Denzel Washington; Bryan Cranston; Samuel L. Jackson | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

Denzel Washington has been acting for more than 40 Years playing almost everything Shakespeare gangsters action heroes now at 61 in what he calls his fourth quarter Denzel Washington has decided to focus on a project that's more important to him than any work he's done bringing to the screen The Works of one of America's greatest playwrights the late August Wilson winner of two Pulitzer prizes Wilson who died in 2005 wrote 10 iconic plays known as the American Century cycle which explored the Black American Experience in each decade of the 20th century Denzel has committed to producing all of them nine for HBO but fences Wilson's most popular work opens in movie theaters this Christmas Denzel directs as well as stars I understand that you made it clear to everybody on the set that you're not after good you're after great and that anybody who's coming to work on this so did you hear that that's the one great there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing nothing wrong with it the best you can be Joy you ought to stop that line fences is set in Pittsburgh in the 1950s and 60s when racial integration was just gaining a toehold they said nothing he told me to go down to commission's office next Friday Washington plays 53-year-old Troy Maxson whose life is defined by his big personality and his bigger disappointments why because I asked a question that's all I did he is a garbage man who had great ability to play baseball but he came along at a time blacks weren't accepted yet in the big leagues so he was frustrated by that anybody can drive a truck how come you got all the whites driving and the colored lipid Washington filmed fences in the Hill district of Pittsburgh a once vibrant black neighborhood where August Wilson grew up the people who went to work and to church and raised their families here inspired many of his plays it's a Pittsburgh story and I wanted to be in Pittsburgh the stories I get from people all of that helps to feed the film Washington turned this vacant Hill district house into the Maxson family home familiar to many of us who grew up in a black working class neighborhood at the time I swear I know this house yeah man now now okay now you tell me my aunt lived in this house yeah the front room The Parlor The Parlor I'll take you for the tour this is the dining room and this is it you got Jesus in the 60s this was in every African-American to put that in there you know I put that in there every no African-American and they ought to be felt you know that black or whatever that felt stuff right of course you got Jesus Martin Luther King and John F Kennedy and her baby she noticed she don't have no pictures of Troy up there that's terrible actually this is the backyard the action takes place right out here worried about what we're getting into for a woman fences is the story of a family unraveling Troy from his wife Rose and from his son Corey look boy the white man ain't gonna let you get nowhere with no football no way now you get your book learning so you can work your way up a day and pee and learn how to fix cars or build houses he'd get you a trade this way you got something can't nobody take away from you do you see your father in Troy in some regards he couldn't read well he had the same conversation with me about getting a good trade you know he worked for the water department in New York and he he could he could get me on at the water department and he said you know I could be a supervisor in 25 years he's like you get a good job you get a stranger yeah a secure job exactly and like rose my mother could see further you know no he's got to get an education he's got to go to college and you know he couldn't see that for him Time's A Change Troy people change the world changed and then you can't even see it woman I do the best I can do I come in every Friday I carry a sack of potatoes and a bucket of the Lord you all line up at the door with your hands out I'll give you the lint from my pockets I give you my sweat and my blood I ain't got no tears I done spent them we go upstairs in that room at night I fall down on you and try to blast the hole into forever I get up Monday morning find my lunch on the table go out and make my way find my strength to get me through the next Friday foreign I remember seeing my father in the driveway listening to the Ball Game yeah if I remember the door would be open he had his foot out and he's just listening to the Ball Game and I realized as of when I got older it was the only place where he had a chance to he just dealt with one boss now he's about to go in the house and my mother's in there the other boss and he had maybe 10 minutes to himself to be the boss in the driveway in the driveway listening to the Ball Game and because he had to come home and eat and then go to the night job do you tap into that to bring that out into the performance it's in there it's got to be yeah it's got to be Jesus Viola Davis told us she admired Denzel Washington long before they acted in fences together on Broadway when I was younger I just thought it was good looking you know so I was like oh Denzel is so good looking was it difficult having him as both leading man and director not at all I thought he flowed in and out of those two things effortlessly he never gets in the way I think that's a testament to him as an artist that his ego took a back seat to anything I think this is a role of a lifetime for her and she bites down and she she tears it up it's not it's not easy for me to win