Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me
Speaker 1: Tracy Moore. I was a casting director for film and
Speaker 1: TV and commercials for over thirty years. I transitioned to
Speaker 1: a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New
Speaker 1: Jersey Drive with executive producers Spike Lee and director Nick Domez.
Speaker 1: I auditioned every rapper from biggiees Balls to Tupac, and
Speaker 1: I realized that rappers and musical artists they needed help
Speaker 1: transitioning to acting. My clients consist of musical artists from
Speaker 1: Buster Rhymes to Eve, Missy Elliott, Angela Yee from The
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club, and Vanessa Simmons to name a few. I
Speaker 1: also coach sports stars and host as well. I feel
Speaker 1: I have the best of both worlds. As a casting director,
Speaker 1: I know exactly what they're looking for, and as an
Speaker 1: acting coach, I can coach you to be remembered in
Speaker 1: that room. Now I know, I know actors want to
Speaker 1: get the job. I get that, but being remembered by
Speaker 1: casting director that is powerful. And now it's time for
Speaker 1: meditation of the day. Control how you respond to things
Speaker 1: sent to destroy your peace, stand up for yourself. Why
Speaker 1: do we waste time? Thinking about what others think about us.
Speaker 1: A very, very wise man who was my grandfather told
Speaker 1: me in nineteen eighty. He said, Tracy, when I was
Speaker 1: complaining about some friends talking about me, he said, Tracy,
Speaker 1: I guarantee you they are not thinking about you right now.
Speaker 1: They are not talking about you right now.
Speaker 2: They don't care about you.
Speaker 1: And he said, when you live as long as I have,
Speaker 1: and my grandfather lived until he was ninety four, he said,
Speaker 1: when you live as long as I have, you begin
Speaker 1: to understand, and you begin to learn that people are
Speaker 1: really not in your business and really could are less
Speaker 1: about your business. And if they do step in your business,
Speaker 1: and if they do say things that hurt or offend you,
Speaker 1: instead of keeping it.
Speaker 2: In and letting it fester, let them know.
Speaker 1: Because we have the power to teach people how to
Speaker 1: treat us. So today I will teach you how to
Speaker 1: treat me and be a reflection of you. Before we
Speaker 1: get started, I like to remind everyone to go to
Speaker 1: Crackle Network to view seasons one and two of my
Speaker 1: show Inside the Black Box that I co host with
Speaker 1: the great Emmy Award winning Joe Morton. Look out for
Speaker 1: news on season three soon. Welcome to the Spirited Actor
Speaker 1: Podcast with me Tracy Moore, I am beyond thrilled. Like
Speaker 1: I said to myself this morning, what I'm not gonna.
Speaker 2: Do is get emotional.
Speaker 1: That's the first thing I said, right, But then I
Speaker 1: heard Spirits say, whatever happens, just allow it to happen,
Speaker 1: and so I was like, well, if that's the case,
Speaker 1: then I'm gonna tell my truth.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen. Oh my god, dang it.
Speaker 1: I started to feel that, Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I
Speaker 1: want to introduce you to my sister friend. On so
Speaker 1: many levels, she literally changed my life. Literally the first
Speaker 1: film I did in a career where nobody helped me,
Speaker 1: nobody gave me anything, nobody supported me, and as a
Speaker 1: young black woman in the entertainment business at that time
Speaker 1: in the mid eighties, it was challenging. Leslie Harris, director
Speaker 1: Award winning director Leslie Harris came to me and asked
Speaker 1: me if I could help her find a lead in
Speaker 1: her What she thought at the time was just going
Speaker 1: to be this independent film, maybe even on a short
Speaker 1: film level. But everybody that touched the script, including me,
Speaker 1: we knew where it was going to go and what
Speaker 1: it was about. And how it was going to affect
Speaker 1: lives and generations.
Speaker 2: Literally.
Speaker 1: Kevin Thigpin and Arion Johnson, the leads. They auditioned in
Speaker 1: my bedroom, not like that, it's just said, you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't have space and money back.
Speaker 2: Then, so you know, we did what we had to do.
Speaker 1: And I lived in a studio, so it was technically
Speaker 1: my living room too, and they were cast, and then
Speaker 1: I had to cast this other lead and I was
Speaker 1: getting ready to have a session, but this woman called
Speaker 1: me and asked me to speak at the Paul Robertson
Speaker 1: High School.
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh my god, speak at a
Speaker 2: high school to kids, shared my information. Yes, I'd love
Speaker 2: to do that. So I came and her name is Monet.
Speaker 2: Charie's done them.
Speaker 1: And this woman didn't even know at that time how
Speaker 1: much I wanted to do this, and this was my
Speaker 1: first gig speaking. And after that, we were in the
Speaker 1: process of getting ready to shoot. Just another girl still
Speaker 1: having castles Lee and I said, do you know what
Speaker 1: we need a high school? Maybe we can use your
Speaker 1: high school as a location to shoot.
Speaker 2: Found out she was an actress.
Speaker 3: This one.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, I just want you to put your
Speaker 1: hands together for Monette Cherise done him who was instrumental
Speaker 1: in my casting career, starting with the award winning to
Speaker 1: this day. Last year, Sun Dance twenty seven years honored
Speaker 1: just another girl on the IoT, one of our lead actresses, number.
Speaker 2: Three on the coal sheet, Monet Cheris done. Jeez ye
Speaker 2: that's a lot.
Speaker 4: And how many years later Sun, I know, right, kids
Speaker 4: playing looking silly grandmother. Yeah, beat me, but you have
Speaker 4: been through it all.
