Bill Duke - My 40 Year Career On Screen And Behind The Camera [FULL INTERVIEW]

Film Courage: Bill you've said you're an introvert? Bill Duke, actor/filmmaker/author: Yes. I I've never been my jokes are sometimes I say things to people and I find a lot of things funny but I'm not necessarily an outgoing person to a lot of events and I think it's good news in the bad news because being out with people it's very important in this industry for relationships. But I'm very selective to put it that way. Film Courage: I can identify. I'm also an introvert and I'm also sensitive to my environment and I was just wondering how have you accomplished what you've had with being an introvert and some of the walls that have builds but also some of the creativity that it creates - from being alone or being in a quiet environment? Bill: Well, I think I've learned how to split the balance between being a relatively decent businessman and also protecting my family and myself from the you know the industry in terms of it become like something to eat or devour if you are human and I never wanted my goddaughter for example to be swept up into the industry and the press and all that stuff and so I do my best to create a balance so I definitely want to use the press and stuff when I have a film or an app or a podcast or television whatever it is that I want to promote but um there are limits sure so so I've heard some people say that they're extroverted introverts would you say that as an actor if someone is an introvert or they are sensitive that that is a good thing to adopt when you have to do a networking event or beyond yes I mean you have to be aware of your balance you have to understand that you know your you owe the investor in your project the responsibility of helping you get their money back so you go on the road you go in the world you help market you help promote because that's part of your job because they've trusted you with their dollars whatever your personal choices are is one thing but when you're doing work if the marketing getting out there is gonna help sell with filming get eyeballs and put down words back into the investors pocket that's your obligation and your responsibility and so I guess part of being a professional is showing up even when you don't want to which I've heard whether it's singers actors whatever go through we all have days we don't want to be somewhere but knowing that it's part of what we have to do and beyond how can I say a friend of mine once said you become a memoir of mini faces that you have to put together to survive and to let people know they appreciate it even if you're going for a difficult time it's always about you it's about your responsibility your obligations all of those things and it's about you too you have to make a priority and taking care of yourself but it's a very competitive business a difficult business and when people trust you with their dollars you have to be responsible for the ROI and you can't be just thoughts about me doesn't work you said that acting allows you to be many things that in your personal life you may not be able to be but on camera you can be that maybe I'm paraphrasing a bit well I think we're all of us are everything and people say why can you say that I'm a woman with a child I'm not a murderer okay suppose somebody just came up and made sure a baby in the head with a hammer what would you call your response to that if you picked that hammer up no one's saying you're a murderer no one's saying you're anything but you're everything and if you're hired to do a job the director does not hire you to act like that person the director hires you to become that person and that's something that most people understand about acting acting is not I don't that word is annoying because it means you're pretending acting is not pretending acting is becoming it's surrendering to the spirit of whatever you're that character you're describing is so thing called stage fright that's when you're in the middle you've given part of yourself up to be the character but your ego and your fear and paranoia is watching how you give it up and tries to control the shape of that giving up but real actors like the ones that I adore the Kate Winslet's and the Meryl Streep's and the denzel's when he's really in it and the Sam Jackson's the philip Seymour Hoffman's and the Jeffrey writes and when those people go there there's no there's nobody there except that character and that's admirable it takes courage and people don't understand because sometimes you not control your you want to ride if the trust and the person you trust the director to say that I ride right what do you think cuz you don't stand outside and look at your ride you ride and that's what real great actors do flop scene one half is where my favorite actress of all time I think he was brilliant can someone still be great and have stage fright they can be great and have stage fright making me really good and have stage fright but to surrender totally to the moment and to totally respond to what the other person that you're acting with is doing that's her that takes courage you're not watching yourself anymore you're watching the person you're with and the scene you're not watching how you react to what they do you're responding like we're talking right now I'm not trying to be a special anything I'm just responding to what you're asking me and that's what acting should be so overcoming stage fright is is less being sort of this defiant rebel oh I don't care what they think of me and more being so immersed in the moment that all of that is you don't see it one of my great acting teachers when I was a very young actor I asked a similar question he said I'm gonna make it real simple for you he said it's like falling into darkness backward imagine just falling into darkness backward no control of your landing you're gonna be caught or not just fall embrace it well supposes our rock back there or suppose there's a I don't know no pillows and just hard floor the writer is saying to you I want you to fall into darkness backward I'm giving you all the description the director and I of who the character is we've had rehearsals and discussions about who this Peyman being is I do not want you to describe them to me I want you to become them by falling into darkness backward can you do that thinking about the trust fall that sometimes they do in acting classes where you're going to have someone behind you for those that can do that is that the ones that can cross over and there are people that can't do the trust fall it's those are the ones that work with okay that's good to know okay is the ones that can't do the trust of all who was that can't they once I can't okay because if you can't I made love you as a person I seen your potential but I'm working for Network studio and investors they divide my day not in two minutes but seconds they put a dollar value on every second every second I have to spend convincing you to fall the darkness backward it's a second taken away from me making my day if after three hours I get you to fall in the darkness backward and it but I had to cut three scenes from my day and I'm behind three scenes this is not a good thing I expect you to come prepared is it hard I understand that but it could have been a florist so your latest film created equal how many people would show up on set every day depending on the day and courthouse scenes lots and lots a smaller scene small crew stunt people but if you're directing you're in charge of a lot of folks 30 40 50 sometimes 100 more doing a big feature film TX 210 state your vision to everybody from the Teamsters to the actors to the first and second ad the DP sound would robe props costume because for me I have a lot very paranoid director I go through my sets at least five to seven times every set i block my DP everybody comes with me they knows and I have my assistant right my shot list so every angle every shot every setup my entire staff and crew have it a week before I ship there's no drama no mystery you come to the set cast comes in another blocking it may make some adjustments but they know everything so that when we're there we work it's not figuring things out rehearsals give you room to for the actors that don't feel comfortable sitting here if I sit over here fine that's not a problem but we don't say oh wait a minute instead of waiting for the Sun to shine wait for the Sun to set they don't happen it makes you didn't make your day you just have to be it's planning directors they're in charge of three things not two things to create a process if they translate your vision to everybody but the second thing is that their managers the managers of three things time people and money it's mathematics you have 12 hours in a day that you can work so number of scenes they're broken down to two setups each set up you have a certain number of minutes to make your day Accra comes in on prepared and that's a big problem so work as a team a collaborative effort understand their obligations and responsibilities if the director always the first one on set would you sometimes see other crew members actors show up before you and what did that say about them there are some actors I won't mention their names but there they are so involved in legitimacy of what they do they're there before the crew and me they just sit on this set and sit in this seat they know they're gonna be in sometimes or if they're if it's supposed to be their bedroom they'll go on their bedroom and touch the props and do what is never become familiar with the pictures on the wall and what's in the closet what kind of bed sheets are they what color is the bedding how soft of the pillows and why those pills that softer why are they harder or is the blind closed or is it open and there's a curtains on the wall and why was that color chosen for this sheet and ah okay and they're comfortable because it's their bedroom for the laughs fifteen years so sometimes they come to this set two days before and they just sit there and they become organically ingrained some of the great actors have their own ways of becoming the truth of what they're supposed to be and I get there and they're there hey Bill how you doing man no I hear me you know what