August 2, 2024 • 65 mins
Actor Edwin Lee Gibson, renowned for his role on FX's hit series "The Bear," shares his unorthodox yet authentic approach to acting. Edwin recounts his childhood in Houston to his formative years in New York theater. Relive the heartwarming and serendipitous reunions on the set of "The Bear," and hear Edwin's insights into the show's success, marked by multiple Emmy nods. Gain a deeper understanding of his character, Ibrahim, and the multifaceted persona Edwin masterfully brings to the screen.
We also discuss the challenges Black actors face in Hollywood & shed light on the persistence of stereotypes and the importance of maintaining artistic integrity. We highlight his acclaimed portrayals, from Dick Gregory to roles in "Fargo" with Chris Rock, and celebrate the contributions of legendary African-American actresses. This episode is a treasure trove of personal anecdotes, professional wisdom, and crucial conversations on representation and storytelling in Hollywood.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brothers and sisters, why don't you?
It's one mic, it's one mic,it's one mic.
Give me a moment with yourfriend.
I've never been up to mythoughts before.
Welcome to the only one micpodcast Called Gerard Rodden
(00:25):
Solo, but not really solo,because I got somebody here that
you guys are really, really,really going to appreciate.
If you watch this show the Bearon FX, hulu and Disney Plus, we
got Mr Edwin Lee Gibson.
How you doing, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Super duper, super duper.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I'm doing well.
I'm doing well, brother, beenwaiting for this conversation
for, you know, a little bit of afew days now.
Hopefully, you know, get you onand discuss this little project
you have called the Bear man.
Listen, I'm going to tell youmy bear story.
Okay, I was home one day Kidyou not?
And I hear everybody talkingabout the show the Bear, the
(01:06):
Bear, the Bear, all right.
So I said let me check this out.
And so I, you know, pulled itup on one of my little streaming
services here and I said, allright, sitting in, watching it,
watching it.
And then I'm like this startedgetting kind of interesting.
You know what?
I being like a bag of chips man, I just kept going to the next
episode, next episode, nextthing I know I'm in the kitchen
cooking man.
So I'm like the show reallycaptures, I guess, the the, the
(01:32):
essence of working in arestaurant, all the things that
go.
I'll be honest with you, Icouldn't do it.
I couldn't do it, you know.
I mean, it seems like it's sucha tense environment.
How did you study for that?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
oh shoot, I mean, I don't do a lot of research.
As an actor, my feeling isalways whatever's in the script
is what I need, but nothing canprepare you for what Christopher
created as a show.
So I didn't do any researchnecessarily no-transcript job.
(02:27):
You never did the whole waiterthing.
Well, well, well, I might.
It might have been like lessthan a week, but, uh, because
some cat snapped his fingers atme one day and said, uh, six
iced teas.
I still remember this and Ibrought him, and I don't know
how all six of them fell on hishead, I, when he got in my car
and I left, left.
That's the extent of my arrest.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well, listen on this show.
We keep it a buck, so I'm goingto take it that this gentleman
was a white gentleman.
Let's be honest, oh yeah, ohyeah because the snapping of the
fingers would have did it foranybody like that.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it wouldn't have mattered.
You know what hue he was, thatwould you know.
That same thing would havehappened.
But I would have given some.
I'd probably given the you knowthe brother I looked like.
Really, are you serious?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, yeah, like you're showing out right now,
right.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
First yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He just happened to be yeah, so.
So so a hue that that, yeah,that.
That that's just what happened.
So that's how he found thoset's on it I hear you man.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Hey listen, that's a bold move.
It's a bold move, you.
You got some grand fashion.
That's what a lot of peoplelike to do when he leaves and he
got a 78 uh 280z and drove offand that was it for me.
All, All right, so let's discussthis.
Like you know, we talked beforethe show started.
Like I told you, I normallyhave my research in front of me
(03:53):
and I can read the research.
I can tell people who you areand what you did and all that,
but you're here.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, and so I know that you'rea Houston native, that you grew
up in Houston.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Can you tell the audience what was it like
growing up in Houston and alsohow did that shape you into what
you're into now?
Yeah, Houston's not someplace Iwould live again, but it was a
wonderful, wonderful place togrow up Group neighborhood
called South Park, home ofChopped and Screwed.
Oh, okay, yeah yeah, no doubtRobert Earl Jenkins rest in
(04:35):
peace of.
Dj Screwed Went to SterlingHigh School.
My mom was classically trainedin voice and so my first
memories of a performance weresinging with her in church.
Dad was a garbage man.
Mom worked at the post officein the welfare department.
It was cool.
(04:55):
You know, my older brother, myyounger cousin, lived with us
for about 10 years, so I was theyoungest but I was the middle
so but yeah, yeah, it was, itwas, it was cool.
A great place to grow up.
Man, um, uh, houston's nothing.
Well, it's very different than,uh, a lot of texas then and I
suspect now, uh, so it wasreally kind of, you know,
(05:18):
cosmopolitan place.
Um stopped singing when I was.
I was one of the top choralsingers when I was a kid in the
state and I auditioned for theNational All-Boards Choir.
I made it, but I wasn't 12 yet.
Oh wow, I was so upset Istopped singing.
My mother was kind of upsetabout that and so I found acting
shortly after.
So I took it seriously when Iwas 14 and started working when
(05:42):
I was 16.
Started working, uh, when I was16, and I've been.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
I'd like to say I've received at least one paycheck
as an actor since I was 16 yearsold, okay, and, and I looked at
you, know your resume andeverything and, of course, like
I said, the big thing right nowis you know the bear that you're
on, but your acting resume islong as train smoke man, you
know and not and I'll say thisnot to insult at all, but you've
been acting just about as longas I've been alive it's like
(06:10):
over 40 something years, right,43, 43.
Okay.
So, yeah, do you cover movies,television and theater?
So how many productions, Iwould say between movies,
television and theater have youbeen?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
in the theater I'm at 104 right now since 1981.
And I've done those productionshere in the States and in the
UK.
France, where I lived in Parisfor a couple of years, worked
for a theater company and soit's even so funny that people
(06:45):
can't tell where I'm from.
Some people think I have thisfunny accent.
Of course, when I go home toHouston folks are like you're
not from here anymore.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
You don't sound like I'm not going to lie to you,
when I first saw you in the beerI wouldn't have never thought
that you were from Houston.
You know what I mean.
You played that whole thing sowell.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a great thing, I always
love to hear that.
But yeah, and then I did TV andfilm work here and there, but
then really kind of dove into it.
I guess maybe 2003, 2004.
You know, and I don't know howmany films I've done or TV shows
(07:32):
, I'd say cumulative, it may beabout 50 total.
But yeah, but I come from thetheater and it just started to
grow.
You know, it's an evolution ofthe artist.
I like, I like, I like newchallenges and the screen
challenges me in a different wayright now, most so differently,
(07:56):
you know, than the theater.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
So if you had to make a choice, I mean and I probably
already know the answer to thisbut if you had to make a choice
between the three, you knowwhat would be the one that you
would gravitate towards more.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, it's really the two.
It's like screen or theater,all right.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Cause you have to keep your films.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I would take the immediacy of the theater with
the pay of the screen.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, I hear it, because when they say struggling
actor, they mean that Like youknow, like it's real hard.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, you know, it was never a struggle necessarily
in that way.
I mean, you know, starvingartists for me was like if I'm
not able to do it, I'm starving.
It's not what I don't have,it's just kind of how it feeds
me.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, you gotta feed what's in you.
You gotta nurture thatcreativity.
Okay, I hear you.
So what I wanted to also askyou too, in lines to your acting
, because, like I said, you dida phenomenal job on the show the
bear and you have a phenomenalcast that you're working with
that I see you know you can justname them down down the line.
(09:14):
Um, and I wanted to know, likewhen you sit back and you watch
it might be a scene that you'rein a scene that you're not in
whether you're watching them oryou're participating what did
you learn from any of thoseactors there?
If you have one specific,that's good, but if you learn
something from all of them,that's even better.
I got a two-part question whatdid you learn from them and what
(09:35):
do you think they might havelearned from you?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, I have no idea what they learned from me.
That'd be interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
What do you think they?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
might If anything.
I don't know, it's allsubjective, people get different
things.
But what I learned?
I think I learned a lot aboutthe process of a show like this,
because I've done othertelevision work and I don't
particularly of a show like this, because I've done other
(10:07):
television work and I don'tparticularly.
I don't know if I learned muchfrom them, except that it's
reinforced the joy that I havefor what I do.
You know, we all come to workready and we all we really all
dig each other, and so I thinkI've learned just how to
(10:38):
consistently revisit the joy ofbeing an artist and working, not
that it ever goes away from me,but around people that are also
that joyous and that are doingit just because it's a great
project and they look forward tocoming to work.
It kind of like says yeah, youknow what, um, don't get, you
know, don't get so, uh in yourhead about whether things are
(11:04):
working.
Just stay with the process.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, which is kind of what I'm always trying to do
anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, it's kind of like you.
It's like coaching each otherperhaps.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Well, well, you know, yeah, I mean there are times
you learn.
You learn the game by sittingon the bench Right so I can show
up on days I'm not called and Ido.
I show up on days that I'm notcalled to set and I just watch.
You know, there's alwayssomething to learn.
(11:35):
I'm a student always.
Even after all this time, I'mstill learning.
I'm still the six year old inmy head.
And then you know, andsometimes when, when you're in
the game and you've been, youknow, kgo vet, then hopefully
the Amar rookies, the Amarsecondary players are learning
from you as well.
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
So, like I know watching this latest season here
, that it was an episode thatreally stood out and it
basically was going back andtelling the backstory of lisa.
it was elisa cologne, thischaracter liza liza I'm sorry
about that, beckoning yourpartner liza and um, how she
ended up at the bear and all andthe scene that she had with,
(12:18):
like john bernthal man likebernthal to me is like a
presence on the screen, like nomatter matter what he's doing, a
punisher or he's doing whatever, like he's always doing his
thing.
So I want to say shout out tohim, man, because even though
his interview show is off thehook too, I really enjoyed that
(12:38):
man Like just sitting down, justlike they seem like they put so
much effort into thatparticular episode, not just
that scene, like the way that ittold the story of how she was
struggling and everything andshe really put her foot in that
particular thing.
What was your thoughts on thatwhen you actually saw it?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Well, we know, liza and I have known each other for
30 years.
We worked in the theater in NewYork together.
I don't know if your folks knowthat I lived in New York for 15
years.
Oh okay, and so Liza and I, andyou saw the cat that played her
husband, yeah, yeah, he's areal husband.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
That's her husband.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's David.
So all of us have workedtogether in the theater.
Actually, we're so tight thatwhen I was going through a hard
time in my first marriage, um, Istayed at their place.
Oh okay, we were all doing ashow together.
So that's how, that's how coolwe I mean eliza and I didn't
even know each other was on theshow.
(13:36):
We just showed up the firstseason.
We didn't know that the otherwas on the show, because I
hadn't seen her in about 10years.
Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, so, so,so she and I pick up where we
left off.
You know what you see withibrahim and tina.
A lot of that chemistry is justthe chemistry lies, and I have
had over the decades workingtogether and how we are.
(13:57):
I mean, you know we're alwayssparring anyway, uh, off off
screen, so that's but, but yeah,it was a good scene and it was
a great episode directed by Io,who plays Sydney.
Yeah, so, yeah, really reallygreat time.
It was my, that was my firsttime meeting John, a nice, nice
(14:19):
cat, and we had a chance to chopit up about, about acting and
things like that, and, yeah,really really good to see.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, and you know, was that her first directing On
our show On our show.
Okay, so she's done otherthings outside of that.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I'm not sure.
I don't see how she hasn't.
She's such a, you know,talented kid.
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure she's donesome other things.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, you know, talented kid, yeah, yeah, I'm
sure she's done some otherthings, yeah, okay.
So what was it like when yougot the call for the bear was?
Did you, did you know that thiswas going to be something?
That was going to be like a hitor?
Was it sad, I just thought itwould be another job and we just
see what happens.
What's your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I wasn't going to read for it no wow, um, I have
this thing about how we're seenon screen as brown screen folks,
right, and so I thought itwould be a bit of a trope.
But then I had to think aboutwho I am and that tropes only
exist.
Tropes exist only in as much asthe actor allows it.
(15:19):
So if I allowed it to besomething, it would be that.
And so my my manager was likeno man.
He one of the rare momentshe'll call me up and say you
need to rethink this.
Uh, and so, um, I read for it,sent it in as a monologue
because I didn't have a a orreader, and so, um, then it
turned out that Christopher, thecreator of the show, said that
(15:41):
he had seen me in the theater inChicago five years before and
said he always wanted to workwith me.
