WEBVTT - Rewind: Jennifer Lewis and Michael Blackson Interview 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.079 The Thread is a new hit podcast from Azzi Media 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.640 that explores history surprising connections in order to discover how 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:09.479 one thing leads to another, like how movie moguls in 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.959 early Hollywood helped spark the Me Too movement. Today, get 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:18.240 it on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen. The Walmost Dangerous 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:24.840 Morning Show, The Breakfast Club. Y'all together, y'all are like 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:28.960 a mega for us. Y'all just took over every post. 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.680 This Chris Brown, I've officially joined the Breakfast Club. Say something, mother, 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:40.440 I'm with Walmost Dangerous Morning Show, Breakfast Club. Yeah, yeah, morning. 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:44.120 Everybody is DJ Envy Angela ye shoul, I mean the 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:46.479 guy we are the Breakfast Club. We got a special 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.080 guest in the building, the Black Mother of Hollywood. Here, 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:55.120 Black Hollywood guys. How are you good? I'm good. I've 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.800 been traveling around the country a lot, you know, touring. 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:02.639 Uh you know, Florida, went over to the Parkland, talk 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:07.440 to the Parkland kids, just left Detroit, went over to Flint, 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:11.679 talked to the water warriors. It's just not a book too. 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.200 I'm trying to do something out here, you know, Um, 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:16.920 you really putting in their work. Huh oh yeah, you know, 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.000 Blackishes on hiatus. Oh, we just got picked up for 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:29.280 a fifth season. I'm rich. I'm rich together, y'all just 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:33.160 gotta keep watering. Well, we've been picked up for a 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:37.600 fifth season. Obviously. I do love that you started the 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.120 book talking about going getting on Blackish and just basically 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.560 you almost retired. Yeah. I was about to retire. I 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.559 didn't get Oranges. I auditioned for Oranges and New Black 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:50.520 and my girlfriend Lorraine Jussaint got it. I auditioned for 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.000 getting on on HBO. My good friend NC Nash got 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:57.760 and I was like, okay, this is m So I 0:01:57.920 --> 0:01:59.680 was out in my yard. But you know, I love them, 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:01.960 and I'm always happy for other people. You know, I worked, 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:04.560 so come on, now, I got more talented than my 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:09.480 little told thing. Anyway, I got it. I'm getting Okay, 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.560 let's get that right. Cut that. I don't want my 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.480 peers to think I think I'm better than everybody, but 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:21.480 I do. Um. Yeah, So I was sitting in my backyard. 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.560 You know, I come from poverty, so I saved my 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.160 money so I wouldn't have to need too much. You 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.760 know what I mean. I'm an owl for female. Anyway, 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:36.840 what was I Yeah, so I was pruning my roses 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.600 and I said, I'm gonna I'm gonna retire. I walked 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.840 over to a twenty five cent wheel barrel that I 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.880 had bought at a garage sale, and it's full of geraniums, 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:52.919 and I said out loud, not even me can stop me. 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:56.560 I gave up many times in my life, but I 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.600 didn't quit. You gotta be in it to win it. 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.720 You gotta stay up. I wrote that book for the 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:05.920 millennials because I saw him lay down in the streets. 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:11.320 But there's a beat they miss. You gotta feel your feeling. 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:16.560 If you're feeling hopeless, feel that whatever you're feeling, feel 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.959 your feelings, then move because you'll carry the rage with you, 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.920 You'll carry the confusion with you, You'll carry the chaos 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.400 with you, and then we don't get anything done. Feel 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:33.160 your feelings. They are shooting our babies. Yeah, I heard you. 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:35.120 You're very passionate. Did you feel like all the players 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.720 should be kneeling? I want them to all go down 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.400 at the same time. If you take away America's fun, 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.200 these are the great warriors of our time, these are 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:49.480 the gladiators. You gotta go down. No great, great, great 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.600 great grandmother went down on two knees and her hands. 