Michael Jai White on Gangster Past, Spawn, Black Dynamite, Bruce Lee (Full Interview)

all right here we go all right Michael Jai White well at TV thanks for having me it's a pleasure man I'm a longtime fan a longtime fan spawn was really one of my favorite superhero movies okay absolutely no older okay you know what does that make me pretty or video even for a while yes I am doing it consistently for a while in a very tough place to be consistent in that's true that is very true yeah well it's your first time here yeah let start for the very beginning so you were born in Brooklyn but you moved to Bridgeport yeah boredom born in Brooklyn moved to Bridgeport and like grammar school like somewhat some way around the sixth grade and it was kind of a culture it's not really much of a culture shock does culture shock is that Bridgeport was crazier than Brooklyn right I have friends from Bridgeport rad is a rough area absolutely that is a very very rough area that's the pretty much the roughest part of Connecticut yeah it was definitely a man during my time in Bridgeport Bridgeport had the highest murder rate per capita and teenage pregnancies oh when I was there suspiciously it changed when I left I don't know if it just kind of followed me around but yeah maybe that might be saying a lot about me well you were uh I guess a teenager when crack hit yeah pretty much yeah yeah I was around man I remember I remember a crazy time where they had like those jersey barriers and in the neighborhoods just blocking cars just if you leave out of your house right you can't just turn back around you have to go down several one-way streets they redirected traffic so you couldn't flow freely because the crack hit so bad that you know cops had to be able to trap you in the gauntlets and stuff so in Bridgeport man it had mass of new jersey barriers right in your streets and you had the zigzag around him it looked like a war zone yes Oh crack hit real real bad there okay and how did it affect you personally well I mean you know I was you know I lived in a in a environment where you know life was you know a lot of times I mean anyway you know where's Bucky Oh Bucky got killed last night oh we can't play with him anymore so it was one of these things where I was a little desensitized to it and so you know you know every day could be your last and it kind of fed my whole martial art thing I trained to go to my high school I mean seriously there used to be riots at my high school when people people got really hurt and so you know I was an insecure kid so I really put a lot of energy in martial arts and watch what you do so that was a sensitive kid so what you do if you have that sensitivity you build armor and so I built a lot of armor okay and in terms of your family both parents at home know Jess your mother yeah just my mom my mom was just I I can't get it wrong my mom was a sweet church lady okay and very you know very um I called my mom the black Edith bunker okay yeah like all the family yeah she was just innocent like she remember I was 10 she's saying oh don't go out there shooting that marijuana I'm like okay I'm on my own here I am on my own this lady knows nothing about anything and so I you know really I was out there and she didn't know I mean bless her heart she didn't know how to handle somebody like me she was somebody who did what she was told follow to follow the crowd and which incidentally taught me a disdain for following the crowd and just you know so I mean I kind of you know March to my own tune okay but yeah I've been I was on my own since I was 14 okay where was your dad during this time during this thing he was in Harlem I'm gonna use still in New York yeah okay so you guys are how much contact yeah we had contact but my father was somewhat of a player gangster type of guy I mean you know my father you know when he would like enlighten me with certain his parts of his philosophy like I remember when I was 13 I visited him in his apartment and he was going out for the night and what he would always say is you never completely dressed until you have your matching pistol he had a gun that matched every outfit and so yeah so yeah for me like you know when I went to school I'm like oh you got to be strapped yeah it's so intimate at 14 he gave me a gun he put me on in the street and said hey he wanted to find a clip for 25 automatic and see you know send me out to see if I could find one okay [ __ ] once I found when I kept the gun he forgot all about it but yeah this dude just I don't know he was a little different right and just um he was a gangster I mean he was a player gangster and that's that's kind of its kind of was my role model just you know sort of speak your father yeah and uh you know when I was 15 and you know my mother calls him let him know that you know I'm going through a paternity suit you know cuz I look like a grown-ass man you know from the time I was like 14 15 okay I mean he was happy he's like what yeah you know all right like so it's you know this whole thing where you know it's probably a good thing that he didn't grow up with me I'd be real screwed up but um but yeah it was he wasn't around that much but when I was around him I kind of got some alternate the messages north of education yeah yeah it was kind of different but he I don't know if he heard about me you know in street fights or whatever it is ready to erect the statue of my honor pewter self never got involved in any of the gangster [ __ ] yes I did you did aye aye it's crazy I was around nothing but gangsters like I said I was on my own since I was 14 my I was a little too much for my mother to handle and so I was just out there and all my friends I had my friends were gangsters I menace it's this it's almost like an alternate world the things that would just happen on a Wednesday would be stuff that you'd see in movies I didn't know this was that weird until I really got older you know and until I ended up going to school and realizing the world ain't like this you know there's this there's like the civilian world and then there's the street world and all the rules of the street world view use those rules in the civilian world you're in trouble it's not gonna work out yeah but I instantly even to this day I'll click back I I can click right back in the street world in a second because I recognize that I grew up with it and it's it's addicting I understand when people can't get that out of their system because it's like a movie it's so electric and there's a beauty of living in the moment right and outside the system yeah there's a beauty there's a beauty in living in the moment but of course there are those that live in the moment and they can't see a future well you see this this problem over and over and they they do things because I guess they don't really see very much of a tomorrow and so I think that led me to the philosophy I have to this day is every day I live I do something for the future and after I'm done with that I live in the moment because you will never gonna see that day again you know so you know I don't want to look up and see the clouds and just say hey you know it looks like it'll rain I want to be able to see that it looks like a bunny you know this corny as it seems but every day there's a gift all right so I just think everything points to a balance between those two lifestyles and it's really served me a great deal that I happen to be the happiest person I know and I've been that way for several years and I think that's largely because of my upbringing when I realized how harsh it really was and when I really had problems I'm kind of embarrassed to complain about any problems I have now I mean during that time what was the most serious [ __ ] that you were involved in oh man I had this angst if you ask me any waking moment well what my thoughts were it's probably something violent okay so I I would turn down hooking up with the finest girl in in town over a gang fight I loved to fight okay I loved it like you would not believe it was something about the electricity in it was like I was addicted to fighting and when I did martial arts it wasn't for any glorious reasons is I could fight all the time and not get in trouble for it you know I mean you just like hitting people well it's it's I think it's the release it's the release of this this ank's I think it's what it is is you know when you like I said you know sensitive type you build that armor I mean if you look at the most violent people in society some of the toughest people in society that same person it's probably the most sensitive person you might know me and my brother grew up in the same household he's an engineer things that you know things has rolled off his back affected me deeply right so I could get in a gang fight and you know going to tears over a stray dog in a second if you're talking about gang fights in the 80s they don't really end with fist fights a lot of times mm-hmm I start off that way yeah well no and I've interviewed some of the you know biggest gangsters I mean they're you know I mean I just interviewed Bob James from mom Piru who said that I didn't look at it like that then I mean I was gang banging my whole thing was retaliation every time you got to go back regardless if it was me or one of the homeboys if they shot at us I went back and shot at them I mean retaliation that's just the way we relive it was a lot of that yeah there were there was a lot of gunplay as well I've probably been in about 12 shootouts in my life 12 shootout oh yeah easily he never got hit though yeah yeah you did get hit yeah yeah oh really almost I'm part of a group that's not even strange the way I grew up you know it wasn't even like a badge of honor see I grew up at the tail end of that you know well really the beginning of that in that crack area yeah I straightened up and I got out of there pretty pretty early but I still dabble died be in college but on the on the weekends I'm in you know I'm in the projects because I'm addicted to that life still to this day I'd never been high never drank right so I was a weirdo I love to fight I love to be the back in the back up you know that was exciting to me like I said the favorite thing I did was fighting at the time but I mean he's really the first guns I ever got were from fist fights over really let's go get your dad well outside already yeah before that but the thing is I mean altercations happen face to face yeah and even though people say yeah you know martial arts and what you know what about it you you're not gonna you're not gonna encounter me from across the street so you know it happens face to face and guess who got your gun you know so you take guns from people after beating them up well that happened a number of times okay long and you know like I said I didn't think that was even weird at the time you know I do yeah there was a lot of them I mean I gotta say I'm one of the luckiest people on the planet how many times you get shot - two times mm-hmm