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I'm disappointed because you put your time and energy into a certain character or a project and the product and you just never know.
When I doing dinner theater in high school, I was talking to a woman who had been in the business for a while and I said I want to act, that's all I want to do with my life and she said if you're serious then you need to hone every discipline you can.
She'd rather find a black man if she can and her brother, played by Donald Faison, says you know, I got one for you. So he introduces me to his sister who is Kenya and we date for a while. That's all I say for now.
Our deal always was that we did one as scripted always, we got it like we thought we needed - so we were all happy with it as written. Then I'd let him play as long as we had time.
To be still standing 20 years in this business is a great feeling, I can't even tell you.
You never know how things will last, if they will last, and how people will use them in the future. It was a fun movie for young people at the time in the 80s; but it struck a cord with people and it has lasted so I'm very proud of being a part of that.
So it's a source of fun and a source of pride to have been a part of this little movie that could.
The voice over is a hat you put on right now as opposed to worrying about going through wardrobe, and having to look a certain way. You just got to let your voice do the talking for you.
Performing in Purlie was incredible.
The message behind the film would be to love your family, and love your father because the end of the story the little boy who loves his father but he's embarrassed by him because he's not cool like some of the other fathers and he becomes the Golden Blaze and then he becomes cool.
It's something that was very interesting to me to be a part of and all of them again because of the relationship. Some of the superhero movies are better than others.
I haven't done a great deal of it but this was a chance to do more and bring it to that part of the business and even more so, but the fact that it was a black superhero was really the catalyst to me.
It's about strengthening the relationship and the bond of parent to child.
I think one of the most difficult challenges in show business is the challenge of longevity and to constantly realize and reveal what's already been there - like doing stage and singing and dancing in New York. I haven't been that far out of my comfort zone in a while.
Jamie only wants what's best. He didn't rewrite it all the time. He was really good about, "We wrote it. Now let's come in and say it like we wrote. Then if we want to change something, we'll do it." But he was great that way.
I'd rather say no and have said no and do say no often. I walk away from projects if it doesn't feel right; if it's not the right team of people pulling in together or if the script isn't right. It could be a great idea but the script doesn't work.
Now it's a fully realized production but for the fact that we're holding our scripts in our hand and some of us used them, and some of us didn't and you have to by union rules hold the script. You don't have to use them but you gotta hold them.
It was big fun. Jamie and Anthony Anderson - and Taye Diggs - we just had a great time.
It could be a great script but the director is not the right person for me to work for at this time. So there are a lot of elements that come into play and a lot of variables, but more than anything it's got to be a great script and a great character.
Not unlike the show Friends, it just didn't make sense why we're not represented.
I think when my character Robert came on the show there was more a sense of - from what I heard and what I felt, thank God we're finally being represented and then it's about how did he play the character, how is an African going to represent that character and is he going to do it right.
Krush Groove was a movie at the time. That was my first break. I just got to New York. I was right out of college and I was happy to have a job.
Sex in the City was a different kind of phenomenon because of the show itself is a phenomenon and to me that's successful because to resonate with women across the board for six years and have only one African-American actor pass through for one episode.
We met, we liked each other, we were talking about it, and then Jeff Robinov told me about this other movie that he had written. The script was coming in and he sent it to me, and we were off to the races.
Now, my earliest training was in music theater. My major in college was music theater, singing and dancing and acting.
It's a music video but she was real specific on the character that Mary J. Blige was playing, and that I was playing in this video and I told her whenever you get to jump to the big screen I'd love to come with you and she honored that.
I haven't done a lot of things in my career that my kids can watch, because they are 8, 6 and 3, and they are pretty young; so given the concepts that the film was about a superhero, it was a black superhero, and it was a father and son type partnership.
That is the thing I'm most grateful for in this industry to be able to spin in those different mediums, with television, film and the stage - at this stage of the game.
I'm shooting 42.4 percent now. My character starts to date Kenya, a successful beautiful and fine woman of 2005 who puts the mandate out that she doesn't want to cross the color line, she doesn't want to date across the racial line.
