
(02:13):
and remember to let them know. Welcome to the Spirited
Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore. I am doing back
flips right now for our next guest. You guys, you
are in for a treat. I have a very very
soft spot in my heart for Las Alonzo because Las
(02:38):
is a true visionary and we're gonna talk about that.
But I want you guys to put your hands together
for one of my favorite, hands down actors in the industry,
Las Alonzo. Las Welcome to the show. Thank you for
(02:59):
having me. This is this is like full circle, a homecoming,
a source, so many levels. Man, I was preparing earlier
with Ayana and we had like all of our last
Alonzo stories. But I want to let our audience know
that when I met last he wasn't an actor. So
Last you can tell him about your journey. I always
(03:20):
wanted to get into the business. My whole purpose for
going to New York was to eventually meet people like
Tracy and start taking classes and start doing theater and
transition into the business. But you know, I came from
Afro Latino household where it was ran by seven very
(03:41):
strong women that collectively put their money to send me
to school. And now that I had this business degree
from Howard University, try to tell them that I was
gonna not pursue business and go after acting was not
the smartest thing. So I actually utilized, uh that degree. Um,
(04:02):
I got a job on Wall Street and I used
that to bring me to New York. You know, because
at the time, all the people that I looked up
to started in New York. They started their career in
New York doing theater and then uh and once I
was in New York and I was on Wall Street,
I said, Okay, now I'm here, Now I can pursue
(04:22):
my career. And when I was working ninety hours a week,
I realized, ain't nowhere in the world I'm ever gonna
be an actor working these hours and uh and I
eventually quit. And it was tough. It was rough, like
back when we met, you know, I was, you know,
trying to make a doll out of fifteen cents, as
you know. But your class and I'm not saying this
(04:43):
because it's you or because you're here, because as you know,
I've sent hundreds of people to your class and you're directing,
you know, because your class changed my view of what
this business is can be and and how to manifest
it beyond just acting classes. You know. Most acting classes
(05:05):
were just you know, do that over again, try to
do this, try to do that. But in your class,
it took more of an internal approach, you know, And
I found that that's really what acting is is finding
finding the character from within, going inside, and then channeling
it outward, as opposed to you know, okay, I'm supposed
(05:28):
to be angry right now. You know, it's going inside
and finding you know that what brings that organic and
that that real emotion out, you know. And and that's
what I loved about your class. It ended too soon.
It was like when your class ended, it was like
a heartbreak in a sense. Yeah, like, wait, I'm not
ready to fly yet like you, and I'm pushing you,
(05:51):
like I want to be in the nest of a
few more months. But but you know, you get you
get us in. It's like it's like a boot camp
resorts and then you put us out there. And I
was shocked at how ready I was. Oh, you were ready.
You came in ready. Last you came into the class ready.
(06:12):
I know. Will Smith says, you know, if you stay ready,
you know, you never have to be ready or whatever
however he says, I'm paraphrasing it. But you were ready.
You were very open to learning. You did your homework.
I definitely remember that. And I talked about you in
our class to this day about having a monologue, always
(06:33):
having a monologue in your back pocket. And I remember
when you went out to l A and you said
you were auditioning for managers, and they were like, do
you have anything else? And you remember to have your
monologue in your back pocket. Halfway before you got through
the monologue, they had a contract in front of you.
So that's another great gem that you gave us. Because
(06:54):
he actually we had a good meeting. We had a
great meeting. And at the end of the meeting he said, okay,
well you don't have tape because at the time I
didn't even have, you know, a real to show him.
So he said, you know, you seem like a nice guy,
but I got nothing to judge you on. He said,
if you ever have a show or a play that
(07:16):
you're doing in New York, invite me out. And if
I mean, if I happened to be in New York,
I'll come out, or I'll send one of my managers
in New York to go see if you you know,
if you have what it takes. And I sat there
and I thought to myself, I didn't fly all the
way out to l A to walk away with We'll see.
I flew out to l A to meet this person
(07:37):
and to leave with a manager. And so I said, well,
can I do anything for you right now? Can I
perform can, And he said, what do you mean, can
you perform? I said, well, can I at least do
a monologue before I leave? He said what I said, Yeah,
I came. I came three thousand miles to sign with you.
I come three thousand miles to just sit down and
(07:58):
have a twenty minute conversation. He said, you mean to
tell me you're ready right now to do a monologue
in my office. I said, yes, sir. He said, hold
on a second, so he got on the speaker and
he called all the managers and all the assistants from
his company into his office, and they were about maybe
(08:19):
I would say, twelve to fifteen people now in his office.
But I had already done this monologue with you in
your in your class, so I was unfazed by the people.
And then I started to do the monologue. And I
was looking at him when I started to do the monologue,
and he's stopped. He said, don't look at me. He said,
(08:41):
do the monologue at the wall behind me. So he
threw a wrench, you know, but it was cool though.
So I looked past his ass and the wall became
the character, and I did the monologue, and as you said,
by the time I finished the monologue, the whole room
was dead quiet. They weren't ready for that. And he
(09:02):
was shocked that I came ready with a monologue, already
prepared and memorized, and and you know it was it
was like like like my weapon, Like any time I
can drop dropping the character, go into that matalog and
knock it out. And as you said, he printed out
a contract and he said, here, you go, take a
look at that and if it works, get back to me.
(09:24):
And I left his office with a contract in hand.
You have great stories. Last another story And when I
talked about you being a visionary. One of the exercises
in our class was to create this map of life.
And it really is like a visual board they call
it now and you know you can color whatever. Well
Last came in to this day, nobody has ever done it.
(09:46):
He came in with a map of life game board. Brilliant.
I learned to forget my life. It was like we
were like, can we play? It was really like the
map of life and it was his life. The thing
that I remember last, you guys had a homework assignment
of there were three directors, writers and actors. You wanted
to work with and why you wrote three directors. By
(10:10):
the time I think maybe it was I don't know
how many years in, but you had moved to l A.
You had work with all three of those directors that
you said you wanted to work with. James Cameron, I
remember Spike Lee. I don't remember the other one, but
I know that Ayana reminded me that again, you know,
your manifestation of your dream before you. That's why I
(10:33):
remember the Map of Life. I love that exercise. It
was such and I felt that exercise like I literally
felt it. It was so therapeutic to be able to,
you know, creatively map out your dreams. Yeah, I've never
done that before. I've never done an exercise like that before,
and I was shocked at how powerful it was, you know,
(10:54):
And as you said, it was the vision board before
vision boards became hot. You know, now everybody it's about
vision boards, but this was like a vision board like
five point off, because not only do you do you
dream it when you're doing that exercise, but you actually
created by taking what's up here and putting it on
(11:16):
paper and coloring and cutting and pasting and and doing
all this stuff in a very subconscious way. You're already manifesting,
you know, you're just manifesting it onto the paper, but
getting hit out of here and materializing it. It's funny.
I I've been during this quarantine. I have been cleaning
(11:36):
out my house and the garage is something that you know,
for the last I've been living in this home now
for nine years, and the garage is something that I
still had boxes in my garage from Brooklyn that I
haven't unpacked. I've been in l A now since two
thousand one. I have boxes from Brooklyn that I hadn't unpacked.
(11:59):
And can you believe I found my Spirited Actor book.
I'm I'm going to I just like held it and
I looked at it, and this was this was before
you hit me up about this zoom what It's crazy.
So I'm I'm gonna snap some pictures of it and
(12:20):
I'm gonna send it to you. Okay, that's a confirmation
that I was still casting when I was teaching the
class with you, and I just remember that it wasn't
about if you were ever going to get a role,
it was when you were going to get a role.
We knew you were gonna work, but we just didn't
know when when I say we, I speak of my
(12:41):
assistant at the time. And so now some of my
favorite films they start you and that blows me away.