where'd you get shot about ah one here and one here okay yeah God life-threatening then again you don't know oh it's funny how the mind works because when when when this happened I I had basically it's like it was a close that was like a sawed-off that I you know not out of the way when it went off and I had blood on my shirt I mean I sawed off the close-range is one of the most deadliest weapons earth yeah boy plague if you didn't do that mm you'd have a hole in the middle your bone yeah well I thought there was a hole in the middle of my body okay because I was convinced that I had my I was holding my guts in about running away Wow until I got to a bathroom and did this and nothing was there just stains and then look and see this was white this was completely white over here and then the pain came white isn't the bone well just flesh last yeah so that was just basically escape you know so it's just one of these things where um I don't know it's like like I said it was not strange to me miraculously I think there were a few instances in my life that changed my life and took me in a completely different path and had I not seen these few images I don't know what would have happened one there was a motivational speaker that came to my my school something about how he talked to me talk to everybody something some about him made me think of I can do this he was he was a lawyer so I said okay yeah I'm good at arguing hey you know I could you know get my point across and maybe I could do what he does and then uh secondly one time being broken up from a fight and when the cops came I was on a I got on my bike and it was cigs a gang found myself lost in a neighborhood not far from mine that I did not know existed it was a really beautiful neighborhood built around the lake and I saw a young black couple moving into a house and they looked like they didn't have a care in the world I looked at those people just astonished and I realized oh [ __ ] that's what I want to be yeah that is where that's why I'm so angry because that's what I want to be and the day before that I wanted to be like Bret Griffith who drove around with machine guns in his car he was the the man of the streets he was the cat that everybody talked about and you know when I saw that image my my whole trajectory changed and I wanted to become those people and you know and pretty much set on a course to where I am the day well you started practicing martial arts at 8:00 yeah 7:00 8:00 okay and you you stuck with it I mean I I studied karate Oz and I got to like a orange belt wasn't my thing yeah but you actually stuck with it and kept learning new styles along the way right don't yell like seven different belts and eight eight now I really think there's something to how certain certain physical makeup of certain people like is it was fortuitous that I would play someone like Mike Tyson because I I shared a great deal of of similarities to him the fact that I was young this young big kid I was a black belt at 13 years old and I was fighting grown men and I had this undo you know honor by grown people that you know in a male-dominated society people really cherish fighters especially men they honor the pugilist above anything if you had a whole roomful of dignitaries and famous people and Mike Tyson walks in your fighter walks leather walks in yeah everybody's gonna look at him because it's really deep down every man wants to be the dominant man it's a good point if you had Mayweather and Drake side-by-side yeah you'd probably have a little more respect for Mayweather yeah of course it's if somebody says I never saw so early on when I was younger okay Here I am I'm I'm a kid you know I'm I'm used to people you know I get to a point where I'm used to people knowing I'm you know I'm one this martial arts championship or that martial arts championship meanwhile only people in that division are that that you know that organization even knows I'm the freakin champion of that organization because you know this right you're not a celebrity I'm a celebrity among them and that's it yeah that's it right so you know you know I'm going through my [ __ ] phase by you know making segues into conversations that don't involve me right with with strangers and I'm gonna make a segue to talking about how you know this championship I won or whatever and that was like you know and just because I was so used to people making a big deal out of what I did and you know I heard myself one too many times be that [ __ ] and go man this is like a week [ __ ] this is a week [ __ ] you you can't make this all about you and what about the beyond being humbling what this whole thing is all about and I just thought that was a week them but I'm glad I learned that early you know cuz then you know being a big fish in a small pond don't mean much and so yeah I won this championship in that championship but I was like well really what do I really want our life is that enough I remember having a fight um in in Boston and I caught somebody really really bad guy you know wrote eyes rolled up fell down and at that moment everybody stood up and cheered the crowd cheered for me and in that moment I felt like an idiot I felt like I am like dog like some kind of pit bull and I said you know what I start hated everybody that was cheering me because I was thinking about you know what if that would me down on the floor you'd be cheering still yeah and I have more to offer than being your damn pit bull and so everything I know things just changed in in that rah-rah that anger me fighting against all the ills of my life it changed you know it changed it wasn't enough for me I I still kept the fighting thing but I did so as you know in philosophy you know it was about things about my my opponent is good he's gonna make me better here's what the story gets kind of interesting to me at least here you have this the street kid who's getting shot multiple times getting the fights doing a bunch of other [ __ ] I'm sure along the way and then you end up going to Yale well I mean it's it's you see what I'm saying well you went to Yale and brown I guess no I mean some of that is wrong that's not right yeah yeah yeah it's someone that is wrong like you know when the write-ups are whatever I mean I'm mainly no I got accepted but did not go there's um okay but yeah yeah so so here's is what would happen I wound up going to University of Connecticut okay I came came out and started teaching right and so once I was I was done in University I started teaching EMD most of the disturbed children and so I was given the opportunity to go and study like in a grad teachers kind of situation as I was teaching you know so you know I would then be have all of my credentials put together while I'm do but but while I'm doing that I'm being paid as a a full-fledged teacher that was going for my degree and so that's that's was a deal offered to me but after three years I ended up following the acting thing so and I left teaching okay so you never went to Yale no no okay but you don't accept it yeah yeah pretty big columns with yeah well yeah I feel like you know it was kind of a thing to wear yeah I see it is funny how that stuff gets written up because I'm like I never you know it's like there's so many things that are that aren't in social media and so forth of the articles yeah yeah so still you went to college mm-hmm yeah and you got your degree mm-hmm and so forth you left all that behind and actually started thinking ahead and pursuing a legitimate career yeah and then the acting bug hits you well yeah I'm the acting bug was kind of there while I was teaching I in my my vacations and off time I would go out for you know commercials and in the theatrical things in New York and you know I at first I didn't think I'm I had what it took to be an actor because while I was in college you know all the actors seem to be is very very outward they wanted a lot of attention they did seem to be flamboyant yeah a big narcissistic and I was like I don't identify with these people but my interest was was solely as you know in that kind of psycho socio perspective I knew every kind of person growing up every kind of person I had friendships with I don't care who they were I even had friendships with skinheads I knew every kind of person because I can identify with them on some kind of level and sometimes friends would tell me when I would just you know recount a story oh my god you just be Kame that person and I was like what really okay so the acting thing was something that was interesting because I felt like I had the the ability to look at life through another lens you know so I thought wow this is this is fun maybe not maybe it won't be a career but at least let me let me get my feet wet and see what it see what I could do and if I fail fine at least I got out of my system and so you know I luckily I got great feedback and wound up doing theater in New York and and you know later venturing out to LA so you go out to LA just like everybody else yeah get off the bus or the plane or whatever and say okay I want to make it a Hollywood your first major role end up being the Mike Tyson movie yeah how many years pass from the moment you touched out in LA to that movie okay got to LA in 92 and Tyson was 94 two years yeah not that bad not bad actually because even in New York I what made me start to go the acting route is that I would go out for things and then I get callbacks and I find myself in a callback session where people I recognize from TV and I'm like hey I'm getting kind of close because one at one time you're gonna be busy you're gonna be sick you're not gonna be available and it's gonna be me you know and so I just kept getting so close to things so it just told me that I'm doing the right thing so when I came out to LA honestly when I went for the Tyson thing I'm going wait a minute this I'm supposed to sound like Tyson I'm supposed to look like him or whatever well thank you very much I um you know I'm parked outside I can go and like no give it a try I'm like really I can't sound like that dude and I gave it a shot you know so I guess whatever that that was in my head that I could you know kind of and habits certain things from people you know that came in handy and then I started to realize all the things that I had in common with the guy and so really what it's about is you know you playing somebody from the inside out I gotta say my temper was worse than I've seen of his uno growing up it was I I honestly had the worst temper I've ever witnessed in my life growing up anything will set you off know there would be specific things that would settle job but I mean but it was a it was famously horrid temper okay but that came with not knowing things you know what's interesting I'm going through your you know your biography here I mean you know competing page hmm and before that tyson role you got a whole bunch of stuff like toxic avenger one two and three yeah Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the