I thought my sons would love this especially, and that's how it came to be; something fun to do and I really enjoyed doing voiceovers.
It's really a luck of the draw or fate or destiny, whatever you want to call it, but you don't know if you're going to resonate with people or not.
Purlie's one of the most intense experiences I ever had because it's 10 days of rehearsal, and five performances. We met on a Monday morning which I think was March 21st and by that Friday afternoon we were running through the entire piece.
I'm going to Tyler Perry's next movie, Madea's Family Reunion in July and a couple of other things on the back burner. It opened up time for me to do other projects so that's why I'm not upset.
I tell you what I found is because you're right; I have had a chance to work with great actresses black and white.
Krush Groove didn't cost a lot of money. I think it was $3 million at the time, I don't think Warner Bros. that distributed the movie knew that it would at all last and they would make some money, it did at the time.
Tonight, Daddy won't read you a story -- you can watch him in a story.
I wanted to be Johnny Sokko and I wanted my own giant robot because Johnny Sokko would open up his watch and he would talk to the robot in a nearby building across town and the rooftop would open up and the giant robot, which was like 40 feet high would fly out and save the world.
I heard we'll get you a pass because we know you're married to a black woman. You're married to a sister so we'll give you that pass but also, those who know me but also if they look at the body of work, it is the bigger picture.
I'd seen him in a lot of the other movies that he had done, like "Scream," "Bait" and "Three Kings" and I saw his series. I said, "I love this guy. This guy's great." Then I had another idea for a different movie.
Miranda: I just got Brady to sleep.
Dr. Leeds: Now, do you sing to him?
Miranda: Only if he's been bad.
In terms of the black female audience, usually if you're true to that character but more so in your body of work if you've proven that you love your sisters and you proven you will come back home like in 42.4% they'll give you a pass when you jump ship. I hear it all the time.
My Soul to Keep is the ultimate love story with a black man and a black woman. I call it the ultimate love story. It's about an immortal. We're shooting for this Fall and that's been a six year development right there.
My favorite superhero was this old Japanese black and white live action show that very few people remember, but lots of people remember Ultra Man. It was Ultra Man. It was the one that came on before that. It was John Sokko and his giant robot.
My son had his eighth birthday recently and we had a chance to borrow the film and show it to all of his friends that was at his birthday party and they loved it. I was a little nervous. I said they might not even like it, and say his daddy's movie is wack, but they loved it.
His name is Tom, I've got a feeling that's got something to do with 'Uncle Tom.' He's the brother that sells his soul to the devil. Jamie's father is running for Governor of California and I play his father's campaign manager.
It's just different discipline, just doing the voice over. I guess I've done about 5 or 6 audio books in the past and I do the animated voice for a show called Fatherhood on Nickelodeon.
I'll tell you what 20 years teaches you - is that if one thing doesn't last something else will come down the pipe and to go from that and to do these films now.
I won't go into detail but this animated one, the story line is very cool and the kids seem to love it.
I'm not upset about LAX being cancelled. I'm disappointed because any time you take on any endeavor you want it to be successful, but not upset.
I think white rappers are encouraged enough, you know? They are doing their thing, they are just doing their thing.
Two packed houses. I guess the theater sat 2,700 people every night so it was an amazing experience.
The hope is they would like to bring it to Broadway next year, so we'll see that's to come in the end of the finance year and everybody else and also real estate and what theaters are available at the time but I would like to come back with it.
I tell you one of the great things about this movie is, with all that's going on around the world right now, it's just good to go to a movie where you don't have to think too hard, just have a good time, and relax and be crazy.
Compared to the movies of today it's kind of hard to say but there was such an innocence to Krush Groove because it was near the birth of rap. Rap had been around in the current popular culture form only seven years at the time.
All you can do is do the best you can and I did that. I had a great time. I made a product and I was not embarrassed by it at all so you do it and you move on.
I remember talking to Russell Simmons at the time and he said seven years ago they said this wouldn't last and here we are and we're still kicking and here it is now 27 or 30 years later and it's still, not only is it still kicking, it's just the culture of America, popular culture and beyond.
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