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 transition 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 Thomaz.
Speaker 1: I audition every rapper from Biggie's Balls to Tupac, and
Speaker 1: I realized the 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. Optimism is a perfectly legit response
Speaker 1: to failure. Stephen King I hadn't experienced years ago. As
Speaker 1: a casting director where I got called in to be
Speaker 1: interviewed for a film and a film that was out.
Speaker 1: I don't want to name the film and put anybody
Speaker 1: on blast, but it was a very successful known film.
Speaker 1: But prior to the interview, I was meeting with the
Speaker 1: producers and just on a side to you know, they
Speaker 1: were like, oh, Tracy, you know, what are your thoughts
Speaker 1: about casting? And this was very kind of still early
Speaker 1: in my career, and I listed every single character and
Speaker 1: who I would personally cast. Right well, I didn't get
Speaker 1: the job, but the list that I listed to the producer,
Speaker 1: every single act they cast. I was devastated. I was hurt.
Speaker 1: I felt as if someone got the job that I
Speaker 1: wanted and they took all the ideas that I had
Speaker 1: and just sort of funneled them through them. But then
Speaker 1: I decided to turn the situation around. And what I
Speaker 1: decided was if they took my ideas and put it
Speaker 1: in this film, that's just one of many ideas that
Speaker 1: I had, so I must be on the right track.
Speaker 1: So instead of feeling bad about it, I actually felt
Speaker 1: pretty good in the end that my ideas were of value,
Speaker 1: my casting was of value. Even though I didn't get
Speaker 1: the job, they still used the actors that I suggested.
Speaker 1: Laughter is it's not about feeling like a failure. It's
Speaker 1: about feeling like for yourself, just reinforcing the truth of
Speaker 1: what you already know. You got this, you know this.
Speaker 1: Today I will reaffirm to myself that I know that
Speaker 1: I know that I know. Before we get started, I'd
Speaker 1: like to remind everyone to look out for my new show,
Speaker 1: Inside the black Box. I'll be co hosting with the
Speaker 1: great Joe Morton. Will be on Cracle Network real soon.
Speaker 1: I'll keep you posted. Welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast
Speaker 1: with me Tracy Moore. I got an exhale on this one.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. You are in for a
Speaker 1: phenomenal treat today. I know I say this. I love
Speaker 1: all my shows, I love all my guests, and I
Speaker 1: just got to elevate her because it's Women's Month still
Speaker 1: and this woman here that you are about to me
Speaker 1: our next guest is an extraordinary spiritual being. When I
Speaker 1: need you know, sometimes people say, well where do you
Speaker 1: go to recharge? Where do you go to reach you? Today?
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. Lisa is one of the
Speaker 1: people that I go to and now you are going
Speaker 1: to understand why I go to her for spiritual reach.
Speaker 1: You a nation, and she is one of the most
Speaker 1: phenomenal producers executive producers in the industry. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: please put your hands together and stand up for Lisa
Speaker 1: oshalo Le Ocean. Hey that's what her name is. Thank
Speaker 1: you that that means so much to me. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you for those beautiful and kind words. I really,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. I want to bring a botanical
Speaker 1: garden to you. Forget about flowers. I want a whole
Speaker 1: botanical gardener to bring to you, because that's what you deserve.
