WEBVTT - LESLIE ODOM, JR. 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:19.680 Happy days from the Sometimes the most fabulous opportunities come 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.239 my way. Today is one of those days, in a 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.799 time not so long ago, and yet it seems like 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:31.680 forever ago. We had schools, we had travel, we had 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:36.120 entertainment venues. They were wide open, we had movies, and 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:40.560 we had plays. And I had the privilege to attend 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:46.239 to showing of Hamilton's on Broadway. It was exceptional in 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:51.680 every way possible. Many of the performances just absolutely stunned me. 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:56.920 They were phenomenal, and one of the characters in particular 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:03.040 stood out, Aaron Burr played by Leslie Odom Jr. Whoa 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:08.080 can that man sing? Can he sing? And can he act? 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.680 And can he dance? I guess I wasn't the only 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.280 one blown away because the performance won him a prestigious 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:20.319 Tony Award. And guess what that man, Leslie Odom Jr. 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.919 Is dropping in to join us right now on Loves 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:30.319 Someone Today. Oh My Hearts Be Still. Leslie is gifting 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.840 the world with a Christmas album that was released in November, 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:39.000 a movie that opens on Christmas Day, and he hosted 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:43.080 the CBS special A Home for the Holidays to help 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.320 raise awareness of kids in Foster care who need to 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.600 be adopted. So even though Broadway has been shut down 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.000 for months, Leslie has been keeping busy, and we have 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.160 a whole lot to talk about. Right after I spent 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.000 a little time telling you about another fabulous performer. The 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:03.640 folks making the podcast possible, the home depots making holiday 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:07.360 shopping that much easier. Shop online with the Home Depot, 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:09.640 knowing that the products you buy as gifts can be 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.399 delivered in just a day or two. Use the home 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.320 Depot app, which has been updated and made so easy 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:19.239 to navigate and find just the right gift. There's ten 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.760 thousand tools alone to choose from all that can be 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.639 purchased and shipped right from your phone this year, make 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.240 the most of your holidays with a little help from 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:33.840 the Home Depot. How doers get more done? Even though 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:37.480 Broadway has been shut down now since what March, March 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:41.000 or April, Leslie, you've been keeping busy. We have a 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:44.880 lot to talk about. We got Christmas music to talk about, 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:47.519 we got movies to talk about, and we got to 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.079 talk about Hamilton's. I mean, we can't not talk about 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:55.720 Hamilton's because you cannot. So I went and saw you 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:59.680 in Hamilton's. You did, and nobody warned me. I mean 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.240 I had heard the rave reviews, I had heard all 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.079 the you know, all the good stuff. But I went 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.480 and saw you in Hamilton's shortly after I lost a son. 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:15.880 Oh god, Yes, nobody warned me. Lastly, yeah, yeah, they 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:17.880 had to take me out of the theater. The people 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:19.800 I was with how to take me out of the 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:25.320 theater because I had a small mental breakdown. What an 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:31.600 intense I mean, every second of the production is intense. 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.240 You know. We had one of my favorite nights in 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:39.600 the theater. Uh, that moment or for for those in 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.600 your audience that don't know, there's a moment Hamilton's lost 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.720 a child, and there was at that moment in the 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.240 second act my favorite night in the theater. Delilah was 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:54.480 not the standing ovations and the screaming and hollering that 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.120 people would do, you know, because Len's work, that's what 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:01.280 it brings out in people. People have this visceral response 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:06.400 and connection to his music. Um. But there was one 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:10.400 night where we finished that that song it's called Unimaginable 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.000 and for the first time in my life, I've done 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:20.359 a lot of theater. The audience fourteen hundred people didn't 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:27.840 applaud they didn't say anything. They sat there for I 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:32.520 don't know, six seven seconds, a whole audience of people. 