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:58.240 She wasn't just picking cotton. She was raped while she 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.840 was doing it. So with the ABC episode of Blackish 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:06.240 that they didn't air, which was about the kneeling, what 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:07.560 was the reason they didn't er it? You know, I 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.080 gotta tell you something I wasn't around, but all of that, 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:13.480 So I'm not gonna speak to it because I don't 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.800 know what happened. But we all know what happened. It 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.320 was too much. It could have been you know, the 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:23.600 temperature and the temperament of the country where it might 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:26.640 have been too delicate. But I don't understand ABC is 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.080 you know, let us say everything else and address all 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:33.440 these you know, needed modern day issues that people can 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.000 walk away from the television and sit down and discuss. 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.600 There's a lot of depression in this country. The in 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:44.760 word police brutality. Can your Barriss sits at the helm 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.760 of the show. He's brilliant, He's a young genius. I 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.120 admire him so much. So I don't really know what 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.560 happened with Disney or ABC, but with what's going on 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.000 in this country right now, they might want to speak 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:58.920 to it all. And if it was about the kneeling. 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:03.960 Let me tell you something. These basketball, football, baseball, I 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:08.240 don't care what you play. You are a gladiator. We 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:13.040 pay your rent. You have to honor what's going on. 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.320 They're pulling our babies over and blowing their heads off, 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.560 and you're gonna run around and throw a ball. I 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:23.440 hit a ball and they pulling your sign over. I 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:25.080 don't care who you wit. I don't care if you 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:27.560 were the white woman. The baby might look white. You 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.880 gotta into black blood. They blocked and they gonna kill them. 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:33.599 And you go to work and throw a ball around. 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:36.800 How you go to bed when your son is out 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:38.840 in the street going to the club. What made you 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:41.400 decide to write this memoir and tell all these stories? 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:43.960 Because it is something that as I was reading it, 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:47.040 I read so many memoirs from men who tell all 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:49.320 of these stories about themselves. But it's very rare that 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.960 I read women telling stories like this. I wrote this 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.760 book first of all for me, but then I wrote 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.520 it for the next generation because I want them to 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.960 know that no matter what, you can come through the fire. 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:05.600 You gotta love yourself. If you want to come through 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.159 the fire. I have an expression, I say, love yourself 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:12.480 so that love will not be a stranger when it comes, 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:15.679 and it will come if you take care of yourself 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.640 self care. I'm stressing self care out on the road. 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.400 I tell all them black women, stop eating fry chicken 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:26.240 every day. You used to do that too. You talk 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.520 about it in the books. Chicken every day. I know 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.800 it stonnuts, but you gotta stop. You gotta get sick 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.640 and tired of being sick and tired. You gotta stop. 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:37.920 You know, sitting in those rooms, you know I was. 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.480 I'm bipolar. I'm bipolar still I have to take my man. 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:42.279 And my daughter was like, you got your man's head. 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:43.960 I want to talk about it. I got it in 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.600 this morning. When did you first realize you had a 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:49.880 bipolar disorder? Okay, so here it is real fast the book. 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.080 Born and raised in poverty. I'm the baby of seven children, 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:54.880 so I didn't get a lot of attention. So I 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.160 spent my childhood going see me, see me, And then 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:04.520 that turned into me see me. That lasted a long time, 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:09.119 and then it turned into the deep, Oh you gonna 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:15.520 see me, bitches, and they saw me. But look at this, 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:20.360 you get tired. It's a mask. I mean, I was talented, 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:23.320 at hell, and I had a good heart, but I 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:26.720 was sick and I didn't want to admit it. So 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.200 they came down after I got my ass in therapy. 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.760 It's a journey, y'all. It's called the journey within. That's 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.320 what my friend said to me. She said, Jenny, there's 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.520 no greater journey than the journey within. I went, there's 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.840 a journey with it. It sounded exciting, so I took it. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:48.080 So I opened up my palms and I educated myself. 