audience band right yeah Universal Soldier who knows with jean-claude well yeah but that was afterwards oh okay yeah it says 92 but I guess yeah they've got it all kinda screwed they got all screwed up and then you were getting small yeah you were Saved by the Bell yeah you were in Martin I guess a little bit later yeah yeah yeah I was uh I was doing a lot of little gambit work well but the Tyson the Tyson thing that was actually starring you yes and you're on the poster yeah with Josie Scott George the sky's a squid with a with a story that everyone wanted to know about mm-hm honestly like anyone who's like you know 27 years old has no idea how big of a icon Tyson was oh man during our era where you bigger than Mayweather oh my god yeah big as you think Mayweather is right now Tyson was 10 times there well of course cuz people still I mean I was watching I was watching a fight this weekend and the and the trainer was saying you know going to like Mike Tyson I mean Mike Tyson is synonymous with ferocity you know and right strength and power because honestly you have no idea how boring a Mayweather fight is compared to a Tyson fight Oh Tyson will go in 30 seconds and knock you the [ __ ] out yeah we got go to the bathroom near the beginning of the fight because you will miss the whole thing absolutely I mean Tyson is going to live in you know in history as if you want to live vicariously through a whirling dervish a something that personifies power and fury like Tyson yeah there's nothing there's nobody else that's gonna you're gonna live vicariously through in history that that has that right and he had all the drama yeah around his life oh absolutely I like the mayweather like he actually had the craziest cuz when you did the actual movie he was locked up for the rape charge yes absolutely yeah yeah I had to delve deep into his life and yeah like I say there was I think that's actually the movie ended right you going in the room with a girl and mm-hmm yeah that's what a movie ended yeah yeah but I you know I I kind of jumped in in you know like both feet I went to the Catskills like knocked on the door of the place where Tyson grew up the group home yeah the group home yeah and talked to the people who were involved at the time because I mean basically I said like hey this story's gonna get told don't you want your say you know and they did I talked to Kevin Rooney I spent time with him and I even trained with him you know and because my thing was I want to tell the truth because it was a lot of stuff in that script that that was like being a kid from from Brooklyn originally and I'd read and I'm like this don't make sense to me and I found out that me was like like I was a detective I'm like there was a lot of parts in there that don't job in it and I got to the root of a lot of it too okay yeah it was a great it was a great special I think yeah buy a great opportunity for me because I mean honestly you don't get a that many chances to really act you know because a lot of things that are written or written on such a surface level right and biopics are so hard to get right because you know people talk bad about the the biopic yes it is weird for me like because I'm playing somebody who's current you know yeah not a hundred years old exactly you could turn the channel and see the real guy and compare you can see if I'm doing a good job or not and you guys ran into each other one into each other number of times we have a lot I me up I'm really I'm a fight nerd so boxing nerd fight nur all my life so I mean my best friend was Frankie Lyles who was really good friends with with Mike Tyson Frankie was WBA champion at the time and I always travel with him to his fight camps and I trained with him and you know and so he knew Tyson and we he put us on the phone together and so yeah we we all have known each other have a lot of connections and I've run into Mike number of times but we don't you know I think we we spoke about the movie like one time and it was maybe all of 40 seconds oh so he wasn't even really tripping no no he wants to be famous yeah yes it was like I think he probably was concerned with other stuff coming out that wasn't in the movie you know so you know it was I think it treated him pretty fair I think so yeah and I did the best job I could so yeah you know that I'm you know I'm the I'm my worst critic so yeah you know so if I if I did my best I can't look back so after that you started getting more roles mm-hmm and you're kind of an action star at this point was that is that fair to say well yeah it's kind of a thing where I still have more dramatic roles and comedic roles than roles there where I'm kicking people in the mouth but when you kick somebody in the mouth that tends to define you you know what I mean is it's kind of like look at wesley snipes career that guy has probably done 10% martial art type stuff but he gets these little martial artists I mean you think about all the acting work you know king of New York yeah all the funny funny things he's everyone remember I can't jump and yeah and you know it's all about blade though yeah it becomes blade he's played he's played you know I mean it was like this dude is an actor this dude is acting his ass off I rarely even laid yeah so it's just one of those things I saw you know that but that's why early on I didn't want to do a martial arts type of movie even though I was offered a martial arts contract early on when I first came into town but I was like oh no that's going to put me on martial arts Island it's so people are just there there there they think that martial art movies are synonymous with bad acting it's kind of almost like porn yeah okay so you could say that I guess you know the rock is probably a you know someone that you think can act well and also does a lot of action stuff well you know my Dwayne Johnson no well you know I look at Harrison Ford that's the best to me that yeah although he's not really he doesn't fight really yep he's really a bit Harrison Ford was the number one action star in the world for the Raiders of lost art Oh God and he's done that so many he's like Air Force one he's like that's you know the fugitive oh he's done so many action movies that you forget that it's an action because he's such a good actor yeah but now Stallone or Schwarzenegger they're action stars because their main component is action yeah also showing off their bodies and stuff like that you don't really see Harrison Ford the shirt off all the time and you have but actually Harrison Ford's like the number one action star but you know but it that's that's my model somebody when there's when I talk about somebody who's is acting makes the it makes it like surpassed a genre well you did films with a jean-claude Van Damme yeah how many - I think good I think waiter what not only did one with him Universal Soldier yeah yeah whoa two if you count new universe soldier one and two okay but you need to pause button this evening Universal Soldier one you know yeah yeah you know I even trained with him we trained together in the universe soldier one and he didn't recognize me as the same person when I came back for four - yeah four - okay yeah any interesting stories a bit a bit crazy I love him I really love jean-claude van damme he's a great person I you know I always wished the best for him he's unfortunately he's had you know a certain certain problems that that hurt him he does not the type to hurt other people he is one of the reasons why I see Hollywood and you know they give him a chance after chance because he to really know him is to know that he's a really really nice person very genuine very very uh very down earth really and he's been consistently that way for for a very long time he's got this this like childlike quality witches are very endearing and you know I always wish the best friend Heward exit wounds yes with yes yeah with DMX as well yes absolutely yeah House working with DMX loved DMX man we became instant friends that guy is very he's a very wise soul again like very very intense in person I have interviewed him before it's it's a mile a minute with him yes great yeah and it's weird for me because I mean people who indulge in certain substances or whatever um I'm I'm such a neophyte because I've never been drunk I've never been high a day in my life so when people are drinking whatever I don't even know how to take them I'm I'm I'm kind of like DMX has more than drink yeah yes I don't know but you know like I am I am so like out of my depth in what that is when but when the times where we have talked where I guess you know sober times I can see him before the person he is and you know to me he's he's very wise and just you know he's he's he's a very smart insightful dude you know I think you study his um his lyrics that you know you can't hide the integrity and the wisdom that he first two albums are amazing yeah I you know I in the last number of years I've only seen him on different shows were of course they're they're kind of highlighting the problems he's having so that's not the guy I really know I don't know what went into what happened before the cameras roll but um that's not the the guy I knew well and then you get a spawn mmm in 97 you guys maybe 96 97 thank you sir so everyone talks about black panther mm-hmm being the first black superhero film and they forget about spawn I don't think they do that now I think I think I say these I don't think anybody I've heard references to Black Panther being the first yet I think they mean the first comic book I think that I think it is the first in some some measure of course is not the first movie well spawn spawn was a superhero yeah it was a comic book crime to be fair it was more of an underground character yes it wasn't spider-man it wasn't Batman it was this small came around 20 20 years later than even the exact of course black exact black panther existed as a comic book the six decades book before it's exactly part of the Marvel Universe part was they were part of a bigger universe yeah yeah so what the party it was a DC easy comic was it uh no smart yeah image image exactly so it's a totally it's a completely different company from Marvel and DC anyways yeah marketing wise they say the first like the superhero they're saying it they're being very creative when they're saying that they're saying it because the first one that existed so I get what they're doing they're right yeah but of course not the first you know black superhero movie was a very very dope film and very low very dark this this was not like you know happy ending you know like I thought it was a damn happy ending I loved it well no but I bet like as the whole thing is just a very dark you know really violent story where you know you the guy gets killed he comes back as a demon and you know I was a very dark you know like horror type film yeah yeah demons and you know hell and the general and everything yeah yeah and me playing the lead over that I mean