September 4, 2025 • 44 mins
Edwin Lee Gibson, celebrated for his role as Ebraheim on FX’s “The Bear”, joins Black in the Green Room with Keith L. Underwood for a powerful conversation about artistry, resilience, and proving that talent is timeless. From performing in more than 100 stage productions to his breakout on one of television’s most talked-about shows, Gibson shares how he almost turned down The Bear, why he calls his stutter a “superpower,” and the lessons he’s learned as a self-described late bloomer. This episode covers:
- His nomadic journey across Houston, New York, Paris, and beyond
- The discipline of stage acting and how it shaped his screen presence
- Advice to Black actors on validating themselves and finding longevity
- His passion for meaningful stories over popularity
- Upcoming projects including his independent film and Fallout Season 2
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are black in the green room with me, your host,
Keith Underwood, and this is your spot for real talk
about entertainment with the entertainers, creatives and show viz professionals.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
See.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I'm your host, Keith L. Underwood, and this is where
we celebrate the storyteller's shape in the culture on stage,
on screen, and behind the scenes. Today I'm joined by
a powerhouse performer whose quiet intensity has captivated millions. You
know him as Ibrahim from FX's The Bear. But trust me, y'all,
(00:33):
that's just the beginning. He's an Obie Award winning actor,
a stage veteran, a writer, and a living masterclass in
craft and character. Let's get into it with the incredible
Edwin Lee Gibson.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Welcome to the room.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Thanks for having me so much.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Uh, you're very very welcome, You know, Edwin.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
You know, first things first, how has life changed for
you since audiences have started recognizing you as Ibrahim from
The Bear? And and do people whisper cousin at you
in public?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Oh? Not so much. To me. They are usually saying
some of the lines that Ibrahim has, like uh, I
accept uh like that. Uh, but no, it's it's it's
it's been really really cool. I say, it's the price
of admission. You know, all of this attention happens. You
(01:33):
can't then just say oh no I don't want it, right,
But no, it's been. It's been really really great. People
are really kind, and sometimes they don't even realize it's
me because I don't sound like Ibrahim. But now it's
it's it's it's it's great. I have no problems with
(01:54):
it at all, whether I'm drinking some wine with my
wife at the Sutle place to go to here Studio City,
or if I'm just at the car wash.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Right, they get they get you everywhere.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Yeah, yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
What what's your normal response to them? You are you
ever tempted to say, oh, I'm not him?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Well, we know what I started to say, is uh,
you spoke to guys?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
No?
Speaker 4 (02:26):
No, no, no, that's what I'll say, No God say
to them because because Dina came up with this great thing,
because it's very interesting. So I never say no, it's
not me. I'll ask him like where what do you think?
Some people can't tell me? Like the In and out
Burger last year. I don't I don't really go there
(02:47):
very often, but one time I went there and the
guy that was working there did that whole thing, and
I was like, okay, well, where do you think you
know me from? And he said and he said, I
don't know. So I drove to the next window. By
the time he got to next window, he comes running
from his window up. I know, I know you or
your show helped my sister and me really kind of
(03:08):
uh bridge our differences. That was a really really nice,
nice moment. But uh, it happens at the most curious times.
But but most times people look in there like is
that him? Why would he be here.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Right at in and out? I'm getting a burger right.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Right right right right right, so so I so so no,
so I asked him, now, you know you smoke the
guards because I smoked the guards, and uh, but that
hasn't worked. If you know, if it's somebody younger, you know,
you know that doesn't really work right right right, I
can't ask them that, But but it's great. I have
no no qualms about that at all.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, Ed, when you know, there's no such thing as
an overnight success. I mean, you know you've been in
the game, You've paid your dues. I mean, but how
does it feel now to be recognizable on that level?
I mean, did you feel a sense of accomplishment now
that people are recognizing you?
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Well, I sat with myself a long time ago and said,
I have you have to define success for yourself. So
I think the accumulation of all the work I've done
all over the world as an actor. There are places
in Italy and France that I can't walk down the
street because they have that idea about actors in the theater.
(04:38):
So there are places in Mexico that I can't walk
down the street without being mobbed, but that's just from theater.
So so so here it's been what's been interesting is
that I've had to actually think about the fact that
the universe, the creator is like, hey, you know, you
(05:01):
can chill now. You know, you put in a whole
lot of work. You know, you spend all this time
with naysayers, people in your family not understanding, being afraid
for you. You have this turmoil and other parts of
your life. You lived on the train in New York
(05:22):
for two months, so you know, so you can kind
of chill and just really enjoy this time. And so
I'm having a blast. I don't really shy away from
any of the attention. It just lets me know that
(05:43):
there's more work to be done, and that's what I'm relieving.
I continue to be concentrated on the work and and
people's reaction at least for what the way I do
what I do lets me know that I'm doing that
work and that it's touching moving them.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah. Absolutely, and Edwin welcome Black oh.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Yeers, thanks for having me black.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah absolutely, brother, Absolutely. I like when when I drive
the train and people just jump on, So that was.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
I'm with you. I'm with you.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yes, So you know, as we mentioned in the last segment, Yeah,
you're you're also a theater guy, and that's through and
through what's something the camera will never quite capture that
only live performances give you.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Well with me. The way I approach my work in
the theater, my idea is that each night is the
first night the characters have ever said these words. So
my characters never said these words until the night that
those lights go up. So in that way, I get
to share this what I call it beautiful kind of
(07:00):
dance with the audience, and I get to do it
eight times a week for about six or seven weeks
on the screen, I get to do that maybe six
or seven times period, you know, per per take, per scene.
(07:22):
I think there's a dance that that happens. It's technical
in some other ways. The theater asks a lot of you.
I've done one hundred and four productions in my forty
four years since I was sixteen, and yeah, I think,
but I think there are things that the other doesn't capture.
(07:44):
I think the the specificity of working in the film
and working on in that that that that little dot,
as I would call it, the lens, there's a specificity
there that's in different ways. In the theater, you have
to reach people. I've worked in theaters that have been
(08:05):
five hundred two one thousand seats and mind acoustically where
things bounce for the audience, you have to be able
to understand the tilt of your head in the theater
of a certain size, But on screen you have to
be very very careful about what a look does and
(08:28):
be very very mindful, and it can help you that
your every thought, the lens picks up that that truth.
So they've got they both have their beauty, and I
didn't realize how much beauty was in working in the
screen till about seventeen years ago when I began to
(08:51):
really really move into that into the space. Yeah, it's it's, it's, it's,
it's it's a wonderful exercise. What they both where they
both meet is what I love so much is the
attentiveness of my listening. I call myself more a listener
(09:17):
than an actor anymore. And both of those spaces demand
that you're listening and that you're responding in a very,
very honest way. So that helps me.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, what I always hear all the time, and your
answer was very different from what I usually hear When
I ask that question, people usually say it's the energy.