You casted me in my first commercial. Do you remember that? Okay,
I want to say, because I know was this when
you were a BT before b et Oh God? Was
a Pantiac Sunbird commercial Uni World. Yeah, Pontiac Sunbird. Christopher
(13:09):
Erskine was director, and you and I are still friends
on Facebook to this day. And I remember it was
it was a Pontiac Sunbird commercial and I was playing
pool and I, you know, hit the eight ball in
all cool and then the license tag on the Sunbird
said ate them up. But that was my first commercial
(13:36):
ever in life. You cast me. I remember, I remember
casting in the commercial, and I didn't remember which one,
but I was at UNI World at the time, and
again I didn't think that you weren't going to work.
It was just and then once you know, that momentum happened,
then it was like glass is gonna be gone. There's
no way you're going to be in New York. You
(13:57):
set a fire in me, Tracy. You you literally like
that class lit. It was like this this all these
logs were ready to be lit, but I had no
nothing to ignite it. I didn't know how to ignite it.
It was there waiting, and I remember going to your class.
It just sent me off, like after your class. So
(14:19):
many things happened because that commercial led me to my
commercial agent. And when I got that commercial agent, you know,
I mean they put me out there. You know, it
was done and they had me. I mean I was
booking commercials left and right, which eventually led me to
the what the Budweiser? What's up? Commercial? H charl Stone,
(14:42):
you know, and and the that that really helped me
because when you book, it creates a confidence and in energy,
it's no similar than in sports. You know, when you score,
you want the ball again. You know, you don't run
from the ball because you're afraid you might not score.
You're like, no, I just scored. I want to score again.
And and that momentum just kept growing and growing. But
(15:05):
I think that it's important to always, you know, look
back and and and and think, Okay, what gave me
that that conference, what gave me that that thing that
I needed in order to go into a business. You
know that really is very uncertain, but I didn't acknowledge that. Like,
(15:27):
that's why I loved about your classes, that I did
not acknowledge how uncertain uh this business was, because I
left with a hundred percent confident Oh I can do this,
you know, Yeah, I can do this, you know, and
and being able and booking that those commercials you know,
and put you in a financial position where you know,
(15:48):
you you're not thinking, you know that that I need
this job. No, You're like, no, I want this job,
not I needed, you know, And there's a different there's
a different place that you approach me heterial from a
place of certainty and security. Then you're in a place
of I need this right now or I might you know,
(16:09):
I might not survive. I'm really grateful for the acknowledgement
because you know, um like you Lean and Melissa and
now Marlon all Spirit Actor alumni you know, to know
that this has been a journey and and the classes
who are part of that. I just I'm so grateful
(16:29):
And the fact that you know we're still in touch
with each other, that is just the coolest. Absolutely, I
consider you a dear friend. We actually were real friends,
like it's not a game. Yeah, we were neighbors when
we were in Brooklyn, you lived the round and corner
from me, but we were like real genuine friends, and
you know, real friends. Never we may lose touch, but
(16:51):
we never lose that love and that connection, you know,
and and appreciation and respect, and there's so much that
goes along with it. But like you said, it is
a journey. It isn't always easy. It does become hard.
It's difficult. You go through ups you go through downs,
you go through dry spells where you can't buy a job,
(17:12):
and you go through moments where you have to turn
down work because you physically can't do it all, you know.
And is interesting because from me was a year where
it was still it's a it's a rebuilding year for me,
you know. Um twenty I would say twenty eighteen, nineteen
(17:34):
and twenty it was an upswing, like you know where
I did Network TV for a while and then I said,
you know what, I want to once again reignite that
challenge in me. I want to go back to doing films.
I want to do films that matter to me. I
want to do films that I'm proud of, you know,
(17:54):
I want to And I was seeing so much great
work being done, Like, I mean, so many great filmmakers
now that have come up while I was doing network television,
and I just wasn't available doing twenty two episodes a year,
nine months out of the year. You're making money, but
you're not making art. You're just not available, right, Can
(18:16):
you explain last to some of the listeners the difference,
because you are talking when you say you're you're you're
not making art, You're you're working because television and film,
there's there are two different genres there. They are two
different genres. But now because of streaming and Netflix and Amazon,
(18:36):
they've kind of melded the genre a little bit. So
you can do powerful films on television now, you know,
I mean especially many theories you know when you see
it to me could have never been done in the
movies and had the same effect. I mean, that was
a four hour film that allowed us to consume it
(18:58):
in bits, and you needed those bits just the same. Yes, yes,
this did not go out and beat somebody's as yeah,
you know. So, so there is amazing work being done
on television right now. But network television, you know, they
have procedural shows and they have episodic shows, you know,
so I was on a on a procedural show, a
(19:20):
show that every week you have a new case to
solve or a new patient to you know save. It's
your shows that have a beginning, middle, and end every episode,
and the characters lives are kind of be storylines, but
the a storyline is really just that episode, what's happening
that episode, and in that episode, you know, you have
(19:42):
to wrap things up very clean and very neatly every episode.
There there are actors who have made an amazing living,
you know, doing network television at uh procedurals, and they've
they've done very very well for themselves. I was ready
to do well for myself. I was ready to make
a little money. And you know, I have been doing
(20:03):
well and making art when it comes to film, but
the money is just you can't compare it, you know,
the consistency and and all that stuff. So I said,
I'm gonna I'm gonna do some television, you know. And
when I was there, nothing against the work, but for
me personally, it was sucking out of me something that
(20:23):
I've always private prioritized on this business, and that's the art.
That's loving what I'm doing, that's loving the character that
I'm playing. That's loving the story that I'm telling, feeling
like it means something, you know, And I was not
feeling that in the work that I was doing at
the time. You know, I lacked at besides what was
(20:44):
going on in my bank account, as far as the
passion for getting a new script and opening it up
and seeing what happens. It was almost like, Okay, you
know who do I chase this week and not catch?
And you know who do I the name of that
show last? I don't feel like saying it. I wanted
(21:07):
to ask you because I was gonna say it, but no,
don't say it. You know what, I'm not gonna say it.
I'm gonna tell you why. I don't want to say it, Tracy,
because I respect any person in this business, regardless of
the genre that they're in. And you know, it's like,
I chose to do that show. I chose to audition
for that. I didn't have to. You know, I'm saying,
(21:29):
nobody held a gun up to my head. So I
don't want to ever feel like I'm talking down because
it gave me great opportunities. It allowed me to do
things for my family that to this day I would
not have been able to do, and you know, it's
still helped me out in many other ways besides feeding
me creatively. You know. So I can't I can't talk
(21:52):
bad or or down talk any opportunity that I've had
because at the end of the day, it kept me working,
it kept the employed, it okay, and it allowed me
to at least be comfortable in other areas, you know
what I mean? And you have I always suggest to
my listeners to I am DV dot com, all of
(22:14):
our guests, you have a polsterer of work that we
can talk about from Jumping the Broom to Albertsar, Let's
talk about that because that's like Matrix monumental, you know,
um never been done before. How was that experience working
with James Cameron? So that's an experience very similar to
(22:35):
the monologue experience. So I had gone to Russia to
do this film with great director named Roland Jockey, who
the producers on that film weren't necessarily so great. They
flew me out to Russia. I was supposed to be
there for three weeks and I ended up being out
(22:56):
there for three months. Wow. Yeah, And let's just say
it was interesting. People that were behind the project to
the point where you're just gonna sit here for three months.
You're gonna take that for dem and you ain't gonna
make no noise about it, because you start hearing stories
of other people who worked for them in the past
and made noise and what happened to them. Right, And
(23:20):
I'm in Russia. I can't call my boys and be like, yo,
ain't coming. Ain't nobody coming to Russia. So I was
there for three months, and so I took that opportunity
and I said, all right, well i'm here, let me
at least be able to maneuver my way around the city.
