Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: I was just smoke saying, man, is it delicious?
Speaker 3: It is, except my toast is like underdone because I
Speaker 3: was rushing because I realized I was late for y'all.
Speaker 4: So it's not as crunchy as I wanted to be.
Speaker 1: Journey, you were friends. Now you can actually just walk
Speaker 1: to the stove and.
Speaker 3: Start cooking or just thanks, my.
Speaker 1: First guest to start cooking at dinner. Wow on the show. Anyway,
Speaker 1: let me let me do this, all right, I gotta
Speaker 1: make up an intro because it would be disrespectful.
Speaker 4: Wait, you don't have an intro prepared for me? I'm here? Wow?
Speaker 2: All right, all right, all right, here we got podcasting.
Speaker 1: All right, Ladies and gentlemen. Our guest today has the
Speaker 1: distinct honor of being, okay, I around it off fourteen
Speaker 1: years my junior. Yet I think she is clocked in
Speaker 1: more years inner profession than mine, which basically means that
Speaker 1: she's literally been acting since she came out the womb.
Speaker 1: I think her first gig was when she was ten
Speaker 1: months old, so that should put in perspective. Anyway, full disclosure,
Speaker 1: we are close friends. So this is my preface way
Speaker 1: of saying that I'm a lazy show host and introducer,
Speaker 1: but I'm also a fan. So you know, it's important
Speaker 1: to note that Journey Smollett is not anyone's overnight success.
Speaker 1: She has the receipts to prove it. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: off the top of my favorites. Of course, there's full
Speaker 1: House on her own, hanging with mister Cooper Cosby, the
Speaker 1: CBS version, Oh Movies, gotch Eves by Your night Lights,
Speaker 1: Friday Night Lights, World Bounce, The Great Debaters, True Blood, Parenthood,
Speaker 1: Birds of Prey, let me cut to the damn chase.
Speaker 1: It's as Letty lewis I pray at your last name
Speaker 1: on the show. Yes, I believe it's Letty. Letty lewis
Speaker 1: an instant African. I won't say I don't know to
Speaker 1: call this afrofuturist or an American horror classic story. So
Speaker 1: I will say that this is an instant American horror,
Speaker 1: African futurist classic Lovecraft country that our guest has somehow
Speaker 1: managed to turn, somehow ironically into a breakout role while
Speaker 1: having a thirty year career under her belt. How's that
Speaker 1: for winging? Is she watching me?
Speaker 4: Sweat.
Speaker 1: Right now, Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome actress, singer, activist, mother,
Speaker 1: baseball bat swinger Flavor flav Understudy, and midnight chef Journey's
Speaker 1: Wallet for the second time to Quest Love Supreme. Anyway,
Speaker 1: how are you doing, journal? I know you'd rather be
Speaker 1: doing anything but the groundwork of of doing interviews, So
Speaker 1: I'll try to make this as painless as possible. Hi,
Speaker 1: how's your day to day? I'm just gonna it's gonna
Speaker 1: be recklessly How was your day to day?
Speaker 4: I mean it was okay.
Speaker 3: I've been sitting here all day long doing interviews and
Speaker 3: zooms and things of that nature, so you know, happy
Speaker 3: to do more.
Speaker 1: You're still You're still.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna have fun.
Speaker 4: We have fun. Okay, good, I get it.
Speaker 2: Journal.
Speaker 1: I understand that if.
Speaker 4: I'm happy to thank you for that introduction.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, dude, that that was freaking off the time.
Speaker 1: I was scared because I know I missed something that
Speaker 1: you were in.
Speaker 4: I don't remember what was it.
Speaker 1: No, was like I won't mention temptation with Kim, but
Speaker 1: I forgot you did that too, the music video. No,
Speaker 1: she was in Temptation Tyler Perry. Yes, yes, yes, I forgot.
Speaker 1: I knew I forgot something. There's probably forty two other
Speaker 1: things that I've missed as well. Anyway, so you've been
Speaker 1: sort of on the grind reintroducing yourself to twelve.
Speaker 3: Time, right right right? You know my grind. One thing
Speaker 3: people don't know about. First of all, Amir and I
Speaker 3: have known each other for so long. We met, you
Speaker 3: came to We didn't meet here, although you were here.
Speaker 3: You were at the Gridiron Gang premiere. You told me,
Speaker 3: do you remember.
Speaker 1: That you indeed, I forgot to mention grid Iron? Yes,
Speaker 1: I was there.
Speaker 3: You were at the premiere of that, and then you
Speaker 3: reached out to me on my Space.
Speaker 1: I remember very well. Wow, you asked me still exist?
Speaker 2: Now, Tom, No, are you sure the Facebook?
Speaker 4: Facebook still exists?
Speaker 1: It should it shouldn't right exactly. I'm actually checking to
Speaker 1: see this is my space? Is my account still good?
Speaker 1: Because name I think it's quite I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't like Justin Timberlake purchased it. So yeah, it's still
Speaker 1: my Space still exists, ladies.
Speaker 3: I still have some of like your old pictures on it,
Speaker 3: but not all of it because I go, wow, how do.
Speaker 1: I even find ship? I gotta see friendster is still up.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry anyway, go ahead, dude.
Speaker 4: We still have our Space accounts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you still.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you can log in, but you
Speaker 4: can still see, like if you have some pictures.
Speaker 3: I know I can, it's an audio.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my Space is still think. Yes, we are all
Speaker 1: going on my Space.
Speaker 3: I don't know you're ready to get you know where
Speaker 3: I met. I mean we've been telling talking about Lovecraft.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, and I've been like, I'm such
Speaker 1: a fan of the show. I think I've been waking
Speaker 1: you up out your sleep to ask you questions about
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty much, I do get. I'm glad like one
Speaker 3: in the morning where you're like Ni.
Speaker 1: Gro yo, that's compliment and and that's her cleaning up
Speaker 1: the word. Yes, if we're going to hit it.
Speaker 3: A little, can I just ask Journey yo. I'm just
Speaker 3: glad to see you and Misha Green back together because
Speaker 3: The Underground was like, my shit, it was my.
Speaker 4: Show too, man, I mean, I'm.
Speaker 3: It's what's so funny about Misha and and my relationship
Speaker 3: with her is how we started off like we started
Speaker 3: off hated each other. I couldn't stand the help I
Speaker 3: could not stand her when I saw the pilot of Underground.
Speaker 3: I remember calling my people being like, what did I
Speaker 3: sign up for?
Speaker 4: And how do I get out of this? She's experience. Well,
Speaker 4: here's the thing she and I.
Speaker 3: You know, initially she she one of the first things
Speaker 3: she had said to me was she grabbed my hands.
Speaker 4: She said, we're going to.
Speaker 2: Be best friends.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, usually, And so as we started doing the pilot,
Speaker 3: we just kept butting heads and became a running joke
Speaker 3: on set that, oh, if Journey's in the scene, good
Speaker 3: luck starting on time, Journey and Mishi're going to be
Speaker 3: arguing for twenty minutes prior.
Speaker 1: To the scene Thanksgiving. Wait are you loud? Wait now
Speaker 1: I'm playing? Are you allowed to argue with your director?
Speaker 4: Well, here's the thing she was.
Speaker 3: It was the first time I was like the lead
Speaker 3: of a show, and it was the first time she
Speaker 3: was a showrunner of a show.
Speaker 4: So we there was a lot of pressure on us, right, and.
Speaker 3: I wanted, you know, I come with all my research
Speaker 3: and my opinions about a cat. They're like, look, you
Speaker 3: hired me to do a job, right, so let me
Speaker 3: do my fucking job. And then here she comes being
Speaker 3: like yes, but this is what my vision is. Blah
Speaker 3: blah blah, and that's normal for people. But we just
Speaker 3: had to figure out how to collaborate. We had to
Speaker 3: figure out each other's love languages, because there was a
Speaker 3: lot of just debating and arguing and not seeing eye
Speaker 3: to eye with things. And then you know, once we
Speaker 3: got over that. It was really the whipping scene in
Speaker 3: the pilot of Underground, in which we argued to I
Speaker 3: mean over talked it and I kept saying, look, it's
Speaker 3: not on the page, it's not here.
Speaker 4: What you want me to do?
Speaker 3: I don't know how to make that sit in my
Speaker 3: body in a truthful way. So and everything I would try,
Speaker 3: we rehearsed it, and I would try things in my
Speaker 3: body and she would just be like, no, that ain't it, No,
Speaker 3: that ain't it. And I'm like, who is this headful?
Speaker 3: Like you gotta let me try, you know. And so finally,
Speaker 3: on the day of shooting, I told our director Anthony everywhere,
Speaker 3: I said, I don't want.
Speaker 4: To discuss it.
Speaker 3: Don't talk to me about this scene. I'm gonna go
Speaker 3: out there and do it. I don't know how I'm
Speaker 3: gonna do it, but I'm gonna do it. I said,
Speaker 3: the only thing is, please don't let me hear this
Speaker 3: out on the web, because at this point I've got
Speaker 3: nothing else to hold on to to get an actual
Speaker 3: response out of me, you know.
Speaker 4: And then I looked up and we're sitting on this plantation.
Speaker 3: It was a real plantation in Louisiana, and I saw
Speaker 3: this oak tree, and this tree had been there for
Speaker 3: over two hundred probably two to three hundred years, and
Speaker 3: I thought of Billie Holliday's strange fruit, and I thought
Speaker 3: of all the strange fruit that had probably hung from
Speaker 3: that tree. And I just prayed to the ancestors and
Speaker 3: went out and did the scene.
Speaker 4: And Anthony didn't cut.
Speaker 3: He just kept doing take after take, angle after angle
Speaker 3: without cutting.
Speaker 4: And afterwards I couldn't stop crying.
Speaker 3: I was crying for like a good ten minutes, and
Speaker 3: Nisha and Aldis and Anthony just held me, and it
Speaker 3: was an interesting breakthrough for me. Sha and I of like, Okay,
Speaker 3: we just have to trust the process, and we just
Speaker 3: have to trust the material, and we have to trust
Speaker 3: each other because when it comes time, the work will
Speaker 3: be there.
Speaker 1: When when high intensity scenes have to be shot, be
Speaker 1: it murder or the awkwardness of a love scene or
Speaker 1: screaming or shouting or rage your iconic baseball bet scene.
Speaker 1: How much preparation or time do you need to go
Speaker 1: to a convincing dark place or is it like you
Speaker 1: show up at set of five in the morning.
Speaker 3: And go, oh, no, I'm not that person that I
Speaker 3: would never I it just I'd have nothing to pull
Speaker 3: from my.