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.200 It was stunning, it was remarkable. It was it was 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.599 like the equivalent of a five standing ovations, because it 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:45.960 is so rare to stun people into silence. But that 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.440 audience on that night, the way that moment hit them, 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:51.800 um was probably you know a lot like it. It's you. 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.680 I remember when Lynn wrote that song. Uh, not to 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.240 get all Hamilton, but yeah, when he wrote that song, 0:04:57.680 --> 0:04:59.520 I just couldn't believe it. I thought he had broken 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:04.240 through to another side of himself as a writer. Um, 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:09.960 it's just what he did was he put into song yep, 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:18.599 what it feels like, the unimaginable pain. Yep, he put 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:24.040 it into song, and it just yeah, it was so powerful. 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:27.240 I don't know if you know this, but at the 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:32.160 public theater, it was crazy that this happened to it 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.000 the public theater. I don't It's it's public knowledge. So 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:38.920 I really don't think I'm speaking out of turn. I 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.680 I you know what, I imagine that they would want 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.080 me to share this with you at this time, you know, 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.400 right at this moment. But when we were off Broadway. 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:53.880 The public theater is run by this magnanimous, generous soul 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:57.560 by the name of Oscar Used, this brilliant man, and 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:03.119 he was soul sponsible for the early development of this show. 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.440 He showed us such support and right away and like 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.640 and gave the show his his brain, his genius, and 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:13.240 his contacts. And so we ran off Broadway for six months. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:19.559 And right before we opened off Broadway, Oscar and his wife, 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:27.520 their son Jack, their only son, committed suicide. And we 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:31.359 were all stunned. And when I tell you Oscar and Lori, 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:34.679 um will they'll tell you themselves. But you know, if 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.120 the show became sort of like church for them, you 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.480 know it was. It really was a bomb for them. 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:44.599 And they came. Lori came, man, you know, a couple 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.839 of times a week, and we the responsibility that we 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:51.560 felt during that time to just give her some comfort 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.680 and maybe some joys for a couple of moments out 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:57.720 of the day. Was we We really took it seriously. 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:01.120 So I know the power of the show. You brought 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:03.600 me joy, you brought me comfort, But I was not. 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.400 Somebody should warn people and say there is a song, 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:11.960 there is a scene that if you have lost a child. 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:18.160 You need to prepare for because it's almost otherworldly, the 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:23.040 way that it transports you to that place of grief. 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.200 I mean I I left for the duration the rest 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:29.040 of the song. I came back and saw the end 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.080 of the play. But then, you know what it did. 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.320 It puts such a hunger in me to learn about 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:39.360 the characters, like I left there, and I did. I 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.280 dove deep. I did hours of research on on the 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.960 sun Philip that he lost, and on Alexander Hamilton's and 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:53.360 on the asshole that you played. Mr Mr Burr, What 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:57.320 a what a perfect name. He was a burr. He 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:01.240 was a notorious scoundrel. Yeah, among other things, but yeah, 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:03.080 he was a scoundrel. He was a scoundrel and you 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:07.160 played him. Well, is there a bit of that scoundrel 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:10.120 in you? Oh? Sure? It's in't all of us? A 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.000 friend of mine, it is, it's in all of us. 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.080 A friend of mine said, she's a lawyer, and she 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:19.120 said she spends it. She gave me this. We were 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.720 at a bar. She had come to see the show 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:25.120 early in rehearsed so early in previews on Broadway, and 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:26.920 went to a bar afterwards. And she's a lawyer, and 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:31.480 she said, you know, um, I just love the characterization, 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.800 you know, with you and Lynn, Um, I really want 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:38.960 her out to who wrote that that biography of Hamilton's 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.720 what you guys have done? She said, because my life 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:47.000 as a lawyer, I spend most of my time defending 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:51.840 people for their worst act on their worst day. You know, 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.400 you imagine you imagine that, You imagine that It's like 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.040 we've all had of just like those moments. If if 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.080 