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Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she

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Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and

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Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me

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Speaker 1: advice to many occasions in ocasion didn't notice, I'm not broke.

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Speaker 1: You know. He'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry

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Speaker 1: decision makers. It's what he likes to do, It's what

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Speaker 1: he likes to share. Now it's time to hear from

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Speaker 1: my man, Rashan McDonald money making Conversations. Here we come.

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Speaker 1: Walcome to money Making Conversation. I'm your host with Sean McDonald.

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Speaker 1: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and

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Speaker 1: really start writing your own. I always tell people listen

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Speaker 1: to my show to leave with their gifts and don't

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Speaker 1: let their age, friend or family, especially your co workers

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Speaker 1: stop you from planning or living your dreams. My favorite

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Speaker 1: interviews that always bring on this show center around business

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Speaker 1: owners and give them access to celebrity CEO, entrepreneurs and

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Speaker 1: what I like to call industry decision makers. My next

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Speaker 1: guest is Kenny Leon, a c AU graduate. Kenny's a

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Speaker 1: Tony Award winning and Emmy nominated Broadway TV and film

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Speaker 1: director and as the director and co executive producer on

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Speaker 1: lifetimes highly anticipated gospel biopic Robert Roberts presents Mahela. The

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Speaker 1: new movie premier Saturday, April three, a a PM story

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Speaker 1: Tony Ward nominee SAG and Grammy Award winning actress Danielle Brooks.

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Speaker 1: As the music legend and civil rights trailblazer Maho Jackson,

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Speaker 1: one of the most celebrated gospel figures in US history.

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Speaker 1: We'll be discussing in conversations about Mahee Jackson, the movie,

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Speaker 1: and his career, Tony Award for Best Director of a Play,

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Speaker 1: Raising in the Sun, directing The weirdst Live on NBC,

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Speaker 1: and FENSIS, just to name a few. Please work with

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Speaker 1: the money making conversation see au Proud Kenny Leon, How

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Speaker 1: you on, Kenny, I'm great and blessed and thanks for

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Speaker 1: to being with you today. Well, you know, Kenny, I uh,

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Speaker 1: your career has always you know, when Steve Harvey not

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Speaker 1: moved down to Atlanta Star Broadcasting down here in two

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Speaker 1: thousand seven, your name has always been a top of

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Speaker 1: conversation and as a groundbreaker, a person who was going

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Speaker 1: to be making a difference behind the camera in UM

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Speaker 1: Hollywood and Broadway especially, talk about that journey from an

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Speaker 1: HBCU to where you've accomplished your goals now. But I

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Speaker 1: think when I steps foot in the Atlanta University Center

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Speaker 1: and on the campus of Clark Atlanta University, it was

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Speaker 1: a moment that changed my trajectory. You know. I was

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Speaker 1: a political science major, a theater minor, and I met

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Speaker 1: people who were a little bit older, like Samuel Jackson's

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Speaker 1: wife's Lutonian Richards and Jackson and met folks like Spike

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Speaker 1: Lee and Angela Baskett and myself grew up in the

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Speaker 1: same hometown, so we had a little we had a

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Speaker 1: little harm and renaissance, you know, back in the early eighties.

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Speaker 1: And so it's sort of been the product of historically

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Speaker 1: by a college UH gave me. I could put my

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Speaker 1: hand on the dream. I could say that's possible. You know,

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Speaker 1: when I met people like the great Mayor Jackson, who

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Speaker 1: black mayor of Atlanta, or I met my first minister there,

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Speaker 1: Dr Joseph Lowry, or when I met the great John Lewis.

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Speaker 1: You know, so all these people have made it possible

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Speaker 1: for me to become the artist that I am today,

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Speaker 1: which has allowed me to to to to do fourteen

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Speaker 1: Broadway shows, to do many television films, to do the

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Speaker 1: live musical Hairspray Live is Live. But I always say,

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Speaker 1: you know, I stand on broad shoulders. You know, I

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Speaker 1: stand on that generation that came before me and that

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Speaker 1: historical Black colleges UH have reminded me how important it

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Speaker 1: it is to not only to grow academically, but to

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Speaker 1: grow culturally socially, which is what historical Black colleges do.