boy I got a life too I gave 18 years of my life to stand in the same spot as you don't you think I ever wanted other things don't you think I had dreams and hopes what about my life what about me people say everything in film is small every moment is small you got to play it small and sometimes moments are not small it's painful to watch well it should be because that's just how August wrote he didn't write small August Wilson's themes are big and Universal his plays Chronicle the struggles of black Americans searching for what everyone wants dignity love security across generations and in the face of overwhelming odds his genius was capturing the sensibilities the unique cadences of African-American life with finely crafted language there's a lot of State what that mean to me body working what that mean to me Bodywork and I don't care if she working go ask her for ten dollars if you're working talking about body working why ain't you working so it's a rhythm there's a rhythm to it what that mean not what does that mean to me he wrote what that mean to me what that mean to me bodyworking I don't care if she working go ask her for ten dollars if she work and talk about body working why ain't you working it's like Shakespeare the punch line is actually set up if you just play the music [Music] scoring session we found Washington putting music to Wilson's words it's all part of being the director which he's done twice before so we can just pick it up at 37. I just dig the process yeah days like today man it don't get no better than this and in theory I'm the boss don't tell anybody my god really August Wilson wanted to have a black director to make the film yeah he got his wish he got his wish no pressure on me because the last I check I was black I am black so yeah yeah cover that yeah I didn't have to audition yeah he said he didn't think a white director would be able to I think it's a cultural thing more than a race thing and culturally you understand I don't know you understand this place in these people no question when we would come out pouring a little for the boys Upstate I mean I grew up with that we always poured out a little liquor for the guys that were locked up or the guys that were dead I know what it smells like when my sister's getting the hair fried with the iron hot iron on Sunday morning thank you you see what I'm saying that's culture that's not even race that's culture Denzel Washington grew up in Mount Vernon a working-class suburb of New York City his mother owned a beauty salon to keep him off the streets she scraped together the money to send him to boarding school he went to Fordham University and began acting in plays Hollywood took notice I did a TV movie in 1978 called Flesh and Blood we filmed here you're going to be a heavyweight you got the chin you got the guts but most of all Bobby most of all my blue-eyed friend most of all you're white it may surprise you but I saw that flesh and black and um had a gap in my teeth then you had a gap in your broken teeth and your voice was a little higher he went on to win his first Oscar for his role in the Civil War drama Glory playing a defiant Union soldier in one of the first black regiments watching him in glory I can't express what it means to an actor to see a performance like that because it was Brave [Music] who would have made a choice as they're getting beaten to play both bravery and pain at the same time moments like that inspire you as an artist to go there also Hollywood for his almost obsessive preparation and attention to detail he says it helps him disappear into his roles Malcolm X it kind of looked like it actually I don't I know you don't but in the movie you convince people that you look like Malcolm X when you have a powdered cake and there's too many Sparks around it the thing's going to explode that's what I do that's what you do that's what I do and with Reuben Hurricane Carter I understand you train with boxing yeah yeah in a movie the shots have to be short and you have to fake it and do all that kind of stuff oh you were faking it not the body shots all the body shots were real so you're getting punched and I was punching doesn't hurt as long as you're getting a few shots off Training Day today's a training day officer Hoyt I did a lot of work with the LAPD I found out how dangerous it was you got today and today only to show me who and What You're Made Of you hear me I hear you my [ __ ] because he was tough Alonzo was just Wicked just evil you hear often that black actors black movies don't play well overseas is that the truth or is that an excuse I've heard everything and what I hear keeps changing because they used to say it didn't sell over here than it does then he said doesn't sell in the south then it does well it doesn't sell in Europe and it does so I just keep pushing well what an opportunity I have to prove them wrong and he has becoming one of Hollywood's most bankable stars he's favored to get a seventh Oscar nomination for fences this is all happening at a time when the Oscars are being criticized for lack of diversity I'm just wondering what do you think about that I don't have to think about it I've lived it I've been the guy at the Oscars without my name being called I've been the guy at the Oscars when my name is called I've been the guy at the Oscars when everybody thought they was going to call my name and they didn't so I've I've lived it so what would you say to the people who are looking at this process and saying it's unfair yeah and so what we're gonna give up if you're looking for an excuse you'll find one in race you can find it