Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Actor/Writer Allen Maldonado on Starz drama "Heels," "The Wonder Years" reboot, and reimagining House Party

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Actor/Writer Allen Maldonado on Starz drama "Heels," "The Wonder Years" reboot, and reimagining House Party · 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 Alan Maldonaldo A smile when I say that name.
2:00
Speaker 1: He's an actor, writer, director, and entrepreneur. Among his films
2:04
Speaker 1: and TV critics include Straight Out of Compton, Equalizes and Cake,
2:08
Speaker 1: Sony's remake of The super Fly, the Netflix movie Project Power,
2:12
Speaker 1: the Netflix series Sneakerheads, the TVs TV series The Last
2:15
Speaker 1: O G, Blackish, You're the Worst, and many more. Now
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Speaker 1: that is the past. Now this is what's coming up
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Speaker 1: new and the movies and on TV. Alan starting a
2:25
Speaker 1: new stars action back series Heels plus this fall. He'd
2:29
Speaker 1: be starting in the Wonder Years reboot for ABC, The
2:33
Speaker 1: House Party Movie reboot, and Psyche three. This is Gus
2:37
Speaker 1: three quote movie for Peacock. Please work with the money.
2:39
Speaker 1: Make comforts that. He's smiling, man, because I love talking
2:42
Speaker 1: to a man, actor, writer, director, and entrepreneur, my man,
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Speaker 1: Alan Maldonado, Hey doing Alan, I'm excellent, Man, Thank you
2:51
Speaker 1: so much. What an incredible intro. I appreciate it. Man.
2:54
Speaker 1: I'm over here listening liqually as you go down the list, like, oh, Man,
2:59
Speaker 1: I was on all that, but you know some Alan,
3:03
Speaker 1: never till you come on the show, you know, like
3:04
Speaker 1: I said, Man, Uh, we've been having this relationship going
3:07
Speaker 1: on four years, you know, uh, you know, and and
3:11
Speaker 1: just watching watching the growth because we you know, because
3:14
Speaker 1: we really started talking about the entrepreneurship side of you,
3:17
Speaker 1: what you were doing in Hollywood and how he was
3:19
Speaker 1: making a difference. And and now it's being overwhelmed by
3:22
Speaker 1: your talent as an actor, which has always been out there,
3:25
Speaker 1: but it's now starting to be recognized on so many levels.
3:29
Speaker 1: How are you able to balance that? And all you
3:31
Speaker 1: are is being able to balance the acting. Is it
3:34
Speaker 1: taking you away from the entrepreneurship side or you're being
3:37
Speaker 1: in balance both. Wow, man, I guess how what's the
3:41
Speaker 1: best way to put it? Put it all in perspective? Um, Well,
3:45
Speaker 1: for me, I had to understand balance. I had to
3:48
Speaker 1: understand balance, as you know. And in the last four years,
3:51
Speaker 1: and you know, it's been it's been crazy, it's been
3:55
Speaker 1: in a good way. UM. God has given me everything
3:59
Speaker 1: I want it and it's one of those things where
4:01
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, this is what you've been asking for
4:04
Speaker 1: for years. Now go do something with it. Um. So,
4:08
Speaker 1: just a balance between work and rest and relaxation has
4:13
Speaker 1: been the biggest challenge and the biggest thing that I
4:16
Speaker 1: know is important. Um. As you know, those four or
4:19
Speaker 1: five years where I was doing Blackest Survivors, Remorse, You're
4:23
Speaker 1: the Words, all these things simultaneously while writing and starting
4:27
Speaker 1: on other shows, I burned myself out. I'm not gonna lie,
4:31
Speaker 1: you know. So, Uh, after the quarantine, I really made
4:35
Speaker 1: it my business to make sure I have the proper
4:38
Speaker 1: balance between working and working extremely hard as I do,
4:42
Speaker 1: and then finding time to get those breaks where either
4:45
Speaker 1: just a three day vacation, two day vacation or daycare
4:49
Speaker 1: or whatever like. I just have to be adamant, just
4:52
Speaker 1: as focused and goal driven for business and in acting success.
4:58
Speaker 1: I gotta be just as driven in my personal in
5:02
Speaker 1: self care. Absolutely. I'm talking to interviewing Alan maldon Alto.