Speaker 1: And can I say this you guys when when my
Speaker 1: son Miles was hit by a car and you know,
Speaker 1: very traumatic time in my life, the only person that
Speaker 1: could get me, after four days in the hospital NonStop,
Speaker 1: to go home and take a shower was Monette. They
Speaker 1: chose her and I did it reluctantly, but I did it.
Speaker 3: Wow wow right, yeah, yeah, a lot, a lot.
Speaker 1: God knows, well, we are here to celebrate you man,
Speaker 1: We're here to celebrate just another girl out of tea.
Speaker 2: You got to tell them the backstory like we did
Speaker 2: Gorilla making back then.
Speaker 1: Right to this day, you are recognized by like tell
Speaker 1: them about that.
Speaker 3: God. Well, it's interesting you know when people realized that,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, that was Wait a minute, that's you. They're like, wait,
Speaker 3: I gotta go back and watch it. You know, it's
Speaker 3: it's it is fun. I'm not gonna lie. It's a
Speaker 3: lot of fun because I'm like, what I can't stand
Speaker 3: and I'm like, that's so fun because my nephew is
Speaker 3: the thing, which is always a trip. And then we
Speaker 3: were a New Jersey drive but that's like, who what?
Speaker 3: I kind of got lost. That was Gorilla too. That
Speaker 3: was Gorilla. Yeah, like this mm hmm run got cut off,
Speaker 3: but just no girl was fun. Shot that in like
Speaker 3: two weeks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2: My apartment was a holding the area.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well you know that's when people, you know, have
Speaker 3: a little bit of money because we we we we've
Speaker 3: been we shout our film in four days. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: said it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't know how certain people, namely Shamika Antoine felt
Speaker 3: about it. To mention just a couple of people because
Speaker 3: not only are they in it, they kind of they
Speaker 3: do a lot. They kind of became the leads. I
Speaker 3: like theird a whole lot of leads. But that's the
Speaker 3: fun of this, of the of the whole project, you know,
Speaker 3: is that it's real stories and gorilla filmmaking is definitely
Speaker 3: not done it's not dead, it's very much alive.
Speaker 1: No no quality quality you know what I'm saying. Quality
Speaker 1: work like that exists because you know, we we literally
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen. It was by any means necessary because
Speaker 1: we were borrowing from people's trucks, friends who were shooting
Speaker 1: music videos, getting gels and you know, maybe lens like whatever.
Speaker 1: We had to do to finish that film, and we
Speaker 1: were able to do it. And then in terms of
Speaker 1: getting money, there were no investors. There were no funds
Speaker 1: that we could tap into. It literally was like what's
Speaker 1: on your credit card? What's on your credit card? Who
Speaker 1: could we can? Your uncle Wright?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, but see a few things have happened now versus then,
Speaker 3: so like then we needed all that stuff, right, We
Speaker 3: had to have, you know, the amazing cameras, and we
Speaker 3: had to have the sound man, and we had to
Speaker 3: have all this stuff. And I would love to have
Speaker 3: it now, but because it takes me right, if you
Speaker 3: have a partner that you're working with, for example, our
Speaker 3: guys got this amazing camera. Don't ask me the name
Speaker 3: of it because I'm gonna embrass myself, but right, okay,
Speaker 3: super high quality. I know it was well over ten k,
Speaker 3: you know, and he works on a lot of different projects.
Speaker 3: That's the various La wins and yeah, you know, okay,
Speaker 3: get out there and kill it. And he's got there.
Speaker 3: So we've got that home shots you know, going on.
Speaker 3: We just we just go for what we have. And
Speaker 3: then the special effects person I use is amazing. That's
Speaker 3: dead mister dead. Chris Dage's he's got gat you know,
Speaker 3: he's really good. And so we're able to create a
Speaker 3: lot of stuff with not a huge budget.
Speaker 1: You know, so well, but you know what you bring
Speaker 1: to the table when you do stuff like that, You're
Speaker 1: bringing the production value to the table, right, because somebody
Speaker 1: can look at this and say, wow, they spent about
Speaker 1: one one fifty two hundred thousand, right, But the reality
Speaker 1: is you may have spent like forty you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. But because of the people that you are
Speaker 1: working with and you hire, they are experts in what
Speaker 1: they do to make. And then that continues to put
Speaker 1: you in a powerful position because studios look at it.
Speaker 1: Since the independent film started, if you could do that
Speaker 1: and get money to do that, imagine if you have
Speaker 1: money and that's where the production deals come, right. So
Speaker 1: that's what you're moving in the direction because oh my god,
Speaker 1: when they give you the money, you're going to know
Speaker 1: every They're going to love you because you're going to
Speaker 1: be underbudded all the time, like because you know how
Speaker 1: to one negotiate, you know, please, you know how to
Speaker 1: you know, not I don't want to say cut costs,
Speaker 1: but you definitely know how to allocate the money in
Speaker 1: a way that things get done right.
Speaker 2: It's true, and you know what I mean. So it's like,
Speaker 2: that's a producer.
Speaker 1: That's an executive producer by any means necessary. So please
Speaker 1: please tell us how did this award winning film?
Speaker 2: What was the inside? What was the moment of inspiration?
Speaker 2: That's what I want to know.
Speaker 3: So I come I think just life first of all,
Speaker 3: but I also come from a family who is involved
Speaker 3: with like military, a lot of military things. They're either
Speaker 3: active duty or they've worked like my mom was at
Speaker 3: the Merchant Marine Academy. So I grew up like looking
Speaker 3: at those guys like walking into the walls and turning
Speaker 3: and the next in turning, you know, that's how they
Speaker 3: had to walk around on the on the which was
Speaker 3: really interesting because here I was this little, you know,
Speaker 3: melanated chick. With braids, probably with a turtle or a rabbit,
Speaker 3: maybe a puppy or something. Yes, yes, my fins by
Speaker 3: the pool. You know, as long as the guys weren't
Speaker 3: doing what they do by the water, I was always there.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty much by myself, caught up in my own mind.
