Conversations with Carl Weathers

I totally the microphone comes down like this inside and I was going to have one ladies and gentlemen I'd like to announce the presence at stage right of a true champion the dancing destroyer the king of sting The Count of Monte fist oh and the master of disaster the person who put the action in Jackson in the hurricane and Smith he's acted alongside Pam Grier Sylvester Stallone Harrison Ford Arnold Schwarzenegger Sharon Stone Adam Sandler David Cross and he might give you all acting lessons for exactly $1,100 you will currently find him playing Cook County State's Attorney Mark Jeffries on dick Wolf's Chicago Justice on NBC and in addition to being an actor he is also a former NFL linebacker a director a producer a voice-over artist and a recording artist yes I bet you know that oh and he played this little role Apollo Creed anyhow put your hands together for the one the only Carl Weathers thank you thank you thank you thank you mom I love this this is comfortable front row seat the rest of you you took it pretty like yeah you know what I mean look at this this is beautiful sag I know where this dues money is going now that uh not to the foundation though well we better wait we all start talking to me ha ha ha ha rows of these beautiful seats going in that foundation they should be throwing some money the foundation because it's helping the very people who are paying dues this is myself so yeah yeah you know and all of you actors here welcome welcome welcome thank you for coming I want to just say that to you because we all could use a little information or some notes or whatever we can some tips on stuff that maybe we haven't experienced and have to navigate every time we go out there even to an audition and and deal with people rejecting you and making you feel less than and you're constantly trying to feel like you are worthy of and all that sort of stuff so hopefully tonight will will be something that'll be about you as opposed to about me that's why I'm really here well let's start off with the fact that you've been in over 70 films and television shows and I think I think I can speak on behalf of this entire audience of actors by saying we just don't see enough of you I like that thank you thank you thank you um well yeah I mean I on one hand I could say you know what I appreciate that in some ways I feel the same way however part of it is by design because there's a lot of stuff that we could all we'll jump into when we're asked to do it or there are a lot of things that come down the pike that you know maybe a paycheck but it may not necessarily be good for your soul or certainly your career and so you make choices as a result sometimes regardless of how much the paycheck would really really be nice at the moment but if you want in my opinion if you want a career one has to be judicious in the choices you know and if you're looking to do great work I mean if that really is your your intention and your desire then you also have to be judicious and what you allow yourself to be utilized in you know I hate that word I'm going to use this actor and you use this actor an agent once said you don't use people you utilize their talent and so I try to remember that and and remind people of that it it not only elevates the one who says it but it elevates the person you're talking to or about you know so chose nearer making those choices making those choices that you think are going to benefit you and then are going to benefit what you want to accomplish in your career and that are going to feed your soul as I said you know so part of the you know not seeing me as maybe as much as you could see me they'd be some things I do and you'd say why did he do that okay and then the next time around you don't go out because you've got this guy yeah the stuffies and I'm not interested in you know so I try to do things that are that are meaningful to me that I think are that have a chance to be successful and I have a chance to be successful in and I not just doesn't mean you know getting applause I mean that the lighting is good enough and in line and in keeping with things that make sense to me or that I believe in or that I want to promote which is what I usually say you know because if you're in it it means you're promoting it whatever it is whatever the product is if you are a part of creating it you're promoting it if the statement is a statement that is destructive or that is harmful to human beings why do I want to be a part of that I want to be a part of things that uplift human beings and that says something you know positive about all of us and and and and you know I'm not just saying that really you know because I think it's the right thing to say I just think in at the end of the day for all of us if we have children if we are children and some some point we were somebody and you have an opportunity to really make a difference in the world through your art then why not do something that is to whatever degree you can be uplifting that's going to be positive in the world that's going to you know help someone along their little merry way to feel better about what they're doing and who they are and what they're about you know so I do my best to represent and then of course people of color I can speak specifically to that knowing that over the years how we've been represented in this industry there are some examples that I had when I was a kid you know when Sidney Poitier came along it was like this beacon of light and people like Harry Belafonte and people like woody strode you know many people don't even know who he is but what he showed was that yeah he was a magnificent human being and when I was a young actor I got a chance to sit at his knee a couple times I was invited to his house in Luton Glendora and he was a great athlete I didn't know a lot about woody except I'd seen Spartacus and I got an invitation through an agent I had and i sat with this man and it was you know at my god at 70 years old he was just magnificent this body you know just God gave this guy some genetics that was very good and you know to sit with him and and I know I'm already going on I like it I don't need to be up here no you do no you do how you do your my safety I'm here I'm here I'm here for you I am no you know I I just just been thinking about it particularly again and you know I'm speaking to all people of course but I feel a particular kind of responsibility if you will you know with people of color because again we haven't been really represented that well in the industry until very recently when people have decided oh you know what those are people's two they have very interesting ways of living life and it resembles everybody else's way of living life but to get those opportunities sometimes a few and far between for really good material you know in material that speaks to humanity not just to a small segment of humanity and so when I sat with woody one time you know everybody has Jim's there's that great line even a Blind Pig can find an acorn and so no matter who you're listening to sometimes if you really listen they're saying something that might be really important to you in life and career in just observation of humanity you know since what we're doing is replicating how human beings behave then somebody can say something and you go hmm that's an interesting one to walk away with you know I could utilize that in my work maybe someday but what he said to me we were sitting there and he observed that in many cases particularly was talking about black actors you know when you get a chance to be in a movie what you usually are is you are basically the guy carrying the sphere you're not the guy making the choices on who's going to carry the spear I'm paraphrasing a bit but that's basically basically what he was saying and because he was so magnificently put together you know and really one of the most handsome men you've ever seen you know he said to me he said you know what I have always tried to do is if I had a role and I was you know the man or if I thought I was going to be the man I wanted to surround myself with great soldiers I didn't want to surround myself with Dominion to soldiers because the greater they are if I'm the leader I'm gonna look even greater so never surround yourself with people who are lesser than you because you don't look very powerful that way when you surround yourself with giants that's when you really look powerful so I kind of took that lesson and always thought you know what when I walk out there be a giant no matter what the role is you know and they won't miss me as a result they won't miss me so you know there are certain things that people like that and you know and I'll leave Muhammad Ali who you know certainly had a side guard at some point yeah we might not say he was a great actor but he had a second car and a few meetings that I had with him and just you know just wisdom and pointier in Bellefonte and people like that it showed you know what people who acted with a certain responsibility and so I kind of took lessons from those guys and of course there other actors I worked with line captain online test her I met him and he taught me a lot just in a conversation you know and Newman I met he taught me something with one phrase you know what give him he'll kid yeah well you know what if Paul Newman says to you didn't hell kid he's saying a lot in those few words does he show in your respect he is saying to you you got it you can be it he is saying I like what you do you know all those things in those are at least I interpreted it that way so when I walked out of there it was like it was Paul Newman talking to me but yeah you know you just walk away with uh with all those words of wisdom from all these people who who really were giants in the industry and who are the people that inspired me whose movies I would watch over and over and I was over good but even today you know I watched those movies and take acting lessons from them and it only cost me whatever it cost me to to turn my TV on after you know what is it now it's that Comcast anymore it's back drop back to ya I didn't even pay that bill for a while I just ignored it yes why why yeah eventually though why it's goodbye you're out of here anyway No so did Burt Lancaster say to you Wow what all so much what he said I was I was I was going to a meeting in a building in Century City and a woman stopped me as I got of the elevator who was getting in the elevator and she said aren't you Carl Weathers I said yes he said Oh mr. weathers I work for Bank Burt Lancaster and he's upstairs and I know he loves you he would just love to meet you Burt Lancaster I mean I grew up watching like Lancaster man I mean come on man you know him doing all the flips and the you know and being the circus guy and being the Western guy and being all those guys he was and so I did the meeting and I'm not kidding you I was like really excited to meet Burt Lancaster yeah why because he was excited to meet me come on that's Burt Lancaster right so I'm all that man if I'm going to meet Burt Lancaster I worked I went up to the office and in the outer office the Secretary was at her desk and she said oh mr. weathers he's he's just in on a phone call he'll be right out he knows you're coming up she buzzed and he knew I was there and look literally I mean within a minute or so he came out and here's Burt Lancaster first of all he's dressed in a caftan and not just some little simple thing it had this great embroidery and all this kind of like fabric to it right and and the beads around his neck and going around his wrist I mean it was just too cool to be you know for school and he opens the door he goes hiya kid it doesn't sing with the hair that you've seen in the movies a million times you know wow man and just we had a brief conversation you know and I mean I was like dumbstruck because I was a huge fan of Burt Lancaster's you know before I even knew who Burt Lancaster was I was a fan and I had some other correspondence with him I sent up a book for something I wanted to do and one of the brilliant things you know sometimes rejection is not necessarily a bad thing mm-hmm because there's something to learn from it I read this this wonderful book that I actually thought was brilliant and I think it still is brilliant but I scented Burt Lancaster he mailed him a book no yeah I mailed a book actually yeah and after a very short time you responded and his response basically was I understand why you want to do this I understand and I mean he literally wrote this I understand that there's not a lot of good work for black actors but this is not you this is a kid you're a man that's an interesting one you know it's like I had to sit with that for a bit because when I really started to sit with it for a while I understood what he would say yeah you know so in terms of casting you're you're not the right guy for this band you know you bring way too much now you bring way too much in this guy and and when I think about it in retrospect yeah because I'd have been too big in that role in this story that would have been a little unbelievable you know it'd be different if you are somebody who was kind of a kid in every way you know but I wasn't I was physically too much of a man and the posture the whole nine yards was just not just not right at any rate it was a it was a kind way and I think a very intelligent way of saying no but I learned from it you know was okay was okay was actually a there's a good note that was a good know right well we just like rewind back to the very beginning no we do we first thing we recognize okay all right okay where were you born I was born in New Orleans so my birth certificate says please okay we got some nollans people here okay all right yeah I was