Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Powerhouse Melissa Haizlip talks about her award-winning documentary,, "Mr. Soul!"

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Powerhouse Melissa Haizlip talks about her award-winning documentary,, "Mr. Soul!" · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. My next
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Speaker 1: guest is Melissa Haslett. Just an award winning filmmaker. Melissa
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Speaker 1: has no when I say that from a producer director
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Speaker 1: right of the award winning docu series that I just
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Speaker 1: recently saw, Mr Soul. The film as Soul is now
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Speaker 1: available on HBO Max, one of my favorite channels. Melissa
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Speaker 1: has Lipping spotlights the groundbreak and Variety show Soul with
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Speaker 1: an exclamation mark. It's very important that brought out because
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Speaker 1: that was one of the keys to the show being
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Speaker 1: on television and the enigmatic, enigmatic producer and host, Ellis
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Speaker 1: has Slipped. The late Ellis has Lipping, Melissa's uncle. Ellis
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Speaker 1: was a d c native and graduated from the Howard University.
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Speaker 1: Now before Oprah, before Arsenio, there was Mr Soul. Ellis
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Speaker 1: America's first black Tonight show that he was among the
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Speaker 1: first to provide expanded images of African Americans on television
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Speaker 1: with participants and recolations, eliminating archival clips. Mr Soul captures
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Speaker 1: a critical moment in our culture where impact continues to
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Speaker 1: resonate and an unsung hero. That's him whose voice we
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Speaker 1: needed then and guess what we needed to day. That's
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Speaker 1: the importance of this documentary. Please working the Money Making
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Speaker 1: Conversation as we discussed how dreams are built. Miss She's
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Speaker 1: she's the writers, she's the director. Melissa has Lip, how
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Speaker 1: you doing in my friend. Hey, great to see you.
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Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to talk about
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Speaker 1: Mr Soul with the inflamation exclamation mark point. You know,
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Speaker 1: it's really important that you know, first of all, thank
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Speaker 1: you for coming on Money Making Conversation, Melissa. When I
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Speaker 1: see a show like this and you know they're gonna say,
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Speaker 1: it's like, you know, I've lived a good life and
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Speaker 1: I hope to live a continue to live a good life.
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Speaker 1: When I see shows like this and I kind of
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Speaker 1: missed it. You know, I didn't see it when it
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Speaker 1: was on, And even though I was, I should have
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Speaker 1: seen it was on PBS, it was on regular TV.
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Speaker 1: We didn't have cable back then. It was on the
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Speaker 1: Channel eight in Houston, Texas. That was my channel. That
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Speaker 1: was my PBS channel, So I should have saw seen
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Speaker 1: us this show. But I also busy trying to see
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Speaker 1: blacks on other network shows on the Tonight show you
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Speaker 1: know Ed Sullivan, Uh, you know the Julia you know
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Speaker 1: all these shows that that When we saw it, we
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Speaker 1: ran to the television said and told all our black friends, Oh,
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Speaker 1: black person on TV. And it's really is true, that
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Speaker 1: really did happen like that and uh and so we
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Speaker 1: were inspired that and that's why black music was so
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Speaker 1: important because we could see and feel all stars and
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Speaker 1: when it came to town, we showed up. Now, when
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Speaker 1: you came about this, you know, he's a relative of
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Speaker 1: yours to welcous through the steps of this being brought
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Speaker 1: to your attention and how was it brought to your attention,
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Speaker 1: Mrs Soul And there's early steps of getting it to
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Speaker 1: where we're having out on HBO Max. Yes, well, it's
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Speaker 1: been a long journey. Uh started making the film over
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Speaker 1: ten years ago, so you can imagine that's definitely a
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Speaker 1: labor of love, but also a labor of love for
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Speaker 1: the culture. It's a love letter to black culture, to
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Speaker 1: black arts, you know, to black lives, everything that really
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Speaker 1: matters today. What we wanted to do was to tell
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Speaker 1: the story of you know, this is sort of a
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Speaker 1: cultural moment visually that happened before Soul Train, and everyone
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Speaker 1: kind of thinks that our visual history, you know, on
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Speaker 1: television and in the media started with Soul Train. And
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Speaker 1: it's important to recognize that Soul was a television show,
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Speaker 1: as you mentioned, that was on PBS nationwide from nineteen
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Speaker 1: sixty eight to nine seventy three, and that those were
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Speaker 1: really critical moments in which we were trying to reimagine
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Speaker 1: ourselves on this cultural landscape and this American landscape and
4:59
Speaker 1: on the heels of the Civil rights movement. Jim Crow
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Speaker 1: segregation so much, and so the idea that you could
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Speaker 1: have a full black experience on TV in your living room,
5:10
Speaker 1: you know, at a moment when they weren't really feeling
5:13
Speaker 1: us because you know, segregation and Martin Luther King had
5:18
Speaker 1: just been assassinated. Was a very very volatile time um
5:22
Speaker 1: race relations were not great as we know, uh in night.