Speaker 3: But so the operation would come from having a lot
Speaker 3: of time to just you're just sitting with yourself. You know,
Speaker 3: you're reading. You know, I've been. I've been fortunate enough
Speaker 3: to travel and to live life like I love the
Speaker 3: people I love. I really love them. I really I
Speaker 3: really love them and they know it. Yeah, yeah, I do.
Speaker 3: Thank you, but you know, and you can't. You're welcome
Speaker 3: and thank you, but you can't spread yourself around, you know.
Speaker 3: So this project literally is it's just it came from
Speaker 3: my family, from my friends, from listening to stories about
Speaker 3: what was happening to people, you know, from having friendships
Speaker 3: and relationships with folks who went through a variety of things,
Speaker 3: maybe went through some abuse, maybe went through some serious neglect.
Speaker 3: You know. Maybe I have more stories, but we can't
Speaker 3: fit all into the little bit of time that we
Speaker 3: have to work. Because one of the biggest things I
Speaker 3: want to do is I want to be able to
Speaker 3: pay my talent, you know, I want to be able
Speaker 3: to do that's important.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: We took my mom's place and turned it into like
Speaker 3: three different sets. It was crazy. One of the actresses
Speaker 3: has this really cool car, so we were able to
Speaker 3: go on top of her through the top of the
Speaker 3: roof of her car and get a whole bunch of
Speaker 3: fabulous footage and sound that way. Oh yeah, we got
Speaker 3: some good stuff really, and we have everything you shouldn't have.
Speaker 3: Like we've got a kid and he runs in and
Speaker 3: does something and we were like, Okay, this kid is
Speaker 3: good and I go over there. Yeah, very talented.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I think the only thing we didn't stick in
Speaker 3: here was an animal, which is like strange, but we didn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's yea for you, not a dog.
Speaker 3: No, I think my I think my cast was sick
Speaker 3: of me.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me tell you that is she loves animals.
Speaker 2: What to get her an animal? No matter? So one
Speaker 2: of the live in the wall or land. Yeah, one
Speaker 2: of the guests.
Speaker 3: Here threatened me and I'm gonna I'm gonna put him
Speaker 3: on blast and wow, he was like, don't get no
Speaker 3: more dogs. Mo. I was like you know what looks
Speaker 3: like you come over here and over there. I don't
Speaker 3: talk to.
Speaker 1: Them right right, but you know what like and that's
Speaker 1: the thing, that's the thing to you guys that I
Speaker 1: gravitated because money has always been love piece and soul
Speaker 1: to me for real, like it like even when I
Speaker 1: met you, I was like, you're so different, Like it
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like you belong here, Like you're like me
Speaker 1: this energy, right, But I saw the way you work
Speaker 1: with the children, your compassion. This makes sense for you
Speaker 1: to do, you know, and it makes sense that this
Speaker 1: is why.
Speaker 2: Is award winning.
Speaker 1: Just tell them just a little bit.
Speaker 2: We don't want to give too much, but.
Speaker 1: Where where are you at in terms of distribution or
Speaker 1: you know, where they can.
Speaker 3: Because I don't know if they can see it not yet.
Speaker 3: So we're so the show is still in rotation. That's
Speaker 3: what's when we're excited about it. Yeah, con but we
Speaker 3: didn't go, But there's always next year with the feature. Yes,
Speaker 3: by the Essence Film Festival, we made it into the finals,
Speaker 3: but we didn't make it to the festival, but there's
Speaker 3: always the feature. So fun with that, we're actually going
Speaker 3: to have an online screening and I have to just
Speaker 3: figure out what to do with that, because it's not
Speaker 3: in my budget to do a screening in you know,
Speaker 3: somewhere as far as the we're post so we're editing,
Speaker 3: you know, and it's not we're definitely going to have
Speaker 3: a screening. I have to think about it what we
Speaker 3: want to do exactly, because you know, doing the festivals
Speaker 3: is really pricey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but while this is where.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, we never know who's listening to,
Speaker 1: you know, the program however program Wow, I really just
Speaker 1: told my age just now podcasts, podcasts. But I feel
Speaker 1: like you should think in terms of sponsorship because when
Speaker 1: I tell you, I don't even know how many palms
Speaker 1: she has on the flyer on her poster, but she
Speaker 1: has a lot, like I believe, over ten. And so
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that that right there, Garner's support and
Speaker 1: knowing who you are now, you know, I think that
Speaker 1: in my experience as a casting director, I feel like
Speaker 1: the best part of being a casting director is that
Speaker 1: we start with white pages where we have to believe, right,
Speaker 1: and then we cut to being on the red carpet
Speaker 1: with you, and so we really have to hold that
Speaker 1: vision that this is possible right. So then you get
Speaker 1: to a point in your career where it's like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I want to be empowered. I want to
Speaker 1: do my own thing. I got stories, I can do this,
Speaker 1: I know the acting, I know actors, right, And then
Speaker 1: you do it, and then you first time out, I
Speaker 1: want to say that again, first time out as a writer, director, producer, actress,
Speaker 1: Like first time out right, and she has over ten pounds.
Speaker 1: I believe whatever your religious belief is, but I'm spiritual
Speaker 1: and I know you are too, and I know that
Speaker 1: I believe that God drops these breadcrumbs that are just
Speaker 1: nothing but confirmation, like, don't let me drop any more
Speaker 1: bread comes here.