born in New Orleans and lived all in the city by the way a lot of people who say they were born in New Orleans they're from places like Baton Rouge and Shreveport and you know God knows where but they're not born in New Orleans Slidell I mean all these places sort of outskirts you know yeah I was born in New Orleans and first house was in the Irish place called the Irish channel which is a really really really close to to the river I was like two blocks in the rivers from the Mississippi and a really interesting area because New Orleans is an interesting City for people who don't really know it and that ain't necessarily good when you say interesting there's a lot of a lot about that city that's really hard and really challenging and certainly when I was a kid you know a million years ago it was really challenging because we're talking about before the so-called civil rights era you know so lived in the Irish Channel lived in 7th Ward within the Lower Ninth Ward when all the flooding came which was Willy yeah because there's a lot of people with nothing who live in those places you know they're poor people who live there and it's not like you know abject poverty but it's working-class poverty you know so in in that city in like many cities when the worst tragedies hit those people who get hit the hardest because resources and the areas in which they live are just much more vulnerable to all kinds of issues you know but I lived there until I was my junior in high school and I went to seitan which was an old men's Catholic High School and I was only fortunately I went there too that played football and I was good enough athlete to get a scholarship there and so my parents who could not have afforded to send me there what are your parents do for a living they were both working class people not not well educated working-class people they like films and held only we could mean I mean if they like films it was just to go to a well hell I can remember going to the drive-in but you know nobody was a student of film in the house you know I mean for me for me what was amazing about film was well we say film is a euphemism but what was amazing about the movie later yeah movies yeah was sitting there in that theatre escaping this is a kid I mean that's where I was really about I was really escaping home I was escaping what wasn't for me the most pleasant of situations I was escaping all the stuff that I saw in and around New Orleans that had nothing to do with positive image of humanity in some cases and that wasn't supportive of a kid who looked like me who was my color it was everything but supportive and to go into the movie theater and to sit there in the darkness and to see the fantasy of those westerns and to be a cowboy in your mind and to be one of those guys on the horse with the rest of the guys you know and then to see the of course there were war movies there were musicals there were music but I wasn't really a big musical guy I mean I just wasn't you know it wasn't I don't know that a lot of kids are really who are kids who are athletes you know guys just oh yeah I don't know well but you know what that tells you it tells you a lot about the person who asked that question doesn't it doesn't it tells you alarm oh yeah I mean look at the raise a hand seriously how many guys in here love musicals what kind of wait now I said love music glad I didn't tell you like I said love the audience of actors love musicals la okay lot so where we go we got like a handful with that like okay I don't know now let me go how many of you love action movies guys yo guys oh dude I'm like no I'm just not it's just not a genre that most guys love yeah they can appreciate it they'll go to it when I ain't the way we just swing immediately let's go and do a musical just that you know and when I was in when I was in university but I was in university I did West Side Story okay very dark Cota Rica you know what I mean I was I was I could I couldn't be a jet I had to be a shark come on and and I wanna see what other musical did I go to West Side Story it was so high I was just a dancing for a week I mean I mean I did a version of the arrestees and and I did Caliban in in in school and what else did I do I mean I did some stuff you know but God not that many musicals this is San Diego yeah I'm sorry I jump it on oh yeah yeah San Diego State but so so no musicals didn't necessarily interest me that much but I really loved westerns you know because there was actually who were there well Burt Lancaster was one of those guys in weapons um geez you know as a kid you kind of just liked just the Western it wasn't so much for me the actor right you know like certain people lock on to John Wayne or they lock on to somebody I didn't care who it was as long as the guy had a gun and him shooting and he was riding the horses I was happy yeah you know I remember and one of the things that he talked about movies one of the things that I think one of the the early memories that I have was in a western and it was 3d so I was a really young kid with the glasses in the whole deal you know one blue and one red yeah before they became not like hard with those paper a little funky paper glasses you put on and I remember sitting in the theater looking at the movie screen and I can't remember to this day which Western this was but I remember a Corral and the bad guys coming to get the good guys and all these guys lining up around the corral to simply attack the guys in the house and I remember one of the guys lighting a torch right oh the good guys in the house to burn the bad guys out and the camera jumps around from the perspective of the good guys and the camera is throw up in the torches thrown and in 3d here comes this torch right at you flip it over this flame and I remember going with under the seat that was one of the most beautiful memories I had because it scared the hell out of me but it was all make-believe but it was his own vivid but no of course I mean come on I murdered I could have imagined what I knew I knew I loved I loved there was something about the art like soul in grade school was the time I did the first play what was it I don't know I don't remember the name I just remember I was a singing without singing cowboy I think I was I was a singing cowboy so there's your musical of yeah yeah and it was written by it was written by a teacher that I had who was one of my one of my heroes you know and and he he became what we all probably need is a kid you know someone that we can look up to and somehow who we want to emulate and so he wrote his play for us in grade school and I was cast in this play and I remember being on stage and I remember people laughing and applauding who are you talking about you didn't write nothing like we love you we really really love you you know that thing it was over I will read from that point on Oh crazy lover I was fifth or sixth grade and so when I then went off to junior high school of course I had to find plays to do and it wasn't like this conscious thing but I was in choir and then of course you're just kind of naturally there's something what they do at that age is it's all musicals right so you do that see I knew you were I knew you were going to put my foot my mouth we got some information you know yeah but yeah so I mean you know I would do that but it was always about the performance it was about you know somehow the the art I loved I just loved it and it was an escape for me again and it still is to this day you know being somebody else and finding the humanity and somebody else in creating this thing out of words on a paper on a page with in collaboration with a group of people is just like the best it is which came first football or acting like getting bitten by the acting bug or the football bus no no it was the acting bug but the football bug only probably came because it was another way number one to stay out of the house because you had to practice after school and number two because I got to that age where girls weren't necessarily interested in guys and musicals doing tights that's why most guys don't care about musicals also girls were interested in athletes and so hmm let's be a football player let's I actually I actually went out for my first year in and what's girls what is it now second middle school middle school yeah junior high I went out for every sport exactly all of them I actually well here's the deal in all honesty I made every sport when I was terrible but at all but one and because I really believe to this day which i think is a lesson for us all you know since we're talking about stuff which eventually will get to where we are with with with movies in that but I am a firm believer that and I mean I am committed to this belief this is not one of those I believe this one day and the next day I believe something else because I've experienced it and it's proven to be absolutely like true that if your intent is to is to participate in something whatever that thing is and you are not some sort of savant some sort of god-given you know virtuoso the day you start if you commit to it fully and you continue and continue and continue and continue regardless of what's thrown in front in front of you you will become good enough to do whatever it is you want to do you may not get awards for it you may not become a movie star which some people confuse with being an actor bless you but you can do what you want to do you know I remember when I was a very young actor in Los Angeles and I was going to really wonder I was taking lessons a really wonderful teacher at the time and then I found an even better teacher but we were all as actors tend to do young actors tended there was a wonderful teacher a wonderful teacher was a guy named Hughes zetlen who actually started as a photographer but the spectacularly wonderful teacher was men in Charles Conrad and came out of the sort of Meisner school of acting and was a New Yorker and many people got a chance to know Charles and we had a class with some really spectacular talented people many of whom went on and did really spectacular work and you know have great credits to their names but a group of actors young actors were sitting around having lunch after class one day and his actors do you know kind of hunker down together and talk shop and server came up to us and you know oh you guys are actors huh yeah and for whatever reason this person asked like what do you so what do you want to do basically what do you see yourself doing you know and everybody had an answer I suppose my answer was I really want to be a working actor you know and I was a relationship once with a woman and I remember this vividly because she talked a lot about wanting to be an actress and I heard that and I heard that and I heard that and I never she never made it realized it you know and you know when you see that at a certain point you say really wait a minute if you really want to be an actor there's so many little theaters out there there's so many opportunities to be an actor I mean you can walk out this door and probably throw a rock and hit enough places where actors will you know you can be an actor but maybe you don't want to be an actor maybe you want to be a movie star mm-hmm that's different you know you can wait around for the next 35 45 150 years you may never be a movie star but you can be an actor if you want that may lead to you being a movie star so you know what your intention is and what you really want you ought to check yourself and really ask yourself what am I after you know so anyway that whole circuitous thing is in you know back to the sports I was going out for the sports and for some reason I was just determined to make these teams and I was terrible and everything except one thing and to give you an example of how bad I was basketball I'd never played basketball I mean of course is a kid out on the playground you're shooting at the hoop and that kind of bull with a basketball that isn't a basketball of course it's like the volleyball or some other ball and first day first day coach gets us to line up and you got guys on this side guys on this side okay everybody's going to do layups now I don't know what a layup is I honestly had no idea what the hell he was talking about but I'm watching everybody else because I'd be damned if I'm going to be that embarrassed that I got to ask what is a layup so I seen these guys doing this and some of these guys are just doing this and it's so easy Karl's body didn't find it that easy I could not do that 1 2 3 boom I just could make those steps it was one of the most embarrassing moments in my young life and I've had a few but that is embarrassing when you're standing out and there's all guys and you look like an idiot I mean you really look bad and you know you look bad that's Friday I went home that weekend and I was determined I had this deflated ball that was around my grandmother's house and I mean I'm like what does beach balls and I mean a cheap beach ball okay I had no air in it but I practice all weekend long and I didn't have a hoop it was just up against the back of the house by Monday I could at least make a layup it looked terrible but I could make the steps and get it up there right so for ever in my life I used that as an example of whatever it is you want to do in life if you commit to it with everything you've got man your body is like any other muscle it's like your brain you know it'll do what you tell it to if you just keep at it you just keep at it it'll learn how to do it it'll learn how to do it you know you want to learn the crochet if that's really something you want to do damn it sit down until you figure it out somebody will show you how to make the movement pretty soon you'll be able to do it in your sleep because that's the way the