So I might not be the best person to ask
because I think now I've become a Dallasite to know
that this is just what God has had happen to me.
This is where I reside, this is my artistic
home even though I work around the country
so I like the peace and the space of Dallas.
I don't like, even about four years ago I went
to New York to do a Broadway show at
Lincoln Center called Playboy of the West
Indies and after two weeks of rehearsal I
was ready to quit because I wasn't used to it anymore.
So you know when you get out of New York, in a
lot of days New Yorkers say they'll never
leave but when you do leave it's another world
because New York is like a jungle.
For me, I can only talk for me.
This man right here is wonderful, he's the
photographer for the season, anytime you see
somebody snapping pictures this is him and he
does a wonderful and incredible job to
support this institution.
Thank you Sir.
Comfortably speaking let's say Miami, New York,
Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, other
major cities, have you found that here in
Dallas where the arts are not as supported
as strongly as other cities, has it been a
bigger struggle for you here?
Well yeah absolutely, that's why I leave town a
lot to work but also what I found is that
this is a wide open field for anyone who has an
idea or wants to pioneer or do something
because then you're not fighting all of the
other companies in those major cities.
So a lot of times I have honestly had an idea
in the middle of the night like with Shakespeare,
Midnight Echoes, and went to the Office of
Cultural Affairs, talked about it, talked
about it to other friends and was able to do
that like overnight and that's the beauty
of Dallas, if you do have the desire to
struggle and to make something happen it's
still very
fertile ground for that so there's not all of
the unnecessary competition that lies in
major cities but with that, along with that
goes lack of opportunities and I unfortunately
am only one of the African American actors that
works at the Dallas Theater Center which
is the major theater center here a lot and in
coming to Dallas that was one of my plights
and one of the things that I took on to open up
that institution towards diversity from
being there and I think I've been influential
to that end.
But there's still a lot of work to be done
around the country in that end you know so
I just think that you've got to, as an artist
you've got to make things happen, you can't
wait and sit around and wait for somebody to
give you a job, in many ways you've got
to create your own, especially African American
actors, you've got to create your own legacies
and your own ideas and that's what Dallas as a
home provides for me.
I'm doing all the talking, ain't nobody asking
no questions, that's the question about these films.
Am I the guy on Wishbone, yeah, if you watch
Wishbone, it's a good show isn't it?
Oh that was the best show you did, oh they
treated you so nice and the little dog was
the star of the show so if you got along with
the dog you had a job.
I'm doing and I was doing acting and this week
and then after that then I started to
get on stage and after that then we went in the
dance room and then after
that we lined up and then after that we went on
stage and did a little laugh and then after
that we went home and laughed.
You went home?
Did you finish your performance? Yeah.
Oh you did? Yes.
Did you play the lead role? Yeah.
Did you play the lead role?
We played the lead role.
How old are you? Four.
What's your name? Alex.
Alex, what's your last name? Longstreet.
Longstreet, is your mother here? Yes.
What's your mother's name? Jean.
Jean, okay, what's your father's name? Lofton.
I thought this was his last name. No.
What's his first name?
I don't know.
You know your mother but you don't know your
father's first name? No.
I don't believe you.
You're too smart for that.
Because I don't know because nobody didn't tell me.
Nobody told you your father's first name?
I know your father's first name.
His name is Dwight. No.
Yes, you and me.
Okay, so do you dance? Yes.
So would you dance for us tonight? Yes.
Do you need music? Yes.
Give us the music.
James, where's the music?
Are you sure you're going to dance now? Yes.
Where's the music?
The music is being made.
What do you want me to say?
Say a poem.
Say a word.
Do you know one? Yes.
I do a prayer and I wave the flag and after
that I go to school and then after that we
talk at school network and then we took a nap
and my mommy and then I went to the gym
and she picked me up and then she picked me up
and we sell candy on our bus.
And then after that?
We did something good because if we did
something good then we would go home.
What about you?
What's your name? Vernisha.
Tell us what you do. Vernisha.
Are you dancing? Yes.
Are you dancing?
What kind of music do you need to dance with?
It doesn't matter.
Can you dance with me? Yes.
Can we give them a hand and still dance on the stage?
Alright Mr. James.