you just looked that snapshot of the worst thing I've 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:04.400 done on the worst day of my life, and you 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.600 boiled my whole life down to that moment. Um, I 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:09.800 think any of us could be painted as a scoundrel, 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:14.480 any of us could be painted as a villain. And so, um, 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:16.240 you know, I'm not here to make a case for Bird, 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:21.840 you know it is. I love what what Alexander Hamilton 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:25.200 himself wrote about Burr years before the two were in 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:31.080 the duel. He said, Burr loves nothing but himself. He 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:35.480 is sanguine enough to hope everything, daring enough to try anything, 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:41.600 wicked enough to scruple nothing. And the way you played 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:46.320 the character, yeah, you nailed that. I don't know if 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:48.640 you've ever heard that quote before, but you nailed that. 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.440 You were the character that you played was sanguine enough 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:57.440 to hope everything, daring enough to try anything, and wicked 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:04.319 enough to scruple nothing. I'll take it, listen. I think 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:09.600 I had a real love for the guy, for the characterization, 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:12.120 you know, um, And I don't think I was the first. 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.400 I think Lynn loved him first. You don't write it. 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.040 You don't write a song like Wait for It for 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.000 a character or a song like Dear Theodosia for a 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.160 character that you don't love. And so I think Lynn 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:27.000 found his way to have compassion for him, and I 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.199 found my way to birth through Lynn. Of course, Burr 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:34.520 loves nothing but himself, but Leslie loves a whole lot 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:36.760 of folks and a whole lot of things. So tell me, 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.160 tell me. That's a perfect segue here to tell me 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:44.880 about the people that are closest to your heart. Uh um, Well, 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.760 I'm talking to outside because like everybody you know, we're 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.120 we're taking this like most of us were taking this 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.000 quarantine pretty seriously. So we gotta we got a full 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:57.000 house inside. Right now is my wife and she um 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:01.559 in the living room is doing a Zoom personal training 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.520 session with her dear friend of ours. But they do. 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.360 They've taken their you know, their yoga and their fitness 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.000 stuff to zoom. So the living room is is loud 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.200 right now with that. My daughter is in the kitchen. 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.240 My toddler, my three year old, is in there with 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:21.040 my sister in law, and they are making what are 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.600 they making, um, a mess? They're making a mess. They're 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:29.520 making a mess. Yeah, it's a toddler. She's making a mess. 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.920 Some kind of vegan treating there. I have a granddaughter 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.280 who's two, and my youngest son is four, and they 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.760 have to face time each other every morning. Now that's 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.760 their little tradition. So my daughter calls me and then 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.199 the two kids have to talk. And my poor daughter, 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:50.840 all she does is go around all day long cleaning 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:55.960 up the toddler's tornado. That's all she does. If you 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:58.360 have any room on that zoom to add to add 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.079 a little girl, let me know, because that's where we're 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:02.960 all trying to figure out, you know, how to keep 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:09.640 these little people connected, occupied and connected, occupied and growing still. 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:11.880 You know, it's like we we've all become part time 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:14.720 preschool teachers. It's you know, oh my gosh, if I 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.480 have to listen to one more Veggie Tails song. Has 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.760 your daughter discovered veggie tails? Yet? We're not at Veggie 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:23.680 Taels house? Yet we are. We are Daniel Tiger, We 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:27.600 are Blues Clues, Door the Explorer. Those are the ones 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:32.560 and word party. Look up veggie Tales. VeggieTales is It's 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:38.280 it's singing and performing vegetables who have no arms and 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:42.319 no legs. Um, but they have trumpets and trombones and 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:48.440 and silly songs with larry and no arms and legs. Yeah, 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.600 oh yeah, it's quite ingenious. And and I I I 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:57.120 was introduced to VeggieTales because my oldest child is probably 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.839 older than you, and my youngest child is four. So 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.120 I've been doing this, you know, mama bear thing for 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:08.040 over four decades now. And my my older kids loved 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:12.040 veggie Tales, and so I loved Veggie Tails, and then 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.040 Veggie Tails reached out to me, and I got to 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.400 be a character in one of their movies. I have 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.000 like I know, huh, I should have liked won an 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.920 award for it, like you won your award for Hamilton's. Um. 