human body works and the brain works go get there if you want to be an actor go sit in a little theater with other group people and just keep doing it until you start getting better at it and better at it and you'll be embarrassed and you'll be terrible then you'll get better and one day it'll get easier and easier and easier and pretty soon you start actually becoming proficient at the craft right but if you don't you can wish in one hand and you know what the other and it'll never happen so that was really such an amazing sort of lesson for me about everything and if I want to be an actor then I had to really start focusing on that craft you know when did you start focusing on it was it in high school as well yeah yeah well I walked away for a little bit because in high school when I went this all men's high school playing playing football was everything yeah it was the focus and impossible in a way as a young black kid in New Orleans to even think that was possible do you know I mean it just wasn't a part of the culture yeah Los Angeles is easy for a kid living in Los Angeles was kid living in New York come on piece of cake why are you failing there's no way you can fail here you may not become a movie star but I guarantee you you can be an actor there is no question about it yeah you know what you'll be rejected yes guess what that's part of the deal but you don't you'll be rejected if you go out and fill out a what do you call it an application for a job at McDonald's you know people who are rejected all the time but if you really want to do that man you just have to stay on you know learn the craft learn the craft learn the craft learn the craft learn the craft you know be committed to learning the craft to be an artist and eventually it'll work it will work you may never be the star but you can work people do it all the time all the time we have so many examples of that you know and I'm an example of that honestly you know I just said okay I just didn't know quite honestly I thought it was going to be a lot easier than it was that acting wasn't of your life easier it's not acting I thought learning the craft no not even learning crap because that's up to me right but getting the jobs uh-huh that's a whole nother you got to learn something about because that's a that involves other count that yeah but it doesn't go for it yeah yeah look sort of the simple for me one of the simple adages that I could have walked through the world with being concerned about things you cannot control that's just wasting your time and that's really a way for you to sidestep being in control of the things you can control doing something about them if you throwing all your energy toward my god is it going to rain the model I got this big meeting and hope man I got a really plan on the rain the rain may come down I'm really worried about it you know because because because about just focusing on what you got to do in your meeting the rain comes very much you can do about it so if I can't control it and I just do not give it a lot of energy it is such a waste of time and it's such a defeating thing to do what point did you learn that lesson like was there a moment when it like hit you really hard like yesterday the day before okay before that you know I mean all of these lessons have to be lessons that you repeat to yourself it is almost to me like the lesson is never learned it's the only thing that tells you that you kind of get it is that that's the way you live and as soon as you start to live the other way then clearly you haven't learned the message you know so it has to be something that you practice our daily crack but yeah like people do you know people do what's the thing yoga meditation meditation yeah how can you say you know I'm really good at it when was the last time you you know meditate when was the last time you sat quietly by yourself did your meditation well five years ago I did well guess what that was five years ago you're not doing it today then it's not being done in the story so you know the practice of just about everything in our lives is the thing that ultimately will get us wherever it is we want to go and if we don't get where we think we should be guess what if there is a next life try again yeah I mean why worry about it why worry about it you know it's not gonna make any difference I got a buddy who's an artist he was just about at the house my house gifts he's crazy a bedbug and I love the guy I've known him for 40 years and and look I you know I've spent so many weeks of his house year after year after year and he's in Los Angeles now because he doesn't even have us he just traveling around the world he's a crazy guy I know I can live that way but he does he's making it but you know he worries about everything but he does he's just okay any oolitic he worries about everything and I keep saying for Dario if you notice nothing changes if you worry whatever is going to happen it happens man and it always works out so what are you worrying about give up to worry so you can just go ahead and do what you do you know yeah you still paint he's an artist you still make money from it you still pay for you know you subsidize your life you've owned homes as an artist he's painted since he was 16 why the hell does he continue to worry it's been working the way you're worried about you know I don't know but people do that they do that and like a lot yeah I mean it seems to me it's like it's like I have two sons and people you know who beat my sons very often will say oh man they're great you know you must be so proud you've really done a good job and I really have to you know I mean as modestly as I can say to them basically you know what I really give a lot of credit to the mother she did a great job you know I spent a lot of time with my sons we did a lot of stuff together but I have learned more about being a parent from my sons than I could've member somehow taking credit for because it's like being an actor if you're not acting how can you learn anything it's real simple the learning is in the doing you know and so when you get out there and you stand across from another actor and you have to say those lines and do whatever it is you do and the blocking and the this and the that and the props and the blob and the dip and loop it up and then you look at it on film if it works it works if it doesn't work it doesn't work so you got to ask yourself why you know and if you're a part of the equation well part of the reason any working is because of me you know and with my sons I look at him why are they great they were in the equation they taught me how to be a better father you know so in acting the one thing and the one thing back to Charles Conrad I just tend to just all over the place but it's kind of like that's the way is he used to do this thing where he would say time after time and really really talk about learning a lot is throw the energy out always to the other person and it's kind of like hitting tennis in my mind right the ball comes to you hit the ball back you don't try to tell the person how to hit the ball to you if they got topspin on it you better adjust if they hit it lob you go just if they hit a cross-court you adjust you're just constantly adjusting right but you can adjust when you focus when you pay attention when your energy is over you know being thrown back and so when you hit the ball man you're not that's right you're ready you're ready you're ready you're ready we're doing it but you know what what what you know what you know what's happening you know what's happening your body's moving everything and I have to play that's the dance that's the dance and so when we're you know doing what we do and practice what we practice if you try to stay in your space and you try to somehow come with your preconceived plans of what you're going to do and how this is going to go and you've Amba down and do the dunes and pop about and do you're going to walk out you're going to be great and then the director throws a little curve to you and then the actor throws a little curve to you and then the lighting person and then the sound guy because they all get in your face and getting in and I'm doing my thing to get myself ready to perform right and I got somebody who's been smoking I got somebody who's dis eating garlic I've got somebody who has got rough hands when they put the mic on me I've got somebody who screws with my wardrobe and you know I got to get into space man I got to be in the space so I got to contend with all that stuff so at the end of it I got to do is I like scrubbed my area you know just emotionally scrub it right and then I got to get with you the actor and we got to play and we got to just hit it back and forth so all of that stuff to me is if you keep working and keep working and working and taking classes or whatever you're doing focusing on the craft to craft the craft you will get proficient at that on being here being here now being here now doing what we have to do right now you know and if it's ah will be up together if it's down we'll be down together you know we can move we can groove we can do what we have to do but anyway it's like throwing my cards on the floor and as a prepared as a matter no but you are prepared because you can set the table and you know kind of let me ramble on here so Thank You Carla it's a pleasure I'm wondering how you man it I'm starting to be so linear in my thing so they're going back to like the timeline I've worked with all your people right I can be that way too I absolutely absolutely yeah um I'm just wondering how you went from football to acting like you made a decision at some point you have a private you because you had a profession yeah before you did any other stuff you had a totally different profession yes yes um well okay let's just back up a little bit about football football I fell in love with because and and there's something in this football added core is a meritocracy this business we're in is not you can be whatever you are and look a particular way and fall off the turnip truck and you'll be putting a movie we given a commercial you'll be put in front of a camera and they'll photograph you and put you on a billboard to sell whatever it's nothing about merit that's business we're in is about so with football you learn discipline you really try to be in great shape because you know what you do is going to be dependent on that you try to learn the position that you play really well and you try to basically do everything you can to increase your proficiency as an athlete right and on top of that you try to stay healthy those things are really important when you play football the guy on the other side of the line if you play defense then of course the offensive player knows where they're going is trying to get there and you the defensive players trying to stop them from getting conversely if you are offensive player you know where you're going and you're trying to make sure that the guy on the other side the defensive player doesn't stop you so there are 11 positions in American football on each side of line so each guy for more or less has a guy that is his opponent yeah you're like acting with there you go that's a way that's a way of looking at it the only thing is when they hit you they really hit you not play if you're not like that acting acting they slip sometimes it's an accident or design that way sometime but in football it's always designed that way at any rate it's a meritocracy so if you're good if you're great if you are really the best at what you do it will show up there's no way to hide it and guess what in today's world you will work and you will be paid quite a lot of money to do what you do it's a meritocracy and once your skills diminish and you are not as good as you used to be you'll be kicked to the curb and the next great player will come in that's the way it is and as a player you accept that in sports at the end of the day what you really also learn is you are your own opponent how much are you willing to do to become as great as you can become so there's the similarity in this business right you are the person basically at the end of the day you want to be an actor like I said you may not you know be the star of some movie at Universal or paramount or any one of those big studios or even in somebody's indie or even in the students all but you can still be an actor right good at the crack just working and becoming better at the crab so there I am playing football and I'm starting to get injured a lot yes and I was a theater major so I had that thing that I loved back at San Diego State ready okay but I mean all of that is a part of the football I was theater major and I was playing football yeah you're balancing it I was a schizophrenic as well yeah yeah I couldn't figure out who I was and what I wanted to be when I grew up but I like both of them and all the girls liked you not all of them they were few did you have I valued the theater you know I didn't matter I mean I was I was just I was more than anything as much as that's important to a guy it's also important just to be really good at what you do and you know to have the respect of your peers that's that's that's so important and sometimes we forget that in our effort to do all this stuff you know you were acting in plays without two employees in college and I was playing football and eventually both those things were over yeah right and I split and I was not drafted I had some injuries you know hendrik bro and I got a chance to go and try out as a free agent for the Oakland Raiders and I did and that year there were free few free agents free agent is someone that isn't drafted you know now they say that much more PC you're undrafted now how can you be undrafted that doesn't make sense