Actor "Leon" Talks Being On The TV Series "The Chi", The Five Heartbeats, Above The Rim, Waiting To Exhale & More!!

Actor "Leon" talks being in the sixth season of the hit TV series "The Chi", working on classic films such as The Five Heartbeats, Above The Rim, Waiting To Exhale & More!!  Also tells stories of what it was like working with Tupac Shakur, Whitney Houston, John Candy & Bruce Willis.  

Hosted by DJ Suss One.  

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Yo, What up? DJ Susswon the feature presentation podcast We got a
legend on the episode today. Youmight have seen him in classic movies that
I grew up on, like Abovethe Rim waiting to exhale five heartbeats.
He's currently on The Shy, whichis a very very big show right now,
which is going it's in season six. Leon is in the building.

(00:34):
What's good, my brother. I'mgood. I'm good. I'm good,
good to be here, good tosee you, all that good stuff.
Now, thank you for coming through, man. I was going over your
career, like I know a lotof the movies are in just from being
raised by a lot of the moviesthat you were in. But I was
going over your career and it's likea very very very impressive resume, like
the things that I forgot about,things that I didn't know, and like
congratulations and all the success that you'vehad thus far. Bro No, thank

(00:56):
you, man. I feel blessedthat I've had to create this long and
this successful, So thank you verymuch. I appreciate that not God blessed.
So let's start off by talking aboutThe Shy. Your character, Alonzo,
What can you tell me about yourcharacter and people who are new to
the show. I know it's inseason six, but there's some people who
are new about your character, Alonzoon what you're bringing, Well, they
are new because my character is new. Well you're new, yes, exactly.

(01:19):
Alonzo is is a type of attorneythat gangster is like, you know,
it's how to get them off oralmost get them off. And I
have ties to Alicia. It's playedby Lynn Windfield. Legendary by the way,
without a doubt, And yeah,we go back. So yeah,

(01:42):
it gets a little interesting and spiceywith with with Alicia and Alonzo, it
gets really spicy. Yeah, youknow there's a little there's some history there.
Okay, okay, Well what canwe expect from the Alonzo character?
What do you bring to the character? Like you're saying it's one of,
you know, one of the lawyersthat gangsters like. What you have to

(02:04):
tap into mentally to get into thattype of vibe, Well, basically just
knowing the story. You know,everything with me is all based on the
story. So what I do isI get into the story of what's being
told and I realized the part thatI play in it and the impact that
is supposed to have. That's really, my job as an actor, you
know, is to breathe life intoa character that a writer wrote and to

(02:28):
have the impact and the story thatit's meant. And that's basically my job,
and you know, I try tofulfill it to the best my ability
every time. What attracts you toa lot of these roles, like you
were you first for we were afan of The Shy for all these five
seasons before you were attached to it. No, I hadn't watched a lot
of The Shy. I've seen someof it, but I hadn't watched a
lot of it. Did they approachyou or you were like, yeah,

(02:50):
I guess they approached me. Imean all I heard was an offer,
so I guess yeah. But yeah, you know, the producers and stuff
for and everybody on a set wherethere were big fans and so it was
nice. They got a really greatcrew there at the Shy. I think
with lead and White has assembled,it's really nice and fantastic, especially for
us people of color. So Iapplaud her nice. Yes, is there

(03:14):
anything that you could tell us ofsome of the story that we can expect
without giving away everything? I thinkbars Alonzo goes in the whole season.
I think, I think that you'llget to see some relationships you didn't know
existed, some ties you didn't knowexisted, and some plot twists that you
weren't expecting. That's as much asyou could give, as as much as

(03:38):
I can give. I'm under contract, I hear you. So look,
this is my first time talking toyou. How did you get into the
game. I know that we're goingback right now. How did you get
into the game as an actor?You know? And what inspired you to
be an actor? Wow, myacting path happened kind of a weird way.

(04:00):
I guess. When I was ingrade school, I saw my sister,
she was much older. She wasa senior in high school. They
did this rock and roll revival atthis school and I went to parochial schools.
So he used to do this somecorny variety show all the time.
So I went to the nuns andsaid, Yo, can we do this
like rock and roll revival thing?And I choreographed all the numbers and I
played, you know, different charactersin history and it was a big success.