There you have it.
and do their thing.
They're one character in one film,
and they're an entirely different character
in another film.
That doesn't just happen.
Filling the moment, I remember in,
which way it's up, was,
Leroy's Tuesday.
That wasn't in the script,
but I had to fill the time,
because he was in the other room,
and the writer hadn't written anything,
and there wasn't anything for me to do
at that time.
So because I knew, as a trained actor,
how to think the way the character would think,
it just came out.
I didn't know the night before,
or the beginning of the scene that that would do,
but I just want you to know that things,
you work for success,
and if you wanna be an actor,
please don't get in it for the result
being money, glamor, fame,
because only, what is it,
0.5, 10% of the 250,000 members,
or how many, a screen actor's skill, work.
And now television is so different now.
Episodic TV, there aren't many guest stars anymore.
They have large casts,
and they use those people
over and over and over again.
The cast, they don't have to work every day.
They come in and they do their few scenes,
and maybe we have one guest star,
or one, what, two maybe?
And they don't have more than a scene.
And now the union has gotten so,
because of inflation, or recession coming,
or whatever's happening,
they're taking away our health benefits,
and they're saying, you gotta earn,
how much is it now, 20,000?
Anyway, it's some figure that isn't huge.
It isn't a huge amount of money,
and nobody can really live off that.
But actors, we live off these visuals.
You do a commercial,
and then it's like you have monies coming in.
But what they're saying now with the union
is that if you don't make,
I think it's like 10,000 a year,
and that's not a lot of money,
but it is when you think
that you can only get 3,500 on a sitcom,
and then they wanna, the producers get it
so that they don't even wanna pay you back.
So what are you gonna do?
You don't even have health insurance
at the end of the year.
Maybe you got some part-time job to keep you going,
but it all boils down to being able to sustain yourself.
Did I get the message?
I didn't mean to preach at that,
but I have so many kids coming to me,
oh, Ms. David, I wanna ask, how'd you do that?
It's not about taking a snapshot and boom,
submitting it to agencies.
You have yourself together first as a person,
and do not forget your roots.
Don't forget who you are,
and keep some kind of higher power in your life,
because it's the ones who,
those actors who get caught up in all the glamor
and read their reviews and believe them,
but, Honey, two years later,
they're right back where they started from,
and they can't believe,
oh, I'm not the Ms. Hot thing anymore,
and the next thing you know,
there are drugs, there are the drinking,
they cannot deal with reality.
But if they have a higher power in their lives,
and they knew who they were when all this
glamor was going,
I was in a business 25 years before I did Color Purple.
That's a lot of experience,
and it's a lot of observing actors coming and going,
and I remember my mentor, Cicely Tyson,
and so many others, that there were times
when I didn't see them for years.
I'm wondering, are they still in the business?
So I have that in the back of my head
after when I was doing all those Color Purple interviews,
and you know, Beth,
these, the junket they put you on,
the news junket, and you're all over everywhere,
and most of them, I was just saying,
God, please don't let them see how tired I am.
You just have to keep going,
and with men, this is what I was in.
They can be looking all bad and hungover,
and whatever, but that's character.
But with you, a woman, you want them?
Uh-oh, you suddenly grew up.
You're not a star anymore.
Bye-bye, let's say goodbye to everyone.
All right, we lost our companions.
They're going to be companions from over there.
What was my point there?
I don't know, they distracted me.
I have no retention.
That happens when we get older.
When a woman looks tired.
Where was I?
When a woman looks tired.
Oh, yes, yes.
I remember having to be across country,
doing something.
I hadn't slept before doing that.
Well, just this weekend.
I was in San Diego, Thursday night.
I finished what I was doing there
about one in the morning.
Said, okay, I'll sleep here in the hotel until
three, maybe.
And then I'm going to take off and go back to L.A .,
drive back to L.A.,
and be ready to answer my messages, whatever,
and then fly here to Dallas.
Well, I wound up being so worried that I would oversleep
because I was tired that I just came on back.
So by the time I was here last night,
I hadn't slept in over 24 hours.
It was like going on 30 hours.
But being the pro that we have become and
worked hard to be,
I didn't get up here talking to the people saying,
oh, I'm so tired.