Speaker 4: Well would be empty. I've done it and it just
Speaker 4: don't work out. So I spend a lot of time
Speaker 4: doing re.
Speaker 1: Search, okay. Robin Williams once shared a story about when
Speaker 1: shooting with de Niro, Robin Williams and De Niro Awakenings, Awakenings.
Speaker 1: There's a scene where Robin Williams and de Niro had
Speaker 1: to like come outside of the hospital and they were
Speaker 1: shooting a location in the Bronx. And you know, since
Speaker 1: the beginning of the film, de Niro was in method
Speaker 1: acting mode and stayed that character the entire duration of
Speaker 1: the film, even when he went home. And because they
Speaker 1: were on location in the Bronx and there were like
Speaker 1: people on stamp by watching this one spectator I think
Speaker 1: like distracted de Niro so much that they had to
Speaker 1: shut production down. Like there was like an old drunk
Speaker 1: black guy, and he was trying to get his attention
Speaker 1: all day. Hey Bobby D, Bobby D. And then he
Speaker 1: was like, hey Bobby D, you still love sucking on
Speaker 1: that black pussy, And like Robert Williams like they try
Speaker 1: to ignore it. And then Robert Williams looked at de
Speaker 1: Niro and then they started dying, like they was laughing
Speaker 1: on the floor, cracking up. And then de Niro couldn't
Speaker 1: get back into his character. They had just shut down.
Speaker 1: Oh and like let him reset and come back the
Speaker 1: next day to do that that scene. So I always wondered,
Speaker 1: like in terms of of channeling that, like how hard
Speaker 1: is it to how long do you need to get
Speaker 1: into that?
Speaker 4: For one, that's a movie with budget they shut down
Speaker 4: because someone gets out of character. Cool, that's like us.
Speaker 4: I've never experienced that, you know.
Speaker 3: It's it's interesting that you talk about that, because half
Speaker 3: of the battle is fighting off the distractions.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: Set is such a it's such a circus, you know,
Speaker 3: and all the preparation you do, whether you get months
Speaker 3: or weeks or however amount of time you get leading
Speaker 3: up to you know, go time, when you get on set,
Speaker 3: it's a whole different beasts. That's a different muscle that
Speaker 3: you have to be able to express. It's almost like
Speaker 3: a meditation, you know, it's a part of your brain
Speaker 3: you got to go into where you are able to
Speaker 3: just focus in on the intention in the character and
Speaker 3: the truth that you're supposed to communicate.
Speaker 4: It's quite challenging in scenes like that, but.
Speaker 3: It's just different methods I've always I've used or I've
Speaker 3: picked up you know, that just kind of helped me
Speaker 3: in my process get there. And there's no like one
Speaker 3: quick fix with it. It's like every project demands something different.
Speaker 3: It demands a different level of physicality, a different level
Speaker 3: of research, a different approach. There's not like a menu
Speaker 3: or manual for any project I find, like, you know,
Speaker 3: it might be music, it might be.
Speaker 4: Being in the library for hours, it might you know,
Speaker 4: it's is.
Speaker 1: It a trial by a fire though? Or have you
Speaker 1: had moments where you know, I mean, I'll say that
Speaker 1: at least in your choices of what you choose to do,
Speaker 1: there's always you know, a maverick there or you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, if Denzel is a person that pulls
Speaker 1: you to the side and says, you know, I want
Speaker 1: you to tweet this a little bit and whatever, like
Speaker 1: is that even allowed, or if it's like low budgets,
Speaker 1: like we only got room for two takes and be out.
Speaker 4: Or oh no, no no.
Speaker 3: I mean the goal is for sure to have those
Speaker 3: people around you, you know, I for sure have that
Speaker 3: anisia where.
Speaker 4: She will tell me it's not there. Let's let's you know,
Speaker 4: we're gonna go again. But you build up the trust
Speaker 4: with your collaborators, with your other actors. The hardest thing
Speaker 4: is working with people you don't trust.
Speaker 3: I mean, you have to work so much harder to
Speaker 3: protect the performance and protect the process when you feel like, oh,
Speaker 3: this director don't know what the hell he or she's
Speaker 3: doing right now, Like you know, that to me is
Speaker 3: so terrifying because there's just a level there's more work
Speaker 3: you gotta do.
Speaker 4: You gotta work so much harder.
Speaker 3: When when I did great debaters with d is just
Speaker 3: like I mean, for one of like digging a massive class.
Speaker 3: But I know we're not moving on until we got
Speaker 3: it right. So we might take a penalty with lunch,
Speaker 3: we might have to whatever what you know, hell or
Speaker 3: high water, we're gonna get this rights.
Speaker 1: Wow, I did not know that, oh absolutely.
Speaker 3: I mean no, no, But here's the thing. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's smart directors and smart showrunners know when to pick
Speaker 3: and choose that stuff, you know, like this is this
Speaker 3: is a scene. We gotta get this. And there have
Speaker 3: been times even on Lovecraft, there were moments, you know.
Speaker 3: For instance, with the exorcism scene, I had to go
Speaker 3: up to the director and I had to say to him.
Speaker 3: I was like, you know, me and Jonathan we're in
Speaker 3: it and everything's being kind of shot except us, you know,
Speaker 3: and is this when you're talking about that scene? Yeah,
Speaker 3: in episode three when we're in the basement, and it
Speaker 3: was it was one of those moments.
Speaker 4: Where as an actor you got to protect the performance.
Speaker 3: And so I went up to the director and I said, listen, Miuell,
Speaker 3: me and Jonathan. I mean, like, we're giving it all,
Speaker 3: and I don't you know, well you're going to get
Speaker 3: to a point where there's nothing left to give, you know.
Speaker 3: It was it was a scene we shot over the
Speaker 3: process of three days, you know, and so there's all
Speaker 3: these elements.
Speaker 4: They're blowing these wind.
Speaker 3: Fans, there's cgi and so there was so much going on,
Speaker 3: and so the director had a lot on his plate
Speaker 3: to kind of capture everything. But at the essence, there
Speaker 3: is no scene if you don't have this performance right.
Speaker 3: And so sometimes you gotta do that. You gotta like
Speaker 3: pull a doctor's tail. And I thought you were going
Speaker 3: to say they called the actors, so that can maybe
Speaker 3: help a little bit, like instead of it just being.
Speaker 4: They call those No.
Speaker 3: No, what I'm saying is in shooting this big, this
Speaker 3: big sequence that took three days to shoot, you know
Speaker 3: it took It was a moment where I realized, oh,
Speaker 3: we're we're doing the why we're behind us, we're doing
Speaker 3: we're shooting stuff line instead of shooting.
Speaker 4: Us right, you know.
Speaker 3: Like so sometimes that happens where it's just a big
Speaker 3: production and you gotta ask for what you need, you know.
Speaker 3: And that's part of protecting the process too.
Speaker 4: Fyi Journey.
Speaker 3: That was the first scene in Lovecraft that brought tears
Speaker 3: to my eyes, Like that scene when you break into
Speaker 3: tears and you know you're telling him to leave and
Speaker 3: everything it was and I was curious. I was like,
Speaker 3: you've played a you have played a lot of roles
Speaker 3: that now we know we have labels for them, trauma,
Speaker 3: trauma and triggers. And I was just curious, like, out
Speaker 3: of all the roles, which was the one that you
Speaker 3: really took home and you had to like shake it off,
Speaker 3: like it's just you know, the more the more projects
Speaker 3: I take going, the more I want the ones that
Speaker 3: cost me something, you know, I want. I'm hungry for
Speaker 3: the roles that make me have to sacrifice, make me
Speaker 3: have to lay it all the alter. You know, for sure,
Speaker 3: love Craft Country.
Speaker 4: Is highly up there with having to make the sacrifice.
Speaker 4: You know. It costs me so much mentally, physically, emotionally.
Speaker 3: And let me tell y'all, you've only seen five episodes
Speaker 3: the audience.
Speaker 1: How many more are in the season.
Speaker 4: There's five more.
Speaker 3: There's a total of ten episodes, and where I know
Speaker 3: it goes. It's like, but that's the thing that is
Speaker 3: so incredible. As an artist, you know, you're hung are
Speaker 3: hungry for things that challenge you. And Miisha Green, you
Speaker 3: signed on to a project with her, her house is
Speaker 3: going to challenge you.
Speaker 4: You know, she's going to demand that you stretch.
Speaker 1: How were you able to tell the depth of what
Speaker 1: this was because you know, the pilot alone, I wasn't
Speaker 1: familiar with the book. I wasn't familiar with the project
Speaker 1: at all. I knew that you were doing it, I
Speaker 1: knew Michael was doing so I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm a board, let's go. And as with a lot
Speaker 1: of us, you know, thought okay, this is going to
Speaker 1: be a civil rights period piece, and then it just
Speaker 1: went to a whole nother place, even though in the
Speaker 1: beginning it was there. But in my mind, I was
Speaker 1: already crafting like Okay, well he's probably an author that
Speaker 1: dreams of these space things and whatever. And so when
Speaker 1: I realized, oh, what I'm about to get into and
Speaker 1: what I'm trapped into, Like how's this conveade? Like are
Speaker 1: you reading all ten episodes in the script before you
Speaker 1: make the decision that I'm aboard? Like when did you
Speaker 1: have your first oh shit moment? Or did they kind
Speaker 1: of prep you ahead of time that this this is
Speaker 1: what it was?
Speaker 3: Well, so Underground season two had just been canceled and
Speaker 3: they were trying to find a home for season three,
Speaker 3: but it.
Speaker 4: Didn't look promising. And I mean I.
Speaker 3: Was getting a lot of offers, and this is the
Speaker 3: first time in my career where this was happening.
Speaker 4: Where you know, there were a lot.
Speaker 3: Of offers we were fielding from some of the best
Speaker 3: showrunners and creators in the in the game, and I
Speaker 3: kept kind of fielding it with Risha, you know, she
Speaker 3: was my like fifth invisible agent.
Speaker 4: I'd be like, you know, what, what do you think
Speaker 4: about this one? No Journey, it's trash, she can't do it. Okay,
Speaker 4: well this one, I mean, it's the showrunner. He's an
Speaker 4: emmya you know.
Speaker 3: And so then she sent me the pilot of Lovecraft.
Speaker 3: And I was aware of her working on it, but
Speaker 3: when she she sent it to me, maybe like a
Speaker 3: week or so after she had finished it, and I
Speaker 3: mean instantly, just the way it opens it made me
Speaker 3: miss her writing. It's so bold and audacious, right, And
Speaker 3: I was like, wait, what the hell is she doing now?