So, um, and you know, and I gotthe call, uh, well, we had, we
did a zoom, and I had a feeling,over the zoom with him and the
casting director, uh, um,jeannie Baccarat, that it was
gonna, it was, it was gonna beokay, and, and I was in Tucson,
(16:06):
arizona, just chilling because Ilove Tucson, and that's where I
read for it and that's where Igot the job and we went to work
on it and we didn't anticipateit, we were just all working
together.
We all got on very, very well,like that, the entire cast, like
(16:29):
that, uh, the entire cast, andso we got on very well.
And, um, just making you knowwhat I call the little engine,
that could you know?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so how was it when um you
won the you know multiple emmyawards?
You know um multiple awards,different, different awards in
different areas, but I was theEmmy like the biggest thing that
you can possibly win fortelevision.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yes, the biggest thing individually for me, of
course, was the SAG award thatour cast won for Best Ensemble.
But yeah, nominated for 13Emmys received 10.
That was for our firstnominated for 13 Emmys received
10.
Nice, and that was for ourfirst season, and our second
(17:11):
season received 23 nominations,which is the most any comedy has
ever received in one season.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah.
So it's just, you know, kudosto Christopher and to Joanna
Carlo, who's the co-showrunner,and the folks at FX and Hulu.
And it was really funny because, you know, the people at Hulu
and FX said that what they likedmost about my audition was that
(17:42):
I was the only person thatdidn't try to make Ibrahim funny
and I was like, yeah, I mean,you know, this is some, this is
some real serious kind of traumathat this cat's had, you know,
and so it's not funny, I mean,but then you can find the comedy
, and the way he delivers thealive is funny, but it ain't
(18:04):
funny.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So I'm glad you opened that door up because for
those that didn't see, you know,and if you haven't checked out,
the bear on FX, um, hulu,disney, even it's on Disney plus
, even if you have that package,um, tell them about your
character, uh, tell them, givethem a little bit of back about
your, your character well, youknow, oh he's.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
He was described as a mystery that's lived a thousand
lives.
That's all I had to go on wasjust that sentence right, which
I felt was like so great, somuch space there for for what I
do.
I want to keep him silent, butkeep him waited, if that makes
(18:43):
any sense.
But he's, uh, an immigrant from, uh, east africa a lot of
people say somalia, because hetold the story of the battle of
mogadishu and because he madechicken, uh, sugar, um, uh.
But you know there arecountless instances of people
from other countries migratingto other countries and then
(19:05):
fighting in those armies.
So I think he is from EastAfrica, tanzania, kenya, somalia
, you know whatever that is.
But yeah, he's a cat who foundhis way all the way here to the
States and then to Chicago, noless on his own way, all the way
(19:28):
here to the states and then tochicago, no less on his own.
And um started at the beef andhas his own issue about change
and where that's rooted, and Ithink it's really rooted in some
trauma for him.
Uh, it's trauma that we haven'texplored yet on the show, but I
think people that are watchingare getting a sense of they're
(19:51):
getting a sense that there'ssomething there and they want to
find out a bit more aboutIbrahim.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
It's funny you mention that, because that was
going to be one of my questionsfor you.
Do you think that he will havehis own episode that kind of
explores his background as well?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I look forward to it.
Um, you know it's a half hourpiece.
Um, this, you know, uh, and youknow it's, it's not my show,
it's not my character show.
Uh, you can just kind of doyour job at what one of the
things I've tried to do is to.
One of the things I've tried todo is to pique the audience's
(20:25):
curiosity based on the choices Imake as an actor, based on this
framework that's been created.
So I think that's why peopleare really asking he doesn't
want to change, he doesn't wantto wear a uniform.
Why is that?
What is this about?
And so, yeah, I'm confidentthat they've got something in
(20:50):
the um uh, the um uh in themachine, if you will.
Uh, I hope so, because I, yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah, um, I love
him so much, this character, andso you want to take care of the
character and you want him tobe known in his fullness, not to
(21:30):
lift me as an actor, but tojust kind of give some more
backstory to this character.
And I think in some ways ithelps Christopher and Joanna not
have to do very much becausethey know what I do, right, what
I'm doing for the character.
So, yeah, we'll see.
We'll see when people come upto me, I would say well, you
know, write to your localcongressman.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So FX and everybody, if you're listening, get this
man, just do it.
Do you think you see yourselfdirecting any of these
particular episodes?
I mean, do you direct?
A lot of things, or do you not?
I direct it in.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
You direct a lot of things or do you not film I
direct it in the theater a bit.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Well, I know you did theater, but like
television-wise?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, yeah, but on a note.
Well, it's actually interesting.
You ask that question becauselater this year I'm going to be
co-directing a 35-minute filmthat I wrote.
Oh, okay, yeah, so I'm going tobe directing that we're going
(22:31):
to be shooting in.
Looks like it's going to be inArizona, arizona, okay, yeah, so
I'm.
You know, oftentimes peoplewait I've never been someone
that waits Hustler so I'vewritten, I'm a writer, and I was
working with the Sony TVwriters program, one of the 10
(22:56):
writers that they chose in thiswriting program, and so I've
amassed this work that I'vewritten.
And so I said, well, in my offtime, let me go and shoot
something and show that I canproduce something and show that
I can direct.
And I have a, I have a smallpart as an actor in it.
(23:16):
It's not a huge role, it's asignificant role, but it's not a
huge role, and and that's onpurpose, as a matter of fact,
russell is going to be in.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yeah, yeah, shout out to Russell, everybody, russell,
yeah, talk about something thatkeeps it real.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yeah, yeah, and so, so, yeah.
So I'm going to be directingand no, no, better, no better
way than to say here's mycalling card that show.
So I'm going to put my money upunder the little that I have
and go make something.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Well, I just want to extend this you know to you that
once you do it, you know youare more than welcome to come
back on and discuss it you know.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, the floor is open, Chris.
No, reach out.
We can make that happen.
So, pivoting away from the beerbecause we have so many things
to talk about.
I do have one last questionabout that, though, Brother what
do you do with all thosetrophies, man?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
What do you do with them?
Well, we'll see.
The only one I have is the SAGAwards.
Because the actors get the SAGAwards, oh, we don't get the
Emmy, the SAG Awards.
Because the actors get the SAGAwards, oh, we don't get the
Emmy, we don't.
You know, that's for theproducers and writers and the
individual actors.
But I've got.
I think it's been a reallyinteresting year.
I think I've amassed like sixdifferent awards.
(24:45):
I was given a really, reallyspecial one from Texas Southern
University.
I went to school it's the firstever kind of award they've
given achievement in acting, andI was very pleased with that.
Art Simerson in Boston gave mea career theater achievement
(25:06):
award in October.
And then there's been a coupleof other ones from, you know,
the Television CriticsAssociation, which we got as a
cast, but we got the individualkind of plaques or whatever.
So yeah, it's been interesting.
I've got them on my, my messydesk in here you can hold them
on your desk.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I can barely hold pencils on mine, no it holds it.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It's just all the other crap that's on it that
I've I've been told to clean off, but I haven't really gotten
around to it.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
You'll get to it.
You'll get to it.
So listen.
You also worked on fargo yes umwith chris rock during that
particular run there, and howwas that?
Like working with chris.
What was?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
that nice, nice, nice cat.
Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, he gave mea nickname.
Uh, he calls me a tough actingconnecting uh.
Oh yeah, I played the lastcharacter, the last villain to
(26:08):
come on the show.
I don't know if you saw theseries or not, but Happy
Holloway is his name.
Lionel Happy Holloway is hisname and yeah, that was cool.
A lot of people wanted to seethe character more and again,
(26:29):
that's cool, you come in, you dothe job and that's what people.
That's cool, you know it's it's.
You know you, you come in, youdo the job and that's what
people are supposed to want.
You know.
You know this is this issupposed to want more, but it
was.
It was great working with Chris.
We got to talk a lot, you know,talk a lot about Prince, cause
he loved him, and so did I havegreat love for him as well, you
know, and they were very goodfriends.
(26:50):
So, yeah, it was cool.
That whole time was very dope.
I think it was one of the firstthings I did when I got.
Maybe that was the second thingI did.
I played Dick Gregory in a soloplay when I first got back.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
You played Brother Dick Ha.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I got back to the States in 2018 at Arena Stage in
DC, and then after that, Ithink that's when I was in
Boston doing a play and then gotthe Fargo gig, and it was
during COVID.
So things changed and they hadto move everything from March
all the way to August.
(27:30):
So, yeah, we got around togetting it done, but it was a
good time.
Noah Hawley, the creator of theanthology series for Fargo and
working with Chris and JasonSchwartzman and Glenn Terman Mr
Terman wasn't there.
His character had already beenkilled off by the time I got
there, so I was kind of salty.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
But I got to meet him last year.
You got to meet him.
So I want to circle back,because you played Dick Gregory
man Wow In a one-man show, yeah.
And so what was that like?
Did you ever get to meet DickGregory at all prior?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
to this, never got to meet Baba.
Yeah, never got to meet Baba.
Found out about him in reverse,though.
You know I found out about himwhen I was a kid because you
know there was the Dick Gregory,like you know, diet.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, the Bohemian diet yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, the Bohemian diet.
And so I found out about thatand then started learning about
him as an activist and then ahumorist, an activist and then a
humorist.
I call him a humorist even moreso than a comedian, because he
was already doing that and henever stopped doing that.
Even his activism, you know,was.
You know he was such a greatframer of arguments using humor.
(28:52):
And so, yeah, I got a phone callwhile I was in, while I was in
paris, and um was asked you knowwhere I was in the world,
because people never know whereI am asked if I knew about this
show.
And I was like no, I don't knowabout it.
And I got offered the job overthe phone.
And so, yeah, we came back andwe knocked that out in a 500
seat theater and did, like Ithink I did 48 shows, yeah.
(29:20):
So that was that was I turneddown six or seven episodes of
the second season of the Chi.
I was offered, I was offeredrecurring on the Chi and I was
like I got that or I can go playDick Gregory for a lot less
money.
And I wanted to play DickGregory for a lot less money.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
It was nice money, but it was a lot less it was a
lot less what you would get onthe shot, of course yeah, but
you know it's my art.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You know I'm an artist, so you know it's so
important you gotta make.
When am I gonna get to do thatagain?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
exactly, and I mean we can always discuss that in
terms of a biopic that they youknow for Dick Gregory.
Because when I was watching youknow I was looking at doing my
research I should say and I didsee you, you know the whole suit
on the stage and I said, youknow, this brother do kind of
resemble Dick Gregory, so likemaybe that's where they're going
with it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
So like maybe, who knows, later on down the line,
yeah, I think Christian Gregory,who's Dick Gregory's son and
was managing the affairs.
I think he and Kevin Hart wereworking on something.
I haven't heard much about it,I mean not involving me, but
(30:32):
they were working on somethingmaybe a couple of years ago and,
um, hopefully it gets.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
It gets done, uh, because you know I just love, uh
, you know, baba gregory so muchyeah, yeah, you know what edwin
is one thing to get it done,but it better be done, right,
you know?
Yeah, exactly, that's all rightthat's not.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, you know what that's what that's.
What I mean really is like yeah, well, we, we do things
oftentimes, but are we doingthem?
Speaker 1 (30:54):
yeah, it's a little.
They undercut a lot of these,these biopics, and especially at
these like if I could use theterm, legendary figures.
Um omit so much stuff out of itthat it's like you know these
guys lives.
You can make a series out of ityou know it's hard, it's hard
to kind of.
My brother and I were discussingthe bob marley movie and I said
(31:16):
, you know, I've been trying toget around and watch it.
I know it's out now and I said,well, I'm gonna sit down and
watch it.
But he already did and I said,man, you know, when you're
watching these I'm a person Ilook at and then go to the
documentary and see what wasleft out.
And so he was saying, withinthat particular film there was
so much stuff that you know,this man's life was so broad
(31:37):
that you probably couldn'tcapture it in a two-hour movie
or something like that, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
And I said, some things just needs to be a series
yeah, yeah, yeah, because itdoesn't it, it loses, it loses
context, sometimes with a, witha movie yeah, yeah, like I give
an example like when they didthe Griselda thing for Netflix,
and I'm like this could havebeen a whole series.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
It was so much of that woman's life that was
omitted.
You know what I mean, for thesake of those films and all.
So I always look at that when Iwatch these biopics.
I look at it as the rabbit hole, because either I'm going to
read it or I'm going to watchthe documentary, you know, right
after that.
So I know you said earlier, inthis conversation too, about
tropes, ok and so and we hadthis discussion with Russell and
(32:24):
a few other people that mighthave came through the show that
saying you know you're craftingon and the tropes that you see
today, today, you know what, doyou see?