I don't feel like doing any autographs. No.
The people wanted, they bought a ticket to come
and see me.
And I'm blessed to have that,
somebody who did a film almost 20 years ago
and they wanted to see the after.
That's a blessing.
So, put on the same, I pulled it together.
Again, it takes a little longer when you're older.
I walked in here and tried to look like a red sunshine.
But if I had been haggard looking and down and out,
it would have been, oh, did you see?
She showed it, look there.
But if I had been a man, oh, you know,
he's rugged looking now.
Am I telling the truth?
But it's hard work.
You look at the actors and actresses who have
been on a series
for a successful series five years.
When you look at how they looked in the beginning
and towards the end of that series, it's a big difference.
It is not easy work.
Hopefully, black and white will be getting the
same pay
because we all worked hard.
How do you know if this will go, Curtis?
What would you like us to do?
Any questions?
I have one.
All right, let me control these questions.
One, two, three.
My question then for you, Sir, for Margaret,
when you were playing and you went into that,
when we were at Codria, he had a baby
and he was choking you and you were trying to
choke him.
What I want to know is were you having a flashback
on the relationship?
And why not a black woman?
Let me just preface this with a little bit.
When I found I was cast in the film, I was so elated.
I had never really done a lot of comedy other
than stage.
I came in that first day prepared as the actor does.
For film, we work on the script and we have our
thought dialogue going.
For every line, I had the line to say,
but I also had the subtext behind it.
That's what we call it. Thank you.
So the first day of work was that bedroom scene.
I think it was.
Of which way is that?
And just before the cameras started rolling,
Richard got up and went over to the director
and said,
you know what, I have an idea.
She does such and such, da da Da,
and he just had the director just rolling.
And then I went Da da da da.
And so he's a good director.
And Richard walked away and I said,
Richard, then what do I do?
He said, I don't know.
Oh my God, it was so different than the script.
Oh, I just almost panicked.
And here's how my higher power works.
It was setting up lighting,
because they set up the scene first,
how are you going to move in a scene
so the cameramen don't have such surprises.
And they like the scene.
So I went back to my trailer and I said,
oh dear God, please, please help me stay in the moment.
Take away this fear from me.
Please don't let me blow this opportunity.
And I just prayed, because all my,
it seemed like all my preparation had gone out
the window.
He was just going to do improv.
So I went back in when they called us,
that they were ready to shoot.
And I was off on the side.
There was another little room.
And who was there? Richard.
He was smelling under his arm to see if he was.
I said, hi, I caught him.
He caught me in here.
We just both fell out.
Because in that moment told me that,
hey, he's just as human as I am.
Because I was trying to put makeup on my corns,
because he gave the camera a couple of feet.
And he's smelling himself to see if he's smelling.
I said, Laura, just let me relax and have fun.
And that's how that came about.
In that kitchen scene, he had me in stitches.
And I was going, he said, you mean the revs?
I said, yeah, I was trying to hold back from laughing.
I said, yeah.
But that scene, I think it just came out.
Whatever a woman would say when you feel like
you've just been so betrayed
and deceived and all.
And that comes from being relaxed enough, as
you know,
to be able to be real.
And you're not thinking, oh, am I doing that right?
Or what should I say next?
It just happens.
But we had a good time there.
We had a good time.
Question here, and then question.
Okay, like you say, when you play the color purple,
I can tell you it was so much in the scene.
It was amazing.
Like, okay, when you act with David,
is he always real serious with his parts?
I think most actors are very serious.
Like, all the comedians even.
I was saying last night, Richard and Whoopi,
she says she's not a comedian.
She does comedy, and there is a difference.
I understand that.
But they're all very serious.
Richard was very shy, painfully so.
Once he's on, he's on.
But between takes or we're waiting for a whole
different scene to be set up,
maybe he would start talking to me,
and then other people would be attracted to it
and just kind of start gathering.
And before you knew it, there would be several
people around.
And I'd look up, and Richard would be wading
over in the corner somewhere,
observing us.
But to be one-on-one with everybody,
I didn't feel that he was that way.
I did a movie with Richard, too, called Moving,
and it was a story of a couple boys and a
couple girls.
Thank you.