I'm doing working I see yeah thank you because I respect that they don't just wait for you to tell them what to do they have there only because I'm an actor too as you start surrendering to a character that the author is written it's it's gonna sound crazy but the character tries to live through you if you accept him or her I was playing a character once in a movie forgot which one he was and week before us pulls a film I started doing this never done that my life my girlfriend at times what are you doing I said wait she said you're going I said no I'm not she says okay watch find this later I'm going that was the character coming through me and so I put that in part of the film because I knew something that is being expressed in that person and it's trust trusting your instincts yourself and your talent so if an actor wants to do all those things bring little idiosyncrasies or tics or or show up three hours early is that something that they almost feel like they need permission to do because I could see a new actor wanting to do those things but being scared because they don't want to offend anybody or whatever you're a new actor and and you know what acting is and you have a good director they'll give you the permission that you need to do and be the best you can good directors their ego is listening if I'm shooting a scene with the star of the movie in a car and we shot half the scene for lunch and should have the scene after lunch and the an intern an assistant or a caterer comes up to me says hey Belle bill I say what the license plates before you want my lunch was straight but now it's crooked I don't say you're the caterer you're an assistant mind your own business that's stupid I say thank you very much because I didn't see that and I have my assistant going straight at the license plate you know why because I still good directing credit that person's no less than me that person helped me out but some people throw phones at I don't they don't understand these idiots going phones in people's faces and this is real t-wave like they're superior to human beings and an attitude of superiority like other people earths it's annoying because they're all gonna die y'all bleed I do believe I have no proof of course I don't want it that may all go to the bathroom I do number two they stink if they don't if they can prove they don't stink when they go to the bathroom I will worship them but until that moment occurs don't come to me with that crap yours that you stink I stink you're both stink cool do your damn job so we're gonna assume that they do if you're asking me if I'm going in the bathroom I'm not I'm saying we're yeah we'll just we'll we'll err on the side of caution of course great question yes good nice suit err yeah yeah Arizona I like though she said she said hear hear this is a tricky question but it's up to you if you want to answer it navigating Hollywood agendas sometimes what happens and I clearly don't have to tell you this I'm sure this has happened to you and your career but something will happen with someone someone will maybe it wouldn't even be burning somebody but somebody's offended and then they come back to you years later as if nothing had ever happened like you're great friends or they friend you on social media as a professional how do you handle that do you say you know what it's water under the bridge are there levels some it's water at the bridge some it's please stay over there I think I'm good others is you know what it was a misunderstanding I'm fine I think it's both I think some people you can forgive and forget some people and cannot forgive or forget there are other people you can forgive and not forget such as people you can forgive and forget forgive and not forget it depends on what they've done if it's the kind of betrayal from our friend but that not only stabbed you in the back what held the knife and twist it a few times to make sure that would ever trust you trust you adding them died it's not that she wouldn't work with them again it's called trust but verify but and a martial arts teacher once and give us lessons in terms of say teacher said you know if a man wants to fight you run away from him as hard and fast as you can he said but if he runs after you and he catches you make sure he never chase you again he said revenge is a dish best served cold don't shout don't scream don't it's like playing chess he said don't be playing chess in the checkers the checkers of the chess game said play chess it's not about the outcome it's the process too so the trail happens all the time betrayal rejection and this is part of our industry it's it's that you for the young people come in this business XO man and I talk all the time about this is like they come in with dreams and hopes nice Bret's and butts and faces and hair and bodies and muscles and all that stuff and we were talking yesterday man is going to the acting to this road so I said look up the percentage of Astra and SAG actors in the Union the percentage that work annually out of a hundred percent certain was 20 and out of the 20% how many made over $50,000 a year has no year 5 over 10 less about 10% they go over $100,000 a year just deal with those numbers you're coming in here with hope and dreams right along with thousands of other people that look as good as you on the same day your coven coming they say don't take rejection personally but I have to get rejected once or twice you can understand that but suppose you're rejected every other day for nine years what's that do to you okay something called pain self deprecation self-doubt and a lot of people bury those things with liquor and drugs and I did that for a while when I first started it's just so painful thank God I found meditation but I see kids out here now on the street they came here with hopes and dreams and you're my Senate I mean literally on the street that now there's hope I mean there's luck and hoping everybody's keep dreaming they should understand the business too and the good part about today is you're not the wait to be discovered you can you can click podcasts and webisodes up if I said something relevant and you get one or two million eyeballs guess what they come to you It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia been out for ten years now right I started I was webisodes you survey uncle dark girls by girls right millions of eyeballs got a big deal with HBO tangerine was that Sundance two years ago a movie made with for iPhones anybody waiting I'm waiting for them to see how wonderful I am these guys got tired of waiting man hey someone discover myself and they did and guess what when they when they got that kind of inner confidence and self that evaluation some changed something happened I'm good for them I love what you said about rejection sometimes when I'll do you know I'll watch videos or I'll read about an actor or a writer or a musician I find that actually some of them that have really thrived they had a very painful early rejection and I'm just wondering does that almost because you had that first early painful rejection any new rejections it's like okay casting director didn't like me well my own father rejected me so what could be worse you know so I see that sometimes I've seen I've actually looked at a lot of people's lives or nothing like wow that person I really admire they grew up in a tough situation and I'm wondering if that almost helps in some sense I think your ability to deal with pain and how you deal with that determines your life journey yeah every rejection and this it sounds crazy but every rejection is painful but it's not personal of course the 20 people before you are rejected also they weren't rejected because they're not talented and you may be more talented than the person who got that job not because they're more talented than you but because and this is gonna sound crazy because if you have fifty thousand social media followers and they have five million because it's a job so it's not personal and it's not meant to be personal it's business they put 5060 million dollars into the movie you may do the scene very well but that other person is gonna bring five million eyeballs so just suppose 10% of them buy tickets that's 500,000 tickets for opening day you know and it sounds harsh but I have a question if you put 50 million downwards or 150 million dollars into a film when you be interested on the ROI of your investment I mean you may love Henry but if Sam can bring you 50 million eyeballs for the hundred and fifty million you've spent you're going to think about it so we think they're mean and horrible people no no no businessman and women bill if you could pick five books that you would be allowed to read every year and only those five books what would they be there was a library police and I said I'm allowing you five and that's it god I love books I'm just trying five yes sorry I know that's limiting but an empire of their own oh it's his name seen empire of their own what's the book I always talk about in 1984 but the one would about the mythology Jean Irvin was his husband and all the majors to all the major guys read this book hero with a thousand faces that's an incredible book incredible book about all the stories of the world have a certain commonality no matter what they are Steven Spielberg use it Lucas who uses it everybody all use it the hero's journey what is the hero's journey and there's a commonality to every single hero's journey I read a book by Steven Pressfield recently that every as often as I can and it's called the war of art it's a take-off on Sun Tzu's the art of war and it talks about what is what what is it that stops the average person from accomplishing anything they want to accomplish countless the book is this thick and the book pisses you off so bad because from the first page you say to yourself he's talking about a and he says the father and mother of incompetence this procrastination in the rationalizations we come up with to justify a procrastination hours and days of thinking why we're not doing it and justifying it instead of doing it he says it's easier to know the hand that's choking you then to let another hand in this is motoki worse you're not dead but you're asking me to put another near me I don't