It's the energy of the audience that you don't get
on set. But then when you are on set, what's
the energy you get there? What is it that drives
you that you love about being on set?
Speaker 4 (09:58):
I think, or a location. Yeah, well, I do think
it's correct. I do think there's there's this energy that's
happening in the moment. What I've understood working in film
or working on the screen rather, is that the gay
(10:18):
for the first camera, the second camera, the people in
the producers tent, the background, all these other areas. They're
all right there watching everything, and if I can, if
(10:40):
my performance stops them not just because they have to
be quiet, but because they're listening and being attentive, then
that for me kind of serves as the same audience
that was in the theater. For me, I don't know
about other actors, but that's really a big thing for me.
It's not just them being quiet because it's quiet on
(11:02):
the set, even people that are walking around on a location.
When you can hear a pin drop and people are
really really listening, then you kind of understand, Okay, yeah,
this is my this is my audience. This is informing
me before whatever else is done in a post production,
(11:30):
and so it has a way of calming me and
making me understand, Okay, yeah, you've got to be locked
in to engage your audience, and there's never that point
where there's not that audience. The people that see it
eventually are a secondary audience in a lot of ways.
The people that are there are informing me in some
(11:50):
other ways.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Yeah, and what I like about what you said or
the differences between the two. You know, you might get
visible or auditory, you know, or audible cues from an
audience when you're performing live. But it's the stillness and
the quiet of being on set that gives you your
cues that, hey, something's happening here, some magic is happening.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
In that same way when you see people, uh that
are not supposed to be laughing, and you can see
that that they are actually holding it.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
In right, right, right quiet on the set on our show,
right our show, because a lot of people question about
whether it's a comedy or not.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
You know, you have to be there, uh sometimes but
but but I can tell that they really want to
laugh or when the take it's done they burst out laughing.
Then it's a different version of that same thing that happens.
It's I guess, uh, auditory in it's a different way.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah, yes, speaking of stillness and quiet, you you bring
a beautiful stillness to Abraham. What's the trick of saying
so much by saying so little?
Speaker 4 (13:12):
I really really loved that guy, man, You know, sometimes
I get a little emotional when I think about him.
I just really really really loved that cat. I talk
about my characters in the third person because a lot
of people here they say it as if they're talking
about themselves. But it's not me and I just root
(13:34):
for him. Uh. He's described as a mystery who's lived
a thousand lives or the creator of the show only
gives only gave that description of the character, and I
thought that was not only beautiful, but such great space
(13:56):
to further articulate who he was. So that Myschi read
is what I'm trying to keep. Over the course of
the series. You find out about characters, but there can
be a rush by an actor to make people know
(14:16):
about the character rather than find out on their own,
kind of like, oh, there's a story of Carlos Santana
when he was learning the guitar. If you heard this
story and someone told him, you're gonna make the guitar
sound like it's crying, and he was the kid and
(14:39):
he took that literally, and that's what you hear when
when you hear his his his guitar. So uh. And
so I'm that way. I want people to really feel
beyond the words what's happening with him, knowing knowing that
(15:00):
there's something you think about where he's come from the
Eastern part of Africa, the Eastern region, and what it
takes to actually get here from there. How large a
continent is you know, you could put the entire United
States there and have a lot of room, right, But
(15:22):
to get there, it to be in Chicago by himself.
But how did he get here? And so I tend
to think about my characters in a very thirty thousand
foot view, and in this sense, I can see where
he's gone. I can track him all the way around
(15:45):
the continent, across the Atlantic to probably one of the
ports that you go into a detention of the ship
channel in Houston most notably, then having to go on
your own and ending up in the middle of the country.
It's Chicago. There's something very very brilliant. There's something very
(16:07):
very fearless mysterious about that, and so I tend to
hold on to that while I'm playing this character all
the time. I never as long as he's been in Chicago,
I never want to forget for him what it took
(16:33):
for him to get here. He probably needs this place
in some ways that other people don't need. The you know,
the original beef and so it's, uh, it's you can
try to manipulate it as an actor, but I am
so fortunate that I get to recognize it and just
(16:56):
kind of sit in that and then you start finding
out more and more about him. You know that there's
the whole story of immigrants who may have been doctors
where they were from, but they're cab drivers here, right.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
And so sometimes people have a tendency of just playing
the character in this one manner. I'm thinking about all
my characters in a very expansive manner, no matter what
character it is. I got to go back and figure
out the set of circumstances found him here, m h.
(17:38):
And it's a great place to play. And I get
to support this cat and and you know, I can't
talk about it without smiling.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yeah, yeah, I fail you. So what season are we
the upcoming season of the Bear?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Four?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Four? Right?
Speaker 3 (17:56):
So Ibrahim coming into season four? If the two of
you were to go to lunch, what would you talk
about or not talk about?
Speaker 4 (18:13):
I would just probably ask for lessons and uh or
or or or or uh you know uh, because that's
you know, the Bantu language that's really spoken the most
across the continent. But uh, people call it Swahili, but
it's uh and uh. So I'd ask him for lessons
(18:41):
and I would get on this nerves about that, right,
I said, wherever you want to go, you know, let's go, right,
just teach me.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Uh, but what's one of those lessons?
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Oh about uh? Uh? What was just Uh? It's just
just some uneral he's what he did lessons. But I'd
ask him, I think I'd ask him about I'd ask
him about his track. I'd ask him which way he came.
(19:16):
I'm really interested and invested in in that. You know,
I just talked about that, but but I but I
talk about that because I really really want to know
that about him. Uh, not just for Edward the actor,
but uh, for this human Because as an artist, I've
been very nomadic. I've worked from here in the States
(19:40):
to China mm h. As an actor and and being
in the theater, you are constantly nomadic. But his transient nature,
I mean, you know, what what was that? I'd ask
him about his job back in the region that he's from. Uh,
(20:04):
you know, what did he do with his family? Like
I have my suppositions, but if I had, but if
I got to go have lunch with him, I'd ask him,
you know, directly to put my suppositions to.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Rest, right right right, I want to know Edwen.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
You, as you just mentioned, you traveled internationally, you know,
all over the world. Uh, performing for stage and then
also for screen. How how do you keep your creative compass?
How do you keep focused on whatever it is that
you're working in in all those different spaces.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Uh, every gig is the first one. I've just always
tried to maintain that I only know as much about
acting as the last job I did. I try to
maintain that I'm a six year old. I try to
stay in that space that's sponge and I think that
served me really well. I was asked by the late
(21:07):
great Peter Brook to personally to join the theater company
and to come to Paris, and this was in twenty seventeen.
