Join us as we revisit the interview with Actor and Producer of "The Woman King" Julius Tennon. He discusses the impact "The Woman King" has had on our culture and society.
Topics Covered
Julius Tennon is an accomplished film, television, and theatre veteran actor and producer with over thirty years of experience.
He is the President, Development and Production at JuVee Productions. Julius Tennon is Co-President of JuVee Productions which he founded with his wife Viola Davis.
Julius began as both a thespian and a star linebacker.
More on Julius Tennon
Julius Tennon is Co-President of JuVee Productions which he founded with his wife Viola Davis. Julius is an accomplished film, television, and theatre veteran actor and producer with over thirty years of experience. A native of Austin, Texas, he began as both a thespian and a star linebacker. Julius was offered a full football scholarship to the University of Tulsa, where he became the very first African-American to graduate from the theatre department. Julius and Viola have shared both the stage and screen, appearing in such notable projects as Intimate Apparel at the Mark Taper Forum, CBS' Laws of Chance, The Architect, and the JuVee produced films Custody and Lila & Eve.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My guest is Julius Tennon. He's a coach, president and
Juvie Productions, which he founded with his wife, Viola Davis.
Julius and accomplished film, television and theater veteran actor which
I didn't know all I knew it was producer. So
a reading this bio, I just I'm learning so much.
But we're gonna learn a lot to buy them on
this show because I'm spiling all the stuff I did know.
(00:21):
Produced with over thirty years of experience, ju v A
cree scripted and non scripted television, film, documentaries, theater and
digital immersive content for global audiences. The company currently has
the first look feature production deal with Amazon Studios on
the film side, as well as an overall development deal
with ABC Studios and ABC Signature Studios for broadcast, cable, streaming,
(00:43):
and digital platforms. Please working the Money Making Conversations master
Class the one and only Julius Tennon. How are you doing,
sir um del I'm doing good. Rashan, thank you so much.
And let me just say the ABC deal we had,
we went to Amazon. We let that deal after four
years and we into Amazon for a couple of years
and we've developed quite a robust roster of things, but
(01:05):
mandate changed and all those kinds of things. So right
now we're in the throes of finding a new deal
and we have a bunch of h we have a
bunch of fish biting. Yeah, so we're gonna have a
new deal here shortly. But I run at ABC was
certainly amazing and uh, and we really appreciated being in
that deal given the violin was doing How to Get
Away with Murder at the time, and so it uh
(01:29):
really voted well and we did. Uh. We did a
lot of things, got a lot of things out there.
So it set us up to where we already did
we know something, Julius, and thank you for taking the
time to come on the show because of the fact
that you know, I always realized that two people and
the process of getting success the person in the front
of the camera and the person behind the camera. And
you guys are doing something beautiful here success behind the camera,
(01:50):
which I categorize as you and her success in front
of the camera, not saying she don't do stuff behind
the camera, but that relationship. How does it make Juvy
Productions unique? Well, what you know for us, what makes
HUV production unique is the brand we have and the
brand is Viola Davis. I mean, you know, I mean,
and I've really uh take that, uh really seriously because
(02:16):
Viola is somebody who's very committed to her craft, and uh,
we're always looking for prestige, elevated content. I always think
anything that we're developing, what Viola Davis do this? And
if that answer is yes, then we know we know
we're going the right direction. Because the company was founded
(02:37):
to uh boast of Viola's career, because when you look
at Hollywood and and the pipeline, the general pipeline of
Hollywood gets a little thin. There's not a lot of
good content out there. And so after her Oscar nomination
for The Help in twos ten, we decided we need
to take the ball about a horn and we need
to create content for uh for an actor consumman of
(02:59):
Viola's one, so that we could tell the kind of
stories that she wanted to tell and she could step
into the kind of character she wanted to step into.
And so it was that thing initially, but then beyond that, Rashaan,
it became this thing where we said, you know, Bioa
can't consume all this content so what we want to do.
We want to be a voice to the voiceless. We
(03:19):
want to put our foot in the door, open it
and then allow talented people of color, Black, Asian, Mexican,
you name, and Indian whatever. So that became the driving
goals so that we could start filling a pipeline that's
really thin. Um and so uh, that's kind of been
(03:41):
I that's been our north star. And then obviously not
just looking at the US, but also international because now
that's a whole different play now, that whole that whole
misnomer about black content won't travel. That's changed in this day,
you know, because of analytics, because of streaming, because of everything.
So man, this is a unique opportunity right now, man
(04:02):
to do some to do some stuff in the world.
You know the thing about I'm glad you brought up
streaming because streaming to me as far as African American
content is the game changing because it's international. I always
look at Netflix and you know they're in a hundred
ninety countries, so in the product premiers there. Because you know,
as I self, when you go into the movie game,
it was a black lead or black concept. It was
(04:23):
only gonna stage the domestic it was, they weren't even
try to. But they might take the London, they might
take it to the Caribbeans and the African States. But
that's it. And so but streaming talk to us. Our
streaming is really allowed the black genre from a from
a standpoint of content to be exposed internationally. Now, well,
I mean, I think listen, I think people of color
(04:46):
are calling for this kind of content. We deserve to
have more of our stories told. We need to be
seen in a positive light and we're not interested in
tropes and stereotypes. And streaming allows you now because can
do analytics around it, so they know what can play
in different regions, and so you know, you can take
(05:07):
advantage of that because what I've found traveling in the
nationally is that audiences are just starving for this content.