The?
Do you see a lot of thosetropes within for our people,
especially because I know, likeyou, have the integrity to say
I'm going to turn certain thingsdown if it's not beneficial or
making my people look a certainway?
(32:45):
You know, and do you, do yousee that a lot within hollywood
that they're more offering youthis role than they are that
role?
That's something that's notgoing to be beneficial.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
I've been fortunate.
You know I've been fortunate tosay no to a lot of things, a
lot of people.
But I was saying no to thingsin my 20s.
You know when people are reallyjust trying to get on and do
something.
You know like people.
You know when people are reallyjust trying to get on and you
want to do something.
You know like people.
I was always known as a a comicactor early in my career and I
(33:19):
stopped taking comedic rolesbecause no one would take me
seriously as a dramatic actor.
Right, of course, other peoplewould say you were a comic act
yeah, I know you understand thattoo.
You left that part out too.
There you go.
But nice research.
I love that, and so I thinkagain.
Tropes exist only in as much asthe artist allows them.
(33:44):
Someone can bring something tome.
I have to think about turningthings on their ear before I
turn them down.
Right, I played a prisoner ondeath row about to be executed
in a piece that I wrote FiveTill was the name of it, but you
(34:06):
can take that, which is not atrope, because there's a lot of
people that are on death row inprisons and there are more of
other people than there are us,so there are more of them, you
know, in jail and well, you knowwe just let other people filter
that kind of crap in our earsthat it's us.
(34:27):
But I wanted to look at thischaracter's life and how they
and a lot of people look at acharacter's life and say, oh,
this informed those choices.
But what I did was I had himcome from a two-parent household
, had him come from ahardworking household, loving
(34:49):
parents.
He just decided he wanted to dothis, you know.
So now I'm taking that tropeand I'm turning it on its ear.
It doesn't mean he did thiscrime, it just means that he
went down the road and my dadused to always say you can do a
(35:09):
whole lot of things, you won'tget caught, but then you might
do that one little thing and allthat other stuff you did all
them years.
You know it'll come back, it'llbite you right.
So I use that as part of thecatalyst for what some people
might see as a trope.
You know, brown, brown skin,man in prison, but yeah, so, so.
(35:33):
So people, I think sometimespeople need the money and that's
where it comes in.
You know you need it.
And then you have people thatare not telling our stories or
not writing, and I think youknow, even if we are producing
stuff, we're still producingtropes.
You know we do it to ourselvesand then that kind of becomes
(35:56):
what people think, not whatother people think of themselves
, but what people, but whatthose people begin to kind of
think of themselves.
So I do a lot of different roles.
None of those roles that you'veseen was I even wearing makeup,
right, right, you know, as anartist, you know what can I do
(36:20):
without all that stuff.
I played Dick Gregory in thesethree stages of his life and
didn't put any makeup on.
You just do it.
But I digress.
I think when you have to dothings for the money, then
you'll allow people to put youin positions and I think it goes
to us producing the work andbeing open to letting other
(36:46):
people telling different storiesabout us rise and see that it's
not going to undercut you,because we have such a diverse
palette as consumers.
Why wouldn't people think wehave a diverse palette as to
what we want to see, how we wantto see ourselves?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yeah, and I'm glad that you mentioned that, because
I mean and you're in thebusiness, so probably know
deeper than I would tyler perryright now is going through that
particular controversy with hislatest movie and it's getting to
the point where when we talkabout tropes, I mean it's not to
, you know, get on here and bashthis guy, but it's just more or
less like when you I'm usinghim as an example because he's
(37:30):
not the only one that's doingthis but it's like when you see
these particular films, it's thesame film over and over and,
over and over again and this ismade by someone that's us.
It's not, if I can understand it, with somebody outside of us
making these type of films, butit's like it's coming from
inside the living room.
Now.
So you know when he does, whenhe, when he does these movies
(37:55):
and he gets the criticism thathe gets.
You know, I, I personally thinkthat it's justified.
That's, this is just yourpeople telling you step your
game up.
If you're making every moviewhere it seems like the, the
black man is the villain from ablack man's perspective, you
know, I mean like, how do you,how do you justify that?
I mean, the story is the samething, what do you think?
(38:15):
about that particular situation.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Oh, I've never seen myself as a victim.
I've never seen anyone assuperior to me.
So the idea of white supremacyis a non-starter for me.
No one's superior to me.
So you can talk that hot shitall you want, and that includes
us.
You know we use it for monetarygain a lot.
But tropes exist among otherpeople as well.
(38:39):
You know the whole goofy fratguy, the um, uh, the um, a
blonde with the, the big breastshanging out, well, you know, I
mean.
So there are tropes that exista lot.
But we're talking about, about,about fam here.
So so, um, um, I think peoplewrite formulaic stuff.
It all, it all, it's in aformula, and people write what
(38:59):
people watch.
You know, and I'm not anentertainer, this is beyond
entertainment for me, way beyondentertainment for me.
But if you're in entertainmentand you're writing entertainment
, then you're writing things.
You've got these cutouts of whothese people are and where you
place them and how.
They're still the same kinds ofthings.
I'm a, you know, I'm a.
(39:19):
As artists, we all miss themark.
But when you don't have people,other ideas coming in which I
think is the criticism thatpeople have about my brother
Tyler Perry then you're going tojust continue to regurgitate
(39:42):
these things and try to say thema different way.
Yeah, I watched the last uh,this last joint with them.
I'm making good yeah yeah, and Ithink you know there's always a
great opportunity to dosomething that you haven't done
before.
And, um, you know, people see,people use criticism and, uh,
(40:06):
critique kind of of in the sameway, but they're two very
different things, you know.
You know, I think a critique isvery objective.
You know, criticism can becoming from any place, but a
critique is usually just a30,000 foot view, let's say, of
kind of what you see and whatthe issue is on a broader scale.
(40:28):
So I didn't really care for thepiece.
I can't knock the hustle.
Oh, yes, I can knock the hustle, you know, especially when it's
especially when we we watch somany different things.
You know, we watch all thesedifferent movies that don't have
(40:52):
us in them, and so why do wethink we should produce things
that are only this thing?
But there are loads of mobmovies that don't involve us,
but then there are loads of usthat want to be mobsters.
That looks like that.
I mean, you know, scarface was,wasn't he a Peruvian?
(41:19):
And he was dark.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Yeah, something like that yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Something, but he was dark.
I mean, he didn't look like AlPacino.
But you couldn't tell us thatbecause we didn't do the
research.
But when it's entertainment,the audience is just looking for
some respite from reality.
I just want to sit back andwatch something and laugh at it
(41:43):
and then we start laughing atourselves.
The thing about this is that,you know, we start telling jokes
and the joke is funny until westep out of it and other people
start laughing.
It's like whoa, wait a minute.
So we might want to rethink howwe're doing it so that we can.
(42:04):
You know, our agenda can be insome instances, the same as
other people's, like, you know,scary Movie I really love, and
Scary Movie was, you know, thisgreat, great kind of parody of
this other genre of films and so, like things like that.
You know we do.
I mean, we're very, very.
You know creative people.
(42:25):
I'm going to go to the.
You know we, we do.
I mean we're very, very.
You know creative people.
I'm going to go to the.
You know director's guild ofAmerica function Saturday and
it's a tribute to RobertThompson, right, right, and
which a lot of people don't give.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Robert is his, his just do you know what I?
Speaker 2 (42:39):
mean, yeah, and he was on the bear, you know he
played.
Yeah, he uh sydney's father andso he's like my job yeah, yeah,
you know I'm uh.
He got the chat and I told himhow much I felt like hollywood
shuffle was a love letter, uh,to other brown-skinned artists,
and he's kind of looked at meand I was like, yeah, man, it
(43:00):
was a lot.
I mean, it helped me navigatethe next 20 years of my life so
that I wouldn't get locked inthese things.
But those dollars, people getthat mixed up with being, with
being in some way someone, thatthat that other people can, can,
(43:22):
can, can look to you know, oh,but you're only looking to them
or you're only feeling likeyou're able to be looked to
because you have this or that,not because of who you are.
So I think there's a balance ofthat that needs to happen.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Yeah, you said something interesting about not
giving other people like thatthat chance I'm paraphrasing but
not giving people that thatchance to kind of be creative,
and then we get the same.
You know movies over and over,again and again.
I use I use him as an example.
Um, he has this big studio andthis is kind of the the, the
(44:04):
conversations that I have with alot of people offline in that
regard.
I'm like, well, he has this bigstudio.
I'm like you, you can't.
You can knock the hustle, butyou can't knock the hustle and
that's what it is.
You can knock it.
To exist in hollywood and not bein hollywood is a is a big
thing, it's a big accomplishment.
So when you have these bigstudios and things like that and
(44:25):
I think he said, like he's theonly one, he is the writer's
room, if I'm quoting thiscorrectly like he's the one that
that writes these movies andyou have to recognize when your
ideas get a little bit stale andwhen it, when it, when it gets
to the point where the critiqueisn't coming from within, where
the people are starting to saynow like, hey, listen, we're
(44:45):
tired of this.
You know, we're tired of thisparticular thing that you're
putting out.
I was always of the mind of whywould you just be the writer's
room when there's so much talentout there that can actually
help broaden what you have?
You know what you put down andI thought that was the whole
purpose of this.
It it's like, you know, youhelp me come up, then you help
(45:08):
the next person come up.
You know we all have differentideas and stories to tell.
What is your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Well, I mean, you know on our show on the bear.
You know, christopher directsand he writes most of the show,
so I don't have any issue withone artist being able to do that
.
There are, you know, forget thesister's name with a black lady
(45:40):
sketch comedy show, issa Ray.
No well, issa, I don't know thesister uh who created forget
her name.
Uh, light-skinned sister, um, Imet her at the mb's.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
Really, really, really cool, was it robin mead,
is it?
Speaker 2 (45:57):
yes, yes, yes yes, yes, robin mead, you know she,
she did all that.
You know, um, kinta Brunson mayhave a writer's room, you know,
but she created AbbottElementary, you know.
So it can be done.
It's about what it's.
(46:19):
I think it's interesting thathe didn't amass this studio on
his own right.
He had, he had, he had a dealthat he got and was given some
monies and he said I'm going to,I'm going to use this with this
money.
You did a great thing buildingthe studio.
Well, I think sometimes peopleare given things and the idea is
(46:42):
that there's got to be a returnon the investment right
fastestest return on theinvestment is the, or at least
the perceived, is theregurgitating of these same
kinds of things.
Um, but the things we do see, wecan.
(47:05):
We can challenge those things,and um wish that if he's alone
doing this, that's not the issue.
It's what you know.
It's not the issue for me.
Uh, it's the uh product thatcomes out of it.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Exactly Because, like those people that you named,
even on your show they'refocusing on one particular show.
You know what I mean.
On your show, they're focusingon one particular show, you know
I mean.
So it's like they're focusingon these characters that I
created and I know how I canmaneuver these particular
characters for this oneparticular series.
But yes you know they're notcranking out different movies.
You know it's a difference when, even with a series I mean to
his credit when you look atstuff like house of pain and
(47:38):
things like that, they follow acertain thing and that's good
for the series.
I mean it's good for the seriesbut it's like if I, if I'm once
I turn on that show, I knowwhat I'm getting.
You know I mean right, but withmovies I guess we expect more
of a variety spike lee, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
So I mean, you know, there's an example yeah, that's
antithetical like he wrote thesemovies.
Um, he had a certain take onlife, life in Brooklyn, life in
New York, life amongst us.
So, yeah, so you can do it.
(48:16):
You can do it as a screenwriter.
You know, it's just about whatyou think is going to make you
money, or what you want to push,or or or in some, in some
instances, of who you hateplease touch on that, brother,
what you mean about that, whoyou?
hate who you mad at, you know.
I mean like you know, because Imean you know you write.
(48:39):
A lot of people write theirlife, you know, or they write
instances that have happened tothem.
I'm not saying that's what'shappened with Tyler Perry
because I don't know him.
I mean I haven't seen him since1984.
I met him a long, long time ago, right.
But yeah, you know, people dothat and so that becomes their
(49:03):
choice.
And then you know, you, whyit's not, why is other stuff not
getting produced?
But I really think we've got totake the bull by the horns and,
uh, produce things and notthink everything has got to be a
hundred million dollar seller.
You know, you know, I think ouragenda is brown skin artists of
(49:24):
african descent um, we have,you know.
You know, I think our agenda isbrown skin artists of african
descent um, we have, you know,we've got a different thing.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
You know we we got to do here yeah, and I and I
totally agree with you because,like these criticisms that we
have and and I do call themcriticisms because they need to
be critiqued and it doesn'tnecessarily mean just when we're
dealing with Hollywood, it'severy facet of entertainment.