Speaker 3: And then when the character Letty came on, when I
Speaker 3: tell you, I had this visceral reaction of like, oh fuck, no.
Speaker 4: Can't nobody else play Letty but me? And what the
Speaker 4: hell is Mesh doing? Why is she not talking to
Speaker 4: me about me being Letty?
Speaker 3: Did she not know that I am the only one
Speaker 3: that could play We have to audition for this. I
Speaker 3: didn't have to audition, but five months passed for me
Speaker 3: reading the script, and I hadn't gotten an offer, you know,
Speaker 3: they hadn't offered it to anyone else, just kind of
Speaker 3: now building the world out and making certain hires that
Speaker 3: brought on a director, et cetera. For still, she wasn't
Speaker 3: talking to me about it, and as close as we are,
Speaker 3: it just felt strange. And knowing Misha, she's the person
Speaker 3: where it's like, you can't campaign for a project with Misha.
Speaker 4: You know, she's only going.
Speaker 3: To give a role to somebody if that's who she
Speaker 3: wants to cast.
Speaker 4: And so I was in Bad Robot.
Speaker 3: I was at Bad Robot and jj Abram says to me,
Speaker 3: he's like, hey, did you read the Lovecraft Country's Cook?
Speaker 4: And I was like, yeah, you know, it's incredible, and
Speaker 4: he's like, you should do it. And I'm like, y'all,
Speaker 4: I think I should do it too. Misha hasn't mentioned
Speaker 4: it to me, you know, what the hell you doing?
Speaker 3: And he just, you know, I start panicking and he's like,
Speaker 3: you should do it, very calmly, he says. I'm like, dude,
Speaker 3: you don't have to convince me that I need to
Speaker 3: do this, you know. And so Misha calls me a
Speaker 3: few weeks later and she just says, you know, we
Speaker 3: just hired this director, Yan DeMange.
Speaker 4: He's dope. I want you to go meet him. Bye.
Speaker 1: So wait, with something of this deep of an undertaking
Speaker 1: with ten episodes, is it the same director for all
Speaker 1: ten episodes?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: Okay, So how explain to me how that works because
Speaker 1: it seems very consistent. And is it the director walking
Speaker 1: in as the fish out out of water, to the
Speaker 1: same cinematographer, to the same lighting director, to the same
Speaker 1: like is everyone else consistent or is it a new
Speaker 1: crew every time a new episode shot?
Speaker 4: Well, for the.
Speaker 3: Ten episodes, the pilot was its own individual crew, right,
Speaker 3: So yeah, and Nisha and the producers were the pilot
Speaker 3: built a crew that shot we shot in Chicago. But
Speaker 3: for the season, really the consistency is provided by the showrunner,
Speaker 3: Misha Green, you know who.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: She wrote most of the episode, she directs one of
Speaker 3: one of the episodes, but as a showrunner, it's her
Speaker 3: job to maintain that consistency. Also, the crew does stay
Speaker 3: stay the entire time. So we had we had two
Speaker 3: dp's who switched off, but still they maintained the same
Speaker 3: look and feel of the show, same prop master, you know,
Speaker 3: all the department heads stay the same.
Speaker 4: But in TV, we yeah, we get a new director
Speaker 4: every week.
Speaker 1: Because I always wondered how how that works. Where Okay,
Speaker 1: if if Marty Scorsese decides to direct an episode, obviously
Speaker 1: he's going to use film with Schumacher as his as
Speaker 1: his editor and use his particular style of shooting. And
Speaker 1: if episode six is you know, Ernest Dickerson and he
Speaker 1: does his little tricks in the one camera thing and whatever,
Speaker 1: vim that's inconsistent, Like, is it basically agreed upon that
Speaker 1: when directors come to do a series that they're coming
Speaker 1: just to bring the showrunner's vision to life as supposed
Speaker 1: to put their stamp on it or their trademark.
Speaker 4: W I think it depends show by show, you know.
Speaker 3: With this for sure, you know, and just watching the
Speaker 3: way Mesha works, she wants the director to come in
Speaker 3: and bring something fresh and exciting and new, and yet
Speaker 3: the show, the feel, the vibe, some of it's gotta
Speaker 3: be maintained, you know.
Speaker 4: And then we as the actors, we know our characters.
Speaker 3: So you're not coming in and telling me who Leeddy
Speaker 3: Lewis is, Like I know who she is. You can
Speaker 3: come in and tell me, well, how do we make
Speaker 3: this more truthful or how do we dig deeper? Blah
Speaker 3: blah blah. But I know who she is, you know.
Speaker 3: So I've noticed that can be a challenge for some
Speaker 3: directors and TV because it's different in film film, you know.
Speaker 4: As an a tour, they.
Speaker 3: It's shutting close, you know, like they're not really having
Speaker 3: to take on the vision of the showrunner. And some
Speaker 3: directors in TV excel in that, and some I've seen
Speaker 3: them fall flat on their face because their ego is
Speaker 3: so big that you know, they don't really want to collaborate.
Speaker 1: You mean, when movie directors come to TV land, or
Speaker 1: when big names come to TV.
Speaker 4: Land, or I mean, it doesn't even have to be
Speaker 4: big names. I've seen, folks.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna lie, Like even with with Nisha, I've seen,
Speaker 3: you know, on Underground.
Speaker 4: I remember there was this one director.
Speaker 3: The entire cast he will I won't name them, the
Speaker 3: entire cast hated this man on Underground and he just
Speaker 3: he was that like work for hire, legendary director who
Speaker 3: directed everything from you know, all the NBC, CBS type shows.
Speaker 4: You can't yeah, yeah, yeah, he done it all and
Speaker 4: this was just another gig for him. And so he
Speaker 4: didn't really care to make this heights.
Speaker 3: He didn't care to have like the nuance and the urgency,
Speaker 3: And so we ate him alive because you could tell
Speaker 3: it was just like he wasn't he wasn't trying to collaborate.
Speaker 3: He wasn't he wasn't really interested.
Speaker 4: It was a paycheck for him.
Speaker 3: Can I ask you, I'm just so curious what it's
Speaker 3: like working with Jonathan, who seems like he's about to
Speaker 3: be the next like just amazing. And Michael Keith Williams,
Speaker 3: because I know what I know. I mean, Michael, yes,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, but tell me about the magic?
Speaker 4: What is that? Like? It's incredible.
Speaker 3: I mean pinched myself sometimes truly, you know, like again,
Speaker 3: we just trusted each other so much.
Speaker 4: We all had like these rituals that Courtney started on
Speaker 4: the pilot and Courtney, yes, excuse me, no, look the
Speaker 4: entire cat I mean, I mean everybody, everybody.
Speaker 3: Woomy, yeah, I mean everyone kills it. But yeah, we
Speaker 3: had this this me, Jonathan and Michael inherited the tradition
Speaker 3: that Courtney started where we would give each other fist
Speaker 3: bump before each take.
Speaker 4: I mean, like it was a religion.
Speaker 3: The approach was so sacred for us. You I don't
Speaker 3: care where we were starting from. I could be entering
Speaker 3: on the other side of the field before that take
Speaker 3: was going to start. We had to meet up in
Speaker 3: fistbunk each other. If we didn't do it, we'd be like, yo,
Speaker 3: that takes up because we didn't. We didn't where's the fistball?
Speaker 3: But no, I mean working with them was just incredible
Speaker 3: because you're only as good as your partner, you know,
Speaker 3: when you can look into their eyes and you can
Speaker 3: see truth and you never know, I mean, we never
Speaker 3: knew what take, you know, what what the next take
Speaker 3: was going to be like, because every take was fresh
Speaker 3: and exciting and present and honest, challenging each other.
Speaker 4: How far can we dig deeper?
Speaker 3: I mean the moments me and Jonathan just on on
Speaker 3: on on the sound stage, just going at it, just rehearsing,
Speaker 3: you know, lines going back and forth over and over.
Speaker 1: You know, how how could you explain what the processes
Speaker 1: from the table read too? We have the take because
Speaker 1: I'm I don't know if I've ever seen a movie
Speaker 1: in which, uh like, I'm trying to parallel to musicianship
Speaker 1: m are are the is the timing based at the
Speaker 1: table read, And is the table read like a four
Speaker 1: times overthing or is it just like whoever's in the scene,
Speaker 1: we have an hour before we've done, let's go.
Speaker 2: It's like when you're going to when you go into
Speaker 2: an electric Lady for like a year and just make
Speaker 2: grooves and stuff.
Speaker 1: I wrote the entire album on the spot.
Speaker 2: Two years later, you know, Tarik comes in and puts
Speaker 2: his thing on and then that's it's like that, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, because I don't I look for other nuances
Speaker 1: that I don't think the average person looks for when
Speaker 1: I'm watching, and I guess as a musicianship, I'm seeing
Speaker 1: you guys as instruments trying to figure out the the
Speaker 1: yin and yang balance of timing and the pacing of
Speaker 1: a conversation. And you know, like for Insan, if you
Speaker 1: watch Woody Allen films, he's world famous for wanting his
Speaker 1: actors to talk on top of each other because he's like,
Speaker 1: everyone talks on top of each other in New York City.
Speaker 1: So I want to make that real. But can you
Speaker 1: walk us through like what from script till we got it?
Speaker 1: Like how how much preparation is put in for the rehearsals?
Speaker 4: Again, it varies project to project. I just speak about Lovecraft.
Speaker 3: I mean with the pilot we had, we had very
Speaker 3: little rehearsal. A lot of the prep was about diving
Speaker 3: into the inner struggle, the inner workings of the character, right,
Speaker 3: you know. But the table read, you know, a lot
Speaker 3: people approach the table read differently, but this one I
Speaker 3: remember they actually filmed the table read, which was a
Speaker 3: first for me because JJ was shooting Star Wars in
Speaker 3: London and couldn't make the table read, so they filmed
Speaker 3: it so he could watch it. But you know, everybody,
Speaker 3: you know, some actors at the table reads they just
Speaker 3: kind of phone it in, and then some actors go
Speaker 3: full in. So honestly, the piece, like you said, it's
Speaker 3: very much so like a symphony, and it's not really
Speaker 3: formed until you get in it, you know, but every
Speaker 3: step along the way helps inform it.
Speaker 4: And so whether it's rehearsals, or whether it's.
Speaker 3: Even costume designers and hair stylists and makeup artists or
Speaker 3: you know, every everybody kind of adds a level of
Speaker 3: a layer too to the project that you don't that
Speaker 3: you feel and you may not see it. And so
Speaker 3: when you talk about pacing, and rhythm and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of that's just informed on the day.
