"Celebrity in High School" - Cuba Gooding Jr Reveals the Moment He Realized He Was Born to Entertain

so when did you know you knew how to entertain you knew how to mimic see body language creative your brain creativity when did you know God gifted you with that ability I mean back in the day you know having a famous father and and having and coming from a musical background of people cuz Not only was my dad the lead singer the main ingredient my mom quick story about my mom so my mom met my dad at uh the Apollo Theater and my mom was the headliner with her sister and another friend and they were called the sweethearts and one of the opening acts were the main ingredient but the headliner was the sweethearts and then thing one thing led to another my sister my mom's sister got pregnant and had my cousin lenan and then my mom got pregnant with my sister April and so the group disbanded and their female opening act took the place as the headliner and that opening act was The Supremes wow so my mom always says that Diana Ross she's responsible for her career because they had kids and the Diana Ross and The sprs took the headliner and then my father went from a undercard to the headliner and then their careers were the rest was history so I always had music in the house and I always had famous people coming over you might know that my dad did some songs with with uh the Jackson 5 produced some stuff with uh Stevie wander so Al jro would come by the house and whenever they came by my dad would say watch my son do this and I would either do a backflip or I would dance and they would you know I remember when uh my dad performed at uh Disneyland because every uh uh night they'd have different performers in Disneyland be it a Saturday or Sunday or whatnot and what would happen is my mom would get me and my sister and we'd go as Park closed and we go to the uh well I'll tell you another quick story he'd be he performed on stage in Disneyland and would always bring me up as a little young kid and I would do the lyrics of the song while he's singing how old are you at this time I can't remember whenever whenever um the first hit came out it was either it was probably uh Everybody Plays a fool it wasn't just don't want to be lonely so I had to be seven 8 n and I would you know do the lyrics but then the park would close the general population would go out and all the performers would take the rides and you ride the rides every night over and I knew then I wanted to entertain people cuz I was like wait you get Disneyland all to yourself and whenever I say anything into a microphone people applaud I was like I'm hooked so that reaction that immediate reaction immediate reaction immediate reaction so as life would have it my parents had split uh in my uh first year so I was probably 13 at around this time and so we got evicted from one house and we moved to the next city and it the first time it happened my mom moved in with my grandmother in an area called Victorville California very familiar so I live for Vegas on the way to Vegas that's correct so I'm living with my grandma my grandma's tough love says you guys got to get out so we go to H Apple Valley California so I go to Apple Valley uh junior high school I think first and that was the first year transition cuz they went Junior High School used to be I want to say 6 s eth 9th 6 7 8 9th and as the junior high President we converted it to Junior High School only 6th 7th and eth and that year now you're talking 80s early 80s they as a president I got the body to agree to turn the ninth grade to the high school so then I became the ninth grade president based on what happened there and then I got voted in as the 10th grade president but we moved away right so we moved from that house and we moved to Orange County so we went from Apple Valley to Tustin and that's where I uh and then again uh we we we stayed there for one year and then we moved to Granada Hills and that's when I went to Kennedy High School school and uh do you remember where you lived in Granada Hills uh yeah I lived at the six pence Inn right off the freeway of the 405 freeway and and what is it ronal yeah oh ronaldi yeah by the golf course right by the golf course and um we finally moved out and when I say moved out it's cuz the checks weren't bouncing and it was a motel but I was going to high school in a motel in these three First Years of my my high school so we moved to North Hollywood but I refused in the middle of my junior year to switch schools my sister switched cuz she was a senior she's like fine I'll switch my last year I go no I'm going to take the bus and I would take the bus from North Hollywood back to Granada Hills and do school until that summer and then that summer I finally said no I can't do that I have to get up at like 6:00 in the morning and it was God's will I did that because when I went to uh North Hollywood High School as a senior and each one of these years and you can that was the other uh long-winded way of answering your question every uh high school that I was in I would be in the drama department and eventually leading up to the Kennedy High School drama department and they have this thing