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Speaker 1: And they also make dreams come true. You know this

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Speaker 1: really is um a band of year for HBC, especially

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Speaker 1: in your twenties. Do you do you have a sense

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Speaker 1: wife suddenly became the forefront of why suddenly like corporation

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Speaker 1: finally discovered and wanted to donate to HBCUs. I'm not

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Speaker 1: asking you to have a definitive question, but I found

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Speaker 1: it compelling that in the twenty the year of the COVID,

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Speaker 1: a year of black unrest, that HBCUs started finally getting

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Speaker 1: the corporate donations and seed money to UH for to

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Speaker 1: push young students just like yourself to academic success by

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Speaker 1: giving them funding. Any any thought to that, well, if

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Speaker 1: I give it a little thought, I think that it's

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Speaker 1: no accident that all of this happened, uh post George

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Speaker 1: Floyd and post Brianna Taylor, and it's just just a

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Speaker 1: moment in the beginning of a revolution and awakened here

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Speaker 1: in our country. And it's unfortunate that it took many

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Speaker 1: more lives than that, it took many more years and that,

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Speaker 1: but something happened when American corporation saw that need on

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Speaker 1: George Floyd's neck and to see that life lead in

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Speaker 1: a very real way that was undeniable. But if you

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Speaker 1: were a black, white Asian, it didn't matter. And I

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Speaker 1: think corporate America saw that as a defining movement. And

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Speaker 1: and of course historical black colleges are directly tied to

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Speaker 1: black souls and black lives. So unfortunately it's taken many

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Speaker 1: minies more lives than then the loss of life with

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Speaker 1: George Floyd. But I think that was defining moment, and

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Speaker 1: all I can say is that thank god the corporation

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Speaker 1: woke up, and thank God that many more of us

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Speaker 1: realized that it's not just okay to have great lives

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Speaker 1: and great careers, but it's also tied tied to the money.

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Speaker 1: You know, money, money, money, money says a lot, so um,

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Speaker 1: you still have a long way to go. I'm in

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Speaker 1: a wonderful group called Black Theater, united with people like

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Speaker 1: Billy Billy Porter and Arthur McDonald and Sean and Bryan

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Speaker 1: Stiff Mitchell, those of us who have been a part

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Speaker 1: of this generation to have the opportunity to do go away.

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Speaker 1: But we want to make it possible for our children

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Speaker 1: and grandchildren to to get more to what it's just

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Speaker 1: and right. We still have a long way and the

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Speaker 1: money still is disproportionate. Yes, and so it's a good moment,

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Speaker 1: but we got a long way to go. I appreciate

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Speaker 1: you responding on that. Let's talk about your movie project,

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Speaker 1: Robin Roberts presents Mahela. When you can in two heads,

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Speaker 1: we actually have three roles in that you're an actor,

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Speaker 1: the director, and co executive producer. Talk about first of

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Speaker 1: all getting the project on your table. How did it

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Speaker 1: come to you? Because I know it would be something

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Speaker 1: because we've been really blessed with some great um auto

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Speaker 1: you know biopics, you know, specifically a great team like

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Speaker 1: the Clark's Sisters. I just saw the Areta Genius series,

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Speaker 1: which was fantastic. The pleasure of seeing this your object

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Speaker 1: prior to this interview, which is fantastic. And I'm you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm at that age where her life was part of

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Speaker 1: my life from a musical standpoint. You know, I was

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Speaker 1: there when Dr Martin Luther King died. I was there

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Speaker 1: doing the civil unrest and all those things. What was

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Speaker 1: the compelling part of this opportunity when it was presented

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Speaker 1: to you? Well, actually it happened. Number one. I want

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Speaker 1: to say that it's about time. It's about time that

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Speaker 1: these women have their stories told. And we have so

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Speaker 1: many other stories, you know, out of b Wales, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean, We Fanny lew Hammer, we need

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Speaker 1: those stories told on the big screen. But for me,

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Speaker 1: I was doing The Soldiers play on Broadway, and when

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Speaker 1: Broadway was shut down last year March twelfth, I came

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Speaker 1: back home to Atlanta and out of nervousness, nervousness, uncertainty,

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Speaker 1: because I felt like a story telling is the antithesis

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Speaker 1: of COVID nineteen, especially a live Broadway theater gathering in

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Speaker 1: a small old theater with a thousand people, with people

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Speaker 1: on stage, you know, speaking doubting at each other. So

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Speaker 1: I didn't know when we would come back when when artists,

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Speaker 1: when our lives would come back, and so out of

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Speaker 1: that uncertainty, I woke up every morning listening to the

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Speaker 1: music of Mahellia Jackson on it because my mother was

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Speaker 1: a Southern uh Christian singer and she used to make

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Speaker 1: us go to church eight days a week, so I

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Speaker 1: came from that background. So somehow listening to Mahellia Jackson

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Speaker 1: it comforted me personally. COVID nineteen started, so so I

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Speaker 1: did that, and then I would pray for an hour,