know I don't know this you know I know this because that's my it's a brilliant brilliant going in then there are books forgot the author's name right now but one is called the dip of them when it's called the Purple Cow Seth Godin Seth go yeah oh is he great or not he has a podcast - yeah he's he's brilliant brilliant books it is thick but he tells you and shows you accomplishment what is accomplishment that's four and then my favorite poet is TS Eliot Four Quartets it's the last thing I think before he died he talks about how every piece of poetry but before that is the meaningless delay just as right now he talks about what he's learned in life and puts it and put and put it before that Federico Fellini and Frank Capra - my favorite directors of all time reading eight and a half the era I watch and sometimes look at the script of lists it's just goes to Washington and it's a wonderful life the message is the the courage that he had at that time and when he was tortured by McCarthy for saying he thinks he said in look he was a bigger communist but he went on and did it anyway he has encouraged my career and I can't remember the name of the director now but the script I could beat over and over and over again because it's so brilliant and the film I can watch a thousand times was it so brilliant came out around nine to ten years ago called Run Lola Run I've ever seen that one scene the trailer you gotta watch it I know he's a genius when I say genius he never got the credit he deserved but the film is toe pictorially and structurally through methodologies that no one else has ever seen done it's that way it's like a giving one example but it's it's a but it's a 20 hour per hour thing this woman is called by her boyfriend supposed to deliver drugs to the drug dealer doesn't have their drugs hit set the money to the drug dealer because he lost the package on the plane and named drug dealers coming in like three to three hours and he's got to be at a drug store and you have a pharmacy to meet the drug dealer if the drug dealer sees not the money he's gonna get killed so his girlfriend does everything she can to make sure so the film is divided in to all the attempts she makes and it starts her back at the apartment over and over again and runs down the steps to different places now as she runs down the steps she must down the steps she's running doors open to older ladies apartment and it moves over the older lady shoulder into the TV and the TV shows are here opening down the steps when she gets in the street she passes people and everybody she passes you see in five seconds a flashback of their entire lives who they are and when she gets to the place where she tries to get the money for him and it fails you go back to the appointment the phone rings and he says I'm gonna die if you don't get here she gets up and she once again to try to get the money from someplace else when you see people working harder than you what does that do for you Spira me I see working be working harder than me I can't imagine that but if I do as far as me to work harder I mean good is not good enough and great it's not good enough excellence excellence your names on it and even if you had another budget you needed you gotta take what you have and do the best you can but you're given you said to Nick one may look like 20 you got to do it and takes work and sleep is not something you do you always like this I had a parents who taught me ethics that I didn't know they were teaching at the time I was very very young and my father wants to say to my sister and I bill and Evonne always remember this you're no better than anybody else but nobody else is better than you and they said never ask anybody for anything go get it my father worked three jobs mother worked two seven days a week sometimes and they wouldn't take welfare or social assistance they were too proud so I was I hit a low point in New York City one time and almost homeless and I literally was getting high all the time on different things and I was on the street I had my hand out I was begging for money and this older lady came by one day and she looked at missing them crafts changing she looked at me she walked by I thought she was gone so I asked the next person I thought little tap on my back the same old lady I said yes ma'am we got change she looked at my face she she said son do your mama know y'all here doing this I said no man just shook your head just walked away didn't give me a dime I turned around I sit on the steps and never beg for money again you still see her face yes oh yes I turned then look likes of what I walked her she walked two blocks and took a left and I watched her change my wife reminding him my parents told me and I got a college education and I had a master's degree and blablabla my mother and father with a 2nd and 3rd grade and they never asked anybody for anything I had to carry that legacy on changed my life and that mean when people come to me with excuses and stuff I always say to them you know you got a lot excuses oh wow life is hard huh Wow hmm sometimes tell me come with me for a second get my car ride down this street he left us what do you write I said do you want that oh no that's the point I'm making as I'm not suggesting it's easier that you're not suffering but do you want that I mean you ain't gotta look for you know it's their suffering going on right here that's I go down a fifth and spring you'll see children crawling in and out of dumpsters for food so what do you think people under 25 or 30 not understand about success in Hollywood maybe they think oh I'll never be that you know everybody always thinks I'll never I could never end up like that which sometimes it's just a matter of bad you know circumstances piled up and one to lead someone there and they think oh I have a safety net it would never happen to me but the general 25 30 year old that comes out here with a degree genes that are the plan is called frustration there are two things I would address it with one is the God joke you know you know the guy took tell him your plans or Oh or is that John Lennon like this wow that's a good joke okay make God laugh tell him your plans and I mean one thing I find with it with the younger generation now it might have a story of uh been a minister that's a friend of mine told me he said he said Bill you know one one day I stood up in church and I said to my congregation he said everybody that wants to go to heaven stand-up dance and sing hallelujah a whole church fifteen hundred people come up and he shouted for five to ten minutes he took calm him down whoa whoa okay okay okay okay said uh my second question everybody wants to die stand up and sing hallelujah he said I got my third question is it Howard hell you gonna go to heaven if you don't die see everybody wants to go to hell but don't no damn body wanna die and dying well Holly was about how do you resurrect yourself after you're smashed a couple of thousand times do you buy a violin take a little self-pity moments of having fear everything is and how great you are and how mean they are and that could go on for thirty years forty years or do you take the initiative to do something that changes that it's like one or two choices giving up or moving ahead and a lot of folks just and these are people have been in the street 20 years they talk to them oh well you know how hard it is these damn agents and these studios and networks and really hmm it heard of the Internet yeah but that doesn't then whoever so podcast know why I don't know how how could I learn that's too hard but you expected their results what you're doing the same thing let's call this sanity so all you can do is tell people for your loving caring tell people but not everybody listens they they just don't listen they're afraid to jump into the pond you know it's like today it's a whole new world in terms of this industry and say there's a pond and the success range is over there and a lot of folks just jump in they can't swim but the best they can and get to the other side while they're doing that some of us put our arm in the water to cool it's too deep it's a to warm a lot of waves out there by the time the pond cools down and you start moving to the other side and your little boat there are signs put up other people who took the chance and those signs say entry fees you know why because they deserve it we over their cowardly thinking they didn't wait they jumped you know if they were gonna drown or not they they didn't know anything they just know that whatever over there I'll get some that so I don't have that I don't want to be here anyway it takes that kind of desire on my wall in my office have a picture which is my favorite favorite picture it's it's an ostrich or a swan who's swallowing a frog and the Frog is halfway down this one's throat there's one problem the Frog has its hands are brown smarts squeezing and it smells like and the title says never give up you can be down their throat but as long as you got your hands around that throat can't swallow but if someone says well I'm gonna be 30 in March so you know I'm just gonna pack it in I'm not gonna make it here what about this new pressure that's 30 under 30 25 at the top you know people in tech developing apps whatever this this new bar that we've we've said that we have to be a certain age or if you haven't might as well pack it in well the system is set up for the youth and they assume that whatever older ones of us have survived and then wizardmon knows that we have is irrelevant I just pad I'm gonna build an a heads and say good luck when I was a young man there was a there was a saying I never forgot it and it was when I was a young man I thought my father to be a fool now that I have grown older oh how wise he has become it's when you're young you think you know every damn thing until the life smashes you in the face with the truth of its indifference toward you and all those dumb people that are you think are older and you don't listen to I want you did a couple of scars you'll see how stupid they really are it's gonna be scarred first you know because I was talking and they don't know nothing your generations in the past but when you get crushed and by crushed I don't mean by not being successful