Today on The Breakfast Club, Michael Jai White Talks New Film ‘Special Op: Rent-A-Cop’, Controlling Your Ego, Tyler Perry, Winning The Bruce Lee Award. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day a week.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Pack your ass up the breakfast club.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
You don't finished for y'all done morning.
Speaker 4 (00:07):
Everybody is the j n Vy Jess hilarious, Charlamagne to God,
we are the breakfast Club law La Roses here as well.
We got a special guest in the building. His new
movie special Op Runner Cop is out right now, Michael Jock,
Michael J.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
White.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Is it just you got it right?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (00:22):
Right?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Good morning?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
How you feeling, brother?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I feel real good. I feel real good being back here.
I have problems now because I'm kind of loving being
back really, Yes, man, I'm from here richinally and so
Walkney Streets. Man, it's a beautiful weather man. It's got
me like. But that's today, yes to mar Well yesterday too,
it was it was all man, I'm enjoying myself. What
(00:45):
do you miss about it? Just so much? Man. The
energy I'm hooking up with my peoples from here that
I ain't seen in a long time. The fact that,
you know, trap C Streets trying to come up doing
theater and all that kind of stuff. And I almost
feel like I sold out when I'm in La and
now I'm doing that, you know, doing the other type
(01:05):
of thing. But man, I got my friends doing Broadway
and all that kind of stuff, and I started with
theater out here, right, So it made me kind of
miss it, so you know, yeah, so you know I'm
feeling that way, but.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
I like to go back for people that don't know.
How did you get into theater into acting? What push
you towards that?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well? I was I was always kind of doing this
as a kid, right. I was doing like plays and
I was doing like my own films, like when I
was ten years old, I was cutting together movies and stuff,
but wasn't taking it serious. Like I go to college,
come out, I'm a school teacher, but I'm still dealing
with like I'm coming out here auditioning to do different
(01:45):
things when I'm off you know, from teaching school. And
so it got in my system, like I really enjoy this,
And so I landed a really big like theatrical like
I was in to Kill a Mockingbird, the first added
tation to theater, you know, off Broadway, and I was
with like like Tony Award winners all that kind of stuff,
(02:07):
and so that was my trajectory. I was an actor, right,
and I was doing theater and I was doing all
that kind of stuff and landing stuff before going out
to l A. But you know, in these streets, and
you know, it's the energy and the fact that I
was in it for the art of it, right and then,
(02:27):
and so it's kind of like reliving that, right. So,
but yeah, I started out here and uh, you know
then you know, you know, with the whole LA thing
and you know, changing up doing all the kind of
popcorn movies and stuff like that. I always wanted to
come back to roots and do more theater and do
those kinds of things. But you know, it's it's it's
(02:48):
I kind of feeling nostalgic.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And when did the Marshall?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I was gonna say, the data coming from martial marshals.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
It's funny how people equate the two. I've been doing
martial arts my whole life. It's kind of like, I
don't know, like if you think about Gregory Hines was
tap dancing, but they don't tap dance in every movie.
But when I first came to LA, I didn't want
to do anything with martial arts. I want to be
established as an actor because that's what I was. But
(03:13):
I happened to do martial arts, right So when I
started doing movies with martial arts in it, what was
cool is that a lot of people, executives, they thought, oh,
he's being doubled whatever. They didn't realize I was efficient
in that that you could really do it right. Yeah,
So but that was that was by design because I
(03:33):
didn't want to first start doing martial arts movies and
be on martial arts Island and everybody think that you
can't you can't act because because yeah, because most of
people who do martial arts movies, that's all they do.
And I knew, just like with Wesley who's done a
whole lot of work, once he got known for something
dealing with martial arts, he got branded like that, right,
(03:54):
even though he's a fabulous actor, people tend to forget that,
and a lot of times with people with me, they
forget that too to some degree. But no, I'm an actor,
and even when I do the stuff with martial arts,
it might you know, it might be by way of
the action. I may be doing martial arts in it.
But of course, people like to put you on a
certain shelf. Until you break off of that shelf, you've
(04:16):
mathter martial arts at a high level. It's like a
seven degree black belt, I think, well, I got I
got eight black belts right in different varying degrees. But
like that's just a mainstay of my life, you know.
But I apply martial arts to everything in my life,
you know, you know, anything, being a better father, being there.
It's about overcoming obstacles. That's what martial arts about, even
(04:37):
though it's kind of like people look at the fighting
aspects of it and that kind of derails everything because
everybody starts just thinking about because most people are insecure,
and they think about the fighting and you know, whooping
somebody's ass. That's only a very small part of what
martial arts is designed for. You know, it's really designed
for to develop a personal overall. But uh, you know so,
(05:01):
but so I kind of use martial arts in every
aspect of my life because it's about discipline.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
What did martial arts teach you about patience and ego
that acting didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Oh my god, there's so much. It's just life taught
me a lot about ego. I never seen anybody with
a big ego who was happy in my life, you know,
and then you know, even in martial arts, you got
the ego somebody gonna humble your ass, right, there's always
checks and balances, So I look at it like that anyway.
Like you know, again, I don't know what's the lure
(05:33):
of being agatistical because I don't. I don't see it
amount to anything. And you know, because you're gonna have
to like look at the world. I mean, when people
kiss your ass and tell you your wonderful one life.
That was a good lesson to learn in the martial
arts because I apply it to life. And when you know,
there's people who you know, they admire you whatever, but
(05:54):
they're gonna like kind of big up you. But if
your ego gets big, it's it's some one gonna hurt you.
Like I said, I don't see anybody with a big
ego who's happy. I just never seen it. But you know,
you start to try to color the world the way
you want to color it because because of your ego.
So that's why I do a lot of different martial
(06:16):
arts because I have a black belt in something, I
put a white belt on something else. But that's like
in life. Man, I might know this, but let me
know about this.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
What got you into martial arts as a kid?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
What insecurity to be honest with you. You know, I grew
up in Brooklyn and Bridgeport, Connecticut, where life was crazy.
I've been on my own since I was fourteen. I've
been through stuff that you see on movies, and I
got to be the happiest person I know because I
know where I came from. And so man, when I
walk around and think about, oh, man, I remember what
(06:47):
happened on this street. You know, I remember what happened
on this street, and I go, man, man, I got
to do nothing but give back because I'm so damn lucky.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
What got you? What got you? Like is the person
that got you into martial arts? What did you see?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Because you know, growing up in Brooklyn at the time
you were up in Brooklyn, Gleasons was the thing.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Everybody wanted the box, right, they wanted to be zab
or they wanted to be Tyson. So it was the
many things. But what got you into the actual?
Speaker 6 (07:13):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I want to try this?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Well? Shoot man? When as a kid going I mean
and the Bronx were looking at looking at these movies,
seeing five Fingers of Death and seeing the power and
being as insecure kid, I wanted to create. I wanted
to create, Uh, like like, I wanted to protect myself.
I wanted to have that strength because I was sensitive.
(07:37):
And so what do you do if you're sensitive, you
you anything valuable or fragile, You put in a safe
and so in the street you I became the safe,
putting myself in the martial arts, being like, you can't
touch me. I gotta I gotta protect myself, just like
when I you know, I eventually played the brother Tyson,
(07:57):
who was very similar to myself. A lot of people
think that, oh, yeah, you knocked that down. I was
really playing a lot of me with his voice, right,
But so I understood that and very much like him.
At an early age, I understood like the power of
a pugilist, if you have the power to whip somebody's ass,
what that affords you as a young man growing up
(08:18):
in Brooklyn, Right, So I learned a lot of these lessons,
and fortunately I didn't have to develop with the whole
world looking at me like Tyson, did you know? So yeah,
like I said, Man, I'm very blessed. I got a
lot of lessons and learned a lot, and as a result, Man,
I'm one of the happiest people I know.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
You said, a couple of things I want to expound on.
I love what you said about you could be a
black belt in one thing, but then be a white
belt in another.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, man, I think that's what you should be in
life period. Man. Just like I love to learn, I
love to learn. So you know, it's like what Bruce
Lee said, be an empty cup. You know, you know,
empty cup, you can be filled with whatever content there is.
So there's a lot of things that I applied with
certain martial large principles in life. But like anything that
(09:09):
gives you a certain amount of power, just like people
who might be religious leaders or what have you, you
can adapt the doctrine that got you there. But if
you are like subject to your own ego, you start
creating your own religion, You start creating your own The
(09:29):
insecure person that you was returns because when men are
honored too much or got too much big ups, so whatever,
we tend to revert back to that. But you know,
we started out as insecure individuals in the first place.
It's not like it really went away. You got to
police that. Hopefully you go through something that teaches you
(09:53):
those lessons so you don't make those mistakes.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
But at age fourteen, How did you figure it out
on your own? Because you a kid looked like a
grown ass man at fourteen. I have not grown an
end since then. And I was fighting grown men. I
was fighting in men's divisions, winning heavyweight. I was a
heavyweight competitor.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
For he could have played basketball at fourteen.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah, dude, I was. Yeah. In fact, somebody who came up, right.
I don't know if you know, Charles Smith, but we
were we were like they called us the Twin Towers.