We just, as you know, had theBET Awards and you see how even
(49:54):
our sisters are presented inthat, which is a choice to some
degree.
You know what I mean and how itwas presented.
And this is like every year.
It's the same thing, and itseems like it gets worse every
year.
And a lot of times when I lookat things like this and this is
just me personally I look at ourpeople and I think to myself,
like when are we going to wakeup?
When are we going to realizethat this is not the thing to do
(50:16):
?
And you know the images thatwe're putting out.
Like you said, you know youdon't want to have to say, well,
look, I'm trying to please acertain set of people, all right
.
Well, you know you got whitefolks or whoever.
They do some of the same things, but our thing is always going
to be a little bit more out infront, and so it's like the way
that you know.
I look at the sisters how theywere carrying themselves and the
(50:38):
way that they were doing athing you never seen.
And diane carroll on a redcarpet, you know, looking
ratchet.
You know when we came to events, you know you look at them old
Ebony magazines and Jetmagazines or even if you see
like old footage.
Our people always showed up tothese events sharp.
You know.
They always showed up classyand we got away from that, you
(51:00):
know.
And these kids now are makingmore money than most of these
people made back then that theynever even seen.
You know, and it kids now aremaking more money than most of
these people made back then thatthey never even seen.
You know, and it's like youdon't have to do these things.
So when we, when we get on here, we speak about these things,
it's only because it's not tosay but we, we dislike you know
our people, because that's notthe case.
But we love you enough to sayyo, look you got to straighten
(51:22):
up, you know I.
So I'm quite sure you see thattype of thing as well, you know.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yeah, I do, and I see myself as pretty much a classic
kind of cat.
Yeah, I agree, and from thespace between my ears to how I
dress, which I guess is not anydifferent dress, which I guess
(51:48):
is not any different, um, but,but, uh, but, you know it's, uh,
it's, it's tough man, because,um, the more kind of latitude
that's given, um, the more thatno one looks back.
It's like you align a segment.
You know it starts here andthen it goes to, uh, infinity,
um, is that the segment?
Was this a segment?
But, either way, no one'slooking back at where we were
Right.
We're just trying to see it insome ways, trying to get so far
(52:10):
away from that as possible or dosome kind of version of it that
we know is not that.
Yeah Well, I'm class.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Well, that's what you want to call it.
Uh, I'll put um uh, jeanettedubois.
Ester roll um diane carroll.
Uh mary alice uh, you know,women just class yeah yeah, I
mean debbie morgan, who, who,who, even in that movie that you
(52:40):
saw, the um tyler perry flickwhere we just talked about
earlier, she's always amazing,it doesn't matter what she's
doing.
She played the among right, uh,uh, and so uh, and you know she
gets a pass.
You know she's done so much, uh, growing up, uh, but uh, um,
and well, not that she gets apass, but she did a great job in
the movie.
She was the best thing there,uh, so you know it it's like,
(53:04):
but folks think you know I'mdoing me and y'all just old,
okay, okay, you know we can'ttell grown folks anything.
And you know there's a saying,and Russell and I talk about
this it's like the older I get,the smarter my father was.
(53:24):
I.
Like that, yeah, it's like theolder I get, the smarter my
father was I like that, yeah, Ilike that, yeah, because you
start to understand now you knowwhat I mean, you start to
understand that wisdom startedhitting you.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
And that's what it is .
Is that, when you look at it, Imean you'd be kind of remiss to
you know, we have our platforms, you have Acta and I have this.
We'd be remiss not to sayanything, you know.
I mean we can see it, we canvoice like a sign about it.
The rest is up to you.
So I totally, I totally getthat, you know.
I mean yeah, yeah, it's allabout the presentation, like you
said, about yourself, likerussell, you guys are, you know,
(53:56):
classy elders man.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
If I could say that, you know, I mean yeah and you
know and and it kind of feeds insome sort some way, because
then others of us will go incertain spaces and people will
think, oh, because of this Idon't really have to address
this older brown skin personbecause they're brown skin
(54:18):
person, so I can just saywhatever.
And then you know you have tocheck them.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
Right.
Speaker 2 (54:23):
You know, which I'm never have any problem doing.
I mean, you know, I say I don'ttake our, so I don't take
anybody else's, uh, but, um, butyeah, you know, and so but, but
all of that is kind of fed.
It's like there's a reason thatpeople react to you the way
that they do and, um, if theywant to have that, you know you
(54:46):
can correct them.
But then we've got all theseother examples of people that
are just saying ah you know thisdoesn't mean anything anymore.
You know that's, that's old,that's old stuff.
Now we don't, yeah, you know wedon't even take care of our
older, uh, musical acts andolder, older actors, or you know
, and when you see other folksthat you you still see Carole
(55:08):
King being taken care of, janisJoplin being taken care of, but
you don't really see, I don'ttour.
Billy Joel is still touringMassive crowds, but we don't.
Young and older, but we won'tgo and see some of our great,
great icons I mean not evenstevie wonder in the same way.
Speaker 1 (55:29):
No, yeah, um so I'm assuming they're only pulling
stevie out when it's time to.
You know, open up something bigor whatever, like you know the
inauguration or something youonly see, steve, yeah yeah, yeah
, that's on us to support thatand to kind of.
Speaker 2 (55:41):
We can grow as much as we want, but we have to have
our finger on the pulse of thepast and understand why this
thing called entertainment, whatit can be used for and why art
is so necessary.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
And it's big that you said that, because we all know
that everything is visual.
You know, and you might have aperson from across the country
and this is the only view thatthey have of your people.
You know, and they'll treat you.
You know, you might have aperson from across the country
and this is the only view thatthey have of your people.
You know, and they'll treat you, you know, a certain way when
they do actually see you inperson.
Speaker 2 (56:11):
This is the only visual that they have yeah,
that's not by accident, and Ithink the people that are making
these decisions puppet masters.
You know that's not by accidentno, it's not because if they
lose those folks, then they loseit all right yeah, yeah that's
deep, man, that's deep.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
So let me ask you um, I know you have your, your,
your next project coming up andall that you're working on, your
, your movie, and all what elsedo you have outside of you know
that's outside of thatparticular project that you,
that you're working on.
Speaker 2 (56:45):
Oh yeah, there's a.
There's a movie I may beshooting in Tennessee in
November.
A young brother that I met at acafe here in Sherman Oaks last
year and I didn't really knowwho he was, but he didn't know
about the bear Turns out he's areally up and coming young
(57:07):
filmmaker.
And then in May he sends methis note out of the blue I
really like you to be in mymovie and here's the role for
you, and I really hope youaccept.
And I was just trying to figureout where did I meet?
How do I know this?
And then I finally asked him.
He said remember, last summerat that little cafe across from
the car wash.
We spoke very, very briefly.
(57:28):
You said you liked how Ihandled something on the phone.
I said, oh yeah.
He said yeah, that's me.
And I decided that day thisguy's going to be in my movie
Nice, and he's a really up andcoming writer.
And so, and then I have anothermovie that I shot in January
called she Taught Love, and sheTaught Love was written by a cat
(57:53):
named Daryl Rick story, and Iplay the father of the female
lead, and so that comes outSeptember 27th.
And so, yeah, I'm lookingforward to that my publicist,
(58:20):
jordan Robinson.
She said to me today she said,oh, it's on IMDb now they've got
everything about it.
I was like, oh, that's cool,because I knew it was coming
coming out.
Um, um, then I'm uh little momand I gonna go take a trip to
london for a couple weeks, uh,mid, uh, august.
(58:41):
Um, hang out there there, shakethe trees.
I don't have this thing aboutEnglish actors being here and
taking roles, because I'veworked there and when I worked
there, english actors werealways asking me questions about
acting and blah, blah, blah.
And when I worked in Paris, Iworked with one of the most
famous English directors ever.
(59:03):
So people find out, when peoplefrom there find find out, that
I was personally asked by thisdirector to move to Paris and
work with him, you know, youknow they're like wow, so I
don't really get caught up inall that stuff.
I mean, you know, the characterI play on the bear is sounds
nothing like me.
Speaker 1 (59:23):
Yeah, nothing at all.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
Yeah, but you know, but you know we're gonna go
there, we're gonna hang out, I'mgonna shake the trees a bit,
see what, see what other stuffis happening over there.
Uh, for, for me as an artist,and so that's you know, that's
the rest of the year and I'm uhdoing what I do, a lot of which
is uh smoke cigars, smoke cigarsyeah, yeah, youars.
Yeah, yeah, you know.
You know I was about to lightone here, but I was like I don't
(59:48):
know if I should have one whileI'm talking to you.
That's usually what I have.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, see, Ialways have one close.
Oh okay, all right, I had tojust finish door one.
I'm about to be at, yeah, andI'm going to end up putting the
finishing touches on the nextthing.
I'm hoping there's some thingsthat might be happening, folks
(01:00:18):
at Sony, and so just keepcreating.
Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
That's good, man, listen before I let you go.
I just want to say once again Ithank you, and I was even
listening to what you're sayingthere and how you gave that
young brother a shot.
You know where it's like youcould say, hey look, man, I got
so many awards or whatever.
You know what I mean.
Call my agent, something likethat, but you gave that young
brother a shot and I appreciateyou for that.
Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
But wait, wait, wait.
Well, you know, give me a shot.
He called me, he sent me in andhe's like you know, I don't
want you audition for anything,I just want you to play this
role because I love your workand you know.
And then this young woman,tracy Toms, I think she saw the
play I did last year.
I played Step and Fetch.
I didn't play it last year LosAngeles and did last year.
Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
I played step and fetch it and played last last
year here in los angeles, and Ithink a lot of people saw that
here in la, and so she was afetch clay man or something like
that and uh, and so she's inthis movie with this cat, or
chas hawkins, I think his nameis.
Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
and then she sent me a message saying I, I can't wait
to work with you.
And I told Chaz, yeah, you know, you've got to be in this movie
.
I mean, I want to work with you, and Tracy and I I think we met
, maybe briefly after the play,but you never know where the
work is coming from, right?
(01:01:42):
So you just do the work and youdo it with no other intention
than to do it well and do itthoroughly, and stuff happens.
So, yeah, so, so.
So this young cat gave me, youknow, he, he called me up and
yeah, and yeah, I would never be.
Oh, just call me, yeah, yeah,because some people are man, so
(01:02:04):
this is.
I know, I know, I book peoplefor the show man.
Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
You don't even hear responses sometimes, so really,
yeah, I'm like.
Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
I'm like you know come on, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
So I understand, yeah , like really, really, people
get too big.
You know how it go, man, peopleget too big, they don't wanna
they don't wanna deal with youno more.
Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
And they forget that they were where you were at at
one point.
So that happens, man, yeah, andeverybody's still in the same
place, which is here.
Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Exactly, we're all right here.
Yeah, man, To quote DougieFresh brother, the only stars I
know is in the sky.
Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
It is.
That's what it is man, Iappreciate you having brother,
the only stars I know is in thesky.
That's what it is, man, but youknow I appreciate you having me
on.
And yeah, anytime you want tohave me back, I'll be the best,
come back.
Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
Yeah, I will really.
We got to get on here too.
What's your brother's name?
Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Does he owe me some money?
That's why he ain't here.
Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
His name is Brooklyn Trey Trey.
That's why he's not here.
He's ducking you.
Man Made some side deal.
I don't know about man, but no,he would have loved to have
been here.
Man, he was looking for it.
We was just sitting here untilhe had some equipment issues and
I want to let you know that.
you know you are the first guestof the new season, so I just
(01:03:25):
want to applaud, you know Iappreciate you, brother, really,
because we took a little hiatusand I was getting ready for the
next season and then trying tocoordinate this with the Chris,
amongst a few other things, andyeah, so I said you definitely
got to be the first one forthank you on this side too, too,
(01:03:45):
man, I really appreciate you.
So, with that being said, we'regetting ready to split.
So please, if you haven'tchecked it out, check out the
Bear on Fox, fx, hulu, whateveryou got that streams the Bear.
You check it out, man.
This brother is really worththe watch.
All right, so I'm going toleave this with y'all.
(01:04:07):
The Only One Mike Podcast isavailable on all platforms you
stream your podcasts on.
Also, check out our Only OneMike Podcast YouTube channel to
catch up on the past and currentepisodes, and please don't
forget to rate the show andsubscribe folks.
It helps us out.
Alright, you can check us outalso on Instagram and Twitter at
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(01:04:28):
And you can contact us viaemail, theonlyonemike00 at
gmailcom or call us at302-367-7219 to have your
comments and questions played onthe show.
We thank you once again foryour time, folks.
