Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Dondre' Whitfield Full Interview
Transcript
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- 1:08Speaker 1: not my My, My, My next guest I'm about to
- 1:10Speaker 1: bring on the show. I'll be and I'll can tell
- 1:12Speaker 1: you about this guy is that I met him. We're
- 1:14Speaker 1: gonna talk about this. I met him on the Steve
- 1:16Speaker 1: Harvey camp and you know, I was a little jealous
- 1:19Speaker 1: of him because, you know, I was writing on the
- 1:20Speaker 1: show back in the early name. He was on every
- 1:22Speaker 1: doing TV show and he looked good too. And I'm
- 1:25Speaker 1: not man because he looked good. But he was on
- 1:26Speaker 1: every doing TV show and I could but he never
- 1:28Speaker 1: did my show because I did the Parenthood, I did
- 1:31Speaker 1: the Sister Sister, I did the Jamie Fire, and I
- 1:33Speaker 1: could never cast his brother. You know why, because he
- 1:35Speaker 1: always had his own series. He always had his own seiers.
- 1:38Speaker 1: He's one of the most consistent working actors in Hollywood.
- 1:42Speaker 1: He's one of the stars of the new owned series.
- 1:44Speaker 1: Please welcome to Money Making Conversation Dendre with Phil my brother,
- 1:50Speaker 1: Mr Whitfield. How you doing, what's going on? I'm doing well, man,
- 1:55Speaker 1: I'm doing well and I say that, man, because you
- 1:59Speaker 1: and and because Uh I admired, because we know Hollywood
- 2:03Speaker 1: is UH, it's not a kind to people of color.
- 2:06Speaker 1: You know, the opportunities can be limited. At one time,
- 2:09Speaker 1: the only way we can get on TV was on
- 2:10Speaker 1: the reality show and that turn has made and but
- 2:13Speaker 1: you've been consistently a solid uh face and television and
- 2:19Speaker 1: films just tell the audience how are you able to
- 2:22Speaker 1: accomplish that? And that knows through relationships and also through talent.
- 2:25Speaker 1: But it has to be some tremendous blessings that God
- 2:29Speaker 1: is presented to you on a regular basis. Yeah, without
- 2:32Speaker 1: a doubt. I mean right from the very beginning. I mean,
- 2:36Speaker 1: God absolutely put people in my life that that didn't
- 2:39Speaker 1: allow me to get away from um, the destiny of
- 2:44Speaker 1: this life. Um. There were plenty of times where I
- 2:48Speaker 1: didn't know what direction that I was going in, and
- 2:51Speaker 1: He always put people in my life that literally sort
- 2:55Speaker 1: of kicked me back in the place right Um, and
- 2:59Speaker 1: until I I found what my you know, what my
- 3:01Speaker 1: passion was. UM. Acting has been a great passion of
- 3:04Speaker 1: mine for over thirty four years. You know. UH started
- 3:07Speaker 1: off on the you know, the most watch show on television. History,
- 3:10Speaker 1: the Cosby Show that was and most people most people
- 3:16Speaker 1: usually get like you know, they become an extra doing
- 3:20Speaker 1: background work or you know, or something of that nature.
- 3:24Speaker 1: And and my first job was on the most watch show,
- 3:28Speaker 1: uh in history. So it literally was breaking in space,
- 3:33Speaker 1: which is why now whenever I do anything or working
- 3:36Speaker 1: with um, you know, um, miss Oprah Winfrey, who is
- 3:40Speaker 1: just incredible, I can't I don't even have words to
- 3:43Speaker 1: describe exactly what she is, not only to our people,
- 3:46Speaker 1: but to humanity in general. UM. But then of course
- 3:50Speaker 1: Aba du Verney, who is such a visionary um and
- 3:55Speaker 1: who has the kind of execution um that great you
- 3:59Speaker 1: know sports which is a made up um so UM.
- 4:03Speaker 1: Working with those sisters is just incredible. But uh, coming
- 4:06Speaker 1: from the background that I come from, UM, it doesn't uh,
- 4:10Speaker 1: it doesn't intimidate me. Uh. And I'm always ready for it.