asked what the cost today of being successful is it's coming out so you have success which paid for it and so with that success comes shame because she wanted the success more than your self-respect you notice all these people coming out now and saying this is the price I've paid and I've been dismissible for all these years but thank God I can say me too and it took something off of me can you imagine being successful knowing the price you paid and choking on it for the rest of your life hey everybody I'm just fine I'm just I'm great and I don't care about what I had to do except when I sleep at night I can't sleep at night yeah what about wanting notoriety notoriety these days people will do anything for notoriety sometimes I see an intern I cannot I mean are they really doing this he just pointed out to me yesterday a friend of his is an artist has been accused of sexual harassment of three women did he point out to me one of these women has a website and every one when she has hundreds of pictures on our website write the most obscenely provocatively sexually explicit pictures that you can imagine but a victim of this dude was getting no due process by the way because she said so he's guilty a friend of mine worked at CBS for 15 years and a woman said that five years ago he looked at her in a suggestive manner that made her feel uncomfortable they fired him on the spot they don't want the publicity so these days people do things i sexual acts I mean this guy was on this murderer was on and he put a selfie up talking about how he killed people and how he did it he didn't use a gun because he wanted to use a knife that and see them die slowly and then there are little kids now taking drugs and doing other kinds of things online young girl's sexual acts bullying and saying how brave I am and little girls going to school 12 years old with guns in their hunt their backpack and people getting shot I mean I mean for notoriety I guess being famous now has taken the place of any kind of self-worth as long as you like me I'm okay and girl like myself because you like me but when you're alone doesn't that bother you doesn't mean I don't understand how just having recognition or having people know who you are having Megan eyeballs I guess that gives you identity these days and that's just beginning of the next two generations three to five common mistakes you see new actors making onset common mistakes number one no actress for the most part and some actors which just threw egos were out of shape believed that acting is about talking or speaking their minds they have no understanding of the art of listening we are having a conversation what a conversation is you speak I listen closely to what you're saying because I want to respond to your question most actors have memorized their line so no matter how you say it or what's anything they just respond with their line on camera it looks like no wait a minute she was crying Oh Becky you want to go to the prom no no she was crying when you give it a flower oh yeah take two hey Becky you want to go to the prom cut you don't have a long talk in the corner okay second biggest mistake I think is that some actors are not collaborators you know it's like they're so unsecured it's like they're seen and some they go in with attitude like well this is my Sikhs have more lines than you you know so you know and there's two people on the scene it'd still be want to sing feeling the monologue it's just you but there are people's eagles who are so large that you're not even there so it's like that's how good they can be and that's annoying as hell the third thing is nerves I mean I've literally seen I had to stop shooting a scene because in the middle of the scene the actor was sweating so badly that we at the cut are you okay when I say sweat I'm talking about because internally they are so worried about the fact that they're not doing it right that they just something internally happens and they just are terrified and so as a director you get a call and give them you know make sure they know that they're protected make sure it's if they you you gotta give me assurance because acting is response it's it's it's it's surrendering it's not holding on to safety that's easy for me to say but try it sometimes try going in and trying to do it and you don't know how it's gonna turn out and you asked how was i how did it go what's great can I see it you know it's like you don't know how it was because you were involved in it and not knowing what to do is we're not feeling safe that you've done it well it's it's it's a challenge well they say having a big ego and a small you go is pretty much the same thing it's just sort of different ways of dealing with it having a big ego I think is a sign of a small self regard having a small ego is similar I think I forgot is a name but a Wayne Dyer I love Wayne Dyer and he said you know the key to having a great life is to get rid of your ego the audience said what are you talking about he said do you know what the word ego stands for e.g oh he goes to the born he says 'i edging g-god zero out says your ego edges God out and without that force in your life he says you have nothing but empty accomplishments and he says try eating those empty accomplishments when you're sitting home alone because nobody likes you in your a mansion said it's more comfortable on being on the street you said but when you ride by that person sitting on the street he looks familiar I think he's brilliant and true I know a very wealthy people who are miserable get a man and when he didn't throw the whole cars into a hole closed until the hole the casein didn't fill the whole relationship then for the hole there's something else you have to have I'm not saying I know everything but I do know because I've had a lot of it that all those things don't some hole if you don't have self love even if somebody else loves you if you don't have self love tell my daughter every day I say you know never forget men treat you the way they see you teach yourself don't treat yourself the way you think he should perceive you treat to sell yourself the way you want to be treated I think it's a general for people I love quotes so I can give you three my favorite quotes sounds great can't be trying to please everybody except you yeah not good right people-pleasing disease is a disease yeah what happens to you when you need something where they where they go and what it's come the woodwork people hmm when you're doing real good they come out of the woodwork oh yes you're doing bad right yeah I started them a little bit well good people come out of the woodwork Oh cousin bill I know how do we come their cousin but you have some quotes I know you said you loved quotes bill yeah I got fourth month in Churchill true power is an individual's ability to move from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm anonymous aspire to inspire before you expire anonymous if a man does not seek humility humility will seek the man and my final one anonymous and your lifetime you will never see a smaller package then the person wrapped up in themselves and I found each one of those to be true I'm sure you're asked about the scene constantly but the interrogation scene from menace to society I wasn't you just I know this is a probably you've at been asked this question so much but if you could just take us back to that day just doing that scene what was it like for you I just finished doing a film I would think I was in Canada and acting in the film and I rushed back and at the same day that I came in I had to be on the set Hughes brothers and I guess not their work I'm like oh they were I read the script and I loved it there's only one scene and it's like the way they set it up got me immediately into the mood because the room was dark except there were like three spotlights one on the young boy one of the middle of the table the gun was and one on myself and everything else was in shadow and the police had brought this young man into this place to intimidate him into telling the truth and so he was sitting there really nervous you know he thought he was smarter than everybody in the in the room and so when I questioned him it was like I first brought the gun in put on the table and turned it toward him but said to him you're not necessarily getting out of here alive there's nothing you can do about it what are you gonna do we can all say that she reached for the gun and we defended ourselves and shot we DeSales words we just won like that that was that that was it that said it when he saw that it was like oh boy okay and we started asking them questions I've got some questions about was he there and he said no and he said you left the beer here and you bought the beer at this time you drank the beer at this time then he was his I saw his hands start shaking and then I asked him the same question again and he man the second time said a different time and that's when I knew that I had them and you know that little gang thought they were so smart and we were so stupid it was a number it was a it was a feeling of joy when I said to him you know something nigga fucked up right no no no no nothing you know he done fucked up right yeah here's what's crazy I was in Brussels Belgium I ran on five or six months ago acting unit for Nicholas Cage call Mandy right I'm sitting in a restaurant eating food by myself this young building kid comes up to me and says you choose me sir but you know you don't fucked up right I laughed so hard but no matter what country I go to I mean I've made a lot of films as an actor and director and the line that said to me the most around the world no matter what city I cook over and you know something there are young kids that's what's amazing to me they've all seen that picture I don't know how they see it but they see it Leo I'll repeat that line and older people too so yes it's it's it's interesting how has that impacted your life I'm sure it's got to feel good that people know your work yes at the same time maybe you're surprised that they're young kids that are seeing this film and from all walks of life what does that MIT do to someone what it means you did a good job because you impacted them in that way you also wish there is more than