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Speaker 1: and then I would meditate for an hour. Our only

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Speaker 1: recently learn how to meditate, but somehow meditation made me

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Speaker 1: understand how small I am at the universe. And then

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Speaker 1: I would ride my Peloton bike for an hour. I

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Speaker 1: would do that every day for seven weeks. I did that,

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Speaker 1: and in the end of the seventh week, I got

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Speaker 1: a call from Robin Roberts Antonia Lopez from Lifetime to

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Speaker 1: offer me the Jackson h story for Lifetime, and I

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Speaker 1: was like, what do you know, I have been waking

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Speaker 1: up listening to this music every day. No, we didn't

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Speaker 1: know that. We know you did still magnoice for us

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Speaker 1: and we love that, so we want you to tell

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Speaker 1: the story and I felt it was divine inspiration that

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Speaker 1: I would tell this story. And so sometimes it's not.

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Speaker 1: The first part is excuse me to tell our stories.

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Speaker 1: The second part is who's telling that story. So, as

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Speaker 1: a Black Christian, uh Mail I was able to be

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Speaker 1: the one to tell a version of the Maheya Jackson story.

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Speaker 1: And I said, Okay, how are you going to tell

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Speaker 1: that story? Kenny Leon? Okay, I want to tell it

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Speaker 1: through the lens of COVID nineteen. I want to tell

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Speaker 1: it through the lens of the fact that Mahay Jackson

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Speaker 1: lived during the nineteen eighteen pandemic, and she survived. She

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Speaker 1: lived through the Great Depression of nineteen twenty nine, she

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Speaker 1: lived through World War one, World War two, the Civil

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Speaker 1: Rights movement. She was the inspiration for Dr King's I

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Speaker 1: Have a Dream speech. So I want to tell a

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Speaker 1: film about a woman, a beautiful historical figure who was

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Speaker 1: not knocked down ten times but got up eleven. So

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Speaker 1: on Easter Weekend, when America looks at this film, I

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Speaker 1: want them to find themselves in it. I want them

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Speaker 1: to say, oh, if she could get knocked down and

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Speaker 1: she got up, I can I can get up? You know,

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Speaker 1: she overcame that I can overcome this COVID nineteen. I can.

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Speaker 1: I can find my purpose in life. I can help

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Speaker 1: make the world better. So I'm always trying to not

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Speaker 1: present in this situation. Not a iopic, not a history

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Speaker 1: of lesson, not something that's removed, not a museum piece.

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Speaker 1: I want to do something that inspires us now, to

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Speaker 1: do something with our lives today. You know, and I

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Speaker 1: I agree because I felt, you know, I felt she

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Speaker 1: was an entrepreneur. Didn't know that about her um she was?

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Speaker 1: She was, she was, her faith was tired, want her

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Speaker 1: to present the God. And when that type of commitment

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Speaker 1: was it, was it an asset or hindrance to her relationships?

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Speaker 1: You did the research? Tell me about it. I think

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Speaker 1: that she was authentic and that's what draws people to her.

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Speaker 1: They almost think that even in her singing, that she

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Speaker 1: has a direct line to God, and everybody wants that

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Speaker 1: admire that. They're like, sounds like she's not even singing.

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Speaker 1: And you can tell you I'm not trying to entertain people.

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Speaker 1: I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do. Now. Her

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Speaker 1: life is not your life, so want to do her life.

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Speaker 1: But she's doing her life. The best she knows how

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Speaker 1: and she was I wanted to hit on the fact

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Speaker 1: that she was trying to find love and she was

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Speaker 1: married twice and the person she really loved she never

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Speaker 1: got a chance to marry him. So it's like, that's

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Speaker 1: that life resembles ours. We are all flawed, we are

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Speaker 1: human beings, we're we're not God. And that's what she

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Speaker 1: u She understood very much, and I thank her for

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Speaker 1: the lessons lived. And also because I was a friend

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Speaker 1: of Yolanda King, I'm sure like she had many friends,

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Speaker 1: but I knew her and we worked together, and so

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Speaker 1: I also want I want to please her looking down

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Speaker 1: on this, I want her to say, wow, you really,

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Speaker 1: you really, you really talked about Dad in a good way,

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Speaker 1: and you really talk showed the power of friendship between

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Speaker 1: Dr King and and Mahelia. And also I love the

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Speaker 1: storyline they had to do with Mahelia's first husband, you know,

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Speaker 1: they divorced need in her life, and I think so

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Speaker 1: many times we just throw people out of our lives

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Speaker 1: just because it didn't that didn't work out. Oh, I

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Speaker 1: don't want to have anything to do with that person,

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Speaker 1: And I think life is is not like that all

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Speaker 1: the time. So I felt very proud of the film.