Speaker 2: No got to say it, but I'm just saying, like
Speaker 2: he does.
Speaker 3: He's gangster.
Speaker 1: The feature, it's not supposed to happen with the short
Speaker 1: in terms of the bigger picture. The feature is the
Speaker 1: confirmation for studios to say.
Speaker 2: Yep, she got this.
Speaker 1: How much you need for your production company, will put
Speaker 1: you up on the lot, will give you a you know,
Speaker 1: will pay for all of your overhead, create, build.
Speaker 2: And let us see it first.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: But that is that's what the journey is, you know,
Speaker 2: Because it's not.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite actresses, and I hope she's listening
Speaker 1: to this, but she put on IG this morning that
Speaker 1: she almost felt like giving up in act one of
Speaker 1: my favorite actresses. And I hit her back and said,
Speaker 1: why would we even think a given it? Like, why
Speaker 1: is that even in the equation when I know, but
Speaker 1: you know what it is. It's a noise, you know that.
Speaker 1: And this business when you don't have the value and
Speaker 1: I can speak from experience with Inside the Black Box,
Speaker 1: when you do not have that value of you've done
Speaker 1: television before, you show before, if you are not a
Speaker 1: strong person, it will make you question yourself because everything
Speaker 1: you do is measured.
Speaker 2: Mh, I'm gonna get such a set, Lonet. You can
Speaker 2: get such a set. Yes, yes, I can get such
Speaker 2: as as my friend Silky move Net exactly.
Speaker 4: M hm.
Speaker 2: Right, has that been your experience?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well sure people want to when you're working on things.
Speaker 3: I was working on another project, as I know, you know,
Speaker 3: I was co authoring a piece and no Duke was
Speaker 3: looking at it and you know hasn't thrown it away,
Speaker 3: but excitement that he liked what I presented to him.
Speaker 3: It was a script leaving out all the details, but
Speaker 3: one of the biggest things that he says is you
Speaker 3: have to figure out how you're going to get eyes
Speaker 3: on your project, you know. And so it wasn't that
Speaker 3: sis PTSD. I'm not as concerned, believe it or not,
Speaker 3: because it's such and peace. It's it's such an important work.
Speaker 3: The performances are really good. I'm very pleased. I think
Speaker 3: you'll be smiling. I think, you know, folks will be smiling.
Speaker 3: You will be steah, you know folks, Yes, but we'll
Speaker 3: all be happy. Yeah, guys, we're proud. You know. They
Speaker 3: were really nice work. The fun for me too this
Speaker 3: time around is we had more bilingual people, so there's
Speaker 3: a lot of other energies going on on set as well.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Oh that's great, And I mean that's the it's no
Speaker 1: longer USA, it's the global appeal. So this now has
Speaker 1: because I told you once you get I'm a part
Speaker 1: of Duff and that is a film festival. It's an
Speaker 1: urban film festival in Amsterdam that I'm going to just
Speaker 1: ver six of the night that I'm so excited.
Speaker 2: But I can get that into the pestle.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, it's all about you, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's something that you know over our lunch
Speaker 1: we can talk about and I can get that started
Speaker 1: for you. But I think it's important, Monet that you
Speaker 1: know this set as an act when you were coming
Speaker 1: up as an actress, you could just be an actress.
Speaker 2: And be happy and satisfied.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying people are not happy and satisfied
Speaker 1: just being an actor or an actress. I'm saying that
Speaker 1: in this day and age, because of digital and the
Speaker 1: way life is, everyone is multi hyphenated.
Speaker 2: You include it.
Speaker 1: And so now I feel like that is so inspiring
Speaker 1: to actors who are like, I want to write a
Speaker 1: short film, but you know, I don't know what to
Speaker 1: do with it or doesn't mean anything or should you know,
Speaker 1: like give them advice on that.
Speaker 3: Listen, the first thing I say, I was even talking
Speaker 3: to a couple of folks. You have great guests, by
Speaker 3: the way, but you're welcome, y'all.
Speaker 2: You can't.
Speaker 3: Thank you. But the short film, a real short film
Speaker 3: is like short. It's like five minutes, ten minutes, three minutes.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, come on, you can do a beginning, middle,
Speaker 3: and end. To sit down, you have something to say,
Speaker 3: you want a flex, you want to work that muscle.
Speaker 3: To sit down, do three pages, five pages, Oh, go
Speaker 3: for it, do ten whole pages. You know you have
Speaker 3: a short let's go break it up. Think about the
Speaker 3: seven second theory. Let's go move it, you know, get
Speaker 3: your wide, get your status.
Speaker 2: What the seven second theory is.
Speaker 3: People's attentions man's are really short, especially mine, but a
Speaker 3: lot of folks, you know, And so when you're we
Speaker 3: don't stagger shots, so literally, you might do an establishing
Speaker 3: one two, three, four, five six seven. Then you might
Speaker 3: cut to a close up one too, three foot five
Speaker 3: six seven, then back to the establ wishing for seven
Speaker 3: a seven second count, right, and then back to you're
Speaker 3: moving around because people's minds need to be triggered. They
Speaker 3: need to be triggered. You need to know what's going on,
Speaker 3: you know. And if it's just a long shot, which
Speaker 3: you know, sometimes end up with a long shot and
Speaker 3: you're like, oh damn, you know, but you can try
Speaker 3: not to do that, you know, right, you shouldn't, And
Speaker 3: that's a movie shots are so important. You know a
Speaker 3: lot of people do music videos too. There's a time
Speaker 3: you want to shoot music videos and I'm like, so
Speaker 3: do it. Shoot the freaking video. Shoot it as a storyline.