called the L LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School Districts Shakespeare Film Festival once a year and during my 11th grade year living in going to the kenned High School I competed and I did individual um monologue to and played 12 uh festy and 12th night and won the competition of all the high schools in Los Angeles and so what happens is the the from each category maybe there's 13 C say categories each person that takes you get a third place medal a second place medal then you a first place Trophy and you perform in front of all the schools in the auditorium so you have I don't know 1,00 kids and you go and they give you your medal you your your award you put it down and then you do your monologue if it's a group for five of you you do five if it's two two if it's one it's just you in front of this whole school and I'll never forget I had done the the the the monologue all day so much and I knew I'd already won so I made my way through it I'm skipping lines and everything but I did a backflip at the end of it and the whole place stood up that was my first official Standing Ovation everybody stood up anyway so I tell you that story because here I am going back and forth on this bus and then even that summer I had a job at the Northridge Fashion Center Bob's Big Boy and I'm doing that I work at Bob's Big Boy did you I was I was at the Bob's Big Boy Jr in the Northridge uh fashion center right so my mom and my sister say why are you going to do this to yourself you're really going to you live we we live walking distance to North Hollywood High School and I was like yeah but I'm the man at Kennedy I remember I won the festival everybody knows me I never forget the first day do orientation you pick your your classes and I walk into that drama class cuz I always do drama North Hollywood High at North Hollywood High School and everyone went there he is that's the kid that did backflip and they all app wow so they knew because of the Shakespeare they knew they knew they knew and I was like all right my mom was right and from that moment on I was a celebrity at North Hollywood High School so much so that I was doing uh little Abner during the lunch breaks and the in the quad with all the the crew and at night I was doing um you know um um The Highwaymen in um Tom Jones which was you know these are you know or I do a Shakespeare thing or and and play an old man and do all of this stuff and and one of the kids who's uh uh who was wasn't even an actor in the play at in the in the Night play was working the lights on the stage his mom came backstage and she said he said uh Richard Milburn his name Richard said CUA you got to meet my mom she's a huge fan and I said hi and she said what you did on stage was amazing do you know who I am I go Richard's mom she goes my name is corly JR of the Corley Jr agency and to make a long story short back in the day Shirley Temple had one main competition and it was corly Jr they had the blonde locks and they were little girls and Shirley Temple went to become this big star and um corly Jr what she became was a specialty act agent and the way she became that is she was she would go and do the little small parts of movies not as big as Temple and she'd see these uh little people she call them we called them midgets at the time and they all were getting drunk and Rowdy in this little area and she said you need to treat them better they need to have their own hotel rooms in the air and so she became the agent for the munchkins in The Wizard of Oz wow true story so what corly did is she said I don't have a lot of actors I got female impersonators sword swallowers little people you know all of these variety acts uh fire eaters but I only have two 50-year-old white male older gentleman that I send out on every actor audition so she said you you will be my third and I'm an 18-year-old black kid right so here's what happened with boys in the hood I went on an audition and I picked up my sides and I sat in the room with all these other older white men and Jackie Brown came out and said okay Cuba Cuba Gooding and I stood up and she said oh honey you're at the wrong audition I go well I'm here anyway will you let me read she said sure come in so I came man and I started doing the thing I just became this old man and I started you know doing the whole thing she laughed and laughed and she said obviously this part isn't right for you but I'm going to remember you and she brought me back for John Singleton and Trey and boys in the hood get out of here and that's how I got the role it's a true story wow so if you like this clip and you want to watch another one click right here and if you want to watch the entire podcast click right here [Music]

Channel: Valuetainment Short Clips

Views: 3,380

Keywords: Patrick Bet-David, PBD, PBD Podcast, Entrepreneur, News, Current Topics, Politics, Business, Entrepreneurship, Bet-David Podcast, Patrick Podcast, Patrick, Bet-David, Valuetainment, Valuetainment Podcast, Cuba Gooding Jr., actor, Hollywood, film industry, entertainment, movies, acting career

Id: kfyj67FsUGQ

Length: 11min 4sec (664 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2024