5:26
Speaker 1: So here you have this extraordinary show that really reaffirms
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Speaker 1: black beauty, black strength, black love, black sister and brotherhood,
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Speaker 1: that amazing soul music with artists you've never seen before
5:41
Speaker 1: on television for the first time. We have a fire
5:44
Speaker 1: for the first time, the first time Patty Blue Bells.
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Speaker 1: You know, it's crazy of this show is that when
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Speaker 1: I when I look at it, and and thank you Melissa
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Speaker 1: for just sending a tone of what we're gonna be
5:57
Speaker 1: talking about. It was set in New York. Correct, Yes,
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Speaker 1: it was on PBS out of the flagship PBS station
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Speaker 1: in New York, which is w n ET Channel thirteen.
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Speaker 1: But it was at the beginning of public broadcasting, so
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Speaker 1: it was creating a national black audience when when there
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Speaker 1: really wasn't PBS just at that moment, until the National
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Speaker 1: Broadcasting Act created PBS and suddenly you had stations connecting
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Speaker 1: all around the country and everybody was getting to see,
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Speaker 1: you know, black people on TV, right because you only
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Speaker 1: had ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS, so those were the
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Speaker 1: only options on television and just it was monochromatic. There
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Speaker 1: were no black people on television pretty much. So that's
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Speaker 1: why this show means so much to look back and
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Speaker 1: understand what was so about and how did it interrupt
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Speaker 1: television as we know it and change the perception of
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Speaker 1: African American culture and black making black beautiful. You know,
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Speaker 1: I'm talking to Melissa here and she's the writer and
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Speaker 1: director of the disappearing on HBO Max. It's called Mr. Souls.
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Speaker 1: Hers is a docuseries like you said. The series is
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Speaker 1: on television PBS in nineteen seventy three and involves a
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Speaker 1: host by Elise. He was He was not a guy
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Speaker 1: who wanted to be a comedian, wanted to be a singer.
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Speaker 1: He was another guy. He was a guy who was
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Speaker 1: a producer. And then I would let to watch the
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Speaker 1: documentseries and see how he became the actual host of
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Speaker 1: the show. But he became a host from a standpoint
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Speaker 1: of he followed his creative vision. In other words, when
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Speaker 1: she talks about this show, the typical artists who appeared
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Speaker 1: on the typical ABC, NBC and CBS were performers, They
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Speaker 1: were singers, they were comedians, they were actors that were
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Speaker 1: not traditional to the you know so the But on
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Speaker 1: his show, Mr Sol he had dancers, he had poets,
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Speaker 1: he had individuals. Yet interviews that would never ever be
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Speaker 1: old mainstream television period, wouldn't be touched by the news,
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Speaker 1: by the news. And so it's important that we set
8:06
Speaker 1: that stage because of the fact that why my, why
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Speaker 1: am my interview? Why is the importance of Mrs Soul.
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Speaker 1: You have a show that was kind of it was
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Speaker 1: funded by the government because old PBS no, that's our
8:17
Speaker 1: shows get old PBS. They have to get funded by
8:19
Speaker 1: the government and because otherwise it would not have been
8:22
Speaker 1: funded or produced or picked up on traditional ABC, NBC,
8:28
Speaker 1: CBS affiliates, and those were the dominant channels at the time.
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Speaker 1: I'm just letting just take some young people back to
8:34
Speaker 1: that era. And when television went off back then, it
8:38
Speaker 1: went off. I mean once the flag started, it just
8:42
Speaker 1: goes and you had a dial tone that came on
8:47
Speaker 1: your screen and that was it. Okay, once you saw
8:51
Speaker 1: the flag, you were done with watching television that night.