wherever you like you can't live like that just do the best you can do so what's next I mean are you enjoying this directing uh I won't be directing anytime soon you will not be no no going back to the acting what's your first name Bill right put an S on it got to pay a couple of them that's correct acting pays the bill I think pays the bills yeah do what you got to do so that you can do what you want to do I've just done what I wanted to do now I got to give back to what I got to do of all the actors that have passed through Hollywood very few if any have had a career like Bryan Cranston he knocked around Tinseltown for decades before finally Landing his first leading role at 50. Walter White on Breaking Bad a very tough act to follow but since then thanks for Cranston had been breaking good he won a Tony Award on Broadway an Oscar nomination in Hollywood all while writing his memoir its testimony to his talent patience perseverance and luck Brian Cranston was born and raised in Los Angeles and had been a familiar face here for decades but never a star that officially changed three years ago when the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce embedded his name in a sidewalk I have often walked down this street before but the pavement never held my star before all at one time three stories high knowing I'm on the street where it lives since then it's only gotten better at age 60 he is on Hollywood's A-list and a red carpet regular and no one was more surprised than Cranston I didn't feel entitled to become a star I didn't expect it did you want it not really the things you want professionally are opportunities and through my good fortune that's what's happened opportunity has come to me in when it came late in his career Cranston knocked it out of the park maybe you and I could partner up you want to cook crystal Matt that's right when we first started we were just telling a story and trying to do our best and it just started to steamroll and became this Juggernaut did you see it coming no not at all chemistry it's a familiar story now a Meek and depressed high school chemistry teacher with terminal cancer Cooks up a scheme to make and market a superior grade of methamphetamine to provide a nest egg for his family after he's gone but over the course of five seasons Walter White goes from milk toast to murderous in order to survive I was just infused with ideas and I would dream about and wake up and go oh I have another idea about Walter White you clearly don't know who you're talking to it was so well written and it just got into my soul I am the danger it was cranston's first real opportunity to show what he could do as an actor run the result was new respect in a closet full of Emmys when the show finally ended he saw it as a new beginning and an opportunity to try something completely different it had been years since Cranston had performed on stage yet he decided to sign on with a theater company in Boston that was doing a new play called all the way about Lyndon Johnson a very complicated character it had to be an amazing challenge I mean why did you do it it was Shakespearean in size and I thought oh boy that's a big bite to take and it scares me a little bit so let's do it reasons to be scared I realize oh my God this is an enormous play and it's almost all me big big chunks of speeches speeches speeches and I started a panic it is all and later on Broadway and after that a film version for HBO his performance was so on the mark let us begin you had to remind yourself it was Cranston and not Johnson I love you more than my own Daddy but if you get in my way I'll Crush you hey look at that look at that look at those sizes there after winning a Tony Award Broadway's highest honor he topped it off with an oscar-nominated performance in the film Trumbo well well that's quite a run surprising for an old journeyman actor got a few Clips to show you here oh yes okay roll it man what the hell is wrong with you Cranston has been a working actor since his mid-20s oh yeah very sweet beginning with the part on the soap opera loving that attraction is our business all right and after there's been everything from the sublime to the ridiculous Good Guys bad guys he's dead I'm sorry we did everything we could and sometimes parts so small even cranston's forgotten them what is that says here it's Amazon Women on the moon five minutes for the Widow do you mind yeah I'll take care of you later you ended up on The Cutting Room floor that's why you've never seen Amazon Women on the moon who could forget who wants to remember is a better question actually but I promised myself in all there have been nearly 150 rules not counting the early commercials that helped pay the bills now you can relieve and Flame hemorrhoidal tissue with the oxygen action of Preparation H oxygen action do you think you've grown as an actor sensitive no but my hemorrhoid has grown there were guest spots on just about every show on television including five appearances on Seinfeld hey Tim is Jerry smarmy dentist Dr Tim Wadley Cheryl would you ready the nitrous oxide please it was like going to Comedy boot camp for me being on that show and comedy proved to be something that Brian Cranston was very good at living it led to his breakout role in the widely acclaimed series Malcolm in the Middle is how the hapless father overwhelmed by the chaos of A Dysfunctional Family wait wait wait wait he was insecure you know not in charge hello well he took brain vacations often Malcolm earned Cranston a modicum of Fame three Emmy nominations and a reputation as an actor who was willing to do