5:06
Speaker 1: I remember when he first came on Money Making Conversations
5:08
Speaker 1: with Survivor's Remorse, which is out of Lebron James's company,
5:13
Speaker 1: and then I brought him back. It was it was
5:15
Speaker 1: the Last o g which and then I brought him
5:19
Speaker 1: after that was Project Power on Netflix with and that's
5:22
Speaker 1: with Jamie Fox, and now bringing you back for a
5:25
Speaker 1: serious and not just one. It's a series of things
5:28
Speaker 1: which is really beautiful. And uh and and let's talk
5:31
Speaker 1: about heels, you know, because on social media, you know,
5:34
Speaker 1: you let everybody know you got some fitness going on
5:36
Speaker 1: in your life. You know, I know it makes me
5:38
Speaker 1: feel bad, but I'm alright up older than him, so
5:41
Speaker 1: I don't take it personal. But if you young like him,
5:44
Speaker 1: you might want to take it personal or not follow
5:47
Speaker 1: his feed sometimes because he's looking good. So finally, all
5:51
Speaker 1: that personal. So that's why I like about your alum.
5:54
Speaker 1: You know, you prepare for success and we don't know
5:56
Speaker 1: where it's gonna come from. And because you're during all
6:00
Speaker 1: that personal training, and some people say, man, why are
6:02
Speaker 1: you doing all the work up? You know what you're
6:03
Speaker 1: going for you and you just never know where your
6:06
Speaker 1: opportunities are going to come. And because of that, you
6:09
Speaker 1: are with additional training that they've given you are pretty
6:13
Speaker 1: much wasn't shocked by the request of this level of fitness,
6:16
Speaker 1: physical fitness that they need for this series that's on
6:19
Speaker 1: Stars called Heels. Yeah, I wasn't. I wasn't shocked at all. Man.
6:25
Speaker 1: Um I had, uh just a quick story as more
6:29
Speaker 1: of a testimony than anything. Um. You know, two years ago,
6:33
Speaker 1: like I said, I kind of burnt myself out and
6:35
Speaker 1: I had to recharge mentally, physically, spiritual and all those things.
6:40
Speaker 1: And God put it on my heart to get stronger
6:42
Speaker 1: and uh be more um focused on my you know,
6:45
Speaker 1: self care and personal fitness. And in that conversation, uh,
6:50
Speaker 1: he gave me the crazy notion to run marathons. So
6:55
Speaker 1: I began to run training for marathons in Spain while
6:59
Speaker 1: I was shooting a film out there called American Carnates
7:02
Speaker 1: that would be out I think next year as well.
7:05
Speaker 1: Um it was. I ran four marathons in five months.
7:11
Speaker 1: I ran in New York Marathon, the Disney Marathon, the
7:15
Speaker 1: Miami Marathon and the l A Marathon, and a week
7:19
Speaker 1: after I ran the March the l A Marathon, which
7:22
Speaker 1: is my fourth marathon. Uh, I booked hills. So it
7:27
Speaker 1: was one of those things where God told me to
7:29
Speaker 1: do something to get prepared for two years ago for
7:31
Speaker 1: an opportunity that came, you know, later down the line.
7:34
Speaker 1: So it was just me meeting up with my blessings. Um,
7:37
Speaker 1: that's how this whole kind of fitness kind of journey
7:41
Speaker 1: begin with that, you know, wholeheartedly it was. It was
7:45
Speaker 1: very selfish, simple and I respect because I always tell
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Speaker 1: people people look at me that you know we're shall
7:52
Speaker 1: do you go sleep? Because I always tell people I'm
7:56
Speaker 1: never shocked by my opportunities because I'm always preparing for
7:59
Speaker 1: my opportunities. And I've always felt that about you when
8:02
Speaker 1: I'm talking to you because we have a good time.
8:05
Speaker 1: But we always always see activity in your eyes, and
8:07
Speaker 1: your eyes tell me your brains active. You know what
8:09
Speaker 1: I'm saying, because you always this conversation is just one
8:12
Speaker 1: a minute that's going that's happening in your life as
8:15
Speaker 1: supposed to happen in your life. Now. When I saw
8:17
Speaker 1: the show, heels know that I am a wrestling fan
8:20
Speaker 1: from the from from elementary school. Okay, well that's how
8:24
Speaker 1: far back I go. And so the series heels when
8:27
Speaker 1: it's being advertised on Stars and it has my man
8:31
Speaker 1: who started who blew up in Fame on the series Vikings.
8:34
Speaker 1: If you have not seen the series Vikings, plead it's
8:36
Speaker 1: an incredible series. And then also a man who started
8:40
Speaker 1: in this series Arrow, which is on the seat of
8:42
Speaker 1: your platform. When I saw both of these guys, I went,
8:46
Speaker 1: I got to watch that, and then I started seeing
8:48
Speaker 1: the trailers and then I guess who popped up? One
8:51
Speaker 1: of my favorite people, Alan mauldin Off And guess what
8:54
Speaker 1: you were sitting just like that with short sleeves and
8:56
Speaker 1: your heck know, hey's showing off. Yea man now working
9:05
Speaker 1: with those guys are incredible, I got. I must say that. UM,
9:07
Speaker 1: shout out to our showrunner Michae O'Malley, uh and just
9:13
Speaker 1: everybody has stars for collecting a group of actors that
9:17
Speaker 1: are extraordinary. Um. You know it's a dream team. Man.
