August 22, 2024 • 10 mins
Amazon’s highly anticipated new series Classified blends teenage drama with international suspense and intrigue. Premiering on both Prime Video and Amazon FreeVee, Classified follows 15-year-old Ella, an Oakland, CA, student who is arrested at a protest and facing jail time. Ella avoids incarceration thanks to her stepmother’s connections, but as part of the deal, she must leave her home and spend the remainder of her secondary education with her father and stepmother in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ella’s world is turned upside down as she navigates a very different reality than the one she has known. (See the trailer). To discuss the series is Christine Horn who stars as Ella’s stepmother Dianne. The award-winning actress has appeared in more than 70 roles across theater, film and television including Snowfall, Black Mafia Family, Grey's Anatomy, Black-ish, The Lincoln Lawyer, Shameless and Terminator: Dark Fate to name just a few. And series creator Kagiso Lediga is a celebrated South African stand-up comedian and a multiple award-winning actor, writer, director and producer of film and TV. He also serves as showrunner, lead director, and writer on the series.
Ella’s world is turned upside down as she navigates a very different reality than the one she has known. (See the trailer). To discuss the series is Christine Horn who stars as Ella’s stepmother Dianne. The award-winning actress has appeared in more than 70 roles across theater, film and television including Snowfall, Black Mafia Family, Grey's Anatomy, Black-ish, The Lincoln Lawyer, Shameless and Terminator: Dark Fate to name just a few. And series creator Kagiso Lediga is a celebrated South African stand-up comedian and a multiple award-winning actor, writer, director and producer of film and TV. He also serves as showrunner, lead director, and writer on the series.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh Lad with mo Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Six. The Amazon Prime video series Classified follows fifteen year
old Oakland student Ella, who's arrested at a protest and
facing serious jail time. Ella avoids incarceration thanks to her stepmother,
(00:28):
who you'll meet in just a moment, who's well connected.
The catches that ell of Us moved to South Africa
for the rest of the school year, but beneath that,
there's a story of international intrigue. In fact, Spycraft Entertainment,
a global production company run by former senior intelligence officers,
co producers and consults on the series.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Live in Oakland, protesters are calling for change.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
He messed up, El, he messed up real bad.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I don't know what strings your father had to pull
to get you out of here.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Come here, Welcome to South Africa. Left to the back,
left to the right, Step to the stage.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
You're excited about school tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Enjoy your first day this year.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
He is for the rest of your likes. This is
where kids of politicians, pop stars, and diplomats and their children.
I've been assigned as your orientation guy.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Nice try do Try. That was pretty dope.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
The new kid from San Francisco, right, I think You're
pretty badass. Did you kids?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Tell me?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
What's up with all the security?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
This is your personal emergency code.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Memorize it please? What did you say your mom does again?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I'm the CIA station chief for South Africa.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Very funny, all that rightiness, Laca.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
You know, but it doesn't that presidential inauguration was their target.
We believe that boy's dad might be able to lead
us and you.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Can help Ella.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
They'll go go.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
There'll be difficult things that you have to do, dangerous man.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Going home.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's not an option.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I want my life fat what's going on with Tiana?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
This is your new life?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Are you gonna love this place? Can just feel it?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And Classified is now available on Amazon Prime and Tonight.
Comedian actor and series creator Khaki so Ladiha and co
star Christine Horn both joined me to preview it. Welcome friends,
Thank you for coming on tonight.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Thank thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Coky, so let me start with you. There's something about
coming of age on and off the screen, same but different.
We've all been sixteen, but not sixteen at this time
in this world, and the world always shifts. What is
it about just trying to tell a coming of age
story through adult eyes.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
For me that as you say, coming of age and
for me coming of age zone as a kind of
constrapping kind of forever as under construction as people where
we kind of later in the construction. If you are
walls when you're in your forties, you're like a higher
war that you know at fifteen year old is like
the beginning foundations. You know, I always find that so fascinating.
(03:16):
And what do us then kind of to add that
that grand that complication was doing that through this kind
of twisted world of espionage, you know, not like being
a spy James Bond, but like like real espionage where
you're gonna have to betray your friends. You're gonna have
to pretend to be something you're not. You're gonna be
(03:37):
told by grown ups who are supposed to tell you otherwise.
