Jenny Curtis: From CurtCo media.
Speaker 10: There's no place like Hollywood. (music)
Jenny Curtis: Welcome to another stuck at home special of Hollywood Unscripted.
Jenny Curtis: I'm Jenny Curtis, and today we're virtually catching up with
Jenny Curtis: actor and creator O. T. Fagbenle. You probably know him
Jenny Curtis: as Luke on the Handmaid's Tale, and if you haven't
Jenny Curtis: already, you'll soon be getting to know him better as
Jenny Curtis: Max. O. T., thank you for joining us.
O.T. Fagbenle: Oh, thanks for having me.
Jenny Curtis: So, you're in the middle of traveling right now. You
Jenny Curtis: just traveled to London from Tanzania and today, the day
Jenny Curtis: of our recording, is the day that Maxxx drops on Hulu.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah.
Jenny Curtis: So, I'm sure it's been crazy.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, it's been pretty busy. Yeah, yeah. Pretty good. Thoughts
O.T. Fagbenle: about press stuff and things and chatting to friends and
O.T. Fagbenle: stuff, but really, I've just got back to England from
O.T. Fagbenle: Tanzania, so it's a chance to socially distance, see my
O.T. Fagbenle: family for the first time, some of my younger siblings,
O.T. Fagbenle: so that's really the highlight of my day.
Jenny Curtis: Oh good. So, jumping into Maxxx, this is a show
Jenny Curtis: that you wrote, produced, co directed some episodes, are starring in,
Jenny Curtis: you're basically wearing all of the hats. Tell us about it.
Jenny Curtis: How did it begin?
O.T. Fagbenle: Well, I've been developing stuff for a while and some
O.T. Fagbenle: shorts and the shorts in the awards circuits and all
O.T. Fagbenle: that kind of stuff, and then I basically had an
O.T. Fagbenle: opportunity, I pitched this idea to the channel about this
O.T. Fagbenle: pop star who is fading and trying to make a comeback,
O.T. Fagbenle: this kind of anti hero type thing and they really
O.T. Fagbenle: loved. They were like, " Great. Make it." And, I really
O.T. Fagbenle: had my executive brother, Luti made this pilot which is
O.T. Fagbenle: really like three shorts. They're on YouTube, and they really
O.T. Fagbenle: dug that and so they asked me to write some scripts and
O.T. Fagbenle: so I wrote some scripts and then they commissioned the series. Obviously,
O.T. Fagbenle: it's a lot more circuitous than that, but that was the basic rundown of it.
Jenny Curtis: You were writing the scripts while you were shooting Handmaid's
Jenny Curtis: Tale, is that correct?
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, that's right. That's right. It took me a couple of
O.T. Fagbenle: years really, to get the six episodes down, start from
O.T. Fagbenle: scratch in a new series. And so, yeah, I'd write during Handmaid's.
O.T. Fagbenle: Actually after, I think it was the first or second series
O.T. Fagbenle: of Handmaid's, I then stayed in Toronto for a summer.
O.T. Fagbenle: I wrote there. But, a lot of the writing I did, or at least
O.T. Fagbenle: the development I did, I did work with professional improvisors from
O.T. Fagbenle: Second City. And so, we had some incredible Canadian actors
O.T. Fagbenle: and actresses come in and help me beat out the ideas.
Jenny Curtis: Are you a member of Second City or did you
Jenny Curtis: go there with the goal to work with them?
O.T. Fagbenle: No, you know what? It's one of those serendipitous things
O.T. Fagbenle: where the hotel I was staying at was across the
O.T. Fagbenle: road from Second City and I knew I like to work with
O.T. Fagbenle: actors and direct my way into writing and so I
O.T. Fagbenle: just walked in there and asked to see the principal,
O.T. Fagbenle: and I went on from there.
Jenny Curtis: What kind of work would you do with them while you
Jenny Curtis: were developing? Would you pitch them a scenario and just
Jenny Curtis: let them go for it?
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, so I was working with a script editor called Bruce Peery and
O.T. Fagbenle: he and I would sit down and we'd chat out
O.T. Fagbenle: our storylines. And so, we'd chat out a storyline, A story, B
O.T. Fagbenle: story, C story, these are obviously our main characters. These are our antagonists.
O.T. Fagbenle: They'll overlap. And then, I would come out with 16
O.T. Fagbenle: scenes. And so, I know what happens in a scene.
O.T. Fagbenle: I know that character A comes in wanting X from character
O.T. Fagbenle: B and there's going to be a conflict and at end of it, we're going
O.T. Fagbenle: to come out with solution C. And so, I would
O.T. Fagbenle: go in, I'd pitch the whole episode to the six
O.T. Fagbenle: or seven actors we'd have there, and then I'd say, "
O.T. Fagbenle: Right. We're going to start with scene one. You're playing character A, you're playing
O.T. Fagbenle: character B. This is what you want. This is what you want.
O.T. Fagbenle: Let's improvise it." And so, we'd improvise the scene and
O.T. Fagbenle: then I'd be like, " Okay, great, and we're going to make some changes. Character
O.T. Fagbenle: A, you're going to be drunk, character B, you're going
O.T. Fagbenle: to be more resistant and I'm going to replace actor
O.T. Fagbenle: to play character A with this other actor, and you
O.T. Fagbenle: come in and let me see your version of it." And,
O.T. Fagbenle: I would have men playing women, women playing men, black people playing white people, white people playing black people. It was a free for all and
O.T. Fagbenle: as it would develop, I would get more and more
O.T. Fagbenle: ideas which I'd put in and maybe we'd do each
O.T. Fagbenle: scene about three, four times. Anyway, we'd spend a day
O.T. Fagbenle: and in a day we'd get to about half an episode
O.T. Fagbenle: and then I would sit down in a coffee shop
O.T. Fagbenle: and I would just write and listen to the recordings.
O.T. Fagbenle: And funnily enough, I'd be really interested to go back
O.T. Fagbenle: and check it out, but there was very little actually verbatim
O.T. Fagbenle: that was taken from the improvisations. There definitely were bits,
O.T. Fagbenle: but a lot of times, it helped me flesh out and understand
O.T. Fagbenle: the characters understand different ways, unexpected ways that the jokes
O.T. Fagbenle: could go. And so, I would build on them and
O.T. Fagbenle: write on them. But, they were such a valuable part of
O.T. Fagbenle: the process for sure.
Jenny Curtis: And, how long was that part of the process?
O.T. Fagbenle: What happened is, I wrote over the summer, and by the
O.T. Fagbenle: end of the summer, I had six episodes, so we would do,
O.T. Fagbenle: then I would go off and do rewriting and stuff like
O.T. Fagbenle: that, and we were supposed to go into production that September
O.T. Fagbenle: I believe. There's a long story, but basically, we were going
O.T. Fagbenle: into pre production. We were casting. We were da, da, da, and the
O.T. Fagbenle: channel said, "Look, we want some changes. We're not ready to
O.T. Fagbenle: go into production yet." It was a heartbreaker. And, most
O.T. Fagbenle: of the times when a channel tells you that, that means they
O.T. Fagbenle: are not going to make your show anymore. And, they reassured
O.T. Fagbenle: us that they were going to make the show and that they
O.T. Fagbenle: just needed some changes. To be honest, I imagine there
O.T. Fagbenle: was some politics involved. It wasn't all about the show,
O.T. Fagbenle: but there were some issues with the show, but they kept
O.T. Fagbenle: their word and we retooled and rejigged and tweaked and
O.T. Fagbenle: improved and then made it the following year. So, that's probably the reason why
O.T. Fagbenle: it took so long to write.