a dumb word that anyway yeah at any rate um so I go are the Oakland Raiders and I didn't know I I was so honestly so naive you know and ignorant but really naive that I had no idea of what I was up against you know when those guys are drafted those guys get paid money a lot of money and when you're undrafted you don't get paid jack really no I mean you know nothing compared to what they're good Frank I didn't rate that year I was the only free agent that made the team the there was number one draft choice a guy named Ray Chester who was a tight end who played for the waiters and then he went on and played back east I can't remember where but it was a really good player there was I think the number two was what was Ted's name Ted Kevin were with Ted's last name was but anyway there was another guy who was number two and then there was number three who was a guy named Jerry irons who became a friend he was aligned back or I was a linebacker and we happen to be roommates when I was a rookie and so all the rookies of course got to stick together because you get so much from the veterans that you know it's kind of like this the way you survive my speaking against me know it's kind of like fish in a bowl you just keep the governors you know because those sharks don't eat you you know but anyway I made I made the Raiders and then second year with the Raiders I got through the first year I had a few injuries and but I made the team and we went to the the first year of playoffs I mean first round playoffs and we got knocked off and I think we were playing they were playing the Jets playing at Shea Stadium so to be on the same field I look back now as a kid noticed updated it didn't matter to me I'm just you know like big eyes trying to make it you know but on the field with some of the greats and you know really great you know Joe Namath and people like that you know and I'm this kid you know like trying to figure out what we're gonna put my right foot you know I'm playing with these great pros and of course I'm on the Raiders there was Fred Biletnikoff there was Warren Wells there was a blob Landa Lamonica Stabler there was Jim Otto there was I'm forgetting names Brown Willie Brown we're talking about Hall of Famers there was Gene Upshaw there was art shale who became coach of the Lakers many years later there was Marva Byrd there was ultimately I played with Pete banner Zach there was a God what's his name somebody knows a strong saftey who know Lester head was Lester Hayes was a cornerback so Jack Tatum Jack Tatum money all these guys you know I got to play with and I look back in retrospect now and thank man you were with some heavy weights often yeah I mean you know I look back now because at the time I was just doing what I was doing you know this guy out there just trying to make it you know but I admired those guys and I was one of those guys for a minute and in the second year I was there for a while and the great Al Davis over the summer decided he was going to make a project to be I'll always did with everyone and the project was he was going to switch me from linebacker the strong safety everybody knows football is the reason I was outside linebackers because I had speed and I could cover running backs down the field which is really important if you know football and also I could you know play up on the line that kind of stuff but man playing strong safety is a whole nother animal that's that's that's a different position regardless of how fast you are and it takes time to make those sort of transition so I didn't quite make that transition fast enough and I was out of there and then I was looking for a job and something opened up in Canada so I went to Canada to play for the BC Lions and was there for what that part of year in two other years and then at the end of that I knew the handwriting was on the wall because I wasn't loving it anymore I wasn't fun I was getting a paycheck but that's never been my biggest motivation it's always been about doing what I'm doing and get better at it and really gonna like it you know I enjoy it and so I decided sober I'm gonna good loss end will give myself a year to make it so I just threw that out there because that's the joke I really did say that well you really did make it like you're here but that was like yeah but that's so naive that's all my decimal point yes I did do it but I didn't know how challenging it is that's why you know I I've always I've always done it but I didn't go into it not knowing that it was gonna be hard I go into it I can do it you know yeah you know give it to Mikey he'll eat it okay I'm Mikey all I did that's right no I mean yes that's been me on my whole life because I you know I just don't know how I don't know how to consider when something I really want to do yeah but I can't do it it's like that basketball thing right right so this goes right back to that that thing that was the biggest lesson I have ever had in my life about if you want to do something it's up to you yeah it's up to you know guess what I might have come here and again because it's not a meritocracy and we can definitely talk about that about some of the challenges but man it could have been you know I could have been the kind of guy who said I can't make it at this this is look look look at who I'm saying across yeah yeah look at this guy how he looks and ranks got that I look at this guy he's got a rolling he's number one on the call sheet or number two on the call I'm not barely on the call sheet I look down on the bottom and I'm number 18 no cuz I didn't know that I heard yourself okay why would I compare myself to them cuz I know who I am I'm the guy who should be one on the call sheet I mean I you know you know but and I don't mean it from an egoistic point of view I'm saying this because look if there is a movie a television show whatever it is if there's a story being told and you get a role in that creation why would you ever look at the role you play as a subservient role as a secondary role as any other role but that role is about this character who this whole thing sinners is is the center of this whole thing in your life nobody walks through their life saying I'm a secondary character in the world everybody says they're the star of their life I mean that's that's so natural you know so why is it that you would have got the position as a talent as an artist that you are secondary I don't have a damn where you are on a call sheet you know I mean when you stepped in front of the camera make it your space and I don't mean that by trying to subvert the other person elbowing them out of the two shot or the three shot or even the crowd shot it just but you know what man because of the kind of energy you bring to it they're going to see you you know Conrad used to say this thing that was Charles Conrad the acting coach me is one of those lessons you get he says you know just in people doing the scenes on one of them people doing the scenes Charles would stop you you know tell you how basically he would use these word but do you tell you how phony you're being you know you're not being real this is this moment not you but this moment is going this way why are you taking that turn why I mean somebody screaming at you what you mean you you you start being nice to them why are you being nice to them you know unless there's something in this thing that you have some way of making this yours but if somebody's screaming at you Edie you're going to cry break down going to scream back you're going to stand up and punch the hell I'm gonna do something you gonna stay in the scene right so Charles used to say if you have a cat and you have an aquarium and you have these beautiful fish in the aquarium what is the most interesting thing that's happening in that scenario a lot of people would course come up with the fish because they're beautiful and have all kinds of ways of explaining the vision what they visualize now it's the cat you know why it's the cat because the cat's attention on those fish everything is in his body or her body and their tail might be moving but there's only one reason man because they're waiting for the opportunity that to me was another lesson so if we are in front of the camera together I'm watching everything you do and I'm listening really listening because when you throw out that little inflection in your voice that pisses me off guess what you're going to hear about it I don't have to clean it are you gonna hear I heard you I heard where you were going with that or if you do something that does something else I'm going to respond to it and I can utilize the exact same words that are on the page but when I talk to people about acting I always use this example because I think it's a billion example maybe you won't but I think it is when you see the words I love you on a page right so many people will adapt sentimentality to it you know you see you work with an actor or an actress and they start crying and what do you want to do oh it's okay it's okay it's okay that's not the way we are in life you might say what the hell are you crying about and if you love the person damn it I love you what the hell are you crying about you got nothing to cry about I love you I go out every day and I do what I do and you sit here you can cry now the other thing oh here's the other thing go away right wait wait here's the other thing here's the other thing okay so she's crying crying come on were you crying about I love you I love you know what oh don't waiting for you to cry okay but there's so many ways to say I love you because it depends on the moment not on the words you know the words is like a map for you to get from here to there but guess what along the way all kinds of goes down candy and you may it may not be a fun ride it could be a crash in the middle of it and every word is I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I mean there's so many different ways right and so all of that stuff all that stuff for me all those lessons along the way if you really listen to what's going on you know you can pick up stuff from people and I just happen to have an acting coach at the time who I was really receptive to and open to and we sat there and we all just were fed these gems from this guy you know and he was a madman of course but many geniuses are kind of crazy you know but you still even a Blind Pig can find an acorn so no matter where it comes from you know take it man take it anyone that'll be $1,100 for each one of you actually if you only got 60 dollars in your checking account I'll take that dude depends on the individual okay we got a moving scale here people you know what the reference is of course right arrested to vote there you go some people don't know that so what was your first what was the job that you got your sag card on oh I'm not sure I think the job I got my sag card on I think was in San Francisco I think and I'll tell you if I remember correctly partly there was uh there was a by the way was a long time ago I remember it as being 1971 that's how long ago it was that wasn't me a baby but but on my sad card it says 73 so I think sag lies that okay to say that here they'll come after me no I think it was because I was doing commercials okay and I did a lot of commercials while I was living in San Francisco in the offseason and I did went first movie let me just back up oh yeah first movie I ever worked on I was an extra okay and I went to that because I wanted to become an actor and it was a movie called the candidate would you remember right Robert Redford and it was shot in downtown Oakland and I showed up and was in this crowd scene in this theater I think I think was called the Paramount Theater it wasn't the Grand Theatre some theater anywhere Raider at the time I was a regular right and and you know I'm dressed in all my nineteenth early 70s finery ha ha bell bottom the whole nine yards was ridiculous and and so I'm on stage and and I remember so well that Redford's up doing this speech to this crowd of people and of course he's got these people in the background who are just like any politician has today and at the end of it you know I'm trying to figure out I got no lines I got nothing I'm standing here been here all day I won't do this that's for sure I want to be an actor I want to be the guy I want to be Robert Redford okay so for some reason don't ask me why I walked past him as he finished at the end I just touched him on the shoulder and give a good so I'd be in the thing now I don't even know if it's in there or if you even see it because it could have been in his close-up you just see some guys black hand coming touching my butt that's my hand so so so you know I I decided that day that's it I don't want to be an extra this is not and it's not that I think that is you know a job unworthy of human beings just that I wanted to be Robert Redford right so I was doing these commercials and there was a movie that came along that was I think one of the I don't remember what the movie was I want to say it was it was Eastwood movie but I don't think it was I think it was somebody like like Walter Matthau or somebody like that anyway this big movie came along and and there was a huge crowd scene and it was your your belly like labor that's a whole labor thing I did you know guys yeah we were I'm feeling like well we were so there was this big people with the signs in the whole nine yards you know and my agent sent me the sides what my lines were so I figure I got the roll man I I'm gonna you know I'm learning those lines and I have a terrible memory folks there's another little lesson there right doesn't matter do the best you can they'll piece it together good directors will piece it together and you look brilliant which is why most of you think I'm really good at what