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Speaker 1: That's the era we're talking about, not the era of
8:58
Speaker 1: your phone, the streaming and digital and all these different
9:03
Speaker 1: channels on cable and direct TV. When television went off
9:07
Speaker 1: in NT six, they're off. It went off and you
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Speaker 1: had to go to bed. Uh he looked around and
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Speaker 1: your parents looked at it and wonder why you were
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Speaker 1: still up because the flag has said go to bed.
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Speaker 1: Am I not right? But listen? And so you had
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Speaker 1: this wonderful show called Mr. Soul come on television and
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Speaker 1: uh give us a little background on that. The purpose
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Speaker 1: and then the fact that he is a relative of yours.
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Speaker 1: And as you graduate as well and uh of Howard
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Speaker 1: University in Washington, d C. Talk a little bit about
9:44
Speaker 1: him because he was a courageous person. He was a
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Speaker 1: creative person, but he didn't seek the limelight. That's right.
9:51
Speaker 1: Ellis Hazel was my uncle, and he really believed in
9:57
Speaker 1: the elevation of black culture. He believed that liberation came
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Speaker 1: from freedom of expression, being able to express them to
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Speaker 1: ourselves and be our true black selves, you know, not
10:10
Speaker 1: somebody else's definition of who we are. And that was
10:13
Speaker 1: really radical because Black Power, the Black Panthers, that was
10:17
Speaker 1: just starting to happen. And here tons this producer who
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Speaker 1: nobody knows and he's totally in the background, but he
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Speaker 1: believes if you can just make black culture visible black
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Speaker 1: artists and black politicians, you know, controversial figures like the
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Speaker 1: Black Panthers, but also artists that you would only hear
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Speaker 1: on the radio or see. If you were lucky, you
10:39
Speaker 1: might see them on the Chitlin circuit. You might see
10:41
Speaker 1: that the Apollo, but otherwise you only got to hear
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Speaker 1: them on the radio. So imagine getting to see people
10:48
Speaker 1: for the first time and see groups like Cool in
10:51
Speaker 1: the Gang, Earth When and fire Al Green. You know,
10:56
Speaker 1: jazz artists like Max Roach, McCoy tyner. Uh, you know
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Speaker 1: people that you you might know a little bit about,
11:05
Speaker 1: but we're literally getting their television debut. Because I have
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Speaker 1: to remember, this was before Soul Train, and there wasn't
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Speaker 1: a model for this. So here comes to Ellis Hazel,
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Speaker 1: who is kind of a fish out of water. He's
11:17
Speaker 1: never been on television before, but he's a theatrical producer
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Speaker 1: and he believes in black culture. He believes in black dance,
11:24
Speaker 1: black poets. He puts Nikki Giovanni in an interview with
11:29
Speaker 1: James Baldwin and many people have seen that because it
11:32
Speaker 1: went viral on television. I'm sorry he went viral on
11:35
Speaker 1: social media, but nobody knows that that came from Seul.
11:39
Speaker 1: So the series itself was called Soul, and then Ellis
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Speaker 1: Hazel became known as Mr Soul because his last name,
11:45
Speaker 1: Hazel was hard to pronounce him. They would see him
11:47
Speaker 1: walking in Harlem and they go, there goes um, there
11:50
Speaker 1: he goes the Soul. Yeah, Mr Soul. Let's Mr Soul,
11:54
Speaker 1: so that it actually known as Mr. Soul. So it's
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Speaker 1: dot Com. Hi everyone, Broker here as a guy with
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Speaker 1: Forrester and the ad Council. And we're live here outside
13:30
Speaker 1: the Perez family home, just waiting for the And there
13:33
Speaker 1: they go, almost on time. This morning. Mom is coming
13:36
Speaker 1: out the front door, strong with a double arm kid carry.