Jenny Curtis: Were they story changes? Because the show itself can be
Jenny Curtis: very raunchy at times and really push the comedy. So
Jenny Curtis: was it that it went too far and you needed to pull back, or
Jenny Curtis: was it actual story that had to change?
O.T. Fagbenle: It's interesting. It's hard for me to see woods in
O.T. Fagbenle: the trees and I'd be very curious to read the
O.T. Fagbenle: first drafts and the last drafts, something I haven't done in that comparison, because
O.T. Fagbenle: from my tastes, they were very incremental changes that we
O.T. Fagbenle: actually made by the end of it. To be honest, there
O.T. Fagbenle: was some pushback on some fundamental things which I just
O.T. Fagbenle: said I wasn't going to do, changes that I just didn't
O.T. Fagbenle: believe we should make. To be fair, and kudos to
O.T. Fagbenle: all of the commissioners they had some great ideas, but also
O.T. Fagbenle: when I said, " Look this is really important to my
O.T. Fagbenle: vision of the show, they backed me." It took some
O.T. Fagbenle: push, but they backed me and I really appreciated them for
O.T. Fagbenle: that. So, I don't know. One of the episodes had quite fundamental plot
O.T. Fagbenle: changes and I think there was some development of the characters,
O.T. Fagbenle: in particular, Tamsin, the main female lead, I think there
O.T. Fagbenle: was some development to do there some rounding out of
O.T. Fagbenle: her character. So, those are some of the main ways that it
O.T. Fagbenle: improved. But also, a big part of it was also tuning up production wise. We brought on
O.T. Fagbenle: Phil Clark, the legendary executive producer. It was funny, because
O.T. Fagbenle: we had a meeting and they said ... because me and my
O.T. Fagbenle: brother has got a long history of making music videos
O.T. Fagbenle: and some features, but never really had made television, and I never really
O.T. Fagbenle: made television, so there was a lack of experience on our
O.T. Fagbenle: team. They basically said, " Look, we need someone on your
O.T. Fagbenle: team that can tell us to fuck off, and right
O.T. Fagbenle: now, you don't have anyone who's got enough weight to
O.T. Fagbenle: tell us to fuck off." And so, we went and
O.T. Fagbenle: got someone who could tell them to fuck off, who was
O.T. Fagbenle: Phil Clark, who never used that phrase, funnily enough. In
O.T. Fagbenle: fact, almost the opposite. Phil was one of the secrets
O.T. Fagbenle: to being successful in the industry is how much shit
O.T. Fagbenle: you can eat. How much shit can you take and
O.T. Fagbenle: still keep going? And, that was very disheartening, but I think probably very
O.T. Fagbenle: good advice.
Jenny Curtis: Maxxx is about a formerly famous boy band member who
Jenny Curtis: is trying to make a come back as a solo
Jenny Curtis: artist and he is basically juggling his need to be
Jenny Curtis: authentic with his need to be loved and famous. And so, it's a
Jenny Curtis: really complicated character that must have been just absolutely fun
Jenny Curtis: to play. I'd love to hear about your process with him.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, I guess in some ways, he echoed parts of
O.T. Fagbenle: my journey, of my, I guess, ambivalence between going for
O.T. Fagbenle: the art, I was a theater actor for many, many
O.T. Fagbenle: years and very happy to it, and then also the idea
O.T. Fagbenle: of being popular and being on TV and stuff like
O.T. Fagbenle: that. So, I guess there was some of that autobiographically played out,
O.T. Fagbenle: and then also I'd gone through this terrible heartbreak and I was trying
O.T. Fagbenle: to recover from that, and so I guess that played out
O.T. Fagbenle: a little bit as well. So, I guess developing him
O.T. Fagbenle: in some ways was a process of enhancing and over
O.T. Fagbenle: blowing and exaggerating lots of parts of myself I despise
O.T. Fagbenle: and then an opportunity to play them out. That's on
O.T. Fagbenle: a more personal level, but also as they developed, I realized that I
O.T. Fagbenle: was interested in exploring a broader cultural phenomenon where because
O.T. Fagbenle: of social media, it's just some big validation act. We constantly
O.T. Fagbenle: put forward not our true selves but our idealized selves
O.T. Fagbenle: our presentation of ourselves, our ego, and we put it
O.T. Fagbenle: out there and we hope to be liked and then we might
O.T. Fagbenle: change what we post, depending on how much validation we
O.T. Fagbenle: get. And, it's quite an obscene process that evolves the
O.T. Fagbenle: mind in some ways of thinking that. I feel sorry for young people who are
O.T. Fagbenle: going up against the brilliant minds of Harvard and Yale,
O.T. Fagbenle: it's programming suites, trying to manipulate our fickle minds. So,
O.T. Fagbenle: I also wanted to talk about that. Not everyone is a
O.T. Fagbenle: pop star, but I think on some level, everyone who's
O.T. Fagbenle: on social media has some kind of desire to be validated
O.T. Fagbenle: by their peers. So, the process of developing Max was a confluence of
O.T. Fagbenle: those two things.
Jenny Curtis: When you were writing him, knowing that you were going to play him,
Jenny Curtis: did you write with yourself in mind, or were you
Jenny Curtis: able to separate the two between writing and playing the character?
O.T. Fagbenle: My personal process generally as an actor is I don't
O.T. Fagbenle: ever see my characters as not me. I feel that they
O.T. Fagbenle: are me and I like to believe that there is
O.T. Fagbenle: quite a bit of differentiation between the characters I play.
O.T. Fagbenle: And so, the way that's achieved is just by leaning
O.T. Fagbenle: into different parts of it. I once read this psychologist said
O.T. Fagbenle: that by the age of three, a human being has
O.T. Fagbenle: experienced every emotion, murderous rage, jealousy, love, because all of
O.T. Fagbenle: those things are in us in different quantities and so
O.T. Fagbenle: I just believe that as I write each character and
O.T. Fagbenle: as I think about Maxxx, all of the characters are me.
O.T. Fagbenle: My son, is me. I was a geeky kid at
O.T. Fagbenle: school who would get these terribly strong crushes and I
O.T. Fagbenle: am Camden as well, that is sometimes socially awkward and probably
O.T. Fagbenle: unnecessarily verbose. And so, that's how I think about writing.
Jenny Curtis: If you're tapping into parts of yourself that aren't necessarily
Jenny Curtis: the comfortable parts of yourself. Are you able to leave
Jenny Curtis: it on set or do you take it home with you?
O.T. Fagbenle: I did get accused of being a bit Maxish at various
O.T. Fagbenle: points. I guess I do find it hard to entirely
O.T. Fagbenle: differentiate, and part of my process as an actor, even outside of Max is
O.T. Fagbenle: like ... I know some actors who can quick and turn it on.
O.T. Fagbenle: They're there and they're having a cup of tea and chatting about ... they will
O.T. Fagbenle: gossip and they stick their fingers in there, the other character, and they're
O.T. Fagbenle: crying. Unfortunately, I don't have that capacity. I have really
O.T. Fagbenle: embody and live through. It's boring. I tell you. I
O.T. Fagbenle: wish I didn't have to, but over 20 years of being an actor, I've realized
O.T. Fagbenle: that that's what produces the best results for me. So, yeah.