And I have to concur with what Margaret is
saying about Richard.
He's very shy.
I mean, you see Richard do his stand-up,
and he's just so free with his comedy.
But as you take away the stage,
and it's just Richard being Richard,
it's very shy and very insecure about his
acting talent.
And I found that when we did that movie,
the whole while we were doing it,
Richard was just very insecure about if he was
doing it the right way
and how he should do a certain scene and blah,
blah, blah,
until he started getting into the karate part
of it,
the second part of the movie,
when his comedy could sort of take over,
the beginning of it was more of a realistic
kind of character.
And then with that character,
with him creating the first part of that movie,
I found Richard to be just very sort of reticent
about the character and about how he should do it.
And like Margaret said, he's just really shy,
and he's not, you know, you would think,
or sometimes I think people have the impression
that on the set with Richard,
he's a little bit more and just bigger than
life kind of person,
and it's just the opposite with Richard.
And he's very, and he's very humble.
And I think that's part of Richard's success
is that he's so humble and I think thankful for,
because he can't believe his success.
I mean, all these years that he's been so successful,
I think he's still very surprised by it.
And I think that's part of what keeps him very
human and very real. Question?
Yeah, that's one, I thank God, you know,
you were there when you were at.
I like you when you was in that room with him
and you got kind of mad, you know.
Yeah, you was in Which Way He's Up, right?
Oh, that really was in it.
No, I was in Movie. (laughter)
She's trying to say, I do remember that.
I'm sorry.
I just like the way you carried yourself with that.
And are you making another film?
Lord, am I making another film?
Are you making another film?
Let me tell you, I'll be, and I'll say this.
Oh, you're going to say it here.
Oh, don't say that.
They don't want to know that.
Well, I'll have, I figure I have 20 more good years.
Just saying that. (applause)
She said, they don't need that much tree. (laughter)
She doesn't know my age.
Nobody does.
I read it.
It's not true.
I'm telling you. (laughter)
If I tell you, then I'd have to kill you.
But your question was, will I do another movie?
I hope to.
Right now, I have to be honest.
I don't have the passion for the business that
I used to have
and it's because I'm so much more mature.
I'm no longer naive about it.
I'm hungry to do quality work and it's not fair.
So I'm doing a lot of work with children now.
Out of just interest, personal growth, a need
for personal growth.
A few years ago, I went back to school and had
no intention of getting a masters,
but I thought, if I can last a semester, that
would be interesting for me.
I didn't care what kind of school it was, but I
just happened to,
I tell you how God works, stumbled upon this
school that was psychology.
I just wanted to go all day on a Saturday.
I knew I couldn't go during the week because
that would interrupt interviews or anything.
And so I wanted to get a masters.
And in psychology, I was working with John
Travolta and Harry Belafonte during that time
because that was a Los Angeles location, so I
never interrupted my studies.
God is so good.
And then went on the road with your group that
you got me involved with.
And after that, I said, well, is there anything
I could do with this masters?
And because I started out in education, I used
to teach,
I got interested in education to use the psychology.
And so I work a lot with families and
adolescents and the problems that they're
having now.
So on a daily basis, and I'll probably be going
into private practice very soon.
So, but the education of our youth and the
disunity of our families now
and the awful destruction that drugs have done
to our communities,
the devaluation of our values and the trouble
that our young black men are in today.
It's scary to me.
It's very scary to me.
And those of us who can, I feel need to try to
help in whatever way that we can
because there's so many, there are more
families not together now.
They're more divorced or separated or never
married or whatever
than there are parents together.
And in my own family, when you know my masters
for my thesis was on genealogy
and I found out my family, the history being
that those of us who migrated to California
were all disjointed and there are very few
successful ones.
But the part of the family that went to Chicago
and they remained intact
with their family unit and their support
system, they're all successful professionals.
They didn't get, you know that there's drugs in Chicago,
but the family unit kept them together much better.
And so I'm a very strong one on young people
getting married too soon
and young girls thinking, oh if I had a baby
I'll have someone to love me.
It's a cycle that we have to stop.
And we can only do it through education and by example.
Or we'll never progress as a people.
Oh yeah, you know there aren't very many of us
that work.