Speaker 1: I met this woman, like, come on, Lisa, what is
Speaker 1: it twenty five almost thirty years ago? I met you
Speaker 1: and Lisa Lisa was a producer at TV one when
Speaker 1: I met her, and it was like, you know, she
Speaker 1: was in the beginning of the reality days, you guys,
Speaker 1: like all of the you know, love and hip hop,
Speaker 1: those shows are standing on her shoulders. And I met her,
Speaker 1: fell in love with her day one and we've been
Speaker 1: rowandogs ever since. And when I fell in love with her,
Speaker 1: she was on East Coast, Ladies and Gentlemen, now the
Speaker 1: West Coast, but that's the right, Lisa. You've done everything,
Speaker 1: everything like written, directed, producer, tell us where it all began,
Speaker 1: where the street it all? It all began in the music,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, From from a small child,
Speaker 1: I was a singer. I was a writer. I was
Speaker 1: a producer musically, and I had At fifteen, I was
Speaker 1: singing background for Campo and I'll be sure, I was
Speaker 1: a songwriter and Narta Michael Walden's camp who worked with
Speaker 1: Whitney and Aretha and Mariah. And at eighteen, I had
Speaker 1: my first major record label deal. And I had three
Speaker 1: record deals. But by the third one, when I refused
Speaker 1: to sleep with the president of the label, that ended
Speaker 1: my deal. She pulled the record off the radio. She
Speaker 1: blackballed me. And it was a horrible, horrible experience, and
Speaker 1: I just would not compromise my integrity for my dream
Speaker 1: and so but it actually turned out to be a
Speaker 1: blessing because it led to me managing artists and producers,
Speaker 1: which ultimate led to producing. And how I got into
Speaker 1: producing is I was managing some producers and trying to
Speaker 1: get them on a soundtrack for a movie. And the
Speaker 1: producer had done all of Martin Lawrence's movies up to
Speaker 1: that point, and he was like, well, I want to
Speaker 1: meet with you. Well I was like okay. So he
Speaker 1: interviewed me like it was a job, and at the
Speaker 1: end of it, he said, you're a producer and I
Speaker 1: was like, well, what does the producer do. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: a producer is the one that puts everything together, makes
Speaker 1: it happen. I said, well, I could do that. So
Speaker 1: he had just got this television show for TV one
Speaker 1: and he said, I need eleven celebrities. He said, if
Speaker 1: you get me eleven celebrities, I'll make you a producer
Speaker 1: on the show. I got sixty five signed l O wives.
Speaker 1: I got Beyonce, Eddie Mercy and it wasn't that I
Speaker 1: knew any of these people, by the way, but what
Speaker 1: I learned quickly was AI to power prayer. Let's just
Speaker 1: have that conversation, and it was about connecting the dots,
Speaker 1: and Beyonce was concerned. I was like, the number one
Speaker 1: person I really wanted to secure for the show. I
Speaker 1: reached out to everybody in her camp, couldn't even get
Speaker 1: a reply. Let's alone get in the door. And so
Speaker 1: I get invited to the opening of Carol's Daughter in Harlem. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's like thirty people at this event, but it's like
Speaker 1: jay z jay to pitch the time, but totally was
Speaker 1: like a room of heavy nitters. So I'm networking and
Speaker 1: who walks in the door but Beyonce. No manager, no entourage,
Speaker 1: no publicist, no bodyguards, just her. So I made a
Speaker 1: beeline for her, introduced myself, pitched to the show. She said,
Speaker 1: I heard about your show, and then I pitched her
Speaker 1: to do it and she said yes, and I said,
Speaker 1: can I give you a hohok? And then we talked
Speaker 1: to like thirty minutes. So that's how I got into
Speaker 1: the business. And then I've been doing it ever since. Wow,
Speaker 1: So you know what I want to touch upon. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of things I wanted to talk about,
Speaker 1: especially women's mouth, women's power. At we there was a
Speaker 1: director that came on our show years a couple of
Speaker 1: like a couple of years ago, and we asked him
Speaker 1: for a word and he said, standards, right, and so
Speaker 1: you made me That's how we reacted. We reacted the
Speaker 1: same way, right. So when I hear you say at
Speaker 1: eighteen years old you had standards, you had something inside
Speaker 1: of you that said, no, this is not the path
Speaker 1: to go and your value of who you are, your
Speaker 1: self worth is more important than this one moment right
Speaker 1: that you will probably regret right because there's no courtship
Speaker 1: in it. It's just one moment. How did you know
Speaker 1: at eighteen years old? Because that's still very because there
Speaker 1: are some grown women in the film you who have
Speaker 1: told their story about Harry Weinstein. So at eighteen years old,
Speaker 1: I applaud you for I appreciate you even saying that
Speaker 1: because I've never even looked at it like that. To
Speaker 1: be honest with you, I think for me, music was
Speaker 1: so pure. It was so pure to me, so when
Speaker 1: this happened, it was just it was honestly one of
Speaker 1: the most traumatic events of my life, to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, like, I'm still unpacking that because there's something
Speaker 1: it wasn't until it's so interesting. I didn't share this
Speaker 1: this moment until twenty years after the fact. That's how
Speaker 1: much it traumatized me because people would ask because it
Speaker 1: was embarrassing, you know, like my record was on a radio.
Speaker 1: I had just shot this huge music video. Alan Houston
Speaker 1: from the New York Knicks was interested in the video.
Speaker 1: It was shot in a public park. It got all
Speaker 1: this press, I'm doing shows in Miami, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden and everything goes like blank, and everybody's
Speaker 1: asking me, well, whenn't the album and when's the album?