9:22
Speaker 1: You you wake up as an artist and you dream
9:25
Speaker 1: of being surrounded by people that share your same passion,
9:30
Speaker 1: your drive, your intensity to uh being an artist, and
9:36
Speaker 1: that's the cast appeals and everybody down even shout out
9:40
Speaker 1: to you know, my uh biggest bro, James Harrison, who
9:45
Speaker 1: I often tease and I'm the little brother that he
9:47
Speaker 1: never asked for. But even with him being this being
9:50
Speaker 1: his first series as an actor, he came in and
9:54
Speaker 1: showed up and showed out as an elite athlete, prepared
9:58
Speaker 1: um and giving it his all. And that was It's
10:03
Speaker 1: an incredible environment. And that's what I'm excited for people
10:06
Speaker 1: to see just all of these talented people come together
10:09
Speaker 1: and we kind of just you know, form the Avengers
10:12
Speaker 1: on screen and it's it's just beautiful. It's beautiful. Man.
10:15
Speaker 1: I can't wait for people to say. Now when he
10:17
Speaker 1: said James Harrison looked a little background on an incredible
10:20
Speaker 1: linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers who ran back that testdown
10:24
Speaker 1: and like ran over like fifteen people in the Super
10:26
Speaker 1: Bowl and I play on Super Bowl for testdown. It
10:30
Speaker 1: was a super Bowl super I was there. He don't
10:32
Speaker 1: ever try to claim that I was there with him,
10:37
Speaker 1: but he always they always neglect me out of NFL history.
10:40
Speaker 1: But it's all right, because you know, he's a workout
10:43
Speaker 1: free That's one thing. That's one thing for sure. If
10:46
Speaker 1: you think you can work out at hang around James Harrison,
10:49
Speaker 1: because I had I had a good fortune of meeting
10:51
Speaker 1: him when I was with Steve Harvey on the Steve
10:54
Speaker 1: Harvey Talk Show. He did talk show and we sat
10:56
Speaker 1: down my office, had a good conversation. Because he's a character,
10:59
Speaker 1: he's a and he will tell you what's on his mind.
11:03
Speaker 1: If you if you're sending across from him, all we're
11:05
Speaker 1: talking about James Harrison, and you don't want the truth
11:08
Speaker 1: or some positive feedback that might become negative that you
11:11
Speaker 1: expect him what they say, hold back his words. You're talking. No,
11:17
Speaker 1: not at all, No, no. But but that's the type
11:22
Speaker 1: of person because he's competitive. He's gonna push you towards
11:24
Speaker 1: your greatness. When you're talking about that, talking about working
11:27
Speaker 1: with him, working with him I got. I got the
11:30
Speaker 1: chance to train with him for nine months. So while
11:32
Speaker 1: we were shooting Hills, it was basically a part of
11:35
Speaker 1: our it was a part of our contract to work
11:38
Speaker 1: out basically five days out of the week, even when
11:41
Speaker 1: we're shooting and when we're not shooting. So I took
11:46
Speaker 1: it upon myself to you know, basically shadow him, shadow
11:51
Speaker 1: him while he trained So these are four four or
11:54
Speaker 1: fifteen wake up five am. We in the gym and
11:57
Speaker 1: we're training, and we're working for at least two hours
12:00
Speaker 1: um everyday Monday through Saturday. And I did that with
12:03
Speaker 1: that man for nine months, and I learned what it
12:07
Speaker 1: takes to be an elite athlete, the approached, the mental
12:11
Speaker 1: side of it, all, the physical, the importance of recovery,
12:14
Speaker 1: like I've learned so much from from him man um
12:19
Speaker 1: so like it was life changing to be able to
12:21
Speaker 1: have nine months of trained with such an elite athlete
12:23
Speaker 1: and kind of just you know, mimic and being inspired
12:26
Speaker 1: by his routine and and learn like you know, as
12:30
Speaker 1: an actor, you you you, you you portray, and you
12:33
Speaker 1: portray these type of characters, but to actually be next
12:36
Speaker 1: to one and befriend one and kind of pick his
12:39
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Speaker 1: when you're talking, let's let's talk about we're talking about
14:41
Speaker 1: we're talking with Ala Maldonado, or we're gonna talk about
14:44
Speaker 1: another project. But right now we're talking about the stars
14:46
Speaker 1: action drama called Heels. What's your rolling in? And uh,
14:50
Speaker 1: how do you interact with the other characters. Rooster Robbins
14:54
Speaker 1: is the name, It's Rooster time. He is the high
14:58
Speaker 1: flying act of the show and of the rest of
15:01
Speaker 1: the league. Um, we're part of this independent wrest of
15:04
Speaker 1: the league and Duffy called d w l Um. I'm
15:08
Speaker 1: one of several wrestlers on the show. Uh, and you
15:12
Speaker 1: kind of see me go through my growing pains. I'm
15:16
Speaker 1: a I'm a vet, but I started off as a
15:18
Speaker 1: young prodigy, so you kind of see the frustration of
15:22
Speaker 1: uh in the eagerness to get to the next level.