Speaker 3: It's informed through instinct, it's informed response. You know, I
Speaker 3: hear you, I respond, I listen, I respond. It's just
Speaker 3: like this conversation, haven't you know?
Speaker 1: I hear your journey?
Speaker 5: I was, I was on that, I was on the
Speaker 5: tonight show.
Speaker 3: It. I still I still have you saved on my
Speaker 3: phone as Steve, where's my coffee? Damn?
Speaker 1: Or that just sounds like Steve friends with each other?
Speaker 4: Yes, where's my coffee? Journey?
Speaker 3: Was it easier to do something like Lovecraft coming off
Speaker 3: of Birds of Prey since it's a little lighter?
Speaker 1: Love Craft is lighter?
Speaker 3: I mean, no, I'm saying, since I meant to say,
Speaker 3: since Birds of Prey was so light, is it easier
Speaker 3: to go into love Craft instead of coming from heavy
Speaker 3: to heavy?
Speaker 4: There's nothing there's no nothing easy about any of it.
Speaker 3: I mean, not easy in your spirit and your you know,
Speaker 3: because you just I.
Speaker 4: Mean, look, I don't seek ease. Is the Internet of progress?
Speaker 1: I don't need Okay, Well let's go back to the
Speaker 1: goddam beginning, all right there? Uh No, I.
Speaker 3: Mean, look, birds of Prey was definitely different because look,
Speaker 3: I had to train for five months to a martial artist,
Speaker 3: you know, so it's it's.
Speaker 4: It definitely required different muscles than love Craft.
Speaker 3: Country and like the whole comic book world is its
Speaker 3: own beast and and I tried to approach that with
Speaker 3: the same amount of reference that I would approach the
Speaker 3: text of Lovecraft, you know, But the approaches each project
Speaker 3: is going to require different things, you know. I shot
Speaker 3: the pilot for Lovecraft, then went and trained for Birds
Speaker 3: of Prey, shot Birds of Prey, and then went back
Speaker 3: and shot, you know, the remaining season of love Crowd.
Speaker 3: It's funny because Misha afterwards was like, so these.
Speaker 4: Arms they gotta go. Damn, these black canary arms you got,
Speaker 4: like got a state.
Speaker 3: Your character is really important her. I mean, you look great.
Speaker 3: I don't know the politically correct way to say this
Speaker 3: with a bunch of fellas in the room, but on
Speaker 3: love Craft, the tailor, the way things are fitting you,
Speaker 3: I just have never seen your It looks amazing er.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3: We worked hard at that, you know, the the.
Speaker 4: Tailoring and costumes and things, the darts, you know, the
Speaker 4: dark look. It's true.
Speaker 3: We looked at we looked at thousands of images of
Speaker 3: costumes from this time, from this era, and the just.
Speaker 4: The integrity that they had in the clothing. I mean, look,
Speaker 4: you know, I'm in.
Speaker 3: T shirt and sweats right now, like by nature, I'm
Speaker 3: not letty, you know, but for that to get the
Speaker 3: era right.
Speaker 4: And to do it justice, Hey, the tailoring is a
Speaker 4: big part.
Speaker 1: It really was amazing. All right, let's get the Denise
Speaker 1: Fraser questions out the way, because.
Speaker 2: What's your favorite what's the toughest question you were asked today?
Speaker 1: Okay, just so that just so that we can uh
Speaker 1: to go on. Whether you indeed have history. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: known that you've been acting from the womb in the
Speaker 1: very beginning. Though, it just hit me that I remember,
Speaker 1: like I remember your face everywhere, like you there's a
Speaker 1: gazillion things that you've done as a youngster in which
Speaker 1: I remember your face. I mean, you know, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you've done Martin before you've done like I've remember certain things.
Speaker 1: Was there ever talk about developing you your own show?
Speaker 1: Like how did you avoid the well, I guess what
Speaker 1: I would call the Disney trap, because I think Disney
Speaker 1: was handing out shows like hotcakes between the mid nineties
Speaker 1: and two thousand and five, like you could have easily
Speaker 1: been in that, you could have been that's so ravenized,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, right, or that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: How uh, what's crazy is Disney has built some careers
Speaker 3: clear you know. I mean there's a lot of actors
Speaker 3: and entertainers I respect that have come from Disney and
Speaker 3: so but my mother, my mom was I say this
Speaker 3: with as much respect as I can you know about another.
Speaker 2: But she was like, that's always a cattle man, like
Speaker 2: so house snobby was she?
Speaker 3: Journey? How snobby was she?
Speaker 4: She know?
Speaker 3: I was offered to do like my own Disney show
Speaker 3: several times and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: She just wouldn't let me do it. She wouldn't let
Speaker 4: me do it.
Speaker 3: My agent at the time, I thought she was crazy
Speaker 3: because I could have made so much money and.
Speaker 4: We were broke y'all, Like growing up we were so.
Speaker 3: Poor at moments, like my brother talking about how do
Speaker 3: you remember that time when we had like nothing but
Speaker 3: like a wilted carrot and an apple and refrigerator like
Speaker 3: we were there is seven hundred of us, and you know,
Speaker 3: everybody get.
Speaker 4: Some lental beans, I mean some beans and rice tell.
Speaker 1: Us about the hard times journey.
Speaker 3: You know, I mean, we my family growing up, My
Speaker 3: mom didn't she really didn't care about money, and so
Speaker 3: especially after my parents divorced, we really struggled, you know,
Speaker 3: and there were moments where it was just like, oh, and.
Speaker 4: My mom wouldn't let she wouldn't let me do it.
Speaker 3: There were so many things, but my mother is very
Speaker 3: proud of the fact that she would.
Speaker 4: She would say all the time, I can go and
Speaker 4: sell pussy on the corner.
Speaker 3: I don't need to make money, you know, I don't
Speaker 3: need to my kids. You know, I can make money
Speaker 3: if I really need to. And she never she never,
Speaker 3: she never did it, just so y'all know. But her
Speaker 3: point was that embellishment. Yes, her point was that our
Speaker 3: art was not to be bought and sold by the
Speaker 3: highest bidder, you know, and she just had this level
Speaker 3: of integrity. But she was also the woman that, you know,
Speaker 3: was making me read Katherin Hepburn's by autobiography when I
Speaker 3: was thirteen. So how did you end up in Full House?
Speaker 4: Then?
Speaker 3: Well, I guess what made her convince her to do
Speaker 3: Full House? Full House?
Speaker 4: I mean, well that was before I was offered any
Speaker 4: sort of Didney show. But you know that was I
Speaker 4: don't know. You got to ask her.
Speaker 6: It was it was like an audition that the character.
Speaker 6: The character was written as a little white girl, and
Speaker 6: the casting director called my agent and said.
Speaker 3: You know, whether or not i'd be willing to my
Speaker 3: mom would let me come in or something like that.
Speaker 4: I'm not entirely show, y'all.
Speaker 2: I was four.
Speaker 3: I know, I understand, but I just need to talk
Speaker 3: to you.
Speaker 1: But also I thought, weren't there rules that uh as
Speaker 1: far as acting hours? Like most of those actors that
Speaker 1: I know back then were like I know the Sprouse
Speaker 1: as well, Cole and Dylan, like usually they come in Paris.
Speaker 1: Even Michelle Tanner's one person played by Mary Kate. Why
Speaker 1: were you off the role and not using a body double?
Speaker 1: Or you're a sibling.
Speaker 3: Joeys Sweeten, they had no body double.
Speaker 4: I mean again, y'all are asking you don't remember?
Speaker 3: She said?
Speaker 2: She was so.
Speaker 3: By you. Do you remember that?
Speaker 1: I figured I figured you asked in time here.
Speaker 4: I remember. I do remember doing full House.
Speaker 3: I remember the feeling of the live studio audience and
Speaker 3: in between takes they would play music and I would
Speaker 3: like dance for the audience and they would go crazy.
Speaker 4: But I remember, I remember.
Speaker 1: That little Richard was your grandfather.
Speaker 3: I remember little Richard was Little Richard was my uncle
Speaker 3: and the whole thing in my household because my mom
Speaker 3: and dad were like big music heads.
Speaker 4: It was the coolest thing that I was working with him.
Speaker 3: And you know, so I remember things like that, the
Speaker 3: power of you know, the power you could have over
Speaker 3: an audience and to get a reaction out of them,
Speaker 3: the feeling of them laughing at something you would do
Speaker 3: the best.
Speaker 4: You know. It was a little like theater in in
Speaker 4: a sense. You know, for my four or five six
Speaker 4: year old self, what.
Speaker 1: Do you consider your first real like get into it?
Speaker 1: Would that be eased by you?
Speaker 4: I would consider it used by you? That I mean
Speaker 4: before that, Jack was.
Speaker 3: I do remember being at Francis word Cochola's branch, his
Speaker 3: his vineyard, and I mean Robins Williams teaching me how
Speaker 3: to improv, you know, because those scenes that we did together,
Speaker 3: those were all improv That's all he did.
Speaker 4: You know, he's the king of that.
Speaker 3: And he just would he kept telling me about just
Speaker 3: don't think, you know, just say the first thing that
Speaker 3: comes off the top of your head.
Speaker 4: What do you notice about me? Like he would do
Speaker 4: all these exercises with me.
Speaker 3: But Eve's Value, for sure, was the first time that
Speaker 3: I felt like, oh, I want.
Speaker 4: To do this. Prior to that, it was it was
Speaker 4: like kids.
Speaker 3: You know how kids played baseball for Little League or
Speaker 3: something like that. You know, it was a hobby, it
Speaker 3: wasn't a passion. And then with eaves Value, it's interesting
Speaker 3: I learned. I just learned a deeper appreciation for the
Speaker 3: craft of it.
Speaker 1: You know, at the time, at well, you were what
Speaker 1: ten to eleven for eves By.
Speaker 4: We started three days after I turned ten.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I mean at that time, were you still
Speaker 1: in your formative years Like, okay, well I'm doing this now,
Speaker 1: but I really want to be like what did you
Speaker 1: want to be when you were older as a groun?
Speaker 1: Like did you want to be an actress?
Speaker 3: Or was it I mean throughout my like adolescence it
Speaker 3: kind of I loved doing it eves By you, Like
Speaker 3: I said, it was the first time that I fell
Speaker 3: in love with it. I got that high, that stimulation
Speaker 3: that you get from losing yourself in a character. I
Speaker 3: started understanding from Sam and Casey, you know, different tricks
Speaker 3: and things.