So it's an exciting time, you know, and like TV,
I mean, there's so much stuff on TV you can
hardly keep up. But you know, it's it's really a
good thing because it allows more opportunities in front and
behind the camera. And so, um, I mean, you can't
(05:31):
quantify how awesome uh streaming is now and how all
companies are looking at that model the US, but certainly
now standing out across the globe. So that makes it
that much more exciting. And then where African American actors
and actors of color haven't been known, they finally start
getting an opportunity to be known on a global scale.
(05:54):
You know that. I keep going back to that global
you know, like Steve Harran Abu, we've way back on
the w B. You know, was that the world was
just so small, you know, but we were reaching success
but to a chosen few people. And now you look
at what's happening now internationally global content. But then when
(06:15):
you try to diversify, that's the key. When you were
talking about diversify, you see, people started getting mad when
I talk about casting. When we talk about the House
of the Dragon, Lord of the Rings. You know, your
wife there and you're there. Man, just from your standpoint,
isn't annoyance because you know you can you can this
is this isn't in real life characters, this faith, this
(06:37):
fantasy and they're made uh huh. List I always chill
my staff that what we'll do is hard. When you
want parody and you want equity, listen, we could be
we're fourteen percent of the population, But that don't mean
I want fourteen percent of the pie as much of
that pie as I can here and I think you
(07:00):
and that goes without saying without content. And I always
always always tell my staff and and and film, TV
and immersing and interactive that what we do is hard.
But you have to stay focused. You have to stay
on the case and your material that you're developing is
(07:23):
gonna stand on its own when you put the work
in you find the right partners. I liken it Rashaun
to a baby. The project is a baby, and then
how are we gonna when this baby is born? When
this when we're starting to birth this baby, how are
we going to take care of it as a group
so we can take it out to the town and
then uh sell it and then have success because we've
(07:46):
throught it, thought it through. But even if you think
it through, you know, with these shows, you just don't
know what's gonna happen. You do the best you can.
You put it out there, and then you try to
nurture it so that it lasts, because that's the only
way you can. You know, from a financial standpoint, you
gotta get owes out there, particularly with TV, and you
wanted to have longevity because when they're having longevity, then
more money is coming into the production company based on
(08:09):
the deal that you and so that's the that's always
the goal. The goal initially is just to get it
to somebody who loves it and they say we want
to green light it, because it's not enough to say
they take it off the table and they buy it.
But if you don't get it green let then no
revenue is coming in. N you know your deal because
(08:31):
when you're doing your deal, your deal says they're giving
you the deal so you can bring content to them
that could potentially uh be exposed to a global audience.
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's return to Money Making Conversations
(08:52):
Masterclass with Rushan McDonald speaking to Julius Tendant. He's the
co president of ju V Productions, which he founded, was
his wife for all of Davis. You won't go step
up back and step a little bit about you, you know,
because of the fact that we're born in Austin, Texas
football player went to the University of Tulsa and then
there went did the acting bug coming to your life,
(09:15):
because you know, you know, when your football player get
a scholarship, you focused on being a football player. You know,
you just don't get a scholarship at a school like
the University of Tulsa because they like you. You had
to be good at what you do. And you know, Texas,
I'm born and raised in Houston, Texas. I know football
is king here. So how did you go football star?
(09:35):
University of Tulsa acting because you're the first African American
to graduate from Tulsa School of Theater. That's right, that's right. Well, listen, man.
It was one of those things that started when I
was in junior high school and literally started with pros
and poetry because I'm I'm a poetry recitator. I still
recitative poetry to this day. And then off of that,
(09:57):
I started doing a lot of behind the scenes work
and then, uh, and then I started to have a
thirst to kind of want to be up there because
looking at my friends do and I said, well, thank
I can you know. So it started in junior high
school and then I just I just stayed with it.
I stayed with it even when I played. When I
got to Tulsa, I was a foot I was a
(10:18):
theater major, and like I said, and as you just
uh so eloquently pointed out, I'm the first African American
in the history of the University of Tulsa to graduate
from the theater program there, and so it was just
kind of always a national thing with me. Uh And
you know, and I'm still I called myself producer actor
now because I still act here and there. I saw you,
I saw you, I saw you. But my producing is,
(10:45):
you know, is the thing that's in front. But I
still take a little choice things here there. And so
I mean I'm in a really great position. And now
with everything that's going on with streaming, I can play
all kinds of different things and and now I can
wait for the quality things to come because my careers
changed now and that whole quest to want to be
a star, which I think all of us that get
into it initially though, you know, I want to be
(11:07):
a star, but it's not so much about being a
start that there's just being a working actor. And I
think that's the goal that you should always strive for,
just to be a working actor. And then let depundance
and let everybody else say who you are, how great
you are, whatever. It's just about working. And so that's
kind of always been my mantra is just work, if
it comes, if it's right, just do it. And now
(11:28):
we're producing, and we're producing the kind of content, uh,
for people of color across the diaspra and and and
and and and and and beyond um that can affect
people's lives and those human stories. So that's become the thing.
But man, I've always loved acting, and uh, and I'm
going to continue to do it. Here's an interesting thing
about just hearing your transition. You know, like I've said,
(11:51):
you know, I would love talking to people like you, Julius,
because you know you've done so much. You just blow
through the whole arc, you know, like, well, you know
I've starting even hide there. You know, I like poetry,
and then I went to what you're told. So at
first Black the graduating theater and boot I'm here. No, no, no, no,
You're not gonna do my audience like that, because that's
why you're impressive to me, because we always because of
(12:14):
the fact that you know, you walk in the room,
you know you're the only one in there that's right,
you know what I'm saying, And we're tossed to Oklahoma.