15:25
Speaker 1: In this series, it's a drama. So I know people
15:29
Speaker 1: used to me being in comedies as of late, but
15:32
Speaker 1: I'm excited to be able to flex that and just
15:35
Speaker 1: remind people, like, you know, the last five years, people
15:38
Speaker 1: have known me for my comedy, but you know, I've
15:41
Speaker 1: been doing this a long time and like the first
15:43
Speaker 1: ten years in my career, I did nothing but dramatic work.
15:46
Speaker 1: So I'm excited to kind of flex that muscle and
15:50
Speaker 1: and and remind people that I can. You know, I'm
15:52
Speaker 1: all around. Well, the special thing about that when I
15:54
Speaker 1: watched Kevin Hart, you know, and can flex his his
15:58
Speaker 1: his drama muscle, and I watch you. But like I said,
16:00
Speaker 1: because you do so many different projects, that lets me
16:03
Speaker 1: know you can do this too. Because you're not to
16:05
Speaker 1: meet Pigeonhole as far as any of the roles that
16:08
Speaker 1: you play, because they all are different. They all involved
16:11
Speaker 1: some research, like this involved some research. But more importantly,
16:15
Speaker 1: I gotta ask you the physicality of this particular role
16:18
Speaker 1: because of the fact that you know, you see you know,
16:21
Speaker 1: the Friday Night Wrastling or the USA wrastling on Finding
16:25
Speaker 1: and Fox. These guys coming off that turn buckle, hitting
16:28
Speaker 1: that hitting that floor. Talk about that training and how
16:32
Speaker 1: you were able to recover because you talk about recovering
16:35
Speaker 1: from things like that, and then when you were doing
16:37
Speaker 1: the training process the men, when you had to have
16:41
Speaker 1: the confidence that you will be all right when you
16:43
Speaker 1: finally hit the match right, well, you know, that's what
16:46
Speaker 1: the importance of the weight training and like stretching was
16:50
Speaker 1: something that I really grew to love while shooting the
16:54
Speaker 1: show and then again working with James, like the importance
16:56
Speaker 1: of it. I never really stretched before like an idiot,
16:59
Speaker 1: but now it's it's a part of my routine where
17:02
Speaker 1: I got like thirty minutes uh before and after every
17:06
Speaker 1: workout that I'm I'm stretching in the importance of that.
17:09
Speaker 1: So with that being said, training and all of the
17:12
Speaker 1: wrestling routines that we would learn, and we had a
17:15
Speaker 1: fantastic group of stunt doubles. Um, you know, I was
17:19
Speaker 1: blessed to be able to do most of my stunts. Uh,
17:22
Speaker 1: I was excited. I was that six year old kid
17:25
Speaker 1: jumping off of couches, you know, So anytime they would
17:28
Speaker 1: ask me to do this ridiculous stunt, and I always
17:32
Speaker 1: took a beat because the grown Maldonado was like, nah,
17:36
Speaker 1: many on this, like come on, chillick, six year old
17:42
Speaker 1: maldon I was like, what are you talking about? This
17:45
Speaker 1: is what we dreamed. Uh, Jumpy got a rig from
17:49
Speaker 1: flipping back rope, back flipping off the top ropes, backflipping
17:53
Speaker 1: on James Harrison, jumping on, jumping out of the ring, flipping.
17:57
Speaker 1: I said, you know what, I want to do it
17:59
Speaker 1: all and I to experience what it feels like to
18:02
Speaker 1: be a real wrestler. And wrestling is real. It's predetermined,
18:07
Speaker 1: but it's real. Those those those um hitting, that hitting
18:12
Speaker 1: that canvas is real, and it gets even really after
18:15
Speaker 1: you get close lines seven times in a row by
18:18
Speaker 1: James Harrison. So definitely by nine by the ninth month
18:24
Speaker 1: of us filming this thing, Uh, my body was it took.