(04:24):
We had to do it over again. But I went to all boys
prep academy and it was no driverdepartment. So I just excelled in athletics,
got a lot of scholarship office inbasketball, decided I wanted to go
to LA for whatever reason. Nevereven been there. So it was on
a campus. Layolda Marrimount and agraduate film student chased me down campus and
begged me to be in this movie. And I was like, you know,

(04:45):
we have a theaters department. Ibet you somebody there happy to be
in your movie. He says,No, there's something about you man,
your style, something I feel likeyou're gonna be in a movie. Yeah,
he says, I just I justwant to be the first person to
put you in a movie. SoI did it, and I had to
experience that you know we've all hadwhere you know, you meet somebody for
the first time, maybe for lunchor for a meeting, but you feel

(05:06):
like you've known them way longer thana time. That way, That's the
way I felt on the set.I felt like I felt natural, like
this was me. So I switchedto my mavor major, became a drama
major, studied acting, studied atAmerican Academy Dramatic Arts, HB Studios,
and on and on and you know, perfecting my craft and you know got
into it amazing. I've seen youin a lot of movies. But what

(05:30):
do you consider your big break?What was your big break as far as
you're concerned, because I've seen actorsthat I thought something was their big break
and they were like, I wasbroken or whatever. What do you consider
your big break? I'm still waitingto have it really well, you know,
it depends on what you consider abig break. You know, like
I may have had my big breakseveral times for other people, but for

(05:51):
me, no, I mean I'mprobably waiting for something a little bit different.
Wow, So can you speak onthat? What please you as far
as your career in this game,because I feel like your resume is all
the way impressive. Yeah, youknow, I feel like my resume is
impressive enough to get another job.But you know, I want to tell

(06:13):
old stories. I want to tellmy own stories, and I want to
be put in a position where Ican do that and see what the public
thinks about that. You know.So that's really when you say a big
break to me, that's the kindof break that I want to be able
to tell my stories and be ableteller. And due to the roles that
I want to do as opposed tothe roles that I'm chosen to do.
I hear you. Well, letme talk about some legendary movies because since

(06:36):
I have you here, I gotto talk about it. One very big
movie and the hip hop culture isabove the rim legendary. Actually, my
partner over here, Rich was righthere, was telling me how much he
works with that movie, and weall have how was it working with,
first of all, the legendary TupacShakor and how is the energy behind that

(06:57):
movie when it was being made?Okay, I don't do shit, but
shout out to my New York Knicks. We talk about we talk about New
York basketball right now, so wemust mention the New York Knicks. Thank
you very much and shout everybody wrappingNew York. By the way, New
York is without a doubt above theroom was great, you know in the
sense that for me being a schoolyard basketball player, I played on that

(07:18):
court at average thirty when I wasin high school. So for me to
come back and you know, beable to do a movie there, it's
just you know, for New Yorkerfor me, yeah, you know,
and the fact that it's became sucha part of the culture, you know.
You know, I'm humbled by it. Working with Tupac was it was
great for me. You know.I remember the first day he came in

(07:41):
for a reading. You know,he was, you know, loud and
bodacious, very Tupock ishes, ishould say. And but he came up
to me and it was like this, he said, You're not gonna have
a problem with me because you arein the Five Heartbeats. So you know
that movie, just you know,just Reverend Amongst. Uh, we're gonna

(08:03):
talk about the Five Heart Yeah.So so yeah, so he was one
hundred million the scenes and I thinkall the scenes were great. I thought
we did some really good work.And uh yeah, I mean he had
a lot of problems other than workingwith me during that time that interrupted the
shoot. But well, yeah,at that time, there was nothing going

(08:24):
on with the you know, allthe legendary hip hop beafs that at that
time, right. No, No, he was, no, he was.
He was very good at you know, creating his own beefs. Yeah.
I think he shot an off Diddy, off duty police officer during that
time. Yeah, I remember thatstory. Yep. Yeah, And then
he had another you know, altercationthat he had to go to court for.
So yeah, I see. Welleither way, you guys made a

(08:46):
legendary movie, a very big onefor the culture. You know what I'm
saying. Did you know it wasgonna Do you ever know that it's gonna
be big for the culture? Neverhave a cult following the way it does.
You never know what's gonna happen withsomething. You know. You could
think that it's going to be fantastic. It can even test high, you
know, like you know, andnext thing you know, it's not marketed