I'm from Texas, I know Oklahoma, Okay. And so because
I always that's always look at people going, well, you know,
just racism exist. Heck, yeah, hey, yeah it exists. You
know every time I walk in the room and they
know who I am. Okay, that's the difference maker. So,
(12:36):
but that didn't stop you from pursuing your dream because
of the fact that, again, Hollywood can be so far away,
Broadway can be so far away. When did you believe
this could be could be something that you felt you
could do? Well, you know what, you know, I think listen, Rashaan,
I think that you know, you always have a you know,
(12:59):
I always had this I I should say, to be successful.
My mom used to always say, how came you so
different from your other brothers and sisters? And I used
to say, well, I'm not any different. I just kind
of I'm looking at the given circumstance. I'm gotta know
what i want to do, and I'm not seeing that reflected.
And so I'm just gonna stay focused and stay on
(13:19):
the task and just keep moving forward one step at
a time. And then, obviously, you know, all these years
after being in l a for several years. Then I
you know, then I finally meet by Ola Davis. We
meet on the City of Angels uh. And then after
that we have this wonderful friendship that becomes this relationship
(13:39):
by all of my best friends. So we support each
other tremendously. But if became that thing, uh, and then
that's how kind of the producing thing came in because
then I gotta take care of this immense talent. And
like when you when you're when you're in my position,
(14:00):
my wife knows who I am, so I have to
know who I am so that way I can take
care of her properly and then not feel diminished. I
think you only diminish yourself if you don't know who
you are, because if you don't know who you are,
certainly your woman's gonna know you don't know who you are.
And that hasn't been our case. And my wife has
(14:22):
always saying, you know, you're a hell of actor. You
need to you should just be acting. So I know what,
I'll take some choice stuff here there, but uh, you know,
I'm running a company, I got nine employees, bust myself
and then whenever she's in helping out, when she's got
some breaks. That's that's it. But you know, I think Rashan,
you always it's a balance. You always have to know
(14:44):
win the hold him and win the fold them, right.
And what I mean by that is that you gotta know, hey, listen, uh,
I can't go away. I can't get a series regularly
something to be gone six months from the from the company,
right because well, because what I do for the company,
nobody else can do that. But I don't want to
run film, I don't want to run TV. I don't
(15:06):
want to run immersive and interactive UM. But I need
to be there because what I do and what I
bring is the passion of the company, the vision of
the company, and then I can set my guys up
for success. And so that's what I do. I'm not
a micro manager, but I believe in my folks and
then I give them the reins because if you're not
(15:27):
doing your job, I know you're not doing your job
and we're don't have a conversation. But when you're doing
what you're supposed to do, there's no lord and over you.
Let's go do this, Let's go get this for our people.
And so that's that's how we roll that's how I
roll and uh and it's and it's worked really beautiful
because listen, you get more sugar by giving things away,
(15:47):
then Lord and over people are making them feel like
crap and um. So you know, that's kind of been
another thing that just the way I do business right
about titles. I have an ego, but I don't have
an ego that prevents me from allowing other people to
shine cool. And you listen, you know, I really, you know,
I'm one of those guys. I'm in a position that
(16:08):
I don't really go to movie theaters. I really don't,
you know, you know, they go either gonna come to
my house because I'm I'm a voter, you know, US academies,
you know, so I'm gonna get the movie I want
to see at my house. Now. When the woman king,
I looked at my daughter, look at my wife. I said,
we're gonna. I said, we're gonna. We're gonna, you know,
(16:29):
And we were going because first of all, I support
my friends and I consider you a friend. And secondly,
you know Gina, who I love to death, as well
as the director. So there's a lot of pluses to this.
And when I walked in there you know my my daughter,
she's twenty five, my wife by my age, and uh,
(16:52):
just wonderful production, just wonderful storytelling about who we are.
How does one take a movie project like that, which
is idea and take to get it to the fort,
to get it to the big screen. How does that
process work? Let me tell you something, rich Shaun, you're
telling the story to Hollywood that's never been told before,
(17:12):
where you more dark skin and women being the lead.
And then all of these other black black people whether
they didn't have to depend on any white savior to
save them or do this. This was their world and
they had they did what they came and loaded a film.
Getting a film like this took us seven years. And
(17:34):
what I always say, and I say this to my
staff too, this right here the big ce courage. Courage
when you're doing something that's out of the box, that
hasn't been done in Hollywood before, and then you have
to go out there knowing you have a great product,
and then you have to find the right partners and
it might take a minute, but if you believe in
(17:56):
that thing, then you have to stick with it. And
that's what we did. And then we got some some
champions of the project over the over the course of
those seven years. And then finally, uh, you know, Sony
saw the value in this story. But trust me, it
was a fight. It was a fight for the budget.
It's a fight for the way the hair looks, as
(18:18):
a fight for makeup, is a fight for everything. But
we know you have something that's that's incredible and undeniable,
then you just stick with it. And that's what we
did because we knew that this story needed to get
out in the world, and we know we knew that
Hollywood has never done anything like this. So we're so proud,
(18:40):
and I'm so proud of all those women because here
I am, I'm I'm the one of the one the
only black man who was on that set. And seeing
these women execute at the highest level just absolutely and awesome,
you know, to the cinematographer, to the first aid d
to uh, to Terry Lynn Shropture, a genus editor, I mean, man,
(19:06):
women have a footprint all over this thing, man. And
I was there to support my sisters, and then I
was there to support my brothers and sisters in Africa
because you know, they don't have a union there. And
then and then when you're in South Africa and you're
shooting a movie like this, Folks aren't used to seeing
the black man have a voice. Yeah, I'm the I'm
the producer of this movie, so I voice and and
(19:29):
my big thing for me, I'm I'm the conflict resolution
dude that can talk to anybody, because at the end
of the day, when that camera, when that camera turns on,
then you got a day to get you gotta with it.