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:53.920 And now y'all want to know what my hands are doing. Hi, everybody. Yes, 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.880 I'm Jennifer Lois. That's why I'm saying Louis. Actually I'm 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.520 from a little small town called Kinlock, Missouri, all black. 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.120 It was one of the first all black, self governed 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:09.680 townships in America. So I was born and raised there. 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:14.880 You see. So this little town sits on the border 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:19.120 of Ferguson, Missouri. I come on now. So even as 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.160 a little girl, I was warned never to go to 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:27.600 Ferguson alone. So when it exploded, I wasn't surprised. But see, 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:30.920 and here's the power in the glory. Ferguson had a 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.599 movie theater and Kenlocke did not. Now you think I 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.040 was gonna let white folks back there keep me from 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.160 my dream. I would go over to every Saturday morning. 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:41.480 My mother would have killed me if she no not 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:43.439 go over there, get my little popcorn set up in 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:48.400 the balcony and imagine myself on the silver screen and 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:53.160 now sixty eight movies later, four hundred and fifty two 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:58.000 episodic television shows, four Broadway shows, and concerts all over 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.319 the world. Don't with me. I was gonna ask you, 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:03.319 you know, did you feel like the bipolar hinted you 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:05.400 any in the business? But clearly not did it? Well, 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:10.040 here's the thing. The mania, understand, bipolar is manic behavior. 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.560 That's that cousin at the family reunion up on top 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.360 of the table, drum cousin with his pants down. So 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:18.920 that's bipolar. You don't have to go and say you 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:24.359 think you're bipolar. He's bipolar. The other polar is depression. 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:30.400 Now listen very carefully to me, bipolar disorder. The mania 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:36.960 is the rush. It's dangerous, it's rageful, and it's out 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:42.600 of control. It worked for me on stage, but baby, 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:46.160 when the curtain comes down, Oh you want to talk 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:51.800 black and dark and sad and lonely. You hide in 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:56.280 a dark room, eat yourself to death, sleep yourself to death, 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.679 get high yourself to death. And then you missed that 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:06.800 online in the Constitution, the pursuit of happiness. So what 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:12.000 sustained me was having a passion. We have more with 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.880 Jennifer Lewis from black Ish, So don't move. It's the 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:19.320 Breakfast Club, Good morning morning. Everybody's DJ v Angela, Ye 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:21.920 Charlemagne the guy. We all the Breakfast Club now from 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:24.720 black Ish. We have Jennifer Lewis in the building. Now, 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:29.319 let's talk chapter four of the new book Deva. Oh, y'all, 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:32.120 I had so much sex up in these streets. I 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.559 had a sex addiction. I didn't know, you know, I 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.120 just being in my twenties and early thirties. And I'm 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:39.599 not gonna lie. Whenever I hear guys say that, I 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:41.520 always think it's bolled. I'm just like man to say 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:44.120 you was cheating you Like, but you know what, when 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.000 I was reading the book before you even said that, 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.240 I was like, yeah, because it seemed like you didn't 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.640 feel like you were complete unless you had somebody. No, 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:54.400 it was a need, it was yea. I had to 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.640 have that right after I came off stage. I get 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.319 me a good looking man. He was my type. You 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:04.000 like the red boy. Yeah, just a little high y'all. 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.760 I liked him with a throwback then, you know, pretty 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:11.280 lip like. Does he look like you, Miguel? That was her. No, 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:13.160 he doesn't look like Miguel. Let me see if anybody 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.199 in here looks like Miguel. Miguel was Dominican. He had 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:20.840 your skin tone a little lighter, and he was He's 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:23.719 a man that you wouldn't think would have been the 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.439 love of my life. But he was brilliant. It was 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.199 a mathematician met him in New York. I know, I 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:31.679 met him in college. I met him when I was 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.400 a freshman. He was brilliant and he was sweet, and 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.840 he was very spiritual, and I was fascinated with him 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:46.800 and he called me yeah what that mean? No, he 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.920 would call me in now before you started like going 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:52.520 to therapy and stuff. Here about Polo? Was the therapeutic? 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:56.680 Was that was? Oh? Yeah? Was the drug? Are you kidding? 