13:39
Speaker 1: Looks like Dad has the bags. Daughter is bringing up
13:42
Speaker 1: the rear. Oh, but the diaper bag wasn't closed. Diapers
13:46
Speaker 1: and toys are everywhere. Oh but mom has just nailed
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Speaker 1: the perfect car seat buckle for the toddler. And now
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Speaker 1: the eldest daughter, who looks to be about nine or ten,
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Speaker 1: has secured herself in the booster seat. Dad SIPs the
14:00
Speaker 1: bad clothes and they're off. But looks like Mom doesn't
14:04
Speaker 1: realize her coffee cup is still on the roof of
14:06
Speaker 1: the car. And there it goes. Oh, that's a shame
14:11
Speaker 1: that mud was a fan favorite. Don't sweat the small stuff,
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Speaker 1: just nailed the big stuff, like making sure your kids
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Speaker 1: are buckled correctly in the right seat for their agent's
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Speaker 1: gov slash the right seat visits n h T s
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Speaker 1: A dot gov slash the right Seat brought to you
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Speaker 1: by NITZA and the ad Council. And the thing about it,
14:29
Speaker 1: the primary purpose of Soul was to educate, entertained and
14:33
Speaker 1: a lot of people to share in the black experience.
14:35
Speaker 1: That's why I was on PBS. That's how we sold
14:37
Speaker 1: there's an educational platform. And it made blacks visible in
14:40
Speaker 1: the society where blacks had been invisible. When I said that,
14:44
Speaker 1: like she said, you know, it was a pretty dark
14:46
Speaker 1: period for black UM civil rights. You know, uh John F.
14:52
Speaker 1: Kennedy had been shot in the sixties. You know, Robert
14:55
Speaker 1: Kennedy had been shot in the sixties, and of unfortunately
14:58
Speaker 1: also Dr Martin Luther King been shot in the sixties.
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Speaker 1: Blacks were lost, They had no voice. And then this
15:05
Speaker 1: show called Soul and that's a soul with an exclamation
15:08
Speaker 1: mark came on television, UM, and and it allowed, like
15:12
Speaker 1: you said, this image that would been traded. Also, we
15:15
Speaker 1: had Vietnam War playing on the background, and we had
15:19
Speaker 1: this uh Richard Nixon presidency planning out in the background.
15:23
Speaker 1: There's a lot of behind the scene activity that goes on,
15:27
Speaker 1: and we hear the world council culture. You see how
15:30
Speaker 1: council culture plays itself out in this doctormseries. Of all
15:34
Speaker 1: the things that you were doing in the value, like said,
15:36
Speaker 1: ten years to do this, what surprised you the most
15:39
Speaker 1: and what maybe say disappointed you the most that the
15:43
Speaker 1: series wasn't appreciated enough and how it ended, if you
15:47
Speaker 1: can talk about that, I think what surprised me the
15:50
Speaker 1: most and interviewing people who were either on the show
15:53
Speaker 1: or people who were behind the scenes, like Stan Leathan,
15:56
Speaker 1: amazing director. Stan Leathan got his start on Soul. Many
16:00
Speaker 1: people don't know that he became famous when he moved
16:03
Speaker 1: to l a and started directing Sanford and Son and
16:05
Speaker 1: all this everything that's happened since then. Now he's directing
16:09
Speaker 1: Dave Chappelle series. You know, but stan Lathan cut his
16:13
Speaker 1: teeth learning how to direct on Soul and Elis Hay's
16:16
Speaker 1: have always provided these opportunities for people who wouldn't have them.
16:20
Speaker 1: You know, you didn't have black directors back then on
16:23
Speaker 1: national television, and you didn't have black associate producers or women.
16:27
Speaker 1: So Ellis changed all of that. He said, you want
16:31
Speaker 1: to be an actress, come work with me as associate
16:34
Speaker 1: producer and I'll help you become an actress. That's Anna
16:37
Speaker 1: Maria Horsford from Amen, you know. And and it's just
16:41
Speaker 1: amazing that he was always pushing the culture and pushing
16:45
Speaker 1: opportunities for people. And what what surprised me fifty years
16:51
Speaker 1: later is that it's still right here. It's still very
16:55
Speaker 1: very emotional for people that that like it just happened,
16:58
Speaker 1: like this was a moment in their career that they
17:01
Speaker 1: will never forget. And so that energy because I was worried,
17:05
Speaker 1: you know, it was fefty years ago and I was hoping.