Sidebar to that the play I was doing at the
time in Chicago is to play that Christopher Storer, the
creator of the Bear Song, And he said he when
(21:31):
we finally met, he said, I saw you in this
play in Chicago, and I was like, I always wanted
to work with this guy. And then you appear reading,
you know, for this role. While as actors, we as
artists because I'm an artist, and you know, as artists
we work in the dark. And that's one of the
most beautiful places for me. Like I've got monologues that
(21:54):
I work on at home, just because I love to work,
and just because I'm so afraid of my skill set
retarding that I have to keep working. And you're working
even when I'm not waiting for someone to give me
(22:15):
a job. So I'm not working, I'm working on mologs,
I'm writing, I'm creating in other ways. So that, yeah,
so that really keeps me moving. And I think the
universe sees that and throws out a little bread crumb
and says, you want to go to Paris. And then
(22:37):
I get there and I realize that this play is
touring ten countries over a couple of years, and that
I'm in up the main character in it in that
I have to speak seven different languages depending on what
country we were in, and my character is the only
(22:57):
one that that breaks the fourth wall and actually does so.
As an actor, I speak seven different languages. As a
late person, not so much. But but but uh, you know, uh,
I'm naturally curious, uh nebulous. My mother would call it nosey,
(23:18):
and so I'm just I don't like not knowing how
to do anything, which includes which includes the fluidity of art.
It shows you how fallible you are and how much
more you have to learn about yourself, and so never
gets old, never gets old.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Let's let's talk a little bit about your roots here
from Houston, right, or you grew up in Houston?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, yeah, already right, yes, So how did how did
growing up in Houston? How did it?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
How did it shape your perspective? I'm not not just
as a performer, but also as a black man navigating
the industry.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
Well, yeah, it was interesting. I haven't lived there since
ninety three, but growing up there was definitely a real
big kick for me. You know, my mom is from
a small town called Longview in East Texas, not far
from Tarot, Texas, where Jamie Fox is from. She was
(24:27):
classically trained in voice and started singing with her when
I was five years old. And I was one of
the top youth choral singers grown up and had an
experience where I auditioned for the National All Boys Choir
when I was eleven, made it, but I wasn't twelve yet,
so they wouldn't take me. So I loud, I wouldn't
(24:48):
sing anymore.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Yeah, yeah, So my mom was mortified. My dad was
garbage man in Houston, you know, really really intense about
honesty and the truth. And so from those two and
(25:13):
my older brother, who's a great athlete, I was an
athlete as well, but that same level, I just I'm
just a cat who grew up understanding hard work. And
I always say that I don't do what my dad did,
but I do what I do the way he did
what he did. You know, I'm wearing some you know,
(25:36):
my pants that I'm wearing right now. They're blue, and
I keep these blue pants that I wear on set
that I wear a rehearsal because they're the blue that
my dad's garbage man pants were. And so even now,
I always make sure that I have two pair of
blue of these navy blue pants that I wear, and
(25:59):
they remind me even now, uh that uh it's about
the hard work.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Yeah, Houston was a great place to grow up. Uh
played a lot of sports. Uh in drama club eleventh
in twelfth grade year. Uh. In between having a run
away from home because I couldn't decide what I want
to live with my mom and my dad. Uh ended
(26:33):
up with him for about for a few months. In
back with my mom. You know, they both understood they're
very very dynamic. They were very very dynamic people that
still resonate UH that whose lessons still resonate with with
with me. I went to UH Paul Quinn College when
(26:54):
it was in Waco, Texas. I think it's in Dallas now,
and I went there for two years. UH freshman and
sophomore class president, played baseball. Left ironically left playing baseball
to join the choir in college. I had one last
(27:15):
guys that singing, and then came back to Houston, where
I was at Texas Southern University debate team doctor Thomas Freeman,
who's passed away a few years ago, but people will
remember the great debaters. Denzel Washington really studied doctor Freeman
for that character. And yeah, and started working at the
(27:41):
Ensemble Theater. I've been working since I was sixteen in
the theater, then at the Ensemble Theater for about eight
years writing sketch comedy, the Comedy Workshop and performing, then
doing about seven years of stand up the time that
I moved to New York. It's just such a great
place to grow up. Houston. You know, when I grow back,
(28:04):
when I go back now, I don't know what it
is now, y'all can have this, But it was a
really really great, great place to grow up, really solid
place to grow up, family, family city, really huge, cosmopolitan,
but very very small. It's the saying that that every
(28:27):
one's a stranger until you get out of your car. M. Yeah,
then you know, then you know somebody knows somebody.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Right right, right, right right?
Speaker 3 (28:35):
What what is it that about that humbleness you know
that you have taken into your personal and professional life
that you might say to yourself that the generations behind
you might be lacking.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
In entertainment.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Well, I think that last word you said, uh, entertainment.
I'm not an entertainer. I'm nobody's entertainer to do a job.
There's something that connects my art to our history in
this country that goes back even further to the grill, who,
(29:17):
even before Thespus in Rome, was playing all these characters
and telling these stories from village to village. Thespas is
often credited as the first actor when he stepped out
of the the Roman h choir and just ask the
(29:39):
audience to believe that I am I'm this person comes
from his name exactly exactly, But the Grillo precedes thespus
and and so I think people get in into this
(30:00):
whole thing about money and about fame, and some people
don't even care about their livelihood as long as people
know who they are, and such a rush to have
that be the move. I don't think it's a new phenomenon.
I do think there's a there's there's such pressure put
(30:28):
on young folks to be a certain thing by a
certain time or or nothing. I always tell people that
what I had to do is I had to early
on in my twenties, I had to sit in a
room with myself and have a very serious conversation about
(30:49):
what I could do without if I were going to
do this as my living. And then I have to
define success for myself so I can keep my eyes
on my own. It's not always easy, and I can
just see how difficult it is now for people that
(31:11):
are nice people that give over to something and then
find themselves in circumstances that that work beyond their control.
But probably so it's it's, you know, it's it's it's
never been an easy road to hope, especially artists of
African descent born in this country. Of course, we were
(31:34):
always here, so we are indigenous city shows. I actually
am on my mom's side. Uh uh. And so there's
a rush to kind of be the other as we
(31:55):
call in Houston. Uh yeh non members.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
We do this.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Yeah, yeah, you know so uh and and and even
in the work that we create, we create work sometimes
where we're either this thing over here or we're this.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Thing over here, and we try and make these real
people out of these now self imposed tropes. One of
the things about Ibrahim was that I wasn't going to
read for him initially because I didn't know if it
was turned to a trope. But then I thought to himself, well,
tropes only exist inasmuch as the actor allows it. I
(32:43):
wouldn't allow it. And I felt like I wanted this character.
I wanted to tell this character story because I didn't
want it to turn into something else. And so I
but I do see, you know, the games in good hands.
You know, I'm on our show.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
I oh.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
The Deborris who plays Sydney. Uh uh. A lot of
boys who plays Marcus, you know, I tell them all
the time. You know, the game's in good hands, you know.