Speaker 4: That you do and approaching the craft. But I have
Speaker 4: to say, even throughout, like my teenage years.
Speaker 3: And my adolescence, there were moments that I thought, I
Speaker 3: want to quit. I don't want to do this because
Speaker 3: the industry was just and is. It can suck the
Speaker 3: life out of you. You know, it can make you
Speaker 3: if you don't let it. It can It can.
Speaker 4: Bring out the worst qualities in yourself and in other people.
Speaker 4: And I became a little jaded. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 3: And I thought, probably around the time I was like
Speaker 3: nineteen or twenty, I thought, I'm gonna go and work
Speaker 3: in like the philanthropic world or be an accountant because
Speaker 3: I loved math. And then I went on a trip
Speaker 3: with you know, I was you know, Amir, I was
Speaker 3: doing like working with artists for New South Africa.
Speaker 4: I had you come.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you were an activist at the age of three.
Speaker 1: We get to that part of your life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so my trip to South Africa with artists
Speaker 3: for New South Africa, the delegation of artists like with
Speaker 3: Sam Sam Jackson and his wife Latanya and Debra Santana,
Speaker 3: Carlos Santana, Alfred Woodard and a bunch of other artists
Speaker 3: paid for me to come with them to South Africa
Speaker 3: and that trip changed my life.
Speaker 4: And when I was over there, I just watched how
Speaker 4: powerful art can be.
Speaker 3: Know that we were able to build wells and we
Speaker 3: were able to I just watch the impact that these
Speaker 3: artists and their work had.
Speaker 4: Across seas, you know, overseas.
Speaker 3: And just felt kind of convicted in the sense like, well,
Speaker 3: if I have a gift, if I have been given.
Speaker 4: This gift, how dare I not use it?
Speaker 3: Because I could actually have a greater impact when people
Speaker 3: if I use it.
Speaker 1: In my head, you're activists first and then you act
Speaker 1: on the side.
Speaker 3: That's because you know me from the like, Yo, we're
Speaker 3: gonna stop for Obama.
Speaker 4: We're on phone bank and knock.
Speaker 1: On doors, and yeah, I will say.
Speaker 4: With me like you you always, I.
Speaker 1: Will say that, yeah, Journ Before I knew Journey, I mean,
Speaker 1: I thought political activism and that sort of work was
Speaker 1: you know, was just were performative HOTEP actors and and
Speaker 1: Neil Young and sting for the you know, for Walden Woods. No,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, at the time, it was just
Speaker 1: like besides voting.
Speaker 3: From the message of the music town clean up, the
Speaker 3: ghetto town.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yo, but no one spoke my language, and you know, somehow,
Speaker 1: being in a small household, I was like, Oh, they've
Speaker 1: been doing this shit since there was two Like your
Speaker 1: first protest was when LA was burning, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the first protests I remember. Yeah, it was
Speaker 4: like five.
Speaker 3: In the nineteen ninety two uprising that I clearly remember
Speaker 3: my mom having us on the street corner. We had
Speaker 3: all made signs about Rodney King.
Speaker 4: It was right after the.
Speaker 3: The cops who viciously beat him were quitted and they
Speaker 3: were like all the uprisings happening, and she had us
Speaker 3: right out there, you know.
Speaker 4: But my mother, you know, my mother and my father
Speaker 4: met uh in the movement working with Angela Davis in Oakland.
Speaker 4: You know, I was working with Angela Davis.
Speaker 3: That's dope. My mother and my father and my father,
Speaker 3: I know, but I'm just thinking, that's Dopeica.
Speaker 2: Did you a journey meet?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: You mean after my I guess I think we first
Speaker 1: met at the roots uh jam session?
Speaker 4: You asked me to host it?
Speaker 1: I did. Was this the Chappelle one or the year.
Speaker 2: Before l A the l A one?
Speaker 4: It was? It was the it was l A one.
Speaker 4: It was like the second year y'all had done it.
Speaker 4: I think.
Speaker 2: I didn't. They didn't let me in, but I was
Speaker 2: there the.
Speaker 3: Line you had to get to the roots jam at
Speaker 3: like when the door was open, it.
Speaker 2: Was I would have crammed me that night and then
Speaker 2: I couldn't get into the party.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, there's been a lot of gray root
Speaker 1: is real like this. This was way before in the heights.
Speaker 1: This was this was like two thousand and five. I think, Okay, tucked.
Speaker 4: Up a journey.
Speaker 3: How are you maneuvering now? I know you guys are
Speaker 3: a big activist family, So man, how are you maneuvering
Speaker 3: in the midst of the clusterfuck of twenty twenty? And
Speaker 3: how are you maneuvering towards the election when it comes
Speaker 3: to your activism? No, I mean it's like you got
Speaker 3: to attack it from so many ways, you know, For one,
Speaker 3: this clusterfuck of twenty twenty, I don't I mean, I
Speaker 3: don't understand it. You know.
Speaker 1: Now that your mother is it harder for you to
Speaker 1: to pound the pavement more.
Speaker 4: What's interesting?
Speaker 3: So COVID it was quite sobering because there was a
Speaker 3: point in which we were quarantined and the curfewed.
Speaker 4: And it was it was when I tell you, it
Speaker 4: brought a rage out inside of me.
Speaker 3: I hadn't been curfewed since nineteen ninety two with the
Speaker 3: uprising then, you know, here in La with my family,
Speaker 3: and so now to be a mom same city and
Speaker 3: curfewed again.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: The first time I stepped outside the house after, you know,
Speaker 3: during this whole quarantine process, was to go to a
Speaker 3: meeting in a church basement for BLM and doctor Malina
Speaker 3: Abdullah and.
Speaker 4: Janea the Future.
Speaker 3: And Kendrick and you know, all of the folks who
Speaker 3: are doing such incredible work on the ground were there.
Speaker 3: And honestly, it was a selfish thing for me to
Speaker 3: go because I needed to feel.
Speaker 4: That I could do something with this rage.
Speaker 3: I needed to channel it in some way, and even
Speaker 3: if it was just showing up and I don't really
Speaker 3: know what I'm contributing, but I'm gonna show up, right,
Speaker 3: you know. That's actually why I'm asking you, because I
Speaker 3: feel the same way, like I need to do something,
Speaker 3: so I'm just and so I find myself reaching out
Speaker 3: to like Patrees or or folks just being like, all right,
Speaker 3: where are we going now? Because I just need to
Speaker 3: you know, every Wednesday here in La BLM organizers in
Speaker 3: front of Jackie Lacy's office.
Speaker 4: She's got to go, that woman has got to go, right.
Speaker 4: And I one of the times when I went, I
Speaker 4: didn't do anything. I just witnessed.
Speaker 3: And there were so many families who were there and
Speaker 3: got up and spoke, you know, families of lost ones,
Speaker 3: you know, families of folks who have been taken from
Speaker 3: us by the hands of the LAPD or some sort
Speaker 3: of police force, right and just to bear witness.
Speaker 4: You know, just to give someone a hug. You know,
Speaker 4: for me, it was honestly food for my soul to
Speaker 4: be there.
Speaker 3: And anytime I've gone to neither protests or something like that,
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm being fed by being a part
Speaker 3: of it, you know.
Speaker 4: But what we're most of the stuff that we're able
Speaker 4: to do now is through zoom.
Speaker 3: Or on email, organizing letters that we're trying to write,
Speaker 3: putting pressure on the police, unions or you know, whatever approach.
Speaker 3: We take a lot of it.
Speaker 4: It's from a distance that organizing is happening. But navigating it.
Speaker 3: As a mom, I mean, you know, it's different because,
Speaker 3: for instance, my mother would have had me out there, right,
Speaker 3: And yeah, it wasn't.
Speaker 4: If it wasn't for COVID, I'd have my sons at
Speaker 4: these protests with me.
Speaker 3: You know, I've gone with like my brothers and stuff,
Speaker 3: but I haven't taken Hunter just because it's freaking COVID.
Speaker 4: And it just felt like, Okay, I just I put
Speaker 4: myself at risk, but I'm gonna keep him here, you know.
Speaker 4: But I yeah, man, I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's it's definitely navigating everything in life right now is
Speaker 3: extra challenging being a mom.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna lie. Co Parenting is a whole new
Speaker 4: thing that wasn't a part of the plan.
Speaker 2: You have to journey, right, you want to you want
Speaker 2: to go down co parenting all great, all day yo.
Speaker 2: I could go deepunt co parenting, no ship, but.
Speaker 1: People take care of you.
Speaker 3: Ain't a co parent?
Speaker 1: You ain't. You ain't a co parent nothing because the
Speaker 1: co parent.
Speaker 2: Steve he was up today show.
Speaker 1: Steve show.
Speaker 2: In times of COVID, And you don't know what the
Speaker 2: fuck to like remote learn your kid or not remote
Speaker 2: learn your kid or send your kid to the.
Speaker 4: Things journey it's your well, I mean, Hunters and.
Speaker 5: You have to wait, wait, how is he now, Amy,
Speaker 5: You're supposed to be home homes learning me, home.
Speaker 1: School, yeah, Journey, have my home school teacher, like I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to be learning you. That's what we say us
Speaker 1: supposed to.
Speaker 3: Three.
Speaker 4: He's three, but right, yeah, he's so bright. But he
Speaker 4: is learning how.
Speaker 3: To read, he's learning early mathematics, and I mean he's
Speaker 3: still he's.
Speaker 4: I think he's going to be quite advanced.
Speaker 1: So does he know what a sesame Street is?
Speaker 4: Absolutely for a long time. He loves that.
Speaker 1: Bill right here is the god of sesame.
Speaker 2: Street, all right, Bill and the lot of comedy and
Speaker 2: good looks homeschool.
Speaker 1: Right now, the god of sesme Street is getting drunk
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: Thursday, Thursday, rage day, you know Thursday, Yeah, right, fall
Speaker 2: out of COVID. No idea what day it is.
Speaker 1: Hey, Journey.
Speaker 5: I have a story that's I don't know if it's
Speaker 5: a similar story, but it's some kind of segue from
Speaker 5: your story when you were talking about being both quarantined
Speaker 5: and under a curfew. We had the same thing here
Speaker 5: in New York there at one point there happening simultaneously,
Speaker 5: and I was just inside, you know, thinking how strange,
Speaker 5: and I was looking it up like when was the
Speaker 5: last time New York City had had a curfew And
Speaker 5: it was like, I forget it was in the nineteen
Speaker 5: thirties or something like that. But I was up here
Speaker 5: in my apartment thinking it's so strange quarantined and curfewed
Speaker 5: at the same time, you know, and I hear the
Speaker 5: mother loving ice cream man coming down the street.