Speaker 1: And I could and I couldn't put words to that moment,
Speaker 1: and so I buried it, and I buried it with way,
Speaker 1: I buried it with shame. I buried it with embarrassment.
Speaker 1: It really affected me, like I could say it real
Speaker 1: strong now. I didn't realize how much it affected me
Speaker 1: until the first movie I was producing. Terrence Howard was
Speaker 1: starring in it as No Latin, and I went to
Speaker 1: Philly to meet with Terrence, and Terrence walked in and
Speaker 1: he was listening to the listening to music, and my spirit,
Speaker 1: my holy spirit, told me he's listening to a song
Speaker 1: he wrote. So I said, just listening to a song
Speaker 1: he wrote, aren't you? He said, how do you know?
Speaker 1: And so he puts one of the things in my
Speaker 1: ear and one in his ear, and oh my god,
Speaker 1: this man is like phenomenal music is like he's on
Speaker 1: a prince level. But then he said to me, forget
Speaker 1: about why we're here today, I want to know about you.
Speaker 1: And he was the first person that looked me in
Speaker 1: my face and made me tell the truth, because up
Speaker 1: to that moment I couldn't tell my truth. I just said, oh,
Speaker 1: I decided to get married and have kids. But he
Speaker 1: was the first person I actually told what happened to me.
Speaker 1: And then the me too movement happened, and then I
Speaker 1: was like, wait a minute, it's not just me. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And once I realized that, and I listened to these
Speaker 1: women's stories, some that were far worse than mine, ye,
Speaker 1: then it really set me free. So I don't know
Speaker 1: how at eighteen, maybe because you know, I was a
Speaker 1: Christian person, I don't know, but it really the devastation
Speaker 1: of its unspeakable and it can really shut you down
Speaker 1: for life, and it almost did, and probably so many
Speaker 1: other people that we don't even know about, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, because you, blessed were strong enough to,
Speaker 1: you know, at least not get out of the situation
Speaker 1: or not entertain the situation. But what about those women
Speaker 1: who did and the ones that did talk, yes, but
Speaker 1: the ones who haven't talked, you know, And these women today,
Speaker 1: these young rapper women today, I feel I feel I
Speaker 1: don't want to say I feel sorry for them. I
Speaker 1: feel protect I want to protect them because I feel
Speaker 1: there are predators out there and a lot of these
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of these young female rappers are
Speaker 1: not coming from maybe stable homes or you know, abusive relationships,
Speaker 1: and then there's another predator that's on them, you know,
Speaker 1: that's making promises and I can take your career, this
Speaker 1: and all of that. Where do you think we are
Speaker 1: today as women? Because you sit in a very powerful position. Um,
Speaker 1: you guys, UM seriously read which was Dolly Parton's movie
Speaker 1: m That is one of the films that Lisa produced. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know I always say, Lisa, I don't put
Speaker 1: us all levels, but I'm like Lisa, Lisa Bulta Volta
Speaker 1: about billion I'm streaming, but we still know I'll see
Speaker 1: it that way at all. But you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: putting this on that. I'm just saying that your playing
Speaker 1: field has a little more money than mine. But we
Speaker 1: still are in the in the business. What are some
Speaker 1: of the things that let's start with the challenges of
Speaker 1: what you see in terms of women and women of
Speaker 1: color in this industry. How much time do we have exactly?
Speaker 1: But we could always travel Part two. I would be
Speaker 1: a facetious because that's a whole that's a whole episode.
Speaker 1: Um let me tell you something for women in this business,
Speaker 1: particularly black women in this business, I just don't have words. Um.