When that green light comes on, you gotta you gotta
get it, man, because money is on the line, and
so when things are out of order, then you gotta
kind of try to put it in order and in
(19:51):
a way that's human and humane and uh, trying to
figure out what's what's happening, what's going on, resolve it
and then let's get on with I did, and I
believe in thanking everybody, from the guy that's king the
toilets during COVID when we were there, to the guy
pulling cords. Everybody is important and so for me, I'm
(20:12):
always gonna be that producer that's gonna always appreciate the
whole and try to bring levity and try to lift
people up when they're feeling like it's not happening my actors.
Sometimes Gina was feeling like and I was always saying,
nosis that you got this. I'll tell my actors you
know what. I know it's hard and you're looking good.
Is hanging there you you're doing it, you know, because
(20:34):
sometimes you just need that. You need to hear a
voice saying that and so um that's you know, that's
kind of the way I operate. We'll be right back
with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now,
let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald.
(20:56):
If you haven't seen The Woman King, The Woman King
is available for pre order now. It's available to watch
at home on digital v O D. Uh. Definitely. I
always tell my friends or anybody who calls the show,
send me a banner, because you know me. You know,
you know, you know I posed, brother, you know I posed, now,
so send me a bad people react to me when
I posed, So send me a banner so I can
get the word out about this because I didn't get
(21:18):
up know about this until I did my bio research
on you. There's money to be made on the v
O D and the and the pre says, so you
get that banner to me, man, I would put this
all in my social media, like I said, my whole
thing in my relationship with any especially people of color.
You guys are difference makers, and you you know you,
you'd be grinding so hard and violent, be acting so hard.
(21:41):
Y'all don't realize you when you're when you when the
cover pools back. We just looked back and awe. The
same thing with the woman King because the woman King,
I went there because we saw a black panther. Black
panther was a fantasy and it's still it's a great
fantasy for black women are powerful. This is reality. It's
just that story. Is why I said, you know some honey,
(22:04):
my daughter, we're going right now. The first first, you know,
give me a reserve to see, give me some popcorn.
Your boy going in. And that's why b just told you, brother,
don't worry about this. This part of the horse is
riding your way. And I posted everywhere, so I just
had to let you know that. Man. I know we
hadn't talked to a long time man, but I'd let
(22:24):
you know. Brother, Look you're both over here. Don't worry
about this, brother. You got a great project. And that's
the part of the grind we all need to hear
because sometimes people those slings and arrows and you don't
know why. And because of the fact when you raise
your head up, do you have the dump now on
a great project? Because I'm understand what goes into and
I mean a lot of times when you see the
(22:45):
finished project, you know all the battles and all the
things that happened before this movement came to life. And
it's the hard work. And it was a very hard shoot,
and we ended up having COVID we have to shut
down for for a little over three weeks, three weeks
of a couple of days, and then we came back
(23:06):
to the task and then we got the film done.
But you know, there's all kinds of things that are
going on when you're in production, so many moving parts,
and you just kind of want to keep the train,
as I said, keep the train on the tracks, and
let's get her done. And that's that's what we did,
you know. And and and because we knew the importance. Everybody,
everybody and on this film understood the importance of this film,
(23:29):
and we didn't want to disappoint. We wanted to deliver
something that would have everything that that speaks to the
human spirit. You know, everything is in this movie. So
that's why viscerally you're getting these gasps and laughs and pride. Right,
you just feel like, God, damn, this is us. If
(23:52):
we could come together like that, please we can. You know,
it's no limit to what we can do, you know.
And so that was that was the whole idea. Everybody
knew how important it wasn't we went and got it,
but it was important as we As we closed this interview,
thank you for giving me the time to interview Julius Um.
(24:13):
Methods that help you win? I always like to ask
people who would like you because you you you said
a little bitter, but just to hear, but have my audience,
what are some of the methods that help you win? Well,
you know what. One of the things is that you know,
you have to know who you are, you have to
know what it is you want to put into the world,
(24:36):
and then you have to be dedicated to do the
hard work to make it happen. Because it's only on
the other side of hard work that the success that
the money's gonna come. And so in our business it
can be really kind of fickle. But you have to
stay you have to stay focused, and you have to
know what it is you want to do, and then
(24:59):
you have to have the courage and samona to do
it because in our business sometimes to take seven years
to this one sometimes takes right. You believe in it
and you stick with it. Good things happen. Cool. Every Wednesday,
I have a newsletter goes out to six or six
thousand people, have an open rate of thirty seven percent.
(25:20):
Send me that badder brother second dropping in there so
I can put it on model million followers. I put
it on my linked in account. Hey, but I can
only accept and support greatness and what you and Bothered
doing man, not only inspires me and also younger people.
I'm pretty sure people have walked up to you you go,
you know you I spoke to you several years ago
when I was just an assistant or I was doing security,
(25:42):
or you go, huh, and you know because you're doing it, brother,
I know, I know it's happened to you. Do I
know it just trips you out. It happens to me.
I go, I go, okay, man, And they said, you
know you were the only producer eppisode that was Black
Owners set or executive producer. Black Owners said, there was
a man. Man, that's that's why I just gotta called
tip my hat. Brother. Let you know I'm tipping my
(26:04):
hat and said thank you. We're at the front line.