But he just kept going, of course. But yeah, so
we grew up like in the same area, right. So
But anyway, like I was, I looked like a man
early on, and I was like fighting in tournaments, and
(10:39):
I was on my own at fourteen, really, and because
my mother, you know, blessed her heart, you know, dress
in peace, the sweet church going woman from the South.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
She was.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
She is the type of person that say, those kids
are out there shooting at marijuana. I'm like, you do
shoot marijuana. But like so early I was on my own.
I just was like, and she was sweet woman. She
couldn't handle somebody like me, you know. And so I
was out there. I was out in the streets. I yeah,
(11:10):
it's like, you know, there was part of me that
was in fear. I mean, how much does Charlotte Maye
know about my past? Was like, you know, we don't.
Hey man, you know when you was called bam bam,
I know somebody, I was like, I be like but anyway,
but just to say, man, I'm blessed. I've been through
a whole lot, and now I get a chance to
cheer my experiences. Put it on a screen, because there's
(11:35):
not many people who came where I came from. Where
I came from, who's in the position I am now right,
it's rare. It's rare. But again I'm walking around blessed man.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
And I love what you said about power too write
because you know when you have that that knowing that
if I wanted to, I could destroy you.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
They also they say true power is knowing you can
destroy somebody.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
But walking away true true? I mean it's kind of
it doesn't enter my mind, it enters a lot of
other people's minds, and I go, well, bless them. I
wuld I could be sitting down with a with chairman
or something, or a big time like a producer, and
I got to hear. The first thing go out of
his mouth was like, well, I used to wrestle in college.
(12:20):
I'm like, oh, geez, so this man is thinking about
like this, you know, quantifying himself. But I go with
that's his that's his deal. I'm some people look at
me like a forearm monster, right, and I'm coming with love. Right. Really,
I'm not ever thinking about anything physical or fighting or
it never enters my mind. I know I can handle myself.
(12:42):
But it's it's what other people define as a martial
arts and all that kind of stuff. But because there's
a lot of a lot of misrepresentations out there, right
that lead with their insecurity and but it's it's the
hum peaceful, real martial artists out there that don't really
(13:03):
get the attention that they should. I mean, rest in peace,
Chuck Norris. You know people who really follow the principle,
you know, but you got you know, some loud mouths
of people who are very self aggronizing that that get
a lot of attention. But yeah, but it's it's it's
deeper than that, and it's deeper than that, and it's
(13:23):
about you know, overcoming your obstacles. You just belt levels, right,
It's white, yellow, blue, all that type of stuff. Obstacles
is what you're going to be facing the rest of
your life. And your biggest obstacle is you overcome yourself.
You can you can conquer anything. So that's really what
it is, and that's where the peace comes from. That's
where I don't have to prove myself to anybody. But
(13:46):
sometimes it makes people kind of reflect on themselves and go,
you know, I don't you know whatever that is, I
don't have that or what, but you know, God bless you,
it's but I'm not. I come in peace, you know.
But a lot of people look at it's like he
could rip my throat out. I'm like, I'm sorry you
thinking about that, but I'm not thinking about that, and
(14:08):
I would be I'd probably be the last person in
the crowd who would ever go there. I'm the person
that basically like, for me to lose control, Come on, now,
y'all gonna lose control before I will. You know, I
know what I can do, but that's not that doesn't
even come to mind. So I'm the person that's thinking
(14:28):
about protecting everybody in the room. You're not hurting everybody
in the room.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Have you ever had to like when you go into
those meetings and the guys are like, you know, talking
about martial arts and perceiving you that way, like had
to check it, like actually bring it into conversation like, hey,
that's not even where I'm at or do you just
you're so far removed you just kind.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Of well, yeah, I try to just get the conversation
back on track. That's that's really what it is, because Bossom,
some people just don't understand, because like I said, there's
a lot of people that misrepresent what this is about
and want to understand, well, what is this power that
they perceive? And of course, man, I'm kicking people in
(15:04):
the neck in movies, right, So I forget that people
are seeing that, right, I come like this and they're
thinking about, man, he just did. I got too many
stories about that because I forget what I do correct
for living. But I don't walk around with that. I
don't think about that, right, but other people do. I
can't say it's a bad thing, because I mean it
(15:24):
puts me where I am and makes me global, right,
But yeah, there's an assigned image of who I am
because of the movies. But that's you know, the people
who really know me. They know I'm I'm a goofball.
I have fun in life. My children they ain't scared
(15:45):
of me. It's like it's a sitcom in my house.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I was gonna ask, you know what the movie business
has that shifted your life a little bit?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
And the reason I say that is growing up and
we used to look towards movies as a big, major elief,
right And I'm even looking at Mike. I don't know
if you see Michael, but I couldn't imagine seeing Michael
at the crib like that's something I needed to see
on that big screen in the music. But it shifted
so much where now you know, you do a movie,
it's no longer a major movie release, and now it's
(16:13):
on you know, Hulu or t B or Netflix or
you know BT or how has that shifted the way
that you.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Think about movies? If it has it all?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Well, I've shifted into I like streaming series a lot
more because they dare to be unique, and a lot
of times in movies they're so scared to give you
an experience. It's so like formulaic. You know. So you've
seen a lot of movies and you see the trailer,
you know you've seen the whole damn movie. But it's
(16:45):
I recognize that, right, And I've been blessed to be
able to do my own things and produce my own stuff.
Right now. I got three different movies out right now.
It's got Secret between Us that's in theaters right now.
I got Oscar Shaw, which is doing really well, which
is a you know, gritty drama. And I got this
(17:06):
goofy movie that brought me here, like The The Yeah,
which is a whole different thing that was like, you know,
intending on being like a kindergarten cop type of thing.
But but I'm blessed to have these three very different
type of movies out at the same time, which is like,
you know, lets me do you know, work out different
muscles and stuff.
Speaker 7 (17:26):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
But you know, so with films now, I'm doing a
lot more of my own right writing, directing, like like
with housele Takeover and and Trouble Man, which I did
with Brother method Man. You know, from here, I get
a chance to do these things that really is in
(17:48):
my zeitgeist. And I got more movies coming out. And
of course you might know about the why that Get
married three three and that's gonna be believe me, that's
gonna be the best one of them all. Yeah. But yeah,
but like, yeah, I shift that. I really like a
lot of I like movies that are not so formulated
(18:11):
that you can't figure out.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
For like day one, you were doing superhero movies, you know,
way before the superhero boom, right like this respawn.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Do you ever look at today's landscape and feel like
you were ahead of your time?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I don't look at it things like that. I don't
ever think of myself being ahead of nothing. Really, I
just trapes along do my thing. Yeah, it was it
was wonderful to be the first black superhero in that,
but I didn't expect that that that was gonna yield
any any particular thing. I don't have those expectations. But yeah,
I'm I'm I'm honored to be in that category. Some
(18:48):
of the superhero movies now, I'm just I'm not really
into that because I feel like they're kind of doing
the same thing and it's I'm not the target audience.
It's it's a younger audience that they're looking for. And
I love superhero movies.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
A lot of the superhero movies, I feel like it's
all audience, Like they grow up with you.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
They want to the costumes for Halloween.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
But I've gotten into the DC because of the TV
series right right right, The Peacemaker was dope, Penguin was dope.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Oh yeah, it's gonna be. I love the TV series
movies is you know, I just I'm just seeing the
formula all the time, you know. So you know, I
like the straight rest milk basically, you know, it's something
that's gonna be its own, its own thing. So yeah,
I have I have respect for the movies that try
to notch out their own kind of personality to it.
(19:39):
But yeah, but but but somebody landing in a three
point stance and then look up, I'll turn I'll turned
the channel.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
The superhero landed.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah yeah, I'm like, not for me, you know. Yeah,
So yeah, I like the I like the television stuff
a lot more. What is the plot of why did
I Get married?
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Through?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
You can't say it? Oh yeah, I can say a
little bit. I think I'm pretty su But I mean,
I gotta commend Tyler on this one because even on
the onset of the script, the subject matter is stuff
that I hadn't even seen in a movie before. One
of the things I think I could talk about is
the fact that as parents, right, we like to be
exemply reroll models to my children, and children don't know
(20:20):
all the messing up that we did beforehand. And that
was that was the thing that I always thought was
great about this because I never saw a movie that
dealt with that. As parents, we always do that. They
don't know how messed up we were, you know, And
so there's a there's a concept of that in this movie.
There's actually four concepts in this movie that could have
been movies by itself. So Tyler really stepped on up
(20:43):
on this. And I'm you know, I'm I try to
be I'm always honest. I'm like, it's a superstition to me.
I'm honest with Tyler Is. I consider him a friend
first and foremost before anything, and I never lied to nobody.
I feel like he really stepped up and in a
whole lot of ways in this movie. It's done. Yeah,
(21:06):
we shot in Lake Como and then you know, he's
he's doing something. I'm proud of what he's doing. And
y'all gonna like this. Jill, Jill Scott uh Taji is
now she's in it. No, she didn't. I don't know. Yeah,
well I think people know that she's she's not in
this one. But yeah, but Taraji, man, she kills it.
(21:29):
Everybody kills and there's a young audience. There's a young
audience in this movie, a young our children. Man, these
young actors are killing it. I mean, Da Vinci plays
my son, you know from B MF I did. There's
like amazing. I mean just even standing on a set
(21:49):
watching them do their thing. Man, I was like, this
is gonna be this is gonna be fire.