Speaker 1: The ice cream truck. I heard an ice cream truck coming.
Speaker 5: I was like, this is just a bizarrow world right now, Like,
Speaker 5: I'm not supposed to go running outside, go get an
Speaker 5: ice cream, I swear.
Speaker 3: And then like the the mayor here like called the
Speaker 3: National Guard, and it was just like come on, I mean,
Speaker 3: it was literally reminiscent of the nineteen ninety two situation
Speaker 3: and really, come on, people, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: They were just to Beverly Hills.
Speaker 4: I mean, but it just was not enough.
Speaker 3: I have friends who were injured by the Rubbert bullets,
Speaker 3: like Kendrick was.
Speaker 4: You know potest Kendrick bullets. Yeah, and I know several
Speaker 4: people actually, you know, the tear. It was just ridiculous
Speaker 4: to me.
Speaker 3: And one of the things though, that doctor Malina was
Speaker 3: talking about, is really the success of this movement is
Speaker 3: going to depend on our imagination.
Speaker 4: You know, how big can we dream? And I think
Speaker 4: that's such a powerful way.
Speaker 3: Of framing the discussion around this, because people want to
Speaker 3: talk about like, oh, defund the police. Well know what,
Speaker 3: We're going to be there to show up when you
Speaker 3: actually need it, And it's like, no, can you dream
Speaker 3: about a reality that.
Speaker 4: Has never existed before?
Speaker 3: You dream about a world in which you do not
Speaker 3: call the National Guard on your own people? Can you
Speaker 3: dream about a world in which this one size fits all?
Speaker 3: Actually you realize no, people.
Speaker 4: Are different sizes. So you can't do a one size fist.
Speaker 3: And dream of a world where people know the history
Speaker 3: of this country for real, because that's a whole other thing.
Speaker 3: And know I'm policing. I know you get frustrated with
Speaker 3: that too, because all of a sudden people have woken
Speaker 3: up and they're like, wait, this happened.
Speaker 4: That happened the history of the police is this they
Speaker 4: did originally? We're established with it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Not to be the party poop about today's development. Trump
Speaker 1: wants to uh, well, it was a lot to go
Speaker 1: on there. But Trump wants to enforce a mandatory what
Speaker 1: he what He's calling a patriotic education, in other words,
Speaker 1: a forced a forced lesson on patriotic history in America?
Speaker 1: Is that kind of kind of a reversal to the
Speaker 1: what was? What was in the New York Times? How
Speaker 1: they you know, some schools now are starting to put
Speaker 1: in a curriculum about, you know, the truth about slavery
Speaker 1: in America that they haven't done before.
Speaker 4: He was eighteen, attacking the sixteen nineteen projects.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, kind of his version of that. But
Speaker 1: you know, of course, but he was registered, right, a mandatory.
Speaker 1: You want to know what's you know, what's hilarious not
Speaker 1: this is not This is not hilarious at all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of a man without an island here. One
Speaker 1: of the things that's happening that is not getting out
Speaker 1: there in the news is the fact that they're also
Speaker 1: switching without warning, like new units. Like where I used
Speaker 1: to vote has has suddenly changed, right, my my polling
Speaker 1: location has changed, and now that it's technically like over
Speaker 1: the city limits or whatever, I got to start all
Speaker 1: over again. So yeah, I just found that I found
Speaker 1: out a week and a half ago that I have
Speaker 1: to reregister to vote, Like there's and I'm certain that
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people in that position. You know. I,
Speaker 1: in any other normal circumstance, I would have just assumed that, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm registered, and I go to my normal place that
Speaker 1: I've been going to for the last thirty years. And
Speaker 1: something told me, let me, let me make sure that
Speaker 1: they didn't pull flint Yo. They pulled a flip plan.
Speaker 3: They pulled it, especially in your state because you're voting
Speaker 3: in a red state. Correct.
Speaker 1: No, I'm a Pennsylvanian, which is a red state, right.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, though, it's a big state now
Speaker 1: where I'm currently about to get a house. You know
Speaker 1: if if I if I claim Pennsylvania, then I have
Speaker 1: to live the life of two people and pay taxes.
Speaker 3: That's the weird part when you have to figure out
Speaker 3: what you want to do as a voter. I mean,
Speaker 3: I moved to California now, so it's it's weird because
Speaker 3: it's such a blue state. But I kind of miss
Speaker 3: living in Pennsylvania. My boy, I feel like my voice California.
Speaker 1: Now, are you still yeah?
Speaker 4: I feel like there's a lot of confusion out there.
Speaker 2: Mask.
Speaker 1: I want everyone to check this just just to make sure,
Speaker 1: because I'm telling you that playing like, I've gotten no
Speaker 1: letters saying that anymore.
Speaker 5: It's called redistrict redistricting or something like that.
Speaker 4: They're doing a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 3: Okay, so vote save dot Us slash Obama is one
Speaker 3: place you can go.
Speaker 4: Baram Obama had posted.
Speaker 1: This, so I trust yes, I saw this yesterday and
Speaker 1: reposting it.
Speaker 3: He said, dot us vote say dot Us slash Obama.
Speaker 3: You can go there to see if you're registered.
Speaker 4: And find out about early voting. We all got space.
Speaker 1: Say slash Obama Obama space right exactly. I don't know
Speaker 1: how actually well the journey said, though rings true. A
Speaker 1: lot of people don't know that. Where I'm formally from Candom,
Speaker 1: New or Philadelphia, right across the water in Candam, New Jersey,
Speaker 1: they've already started the process. They're seventy percent in of
Speaker 1: sort of starting from scratch, not necessarily defunding the police,
Speaker 1: but starting just watching it over and starting a new
Speaker 1: and the results are astounding, you know, because one thing
Speaker 1: is that most police officers are not from the neighborhoods
Speaker 1: yeah that they watch.
Speaker 3: So it's like the manifesto that they that was one
Speaker 3: of the things I wish they would put it back
Speaker 3: out here.
Speaker 1: So they followed that. Like Camden right now is actually
Speaker 1: like probably leading the charge and very exemplary of what
Speaker 1: should be happening. Like you have officers that are walking
Speaker 1: the beat more than they are in their cars. So
Speaker 1: it's like you have to be of the people. You
Speaker 1: have to be from the area, and they know everyone
Speaker 1: by name, not to mention you know. The thing is
Speaker 1: is like it's like also being in the medical profession,
Speaker 1: Like there's a certain amount of tests and and a
Speaker 1: process that you have to go through, Like if you
Speaker 1: were a doctor, you would have to go through these
Speaker 1: things that most police officers never have to go through, right,
Speaker 1: And so this is happening right now Camden, New Jersey.
Speaker 1: And like crime, like two thousand and six, Candom was
Speaker 1: what number three was three or two? Like the most
Speaker 1: violent city in America. Tell you they were.
Speaker 2: Average New Jersey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, camp un yes.
Speaker 3: Yes, nice. Used to go visit people in prison over there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was bad. I mean the number is so bad.
Speaker 1: That's why Philadelphia kind of it led over into Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: like Philly's most violent years between two thousand and six
Speaker 1: and two thousand and nine as a result of what
Speaker 1: was happening in Candem it's it's fallen down like seventy
Speaker 1: percent now.
Speaker 4: So it's wild. You know where where the funding and
Speaker 4: where the money goes.
Speaker 3: You know, here in La the LAUSD, the school district
Speaker 3: has their own police force.
Speaker 4: I mean it's wild to me that you could spend
Speaker 4: they spent I think roughly seventy four million dollars just
Speaker 4: having a police presence in schools with children.
Speaker 3: I mean, do you imagine if you funneled that money,
Speaker 3: if you channel that money into community led initiatives, right, person,
Speaker 3: give seventy four million dollars to those children's parents and
Speaker 3: have them have a presence in their children's high school.
Speaker 3: I mean, like pay pay old daddy or mama who
Speaker 3: you know is that working three four jobs and barely
Speaker 3: able to see their children.
Speaker 4: Pay them to be in the schools.
Speaker 3: You know, why are you got to have an actual
Speaker 3: police presence? You're just funneling these children right into prison.
Speaker 4: You know. But it's priorities, It's it's priorities, and well, yeah,
Speaker 4: that is the plan.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately twenty one, what is it going to be?
Speaker 1: Wow? Are you still giving speeches? Journey? Yeah, So as
Speaker 1: we were staying earlier, you know when I was like
Speaker 1: all right, I'll do this, Like Journey was like, okay,
Speaker 1: you're you're pounding the pavement with us, Like I don't
Speaker 1: even have a say in the matter that it was like,
Speaker 1: or you don't get an invite to Thanksgiving or some
Speaker 1: ship like that. So I'll do this. And so in
Speaker 1: my mind I'm just thinking like, okay, well, i'll drive
Speaker 1: a van, I'll do something, just like, no, you're going
Speaker 1: to give speeches.
Speaker 2: I'm like, you love a good public appearance in there,
Speaker 2: public speaking, public face.
Speaker 3: Right now, Yes, you can't talk, but sometimes, you know
Speaker 3: not somebody.
Speaker 4: And me was out doing everything he was. We were
Speaker 4: literally knocking on was it Philly or somewhere in Ohio?
Speaker 4: I don't remember where we were.
Speaker 1: We were in Jesus Christ. Are we about our okay, journey,
Speaker 1: are we going to tell the story?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: That story the time.
Speaker 1: I want to tell the story. Oh you know the story?
Speaker 2: Answers yes, Oh.
Speaker 3: Said no, huh, okay, tell it, I'll tell it. I
Speaker 3: mean it's it's we were you're talking about the Marina
Speaker 3: del Ray one.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So often what we were doing is we were phone bank.
Speaker 3: You know, he's talking about eight like really when we
Speaker 3: started heavily getting No, no, no, it was Maria del Ray.
Speaker 1: We were leaving a place where white people were. That's
Speaker 1: all I remember, Marina.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were leaving a grassroots organizing meeting for Obama
Speaker 3: and eight.
Speaker 4: And he was during the primaries. He hadn't even won yet.
Speaker 1: Tuesday.
Speaker 4: Yes, we were depressed, and we were depressed.
Speaker 1: Lost Calf.
Speaker 4: California to Hillary. We were so depressed.
Speaker 3: And so he was driving his Mini coup whatever whenever
Speaker 3: I mean, would come to l A, would.
Speaker 1: Listen, you could you could tell like who's knowing me?