- 4:14Speaker 1: And again because it is my passion, uh, it has
- 4:19Speaker 1: produced a great platform to suit my purpose and my
- 4:23Speaker 1: purpose work is something that I'm sure that we'll get
- 4:25Speaker 1: a chance to talk about. Absolutely absolutely. I want to
- 4:29Speaker 1: talk about a little bit because you're you're very talented
- 4:32Speaker 1: dramatic actor and you're very talented comedic actor. That balance
- 4:37Speaker 1: is very hard to find in Hollywood. I don't care
- 4:40Speaker 1: what what gender or what color tone you are. That
- 4:43Speaker 1: has really helped you had been a blessing for you.
- 4:45Speaker 1: Correct without a doubt. Um, because and I purposely, uh
- 4:51Speaker 1: would would choose if I did a drama the next job,
- 4:56Speaker 1: I would say, I want to do a comedy. After
- 4:59Speaker 1: I did a comedy, you know what, I want to
- 5:01Speaker 1: do a drama because I didn't want anyone to say, oh,
- 5:06Speaker 1: that's the comedy guy. Well that's the drama guy. Um.
- 5:10Speaker 1: You know, in some circles some people would say, well,
- 5:13Speaker 1: it kind of hurts you because you know, like music,
- 5:16Speaker 1: people want to be able to put you on a box.
- 5:18Speaker 1: They want to be able to say that this is
- 5:19Speaker 1: what you do. Um. But I didn't want that. And
- 5:23Speaker 1: I encourage everyone to follow their heart as it pertains
- 5:28Speaker 1: to choices that they make in their career. They're gonna
- 5:31Speaker 1: be a bunch of experts that say you're supposed to
- 5:35Speaker 1: do it this way or you're supposed to do it
- 5:37Speaker 1: that way. But if there were one way to do it,
- 5:39Speaker 1: then there would be a book telling you that that's
- 5:41Speaker 1: the way to do it. The truth of the matter
- 5:43Speaker 1: is that there isn't and you really do have to
- 5:46Speaker 1: to follow your heart, uh and make the choices that
- 5:49Speaker 1: you are going to to be able to live with
- 5:52Speaker 1: to live out your your own best life. Now, we
- 5:56Speaker 1: met officially man, because you know we've we've we've been
- 5:59Speaker 1: in a lot of wood events together, but we officially
- 6:02Speaker 1: made set down on the Steve Harveary Mentoring Camp several
- 6:06Speaker 1: years ago. That was a camp that we invited you
- 6:08Speaker 1: out and and that's what I really found your purpose,
- 6:11Speaker 1: you know, purpose of Man. I'm telling you something. If
- 6:14Speaker 1: you want to understand him, I don't know if you
- 6:16Speaker 1: do uh motivational quotes on Instagram or anything, but he
- 6:21Speaker 1: is so inspired because he has a tremendous passion to
- 6:25Speaker 1: create change and to create change in young men and
- 6:28Speaker 1: men in general. Listen, I know we're getting shot on
- 6:31Speaker 1: this break, but I want to bring it up on
- 6:32Speaker 1: another break. Give us a synopsis of what the Manhood
- 6:35Speaker 1: Tour is. Well, it literally was burst out of a
- 6:39Speaker 1: need that we find in our black and brown communities
- 6:43Speaker 1: to serve our younger males that don't have their father
- 6:48Speaker 1: in their life. And I've always said that it's very
- 6:51Speaker 1: it's impossible to be something you don't see. So you
- 6:54Speaker 1: can't become a man if you don't have men around
- 6:57Speaker 1: you showing what that looks like, that walks like, and
- 7:00Speaker 1: what that talks like. So that's how the Manhood Tour
- 7:04Speaker 1: was created. Cool, I'm on the phone talking to Uh.
- 7:06Speaker 1: He's on the phone, Dendre Whitfield. He's one of the
- 7:09Speaker 1: stars of Queen Sugar, which airs Wednesday at ten p m.
- 7:13Speaker 1: On OWNED. This year, he was a correct congratulations you
- 7:16Speaker 1: was you were nominated for an Image Award. Uh and
- 7:20Speaker 1: and I hopefully they're more in the future for you.
- 7:23Speaker 1: But tell us a little bit about the show and uh,
- 7:25Speaker 1: and why you become so engaged that character yours. You
- 7:29Speaker 1: know you kind of like the best friend around all
- 7:31Speaker 1: the messy people. Well, you know it's funny because you
- 7:37Speaker 1: know my yeah, I mean my my, you know, my
- 7:42Speaker 1: character is sort of uh what I've affectionately called the U,
- 7:49Speaker 1: the resuscitator. UM. He is UH a professor l s U.