(09:07):
right, Or you do something thatyou think is really small and not a
big deal, and it's like,what the hell in fact everybody's talking about
it. That's like when I,you know, did the video with Madonna
like a like a prayer. Anybodythat raised in the eighties knows that he
was the star of Madonna's like aprayer. Yes, I'm not Yeah,

(09:28):
I'm thinking, okay, I didn'teven want to do it at first.
You know that was a big dealback then though. Yeah, but I'm
like, I'm a serious actor.What want what they wanted to do?
Dance with Madonna? I didn't know. I didn't know that I'm like,
when they're saying they're searching for menall around the world, I'm like,
okay. So when I did it, you know, I'm thinking, Okay,
this song, I think it's gogo number one, so I figure
it's gonna be a section in entertainment. It was live at five. It
was a lead off story in thenews. You know, they had to

(09:52):
sign me an interpreter for different countriestalk to the press, and I'm like,
over a music video. I wasdoing studio movies at the time.
Wow, you know, so youjust never know, you never know.
Well, look, you brought upFive Heart Beats. We got to talk
about the Five Heart Beats. That'sanother movie that's legendary that keeps coming up
for every generation. The younger generationis watching it right now. Very cult

(10:13):
classic. It's an amazing movie.Like did you have a good experience filming
that movie? And it was directedby if I'm correct, Robert Townsend,
and it was co written by KenIvy. Wayne's correct, exactly, exactly,
exactly. Yeah. You know,Robert, the whole time that we
were working together, he kept saying, you know, I'm trying to create
a classic here, trying to createa classic here, we don't have five

(10:37):
black men who you know, stoodtogether through it all, you know,
And he said, I want tomake this movie. I want to make
it a classic, and talking aboutnever knowing. Okay, here's a movie
that's the twentieth century Fox that's testinghigher than Home alone. They have us
on private jets going to different cities. I mean, they know this movie

(10:58):
is gonna bust. But four weeksbefore the movie comes out, Robert and
the studio are still arguing about atrailer. Really yeah, and they want
up putting out a trailer that youknow that Robert didn't get cared for and
it was just us singing and dancingwith our hair concked and stuff. So,
you know, young people look like, what is this? You know
what I'm saying. You know,it should have had big red hanging my

(11:20):
man from the window, you know, And it's like, yeah, you
know, we want conflict, youknow, And so that hurt the marketing
of the movie. It's a perfectexample of what you were talking about.
It's good to hear these stories becausethese movies be legendary and people don't understand
how the you know, the averagedaudience doesn't understand how significant the marketing is
and how it translates in their mindsthat might not want to see the movie

(11:41):
or to want to see the movie. They don't really of course, of
course. Yeah, so what peoplehear, They hear about the movie before
they go see it, and that'swhat makes them want to go see it.
Yeah, why is five Heart Beats? This is just my personal question.
Why is it not for sale anywhere? It is streaming now finally,
but it was only available It's onlyavailable for rent or streaming for us that
one purchase it outside of DVD.It's just not available on digital for I

(12:03):
always search every few months to seeif it's available for purchase, and it
hasn't been. I didn't know ifyou knew if there was like a rights
problem or anything like that. No, I mean, I know you can
always get a bootleg CD one hundredand twenty fifty that was out like the
day before the movie came out,So probably the most bootleg movie of all
times in fact. Yeah, Idon't really know. I don't really know.

(12:30):
Actually, the first time I'm hearingabout it really crazy. Well now
you know, yeah, well,look, you worked with Tupac legendary,
You've done You've done so much work. Another legend you worked with Waiting to
Exhale and Whitney was in that movie. How was it working, you know,
around her, and how was itworking on Waiting to Exhale? You
have so many legendary movies, mybrother, you know, Waiting Xhale was

(12:52):
one of those movies where that waspresented to me by the studio and Forrest
directed it, and uh, yeah, you know, I just I jumped
at the opportunity because you know,so often when we do movies as men,
you know, women played just assupporting roles, and so here was

(13:15):
a chance that where women were thefour leads in this movie and us men
get to support them and me youknow, being lucky that women have been
a big part of my following sincethe beginning. You know, I jumped
at the opportunity to play a supportingrole, you know, for them,
so and I'm glad it was sucha big success. Did you get a
chance to really vibe out with Whitney? Not too much? A little bit,

(13:37):
you know, but yeah, shewas funny. She was a funny
person. Yeah, yeah, she'sfunny because she's real, you know,
like if people you talk to usa little bit. You know, she
Jersey, you know, that's whatthe stories I hear that she's yeah,
yeah, she's real. Bro.Another legend that you worked with in another
legendary movie, another one with abig cult following, is Cool Runnings.