Uh Uh. I extend that to Jeremy, who's also a
really young actor. But I think it's it's it's it's
(33:29):
it's monumental. You know, you look at someone like A Tyler,
the creator of Kendrick Lamar. You've got some of the
young actors that are really invested in the work and
you are just hoping that people latch onto them. They
(33:52):
don't have to latch on to me. They may call
me the old guard and that's okay, but that they
understand that it's not so much about that. It's really
the work that you're doing is going to really carry
you through in the long run. But you know, Quinter Brunson,
who created a Habit Elementary, is another one of those
(34:15):
just amazing young people. And I just really really dig
hear a lot. So it's difficult, but it's always been difficult.
It's only insurmountable when people think they have no agency.
I've never in my life felt a lack of agency.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
I love that you know the Bear, the Bear.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
It digs into some deep things about gentrification, trauma, and
personal reinvention, reinventing yourself. What conversations has your character sparked
among people who reach out to you.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
The biggest thing for me happened last year and it's
so funny that I'm able to really jump on top
of that question because I did an interview with three
publications in the UK, and the final one that I
did it was his sister. I forget the name of
the publication, but she was telling me about how much
(35:22):
Ibraheim has meant to to African people, immigrants in the UK,
and but you know that immigrant story is and that
my portrayal of the character has really kind of made
(35:42):
them feel really really good. And then the wife and
I went over there in September last year, late August
September of last year, and I couldn't walk around London
without mostly us stopping me telling me about not just
(36:03):
how much they enjoyed me on the show, not just
surprised that I'm not actually East African, but but but
how much the betrayal meant to them. We're at the
Nottingham Carnival, which is this huge carnival in London that
takes place over two days, I think, and everywhere we were,
(36:29):
we were walking in these huge crowds and people were
just like going on and on about it. And that's
the that's the thing, you know, that's that's the thing
you do it for because when people talk about me
and Ibraheem, they talk about the work that I'm doing,
even Sir Lenny Henry, I Mesni Henry. I saw him
(36:53):
outside the old vic and I told you, and I said,
that's that's Lenny Henry. I got to go talk to
him a lot, and so I finally go to the bathroom.
I come back, I stand in front of his table
and I gave him a salute. He looks at me
and I sat told him who I was, and.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
He was like, oh, I love you, I love you.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
And I told him how much his portrayal of the
chef that he played on the show that he had
in the early nineties kind of informed parts of what
I gave to Ibrahim. So it's been that's really really
a great thing. And it's not even and even more
than immigrant folks, just brownskin folks across the board that
(37:36):
really really dig this character, and that no one talks
about the fact that he's the calm one amongst all
the chaos. And I think if he looked different, they
will be talking about that. But oftentimes we're only spoken
of if we're being violatile, and and we're only given
(38:00):
shine to each other. If we've got our lineup of
all that. I mean, you know, and that's I'm an artist,
I'm an actor. I'm not a movie star. I'm not
trying to do all that. I'm working and whatever the
character needs, I don't care how Edwin looks. So so
(38:22):
there's been a fair amount of people that really really
dig the work and the life that I've been able
to ask Ibraheem to allow me to show.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I love that again.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
For actors who feel like, you know, it's too late
for them or they're too different, what do you say
to them, especially to our black actors who trying, who
are who are trying to find their place in an
industry that hasn't always seen them.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
M Yeah. I I point to Morgan Freeman, who we
in the theater knew who he was, a lot of
people didn't know who he was, but didn't begin to
have with commercial success for many years. Two degree uh uh.
(39:15):
Samuel L. Jackson as well, who everyone knew but a
lot of people didn't know. You know, you do it.
I do it because I do it. Yeah. I want
things to work out a certain way. Yes, was I
(39:37):
attached to the outcome. I have to say no, because
I didn't know what the outcome was. So you know,
it's but it's tough to tell someone, you know, uh,
not to feel a way, not to want to think.
I'm very happy with how my career has gone. It's
been anything but linear. Uh, but I love the trajectory
(40:00):
of it. And I just say, but I said to myself,
I'm not saying this now because I'm at whatever point
people think I'm at. But I said, there's a very
good chance that things won't work out the way you
thought they would, you still want to do it. My
(40:24):
question is never My answer to that question is never.
Waiveed I do because it's my life. And at the
same time, you have to really create if if I
want to stay creative after keep creating. That's where I
(40:44):
started writing. It's like, you know, I worked a few
years ago with Chris Rock on the fourth season of Fargo,
and he and I had a great time. And then
you know, we're talking we're just talking about longevity, and
we're of course talking about Prince because we're both a
huge prince heads. Yeah, and and and I you know,
(41:05):
and a cat like that who was my first the
first illustration of a Touchtne because he was only so
many years older than I was when the first album
came out For You, and being able to kind of
(41:27):
touch things and define a Touchtne kind of helped me
navigate things and to see that, Yeah, it's about creating,
creating this work and and uh and uh. Chris and
I talked about that a lot. Uh, just how you
go about making yourself available to yourself as an artist,
(41:51):
which is why I started writing and writing and directing
in the theater and now writing and directing on the screen.
So it may not end up here. It may end
up here, so no use beating your head against the wall.
You may have to come back and do this. Go
(42:11):
create something over here that informs a way that you
get back here. But I've never seen myself as just
an actor. I'm not waiting on anyone, and we as
brown skinned folks, can't for that. I validated me. I
(42:33):
don't wait for anyone that looks like me or that
that doesn't like me to validate me. So my life
is an artist was going to always be filled with
making art because I'm an artist, because I say so.
If I never get another job after this, you asked me,
(42:56):
what I do. I'm an artist. Because I say I'm
an artist. I believe that will happen because you know
the universe. And I had to chat a long time
ago and I said, if you just let me keep working,
I promise I will bust my you know what, every
time the same way.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Yeah, yeah, Edwin Lee Gibson. I mean, this has been
a fantastic conversation. I just appreciate your time so much
and then your your wealth of wisdom and experience.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Brother, for real though, Okay, where.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Can everybody find you on social media? Keep up with
everything you're doing and.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Have going on.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
I'm on Instagram just my full name, Edwin Lee Gibson.
I'm pretty easy to find. I'm putting the finishing touches
on a film that I wrote, directed and produced in
between season three and four in Arizona called a peekin
Red Dress made of satin covered in flowers, mostly roses,
(43:53):
and so I'm working on that and hopefully that will
be in festival, So maybe people will see me around
the festival circuit between now and the time we would
go back on the Bear because we didn't get renewed
for a fifth season. And you may be able to
catch me on the continent later on this fall. I
can't say too much else about it.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
There you are, all right, Edwin Lee Gibbs said, absolute
pure pleasure. Thank you for joining me on Black in
the green Room.