I do piece it together I can give him 15 seconds man 15 minutes it might be hard to ask me to hold it for 15 minutes 15 seconds put all those 15 seconds together brilliant yeah but anyway they send these lines out so I get there next morning I'm dressed to the nines right ready to go and do my thing out there and give my speech when they put the mic in my face because you know I'm involved in the labor movement well we get there and the director shows up and the doctor says okay for this role raise your hand I raise my hand but so do five other guys they gave us all the same sides so the deal is guess what the director is going to make the choice of who he wants at that moment so one guys actually dressed like he's there to pick it with the hard hat and the distant than that and he's big burly guy you were the one I became an extra again all of a sudden but I was paid sag wages for the day so one time you got your car I think that was it I think that was it and and so you know thank God happened then and you know pay the dues because you won't work again the taft-hartley and all that sort of stuff and it's a lot more today than it used to be then I don't remember what it was but I know it was a pittance compared to what it is now right but yeah that was it but I did a lot of commercials and and yeah it was mostly commercials at first you know and and how I actually wound up coming here is I had there was a play that was written called about about Ballad of dangerous George or something like that and Al were you else here right al white this guy this guy I know from San Francisco so so so al knows the story so this role came along and I went I auditioned for it and I know the director has two people that he's interested in it's me and it's al whoa and I realize for hours Halla no it was actually a rocky and rocky okay because I I you know as much as I wanted to stay in San Francisco I just felt like it was time and even though I had a chance to play this role which is a fantastic role in a fantastic play I decided no I'm gonna go to Los Angeles and you know al did that and was a smash in it and then went on and became off you know fantastic Todd a CT in the whole nine yards I mean a really talented guy in a guy who has done you know really beautiful work but I just made that choice then you know that I wanted to come here I wasn't really really that interested in theater I was really much more interested in you know in the film and being up from the camera and I came here and as I said I said I was going to give myself a year and within probably six months I was working what we working on it's working on really terrible movie I called four deuces okay and and I met a casting agent who was casting that movie for a director who had a relative that lived in San Francisco and heard of me through that relative and so somehow I was invited to lead for this thing and I was a singing cab driver yes you were the musical president you had this plan all along did you so anyway I do this movie and the movie was never released here for this for the for the theater I think it was released I think it was like released in Israel or someplace like that I think it was Israeli money or something like that at any rate the movies made I play the singing cab driver and at the very end of the ride I give two things jack glance right I get blown up in the cab Jack escapes it and I get bullied whether I'm getting blown up I'm losing my hand I'm using the leg I'm losing it behind my head down in the river or in the ocean I drown in oceans are you at all yeah yeah I give death a great name either way but anyway that was that was how it started and I once I did that movie then AIP who the famous AIP you know American International pictures which did all the quote-unquote blaxploitation stuff at the time I became kind of a player there because of a really wonderful director named Arthur box and I got to know what I meant boy just takes you back I forget some of the stuff now okay yeah you did a Bucktown Arthur Marx directed it and he did all right your loss Foster Friday Friday yeah Friday Foster was close enough foster Friday yeah oh yeah both those were directed by Arthur box well start Pam Grier yes yes great actors Yaphet Kotto yes uh thomas rasoolallah who was really a fantastic actor Oh William Fred Williamson was a brat and another former NFL former NFL player um who else can I think of that really went on in my head Wayne head lash who's here at lash right know where your season yeah by the way talk about talented people then credit Oscar yeah but of course of course Minnie that's right that's right that's right don't you forget it Ted I'm the bad guy I come for you but you know I don't speaking of Ted immensely immensely talented actor writer director and I've had a really good fortune to to be able to stand there with one of Ted scripts in my hand in front of a group of people and and you know we we all together entertained people and as a storyteller the thing that's read for it the thing that Ted does so well is Ted has written this series of plays that basically deal with American history but basically about black folks in American history so it's not like you know he has allowed the contributions and the characters who existed and were central to what was going on in America to like die he researches this stuff and really creates these wonderful plays that are historically fact-based so you know he's he's like one of my heroes because of his immense talent and and also be quietly a fire dad come on now he is and his lovely wife you know produces this stuff and together they really are a fantastic team so you know yeah Ted had the great fortune to work with Ted and and so many wonderful actors over the years but those early years with the Arab Peace films and then I do a lot of television my god and that like two and a half years before rocky which it took from the time I got here was about two and a half years later until it came out in the theater no do we until you got the wrong what do you have to say okay cuz I came here in 74 and that was like 76 right rocky right making it but I did everything from well the good thing is there was at that time what was great about television as far as I was concerned was you had really prolific producers and one of them was Quinn Martin and Quinn Martin did anybody in there nervous Quinn Martin and the great shows you know streets of San Francisco Barnaby Jones cannon I mean he did all these really spectacular shows and a great thing about then was you could be a cop at the beginning of the season and then at the end of the season you could pay a bad guy and I did on all these shows right so you could really kind of learn your chops working for keeping you know QM and when they liked you and they had a great casting woman named was a Dody Goodman anybody remember that name I think it was I think it was her name but what she liked you as an actor you would work man you would work you'd be brought back you'd become one of the you know Quinn Barton repertory players and so you'd work in all of his shows and the one of the very last shows I did was a show he did that was really short-lived called tales of the unexpected and they were like like hour-and-a-half movies like many movies right and uh-huh I got a chance to work with Ozzie and Harriet Rick Nelson Rick Nelson you know with Ricky Nelson in this show where it was about a baseball player and the baseball player loses his hand so he's got one hand yeah I was injured here I was a catcher and Rick Nelson was the pitcher so a lot of really interesting people over the years and of course and all the television series Delvecchio streets of San Francisco good times yeah my god a SWAT switch cannon kung fu oh man thing called a cow Starsky and Hutch there was a thing called the Cowboys that was a short-lived series so so many really wonderful actors and and and you know guys doing television then who were major stars yeah oh are you learning your chops yeah and then comes along a script yeah yeah I get this I get this call from my den agent and she tells me they have the script and I think he'd be great in this and I'm gonna send it to you um but don't let anybody know I sent it to you because it's not supposed to be out okay I read this thing Oh oh my god this is me I can do this this this guy oh yeah this is me so I let him know how much I loved it and yeah I could do this and then she tells me but they don't really want to meet you they want somebody that is known they want either an actor who's a great athlete that is known or they want an ask a boxer preferably who can act so they see all these people and none of them obviously are up to the speed can do this except at the time okay who fought who fought Ali and broke his jaw no Ken Norton not Earnie Shavers Ken Norton so Ken Norton is an actor at the time and is actually doing quite well and Ken anybody who ever saw Ken Norton body you go a guy was gorgeous and that was and I tell you something that was wheel this was not drugs this dude was dope like an Adonis I mean a waist like that and just shoulders out they here and it was just it was scary how this dude was built and he was like 6-3 6-4 I mean you know I'm six-two but he was this dude was insanely put together so there is a movie being cast at the same time that Rocky is being cast they can't get anybody because they wanted Ken he was an actor at the time but you know the rent us is doing a movie called drum which some of you may remember well I go to read for drum but not for for the movie not for the role there was a role in it that was drums father so I read for that and they really liked me and I guess there was an offer put out for me and the guy who when I went over there I got to back up a little bit when I went there they used to have offices on Cannon driving right off the corner in this magnificent building with a big winding sort of staircase that was like you know going to what's available e Gone with the Wind I mean it was just ridiculous you know and along the wall of course they had these pictures of movie stars and Dino De Laurentiis was Dino De Laurentiis right so I go over and I audition for this thing read for them and before as I'm going in up to read is a guy named Ralph sir P who was like Dino's right-hand person producer he looks at me and he looks at the picture and he looks at me and he looks at the picture of who's gonna be drum right I think I'm in and as it turns out I read and I am in but eventually after the people of rocky not being able to find anybody I get a chance to go into week four and long story short there's a cattle call out there but I get an opportunity to play this role difference is did you go into audition oh yeah of course I have you remember what the audition of course you people have heard the story a million times yeah you haven't okay alright okay yeah so it's a cattle call it's on a Friday afternoon and I guarantee there's every black actor who's over over five feet is in that room okay all right I mean it was like lining the walls okay and so you're there you wait your turn and finally it's my turn and I go in and I'm chomping at the bit man I want this rose so badly I mean I really I don't think I've ever wanted a role maybe as badly as I wanted that one that I had to audition for right so the producers Bob shot off Irwin Winkler in there John avildsen is in there and I think there were one or two other people in there and they're sitting seated we were and we were in Bob Irwin office eventually the office you see that's Apollo's office in the first movie that's the producers office because they didn't have any money on this picture this picture was budgeted under a million dollars and they made it for just over a million so the producers the story goes into hock their house because you a MGM wasn't gonna give them any more money that's why those guys are so filthy rich today because they put their asses on the line to finish this movie movie came in at just over a million dollars it made God knows how much now over the years but anyway so they're they're finally guy comes out of a door literally like right there and I'm standing there after you know the sort of initial little conversation guy sits down and I'm standing up and they introduce me as you know the writer and okay so we take that moment look at each other and then he proceeds to look down at the script and read kind of mumble through it and I'm just loading man I'm giving it everything I got you know cuz he's like down an energy and I'm pulling the thing up and I'm Apollo Creed right so at the end of it there's kind of silence a little cricket kind of noise you know and I gotta save this so I turned to him and with all this enthusiasm I said to them you know if you get me a real actor I can do a much better job and I got laughter and I'm thinking yeah what was so funny about that I'm real serious you know so the writer kind of looks up at me and just gives me this look I still don't know that this is the guy who is starring in the movie playing rocky because they never told me that they just said he was a writer okay I got a call back so eventually now they want to know if I can box and of course I lie to them and tell them of course I can box as I play ball in Canada and I would do all these Club boxing you know in the offseason and I'd go here and there and every lie ever boxed of my life so they they then they didn't get a professional boxer guy named Frankie Crawford who was a great middleweight I think and he might have been lightweight I think he was middleweight but anyway Frankie and and oh god I forget his name right now he was in the movie the short guy I can't remember the actor's name at any rate because he was in in the boxing world his dad was a