And so I started learning Russia, and I figured, yeah,
(23:42):
so I I got something very like. It wasn't conversational,
but it was enough to survive. You know. I could eat,
I could find the bathroom, I could buy it at
the grocery store. I could ask for time, weather directions,
stuff like that. That's impressive. And when I got there
avatar audition. Also at the time, I was studying Korean
(24:03):
martial arts, you know, and in Korean martial arts you
have to learn the names of all the forms the
moves in Korean you also have to learn how to
count in Korean. There's a whole bunch of different takedowns
and throws and kicks, and everything has a Korean name,
and when they yell at out in Korean, you gotta
be able to know how to do it. So I
had a working knowledge of very elementary Korean and Russian
(24:27):
along with my Spanish, you know. And so when I
went into the Avatar audition, they didn't give out the
signe you had to go in that day. They allowed
you to come in earlier, as earlier as you wanted
and leave your identification with the front desk and sign
a contract to get the size, and you didn't get
(24:48):
your driver's license back until you turn those sides back in. Yeah,
so I mark too, water mark all of it. So
I got the sides, and I'm in there and I'm studying,
and i study it and I'm studied, and I'm loving
the material, loving the material, you know, because I've always
wanted to play like a shot kaZulu or a braveheart
(25:11):
or a gladiator, you know, a warrior that's fighting for
his people at liberation against an oppressor and invaders and
we can beat them with our spears, you know, that
kind of stuff. And I was like, oh, this is
this is me, Like, this is what I've been what
I've been wanting to play my whole life. And when
I walked in the audition, the casting director said one caveat,
(25:34):
She said, are you ready? I said yes. She said,
there's one thing. You can't do the lines as scripted.
She said, speak another language. I don't care what it is.
She said, you can make it up. Say you're a
B C S. You can count, she said, but I
want to feel each one of the lines and what's
(25:56):
happening in the script based on this thing that you're
gonna talk. She said, you can. You can give an Dr.
Suss nursery round if you want. Wow, I want to
feel it. And I said, okay, cool. You know again,
I like challenges like that. And so I basically just
took the Korean that I knew, the Russian that I knew,
(26:19):
and the Spanish that I knew, and I made a
big rostum foil you of the whole damn thing, and
I dropped it on her head. Now, this was in
June when I auditioned for Avatar. I hear a word
until November. Oh wow, yeah, I didn't hear a peep
(26:41):
from them until so as far as I was concerned, Yeah,
they moved on. It's all good. Like for me, I
just had I had a great audition, and I had
a great time in the audition, and I enjoyed being
able to audition for something that big. You know. For me,
it was like my Star Wars and so don't member.
My agent calls me and he tells me, hey man,
(27:03):
he's like, we heard from James Cameron an avatar and
you're one of three choices that he has for this role.
That was in November. I was excited. I was energized.
Still didn't have the script, but you still weren't sending
out the side. You know, again the same policy. You
(27:24):
come in early, you look at the sides, and then
you perform. I went in there. It was supposed to
be maximum one hour meeting with him. It was gonna
be a meeting and a screen test where he actually
was manning the camera. He was he was filming it.
Oh wow. Yeah. And at their offices they have a
black box theater. Oh that's fierce, that's fierce. So when
(27:47):
I went in there and I saw that the audition
was going to be in a black box theater. I said, oh,
this is mine because all the work that I've done
in New York was in black box theaters preparing me
for this moment. There was nothing else. I felt no
more at home than on stage in the theater. And so,
(28:11):
you know, we had we had a an hour sit
down here, and I, like the whole audition was supposed
to be an hour. We talked for an hour. We
didn't even begin the audition to our number two. Oh
my god, we just had. We had such a great,
you know, conversation and we got along and we were joking,
(28:32):
and we there were so many things that we had
in common. And then he said, are you ready to work?
I said, yeah, all right, let's do it. And I
had the same two sides that I did for the audition.
So I did those two sides, you know, and he
was head over heels over it. He asked me about
the language, like what is this? What are you saying?
Where do you get this from? And I told him,
(28:53):
you know about the you know, the mobster producers in Russia,
and about you know, my upbringing, you know, learning two languages,
and you know, the Korean martial arts. And then come
to find out he's a martial artist, and then we
started talking about that. But then he said, would you
mind doing more scenes? And so we went for another
hour and a half, four hours, almost three. We we
(29:17):
did about three hours, you know, total, and then by
the end we had done pretty much every scene my
character has in He kept asking the casting director to
go back out and print more scenes, and then he'd
come back and he'd be like, you mind doing two
more scenes. I'd be like, yeah, let's do it. He'd
give me the scene. I'd look at the scenes, boom,
and I'm ready, and then I'm I'm improvising some more Korean, Russian,
(29:40):
Spanish crap. Wow. And by the end of it, he said, look, man,
he said, I have a very good feeling about this.
He said, I'd like for you to go upstairs to
my office and asked them to print you out a
copy of the script. He said, here's my he said,
(30:01):
after you read the script, call yeah, he said, call
me and tell me if this is something you would
like to be it. I'm keep your number. Yes, you know,
but but you know, I played it cool. You know,
(30:22):
I played it cool, you know, like I was gonna
consider the opportunity like yeah, I'll take it up short. Yeah,
I can't wait to meet it. Man. It looked good
and shore enough, man. Like, you know, I got the script,
you know, and I drove home like twenty five because
I didn't want nothing to happen to the script, you know.
(30:44):
I mean I probably had a seat around that script
in the passenger seat, like I felt. I felt like
I was driving one of those armored trucks you know
that more money around the city. Yes, yeah, Like I
would be at a light and I'd be like looking
like if I don't get jack with the script. You know,
That's how I felt. No, Listen, I understand, I overstand.
(31:08):
I was. I was coaching someone last summer on the
Matrix and Catwoman in d A and all of that
had to sign and I had the sides and I
just held it so close, like terrified they would blow away.
That's like the water Market. By name on it, they're
gonna know it's me. But that's that's a great story.
(31:28):
And yesterday in our brief conversation, you had some really
profound things to say, and they need to hear the truth.
And that's why I have friends like you on the show,
because I know You're going to be brutally honest and
just let them know. What is it that they need
to do. What's something that you feel is something they
can walk away with and just hold onto like you
(31:51):
hold onto your your nuggets so much, you know. I mean,
there's so much to say and so little time. But
I would say that everything in life informs your acting,
you know, everything, you know, As I said about the
Avatar story, I just learned Russian because I was stuck
and stranded in Russia for three months. But it actually
(32:13):
now I see the reason why I was stuck in
Russia for three months, well, so that when I went
into that audition I'd be able to blow them away
with the language, because that character, you know, had to
learn to speak a completely different language. So he needed
not just somebody that can act for somebody that can
act in a different language. But you still feel it,
(32:34):
you know, because it was subtitled when I when we
spoke in our language. Everything in life is leading you
to a destination. Don't discount it, don't question it. There's
gonna be ebbs and flows. Don't question the abs, just
like you don't take the flows too seriously. Like when
when times are great. Don't let that define you, because
if you let the good time define you, then when
(32:56):
times are bad, they're also gonna define you. Mmm. So
I actually have learned how to celebrate my victories because
for a long time I would not celebrate victories because
I did not want to make myself think that working
was a victory. I wanted to convince myself that working
(33:17):
is part of my normal existence, Like I booked this
job because that's what I am here to do. I
would not suggest that, you know, because I also robbed
myself up some very well deserved moments of joy in
my life where I should have celebrated some victories. It
is it is an honor to work with Spike Lee,
(33:37):
but I I wouldn't allow myself to celebrate that because
I felt like, if I celebrate this, then what I'm
saying is is that I accomplished something that I wasn't
spoth to accomplish. Accomplished this, you know, So I would say,
don't let your victories define you. Don't let your failures
define you. It is all part of the natural cycle
(33:59):
of life. Your victories are strengthening you and preparing you
for what's coming, But so are your failures. So are
the rough times when you make money, don't spend it
all safe, safe say, because when those abs do come
and you're not making money, you don't have to do
something that compromises your personal and artistic integrity. Everybody always says, oh,
(34:23):
you work so much, you work so much. Yet, but
you know what, I know a lot of actors that
work a lot, and when work is lacking, they're struggling
and they're calling around asking for money. And you know,
I got a son and I got it, and it's like,
oh no, brother, you work more than me, you know.