I saw that last cut of it and I I was confused actually be honest with you I was like what's going on here like because there was a cut before the final cut and the director just threw a whole lot of special effects in there I thought it kind of wrecked the story a bit there was no no longer any scenes with my character the Al Simmons character in any any scenes with the Wanda character so you would see what kind of life he's trying to get back to I think it was more cut for people who already knew what spawn was and not telling the story for people who didn't because I mean this guy was just so happy to put more special effects and I was like what the hell is going on right now yes one of the early CGI films yeah yeah they're still kind of working out the kinks yes sir there was story elements that I'm sad to say didn't survive that last cut because of all the special effects in which you know I'm you know I've never I have this this I'm real superstitious about certain things and I just can't lie about it you know so that was like something I was like mm-hm I really liked that first version yeah animated series was dope also yeah yeah well to me that's how you do that's how you do the movie yeah you you don't you don't pg-13 and spawn yeah that's like are you going for breakfast cereal you know do do it like like the comic book like do it like that's that animated series you know because I think these superhero movies really reward the darkness Peschel II this day and age and this that could you know one of the arguably darkest superhero characters so yeah I think you go dark you go you go strong and I think it'll be pretty successful well you talk about dark movies you're in the dark night yes with Heath Ledger absolutely whoo I would say now I haven't seen the new Joker it's not out yet mm-hm you know and Joaquin Phoenix is a hell of an actor yes I'm not gonna you know I'm back on say yeah what's gonna happen yet but right now from this point of this interview Heath Ledger was by far the best Joker I agree and I would put him over Jack Nicholson who had a hell of a performance absolutely Jack had a hell of a performance the first show in the first Batman movie I give I give Heath Ledger heads and tails above Jack Nicholson because I know I'm just gonna be probably bad to say this stuff and but I'll just my opinion well Jack Nicholson is there's a lot of actors who were just just really you can't take your eyes off of them because of who they are Jack Nicholson has that face and that voice and you know he's gonna be interesting if he just you know read the alphabet right and so that he brings that with every character he he yeah but Heath Ledger to pull out that performance when he's this dashing leading man good-looking and he leaves all of that aside he was that Knight's Knight's Tale I think yeah I mean he plays this like pretty boy this this scary ass crazy ass character come on yeah you know that's that that's the essence of what great acting is you know he just he's no part of Heath Ledger you but but mind you I one thing that upsets me is when people think he was you know doing this this method acting and he wasn't you know you you you yell action he goes into character you kill yo yo cut he goes right back in the Heath Ledger we were we were being very playful on set we were always you know doing magic tricks and everything else he was just easygoing guy and he was playing even on camera he was trying out different modulations of his voice and everything so he was having a good time i rewatch that movie recently no I'm gonna say that's the best Batman movie ever made I'd agree yeah I would say that's the best and you know Christian Bale killed it mm-hmm in that film but then there was the scene with you and the Joker made no no goddamn sense no matter how many times I rewatched yes sir now that one of the other day went on the internet to say what the [ __ ] just happened exactly and the internet had no idea what just happened yeah and then I go find out when I started reading interviews that you have no idea so just yeah there's a scene where you know Heath Ledger's you know the Joker's all in your face and was a knife in your mouth mm-hmm and then you apparently die afterwards there was never a death scene but it's you drop right and you're right because I get a half a joker it's in my mouth not not on my neck yeah so my guess this is a guess is that when the editing process was going on and we you know they found out we've lost Heath Ledger I believe there are certain you know preservation of as much of his performance I think I think that was kind of a mandate I feel that that's the case without anybody telling me cuz I know that there was there were scenes with Cillian Murphy he was on set he he shot things well man that's well man that's a that's a good I love that guy - you know the guy from peaky blinders yep unbelievable guy but um but yeah I there was a detour in that because I know gamble was meant to live on in other situations and you know we'd all talked about it as well and there this the the half a cut was supposed to show up you know in another iteration of it so there was no death of the character of course a movie of that magnitude you're not gonna have you're not gonna have so you know yeah you got a a filmmaker like you know like him there's no accidents at a film of that that big that's a hundred million dollar whatever budget exactly but now if they meant to have a death scene it would have been shot clear so do they shoot a scene with you getting your mouth cut open or yeah like yeah if that happens and I do this and go down so with a hardening of not showing me do this which clearly says oh [ __ ] my mouth is good but it's not locked down if you cut that and you just see from a distance me falling to me understanding and yeah he just wrecked in editing you just got killed that was yeah that's something to make it seem like I was killed because of course this is shot you know there's no way that this part is not shot you see no anything so well he's never coming back afterwards so yeah I you know but I think I don't come back afterwards because in the same way there's no Cillian Murphy or Killian Murphy I'm not sure how you pronounce his name and some of the other things that I saw in the script were not in the finished edit I just thought maybe you know some of the things that that when Heath was just kind of kind of improving I think some of those things made it into it because they wanted to preserve as much of his performance as possible I think that's that's my guess did you see any of the you know any of the drug use or the addiction or anything else like that no so so another thing no because he ended up dying from an overdose right understanding this he's had problems sleeping all right and sometimes you get used to a certain sleeping medication and a lot of people make this mistake well you can take the sleeping medication your your tolerance goes up and then you get an injury and you're not connecting that injury medication to the sleep medication and that's enough to do it right there that's happened that almost happened to me and I take almost nothing right and I had I forgot what it was but it was a some kind of thing that some painkiller but I also had every now and then like I would take a like once a week I would take out like a ambien type of thing but I almost did that well I'm looking at the you know the autopsy and toxicology report it was a mix of oxy codeine hydro codeine diazepam temazepam alprazolam and doxylamine well isn't that exactly any medication in sleep medication I think so basically the matter they said the manner of death is accident resulting from the abuse of prescribed medications right he's they're a bunch of prescribed medications and mixed them up and and this is during didn't wake up like yeah this is during that time where he was doing the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus that had these weird hours you know it's like this wasn't during the dark night at all I mean that guy was very you know he was very coherent very playful very you know he had a great time just it was a really genuine and a really nice human being he is funny because on set a lot of us in even a lot of people I was just playing day play roles they we would give him as give him a wide berth we give him you know we wouldn't want to bother him you know give him his and he's the one initiating conversation all the time and and it almost to where we look like [ __ ] who it was like like we're like not playing with him and he's like hey play with me guys like you know he was just like you know he he'd be the one initiating the conversation so he actually ended up winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor playing the Joker yes oh yeah I mean I wasn't surprised well deserved absolutely well deserve again I mean look look at what he look at what he accomplished I mean so many so many actors gig get get Academy Awards for being cast correctly I see that a lot you know you know almost like I say they should share that award with the casting director yeah I mean he actually wanted after he died which was kind of the sad part yeah yeah but I think he would have wanted if he was alive I don't feel like that was one kind of you know a tribute type of thing I think he'd yeah oh yeah oh yeah no you killed it mm-hmm how bad did it hit you when you found out about his death um again we bring let's bring back the way I grew up I I think early on when death is just so commonplace you you know that same numbness you just kind of go you accept it and you go oh shoot okay I don't know I think that that's probably why I deal with death pretty pretty pretty well you know sometimes even people close to me I'm I'm very accepting of it I think that's something that happened early on yeah man I mean it's just a part of life we're all do die you and I are gonna have that date also at some point yeah yeah just is what it isn't absolutely yeah when you look at for example Suicide Squad you don't see the Joker depiction by Jared Leto I didn't see it you didn't see it harness because you purposely didn't want to see it because of no honestly I really don't I really don't watch that me moves a lot of his movies are not meant for me they're meant for the fanbase okay and I it's just not meant for me I'm too close to it I saw it man and that was the most disappointing Joker ever like I'll say it mmm they threw face tattoos on him and chained oh they go change and it was like nah yeah is that you know and just interrupt you real quick and he kind of had an affection towards a Harley you know Quinn uh-huh which which is not the Joker character at all he just never gave a [ __ ] about her so they're kind of [ __ ] with a character in there and it was just like now after Heath Ledger because what I didn't realize until actually looked it up Joker is the most famous comic book villain ever period really named EF more famous villain I