anything those are obese yeah those are real bees and there was 75 000 of them animal control and yes he got stung where were you stung in the in the lower region in one of the boys down below sensitive spot very sensitive The Beekeeper went sorry I'll help you anywhere else that night sorry now you are gonna get up and I'll pull it out seven seasons on Malcolm and hated to see it go but the show's cancellation turned out to be a very lucky moment had Malcolm in the Middle been picked up I would not have been available for the pilot of Breaking Bad and right now someone else would be sitting in this chair talking to you not me luck both good and bad figures a lot in cranston's life and in the Memoir he's just written it's published by Simon and Schuster which is owned by CBS he grew up in a family that knew firsthand the uncertainty of a life in Show Business his parents were both actors his mother gave it up to raise Brian his brother and his sister while his father struggled to make a name for himself in Hollywood he really wanted to be a star he really wanted to hit big observation post number three to emergency lab but mostly Joe Cranston got small parts in films like the beginning of the end getting eaten by giant grasshoppers eventually his father realized that playing bit Parts was about as far as he was going to go there would be no stardom he had a massive middle-aged breakdown and left the family and and then it just completely fell apart and my mother was heartbroken just completely devastated to make ends meet we started selling off all our possessions you were poor yeah we had our house foreclosed on we were kicked out it was the 1960s and Brian was 11 years old being from a divorced family almost felt like a Scarlet Letter at times and I denied it for a long time in fact I told our dear friends the Burrell boys five boys lived next door to us why we don't see your dad anymore oh yeah yeah he I lied I said he comes home at night when you guys are in bed he gets us out and we play I said it so much that I started to believe it myself you know the abandonment by his father created anger and resentment but also a deep reservoir of life lessons and emotions that he would draw upon as he grew older and decided to become an actor The Perils of stardom and the importance of family 30 years ago on a forgettable show called Airwolf he met another young actor who was Unforgettable you were nothing there's Robin a spoiled rich kid who never had to pay for anything he was the bad guy and Robin dearden was one of his hostages he was an amazing actor and one of the funniest people I had ever met and it may work it took a while for you to get together right oh yeah we ran into each other like eight months later and we kissed for like a second too long let me demonstrate when you greet a friend this is the duration of the kiss that's acceptable hi good to see you yeah when you make a mistake and stay too long at the lips this is this is how long it is and that's what happened it was like what was that oh it was it was like oops the kiss sealed the deal and they were married in 1989 among the well-wishers were cranston's mother and father keeping their distance from each other Brian and Robin have been married for 27 years now they still live in the same house where they raise their daughter and Brian still goes to work most every day oh this is where you're shooting the scene this is where we're shooting the scene we're in Brooklyn on the set of Sneaky Pete Let's Get Busy a 10-part crime drama Cranston is doing for Amazon Prime on the New Frontier of original streaming video oh my God okay he's shoehorned it into his schedule between writing the book and making a couple of new movies this is his baby and he's running the show doing four jobs at once okay so you're a co-creator yeah you're directing yeah executive producer right actor yes I do force myself to sleep with myself to get the job but that's always a disappointment what's really important this day he's wearing his director's hat checking camera angles yeah and answering questions from the cast which includes Margot Martindale Margo once you take the blast off and try this on now it's a busy time but Cranston wants to take advantage of every opportunity his Good Fortune has brought him while his career is still hot do you really believe that there's going to be a time when people said no no thank you not him anymore I don't I don't oh yeah you do oh it's cyclical I'm riding a wave right now and I recognize that but I want to do as much work as I can do the best I can and when it's all said and done and they say get out of the water you're done I want to be so exhausted that I look forward to it it's like oh you're right I don't want to have anything left in the tank we thought we would be remiss if we ended this story without revealing to cranston's many fans some very personal information he shared while discussing his two favorite characters how on Malcolm in the Middle and Walter White from Breaking Bad big difference between Hal and Walter White that's quite a bit of difference between although tighty whities were running things were in common that was a thing I thought about that for Hal it was that he was just a big boy so the tighty whities seem to make sense for Walt the Tidy white he's also made sense because they were pathetic pathetic yeah does that mean you wear boxers I do yeah I do wear boxers or Nothing at All [Laughter] if you feel like you're seeing a lot of Samuel L Jackson lately it's not your imagination he seems to be everywhere there are the credit card commercials the movie