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:01.520 And when you buy Paula you you got multiple orgasm? 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:08.360 I mean I bad. I loved it. I would come 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:12.439 was it was it like a relationship or was it 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:18.760 just random child? Yep, I had him all, but I 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.120 was selected as a star. I was gonna be a star. 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.520 I can't say I was. I couldn't sleep with everybody. 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.439 Everybody couldn't say they slept with me, and that did 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:31.040 tame me once again. It was the dream that stopped 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.840 me from being killed. I had the knife to my throat. Yeah, 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.160 it was the greatest performance of my life. I talked 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.160 myself out. And this was just some boy coming out 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:42.360 the street. He'd seen me in the paper with a 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:44.480 white bikini on. I was on page six of the 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.480 poster the Daily News. It's all in the in the book. 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:49.920 Oh yeah, please tell that was a horrifying experience. We 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:51.240 don't want to we don't want to go in there. 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.679 Y'all read the book about the boy putting life and 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:57.040 the knife at my throat. I talked myself out of rape. 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:01.319 The boy came into my house with a knife. It 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.760 was the greatest performance of my life talking myself out 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:09.599 of it. Even he cried and he said, I just 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:11.559 got out of jail and they put me in for 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.800 something I didn't do, and he just wanted to hurt somebody. 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.439 He wasn't mean. He wasn't he didn't come in like 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.040 this because I'd have kicked his ass. I went to 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:25.199 therapy for seventeen years, twice a week because I wanted 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:29.920 to live. You spend thirty three years in depression, hurting yourself. 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.040 I want all those men on me, Come on. I 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.040 want to love myself. I wanted to enjoy my success. 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.120 I was a Broadway star. I no business running around 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.679 picking up guys and clubs. I didn't want to do 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.040 that over it. I went to my assid therapy. You 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:48.880 got to go to therapy for the sex addiction. Yes, sir, Wow, 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:51.319 you even went to an acupuncture, she said, And she 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:53.280 said she could tell you had two men in Oh 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:57.439 my god. I walked in some room and this Asian woman, 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:01.319 you know, I had bronchitis, and she gave me the 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:04.800 the needles all over. I looked like a porcupine when 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.840 she finished, and right before I walked out of her office, 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:12.720 she said, how many boyfriend you got? One? She said, 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:16.800 how many boyfriend you got? I said too, because I 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:19.800 had slept with a guy that morning, and then I 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:21.640 slept with another guy that night. That was the only 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.680 time I ever did that. She looked at me she said, 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:31.480 two men with one woman make one woman poison. Oh 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:35.000 my god, gotta that. I don't know how she knew 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.120 I had done that in New York and I got 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.680 into LA I was like, okay, baby, yeah, yeah, right, 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:45.160 but yeah. When Walter Cronkite came on the news and 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.320 said everybody you slept with, you slept with everybody they 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:50.520 slept with for the last seven years, I told my 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.560 girlfriend and I said, bitch, booked me a trip around 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:55.280 the world and put it on the credit card. Because 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:59.520 I'm a dead bitch. You know. It's scared that at 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:04.400 a world AID stopped. Oh, aid stopped us all I 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:09.000 went stop. I was in Monaco, I remember, and somebody 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.640 had called me and told me that Luther Vandross had 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:16.120 AIDS but it was because he had lost weight. He did. 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.520 He didn't have a anybody that lost a lot of weight. 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:24.880 Back in those days, you just right, right right, and 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:27.520 so you know, I loved me some looser and I 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:29.640 was like, you know, and that went through my head. 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:31.240 Over there, I was just getting ready to sleep with 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:35.800 some French boy. It was gorgeous. I'll never forget anyway, 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:41.640 very nice, but anyway, hey, but I put on the 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:45.200 brakes that night that I ain't doing this no more. 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.320 I don't want to die. Did everything make you? Or 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:50.960 did you already know your body so much? For maybe masturbations? 