shit they remember you for than just that line but you know you're appreciative of the fact that they've seen your work and they appreciate what you've done and that's always good you know because I'm very self-critical in my work and so when someone affirms that what I've done it impacted them that's a very rewarding it's very rewarding they don't have to be kind they don't have to come up to you they don't have to they do at a certain age you think you could think of it forgotten about you haven't that's he worrying also especially when young people do it in four different countries has your self-criticism lessened over the years as you've seen life as you seen that even the most perfect fall or what seems to be not so perfect that were actually saviors I mean I'm just like coming up a stuff but you know how usually people become less critical as they realize that we're all human you talked about in the beginning we won't go exactly what you said so I don't have to repeat it but no one's perfect and we're all human we're all pretty much the same when I was a young man I'm writing my autobiography now and do a lot of thinking the frame of this book one of the things I learned I when I was young I thought that wisdom was when you knew everything but there's so much that you now figured out what it's really about then I started studying quantum physics and other things and astrology and in astronomy and other thing is that for example not only had they not discovered that how many planets there are don't even nominee galaxies there are that dark space that they're going into now and the thing that I realize now that I'm 74 be 75 this month is to never ever stop asking why that's true wisdom to understand how limited our pea brain is you know Albert Einstein spoke on it you know people think I'm wise no I'm not why they say just like I'm always wondering I'm always exploring I'm always thinking I'm always trying to get more information because it gives you a recognition of who you really are compared to the size of this you you go outside at night to the beach you lie down look at sky there's no into it and you think of yourself within that context it's not that we don't have relevance it but comparatively speaking we are just no that's too big kind of campus we're in there someplace but our egos tell us through everything there's nothing beyond and all that garbage until something catastrophic happens it make us question I don't wait for the catastrophic I question every day someone tells me this is affect okay let me get back to you on that I love Google I don't like Wikipedia at all it's not like a PD there is you know there's young people doing research papers on Wikipedia but when I google things and go back to multiple research points and find out how many different opinions there are about the same thing and then I have to think about it that that expands my brain like that makes me wrong I never thought of it that way that's it that's exciting to me but sitting back like this old wise person who I figured it all out that's all crap I don't hear from anybody not that you have to not have information that could help me in terms of talking to you because you're humble enough to recognize my humanity as I'm humble enough to recognize yours that's a different situation because you may know some things I don't know and I want to hear those things so I can start thinking but if you're looking down at me from this place of authority or you know when my sister and I were children there are two people we were told to never question your minister and your doctor well today those are the people I question most cuz you're gonna tell me what to believe you're giving me your opinion of my life I'm getting other opinions you know put them all together and I'll make the decision not you make the decision for me because I'm responsible for my life not you I appreciate your input I'm gonna ask five other people like you to give me your input to don't have ah okay make a decision how do others in the industry relate to your work ethic they don't think I'm crazy I mean I don't get it done I can't sleep now no matter how tired I know if I don't get it done my work that day I can't sleep so I'm worried about it the next day and okay how many hundred so I have to get it you know just because it's in and so I meditate and the meditation helps me but they're respected because I don't stop because I'm super super super prepared enough to guess so I said a week before we shoot they have every shot every single setup and shot of the movie on a piece of paper all they gotta do is follow the map that I've created I'm not saying they don't have the freedom within that context to say hey but what about this what about that right but you have a map so they respect that familywize they she's wise never been married it's I've been very selfish and the women in my life have hated that because of my work ethic I try not to be my work home but next day I'm gonna go prepared I want to I want to be able to sew ok let's have a few moments of camaraderie and whatever ok great I go work on the script and that's the most that's not the most comforting of things in a relationship because we owe each other the attention that each other needs and I've always struggled with that I always have in relationships I might and the other thing it sounds crazy but being a black man in this business I felt they always had to be better not as good but better because as good it's not good enough it's always paranoid I could be super duper duper super prepared I have to you know so I'm speaking for more than myself as an individual I'm speaking for culture because we're judged like that you know oh I didn't know it was gonna be that good cause he's black he's a big guy you know never want to be a B never want to be an a a plus plus it takes I almost think much when I work it's always in my mind I can't explain it assistant and this stuff I shot the day before I know no I could have done it better if I had few more hours I just wanted to be better I want to be my legacy that it's excellent it's something that I gave a thousand percent but I'm it's crazy too because you know it's I could always be better you know it's it's oh it could be different but it's kind of like a little neurotic type deal but it's Who I am as a creative person some people know the level of intimacy they're comfortable with and I'm not talking about physical intimacy I'm just talking about being amongst people and some people are better just focusing on a career I think they just know that about themselves and unfortunately he's gotten a bad rap but if some people know that you know what a career is the most important thing to me and if I if I get someone into my world I may end up hurting them because I'm not going to be available for them how can they be ok with that that's a good question it's a good question you have one or two choices I'm going to satisfy your needs and ignore the truth of my own I'm gonna satisfy my needs and they grow the truth the relationships needs I tried this once like like the person so much I tried not taking a job and staying in the house and watching the flowers grow and doing all the things she liked and I she was happy but there's the truth that I realized something after a few months of feeling resentment and that eventually manifesting itself so was it I was I was fulfilling the desires it wasn't happy because I was lacking something I've always been a worker I always wanted to work Oh work stimulates me it gives me fulfilment it's not that I need romantic fulfill make everybody else I need love and caring like everybody else but loving caring without me feeling engaged in something I'm so passionate about which is my work if I gave that up I it's not good for a relationship with me and it's in that that's what that's what's so difficult you know it's I think I spoil spoil my goddaughter because it's like you know since three we spent so much time together and I helped raise her and spoiled her and everything you know because I don't think it was there enough I just kept things things things we've worked it out of course but it's like she's travelled around the world in many places and everything and that's all good but she was saying look think we just sit down and just meditate we just sit down and just talk yes I do that I got everybody saying we were safe 74 gonna be 75 February 26 I have to still be working so Wallace am I gonna do retire just you know just sit in the porch in the beach watch the flowers grow and and enjoy the air and so that's the rest of my life huh enjoying the flowers suppose I could discover how the flowers are made suppose I could discover where the sky came from we're suppose I could discover where air comes from and the source of reality and film it I mean I mean one of the my heroes of discovery he's older than me or some working freemen with his new network and and this whole probably about God you know who and where is God what is God where I mean these amazing thinkers cuz he plays those questions himself and he just his brilliance of going into those topics and understanding God what does that mean to cultures around the world that's fascinating to me but he still has an open mind he still wants to learn and know that's inspiring I watched last night Terry Bradshaw and the boxer I forgot his name but so it's probably better late than never and these four older men they're in their 70s and some in their eighties and well this one young guy the son I think Terry brought show calls with them around the world and they visit places they always want them visit before they die but they do it together it's funny it's inspiring it's powerful because they don't stop they just know before I I got a certain amount of time left I'm gonna do everything everyone to do and that there's something about that's wonderful it's beautiful because they don't say I'm retiring and I'm gonna lay up in bed and just watch the birds go by they're flying the birds so it feels a fly okay I love it that's life a lot of my friends work at jobs they hate for 35 years they work every day but that to be admired health insurance car payments house note send the kids to college all the dreams they had they gave