Thank you once again, edwin LeeGibson for showing up to the
spot here, and we encourage you,please, to speak the truth
(01:04:51):
quietly and clearly, and listento others, even adult and
ignorant, because they too havetheir story to tell.
So until next time, please keepin mind that we never have to
run from the Ku Klux Klan, so weshouldn't have to run from a
black man.
Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Peace, let's sit, let's sit, so we shouldn't have
to run from a black man.
Peace.
Brothers and sisters, why don't you?
It's one mic, it's one mic,it's one mic.
Give me a moment with yourfriend.
I've never been up to mythoughts before.
Welcome to the only one micpodcast Called Gerard Rodden
(00:25):
Solo, but not really solo,because I got somebody here that
you guys are really, really,really going to appreciate.
If you watch this show the Bearon FX, hulu and Disney Plus, we
got Mr Edwin Lee Gibson.
How you doing, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Super duper, super duper.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I'm doing well.
I'm doing well, brother, beenwaiting for this conversation
for, you know, a little bit of afew days now.
Hopefully, you know, get you onand discuss this little project
you have called the Bear man.
Listen, I'm going to tell youmy bear story.
Okay, I was home one day Kidyou not?
And I hear everybody talkingabout the show the Bear, the
(01:06):
Bear, the Bear, all right.
So I said let me check this out.
And so I, you know, pulled itup on one of my little streaming
services here and I said, allright, sitting in, watching it,
watching it.
And then I'm like this startedgetting kind of interesting.
You know what?
I being like a bag of chips man, I just kept going to the next
episode, next episode, nextthing I know I'm in the kitchen
cooking man.
So I'm like the show reallycaptures, I guess, the the, the
(01:32):
essence of working in arestaurant, all the things that
go.
I'll be honest with you, Icouldn't do it.
I couldn't do it, you know.
I mean, it seems like it's sucha tense environment.
How did you study for that?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
oh shoot, I mean, I don't do a lot of research.
As an actor, my feeling isalways whatever's in the script
is what I need, but nothing canprepare you for what Christopher
created as a show.
So I didn't do any researchnecessarily no-transcript job.
(02:27):
You never did the whole waiterthing.
Well, well, well, I might.
It might have been like lessthan a week, but, uh, because
some cat snapped his fingers atme one day and said, uh, six
iced teas.
I still remember this and Ibrought him, and I don't know
how all six of them fell on hishead, I, when he got in my car
and I left, left.
That's the extent of my arrest.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well, listen on this show.
We keep it a buck, so I'm goingto take it that this gentleman
was a white gentleman.
Let's be honest, oh yeah, ohyeah because the snapping of the
fingers would have did it foranybody like that.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it wouldn't have mattered.
You know what hue he was, thatwould you know.
That same thing would havehappened.
But I would have given some.
I'd probably given the you knowthe brother I looked like.
Really, are you serious?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, yeah, like you're showing out right now,
right.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
First yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He just happened to be yeah, so.
So so a hue that that, yeah,that.
That that's just what happened.
So that's how he found thoset's on it I hear you man.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Hey listen, that's a bold move.
It's a bold move, you.
You got some grand fashion.
That's what a lot of peoplelike to do when he leaves and he
got a 78 uh 280z and drove offand that was it for me.
All, All right, so let's discussthis.
Like you know, we talked beforethe show started.
Like I told you, I normallyhave my research in front of me
(03:53):
and I can read the research.
I can tell people who you areand what you did and all that,
but you're here.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, and so I know that you'rea Houston native, that you grew
up in Houston.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Can you tell the audience what was it like
growing up in Houston and alsohow did that shape you into what
you're into now?
Yeah, Houston's not someplace Iwould live again, but it was a
wonderful, wonderful place togrow up Group neighborhood
called South Park, home ofChopped and Screwed.
Oh, okay, yeah yeah, no doubtRobert Earl Jenkins rest in
(04:35):
peace of.
Dj Screwed Went to SterlingHigh School.
My mom was classically trainedin voice and so my first
memories of a performance weresinging with her in church.
Dad was a garbage man.
Mom worked at the post officein the welfare department.
It was cool.
(04:55):
You know, my older brother, myyounger cousin, lived with us
for about 10 years, so I was theyoungest but I was the middle
so but yeah, yeah, it was, itwas, it was cool.
A great place to grow up.
Man, um, uh, houston's nothing.
Well, it's very different than,uh, a lot of texas then and I
suspect now, uh, so it wasreally kind of, you know,
(05:18):
cosmopolitan place.
Um stopped singing when I was.
I was one of the top choralsingers when I was a kid in the
state and I auditioned for theNational All-Boards Choir.
I made it, but I wasn't 12 yet.
Oh wow, I was so upset Istopped singing.
My mother was kind of upsetabout that and so I found acting
shortly after.
So I took it seriously when Iwas 14 and started working when
(05:42):
I was 16.
Started working, uh, when I was16, and I've been.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
I'd like to say I've received at least one paycheck
as an actor since I was 16 yearsold, okay, and, and I looked at
you, know your resume andeverything and, of course, like
I said, the big thing right nowis you know the bear that you're
on, but your acting resume islong as train smoke man, you
know and not and I'll say thisnot to insult at all, but you've
been acting just about as longas I've been alive it's like
(06:10):
over 40 something years, right,43, 43.
Okay.
So, yeah, do you cover movies,television and theater?
So how many productions, Iwould say between movies,
television and theater have youbeen?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
in the theater I'm at 104 right now since 1981.
And I've done those productionshere in the States and in the
UK.
France, where I lived in Parisfor a couple of years, worked
for a theater company and soit's even so funny that people
(06:45):
can't tell where I'm from.
Some people think I have thisfunny accent.
Of course, when I go home toHouston folks are like you're
not from here anymore.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
You don't sound like I'm not going to lie to you,
when I first saw you in the beerI wouldn't have never thought
that you were from Houston.
You know what I mean.
You played that whole thing sowell.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a great thing, I always
love to hear that.
But yeah, and then I did TV andfilm work here and there, but
then really kind of dove into it.
I guess maybe 2003, 2004.
You know, and I don't know howmany films I've done or TV shows
(07:32):
, I'd say cumulative, it may beabout 50 total.
But yeah, but I come from thetheater and it just started to
grow.
You know, it's an evolution ofthe artist.
I like, I like, I like newchallenges and the screen
challenges me in a different wayright now, most so differently,
(07:56):
you know, than the theater.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
So if you had to make a choice, I mean and I probably
already know the answer to thisbut if you had to make a choice
between the three, you knowwhat would be the one that you
would gravitate towards more.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, it's really the two.
It's like screen or theater,all right.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Cause you have to keep your films.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I would take the immediacy of the theater with
the pay of the screen.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, I hear it, because when they say struggling
actor, they mean that Like youknow, like it's real hard.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, you know, it was never a struggle necessarily
in that way.
I mean, you know, starvingartists for me was like if I'm
not able to do it, I'm starving.
It's not what I don't have,it's just kind of how it feeds
me.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, you gotta feed what's in you.
You gotta nurture thatcreativity.
Okay, I hear you.
So what I wanted to also askyou too, in lines to your acting
, because, like I said, you dida phenomenal job on the show the
bear and you have a phenomenalcast that you're working with
that I see you know you can justname them down down the line.
(09:14):
Um, and I wanted to know, likewhen you sit back and you watch
it might be a scene that you'rein a scene that you're not in
whether you're watching them oryou're participating what did
you learn from any of thoseactors there?
If you have one specific,that's good, but if you learn
something from all of them,that's even better.
I got a two-part question whatdid you learn from them and what
(09:35):
do you think they might havelearned from you?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, I have no idea what they learned from me.
That'd be interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
What do you think they?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
might If anything.
I don't know, it's allsubjective, people get different
things.
But what I learned?
I think I learned a lot aboutthe process of a show like this,
because I've done othertelevision work and I don't
particularly of a show like this, because I've done other
(10:07):
television work and I don'tparticularly.
I don't know if I learned muchfrom them, except that it's
reinforced the joy that I havefor what I do.
You know, we all come to workready and we all we really all
dig each other, and so I thinkI've learned just how to
(10:38):
consistently revisit the joy ofbeing an artist and working, not
that it ever goes away from me,but around people that are also
that joyous and that are doingit just because it's a great
project and they look forward tocoming to work.
It kind of like says yeah, youknow what, um, don't get, you
know, don't get so, uh in yourhead about whether things are
(11:04):
working.
Just stay with the process.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, which is kind of what I'm always trying to do
anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, it's kind of like you.
It's like coaching each otherperhaps.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Well, well, you know, yeah, I mean there are times
you learn.
You learn the game by sittingon the bench Right so I can show
up on days I'm not called and Ido.
I show up on days that I'm notcalled to set and I just watch.
You know, there's alwayssomething to learn.
(11:35):
I'm a student always.
Even after all this time, I'mstill learning.
I'm still the six year old inmy head.
And then you know, andsometimes when, when you're in
the game and you've been, youknow, kgo vet, then hopefully
the Amar rookies, the Amarsecondary players are learning
from you as well.
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
So, like I know watching this latest season here
, that it was an episode thatreally stood out and it
basically was going back andtelling the backstory of lisa.
it was elisa cologne, thischaracter liza liza I'm sorry
about that, beckoning yourpartner liza and um, how she
ended up at the bear and all andthe scene that she had with,
(12:18):
like john bernthal man likebernthal to me is like a
presence on the screen, like nomatter matter what he's doing, a
punisher or he's doing whatever, like he's always doing his
thing.
So I want to say shout out tohim, man, because even though
his interview show is off thehook too, I really enjoyed that
(12:38):
man Like just sitting down, justlike they seem like they put so
much effort into thatparticular episode, not just
that scene, like the way that ittold the story of how she was
struggling and everything andshe really put her foot in that
particular thing.
What was your thoughts on thatwhen you actually saw it?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Well, we know, liza and I have known each other for
30 years.
We worked in the theater in NewYork together.
I don't know if your folks knowthat I lived in New York for 15
years.
Oh okay, and so Liza and I, andyou saw the cat that played her
husband, yeah, yeah, he's areal husband.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
That's her husband.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's David.
So all of us have workedtogether in the theater.
Actually, we're so tight thatwhen I was going through a hard
time in my first marriage, um, Istayed at their place.
Oh okay, we were all doing ashow together.
So that's how, that's how coolwe I mean eliza and I didn't
even know each other was on theshow.
(13:36):
We just showed up the firstseason.
We didn't know that the otherwas on the show, because I
hadn't seen her in about 10years.
Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, so, so,so she and I pick up where we
left off.
You know what you see withibrahim and tina.
A lot of that chemistry is justthe chemistry lies, and I have
had over the decades workingtogether and how we are.
(13:57):
I mean, you know we're alwayssparring anyway, uh, off off
screen, so that's but, but yeah,it was a good scene and it was
a great episode directed by Io,who plays Sydney.
Yeah, so, yeah, really reallygreat time.
It was my, that was my firsttime meeting John, a nice, nice
(14:19):
cat, and we had a chance to chopit up about, about acting and
things like that, and, yeah,really really good to see.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yeah, and you know, was that her first directing On
our show On our show.
Okay, so she's done otherthings outside of that.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I'm not sure.
I don't see how she hasn't.
She's such a, you know,talented kid.
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure she's donesome other things.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, you know, talented kid, yeah, yeah, I'm
sure she's done some otherthings, yeah, okay.
So what was it like when yougot the call for the bear was?
Did you, did you know that thiswas going to be something?
That was going to be like a hitor?
Was it sad, I just thought itwould be another job and we just
see what happens.
What's your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
I wasn't going to read for it no wow, um, I have
this thing about how we're seenon screen as brown screen folks,
right, and so I thought itwould be a bit of a trope.
But then I had to think aboutwho I am and that tropes only
exist.
Tropes exist only in as much asthe actor allows it.
(15:19):
So if I allowed it to besomething, it would be that.
And so my my manager was likeno man.
He one of the rare momentshe'll call me up and say you
need to rethink this.
Uh, and so, um, I read for it,sent it in as a monologue
because I didn't have a a orreader, and so, um, then it
turned out that Christopher, thecreator of the show, said that
(15:41):
he had seen me in the theater inChicago five years before and
said he always wanted to workwith me.
So, um, and you know, and I gotthe call, uh, well, we had, we
did a zoom, and I had a feeling,over the zoom with him and the
casting director, uh, um,jeannie Baccarat, that it was
gonna, it was, it was gonna beokay, and, and I was in Tucson,
(16:06):
arizona, just chilling because Ilove Tucson, and that's where I
read for it and that's where Igot the job and we went to work
on it and we didn't anticipateit, we were just all working
together.