Speaker 8 (21:54):
You said, Tyler Perry stepped up a few times, and
he stepped.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
It up with the way he's shooting movies now is
very innovative. He shoots it really in a short period
of time but keeps the energy right there. Like a
lot of times when you're doing movies right, you will
you you do your scene, then you got to pick
up from that energy like hours later after they change
the camera angles with He does this innovative thing where
(22:19):
you stay in the moment and you were in it right,
and it preserves performances like you will not believe, and
so that energy and that when you're in that moment,
you stay in it right. So it's you know, me
as a director, I you know, i'n't jotted some things
down and I've kind of applied.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
How was he able to do that without changing the
lens and without moving things around? How was he able
to keep you all on energy?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Because you, oh my.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
God, he's got if you if you're a cameraman in
his in this set, you better be in shape because
his brother would do use seven steady camps and move
them joints around and keep them moving. And you don't
have to wait. That's the thing you have to wait
for your performance.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Are you shooting a movie quicker too?
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Oh my god, Oh my god, what normally would take
two hours, you'll do in fifteen minutes. Because he knows editing.
You know, I started. I did a lot of editing too,
so I understood how he was doing this. And you know,
as an actor, you're like, do we have everything? But
I know he's got all these different things. He's really
stepping up. People don't realize because people get used to
(23:27):
who somebody is and they don't realize, Yo, man, this
cat is growing in this way that that I see
as a as an artist, that that dare I say, Man,
I'm I'm putting a lot of his stuff into my repertoire.
Speaker 8 (23:42):
How does he I don't know what you can share,
but how does he?
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Like in Janet Jackson's story though, in this new one
without her being there, because like I feel like we
were left on a cliff of like how is she
going to continue her life?
Speaker 8 (23:53):
And you know she's grieving her husband and that was
the first.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Movie right well that you're talking about this second, that
was the last.
Speaker 8 (24:00):
The last time we saw Janet was when she lost
her husband.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Correct, when did Yeah, it's like lost her husband, she
helped him lose lose him.
Speaker 8 (24:09):
I'm just saying, I just want to know, like what's.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
The like.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
You know sometimes that I get mixed up myself, but
it's I can't I can't really speak on that. Uh,
it's not like she's gone gone. She's like like, well,
I forget how we dealt with it in the in
the in the script.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
But it's you know, we'll get some closure.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, you definitely get closed. I mean it's like, hey,
I believe there's gonna be a white that I get
married before and if everybody's schedules aligned, you see her again.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
Because when he was when Tyler Perry posted that script.
It kind of made everybody. That's when we got excited
for it. And he had originally tagged it. And when
I saw the photos of y'all in Italy, she wasn't
in a photo. So we were like, what the heck hap?
Speaker 3 (24:50):
But here here it is, man, we everybody, everybody, why
focus on what's not in there? You know?
Speaker 5 (24:58):
You know, we love our characters, Like I feel like
we that wasn't Jill, we'd be talking about Jill right now.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Oh yes, that wasn't somebody else, We'd be talking about
them right now. We could. But there's there's a percentage
of people who did make it in there in a
wonderful script and wonderful movie that we could be talking about.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
To scular character in the first five minutes after what
she did to her husband.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Okay, call that we get that because.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
She got in the character in the first five minutes.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
I'll be like, good, that's what she gets. Arguing with
that man like that sometimes I like the fact that
he can say things that I can't.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
You know.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
I wanted to go back to two thousand and one
for a second. Exit Wounds did a movie with DMX.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
I was working with DMX, wonderful man. We became instant friends, man,
Like yeah, DMX was a really solid cat man. That
friendship kept kept on. Uh D would coming to town,
we would always link up. Yeah, it was really cool.
It was real cool. Yeah, sad to see him go.
(26:03):
He was really really deep brother. You know, he had
his demons that he was with, but yeah, he was man.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
He loved the Martial Laws too, he loved yeah. Yeah, yeah,
we we uh yeah, we became cousins. Basically, I didn't
feel about stevens Ago. I think you might know about that, Like,
I don't think anybody really dug him. Nobody, nobody, No,
I mean to be honest with you, Yeah, yeah, but
(26:31):
you know, it's it's it's a sad situation with that
cat man.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Uh for people that don't know what was the beef
about all the problems or why do people like him
as much as.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Why just all you criticized his own set behavior. Yeah
oh yeah yeah yeah everybody. I mean, he yeah, it's
it's unfortunate. Like so, I mean I was a fan
early on cat right, worked with him three different times,
and I don't know, like i've and you might forget
like I was actually low key helping him in a
(27:04):
lot of ways. I got him as his dietitian, his trainer,
and all these different things at one time, even without
him even knowing, I was designing his damn diet on Yeah,
but but yeah, and I tried to hook him up
with his doctor to help him out as well. So
(27:24):
my thing was, like, you know, I tried to hold
on to the images he first had, which I was
a fan of in the earlier works. But like we
talked about, man, the ego, Man, it don't it don't
serve nobody. I don't know why. He always kind of
tried to present himself like he's, you know, bad man,
(27:47):
he's a fighter or whatever. I think it's the insecurity
that started him out in this whole thing. But man,
it's like he just I think he played himself with
over overplaying his hand until people start going, hey, wait
a minute, this don't make no sense, and you know
it's it's a lesson for people, you know. It kind
(28:10):
of goes back to what I'm talking about. I don't
think anybody want to trade places with that man, you know,
And that's what ego gets you.
Speaker 6 (28:18):
Yeah, I was I was told that he would uh
do scenes with like stuntman and hurt them when it
came to real martial artists, he didn't want to.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
No, no, no, I mean, yeah, it's unfortunately that's that's
the truth of the matter. See, I owe my allegiance
to real martial artists too much to be able to
brand him in the same way. No, no, he had
a lot of issues, and you know, if you let
him get away with stuff, he gonna get away with it.
(28:50):
And there's people that just won't let him get away
with that, like you true, true, but you know that's
what it is. But you know, I've always try to
stay positive with the stuff. But yeah, but everything I
talked about it was the truth, like you know, doing
exit wounds and the director and producer trying to set
(29:11):
him up. They purposely made our fight seeing the last
thing in the whole movie. Let me know, yo, man,
if you hurt him, we can finish we can finish
the movie with his stunt double. But I'm like, seriously,
like y'all really yeah, I'm talking from the top, from
(29:34):
the top, the producers and the directors like yo, you know,
and I'm like, really just kick yeah. Yeah, Because people
wanted to see him hurt, but I was like, I
wasn't gonna do that. Figured, Yeah, I gotta be who
I am.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Man.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
So my thing is I hate bullies and I wasn't
gonna be one. Then that's the truth of it. And
he knows, he knows what's up with that. And I
was like, he can see the fix is in. I'm like,
don't worry about nothing. He wouldn't touch me when we
were doing the thing because he felt, well, he knew,
you know, if he went too far, well, and I
(30:09):
beat him in the in the film, right, it's not
like he lays a hand on me. It's set up
that way, Like Joe Silver is like, we ain't gonna
believe he will beat you. So they designed the fight
to be I'm the one that knocks him down and
I leave. He hooks a rope ladder onto the helicopter
(30:31):
and I fall off the rope ladder and die, right,
not by him beating you, so in the first time
in his career, like somebody beats him, he has to
outsmart me, and you know, my demise comes later on
because I'm like, I don't want to kill you. I
got someplace to go. So that's that's one of these
things where Okay, he's susceptible, I'm throwing punches at him,
(30:55):
I'm doing stuff to knock him down. So it's easy
for me to slip up and like oops, sorry about that,
you know what I mean. But I'm not doing that.
I'm not trying to do that. That's that's chickens. That's
not me, even though everybody's trying to encourage that. And
so I knowing the rat party, right, the rat party,
(31:18):
he's thank you whatever, he's respectful, all that kind of stuff,
and then you go flip on me and talk about
me and Van Dam or whatever. But that made him
look silly, and so I really don't even have to
service that. We ran into each other in Thailand. He manned.
The man apologized for all of that, right, but still,
(31:41):
you know, but I'm like, that's you man. You know,
you made yourself look silly. And you know again, you
know who wants to be that cat? You know, and
everybody's clowning him now, and that he brought that on himself.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
What separates someone who trains from someone who is actually.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Well, it's your it's your will, right, h I don't
care what tools you got it's what's inside. Right, So
it's it's well, the thing about that people don't understand
about martial arts. If you if you're overcoming yourself, you can.
It's your will that makes you dangerous. Really, it's that set,
(32:24):
that thing that says I will go through fire and
and stop you and take you out. There's a certain
will of a human being that you cannot stop me.
And that's the that's what is the power in that
that I discipline myself, I trained myself. I could push
(32:44):
myself way deeper than society can push me, you know.
And so that's what you're up against, You up against
the will. It's since it goes, it extends beyond just physicality. Right.