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.160 I had like four lines, but I did them well. 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:29.280 I played a little sour grape anyway, introduce your daughter 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:34.240 to veggie tails. Uh, we'll do it. You will walk 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:38.480 around the house singing, oh where is my hairbrush? Oh? 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:42.760 Where is my hairbrush? Oh? Where where? Or where? Where? Where? Where? 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.560 A where is my hair brush? You don't need a 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.640 hair brush, you don't have any hair When when I 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.840 make my Veggie Tails cover album, I will dedicate it 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.320 to you because you introduced me to veggie tail. Oh, Leslie, 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.720 let me tell you. But speaking of music, better than 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:04.479 AARs my hair brust, tell me about your Christmas album? 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.920 Oh my goodness. Well, I you know, of all the 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.360 things that I've done, I've done, I've been sort of busy, 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.160 you know, since leaving Hamilton's. Have done a lot of stuff, 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:19.080 sort of busy, movies, albums, babies. It's sort of busy. 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:22.480 But the thing that I hear about most often, right 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.600 after Hamilton's, of course, is this Christmas album that I made. 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:27.920 I made a Christmas album a couple of years ago, 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:32.080 and I hear about it, certainly at the holidays all 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.560 the time. But it's it's it's got me jobs. My 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.320 Christmas album was was one of the things that Regina. 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:39.480 Regina said, I heard that Christmas album and I was 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.320 like that, Sam Cook. So so it being out in 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.680 the space has done really wonderful things for for us 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.240 and people have embraced it. So um COVID nineteen, like 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:51.840 everybody else, caught us in the middle of something. You know, 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.920 I was. I was on tour for I put out 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:58.520 an original album, all original music called MR at the 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:00.920 end of last year, and everybody told me, you can't 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:02.640 just put out an album and expect people to find 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:04.200 their way to it. You have to tour an album. 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:06.960 You have to go around the country and kiss babies, 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:10.640 shake hands. No no, no, no, no, Leslie, Leslie, Leslie. 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:15.160 All you have to do is called a lila oh baby, Well, 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:20.200 thank you for halfies and one night, bam bam, your 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:25.360 work is done. Yeah, we had to we had to pivot, 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:28.280 you know that the tour got canceled, and I you know, 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:30.760 at first, I wasn't you know, I wasn't even concerned 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:32.800 about that. I wanted to be home with my with 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:34.960 my ladies and hold them close. And you know, we 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:38.560 didn't know how close this virus was gonna get to home, 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:41.320 how seriously was going to be So so anyway was home, 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:43.560 you know, just on lockdown. For a few months and 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:45.920 then up to three months into the thing, you're like, Okay, 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:48.640 what can I do? What can I make? And just 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.200 fast forwarding a little bit, trying to imagine this Christmas, 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:55.400 this Christmas, what people might be in need of, what 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.760 people how we could be of service. And we made 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.480 this this second Christmas album in many ways, we just 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.960 hope it feels and sounds like a gift. You know 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.200 that that's our intention. So what's your favorite song that 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:12.480 you did on this one? Well, I wrote two original 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:15.120 songs on this one. I wouldn't have even dared to 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.480 attempt that on the first one that it opens within 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:22.840 a box as the kids call it. It's called snow Um, 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:24.600 you know, for you to dance around the house while 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:26.960 you're decorating the tree and putting your lights up. And 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.840 then it closes with an original song called Heaven and Earth. 