And everybody has their cross to bear. But if you
(34:46):
can save as much as you can, because when the
work slows, you don't want to be in a position
where you have to take something that you don't truly
believe in. Absolutely, you know, we're not entitled to work.
We're not entitled to two jobs. Were not entitled to
anything in this business. We're not entitled to people liking us.
(35:07):
We're not entitled to get this role because I was
the better actor. There were a lot of roles, As
I told Tracy, there were a lot of roles that
I knew in my heart, I was the better actor.
But there were probably about five or six actors and
I'm not gonna say their names, but my career really
didn't start taking off until they got on TV shows,
(35:29):
right because when they got on TV shows, it now
opened up the field. The top five names that they
would always go to now were unavailable, So now they
had to look for the next five guys, you know.
And I was ready, and I was lined up. You
were one of those yeah, you know, yeah, but you
(35:50):
have to be patient and you have to be ready
so that when they do call boom, you're ready to answer. Well,
I just have to say, those are our wise words
of wisdom. Wise words of wisdom from my dear friend,
my favorite actor, las Alonzo Lasso much for being on
(36:14):
the show. And I am going to extend another invitation
because we only spoke about a couple of your films.
There's so many films and so many questions. I know
that our listeners want to know and I want to ask,
so I am going to do that. But I just
want to thank you from the bottom of my heart
and sprinkled us for coming. Thank you so much. Thank you,
(36:38):
And next we'll have on the Spirited Actor podcast with
me Tracy Moore Class in session. Welcome back to the
Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore, and we are
blessed to have Las Alonso still with us for my
favorite segment, Class in session. So we have our You're
(37:00):
actor alumni, leanne A Motto and Mrs Jelisa cofree h
you you know, and Marlon Plandez. All right, so you guys,
this is how it goes. So Lyssa is gonna read
the slug line the action, and then lean and Marlon
(37:22):
are going to read the scene and then right after
whatever you want to give them. It's all on you last, Okay,
So you guys ready, okay and action interior Hector's bedroom night.
Hector pages back and forth in front of the bed.
(37:45):
Please man, give me an a minute thing. She strugs
it off. Hi, am right, you know what what is
your problem? Hector? You didn't have a problem before the
sandres just a manute. I said, it's right, it's a right,
(38:11):
you know, like I just can't do it? Are you
kidding me? A man Onemorrows mean, I actor, you know what?
What the hell is your problem? Hector? Just a minute
ago you were telling me I was your little sweet
cinema swirld choodo honey bumbasa kept hm ah, thank you
(38:38):
still my little cinnamas sworld honey bun. Sorry, I just
feel terrible. Dot m a t man you know, I
mean its older brother. He would up to me, I
hector and please, Pop, what is it that you think
(38:59):
of one that is so bad? She takes a minute,
then gives him the look. No it, don't even look
at me like that. I hacked them. Please just help me.
It'll be quick, Poppy. We'll do one time and if
it doesn't work, we'll stop one time. That's it, that's it,
(39:25):
just one time. He hesitates, but finally gives in for her.
Finn I but fact, okay, then okay. She places the
phone up to head to his face. Approved, I'm blocked down.
What was that a little? Please heck them in me alone,
(39:50):
save me a minute. She walks off with her face
glued to Tito's phone. And see did you write this
land last? Lean writes a lot of Well, I would
say monster our scenes now, so I'm gonna give it
to you. Yeah, I mean I think that you both
(40:13):
did a great, great job, especially under the circumstances. It's
tough to break the this fourth wall. And in this
format of zoom, you're not just looking at your other performer.
You're also looking at me, You're looking at trades, you're
looking at everybody else, and it can be distracting. And
I felt like you both held your composure. We're focused,
(40:35):
We're concentrated on what was going on. I like Leon's timing.
You know, you took your time. I like that you
you took that moment to like allow the Sometimes the
pauses are funny as hell, like that, it's not what
you're doing, it's what you're not doing that makes this
ship funny, Like you changed it so like in in
the second tape when Marlon came back, there was one
(40:59):
line where you like gave an extra pregnant pause that
gave us the audience a moment to laugh even more,
like what she's about to say next. You know, timing is,
especially with comedy, timing is so important, you know, and
with Marlon, you know, in this case, who was playing
the straight man in this scene. It was good because
(41:20):
you could relate to you know, his frustration sometimes force
the other actor to work a little bit. You know
what I'm saying, Like, if you're gonna give in make
her work for it, you know, like this kind of
like how Leanne used timing and pauses. Throw a pause
in there too, just to really make or sweat a
(41:42):
little bit. Because again, in this format, it's hard because
the person who's talking is the only person you see.
But because acting as a team sport, the person who's
reacting to you has a chance to do funny ship,
you know. So I get cast a lot as straight
man Marlon and I get cast opposite you know, funny,
(42:04):
funny people, whether that be men or women. And you know,
even in my show The Boys right now, my character
is always flustered. He's always trying to keep these people sane,
and the more sane I am, the more insane it
allows them to become. Sometimes when you can just pause
(42:24):
and just look at them mofucker, like like if she serious,
it gives her a chance in her quiet reactions to
do some funny ship. And at the end of the day,
you know, you're both getting the laugh, you know what
I'm saying. You know, our businesses sharing the ball, you know,
and sometimes you can make a scene even better when
(42:47):
you share that moment where it's really your line. But
by taking a moment that just like you know, just
take your time with it. It allows other ship to
happen and you both get and you're both going to score.
You know, you're both gonna get the point because as
long as people laugh, you got the point. So I
would say the scene was great. You both did great.
(43:10):
And just because I feel like I have to give
some some type of constructive criticism, I would saying try
doing it different ways, playing with the timing and playing
with pauses, finding where where is the right place to
put that pause? That's gonna get you that that audience laugh,
great stuff, yay pause. Thank you very well. I just
(43:33):
want to thank you once again last for sharing your wisdom,
your pearls, your journey, your truth and your voice. And
I know that all of these spirit Act alumni, including
our listeners, have benefited off of this amazing interview. So
thank you so much for your time. Man. Thank you,
(43:56):
have a great day. You got a same here sending
a safety to New York. At least they say so.
We will be back with Give Love on the Spirited
Actor Podcast with me Tracymour And now it's time for
Give Love. When my son Miles got hit by a car.
(44:16):
It took a village to pray over him, to support
him through his recovery. And one of the things that
I remember the most, I have a friend who actually
was on this show. His name is John Laster, and
he's a comedian and John was one of the first
(44:37):
people to show up at the hospital. For me. It
was like midnight when we were at the hospital and
John was coming home from Philadelphia from a show, and
so when I called him, he said, I'm coming straight
to the hospital. John came to the hospital, but not
only did he come to support me, he came with food.
And the way that John laid it out, it was
(45:00):
like craft service. And I still remember how challenging it
was to be happy or laugh during that time. But
when John came and he took the time to organize
the snacks, and then another friend of mine came and
(45:21):
bought dinner, someone else bought water, people had prayer books,
and another friend of mine gave me a necklace. It
takes a village. It takes a village when you realize
the people that you have in your life that are
there to support you throughout anything, and they're they're unconditionally.
(45:45):
That is your wealth. Your wealth is in the love
and the support that people give you during that time
and need. So actors your journey. If your parents support you,
if your significant other supports you, that's all you need
(46:09):
within your village. You have the support within your village.
You have the love within your village. You have the
capacity to make your dreams come true. Thank you for
joining us on the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore.
I look forward to our next Spirited podcast. 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 transition to
a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New
Jersey Drive with executive producers Spike Lee and director Nick Thomas.
I audition every rapper from Biggie's Balls 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 Ye 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. Meditation of the day. Talent
(01:06):
wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. Michael Jordan's
The entertainment business tends to glamorize people and create them
into stars. What we failed to remember is that you
cannot do this all on your own. At some point
in your life, someone whether it was an acting teacher
(01:30):
or a parent taking you to a Broadway show, helped
you along the way. As you grow in this business,
you should never forget the people who helped you and
continue to help you achieve your success. When you are
shooting a scene, it is the makeup artist that creates
that flawless look and the costume designer that finds those
(01:52):
stunning clothes. It is a team effort, but somewhere along
the line we forget and think we did it ourselves.