We all got on very, very well,like that, the entire cast, like
(16:29):
that, uh, the entire cast, andso we got on very well.
And, um, just making you knowwhat I call the little engine,
that could you know?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so how was it when um you
won the you know multiple emmyawards?
You know um multiple awards,different, different awards in
different areas, but I was theEmmy like the biggest thing that
you can possibly win fortelevision.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yes, the biggest thing individually for me, of
course, was the SAG award thatour cast won for Best Ensemble.
But yeah, nominated for 13Emmys received 10.
That was for our firstnominated for 13 Emmys received
10.
Nice, and that was for ourfirst season, and our second
(17:11):
season received 23 nominations,which is the most any comedy has
ever received in one season.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah.
So it's just, you know, kudosto Christopher and to Joanna
Carlo, who's the co-showrunner,and the folks at FX and Hulu.
And it was really funny because, you know, the people at Hulu
and FX said that what they likedmost about my audition was that
(17:42):
I was the only person thatdidn't try to make Ibrahim funny
and I was like, yeah, I mean,you know, this is some, this is
some real serious kind of traumathat this cat's had, you know,
and so it's not funny, I mean,but then you can find the comedy
, and the way he delivers thealive is funny, but it ain't
(18:04):
funny.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So I'm glad you opened that door up because for
those that didn't see, you know,and if you haven't checked out,
the bear on FX, um, hulu,disney, even it's on Disney plus
, even if you have that package,um, tell them about your
character, uh, tell them, givethem a little bit of back about
your, your character well, youknow, oh he's.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
He was described as a mystery that's lived a thousand
lives.
That's all I had to go on wasjust that sentence right, which
I felt was like so great, somuch space there for for what I
do.
I want to keep him silent, butkeep him waited, if that makes
(18:43):
any sense.
But he's, uh, an immigrant from, uh, east africa a lot of
people say somalia, because hetold the story of the battle of
mogadishu and because he madechicken, uh, sugar, um, uh.
But you know there arecountless instances of people
from other countries migratingto other countries and then
(19:05):
fighting in those armies.
So I think he is from EastAfrica, tanzania, kenya, somalia
, you know whatever that is.
But yeah, he's a cat who foundhis way all the way here to the
States and then to Chicago, noless on his own way, all the way
(19:28):
here to the states and then tochicago, no less on his own.
And um started at the beef andhas his own issue about change
and where that's rooted, and Ithink it's really rooted in some
trauma for him.
Uh, it's trauma that we haven'texplored yet on the show, but I
think people that are watchingare getting a sense of they're
(19:51):
getting a sense that there'ssomething there and they want to
find out a bit more aboutIbrahim.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
It's funny you mention that, because that was
going to be one of my questionsfor you.
Do you think that he will havehis own episode that kind of
explores his background as well?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I look forward to it.
Um, you know it's a half hourpiece.
Um, this, you know, uh, and youknow it's, it's not my show,
it's not my character show.
Uh, you can just kind of doyour job at what one of the
things I've tried to do is to.
One of the things I've tried todo is to pique the audience's
(20:25):
curiosity based on the choices Imake as an actor, based on this
framework that's been created.
So I think that's why peopleare really asking he doesn't
want to change, he doesn't wantto wear a uniform.
Why is that?
What is this about?
And so, yeah, I'm confidentthat they've got something in
(20:50):
the um uh, the um uh in themachine, if you will.
Uh, I hope so, because I, yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah, um, I love
him so much, this character, andso you want to take care of the
character and you want him tobe known in his fullness, not to
(21:30):
lift me as an actor, but tojust kind of give some more
backstory to this character.
And I think in some ways ithelps Christopher and Joanna not
have to do very much becausethey know what I do, right, what
I'm doing for the character.
So, yeah, we'll see.
We'll see when people come upto me, I would say well, you
know, write to your localcongressman.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So FX and everybody, if you're listening, get this
man, just do it.
Do you think you see yourselfdirecting any of these
particular episodes?
I mean, do you direct?
A lot of things, or do you not?
I direct it in.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
You direct a lot of things or do you not film I
direct it in the theater a bit.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Well, I know you did theater, but like
television-wise?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, yeah, but on a note.
Well, it's actually interesting.
You ask that question becauselater this year I'm going to be
co-directing a 35-minute filmthat I wrote.
Oh, okay, yeah, so I'm going tobe directing that we're going
(22:31):
to be shooting in.
Looks like it's going to be inArizona, arizona, okay, yeah, so
I'm.
You know, oftentimes peoplewait I've never been someone
that waits Hustler so I'vewritten, I'm a writer, and I was
working with the Sony TVwriters program, one of the 10
(22:56):
writers that they chose in thiswriting program, and so I've
amassed this work that I'vewritten.
And so I said, well, in my offtime, let me go and shoot
something and show that I canproduce something and show that
I can direct.
And I have a, I have a smallpart as an actor in it.
(23:16):
It's not a huge role, it's asignificant role, but it's not a
huge role, and and that's onpurpose, as a matter of fact,
russell is going to be in.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yeah, yeah, shout out to Russell, everybody, russell,
yeah, talk about something thatkeeps it real.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Yeah, yeah, and so, so, yeah.
So I'm going to be directingand no, no, better, no better
way than to say here's mycalling card that show.
So I'm going to put my money upunder the little that I have
and go make something.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Well, I just want to extend this you know to you that
once you do it, you know youare more than welcome to come
back on and discuss it you know.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, the floor is open, Chris.
No, reach out.
We can make that happen.
So, pivoting away from the beerbecause we have so many things
to talk about.
I do have one last questionabout that, though, Brother what
do you do with all thosetrophies, man?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
What do you do with them?
Well, we'll see.
The only one I have is the SAGAwards.
Because the actors get the SAGAwards, oh, we don't get the
Emmy, the SAG Awards.
Because the actors get the SAGAwards, oh, we don't get the
Emmy, we don't.
You know, that's for theproducers and writers and the
individual actors.
But I've got.
I think it's been a reallyinteresting year.
I think I've amassed like sixdifferent awards.
(24:45):
I was given a really, reallyspecial one from Texas Southern
University.
I went to school it's the firstever kind of award they've
given achievement in acting, andI was very pleased with that.
Art Simerson in Boston gave mea career theater achievement
(25:06):
award in October.
And then there's been a coupleof other ones from, you know,
the Television CriticsAssociation, which we got as a
cast, but we got the individualkind of plaques or whatever.
So yeah, it's been interesting.
I've got them on my, my messydesk in here you can hold them
on your desk.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
I can barely hold pencils on mine, no it holds it.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It's just all the other crap that's on it that
I've I've been told to clean off, but I haven't really gotten
around to it.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
You'll get to it.
You'll get to it.
So listen.
You also worked on fargo yes umwith chris rock during that
particular run there, and howwas that?
Like working with chris.
What was?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
that nice, nice, nice cat.
Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, he gave mea nickname.
Uh, he calls me a tough actingconnecting uh.
Oh yeah, I played the lastcharacter, the last villain to
(26:08):
come on the show.
I don't know if you saw theseries or not, but Happy
Holloway is his name.
Lionel Happy Holloway is hisname and yeah, that was cool.
A lot of people wanted to seethe character more and again,
(26:29):
that's cool, you come in, you dothe job and that's what people.
That's cool, you know it's it's.
You know you, you come in, youdo the job and that's what
people are supposed to want.
You know.
You know this is this issupposed to want more, but it
was.
It was great working with Chris.
We got to talk a lot, you know,talk a lot about Prince, cause
he loved him, and so did I havegreat love for him as well, you
know, and they were very goodfriends.
(26:50):
So, yeah, it was cool.
That whole time was very dope.
I think it was one of the firstthings I did when I got.
Maybe that was the second thingI did.
I played Dick Gregory in a soloplay when I first got back.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
You played Brother Dick Ha.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I got back to the States in 2018 at Arena Stage in
DC, and then after that, Ithink that's when I was in
Boston doing a play and then gotthe Fargo gig, and it was
during COVID.
So things changed and they hadto move everything from March
all the way to August.
(27:30):
So, yeah, we got around togetting it done, but it was a
good time.
Noah Hawley, the creator of theanthology series for Fargo and
working with Chris and JasonSchwartzman and Glenn Terman Mr
Terman wasn't there.
His character had already beenkilled off by the time I got
there, so I was kind of salty.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
But I got to meet him last year.
You got to meet him.
So I want to circle back,because you played Dick Gregory
man Wow In a one-man show, yeah.
And so what was that like?
Did you ever get to meet DickGregory at all prior?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
to this, never got to meet Baba.
Yeah, never got to meet Baba.
Found out about him in reverse,though.
You know I found out about himwhen I was a kid because you
know there was the Dick Gregory,like you know, diet.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, the Bohemian diet yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, the Bohemian diet.
And so I found out about thatand then started learning about
him as an activist and then ahumorist, an activist and then a
humorist.
I call him a humorist even moreso than a comedian, because he
was already doing that and henever stopped doing that.
Even his activism, you know,was.
You know he was such a greatframer of arguments using humor.
(28:52):
And so, yeah, I got a phone callwhile I was in, while I was in
paris, and um was asked you knowwhere I was in the world,
because people never know whereI am asked if I knew about this
show.
And I was like no, I don't knowabout it.
And I got offered the job overthe phone.
And so, yeah, we came back andwe knocked that out in a 500
seat theater and did, like Ithink I did 48 shows, yeah.
(29:20):
So that was that was I turneddown six or seven episodes of
the second season of the Chi.
I was offered, I was offeredrecurring on the Chi and I was
like I got that or I can go playDick Gregory for a lot less
money.
And I wanted to play DickGregory for a lot less money.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
It was nice money, but it was a lot less it was a
lot less what you would get onthe shot, of course yeah, but
you know it's my art.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You know I'm an artist, so you know it's so
important you gotta make.
When am I gonna get to do thatagain?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
exactly, and I mean we can always discuss that in
terms of a biopic that they youknow for Dick Gregory.
Because when I was watching youknow I was looking at doing my
research I should say and I didsee you, you know the whole suit
on the stage and I said, youknow, this brother do kind of
resemble Dick Gregory, so likemaybe that's where they're going
with it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
So like maybe, who knows, later on down the line,
yeah, I think Christian Gregory,who's Dick Gregory's son and
was managing the affairs.
I think he and Kevin Hart wereworking on something.
I haven't heard much about it,I mean not involving me, but
(30:32):
they were working on somethingmaybe a couple of years ago and,
um, hopefully it gets.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
It gets done, uh, because you know I just love, uh
, you know, baba gregory so muchyeah, yeah, you know what edwin
is one thing to get it done,but it better be done, right,
you know?
Yeah, exactly, that's all rightthat's not.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, you know what that's what that's.
What I mean really is like yeah, well, we, we do things
oftentimes, but are we doingthem?
Speaker 1 (30:54):
yeah, it's a little.
They undercut a lot of these,these biopics, and especially at
these like if I could use theterm, legendary figures.
Um omit so much stuff out of itthat it's like you know these
guys lives.
You can make a series out of ityou know it's hard, it's hard
to kind of.
My brother and I were discussingthe bob marley movie and I said
(31:16):
, you know, I've been trying toget around and watch it.
I know it's out now and I said,well, I'm gonna sit down and
watch it.
But he already did and I said,man, you know, when you're
watching these I'm a person Ilook at and then go to the
documentary and see what wasleft out.
And so he was saying, withinthat particular film there was
so much stuff that you know,this man's life was so broad
(31:37):
that you probably couldn'tcapture it in a two-hour movie
or something like that, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
And I said, some things just needs to be a series
yeah, yeah, yeah, because itdoesn't it, it loses, it loses
context, sometimes with a, witha movie yeah, yeah, like I give
an example like when they didthe Griselda thing for Netflix,
and I'm like this could havebeen a whole series.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
It was so much of that woman's life that was
omitted.
You know what I mean, for thesake of those films and all.
So I always look at that when Iwatch these biopics.
I look at it as the rabbit hole, because either I'm going to
read it or I'm going to watchthe documentary, you know, right
after that.
So I know you said earlier, inthis conversation too, about
tropes, ok and so and we hadthis discussion with Russell and
(32:24):
a few other people that mighthave came through the show that
saying you know you're craftingon and the tropes that you see
today, today, you know what, doyou see?
The?
Do you see a lot of thosetropes within for our people,
especially because I know, likeyou, have the integrity to say
I'm going to turn certain thingsdown if it's not beneficial or
making my people look a certainway?
(32:45):
You know, and do you, do yousee that a lot within hollywood
that they're more offering youthis role than they are that
role?
That's something that's notgoing to be beneficial.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
I've been fortunate.
You know I've been fortunate tosay no to a lot of things, a
lot of people.