You're a little bit further front than me, but I
love it, man, and I'm gonna support you. So get
those batteries to you. Know what, brother, though, I'm gonna
pull you up. I'm gonna throw you the rule and
I'm gonna pull you right up with you. You're gonna
we're gonna keep doing this together. That's what we have
to do. We gotta pull each other up. We gotta
believe in who we are and then we have to
support one another. That's important. Julius, thank you for the time. Man.
(26:28):
Get those batteries to me. Man. I love you brother,
your smile is fantastic. And any time you need me
on the promotion and I'm there for you. Okay, appreciate you,
love your brother, take care of by bye.
My guest is Julius Tennon. He's a coach, president and
Juvie Productions, which he founded with his wife, Viola Davis.
Julius and accomplished film, television and theater veteran actor which
I didn't know all I knew it was producer. So
a reading this bio, I just I'm learning so much.
But we're gonna learn a lot to buy them on
this show because I'm spiling all the stuff I did know.
(00:21):
Produced with over thirty years of experience, ju v A
cree scripted and non scripted television, film, documentaries, theater and
digital immersive content for global audiences. The company currently has
the first look feature production deal with Amazon Studios on
the film side, as well as an overall development deal
with ABC Studios and ABC Signature Studios for broadcast, cable, streaming,
(00:43):
and digital platforms. Please working the Money Making Conversations master
Class the one and only Julius Tennon. How are you doing,
sir um del I'm doing good. Rashan, thank you so much.
And let me just say the ABC deal we had,
we went to Amazon. We let that deal after four
years and we into Amazon for a couple of years
and we've developed quite a robust roster of things, but
(01:05):
mandate changed and all those kinds of things. So right
now we're in the throes of finding a new deal
and we have a bunch of h we have a
bunch of fish biting. Yeah, so we're gonna have a
new deal here shortly. But I run at ABC was
certainly amazing and uh, and we really appreciated being in
that deal given the violin was doing How to Get
Away with Murder at the time, and so it uh
(01:29):
really voted well and we did. Uh. We did a
lot of things, got a lot of things out there.
So it set us up to where we already did
we know something, Julius, and thank you for taking the
time to come on the show because of the fact
that you know, I always realized that two people and
the process of getting success the person in the front
of the camera and the person behind the camera. And
you guys are doing something beautiful here success behind the camera,
(01:50):
which I categorize as you and her success in front
of the camera, not saying she don't do stuff behind
the camera, but that relationship. How does it make Juvy
Productions unique? Well, what you know for us, what makes
HUV production unique is the brand we have and the
brand is Viola Davis. I mean, you know, I mean,
and I've really uh take that, uh really seriously because
(02:16):
Viola is somebody who's very committed to her craft, and uh,
we're always looking for prestige, elevated content. I always think
anything that we're developing, what Viola Davis do this? And
if that answer is yes, then we know we know
we're going the right direction. Because the company was founded
(02:37):
to uh boast of Viola's career, because when you look
at Hollywood and and the pipeline, the general pipeline of
Hollywood gets a little thin. There's not a lot of
good content out there. And so after her Oscar nomination
for The Help in twos ten, we decided we need
to take the ball about a horn and we need
to create content for uh for an actor consumman of
(02:59):
Viola's one, so that we could tell the kind of
stories that she wanted to tell and she could step
into the kind of character she wanted to step into.
And so it was that thing initially, but then beyond that, Rashaan,
it became this thing where we said, you know, Bioa
can't consume all this content so what we want to do.
We want to be a voice to the voiceless. We
(03:19):
want to put our foot in the door, open it
and then allow talented people of color, Black, Asian, Mexican,
you name, and Indian whatever. So that became the driving
goals so that we could start filling a pipeline that's
really thin. Um and so uh, that's kind of been
(03:41):
I that's been our north star. And then obviously not
just looking at the US, but also international because now
that's a whole different play now, that whole that whole
misnomer about black content won't travel. That's changed in this day,
you know, because of analytics, because of streaming, because of everything.
So man, this is a unique opportunity right now, man
(04:02):
to do some to do some stuff in the world.
You know the thing about I'm glad you brought up
streaming because streaming to me as far as African American
content is the game changing because it's international. I always
look at Netflix and you know they're in a hundred
ninety countries, so in the product premiers there. Because you know,
as I self, when you go into the movie game,
it was a black lead or black concept. It was
(04:23):
only gonna stage the domestic it was, they weren't even
try to. But they might take the London, they might
take it to the Caribbeans and the African States. But
that's it. And so but streaming talk to us. Our
streaming is really allowed the black genre from a from
a standpoint of content to be exposed internationally. Now, well,
I mean, I think listen, I think people of color
(04:46):
are calling for this kind of content. We deserve to
have more of our stories told. We need to be
seen in a positive light and we're not interested in
tropes and stereotypes. And streaming allows you now because can
do analytics around it, so they know what can play
in different regions, and so you know, you can take
(05:07):
advantage of that because what I've found traveling in the
nationally is that audiences are just starving for this content.
So it's an exciting time, you know, and like TV,
I mean, there's so much stuff on TV you can
hardly keep up. But you know, it's it's really a
good thing because it allows more opportunities in front and
behind the camera. And so, um, I mean, you can't
(05:31):
quantify how awesome uh streaming is now and how all
companies are looking at that model the US, but certainly
now standing out across the globe. So that makes it
that much more exciting. And then where African American actors
and actors of color haven't been known, they finally start
getting an opportunity to be known on a global scale.