Speaker 4 (44:22):
Thank you very very much. Brother Underwood has been such
a flutcher pleasure.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Absolutely thank you, all right, Jeersy take care of that.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Be sure to follow me Keith Underwood at mister Keith
l Underwood on IG. You can also follow me on
FB at Keith l Underwood. And you know you gotta
follow Black in the green Room at Black in the
green Room across all platforms until next time.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
This has been Black in the green Room
You are black in the green room with me, your host,
Keith Underwood, and this is your spot for real talk
about entertainment with the entertainers, creatives and show viz professionals.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
See.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
I'm your host, Keith L. Underwood, and this is where
we celebrate the storyteller's shape in the culture on stage,
on screen, and behind the scenes. Today I'm joined by
a powerhouse performer whose quiet intensity has captivated millions. You
know him as Ibrahim from FX's The Bear. But trust me, y'all,
(00:33):
that's just the beginning. He's an Obie Award winning actor,
a stage veteran, a writer, and a living masterclass in
craft and character. Let's get into it with the incredible
Edwin Lee Gibson.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Welcome to the room.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Thanks for having me so much.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Uh, you're very very welcome, You know, Edwin.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
You know, first things first, how has life changed for
you since audiences have started recognizing you as Ibrahim from
The Bear? And and do people whisper cousin at you
in public?
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Oh? Not so much. To me. They are usually saying
some of the lines that Ibrahim has, like uh, I
accept uh like that. Uh, but no, it's it's it's
it's been really really cool. I say, it's the price
of admission. You know, all of this attention happens. You
(01:33):
can't then just say oh no I don't want it, right,
But no, it's been. It's been really really great. People
are really kind, and sometimes they don't even realize it's
me because I don't sound like Ibrahim. But now it's
it's it's it's it's great. I have no problems with
(01:54):
it at all, whether I'm drinking some wine with my
wife at the Sutle place to go to here Studio City,
or if I'm just at the car wash.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Right, they get they get you everywhere.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Yeah, yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
What what's your normal response to them? You are you
ever tempted to say, oh, I'm not him?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Well, we know what I started to say, is uh,
you spoke to guys?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
No?
Speaker 4 (02:26):
No, no, no, that's what I'll say, No God say
to them because because Dina came up with this great thing,
because it's very interesting. So I never say no, it's
not me. I'll ask him like where what do you think?
Some people can't tell me? Like the In and out
Burger last year. I don't I don't really go there
(02:47):
very often, but one time I went there and the
guy that was working there did that whole thing, and
I was like, okay, well, where do you think you
know me from? And he said and he said, I
don't know. So I drove to the next window. By
the time he got to next window, he comes running
from his window up. I know, I know you or
your show helped my sister and me really kind of
(03:08):
uh bridge our differences. That was a really really nice,
nice moment. But uh, it happens at the most curious times.
But but most times people look in there like is
that him? Why would he be here.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Right at in and out? I'm getting a burger right.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Right right right right right, so so I so so no,
so I asked him, now, you know you smoke the
guards because I smoked the guards, and uh, but that
hasn't worked. If you know, if it's somebody younger, you know,
you know that doesn't really work right right right, I
can't ask them that, But but it's great. I have
no no qualms about that at all.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, Ed, when you know, there's no such thing as
an overnight success. I mean, you know you've been in
the game, You've paid your dues. I mean, but how
does it feel now to be recognizable on that level?
I mean, did you feel a sense of accomplishment now
that people are recognizing you?
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Well, I sat with myself a long time ago and said,
I have you have to define success for yourself. So
I think the accumulation of all the work I've done
all over the world as an actor. There are places
in Italy and France that I can't walk down the
street because they have that idea about actors in the theater.
(04:38):
So there are places in Mexico that I can't walk
down the street without being mobbed, but that's just from theater.
So so so here it's been what's been interesting is
that I've had to actually think about the fact that
the universe, the creator is like, hey, you know, you
(05:01):
can chill now. You know, you put in a whole
lot of work. You know, you spend all this time
with naysayers, people in your family not understanding, being afraid
for you. You have this turmoil and other parts of
your life. You lived on the train in New York
(05:22):
for two months, so you know, so you can kind
of chill and just really enjoy this time. And so
I'm having a blast. I don't really shy away from
any of the attention. It just lets me know that
(05:43):
there's more work to be done, and that's what I'm relieving.
I continue to be concentrated on the work and and
people's reaction at least for what the way I do
what I do lets me know that I'm doing that
work and that it's touching moving them.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah. Absolutely, and Edwin welcome Black oh.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Yeers, thanks for having me black.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah absolutely, brother, Absolutely. I like when when I drive
the train and people just jump on, So that was.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
I'm with you. I'm with you.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yes, So you know, as we mentioned in the last segment, Yeah,
you're you're also a theater guy, and that's through and
through what's something the camera will never quite capture that
only live performances give you.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Well with me. The way I approach my work in
the theater, my idea is that each night is the
first night the characters have ever said these words. So
my characters never said these words until the night that
those lights go up. So in that way, I get
to share this what I call it beautiful kind of
(07:00):
dance with the audience, and I get to do it
eight times a week for about six or seven weeks
on the screen, I get to do that maybe six
or seven times period, you know, per per take, per scene.
(07:22):
I think there's a dance that that happens. It's technical
in some other ways. The theater asks a lot of you.
I've done one hundred and four productions in my forty
four years since I was sixteen, and yeah, I think,
but I think there are things that the other doesn't capture.
(07:44):
I think the the specificity of working in the film
and working on in that that that that little dot,
as I would call it, the lens, there's a specificity
there that's in different ways. In the theater, you have
to reach people. I've worked in theaters that have been
(08:05):
five hundred two one thousand seats and mind acoustically where
things bounce for the audience, you have to be able
to understand the tilt of your head in the theater
of a certain size, But on screen you have to
be very very careful about what a look does and
(08:28):
be very very mindful, and it can help you that
your every thought, the lens picks up that that truth.
So they've got they both have their beauty, and I
didn't realize how much beauty was in working in the
screen till about seventeen years ago when I began to
(08:51):
really really move into that into the space. Yeah, it's it's, it's, it's,
it's it's a wonderful exercise. What they both where they
both meet is what I love so much is the
attentiveness of my listening. I call myself more a listener
(09:17):
than an actor anymore. And both of those spaces demand
that you're listening and that you're responding in a very,
very honest way. So that helps me.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, what I always hear all the time, and your
answer was very different from what I usually hear When
I ask that question, people usually say it's the energy.
It's the energy of the audience that you don't get
on set. But then when you are on set, what's
the energy you get there? What is it that drives
you that you love about being on set?