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.600 I didn't need no man to make me. And as 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.680 I used man, I discarded them like tissue paper back. 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.680 In those days, I was a brick cows thirty six 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:07.280 to four thirty six around check my lag off anything 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.360 I wanted to do. But yes, it was a need, 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:13.240 it was a drug. I didn't do hard drugs. I 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.520 was at a party with the San Diego Charges when 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.360 I was touring the country with a Broadway show, and uh, 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:21.680 they were passing around a brown box. I said, what's that? 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.440 He said, that's cooke, baby. I said, how you do it? 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:26.760 He said, we'll just you know, pull it right there. 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:31.040 Snorted up and thank god, I asked this second question, 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:34.240 I said, and then what happens? He said, Well, are 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:36.840 you gonna feel a drip down your throat? I said, 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:42.400 my throat? God, I got a matinee to mar I 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:46.040 ain't putting on my throat, And thank god, but once 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.040 again the dream, you see, if you really want something, 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.920 you ain't gonna mess yourself up too bad. I want 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:54.640 go ahead, baby, I want to ask you. I'm sure 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:57.080 you took an HIV test at some point you're like, oh, honey, 0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:59.680 I don't sleep with a man no more unless we go. 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.480 Oh yeah, first when you took after all that sex, 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.600 what was that you married? You don't sleep money. I've 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:07.920 never been married. You've been engaged four a time. I've 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.600 been engaged for a time. I have four rings, but 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:16.000 I never went through with it. I'm married. I listened, 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:18.960 I married my career, and I have no regrets. I 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:21.920 have a beautiful daughter here that I met in the 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.720 Big Sister Big Brother program. I was a Big Sister 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:28.840 for five years, and when she turned twelve, her mother 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:33.480 was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was unable to raise her. 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.600 So I adopted her. And she's thirty now. I just 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.840 pretty she can be. I'm so proud of us. Charmaine, 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:45.320 Laura's over there, yeah, Lauren, my other baby. Yes, but 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.320 you were relieved after you took the first time. Oh yeah, 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:52.520 oh yeah. I actually got real stressed out when I 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.520 first moved to la You know, Robert Wax brought me 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.080 out there. He was a manager. He managed Eddie Murphy 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:03.720 or Sin Chris and me so, but I wasn't ready. 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.560 I didn't know who I was. I would crumble at auditions, 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.679 cry myself to sleep, seeing myself to sleep with tears 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:16.480 by polar disorder. Ain't no joke. If y'all know somebody 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:20.520 suffering with mental illness, reach out. But I tell people 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:22.720 when I'm on the road, now reach out about three 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:26.720 times and then leave their asks along because they will 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:30.440 kill you. You understand who had your back as a child. 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:32.399 I'm looking at I'm looking at everything that you've been 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:35.639 through and my mom and mom, no, no, it wasn't mama, 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:37.800 Because one time I need to speak to us. Who 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.520 had your back? Who gave you that? Encouraged my teachers, 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:46.080 my professors in college, and I went in search of mothers. 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:50.320 I tell my daughter, now, if I'm not good enough 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.399 for you, then you go find some more mamas. I 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:55.800 had about five mamas. I talk about them in the book. 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:58.960 It's ironic that you became the mother of black Hollywood. 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.000 Now are you well? You know I I tell you 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:05.760 working with Tupac and Whitney and Taragi, and I've been 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:10.480 there to Kevin and Gabrielle. You know, I've been everybody's mama. 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:13.840 I didn't have any kids, but I got my baby, 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:16.119 so I had to learn how to be a mama. 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:19.720 They're calling me the mother of the movement now because 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:22.360 twenty five percent of my life the show business. Now 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.719 seventy five is the resistance, all right. We got more 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.360 with Jennifer Lewis. Of course, black Ash season finale tonight, 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:30.560 so don't move. It's to Breakfast Club. Good Morning, the 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:38.240 Breakfast Club, the world's most dangerous morning show. Morning. Everybody 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:41.719 is DJ Envy Angela Yee, Charlomagne the guy. We are 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:46.160 the Breakfast Club. We have from black Ish, Jennifer Lewis 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:49.080 in the building. Charlomagne, you talk about getting molested by 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.000 your pastor too, Oh yeah, I was. I was molested 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.600 by the past of my church. I was fifteen years old. 