corner man or a trainer or something so I we had so many guys in there who real boxers in came from that world at any rate who take me to a gym I get in the language Frankie Crawford if anybody has ever if anybody in here is a boxer or started out boxing put those gloves on and you know three-minute rounds feels like 30 years of your life I will tell you something when you know what you're doing the amount of energy you burn and expend with tension you cannot lift your arms at the end of three rounds let alone throw a punch I mean by the end of a minute man you are burnt out because you were breathing so hard you don't know how to relax school Frank he took me in there you firing with him oh you're bad but the truth of the matter is you want to call it sparring he was so fast and so quick every time I throw a punch out he'd be like four punches he'd countered with then moved off and I'm just chasing him around but what I did have was I had balance and I was an athlete so it wasn't like I just didn't know how to move and at the end of it these guys went back and told him you know what yeah I think he can do it and thank God for them because man was that bad you know relative to how what I became because of course we had they then go I had to go and really learn the box which I did he did that movie time and they just built a place and put us in a gym built a little gym and put us in there where we had you know closed off we didn't have to deal with people you know they gave me trainer absolutely give us strength people who not a box and here's an interesting just little stories about this business we had in the very beginning a stuntman who was a very well-known stuntman mentioning names and he was very good at what he did and he was the basically was going to be a stuntman he was going to teach us to box and he was very much a classic kind of trained boxer right that's real upright kind of stuff you know that come on man that's good but what you get near and you got to play the best boxer in the world you got to know how to move you got to be sweet you got to be on your feet and you know all those things right so anyway we are kind of getting progress done and then he quits why does he quit because there's a movie being made what I don't know what the budget was but let's say compared to us it's like 100 million dollar movie so you know his payday is gonna be a lot bigger than it is with us he quits and he goes off and we got his protégée his protege wound up taking over it's interesting how things happen it's probably the best thing that ever happened to those movies because the protege was not this guy who was going to tell you this is how it had to be done you know he let us kind of work it out and figure it out and he could take the credit even a Blind Pig and find an acorn back to that okay you never know where it's going to come from man but so we had him and then we had a great stuntman named Jimmy Nickerson later on and Jimmy's I saw Jimmy went down he's a stuntman you got to love them okay because they're a part of the business and a real important part of the business are they are give them problems I mean some of the great guys I've worked with unfortunately not even here but I just landed the one the other night who at the beginning of my career Bob miner gotta get Bob props because man without Bob miner you know in some of the movies I did earlier on those AIP movies and stuff like that I didn't ever look as good as I looked it was Bob you know bob was the guy doing the stuff you know I mean it really wants to give a Falls and all that and some of the other guys Tony Brubaker guys like that and these guys driving cars when you're supposed to be that great at it right I mean these guys and particularly the black stunt men's association because I happen to be black those were the guys who are doubling me right and those guys don't get enough credit they really go I mean all of the stuntmen cuz Jimmy Nickerson was not black but Jimmy came in on the Rocky movies and I was going to say a lot of stuff last time I remember seeing Jimmy lesson was in a body cast Jimmy just Jimmy was like a machine he just keep going most of the stunt guys get beaten up man they'll get injured really badly those guys are back up and on a horse so you know you just have to get props to them because they without those guys actors forget it you know you think you're tough you ain't tough see what those guys go through and I've been there firsthand man see these guys some of get hurt really badly you know but anyway Jimmy Nickerson came in and he did a great job in the subsequent movies and boy I remember one day we're doing press you know doing promotion for one of the movies and guys with the cameras you know and dumb ass actor we worked the whole thing out of what we're going to do and Jimmy and there he's holding the big heavy bag right and I'm doing all this stuff and I'm doing these great moves and these shots shots and for some reason I tried I'm going to improvise and Jimmy I threw a little think Jimmy's knew where he was supposed to be and then I Duke throw a hook it just so happens that we'd not practice that so Jimmy's face happened to be right where I threw that hook snap blood just running down his nose right and I just see his eyes for a moment and I thought I mean I really felt bad really bad yeah I thought Jimmy was gonna be the I mean to be honest with you you know what wiped it off blew it off let's go man let's go guys like that you know you can't say enough good things about them because they keep us all alive and safe if we're not stupid and try to do too much ourselves and I can attest to that my younger years doing stupid things I shouldn't have done so lesson if a stuntman is hired to do it let him do it you got to hit the ground guess what stuntman takes the big fall you're on your hip you do the little fall in a close-up and it looks perfect do not take the big fall don't do it I'm telling you don't do it yes I'm thinking about though a fall in rocky - I think when the two of you go down together slow motion I mean that is you and him oh yeah that's us yeah okay so you had to take the big fall well that wasn't some of those that yeah every now and then I mean you can't but trust me I hurt myself when I of course because you know we don't think about it at the moment you know you're all warm and lathered up and blah blah blah but a lot to a lather well yeah you need lots of leather you got to be warm that's louder that's right you know one of my questions are like how many bottles of oil did you know wait wait wait wait let's just back up you know how Caroline really enjoyed the lots of laughs she was like woo no the fall let's deal with the fall what is oil okay fair enough no you know when you're when you take a fall that big and you really don't sort of the idea is you don't want to catch yourself because it doesn't look real this right so I went down sort of one this one shoulder and I've been doing my shoulders so many times from football and that kind of thing doing stupid things not things with the pads on but doing stupid stuff that thing to this day happy gilmore tell you right now going out of that window backwards I pay for it today I didn't know it at the time like injured myself and I thought I'd just torn a little muscle years later when it really started to bother me like to the point where it became debilitating did the MRIs and x-rays I fractured two vertebrae from those two fractures osteopath via flight grew out and self fused the two vertebrae so everything above them and below them right just gets worn and messed up wear the pads down and guess what it's called arthritis in the spine it ain't fun now so again I'm telling you man a lesson is do not do a lot of that stuff yourself I should have told the director when I saw what he wanted me do out of window backwards a blind fall it's like okay it's only five five six feet but guess what you hit it wrong you break your neck that's the end of your career you hurt your back later on it will mess with you don't do that stupid stuff man they want to if they want to get it in the shot shoot another way that's why stuck Nancy is what they get paid for actors don't care how physical you are how handy you are and I'll do it give you another one we were doing I was a television series we're going to pilot for it called breaker at MGM a million years ago and I'm pretty good I'm pretty handy Here I am in this jacked-up Mustang Fastback Mustang hatchback Mustang another another thing in the rehearsals film the rehearsals especially the day it's digital what damn difference does it make you have these directors oh no no no no why not you can throw it away okay there might be gym in it and if you get it then you don't have to do it again so this time we're using film because it's a billion years ago right we got a camera sitting in the back of the thing and this is the rehearsal and I'm in chasing a car and okay I'm gonna drive the car and we got the camera back there and my co-stars in the right is sitting in the passenger seat and there the car goes off and we're chasing it we're going through these hillsides man they're driving fast so I'm getting on him I'm on their tail and I'm just going he hits a corner bang I hit that corner right we're going all of a sudden we hit a corner and this guy starts slamming on the brakes why because there's all kinds of people there in the street well I slam on the brakes and man you want to talk about adrenaline surging through you and fear surging through you because all I can do is either go off the side of this hill or pile into the back of them or something so I hit the brakes and I start cranking the wheel and these guys who are really great stuntmen have adjusted the braking so that you can slide and all that kind of stuff nobody told me this I'm just thinking it's like a regular cop fortunately the car literally that we're in does a 180 and the car is going backwards and out and I hit a parked car that's sitting there right so all I got was like a little bruise and my co-star didn't get hurt at all the car we're in that's not drivable anymore because we've just taken the back of it yes pushed it like so right the car I hit true story guy comes out there's a partner billion down there he had just gotten his car to the shop and being repaired from a crash and I have just taken the front end of it and like you know help that motor get into the front seat but I'm telling you stuntman should have been doing that I should not have gotten in that wheel and done all life stuff they let them do the big chase and you just getting there for the close-up man I mean come on you know fortunately nobody got killed either of us or somebody on the street you know but I have never had that kind of fear in me when that braking system suddenly was not doing what you expected it to do which was stop the car you know so anyway yeah all right that's good advice that's successful yeah yeah you learn you know you learn over a period of time yeah oh yeah start people I'll tell you you know you man thank them every time I hear some actor says I do all my stunts yeah that was you hanging on the side of the plane that was actually taken off of a runway yeah buddy you're on a soundstage there's more green screen than the law should allow you know what I mean in fans blowing you and all that you're talking about I do all my own stunts really yeah sure I just love it you know I love it yeah I mean of course if you're in a boxing ring let's face it you're the guy out there with nothing on but short so you're going to be doing that but I mean come on it's crazy car stuff and falling off buildings and walking on the ledge of a building not I said the duck no way jumping on the bottom of a helicopter but that was just two skids it looked real to skip see that's what I mean I was smart enough to do that but I didn't knock the front teeth out completely and had to rush off to it and get all the restoration done so that I could work the next day I hit that I hit those skids in my tooth wing crank right on the front of it you know it just broke them all off yeah but yeah that's what happens to actors because we don't know what the hell we're doing you know yeah so did you in terms of your relationship with that so this is two loans with an immediate connection yeah how many times did he hit me that was a connection yeah yeah it was you know you know there's so many positive things I could say about him but I won't know were it not for that script were it not for that role were it not for this actually wonderful piece of writing we're not for John avildsen we're not for all of the people involved in that you know it was just kind of kismet but it started with the script everything starts with the work with the page you know and writers let's let's give a shout out the writers you know because because without that we're kind of hard put to do what we do you know I mean you can you may be a really great improvisational person but if you're telling a story that's a craft - and the better those people are the better we look when we can really take their story and somehow transform it into you know something that's living at the same time we might all pause and remember that it is collaborative so every time you know some lighter and I don't say that in some dismissive way but every time a writer you know like something and is so precious about it that he feels like you know he is the second coming or she is the second coming then without actors how does it come to life it's not a novel he was a novel then you read it you imagine yourself in it but there's some people who are going to get in front of a camera and bring this thing to life and then we've got a director that we work with who's trying