him up when they were 20 was they had children they retire and there may be dead in five to nine years it's not what I wanted it's not what I want I hope I don't probably dying a set you know something I don't know I'm just saying oh my god knows that but I mean I just want to do something I wanted to do and these days huh how was he in Spielberg and George Lucas and and Clint Eastwood they no stop some could have gotten mad and said well then I'm out of here because you don't appreciate me and you thought that I was somebody else and I'm insulted but you obviously probably didn't do that right and and as they were following you around again some people could have gotten mad said these people were breathing down my neck and they won't leave me alone but you you kept going with it I was one of the first black directors in TV in Hollywood before me it was Michael Schultz like Stan Lathan and recapping a junior what to have that opportunity I went through a lot I give an example of things and I this is my book I was the first black to return doubt was ever and I was so happy I suppose it was a top hit show on TV I've done a good job with nice landing and other shows that Falcon Crest and other shows they said okay give you a shot come up to the gate runner brother studios roll down the window look at the security guard before I could say a word that security guard says them who are you delivering for I said no no no I'm not delivering for anybody I'm the first like director on that was and I'm here early because I want to be it's like this one close it aside I'm always early so I pull over to the side and it's like so be at nine o'clock it's 8:30 that was eight 4850 compliment when I say kiss in the phone he calls update office and let the Remi back in the phone looked over at me back on the phone puts the phone and say I'm here a goes like this yes that's my first day what year was this late 70s early 80s in Los Angeles oh yeah I buy the team says one day I was doing um thought wouldn't crest go to my motor home I'm not in my hand walk by train back trading honest it okay guys man up you got something to say to me what's it to my face what are you talking about sir I heard what somebody said somebody call me tell me stand up come on you're the director the phone would never say that we talking about you some mistake I think that you misheard us get my tray dead around walking to a motor home I'm gonna set a felt press one day we're up in Napa Valley and I'm filming and first ad we're filming in a restaurant it's a practical location so we're there you know just to shoot and he's supposed to be quiet in the kitchen but they're gonna be told we're shooting him so the first ad very arrogant guy we start shooting had to cut us third time because there's noise in the kitchen I say cut say hey man there's noise and the kids will to calm down he said he says to me and I'm quoting in front of the cast in the crew if you want him to be quiet go back there and tell him your own damn self by that time I really had it sorry threw down my headset nose pushing toward a guy Jane Wyman grabbed me by my arm she looked me in my face she said took a deep breath my director's chair pon my headset back on time for lunch came back she had fired him she apologized for him see what I'm saying so knowing that people wanted you to fail but still holding that confidence I mean we've all had times when we've been tested and we can tell someone's egging us on how have you learned to keep your cool and now you say you meditate there are people who want you to fail but there are great people like Jane Wyman I want you to succeed and David Jacobs gave me several more chances at Knott's landing and Larry Hagman at Dallas my first did that show first back-to-back twenty-hour was who said to me nice to meet you young man we're gonna get along real fine as long as you have me out every day by 3:30 I guarantee you every day you'll be up with 3:30 can you come back and do more and more shows I could tell you stories of people who there's some great people in this industry I mean when I say great I mean they don't have to give you a shot because they're good human beings and they see beyond your color to your man it and your ability that they do something then that they don't do it loud they do it because they're good people and if you deserve it they give it to you they give you the shot because they gave you that chance you do more than you better than you could ever do because yo that to them and yourself there's some damn good people in this industry when I came along I met a few of them that changed my life but that's when I you know to be very honest with you and a place in my biography I grew up as a racist I hated all the way people because of slavery and segregation so my father and mother go through I just hated wait wait just and then go for the angry young black man and that was tall it's awkward I didn't talk much and I wrote journals and stuff and he's to the old people I'll never forget who changed my life mrs. Jean Walker I'm English teacher very stoic and like this walking in the class she told me nine times that's write in my journal when she was teaching I just ignored her this they said white woman one day she says Duke stay here after class just give me that book I said what the general give it to me I said like give me anything she said if you don't give me the journal I'll fail in the class you can't pass to the general at her pissed-off hated her come back to class at next several weeks before spring break and looked at her like if I could punch in your damn face man Spring Break hints come back to class and the first day I'm going into class she's a Duke come here she gives me back my journal in this book I said what is this she says the national poetry contest book so what do you like we give this to me for she says look on page 49 she put two my poetry poems in there that one I looked at her did somebody I hated she had taken she read my book my journal took the best poems out and submitted them to a national poetry contest I won I was speechless and she knew I was speechless she says there's nothing to say you're good at what you do that changed my mind I wasn't quite sure how to think about race then because that never happened to me and then I went to the Community College and you know James Hall was the Dean he was in the Navy and stuff and I got a scholarship to Boston University after Dutchess and I went there but you know it was difficult I got a scholarship for in classes but I had to work for room and board and food and everything I was working seven days a week exhausted and my grades weren't that great and Severus said oh they're just going to the arts college I decided I was gonna come home to the Kip see I was going to stay there for you you're quits bu and get a job make money so I can save it for that at IBM I went doing a summer of to visit my friends at BU and I'm leaving dr. hall see he says hey Duke come here I gotta go doc says Duke come here come here oh this guy's a boring ass white I can't stand this I go into his office just to be courteous he says have a seat I said okay how you doing dude okay he's going to Boston University right yeah well I'm not I'm going but I'm quitting I'm staying the kimchi for a year and gonna go back next year racism no you're not what are you talking about goes into his vest pocket and he has an envelope to me I said what is this he something open it in the envelope we'll check his own money that paid for three years of my room and board at West University I looked in this man's white man's face I'm suppose that he doesn't say a word look at each other I just thank you he did not say a word put out his hand and he said don't disappoint me something happens to your racism after that it's supposed to be your evil enemy that's responsible for that negative in your life and everything the devil the system the creature just gave me a check to cover all of my expenses for three years how do you hate that life changing so I evolved you know in my humanity to understand you cannot put a blanket on any of everything it's all about human being the person the individual who they really are behind what their skin color is behind what their words are their possession it makes a little difference to know the human if they respect you you respect them simple arab chinese japanese jewish white black green hispanic those topical services that's a limited perception you have the courage to engage people at their level of humanity you're living at it's easier to dismiss you because I see you and I make assumptions I learned a long time ago and a s/s you Emme means it makes an ass out of you and ass out of me to us so and I was taught by those two incidents it was incredible it wasn't for those two people I wouldn't probably be here today and never asked for anything all they say is to be your best that's a reward it's a truth true story and very people knew this ever happened and I'm sitting up my monitor one day and he says do you know no standing behind so we talked about quitting parks I said get out of here working itself playing just know Gordon Parks is standing in my pond he's one of my heroes so I turn around and he says don't get up don't get up he walks to me he puts my hand on my his hand on my shoulder and he says I never stopped just looked at him and walked away I was like you know given signs from the universe you know and he was one of the things that propelled me into continuing because whenever you get depressed or something you want to stop and you don't stop because of those people came along and said don't you ever think of stopping cuz I'm not gonna lie to you there are times I wanted to give up because it's like hard but then you think of the people who loved you enough to encourage you when you don't stop and associate a family's legacy could you justify stopping a hill yeah is it unfair yes if you don't fit into certain boxes is that prejudice yes are there people who don't like it because of the color your skin yes people don't make it because she was smart isn't him yes so I mean if the boogeyman is good his foot on your neck you'd have one of two choices he's 10 times bigger than you see if we say he's 10 times