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:58.920 You know how in choirs visit churches, you know, a 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:02.040 visiting choirs coming. While we were on our way home 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:04.520 and there was no room in the truck because you know, 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:06.080 we used to riding the back of the truck in 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:10.040 those days. Like I ate ride, you know, so I said, 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.760 I'm riding with the past I was so happy, and 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:17.200 halfway home I said to him, hey, pastor Herd do 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:20.000 you think I can be a star. He pulled over, 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:24.119 leaned over, tried to kiss me, but I clenched my 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.399 teeth and he circled his tongue and I felt his 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:30.440 hand on my breast, and I resisted profusely. I was 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:32.680 like pushing him back. You gotta understand, this was the 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:35.680 man of God. I couldn't like bunch that mother. You know, 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.719 we had been taught to revere him. No I couldn't. 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.679 I'll tell you why, because it was pounded in our 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:45.200 heads to revere that some of a betch to watch 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:49.159 up him. So I resisted, and he saw that that 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:53.520 wasn't gonna happen, so he started the car pulled off. 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.119 When we exited the highway, I opened the door to 0:20:57.280 --> 0:20:59.639 spit him out of me. I'd been holding it in 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:02.359 And when he grabbed my arm because he thought I 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:05.520 was gonna jump out of the car, I couldn't even say, 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:07.720 don't touch me, you son of a bitch, because I 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:11.040 was speaking to a man of God. Ran in the 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:13.680 house told my mama. There was no Oprah Winfrey in 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.000 those days. You understand what I'm saying. Women back then, 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:19.800 they didn't know how to confront that Kaniston. That was 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:25.080 no time's up, me too movement. Hey now, so it 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.560 was never discussed again. But you did end up having 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:30.720 to ride in the car with him. Oh yeah, but 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.320 that let them read on that I want to stay 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:38.360 on this molestation. He took everything from me in seven seconds, 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:43.359 your faith, everything, took God because he was a man 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:46.399 of God, took my career because I was asking about it, 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.320 and took my mother. They don't have to rape you. 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:55.600 If you've been touched inappropriately, tell somebody, and if they 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:57.520 don't listen, go tell somebody else. And then you tell 0:21:57.640 --> 0:21:59.639 somebody and then you stand out in the street and 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:04.640 dreams or her name. I'm surprised you didn't ye come. 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.640 Oh well that's the chapter, the chapter on the molestation. 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:11.800 Because thirty three years later, after I've been in therapy, 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:14.959 I called him. I got real drunk. I was so scared. 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:18.640 And he picked up the phone and he said, hello, Jennifer, 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:22.960 We're so proud of you. You're on Fresh Prince and 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.720 a different You're on television. Jennifer, I said, it ain't 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:31.320 that kind of call. Mother, Hm, you read the book 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:33.439 for the end of that. I won't talk about definitely 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:37.240 pick up the book The Mother of Black Hollywood. Jennifer 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:41.000 Lewis was so much. He was on Bill Cobby Show. 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:43.159 You don't want me to go in? On Bill? Did you? 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.159 Did you? Did you see anything back? And yes, I 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:52.880 saw some suspicions. Yes I did, Yes I did. Don't 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:54.800 ask me what room I was in. I think I 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:57.000 was auditioning for something. I don't know what it was, 0:22:57.080 --> 0:22:58.720 but I was here in New York and there was 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.720 a young girl in there and she's thinning. I hope 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:04.080 she's watching. I don't know who she was or what. 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:06.880 But we were in that room and I was going 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:11.400 on and on about myself, what else, talking talking, talking, 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:14.960 what I'm doing? And I said, we were having a 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:17.440 good time in this girl. We're just talking and I 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:20.000 looked out. I remember looking out the window at the 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:22.760