- 7:58Speaker 1: He's a water irrigant, some specialists. He works with the
- 8:01Speaker 1: folks in the community, UM and even the surrogate family
- 8:08Speaker 1: that he has around him and the best friend of
- 8:12Speaker 1: the patriarchal who actually makes it happen passes away, Andre,
- 8:17Speaker 1: holdlet thalk, don't go towhere, holdletalk, holdlet talk. We're gonna
- 8:20Speaker 1: come right back. But man, when of the stars of
- 8:22Speaker 1: Queen Sugar on Own every Wednesday at temp M, you
- 8:24Speaker 1: can catch the show. Don't go nowhere, Mr Whitfielder's own hole.
- 8:31Speaker 1: Welcome back to this. Rashan McDonald on the phone, is
- 8:33Speaker 1: um very talented. I want to say, started on the
- 8:37Speaker 1: cause be showing a cute little young kid in the back.
- 8:40Speaker 1: Now he's a grown man, a grown man doing this thing.
- 8:43Speaker 1: He's he's operating and performing on the award winning series Uh,
- 8:47Speaker 1: from creator and executive producer Ava Duvenai and executive Debuce,
- 8:50Speaker 1: produced by the Incredible O for Winfrey on the Own network.
- 8:55Speaker 1: His character is called Remy. Uh. Now, you were telling
- 8:57Speaker 1: us a little bit about your character before I was
- 9:00Speaker 1: able to cut you off. I don't want to miss anything,
- 9:02Speaker 1: right because we're about to get into the shell Queen
- 9:04Speaker 1: Sugar and why everybody should be watching it and why
- 9:08Speaker 1: you know it's really interesting, Dendre tell me this. Why
- 9:12Speaker 1: are black dramas seeming to seem to be operating now?
- 9:16Speaker 1: They seemed to be working now because you used to
- 9:19Speaker 1: be only able to see African Americans in comedy. We're
- 9:21Speaker 1: gonna be funny. Ha ha. We were funny and nobody
- 9:24Speaker 1: would really watch the dramas. But that seems to be
- 9:27Speaker 1: turning now. Yeah. I think, um, that that came out
- 9:35Speaker 1: of the fact that a lot of our dramas has
- 9:38Speaker 1: been over sensationalized about who we are and about what
- 9:44Speaker 1: we are. They seem to have been stuck in the
- 9:47Speaker 1: space of telling one side of our story. Right. What
- 9:52Speaker 1: you're seeing in Queen Sugar is the fullness of our story.
- 9:56Speaker 1: So you're seeing the life, the loves, um, the struggles,
- 10:00Speaker 1: the successes, um, and you're also seeing the truths that
- 10:05Speaker 1: are being told through the lenses of our daily experiences
- 10:11Speaker 1: in a country that has a saying we should show
- 10:15Speaker 1: pride in our country, but sometimes shows us that we
- 10:19Speaker 1: aren't valued. So I think the thing that you understand
- 10:23Speaker 1: what I mean, I think that the thing that really
- 10:26Speaker 1: resonates with our audiences is the fact that there is
- 10:31Speaker 1: a great authenticity, uh that is being shared in the
- 10:36Speaker 1: storytelling of of this show. Uh. There's no there's no
- 10:40Speaker 1: lying about it. We're not cutting around any truths We've
- 10:44Speaker 1: dealt with Black lives matter. We've dealt with protests, We've
- 10:49Speaker 1: dealt with UH pregnancies, We've dealt with UH generational wealth,
- 10:56Speaker 1: we've dealt with poverty, We've dealt with UM UH industries
- 11:03Speaker 1: that are difficult for our folks to break into or
- 11:08Speaker 1: feel people in. So again, all of that speaks to
- 11:12Speaker 1: the authenticity of the storytelling. And I think that that's
- 11:16Speaker 1: what really resonates with our audiences is truth. Well resonates
- 11:20Speaker 1: with me because I'm a writer, I'm a producer and
- 11:23Speaker 1: I know, you know, I've done sitcom some Sister Sisters
- 11:26Speaker 1: or Jamie Foxx to Parenthood. So I know what you're
- 11:29Speaker 1: saying is that, you know, being behind the camera, being
- 11:33Speaker 1: the writers. But to my understanding that this this the
- 11:36Speaker 1: production staff is a female influenced but staff correct, Yes,
- 11:45Speaker 1: it's really a UM Eva has. Her vision show was
- 11:50Speaker 1: to have UH an inclusive set, meanings there would be
- 11:55Speaker 1: women involved, there would be UH folks of color involved.