bigger than me he's 15 foot oh and my neck is cracking I'm ice well surrender and go that's one choice or if his what is near your mouth you can bite this time I choose toe biting because you know what the boogie has totus it really does know a little mediate chuggy that's good snack has meditation helped you notice gratitude because I think some people see signs that do tell them to keep going and and it sounds like you've you've taken certain things and really taken that to heart and know that this wasn't just a coincidence or this this was I I was meant to hear this I was meant to have this hand on my shoulder I was meant to have someone take away my journal and what seems like a bad and then she reads it it's personal but then something great comes of it meditation saved my life I was taught meditation she and some little meditation TM by a good friend of mine I was in a Broadway play and doing very well but I gotten into drugs because there are times in which the struggle is so difficult I was working and challenges and that I just over long and it ended up at a point where in a Broadway play and I'd be late to work i they told me don't be late anymore and came read again and they said you're not substitute but your understudy is going in I got pissed off and dad and my friend who saw this I'm said bill you're sinking fast man you have to do something but I said like what he says I made like the drugs in hunka Hall but try meditation see one of those who people what they they like here so it got worse and then she said try it okay I mean I'll try ah here so I tried it a couple of times it was interesting but still taking drugs and alcohol and then have to run on once she said I'll tell you what I'll make a deal she said if you meditate for six weeks without taking any drugs or alcohol of any kind and if you still want drugs and alcohol after six weeks I'll buy your ailments of anything you want I'm thinking oh boy an ounce of anything I want are you kidding me I'll take this Deadwood I just know what's gonna work wasn't gonna work first two weeks I felt something it was like I don't know little more ease less stress second and third week more focus fourth in the fifth week the piece that I was getting out of the drugs and alcohol I was getting through meditation and more I was getting a deeper sense of something I can't even explain I haven't touched drugs alcohol since that day and that was in 1974 became a TM teacher it's changed my life too I can't even tell you it's it's hard to explain you know I could tell you more stories about what I've been through but that was God working again to join me Chancellor meditation I changed my life to for my own salvation I could lay - who asked me to turn around and Miss Walker and dr. Hall it's and and I recognize these things that he was gonna think I'm crazy because I say oh god is doing this oh whoa what should God look like I don't know I know he's there I trust because there are things that have happened that I know I'll give you another example it's in my book in 1984 I was working really hard and when your agent says you're so tired you got to take a vacation the agent makes 10% what you make when you're agent tell you to take a vacation you know that you're exhausted so I took a vacation with the why he because he had just get married and don't hit the hotel no by myself I just wanted to totally chill I was there for a week that's well there's eight of two weeks I said I want to come back to this place never been it's beautiful so I got in the plane called island hoppers it goes from one island to another into a ground toy and they get Michael another Island way to Maui from the Big Island and it was a twin-engine claim I was said that the planes are going so don't stop them say to hell and it stops it was a oh so laughing you know let's go says sit down sit down sit down sit down sit down and buckle your seats now usually in the movies when the planes in trouble the pilot says ladies and gentlemen he can't be still over in control little bit the pilot the powers doing help us Jesus help us Mary help us lord help us Jesus help us Mary help us Lord the pilot looking out the window say no we sure are close to the dam we crash in the water no what is him soft right when you hit the water from that height bam bam it tore the boats out of my seat and threw me forward the scar is from that happening and when that happened this it's hard to explain but it's an out-of-body experience something there look down and those sounds crazy look down at me and my seat all the people bleeding the pilot and everything okay so this thing I can't explain what it was it's peaceful just observing me how it wakes up its face hit the dashboard of the plane everybody else get up Susie did it this thing in my body merged back together and they said Oh coz I don't swim I said I said it out loud you always wanted to know how you're gonna die now you know I just sat there waiting for the water's coming up boom boom boom bloods coming up boom boom boom boom Paula's people out takes them to the wing just hey you come on let's go let's go let's go I said I can't swim he says unbuckle your seat okay I'm booked on my seat take a life throw that out I've thrown up put it around your head it gives the instructions pull of course when I got this shorter like five chords looked down into a thousand I kept pulling and pulling and pulling and pulling and pulling and pulling nothing after you left there places come to the wing I said I don't see this come to the wing I got the wing I'm standing there and they all paddled away cuz they all family everything gotta go five or six hundred feet away he says jump jump undertow undertow I said I can't somebody says jump I said to myself what the hell have to lose I'm gonna die anyway so I jumped I forgot to tie the life don't around my waist because he had owned he had pulled a cord as I yeah I passed them blew up I've got tired of my waist and with that once twice third time I came up life I'm not exaggerating life doughnuts here I put it around my head like a little dog I do like this then I reach them I recently turned around there's a big mouth of water swallows the plane and takes it wonder if I stayed on the wing I would have died I'm telling us all the truth I'm telling you in the water ten minute passes people are moaning and groaning lady says look boats planes boats planes my thought is you know before you die because there's sharks in the world and everything you have these delusional thoughts and you think you see things that's what she's doing right that's it just boats planes boats planes take this to Vegas you tell me the chances of this happening twice a year the Hawaii Fire Department since its emergency rescue teams out to do practices in all different parts of the ocean this day they were one half nautical miles away from us they saw our plane go in there were there in minutes they took everybody out the water raft us in blankets asked if he okay I started driving us back to shore I said next a pilot six foot two or three Ichabod Crane blue eyes I could see his face dark here with white streaks through it sitting he's shivering on Chevron and I say to him sir I don't wanna disturb you I said that I was in shock you talked me through getting out of the plane you talked me into jumping off I talked me to Pavan toward you saved my life and I want to I want to thank you I cannot know what to say he looks at me and he says I appreciate you saying that he said I'm not on the Catholic I believe in Jesus Christ he says I don't know what you believe in he said but don't thank me thank that turns away from me the speck of my face grabs my shoulder and starts crying like a baby get back - sure people are in shock because planes that crash in that Widodo have survivors I have no way of explaining it to say that that's one of the day that I realized there are things happening in this universe that are far beyond my intellect far beyond my intellect and I had my two masters degrees and I was so smart I can't even tell you how much I learned from that experience I pictures on a wall of my conduct there of that day the newspaper I saved it and just framed it I never want to forget it it's just so it shaped my life between those experiences and meditation to shape my life and maybe understand that you know and you're writing a biography autobiography so I'm gonna steal a c-span question I've watched the post and they interviewed Katherine Graham years ago and she wrote a tell-all book about the post and her family and the troubles with her husband and his depression things like that and the interviewer said why do you want people to know this she said good question I started and I was only gonna tell one thing and I just I kept going I couldn't stop I'm writing this book for all the losers in the world for all the people that have been told you cannot do it you're a loser you're too stupid you're too ugly or to a dummy or to black or to whatever you're never gonna make it I've been called all those things and worse I'm writing this book because I want children who are going through similar things and never give up on themselves I can get through it so can you never never whether you're five or a hundred never give up it's never too late you determine your reality are there forces that helps shape that the context around you of course there are I mean but what is your responsibility because the boogeyman's bigger than you you don't you don't fight back you don't do nothing you don't buy this tow you don't do nothing you just talk about the size of the book in the hand how long he's been on your neck the color of the boogeyman the boogeyman system or the boogie Mans how can you say the order of his breath you can describe every aspect of the boogeyman for the rest of your damn life or you can buy this dope now ya ain't gonna kill with you buy this though but tolls are sensitive there's gonna be some movement well you needs a little bit a little bit gen-i gonna bite well that's your definition of your possibilities in life I can't bite because the boogeyman so big and I'm so weak goodbye shit sorry not me never you gotta have my guess a couple of bullets they were to hit something that's vital because they can