Speaker 3: I did it. I shot for Criminal Minds. There was
Speaker 3: a placement in Criminal Minds. The song is called hold
Speaker 3: Me Sweetly, and that is yeah, I know.
Speaker 1: That's the musician side side. You guys, we have to
Speaker 1: talk about that. She's the floutest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I sing I sing I did just do
Speaker 3: a musical, which.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: Back to the film, diagnosis ptsd V two is is super.
Speaker 3: I don't know, it just was. It was just a
Speaker 3: gorgeous journey just watching the people that I cast bring
Speaker 3: their all and then some and then to watch these
Speaker 3: people body the characters like really bring them three dimensionally
Speaker 3: front and center. You know. I had one knucklehead. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm talking about everybody. And now I can't get this
Speaker 3: MF for to stop crying. I mean, I'm like, I'm like,
Speaker 3: if you don't stop crying, I'm gonna knock you on
Speaker 3: your knee and that would be painful. But you have
Speaker 3: people like really open up. We had just like I mean,
Speaker 3: everybody thinks that they're so stoic, and I'm like, you
Speaker 3: wayne stoic, I mean just opened up. The floodgates just open.
Speaker 3: And while we were filming, I'm busy talking about cut
Speaker 3: right going. It was beautiful. It was really beautiful. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, and you set the tone too, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like you set the tone for the work.
Speaker 2: And I just remember.
Speaker 1: In you come into the first class and I just
Speaker 1: felt like, Yeah, however, I just felt like, hmm, there's
Speaker 1: so much more in you, you know. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know the musical side, which is brilliant. You guys, you
Speaker 1: got her music unbelievable, Thank you. But stories because even
Speaker 1: when I first met you, the kids that you work with,
Speaker 1: you would tell me stories. I mean, and nothing detailed
Speaker 1: you guys, because she is confidential. But I'm just saying, like,
Speaker 1: you know, there's therapists in you. You know, there's so
Speaker 1: therapist in you. And for me, it was human behavior,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: It is, It's a lot of it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: One of the kids that I was fortunate enough to
Speaker 3: work with, unfortunately was executed in the street. There is
Speaker 3: a center named after him. It's the Ali Fournee Institute
Speaker 3: for LGBTQ Youth. I remember just being with him and
Speaker 3: him just being stuck to me like glue. It was
Speaker 3: just it was a real trip. But I felt like
Speaker 3: I felt kind of special because he felt that I
Speaker 3: was the person that he should be talking to NonStop.
Speaker 3: I used to be PSCHE coordinator for the Atlantic Transitional
Speaker 3: Center for guys twelve to twelve.
Speaker 2: Oh wow wow yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: It was deep. It was it was It was a
Speaker 3: beautiful experience. I loved them. It was crazy watching how
Speaker 3: they chose to survive or needed to survive. I was
Speaker 3: happy I wasn't with the girls because the girls were
Speaker 3: doing what the boys were doing, and some of the
Speaker 3: guys were boosting, you know, they'd go hit forty second
Speaker 3: Street to make some money and then there and I
Speaker 3: was teaching, So sit there in class like knocked down,
Speaker 3: and I was like, what were you doing? It's like, oh,
Speaker 3: I was working last night. I was like, wow, you know,
Speaker 3: and this is what our city was doing at that time,
Speaker 3: very very time. You know, people good people. We're trying. Yeah,
Speaker 3: directors were trying. You know, people were trying.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I want to I just feel like Andy's about to
Speaker 1: tell me I have five minutes, but he hasn't. So
Speaker 1: I want to ask you what is the what's the
Speaker 1: takeaway that you want for this audience?
Speaker 2: Because I was having.
Speaker 1: A conversation with somebody, you know, one of my other
Speaker 1: like I have relationships in this business. So you know, Ayana,
Speaker 1: my assistant, and I first started out.
Speaker 2: She's a grown woman now. But I was talking to Ayana.
Speaker 1: The other day and she made this really great point.
Speaker 1: She was saying, how much people of color are traumatized
Speaker 1: right and in this trauma but like generations, and then
Speaker 1: on top of that, it's not like in the sixties
Speaker 1: that black people going to therapy was acceptable, known whatever.
Speaker 1: So the trauma on top of the trauma, on top
Speaker 1: of the trauma on top that we have and have
Speaker 1: to deal with everyday life.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, people don't really realize how much folks hold
Speaker 3: things in and you know, people of color. I am
Speaker 3: a mixed raced person, but I don't get into all
Speaker 3: of that. But specifically, when you look at folks, you
Speaker 3: think about black people, you think about Latino people. Some
Speaker 3: people may say people in those ways all courage privacy,
Speaker 3: They encourage you know, shit, don't don't tell, don't tell,
Speaker 3: and they encourage particularly the guys don't don't, don't, don't
Speaker 3: be emotional, you know, don't do that. You know, you
Speaker 3: got to be tough. You can get home and do whatever,
Speaker 3: but when you're out in the street, you know you
Speaker 3: have to take it. You know, somebody's gonna cut your
Speaker 3: finger off. Oh well, just stand there, you know, be tough. Also, yes,
Speaker 3: concerning generational trauma, one of the things that happened is uh,
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna get into details, but my daughter had
Speaker 3: a situation where she uh had had to deal with
Speaker 3: a great deal of pain. And one of the things
Speaker 3: that pissed me off is the fact that the physician
Speaker 3: doesn't seem to think that she should experience the pain
Speaker 3: that she's experiencing. And that's where I get pissed off
Speaker 3: because I'm like, no, people of color are not animals.
Speaker 3: Animals are not even the animals that you think they are.