17:07
Speaker 1: I was worried, how am I going to convey that
17:10
Speaker 1: kind of vibe like it's happening today, so it doesn't
17:13
Speaker 1: feel like we're just looking back and being nostalgic. And
17:16
Speaker 1: what surprised me was like all those emotions were right
17:20
Speaker 1: on the surface, and that everybody was so invested in
17:24
Speaker 1: the show, and that when it was canceled, you know,
17:28
Speaker 1: it left a hole, It left avoid because there was
17:31
Speaker 1: no way to feel our true power in a way
17:36
Speaker 1: that was unfiltered and unapologetically black. You know, other shows
17:40
Speaker 1: started to come on, um uh, you know, different types
17:45
Speaker 1: of talk shows and black power shows. Guil Noble had
17:49
Speaker 1: to show like like it is. Of course wasn't show.
17:54
Speaker 1: It wasn't this show. And I think that's important that
17:56
Speaker 1: we say that because the fact that host wasn't wasn't
18:00
Speaker 1: born out of entertainment. He was born out of creativity.
18:03
Speaker 1: He's born out of production. And like you said, this
18:06
Speaker 1: project has been and then the hairstyles, Oh my goodness
18:09
Speaker 1: that oh you know, like I said, uh, you know
18:13
Speaker 1: those things that they had to be perfect. You have
18:16
Speaker 1: the perfect hairstyle. Is But you touched on some of
18:18
Speaker 1: your conversation about the presence of women as producers in
18:23
Speaker 1: the background of development, which we see now African and
18:26
Speaker 1: American women having such a prominent role as producers as
18:30
Speaker 1: yourself being a producer, writer, and creative minds. That's something
18:35
Speaker 1: we need to bring out in this interview because you
18:37
Speaker 1: are female. And like I said, we mentioned Anna and
18:40
Speaker 1: and uh, you know who's starters built it And I
18:45
Speaker 1: was kind of surprised that this that U And because
18:48
Speaker 1: I didn't know that about her. I didn't know she
18:49
Speaker 1: had was a writer. I didn't know she was a producer.
18:51
Speaker 1: All I knew about it was as an actress and
18:54
Speaker 1: so talk about seeing the layer of producers from a
18:58
Speaker 1: female perspective being the heartbeat of this show. So well,
19:03
Speaker 1: there was another producer who became the first, the first
19:07
Speaker 1: woman and the first black woman associate producer on a show,
19:11
Speaker 1: and her name was Alice Hill Jackson. She's featured in
19:14
Speaker 1: our film. She was married to Hal Jackson, whom everyone
19:18
Speaker 1: and everyone would remember because he was such a force.
19:21
Speaker 1: He was also helping to um book talent and find
19:25
Speaker 1: great artists to perform at the Apollo and so she
19:29
Speaker 1: worked together with her husband. He also created uh the
19:32
Speaker 1: Black Teen America, the first sort of black teen pageants
19:36
Speaker 1: in America, and that was really important too. So you
19:39
Speaker 1: have these people who are, you know, kind of cultural
19:43
Speaker 1: pioneers leading these behind the scenes epic historic moments, and
19:49
Speaker 1: to have a woman like that connecting with talent and
19:53
Speaker 1: bringing them onto the stage, that was really significant because
19:57
Speaker 1: there was a woman's movement happening, but back women were
20:00
Speaker 1: not included in that. You know, we're never included in
20:03
Speaker 1: this idea of we're feminists too and we're pushing for
20:07
Speaker 1: our rights too. So Ellis always knew that women were
20:11
Speaker 1: in the forefront and that wasn't unusual to empower women.
20:16
Speaker 1: It just seems unusual when we look back now, when
20:19
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Speaker 1: of a wizard with arms outstretched to the sky. They
21:23
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21:26
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Speaker 1: you by the United States Force Service and the ad Council. Right,
21:41
Speaker 1: so you said an interesting then Hal Jackson, it's just
21:44
Speaker 1: the same Hal Jackson, w BLS. Hal Jackson, he was
21:48
Speaker 1: at w b LS as well. Yeah, I know how
21:50
Speaker 1: that's just Steve Harvey and I what w BNS from
21:53
Speaker 1: two thousand five to two thousand seven when he was
21:55
Speaker 1: doing Sunday's That guy was amazing. He was probly, uh, legendary,
22:03
Speaker 1: but I didn't know. I didn't know that until you
22:05
Speaker 1: brought it up. But again, walking in history, talking to history,
22:09
Speaker 1: being a part of history, how was in my life
22:11
Speaker 1: for two years when I was in New York with
22:13
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey on w BLS and were he was doing
22:16
Speaker 1: the morning show and how I will do Sundays and
22:19
Speaker 1: we He've always asked us to participate in community projects.