Jenny Curtis: So, Max comes home.
O.T. Fagbenle: Well, you know what? At the end of the day, I've got to have meaningful conversations with costume designers and
O.T. Fagbenle: makeup artists and Nick Colette, the other director on it,
O.T. Fagbenle: and not be a ... so, I'm not entirely Maxish, but there is
O.T. Fagbenle: some blurred lines I guess maybe.
Jenny Curtis: Now, your brother worked on this project with you as
Jenny Curtis: executive producer, Luti.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, yeah, he did.
Jenny Curtis: What is it like working with family, because I do that
Jenny Curtis: as well and for me, it's a gift because you
Jenny Curtis: can support each other like nobody else can, but you
Jenny Curtis: can also call each other on your shit like nobody
Jenny Curtis: else can.
O.T. Fagbenle: Right. Yeah, I guess it all depends on what kinds of siblings you have.
O.T. Fagbenle: My brother is one of the most inspirational people I know. He's
O.T. Fagbenle: incredible. He so, both supportive, but he dreams big and
O.T. Fagbenle: he's got big drive. He was born on the 24th of
O.T. Fagbenle: July, he was going 24/7. He doesn't stop and exactly that thing, we
O.T. Fagbenle: were both desperate not to let each other down and
O.T. Fagbenle: to bring out the best in each other and we implicitly
O.T. Fagbenle: trust the intentions of each other, which is to create the best
O.T. Fagbenle: work we can create. And so, yeah, it's one of
O.T. Fagbenle: the biggest joys in my life being able to create
O.T. Fagbenle: Max with him.
Jenny Curtis: Other people who you worked with on this, one of
Jenny Curtis: which is Christopher Meloni who plays Don Wild, who is
Jenny Curtis: just insane.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah.
Jenny Curtis: He was so much fun. But also, he was in
Jenny Curtis: Handmaid's Tale. Is there a connection there or was that just
Jenny Curtis: a small world that you guys were both in that?
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah. Weirdly enough it's the latter. I never met him
O.T. Fagbenle: on Handmaid's. I actually wanted him, asked for him because
O.T. Fagbenle: of his work on Happy, which I found so fun
O.T. Fagbenle: and unexpected. All his decisions were so interesting to me
O.T. Fagbenle: and I thought, " Wow, if we could get him ..." I
O.T. Fagbenle: really didn't think we could and it was Luti again
O.T. Fagbenle: with his expansive mindset which is like, we can get him, and
O.T. Fagbenle: we sent him the script. He fell in love with
O.T. Fagbenle: it. And, we were just lucky enough that he was
O.T. Fagbenle: just on it, because we didn't have all the bells and
O.T. Fagbenle: whistles. We didn't have big trailers. We didn't have trailers. We
O.T. Fagbenle: had nothing. He really came and slummed it with us, God bless him. I don't know, I just
O.T. Fagbenle: think he's brilliant in this.
Jenny Curtis: Speaking of not having trailers and all the bells and whistles,
Jenny Curtis: for even the crew, this was really a passion project
Jenny Curtis: for everybody and you worked as a big collaborative family.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah. It was tough. There were tears. It was hard. It
O.T. Fagbenle: was hard. And to be honest, not everyone who began
O.T. Fagbenle: the journey with us ended the journey with us, for
O.T. Fagbenle: a number of reasons, but I put some of it
O.T. Fagbenle: down to the fact that we were trying to create something which was
O.T. Fagbenle: beyond our means. We didn't have all the budget in
O.T. Fagbenle: the world and we wanted to create something brilliant. And so,
O.T. Fagbenle: we just had an expectation. And I tell you, there were
O.T. Fagbenle: a number of opportunities that we gave people including people
O.T. Fagbenle: from minority groups and stuff like that to be heads
O.T. Fagbenle: of department where they'd never been heads of department before,
O.T. Fagbenle: but we believed in them. We believed in their skill and we
O.T. Fagbenle: believed that their reason for not being head of department
O.T. Fagbenle: before this time was the industry creates blocks in their process
O.T. Fagbenle: of hiring, naturally discriminates. It doesn't need an individual to
O.T. Fagbenle: be racist. It's just the way of the industry. And
O.T. Fagbenle: so, we gave a number of people their first go, and
O.T. Fagbenle: I tell you, they showed up so hard, so brilliantly,
O.T. Fagbenle: they brought a kind of value to the show which
O.T. Fagbenle: I just ... I'm so grateful for, I'm so thankful for. It
O.T. Fagbenle: was just reconfirmation that the benefits of diversity is not
O.T. Fagbenle: a tick box exercise. The benefits of diversity isn't that
O.T. Fagbenle: everyone gets to feel that they're doing United Colors of
O.T. Fagbenle: Benetton. It's that there are brilliant artists here which are
O.T. Fagbenle: underused and under utilized and it's to our benefit to
O.T. Fagbenle: give them that opportunity.
Jenny Curtis: Did any of them bring something completely surprising that you
Jenny Curtis: wouldn't have had without them?
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, well, in particular, there's just one that comes to my
O.T. Fagbenle: head, is Joanna, our esteemed costume head. In episode two,
O.T. Fagbenle: there's this big industry party, and I've been to some
O.T. Fagbenle: weird parties in my life, and I know what it
O.T. Fagbenle: feels like. I know what it looks like, and we were
O.T. Fagbenle: asking for these extras, and the extras we were getting
O.T. Fagbenle: just ... I didn't believe them. It was very frustrating. For
O.T. Fagbenle: weeks and weeks I'd look through these reams of extras
O.T. Fagbenle: and just be like, " We're not going to have the
O.T. Fagbenle: party with this, with a party that's in my head, the
O.T. Fagbenle: parties I've been to." And so, Joanna came and she
O.T. Fagbenle: was like, " Well look, I'm part of the scene, whether it's the fetishing or
O.T. Fagbenle: the kink scene. I know people who were in there and we
O.T. Fagbenle: can both cast them, but they come with costume, because
O.T. Fagbenle: that's their lifestyle." And so, we managed through her to
O.T. Fagbenle: get half the party through her contacts and people who
O.T. Fagbenle: are above and beyond. I was walking around that party, hell yeah. This is now
O.T. Fagbenle: a party that I'm both intrigued about and scared about.
O.T. Fagbenle: And, that's the way I want to feel.
Jenny Curtis: So, Max is making his comeback, fighting with trying to
Jenny Curtis: be authentic versus trying to be famous, and it brings
Jenny Curtis: up two opposing songs. One is a song about sex
Jenny Curtis: and frozen yogurt and the other is a song that
Jenny Curtis: has been stuck in my head since watching the show.
Jenny Curtis: You say that thing with me. (crosstalk) .
O.T. Fagbenle: Sing it girl.
Jenny Curtis: It doesn't leave my head. Who composed those? How did
Jenny Curtis: you come up with those songs?