18:28
Speaker 1: It took a toll on my body. I was definitely needed,
18:31
Speaker 1: uh in much need of a vacation. Well, you know,
18:33
Speaker 1: I'm really I'm happy you're saying about wrestling is real,
18:36
Speaker 1: because you know, when you do you do action scenes
18:39
Speaker 1: and moving when you're fighting, you can throw a punch,
18:42
Speaker 1: you know you when you did they shooting there, certain
18:44
Speaker 1: could look like it made contact, But wrestling plays itself
18:48
Speaker 1: in front of a live audience, so there has to
18:50
Speaker 1: be some degree of physical contact. Album that's what you're
18:53
Speaker 1: talking about, you know. So when when that hits you,
18:56
Speaker 1: it actually is gonna make contact with your body, you know,
19:00
Speaker 1: is gonna make contact, so you have to react to
19:01
Speaker 1: it so you won't make full contact and knock yourself out.
19:05
Speaker 1: So when you were going through that process, like you said,
19:09
Speaker 1: the older version you said, whoa, whoa, I got another
19:13
Speaker 1: project coming up. I want to get up from this math.
19:15
Speaker 1: The younger versions of Hey, brother, you know we've been
19:18
Speaker 1: waiting on this. We gotta do it now. So when
19:21
Speaker 1: did you get confident that this is something you can do?
19:23
Speaker 1: I know you wanted to do it. Was it just
19:25
Speaker 1: talking to the stock doubles, just just sitting down and
19:28
Speaker 1: looking at the whole step by step process of walking
19:31
Speaker 1: it through that you went, okay, I'm cool with this now.
19:34
Speaker 1: It's it's simple. Man. I wouldn't let James outd like,
19:42
Speaker 1: like for real, man, Like you know, James is ridiculous. Man,
19:46
Speaker 1: I love that dude, Like he's a premier athlete. He's
19:50
Speaker 1: in there doing back flips and all this other stuff,
19:53
Speaker 1: and I'm just sitting there like, man, I can't, I
19:56
Speaker 1: can't go out like that. Let me go ahead and
19:58
Speaker 1: do this back flip. He definitely inspired me to take
20:02
Speaker 1: a lot of risk and challenges I probably wouldn't have
20:05
Speaker 1: done if you weren't there. To be honest, just because
20:07
Speaker 1: we have this healthy competition, Um, we're not even that competition.
20:12
Speaker 1: Like I said, he inspires me to train harder, uh
20:16
Speaker 1: and do things better and you know, incorrectly because that
20:21
Speaker 1: was what a lot of things that he was doing
20:22
Speaker 1: and fixing with the things I was training. Um, but now,
20:26
Speaker 1: to be totally honest, I'll keep it a buck. It
20:29
Speaker 1: was I didn't wanna let James i'ull do me by
20:33
Speaker 1: backflipping and then me not me not backflipping myself as well.
20:36
Speaker 1: So it was it was one of those things we
20:38
Speaker 1: kept pushing each other. I love it. Now, you know
20:41
Speaker 1: the whole problem, like, the whole good thing about this
20:43
Speaker 1: whole show is that there's own stars you wanted the
20:46
Speaker 1: stars of the series. It's Carl Heels that's premiered on
20:49
Speaker 1: the Stars Network. Now, the great thing about whenever I
20:52
Speaker 1: talked to Ala Malda. No, though, it's never stops at
20:54
Speaker 1: one conversation, y'all, it's always what the great thing about you?
20:59
Speaker 1: You hear people hype stuff? Well, you know when you
21:02
Speaker 1: Deadline dot Com, that's the variety. You know, he's on
21:06
Speaker 1: Deadline dot Com. That's like the ultimate online digital shout
21:11
Speaker 1: out for something big in Hollywood. Now he's been in
21:15
Speaker 1: Deadline so much because I get there alerts, so I'll
21:17
Speaker 1: be knowing about it. Alabata dollar, Alabata Dollar. So, my man,
21:23
Speaker 1: you got the Wonder Years reboot, that's a don cheto
21:26
Speaker 1: project from for ABC. You got the house party movie
21:30
Speaker 1: movie Reboat Rebirth. That's through Lebron James's company here, and
21:35
Speaker 1: that's the Lebron James we all know, just wrapped up
21:37
Speaker 1: Space JAF two number one moving the country. Then you
21:40
Speaker 1: have Sight three. This is Gus. That's a three chore
21:42
Speaker 1: for the Peacock Network. Let's start with the Wonder Years reboot.