to help us give the best performance hopefully he or she is because they don't always do that we definitely talk about that man you know just because you can say action and cut doesn't mean you really know what the hell you're doing any more than just can you you can stand in front of a camera and say some lines doesn't mean you know what the hell you're doing so again with all these people who are better and better at their craft us being one of them in terms of developing that craft that's how we get this great work and sly to his credit you know was unbelievably collaborative in this thing he just wanted a great movie he did what he did and he allowed me you know which which is a whole nother part of what we do we deal with egos all the time we deal with our ego and we deal with ego the person on the other side of the scene or the people in the scene with us then when we leave that stuff at home the process is so much more fun you know when we all leave it at home when you don't work with people when you when you work with people who somehow and I've worked with some of those people who somehow try to create subterfuge try to undermine your performance and do all kinds of little stuff because of their insecurities it only diminishes what we're all doing you know because the thing is supposed to be about the thing not about you it's not supposed to be about me it's about the thing we're creating you know and what's like certainly there in the beginning we're all just young and eager and unknown for the most part and the only known quantity in the whole deal really and further camu was the great burgess Meredith I know who was who was you don't I got to tell you most of you will not get a chance to work with as generous as sweet a human being as talented a human being as burgess I mean you know I spent a lot of time with him after that movie one one social event or another need to have at his house and and then I worked with him later when I was doing in the heat of night because he and Carol O'Connor were like that and that's where I met Carol originally it was his house Rod Steiger Cal O'Connor and Larry Hagman all those people kind of hang out there you know and then I got to work with all those people I didn't ever work with rod but I I got to do a reading of one of Carol's screenplays with Rod Steiger but Larry Hagman directed you know shows and in the heat of the night anyway slight you know sleight was he was open and collaborative and and we were very fortunate that we had a group of people who really really eager to do great work and make this little movie you know your presence in that movie is so big and you you you brought us all in there with you and you know we get to the fourth you know we're with you one two three we watch this beautiful friendship developed you know three I feel like a little bit of a love story between rocky and Apollo you liked us running on the beach in the trench you're dead there are a number of people who have remarked about the homo erotica of that is I don't necessarily agree with that case but I did like watching him run on the beach right I did I did hook like hugging him and you know in the surf and jumping around the water cause when you're in love nothing is cold there is nothing cool yeah what I like no you know we're in Santa Monica oh come on how cool is gonna be you know ya know it was you know what it it's it's one of how many times do you get a chance as an actor to have an experience not only a movie that is very successful no matter where I go in the world people have seen that movie and they know of Apollo Creed and I happen to be Apollo Creed whether you like it or not when's that line I'm Apollo Creed and you're not and anyway so so when we did that you know the collaborative effort was through all of them you know of course the stakes get bigger when the thing starts making all this money and then Sylvester Stallone becomes a superstar I mean things you know things do change you know that's the difference between the actor and the star things change the movie star but right down to the end what was what still happened was the actor was allowed Carl Weathers was allowed to do what Apollo Creed does and Apollo Creed would not play second to anybody saying you know he just wouldn't so as you talk about the you know the presence the energy a note on that when I go to work it doesn't matter once I've decided I want to do this it doesn't matter the scope of the piece I will bring the same kind of presence to mark Jeffries in in Chicago justice as I did to Apollo Creed because again what is this story about as far as I see it it's about my Jeffords in his world what goes on in his world and anytime you see him on screen this is this story about his life and how he worked walks through the world in his life and so it's not not accounting for the other actor it's just you know and I'm working at this moment with two actors directing this play and I remember this great quote from oh hell Robert you here what's the name what's the name of the movie you're no help you know the one we talked about with uh with Newman and that whole group some yeah sometimes a great notion Robert Shanley a wonderful actor who is in this play and by the way you all must come see it I'm going to give a little plug right now if I may we're going to open July 1st at the Edgemont Theatre in Santa Santa Monica and it's we're going to be on the smaller stage but Robert Shanley and Jesus Robert help me I'm brain dead what Tanna town of Frederick who was actually producing the play as well who's a wonderful actress the two of them together and a that Shanley with an with a D and we're going to be in a Shanley piece right John Patrick Shanley great playwright called Danny and the deep blue sea and they are going to be spectacular because then rehearsals they're doing a great job but anyway I digress what was I talking about don't give an inch so as an actor you know you walk on the set man come with all your tools in the toolbox don't don't you know you don't have to sidestep for anybody and I'm not talking about ego I'm talking about as an artist you know as an artist but it's all your tools be ready to play be ready to shine who are you not to shine you are a child of God and beyond that or with that you're an artist so when you walk on the stage man bring your artistry ladies bring your artistry that means filling that screen you know they'll adjust the size you know they'll go for in for the close-up but you start learning the craft and guess what you will be able to assist them you'll get the dance and as back to Charles Conrad you know who so many gems you know even that Blind Pig can find an acorn I found an acorn every time I would listen to this guy I used to talk about making love to the camera and by doing that you are actually giving all you can to the audience because even if I'm talking to you and I throw that energy out and throw that attention out and take it you know not being so self-conscious of course unconscious because I'm not dead but being self-conscious and really just throwing out throwing out in the close-ups man the camera will pick it up and that's how you fill the screen you fill the screen by being so active like that cat watching those fish while everybody's moving around you your stillness becomes the thing that people watch because it's wow that's a lot of energy just balled up in that body you know and it's active not passive because it's inside you and it's happening and you're alive and you're alive to everything going on around you and so they want you to do a pickup because you're bumble the line do a pickup just go right back though go like that go let yourself drift you know energy energy and attention and attention so sly and in that whole group you know just it's one of those remarkable experiences to go through that have those movies be as successful as they are to go anyplace in the world to have people recognize you as a result of that unfortunately some other movies too but but and those don't come around that often no you know they don't not they're legendary yeah classics I mean just those opportunities and so you know his opportunities cuz uh you know chase people have so many choices movies television books you name it you know video games on and on and on so that we have we've gone on too long I got that look I saw you with that you know I hate to say I I don't I want to keep going but I can we is there something that's stopping us people want to go to sleep are you telling me a my dad boring and that boring anyone so cool okay no I I mean I can mom heroin okay I'll look look okay good I go home and go to sleep and get up tomorrow morning and we rehearse I play so I'm going great well I want to know what who - how did you find out about Apollo's let me I'm sorry if I'm a yeah you know I know we're going on here and maybe you maybe people had some place to go or wanted to I would not be insulted if you got up and walked out or if you got to go use the restroom or anything else I know I mean seriously is yeah see ya because I would be the same way man I'd be sitting there and I'd be floating my eyeballs of the floating effort this guy's going on yakking all this time so we love it love it a lot orange is what I Spit time is flying okay as I feel um how did you find for Rocky for who told you about what was going to happen to your character read the script Hannity don't know with no no actually slide told me he did he told me but he didn't tell me okay he kind of liked hinted at it you know and and I was kind of between a rock and a hard place honestly because had I been courageous enough I might have made a lot more money cuz I just said you know I'd held out I'd have done something there where they would have paid me a lot more but of course I wanted to be a part of it also you know and uh you know I'm honestly I should say I have no regrets at all in that experience because and I don't have a lot of regrets period be honest with you about anything there are things I probably would do differently but then I'd be someplace else right now because you know that's the way the world works you know you move left instead of right well ten years later I guess what you're not going to place you would have been so so I read the script and man okay I kind of knew Apollo was dying but alright you know and then when we did it I mean it's look for my money my favorites would be one in four okay because four is so bombastic or sure it is so crazy to go to Las Vegas shoe on the stage that has all these dancers and people up on high-rises it yeah I think I got stuff flying and then the thing coming down the guy coming up James Brown I mean come on how could you as a kid growing up in America ever not want to be on the same stage with James Brown I mean really are you getting any more claims you and I get any more class yeah I don't care Aaron that'd be like in my opinion that'd be like you having a chance to be on the stage with the Beatles I mean James Brown yeah you really start looking at who James Brown really was and what he did in terms of music worldwide man if you know anything about music this guy legendary legend I mean so be on the same stage with him with mr. Brown you know and he was he was mr. brown all the time and the musicians who worked with him called him mr. Brown and everybody else did this man was he with I mean basically it's you know respect Who I am I'm mr. Brown that's it you know and you have that let that raspy voice you know I love the London it was great though so one in four beginning in the end yeah the Alpha in the omega create any man and how did you get from well more wasn't did you how did you mourn the loss of Apollo in your life or did you not was that you know you just really I don't really you know when something when something feels complete life is just an adventure so what's the next adventure I mean really you know every movie you do guess what there isn't into it you don't have to physically die on screen but it's over and everybody had a great time it was kind of like the family for a minute and we get alright some people give you relationships others won't but it's over it's over next red hair yeah predator or as I heard it called the Prix de tur the Prix de tur truly had somebody said that yeah predator came about as a result of I'm not sure of before me but I think they were interested in someone else and somehow that didn't work out whether or not the casting wasn't right knowing what I know today look in retrospect that casting was definitely wrong because it would have been a completely different movie and I think what made sense was they needed someone physically who could hold his own with Arnold but also we don't want those great things but again about you know rejection we're going to have those times as actors as artists where we're going to be rejected guess what it may be one of the best things that ever happened to you because if you wind up doing something that really is the antithesis antithesis of who you are or you can't really hit it out of the park with and something about it that just doesn't work or the movie fails or whatever the deal is how helpful is that really I mean yes working is important all of that even failures can be event advantageous but really being in the wrong role for you that's not necessarily my opinion a good thing so the actor that I remembered hearing about was just really not the right guy for that role we got down there we went down to Mexico oh so I read the script I was given the script and I wasn't that interested at 4:00 and the reason I wasn't interested was the roll just didn't have anything to it that are things I look for in a role that I can inhabit in a way that are going to somehow give me some presents