And it's like, it's really true they let one
person in for each category.
We've got one, Danzell Washington.
But one is not enough.
And then we've got, Whoopi did very well with
her comedy.
And then we have, I'm dying to see how long, if
she can just, I was saying the other day,
if she could just go from picture to picture
like the white actresses do.
That's how you build your career and not be
limited to black projects.
Now I don't have anything wrong to say negative
about black projects,
but in the industry you wind up not making as
much money because the budget isn't as big.
So based on what you got the last time, that's
how you make your money.
What was your quote they call it?
So if you did a black film your quote is damn.
But if you can keep doing big films right now
until the white stars, your money goes up.
And it's unfortunate to say that if you're with
a white agency,
they don't want to lose money.
They want their commission to go up.
So they're going to negotiate just as hard for
you as they are for a white actress.
So I hate to complicate things.
Are you understanding what I'm saying?
When people get on the bandwagon and they talk
about how they shouldn't have gotten it for that.
Well there are a lot of white actresses that
shouldn't have gotten it for what they got it for.
Until somebody dies.
Until they find out they're sick or something.
Well let's give them the Sympathy award.
As far as I'm concerned Dan Zell should have
gotten it for something else.
But the fact is he got it.
Give the man some credit for that.
You want to say anything on that?
Yeah I mean he played the best of dogs as far
as I'm concerned.
I mean he had to act.
You know the man's not like that.
Question here first.
My name is Renisha from Girls and Corporate.
We just wanted to thank you for coming out here
and sharing your knowledge with us.
Thank you.
In response to what you said we just want you
to listen and really know that we do know what
we're talking about.
Are any of you interested in getting into the
profession in any way?
The girls that are there.
Are any of you young people here interested in
becoming in the business?
You want to act in what?
Is anybody else?
Any of the other young people? Yes?
What do you want to do?
In the red.
What is it that you would like to do?
Excuse me?
Okay the first thing both of you need to learn
how to do is project.
Can you hear me and I don't even have this microphone?
I don't really need a mic to be heard.
That's the first thing you need to learn how to
do as an actress and as a speaker.
Anytime that anybody addresses you or anytime
you're answering learn how to speak so that
your voice can be heard.
Who else? Yes?
What do you want to do?
I wanted to say that at Girls Incorporated we
do have a film.
We're taking the girls to a film maker's class
where they're learning to edit to film and all
of that.
But my question is, I know that's definitely
important for us to have to create more avenues
for black actresses and actors to start
creating youth who can make films.
But how important is it for like Oprah Winfrey
or Denzel or some of these people who are
making those big big dollars to start putting
back into producing and there's more of that happening.
Okay that's a two part question.
I was just asking these young people what they
want to do because I'm going to address what
you just said.
Who else wants to get into the business?
What do you want to do? Act.
I want to sing.
And I saw another hand back there. Yes?
Be a pediatrician. Alright.
What about you?
My name is Melinda Johnson from Girls
Incorporated and I wanted just to thank you Mr.
King for letting us dance last week.
Okay for all of you young people who would like
to get into the business especially as actors
or on any level or any discipline that you
would like to enter to be in, learn how to do everything.
Let me say that again.
Learn how to do everything.
Learn how to write.
Learn how to direct.
Learn how to produce.
Even if you don't produce it you should know
the rudiments of how to do it.
You need to learn how to do everything so that
what happens is, number one, you don't have to
wait for the phone to ring.
You don't have to wait for somebody to call you
and say go audition for a part because for
every person that goes to audition there are a
thousand other actresses around America that
are more than likely auditioning for that same role.
Learn and you don't have to so that what you do
is you know how to write.
You can write your own script.
You know how to direct so you can take your
camera and go and do a documentary or do a film
about your friends, about your family.
You learn you know how to write so that you can
write a script.
You already know how to act because you will
study how to act.
A lot of people think that okay I want to
become an actress and they don't take the time
to learn how to do it.
When I first started acting I did it because I
grew up in the theater and I learned how to do
it naturally.
So I was a very good actress but in my heart I
knew I didn't really know what I was doing.
I knew how to say a line convincingly but for
instance I didn't know how to cry and crying is
very important.