O.T. Fagbenle: So, Rolling Dice, I first wrote the verse for about
O.T. Fagbenle: 10 years ago and then when we were trying to
O.T. Fagbenle: find a song for this show, I hit up one of
O.T. Fagbenle: my writing partners, Marcus Marr, a brilliant guy and I said, "
O.T. Fagbenle: Look, this is where I am with the song. I'm having
O.T. Fagbenle: problems with the chorus," and so he went out and
O.T. Fagbenle: he wrote me chords, and the way he writes the chords, he'd
O.T. Fagbenle: be like, (inaudible) like that. And so one day,
O.T. Fagbenle: and to have a longer version of the story, I sat down
O.T. Fagbenle: at my keyboard and I wrote the lyrics to the chorus.
O.T. Fagbenle: So, that's how that song came about. And then, the
O.T. Fagbenle: other song, the soft serve song, someone came with a
O.T. Fagbenle: beat. I listened to 20 beats and I was trying to find something which was
O.T. Fagbenle: silly but real, corny but fun and I just fell
O.T. Fagbenle: in love with this beat. And so, I just wrote the lyrics
O.T. Fagbenle: and chorus and rest of that one day in the
O.T. Fagbenle: studio.
Jenny Curtis: But, it was you who wrote the songs?
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah. Yeah. I had the theme tune as well. But again, almost like with
O.T. Fagbenle: everything, there were collaborations.
Jenny Curtis: So, Max plays three instruments, and you had to learn
Jenny Curtis: to play drums and-
O.T. Fagbenle: Guitar and bass.
Jenny Curtis: So, you learned those for the show?
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, yeah. That was ridiculous, as if I didn't have
O.T. Fagbenle: enough on my plate, so yeah, I was doing drumming
O.T. Fagbenle: lessons in the evenings and guitar lessons. It was stupid.
O.T. Fagbenle: But, actually I still play guitar a little bit now, so I'm
O.T. Fagbenle: really glad that I go to do that and over this
O.T. Fagbenle: quarantine period with my nephew, I've been teaching him bass,
O.T. Fagbenle: so it was worth it and carried on.
Jenny Curtis: And now, you're going to have to take Max on tour.
O.T. Fagbenle: Take Max on to ... no, no, we have been pushing, we're literally pushing me to
O.T. Fagbenle: go record that song, the Rolling Dice song so we
O.T. Fagbenle: can release it or whatever.
Jenny Curtis: You should.
O.T. Fagbenle: (crosstalk) and stuff. Yeah, I guess we should.
Jenny Curtis: So, Max has some truly cringe worthy moments. Is that
Jenny Curtis: something you love to play, or is that something that
Jenny Curtis: you had to gear up to play?
O.T. Fagbenle: No, I love that. I love it, because I love
O.T. Fagbenle: watching it in real life. I'm just like, " Oh my
O.T. Fagbenle: God, what a car crash is going on here." And,
O.T. Fagbenle: I guess I'm very sympathetic to why people, or why
O.T. Fagbenle: I in the past dug yourself a whole and then keep
O.T. Fagbenle: digging, trying to redeem it, and I find that very
O.T. Fagbenle: amusing to me. And, it comes from a great British
O.T. Fagbenle: tradition of that, from Steve Coogan to Ricky Gervais, to
O.T. Fagbenle: Fawlty Towers, to Back (inaudible) . I think it's the
O.T. Fagbenle: class thing. We're so obsessed with class and social climbing
O.T. Fagbenle: in England, and I think that's where a lot of
O.T. Fagbenle: it comes from, people wanting to be " better than they are."
Jenny Curtis: Going back to the cast. You had mentioned, so he's
Jenny Curtis: heart broken and desperate to win back his ex, Jourdan
Jenny Curtis: Dunn, who is played by Jourdan Dunn. How did you meet
Jenny Curtis: her, get her involved? How did that happen?
O.T. Fagbenle: My childhood friend, one of my best friends in the whole
O.T. Fagbenle: world, a guy called Stephano Moses. He is a very brilliant guy.
O.T. Fagbenle: He's an associate producer on the show. He was also
O.T. Fagbenle: our location manager funnily enough, and he had a connect
O.T. Fagbenle: to Jourdan, pitched it to her, showed her some of the material, the pilot
O.T. Fagbenle: that we shot. She loved it. We met with her
O.T. Fagbenle: and had tea. I was very nervous she wouldn't be a
O.T. Fagbenle: very good actor, but she looked great and we got on
O.T. Fagbenle: very well, so I wrote quite modestly for her. Then,
O.T. Fagbenle: we had our first rehearsal together and that's how we deal a lot with
O.T. Fagbenle: improvisation, so I did with her everything I did the Second City
O.T. Fagbenle: people. I said, " Hey, look, this is the scene. You're
O.T. Fagbenle: going to do this and I'm going to say some
O.T. Fagbenle: stuff to you and you say some stuff back and let's see what happens." And
O.T. Fagbenle: we did it, by the end of the rehearsal, I wrote back
O.T. Fagbenle: to my producers Ali, Karen and Luti and I said, "
O.T. Fagbenle: We've got a problem because she's so good, we're going
O.T. Fagbenle: to need more of her in the show." And, we did. We boosted what
O.T. Fagbenle: she had to do a lot.
Jenny Curtis: Was there a lot of improvisation on set?
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, yeah, there was, particularly with Jourdan. That last scene was pretty
O.T. Fagbenle: strictly scripted, at least her part was, I always got off on
O.T. Fagbenle: a tangent. But, everything else that we had, and we
O.T. Fagbenle: had loads of material that we didn't use to be
O.T. Fagbenle: honest, me and her just played around. And, it was a lot of fun and
O.T. Fagbenle: we had a great chemistry on set, but generally speaking,
O.T. Fagbenle: we'd try and do the script, but there was leeway.
O.T. Fagbenle: And Helen Monks, who plays my assistant in it, she's
O.T. Fagbenle: brilliant. She comes out and we would just do another take and we would just be like, "Keep going. Give us some more," and Chris,
O.T. Fagbenle: and Pippa. They're all really talented.
Jenny Curtis: Pippa Bennett- Warner, who plays Tamsin, your manager, so she's
Jenny Curtis: on her personal mission of repping true artists and creating something
Jenny Curtis: beautiful for the world and then her very first client
Jenny Curtis: who lands in her lap is Max, who's fighting against
Jenny Curtis: being a novelty act. But, that was a really fun
Jenny Curtis: relationship to play with and you said you had to
Jenny Curtis: develop it more in the beginning, so I'd love to
Jenny Curtis: hear more about the process of her character.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, it's a funny one, because I think sometimes as a writer,
O.T. Fagbenle: and especially because I know I work with improvisation, so
O.T. Fagbenle: sometimes what I see on the script isn't what the
O.T. Fagbenle: execs might sometimes see. So, sometimes there would be notes
O.T. Fagbenle: and I'd be like, " I know it won't be like
O.T. Fagbenle: that," because I'm going to cast in a certain way but it's my first
O.T. Fagbenle: rodeo, so why should anyone believe me about that?
Jenny Curtis: Yeah.
O.T. Fagbenle: And so, but that notwithstanding, we did get some very good notes. Tanya, who
O.T. Fagbenle: works with Val, did some great notes for her as
O.T. Fagbenle: well. And then, Pippa herself, Pippa Bennett- Warner is such
O.T. Fagbenle: a talented actress. She's predominantly works in drama. She's a
O.T. Fagbenle: RADA trained, classical actress who's done Shakespeare at the Globe
O.T. Fagbenle: and all sorts. She's the real deal. And, she brought
O.T. Fagbenle: such detail and differentiation, and humor and truth to Tamsin.