21:47
Speaker 1: Your role, how you got involved in that? And uh
21:50
Speaker 1: that's on ABC? Uh? Will I played coach Long. Um,
21:56
Speaker 1: I'm also the father to Um, the best friend of
22:00
Speaker 1: the show. Uh So, Um, how Wonder Years came about
22:05
Speaker 1: Saladein Patterson's show runner. Shout out to Saladein, Um, incredible writer,
22:11
Speaker 1: incredible person overall had the honor of working with him
22:17
Speaker 1: uh at the writer's room because he show ran The
22:20
Speaker 1: Last O G. So when the opportunity came where there
22:24
Speaker 1: was a role that I suit, I was suited for, UM,
22:28
Speaker 1: he just reached out and UM, you know, made the
22:31
Speaker 1: phone call and we worked it all out. Uh. We
22:34
Speaker 1: had our prior, you know, working working relationship with The
22:37
Speaker 1: Last O G. And we worked so well together it
22:39
Speaker 1: was you know, it was a no brainer. UM going
22:41
Speaker 1: in and just shout out to do le Um who
22:46
Speaker 1: we also started the Psyche movie, which spawned from how
22:51
Speaker 1: well we worked together on Wonder Years and a Wonder
22:54
Speaker 1: Years pilot. So I mean, I'm a I'm a big
22:57
Speaker 1: believer and work gets you more work. And that's how
23:01
Speaker 1: I've built my career of just being consistent, being on time,
23:05
Speaker 1: being professional, UM, trying my best to supersede anyone's expectations
23:10
Speaker 1: of what they what they want out of whatever character
23:14
Speaker 1: I deliver on screen. And that's how all of this
23:18
Speaker 1: stuff continues to happen. Man. So I'm blessed and I
23:22
Speaker 1: look forward to just continuing the consistent work ethic and
23:27
Speaker 1: just giving him my all as an artist. Man, I really,
23:30
Speaker 1: I really, really really love this acting thing. Well, you know,
23:34
Speaker 1: I don't want to short change no you know, actor, writer, director, entrepreneur.
23:41
Speaker 1: You know, in the writer's room in Blackish, you know,
23:44
Speaker 1: we all talked about this. So you know, sometimes I'm
23:47
Speaker 1: jealous of you because I was in the writer's room
23:48
Speaker 1: but I couldn't act. So you know, so you got
23:50
Speaker 1: me that, you know what I'm saying. I could tell
23:52
Speaker 1: a joke, but I couldn't that. So you still got
23:54
Speaker 1: me that I could direct but I couldn't that. So
23:56
Speaker 1: you know, you always go top Jean McDonald at what
24:00
Speaker 1: you talked about was relationships, and a lot of people
24:03
Speaker 1: that don't understand that really is the value. And black
24:06
Speaker 1: actors now are starting to get relationships with people that
24:11
Speaker 1: look like us. They are making phone calls. You know,
24:14
Speaker 1: used to be Spike Lee was the only black person
24:15
Speaker 1: that can make phone calls, you know, but now there
24:17
Speaker 1: are other black people in this business starting to make
24:20
Speaker 1: phone calls and becoming decision makers. And you create these
24:23
Speaker 1: relationships and into making you feel comfortable about the future
24:26
Speaker 1: and what you can do not only as an actor,
24:29
Speaker 1: but as a writer and a director, because you want
24:31
Speaker 1: to bring your own projects to the screen, whether it's
24:33
Speaker 1: small or large. Correct, Yeah, I mean that's I mean
24:37
Speaker 1: life has built off relationships, not just you know, entertainment.
24:41
Speaker 1: I think people lose sight that the real value on
24:46
Speaker 1: this uh, this O this world is pete the people. Um,
24:50
Speaker 1: in your relationships. If everything with the dirt, we will
24:53
Speaker 1: be relying on each other's relationship to survive. Whether it's
24:56
Speaker 1: like if this person hunting and this person caught fish,
24:59
Speaker 1: or this person was good as a blacksmith, all these things, um,
25:03
Speaker 1: we had to depend more on with technology in the
25:06
Speaker 1: way society has built You're not really um measured by
25:11
Speaker 1: your talents, are your natural talents rather um, so people
25:15
Speaker 1: try to diminish your worth. Um. So overall, man, I
25:20
Speaker 1: think relationships and being a good person and respecting one
25:25
Speaker 1: another will get you a very very very long way. UM.