They're gonna tell you there lie. They're gonna tell you
to do all sorts of things that are wrong, if
you know, in favor of God and country or whatever
it is that they will give you as their reasons.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Christie, listening to Cocky Soo's answer, you know, there is
history that shows us every generation has its time of
protest and invariably, the older generation never approves of how
the younger generation chooses to protest, and using Coky Soo's
answer as a jumping off point, this story may be fictional,
but the generational dynamics still ring true, do they not?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Absolutely? I mean, at the height of any revolution as
young people, and because they have less to lose, right,
there's less on the line for them.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So that's what I love about this story.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
We follow Ella who is very fiery and fed up,
and she has her strong beliefs and she's not afraid
to go for what she believes, and even though there
are you know, you know, repercussions on the other side
of that, and so I think the audience will be
able to connect with that, whether that was once them
or that is them currently. But then getting to see
and watch Ella unfold and come into herself as she
(04:47):
is forced to live in a new place that is
unfamiliar to her, a place that she has probably made,
has some stereotypes in her mind and preconceived notions, and
all of that gets shattered and we go on this
wild journey with her as she discovered South Africa.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Kaki, So let's talk about some of those preconceived notions
and stereotypes. You're speaking to an American audience, largely one
probably unfamiliar with the South Africa of the twenty first century.
How would you characterize the country now post apartheid.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
You know, we talk about the universality of like human life.
You know, you land anywhere in the world today, if
you were to Uber on your phone, you're gonna call it.
If you're looking for a coffee shop, there's gonna be this.
It's kind of a grand globalization that's happening thanks to
American corporations. So the world is very much the same.
Like whether it's good or bad, I don't know, but
(05:39):
there's a kind of universality or genericness that's that didn't
happen because of globalization, and I think that, you know,
with a show like this, you get to show that.
And obviously there's always unique things South Africa coming out
of a part that being in this new place now
where black people have a lot more mobility, a lot
(06:01):
more freedoms, and having this American African American character who
has an idea of blackness coming into this place and
seeing how that gets subverted or how, you know, seeing
the blackness through different eyes, and I think for like
a global diaspora audience, this becomes like a point of
cool conversation about identity, about ru Yah and so on,
(06:25):
and how we fit in the world, especially from the
perspective of a sixteen.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Year old Christine classified as we're talking about maybe a
coming of age story on the surface, but we've been
hinting at it and jumping around talking about it from
a distance. It's an international spy thriller. Without giving it
all away. You as Ella's stepmother, Diane knows some pretty
powerful people around the globe. How does Ella's life change
(06:51):
in the series beyond just her physical address?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Great question.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Well, Ella's life changes because she soon finds out that
I'm the CIA station chief, and which means, yes, I
am intertwined with some very powerful people and some unscrupulous
people as well. And Ella wants something and I want something,
and so I use that to my advantage and I
make her work for me.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And so she ends up going to a school.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
And this isn't giving too much away, but you'll see
she ends up going to a school where diplomats go
and they send their kids to, and the wealthy students
go there and so there's lots of connections that I
require her make so that she can get what she
wants and I can get what I want.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Congress, So am my introduction. I talked about how Spycraft Entertainment,
a global production company run by former senior intelligence officers.
One of the co producers a classified How did that
process work as far as having a script and telling
a story but also making sure it was authentic on
many levels.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, I think it's kind of the original talent. They
came and said, look, this is how we lived, this
is what we used to We use our children as
these tools national security, and so we were very judgmental, like, well,
how did you do your kids? You know, this is
how you know, this is how you secure the country,
this is how you secure the world, and so. But
(08:10):
there's obviously the real life stories and there's like fiction,
there's how do you make this compelling screen? Because the
real spy whenever you research spycraft and being spies, it's
always so boy, it's always so anti James Bond, right, Like,
real spies will tell you about how spying is boring
and it's time consuming. You know, there's a lot of
(08:31):
waiting and there's no sexy James bondiness that's happening. So
Lutra is great that like there was something that I
needed to be ever to tap into because of this
kind of grounded young adult drama and this kind of
family drama that's happening. But we also wanted the excitement,
that kind of danger, that betrayal of the intrigue and
so on. So in the middle of there, we would
write script send it to them. They'd go, this, wouldn't
(08:54):
They were really kind of concerned with the initiated, you know,
they wouldn't use an ambulance a secret car. That's what
happens in the movies. You know that when you have
the secret ambulance with like the communications in the back
like we see it in the movies. They're like, yeah,
an ambulance because people would expect an ambulance to help
them if any accident happened, so they would use a
(09:14):
different type of card. We're like, oh, but this type
of stuff happens, and of course it happens, yes, but
not an ambulance, you know. So there was always these
types of little stories, little things, and some parts of
way we would both agree, but it's more exciting if
it's an ambulance, or it's more exciting if we catch
as fire and they're like, yeah, we'll let it's lie,
you know. But generally we try as much as possible
(09:35):
to make it authentic and as grounded as possible. That
was kind of the running thread was that this has
to feel real, this has to be we gott watch
this and go, oh man, that that kid is as fire.