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Speaker 1: I think that there are actors that I've worked with

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Speaker 1: who stand next to truth and beside truth, but not

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Speaker 1: always in truth. You know, I've worked with Viola Davis,

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Speaker 1: I've worked with a great than Jail Washington, uh Worke,

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Speaker 1: with a great Latania Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson. Those actors

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Speaker 1: all stand in truth, not beside winking. But and Danielle

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Speaker 1: Brooke is one of those actors. She's one of those

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Speaker 1: actors that I challenge you to find any inauthentic moment

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Speaker 1: in that film from her performance. She says, she's just

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Speaker 1: e r dot Ai. It was amazing watching her, but

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Speaker 1: also it was amazing like I always talk about, to

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Speaker 1: follow your gifts and don't let people shift you or

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Speaker 1: see a vision of what they think you should be.

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Speaker 1: And that's what this whole movie is. The It's a

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Speaker 1: great motivational movie about that, standing you saying, being authentic,

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Speaker 1: don't let people shift you for a dollar, follow the

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Speaker 1: path that you feel that you will want to do.

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Speaker 1: That was the That was the from the beginning of

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Speaker 1: this movie to the end. That was the telling truth

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Speaker 1: about Mahalia Jackson. And we always hear people motivating each

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Speaker 1: other nowadays, but that resonates today. That was a powerful

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Speaker 1: message that you had throughout this movie, right. I think

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Speaker 1: you for saying that it's like and and and some

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Speaker 1: of us like I look at you, I look at

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Speaker 1: you living living that truth and you in your world,

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Speaker 1: you know, and I appreciate that, and some people it's

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Speaker 1: like my mother says, it's like some people don't realize

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Speaker 1: that other people don't have votes about their life and

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Speaker 1: their choices. You know, you don't have a vote, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean. You know, people don't have a

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Speaker 1: vote about how you find love. People don't have a

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Speaker 1: vote about where you go to church. People don't have

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Speaker 1: a vote about that. And so many of us just

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Speaker 1: give up out power to that, and what happens. We

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Speaker 1: become lesser. We become a lesser gift to the world.

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Speaker 1: And I appreciate Mahellia Jackson for just like I'm just

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Speaker 1: gonna try to be the best version of me. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I could be, because everybody else is spoken for. You

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Speaker 1: know the interesting about I got a couple of more

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Speaker 1: questions would ask you, But when you do take on

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Speaker 1: a project like this, because you've done big projects to

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Speaker 1: work with Big Canter, but this is a story that

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Speaker 1: crosses generational decades, how do you, as as a director

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Speaker 1: co executive, if you're working with the writer, how do

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Speaker 1: you pull this story together so it doesn't lose substance,

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Speaker 1: so it doesn't drift into too much in one direction.

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Speaker 1: Because I felt her life being portrayed right in front

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Speaker 1: of me. I felt the racism that she faced. I

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Speaker 1: felt nervous when she drove in the South. You from

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Speaker 1: the South, I'm sure you felt that. A relatable storyline

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Speaker 1: tell us about some of the parts of putting together

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Speaker 1: a generational talent. Like I told you before we go

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Speaker 1: on ask she's like the Aretha frankl of gospel. To me,

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Speaker 1: she's a genius. You know, she was pulled out of

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Speaker 1: school early in her educational period. She wasn't she wasn't

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Speaker 1: trained in music, but the gifts God gave her drove her.

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Speaker 1: And like a wreatha, she was tied to the church

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Speaker 1: and she believed in God. She had those blessings and

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Speaker 1: understood the value of the blessings. Talk about putting this

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Speaker 1: old project together so we all can appreciate your work, Kenny.

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Speaker 1: But I think that the road map was just laid

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Speaker 1: out for me. I think it was divine inspiration for

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Speaker 1: me to do it. I think sometimes in life you

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Speaker 1: just have to see what's in front of you. It was.