- 11:58Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, she actually UM made it
- 12:02Speaker 1: a mandate that before anyone could present a department head,
- 12:07Speaker 1: they would have to present m viable candidates of color
- 12:11Speaker 1: for those department had positions UM and that is not
- 12:15Speaker 1: normally done in our industry. Um. She also she further
- 12:19Speaker 1: made it a mandate that, uh, the directors would be
- 12:24Speaker 1: all female. So every female that we've had for the
- 12:27Speaker 1: past uh three seasons were in the in the midst
- 12:32Speaker 1: of our third season. Every single one of them have
- 12:35Speaker 1: been female, including my own life. My wife directed, no
- 12:42Speaker 1: question and um and really, um say Salary Richards and Whitfield.
- 12:47Speaker 1: His wife put the word out's and I want on
- 12:51Speaker 1: my show. Yes, the Winfield, uh, because he's the story
- 12:58Speaker 1: in ourselves. Man. You know, she's just incredible actress, you know,
- 13:03Speaker 1: and uh and has crossed over and it's directing everywhere.
- 13:07Speaker 1: She's directing every sci fi to comedy to drama. She
- 13:12Speaker 1: is turning and turning pages out there, man. And I'm
- 13:15Speaker 1: proud of her. I'm proud of you because y'all live
- 13:17Speaker 1: that balanced life man, And I like that. Yeah, you're
- 13:22Speaker 1: living the life of of of working hard at whatever
- 13:27Speaker 1: your profession is, but making sure that, uh that you
- 13:32Speaker 1: preserve your your personal space. I told my wife a
- 13:37Speaker 1: long time ago, I said, we gotta work just as
- 13:40Speaker 1: hard at our marriage as we do at our careers. Um,
- 13:45Speaker 1: because that's how you sustain those people, you know, said,
- 13:48Speaker 1: you know I love it because sometimes people will come
- 13:51Speaker 1: up to me and they would say, hey, you and
- 13:53Speaker 1: Sali still married, and I'm like yeah, because they're so
- 13:56Speaker 1: not used to people in in Hollywood being together. You know,
- 14:01Speaker 1: for that amount of time. We've been together for twenty years.
- 14:04Speaker 1: We've been married for fifteen of those. So the union
- 14:08Speaker 1: of twenty years in our industry is like being together
- 14:10Speaker 1: for sixty years. Now. The thing I love about it,
- 14:12Speaker 1: I want to let everybody know that listening and some
- 14:15Speaker 1: people who may be watching on Facebook is his. The
- 14:17Speaker 1: beauty of this couple. Um when it comes to charity work,
- 14:21Speaker 1: they have time. When we needed him on the step
- 14:23Speaker 1: Harvard camp, he came and a lot of people came
- 14:26Speaker 1: and come and lead, or they'll do one session and
- 14:28Speaker 1: they go, hey, where's the uber. I gotta get out
- 14:30Speaker 1: of here. He you had to run him off the
- 14:33Speaker 1: camp because he was there to change lives that we can.
- 14:36Speaker 1: You know, Sally, when I needed to comfort the Neighborhood
- 14:39Speaker 1: Awards because you know, you gotta have celebrities or people
- 14:41Speaker 1: won't buy tickets, you know, she would, I call it
- 14:44Speaker 1: the last minute. Sometimes I call her head a schedule.
- 14:46Speaker 1: She made a point that the importance of being there
- 14:49Speaker 1: and and and supporting, and and and and cherishing and
- 14:53Speaker 1: showcasing the talents, because it really the stars of the
- 14:56Speaker 1: show are the people in the community. It's not the
- 14:58Speaker 1: people who present their awards. And she felt that was important.
- 15:01Speaker 1: So I loved the way you guys affected community. And
- 15:05Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons. I know you're starting on
- 15:07Speaker 1: on you know, Queen Sugar, and I'm gonna promote that.