22:23
Speaker 1: And that's important that you know when I know I've
22:25
Speaker 1: heard that name and go wow, this is pretty interesting
22:27
Speaker 1: that we are that connected in this relationship. But you
22:30
Speaker 1: brought in Blair Underwood into the project? Was it important
22:33
Speaker 1: to bring a name like that? How did he come
22:35
Speaker 1: into the relationship As far as a producer, he also
22:38
Speaker 1: dissemborcing on this series because this is ten years, so
22:42
Speaker 1: ten years you had the idea, can you just step
22:46
Speaker 1: us through, like when this stand get in saying lay
22:48
Speaker 1: than get involved? When did Blair Underwood get involved? And
22:51
Speaker 1: when did you guys realize this project was going to
22:54
Speaker 1: be sold? Because if it first was so to a
22:56
Speaker 1: PPS format? Correct? Right, Well, because the show originated on PBS,
23:02
Speaker 1: we thought it would be great to have a PBS
23:04
Speaker 1: premiere as kind of a homecoming because nobody has seen
23:08
Speaker 1: Soul for all these years. It's been a a vault,
23:11
Speaker 1: you know. And I just felt this show was made
23:15
Speaker 1: for the people, by the people. It was free, you know.
23:18
Speaker 1: Ellis has put the public in public broadcasting. He created
23:22
Speaker 1: a uh you know, it's it's not downt Nabby and
23:25
Speaker 1: it's not Sesame Street, but there is a black audience.
23:28
Speaker 1: There's a black nation, and he knew that. He always
23:32
Speaker 1: knew that, and so it was important for us to
23:34
Speaker 1: have a PBS premiere and that happened during Black History
23:37
Speaker 1: Month and that was really wonderful on independent lens and
23:40
Speaker 1: they will continue to show the film for the next
23:43
Speaker 1: two years every now and then. But what we wanted
23:46
Speaker 1: the film to reach ah a national audience as well,
23:51
Speaker 1: and HBO Max is an incredible platform for that um
23:55
Speaker 1: And it happened as well when the nation was pivoting
23:58
Speaker 1: from the theater to digital and streaming, especially during COVID,
24:04
Speaker 1: and we just thought, well, what would Ellis Hazel do.
24:07
Speaker 1: He would be on the cutting edge of content delivery
24:10
Speaker 1: and trying to reach the people, just like back in
24:13
Speaker 1: the seventies and in the seventies he we didn't have
24:16
Speaker 1: social media, and so he called it the drum. You
24:19
Speaker 1: know how an African communities, the drum was the message.
24:22
Speaker 1: The drum was how we got our message across, how
24:25
Speaker 1: we learned how we were going to break away from
24:27
Speaker 1: freedom when we were enslaved. And you know, there's a
24:30
Speaker 1: history of the drum. And Sol would go out and
24:32
Speaker 1: he would call it the drum, and he would canvas
24:35
Speaker 1: the black neighborhoods and say, did you see soul that
24:38
Speaker 1: you watching it? Needing? It? Is it giving you what
24:41
Speaker 1: you need? What do you want to hear? What do
24:43
Speaker 1: you like what do you dislike? And so he was
24:45
Speaker 1: really a man of the people, in a man of
24:47
Speaker 1: the streets. So we thought, well, we got to honor
24:49
Speaker 1: that with the PBS broadcast, but let's also honor the
24:53
Speaker 1: way people want to see content now on their phones,
24:56
Speaker 1: on their tablets and streaming at their own, um, you know,
24:59
Speaker 1: their own time, when they're ready. So HBO Max was
25:02
Speaker 1: really key for that. And they are doing so much
25:05
Speaker 1: dynamic programming right now and they seem to be the
25:08
Speaker 1: most diverse of all the platforms. You know, that was
25:11
Speaker 1: important to us too. On board and how did underway?