Speaker 4 (09:58):
I think, or a location. Yeah, well, I do think
it's correct. I do think there's there's this energy that's
happening in the moment. What I've understood working in film
or working on the screen rather, is that the gay
(10:18):
for the first camera, the second camera, the people in
the producers tent, the background, all these other areas. They're
all right there watching everything, and if I can, if
(10:40):
my performance stops them not just because they have to
be quiet, but because they're listening and being attentive, then
that for me kind of serves as the same audience
that was in the theater. For me, I don't know
about other actors, but that's really a big thing for me.
It's not just them being quiet because it's quiet on
(11:02):
the set, even people that are walking around on a location.
When you can hear a pin drop and people are
really really listening, then you kind of understand, Okay, yeah,
this is my this is my audience. This is informing
me before whatever else is done in a post production,
(11:30):
and so it has a way of calming me and
making me understand, Okay, yeah, you've got to be locked
in to engage your audience, and there's never that point
where there's not that audience. The people that see it
eventually are a secondary audience in a lot of ways.
The people that are there are informing me in some
(11:50):
other ways.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Yeah, and what I like about what you said or
the differences between the two. You know, you might get
visible or auditory, you know, or audible cues from an
audience when you're performing live. But it's the stillness and
the quiet of being on set that gives you your
cues that, hey, something's happening here, some magic is happening.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
In that same way when you see people, uh that
are not supposed to be laughing, and you can see
that that they are actually holding it.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
In right, right, right quiet on the set on our show,
right our show, because a lot of people question about
whether it's a comedy or not.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
You know, you have to be there, uh sometimes but
but but I can tell that they really want to
laugh or when the take it's done they burst out laughing.
Then it's a different version of that same thing that happens.
It's I guess, uh, auditory in it's a different way.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Yeah, yes, speaking of stillness and quiet, you you bring
a beautiful stillness to Abraham. What's the trick of saying
so much by saying so little?
Speaker 4 (13:12):
I really really loved that guy, man, You know, sometimes
I get a little emotional when I think about him.
I just really really really loved that cat. I talk
about my characters in the third person because a lot
of people here they say it as if they're talking
about themselves. But it's not me and I just root
(13:34):
for him. Uh. He's described as a mystery who's lived
a thousand lives or the creator of the show only
gives only gave that description of the character, and I
thought that was not only beautiful, but such great space
(13:56):
to further articulate who he was. So that Myschi read
is what I'm trying to keep. Over the course of
the series. You find out about characters, but there can
be a rush by an actor to make people know
(14:16):
about the character rather than find out on their own,
kind of like, oh, there's a story of Carlos Santana
when he was learning the guitar. If you heard this
story and someone told him, you're gonna make the guitar
sound like it's crying, and he was the kid and
(14:39):
he took that literally, and that's what you hear when
when you hear his his his guitar. So uh. And
so I'm that way. I want people to really feel
beyond the words what's happening with him, knowing knowing that
(15:00):
there's something you think about where he's come from the
Eastern part of Africa, the Eastern region, and what it
takes to actually get here from there. How large a
continent is you know, you could put the entire United
States there and have a lot of room, right, But
(15:22):
to get there, it to be in Chicago by himself.
But how did he get here? And so I tend
to think about my characters in a very thirty thousand
foot view, and in this sense, I can see where
he's gone. I can track him all the way around
(15:45):
the continent, across the Atlantic to probably one of the
ports that you go into a detention of the ship
channel in Houston most notably, then having to go on
your own and ending up in the middle of the country.
It's Chicago. There's something very very brilliant. There's something very
(16:07):
very fearless mysterious about that, and so I tend to
hold on to that while I'm playing this character all
the time. I never as long as he's been in Chicago,
I never want to forget for him what it took
(16:33):
for him to get here. He probably needs this place
in some ways that other people don't need. The you know,
the original beef and so it's, uh, it's you can
try to manipulate it as an actor, but I am
so fortunate that I get to recognize it and just
(16:56):
kind of sit in that and then you start finding
out more and more about him. You know that there's
the whole story of immigrants who may have been doctors
where they were from, but they're cab drivers here, right.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
And so sometimes people have a tendency of just playing
the character in this one manner. I'm thinking about all
my characters in a very expansive manner, no matter what
character it is. I got to go back and figure
out the set of circumstances found him here, m h.
(17:38):
And it's a great place to play. And I get
to support this cat and and you know, I can't
talk about it without smiling.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yeah, yeah, I fail you. So what season are we
the upcoming season of the Bear?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Four?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Four? Right?
Speaker 3 (17:56):
So Ibrahim coming into season four? If the two of
you were to go to lunch, what would you talk
about or not talk about?
Speaker 4 (18:13):
I would just probably ask for lessons and uh or
or or or or uh you know uh, because that's
you know, the Bantu language that's really spoken the most
across the continent. But uh, people call it Swahili, but
it's uh and uh. So I'd ask him for lessons
(18:41):
and I would get on this nerves about that, right,
I said, wherever you want to go, you know, let's go, right,
just teach me.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Uh, but what's one of those lessons?
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Oh about uh? Uh? What was just Uh? It's just
just some uneral he's what he did lessons. But I'd
ask him, I think I'd ask him about I'd ask
him about his track. I'd ask him which way he came.
(19:16):
I'm really interested and invested in in that. You know,
I just talked about that, but but I but I
talk about that because I really really want to know
that about him. Uh, not just for Edward the actor,
but uh, for this human Because as an artist, I've
been very nomadic. I've worked from here in the States
(19:40):
to China mm h. As an actor and and being
in the theater, you are constantly nomadic. But his transient nature,
I mean, you know, what what was that? I'd ask
him about his job back in the region that he's from. Uh,
(20:04):
you know, what did he do with his family? Like
I have my suppositions, but if I had, but if
I got to go have lunch with him, I'd ask him,
you know, directly to put my suppositions to.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Rest, right right right, I want to know Edwen.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
You, as you just mentioned, you traveled internationally, you know,
all over the world. Uh, performing for stage and then
also for screen. How how do you keep your creative compass?
How do you keep focused on whatever it is that
you're working in in all those different spaces.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
Uh, every gig is the first one. I've just always
tried to maintain that I only know as much about
acting as the last job I did. I try to
maintain that I'm a six year old. I try to
stay in that space that's sponge and I think that
served me really well. I was asked by the late
(21:07):
great Peter Brook to personally to join the theater company
and to come to Paris, and this was in twenty seventeen.
Sidebar to that the play I was doing at the
time in Chicago is to play that Christopher Storer, the
creator of the Bear Song, And he said he when
(21:31):
we finally met, he said, I saw you in this
play in Chicago, and I was like, I always wanted
to work with this guy. And then you appear reading,
you know, for this role. While as actors, we as
artists because I'm an artist, and you know, as artists
we work in the dark. And that's one of the
most beautiful places for me. Like I've got monologues that
(21:54):
I work on at home, just because I love to work,
and just because I'm so afraid of my skill set
retarding that I have to keep working. And you're working
even when I'm not waiting for someone to give me
(22:15):
a job. So I'm not working, I'm working on mologs,
I'm writing, I'm creating in other ways. So that, yeah,
so that really keeps me moving. And I think the
universe sees that and throws out a little bread crumb
and says, you want to go to Paris. And then
(22:37):
I get there and I realize that this play is
touring ten countries over a couple of years, and that
I'm in up the main character in it in that
I have to speak seven different languages depending on what
country we were in, and my character is the only
(22:57):
one that that breaks the fourth wall and actually does so.