One of the arts I do is called Kilkushin, and
it really is that. And in kyogoshin you get to
your your your limit, your physical limit all the time
(33:09):
and you have to push beyond that. And so by
doing that, it is your will that's doing that. It's
not just something that's just a sport whatever. It's something
that you know derives things from you. Like I call
it like the Navy Seals of martial arts, because you
could do it for twenty years and not make a
(33:31):
black belt, just like jiu jitsu is today, which I
really respect a great deal. They're just handing out black
belts in that you really got to go through the
burning sands, and so that's the thing. Society's gotten much easier,
it's much softer, and so it's a great thing for somebody.
Sometimes you have to police yourself to really arrive at
(33:53):
where you want to be as a man, because you're
not tested anymore. Back in the day, there was a
right to passage that you had to go through. You
either had to go to the armed forces. You had
to go or just even to live life. You had
to get to a place where it's like I would
die for this, you know, for true adulthood, true manhood,
(34:15):
when you're not tested anymore. So you have the trappings
of adulthood, right, you have the trappings because you have
the age, and you say it tells you, yeah, I'm
a full man. I'm gonna do it until you get
you run into adversity and it tells you who you
really are.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Right.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
But see now, with martial arts or armed forces, anything
that derives discipline, that stance or discipline, you have to
go across the burning sands and when you get to
the other side of that, there's no there's no substitute
for that.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Well, how do you deal with you know, you talk
about that, but we talk about social media right where
you got people that could talk about your family relationships
and even say things to you that you know they
wouldn't say to your faith, but they're comfortable enough to
do it on the phone because they know I ain't
gonna see you.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Yeah, well, you know you have to. That's a part
of me that like I had to grow up because
even in social media early days, there's there's there's several
people that I showed up did you Oh my god?
There was martial artists that talked crap, and I'm like,
I travel a lot more. I travel a lot, and
(35:27):
there was times where I showed up on people's dojo
and be like, let's let's continue this conversation. They're like
oh oh, and it's like no, no, no. You know,
there's a part of me for a long time, it's
like I I had that wishing monk would type of
Jean because there's a part of me that really enjoyed
(35:50):
fighting and I'm like, yo, you may knock me out.
I will celebrate it. I'm like, yo, man, you were
better than I thought. That's that's something that that's some mono,
a mono thing and something that I don't mind facing.
But hopefully so if you talking that, hopefully you ready
you ready for that too, right, So, because it's all good,
(36:11):
but I actually get more upset if you don't step up,
because it's not really about an ego thing, but it's like,
as a man, I don't I don't disrespect anybody, right,
and so I think you disrespect me. I'm going, okay,
we can speak about this. There was times where I
(36:33):
showed up or when I'm because you know, you know,
there's things that I consider that's important and integrity is
important to me, and so some people might be spouting off,
but I'm like, we can see each other, man, and
I'm open to be wrong and be like, oh you
really knew what you was talking about, you know, blessings.
(36:56):
But it's like, let's do this. But then I that
happened several times where I'm going, this guy was just talking.
This guy was just talking, and it's like it's not
worth my time. This could have went south. Just growing up,
I just grew up with that whole. Like I'm from here.
It's like, yo, we can understand each other as men
(37:18):
and you know, and deal with the outcome. But this
world ain't made the same cats anymore. Really, But I'm
still not going to take anybody, you know short like,
but I can't invest that kind of time. It took
me several times ago. Yeah that wasn't worth it. You're
(37:39):
not dealing with somebody who looks at things the same way.
So but yeah, so now I just go, bless you.
I get it. You're you're a negative person. You're looking
for the negativity and you want to spout stuff and
you know, there it is. But like, but sometimes I
(38:00):
I think that they are another person that wants to
test themselves, which I can respect. But I used to
think I would be called out a lot. It didn't
really happen very much because I always love to train
with some of the top fighters, Like I mean, I
was just with Israel out Designia like two weeks ago
when I was in New Zealand. You know, I love
(38:21):
skillful people and working with them and testing myself. Yeah yeah, yeah,
But you know, he's got to get back on on
on the basics now because I think like he's so
talented that he's lost kind of like track on some
some things. And we we're gonna train and you know,
uh more together in the future. No, he's still very
(38:46):
he's he. He shouldn't go out like now. You know,
he's he's he. He's got he's got aspirations and that
I let him talk about. But he's not done as
a fighter yet. But he's he's heads and tails, like
more talented than the rest of the field. But sometimes
(39:07):
kind of like Anderson Silva and my like you you
get a little bit ahead of yourself and you want
to like kind of you know, three sixty dunk on people.
But no, just go to the basics again, you know,
and you and and exploit that. But you know, he agrees.
You know, I think you haven't seen the last of him.
(39:30):
And and he's gonna he's gonna step it up. He's
gonna he's gonna do what what's necessary and you know,
kind of climb to where he needs to be.
Speaker 6 (39:38):
I love what you said even too about meeting up
with people, right, because that's not a matter of wanting to,
you know, impose physical dominance. Sometimes it's just a respect thing.
I respect anything somebody can say to me, yes, yes,
I just don't respect the over the social media, the
long paragraph.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
You gotta show me that vernacular in person. Let's have
a conversation.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
That's it. Yeah man. Yeah, so and so with I've
I trained with a lot of champions because there's a
part of me that's like I want to learn. I
want to continue to learn and know it's like I'm
an I'm a nerd with it, right. So you know
with John Jones Man and and uh Rampage Jacks, all
these people who had championships, I'm here like, yeah, let
(40:18):
let's build. Let's let's work on this because you know
your elite fighter. Now I can work on my elite
stuff with you.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
You know.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
So I've been like I've been blessed with that and
so yeah, so it's weird because some reason like I
still feel like I'm in my thirties physically. Uh, I
know that's gonna change and so on that day, you
know it's going it's gonna come right, But right now
I'm I'm feeling just as good as I ever did. Yeah,
(40:46):
So you know, I've been I'm blessed. So I'm using that.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
That's why people talk to you about martial laws.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Do you ever see it?
Speaker 2 (40:51):
You don't watch superhero movies.
Speaker 6 (40:52):
But in Avengers, Tony Stark had the little electric shock
and he poked Bruce Bannon with it just to see
him turning.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
He said, I just want to see if you do it.
You want to see you turn into the hope.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
They just want to see. Yeah, you want to.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
See you get busy.
Speaker 5 (41:05):
You can't be trying to f around to find out
with somebody that can. If your discipline, you know, doesn't stop,
you can really put some things on you.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
True, true, I mean, but but like I tell you, man,
like I've trained with a lot of champions, and the
thing I brag about is when I get humbled, because
that's when I learned stuff right. And you know, I
mean I was. I was trained with Michael Bisbane and
and uh man, like the third round, I was so
tired that I was, like I was, I was useless,
(41:33):
and that taught me to always keep my my cardio up.
I've never been that out of shape since then. And
that was years ago, and so like I learned things
from that, right. So it's it's about your when you
you know, when you get humbled, you know, so yeah,
so that's the stuff I brag about. Yeah, I'm you know,
(41:54):
I you know, I got I'm, like I said, I'm
a nerd with it, and and so I try to
share that while I can, because one day I'm gonna
be with it walking with a cane. Well until then,
I'm gonna enjoy what I what I can now, because
you know, I have a chance.
Speaker 6 (42:09):
To congratulations on your Bruce Lee Award. You the first
non agent to win that award last year.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
Oh, thank you man, thank you. That meant a lot
to me. Really I didn't expect it, but uh yeah,
but you know, I used to train with Shannon Lee,
Bruce Lee's daughter, and we did woo shoe you know,
it's like a kung fu that's very flowery, very like
what gentle does. So yeah, we used to train together
(42:34):
the way back under a guy named Eric Chan who
was like, you know, amazing, like one of the top.
He was like the top woo shoe teachers in the
country and we and I should go to China with him.
I should travel to China with him. And he was
one of my instructors when I was fourteen.
Speaker 8 (42:54):
Wow, yes, yes, I was a lot so young.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Yeah, I was, man, I was so blessed. I mean
when I think about the people I trained with, it's
like who's who in the martial arts and different you know,
branches of that. So I would go with Eric Chen
to Beijing and train under woop In, who was Jet
Lee's teacher and so and so I'm you know, from
(43:18):
that same camp, and you used to compete in China.
So yeah, that's that's like a blessing. You know. This
is like I said, I I one of the one
of the luckiest martial artists out there.
Speaker 5 (43:31):
That's how you say, I don't know who Tony and
your Oscar were, but I know who Bruce Lee is.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
That's what I said. Yeah, yeah, because I mean, I
ain't gonna try to shoot on the oscars. But you know,
I never really watched those things really, and you know,
it's weird to compare art, you know, to me. But
but you know with the with the Bruce Lee Award,
that that meant something. That's that's that's my village. And
(43:57):
so to get that award the person who the greatest
martial artist ever to live and who's emulated every day
and is created an industry, Yeah, that that was something
that that was close in mind and the trade trained
with Shannon. Shannon is dope.
Speaker 6 (44:14):
Had a conversation with her a few weeks ago, a
nice long conversation.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
Yeah. Yeah, she's always been she's been one of the
most quality people way back. So she's running the foundation
and and doing her father proud.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
We appreciate you for joining us this morning, brother, Jo
White joh White. The new movie special Op Runner Cop
is out right now, and thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Brother.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (44:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Let's do this again next time you in the city
coming up.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Yes, sir, yes, sir. I appreciate you, guys, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
All right, it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, every day.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
Up the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
You don't finish for y'all.