Well I know an actress who shall remain
nameless who could cry at the drop of a hat and
she was very good.
But you know she had that natural ability.
I could pretend like I was crying but I wanted
to learn how to use my instrument.
Young people listen to me. Your body is your
instrument just like a violin is an instrument,
a bass is an instrument, a drum.
You have to learn how to play your body so that
your body will do any kind of acting challenge
that it is called to do.
So I knew that I didn't really know how to use
my instrument and I went to class so I could
learn how so that I would become a better actress.
And I felt better within my own self knowing I
knew what I was doing as opposed to pretending
like I knew what I was doing.
Now acting is pretend. I understand that but
you have to learn how to do it convincingly.
And so that for me I felt much better after I
knew what I was doing.
So learn how to do as much as you can so that
you don't have to wait for anybody.
And there are so many avenues. You know we keep
saying back to your question about Denzel and Oprah,
yes in my opinion they should do much more. I
don't know what all Oprah is doing.
I know that Denzel is very involved with the
Boys Club of America.
I know he pumps a lot of money and a lot of
time into that.
And I don't know what all the benefits are of
his being involved but I do know that he spends
a great deal of time with the Boys Club of America.
I don't know what Oprah does with all of her
money. As far as I'm concerned there's so much
more because she has so much more to give.
And there are older people that could be helped.
There are a lot of younger people that could be helped.
And she may be doing that. I don't know what
she's doing.
I would like to know what she's doing so I
could stop talking about I think she should do more.
I mean when God has given much you have to give much.
But again it doesn't matter whether they do or
not because as young people if you learn how to
do it all yourself
you don't have to wait for Oprah or Denzel or
anybody else. You can do it yourself.
And that's very very important. So parents if
your children do want to go into the business
arm them with as much and help them to learn
how to get as much information as possible.
And I think that what is the name of your
organization? Girls Incorporated.
I think it's very excellent what you're doing
in terms of teaching and filmmaking and writing
and producing and directing
because they can go out there and become a one
young girl band and do.
They can even make a film about what they're
learning how to do.
Do you understand? Yeah. So that's excellent. Bravo.
I'd like to add as you were talking I think
some of the children are probably perceiving
that you were just addressing the focus.
Interested in acting. What you're saying can
apply to the veterinarian, the pediatrician.
Be the best. Learn everything you can about
everything. I really really appreciate it.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Learn everything you
can about your chosen field. Yeah. Absolutely.
And in fact are you in the girls club too? Yeah.
I was. You were? Okay.
Well if there's any young people that are in it
that are not necessarily interested in the business
the girl, the young ladies who are learning
about filmmaking can make films of you
learning your job about becoming a veterinarian.
Everything is circular.
Everything is very connected. So yes. Learn all
you can about everything that you're doing.
Okay. One last question. Beverly is leading
tomorrow morning for Florida to direct a play.
Last question. This question is directed to
both of you. What can you suggest to theater
actors that are making a transition into film
and how to make it as smooth as possible? Even
in terms of acting technique I'm not sure if
it's different.
I haven't done much film but I'd like to know
what you can suggest.
The first, well my mentor was Sidney Poitier
and I started in theater. That was my beginning.
And when I got ready to do my first movie with
him I was about 10. I was playing a girl if I
was 10 years old.
He said to me, he called me Slim was my
nickname. He said Slim bring it down. Bring it in.
You don't have to do so much. Make it smaller.
Not so big.
And he kept reminding me because in theater you
learn how to talk very emoted and everything is
much bigger.
Because the audience is so far away but in film
the camera is right in your face.
And so you don't have to do all those big
gestures. You don't have to do the big mouth
things or the big physical things that you do.
So it's tighter. And I think that for me where
my training from class paid off for me was that
I had learned how to use my inner self for my actor.
On stage I don't want to say it's easier but on
stage you can gestulate and make stuff much bigger.
When we're doing film there's a realness that
comes from your whole presence and from your
whole being.
Especially your eyes. You have to know what
your character is about. You have to know all
of the subtext which is.
Not necessarily what the dialogue is or what
the meaning behind the dialogue is.
So that you can bring all of that to life and
have that all in your face.
So I would say to begin to, when you watch film
now, instead of just watching it for
entertainment, make it your class.