don't know magneto is up there but he's not the Joker yeah Lex Luthor he's known but he's not the Joker Wow really the most famous villain in all of comic books ever is the Joker you do not [ __ ] up the Joker then I would have thought it was Lex Luthor no yeah it's the Joker I mean Lex Luthor's have you seen in movies in the set a lot chronic quite a few I think and the early Superman films and then you know one of the you know I mean he has a beef with Susan but not nothing Joker man it's the Joker okay I'm gonna say yeah it is what it is yeah I'm not I'm not gonna dispute that I'm not as close to the comic book world as people might think okay yeah fair enough yeah at one point you had 14 girlfriends yeah that's quite a juggling act yeah I think but yeah I I going back on who I was raised somewhat raised by and I thought that the mark of a man is how many women that you you'd have and you know and I learned early on because I I started that started early I was dealing with grown women when I was 14 and 15 you have six children now mm-hmm how old were you when you had your first child I just turned 16 Wow you're a high school dead yeah I just turned 16 my my son was born a month after my 16th birthday so you were told you're gonna be a dad at 15 years old yeah what is that a sophomore in high school yeah basically oh yeah so this was really strange but I mean I had a very strange childhood if you want to call it that I I used to train at this community center in the hood and I was known for winning and competing in tournaments against grown men at 15 so the the people who ran the community center knew I would work out that he gave me a space to work out with me and my karate guys right and then they offered me to teach my own class there you know being paid under the table because they thought I was a grown-ass man because I mean I really I sounded like this I was 15 and I'm in the paper for winning against you know grown men in the heavyweight division so I couldn't convince people I was 15 when I was nobody believe me you know so I let that work for me so I had close to 200 students right and you know one of the students his older sister kind of you know make make eyes that meet you much older than me she don't know that how old was she now she was what she was probably like 19 okay yeah so it's got a statutory there but yeah yeah I didn't know I didn't even know that so so it came time for court so later on you know I get this paternity suit and I gotta go to court and they my my uh defendant what only the public defender whatever goes hey there's something wrong with your your birth date is not right um I know that's the correct birthday man like wait a minute you were 15 during this time he said I said yeah well you know I was like 17 by the time it's the court date came in and all of a sudden you know he they approached the judge and night I didn't know judges could swear like this in front of people but they they he basically cussed him out and my public defender said come on let's walk and I was like what happened he's like don't worry about it just go home you're fine well and so it turns out that she could've got in big trouble she got out of jail absolutely I didn't realize this because I mean statutory rape yeah you know like I you know I felt like I know I look like a grown man but I felt like a grown man at 17 I damn sure was you know so I didn't link that I didn't know about the law but yeah I started really early dating women and my my older brother was in college I'm in high school I'm going to his college parties and he basically treated me like almost like a bounty hunter he's like you know he's like oh there's this one and I was winning dance competitions and do popping and breaking spending on my head doing all this stuff type of stuff I come in here and people thought I was his older brother he's six years older than me but what he know he's about you know this much shorter and he's kind of an introvert and I was not so I'd run through his college I just was a maniac and then so I had skills I'm picking up women earthly on so of course I get to Hollywood and all this type of stuff and you know I'm being pretty truthful but I'm like you know I'm I'm dating a lot of women in and and it was all good it's not like I'm lying but yeah I had a lot of girlfriends okay and you were married how many times twice twice you're so weird yes oh yeah yeah yeah at one point you actually wrote an apology to all your exes oh absolutely wow that was that was a trip I'm married to my best friend I've known her 23 years and she was one of those women that was dating one of the 14 yeah and she knows you know she's well aware of this but the time when we spend I mean like to this day we've never had an argument booth okay let's be nice yes I mean I thought the relationships were drama yeah I really did because we lost each other on the way to you know fixing all these other crazy-ass relationships but we were always the the the therapist and our peer groups you know but so yeah when we got together got back together on a real level or the real it was like I found who I really always wanted to be talk about full circle we came that couple that I saw when I was on my biking you know 14 years old yeah that's what I wanted to my entire life and there was a time I didn't think that that could ever happen I then understood what women really wanted I didn't think it was attainable as far as what you know like women who always wanted to talk to you every day and I was like you know like that can't happen and I thought as a man you always got to have your side pieces you got to have this that I didn't realize that you know so I I knew I had to become the man I am to deserve the woman I have and here's his way I kind of kind of summit that all up I always say okay now as guys or girls whatever you have your friends that you see you know once a month and it's fine some that you see every couple of weeks and it's fine and then you have your friends that you see every day and that's the natural state of things right now imagine your friend that you see once every couple of weeks calling you up the very next day and expecting to see them day after day after day well to see them day after day that once a week friend or that once a week friend moves in with you it's gonna take work because that's the natural that's not the natural state of things I married my everyday friend that friend that I want to see every single day and never get tired of and that to me was the difference and if you find that oh my god and so when I pin that letter I understood what other women wanted because now I experienced what they always wanted is to you know think about them every day and to be with them every day and to know that I can't exist without them and so I'm like apologies I get it this is what you wanted and now I see that you guys have kids together yes yeah how many - two kids yeah well three all together okay yeah you talked about how Magic Johnson inspired you to get more serious about hiv/aids awareness hmm you know I recently I did a post on my Instagram and I had found a Eazy E's obituary uh-huh and you and I are old enough to remember hearing the news I'm not easy yeah and you know I did though you know I said r.i.p eazy-e and then I started talking about you know AIDS is a real thing mm-hm you know you should get tested your partner should get tested there's also products at you know every pharmacy called aura quick which allows you to do a home HIV test you get the results in 30 minutes it was also a pill called Truvada which is aids prevention pill mmm you take it every day in it 99% effective preventing HIV want to easy these daughters his youngest daughter kind of lash back at me and got upset over me using easy as a kind of a figure four for AIDS awareness and said that easy didn't die of AIDS you know he was murdered and so forth but but for me you know I I pretty much took my ground as someone who grew up in the 80s you know like yourself that this is uh this is a serious thing and I actually went back in read easies final statement he said he talked about how he wants to be an example right you know what are your thoughts on it you know what was it about Magic Johnson that kind of made you rethink the whole thing well I mean here was somebody who I knew and you know personally oh yeah yeah I knew magic first okay that's our friends oh absolutely yeah and um and of course like you know the whole playing to feel that whole type of thing is like you know men that makes it that make it very real for me because I was kind of out there that same same way so you knew him before he made the announcement yeah yeah okay yeah what was that next phone call like when you guys are that next conversation after he made the announcement oh I mean it's not like I recall each other I mean we you know we we knew each other in passing we had a lot of odd friends I you know be invited to parties over the house that kind of thing okay and so I knew him that way yeah socially but yeah of course it became very real and here's a guy who you know hey he's the man you know he's got you know it's going on you know from that same thing as you know if you're the you're the alpha male you you know you basically can you know run your your squad basically and so of course that was very you know immediate to me and men the the how heroic he was about coming forth and making that announcement and still he was still being that captain in business they actually like flourished afterwards I mean I think he's well how many people he helped by by being by having that stature you know that's I think you can't even measure that so yeah he made it very real and um he was a testament out to how powerful somebody can be if they lend themselves to honesty and you know being a champion for yeah damn you're a billionaire now yeah it's not already yeah oh he's been a billionaire for and and his brother drives around in like a Ford yeah I said well I the first the first health club that I was really connected to it was one of the Magic Johnson health clubs right he he would work out there every every morning and it's funny like their big eyes with the Lamborghinis and all that type of stuff you know that new money and you know get a kick out of Magic Park in his Ford and it's just like right by these guys who waving and it watch those guys have walked by knowing it like buying some riches all [ __ ] nicely Ragini yeah I'm looking at a picture of you and a Terry Crews together okay are you guys close at all they're what yeah we're friends I mean we're not close close I'm okay you know it's like you guys know each other yeah we have a great deal of respect for each other recently Vlad TV was in the news again okay because I did an interview with deal hugely okay you know I'm talking about now yeah yeah yeah yeah where he said he talked about Terry Crews is a sexual assault I don't understand I think that now everybody's so into this notion