- 15:09Speaker 1: And you know I have been promoting this, but I
- 15:11Speaker 1: was more important to me was let people hear you. Man.
- 15:15Speaker 1: You're the man who had to your passion, your your
- 15:18Speaker 1: your career, your body of work. You know. And because
- 15:21Speaker 1: social media plays an important role, because Queen Sugar is
- 15:24Speaker 1: one of the most popular shows when it airs on
- 15:26Speaker 1: social media, that's important. And to get your story told correct,
- 15:32Speaker 1: what's talk about? And I'm gonna tell you the importance
- 15:36Speaker 1: of social media. I literally made a post um making
- 15:41Speaker 1: a great plea to our brother, uh Floyd Mayweather. He
- 15:46Speaker 1: had made a post uh talking about the value of
- 15:50Speaker 1: one of his watches. It was reportedly eighteen million dollars.
- 15:54Speaker 1: And and what I did was I said, you know,
- 16:00Speaker 1: a lot of people were, you know, destroying him over
- 16:05Speaker 1: the fact that you know that that he would invest
- 16:09Speaker 1: his money UM in what would seem to be such
- 16:13Speaker 1: a frivolous purchase when there are people that would you know,
- 16:20Speaker 1: that would obviously um do well in having that money
- 16:25Speaker 1: assists there, uh, their educational aspirations, their career goals, um,
- 16:31Speaker 1: the community, all of those things. And I said, you know,
- 16:35Speaker 1: rather than be one that does the ungodly thing, which
- 16:40Speaker 1: is to shame someone for some of the things that
- 16:44Speaker 1: they may have made, I do as a godly man,
- 16:46Speaker 1: what I try to do is lovingly hold our our
- 16:50Speaker 1: our folks accountable and to bring certain things to their attention.
- 16:55Speaker 1: So through a post, because I don't have a contact
- 16:58Speaker 1: for the brother, just to be honest, UM, I literally
- 17:01Speaker 1: made a post and I said, my brother, you're from
- 17:05Speaker 1: Grand Rapids, Michigan. Not far down the road is Flint, Michigan,
- 17:10Speaker 1: and our community could be resuscitated by that kind of money.
- 17:16Speaker 1: Your wealth could actually revive an entire community. You're talking
- 17:21Speaker 1: about a hundred thousand people in the city of Flint
- 17:26Speaker 1: that that are struggling with drinkable water. So I encouraged
- 17:32Speaker 1: our brother to turn his watch into water. And that's
- 17:37Speaker 1: what I have tagged watched into Water, and a few
- 17:41Speaker 1: days after that, the mayor of Flint got in touch
- 17:45Speaker 1: with me to say thank you, because it feels like
- 17:50Speaker 1: every single day we're distracted by certain issues. Were distracted
- 17:55Speaker 1: by the fact that Puerto Rico still isn't being properly addressed.
- 17:58Speaker 1: We're distracted by the fact that Flip Michigan still isn't
- 18:01Speaker 1: properly being addressed. And it's literally because every single day
- 18:07Speaker 1: we're bombard bombarded with another news story about a specific
- 18:14Speaker 1: administration not doing uh the job that they should be
- 18:20Speaker 1: doing as it pertains to the people that it's supposed
- 18:23Speaker 1: to be serving. So it's very difficult to stay on topic.
- 18:26Speaker 1: So she said, I literally wanted to call you myself
- 18:31Speaker 1: just to say thank you. We were on the phone
- 18:34Speaker 1: for an hour and a half. And because I am
- 18:36Speaker 1: a speaker, because I am a restoration agent, because that
- 18:41Speaker 1: is my purpose work, I offered my services. She said,
- 18:44Speaker 1: I would love to have you come here. I want
- 18:46Speaker 1: to thank you for coming on my show. Man, Hey,
- 18:48Speaker 1: you did you? You ended this show letting the world
- 18:51Speaker 1: know who you are, and I appreciate that because that's
- 18:53Speaker 1: all I wanted to people understand is that when you
- 18:55Speaker 1: called when it's when there's a call for service. Mr
- 18:58Speaker 1: Whitfield answers and if you want to checking out on
- 19:02Speaker 1: Wednesdays on Queen's Sugar, keep acting, man, and I love
- 19:05Speaker 1: what you do. I love your family. You know that, Uh,
- 19:08Speaker 1: keep winning. Listening makes us smarter, more connected people. It
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