Begin now to make a conscious effort to be a
team player and know that when you win, we win.
I appreciate my teammates as I progress in this business
(02:13):
and remember to let them know. Welcome to the Spirited
Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore. I am doing back
flips right now for our next guest. You guys, you
are in for a treat. I have a very very
soft spot in my heart for Las Alonzo because Las
(02:38):
is a true visionary and we're gonna talk about that.
But I want you guys to put your hands together
for one of my favorite, hands down actors in the industry,
Las Alonzo. Las Welcome to the show. Thank you for
(02:59):
having me. This is this is like full circle, a homecoming,
a source, so many levels. Man, I was preparing earlier
with Ayana and we had like all of our last
Alonzo stories. But I want to let our audience know
that when I met last he wasn't an actor. So
Last you can tell him about your journey. I always
(03:20):
wanted to get into the business. My whole purpose for
going to New York was to eventually meet people like
Tracy and start taking classes and start doing theater and
transition into the business. But you know, I came from
Afro Latino household where it was ran by seven very
(03:41):
strong women that collectively put their money to send me
to school. And now that I had this business degree
from Howard University, try to tell them that I was
gonna not pursue business and go after acting was not
the smartest thing. So I actually utilized, uh that degree. Um,
(04:02):
I got a job on Wall Street and I used
that to bring me to New York. You know, because
at the time, all the people that I looked up
to started in New York. They started their career in
New York doing theater and then uh and once I
was in New York and I was on Wall Street,
I said, Okay, now I'm here, Now I can pursue
(04:22):
my career. And when I was working ninety hours a week,
I realized, ain't nowhere in the world I'm ever gonna
be an actor working these hours and uh and I
eventually quit. And it was tough. It was rough, like
back when we met, you know, I was, you know,
trying to make a doll out of fifteen cents, as
you know. But your class and I'm not saying this
(04:43):
because it's you or because you're here, because as you know,
I've sent hundreds of people to your class and you're directing,
you know, because your class changed my view of what
this business is can be and and how to manifest
it beyond just acting classes. You know. Most acting classes
(05:05):
were just you know, do that over again, try to
do this, try to do that. But in your class,
it took more of an internal approach, you know, And
I found that that's really what acting is is finding
finding the character from within, going inside, and then channeling
it outward, as opposed to you know, okay, I'm supposed
(05:28):
to be angry right now. You know, it's going inside
and finding you know that what brings that organic and
that that real emotion out, you know. And and that's
what I loved about your class. It ended too soon.
It was like when your class ended, it was like
a heartbreak in a sense. Yeah, like, wait, I'm not
ready to fly yet like you, and I'm pushing you,
(05:51):
like I want to be in the nest of a
few more months. But but you know, you get you
get us in. It's like it's like a boot camp
resorts and then you put us out there. And I
was shocked at how ready I was. Oh, you were ready.
You came in ready. Last you came into the class ready.
(06:12):
I know. Will Smith says, you know, if you stay ready,
you know, you never have to be ready or whatever
however he says, I'm paraphrasing it. But you were ready.
You were very open to learning. You did your homework.
I definitely remember that. And I talked about you in
our class to this day about having a monologue, always
(06:33):
having a monologue in your back pocket. And I remember
when you went out to l A and you said
you were auditioning for managers, and they were like, do
you have anything else? And you remember to have your
monologue in your back pocket. Halfway before you got through
the monologue, they had a contract in front of you.
So that's another great gem that you gave us. Because
(06:54):
he actually we had a good meeting. We had a
great meeting. And at the end of the meeting he said, okay,
well you don't have tape because at the time I
didn't even have, you know, a real to show him.
So he said, you know, you seem like a nice guy,
but I got nothing to judge you on. He said,
if you ever have a show or a play that
(07:16):
you're doing in New York, invite me out. And if
I mean, if I happened to be in New York,
I'll come out, or I'll send one of my managers
in New York to go see if you you know,
if you have what it takes. And I sat there
and I thought to myself, I didn't fly all the
way out to l A to walk away with We'll see.
I flew out to l A to meet this person
(07:37):
and to leave with a manager. And so I said, well,
can I do anything for you right now? Can I
perform can, And he said, what do you mean, can
you perform? I said, well, can I at least do
a monologue before I leave? He said what I said, Yeah,
I came. I came three thousand miles to sign with you.
I come three thousand miles to just sit down and
(07:58):
have a twenty minute conversation. He said, you mean to
tell me you're ready right now to do a monologue
in my office. I said, yes, sir. He said, hold
on a second, so he got on the speaker and
he called all the managers and all the assistants from
his company into his office, and they were about maybe
(08:19):
I would say, twelve to fifteen people now in his office.
But I had already done this monologue with you in
your in your class, so I was unfazed by the people.
And then I started to do the monologue. And I
was looking at him when I started to do the monologue,
and he's stopped. He said, don't look at me. He said,
(08:41):
do the monologue at the wall behind me. So he
threw a wrench, you know, but it was cool though.
So I looked past his ass and the wall became
the character, and I did the monologue, and as you said,
by the time I finished the monologue, the whole room
was dead quiet. They weren't ready for that. And he
(09:02):
was shocked that I came ready with a monologue, already
prepared and memorized, and and you know it was it
was like like like my weapon, Like any time I
can drop dropping the character, go into that matalog and
knock it out. And as you said, he printed out
a contract and he said, here, you go, take a
look at that and if it works, get back to me.
(09:24):
And I left his office with a contract in hand.
You have great stories. Last another story And when I
talked about you being a visionary. One of the exercises
in our class was to create this map of life.
And it really is like a visual board they call
it now and you know you can color whatever. Well
Last came in to this day, nobody has ever done it.
(09:46):
He came in with a map of life game board. Brilliant.
I learned to forget my life. It was like we
were like, can we play? It was really like the
map of life and it was his life. The thing
that I remember last, you guys had a homework assignment
of there were three directors, writers and actors. You wanted
to work with and why you wrote three directors. By
(10:10):
the time I think maybe it was I don't know
how many years in, but you had moved to l A.
You had work with all three of those directors that
you said you wanted to work with. James Cameron, I
remember Spike Lee. I don't remember the other one, but
I know that Ayana reminded me that again, you know,
your manifestation of your dream before you. That's why I
(10:33):
remember the Map of Life. I love that exercise. It
was such and I felt that exercise like I literally
felt it. It was so therapeutic to be able to,
you know, creatively map out your dreams. Yeah, I've never
done that before. I've never done an exercise like that before,
and I was shocked at how powerful it was, you know,
(10:54):
And as you said, it was the vision board before
vision boards became hot. You know, now everybody it's about
vision boards, but this was like a vision board like
five point off, because not only do you do you
dream it when you're doing that exercise, but you actually
created by taking what's up here and putting it on
(11:16):
paper and coloring and cutting and pasting and and doing
all this stuff in a very subconscious way. You're already manifesting,
you know, you're just manifesting it onto the paper, but
getting hit out of here and materializing it. It's funny.
I I've been during this quarantine. I have been cleaning
(11:36):
out my house and the garage is something that you know,
for the last I've been living in this home now
for nine years, and the garage is something that I
still had boxes in my garage from Brooklyn that I
haven't unpacked. I've been in l A now since two
thousand one. I have boxes from Brooklyn that I hadn't unpacked.
(11:59):
And can you believe I found my Spirited Actor book.
I'm I'm going to I just like held it and
I looked at it, and this was this was before
you hit me up about this zoom what It's crazy.
So I'm I'm gonna snap some pictures of it and
(12:20):
I'm gonna send it to you. Okay, that's a confirmation
that I was still casting when I was teaching the
class with you, and I just remember that it wasn't
about if you were ever going to get a role,
it was when you were going to get a role.