remove them I'm coming back never give up never and as I feel needless to say to the people who try to stop you and put you down it's only one phrase that they deserve and that is this - dumb as you look my name is damn dumb as you look we can keep talking I want you to know something - dumb as you look you know it's interesting once they see that who Ortiz they know that you're not playing checkers in a chess game you're playing chess my mom was a both playing chest let's play so I got some damn moves - let's just play don't tell me y'all gonna check up late I am that's why I feel I would imagine though that you get emails every day from people who are asking for career advice can you tell from some of the emails those who really want help and those you may not be able to help yes there are people who somehow I think someone's gonna be given to them and there are other people who reach out to you for guidance of how they can get it themselves the people who ask for guidance of how they can get it for themselves I'm interested in them because they're not asking me to do it for them they're saying you've had experience and I'm willing to listen to you so I don't make crazy mistakes and so those people like you're late to because somebody did that for me but people who come out and they just want as you so eloquently spoke before it but not a variety they're not serious about this industry not serious about being a great actor or a great writer and great producer a great director they just want to be seen and that people know who they are I don't take them seriously and our foundation it's called the media foundation you teach kids media literacy which other what are the jobs of the future gonna be and financial literacy if you make money how do you not just spend it and use it and so kids young kids that are serious if we can get an opportunity to help them we do I think there's a validity in coming out here with dreams and one used to be I guess recognized and writing but that's not a serious crafter in history that's just some of the securities you have that you want overcome so when you receive an email how can you tell the ones that really are looking to find ways how they can then do it themselves and those who just want sort of a hand up they say it they're very clear I mean you know there's some people who are so unaware of how this place works they'll say like oh I want to agent and I know you have an agent can introduce you to your agent I'm saying you have any pictures I don't have any pictures okay give it real no I don't have a real have you ever acted in a home or a play nobody have an acting teacher and and people think I'm handsome they really think I'm beautiful and they have I think they think I'm talented what do you say to that I mean I I thought okay I God knows I wish you luck but you're coming out here with nothing you want me to just drive you my agent it doesn't work that way then there are kids they have pictures resume decks if they have a project they adducts for their project pictures actors attached they didn't the research for the demographic of what they're trying to sell to the return on your investment how much money it now when I see that whoa come here let's talk because you're serious III can still I can teach you but you don't need that much teaching all you need is opportunity it's just a different experience I'm just looking for I wanna meet your agents I don't be mean but I just can't I can't do that agent says to me why did you bring that person here they wanted to meet you that's not good is there any mistake that you made early on in your career that you said never again and it's not so much working with someone or whatever it's more something either you did or something you didn't pick up on about a situation that cost you and you said I will never I was offered a role I'm not gonna tell you the roles it was a TV show I tell us payment playing this role that I did not like I think it was an embarrassing role with him but I have been trying to get a job in TV for like three years and couldn't get anything rejection rejection reject so for this role audition and I got the wrong and friends of mine saw the script they said don't do it totally broke meant let's do I able to give me some something it was a hit TV show - I did I did it when I saw the footages oh my god nobody sees and maybe five to seven years later when I had some real money I called the network and tried to buy I tried to buy the footage back that I was in and to buy the episode and I said I'd pay whatever they it wouldn't sell it to me I saw him there was but needed the money needed the job haven't done it since then but I understand and before that is to put down the step-in Fetchit I just put down through that came before me that did you know they smiled laughed and dancing didn't act like you know happy black people then maids and butlers and stuff when they said their shaming the race and then oh no they took their jobs that were offered to them at that time to do the best that they could what they had and my respect for them changed totally because I was faced with the same thing I could understand why they did what they did but I was fortunate enough not to have to do it again I have had to do it sense but and I still get these opportunities but to turn down something mechanical a lot of money a lot of people would see but it's totally against everything you stand for as an actor and artist and everything I mean certain people put down certain people because of what they did in the show or whatever or not I don't I don't do that anymore I just say you don't know their circumstance you got a sick baby at home you got a sick baby you don't got take care of your bills I don't know his business I am not fond of reality TV though I got I'm not gonna lie I was in out of the country and I was asked questions about my culture based on metal alloy the TV and I was saying know it that's not the way every black person in the world not every black person's woman dragged across the hey what's the Fleur by their hair and and every black man wears his pants below his butt we thought all blacks said no because we were looking at your pants we wonder why you didn't have your pierced missus in Belgium when you you stopped them one guy at the restaurant not nothing against Belgium but I just wondering if it was the same trip like what this one I was in China years ago that was in China that was in China and I was in Japan and Tokyo and they just it said there's something wrong with me because I didn't look like the regular black people he said you speak good - did they know your work some of them did but at that time not a lot of them they just oh you're here filming oh good good I have some questions for you you know I was in shotgun away but not in the way you know because I know the stuff that gets to them that's how they see us as a culture and I just was amazed by how many people followed us that way but media is very powerful and that's whatever they see that's who you are going back real quickly 1984 you said it was a book that you would be one of the five books that she would take with you if you couldn't read any other books I was just curious why 1984 I want to get in trouble for this but in 1984 something worth living today your drove all my favourite books at the time but I've been reading looking at the film and reading the book since this last election and it has a section about the thought police you guys have read that Medina for I know parts of it I haven't read it by George where well yes but I've heard the whole concept about what the thought police but the thought police and 1984 I mean you're not allowed to do anything without the permission of the thought police and they determine the reality they create this war that's not looking at what's happening at all they have these soldiers marching and all this stuff and blablablabla that you nothing allowed to have a relationship without definition can't just fall in love yet the other commission let's go through them so Richard Burton is the head of the thought police and John great actor John forgot his name he is a citizen and he and this young girl fall in love they keep meeting secretly at his place in her place and running away and money one day that I thought God but I thought police and helicopters coming the soldiers come in and kept available and take them to the fuck Police Headquarters and John the actor forgot his name was going on table I thought police headquarters and there's a spotlight on the table he's lying there naked with his hands tied and his feet tied and symmetrical force comes with it to the table what a switch that if you try to switch on it just electrocute you and that's water coming down so it's a guy near the button in Richard Burton is sitting there in Javas I'm so sorry I was wrong I did I did the wrong thing I apologize I never should have ever ever ever seen her and then I imagine Brittany says well you know she said that you started it he said well I don't I don't know I just he says okay and he says I'll never do it again please forgive me free just when I trust but verify so he says to Jesus how many things am i holding up John says four but you Britain NASA the guy with the button when I do wrong what do they what's wrong how many fingers I'm holding up for what did I do wrong how many fingers am i holding up I don't know I don't know better how many fingers am i holding up three-three I'm holding up as many fingers because I tell you yes I'm holding up you got nothing dude your eyes nothing dude your intellect or your mind I say it's three fingers how many are they three three alternative fact is in three an alternate effect you won't believe what we tell you to believe nothing to do with your perspective at all okay not me

Channel: Film Courage

Views: 35,280

Rating: 4.9343495 out of 5

Keywords: Acting tips, acting 101, bill duke, actor, filmmaker, created equal, dark girls, sister act 2, predator, hoodlum, deep cover, menace II society, american film institute, filmcourage, film courage, interview, filmmaking, documentary, legend, african american actor

Id: odpGdFLT8dQ

Length: 148min 47sec (8927 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 07 2018