Speaker 3: They feel pain. You can't sit there and tell somebody
Speaker 3: they're not in pain.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: And I can't get into because we're doing a podcast,
Speaker 3: I'm not doing it. But it's so very important for
Speaker 3: folks to have opportunities where they can like connect and
Speaker 3: they can feel like me too. I'm not wheny phrase,
Speaker 3: but it's very important to see yourself. You know, you
Speaker 3: have to see you have to hear yourself. Which is
Speaker 3: why I'm exciting about the languages. You know, if I
Speaker 3: could have had somebody speaking in African tongue. I would
Speaker 3: have had that too, you know, but we don't have it.
Speaker 3: We have as much as whatever I had access to,
Speaker 3: you know, and everyone was so good and so present,
Speaker 3: you know. I would say ninety nine percent of the time.
Speaker 3: There's that one percent where people are like, hey, what
Speaker 3: am I doing? You know? But what folks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and listen, when you have no money
Speaker 1: and you have you know, no studio, I mean to
Speaker 1: pull that off.
Speaker 2: I'd say, bravo, my sister standing.
Speaker 1: Ovation Seriously, I are are The interview part just as
Speaker 1: I said, is come to a close.
Speaker 2: However, you guys.
Speaker 1: Know, we're going to have her back on, you know,
Speaker 1: for we've got to talk to her again for part two.
Speaker 1: So Elsa's going to come on and she's going to
Speaker 1: introduce you to the two actors that are going to
Speaker 1: ask you questions.
Speaker 5: Hey, Elsa, Hello, Hello, thank you so much for that money.
Speaker 5: It was awesome looking forward to seeing your film. So
Speaker 5: today we have pacts that I think you might be
Speaker 5: familiar with. We have two of your fellow spirited actors
Speaker 5: as well as actors that you've used in some of
Speaker 5: your projects.
Speaker 2: We have missed.
Speaker 5: Shamika Nelson and we have mister my newness, you can
Speaker 5: come on cameras one.
Speaker 3: No, oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2: So Shamika, what's your question?
Speaker 3: You're up first.
Speaker 4: Yes, So you have mentioned earlier that you had several
Speaker 4: stories need to be told, and I wanted.
Speaker 2: To know what is your overall vision for a diagnosed PTSD.
Speaker 3: I mean, would you like it to be like a short.
Speaker 2: Series or something along those lines.
Speaker 3: What is your overall vision? Good question. So diagnosis PTSD
Speaker 3: one and Diagnosis PTSDV two. My ultimate love and joy
Speaker 3: would be for it to be a series, at least
Speaker 3: a mini series. There are way more stories to be told,
Speaker 3: There are way more scenarios to be presented. There are
Speaker 3: way more situations where we can show vulnerability, where we
Speaker 3: can show that someone may appear to be We have
Speaker 3: a beautiful we have a couple of beautiful fellas up
Speaker 3: in here, and you see them open up. You see
Speaker 3: one guy, as you know, he becomes totally like bananas.
Speaker 3: He goes from like mister you know, Superman, so like
Speaker 3: he's toast and he just loses it, you know. And
Speaker 3: I think it's important for folks to have a chance
Speaker 3: to connect. I think people need to see themselves. They
Speaker 3: need to hear themselves. You know. I'm very excited. So
Speaker 3: the hope is perfect, perfect world, a series, not bad
Speaker 3: world to see us a distribution that'd be a nice
Speaker 3: world for us, you know. Most importantly, I want people
Speaker 3: to be seen. I want stories to be heard, and
Speaker 3: I really really want people to feel. And I don't
Speaker 3: think you're going to walk away from this film not
Speaker 3: feeling something. There's literally something for everyone to connect on
Speaker 3: and I would say almost every level, unbelievable.
Speaker 2: That's excellent, great question.
Speaker 5: Thank you, and Swan, what's your question?
Speaker 3: I thank you?
Speaker 6: So my question is what drew you to write a
Speaker 6: film about PTSD? So many problems that we have in society,
Speaker 6: But why PTSD?
Speaker 3: That's a good question too. So the problems in society
Speaker 3: unfortunately leave many, many, many many people traumatized. So I
Speaker 3: can't think of a better way to address a lot
Speaker 3: of the problems. You know, we have things, We have abuses,
Speaker 3: we have molestations, we have things I didn't get to
Speaker 3: talk about because I have money and time and I
Speaker 3: couldn't pull you guys in anymore than I did. You know,
Speaker 3: but there's so many stories to show, and folks always
Speaker 3: think about PTSD as a war story, and it's not
Speaker 3: a war story only certainly yes, watching people get blown
Speaker 3: up and affected and things, of course, you know, so
Speaker 3: of course we're going to play that. But then we
Speaker 3: let it go right and we do other things. There's
Speaker 3: long standing traumas, you know, watching yourself not get a
Speaker 3: job because someone comes in that's not melanated so on.
Speaker 3: That could be a bit traumatic for you. You're sitting
Speaker 3: there knowing you're fully qualified, union and everything, and here
Speaker 3: comes mister blondilocks. No offense, My blondie lots is love
Speaker 3: all of y'all. I got some of my familia. But anyhow,
Speaker 3: and just because of that, they probably didn't even they're
Speaker 3: not even union or they just got in the union
Speaker 3: like last week, and their skill is way smaller than yours.
Speaker 3: You know, same thing. I look at Shamika, I'm like,
Speaker 3: there's so many people they walk in there and they're
Speaker 3: going to get the job over her. Why she's mean it?
Speaker 3: Why she got braids in her hair today? Oh really? Yeah,
Speaker 3: no we don't want that. No no, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: you would have been out hair. Where's your wig? You know,
Speaker 3: stuff like that. We need people.