As an actor, I speak seven different languages. As a
late person, not so much. But but but uh, you know, uh,
I'm naturally curious, uh nebulous. My mother would call it nosey,
(23:18):
and so I'm just I don't like not knowing how
to do anything, which includes which includes the fluidity of art.
It shows you how fallible you are and how much
more you have to learn about yourself, and so never
gets old, never gets old.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Let's let's talk a little bit about your roots here
from Houston, right, or you grew up in Houston?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, yeah, already right, yes, So how did how did
growing up in Houston? How did it?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
How did it shape your perspective? I'm not not just
as a performer, but also as a black man navigating
the industry.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
Well, yeah, it was interesting. I haven't lived there since
ninety three, but growing up there was definitely a real
big kick for me. You know, my mom is from
a small town called Longview in East Texas, not far
from Tarot, Texas, where Jamie Fox is from. She was
(24:27):
classically trained in voice and started singing with her when
I was five years old. And I was one of
the top youth choral singers grown up and had an
experience where I auditioned for the National All Boys Choir
when I was eleven, made it, but I wasn't twelve yet,
so they wouldn't take me. So I loud, I wouldn't
(24:48):
sing anymore.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Yeah, yeah, So my mom was mortified. My dad was
garbage man in Houston, you know, really really intense about
honesty and the truth. And so from those two and
(25:13):
my older brother, who's a great athlete, I was an
athlete as well, but that same level, I just I'm
just a cat who grew up understanding hard work. And
I always say that I don't do what my dad did,
but I do what I do the way he did
what he did. You know, I'm wearing some you know,
(25:36):
my pants that I'm wearing right now. They're blue, and
I keep these blue pants that I wear on set
that I wear a rehearsal because they're the blue that
my dad's garbage man pants were. And so even now,
I always make sure that I have two pair of
blue of these navy blue pants that I wear, and
(25:59):
they remind me even now, uh that uh it's about
the hard work.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Yeah, Houston was a great place to grow up. Uh
played a lot of sports. Uh in drama club eleventh
in twelfth grade year. Uh. In between having a run
away from home because I couldn't decide what I want
to live with my mom and my dad. Uh ended
(26:33):
up with him for about for a few months. In
back with my mom. You know, they both understood they're
very very dynamic. They were very very dynamic people that
still resonate UH that whose lessons still resonate with with
with me. I went to UH Paul Quinn College when
(26:54):
it was in Waco, Texas. I think it's in Dallas now,
and I went there for two years. UH freshman and
sophomore class president, played baseball. Left ironically left playing baseball
to join the choir in college. I had one last
(27:15):
guys that singing, and then came back to Houston, where
I was at Texas Southern University debate team doctor Thomas Freeman,
who's passed away a few years ago, but people will
remember the great debaters. Denzel Washington really studied doctor Freeman
for that character. And yeah, and started working at the
(27:41):
Ensemble Theater. I've been working since I was sixteen in
the theater, then at the Ensemble Theater for about eight
years writing sketch comedy, the Comedy Workshop and performing, then
doing about seven years of stand up the time that
I moved to New York. It's just such a great
place to grow up. Houston. You know, when I grow back,
(28:04):
when I go back now, I don't know what it
is now, y'all can have this, But it was a
really really great, great place to grow up, really solid
place to grow up, family, family city, really huge, cosmopolitan,
but very very small. It's the saying that that every
(28:27):
one's a stranger until you get out of your car. M. Yeah,
then you know, then you know somebody knows somebody.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Right right, right, right right?
Speaker 3 (28:35):
What what is it that about that humbleness you know
that you have taken into your personal and professional life
that you might say to yourself that the generations behind
you might be lacking.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
In entertainment.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Well, I think that last word you said, uh, entertainment.
I'm not an entertainer. I'm nobody's entertainer to do a job.
There's something that connects my art to our history in
this country that goes back even further to the grill, who,
(29:17):
even before Thespus in Rome, was playing all these characters
and telling these stories from village to village. Thespas is
often credited as the first actor when he stepped out
of the the Roman h choir and just ask the
(29:39):
audience to believe that I am I'm this person comes
from his name exactly exactly, But the Grillo precedes thespus
and and so I think people get in into this
(30:00):
whole thing about money and about fame, and some people
don't even care about their livelihood as long as people
know who they are, and such a rush to have
that be the move. I don't think it's a new phenomenon.
I do think there's a there's there's such pressure put
(30:28):
on young folks to be a certain thing by a
certain time or or nothing. I always tell people that
what I had to do is I had to early
on in my twenties, I had to sit in a
room with myself and have a very serious conversation about
(30:49):
what I could do without if I were going to
do this as my living. And then I have to
define success for myself so I can keep my eyes
on my own. It's not always easy, and I can
just see how difficult it is now for people that
(31:11):
are nice people that give over to something and then
find themselves in circumstances that that work beyond their control.
But probably so it's it's, you know, it's it's it's
never been an easy road to hope, especially artists of
African descent born in this country. Of course, we were
(31:34):
always here, so we are indigenous city shows. I actually
am on my mom's side. Uh uh. And so there's
a rush to kind of be the other as we
(31:55):
call in Houston. Uh yeh non members.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
We do this.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Yeah, yeah, you know so uh and and and even
in the work that we create, we create work sometimes
where we're either this thing over here or we're this.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Thing over here, and we try and make these real
people out of these now self imposed tropes. One of
the things about Ibrahim was that I wasn't going to
read for him initially because I didn't know if it
was turned to a trope. But then I thought to himself, well,
tropes only exist inasmuch as the actor allows it. I
(32:43):
wouldn't allow it. And I felt like I wanted this character.
I wanted to tell this character story because I didn't
want it to turn into something else. And so I
but I do see, you know, the games in good hands.
You know, I'm on our show.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
I oh.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
The Deborris who plays Sydney. Uh uh. A lot of
boys who plays Marcus, you know, I tell them all
the time. You know, the game's in good hands, you know.
Uh Uh. I extend that to Jeremy, who's also a
really young actor. But I think it's it's it's it's
(33:29):
it's monumental. You know, you look at someone like A Tyler,
the creator of Kendrick Lamar. You've got some of the
young actors that are really invested in the work and
you are just hoping that people latch onto them. They
(33:52):
don't have to latch on to me. They may call
me the old guard and that's okay, but that they
understand that it's not so much about that. It's really
the work that you're doing is going to really carry
you through in the long run. But you know, Quinter Brunson,
who created a Habit Elementary, is another one of those
(34:15):
just amazing young people. And I just really really dig
hear a lot. So it's difficult, but it's always been difficult.