We knew you were gonna work, but we just didn't
know when when I say we, I speak of my
(12:41):
assistant at the time. And so now some of my
favorite films they start you and that blows me away.
You casted me in my first commercial. Do you remember that? Okay,
I want to say, because I know was this when
you were a BT before b et Oh God? Was
a Pantiac Sunbird commercial Uni World. Yeah, Pontiac Sunbird. Christopher
(13:09):
Erskine was director, and you and I are still friends
on Facebook to this day. And I remember it was
it was a Pontiac Sunbird commercial and I was playing
pool and I, you know, hit the eight ball in
all cool and then the license tag on the Sunbird
said ate them up. But that was my first commercial
(13:36):
ever in life. You cast me. I remember, I remember
casting in the commercial, and I didn't remember which one,
but I was at UNI World at the time, and
again I didn't think that you weren't going to work.
It was just and then once you know, that momentum happened,
then it was like glass is gonna be gone. There's
no way you're going to be in New York. You
(13:57):
set a fire in me, Tracy. You you literally like
that class lit. It was like this this all these
logs were ready to be lit, but I had no
nothing to ignite it. I didn't know how to ignite it.
It was there waiting, and I remember going to your class.
It just sent me off, like after your class. So
(14:19):
many things happened because that commercial led me to my
commercial agent. And when I got that commercial agent, you know,
I mean they put me out there. You know, it
was done and they had me. I mean I was
booking commercials left and right, which eventually led me to
the what the Budweiser? What's up? Commercial? H charl Stone,
(14:42):
you know, and and the that that really helped me
because when you book, it creates a confidence and in energy,
it's no similar than in sports. You know, when you score,
you want the ball again. You know, you don't run
from the ball because you're afraid you might not score.
You're like, no, I just scored. I want to score again.
And and that momentum just kept growing and growing. But
(15:05):
I think that it's important to always, you know, look
back and and and and think, Okay, what gave me
that that conference, what gave me that that thing that
I needed in order to go into a business. You
know that really is very uncertain, but I didn't acknowledge that. Like,
(15:27):
that's why I loved about your classes, that I did
not acknowledge how uncertain uh this business was, because I
left with a hundred percent confident Oh I can do this,
you know, Yeah, I can do this, you know, and
and being able and booking that those commercials you know,
and put you in a financial position where you know,
(15:48):
you you're not thinking, you know that that I need
this job. No, You're like, no, I want this job,
not I needed, you know, And there's a different there's
a different place that you approach me heterial from a
place of certainty and security. Then you're in a place
of I need this right now or I might you know,
(16:09):
I might not survive. I'm really grateful for the acknowledgement
because you know, um like you Lean and Melissa and
now Marlon all Spirit Actor alumni you know, to know
that this has been a journey and and the classes
who are part of that. I just I'm so grateful
(16:29):
And the fact that you know we're still in touch
with each other, that is just the coolest. Absolutely, I
consider you a dear friend. We actually were real friends,
like it's not a game. Yeah, we were neighbors when
we were in Brooklyn, you lived the round and corner
from me, but we were like real genuine friends, and
you know, real friends. Never we may lose touch, but
(16:51):
we never lose that love and that connection, you know,
and and appreciation and respect, and there's so much that
goes along with it. But like you said, it is
a journey. It isn't always easy. It does become hard.
It's difficult. You go through ups you go through downs,
you go through dry spells where you can't buy a job,
(17:12):
and you go through moments where you have to turn
down work because you physically can't do it all, you know.
And is interesting because from me was a year where
it was still it's a it's a rebuilding year for me,
you know. Um twenty I would say twenty eighteen, nineteen
(17:34):
and twenty it was an upswing, like you know where
I did Network TV for a while and then I said,
you know what, I want to once again reignite that
challenge in me. I want to go back to doing films.
I want to do films that matter to me. I
want to do films that I'm proud of, you know,
(17:54):
I want to And I was seeing so much great
work being done, Like, I mean, so many great filmmakers
now that have come up while I was doing network television,
and I just wasn't available doing twenty two episodes a year,
nine months out of the year. You're making money, but
you're not making art. You're just not available, right, Can
(18:16):
you explain last to some of the listeners the difference,
because you are talking when you say you're you're you're
not making art, You're you're working because television and film,
there's there are two different genres there. They are two
different genres. But now because of streaming and Netflix and Amazon,
(18:36):
they've kind of melded the genre a little bit. So
you can do powerful films on television now, you know,
I mean especially many theories you know when you see
it to me could have never been done in the
movies and had the same effect. I mean, that was
a four hour film that allowed us to consume it
(18:58):
in bits, and you needed those bits just the same. Yes, yes,
this did not go out and beat somebody's as yeah,
you know. So, so there is amazing work being done
on television right now. But network television, you know, they
have procedural shows and they have episodic shows, you know,
so I was on a on a procedural show, a
(19:20):
show that every week you have a new case to
solve or a new patient to you know save. It's
your shows that have a beginning, middle, and end every episode,
and the characters lives are kind of be storylines, but
the a storyline is really just that episode, what's happening
that episode, and in that episode, you know, you have
(19:42):
to wrap things up very clean and very neatly every episode.
There there are actors who have made an amazing living,
you know, doing network television at uh procedurals, and they've
they've done very very well for themselves. I was ready
to do well for myself. I was ready to make
a little money. And you know, I have been doing
(20:03):
well and making art when it comes to film, but
the money is just you can't compare it, you know,
the consistency and and all that stuff. So I said,
I'm gonna I'm gonna do some television, you know. And
when I was there, nothing against the work, but for
me personally, it was sucking out of me something that
(20:23):
I've always private prioritized on this business, and that's the art.
That's loving what I'm doing, that's loving the character that
I'm playing. That's loving the story that I'm telling, feeling
like it means something, you know, And I was not
feeling that in the work that I was doing at
the time. You know, I lacked at besides what was
(20:44):
going on in my bank account, as far as the
passion for getting a new script and opening it up
and seeing what happens. It was almost like, Okay, you
know who do I chase this week and not catch?
And you know who do I the name of that
show last? I don't feel like saying it. I wanted
(21:07):
to ask you because I was gonna say it, but no,
don't say it. You know what, I'm not gonna say it.
I'm gonna tell you why. I don't want to say it, Tracy,
because I respect any person in this business, regardless of
the genre that they're in. And you know, it's like,
I chose to do that show. I chose to audition
for that. I didn't have to. You know, I'm saying,
(21:29):
nobody held a gun up to my head. So I
don't want to ever feel like I'm talking down because
it gave me great opportunities. It allowed me to do
things for my family that to this day I would
not have been able to do, and you know, it's
still helped me out in many other ways besides feeding
me creatively. You know. So I can't I can't talk
(21:52):
bad or or down talk any opportunity that I've had
because at the end of the day, it kept me working,
it kept the employed, it okay, and it allowed me
to at least be comfortable in other areas, you know
what I mean? And you have I always suggest to
my listeners to I am DV dot com, all of
(22:14):
our guests, you have a polsterer of work that we
can talk about from Jumping the Broom to Albertsar, Let's
talk about that because that's like Matrix monumental, you know,
um never been done before. How was that experience working
with James Cameron? So that's an experience very similar to
(22:35):
the monologue experience. So I had gone to Russia to
do this film with great director named Roland Jockey, who
the producers on that film weren't necessarily so great. They
flew me out to Russia. I was supposed to be
there for three weeks and I ended up being out
(22:56):
there for three months. Wow. Yeah, And let's just say
it was interesting. People that were behind the project to
the point where you're just gonna sit here for three months.
You're gonna take that for dem and you ain't gonna
make no noise about it, because you start hearing stories
of other people who worked for them in the past
and made noise and what happened to them. Right, And
(23:20):
I'm in Russia. I can't call my boys and be like, yo,
ain't coming. Ain't nobody coming to Russia. So I was
there for three months, and so I took that opportunity
and I said, all right, well i'm here, let me
at least be able to maneuver my way around the city.