(05:54):
You know that. I keep going back to that global
you know, like Steve Harran Abu, we've way back on
the w B. You know, was that the world was
just so small, you know, but we were reaching success
but to a chosen few people. And now you look
at what's happening now internationally global content. But then when
(06:15):
you try to diversify, that's the key. When you were
talking about diversify, you see, people started getting mad when
I talk about casting. When we talk about the House
of the Dragon, Lord of the Rings. You know, your
wife there and you're there. Man, just from your standpoint,
isn't annoyance because you know you can you can this
is this isn't in real life characters, this faith, this
(06:37):
fantasy and they're made uh huh. List I always chill
my staff that what we'll do is hard. When you
want parody and you want equity, listen, we could be
we're fourteen percent of the population, But that don't mean
I want fourteen percent of the pie as much of
that pie as I can here and I think you
(07:00):
and that goes without saying without content. And I always
always always tell my staff and and and film, TV
and immersing and interactive that what we do is hard.
But you have to stay focused. You have to stay
on the case and your material that you're developing is
(07:23):
gonna stand on its own when you put the work
in you find the right partners. I liken it Rashaun
to a baby. The project is a baby, and then
how are we gonna when this baby is born? When
this when we're starting to birth this baby, how are
we going to take care of it as a group
so we can take it out to the town and
then uh sell it and then have success because we've
(07:46):
throught it, thought it through. But even if you think
it through, you know, with these shows, you just don't
know what's gonna happen. You do the best you can.
You put it out there, and then you try to
nurture it so that it lasts, because that's the only
way you can. You know, from a financial standpoint, you
gotta get owes out there, particularly with TV, and you
wanted to have longevity because when they're having longevity, then
more money is coming into the production company based on
(08:09):
the deal that you and so that's the that's always
the goal. The goal initially is just to get it
to somebody who loves it and they say we want
to green light it, because it's not enough to say
they take it off the table and they buy it.
But if you don't get it green let then no
revenue is coming in. N you know your deal because
(08:31):
when you're doing your deal, your deal says they're giving
you the deal so you can bring content to them
that could potentially uh be exposed to a global audience.
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass
with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's return to Money Making Conversations
(08:52):
Masterclass with Rushan McDonald speaking to Julius Tendant. He's the
co president of ju V Productions, which he founded, was
his wife for all of Davis. You won't go step
up back and step a little bit about you, you know,
because of the fact that we're born in Austin, Texas
football player went to the University of Tulsa and then
there went did the acting bug coming to your life,
(09:15):
because you know, you know, when your football player get
a scholarship, you focused on being a football player. You know,
you just don't get a scholarship at a school like
the University of Tulsa because they like you. You had
to be good at what you do. And you know, Texas,
I'm born and raised in Houston, Texas. I know football
is king here. So how did you go football star?
(09:35):
University of Tulsa acting because you're the first African American
to graduate from Tulsa School of Theater. That's right, that's right. Well, listen, man.
It was one of those things that started when I
was in junior high school and literally started with pros
and poetry because I'm I'm a poetry recitator. I still
recitative poetry to this day. And then off of that,
(09:57):
I started doing a lot of behind the scenes work
and then, uh, and then I started to have a
thirst to kind of want to be up there because
looking at my friends do and I said, well, thank
I can you know. So it started in junior high
school and then I just I just stayed with it.
I stayed with it even when I played. When I
got to Tulsa, I was a foot I was a
(10:18):
theater major, and like I said, and as you just
uh so eloquently pointed out, I'm the first African American
in the history of the University of Tulsa to graduate
from the theater program there, and so it was just
kind of always a national thing with me. Uh And
you know, and I'm still I called myself producer actor
now because I still act here and there. I saw you,
I saw you, I saw you. But my producing is,
(10:45):
you know, is the thing that's in front. But I
still take a little choice things here there. And so
I mean I'm in a really great position. And now
with everything that's going on with streaming, I can play
all kinds of different things and and now I can
wait for the quality things to come because my careers
changed now and that whole quest to want to be
a star, which I think all of us that get
into it initially though, you know, I want to be
(11:07):
a star, but it's not so much about being a
start that there's just being a working actor. And I
think that's the goal that you should always strive for,
just to be a working actor. And then let depundance
and let everybody else say who you are, how great
you are, whatever. It's just about working. And so that's
kind of always been my mantra is just work, if
it comes, if it's right, just do it. And now
(11:28):
we're producing, and we're producing the kind of content, uh,
for people of color across the diaspra and and and
and and and and and beyond um that can affect
people's lives and those human stories. So that's become the thing.
But man, I've always loved acting, and uh, and I'm
going to continue to do it. Here's an interesting thing
about just hearing your transition. You know, like I've said,
(11:51):
you know, I would love talking to people like you, Julius,
because you know you've done so much. You just blow
through the whole arc, you know, like, well, you know
I've starting even hide there. You know, I like poetry,
and then I went to what you're told. So at
first Black the graduating theater and boot I'm here. No, no, no, no,
You're not gonna do my audience like that, because that's
why you're impressive to me, because we always because of
(12:14):
the fact that you know, you walk in the room,
you know you're the only one in there that's right,
you know what I'm saying, And we're tossed to Oklahoma.
I'm from Texas, I know Oklahoma, Okay. And so because
I always that's always look at people going, well, you know,
just racism exist. Heck, yeah, hey, yeah it exists. You
know every time I walk in the room and they
know who I am. Okay, that's the difference maker. So,
(12:36):
but that didn't stop you from pursuing your dream because
of the fact that, again, Hollywood can be so far away,
Broadway can be so far away. When did you believe
this could be could be something that you felt you
could do? Well, you know what, you know, I think listen, Rashaan,
I think that you know, you always have a you know,
(12:59):
I always had this I I should say, to be successful.