then meet it happened to me too hey [ __ ] God gave you muscles so you could say no I mean what would it mean happen to you to like when he went I could understand people being in certain situations because there's nothing you could do about it did you uh read the news on this you know my wife tried to tell me a little bit of it I really I've only heard little fringes I really never read anything myself well yeah this is covered in the Washington Post and CNN and this this went everywhere Terry crews responded to dl and he said hold on a second yeah well he said well first he said you know you told the world God gave me muscles so I could say no are you implying I wanted to be sexually assaulted so you know DL responded he said you saw the video and then uh you know he said well you know I pushed him back and restrain him you know and DL said well that's different than slapping the [ __ ] out of him so then Terry said so sir if you truly believed that is a correct way to deal with toxic behavior should I slap the [ __ ] out of you too so first of all let me ask you a question mm-hmm have you personally experienced any sort of sexual harassment me no no no by other men no no sure by women every so often I wouldn't call it a harassment sure you've been grabbed it appropriately by other women every so often uh yeah yeah I would say that but it is what it is yeah especially in the Bahamas my dad they think that that's a that's a you know honor or something you know as a actor in Hollywood who gets somewhat similar roles to a Terry Crews I don't know I don't think I play similar Rosic Terry you get some of the same roles type of roles I don't think so Terry somewhat I mean he was in some action movies and so forth yeah yeah you know I you know I mean we're we're both you know somewhat you know we're muscular guys he's bigger but um he's better than yeah Terry's bigger than me yeah yeah he's definitely bigger than me yeah I've never better yeah yeah you know you've probably got to got me about he trimmed down so we're closer to the same okay well yeah so as someone who's also in Hollywood yeah what do you take of that whole thing yeah you know there's a whole different thing I even if I'm if I'm nice people scared to death of me yeah which is the is a different thing you know I you know I try to get people to not think I'm gonna kick him in the mouth like I try I try to be a nice guy and people are still scared to death because they seen me do whatever and so yeah and I'm I'm not a non-threatening guy you know there's there's a threatening presence about me and it's actually you know somewhat real I mean and I mean Terry bless his heart he's you know I think he's he's uh yeah I I I recognized he's got a different energy you know and he's got a playful energy he's you know and it's worked for him tremendously I you know I don't have that same energy and so I think he will be a little bit more susceptible to a treatment that you know I'm not gonna get again like I I talked to you know captains of industry and they are basically talking about like well you could just kill me with a punch and I go what week will we stop talking about that you know I try to get people to see me as hmm you know yeah I don't know I mean from what I've seen I'm able to the same room with Terry we just have never had a conversation but as a man and I'm like 6 to 220 I'm not a small guy right you know I'm bigger than most other men I don't comprehend approaching someone like a Terry or you in any sort of aggressive manner without thinking I'm gonna I'm gonna get physically hurt in the process I guess I just I just don't understand that part yeah I mean I it's one of the one of these things I think Terry has gone through great pains to to present himself as someone who was not to be feared I think that's a that's a difference okay and um you know you know he's the you know the guy in the Old Spice thing he's he's had to be more steady than than someone like you he has more sillier roles than someone yeah yeah but he is he's hilarious he like I think about that damn you know when he was in white six and he was [ __ ] hilarious I could never have done that he I'm not not saying it's beneath me he's [ __ ] hilarious like some of the stuff like you know is his his thing and I watch that and I go when god bless you I you know certain things I can't I can't do that it's not my thing but I think because of that there are certain there's certain things that he inherited from you know showing a kinder gentler more more so goofy nature and I think that even though you know people he's you know he's disarmed people you know like okay you know I think that's that could be the reason why and they they don't see the threat of of what he can do which is kind of crazy they should be that's crazy at me yeah I said I'll be damned if I go and do anything aggressive mmm towards you or a Terry without proof you know without having a weapon on me or something of that sort like yeah but I mean yeah but I mean I I would say that you could look at Ti and you know not to do that to him he's half the side I would do it to TI before I do well let's just let's just put it out there I've better oh yeah yeah I think I could take Ti well you know I can't ask you yeah that's you okay but that may not be someone else okay yeah well what was interesting because the conversation kept going yeah and you know deal he's actually a regular on my show oh three interviews you know planting another one and meeting him talk all the time mmm-hmm he came back and said the timing of Terry's uh attack towards him or response towards him was interesting because our interview was like a year old mm-hmm but it happened thirty-six hours after he tried to defend Gina Rodriguez do you know that whole story no no I'm sorry deal with Gina Rodriguez this Gina let me show you Gina Rodriguez Gina this actress right here oh is that did that's not the Jane the Virgin okay yeah Gina has this interesting history on speaking towards uh black women hmm and black people in general like for example right when black panther first came out she said oh congrats to black panther but what about the latino superheroes you know asking for a friend okay and then and then she went on to to say that Latinos are the lowest paid group in Hollywood mm-hmm which isn't true actually at all and then then there was another instance where she was doing press for I think a little foot with a black female costar and the interviewer asked her you know how do you feel getting a role like this for black women and the Jeana interrupted said for all women hmm and she went on sway in the morning and and basically I to break down and start crying about people accusing her of racism not towards black women and said that's not really her heart and so forth Terry Crews did a series of tweets to defend her because they had worked together and then came back then deleted those tweets and came back and said I apologize for defending her because this is not my fight and so forth right and DL feels that this is a deflection from him doing that because black women you know Terry Crews had black women were the only ones who actually stood up for him during the whole sexual sexual harassment thing hmm I don't know what you visit I mean I could i I have no reason to believe him yeah I think naturally I would think more of black women would do that and black men would be like oh hell no and you know I mean it's it's a different thing you know I mean I guess I can see everybody's perspective there's a you know it's a part of me that just kind of like I start putting act I can't put myself in that situation because I don't have that I don't know somebody I'm gonna okay so I would kill somebody okay so if a gay man walked up to you and grabbed your your genitals uh-huh what would you do I think I probably I probably hit him in the solar plexus really hard so it wouldn't leave a big mark and but he would be down I mean but I you know I I'd wonder if the guy was drunk or something probably but it's also the head of William Morris Endeavor it doesn't matter William Morris is the biggest talent agency you know I one of one of them yeah so it wouldn't matter if the head of the big talent agents who I come from I come from you could have a [ __ ] gun in your hand and I'll [ __ ] you up if you did that it's I just come from a different place it doesn't matter if I got to go I got to go no no no no you actually yeah I mean the the best chance that somebody would have if they're 5 foot 2 and 115 pounds I might give you a break because I don't want to kill you you know what I mean or I would do something like I'd publicly humiliate you pick you up by the seat of your pet doing that was so humiliating that you can't show your face again that you know that's the best way because if I if I destroy somebody who's tiny I look like you know well and that was his argument saying well it'd be the big you know out the big black guy looked as the aggressor yeah in this situation I would be the villain and it would mess up my career and so forth I probably because you know he's he's doing he's making special observance that he not be seen that way I don't mind being seen that way I'll [ __ ] kill you you know I mean so it it's just a different thing I will you know I know and I live with the fact that if somebody disrespects me my whole career could be in jeopardy but from a jealous jail cell I will tell my children this is who I am that's just me that's just me somebody else could disagree with it and I can see why they could but there's no way I'm living a certain existence if I don't like this there's just something there's something you know for me there's a there's something I'll live and die for but that's just me you know that's in on them one level I can see that as being really stupid I can see that my that decision is could be really stupid but yeah but that's who I am I just find it interesting because Terry has gone on this whole crusade about toxic masculinity the problems with it and the route had an interesting article about this whole thing and says the title was in order to end toxic masculinity once and for all Terry Crews offers to slap the [ __ ] out of deal you bleep I don't know to me it's like I so a guy violated you you chose not to do anything take your L and keep it movin back the guy end up getting fired afterwards leaving the company yeah to continuously keep talking about it and and to make yourself look like the victim and so forth as a man I just don't quite get it yeah I mean yeah there's a you know you're speaking of Congress about it like you know I mean you're you're the the victim mentality I just I just don't get now from a Terry Crews yeah you know I I can't like it's a weird thing like I don't know like for me I can't I can only speak from it from my perspective right or if I was in that situation but when I when I look at what might be right for him and just I go maybe that's right for him I I just