(13:58):
Yeah, how was it? That'sa legendary movie. How was it working
with the legendary John Candy. JohnCandy was an amazing guy, you know,
very generous, very very happy tobe doing that movie. It was
a different type of movie for him. Actually when he got cast, because
I was already cast, you know, I was a little taken aback by

(14:20):
this selection. To John Candy too, I'm like really, and but he
wanted to prove that, you know, he could be that type of actor,
and he and he was amazing inthe movie. And you know,
the movie is a huge success allaround the world. I'm always hearing about
him better where I travel, youknow. Yeah. It was just I
was blessed to have a conversation withmy favorite tennis player two nights ago rock

(14:43):
Wow. Yeah, okay when Imentioned Cool Running and he was just like,
oh yeah, we loved that.Everybody loved that movie. B Yeah.
Also, I don't know how thispanned out. But you you did
JT in the Five heart Beats,You did Little Richard, and you also
did The Temptations like do they loveyou as a like a singer? Like?

(15:09):
How did that pan out like that? Well? Otis Williams, the
founding member of The Temptations. Imet him shortly after doing The Five Heart
Beats, and he said that hehas a book and they're going to make
it into a movie and he wantsme to play him when they're making it.
To move wow, so he puta hand picture. Yeah. So

(15:30):
eventually the movie came around and theywanted to offer me the Temptations. But
in the meeting they said to me, we're well aware that Otis would like
for you to play him in themovie. He says, but before we
get into negotiations with you, we'dlike to know what role is it that

(15:52):
you think you should play in thismovie? Mean meeting, they thought maybe
you thought you know? They saidno, No, they had something else
in mind. They wanted to knowwhat I thought, and they knew that
you know, Otis wanted me toplay him, and that's the way it
would go if I thought that way. But I told them, I said,
well, if you're asking me,I think I would best serve this

(16:15):
movie if I took on the roleof David Ruffin. And they were like,
oh my god, we were sohoping. You said that we didn't
know who we want to get toplay David Ruffin if you didn't play David
Ruffin. And so that's how thathappened. Yeah, and they were just
besides them. He was completely okaywith it. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. Yeah. They talked tohim and he you know, and
I talked to him too as well. He says, no, I understand,

(16:36):
you know, I understand. Ithink that's probably the best decision.
Wow, so many amazing stories.Also, I was gonna mention like a
prayer. You've also worked on theDonald Glover series Swarm. You've worked on
City on a Hill. You workedon A Day to Die with Bruce Willis.
How was it working with Bruce Willis? Interesting? You know, Bruce

(16:59):
said already was into his current stateright now that he's in. Oh really,
yeah he was. He was havinga hard time remembering things, you
know, including his lines. Andhe looked great, fantastic. I guess
that's what happens with that particular disease. You you know, you just you

(17:19):
don't remember things, so there's nothingto remember bad, you know. So
he looked great and it was great, but it was you know, we
had to we had to work aroundthat a bit. I think the movie
came out good and was doing well, especially in Europe, but yeah,
it was it was tough to seehim like that. I'm surprised they allowed

(17:41):
him. You know, God BlessedBruce Willis is one of the grace of
all time. I'm surprised they allowedhim to work under those conditions. I
hear you, I hear you.All right, Well, God blessed Bruce
Willis. But he was he was. Besides that, he seemed pretty cool
to work with. Yeah, yeah, very nice guy, very nice guy.
Yeah. So wow. So I'mjust mentioning because you've worked with so

(18:02):
many legends. Also you of courseyou've acted, you produce, you've done
music. What is your favorite thingto do? Like if you is acting
your baby or would you rather produce? Would you rather do? Like if
you only could choose one music,acting or producing? Wow? Or basketball?
Now strictly tennis? Now, ohtennis. Yeah, I'm on that