My mom used to always say, how came you so
different from your other brothers and sisters? And I used
to say, well, I'm not any different. I just kind
of I'm looking at the given circumstance. I'm gotta know
what i want to do, and I'm not seeing that reflected.
And so I'm just gonna stay focused and stay on
(13:19):
the task and just keep moving forward one step at
a time. And then, obviously, you know, all these years
after being in l a for several years. Then I
you know, then I finally meet by Ola Davis. We
meet on the City of Angels uh. And then after
that we have this wonderful friendship that becomes this relationship
(13:39):
by all of my best friends. So we support each
other tremendously. But if became that thing, uh, and then
that's how kind of the producing thing came in because
then I gotta take care of this immense talent. And
like when you when you're when you're in my position,
(14:00):
my wife knows who I am, so I have to
know who I am so that way I can take
care of her properly and then not feel diminished. I
think you only diminish yourself if you don't know who
you are, because if you don't know who you are,
certainly your woman's gonna know you don't know who you are.
And that hasn't been our case. And my wife has
(14:22):
always saying, you know, you're a hell of actor. You
need to you should just be acting. So I know what,
I'll take some choice stuff here there, but uh, you know,
I'm running a company, I got nine employees, bust myself
and then whenever she's in helping out, when she's got
some breaks. That's that's it. But you know, I think Rashan,
you always it's a balance. You always have to know
(14:44):
win the hold him and win the fold them, right.
And what I mean by that is that you gotta know, hey, listen, uh,
I can't go away. I can't get a series regularly
something to be gone six months from the from the company,
right because well, because what I do for the company,
nobody else can do that. But I don't want to
run film, I don't want to run TV. I don't
(15:06):
want to run immersive and interactive UM. But I need
to be there because what I do and what I
bring is the passion of the company, the vision of
the company, and then I can set my guys up
for success. And so that's what I do. I'm not
a micro manager, but I believe in my folks and
then I give them the reins because if you're not
(15:27):
doing your job, I know you're not doing your job
and we're don't have a conversation. But when you're doing
what you're supposed to do, there's no lord and over you.
Let's go do this, Let's go get this for our people.
And so that's that's how we roll that's how I
roll and uh and it's and it's worked really beautiful
because listen, you get more sugar by giving things away,
(15:47):
then Lord and over people are making them feel like
crap and um. So you know, that's kind of been
another thing that just the way I do business right
about titles. I have an ego, but I don't have
an ego that prevents me from allowing other people to
shine cool. And you listen, you know, I really, you know,
I'm one of those guys. I'm in a position that
(16:08):
I don't really go to movie theaters. I really don't,
you know, you know, they go either gonna come to
my house because I'm I'm a voter, you know, US academies,
you know, so I'm gonna get the movie I want
to see at my house. Now. When the woman king,
I looked at my daughter, look at my wife. I said,
we're gonna. I said, we're gonna. We're gonna, you know,
(16:29):
And we were going because first of all, I support
my friends and I consider you a friend. And secondly,
you know Gina, who I love to death, as well
as the director. So there's a lot of pluses to this.
And when I walked in there you know my my daughter,
she's twenty five, my wife by my age, and uh,
(16:52):
just wonderful production, just wonderful storytelling about who we are.
How does one take a movie project like that, which
is idea and take to get it to the fort,
to get it to the big screen. How does that
process work? Let me tell you something, rich Shaun, you're
telling the story to Hollywood that's never been told before,
(17:12):
where you more dark skin and women being the lead.
And then all of these other black black people whether
they didn't have to depend on any white savior to
save them or do this. This was their world and
they had they did what they came and loaded a film.
Getting a film like this took us seven years. And
(17:34):
what I always say, and I say this to my
staff too, this right here the big ce courage. Courage
when you're doing something that's out of the box, that
hasn't been done in Hollywood before, and then you have
to go out there knowing you have a great product,
and then you have to find the right partners and
it might take a minute, but if you believe in
(17:56):
that thing, then you have to stick with it. And
that's what we did. And then we got some some
champions of the project over the over the course of
those seven years. And then finally, uh, you know, Sony
saw the value in this story. But trust me, it
was a fight. It was a fight for the budget.
It's a fight for the way the hair looks, as
(18:18):
a fight for makeup, is a fight for everything. But
we know you have something that's that's incredible and undeniable,
then you just stick with it. And that's what we
did because we knew that this story needed to get
out in the world, and we know we knew that
Hollywood has never done anything like this. So we're so proud,
(18:40):
and I'm so proud of all those women because here
I am, I'm I'm the one of the one the
only black man who was on that set. And seeing
these women execute at the highest level just absolutely and awesome,
you know, to the cinematographer, to the first aid d
to uh, to Terry Lynn Shropture, a genus editor, I mean, man,
(19:06):
women have a footprint all over this thing, man. And
I was there to support my sisters, and then I
was there to support my brothers and sisters in Africa
because you know, they don't have a union there. And
then and then when you're in South Africa and you're
shooting a movie like this, Folks aren't used to seeing
the black man have a voice. Yeah, I'm the I'm
the producer of this movie, so I voice and and
(19:29):
my big thing for me, I'm I'm the conflict resolution
dude that can talk to anybody, because at the end
of the day, when that camera, when that camera turns on,
then you got a day to get you gotta with it.