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.240 That really kind of And I was in the delivery 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:36.560 room for the birth of my daughter, and something I 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:40.040 was thinking about in the delivery room. You know what, 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:43.200 when you know, as you begin the craft of the 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:47.800 father watching um, if you're lucky enough with you, you know, 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:49.320 to to be in the deliver room from bern of 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.680 a child where every man is Joseph in the delivery room. 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:57.680 You know, every man has that wonder and that awe 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:01.600 and terror and lation, you know, all that time as 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:05.720 we watched women do the most miraculous thing that most 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:08.840 of us will ever witness on this planet. Um, so 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:11.919 Heaven and Earth is about just try to put you 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.399 back in that delivery room and really back in that barn, 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:17.600 you know. So think about this. When you were in 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.200 the delivery room with you know, seeing your baby girl 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:27.680 be born, there were doctors, nurses, midwives, dou Lah's technicians, 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:32.840 oxygen tanks, all that at your disposal should problems arise. 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:39.680 I often think about Joseph. It was just him, Mary, 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:45.000 a few cows, some sheep. Yeah, and back then men 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:49.600 weren't even allowed near the women when they were having 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.560 anything to do with you know, the monthly cycle or 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:56.320 anything like that. And here he's thrust into the role 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:03.080 of delivering the almighty. Yeah, I mean, could you imagine 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:08.080 he's a terrible god? What if I drop him? Oh? No, 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:12.119 oh no, somebody? Is there anybody else out there that 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:19.959 could come and give me a hand? That is hello, people, 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:28.760 I mean, without the without the the support staff that 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:33.280 I had you know, I think that there are similar 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.320 things that I felt. You know also, you know much 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:38.679 out not being the almighty, but but just yet a 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.879 little life that that I believe comes from God, a 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:45.080 little soul, little spirit. TI I'm charged with um And 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.639 you're like, am I ready? Am I enough? Do I 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.320 know enough? What if I dropped her? What if you 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.440 know all those things? That is what you're thinking. And 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:57.320 I mean my wife, man, Oh my god, the respect 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.600 that I had had for her after seeing or do 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.560 something like that. It's just yeah, there's no equivalent from men. 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.840 There's there is no equivalent in this life that we 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.520 go through that you know, which you guys have to 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:15.080 face your death. You have to face your death to 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:19.720 bring life into the world. It's it's astonishing, an astonishing paradox, 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:22.240 and most of it, if most of us have given 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:26.080 the chance, would do it again and again. I mean no, 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:29.679 I was blessed to give birth to three and further 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.119 blessed to adopt twelve and marry a man that had five, 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:38.320 And if I could, I would still be birth and babies, 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:43.680 because it's the greatest blessing in in my world, far 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:49.520 above anything. Nothing even comes close to being the joy 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:53.920 giver to my heart that my kids are nothing after 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.960 that Hamilton's you know, my wife and I were not 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:03.160 planning on having children, uh anytime soon, you know. But 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.760 but after that, after that Hamilton thing and climbing that 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:10.920 mountain and you know, wrapping my arms around a childhood 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.119 dream and a Tony award and the Grammy award and stuff, 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.840 you know, and and just just really that experience being 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:21.359 so satisfying and satiating. It was like, what what mountain 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:23.119 do we want to climb next? I mean, it was 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:25.720 really the only the only next thing we could do 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.600 because we knew we didn't want to just like continue 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:34.000 after career aspirations. It's like, look, that was and my 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.119 wife's got to experience it right alongside me, so you know, 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:39.840 in many ways it was you know, it was my 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.520 victory was as much her victory, you know. So we 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:47.040 decided to have a kid next. And you're absolutely right, 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.720 it's everything else pales in comparison. It's all wonderful. It 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:54.840 is all wonderful, the accolades and the and the career stuff, 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.280 but um, being a