Speaker 1: Like based on the car I was driving doing.
Speaker 3: And it just goes from them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you remember, I forgot the we were depressed. Then
Speaker 1: we then we go see like there will be blood
Speaker 1: or something like. It was something depressing, just.
Speaker 4: Something I remember. I don't remember. But we got pulled over.
Speaker 2: That's that's that's that's the story.
Speaker 1: That's slightly putting it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I forgot, I mean pretty much we had. It
Speaker 4: was almost like that scene I think of traffic.
Speaker 1: Traffic, it was it was it was. It was traffic
Speaker 1: for you. It was more like boys in your hood
Speaker 1: for me, trapping.
Speaker 3: It was so many stories in traffic, which was.
Speaker 2: A crash, but they're both like the same kind of movie.
Speaker 4: They are a lot of stories, and I always confuse him.
Speaker 3: AnyWho, we get pulled over and I pull out my
Speaker 3: camera and I'm.
Speaker 1: Like starting to It's not like it's a phone camera.
Speaker 1: It's like that.
Speaker 2: You have to hit the red button like a ghetto
Speaker 2: boom box, like one of the motherfuckers.
Speaker 4: So the cop walks up to the car and and
Speaker 4: then Journey has the record.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was uh there is like.
Speaker 4: Journey, were that damn thing. Wait, you ain't ele Baker
Speaker 4: right now? Okay, like to take the time to be
Speaker 4: ele Baker. Put it away because it's massive, And so
Speaker 4: they they she was.
Speaker 1: Ready to start the revolution in the car, ready.
Speaker 3: To televise it. And you know they they asked a
Speaker 3: mere to get out of the car. Don't tell them why.
Speaker 3: Then they asked me to get out of the car.
Speaker 3: They start patting him down. They walk him to the
Speaker 3: back of the car and handcuff him, put him in
Speaker 3: the back of the car. They pat me down, search
Speaker 3: me in ways that I will say it was incredibly violated.
Speaker 1: I knew they they yeah. I mean the difference between
Speaker 1: now and then is that, of course, with the the
Speaker 1: technology cell phones. You don't know if you're being recorded
Speaker 1: or not. But that was definitely, I mean there's definitely,
Speaker 1: you know, a moment in time where they were just
Speaker 1: reckless because they knew that nobody's ever going to see
Speaker 1: this or believe this or get away with this. Even
Speaker 1: when they were asking me questions like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what were they say, like what happens? We keep going?
Speaker 1: The thing is is that I know, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's like the price. It's like it's like being
Speaker 1: on the prices right, And it's like when you're home,
Speaker 1: you know that you know that bottle Windexes whatever, nine
Speaker 1: or whatever, Like when you're home, you know, you know
Speaker 1: all the answers on Jeopardy, But when you're there and
Speaker 1: you see the look in their eyes, I was just like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna die tonight, Like this is this is the
Speaker 1: it's the most helpless emasculating feelings ever. And you know
Speaker 1: he's talking about where's your register? I forgot what question
Speaker 1: he asked, and I said, well, you know my I said,
Speaker 1: you know, my assistant at the office. And then I
Speaker 1: mean like office, like it's like you can't be too
Speaker 1: smart or else your assassin or that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: and your mind is just blink because they know you
Speaker 1: don't know your rights of course, you know, knowing what
Speaker 1: I've seen now, like we shouldn't have gotten out the car.
Speaker 3: Yeah, how did he even put handcuffs on you?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: What, like, I don't well, they didn't give us any explanation.
Speaker 3: They then uncuffed me and put me in the back
Speaker 3: with the mirror, and we sat there. It felt like
Speaker 3: an eternity sitting in the back of that car together.
Speaker 4: We like neither one of us knew what to say.
Speaker 4: We just sat there in silence, you know, in.
Speaker 3: The back or in front, in back, Oh my god, that's.
Speaker 1: Back.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And then they came back.
Speaker 3: They had like, you know, looked throughout everything in his
Speaker 3: car and my purse and and just kind of like
Speaker 3: handed him back his driver's license and said, Okay, the
Speaker 3: weirdest ship.
Speaker 1: The weirdest ship was they wanted to look in the
Speaker 1: trunk and journey and I had stopped by Borders because Dawn,
Speaker 1: my manager, had just moved to LA and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get her. I'm gonna get her a deluxe cract.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get her a deluxe scrabble game. In my mind,
Speaker 1: I was like, he's going to open this trunk and
Speaker 1: see all these scrabbles and psychology books in the in
Speaker 1: the back, and he's going to say, there's no way,
Speaker 1: it's just car belongs to these two. Oh and his
Speaker 1: thing was that, and I never verified it. I think
Speaker 1: we did ask like why did you pull us over? Richard?
Speaker 1: Rich was calling me on the phone. Here's the weird ship.
Speaker 1: Rich was calling me on the phone about Princess table
Speaker 1: at the jam session, and me, quote being a good citizen,
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, let me pull the car over
Speaker 1: so I can take this phone call, you know, or
Speaker 1: I could have just picked up the car, you know
Speaker 1: call while I was driving, but I didn't, and we
Speaker 1: happened to be in front of a Mini coup dealership.
Speaker 3: I guess, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean he said some shit about you know.
Speaker 3: He said he said something as if the lights the
Speaker 3: plates didn't match.
Speaker 4: The rental car uh contract?
Speaker 3: And we were like, but how'd you know to pull
Speaker 3: us over to check to see if the plates matched
Speaker 3: the rental car contract?
Speaker 4: Like you didn't have a contract when you decided to
Speaker 4: pull us over to know if they.
Speaker 3: Didn't match and and it just was pretty much they
Speaker 3: let us go without a ticket, without a warning, without anything,
Speaker 3: because there was nothing that Emir had actually done wrong.
Speaker 3: It was just he was driving while black in a
Speaker 3: mini coup with a big fro, right, and and we
Speaker 3: just felt, honestly, we just when we drove away.
Speaker 4: Ruined in silence. And may you kept you kept that week?
Speaker 1: That's a weird thing. Yeah, I don't even consider it,
Speaker 1: like even to look at that. I think that's when
Speaker 1: I started just putting my ships in the room, like
Speaker 1: I honestly, if you week, was it that week? The
Speaker 1: following Sunday I did?
Speaker 2: That was two thousand and eight, right, yeah, yeah, and so.
Speaker 4: Did you Bill. I'm going to say it again.
Speaker 3: It's nice.
Speaker 1: Oh damn, that was too Okay, you're right.
Speaker 2: Bill, you not I get pulled over. I did winogrammy,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 1: Anyway, So that's.
Speaker 3: Talk about it. I was just I was gonna let
Speaker 3: that just because I know he know better. He was
Speaker 3: gonna that.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I'm the mini Cooper.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I'm making a joke. I shouldn't, but I'm
Speaker 2: so fucked up by all this. I don't know what
Speaker 2: to say.
Speaker 1: This is the one story I rarely share in public
Speaker 1: because it's just, you know, just the process, just to
Speaker 1: process it.
Speaker 3: But it was that word you kept using, you kept saying, jarn,
Speaker 3: I just feel so emasculated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for you to say it. Also, the two of
Speaker 2: you in the back of a cop card not speaking
Speaker 2: to each other is a is the quietest quiet I
Speaker 2: think I've ever heard of. Quiet. You're the most talking
Speaker 2: to people I've met in a long time. I feel
Speaker 2: like you would have a lot to say in this particular,
Speaker 2: crazy fucked up moment. Quiet. It's even more the intense
Speaker 2: than we.
Speaker 1: Live in such a machismo society where I don't let
Speaker 1: other men overpower them in anything and intellect, physically or
Speaker 1: those things. But it's almost like this unspoken thing that
Speaker 1: citizens know that any moment a cop can in your
Speaker 1: life within the bounds of the quote unquote.
Speaker 3: Law, and for you as do about it, and you
Speaker 3: had journey.
Speaker 4: With you so as a man's that's what I was
Speaker 4: gonna say. It's it's deep.
Speaker 3: It goes back to the slave days of like, you know,
Speaker 3: the emasculation of the black man, of like, Okay, we're
Speaker 3: going to do this in front of.
Speaker 4: You and in front of this woman and guess what.
Speaker 4: Guess what you can't do.
Speaker 3: You can't stop us, right, And so that's what we
Speaker 3: both could feel as we were driving away, and he
Speaker 3: kept being like, Joe, I'm so sorry, and I kept
Speaker 3: being like, what.
Speaker 4: Could you have done?
Speaker 3: There was nothing you could have done. Like, we made
Speaker 3: it out alive. That's better than a lot of people
Speaker 3: in this situation can say, like, and that's a shitty
Speaker 3: that's a shitty reality to have to settle for.
Speaker 4: It's like, oh, well, at least we.
Speaker 1: Made it out a lot.
Speaker 4: But we did, y'all. We made it out alive. You know.
Speaker 3: That's the shitty thing of driving while black, and the
Speaker 3: shitty thing of you.
Speaker 4: Know, walking and walking by black black or black and male.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, have you had any situation like that ever? Or since?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: God? Yeah?
Speaker 2: More?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I've shot so much in the South too,
Speaker 3: you know, so I've had several experiences. I mean, I
Speaker 3: remember shooting Great Debaters. Was that after before I can't remember.
Speaker 3: I think that was before, but I remember we did
Speaker 3: the lynching scene and I was driving a set in
Speaker 3: the van and over the radio I heard one of
Speaker 3: the teamsters say, well, we're having a lunchend today, ladies
Speaker 3: and gentlemen.
Speaker 4: I mean like, yeah, I've dealt with.
Speaker 3: Some crazy as stuff, you know, yeah, as you all
Speaker 3: have too. Yeah, but you deal with it and then
Speaker 3: you acted out. It's different, you like re enacted. So
Speaker 3: it's it's to me, it's like, well that's my that's
Speaker 3: my way of channeling the pain. I guess, yeah, is
Speaker 3: trying to place it somewhere.
Speaker 4: You know. Obviously with love Craft, there was a lot
Speaker 4: I had to pull bro Okay, a lot in my
Speaker 4: life was shitty at that time.
Speaker 1: But when is there talks of season two or a
Speaker 1: return or.
Speaker 3: I don't know, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: Wait, still, this is not an instant slam dunk.
Speaker 4: And she said we will see like we will see
Speaker 4: like we will see I mean as in like the
Speaker 4: powers that be that's above my pay grades.
Speaker 3: To get their ship together. That's what I know.
Speaker 4: What.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd be genuinely hurt if nothing angers me more
Speaker 1: when I get emotionally involved in a series only for
Speaker 1: it to be yanked away.