When you you imagine Ella as a three year old,
you know that's gonna be so messed up. She's gonna
be really it's not a lot of cigarettes and being
a badass.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Well, I can't wait. We're gonna be checking it out.
Classified now available on Amazon Prime Video. I want to
think my guests Kagi so Ladija and also co star
Christine Horn. Congratulations. Can't wait to see all of it.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Thank you, Thank you sir, Thank you for having us.
And also Amazon FREEV if you don't have a subscription
and you like three things, Yes, we like free
Oh Lad with mo Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Six. The Amazon Prime video series Classified follows fifteen year
old Oakland student Ella, who's arrested at a protest and
facing serious jail time. Ella avoids incarceration thanks to her stepmother,
(00:28):
who you'll meet in just a moment, who's well connected.
The catches that ell of Us moved to South Africa
for the rest of the school year, but beneath that,
there's a story of international intrigue. In fact, Spycraft Entertainment,
a global production company run by former senior intelligence officers,
co producers and consults on the series.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Live in Oakland, protesters are calling for change.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
He messed up, El, he messed up real bad.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I don't know what strings your father had to pull
to get you out of here.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Come here, Welcome to South Africa. Left to the back,
left to the right, Step to the stage.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
You're excited about school tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Enjoy your first day this year.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
He is for the rest of your likes. This is
where kids of politicians, pop stars, and diplomats and their children.
I've been assigned as your orientation guy.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Nice try do Try. That was pretty dope.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
The new kid from San Francisco, right, I think You're
pretty badass. Did you kids?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Tell me?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
What's up with all the security?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
This is your personal emergency code.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Memorize it please? What did you say your mom does again?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I'm the CIA station chief for South Africa.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Very funny, all that rightiness, Laca.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
You know, but it doesn't that presidential inauguration was their target.
We believe that boy's dad might be able to lead
us and you.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Can help Ella.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
They'll go go.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
There'll be difficult things that you have to do, dangerous man.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Going home.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's not an option.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I want my life fat what's going on with Tiana?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
This is your new life?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Are you gonna love this place? Can just feel it?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And Classified is now available on Amazon Prime and Tonight.
Comedian actor and series creator Khaki so Ladiha and co
star Christine Horn both joined me to preview it. Welcome friends,
Thank you for coming on tonight.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Thank thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Coky, so let me start with you. There's something about
coming of age on and off the screen, same but different.
We've all been sixteen, but not sixteen at this time
in this world, and the world always shifts. What is
it about just trying to tell a coming of age
story through adult eyes.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
For me that as you say, coming of age and
for me coming of age zone as a kind of
constrapping kind of forever as under construction as people where
we kind of later in the construction. If you are
walls when you're in your forties, you're like a higher
war that you know at fifteen year old is like
the beginning foundations. You know, I always find that so fascinating.
(03:16):
And what do us then kind of to add that
that grand that complication was doing that through this kind
of twisted world of espionage, you know, not like being
a spy James Bond, but like like real espionage where
you're gonna have to betray your friends. You're gonna have
to pretend to be something you're not. You're gonna be
(03:37):
told by grown ups who are supposed to tell you otherwise.
They're gonna tell you there lie. They're gonna tell you
to do all sorts of things that are wrong, if
you know, in favor of God and country or whatever
it is that they will give you as their reasons.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Christie, listening to Cocky Soo's answer, you know, there is
history that shows us every generation has its time of
protest and invariably, the older generation never approves of how
the younger generation chooses to protest, and using Coky Soo's
answer as a jumping off point, this story may be fictional,
but the generational dynamics still ring true, do they not?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Absolutely? I mean, at the height of any revolution as
young people, and because they have less to lose, right,
there's less on the line for them.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
So that's what I love about this story.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
We follow Ella who is very fiery and fed up,
and she has her strong beliefs and she's not afraid
to go for what she believes, and even though there
are you know, you know, repercussions on the other side
of that, and so I think the audience will be
able to connect with that, whether that was once them
or that is them currently. But then getting to see
and watch Ella unfold and come into herself as she
(04:47):
is forced to live in a new place that is
unfamiliar to her, a place that she has probably made,
has some stereotypes in her mind and preconceived notions, and
all of that gets shattered and we go on this
wild journey with her as she discovered South Africa.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Kaki, So let's talk about some of those preconceived notions
and stereotypes. You're speaking to an American audience, largely one
probably unfamiliar with the South Africa of the twenty first century.