husband, being a dad is the 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:00.959 most important job and my face her job on the planet, 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:02.919 all right, We're going to have to figure out how 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:05.600 to zoom the littles because I gotta I gotta meet 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:08.960 this little person in yours. So tell me about One 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:14.760 Night in Miami opening Christmas Day. Yeah, quite a story, 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:19.200 you guys decided to tell. Yeah, One Night in Miami, 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:25.760 directed by Oscar winner, Emmy winner Regina King's having quite 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:32.240 renaissance herself. Um, but she found this play, you know, 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:34.760 after the Oscar. Hollywood came to her and they said, 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:36.400 you know what, that's what happens after you win Oscar. 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:37.720 So what do you want to do next? What movie 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:39.160 can we find for you? She said, I really want 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:40.520 to direct something and I said what do you want 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:42.600 to direct? And she said, well, I think I really 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:46.640 want to direct a black love story and I love that. 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:50.160 That's the start of this. This movie, which she ended 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.600 up finding, was a story about friendship and brotherhood. Um 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:55.480 so that was her love story. But it's based on 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:59.880 a true night. Cash is Clay is going to fight 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:05.359 than the heavyweight champion uh Sunny listing for the belt. 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:08.600 Nobody expects Cashes to win this fight, so there's no 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:12.640 victory party planned in Miami for Cashes. Nobody expected Cashes 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:18.600 to win except for except for cashes, right, I love that. 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.280 I would much rather the whole world be against me 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:25.240 when I go into a ring, when I go into battle, 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:28.679 I don't want anybody to plan a victory party because 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:32.840 I want to kick butt and then say told you so, 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.600 that's what he does, that's what he did, that's what 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:40.280 he did. And he did, and he spent the evening 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:43.080 that night his victory party, was hanging out in a 0:22:43.160 --> 0:22:45.639 hotel room with three of his closest friends who just 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:50.160 happened to be Jim Brown, Malcolm X, and Sam Cook. 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:54.000 And we know the night happened, that the men all 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:57.000 spoke about the night. Um, but we know we also 0:22:57.280 --> 0:22:59.520 have confirmation of the night because the FBI was the 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:04.240 CIA was following Malcolm and keeping copious notes on everything 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:07.760 you did, and so uh their notes that are public 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:11.840 record now about about that evening, and nobody knows what 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:13.840 went on in the room where it happened, as it were, 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:19.040 Nobody knows what they talked about that night. But um, 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:23.760 it became uh, this legendary night only in hindsight because 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:28.479 within a year, Delilah, both Malcolm and Sam would be 0:23:28.520 --> 0:23:33.119 gone so suddenly and so violently so you imagine you 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:35.480 have a night like that. You know, when I tell people, 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:37.439 it's like, you know, you imagine you have a you know, 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:40.439 you hang out the three of your pals and you know, 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:42.560 you guys have a night on the town, you know, 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:45.200 and then God forbid, you know, you if you've lost 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:50.440 them with you know everything, every interaction you you pour over, 0:23:50.480 --> 0:23:52.640 those interactions, you pour over the last time you talk 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:56.520 to them, the last meaningful conversation you had in hindsight, 0:23:56.560 --> 0:23:59.160 because you're like, you know, that's all you had left. 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:02.600 And so that's what this film supposes, what they might 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:05.400 have talked about that night, all night long. And it's 0:24:05.400 --> 0:24:08.520 a very special movie getting a lot of attention, and 0:24:08.600 --> 0:24:11.200 I'm very very proud of it. And you're Sam Cook. 0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:15.600 I'm Sam Cook in this film. Uh cut me some slack, 0:24:16.000 --> 0:24:19.600 because I mean it's Sam Cooke, the greatest, one of 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:26.159 the greatest voices we were ever gifted. And what a 0:24:26.240 --> 0:24:29.359 soul you know, and what and what an icono class 0:24:29.600 --> 0:24:33.880 I mean, he was just He's the blueprint. So um yeah, 0:24:33.920 --> 0:24:37.119 I play Sam Cook. I do. I attempt to sing 0:24:37.119 --> 0:24:40.760 the Sam Cook music in the film, and the hits 0:24:40.760 --> 0:24:44.000 are all in there, so it comes and select theaters 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:45.560 of course, if you're willing to go to a movie 0:24:45.600 --> 0:24:48.320 theater or drive in theater. I said, I started the 0:24:48.400 --> 0:24:50.399 drive in the top of this week and it was 0:24:50.440 --> 0:24:52.840 I've never been to a drive in. It was really 0:24:52.960 --> 0:24:55.520 fun time we had. And it comes to Amazon Prime 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:58.680 January fifteen, the top of the next year, Martin Luther 0:24:58.800 --> 0:25:01.280