25:16
Speaker 1: So Stan came on board, uh and originally as an
25:19
Speaker 1: interview and we had to have stand because he's one
25:23
Speaker 1: of the original directors and some of the best episodes
25:25
Speaker 1: that the Earth and Fire episode, the al Green episode,
25:29
Speaker 1: you know, the New Wonder episode, all of those are
25:32
Speaker 1: Stan Lethans. So we interviewed him and then later on
25:36
Speaker 1: after he saw the film, he said, you know, I
25:37
Speaker 1: really believe in this film, Melissa, I can't believe you
25:40
Speaker 1: got it done. After which that year that I said,
25:43
Speaker 1: I would like to honor you in your connection and
25:45
Speaker 1: your career with this being your first job, really to
25:50
Speaker 1: be h to be an executive producer, and so he said, yes, absolutely,
25:54
Speaker 1: so he came on to executive produce and help us
25:56
Speaker 1: get it to the next level. Blair Underwood. We knew
26:00
Speaker 1: we needed the voice of Ellis Hayes look, and we
26:02
Speaker 1: wanted a man who kind of straddled that old school
26:05
Speaker 1: sound but also was totally connected with a contemporary audience.
26:09
Speaker 1: And and Blair has that. You know, I've loved him
26:12
Speaker 1: since l A law. I'm not gonna lie, so I've
26:15
Speaker 1: been a big fan. But I also knew that he
26:17
Speaker 1: was a voice actor because he is on the A
26:21
Speaker 1: Show as an animated show by the way, he does
26:24
Speaker 1: a lot of voiceovers, but he's also on the Lion
26:26
Speaker 1: king Um sequel called The Lion Guard, and I heard
26:30
Speaker 1: I just happened to catch some episodes of that, and
26:32
Speaker 1: I thought, wow, he's really a great voice actor too.
26:36
Speaker 1: And we wanted somebody who would be the voice of
26:39
Speaker 1: Ellis has but not a caricature, not like a like
26:42
Speaker 1: trying too hard, Like what would Ellis sound like if
26:45
Speaker 1: you were thinking, you know what, I get that that
26:49
Speaker 1: interior blackness, like you don't hear that a lot. You
26:52
Speaker 1: don't see it a lot in films. You don't get
26:54
Speaker 1: to know what a black man is thinking, right, And
26:57
Speaker 1: because he was an intellectual, I said, because is deceased,
27:00
Speaker 1: were like, we have to give him a voice. So
27:03
Speaker 1: it feels like he is with us and he's leading
27:05
Speaker 1: his own story and telling his own truth. And one
27:09
Speaker 1: once Blair got involved and understood, and after we we
27:12
Speaker 1: actually showed him the film, he fell in love with
27:15
Speaker 1: it and he said, I want to be executive producer
27:17
Speaker 1: and do all that I can. Now we're talking to
27:21
Speaker 1: Melissa the writer director of this series Mr. Soul, because
27:25
Speaker 1: uncle Ellis Haslip was the host of Soul, which was
27:29
Speaker 1: a GBS show that ran from nineteen six to nineteen
27:33
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three. Among the guests the show showcase included
27:37
Speaker 1: like she said earlier, Al Green, Stevie won the Earth
27:39
Speaker 1: winning fire Patted Last Night, Mom and Adlie author James Baldwin,
27:44
Speaker 1: and an intimate interview with Poe poet Nikki Giovanni, cecilely Tyson,
27:49
Speaker 1: cooling the Gang and doing Magic, a young Arsenio Hall.
27:54
Speaker 1: This this show was a very enlightening for me. The
27:57
Speaker 1: documentary I enjoyed from start to finish. When you walk
28:01
Speaker 1: to you you're seeing history and you're see in history
28:04
Speaker 1: played out in New York keeping and seeing history played
28:07
Speaker 1: out and dramatic and drama because you don't know if
28:10
Speaker 1: the show is gonna get renewed and wise and the
28:13
Speaker 1: other hand, politics that get played into the whole process
28:16
Speaker 1: and that, and then you get to bring on talent
28:18
Speaker 1: that producers are EPs, like Stan Lakeln like Burla Underwood
28:23
Speaker 1: and now it's being showcased on HBO Max. What's the
28:26
Speaker 1: next step for your brand and what's the next step
28:27
Speaker 1: for your production company. Well, we're also brought on the
28:31
Speaker 1: wonderful producer writer Emmy Grammy, No not Grammy yet, but
28:36
Speaker 1: the Emmy winner Lena Wayte, and she's one of our
28:40
Speaker 1: producers as well. We also as Ebert and It's and
28:44
Speaker 1: we have um just amazing people Stephanie Rants from the
28:48
Speaker 1: Martha's Viney the af American Film Festival, and what we're
28:51
Speaker 1: working with Lena wat and her brand new record company
28:56
Speaker 1: called Him and Grad Records to help release the soundtrack Mr.