Speaker 8 (44:50):
Done.
Every day a week.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Pack your ass up the breakfast club.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
You don't finished for y'all done morning.
Speaker 4 (00:07):
Everybody is the j n Vy Jess hilarious, Charlamagne to God,
we are the breakfast Club law La Roses here as well.
We got a special guest in the building. His new
movie special Op Runner Cop is out right now, Michael Jock,
Michael J.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
White.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Is it just you got it right?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (00:22):
Right?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Good morning?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
How you feeling, brother?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I feel real good. I feel real good being back here.
I have problems now because I'm kind of loving being
back really, Yes, man, I'm from here richinally and so
Walkney Streets. Man, it's a beautiful weather man. It's got
me like. But that's today, yes to mar Well yesterday too,
it was it was all man, I'm enjoying myself. What
(00:45):
do you miss about it? Just so much? Man. The
energy I'm hooking up with my peoples from here that
I ain't seen in a long time. The fact that,
you know, trap C Streets trying to come up doing
theater and all that kind of stuff. And I almost
feel like I sold out when I'm in La and
now I'm doing that, you know, doing the other type
(01:05):
of thing. But man, I got my friends doing Broadway
and all that kind of stuff, and I started with
theater out here, right, So it made me kind of
miss it, so you know, yeah, so you know I'm
feeling that way, but.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
I like to go back for people that don't know.
How did you get into theater into acting? What push
you towards that?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well? I was I was always kind of doing this
as a kid, right. I was doing like plays and
I was doing like my own films, like when I
was ten years old, I was cutting together movies and stuff,
but wasn't taking it serious. Like I go to college,
come out, I'm a school teacher, but I'm still dealing
with like I'm coming out here auditioning to do different
(01:45):
things when I'm off you know, from teaching school. And
so it got in my system, like I really enjoy this,
And so I landed a really big like theatrical like
I was in to Kill a Mockingbird, the first added
tation to theater, you know, off Broadway, and I was
with like like Tony Award winners all that kind of stuff,
(02:07):
and so that was my trajectory. I was an actor, right,
and I was doing theater and I was doing all
that kind of stuff and landing stuff before going out
to l A. But you know, in these streets, and
you know, it's the energy and the fact that I
was in it for the art of it, right and then,
(02:27):
and so it's kind of like reliving that, right. So,
but yeah, I started out here and uh, you know
then you know, you know, with the whole LA thing
and you know, changing up doing all the kind of
popcorn movies and stuff like that. I always wanted to
come back to roots and do more theater and do
those kinds of things. But you know, it's it's it's
(02:48):
I kind of feeling nostalgic.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And when did the Marshall?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I was gonna say, the data coming from martial marshals.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
It's funny how people equate the two. I've been doing
martial arts my whole life. It's kind of like, I
don't know, like if you think about Gregory Hines was
tap dancing, but they don't tap dance in every movie.
But when I first came to LA, I didn't want
to do anything with martial arts. I want to be
established as an actor because that's what I was. But
(03:13):
I happened to do martial arts, right So when I
started doing movies with martial arts in it, what was
cool is that a lot of people, executives, they thought, oh,
he's being doubled whatever. They didn't realize I was efficient
in that that you could really do it right. Yeah,
So but that was that was by design because I
(03:33):
didn't want to first start doing martial arts movies and
be on martial arts Island and everybody think that you
can't you can't act because because yeah, because most of
people who do martial arts movies, that's all they do.
And I knew, just like with Wesley who's done a
whole lot of work, once he got known for something
dealing with martial arts, he got branded like that, right,
(03:54):
even though he's a fabulous actor, people tend to forget that,
and a lot of times with people with me, they
forget that too to some degree. But no, I'm an actor,
and even when I do the stuff with martial arts,
it might you know, it might be by way of
the action. I may be doing martial arts in it.
But of course, people like to put you on a
certain shelf. Until you break off of that shelf, you've
(04:16):
mathter martial arts at a high level. It's like a
seven degree black belt, I think, well, I got I
got eight black belts right in different varying degrees. But
like that's just a mainstay of my life, you know.
But I apply martial arts to everything in my life,
you know, you know, anything, being a better father, being there.
It's about overcoming obstacles. That's what martial arts about, even
(04:37):
though it's kind of like people look at the fighting
aspects of it and that kind of derails everything because
everybody starts just thinking about because most people are insecure,
and they think about the fighting and you know, whooping
somebody's ass. That's only a very small part of what
martial arts is designed for. You know, it's really designed
for to develop a personal overall. But uh, you know so,
(05:01):
but so I kind of use martial arts in every
aspect of my life because it's about discipline.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
What did martial arts teach you about patience and ego
that acting didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Oh my god, there's so much. It's just life taught
me a lot about ego. I never seen anybody with
a big ego who was happy in my life, you know,
and then you know, even in martial arts, you got
the ego somebody gonna humble your ass, right, there's always
checks and balances, So I look at it like that anyway.
Like you know, again, I don't know what's the lure
(05:33):
of being agatistical because I don't. I don't see it
amount to anything. And you know, because you're gonna have
to like look at the world. I mean, when people
kiss your ass and tell you your wonderful one life.
That was a good lesson to learn in the martial
arts because I apply it to life. And when you know,
there's people who you know, they admire you whatever, but
(05:54):
they're gonna like kind of big up you. But if
your ego gets big, it's it's some one gonna hurt you.
Like I said, I don't see anybody with a big
ego who's happy. I just never seen it. But you know,
you start to try to color the world the way
you want to color it because because of your ego.
So that's why I do a lot of different martial
(06:16):
arts because I have a black belt in something, I
put a white belt on something else. But that's like
in life. Man, I might know this, but let me
know about this.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
What got you into martial arts as a kid?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
What insecurity to be honest with you. You know, I grew
up in Brooklyn and Bridgeport, Connecticut, where life was crazy.
I've been on my own since I was fourteen. I've
been through stuff that you see on movies, and I
got to be the happiest person I know because I
know where I came from. And so man, when I
walk around and think about, oh, man, I remember what
(06:47):
happened on this street. You know, I remember what happened
on this street, and I go, man, man, I got
to do nothing but give back because I'm so damn lucky.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
What got you? What got you? Like is the person
that got you into martial arts? What did you see?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Because you know, growing up in Brooklyn at the time
you were up in Brooklyn, Gleasons was the thing.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Everybody wanted the box, right, they wanted to be zab
or they wanted to be Tyson. So it was the
many things. But what got you into the actual?
Speaker 6 (07:13):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I want to try this?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Well? Shoot man? When as a kid going I mean
and the Bronx were looking at looking at these movies,
seeing five Fingers of Death and seeing the power and
being as insecure kid, I wanted to create. I wanted
to create, Uh, like like, I wanted to protect myself.
I wanted to have that strength because I was sensitive.
(07:37):
And so what do you do if you're sensitive, you
you anything valuable or fragile, You put in a safe
and so in the street you I became the safe,
putting myself in the martial arts, being like, you can't
touch me. I gotta I gotta protect myself, just like
when I you know, I eventually played the brother Tyson,
(07:57):
who was very similar to myself. A lot of people
think that, oh, yeah, you knocked that down. I was
really playing a lot of me with his voice, right,
But so I understood that and very much like him.
At an early age, I understood like the power of
a pugilist, if you have the power to whip somebody's ass,
what that affords you as a young man growing up
(08:18):
in Brooklyn, Right, So I learned a lot of these lessons,
and fortunately I didn't have to develop with the whole
world looking at me like Tyson, did you know? So yeah,
like I said, Man, I'm very blessed. I got a
lot of lessons and learned a lot, and as a result, Man,
I'm one of the happiest people I know.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
You said, a couple of things I want to expound on.
I love what you said about you could be a
black belt in one thing, but then be a white
belt in another.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, man, I think that's what you should be in
life period. Man. Just like I love to learn, I
love to learn. So you know, it's like what Bruce
Lee said, be an empty cup. You know, you know,
empty cup, you can be filled with whatever content there is.
So there's a lot of things that I applied with
certain martial large principles in life. But like anything that
(09:09):
gives you a certain amount of power, just like people
who might be religious leaders or what have you, you
can adapt the doctrine that got you there. But if
you are like subject to your own ego, you start
creating your own religion, You start creating your own The
(09:29):
insecure person that you was returns because when men are
honored too much or got too much big ups, so whatever,
we tend to revert back to that. But you know,
we started out as insecure individuals in the first place.
It's not like it really went away. You got to
police that. Hopefully you go through something that teaches you
(09:53):
those lessons so you don't make those mistakes.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
But at age fourteen, How did you figure it out
on your own? Because you a kid looked like a
grown ass man at fourteen. I have not grown an
end since then. And I was fighting grown men. I
was fighting in men's divisions, winning heavyweight. I was a
heavyweight competitor.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
For he could have played basketball at fourteen.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah, dude, I was. Yeah. In fact, somebody who came up, right.
I don't know if you know, Charles Smith, but we
were we were like they called us the Twin Towers.
But he just kept going, of course. But yeah, so
we grew up like in the same area, right. So
But anyway, like I was, I looked like a man
early on, and I was like fighting in tournaments, and
(10:39):
I was on my own at fourteen, really, and because
my mother, you know, blessed her heart, you know, dress
in peace, the sweet church going woman from the South.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
She was.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
She is the type of person that say, those kids
are out there shooting at marijuana. I'm like, you do
shoot marijuana. But like so early I was on my own.