And so I started learning Russia, and I figured, yeah,
(23:42):
so I I got something very like. It wasn't conversational,
but it was enough to survive. You know. I could eat,
I could find the bathroom, I could buy it at
the grocery store. I could ask for time, weather directions,
stuff like that. That's impressive. And when I got there
avatar audition. Also at the time, I was studying Korean
(24:03):
martial arts, you know, and in Korean martial arts you
have to learn the names of all the forms the
moves in Korean you also have to learn how to
count in Korean. There's a whole bunch of different takedowns
and throws and kicks, and everything has a Korean name,
and when they yell at out in Korean, you gotta
be able to know how to do it. So I
had a working knowledge of very elementary Korean and Russian
(24:27):
along with my Spanish, you know. And so when I
went into the Avatar audition, they didn't give out the
signe you had to go in that day. They allowed
you to come in earlier, as earlier as you wanted
and leave your identification with the front desk and sign
a contract to get the size, and you didn't get
(24:48):
your driver's license back until you turn those sides back in. Yeah,
so I mark too, water mark all of it. So
I got the sides, and I'm in there and I'm studying,
and i study it and I'm studied, and I'm loving
the material, loving the material, you know, because I've always
wanted to play like a shot kaZulu or a braveheart
(25:11):
or a gladiator, you know, a warrior that's fighting for
his people at liberation against an oppressor and invaders and
we can beat them with our spears, you know, that
kind of stuff. And I was like, oh, this is
this is me, Like, this is what I've been what
I've been wanting to play my whole life. And when
I walked in the audition, the casting director said one caveat,
(25:34):
She said, are you ready? I said yes. She said,
there's one thing. You can't do the lines as scripted.
She said, speak another language. I don't care what it is.
She said, you can make it up. Say you're a
B C S. You can count, she said, but I
want to feel each one of the lines and what's
(25:56):
happening in the script based on this thing that you're
gonna talk. She said, you can. You can give an Dr.
Suss nursery round if you want. Wow, I want to
feel it. And I said, okay, cool. You know again,
I like challenges like that. And so I basically just
took the Korean that I knew, the Russian that I knew,
(26:19):
and the Spanish that I knew, and I made a
big rostum foil you of the whole damn thing, and
I dropped it on her head. Now, this was in
June when I auditioned for Avatar. I hear a word
until November. Oh wow, yeah, I didn't hear a peep
(26:41):
from them until so as far as I was concerned, Yeah,
they moved on. It's all good. Like for me, I
just had I had a great audition, and I had
a great time in the audition, and I enjoyed being
able to audition for something that big. You know. For me,
it was like my Star Wars and so don't member.
My agent calls me and he tells me, hey man,
(27:03):
he's like, we heard from James Cameron an avatar and
you're one of three choices that he has for this role.
That was in November. I was excited. I was energized.
Still didn't have the script, but you still weren't sending
out the side. You know, again the same policy. You
(27:24):
come in early, you look at the sides, and then
you perform. I went in there. It was supposed to
be maximum one hour meeting with him. It was gonna
be a meeting and a screen test where he actually
was manning the camera. He was he was filming it.
Oh wow. Yeah. And at their offices they have a
black box theater. Oh that's fierce, that's fierce. So when
(27:47):
I went in there and I saw that the audition
was going to be in a black box theater. I said, oh,
this is mine because all the work that I've done
in New York was in black box theaters preparing me
for this moment. There was nothing else. I felt no
more at home than on stage in the theater. And so,
(28:11):
you know, we had we had a an hour sit
down here, and I, like the whole audition was supposed
to be an hour. We talked for an hour. We
didn't even begin the audition to our number two. Oh
my god, we just had. We had such a great,
you know, conversation and we got along and we were joking,
(28:32):
and we there were so many things that we had
in common. And then he said, are you ready to work?
I said, yeah, all right, let's do it. And I
had the same two sides that I did for the audition.
So I did those two sides, you know, and he
was head over heels over it. He asked me about
the language, like what is this? What are you saying?
Where do you get this from? And I told him,
(28:53):
you know about the you know, the mobster producers in Russia,
and about you know, my upbringing, you know, learning two languages,
and you know, the Korean martial arts. And then come
to find out he's a martial artist, and then we
started talking about that. But then he said, would you
mind doing more scenes? And so we went for another
hour and a half, four hours, almost three. We we
(29:17):
did about three hours, you know, total, and then by
the end we had done pretty much every scene my
character has in He kept asking the casting director to
go back out and print more scenes, and then he'd
come back and he'd be like, you mind doing two
more scenes. I'd be like, yeah, let's do it. He'd
give me the scene. I'd look at the scenes, boom,
and I'm ready, and then I'm I'm improvising some more Korean, Russian,
(29:40):
Spanish crap. Wow. And by the end of it, he said, look, man,
he said, I have a very good feeling about this.
He said, I'd like for you to go upstairs to
my office and asked them to print you out a
copy of the script. He said, here's my he said,
(30:01):
after you read the script, call yeah, he said, call
me and tell me if this is something you would
like to be it. I'm keep your number. Yes, you know,
but but you know, I played it cool. You know,
(30:22):
I played it cool, you know, like I was gonna
consider the opportunity like yeah, I'll take it up short. Yeah,
I can't wait to meet it. Man. It looked good
and shore enough, man. Like, you know, I got the script,
you know, and I drove home like twenty five because
I didn't want nothing to happen to the script, you know.
(30:44):
I mean I probably had a seat around that script
in the passenger seat, like I felt. I felt like
I was driving one of those armored trucks you know
that more money around the city. Yes, yeah, Like I
would be at a light and I'd be like looking
like if I don't get jack with the script. You know,
That's how I felt. No, Listen, I understand, I overstand.
(31:08):
I was. I was coaching someone last summer on the
Matrix and Catwoman in d A and all of that
had to sign and I had the sides and I
just held it so close, like terrified they would blow away.
That's like the water Market. By name on it, they're
gonna know it's me. But that's that's a great story.
(31:28):
And yesterday in our brief conversation, you had some really
profound things to say, and they need to hear the truth.
And that's why I have friends like you on the show,
because I know You're going to be brutally honest and
just let them know. What is it that they need
to do. What's something that you feel is something they
can walk away with and just hold onto like you
(31:51):
hold onto your your nuggets so much, you know. I mean,
there's so much to say and so little time. But
I would say that everything in life informs your acting,
you know, everything, you know, As I said about the
Avatar story, I just learned Russian because I was stuck
and stranded in Russia for three months. But it actually
(32:13):
now I see the reason why I was stuck in
Russia for three months, well, so that when I went
into that audition I'd be able to blow them away
with the language, because that character, you know, had to
learn to speak a completely different language. So he needed
not just somebody that can act for somebody that can
act in a different language. But you still feel it,
(32:34):
you know, because it was subtitled when I when we
spoke in our language. Everything in life is leading you
to a destination. Don't discount it, don't question it. There's
gonna be ebbs and flows. Don't question the abs, just
like you don't take the flows too seriously. Like when
when times are great. Don't let that define you, because
if you let the good time define you, then when
(32:56):
times are bad, they're also gonna define you. Mmm. So
I actually have learned how to celebrate my victories because
for a long time I would not celebrate victories because
I did not want to make myself think that working
was a victory. I wanted to convince myself that working
(33:17):
is part of my normal existence, Like I booked this
job because that's what I am here to do. I
would not suggest that, you know, because I also robbed
myself up some very well deserved moments of joy in
my life where I should have celebrated some victories. It
is it is an honor to work with Spike Lee,
(33:37):
but I I wouldn't allow myself to celebrate that because
I felt like, if I celebrate this, then what I'm
saying is is that I accomplished something that I wasn't
spoth to accomplish. Accomplished this, you know, So I would say,
don't let your victories define you. Don't let your failures
define you. It is all part of the natural cycle
(33:59):
of life. Your victories are strengthening you and preparing you
for what's coming, But so are your failures. So are
the rough times when you make money, don't spend it
all safe, safe say, because when those abs do come
and you're not making money, you don't have to do
something that compromises your personal and artistic integrity. Everybody always says, oh,
(34:23):
you work so much, you work so much. Yet, but
you know what, I know a lot of actors that
work a lot, and when work is lacking, they're struggling
and they're calling around asking for money. And you know,
I got a son and I got it, and it's like,
oh no, brother, you work more than me, you know.