When that green light comes on, you gotta you gotta
get it, man, because money is on the line, and
so when things are out of order, then you gotta
kind of try to put it in order and in
(19:51):
a way that's human and humane and uh, trying to
figure out what's what's happening, what's going on, resolve it
and then let's get on with I did, and I
believe in thanking everybody, from the guy that's king the
toilets during COVID when we were there, to the guy
pulling cords. Everybody is important and so for me, I'm
(20:12):
always gonna be that producer that's gonna always appreciate the
whole and try to bring levity and try to lift
people up when they're feeling like it's not happening my actors.
Sometimes Gina was feeling like and I was always saying,
nosis that you got this. I'll tell my actors you
know what. I know it's hard and you're looking good.
Is hanging there you you're doing it, you know, because
(20:34):
sometimes you just need that. You need to hear a
voice saying that and so um that's you know, that's
kind of the way I operate. We'll be right back
with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now,
let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald.
(20:56):
If you haven't seen The Woman King, The Woman King
is available for pre order now. It's available to watch
at home on digital v O D. Uh. Definitely. I
always tell my friends or anybody who calls the show,
send me a banner, because you know me. You know,
you know, you know I posed, brother, you know I posed, now,
so send me a bad people react to me when
I posed, So send me a banner so I can
get the word out about this because I didn't get
(21:18):
up know about this until I did my bio research
on you. There's money to be made on the v
O D and the and the pre says, so you
get that banner to me, man, I would put this
all in my social media, like I said, my whole
thing in my relationship with any especially people of color.
You guys are difference makers, and you you know you,
you'd be grinding so hard and violent, be acting so hard.
(21:41):
Y'all don't realize you when you're when you when the
cover pools back. We just looked back and awe. The
same thing with the woman King because the woman King,
I went there because we saw a black panther. Black
panther was a fantasy and it's still it's a great
fantasy for black women are powerful. This is reality. It's
just that story. Is why I said, you know some honey,
(22:04):
my daughter, we're going right now. The first first, you know,
give me a reserve to see, give me some popcorn.
Your boy going in. And that's why b just told you, brother,
don't worry about this. This part of the horse is
riding your way. And I posted everywhere, so I just
had to let you know that. Man. I know we
hadn't talked to a long time man, but I'd let
(22:24):
you know. Brother, Look you're both over here. Don't worry
about this, brother. You got a great project. And that's
the part of the grind we all need to hear
because sometimes people those slings and arrows and you don't
know why. And because of the fact when you raise
your head up, do you have the dump now on
a great project? Because I'm understand what goes into and
I mean a lot of times when you see the
(22:45):
finished project, you know all the battles and all the
things that happened before this movement came to life. And
it's the hard work. And it was a very hard shoot,
and we ended up having COVID we have to shut
down for for a little over three weeks, three weeks
of a couple of days, and then we came back
(23:06):
to the task and then we got the film done.
But you know, there's all kinds of things that are
going on when you're in production, so many moving parts,
and you just kind of want to keep the train,
as I said, keep the train on the tracks, and
let's get her done. And that's that's what we did,
you know. And and and because we knew the importance. Everybody,
everybody and on this film understood the importance of this film,
(23:29):
and we didn't want to disappoint. We wanted to deliver
something that would have everything that that speaks to the
human spirit. You know, everything is in this movie. So
that's why viscerally you're getting these gasps and laughs and pride. Right,
you just feel like, God, damn, this is us. If
(23:52):
we could come together like that, please we can. You know,
it's no limit to what we can do, you know.
And so that was that was the whole idea. Everybody
knew how important it wasn't we went and got it,
but it was important as we As we closed this interview,
thank you for giving me the time to interview Julius Um.
(24:13):
Methods that help you win? I always like to ask
people who would like you because you you you said
a little bitter, but just to hear, but have my audience,
what are some of the methods that help you win? Well,
you know what. One of the things is that you know,
you have to know who you are, you have to
know what it is you want to put into the world,
(24:36):
and then you have to be dedicated to do the
hard work to make it happen. Because it's only on
the other side of hard work that the success that
the money's gonna come. And so in our business it
can be really kind of fickle. But you have to
stay you have to stay focused, and you have to
know what it is you want to do, and then
(24:59):
you have to have the courage and samona to do
it because in our business sometimes to take seven years
to this one sometimes takes right. You believe in it
and you stick with it. Good things happen. Cool. Every Wednesday,
I have a newsletter goes out to six or six
thousand people, have an open rate of thirty seven percent.
(25:20):
Send me that badder brother second dropping in there so
I can put it on model million followers. I put
it on my linked in account. Hey, but I can
only accept and support greatness and what you and Bothered
doing man, not only inspires me and also younger people.
I'm pretty sure people have walked up to you you go,
you know you I spoke to you several years ago
when I was just an assistant or I was doing security,
(25:42):
or you go, huh, and you know because you're doing it, brother,
I know, I know it's happened to you. Do I
know it just trips you out. It happens to me.
I go, I go, okay, man, And they said, you
know you were the only producer eppisode that was Black
Owners set or executive producer. Black Owners said, there was
a man. Man, that's that's why I just gotta called
tip my hat. Brother. Let you know I'm tipping my
(26:04):
hat and said thank you. We're at the front line.
You're a little bit further front than me, but I
love it, man, and I'm gonna support you. So get
those batteries to you. Know what, brother, though, I'm gonna
pull you up. I'm gonna throw you the rule and
I'm gonna pull you right up with you. You're gonna
we're gonna keep doing this together. That's what we have
to do. We gotta pull each other up. We gotta
believe in who we are and then we have to
support one another. That's important. Julius, thank you for the time. Man.
(26:28):
Get those batteries to me. Man. I love you brother,
your smile is fantastic. And any time you need me
on the promotion and I'm there for you. Okay, appreciate you,
love your brother, take care of by bye.
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