Speaker 1: I remember securing funding for a producer who had done
Speaker 1: some really well known films that if I named them,
Speaker 1: you would know all of them. And we took him
Speaker 1: to Italy to meet with an investor. And when we
Speaker 1: got to the restaurant to have the eating with the investor,
Speaker 1: my business partner and I were two black women. We
Speaker 1: were told to sit in a stairwell. Lisa, what year
Speaker 1: is this? I was maybe five six years ago, sit
Speaker 1: in a stair world wid because they didn't want the
Speaker 1: two black women at the table. Oh my god. And
Speaker 1: that's I mean. And this kind of stuff happens all
Speaker 1: the time. Like it happened. That was blatant and needless
Speaker 1: to say, I let him have it afterwards, and we
Speaker 1: never worked with him again. And actually that led to
Speaker 1: me executive producing The Last Full Measure, which he was
Speaker 1: the one that was a part of that that had
Speaker 1: nine Academy Aboard winners and nominees, Samuel Jackson, Christopher Plummer,
Speaker 1: Ed Harris and Sebastian's stand So but see, God don't
Speaker 1: like Ugly because he was supposed to be a part
Speaker 1: of that project and the producer kicked him off of
Speaker 1: that project and me and my business partner were on
Speaker 1: that project. But but I'm saying that to say is
Speaker 1: that for black women, it's like you have to deal
Speaker 1: with things that you know. If you're a blonde haired,
Speaker 1: blue eyed male, it just wouldn't even come up right
Speaker 1: and and it recognize it instantly. Bless you you recognize,
Speaker 1: you recognize it instantly. So what I have learned to do,
Speaker 1: Like I had a meeting recently with a producer who's
Speaker 1: done over one hundred and thirty films. We're actually executive
Speaker 1: producing his entire slave. He did how Segucci, he did
Speaker 1: the joke, did Ghostbusters, Candy Man. But this same producer
Speaker 1: sat in front of me and said, well, black movies
Speaker 1: don't sell. I did the what was it, the Viola
Speaker 1: Davis Denzel movie Fences, Fences. He said, I did Fences.
Speaker 1: I barely broke even. And I had to sit there
Speaker 1: as a black woman who is very pro black and
Speaker 1: keep a stray face. And for me, I'm strategizing, like
Speaker 1: we're in the process of having our own film Fund
Speaker 1: and we'll be able to fund what we want to
Speaker 1: fund because we absolutely know black projects do sell and
Speaker 1: there's a whole audience in Africa. We have our own
Speaker 1: distribution company. Oh and we've distributed seven feature films so far,
Speaker 1: all African titles. And the same reason, because these people
Speaker 1: want to say, well, black films don't sell, Well, guess what,
Speaker 1: Africa has a billion people, fifty two countries. Yes, so
Speaker 1: we don't need that. You know, they want to use
Speaker 1: the argument all black people don't have international value because
Speaker 1: people in Europe aren't interested in seeing they're really interested
Speaker 1: in seeing an interest and Will Smith, well, you know
Speaker 1: certain actors, Yeah, the usual suspects. But that's all a lie. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so as a black woman, you have to know
Speaker 1: your truths. You have to know that you have value.
Speaker 1: You have to know that you bring something to the table,
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, you have to demand respect. And you
Speaker 1: remember you and I had a personal conversation two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: We had an investor in Germany and you know they
Speaker 1: wanted to cut us out the deal and literally to
Speaker 1: call the producer and said, well listen, if you cut it,
Speaker 1: if you cut her out, I'll give you the money today,
Speaker 1: and the producer said, yeah, and you know what I did,
Speaker 1: and I've never done this before because you know, I'm
Speaker 1: nice to a fault. Yes, in the middle of a
Speaker 1: zoom maid and I walked up, walked out the room
Speaker 1: and closed the door behind me, because, like you say,
Speaker 1: you got to get to a place as a black
Speaker 1: woman where you know your freaking worth. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: don't let them dictate it to you and make you
Speaker 1: sit in the stairwell figuratively or actually, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: in this conversation, which I'm so happy like that, that
Speaker 1: conversation changed my life, like there are certain things moments,
Speaker 1: and it changed my life because again I was like,
Speaker 1: here's my girl, Lisa, who is embedded and has been
Speaker 1: embedded in this industry for over thirty some years, and
Speaker 1: she knows what she's doing. She's an expert at what
Speaker 1: she does. And and you know, I said to one
Speaker 1: of my producers, I can't help the fact that every
Speaker 1: morning I wake up black, you know, And we're only
Speaker 1: talking about this based on our experiences. I've been the
Speaker 1: only person of color in the room, and I've heard
Speaker 1: the conversations and or the way people talk. We're in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. It's all about inclusion for me. If
Speaker 1: we're going to survive as a human race, this you
Speaker 1: know this, you know we have a group here, then
Speaker 1: we have a group here. That's the that's the exclusion.
Speaker 1: But the stories and the richness and the stories that
Speaker 1: you've been able to tell, you know, as a producer,
Speaker 1: like that is what it's all about. But I've experienced it,
Speaker 1: you know, to the extent where I had a conversation
Speaker 1: once with Elsa and I was like, you know, you
Speaker 1: get to that point You're like, Okay, do I still
Speaker 1: have the fight in me? Because I've been fighting since
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, so I know I'm tired. You know.