O.T. Fagbenle: I am very indebted to her actually, to how she
O.T. Fagbenle: fulfilled that part.
Jenny Curtis: And, you also went to RADA, so you're both alum.
Jenny Curtis: Did you know each other? Or, were you different time periods?
O.T. Fagbenle: Different time periods by quite a bit, but we did
O.T. Fagbenle: know each other. The black acting community is very small,
O.T. Fagbenle: and it was even smaller 10 years ago, and so
O.T. Fagbenle: everyone knew everyone. And so, yeah, we bumped into each other.
O.T. Fagbenle: We knew each other. After the auditions, we'd have a
O.T. Fagbenle: good old laugh, so yeah, that was great.
Jenny Curtis: You made a point to have an adopted son character
Jenny Curtis: that was such a fun relationship to play in, because
Jenny Curtis: Max has so much depth to him while being so
Jenny Curtis: shallow. So, it's just fascinating all the tools you gave
Jenny Curtis: yourself to really show that he cares about people. I
Jenny Curtis: would love to hear more about your reasoning for having
Jenny Curtis: an adopted son, your reasoning for him having a crush
Jenny Curtis: on the non binary character. I thought the whole thing
Jenny Curtis: was wonderful.
O.T. Fagbenle: I love it too. I love those guys. I love those young actors.
O.T. Fagbenle: So basically, I think it's quite amusing, the whole thing
O.T. Fagbenle: about being a celebrity and adopting. When I say amusing, I mean I
O.T. Fagbenle: really respect it actually. People get (inaudible) it's like, "
O.T. Fagbenle: Hey, you're dedicating a lot of time to a young
O.T. Fagbenle: person, kudos to that." But, I also just think the phenomenon was interesting. So, I
O.T. Fagbenle: thought it would be great for Max, and also gives him
O.T. Fagbenle: a bit more heart. I don't know. It came pretty
O.T. Fagbenle: early that idea. Funnily enough, the idea for the non
O.T. Fagbenle: binary love affair, it's really interesting to me, because originally
O.T. Fagbenle: that character was a female. And in fact, the first time round we auditioned,
O.T. Fagbenle: we were only auditioning women for that part. And, I
O.T. Fagbenle: think part of the feedback that came back was just
O.T. Fagbenle: the concern that maybe there were a lot of female
O.T. Fagbenle: characters that were particularly sexual, because you have Siren in
O.T. Fagbenle: episode three and you had Rocks in episode two, and
O.T. Fagbenle: then you had Chris Meloni's wife and then you had
O.T. Fagbenle: the assistant Rose. And so, we were all sexually forward, but
O.T. Fagbenle: I really didn't want to change that dynamic. I really
O.T. Fagbenle: liked the dynamic of Alan, the son, being the sub
O.T. Fagbenle: as it were in that relationship. And so, I wasn't
O.T. Fagbenle: sure how to fix it and then I thought, " Well, what if we just
O.T. Fagbenle: change the gender then? If that's the issue, then let's
O.T. Fagbenle: just change the gender and to get that diversity in."
O.T. Fagbenle: And so then, we auditioned some young guys and yeah,
O.T. Fagbenle: suddenly a bright shining light, I was adamant. The moment
O.T. Fagbenle: I saw ... I was just yeah, that's who it is. And, it was
O.T. Fagbenle: a bit of a shock to Alan, because he'd of
O.T. Fagbenle: course, auditioned with a lot of very pretty girls, and
O.T. Fagbenle: then suddenly ... and he comes from a Muslim background, so
O.T. Fagbenle: it was a little bit of a ... he was like, "
O.T. Fagbenle: Oh, really?" But, kudos to him. He wanted to part and believed in it, and they
O.T. Fagbenle: just had a great chemistry. It's an echo of my
O.T. Fagbenle: teen love affairs and infatuations and unrequited loves (crosstalk) -
Jenny Curtis: Mystical unicorn of a crush.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.
Jenny Curtis: But, what was so great about it, because it came from a character that was originally
Jenny Curtis: written for a female, there was no comment on the
Jenny Curtis: non binary character. It just was life. And, everybody was okay with
Jenny Curtis: it. And, I thought that was really refreshing.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, thanks for noticing that. That was a very conscious decision, and there were notes
O.T. Fagbenle: for us to mention it, and why don't we have
O.T. Fagbenle: a conversation about it and da, da, da. And, I've been in a show,
O.T. Fagbenle: Looking, for HBO, which is a very popular cult gay drama kind of thing,
O.T. Fagbenle: and it's a funny one because I think for people
O.T. Fagbenle: in minority groups, the fact of their minority identity is
O.T. Fagbenle: quite a relevant part to their day to day life.
O.T. Fagbenle: But, it's not necessarily what we talk about all the
O.T. Fagbenle: time. All our storylines don't have to be about that.
O.T. Fagbenle: We had the '90s and the 2000s to have those conversations, kind of thing.
O.T. Fagbenle: And I just felt, here we are in 2020, it's possible for
O.T. Fagbenle: us just to find out about these two human beings
O.T. Fagbenle: and how did they try and match together, and it doesn't have to be about the issues.
O.T. Fagbenle: Of course, the issues are very important. That was just
O.T. Fagbenle: something I just wanted to attempt in this show. ( music)
Jenny Curtis: A Moment of Your Time, a new podcast from CurtCo
Jenny Curtis: Media.
O-T Fagbenle: I'm currently 21 years old and today I'm going to read a poem for you.
Speaker 4: It felt like magic extended from her fingertips down to the base of my spine.
Speaker 5: You have to take care of yourself because the world needs you and your voice.
Speaker 6: Trust me, every do gooder that asked about me was ready to
Speaker 6: spit on my dreams.
Speaker 7: Her fingers were facing me.
Speaker 8: It can feel like your purpose and your worth is
Speaker 8: really being questioned.
Speaker 9: You're going to stop me from playing the piano.
Speaker 10: She buys walkie- talkies, wonders to whom she should give
Speaker 10: the second device.
Speaker 11: Cats don't love humans. We never did. We never will.
Speaker 11: We just find ones that are more-
Speaker 12: The community of rock climbing is that you can only focus
Speaker 12: on what's right in front of you.
Speaker 13: And so, our American life begins.
O-T Fagbenle: We may need to stay apart, but let's create together.
O-T Fagbenle: Available on all podcast platforms. Submit your piece at CurtCo. com/ amomentofyourtime.
Jenny Curtis: ( music) In a completely different direction, the Handmaid's Tale
Jenny Curtis: is basically a whole other world, and I'd love to
Jenny Curtis: jump into Luke a little bit because he's a far
Jenny Curtis: cry from Max. In this last season he is patient
Jenny Curtis: and loving and he is raising his wife's child from
Jenny Curtis: another man, and he faces his wife's oppressors and rapists,
Jenny Curtis: not to mention her boyfriend. So, a lot happened for
Jenny Curtis: Luke in the last season in Handmaid's Tale.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah. (crosstalk) about it. It all happened, yeah.
Jenny Curtis: What was that like going through?
O.T. Fagbenle: You know what, that's what actors, we come for that. Oh yeah,
O.T. Fagbenle: make me go through pain. Yeah. So, it's a joy.