But I was saying no to thingsin my 20s.
You know when people are reallyjust trying to get on and do
something.
You know like people.
You know when people are reallyjust trying to get on and you
want to do something.
You know like people.
I was always known as a a comicactor early in my career and I
(33:19):
stopped taking comedic rolesbecause no one would take me
seriously as a dramatic actor.
Right, of course, other peoplewould say you were a comic act
yeah, I know you understand thattoo.
You left that part out too.
There you go.
But nice research.
I love that, and so I thinkagain.
Tropes exist only in as much asthe artist allows them.
(33:44):
Someone can bring something tome.
I have to think about turningthings on their ear before I
turn them down.
Right, I played a prisoner ondeath row about to be executed
in a piece that I wrote FiveTill was the name of it, but you
(34:06):
can take that, which is not atrope, because there's a lot of
people that are on death row inprisons and there are more of
other people than there are us,so there are more of them, you
know, in jail and well, you knowwe just let other people filter
that kind of crap in our earsthat it's us.
(34:27):
But I wanted to look at thischaracter's life and how they
and a lot of people look at acharacter's life and say, oh,
this informed those choices.
But what I did was I had himcome from a two-parent household
, had him come from ahardworking household, loving
(34:49):
parents.
He just decided he wanted to dothis, you know.
So now I'm taking that tropeand I'm turning it on its ear.
It doesn't mean he did thiscrime, it just means that he
went down the road and my dadused to always say you can do a
(35:09):
whole lot of things, you won'tget caught, but then you might
do that one little thing and allthat other stuff you did all
them years.
You know it'll come back, it'llbite you right.
So I use that as part of thecatalyst for what some people
might see as a trope.
You know, brown, brown skin,man in prison, but yeah, so, so.
(35:33):
So people, I think sometimespeople need the money and that's
where it comes in.
You know you need it.
And then you have people thatare not telling our stories or
not writing, and I think youknow, even if we are producing
stuff, we're still producingtropes.
You know we do it to ourselvesand then that kind of becomes
(35:56):
what people think, not whatother people think of themselves
, but what people, but whatthose people begin to kind of
think of themselves.
So I do a lot of different roles.
None of those roles that you'veseen was I even wearing makeup,
right, right, you know, as anartist, you know what can I do
(36:20):
without all that stuff.
I played Dick Gregory in thesethree stages of his life and
didn't put any makeup on.
You just do it.
But I digress.
I think when you have to dothings for the money, then
you'll allow people to put youin positions and I think it goes
to us producing the work andbeing open to letting other
(36:46):
people telling different storiesabout us rise and see that it's
not going to undercut you,because we have such a diverse
palette as consumers.
Why wouldn't people think wehave a diverse palette as to
what we want to see, how we wantto see ourselves?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yeah, and I'm glad that you mentioned that, because
I mean and you're in thebusiness, so probably know
deeper than I would tyler perryright now is going through that
particular controversy with hislatest movie and it's getting to
the point where when we talkabout tropes, I mean it's not to
, you know, get on here and bashthis guy, but it's just more or
less like when you I'm usinghim as an example because he's
(37:30):
not the only one that's doingthis but it's like when you see
these particular films, it's thesame film over and over and,
over and over again and this ismade by someone that's us.
It's not, if I can understand it, with somebody outside of us
making these type of films, butit's like it's coming from
inside the living room.
Now.
So you know when he does, whenhe, when he does these movies
(37:55):
and he gets the criticism thathe gets.
You know, I, I personally thinkthat it's justified.
That's, this is just yourpeople telling you step your
game up.
If you're making every moviewhere it seems like the, the
black man is the villain from ablack man's perspective, you
know, I mean like, how do you,how do you justify that?
I mean, the story is the samething, what do you think?
(38:15):
about that particular situation.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Oh, I've never seen myself as a victim.
I've never seen anyone assuperior to me.
So the idea of white supremacyis a non-starter for me.
No one's superior to me.
So you can talk that hot shitall you want, and that includes
us.
You know we use it for monetarygain a lot.
But tropes exist among otherpeople as well.
(38:39):
You know the whole goofy fratguy, the um, uh, the um, a
blonde with the, the big breastshanging out, well, you know, I
mean.
So there are tropes that exista lot.
But we're talking about, about,about fam here.
So so, um, um, I think peoplewrite formulaic stuff.
It all, it all, it's in aformula, and people write what
(38:59):
people watch.
You know, and I'm not anentertainer, this is beyond
entertainment for me, way beyondentertainment for me.
But if you're in entertainmentand you're writing entertainment
, then you're writing things.
You've got these cutouts of whothese people are and where you
place them and how.
They're still the same kinds ofthings.
I'm a, you know, I'm a.
(39:19):
As artists, we all miss themark.
But when you don't have people,other ideas coming in which I
think is the criticism thatpeople have about my brother
Tyler Perry then you're going tojust continue to regurgitate
(39:42):
these things and try to say thema different way.
Yeah, I watched the last uh,this last joint with them.
I'm making good yeah yeah, and Ithink you know there's always a
great opportunity to dosomething that you haven't done
before.
And, um, you know, people see,people use criticism and, uh,
(40:06):
critique kind of of in the sameway, but they're two very
different things, you know.
You know, I think a critique isvery objective.
You know, criticism can becoming from any place, but a
critique is usually just a30,000 foot view, let's say, of
kind of what you see and whatthe issue is on a broader scale.
(40:28):
So I didn't really care for thepiece.
I can't knock the hustle.
Oh, yes, I can knock the hustle, you know, especially when it's
especially when we we watch somany different things.
You know, we watch all thesedifferent movies that don't have
(40:52):
us in them, and so why do wethink we should produce things
that are only this thing?
But there are loads of mobmovies that don't involve us,
but then there are loads of usthat want to be mobsters.
That looks like that.
I mean, you know, scarface was,wasn't he a Peruvian?
(41:19):
And he was dark.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Yeah, something like that yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Something, but he was dark.
I mean, he didn't look like AlPacino.
But you couldn't tell us thatbecause we didn't do the
research.
But when it's entertainment,the audience is just looking for
some respite from reality.
I just want to sit back andwatch something and laugh at it
(41:43):
and then we start laughing atourselves.
The thing about this is that,you know, we start telling jokes
and the joke is funny until westep out of it and other people
start laughing.
It's like whoa, wait a minute.
So we might want to rethink howwe're doing it so that we can.
(42:04):
You know, our agenda can be insome instances, the same as
other people's, like, you know,scary Movie I really love, and
Scary Movie was, you know, thisgreat, great kind of parody of
this other genre of films and so, like things like that.
You know we do.
I mean, we're very, very.
You know creative people.
(42:25):
I'm going to go to the.
You know we, we do.
I mean we're very, very.
You know creative people.
I'm going to go to the.
You know director's guild ofAmerica function Saturday and
it's a tribute to RobertThompson, right, right, and
which a lot of people don't give.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Robert is his, his just do you know what I?
Speaker 2 (42:39):
mean, yeah, and he was on the bear, you know he
played.
Yeah, he uh sydney's father andso he's like my job yeah, yeah,
you know I'm uh.
He got the chat and I told himhow much I felt like hollywood
shuffle was a love letter, uh,to other brown-skinned artists,
and he's kind of looked at meand I was like, yeah, man, it
(43:00):
was a lot.
I mean, it helped me navigatethe next 20 years of my life so
that I wouldn't get locked inthese things.
But those dollars, people getthat mixed up with being, with
being in some way someone, thatthat that other people can, can,
(43:22):
can, can look to you know, oh,but you're only looking to them
or you're only feeling likeyou're able to be looked to
because you have this or that,not because of who you are.
So I think there's a balance ofthat that needs to happen.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Yeah, you said something interesting about not
giving other people like thatthat chance I'm paraphrasing but
not giving people that thatchance to kind of be creative,
and then we get the same.
You know movies over and over,again and again.
I use I use him as an example.
Um, he has this big studio andthis is kind of the the, the
(44:04):
conversations that I have with alot of people offline in that
regard.
I'm like, well, he has this bigstudio.
I'm like you, you can't.
You can knock the hustle, butyou can't knock the hustle and
that's what it is.
You can knock it.
To exist in hollywood and not bein hollywood is a is a big
thing, it's a big accomplishment.
So when you have these bigstudios and things like that and
(44:25):
I think he said, like he's theonly one, he is the writer's
room, if I'm quoting thiscorrectly like he's the one that
that writes these movies andyou have to recognize when your
ideas get a little bit stale andwhen it, when it, when it gets
to the point where the critiqueisn't coming from within, where
the people are starting to saynow like, hey, listen, we're
(44:45):
tired of this.
You know, we're tired of thisparticular thing that you're
putting out.
I was always of the mind of whywould you just be the writer's
room when there's so much talentout there that can actually
help broaden what you have?
You know what you put down andI thought that was the whole
purpose of this.
It it's like, you know, youhelp me come up, then you help
(45:08):
the next person come up.
You know we all have differentideas and stories to tell.
What is your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Well, I mean, you know on our show on the bear.
You know, christopher directsand he writes most of the show,
so I don't have any issue withone artist being able to do that
.
There are, you know, forget thesister's name with a black lady
(45:40):
sketch comedy show, issa Ray.
No well, issa, I don't know thesister uh who created forget
her name.
Uh, light-skinned sister, um, Imet her at the mb's.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
Really, really, really cool, was it robin mead,
is it?
Speaker 2 (45:57):
yes, yes, yes yes, yes, robin mead, you know she,
she did all that.
You know, um, kinta Brunson mayhave a writer's room, you know,
but she created AbbottElementary, you know.
So it can be done.
It's about what it's.
(46:19):
I think it's interesting thathe didn't amass this studio on
his own right.
He had, he had, he had a dealthat he got and was given some
monies and he said I'm going to,I'm going to use this with this
money.
You did a great thing buildingthe studio.
Well, I think sometimes peopleare given things and the idea is
(46:42):
that there's got to be a returnon the investment right
fastestest return on theinvestment is the, or at least
the perceived, is theregurgitating of these same
kinds of things.
Um, but the things we do see, wecan.
(47:05):
We can challenge those things,and um wish that if he's alone
doing this, that's not the issue.
It's what you know.
It's not the issue for me.
Uh, it's the uh product thatcomes out of it.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Exactly Because, like those people that you named,
even on your show they'refocusing on one particular show.
You know what I mean.
On your show, they're focusingon one particular show, you know
I mean.
So it's like they're focusingon these characters that I
created and I know how I canmaneuver these particular
characters for this oneparticular series.
But yes you know they're notcranking out different movies.
You know it's a difference when, even with a series I mean to
his credit when you look atstuff like house of pain and
(47:38):
things like that, they follow acertain thing and that's good
for the series.
I mean it's good for the seriesbut it's like if I, if I'm once
I turn on that show, I knowwhat I'm getting.
You know I mean right, but withmovies I guess we expect more
of a variety spike lee, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
So I mean, you know, there's an example yeah, that's
antithetical like he wrote thesemovies.
Um, he had a certain take onlife, life in Brooklyn, life in
New York, life amongst us.
So, yeah, so you can do it.
(48:16):
You can do it as a screenwriter.
You know, it's just about whatyou think is going to make you
money, or what you want to push,or or or in some, in some
instances, of who you hateplease touch on that, brother,
what you mean about that, whoyou?
hate who you mad at, you know.
I mean like you know, because Imean you know you write.
(48:39):
A lot of people write theirlife, you know, or they write
instances that have happened tothem.
I'm not saying that's what'shappened with Tyler Perry
because I don't know him.
I mean I haven't seen him since1984.
I met him a long, long time ago, right.
But yeah, you know, people dothat and so that becomes their
(49:03):
choice.
And then you know, you, whyit's not, why is other stuff not
getting produced?
But I really think we've got totake the bull by the horns and,
uh, produce things and notthink everything has got to be a
hundred million dollar seller.
You know, you know, I think ouragenda is brown skin artists of
(49:24):
african descent um, we have,you know.
You know, I think our agenda isbrown skin artists of african
descent um, we have, you know,we've got a different thing.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
You know we we got to do here yeah, and I and I
totally agree with you because,like these criticisms that we
have and and I do call themcriticisms because they need to
be critiqued and it doesn'tnecessarily mean just when we're
dealing with Hollywood, it'severy facet of entertainment.
We just, as you know, had theBET Awards and you see how even
(49:54):
our sisters are presented inthat, which is a choice to some
degree.
You know what I mean and how itwas presented.
And this is like every year.
It's the same thing, and itseems like it gets worse every
year.
And a lot of times when I lookat things like this and this is
just me personally I look at ourpeople and I think to myself,
like when are we going to wakeup?
When are we going to realizethat this is not the thing to do
(50:16):
?