I just was like, and she was sweet woman. She
couldn't handle somebody like me, you know. And so I
was out there. I was out in the streets. I yeah,
(11:10):
it's like, you know, there was part of me that
was in fear. I mean, how much does Charlotte Maye
know about my past? Was like, you know, we don't.
Hey man, you know when you was called bam bam,
I know somebody, I was like, I be like but anyway,
but just to say, man, I'm blessed. I've been through
a whole lot, and now I get a chance to
cheer my experiences. Put it on a screen, because there's
(11:35):
not many people who came where I came from. Where
I came from, who's in the position I am now right,
it's rare. It's rare. But again I'm walking around blessed man.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
And I love what you said about power too write
because you know when you have that that knowing that
if I wanted to, I could destroy you.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
They also they say true power is knowing you can
destroy somebody.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
But walking away true true? I mean it's kind of
it doesn't enter my mind, it enters a lot of
other people's minds, and I go, well, bless them. I
wuld I could be sitting down with a with chairman
or something, or a big time like a producer, and
I got to hear. The first thing go out of
his mouth was like, well, I used to wrestle in college.
(12:20):
I'm like, oh, geez, so this man is thinking about
like this, you know, quantifying himself. But I go with
that's his that's his deal. I'm some people look at
me like a forearm monster, right, and I'm coming with love. Right. Really,
I'm not ever thinking about anything physical or fighting or
it never enters my mind. I know I can handle myself.
(12:42):
But it's it's what other people define as a martial
arts and all that kind of stuff. But because there's
a lot of a lot of misrepresentations out there, right
that lead with their insecurity and but it's it's the
hum peaceful, real martial artists out there that don't really
(13:03):
get the attention that they should. I mean, rest in peace,
Chuck Norris. You know people who really follow the principle,
you know, but you got you know, some loud mouths
of people who are very self aggronizing that that get
a lot of attention. But yeah, but it's it's it's
deeper than that, and it's deeper than that, and it's
(13:23):
about you know, overcoming your obstacles. You just belt levels, right,
It's white, yellow, blue, all that type of stuff. Obstacles
is what you're going to be facing the rest of
your life. And your biggest obstacle is you overcome yourself.
You can you can conquer anything. So that's really what
it is, and that's where the peace comes from. That's
where I don't have to prove myself to anybody. But
(13:46):
sometimes it makes people kind of reflect on themselves and go,
you know, I don't you know whatever that is, I
don't have that or what, but you know, God bless you,
it's but I'm not. I come in peace, you know.
But a lot of people look at it's like he
could rip my throat out. I'm like, I'm sorry you
thinking about that, but I'm not thinking about that, and
(14:08):
I would be I'd probably be the last person in
the crowd who would ever go there. I'm the person
that basically like, for me to lose control, Come on, now,
y'all gonna lose control before I will. You know, I
know what I can do, but that's not that doesn't
even come to mind. So I'm the person that's thinking
(14:28):
about protecting everybody in the room. You're not hurting everybody
in the room.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Have you ever had to like when you go into
those meetings and the guys are like, you know, talking
about martial arts and perceiving you that way, like had
to check it, like actually bring it into conversation like, hey,
that's not even where I'm at or do you just
you're so far removed you just kind.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Of well, yeah, I try to just get the conversation
back on track. That's that's really what it is, because Bossom,
some people just don't understand, because like I said, there's
a lot of people that misrepresent what this is about
and want to understand, well, what is this power that
they perceive? And of course, man, I'm kicking people in
(15:04):
the neck in movies, right, So I forget that people
are seeing that, right, I come like this and they're
thinking about, man, he just did. I got too many
stories about that because I forget what I do correct
for living. But I don't walk around with that. I
don't think about that, right, but other people do. I
can't say it's a bad thing, because I mean it
(15:24):
puts me where I am and makes me global, right,
But yeah, there's an assigned image of who I am
because of the movies. But that's you know, the people
who really know me. They know I'm I'm a goofball.
I have fun in life. My children they ain't scared
(15:45):
of me. It's like it's a sitcom in my house.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I was gonna ask, you know what the movie business
has that shifted your life a little bit?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
And the reason I say that is growing up and
we used to look towards movies as a big, major elief,
right And I'm even looking at Mike. I don't know
if you see Michael, but I couldn't imagine seeing Michael
at the crib like that's something I needed to see
on that big screen in the music. But it shifted
so much where now you know, you do a movie,
it's no longer a major movie release, and now it's
(16:13):
on you know, Hulu or t B or Netflix or
you know BT or how has that shifted the way
that you.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Think about movies? If it has it all?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Well, I've shifted into I like streaming series a lot
more because they dare to be unique, and a lot
of times in movies they're so scared to give you
an experience. It's so like formulaic. You know. So you've
seen a lot of movies and you see the trailer,
you know you've seen the whole damn movie. But it's
(16:45):
I recognize that, right, And I've been blessed to be
able to do my own things and produce my own stuff.
Right now. I got three different movies out right now.
It's got Secret between Us that's in theaters right now.
I got Oscar Shaw, which is doing really well, which
is a you know, gritty drama. And I got this
(17:06):
goofy movie that brought me here, like The The Yeah,
which is a whole different thing that was like, you know,
intending on being like a kindergarten cop type of thing.
But but I'm blessed to have these three very different
type of movies out at the same time, which is like,
you know, lets me do you know, work out different
muscles and stuff.
Speaker 7 (17:26):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
But you know, so with films now, I'm doing a
lot more of my own right writing, directing, like like
with housele Takeover and and Trouble Man, which I did
with Brother method Man. You know, from here, I get
a chance to do these things that really is in
(17:48):
my zeitgeist. And I got more movies coming out. And
of course you might know about the why that Get
married three three and that's gonna be believe me, that's
gonna be the best one of them all. Yeah. But yeah,
but like, yeah, I shift that. I really like a
lot of I like movies that are not so formulated
(18:11):
that you can't figure out.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
For like day one, you were doing superhero movies, you know,
way before the superhero boom, right like this respawn.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Do you ever look at today's landscape and feel like
you were ahead of your time?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I don't look at it things like that. I don't
ever think of myself being ahead of nothing. Really, I
just trapes along do my thing. Yeah, it was it
was wonderful to be the first black superhero in that,
but I didn't expect that that that was gonna yield
any any particular thing. I don't have those expectations. But yeah,
I'm I'm I'm honored to be in that category. Some
(18:48):
of the superhero movies now, I'm just I'm not really
into that because I feel like they're kind of doing
the same thing and it's I'm not the target audience.
It's it's a younger audience that they're looking for. And
I love superhero movies.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
A lot of the superhero movies, I feel like it's
all audience, Like they grow up with you.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
They want to the costumes for Halloween.
Speaker 6 (19:10):
But I've gotten into the DC because of the TV
series right right right, The Peacemaker was dope, Penguin was dope.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Oh yeah, it's gonna be. I love the TV series
movies is you know, I just I'm just seeing the
formula all the time, you know. So you know, I
like the straight rest milk basically, you know, it's something
that's gonna be its own, its own thing. So yeah,
I have I have respect for the movies that try
to notch out their own kind of personality to it.
(19:39):
But yeah, but but but somebody landing in a three
point stance and then look up, I'll turn I'll turned
the channel.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
The superhero landed.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah yeah, I'm like, not for me, you know. Yeah,
So yeah, I like the I like the television stuff
a lot more. What is the plot of why did
I Get married?
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Through?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
You can't say it? Oh yeah, I can say a
little bit. I think I'm pretty su But I mean,
I gotta commend Tyler on this one because even on
the onset of the script, the subject matter is stuff
that I hadn't even seen in a movie before. One
of the things I think I could talk about is
the fact that as parents, right, we like to be
exemply reroll models to my children, and children don't know
(20:20):
all the messing up that we did beforehand. And that
was that was the thing that I always thought was
great about this because I never saw a movie that
dealt with that. As parents, we always do that. They
don't know how messed up we were, you know, And
so there's a there's a concept of that in this movie.
There's actually four concepts in this movie that could have
been movies by itself. So Tyler really stepped on up
(20:43):
on this. And I'm you know, I'm I try to
be I'm always honest. I'm like, it's a superstition to me.
I'm honest with Tyler Is. I consider him a friend
first and foremost before anything, and I never lied to nobody.
I feel like he really stepped up and in a
whole lot of ways in this movie. It's done. Yeah,
(21:06):
we shot in Lake Como and then you know, he's
he's doing something. I'm proud of what he's doing. And
y'all gonna like this. Jill, Jill Scott uh Taji is
now she's in it. No, she didn't. I don't know. Yeah,
well I think people know that she's she's not in
this one. But yeah, but Taraji, man, she kills it.
(21:29):
Everybody kills and there's a young audience. There's a young
audience in this movie, a young our children. Man, these
young actors are killing it. I mean, Da Vinci plays
my son, you know from B MF I did. There's
like amazing. I mean just even standing on a set
(21:49):
watching them do their thing. Man, I was like, this
is gonna be this is gonna be fire.