can't I can't make my judgment on that because there's we're just different people there's so much that's that's about just being different and I can and so if Terry Crews were white would I be talking about this right now would we be talking about this okay I think what well I think we would yes Terry is the only male member of me too right now but the one meets you guy well yeah I guess I guess so but I don't know if I'd be you know it there's I don't know if it's a yeah I just I think I just have let people do this their thing is and I say okay this is not for me or not I can you know I it's hard for me to judge because I go from his perspective I see I'm not surprised by by that like you know and I think maybe there might be able political thing in there but a lot of that is political I think he's ultimately I still applaud he's done like if his his goal is to me I remember Terry from way back when he's doing these small roles and seeing what he's accomplished right and you know you gotta break some eggs and make an omelet and so yeah a certain amount of it I think is by committee by you know by having to be careful and you know all these different things and I think he will rise be you know past this and and you know just so beard this guy's uh he's farting through silk he's living good and you know this is you know why you're gonna be talking about this a year from now like hey you know hey whatever I was in an episode of the boondocks oh yeah yeah mm-hm playing myself via Carl Jones mmm who went on to do Black Dynamite right yeah very dope cartoon thank you you play the voice in that yeah yeah yeah winner writers as well okay yeah and then you did the live-action well I did a live-action first first oh yeah you're right yeah the live-action came first the cartoon came second second was carl jones involved in the new in the live-action okay he just did the card just a cartoon yeah got it great great film thank you a great film and you know it kind of borrows from the blaxploitation films of like super fly and dolomite and everything else mm-hmm and you really pulled off a great role thank you in that I've always wondered you know cuz I heard you talk about a little bit on Hollywood unlocked the term blaxploitation mmm-hmm I guess it's meant as you know to encompass all the films that Hollywood try to take advantage of doing all these black films and Ryan initial success of some of the early ones yeah but when you talk about Superfly you still refer to it as a blaxploitation film well you see what I'm saying well yeah people generally categorize all those films as blaxploitation which is you see what I'm saying yeah which it was just weird yeah which is sad to some degree yeah because a lot of these these movies predated the term blaxploitation yeah term blaxploitation came along came along later when they exploited the true blaxploitation movies were movies like like there could be a Asian movie and they'll stick a black a scene with a black person current black actor or you know making it seem like there were black people in this movie to get people into the theaters because all of the black movies were were being seen you know you had the inner city which was filled with black people due to white flight and so like shaft no way could that be a blaxploitation movie it was it was written as a white guy in the lead that was one of the movies that proved that these that this was a viable business so later on there were movies of course that that you know they used the very little budget to kind of exploit getting black people into the theaters but that that word just became really big and came synonymous with all black oh yeah you're right shaft Superfly dolomite films near Alcazar blaxploitation yeah dolomite more blaxploitation than those other ones because yeah it's shaft and super light in the Mac the Mac was a really freaking good movie yeah little bit Oakland yeah [ __ ] the Mac was I mean I I look at hustle and flow as an updated the Mac I could see that you know really it's it's a drama it's a but it was political it was you know a lot of these movies were people you know they were not blaxploitation is some of these movies were black action films right yeah like like three the hard way yeah you know that was three major action stars you know that of that time well and then you know you said that you based a lot of kind of your career around the Last Dragon well I yes a boxer the actor in the Last Dragon well yeah I'll explain that a little bit clearer what happened with time acts career really I based a lot of my my the plotting of my career behind that I I realized during that blaxploitation time was the last dragon that no no later I'm jumping I'm jumping back but when I when I see that those movies of the 70s that you know somewhat blaxploitation era right around 1976 with jaws hit and you the blockbuster was created you didn't see these these hyper action black movies anymore and a lot of a lot of the reason is because people didn't go from in front of the camera to behind the camera those those people who were directing and writing they continued to work but people like Jim Brown and all these you know powerful alpha males they didn't have any work anymore because they didn't need them Hollywood didn't need them anymore so and when a fluke happens like like the last dragon where you have time actors great looking guy at the height of these martial arts action movies the height of Shapiro glickenhaus and and cannon films and all this type of stuff you have this tremendously successful movie where the black character who can kick ass good-looking and as a household name and they never offer him another movie he was never at anything else after that I took that to heart and I said they are not checking on you I happen to know I can name 20 people that had 20 white guys who had had contracts with all of these different companies the cannons and all that type of stuff and all they had to do is be able to somewhat kick you and they were given contracts major contracts and not one to time act and I'm like oh my god this is crazy if I had the money I would Bank on him but they were not and personally even though I mean I can name oh there's so many movies where I would audition as the best friend to the white guy and it's an action movie right and there would be times where I can't tell you how many times where someone would say we need a white you somebody who can act and do martial arts do anybody this happen and to where I would give them I would like okay you know I ran down people that they used me like a producer to find that's so funny like it it's it's happened for a long time like when I ended up doing on undisputed to of course like the Scott Adkins you know it's like I was instrumental in getting Scott to eat and to be in there there was so much of a mandate of let's find a white guy not you as a li we need you know when I would suggest well what about me being a leader I can act and I'm completely just leading character it's a top or whatever they're like no let me find can you find me a white guy and I'm like oh [ __ ] this is really how they failed right well I mean you actually said that you feel that even black actors who have gotten Oscars it doesn't really affect their career in the same way as white counterpart it's the truth it's just the truth I think that most of these that until now I think right now we happen to be in the midst of the only Oscar winner or nominee that has who's who's black black Oscar winner or nominee whose career is actually stepping up for the first time Hirsch Allah al aliy yeah it's the first time yeah because everybody you name that's what I asked you now I won't name any names because last time I name somebody they you know somebody they try to go negative on and say I was attacking this well I mean like I know Jamie Foxx and you know he murdered it and Ray mm-hmm but when I look at the roles he's gotten after rage knowing they're not made not available roles may has nothing to do easy by the baby black performance any black actor anymore because it's some of the very things either is Monique and what happened after that not much but love Cuba Gooding jr. people Gooding jr. Lou Gossett jr. Gossett jr. let's see who else Halle Berry even nominees and you know I can't say anything was like oh is he coming forward so and so it's like yeah like keep naming them and it's like it's at that is this as far as they go like with Denzel and Sam Jackson and Morgan Freeman they continue to have the same the same I mean after they fell one well he wasn't asked her for glory he continued to do his thing he was on his same trajectory nothing changed he was you know he was there by way of being a box-office draw and continued to do so you know but it's it's kind of like where you say a bar Cobb Abdi or or you know you know Gabourey Sidibe like you keep going and you go wait a minute and but then when I made this this statement I just yep I just chose the the white actors that were nominated that year which was ten different names and each of them you can track that they went from a nomination to a win to their careers always leading went up yeah you almost can't find many who's an Oscar nomination or a win doesn't take them to the heights you've said that I guess Denzel told you the at the other day you'll be defined by the roles that you don't take right rather than you take what were some of the key roles you turn down oh my boy I I I'm good at like just deleting a lot of things so if you had you know cuz because some of the you know like Lord Jamar from Brand Nubian is a regular YES on the show and you know he has a theory that you know black actors male black actors will never break out unless they wear a dress and you know and dress like a woman you know he and he you know used certain comparisons and so forth were you ever asked you know ever had a role where you were gonna dress like a you know dress like a woman in that role had you accepted it no I it was it was a part of a comedy I was doing a sitcom and it was just a quick suggestion I'm like a kid I'm not doing that okay cool it was but it was not no conspirator type of thing like that okay no I've never been you know I've I've been asked to do you know I don't have that kind of ego of that I feel like I can do any kind of role to I mean I remember after spawn I was approached to do you know these producers approached me to do the Marvin Gaye story I'm like Marvin ice no you know I can't do that maybe some buff as Marvin Gaye yeah I don't have the ego that say yeah I'm good I'm gonna go from Tyson to dear Marvin but you know you know but no nobody's tried to get me that okay wear a dress and I'm sorry I can't I can't go along with you no you don't make it until you wear a dress people don't mind if you do they don't mind if you that's not me that's not yet my my career is an experiment on you know my look my heroes were never actors you know I did a thing where you know and I