It's only insurmountable when people think they have no agency.
I've never in my life felt a lack of agency.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
I love that you know the Bear, the Bear.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
It digs into some deep things about gentrification, trauma, and
personal reinvention, reinventing yourself. What conversations has your character sparked
among people who reach out to you.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
The biggest thing for me happened last year and it's
so funny that I'm able to really jump on top
of that question because I did an interview with three
publications in the UK, and the final one that I
did it was his sister. I forget the name of
the publication, but she was telling me about how much
(35:22):
Ibraheim has meant to to African people, immigrants in the UK,
and but you know that immigrant story is and that
my portrayal of the character has really kind of made
(35:42):
them feel really really good. And then the wife and
I went over there in September last year, late August
September of last year, and I couldn't walk around London
without mostly us stopping me telling me about not just
(36:03):
how much they enjoyed me on the show, not just
surprised that I'm not actually East African, but but but
how much the betrayal meant to them. We're at the
Nottingham Carnival, which is this huge carnival in London that
takes place over two days, I think, and everywhere we were,
(36:29):
we were walking in these huge crowds and people were
just like going on and on about it. And that's
the that's the thing, you know, that's that's the thing
you do it for because when people talk about me
and Ibraheem, they talk about the work that I'm doing,
even Sir Lenny Henry, I Mesni Henry. I saw him
(36:53):
outside the old vic and I told you, and I said,
that's that's Lenny Henry. I got to go talk to
him a lot, and so I finally go to the bathroom.
I come back, I stand in front of his table
and I gave him a salute. He looks at me
and I sat told him who I was, and.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
He was like, oh, I love you, I love you.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
And I told him how much his portrayal of the
chef that he played on the show that he had
in the early nineties kind of informed parts of what
I gave to Ibrahim. So it's been that's really really
a great thing. And it's not even and even more
than immigrant folks, just brownskin folks across the board that
(37:36):
really really dig this character, and that no one talks
about the fact that he's the calm one amongst all
the chaos. And I think if he looked different, they
will be talking about that. But oftentimes we're only spoken
of if we're being violatile, and and we're only given
(38:00):
shine to each other. If we've got our lineup of
all that. I mean, you know, and that's I'm an artist,
I'm an actor. I'm not a movie star. I'm not
trying to do all that. I'm working and whatever the
character needs, I don't care how Edwin looks. So so
(38:22):
there's been a fair amount of people that really really
dig the work and the life that I've been able
to ask Ibraheem to allow me to show.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I love that again.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
For actors who feel like, you know, it's too late
for them or they're too different, what do you say
to them, especially to our black actors who trying, who
are who are trying to find their place in an
industry that hasn't always seen them.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
M Yeah. I I point to Morgan Freeman, who we
in the theater knew who he was, a lot of
people didn't know who he was, but didn't begin to
have with commercial success for many years. Two degree uh uh.
(39:15):
Samuel L. Jackson as well, who everyone knew but a
lot of people didn't know. You know, you do it.
I do it because I do it. Yeah. I want
things to work out a certain way. Yes, was I
(39:37):
attached to the outcome. I have to say no, because
I didn't know what the outcome was. So you know,
it's but it's tough to tell someone, you know, uh,
not to feel a way, not to want to think.
I'm very happy with how my career has gone. It's
been anything but linear. Uh, but I love the trajectory
(40:00):
of it. And I just say, but I said to myself,
I'm not saying this now because I'm at whatever point
people think I'm at. But I said, there's a very
good chance that things won't work out the way you
thought they would, you still want to do it. My
(40:24):
question is never My answer to that question is never.
Waiveed I do because it's my life. And at the
same time, you have to really create if if I
want to stay creative after keep creating. That's where I
(40:44):
started writing. It's like, you know, I worked a few
years ago with Chris Rock on the fourth season of Fargo,
and he and I had a great time. And then
you know, we're talking we're just talking about longevity, and
we're of course talking about Prince because we're both a
huge prince heads. Yeah, and and and I you know,
(41:05):
and a cat like that who was my first the
first illustration of a Touchtne because he was only so
many years older than I was when the first album
came out For You, and being able to kind of
(41:27):
touch things and define a Touchtne kind of helped me
navigate things and to see that, Yeah, it's about creating,
creating this work and and uh and uh. Chris and
I talked about that a lot. Uh, just how you
go about making yourself available to yourself as an artist,
(41:51):
which is why I started writing and writing and directing
in the theater and now writing and directing on the screen.
So it may not end up here. It may end
up here, so no use beating your head against the wall.
You may have to come back and do this. Go
(42:11):
create something over here that informs a way that you
get back here. But I've never seen myself as just
an actor. I'm not waiting on anyone, and we as
brown skinned folks, can't for that. I validated me. I
(42:33):
don't wait for anyone that looks like me or that
that doesn't like me to validate me. So my life
is an artist was going to always be filled with
making art because I'm an artist, because I say so.
If I never get another job after this, you asked me,
(42:56):
what I do. I'm an artist. Because I say I'm
an artist. I believe that will happen because you know
the universe. And I had to chat a long time
ago and I said, if you just let me keep working,
I promise I will bust my you know what, every
time the same way.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Yeah, yeah, Edwin Lee Gibson. I mean, this has been
a fantastic conversation. I just appreciate your time so much
and then your your wealth of wisdom and experience.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Brother, for real though, Okay, where.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Can everybody find you on social media? Keep up with
everything you're doing and.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Have going on.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
I'm on Instagram just my full name, Edwin Lee Gibson.
I'm pretty easy to find. I'm putting the finishing touches
on a film that I wrote, directed and produced in
between season three and four in Arizona called a peekin
Red Dress made of satin covered in flowers, mostly roses,
(43:53):
and so I'm working on that and hopefully that will
be in festival, So maybe people will see me around
the festival circuit between now and the time we would
go back on the Bear because we didn't get renewed
for a fifth season. And you may be able to
catch me on the continent later on this fall. I
can't say too much else about it.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
There you are, all right, Edwin Lee Gibbs said, absolute
pure pleasure. Thank you for joining me on Black in
the green Room.
Speaker 4 (44:22):
Thank you very very much. Brother Underwood has been such
a flutcher pleasure.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Absolutely thank you, all right, Jeersy take care of that.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Be sure to follow me Keith Underwood at mister Keith
l Underwood on IG. You can also follow me on
FB at Keith l Underwood. And you know you gotta
follow Black in the green Room at Black in the
green Room across all platforms until next time.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
This has been Black in the green Room
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!