O.T. Fagbenle: When you've got great writing and you get to act
O.T. Fagbenle: opposite Samira and Yvonne and Elizabeth, Joe and Max, yeah,
O.T. Fagbenle: please. So of course, Luke is going through the run
O.T. Fagbenle: of the mill, but as O.T., that's why I came into the profession. That's the kind of turmoil that rocks my boat.
Jenny Curtis: Yeah. We had Bruce Miller on the show a few weeks
Jenny Curtis: ago to talk about Handmaid's Tale, and Bruce talked about
Jenny Curtis: how the set and the writers' room are always actually
Jenny Curtis: really lighthearted because you have to counterbalance how heavy the material
Jenny Curtis: is. Is that your experience on set?
O.T. Fagbenle: Oh yeah. There's a lot of laughter. There's a lot of jokes on the set. Yeah. It's great. It's great. It's lovely. And, Bruce also, I've got to say, I think, is very
O.T. Fagbenle: generous as was Warren, but Bruce in particularly and Colin
O.T. Fagbenle: Watkins, our VP and sometimes director, in that when we
O.T. Fagbenle: were shooting Handmaid's and I was developing Max, Bruce let me
O.T. Fagbenle: come into the writers' room and sit down, and Mike
O.T. Fagbenle: Barker, who should be nominated for an Emmy every year
O.T. Fagbenle: for Handmaid's, he let me shadow him on the final
O.T. Fagbenle: episode of season three. And, there was so much generosity
O.T. Fagbenle: from that gang and supporting me, in making my first show,
O.T. Fagbenle: so at any rate, that somewhat speaks to the joy and openness and
O.T. Fagbenle: love that's apparent in the show, yeah.
Jenny Curtis: Do you have a piece of advice that they gave
Jenny Curtis: you that stands out to you?
O.T. Fagbenle: You know what? Bruce gave me a couple of goodies. He once told
O.T. Fagbenle: me that the best book he read on writing was
O.T. Fagbenle: a book called Drawing, and one of the things that
O.T. Fagbenle: stuck out to me is that ... and I'm going to
O.T. Fagbenle: butcher what he told me, but basically, it was like,
O.T. Fagbenle: when you're drawing a person, you don't have to start at
O.T. Fagbenle: the top. You don't have to start at the beginning or the feet.
O.T. Fagbenle: You don't have to do a rough outline. You don't
O.T. Fagbenle: have to. You can just take any discrete piece, and
O.T. Fagbenle: the example I think he gave is like if a
O.T. Fagbenle: person was standing there with their hand on their hip. You can
O.T. Fagbenle: start with the space between their arm and their body,
O.T. Fagbenle: and that can be the starting point. And, you could
O.T. Fagbenle: think of the same thing with a script or a
O.T. Fagbenle: scene or a sentence. You don't need to start at the
O.T. Fagbenle: beginning. The first thing you write of a script does not have
O.T. Fagbenle: to be scene one, and the first thing you write
O.T. Fagbenle: in a scene does not have to be the first lines written. You can
O.T. Fagbenle: find a discrete part and grow of that and that
O.T. Fagbenle: was a really piece of useful information I got.
Jenny Curtis: So, what was the first part of the drawing for you with Max?
O.T. Fagbenle: The funeral scene was something that really stuck out. I
O.T. Fagbenle: remember I had gone to my sister's house, my big
O.T. Fagbenle: sister. I was just, such an important part of my life and her
O.T. Fagbenle: husband who is my brother now, and I remember pitching
O.T. Fagbenle: them who Max was and I was like, "He's the kind
O.T. Fagbenle: of guy who, let's say there was a funeral," and
O.T. Fagbenle: I just starting pitching ... and they were cracking up as
O.T. Fagbenle: I was acting it out. And, I think that was an anchor
O.T. Fagbenle: for him. He's that guy who sees a celebrity opportunity
O.T. Fagbenle: at the funeral.
Jenny Curtis: Oh Max.
O.T. Fagbenle: Oh Max.
Jenny Curtis: So, I know you can't talk about anything because Marvel
Jenny Curtis: is notoriously secretive.
O.T. Fagbenle: No, I'm going to tell you everything. This is the
O.T. Fagbenle: interview where we're going to (crosstalk) -
Jenny Curtis: Oh great. Fantastic. Spill it. Can you tell us though, emotionally, what is it like
Jenny Curtis: to be a part of the Marvel Universe with Black
Jenny Curtis: Widow. You've said this is, after 20 plus year career,
Jenny Curtis: the biggest job you've had.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, it is an incredible honor. If you notice, it's
O.T. Fagbenle: a bit surreal honestly. When I graduated drama school, I
O.T. Fagbenle: had no ambitions to be in movies. I had no ambitions
O.T. Fagbenle: to be on television. Zero. I just wanted to be a theater actor. That's all I really
O.T. Fagbenle: understood and that was all that was in my mind. I was
O.T. Fagbenle: very content with that future, seeing the decades ahead of
O.T. Fagbenle: me performing on various stages and performing some great roles
O.T. Fagbenle: and plays and stuff. So in a way, it's weird
O.T. Fagbenle: because being part of something like the Marvel Universe, was
O.T. Fagbenle: never part of my original dream, and not because it's not really
O.T. Fagbenle: attractive and amazing and wonderful, it was just something else. It
O.T. Fagbenle: was like, do you want to be an NBA basketball,
O.T. Fagbenle: yeah, sure. But, that's not part of reality. And so, as
O.T. Fagbenle: it's happened, it's very surreal. I'm doing things like Comic
O.T. Fagbenle: Con and things like that. I feel like I really
O.T. Fagbenle: appreciate it. I don't take it for granted at all
O.T. Fagbenle: because I don't know. I'm a person believes that luck
O.T. Fagbenle: really plays a huge part in the outcomes of people's
O.T. Fagbenle: lives and I believe I've been incredibly lucky.
Jenny Curtis: Has the required secrecy been just killing you?
O.T. Fagbenle: No, I think it's hilarious. It's so funny because I'm not
O.T. Fagbenle: an industry person. I don't read industry mags. I'm embarrassingly ...
O.T. Fagbenle: I have to start watching television. I have to learn about television, and so
O.T. Fagbenle: to me, it's all a fun fair. And, people think
O.T. Fagbenle: like, oh am I task master, and I just think it's
O.T. Fagbenle: fun. And to me, it's I don't know, it's not burning inside. I
O.T. Fagbenle: really care about my family and I'm working on a
O.T. Fagbenle: charity called the ABC Foundation, and it provides tech opportunities for
O.T. Fagbenle: young people in Africa. These are the things which I think are important and these are the things that burn me. I don't know. This is fun.
Jenny Curtis: Can you talk about at all, the audition process since as far as I understand,
Jenny Curtis: they don't tell you anything when you're auditioning for a character?
O.T. Fagbenle: Well, you know what? I will tell you some stuff that I've
O.T. Fagbenle: not said on any interview before. Basically, the audition sides
O.T. Fagbenle: I got were not the same as the part I played.
O.T. Fagbenle: It was completely different, and I got sent them ... I
O.T. Fagbenle: was on holiday with my then girlfriend, and to be honest,
O.T. Fagbenle: when I first got the audition, I was like, " Oh, I'm not going to do that."