trailers not to mention a hundred or so of his films circulating on cable TV he's been around for a long time and as you might suspect is quite a character someone we thought would be fun to hang out with if you know him only from his films there are things in this story that will probably surprise you he spent 15 years on the stage in New York and didn't become a movie star until his mid-40s he's been with the same woman also a distinguished actor for nearly 50 years and the movies he's been in have grossed more money than any other actors films in the history of Hollywood and nobody likes to watch them more than he does do you watch your movies yes I do you like seeing yourself on screen I do I used to you know when I was doing theater in New York I always wanted to see the play I was in with me in it hard to do it is very difficult uh so this was perfect for me I get to watch my performances I always think that oh I can't stand to watch myself as like some [ __ ] it's like really so watch me business and if you can't watch it why should people pay 13.50 to watch you do it at age 70 when most A-list actors find it hard to get work Samuel L Jackson is very much in demand I got my eye on you he has two movies out right now glass and Captain Marvel that have already grossed more than a billion dollars you famous or something his career has allowed him to be all sorts of different people a bounty hunter a computer engineer at Jurassic Park hold on to your butts [Music] junkie a Jedi master and I will strike down upon thee with great Vengeance and in a Bible quoting Hitman in Pulp Fiction all the while stealing scenes and sometimes entire movies while garnering critical Acclaim oh I'm sorry did I break your concentration young nominated for an Academy Award but like I tell people you know winning or losing an Academy Award doesn't do a lot toward moving the comma on your chat what moves the comma on your check buts and seats selling tickets right if you're in a movie and nobody goes to see it it's like yeah Academy Award winner yeah I don't want to see that uh you know but you go you go to movies because people do exciting movies or you like the characters that they do first and foremost Sam Jackson is a performer an Entertainer in real life and on the screen he creates memorable characters strong opinionated sometimes scary people often with a wicked sense of humor than a Persona or a brand it's almost a whole genre raw honest incredible I like to play characters that Express themselves verbally so I'm always looking to tell people who I am and not specifically just show them and that's just a natural quality is that Sam Jackson I think it is I don't necessarily care about whether I'm liked or not and I think I found interesting ways of making bad guys you know guys that people like how do you do that you chat and keep people as human as you possibly can keep them until they have to do the thing that they have to do and that's your genre I hope so he grew up in Chattanooga Tennessee not far from the Walnut Street Bridge his grandmother told him stories about black people being lynched there we used to ride our bicycles down this hill Third Street it was the totally segregated Jim Crow South everywhere he went and everyone he knew was black his neighborhood his schools his teachers and the experience still colors his life so I grew up in this world which is the street world all these kids whose parents were domestics or worked in uh what was known the chicken house where they killed chickens and packed his chickens and stuff like that there were a mixture of kids who were in and out of uh reform school we came from a place that was kind of well-versed in learning to live life as it came at you he was raised by his grandparents a janitor and a housemaid who had a strong work ethic his mother who held down a secure well-paying government job in Washington DC was a constant presence in his life spending Summers holidays and some weekends with him helping him navigate the world as a young black man you knew what the rules were when people got ready to do stuff that was going to get them sent to jail I just went home I understood my mom's gonna we're not getting you out of jail if you get arrested don't call me I had a greater fear of the people that I lived with Who provided for me than I did of being your friend and hanging out with you and doing something stupid that's going to get me in trouble Sam Jackson was an excellent student and in 1966 went off to study biology at Morehouse College the alma mater of Martin Luther King Jr an historically black college in Atlanta which was one of the headquarters of the Civil Rights Movement Like many young people in the 1960s he discovered his rebellious side on campus he became heavily involved in the civil rights movement and protested against the Vietnam war did you consider yourself to be a radical when you were here yeah I mean you got thrown out for occupying the president's office didn't you yeah but that's pretty involved that's just one day in her life you know after being chastened by his mother for getting in trouble and hanging out with the wrong people Jackson returned to Morehouse two years later having decided that biology required too much math and dramatic arts was much more fun this is where you did your first work yes this was where it all started it was one of the first times during my college experience I was anxious to get up and be somewhere still the same oh totally yeah I mean going to a rehearsal or going to work or being a movie that's my favorite thing to do but probably the most significant