And just begin to watch what the actors do. And
you'll begin to see, I think, the difference in
terms of the acting and the believability.
And you'll pay more attention to the story line.
You're going to become the director and the critic.
Because you're going to be using it now as
class instead of just entertainment. I don't
know if that helped you.
May I add this? In my opinion, I think you
agree that your stage acting is probably the
best foundation for acting.
Because you're going to find many more people
able to go from stage to film than vice versa.
Now, what Beverly was saying, that subtext,
when you may say bring it down, your director,
he'll tell you.
Richard Burton had this problem. Because he's
famous for his stage.
But knowing your subtext from your stage acting
is going to get you right on through with film.
Because as Bev said, it's the eyes. And you
can't make your eyes believable if you're not
thinking something or feeling something.
And you'll notice that when you see a really
intense scene, the actors don't blink.
It's very intense. That camera's right there.
And you dissipate the moment when you blink.
So these are the things you'll pick up. And
another thing I might add is when you want to
check out some acting,
turn the volume off. And just watch what's happening.
And you can see without the volume who's
acting, quote, and who is being the character.
And also, nine times out of ten, you'll get
with a director who doesn't know how to direct talent.
They'll know how to do all the technical things.
But when you say, well, how do I do this?
And what is my this and what is my that? They
don't know how to answer because they don't know.
So you need to go on set prepared. And the only
thing, like when I did Clara's Heart, I played
a Jamaican woman in that.
I was Dora, the redhead mean Jamaican person
that she knocked the crap out of at the end of
the movie.
And I learned a dialogue that was, I learned
patois because she obviously had to speak with
a Jamaican.
And I wanted to learn how to really speak with
an authentic Jamaican accent.
A friend of mine is from Jamaica. She had a
Jamaican restaurant in Los Angeles.
And I went there and I worked as a waitress for
about 3 weeks just so I could hear the
different accent.
And in fact, a friend of mine came into the
restaurant and she saw me as a waitress and she
was like stunned.
And I said to her, I'm learning this role. And
it was like she said, yeah, right.
She didn't believe me. She thought I was like,
you know, had fallen on hard times or whatever.
But I learned this patois very well. And when I
went on set the first day, the director pulled
me aside.
And he said, you know, and I said, oh, Lord,
I'm getting fired. Something's not right.
You know, and he pulled me aside and he said,
we can't understand what you're saying.
So I had to like let some of the patois go and
make it a little more English so that I could
be understood.
And that's my point is that you want to have
your character down so well that those are
maybe the kind of comments you get as opposed
to you're not doing this.
You're not doing that and blah, blah, this and
blah, blah, the other my own cell phone.
I didn't turn off. You want to learn how to
really you want to know the character backwards
and backwards.
You create a life of the character. You write
it down. What does this character thinking doing?
Who are his friends? What do you do as a child?
You have to like do the whole life of the character.
You have to do all of your homework before you
go on that first day of shooting.
Because once that camera starts rolling, you
don't have time to be learning anything then.
You know, you have to know everything. Each day
you walk on that set, you have to know exactly
what's going on.
And also they don't shoot in sequence. You
might start off with the most dramatic scene.
The very first day is like, oh God, but you
have to know and you in your own mind have to
keep track of where your character is at any
given point in that movie.
Because they never shoot in sequence. It's very
rare. So you as an actor have to be prepared
for that.
You have to do a lot of your own homework. Did
that answer your question?
I'm told with a lot of that experience I
studied for five years at Howard.
Bravo. Good luck to you. Yes.
Before we go to Miss Avery, can we give Mr.
Jeffrey a hand and ask him to join us?
I'll say, I'm not going to say it, but I think
I'm going to do it.
Keep going.
Are they glorious?
Miss Avery was going to say something and then
we'll let Mr. Holder say one question and then
I'll wrap it up.
I told you, I forgot what it is.
Let me just say this. First of all, I want to
say this, rarely do we have the kind of
opportunities like this.
You know, I mean, we get information, we rush,
we push, but rarely do we have this kind of opportunity.
That's why we document everything that we have.
So the food is still there. So Miss Avery and
then Mr. Holder.
And I'm in charge.