(18:23):
grown and sexy thing right now.Basketball, you know guys want to fight
you and all that stuff. Youknows, tennis, you hit a good
tennis, you hit a good shot, and your point of goes true.
That's a fact. So, uh, I can't pick one. You know.
I tore my band a lotly onin the people's and uh I love

(18:48):
doing that just as much. Butit's different for me. You know,
Like I said earlier, I'm atrained actor and my job is to bring
a rightist character to life for you. And but when I'm on state each
you know, singing with my band, that's me. These are the songs
that I wrote, These are thesongs that I want to perform. You
know, this is my personality,you know, and it's all entertainment to

(19:10):
me. I love them. Ilove them. You love them all equally.
I love them equally. And actuallythe music part is fantastic for me
because you know, this acting worldcan be really rough as far as the
ups and downs and reasons why youget rolls and don't get rolls, and
so you know, like even whenwe had an actor strike, I was
like, bet, I'll just goon tour, you know what I'm saying.

(19:30):
I was already set up with myband and everything, so we were
you know, it was good,So you could never be pigeonholed to anything
that's good. Yeah, yeah,definitely. You know you don't want anyone.
It's like it's the same, it'sthe same thing. I consider your
career very much the way I considerfashion, Like like my clothes don't wear
me. I wear my clothes,I heard you, And the same thing

(19:52):
with my career and and entertainment.You know, I'm the entertainer. Entertainment
doesn't dictate what I do. Heardyou, You know what I'm saying speaking
about they don't dictate what you do. Is there anything that you want to
do in your career of movie wise, you know, as far as maybe
genres or anything that you haven't doneyet. Oh, there's so much.

(20:14):
There's so many things I'd like todo and move where. I think that's
what keeps me young. You know. There's so many things I want to
do. There's so many people Iwant to work with that I haven't worked
with. Yeah, so I'm constantlylooking to do something. I guess that.
Uh. I do listen to fansand I think that what I'd like

(20:36):
to do which I haven't done yet. I haven't want in the works to
see if it happens. Is Iwant to do like a gut wrenching romance
really yeah, like you said,horror movie. No, now, I
man like, like really pull youknow, pull it to you. You
know your emotions, you know inthose movies. You know, like it's

(20:57):
different for guys. You know what. We'll see a MOVI movie and we'll
be like, Yo, that wasyo, that was dope. That was
all right. Women to come outof movie, that's a fact. It
was so good, crying tissues.That's what I want. The ladies in
the rooms looking at it. Yeah, yeah, I want that, you
know, I want that because Ithink that's what they want. I here

(21:17):
expressed that to me, you know. And so you know, we don't
get to see much of that.We used to see it back in the
day with Billy d But yeah,facts really don't get to see much of
that now. So well, look, man, I'm looking forward to more
work that you're doing. The Shyis Shy Season six already started, but
the episodes are in Paramount Plus everyFriday and it's on air every Sunday.
Is there anything else you could tellus? I think you've told us You're

(21:38):
not trying to tell us too muchabout the Alonzo character and what's coming for
season six for The Shy. It'sa big it's a big deals. Anything
else that you want to add,Yeah, watch the show. Watch the
show. You know, it's aparamount plus your time, you know,
get it. Watch it Black Excellence. Well, look, man, you've

(21:59):
done theater, you've done music,you've done producing, You've acted in so
many legendary movies. Like I saidearlier, career is beyond impressive. There's
so many things. I could havekept his interview going for like another hour,
but I know we're on a timeframe. But I just wanted to say
thank you for, you know,creating such legendary moments in the culture and
movies that raised us and continuing todo legendary things such as you know,

(22:21):
Blue Bloods and The Shy and allthat. We appreciate you, and thank
you for coming to the Future Presentationpodcast, my brother, and thank you
for repping New York. Yeah,listen, thank you for having me.
I always appreciate it when Soon wantsto have me on this show and talk
about my career. I don't takeit lightly. And you know, we
all here in New York I doREP New York, Let's Go. Nick's

(22:42):
Let's get it Going, Let's Go. DJ Suss won the feature presentation podcast Leon