thing to happen to Sam Jackson in Atlanta was meeting Latonya Richardson a talented fellow student actor at Spelman College she found in flamboyant self-involved and emotionally detached but she may have been the first to appreciate his potential they have been together for 48 years in Latonya Richardson Jackson is currently starring on Broadway in To Kill a Mockingbird what's it like being married to Sam Jackson it's a ride it's been a ride it's it's fun it's uh sad it's uh happy is creative it's a conversation I hope so 48 years is a long time yeah it is mixed with a lot of amnesia they would spend 15 years in New York as struggling stage actors raising a daughter Zoe and keeping company with the small community of other struggling black actors that included Denzel Washington Morgan Freeman Lawrence Fishburne and Wesley Snipes we would go and watch each other work we party together um when you weren't working everybody had the same unemployment office pretty much so you see each other on Monday's unemployment [Laughter] I Was An established family New York actor after having played memorable characters in three Spike Lee movies including do the right thing I have today's forecast for you [Music] but personally his life was a mess you had some drug and alcohol issues there weren't issues to the end yeah what do you mean the end you know I wasn't managing it as well as I used to that's when they were issues before that it was just life you know I drank I smoke I got high you know it wasn't in the way of my life in that way or I didn't think it was he was going to work taking his daughter to school and making enough money to develop a taste for cocaine and he went all in did it reach addiction stage yeah well you know it's hard to smoke cocaine and not get addicted smoking cocaine to bring you to your knees pretty quick it ended one night on the kitchen floor and I bought the cocaine I went home I cooked it and when I woke up Latonya was standing over me and I was passed out on the floor and I never got to smoke and the next day I was in rehab did you go to rehab because you wanted to or needed to or because Latonya told you you had to you know I didn't go Kicking and Screaming I was tired you know could you have done it without her I credit her because she could have just taken Zoe and walked out and been done with me uh but she didn't that's a greater love than I will ever know because I don't know that I would have done that you think that Tanya saved your life yeah No Doubt you don't seem emotionally detached now am I crying no oh okay good he said you saved his life no I didn't he saved his life he and God saved his life I have no saving healing power I was just there in any event it changed Jackson's life and his career while he was in rehab he got a call from Spike Lee offering him the role of drug addict Gator purify in jungle fever so I'm in rehab and uh you know the Call Comes and told me yeah uh crackhead and I was like okay good I'm doing the research I'm right here so I'm ready to do it and that was it and that's what opened the door that's what got me into Hollywood yo babe the rule one Jackson a special award at the Khan film festival for best supporting actor and Gator became this cathartic kind of thing for me it was basically killing off who I was who I had been that allowed me to free myself to go and do these other things [Music] those other things take up 10 pages on the movie site IMDb a half a dozen films with Quentin Tarantino The Avengers Three Star Wars films [Music] and scores of lesser features in which he was better than the material and besides scary eyes he has a facility for language especially profanity roll off his tongue like Shakespeare from Olivier even if you bleeped the words what's your favorite line I like to say what again line or do they speak English and what what country are you from what what ain't no country I ever heard of they speak English and what what English [ __ ] do you speak it do you think it's the line or the way you say it I think there's a wrong way to say everything and I think I found ways to say things right that make people remember them or resonate in the correct way directors praise His preparation professionalism and work ethic and almost always give him wide birth with his performance but he's not always entirely flexible so if a director wants you to do something you don't think would be good for you or good for the film you won't do it no pretty much they understand that when they hire you some people think that they can overcome it that you know we come to a compromise you know they'll go look I get what you're doing and I understand it can we try this other thing one one time no we can't because if I do it one time and it's on film when you go to the editing room that's the thing you like that's the first thing you're going to look at not the logical thing that I did so let's just not do what you want to do so you don't have that option this Mantra has always been what does the audience want to see and then he tries to give it to them that's that's what I was taught when I was doing theater that when you come on stage you want to light it up to the point that when you leave people want to go with you and I hope that's who I am when I show up

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 897,580

Keywords: samuel jackson, 60 minutes, denzel washington, samuel l jackson, samuel l jackson interview, bill whitaker, steve kroft, bryan cranston, breaking bad, pulp fiction

Id: 7e3MMhIXFqY

Length: 40min 43sec (2443 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 08 2023