25:30
Speaker 1: And I'm happy to uh have built a you know,
25:34
Speaker 1: reputation of being a stand up person and uh professional
25:40
Speaker 1: at the end of the day and really just I'm
25:42
Speaker 1: just a cool dude man, Like I do my work
25:44
Speaker 1: to go home. Man, we're at what grows in the
25:50
Speaker 1: forest trees. Sure you know what else? Girls in the forest,
25:54
Speaker 1: Our imagination, our sense of wonder, and our family bonds
25:58
Speaker 1: grow too, because when you disconnect from this and connect
26:04
Speaker 1: with this, we reconnect with each other. The forest is
26:08
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26:11
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26:21
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26:25
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26:29
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26:32
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26:35
Speaker 1: like burning yard waist. After all, wildfires can start anywhere,
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Speaker 1: Bear dot com to learn more about wildfire prevention. Brought
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26:51
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26:54
Speaker 1: world for them. You look and see a tree, they
26:57
Speaker 1: see the wrinkled face of a wizard with arms outstretched
27:01
Speaker 1: to the sky, they see treasuring pebbles, they see a
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27:16
Speaker 1: Orgon brought to you by the United States Forest Service
27:18
Speaker 1: and the Council. You went back. Now you're doing a
27:20
Speaker 1: movie and went back to my era, you know house
27:22
Speaker 1: part of reboot. You know that brought back some memories
27:25
Speaker 1: and the fact that you're involved with it. You know, Uh,
27:28
Speaker 1: I leeve Jacob Latimer from The Shy is uh starting
27:32
Speaker 1: in a movie with you? Uh? Talk about that reboot?
27:34
Speaker 1: I know you know back then, Uh, you know, a
27:37
Speaker 1: lot of comedians were involved in a lot of great
27:39
Speaker 1: comedy actors were involved in it. When that was approached
27:42
Speaker 1: to you put on your docket. Talk about that experience.
27:44
Speaker 1: Like you said, you have a past relationship working relationship
27:47
Speaker 1: with Lebron James on Survivor's Remorse. And that's what I
27:50
Speaker 1: love about you. Whenever we talk, you have a clear
27:53
Speaker 1: understanding that, like we're talking about a few minutes ago,
27:55
Speaker 1: relationships build opportunity, and on that opportunity you still have
27:59
Speaker 1: to deliver of the work and you don't, you don't
28:02
Speaker 1: fall back on I just that's my boy. He's gonna
28:04
Speaker 1: take care of you. Going there with the mindset that
28:06
Speaker 1: I still have to deliver in order to get the
28:08
Speaker 1: next opportunity from my board or from my girl. Correct,
28:12
Speaker 1: that's correct, man, um, I think people. Uh. And that's
28:16
Speaker 1: the respect aspect of it all. Just because you're you know,
28:20
Speaker 1: friends are you're closer to one person versus the next,
28:24
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you lose respect for your craft or your
28:27
Speaker 1: job or what they have hired you for. And a
28:29
Speaker 1: lot of times we do do that, and it's disrespectful
28:33
Speaker 1: to whoever your friend is because it's like, man, that's
28:37
Speaker 1: something separate, like I hired you to do something, but
28:40
Speaker 1: house party it is one of those I p s
28:45
Speaker 1: are you know, classics that to be a part of
28:49
Speaker 1: this new version and this new creation of it. As
28:52
Speaker 1: you know, you know, people tend to think of reboots
28:55
Speaker 1: as sequels, and that's not really what it is to reboot.
28:59
Speaker 1: It's a different version of this similar world, this coming
29:02
Speaker 1: of age story that we got to experience that impacted
29:06
Speaker 1: the culture in such a way in the early nineties
29:09
Speaker 1: that you know, has transferred to to now, which is
29:13
Speaker 1: almost thirty years UM. Shout out to Reggie who directed
29:17
Speaker 1: the first one, who's uh, you know, the mind and
29:21
Speaker 1: the creation the brilliance behind the first one. He's a
29:24
Speaker 1: part of the reboot as well as an executive producer.
29:28
Speaker 1: So we're in good hands with Lebron. Uh. Shout out
29:33
Speaker 1: to Chuck our director. Um. You know, and we we
29:37
Speaker 1: we were looking in and we're determined to put some
29:40
Speaker 1: very very funny on screen. Now. Yeah, that you know
29:44
Speaker 1: people would enjoy at the end of the day, and
29:46
Speaker 1: that's all that matters. You know. Before I go, I
29:49
Speaker 1: I'll be remissed. I kind of mentioned their names a
29:51
Speaker 1: little bit. We talked a lot about James co starring
29:54
Speaker 1: with you and the stars series Heels, but you have
29:57
Speaker 1: two leads in there because I mentioned hard in the
30:00
Speaker 1: series Viking series and also starting the Arrow series. Can
30:04
Speaker 1: you talk about that their talents and working with their
30:06
Speaker 1: talents and how how they just incredibly gifted young men
30:11
Speaker 1: and nice people as well. Oh man, Stephen the Mill
30:15
Speaker 1: uh and Alexander. Um, They're they're pure professionals. Man. I
30:20
Speaker 1: love sharing the screen with them. Some of some of
30:22
Speaker 1: my favorite scenes in the series are with them. Um.
30:27
Speaker 1: Some some really good traumatic work. Uh and just lions
30:31
Speaker 1: man like we gotta we gotta den for the Lions.