Speaker 1: You bet you just said a whole word, you know.
Speaker 1: I remember I was doing this project once and the
Speaker 1: investor ran away with the money and it was a
Speaker 1: it was a whole a slate of projects. So one
Speaker 1: of the projects in the slate was like jumping the broom.
Speaker 1: It was like movies that you would know, and I
Speaker 1: devastation was an understatement. The director lost her home, like
Speaker 1: it was real serious collateral damage. And I went to
Speaker 1: God and I prayed and I said, Lord, I need
Speaker 1: to know that I know that I know from you
Speaker 1: that this is what you have called me to do,
Speaker 1: and I need a confirmation like this can't be a
Speaker 1: Leasa moment. This has to be I need to know
Speaker 1: from you, and I promise you. The very next day,
Speaker 1: I opened my Bible and the first words said, keep
Speaker 1: on producing, Tracy, kid you not when I get those
Speaker 1: hard days. And those hard days do come. And you know,
Speaker 1: we both cried rivers together. Yes, I always remind myself
Speaker 1: of that scripture. A matter of fact, I have this
Speaker 1: I keep right next to my desk. So what does
Speaker 1: it say? Just keep going there? Oh I feel now
Speaker 1: wow wow, And yes, but also I like when I'm
Speaker 1: so serious. It was the best conversation I ever had
Speaker 1: with you, just in general, just feeling like I'm not
Speaker 1: alone and the fact that you still had to fight.
Speaker 1: I still had the fight meant we still had more
Speaker 1: work to do. So in terms of the work, because
Speaker 1: I love the fact, and I tell this to Julissa
Speaker 1: and other actors, don't just rely on USA films. Go
Speaker 1: outside of this country. I shot in Africa. I love Africa,
Speaker 1: to come on, love Africa. And then when I went
Speaker 1: to Amsterdam, there's I get off a train and there's
Speaker 1: a poster with Octavia Octavia Spencer right and Tim Roth
Speaker 1: and a film poster I hadn't even seen. I was like,
Speaker 1: what movie is this? But I realized there's so many
Speaker 1: other movies out there that maybe we get a chance
Speaker 1: to see or maybe we don't. But you can't tell
Speaker 1: me all the numbers on black pants. There are people
Speaker 1: of color, you can't tell me. And that's why that
Speaker 1: just blows it out the water for me, that whole
Speaker 1: we you know, our stories are not important or whatever. No,
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm on the advisory board for the
Speaker 1: Canned Film Festivals Pavilion at Freak and we are the
Speaker 1: only tense of color at the Canned Film Festival. And
Speaker 1: this year I was able to get two feature films
Speaker 1: from two first times directors at the Canned Film Festivals
Speaker 1: Pavilion at Freak, and one of them we're distributing. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing. We have to help ourselves. We can't wait.
Speaker 1: There's no there's no superman coming to save us. We
Speaker 1: as black people, we have to work together and we
Speaker 1: have to help each other because we absolutely have a voice.
Speaker 1: In fact, we have a powerful voice. There is an
Speaker 1: audience worldwide that wants to hear our voice. Girl. Come on,
Speaker 1: I was born in the Bronx. You look, people that
Speaker 1: are the style of everything now. It came out of
Speaker 1: the hip hop came. You know, we've haven't We have
Speaker 1: influenced the world world, So why wouldn't we influence the
Speaker 1: world in film and television with our stories. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And the people that's perpetrate that perpetrate those lies, their lies,
Speaker 1: and we have to know that they're lies, and we
Speaker 1: have to find our way around them and get our
Speaker 1: get our projects out there. It's just that simple. And
Speaker 1: that's why we started our own distribution company because we
Speaker 1: don't need to go around with our hat in our hands. No,
Speaker 1: we could distributed ourselves and that's exactly what we're doing.
Speaker 1: So we have to be proactive. And that's even when
Speaker 1: it comes to black actors. I always tell them, do
Speaker 1: not just go on auditions. Create your own vehicles for yourself,
Speaker 1: create your own vehicles. You have to become a content creator.