respect people who are who were men or women or men who haven't certain integrity I'm not gonna sell that for nothing I don't worship actors I don't care how rich somebody is you could be a rich [ __ ] you're still an [ __ ] and I don't fear anybody nobody I don't care if you're a billionaire it doesn't mean anything to me like you could get it you know I mean really and and I don't think I'll really come you know I don't think people will try to test me on those type of things I'm gonna continue to yeah I have a fan base that believes in me and you know I've been building a business that is gonna be supporting that fan base and that's really the way I'm focused and and I'm gonna be honest I'm gonna my my honesty and integrity is priceless that's that's what it's connected to all the things that I cherish in my world in my friendships and my family those are the people that I'm in it for like there's nobody with a Roy there's a lot of roles that you know like I don't give a [ __ ] here like you know it's not even it's not even stressful it's not it's like no I'm not gonna my manager and agents they know you know in our minds do things it kind of rise me like like Nick Cannon like when he called me when he was considering quitting America's Got Talent because they made some some some comments about one of his stand-up you know and he was like oh [ __ ] about that money [ __ ] that check look 10 million a year [ __ ] you make that somewhere else yeah he quit he got a new show word was that you walked away from a 10 million dollar yeah I mean like yeah it was it was big it was up there like cuz I obviously it was it was for multiple years so it was even more than it at the end of the day you know I mean like but it's like whether it was 20 30 whatever is like I was signed up to be on America's Got Talent for a very long time and I because I had been on it for eight years already I was the highest-paid hopes on him on NBC and you know it's like me and Ryan are the only ones that got to that level of being paid you know crazy money to host but I was like [ __ ] that money like I'm one I believe in myself I'm bigger than his job so you can have that I'll make that money and more next year exactly you know it is that simple you know you got you got a fan base you got the followers be you do you you know like and just like I can't imagine walking around with the angst of selling myself us are feeling like I can't look at myself in the mirror that's that's priceless man yeah you know yeah it's a simple thing it's not even it is it's not anything to toil over yeah it's like oh I'm good that's not me next yeah there it is this is that simple you said that uh you could have beat Bruce Lee oh I wish I didn't say that [ __ ] well you know what's funny is just randomly I was watching Enter the Dragon the other night uh-huh I forgot how small Bruce Lee well you see the thing is I made a mistake ziwei like 160 pounds no 132 132 there you go I mistakenly said that I might be able to beat Bruce Lee look I'll tackle him first the fact is you know I am one of these people who like a lot of action people stars or you know martial art stars I benefit by the belief that martial arts heroes can beat a whole slew of people I benefit my family gets fed behind that so I can't hate on that very much so that illusion of martial art is being able to just beat up everybody well I think you said that at one point you beat up five guys it was yeah so you know that it's not all big boys it was a different it's a different thing is it everything I hit real [ __ ] hard you know that mean so I mean most people are not used to that [ __ ] anyway how much - 25 yes and I've done it all my life so it's a different thing so but if I said that amongst fighters they'd completely under stairs not one not one real fighter that would dispute what I said right because you know honey pound reverse 830 pounds yeah at the time I said I was 235 but if it's like hundred plus pal exactly and then somebody who is not a fighter so even if he if it's amongst elite fighters Boyd Mayweather is and I'll defend this with anybody is the most advanced fighter who ever lived isn't it should be no disputing that no disputing that but it's no freaking way in the world he's gonna beat Mike Tyson he could run across the street and dive off a table and punch Mike Tyson with all he has and it's not gonna not gonna affect him yeah it's just is it's just physics it's just not so when I say oh yeah it could have been Bruce Lee I wish I didn't say that because he's my year old - yeah but I said that against people's hero and they weren't supposed to hear that the fact is I should be able to say I could be you know Thor the way I've I feel is like if I have to fight Thor Thor's got to die that's my attitude so if Bruce Lee you know and anyone else if from my perspective big to die right but I mean you know if I were to ask you can you be floyd mayweather right now what come on you know for me if you ask me whether if he could beat me he would say no I mean he knows what a fighter I mean Floyd did I mean he did a great job with Conor McGregor that is the heaviest person he ever had to fight cuz Floyd how much there was what it was real danger there but Floyd just he outsmarted him there was I mean I'm very fast I'm I'm unusually fast for a big guy yeah Floyd weighs 250 pounds yeah yeah and Connor is like more like 175 when you are under 200 pounds though that men 5 pounds makes a huge difference but unless you're a fighter you're not going to understand that what's this Conor McGregor that says a hundred fifty-four pounds maybe he was heavier no he was so much bigger than Floyd I mean you look at the skeleton you know I mean a lot of time you take the flesh away look at the skeleton of the fighters that really shows you what's really happened okay but yeah and and it's you know so Floyd dismantled them the real smart way but Floyd was in real danger because he's fighting that much bigger dude getting hit with the wrong punch and boom yeah for real so it's it's a different thing I mean it's employed such a master but it's different when you're you know you got that much there's a difference on top of you being able to beat Bruce Lee I shouldn't say whether I can be Bruce Lee Anne Tuohy Baywood well you might as well just say at the same time we wouldn't say he'd beat Conor McGregor enough in a street fight yeah he wouldn't say that yeah kicking and so forth okay because then you saying fighting you're mean you mean everything you know it's like come on you know that's man like again boys the best boxer who ever frickin lived I'm the biggest Floyd Mayweather fan I even like in in my choreography and you know never back down three I'm doing for Mayweather [ __ ] in there you know I mean he's influenced me so much I study like I will watch for Mayweather on slow-motion like for an hour like I'm I'm a fight nerd that dude is just the most advanced ever but I mean that whole that whole Bruce Lee thing if there was something I could take back I would have taken back that statement because I just [ __ ] with everybody's hero including mine right so I sound like an absolute [ __ ] even though I'm I'm you know of course it's it's the truth if he had to fight anybody that was above 150 it's you you an actor fighting a real fighter like we had to fight Benny or Keita's oh my god Benny Rokita is fighting is not pretty it's trading blows you know if you're not used to getting hit guess what's gonna happen you know so it's you know I I hate that I said it but it is the truth but I'm not saying it to make myself look better [ __ ] I'm talking about beating a guy 132 pounds that's some [ __ ] that's not something I'm proud of right I thought I was just educating people on hey you know look use your common sense no this just can't happen yep you know is what it is yeah yeah I hate that I said it thank you so much for for coming in uh hell of a journey which is still you know still going strong yeah you asleep doing movies yeah I got five no I got six movies coming six movies coming yes movies coming out and so you know things have been great what are some of these movies shoot okay got you got a movie I got some some action movies some comedies you got like man sometimes it's hard for me to recount it cuz like I've put it in my rearview I got a triple threat with with eco ways you know you know from the raid and and Tony Jaa Michael Bisping Scott Atkins bunch of us uh you know there's a fight movie I got another movie called the hard way with Randy kotor myself absolutely action kind of thing and Luke Goss got a movie called dragged across concrete with Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn who Tory Kittles another oh yeah another movie called send it where I it's about a kite boarding it's about a teenage coming-of-age movie and this kid is a you know kite boarding champion and you know he's a you know Disney kind of kid and you know white kid I play his dad which is kind of like unique because it's kind of like the like Blind Side in Reverse you know I'm like mr. Drummond but black so that's a little weird a little different oh just just finished uh Undercover Brother - oh yeah with uh nope Eddie Griffin said it damn okay that oh you're the little brother okay yeah I don't you know I don't know if I was supposed to reveal that but you might have an exclusive there it is what it is yeah so uh okay yeah yeah so you're gonna have the watch with the mayonnaise or the the hot sauce the hot sauce watch like like in the first one okay yeah but you know yeah I got a bunch of a bunch of things happening and uh getting ready to do some of my own stuff yeah okay make your old films oh absolutely yes what's up that's what it was all about really you know that's the chess game that's the chest yeah yeah well that's what's up man I white man Congrats on everything repair huh like I said the momentum is still going going crazy yeah and in a very very hard place like Hollywood yeah you know to continuously get these rolls for over 20 years yeah yes five years yeah but it's a global thing man yes it's just not about just Hollywood anymore well you know I just came back from from Ghana and where I can grant your chief and got it up yeah harder a chief yeah I saw that [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] yeah I've been a stool then actually tomorrow I'm meeting with the prince present yeah he's coming here to kind of we're gonna go over some things I can do because you know I've been a part of you know education system here and dope and I got something to share with a you know we've gotta and putting some ideas together that's what's up yeah that's what's up like the Jai White man til next time alright bro peace Thanks

Channel: djvlad

Views: 1,294,439

Keywords: VladTV, DJ Vlad, Interview, Hip-Hop, Rap, News, Gossip, Rumors, Drama, Michael Jai White

Id: RgjpNBB10PA

Length: 112min 17sec (6737 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 07 2019