How would you characterize the country now post apartheid.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
You know, we talk about the universality of like human life.
You know, you land anywhere in the world today, if
you were to Uber on your phone, you're gonna call it.
If you're looking for a coffee shop, there's gonna be this.
It's kind of a grand globalization that's happening thanks to
American corporations. So the world is very much the same.
Like whether it's good or bad, I don't know, but
(05:39):
there's a kind of universality or genericness that's that didn't
happen because of globalization, and I think that, you know,
with a show like this, you get to show that.
And obviously there's always unique things South Africa coming out
of a part that being in this new place now
where black people have a lot more mobility, a lot
(06:01):
more freedoms, and having this American African American character who
has an idea of blackness coming into this place and
seeing how that gets subverted or how, you know, seeing
the blackness through different eyes, and I think for like
a global diaspora audience, this becomes like a point of
cool conversation about identity, about ru Yah and so on,
(06:25):
and how we fit in the world, especially from the
perspective of a sixteen.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Year old Christine classified as we're talking about maybe a
coming of age story on the surface, but we've been
hinting at it and jumping around talking about it from
a distance. It's an international spy thriller. Without giving it
all away. You as Ella's stepmother, Diane knows some pretty
powerful people around the globe. How does Ella's life change
(06:51):
in the series beyond just her physical address?
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Great question.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Well, Ella's life changes because she soon finds out that
I'm the CIA station chief, and which means, yes, I
am intertwined with some very powerful people and some unscrupulous
people as well. And Ella wants something and I want something,
and so I use that to my advantage and I
make her work for me.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And so she ends up going to a school.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
And this isn't giving too much away, but you'll see
she ends up going to a school where diplomats go
and they send their kids to, and the wealthy students
go there and so there's lots of connections that I
require her make so that she can get what she
wants and I can get what I want.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Congress, So am my introduction. I talked about how Spycraft Entertainment,
a global production company run by former senior intelligence officers.
One of the co producers a classified How did that
process work as far as having a script and telling
a story but also making sure it was authentic on
many levels.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, I think it's kind of the original talent. They
came and said, look, this is how we lived, this
is what we used to We use our children as
these tools national security, and so we were very judgmental, like, well,
how did you do your kids? You know, this is
how you know, this is how you secure the country,
this is how you secure the world, and so. But
(08:10):
there's obviously the real life stories and there's like fiction,
there's how do you make this compelling screen? Because the
real spy whenever you research spycraft and being spies, it's
always so boy, it's always so anti James Bond, right, Like,
real spies will tell you about how spying is boring
and it's time consuming. You know, there's a lot of
(08:31):
waiting and there's no sexy James bondiness that's happening. So
Lutra is great that like there was something that I
needed to be ever to tap into because of this
kind of grounded young adult drama and this kind of
family drama that's happening. But we also wanted the excitement,
that kind of danger, that betrayal of the intrigue and
so on. So in the middle of there, we would
write script send it to them. They'd go, this, wouldn't
(08:54):
They were really kind of concerned with the initiated, you know,
they wouldn't use an ambulance a secret car. That's what
happens in the movies. You know that when you have
the secret ambulance with like the communications in the back
like we see it in the movies. They're like, yeah,
an ambulance because people would expect an ambulance to help
them if any accident happened, so they would use a
(09:14):
different type of card. We're like, oh, but this type
of stuff happens, and of course it happens, yes, but
not an ambulance, you know. So there was always these
types of little stories, little things, and some parts of
way we would both agree, but it's more exciting if
it's an ambulance, or it's more exciting if we catch
as fire and they're like, yeah, we'll let it's lie,
you know. But generally we try as much as possible
(09:35):
to make it authentic and as grounded as possible. That
was kind of the running thread was that this has
to feel real, this has to be we gott watch
this and go, oh man, that that kid is as fire.
When you you imagine Ella as a three year old,
you know that's gonna be so messed up. She's gonna
be really it's not a lot of cigarettes and being
a badass.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Well, I can't wait. We're gonna be checking it out.
Classified now available on Amazon Prime Video. I want to
think my guests Kagi so Ladija and also co star
Christine Horn. Congratulations. Can't wait to see all of it.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Thank you, Thank you sir, Thank you for having us.
And also Amazon FREEV if you don't have a subscription
and you like three things, Yes, we like free
Later, with Mo'Kelly News
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