Speaker 1: Tumas sighs right right, And I want to say I
Speaker 1: was one of those people, like because I thought it
Speaker 1: was based on the connection with war, right, and you know,
Speaker 1: we talk about it with soldiers and veterans, but like
Speaker 1: you know, in knowing, you know.
Speaker 3: Your own stories.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all of this stuff stays where it is. Thank
Speaker 1: God we're in a different world right now and society,
Speaker 1: but it just feels like it's for me growing up.
Speaker 1: It just stayed right there. But I thank you for
Speaker 1: allowing people to be introduced to it, to be reintroduced
Speaker 1: to it, to understand that, you know, there are ways
Speaker 1: in coping with it and being able to function and
Speaker 1: have a normal as normal life as you can, you know,
Speaker 1: or just to be happy, find happiness and peace, you know.
Speaker 1: So wow, thank you, Elsa, Thank you Shamikha and Swan.
Speaker 2: But they are going anywhere.
Speaker 1: They're not going anywhere. Money, They're in class and session. Yes, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: money's not going anywhere either, you guys. So when we
Speaker 1: come back on the Spirit Actor podcast with me Chasing Moore,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling very hippie today and you'll see a gim love.
Speaker 1: But I just want to say Monnet done him. We'll
Speaker 1: be back with us. You guys, don't touch anything. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back on the Spirited act Podcast with me
Speaker 1: Tracy Moore. Welcome back to the Spirited Actor Podcast with
Speaker 1: me Tracy Moore, and you are still blessed to have
Speaker 1: multi multi hyphenated.
Speaker 2: Let's start with singer loudest, let's.
Speaker 1: Start with writer, director, producer, actress, and just all over
Speaker 1: spiritual being. Monet Donham is still here with us and
Speaker 1: elsa co co executive producer with the spirit Actor Podcast,
Speaker 1: has our actors lined up the Class and Session.
Speaker 3: Here we go.
Speaker 5: I do, I do, Thank you Tracy. So this week
Speaker 5: on Class and Session, we have a special scene from
Speaker 5: Miss Monette's film Diagnosis PTSD, and we.
Speaker 2: Have that mister.
Speaker 5: Swan new Ness, I can't talk today. We have back
Speaker 5: today mister Swan Newness and Miss Shamika Nelson who will
Speaker 5: be performing the scene for us Diagnosis PTSD written by
Speaker 5: Monette Dunnaugh. Exterior by the ocean at the pier, Marco
Speaker 5: and his wife sit by the water in the car.
Speaker 5: Marco has a bottle of pills all dumped out in
Speaker 5: front of him. His wife sits by his side.
Speaker 3: It's just it's so.
Speaker 2: Destiny, Okay, it's okay.
Speaker 3: I'm here.
Speaker 2: I know you went through a lie. I know it
Speaker 2: was a lot.
Speaker 4: Babe, baby, please please help me.
Speaker 2: Baby, I don't want to leave you. It is just
Speaker 2: I know, I know you're not running from me.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: It's the memory of.
Speaker 5: How you felt when thehammer sank into that water, how
Speaker 5: you felt that no one was gonna find you, let
Speaker 5: alone save you.
Speaker 2: I was so I'm so afraid.
Speaker 3: I thought, was it come home?
Speaker 2: You did? You came home to me, You came home
Speaker 2: to your family, You came home to live.
Speaker 3: See what I feel, You're so his friend. Takes time, helink.
Speaker 2: It takes time, baby, It takes time. You're gonna take
Speaker 2: all the time you need. Okay, but I mean it.
Speaker 2: I'm here and we're gonna ride this thing into the
Speaker 2: whingels fall off. Maybe I love you, I love.
Speaker 1: No bad.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 1: Wow, this is why you got. This is part two.
Speaker 1: This is part two. Money is this part two?
Speaker 2: Part two?
Speaker 3: Oh my god?
Speaker 1: Yea. Yeah, it's very emotional, very and and you know,
Speaker 1: I have to say thank you Swan for being emotionally
Speaker 1: available at you two, Shamika, because.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's for you, beautiful to see.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm so glad that you are allowing men
Speaker 1: the space to be that.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so.
Speaker 2: Your worst what do you want to give them? Director?
Speaker 2: As she's crying, you.
Speaker 3: Guys, I am, I am. They did we well. First
Speaker 3: of all, these two are just amazing. I mean I
Speaker 3: love them, Tracy, I do. I love them.
Speaker 1: Found should be good inside the black and it's found
Speaker 1: swam you listen, tell her.
Speaker 3: Yeah and yeah. And then we organically developed relationships and
Speaker 3: it's it's it's just such a gift. It really really
Speaker 3: is a gift. We worked hard, we worked hard, they
Speaker 3: worked hard. I love them paired together. If I could,
Speaker 3: if I could get other people to pair them, might
Speaker 3: be like, take them, let them work with you. They're
Speaker 3: they're lovely, they're delicious, they're emotional, they're available. They've opened up,
Speaker 3: they've connected, They've done the work. It's been a process.
Speaker 3: This has been months and months of work. So even
Speaker 3: though we only got the film for four days, these
Speaker 3: two worked and worked and worked and worked. They worked
Speaker 3: with me, We did readings, they worked alone. We worked
Speaker 3: together a lot of it on zoom. As you know,
Speaker 3: we're all in different places. These guys are so amazing though,
Speaker 3: like they take direction beautifully they're open. They're what you
Speaker 3: want as a as a direct you know, as a writer,
Speaker 3: as a as a asking person. You want these guys
Speaker 3: because you want people who are going to be there,
Speaker 3: you know, I mean, and quite frankly, I was kind
Speaker 3: of jealous. I couldn't act with them, but you know
Speaker 3: it was.