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Speaker 1: It was just there, and it's like it's like they

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Speaker 1: say in the film, Um, you know, God's God's trying

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Speaker 1: to talk to us. But we just can't here. And

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Speaker 1: this is one of those situations where I thought I

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Speaker 1: heard God. I thought I heard God said, Okay, Broy,

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Speaker 1: shutdown your storyteller. I'm gonna bring this Mahellia Jackson's story

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Speaker 1: to you, and I need you to tell it in

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Speaker 1: a very singular vision kind of way. I need you

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Speaker 1: to go up against the people at Lifetime. Not a

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Speaker 1: lot of them are African Americans. I need you to

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Speaker 1: tell them what vision you're gonna do. I want you

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Speaker 1: to tell them who's gonna act in it. I want

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Speaker 1: you to put together an ensemble of actors that you

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Speaker 1: believe in and don't worry about anything else. Everything else

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00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:03,040
Speaker 1: is annoying it now. I received that before before I

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Speaker 1: got the project, and every step of the way, that's

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Speaker 1: what I did, and everything worked out. Is like those

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Speaker 1: five main actors, they're all they all actors that I've

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Speaker 1: worked with before. How they got to Canada, I don't

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Speaker 1: even know how Danielle got involved. That was magical as well,

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00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:26,119
Speaker 1: so every and finding even myself acting in it. That

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00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:28,879
Speaker 1: was not my intent to act in the in the film,

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00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:31,920
Speaker 1: but all those things happen, and I think that there

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Speaker 1: was Certain projects are just annoint it. You just have

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Speaker 1: to listen and follow through. So this is one of

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Speaker 1: those things where I'm not even worried. I'm not worried.

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Speaker 1: I want the ratings to be high. I want everybody

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Speaker 1: in Saturday Night, but I'm not worried worried about it.

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Speaker 1: I'm not worried about it because I know that number one,

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Speaker 1: I did the best I could do. Number two, I

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Speaker 1: told the story I was trying to tell. I am

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Speaker 1: totally happy with it. I can drop the mic and

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Speaker 1: walk away and anything else that I feel about it.

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Speaker 1: It's like that's the human side getting in the way.

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Speaker 1: But if I'm just thinking about spiritual and what our

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Speaker 1: responsibility is to each other and what my job as

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Speaker 1: an artist is. I got the I got the writer

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Speaker 1: I wanted, I got the actors I wanted, I got

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Speaker 1: the camera people that I wanted, And I feel that

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Speaker 1: the story is consistently true to itself. And I think

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Speaker 1: we honored the great Mahellia Jackson's life in a big way.

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Speaker 1: I think we honored Dr King's life in an honest,

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Speaker 1: authentic way. And I think we didn't run away from

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Speaker 1: those things that weren't great. I think we represented all

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00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:39,960
Speaker 1: those things. That were part of being human, you know.

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Speaker 1: And Mr we we we talked about divorce, we talked

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Speaker 1: about cancer, we talked about his directing me. We talked

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Speaker 1: about friendship, you know. And at one scene you have

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Speaker 1: Mahellia Jackson, who who says, you know, you know, you

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Speaker 1: don't know who you mess with it, I'm a Hellia Jackson.

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Speaker 1: You ain't nobody. You know. That was a moment. So

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Speaker 1: you know, that's I saw. We do as humans sometimes

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Speaker 1: we say crazy things to the people we love most.

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Speaker 1: You know. It's a movie about a woman who's knocked

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Speaker 1: down who keeps getting up, and that's what life is

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Speaker 1: for all of us. Um. So you know, I have

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00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:18,360
Speaker 1: no excuse if the movie it's great. They don't even

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00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:21,600
Speaker 1: scuse the word excuse only my fault. No, no, no,

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00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:24,720
Speaker 1: it's a great movie. I saw it. I'm compelled to

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Speaker 1: tell everybody to watch it on my social media. I

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Speaker 1: have you on my radio show, my podcast show is

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00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:32,320
Speaker 1: uh it's a direct line of greatness. Man, I've heard

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00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:34,520
Speaker 1: so many great things about you, Kenny Leon, to have

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Speaker 1: you on my show to talk about this tremendous movie.

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Speaker 1: Robert Roberts Presents But hell yeah, this Saturday April through

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Speaker 1: a PM Eastern West Coast seven PM Central. You're directing

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00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:48,399
Speaker 1: your co executive Doser. This is a testament to your greatness. Man.

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00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,080
Speaker 1: It's also a testament that you are a blessing that

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00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:54,480
Speaker 1: came out of the HBCU environment. And that's what I

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00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:57,800
Speaker 1: want to make sure people understand. You are Black excellence.

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00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:00,360
Speaker 1: Kenny Leon. Thank you Kenny for coming on the show

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00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:02,960
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation. More importantly, thank you for coming on

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00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:05,560
Speaker 1: Jazz Naming one point nine w C. Okay, thank you,

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00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:08,440
Speaker 1: my friend, and I appreciate you. Hi. I'm Rashan McDonald.

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00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:11,040
Speaker 1: I am your host and you've been listening to Money

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Speaker 1: Making Conversations. Please remember always lead with your gifts and

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