Speaker 1: Otherwise we wouldn't even know It's Array, We wouldn't even
Speaker 1: know Donald Glover, we wouldn't even know half of these
Speaker 1: amazing creatives because they were smart enough to create their
Speaker 1: own vehicles, and we have to do the same thing
Speaker 1: as producers as well. I think that's I think that's
Speaker 1: huge what you just said, because that's where I find
Speaker 1: the solution is with us. You know, it's like, but
Speaker 1: but the other thing is I did a show with
Speaker 1: Joe last week and people are afraid. Lisa, do you
Speaker 1: find the fear Like in my experience, this is what
Speaker 1: I feel that people want to do the change, But
Speaker 1: the resistance, especially with actors, is oh, I'll get blackballed
Speaker 1: if I say anything or if I go against you
Speaker 1: know what's happening. There was an actress who's on the
Speaker 1: show that I know, I work with her. She was
Speaker 1: in a very uncomfortable position with the director and I
Speaker 1: said say something and she was like, and it almost
Speaker 1: felt like, well, I don't want to say anything because
Speaker 1: if he directs another film and wants to get and
Speaker 1: I was like, no, that's nothing to do with your person, Like,
Speaker 1: if you're uncomfortable, you can't do the best work if
Speaker 1: you're uncomfortable working with this director. And so I feel
Speaker 1: like fear stops a lot of people from becoming more
Speaker 1: communal and saying we don't need Hollywood. You know, somebody said,
Speaker 1: was it today? Oh? I was on a conference called
Speaker 1: today and did you guys hear what Marlon Wayan said recently?
Speaker 1: What did he say? So somebody asked Marlin about Hollywood
Speaker 1: and he said, f Hollywood, And he said. The reason
Speaker 1: why he said it is because Hollywood is nothing but
Speaker 1: a bank. They're just a loan company. They loan out
Speaker 1: money to do films whatever. But he was talking about
Speaker 1: how it's not He's been writing since he was fifteen
Speaker 1: years old, and so just there's a part of Hollywood
Speaker 1: like a new a new idea or perception that like,
Speaker 1: you know, what we bought into. We need Hollywood for distribution.
Speaker 1: That's what our films need, distribution. But I'm with you,
Speaker 1: take control of your own career and make it happen
Speaker 1: for yourself, and don't rely on other entities to do
Speaker 1: it for you, No, because you really you really can't.
Speaker 1: But I tell you it's so interesting. I had a
Speaker 1: call last week, actually have a meeting with him today
Speaker 1: with a colleague, and he's a white colleague. He's a
Speaker 1: former studiohead and we're about to do a venture together.
Speaker 1: But what was interesting he said to me last week
Speaker 1: he said, well, you know, this particular platform that he's
Speaker 1: working with, they're looking for black content and they don't
Speaker 1: want it to be as he put gangster. That those
Speaker 1: his words. They want it. They want romantic comedies, they
Speaker 1: want different types of stories. So I think what's beginning
Speaker 1: to happen is, you know, the beauty of say like
Speaker 1: an Amazon Prime. They will put those fifty thousand dollar
Speaker 1: budget movies, those hundred thousand dollars budgets like plug Love
Speaker 1: for example. I don't know if you ever saw plug
Speaker 1: Love on Amazon. It look like I've heard about it.
Speaker 1: It was very low budget. It was it had to
Speaker 1: be less than a one hundred thousand, but it did millions. Wow,
Speaker 1: it did millions. So I think, what the streamers, because
Speaker 1: Netflix doesn't accept films at that quality, but that Amazon
Speaker 1: Prime does, They're starting to see the numbers. And for
Speaker 1: the others, so to speak, it's all about the numbers.
Speaker 1: For them, yes is green, and so as long as
Speaker 1: they see the numbers, they'll follow the numbers. But in
Speaker 1: my opinion, you look at Tyler Perry, who, by the way,
Speaker 1: again same producer I'm in the middle of this meeting
Speaker 1: with and he is pooh Pooh and Tyler Perry's success. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Tylli Perry is making more money to all the Hollywood
Speaker 1: put together. And he took it to Georgia. He was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, y'all, y'all don't want me. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: start my own things right. And he's another one who's
Speaker 1: a perfect example, you know. But it's one of those things, Tracy,
Speaker 1: where you know, I will say this though, and this
Speaker 1: is real talk. Okay, it's very, very hard to get
Speaker 1: independent black films finance. Right now, Let's keep the reality
Speaker 1: of the situation and then play too. Okay, the fact
Speaker 1: is super hard. So you have to be strategic in
Speaker 1: how you package it. You have to package it with
Speaker 1: the right talent. If it's a television show, you have
Speaker 1: to package it with the right showrunn or a season showrunner.