29:00
Speaker 1: Soul and that's gonna come out via Deaf Jam and
29:03
Speaker 1: Universal Records. So we're just so excited because you know,
29:07
Speaker 1: music in the film is a character. You know, it's
29:11
Speaker 1: not like a backdrop or an underscore, but black music is.
29:15
Speaker 1: And as Ella's Hazek said, you know, the soul the
29:19
Speaker 1: floor for Black Pride, and we really with Robert Glass
29:23
Speaker 1: for as our amazing composer. And then he wrote a
29:27
Speaker 1: song for Leyla Hathaway and that's the single that's gonna
29:30
Speaker 1: be dropping very soon called show Me Your Soul, and
29:33
Speaker 1: that was just a great song and it was shortlisted
29:37
Speaker 1: for the Oscars this year for Best of Risinal Song. Well,
29:41
Speaker 1: the beauty of this is that your production company Shoes
29:43
Speaker 1: in the Bad Productions, like I said, your filmmaker, and
29:47
Speaker 1: that's your company that's with the company that produces this
29:49
Speaker 1: particular project. As I closed this interview, and thank you
29:53
Speaker 1: for coming on my show. Thank you for give me
29:55
Speaker 1: an early view of the docuseries which is wonderful and
30:00
Speaker 1: in fact, when it comes on HBO Max, I'm gonna
30:03
Speaker 1: recommend my friends to watch and put it on social media.
30:05
Speaker 1: Please get those banners to me so we can put
30:07
Speaker 1: it out there. Any other projects in the works that
30:09
Speaker 1: we can look forward to seeing from your wonderful production company,
30:12
Speaker 1: Shoes in the Bad Productions. Well, she's a vet is
30:15
Speaker 1: just doing this Mr Soul John, But I am also
30:18
Speaker 1: working on a new project with Netflix Exact producing. Yeah,
30:23
Speaker 1: it's a series about women in hip hop. Uh. It's
30:26
Speaker 1: really the history of black womanhood in America, but it's
30:29
Speaker 1: explored through the lens of women in hip hop, their
30:31
Speaker 1: lives and their music. So you know, it's a year
30:34
Speaker 1: the Black woman. So we gotta reverence, Melissa, if you
30:37
Speaker 1: could turn that lands on stand Lathan and slow him down,
30:41
Speaker 1: because that young man right there is walking in history.
30:45
Speaker 1: People just don't understand. You know, he is truly a legend.
30:48
Speaker 1: I called him a godfather when he when I came
30:51
Speaker 1: into Hollywood in nineteen four to be in a position
30:54
Speaker 1: to just not even understand who he was. But he
30:57
Speaker 1: was just so humble and the good looking and it
31:00
Speaker 1: was it was. We was on ABC. He was the
31:04
Speaker 1: director of Steve Harvey's first sitcom, Me and the Boys,
31:08
Speaker 1: and over the years, the deaf comedy Jam Uh, the
31:12
Speaker 1: Kevin Hart Project there's on ABC. Uh House Hollywood, Uh,
31:17
Speaker 1: Husband's Hollywood, Hollywood Husband or whatever the title of it is,
31:21
Speaker 1: coming come to Heat. That's him behind that and so
31:23
Speaker 1: many other projects not on this. Thank you for coming
31:26
Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversations and talking about Mr Soul hp
31:30
Speaker 1: HBO max U uncle. He graduated from HBCU Howard University.
31:36
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing this story. You're wonderful and again
31:40
Speaker 1: I will be promoting this on my social media operay,
31:43
Speaker 1: promoting this in my newsletter. Just the words out just
31:46
Speaker 1: like him. You missed so right now? Okay you miss you,
31:49
Speaker 1: Miss So. He's miss so. You missed so. Hay you done,
31:52
Speaker 1: miss so, miss So. Thank you for coming on money
31:54
Speaker 1: making Conversations. Okay, thank you. If you want to see
32:00
Speaker 1: are here just interview your monimated conversations please dot to
32:03
Speaker 1: Monimate Conversation dot com. Rashean McDonald, I am your host.
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