O.T. Fagbenle: I was writing Max at the time. I was just
O.T. Fagbenle: like, "I'm not going to do that," because I was already, embarrassing enough, my then girlfriend ... I told her, "Look, we're going to go on holiday,
O.T. Fagbenle: but I'm going to be working from 9: 00 a. m. to 1:
O.T. Fagbenle: 00 p. m. writing every day during our holiday to Mexico.
O.T. Fagbenle: And so, I was like, I'm not now going to take 1: 00 p.m.
O.T. Fagbenle: to 2: 00 p. m. to put down an audition
O.T. Fagbenle: that I'm never going to get because they're going to
O.T. Fagbenle: give it to someone else. I was just like, I'm not doing it.
O.T. Fagbenle: I'm not putting myself on tape. And so, she was like, "
O.T. Fagbenle: You should." I was like, " Look, I can't ... I do
O.T. Fagbenle: want to be respectful to you," and things like that, and bless her heart, she was very generous and she was like, " No,
O.T. Fagbenle: you put yourself on tape." So anyway, long story short,
O.T. Fagbenle: I put myself on tape, in this quite different character. And,
O.T. Fagbenle: it was a banging tape. At some point, I feel like I want to share it,
O.T. Fagbenle: because it was like, that's one of the best auditions I've
O.T. Fagbenle: ever done. And, at the end of it, she was like, " This is good.
O.T. Fagbenle: You're going to get this." And I was like, " No. Doing a great
O.T. Fagbenle: tape does not mean you do get ..." I've done a
O.T. Fagbenle: bunch of good tapes and no one's even called me
O.T. Fagbenle: back telling me thanks for sending it. No expectations. So,
O.T. Fagbenle: I just sent it off. And then, I was told
O.T. Fagbenle: that I would do a screen test with Scarl and
O.T. Fagbenle: it was me and six other guys, and I wasn't a favorite.
O.T. Fagbenle: I was number four on the list for something that I don't know. But
O.T. Fagbenle: to do a screen test, you have you sign a contract and
O.T. Fagbenle: the contract that I would sign would mean that I wouldn't
O.T. Fagbenle: be available to shoot Max. So, I was like, I don't
O.T. Fagbenle: even know if I can sign this contract. I don't
O.T. Fagbenle: know if I can do that because doing a Marvel Universe, that's,
O.T. Fagbenle: like you said, the biggest job I could ever hope
O.T. Fagbenle: for, but Max is my heart. It's something I did with my brother. I'm going to let
O.T. Fagbenle: my brother down. I have to have that conversation. My brother was like, " Bro,
O.T. Fagbenle: I've got this screen test, and I don't know what
O.T. Fagbenle: to do, because I don't want to let you down,"
O.T. Fagbenle: and he's staked his company on this show. It was
O.T. Fagbenle: a really challenging time, and eventually, I was just like, I don't
O.T. Fagbenle: know if I can sign a contract that says I can't
O.T. Fagbenle: do Max. And so, please go and talk with them. And,
O.T. Fagbenle: my reps are like, "I don't know if they'll take that. They're Marvel."
O.T. Fagbenle: And then, I got a call about a week later. My agent called
O.T. Fagbenle: me up and said, " Right. You've got a problem." And, I was like, " Oh, okay." And she's like, " Well, they
O.T. Fagbenle: just offered you the role."
Jenny Curtis: Oh my gosh. I even know you got it, but I still
Jenny Curtis: got jealous.
O.T. Fagbenle: I know. I was like, " What? I don't believe this." I was just beside
O.T. Fagbenle: myself. I remember just, I was so happy and joyful,
O.T. Fagbenle: but then at the same time I had this like, am I
O.T. Fagbenle: going to have to call my brother up and tell him that we're not going
O.T. Fagbenle: to do the show, and I was like, " Listen," I
O.T. Fagbenle: said to my agent Julia who's amazing, Julia Burkoff. I said, "
O.T. Fagbenle: How are we going to make it work. We've got to make
O.T. Fagbenle: it work." And, you know what? It was just like,
O.T. Fagbenle: I don't know, luck, fate, destiny, whatever, Handmaid's, for whatever reason, was
O.T. Fagbenle: running late and so they said, " We're not going to
O.T. Fagbenle: be shooting in September," so they were pushed four months,
O.T. Fagbenle: and then we just asked Marvel, " Hey look, can you
O.T. Fagbenle: fit my filming into these two months and push those
O.T. Fagbenle: there," and then we asked channel four if we could
O.T. Fagbenle: push Max there and they all overlapped like this, but I've actually
O.T. Fagbenle: get to do all three. It was so surreal and
O.T. Fagbenle: I felt so grateful. I felt so grateful for Marvel and Cate Shortland,
O.T. Fagbenle: who assured me when I got to speak to her.
O.T. Fagbenle: She's an indie filmmaker, and I was like, "Look, this is my baby."
O.T. Fagbenle: She said, " We can make it work. We'll make it
O.T. Fagbenle: work." And so, I'm so grateful to her and to Marvel, who was
O.T. Fagbenle: surprisingly, just flexible and responsive and I feel very grateful
O.T. Fagbenle: for that.
Jenny Curtis: That's awesome. So, again, after a 20 year career, is it weird
Jenny Curtis: that now you're popping on lists of actors to watch,
Jenny Curtis: even though you've been around for decades?
O.T. Fagbenle: Well, yeah, I don't know. I have a bit of a kind of, I don't
O.T. Fagbenle: know. I don't know. I really try to not care
O.T. Fagbenle: about that. Of course, I care about it. I do care
O.T. Fagbenle: about it. I fricking love it. Let awards rain on my face, but
O.T. Fagbenle: at the same time, I just try and remind myself
O.T. Fagbenle: what's important, what's real. If you get too much of
O.T. Fagbenle: a sense of self from others, then you're really dangerous,
O.T. Fagbenle: because the world can be fickle and everything changes, and
O.T. Fagbenle: so, look, it's a lesson I'm trying to relearn and
O.T. Fagbenle: teach myself every day to be present and to be
O.T. Fagbenle: grateful for the small things and stuff like that. And so,
O.T. Fagbenle: I try not to put too much stock ... of course,
O.T. Fagbenle: like I said, (inaudible) , but I try not to
O.T. Fagbenle: put too much stock in those things, because I know
O.T. Fagbenle: it's not a sustainable way of having peace.
Jenny Curtis: So, it's speaking about what's real. Can you tell us
Jenny Curtis: more about ABC Foundation?
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, you know what? As my career grew and I realized how
O.T. Fagbenle: lucky ... I was getting paid better. I was getting paid American
O.T. Fagbenle: money for a start and I was like, " Look, I have a
O.T. Fagbenle: responsibility. I've got more to give." And so, I started this charity
O.T. Fagbenle: which I've got the tech passion. I'm passionate about tech and I'm passionate about young people.
O.T. Fagbenle: We matched up with this organization called Induna Girls in
O.T. Fagbenle: Zimbabwe, and they do exactly that. They give tech training
O.T. Fagbenle: to young women in Zimbabwe, and some of it is
O.T. Fagbenle: as rudimentary as teaching them how to turn on a computer or write an
O.T. Fagbenle: email, go online, because these people don't have necessary access
O.T. Fagbenle: to the internet. And so, over the last two years, we
O.T. Fagbenle: have provided tech training to over 100 young people. We created
O.T. Fagbenle: a tech hub which has solar panels and cooling system
O.T. Fagbenle: which is mobile and the young people can come there
O.T. Fagbenle: and have access to over a dozen computers we have.