And you know the images thatwe're putting out.
Like you said, you know youdon't want to have to say, well,
look, I'm trying to please acertain set of people, all right
.
Well, you know you got whitefolks or whoever.
They do some of the same things, but our thing is always going
to be a little bit more out infront, and so it's like the way
that you know.
I look at the sisters how theywere carrying themselves and the
(50:38):
way that they were doing athing you never seen.
And diane carroll on a redcarpet, you know, looking
ratchet.
You know when we came to events, you know you look at them old
Ebony magazines and Jetmagazines or even if you see
like old footage.
Our people always showed up tothese events sharp.
You know.
They always showed up classyand we got away from that, you
(51:00):
know.
And these kids now are makingmore money than most of these
people made back then that theynever even seen.
You know, and it kids now aremaking more money than most of
these people made back then thatthey never even seen.
You know, and it's like youdon't have to do these things.
So when we, when we get on here, we speak about these things,
it's only because it's not tosay but we, we dislike you know
our people, because that's notthe case.
But we love you enough to sayyo, look you got to straighten
(51:22):
up, you know I.
So I'm quite sure you see thattype of thing as well, you know.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yeah, I do, and I see myself as pretty much a classic
kind of cat.
Yeah, I agree, and from thespace between my ears to how I
dress, which I guess is not anydifferent dress, which I guess
(51:48):
is not any different, um, but,but, uh, but, you know it's, uh,
it's, it's tough man, because,um, the more kind of latitude
that's given, um, the more thatno one looks back.
It's like you align a segment.
You know it starts here andthen it goes to, uh, infinity,
um, is that the segment?
Was this a segment?
But, either way, no one'slooking back at where we were
Right.
We're just trying to see it insome ways, trying to get so far
(52:10):
away from that as possible or dosome kind of version of it that
we know is not that.
Yeah Well, I'm class.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Well, that's what you want to call it.
Uh, I'll put um uh, jeanettedubois.
Ester roll um diane carroll.
Uh mary alice uh, you know,women just class yeah yeah, I
mean debbie morgan, who, who,who, even in that movie that you
(52:40):
saw, the um tyler perry flickwhere we just talked about
earlier, she's always amazing,it doesn't matter what she's
doing.
She played the among right, uh,uh, and so uh, and you know she
gets a pass.
You know she's done so much, uh, growing up, uh, but uh, um,
and well, not that she gets apass, but she did a great job in
the movie.
She was the best thing there,uh, so you know it it's like,
(53:04):
but folks think you know I'mdoing me and y'all just old,
okay, okay, you know we can'ttell grown folks anything.
And you know there's a saying,and Russell and I talk about
this it's like the older I get,the smarter my father was.
(53:24):
I.
Like that, yeah, it's like theolder I get, the smarter my
father was I like that, yeah, Ilike that, yeah, because you
start to understand now you knowwhat I mean, you start to
understand that wisdom startedhitting you.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
And that's what it is .
Is that, when you look at it, Imean you'd be kind of remiss to
you know, we have our platforms, you have Acta and I have this.
We'd be remiss not to sayanything, you know.
I mean we can see it, we canvoice like a sign about it.
The rest is up to you.
So I totally, I totally getthat, you know.
I mean yeah, yeah, it's allabout the presentation, like you
said, about yourself, likerussell, you guys are, you know,
(53:56):
classy elders man.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
If I could say that, you know, I mean yeah and you
know and and it kind of feeds insome sort some way, because
then others of us will go incertain spaces and people will
think, oh, because of this Idon't really have to address
this older brown skin personbecause they're brown skin
(54:18):
person, so I can just saywhatever.
And then you know you have tocheck them.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
Right.
Speaker 2 (54:23):
You know, which I'm never have any problem doing.
I mean, you know, I say I don'ttake our, so I don't take
anybody else's, uh, but, um, butyeah, you know, and so but, but
all of that is kind of fed.
It's like there's a reason thatpeople react to you the way
that they do and, um, if theywant to have that, you know you
(54:46):
can correct them.
But then we've got all theseother examples of people that
are just saying ah you know thisdoesn't mean anything anymore.
You know that's, that's old,that's old stuff.
Now we don't, yeah, you know wedon't even take care of our
older, uh, musical acts andolder, older actors, or you know
, and when you see other folksthat you you still see Carole
(55:08):
King being taken care of, janisJoplin being taken care of, but
you don't really see, I don'ttour.
Billy Joel is still touringMassive crowds, but we don't.
Young and older, but we won'tgo and see some of our great,
great icons I mean not evenstevie wonder in the same way.
Speaker 1 (55:29):
No, yeah, um so I'm assuming they're only pulling
stevie out when it's time to.
You know, open up something bigor whatever, like you know the
inauguration or something youonly see, steve, yeah yeah, yeah
, that's on us to support thatand to kind of.
Speaker 2 (55:41):
We can grow as much as we want, but we have to have
our finger on the pulse of thepast and understand why this
thing called entertainment, whatit can be used for and why art
is so necessary.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
And it's big that you said that, because we all know
that everything is visual.
You know, and you might have aperson from across the country
and this is the only view thatthey have of your people.
You know, and they'll treat you.
You know, you might have aperson from across the country
and this is the only view thatthey have of your people.
You know, and they'll treat you, you know, a certain way when
they do actually see you inperson.
Speaker 2 (56:11):
This is the only visual that they have yeah,
that's not by accident, and Ithink the people that are making
these decisions puppet masters.
You know that's not by accidentno, it's not because if they
lose those folks, then they loseit all right yeah, yeah that's
deep, man, that's deep.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
So let me ask you um, I know you have your, your,
your next project coming up andall that you're working on, your
, your movie, and all what elsedo you have outside of you know
that's outside of thatparticular project that you,
that you're working on.
Speaker 2 (56:45):
Oh yeah, there's a.
There's a movie I may beshooting in Tennessee in
November.
A young brother that I met at acafe here in Sherman Oaks last
year and I didn't really knowwho he was, but he didn't know
about the bear Turns out he's areally up and coming young
(57:07):
filmmaker.
And then in May he sends methis note out of the blue I
really like you to be in mymovie and here's the role for
you, and I really hope youaccept.
And I was just trying to figureout where did I meet?
How do I know this?
And then I finally asked him.
He said remember, last summerat that little cafe across from
the car wash.
We spoke very, very briefly.
(57:28):
You said you liked how Ihandled something on the phone.
I said, oh yeah.
He said yeah, that's me.
And I decided that day thisguy's going to be in my movie
Nice, and he's a really up andcoming writer.
And so, and then I have anothermovie that I shot in January
called she Taught Love, and sheTaught Love was written by a cat
(57:53):
named Daryl Rick story, and Iplay the father of the female
lead, and so that comes outSeptember 27th.
And so, yeah, I'm lookingforward to that my publicist,
(58:20):
jordan Robinson.
She said to me today she said,oh, it's on IMDb now they've got
everything about it.
I was like, oh, that's cool,because I knew it was coming
coming out.
Um, um, then I'm uh little momand I gonna go take a trip to
london for a couple weeks, uh,mid, uh, august.
(58:41):
Um, hang out there there, shakethe trees.
I don't have this thing aboutEnglish actors being here and
taking roles, because I'veworked there and when I worked
there, english actors werealways asking me questions about
acting and blah, blah, blah.
And when I worked in Paris, Iworked with one of the most
famous English directors ever.
(59:03):
So people find out, when peoplefrom there find find out, that
I was personally asked by thisdirector to move to Paris and
work with him, you know, youknow they're like wow, so I
don't really get caught up inall that stuff.
I mean, you know, the characterI play on the bear is sounds
nothing like me.
Speaker 1 (59:23):
Yeah, nothing at all.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
Yeah, but you know, but you know we're gonna go
there, we're gonna hang out, I'mgonna shake the trees a bit,
see what, see what other stuffis happening over there.
Uh, for, for me as an artist,and so that's you know, that's
the rest of the year and I'm uhdoing what I do, a lot of which
is uh smoke cigars, smoke cigarsyeah, yeah, youars.
Yeah, yeah, you know.
You know I was about to lightone here, but I was like I don't
(59:48):
know if I should have one whileI'm talking to you.
That's usually what I have.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, see, Ialways have one close.
Oh okay, all right, I had tojust finish door one.
I'm about to be at, yeah, andI'm going to end up putting the
finishing touches on the nextthing.
I'm hoping there's some thingsthat might be happening, folks
(01:00:18):
at Sony, and so just keepcreating.
Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
That's good, man, listen before I let you go.
I just want to say once again Ithank you, and I was even
listening to what you're sayingthere and how you gave that
young brother a shot.
You know where it's like youcould say, hey look, man, I got
so many awards or whatever.
You know what I mean.
Call my agent, something likethat, but you gave that young
brother a shot and I appreciateyou for that.
Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
But wait, wait, wait.
Well, you know, give me a shot.
He called me, he sent me in andhe's like you know, I don't
want you audition for anything,I just want you to play this
role because I love your workand you know.
And then this young woman,tracy Toms, I think she saw the
play I did last year.
I played Step and Fetch.
I didn't play it last year LosAngeles and did last year.
Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
I played step and fetch it and played last last
year here in los angeles, and Ithink a lot of people saw that
here in la, and so she was afetch clay man or something like
that and uh, and so she's inthis movie with this cat, or
chas hawkins, I think his nameis.
Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
and then she sent me a message saying I, I can't wait
to work with you.
And I told Chaz, yeah, you know, you've got to be in this movie
.
I mean, I want to work with you, and Tracy and I I think we met
, maybe briefly after the play,but you never know where the
work is coming from, right?
(01:01:42):
So you just do the work and youdo it with no other intention
than to do it well and do itthoroughly, and stuff happens.
So, yeah, so, so.
So this young cat gave me, youknow, he, he called me up and
yeah, and yeah, I would never be.
Oh, just call me, yeah, yeah,because some people are man, so
(01:02:04):
this is.
I know, I know, I book peoplefor the show man.
Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
You don't even hear responses sometimes, so really,
yeah, I'm like.
Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
I'm like you know come on, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
So I understand, yeah , like really, really, people
get too big.
You know how it go, man, peopleget too big, they don't wanna
they don't wanna deal with youno more.
Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
And they forget that they were where you were at at
one point.
So that happens, man, yeah, andeverybody's still in the same
place, which is here.
Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Exactly, we're all right here.
Yeah, man, To quote DougieFresh brother, the only stars I
know is in the sky.
Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
It is.
That's what it is man, Iappreciate you having brother,
the only stars I know is in thesky.
That's what it is, man, but youknow I appreciate you having me
on.
And yeah, anytime you want tohave me back, I'll be the best,
come back.
Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
Yeah, I will really.
We got to get on here too.
What's your brother's name?
Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Does he owe me some money?
That's why he ain't here.
Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
His name is Brooklyn Trey Trey.
That's why he's not here.
He's ducking you.
Man Made some side deal.
I don't know about man, but no,he would have loved to have
been here.
Man, he was looking for it.
We was just sitting here untilhe had some equipment issues and
I want to let you know that.
you know you are the first guestof the new season, so I just
(01:03:25):
want to applaud, you know Iappreciate you, brother, really,
because we took a little hiatusand I was getting ready for the
next season and then trying tocoordinate this with the Chris,
amongst a few other things, andyeah, so I said you definitely
got to be the first one forthank you on this side too, too,
(01:03:45):
man, I really appreciate you.
So, with that being said, we'regetting ready to split.
So please, if you haven'tchecked it out, check out the
Bear on Fox, fx, hulu, whateveryou got that streams the Bear.
You check it out, man.
This brother is really worththe watch.
All right, so I'm going toleave this with y'all.
(01:04:07):
The Only One Mike Podcast isavailable on all platforms you
stream your podcasts on.
Also, check out our Only OneMike Podcast YouTube channel to
catch up on the past and currentepisodes, and please don't
forget to rate the show andsubscribe folks.
It helps us out.
Alright, you can check us outalso on Instagram and Twitter at
TheOnlyOneMikeP1.
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Facebook and LinkedIn atTheOnlyOneMikePodcast.
(01:04:28):
And you can contact us viaemail, theonlyonemike00 at
gmailcom or call us at302-367-7219 to have your
comments and questions played onthe show.
We thank you once again foryour time, folks.
Thank you once again, edwin LeeGibson for showing up to the
spot here, and we encourage you,please, to speak the truth
(01:04:51):
quietly and clearly, and listento others, even adult and
ignorant, because they too havetheir story to tell.
So until next time, please keepin mind that we never have to
run from the Ku Klux Klan, so weshouldn't have to run from a
black man.
Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Peace, let's sit, let's sit, so we shouldn't have
to run from a black man.
Peace.
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