Speaker 8 (21:54):
You said, Tyler Perry stepped up a few times, and
he stepped.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
It up with the way he's shooting movies now is
very innovative. He shoots it really in a short period
of time but keeps the energy right there. Like a
lot of times when you're doing movies right, you will
you you do your scene, then you got to pick
up from that energy like hours later after they change
the camera angles with He does this innovative thing where
(22:19):
you stay in the moment and you were in it right,
and it preserves performances like you will not believe, and
so that energy and that when you're in that moment,
you stay in it right. So it's you know, me
as a director, I you know, i'n't jotted some things
down and I've kind of applied.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
How was he able to do that without changing the
lens and without moving things around? How was he able
to keep you all on energy?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Because you, oh my.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
God, he's got if you if you're a cameraman in
his in this set, you better be in shape because
his brother would do use seven steady camps and move
them joints around and keep them moving. And you don't
have to wait. That's the thing you have to wait
for your performance.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Are you shooting a movie quicker too?
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Oh my god, Oh my god, what normally would take
two hours, you'll do in fifteen minutes. Because he knows editing.
You know, I started. I did a lot of editing too,
so I understood how he was doing this. And you know,
as an actor, you're like, do we have everything? But
I know he's got all these different things. He's really
stepping up. People don't realize because people get used to
(23:27):
who somebody is and they don't realize, Yo, man, this
cat is growing in this way that that I see
as a as an artist, that that dare I say, Man,
I'm I'm putting a lot of his stuff into my repertoire.
Speaker 8 (23:42):
How does he I don't know what you can share,
but how does he?
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Like in Janet Jackson's story though, in this new one
without her being there, because like I feel like we
were left on a cliff of like how is she
going to continue her life?
Speaker 8 (23:53):
And you know she's grieving her husband and that was
the first.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Movie right well that you're talking about this second, that
was the last.
Speaker 8 (24:00):
The last time we saw Janet was when she lost
her husband.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Correct, when did Yeah, it's like lost her husband, she
helped him lose lose him.
Speaker 8 (24:09):
I'm just saying, I just want to know, like what's.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
The like.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
You know sometimes that I get mixed up myself, but
it's I can't I can't really speak on that. Uh,
it's not like she's gone gone. She's like like, well,
I forget how we dealt with it in the in
the in the script.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
But it's you know, we'll get some closure.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, you definitely get closed. I mean it's like, hey,
I believe there's gonna be a white that I get
married before and if everybody's schedules aligned, you see her again.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
Because when he was when Tyler Perry posted that script.
It kind of made everybody. That's when we got excited
for it. And he had originally tagged it. And when
I saw the photos of y'all in Italy, she wasn't
in a photo. So we were like, what the heck hap?
Speaker 3 (24:50):
But here here it is, man, we everybody, everybody, why
focus on what's not in there? You know?
Speaker 5 (24:58):
You know, we love our characters, Like I feel like
we that wasn't Jill, we'd be talking about Jill right now.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Oh yes, that wasn't somebody else, We'd be talking about
them right now. We could. But there's there's a percentage
of people who did make it in there in a
wonderful script and wonderful movie that we could be talking about.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
To scular character in the first five minutes after what
she did to her husband.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Okay, call that we get that because.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
She got in the character in the first five minutes.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
I'll be like, good, that's what she gets. Arguing with
that man like that sometimes I like the fact that
he can say things that I can't.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
You know.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
I wanted to go back to two thousand and one
for a second. Exit Wounds did a movie with DMX.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
I was working with DMX, wonderful man. We became instant friends, man,
Like yeah, DMX was a really solid cat man. That
friendship kept kept on. Uh D would coming to town,
we would always link up. Yeah, it was really cool.
It was real cool. Yeah, sad to see him go.
(26:03):
He was really really deep brother. You know, he had
his demons that he was with, but yeah, he was man.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
He loved the Martial Laws too, he loved yeah. Yeah, yeah,
we we uh yeah, we became cousins. Basically, I didn't
feel about stevens Ago. I think you might know about that, Like,
I don't think anybody really dug him. Nobody, nobody, No,
I mean to be honest with you, Yeah, yeah, but
(26:31):
you know, it's it's it's a sad situation with that
cat man.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Uh for people that don't know what was the beef
about all the problems or why do people like him
as much as.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Why just all you criticized his own set behavior. Yeah
oh yeah yeah yeah everybody. I mean, he yeah, it's
it's unfortunate. Like so, I mean I was a fan
early on cat right, worked with him three different times,
and I don't know, like i've and you might forget
like I was actually low key helping him in a
(27:04):
lot of ways. I got him as his dietitian, his trainer,
and all these different things at one time, even without
him even knowing, I was designing his damn diet on Yeah,
but but yeah, and I tried to hook him up
with his doctor to help him out as well. So
(27:24):
my thing was, like, you know, I tried to hold
on to the images he first had, which I was
a fan of in the earlier works. But like we
talked about, man, the ego, Man, it don't it don't
serve nobody. I don't know why. He always kind of
tried to present himself like he's, you know, bad man,
(27:47):
he's a fighter or whatever. I think it's the insecurity
that started him out in this whole thing. But man,
it's like he just I think he played himself with
over overplaying his hand until people start going, hey, wait
a minute, this don't make no sense, and you know
it's it's a lesson for people, you know. It kind
(28:10):
of goes back to what I'm talking about. I don't
think anybody want to trade places with that man, you know,
And that's what ego gets you.
Speaker 6 (28:18):
Yeah, I was I was told that he would uh
do scenes with like stuntman and hurt them when it
came to real martial artists, he didn't want to.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
No, no, no, I mean, yeah, it's unfortunately that's that's
the truth of the matter. See, I owe my allegiance
to real martial artists too much to be able to
brand him in the same way. No, no, he had
a lot of issues, and you know, if you let
him get away with stuff, he gonna get away with it.
(28:50):
And there's people that just won't let him get away
with that, like you true, true, but you know that's
what it is. But you know, I've always try to
stay positive with the stuff. But yeah, but everything I
talked about it was the truth, like you know, doing
exit wounds and the director and producer trying to set
(29:11):
him up. They purposely made our fight seeing the last
thing in the whole movie. Let me know, yo, man,
if you hurt him, we can finish we can finish
the movie with his stunt double. But I'm like, seriously,
like y'all really yeah, I'm talking from the top, from
(29:34):
the top, the producers and the directors like yo, you know,
and I'm like, really just kick yeah. Yeah, Because people
wanted to see him hurt, but I was like, I
wasn't gonna do that. Figured, Yeah, I gotta be who
I am.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Man.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
So my thing is I hate bullies and I wasn't
gonna be one. Then that's the truth of it. And
he knows, he knows what's up with that. And I
was like, he can see the fix is in. I'm like,
don't worry about nothing. He wouldn't touch me when we
were doing the thing because he felt, well, he knew,
you know, if he went too far, well, and I
(30:09):
beat him in the in the film, right, it's not
like he lays a hand on me. It's set up
that way, Like Joe Silver is like, we ain't gonna
believe he will beat you. So they designed the fight
to be I'm the one that knocks him down and
I leave. He hooks a rope ladder onto the helicopter
(30:31):
and I fall off the rope ladder and die, right,
not by him beating you, so in the first time
in his career, like somebody beats him, he has to
outsmart me, and you know, my demise comes later on
because I'm like, I don't want to kill you. I
got someplace to go. So that's that's one of these
things where Okay, he's susceptible, I'm throwing punches at him,
(30:55):
I'm doing stuff to knock him down. So it's easy
for me to slip up and like oops, sorry about that,
you know what I mean. But I'm not doing that.
I'm not trying to do that. That's that's chickens. That's
not me, even though everybody's trying to encourage that. And
so I knowing the rat party, right, the rat party,
(31:18):
he's thank you whatever, he's respectful, all that kind of stuff,
and then you go flip on me and talk about
me and Van Dam or whatever. But that made him
look silly, and so I really don't even have to
service that. We ran into each other in Thailand. He manned.
The man apologized for all of that, right, but still,
(31:41):
you know, but I'm like, that's you man. You know,
you made yourself look silly. And you know again, you
know who wants to be that cat? You know, and
everybody's clowning him now, and that he brought that on himself.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
What separates someone who trains from someone who is actually.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Well, it's your it's your will, right, h I don't
care what tools you got it's what's inside. Right, So
it's it's well, the thing about that people don't understand
about martial arts. If you if you're overcoming yourself, you can.
It's your will that makes you dangerous. Really, it's that set,
(32:24):
that thing that says I will go through fire and
and stop you and take you out. There's a certain
will of a human being that you cannot stop me.
And that's the that's what is the power in that
that I discipline myself, I trained myself. I could push
(32:44):
myself way deeper than society can push me, you know.
And so that's what you're up against, You up against
the will. It's since it goes, it extends beyond just physicality. Right.
One of the arts I do is called Kilkushin, and
it really is that. And in kyogoshin you get to
your your your limit, your physical limit all the time
(33:09):
and you have to push beyond that. And so by
doing that, it is your will that's doing that. It's
not just something that's just a sport whatever. It's something
that you know derives things from you. Like I call
it like the Navy Seals of martial arts, because you
could do it for twenty years and not make a
(33:31):
black belt, just like jiu jitsu is today, which I
really respect a great deal. They're just handing out black
belts in that you really got to go through the
burning sands, and so that's the thing. Society's gotten much easier,
it's much softer, and so it's a great thing for somebody.