Speaker 2: Phone calls saying that you can't make your phone calls
Speaker 2: of what I am exactly.
Speaker 3: The good news is that all signs point to very
Speaker 3: positive response from folks from critics from I mean the
Speaker 3: I was recently told the pilot is like it's, you know,
Speaker 3: setting records for how many people have watched it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm that I count for I count for
Speaker 1: twenty eight of those views journeys the Pilot like maybe
Speaker 1: eleven times because I've made other people me too, watch
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 4: We we're we're in good shape, y'all. We're in good shape.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you this, what does it feel like
Speaker 3: being a part It's an interesting time where we have Lovecraft,
Speaker 3: Pea Valley, the Shy. I feel like I'm leaving somebody
Speaker 3: out this one more other show that are like female
Speaker 3: black female show watch just.
Speaker 4: Run not Run. Yeah yeah, yeh yeah yeah yeah, yeah
Speaker 4: yeah yeah. It's an interesting time, does it? I mean,
Speaker 4: do you feel that like you're yours? Is you're a
Speaker 4: part of that too? With me?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's incredibly exciting. And I think one of
Speaker 3: the exciting things for me about Lovecraft when I read
Speaker 3: the pilot was it just deconstructs this classic genre and
Speaker 3: such a radical and bold it was a racist So
Speaker 3: this is really like a fuck you to him. Somebody
Speaker 3: said that to me, like Lovecraft was like a whole races.
Speaker 4: It's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, so this is like a real good
Speaker 3: fuck you. I love it. Did you know that A mirror?
Speaker 1: No school me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's it's mentioned briefly in the pilot A
Speaker 3: mir when you uh so when you watch it for
Speaker 3: the seventh team time when Atticus is when Atticus says
Speaker 3: to Uncle George, you know about the essay that Lovecraft
Speaker 3: wrote called on the Creation of Niggers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, that's what I thought. You dropped another easter
Speaker 1: egg that I wasn't aware of where you have to
Speaker 1: watch twice or three times to catch something that you
Speaker 1: didn't catch before.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I do have to say. I keep telling me
Speaker 4: Sha that I don't know if people are gonna love
Speaker 4: her or hate her by the end of the season.
Speaker 1: It was it was made.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 1: I think. I think the timing came out perfectly because
Speaker 1: in quarantining this gives you all the time in the
Speaker 1: world you need to really really concentrate on this.
Speaker 4: But I just got to give you a warning. I
Speaker 4: just where she takes y'all the.
Speaker 1: Emotions episode right. Yeah, as of the taping, we're only
Speaker 1: on number five, and.
Speaker 3: Might we say that number five was was its own thing.
Speaker 3: I was just proud of all my heterosexual extra masculine
Speaker 3: men who continue their love craft journey. Because it was heavy.
Speaker 1: New day and age. Man, this man.
Speaker 3: Stopped at don't be like people. Some certain dudes wasn't
Speaker 3: like there's a lot of men that were like, hey,
Speaker 3: that's still watching.
Speaker 1: But that aren't used to Michael K. Williams sort of
Speaker 1: being fluid in all his roles.
Speaker 3: No, not for him. The actual act, the sexual act
Speaker 3: was heavy. I had to ask for it myself, and
Speaker 3: I'm I just I was say it was heavy.
Speaker 2: It was happy when you do your man voice, that's
Speaker 2: all I'm saying.
Speaker 4: That's what I do.
Speaker 3: But the two things were both. That was heavy and
Speaker 3: so it was also what was happy was going with
Speaker 3: with Ruby, So that was that was just brilliant. I'm
Speaker 3: just I'm just warning you if you think, if you
Speaker 3: think she has taken.
Speaker 4: You places deeper going to she is going to mess
Speaker 4: with your mind emotion.
Speaker 1: I have a question and episode for how much of
Speaker 1: that was green screen or actual location? The the plank scene.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, I mean look obviously a lot of it below.
Speaker 4: You know, we were we were up in some of
Speaker 4: in some of it.
Speaker 3: They had us like on wires maybe like one hundred
Speaker 3: feet up or something like that, so they had to
Speaker 3: fill in the rest of it.
Speaker 4: But it was, it was It was a lot of
Speaker 4: fun to do some of that stuntwork, you know.
Speaker 1: I would be remiss to say that there is a
Speaker 1: love Craft Country Radio.
Speaker 3: Yes, Shannon, and it's it's breaks down all the episodes.
Speaker 1: It's really so driving to the farm. That's kind of
Speaker 1: what I'm and.
Speaker 3: I highly recommend after watching each episode go and listen
Speaker 3: to that because they really do a great.
Speaker 4: Out of breaking it down from the writer's perspective, too.
Speaker 3: Thoroughly broken down well before a mere ends or whatever.
Speaker 3: I just want to say, Journey, I just got to
Speaker 3: tell you, as a representation of fanhood out here, I
Speaker 3: appreciate every role you have chosen and all the energy
Speaker 3: you have put into them.
Speaker 4: Like, thank you so much, just thank you.
Speaker 1: Yes, any are you allowed to talk about future projects
Speaker 1: that you're working on? There is everything super n d A.
Speaker 1: We'll see it when we see it.
Speaker 4: You'll hear about something soon.
Speaker 3: Oh wait, Journey, how do you feel filming in a
Speaker 3: COVID America? Who says I'm gonna be in America? The workplaces,
Speaker 3: other places. Listen when I tell you they have found places,
Speaker 3: because it ain't wonder I've never been to. I'm excited
Speaker 3: to go to. But it's definitely gonna be different. You know,
Speaker 3: some of the stuff we have.
Speaker 4: To do.
Speaker 3: This project I'm about to do. You gotta like quarantine
Speaker 3: for two weeks. I'm like, yeah, I've been quarantine, but okay, I'll.
Speaker 2: Continue quarantine in the quarantine.
Speaker 1: It's a thing medine.
Speaker 2: Does, y'all dottery, Yeah, we get tested.
Speaker 1: It can't be around each other.
Speaker 2: No, it's too.
Speaker 4: Close't be around each other.
Speaker 1: No, Actually I was joking, but I think you're serious. Bill.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course I'm serious, very serious person. But also
Speaker 2: uh they Yeah, I think it's like one person. If
Speaker 2: the rector is it's it's the same way. Everything else
Speaker 2: is filmed. Everything's in zones zone A and zone B
Speaker 2: and da dada, and it's ridiculous and that's what we're doing.
Speaker 2: But it is country, okay, wherever you're going.
Speaker 1: I hope you appreciate how painless this was?
Speaker 4: Was it?
Speaker 3: You should have asked her.
Speaker 4: It was a lot of fun, from one to from.
Speaker 1: One to getting teeth pulled. How easy was this interview.
Speaker 4: It was too point seven.
Speaker 2: Okay, I was wondering.
Speaker 1: Where the missteps were. But okay, anyway, what happened early birthday?
Speaker 4: Journey the early birthday? Oh thank you?
Speaker 2: Co parenting is a journey and I'm not even fucking around.
Speaker 2: Just wait a minute, journ journy. One last question, dude,
Speaker 2: you're you're singing you finally? How how was the process
Speaker 2: of singing? Birds pray and and and.
Speaker 4: That was really you and birds are prey sing Excuse me?
Speaker 1: Wait, wait, wait, shut I know, I'm sorry. I offense
Speaker 1: if you can see Journey's face right now.
Speaker 4: So sorry, Journey. It was me saying I do my stunts.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know you just like my character is
Speaker 4: gonna do a I've gotta do all the uncomfortable things
Speaker 4: you can say.
Speaker 3: I love scene, if we're gonna do martial arts, if
Speaker 3: we're gonna love love, Yes, thank you? Okay, oh yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: you killed it. Then you sang your ass off in that.
Speaker 4: Movie, So okay, thank you. You've been trying to get
Speaker 4: me to sing. E've been trying to get me to
Speaker 4: sing forever. It's the thing I am most terrified to do.
Speaker 1: And singing you come from a singing family. Imagine do
Speaker 1: the dishes together, singing and all that stuff.
Speaker 4: Oh we do.
Speaker 3: But first of all, Amir didn't tell y'all how he
Speaker 3: came over to Thanksgiving dinner one year.
Speaker 1: And that was the whole premise of the last time
Speaker 1: you guys will to show.
Speaker 3: That's right, every Thanksgiving, a mere text me who on
Speaker 3: that text threat me Jake, Jesse, Jazz like.
Speaker 1: The entire familist. I want to know what time.
Speaker 4: At, like ten o'clock, what night he'll text us and
Speaker 4: be like, y'allat dinner.
Speaker 1: Here, No, y'all take the turkey out.
Speaker 3: Yeah you'll always eat, Yes, only real black. Give me
Speaker 3: only one Thanksgiving because everyone's got to make their dish,
Speaker 3: and everyone's dish has gotten better than the other person,
Speaker 3: and everyone.
Speaker 1: It's like we went light on Journey. Journey has made
Speaker 1: houses with her hands. Journey is she could be tool time,
Speaker 1: like like.
Speaker 4: Yeah we do coventry, carpentry.
Speaker 1: She's a plumber, model homes with.
Speaker 3: I watched the decorating shows. I see them killing all
Speaker 3: right this storm.
Speaker 1: Yeah I can.
Speaker 3: I can refinish your heart with flour you need me to,
Speaker 3: I can.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 1: Journey is the most raid look it up on paper.
Speaker 3: You need.
Speaker 4: We're great, hand baby, you need basically.
Speaker 2: Sending all that ship.
Speaker 4: I should just got paper.
Speaker 5: No, that's that's fucking thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, you're not handy, Bill stop.
Speaker 2: Much for the record, I am not. However, my house
Speaker 2: just got renovated. It finished literally today. I'm not even
Speaker 2: fucking around the poly your thing, fucking semigloss got done today.
Speaker 3: Journey talking about putting her head on.
Speaker 2: I can install a fucking ceiling fan.
Speaker 1: Soilking Journey, I mean every clearly, seriously. Hey, hey, I
Speaker 1: was on the tonight show nine hundred thousand right now.
Speaker 1: I got to have like a twenty eight mansion. I'm
Speaker 1: not lying. We we appreciate you, and thank you.
Speaker 4: Jeremy.
Speaker 1: All right on, behalf of the entire team Supreme. This
Speaker 1: is Quest Love and we will see you on the
Speaker 1: next go round. All right, good night, Much Love. Supreme
Speaker 1: isduction of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
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Speaker 1: favorite shows.