O.T. Fagbenle: We've paid for them to get tuition, both on a
O.T. Fagbenle: remedial level and also in things like robotics. I just
O.T. Fagbenle: think tech is the future, and for people in developing nations
O.T. Fagbenle: to keep up and to compete, they need access to that.
O.T. Fagbenle: And so, very recently, Elizabeth Moss (inaudible) , Angelica Ross
O.T. Fagbenle: all joined me on an Insta live which you can
O.T. Fagbenle: check out. They were so generous in their time, to help fundraise,
O.T. Fagbenle: because we're aiming to create more of these tech hubs
O.T. Fagbenle: so we can provide access to more and more people
O.T. Fagbenle: in Zimbabwe.
Jenny Curtis: That's awesome.
O.T. Fagbenle: If anyone wants to check out ABC Foundation, it's abcfoundation.
O.T. Fagbenle: me, that was available and then people can also see
O.T. Fagbenle: on my Instagram, there's a link in my bio, if people want to
O.T. Fagbenle: find out more about it or to donate. We take both
O.T. Fagbenle: money and also things like computers, old computers, old smart
O.T. Fagbenle: phones, all of these things can be put to real
O.T. Fagbenle: use to young people in Zimbabwe.
Jenny Curtis: We'll also put the link in the notes to this
Jenny Curtis: show, so if you're listening to the podcast, go into
Jenny Curtis: the show notes and you can just click the link and go
Jenny Curtis: right there.
O.T. Fagbenle: Right. Thank you.
Jenny Curtis: So, classically trained actor from RADA, accolades aside, fame aside,
Jenny Curtis: money aside. If you had to choose one, would it
Jenny Curtis: be theater or film?
O.T. Fagbenle: Oh, it's a no brainer. It's theater. It's not even
O.T. Fagbenle: close, really. But, I don't do it now because those
O.T. Fagbenle: things (inaudible) aside. It's hard, and it doesn't pay
O.T. Fagbenle: anywhere near as well, but I was born for the stage.
Jenny Curtis: What is the difference to you between a live audience
Jenny Curtis: and a film audience?
O.T. Fagbenle: The audience is definitely a huge part of it. That
O.T. Fagbenle: relationship with an audience, that thing that changes each performance
O.T. Fagbenle: as you feel them and have a relationship with them. But
O.T. Fagbenle: also, a lot of it is the writing. There's a
O.T. Fagbenle: style of writing which is available in theater, which isn't
O.T. Fagbenle: available in television. If someone told me, " You watch television,
O.T. Fagbenle: but theater has an audience. They listen to the words." And,
O.T. Fagbenle: what's amazing about theater to me is it's not unusual,
O.T. Fagbenle: in fact it's very common for me to do something
O.T. Fagbenle: written 400 years ago in Shakespeare, or to do something
O.T. Fagbenle: within the '80s or the '60s, Lorraine Hansbury. And so,
O.T. Fagbenle: what we're saying, the best works of art from the
O.T. Fagbenle: English language are available to an actor to do again
O.T. Fagbenle: and again. I can't go and play my favorite character
O.T. Fagbenle: in Game of Thrones. That's not available to me to go,
O.T. Fagbenle: oh, the Wire. Okay, well actually, I'm going to do the Wire next year.
O.T. Fagbenle: I can't do the best of television again and then
O.T. Fagbenle: do my interpretation of True Detective or whatever. I can't.
O.T. Fagbenle: Once it's in television, once you're done, it's pretty much
O.T. Fagbenle: done, unless 30 years have gone. In theater, you can have four productions of King
O.T. Fagbenle: Lear going on at once. So, it's that. The last play
O.T. Fagbenle: I did, I did a play called Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
O.T. Fagbenle: by August Wilson. It's one of the greatest plays in
O.T. Fagbenle: the English language. It's absolutely heart wrenching and stunning. It's a play
O.T. Fagbenle: I wanted to do for 20 years, and that's available to me on stage.
O.T. Fagbenle: And so yeah, that's a big part of it.
Jenny Curtis: Do you have a favorite line from any character you've ever played?
Jenny Curtis: One that just really you would tattoo on your arm
Jenny Curtis: if you could?
O.T. Fagbenle: Oh my God. I don't know, I'm a commitment phobe.
O.T. Fagbenle: What am I going to tattoo on my arm. I don't know there's so many. It would probably be a line
O.T. Fagbenle: from Mercutio. Shakespeare is just somebody who the world ... I don't know,
O.T. Fagbenle: nothing really comes straight to mind now. But yean, it would definitely
O.T. Fagbenle: be one of the Bard's lines. I would, listen, I did (inaudible)
O.T. Fagbenle: for four months on tour, little regional theaters across the
O.T. Fagbenle: country and you'd sit in your dressing room. You could
O.T. Fagbenle: hear the ... and then every night, some new line would ... that line
O.T. Fagbenle: I'd never heard before could be the best line in
O.T. Fagbenle: another play.
Jenny Curtis: Do you have a favorite Shakespearean insult?
O.T. Fagbenle: I actually have a book of Shakespearean insults somewhere. Why, do you just have one on
O.T. Fagbenle: top of your head?
Jenny Curtis: Canker blossom is by far the best insult I think
Jenny Curtis: you could ever throw to somebody.
O.T. Fagbenle: Canker blossom. The blossom of the canker. Oh God. That's a good one.
Jenny Curtis: Any final thoughts before we close out?
O.T. Fagbenle: Well yeah, just I'd love you guys to watch Maxxx
O.T. Fagbenle: and hit me up on the socials and just if
O.T. Fagbenle: you liked it, tell me. If you didn't, it's fine, just
O.T. Fagbenle: keep it to yourself.
Jenny Curtis: How Max of you.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, exactly, exactly. But, I guess if there's one thing that
O.T. Fagbenle: I've been contemplating a bit recently, is it's a really
O.T. Fagbenle: stressful time I think at the moment, of course, with
O.T. Fagbenle: coronavirus and civilized matters and the environment and it's crazy
O.T. Fagbenle: politics and I think it's so stressful. And, I don't know,
O.T. Fagbenle: I've been reminded a lot this week how important it
O.T. Fagbenle: is to look after one's mental health as much as possible, to be kind to yourself and to
O.T. Fagbenle: find ways to find peace and to be present and
O.T. Fagbenle: stuff. So yeah, I guess if I was going to say
O.T. Fagbenle: anything, it's just like, that's something I've been thinking a lot about recently, and so
O.T. Fagbenle: I wish everyone the best of luck with that.
Jenny Curtis: O. T. Fagbenle, thank you so much for joining us today.
Jenny Curtis: Everyone should check out Maxxx. It is now out on Hulu,
Jenny Curtis: and I can't wait for Black Widow in hopefully a
Jenny Curtis: few months.
O.T. Fagbenle: Yeah, it was fun chatting with you. Thank you.
Jenny Curtis: Thank you so much. ( music) Hollywood Unscripted was created by CurtCo Media.
Jenny Curtis: This special episode of the stuck at home series, was
Jenny Curtis: hosted and produced by me, Jenny Curtis with the guest O. T. Fagbenle.
Jenny Curtis: The executive producer of Hollywood Unscripted is Stuart Halperin. The
Jenny Curtis: Hollywood Unscripted theme song is by Celleste and Eric Dick.
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