Speaker 2: The next one, the feature, the feature. Yeah, this was
Speaker 2: a righteous character.
Speaker 1: But I have to say this first of all, everybody
Speaker 1: put your hands together for Shamika and also Swan. Great
Speaker 1: scene and great writing is written and directed by Money
Speaker 1: Shari Stunham. I want to say this because I want
Speaker 1: to stress this. Looking at you Swan and looking at
Speaker 1: Shamika being emotional right now. Is this is why I
Speaker 1: was emotional in the beginning in the introduction, because the
Speaker 1: joy is in the journey. It's not at the destination.
Speaker 1: You know where you guys are going. You know where
Speaker 1: this storm is going. It's already been laid out and
Speaker 1: bread drumbed. What's happening now is that you will be
Speaker 1: to sit back in another ten twenty years where your
Speaker 1: careers are going to be somewhere else and be able
Speaker 1: to thank Monette talk about this. And it started off
Speaker 1: with just a short film, and this short film has
Speaker 1: cataball with my career to blah blah blah. So it
Speaker 1: all comes back around just seeing you guys emotion, I
Speaker 1: was like, you guys, think you crying, Now wait until
Speaker 1: y'all in ten years and then you turn around. That's
Speaker 1: why I couldn't get the words out this week. Got
Speaker 1: thirty something years, like, it's crazy how much many years.
Speaker 2: Money and I have.
Speaker 1: And she, you know, she just asked me to come
Speaker 1: speak at her school to some high school students, and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. I said, do you guys want a
Speaker 1: million dollars or do you want knowledge?
Speaker 2: And they all said million dollars, million dollars.
Speaker 1: I said, if you have the knowledge, you'd have ten
Speaker 1: and twenty and thirty go after knowledge. And that became
Speaker 1: a staple of my speaking platform because that was my
Speaker 1: first speaking engagement. So again, thank you, guys, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. Elsa ladies and gentlemen, put yousolute, stand up,
Speaker 1: legendary icon momay cheris dune Yes, amen, amen, love you guys, madam.
Speaker 1: When we come back on the Spirit Podcast with me
Speaker 1: Tracy Moore, all of this equals me giving your love.
Speaker 2: And now it's time for Kudo's Corner. Kudos Corner is
Speaker 2: where we support our.
Speaker 1: Spirited actors and we celebrate them and we just love
Speaker 1: on them and introduce them to you. This week's Kudos
Speaker 1: Corner puts the spotlight on the spirited actor Lea Mitria Starks.
Speaker 1: Lea Metria has been seen in the featured film Urban
Speaker 1: Ed and television shows The Eric Andre Show, People Magazine, Investigates,
Speaker 1: and My show Inside the black Box. She has also
Speaker 1: starred in the place Pieces of Us and Shane Kudos
Speaker 1: to Leah Me, Trea Starts and now it's time to
Speaker 1: give up. I just want to say this because this
Speaker 1: has been on my mind for a while. I just
Speaker 1: and I may have said it before, but I just
Speaker 1: want to reiterate it that the Instagram and Facebook and
Speaker 1: all these things are really super great, but sometimes they
Speaker 1: can be overwhelming and the information can be so saturated
Speaker 1: that people make jokes of it. So I say this
Speaker 1: to say because the other day I said to my granddaughter,
Speaker 1: be careful, and I told her that the quote is
Speaker 1: be careful with what you think or wish for. I said,
Speaker 1: but I want you to be conscious of what you
Speaker 1: think of and what you wish for, because when you're conscious,
Speaker 1: you're aware, and you are specifically focusing on what it
Speaker 1: is or you want, and you're putting that intention out there.
Speaker 1: You're holding that vision and then the next thing you know,
Speaker 1: you're going to manifest it. And my daughter and my
Speaker 1: granddaughter say, Grandma, I don't believe in that hokey pokey.
Speaker 1: That's all on Instagram, you know, affirmations and this and that.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say, ladies and gentlemen, I am
Speaker 1: disheartened to know that the keys to life, the truth
Speaker 1: to life. Your words create what you what you what
Speaker 1: you manifest. Those things are real. It's not hoky dokie.
Speaker 1: It's not an Instagram or TikTok cliche.
Speaker 2: It is the truth. What you think and what.
Speaker 1: You say matters. Believe that bear witness to your life.
Speaker 1: If you don't believe me, bear witness to your own life,
Speaker 1: and say I want a lemon bar, and see yourself
Speaker 1: get a lemon bar. Say I want to buy a house,
Speaker 1: and then see yourself buy a house. They magically happen
Speaker 1: because they fester in your soul. They magically happen because
Speaker 1: they just need the words to help get them out
Speaker 1: and guide them into tangible things. Conscious of every word
Speaker 1: that comes out your mouth, every thought that enters your mind.
Speaker 1: Be conscious of where you are in that moment of creation,
Speaker 1: because right after that is manifestation.
Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 1: Everyone, The Spirited Actor Podcast with Tracy Moore now has
Speaker 1: a YouTube channel. You'll get to see exclusive video footage
Speaker 1: from our podcast taping, as well as your favorite segments
Speaker 1: from the show. Make sure to like our videos, subscribe
Speaker 1: to our channel, and share with all your friends. Don't
Speaker 1: forget to also follow us on Instagram at the Spirited
Speaker 1: Actor and at both Tracy Moore and at the Spirited
Speaker 1: Actor Podcast with Tracy Moore on Facebook and X. Thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us on The Spirited Actor Podcast with
Speaker 1: me Tracy Moore. I look forward to our next Spirited podcast.
Speaker 2: Thank you.