30:34
Speaker 1: And Stephen the mill is the captain of the ship
30:36
Speaker 1: man uh. And second up Xander and they they set
30:41
Speaker 1: the tone. Um. You know there's scenes I've seen with
30:45
Speaker 1: scenes Xanders throwing chairs and all types of crazy stuff.
30:48
Speaker 1: I love it. It's it's it's it's a beautiful, you know,
30:55
Speaker 1: sort of dance that you get to witness close and
30:58
Speaker 1: personal when you when you get to work with phenomenal
31:01
Speaker 1: actors such as such as them and and along with
31:04
Speaker 1: the entire I got Chris Bowl Like shout out to Chris.
31:06
Speaker 1: He plays wild Bill on the show. Everybody's gonna be
31:10
Speaker 1: in love with wild Bill on this show. Um, Chris
31:14
Speaker 1: is hands down one of my favorite actors to watch
31:19
Speaker 1: work this witness. Uh. He's such a pure artist. Uh.
31:25
Speaker 1: And every time, every second, uh and every frame that
31:28
Speaker 1: you see him in it's something special when you go
31:31
Speaker 1: get something unique. So I'm telling you, it's the whole
31:34
Speaker 1: cast is incredible and oh my god, like I just
31:38
Speaker 1: can't wait. Well before I want to end on a
31:41
Speaker 1: personal note. Well, were recording this interview via zoom and
31:45
Speaker 1: in the background, I see some tributes to Kobe Bryant
31:50
Speaker 1: in order to see the images that I'm seeing. Obviously,
31:52
Speaker 1: he had an impact on you if users and his
31:55
Speaker 1: depth unfortunately allowed me to see. I only do Kobe
32:00
Speaker 1: Bryant the basketball star. You know, I kind of knew
32:03
Speaker 1: about him as Kobe Bryant the father, but afterwards I
32:06
Speaker 1: realized how he took the time to impact so many people.
32:09
Speaker 1: And I see images of him on your back wall there.
32:13
Speaker 1: Talk about why that's important that you have that on
32:15
Speaker 1: your back wall and Kobe Bryant and why he has
32:18
Speaker 1: an impact in your life. Uh he you know, Mama.
32:22
Speaker 1: Mentality is the gospel. It's the uh you know away
32:30
Speaker 1: of life over here for me. Man, Just that type
32:33
Speaker 1: of dedication and that obsession to what you love and
32:38
Speaker 1: to your craft. You know, just the phrases, you know,
32:42
Speaker 1: different animals, same beasts. Like these are things that ring
32:46
Speaker 1: in my head daily when whenever I'm in pursuit or
32:49
Speaker 1: whatever goal, whether it be fitness, mental, personal, spiritually, like
32:53
Speaker 1: there is no knows, there's only as uh and and
33:00
Speaker 1: it's a lot inspired by you know, Kobe, watching him work,
33:03
Speaker 1: watching watching his um in his rise, his struggles, his
33:09
Speaker 1: wins his losses. Um, and just his perseverance and his
33:13
Speaker 1: legendary work ethic is what uh you hear about. And
33:20
Speaker 1: only this is gonna the legend is only gonna grow
33:22
Speaker 1: as the stories continue to go, even in his past,
33:24
Speaker 1: and so uh, Kobe personally means a lot of an
33:27
Speaker 1: l a kid as well. So um, we we watched
33:31
Speaker 1: him grow and you know, to see him pass in
33:35
Speaker 1: the manner that he did was just so traumatic, and
33:39
Speaker 1: um it's impacted everyone, you know, definitely condolescence to his
33:44
Speaker 1: wife and the kids, like we can only imagine how
33:47
Speaker 1: they feel, and being that we felt so heartbroken even
33:51
Speaker 1: though we and me personally I didn't know him personally
33:54
Speaker 1: at all. So uh, just an incredible human being, incredible inspiration.
34:00
Speaker 1: So um, you know, he's definitely at the top of
34:03
Speaker 1: my mouth rushmore. As far as the inspiration I appreciate,
34:07
Speaker 1: as I always appreciate that alive, we're we would definitely
34:09
Speaker 1: be seeing you again. It's always about to in Spain.
34:12
Speaker 1: You kind of threw out that lovel movie project that's
34:14
Speaker 1: coming out next year, so we'll be talking next year.
34:16
Speaker 1: It's always appreciated, always appreciate you man again. I'll be
34:19
Speaker 1: watching TV with your face only a lot this fall.
34:23
Speaker 1: Keep getting those blessings with God and doing what God
34:25
Speaker 1: has asked you to do. Brothers, always love and always
34:28
Speaker 1: a great conversation with you. Man. Appreciate you brother alright.
34:32
Speaker 1: If you want to hear any of my interviews on
34:34
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