as you mentioned on screen because if a hundred other actors could do it then I'm not the guy they want I mean really that's kind of the way I look at every one of those things if there are just a few guys that I can imagine doing that I'm one of those few guys then I'm cool but if any actor you could throw out there could do that then why am i doing it because it's not going to mean anything to me that's just the way I do it other people may do it differently but I got the script I read it was an interesting script but the role was Duffin and I was convinced by my den manager that I should meet with the producer who was Jill silver you know and Joel obviously had had some success and at the time Joel Silver is a very big name now but he wasn't that big then because he had been he started really as kind of an assistant to Larry Gordon who was who ran a studio at one time right ran Fox at one time and Larry was still producing as was Joel at that time and so Larry was involved in predator and Joel was the producer of note and there are other people involved but I was asked you know hey don't just turn it down summarily just go and meet Joel so I wouldn't met him and you know we had a discussion and basically I said why me you know at that time because I was still you know forming I guess you could call it I would ask that question why me cuz I really want to be wanted not just you okay you know I'm your fifth 15th choice you know and he told me why and Joel a lot of enthusiasm with everything I mean you know remind you of the what you think the old-time studio bosses would have been or the producers would have been larger than life crazy Ganic energy right so he said basically to me let me put you with the writers and you know I told them about what wasn't there in the role and it just seemed to not have any arc and blah blah blah and blah blah blah and he put me with the writer Jim and John Thomas who did a spectacular job with that screenplay and we sat down one afternoon and I gave them my thoughts and they took some notes and it wasn't so much that the role increased that much more but they added in some of the speeches who this guy really was not just to Arnold said he was you know got to pushing pencils CIA blah blah blah so I wound up talking to these guys and they really sort of crafted this thing in a way that made this guy a lot more and then I was able to inhabit him in a way that gave me some place to come from some place to be in some place to go with this this guy you know with Dylan and even came up with the name gave him the name Dylan yeah cuz we didn't have a name for the guy at the time he was just CI age you know and I've always loved you know great great titles and great names for characters because they're memorable definitely anyway so we went down to I you know eventually we made the deal and we went down to Mexico Puerto Vallarta for four days two weeks I think we pulled we started shooting and one of the one of them are a great sort of advisor Gary Goldman who was a guy who you know been in military and missions and all kinds of stuff you know and Gary to this day is come a friend I consider him a friend sort of put us through our paces and you know taught us bump bumble heads how to actually hold a gun properly and you know I mean military stuff you know the training that yeah yeah and put us through that of course you with eight knuckleheads out there running through the jungle doing anything but listening to Gary and you know grab-assing and doing what guys do you know but we somehow made it all work and then we had really in my opinion one of the best directors when you talk about a camera they're directors who are really great acting directors there are great directors who know where to put a camera and and how to utilize lenses and all that sort of stuff and then there's some some who can do both you know but McTiernan happens to be a guy who really knows how to deal with a cameron switch lenses and I mean just brilliant and then we had you know wonderful DP and and one of the things that I loved about that movie and still to this day was we had three different nationalities working on that crew Mexicans we had Americans and with Australians and they all were integral to making that movie get made so really important and so it was a wonderful two months down there shooting a crazy movie in the jungle and you know the rest is history as they said and say and finally you know we we had no we didn't have a predator because a lot of people know that jean-claude Van Damme this was kind of his beginning and he was supposed to be the predator and didn't quite work out a kickboxing creditor wasn't going to work that well and so after we finished the movie they actually had to find a guy to plug the predator and because all that stuff you saw obviously was you know that guy in the trees didn't exist that was acting 101 okay you guys look there look at the red dot oh just off-camera and bla la la you know look at the mad box look up in the tree okay right there that branch that's where he is now you know and so once we finished principal photography they found you know this wonderful actor who is seven feet tall and sent he and Arnold down to Palenque which is very near the what about on border very dangerous kind of territory and that final stuff was shot there was it - a bit yeah and great snuck men by the way again great stunt man yeah yeah so uh you know the movie again you know things I've done it's one of my favorites how did you prepare for that final you know your final moments on screen um that's a good question you know after a while there's a hell of a lot preparation because it's like it's like muscle memory you know camera starts rolling go right there there's nothing were you talking about you know it's like that great line now um from Olivier to to Hoffman Hoffman try acting dear boy that's what you do for a living okay that's it and cameras rolling action bang do it just do it after Jackson oh yeah okay okay thank you very much I I still today you know action Jackson when I'd like to have back I really you know I'd like to be able to do that over because we could have had much much much better movie long story short we were shooting predator Joe liked blaxploitation movies and we started talking about that talking about different movies and of course because I'd done AIP movies right but he loved all those movies and he's just a movie buff and we started talking about different stuff and in fact before imma get you sucker came out years before Joel was talking about it when we were making predator because that's how much he loved that kind of stuff so we started talking I said you know uh yeah I should write a little he said yeah let's do write something we'll get together and see if we get it made so it's all you got to say to me and in the you know between times I'm shooting I'm trying to write a story and I wrote this story and it's not a few sheets of paper and again looking for a title I came up with this this name for this guy Jericho and I didn't have a real like last name or anything and I didn't have a title and one day I was talking to one of the electricians the Aussie electricians and he was talking about women in his life and he managed to connect with this particular woman that he was very fond of and he was telling me the story said I was in like action Jackson bears my title so it became Jericho action Jackson and you know I handed the story to to Joel and Joel eventually went off and found a writer Rob Renault who hung out with Shane black who was in predator who is now just finished probably production on a new predator Shane lethal weapon and last Boy Scout so many wonderful movies he wrote wonderful writer got me interested in like John D MacDonald his novels you know potboiler kind of stuff uh and so I hand the stuff to him and all those guys chaining these guys this group of writers hung out at this place called the pad young guys of course come up with stuff like that and one of the writers I guess that was that Joe probably could get 15 cents to and he wrote this thing called action Jackson took basically the story I had and twisted it and turned it and bang we now are trying to get the movie made and I was under contract at Lorimar at the time and Bernie Brillstein ran Lorimar who and one of those people I got I got involved with who to this day you know you just you meet those kind of people I mean those real like incredible human beings characters in this business comes from God the days of the borscht belt when his folks were involved with that and New Yorker and Bernie took a liking to me al I was gonna cow and and Joel's going around and everybody's turning the idea down you know and Bernie said yeah I'll green lighter and eleven months after I come up with this idea we're making a movie eleven months I mean scripting everyday well you know script needed to rewrite badly but greenlight man you know at that time gotta go because it may never get this chance again and Bernie it was the second movie that Lorimar made feature the other was dangerous liaison you know and ours was a second and all that good lower more video money you know because that's what what Adelson really made his money on you know the video business when those things were still alive and they gleam like the movie and we made the movie and the movie made money and then it you know was sent off where all movies go eventually to television Landon so you see it out there every once in a while yeah people liked it though people liked it is it he said well these fairies yeah it did world the Germany I had so much so many fans from Germany over action Jackson yeah amazing that action scene in the end is out of sight which one we talked about the car and the second size enough how well there's a crazy thing oh that when me drive in the car of Dallas which of course yeah I did that but we're on the stage that look real but you know come on but know that you know the one thing where I'm out on the street I jump over the country in the car that's all stuff done that's all something oh yeah there was there was Bob miner was in the car he played the bad guy Alan was I think it was Alan Olli that was it Alan Olli no it wasn't Alan only it was who's a great stuntman it was a oh man I'm blanking on name but it was another stats up man that I've worked with a few times who actually did the jump over the car they used a like a power ramp you know cuz he jumped on it bang and shoots you up into the air because man too many times in rehearsals you see the guy's foot hit the top of the car and when you're already tumbling you lose your place in the world and kill yourself you know so he took a couple of bruises before he they got it right and then eventually when the car goes up it wasn't supposed to do what it did it literally went in the air through an intersection and on top of a building across the street it was supposed to go through the wall but it literally went over the top and the stuck man inside that car we were all really concerned because man when you you know you're flying in the car comes down and fortunately he got out of it okay he got you know banged up a little bit but he got out of it okay yeah that's that's that's that's that's action Jackson yeah action Jackson and that is literally like we still have so much more to talk about but unfortunately it's our time up right there there could be a part too you know if you say so hey first of all I want to you know I want to thank you right Carolyn for this time but also sag after the foundation and the four actors in particular it's really necessary because we don't always have a paycheck coming in and sometimes it gets kind of lean and to have a group there that is willing to help on rough times on hard times when you're really trying your damnest you know to subsidize your life and take care of things and certainly people get ill it's just a part of life so to have the foundation there is really you know a fantastic thing and and my intention in coming here was to support that and also to you know when I was younger and I still learn a lot all the time but you don't get a chance I was real fortunate one thing I didn't say I'm just going to be brief with this but when I first started in Los Angeles you know you didn't have all these all these lots that you couldn't walk on to you didn't have these guards there who would stop you in the city but I used to walk on a universal and go onto sound stages I remember going watching George C Scott's stand on a ladder so long looking a little clock on the Hindenburg that I left it took so long for that one little thing to be done right and so many other actors really well-known actors who I got a chance to meet some of them later but we don't have that anymore so you know how do you learn now you know you learn through now we've fortunately we've got CDs out there where actors talk about the craft or you've got writers talking about the craft or DPS talking about the craft or directors talking about the craft but sometimes you don't hear to get personal stories over a period of time that people tell so I hope my hope is that somehow you were benefited from this and that you know as someone told me a long time ago it'll help you on your merry way and help you achieve the things you want to achieve you know not only as an artist but also somehow in life you know so thank you for coming thank you my pleasure

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 35,758

Rating: 4.8395061 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, rocky, apollo, predator, happy gilmore, chicago justice, Q&A, Interview, Career Retrospective

Id: Pntu7aQ1Hdw

Length: 132min 10sec (7930 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 02 2017