Speaker 1: So you have to tap into the relationships of the
Speaker 1: producers that you connect with so that it's well packaged
Speaker 1: enough that you can finally, you know, get it across
Speaker 1: the finish line. Wow. But you have to commit to
Speaker 1: the journey because yeah, you know, when when I commit
Speaker 1: to a project, girl, if it takes a week, if
Speaker 1: it takes a year, if it takes ten years. You know,
Speaker 1: you have to stay with the journey. I had a
Speaker 1: project last year. It was a seventh figure project, fully funded,
Speaker 1: and I brought in this producer, an Academy Award nominated producer,
Speaker 1: a Very voted one of the fifty most powerful women
Speaker 1: in as. She wanted to take my black animated character
Speaker 1: and turn it into a low income like just changed
Speaker 1: the whole stereo. Yeah, the whole stereotypical narrative. Just did
Speaker 1: all kind of crazy stuff and I had to walk away.
Speaker 1: And that project took ten years to even get to
Speaker 1: the yes, because you have to maintainting. Girls. Girl, you
Speaker 1: already know I do, because that's when I met you.
Speaker 1: And when you're talking about you, guys, when I tell
Speaker 1: you multibillion dollar project that Lisa has all tight billion,
Speaker 1: we were talking billions ten something years ago. Merchant we
Speaker 1: didn't even talk about the merchandise yet. But the project
Speaker 1: is brilliant. And again this is a reflection of her
Speaker 1: work ethic, because when she says she works on a project,
Speaker 1: Lisa will maybe not sleep, maybe not sleep some days
Speaker 1: for the project. Lisa, the interview is done, I am
Speaker 1: blown away because it just flew by. I'm so bad you, guys,
Speaker 1: we're gonna, we're gonna. I'm gonna talk to Spruce and
Speaker 1: we're bringing you back home. We need a part two
Speaker 1: because I need you to give information. There are aspiring
Speaker 1: producers out there. Um, excuse me. I made a suggestion
Speaker 1: to Jelisa to start producing and just but she did.
Speaker 1: She took um. I was coaching an actor. He wanted
Speaker 1: to shoot it. Um. She jumped on board and we
Speaker 1: did Eggshells, which I had said to you. So that
Speaker 1: was something that she produced. So I just want you
Speaker 1: to continue to you know, really, I really want you
Speaker 1: to continue to inspire and give tips to actors on
Speaker 1: how to make that transition. But Lisa's not going anywhere,
Speaker 1: you guys, So stay tuned, Sit back, Sit back. We
Speaker 1: have some questions now from actors, Lisa that have been
Speaker 1: listening to you and want to give you some questions.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna throw it to Elsa, who's going to
Speaker 1: tell you who these actors are and they're gonna ask you. Okay, Elsa,
Speaker 1: you got them, Yes, Soka, thank you, Lisa. That was
Speaker 1: gems upon gems upon gems. Today we have two of
Speaker 1: our spirited actor alumni. We have Miss Vanessa, McNair and
Speaker 1: Miss Lisa White Spivy Ladies, Ladies and Vana you can
Speaker 1: ask your question first, how you doing this? Lisa Vanessa?
Speaker 1: Thank you for what you shared. I feel like it
Speaker 1: was it resonated and it was tough. But my question
Speaker 1: to you along your journey, what advice do you have
Speaker 1: for black writers or just producers and their content for
Speaker 1: protecting their content when there is clearly a call for hey,
Speaker 1: I want your vision and then they want to see
Speaker 1: it for free and they want, oh we could do
Speaker 1: all these things with it, but how do you protect it?
Speaker 1: What advice would you give? Yeah, So, first of all,
Speaker 1: you are you a part of the Writer's Guild? No,
Speaker 1: I'm an actor, and I just just say so, what
Speaker 1: you want to do is you want to join a
Speaker 1: writer's guild and you want to register your work with
Speaker 1: the Writer's Guilt. That's the first thing you want to
Speaker 1: do so that way your work, your body of work
Speaker 1: is protected. That would be really really honest with you.
Speaker 1: So when you're doing like let's say you're doing television,
Speaker 1: I had a colleague who, like yourself, she was an
Speaker 1: actress and she decided, you know what I want to do.