And everybody has their cross to bear. But if you
(34:46):
can save as much as you can, because when the
work slows, you don't want to be in a position
where you have to take something that you don't truly
believe in. Absolutely, you know, we're not entitled to work.
We're not entitled to two jobs. Were not entitled to
anything in this business. We're not entitled to people liking us.
(35:07):
We're not entitled to get this role because I was
the better actor. There were a lot of roles, As
I told Tracy, there were a lot of roles that
I knew in my heart, I was the better actor.
But there were probably about five or six actors and
I'm not gonna say their names, but my career really
didn't start taking off until they got on TV shows,
(35:29):
right because when they got on TV shows, it now
opened up the field. The top five names that they
would always go to now were unavailable, So now they
had to look for the next five guys, you know.
And I was ready, and I was lined up. You
were one of those yeah, you know, yeah, but you
(35:50):
have to be patient and you have to be ready
so that when they do call boom, you're ready to answer. Well,
I just have to say, those are our wise words
of wisdom. Wise words of wisdom from my dear friend,
my favorite actor, las Alonzo Lasso much for being on
(36:14):
the show. And I am going to extend another invitation
because we only spoke about a couple of your films.
There's so many films and so many questions. I know
that our listeners want to know and I want to ask,
so I am going to do that. But I just
want to thank you from the bottom of my heart
and sprinkled us for coming. Thank you so much. Thank you,
(36:38):
And next we'll have on the Spirited Actor podcast with
me Tracy Moore Class in session. Welcome back to the
Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore, and we are
blessed to have Las Alonso still with us for my
favorite segment, Class in session. So we have our You're
(37:00):
actor alumni, leanne A Motto and Mrs Jelisa cofree h
you you know, and Marlon Plandez. All right, so you guys,
this is how it goes. So Lyssa is gonna read
the slug line the action, and then lean and Marlon
(37:22):
are going to read the scene and then right after
whatever you want to give them. It's all on you last, Okay,
So you guys ready, okay and action interior Hector's bedroom night.
Hector pages back and forth in front of the bed.
(37:45):
Please man, give me an a minute thing. She strugs
it off. Hi, am right, you know what what is
your problem? Hector? You didn't have a problem before the
sandres just a manute. I said, it's right, it's a right,
(38:11):
you know, like I just can't do it? Are you
kidding me? A man Onemorrows mean, I actor, you know what?
What the hell is your problem? Hector? Just a minute
ago you were telling me I was your little sweet
cinema swirld choodo honey bumbasa kept hm ah, thank you
(38:38):
still my little cinnamas sworld honey bun. Sorry, I just
feel terrible. Dot m a t man you know, I
mean its older brother. He would up to me, I
hector and please, Pop, what is it that you think
(38:59):
of one that is so bad? She takes a minute,
then gives him the look. No it, don't even look
at me like that. I hacked them. Please just help me.
It'll be quick, Poppy. We'll do one time and if
it doesn't work, we'll stop one time. That's it, that's it,
(39:25):
just one time. He hesitates, but finally gives in for her.
Finn I but fact, okay, then okay. She places the
phone up to head to his face. Approved, I'm blocked down.
What was that a little? Please heck them in me alone,
(39:50):
save me a minute. She walks off with her face
glued to Tito's phone. And see did you write this
land last? Lean writes a lot of Well, I would
say monster our scenes now, so I'm gonna give it
to you. Yeah, I mean I think that you both
(40:13):
did a great, great job, especially under the circumstances. It's
tough to break the this fourth wall. And in this
format of zoom, you're not just looking at your other performer.
You're also looking at me, You're looking at trades, you're
looking at everybody else, and it can be distracting. And
I felt like you both held your composure. We're focused,
(40:35):
We're concentrated on what was going on. I like Leon's timing.
You know, you took your time. I like that you
you took that moment to like allow the Sometimes the
pauses are funny as hell, like that, it's not what
you're doing, it's what you're not doing that makes this
ship funny, Like you changed it so like in in
the second tape when Marlon came back, there was one
(40:59):
line where you like gave an extra pregnant pause that
gave us the audience a moment to laugh even more,
like what she's about to say next. You know, timing is,
especially with comedy, timing is so important, you know, and
with Marlon, you know, in this case, who was playing
the straight man in this scene. It was good because
(41:20):
you could relate to you know, his frustration sometimes force
the other actor to work a little bit. You know
what I'm saying, Like, if you're gonna give in make
her work for it, you know, like this kind of
like how Leanne used timing and pauses. Throw a pause
in there too, just to really make or sweat a
(41:42):
little bit. Because again, in this format, it's hard because
the person who's talking is the only person you see.
But because acting as a team sport, the person who's
reacting to you has a chance to do funny ship,
you know. So I get cast a lot as straight
man Marlon and I get cast opposite you know, funny,
(42:04):
funny people, whether that be men or women. And you know,
even in my show The Boys right now, my character
is always flustered. He's always trying to keep these people sane,
and the more sane I am, the more insane it
allows them to become. Sometimes when you can just pause
(42:24):
and just look at them mofucker, like like if she serious,
it gives her a chance in her quiet reactions to
do some funny ship. And at the end of the day,
you know, you're both getting the laugh, you know what
I'm saying. You know, our businesses sharing the ball, you know,
and sometimes you can make a scene even better when
(42:47):
you share that moment where it's really your line. But
by taking a moment that just like you know, just
take your time with it. It allows other ship to
happen and you both get and you're both going to score.
You know, you're both gonna get the point because as
long as people laugh, you got the point. So I
would say the scene was great. You both did great.
(43:10):
And just because I feel like I have to give
some some type of constructive criticism, I would saying try
doing it different ways, playing with the timing and playing
with pauses, finding where where is the right place to
put that pause? That's gonna get you that that audience laugh,
great stuff, yay pause. Thank you very well. I just
(43:33):
want to thank you once again last for sharing your wisdom,
your pearls, your journey, your truth and your voice. And
I know that all of these spirit Act alumni, including
our listeners, have benefited off of this amazing interview. So
thank you so much for your time. Man. Thank you,
(43:56):
have a great day. You got a same here sending
a safety to New York. At least they say so.
We will be back with Give Love on the Spirited
Actor Podcast with me Tracymour And now it's time for
Give Love. When my son Miles got hit by a car.
(44:16):
It took a village to pray over him, to support
him through his recovery. And one of the things that
I remember the most, I have a friend who actually
was on this show. His name is John Laster, and
he's a comedian and John was one of the first
(44:37):
people to show up at the hospital. For me. It
was like midnight when we were at the hospital and
John was coming home from Philadelphia from a show, and
so when I called him, he said, I'm coming straight
to the hospital. John came to the hospital, but not
only did he come to support me, he came with food.
And the way that John laid it out, it was
(45:00):
like craft service. And I still remember how challenging it
was to be happy or laugh during that time. But
when John came and he took the time to organize
the snacks, and then another friend of mine came and
(45:21):
bought dinner, someone else bought water, people had prayer books,
and another friend of mine gave me a necklace. It
takes a village. It takes a village when you realize
the people that you have in your life that are
there to support you throughout anything, and they're they're unconditionally.
(45:45):
That is your wealth. Your wealth is in the love
and the support that people give you during that time
and need. So actors your journey. If your parents support you,
if your significant other supports you, that's all you need
(46:09):
within your village. You have the support within your village.
You have the love within your village. You have the
capacity to make your dreams come true. Thank you for
joining us on the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore.
I look forward to our next Spirited podcast. Thank you,
Popular Podcasts
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.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.