Sometimes you have to police yourself to really arrive at
(33:53):
where you want to be as a man, because you're
not tested anymore. Back in the day, there was a
right to passage that you had to go through. You
either had to go to the armed forces. You had
to go or just even to live life. You had
to get to a place where it's like I would
die for this, you know, for true adulthood, true manhood,
(34:15):
when you're not tested anymore. So you have the trappings
of adulthood, right, you have the trappings because you have
the age, and you say it tells you, yeah, I'm
a full man. I'm gonna do it until you get
you run into adversity and it tells you who you
really are.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Right.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
But see now, with martial arts or armed forces, anything
that derives discipline, that stance or discipline, you have to
go across the burning sands and when you get to
the other side of that, there's no there's no substitute
for that.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Well, how do you deal with you know, you talk
about that, but we talk about social media right where
you got people that could talk about your family relationships
and even say things to you that you know they
wouldn't say to your faith, but they're comfortable enough to
do it on the phone because they know I ain't
gonna see you.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Yeah, well, you know you have to. That's a part
of me that like I had to grow up because
even in social media early days, there's there's there's several
people that I showed up did you Oh my god?
There was martial artists that talked crap, and I'm like,
I travel a lot more. I travel a lot, and
(35:27):
there was times where I showed up on people's dojo
and be like, let's let's continue this conversation. They're like
oh oh, and it's like no, no, no. You know,
there's a part of me for a long time, it's
like I I had that wishing monk would type of
Jean because there's a part of me that really enjoyed
(35:50):
fighting and I'm like, yo, you may knock me out.
I will celebrate it. I'm like, yo, man, you were
better than I thought. That's that's something that that's some mono,
a mono thing and something that I don't mind facing.
But hopefully so if you talking that, hopefully you ready
you ready for that too, right, So, because it's all good,
(36:11):
but I actually get more upset if you don't step up,
because it's not really about an ego thing, but it's like,
as a man, I don't I don't disrespect anybody, right,
and so I think you disrespect me. I'm going, okay,
we can speak about this. There was times where I
(36:33):
showed up or when I'm because you know, you know,
there's things that I consider that's important and integrity is
important to me, and so some people might be spouting off,
but I'm like, we can see each other, man, and
I'm open to be wrong and be like, oh you
really knew what you was talking about, you know, blessings.
(36:56):
But it's like, let's do this. But then I that
happened several times where I'm going, this guy was just talking.
This guy was just talking, and it's like it's not
worth my time. This could have went south. Just growing up,
I just grew up with that whole. Like I'm from here.
It's like, yo, we can understand each other as men
(37:18):
and you know, and deal with the outcome. But this
world ain't made the same cats anymore. Really, But I'm
still not going to take anybody, you know short like,
but I can't invest that kind of time. It took
me several times ago. Yeah that wasn't worth it. You're
(37:39):
not dealing with somebody who looks at things the same way.
So but yeah, so now I just go, bless you.
I get it. You're you're a negative person. You're looking
for the negativity and you want to spout stuff and
you know, there it is. But like, but sometimes I
(38:00):
I think that they are another person that wants to
test themselves, which I can respect. But I used to
think I would be called out a lot. It didn't
really happen very much because I always love to train
with some of the top fighters, Like I mean, I
was just with Israel out Designia like two weeks ago
when I was in New Zealand. You know, I love
(38:21):
skillful people and working with them and testing myself. Yeah yeah, yeah,
But you know, he's got to get back on on
on the basics now because I think like he's so
talented that he's lost kind of like track on some
some things. And we we're gonna train and you know,
uh more together in the future. No, he's still very
(38:46):
he's he. He shouldn't go out like now. You know,
he's he's he. He's got he's got aspirations and that
I let him talk about. But he's not done as
a fighter yet. But he's he's heads and tails, like
more talented than the rest of the field. But sometimes
(39:07):
kind of like Anderson Silva and my like you you
get a little bit ahead of yourself and you want
to like kind of you know, three sixty dunk on people.
But no, just go to the basics again, you know,
and you and and exploit that. But you know, he agrees.
You know, I think you haven't seen the last of him.
(39:30):
And and he's gonna he's gonna step it up. He's
gonna he's gonna do what what's necessary and you know,
kind of climb to where he needs to be.
Speaker 6 (39:38):
I love what you said even too about meeting up
with people, right, because that's not a matter of wanting to,
you know, impose physical dominance. Sometimes it's just a respect thing.
I respect anything somebody can say to me, yes, yes,
I just don't respect the over the social media, the
long paragraph.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
You gotta show me that vernacular in person. Let's have
a conversation.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
That's it. Yeah man. Yeah, so and so with I've
I trained with a lot of champions because there's a
part of me that's like I want to learn. I
want to continue to learn and know it's like I'm
an I'm a nerd with it, right. So you know
with John Jones Man and and uh Rampage Jacks, all
these people who had championships, I'm here like, yeah, let
(40:18):
let's build. Let's let's work on this because you know
your elite fighter. Now I can work on my elite
stuff with you.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
You know.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
So I've been like I've been blessed with that and
so yeah, so it's weird because some reason like I
still feel like I'm in my thirties physically. Uh, I
know that's gonna change and so on that day, you
know it's going it's gonna come right, But right now
I'm I'm feeling just as good as I ever did. Yeah,
(40:46):
So you know, I've been I'm blessed. So I'm using that.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
That's why people talk to you about martial laws.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Do you ever see it?
Speaker 2 (40:51):
You don't watch superhero movies.
Speaker 6 (40:52):
But in Avengers, Tony Stark had the little electric shock
and he poked Bruce Bannon with it just to see
him turning.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
He said, I just want to see if you do it.
You want to see you turn into the hope.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
They just want to see. Yeah, you want to.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
See you get busy.
Speaker 5 (41:05):
You can't be trying to f around to find out
with somebody that can. If your discipline, you know, doesn't stop,
you can really put some things on you.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
True, true, I mean, but but like I tell you, man,
like I've trained with a lot of champions, and the
thing I brag about is when I get humbled, because
that's when I learned stuff right. And you know, I
mean I was. I was trained with Michael Bisbane and
and uh man, like the third round, I was so
tired that I was, like I was, I was useless,
(41:33):
and that taught me to always keep my my cardio up.
I've never been that out of shape since then. And
that was years ago, and so like I learned things
from that, right. So it's it's about your when you
you know, when you get humbled, you know, so yeah,
so that's the stuff I brag about. Yeah, I'm you know,
(41:54):
I you know, I got I'm, like I said, I'm
a nerd with it, and and so I try to
share that while I can, because one day I'm gonna
be with it walking with a cane. Well until then,
I'm gonna enjoy what I what I can now, because
you know, I have a chance.
Speaker 6 (42:09):
To congratulations on your Bruce Lee Award. You the first
non agent to win that award last year.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
Oh, thank you man, thank you. That meant a lot
to me. Really I didn't expect it, but uh yeah,
but you know, I used to train with Shannon Lee,
Bruce Lee's daughter, and we did woo shoe you know,
it's like a kung fu that's very flowery, very like
what gentle does. So yeah, we used to train together
(42:34):
the way back under a guy named Eric Chan who
was like, you know, amazing, like one of the top.
He was like the top woo shoe teachers in the
country and we and I should go to China with him.
I should travel to China with him. And he was
one of my instructors when I was fourteen.
Speaker 8 (42:54):
Wow, yes, yes, I was a lot so young.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Yeah, I was, man, I was so blessed. I mean
when I think about the people I trained with, it's
like who's who in the martial arts and different you know,
branches of that. So I would go with Eric Chen
to Beijing and train under woop In, who was Jet
Lee's teacher and so and so I'm you know, from
(43:18):
that same camp, and you used to compete in China.
So yeah, that's that's like a blessing. You know. This
is like I said, I I one of the one
of the luckiest martial artists out there.
Speaker 5 (43:31):
That's how you say, I don't know who Tony and
your Oscar were, but I know who Bruce Lee is.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
That's what I said. Yeah, yeah, because I mean, I
ain't gonna try to shoot on the oscars. But you know,
I never really watched those things really, and you know,
it's weird to compare art, you know, to me. But
but you know with the with the Bruce Lee Award,
that that meant something. That's that's that's my village. And
(43:57):
so to get that award the person who the greatest
martial artist ever to live and who's emulated every day
and is created an industry, Yeah, that that was something
that that was close in mind and the trade trained
with Shannon. Shannon is dope.
Speaker 6 (44:14):
Had a conversation with her a few weeks ago, a
nice long conversation.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
Yeah. Yeah, she's always been she's been one of the
most quality people way back. So she's running the foundation
and and doing her father proud.
Speaker 4 (44:28):
We appreciate you for joining us this morning, brother, Jo
White joh White. The new movie special Op Runner Cop
is out right now, and thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Brother.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (44:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Let's do this again next time you in the city
coming up.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Yes, sir, yes, sir. I appreciate you, guys, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
All right, it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, every day.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
Up the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
You don't finish for y'all.
Speaker 8 (44:50):
Done.
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