Speaker 1: This reality show is she spend her money and she
Speaker 1: put together this great little of this great pilot episode,
Speaker 1: and Honey, a network that we all know, stole it,
Speaker 1: didn't change the title, didn't change the concept, and dared
Speaker 1: her to try to sue them. So there is a
Speaker 1: risk factor, you know. And so what you want to
Speaker 1: do is align yourself where you can with producers such
Speaker 1: as a Tracy, such as myself. There are other producers
Speaker 1: as well. Everybody's not like that. Like the one thing
Speaker 1: you don't want to become is jaded, Like you don't
Speaker 1: want to become. Oh, everybody's the bag. Oh, I can't
Speaker 1: trust nobody because then you're not getting nowhere. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. You have to trust somebody, but protect
Speaker 1: your work with the writer's guild. You know, nowadays the
Speaker 1: iPhone is so freaking amazing. You can shoot it yourself
Speaker 1: and upload it to YouTube right and now create a following.
Speaker 1: You can market it on Instagram, you can market it
Speaker 1: on you know, TikTok. You know, marketing is everything. Market
Speaker 1: yourself on LinkedIn. I don't know if you're part are
Speaker 1: you're part of the LinkedIn community? I just got a
Speaker 1: LinkedIn So let me tell you the let me tell
Speaker 1: you the power of LinkedIn. Some of my biggest relationships
Speaker 1: in this business came through LinkedIn. I'm doing one of
Speaker 1: the biggest deals of my life and it was through
Speaker 1: somebody I met on LinkedIn. What you want to do
Speaker 1: on LinkedIn is create a phenomenal profile about yourself because
Speaker 1: you're selling yourself. Put a really great picture, and at
Speaker 1: least and thirty minutes to an hour a day. To
Speaker 1: this day, I network on LinkedIn constantly, and you connect
Speaker 1: those dots and then what happens is you'll start to
Speaker 1: meet acquisition executives and then you could start to pitch
Speaker 1: them your project. And that's how you get in those doors.
Speaker 1: That's how I got in a lot of doors. I
Speaker 1: don't have an agent to this day. You never had,
Speaker 1: never had an agent, never had an agent, never had
Speaker 1: a manager, not in television and film and producing in
Speaker 1: all of that. So yeah, I mean, I mean, I
Speaker 1: know we don't have a lot of time here, but
Speaker 1: I could totally on another call, I could school you
Speaker 1: on how to network on that platform. Because people they
Speaker 1: don't understand how to work, they don't understand how to
Speaker 1: work Netflix. Like I'm tempted to drop names, but you
Speaker 1: would know all of them, and some of them are
Speaker 1: really big celebrities, and some of them have reached out
Speaker 1: to me to connect with me on LinkedIn, like names
Speaker 1: that you would know. Yeah, uh, And I'm doing a
Speaker 1: lot of deals through freaking LinkedIn, So that's another way.
Speaker 1: So Lisa, if you're if you want to share, you know,
Speaker 1: if you want me to share your email with Vanessa,
Speaker 1: I would do and Vanessa, yeah, yeah, and I'd be happy.
Speaker 1: You know. I'm all about mentoring, you know, whoever I
Speaker 1: can mentor, because I learned this business through baptism and fire. Nobody,
Speaker 1: nobody taught me. I didn't have a mentor exactly, and
Speaker 1: so everything I learned, I learned the hard way. And
Speaker 1: so I feel like I got a master's in this
Speaker 1: and um, but I want to share it, you know.
Speaker 1: Oprah says, or was Maya Angelou who says, when you learn, teach,
Speaker 1: And so my whole thing is that I'm in a
Speaker 1: season of my life where whatever I learned, I gotta share.
Speaker 1: I gotta teach. You know, we black people, we can't
Speaker 1: hold this stuff in and take it to the grave.
Speaker 1: We gotta help each other, you know, And that's what
Speaker 1: I'm here for so absolutely, you could give her my
Speaker 1: phone number, my email, okay, and then we could set
Speaker 1: up a time to talk or do a zoom meeting,
Speaker 1: and then you know, we could talk even further, and
Speaker 1: then I could just kind of teach you what I
Speaker 1: learned about how to network on that platform. Because girls,
Speaker 1: I have got into Netflix via That's how I got
Speaker 1: my first meeting when Netflix was on LinkedIn. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: you would be amazed, riceless, priceless for that. Because I
Speaker 1: know her schedule. I have to remind her that I
Speaker 1: go to bed at nine, but I do talk to
Speaker 1: her doing the day. But we got yeah, we can't
Speaker 1: just talk it. We gotta do it, do it. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you, thank you. They you so much for opportunity.
Speaker 1: Spirits and call me Lisa. Please don't call me miss Lisa.
Speaker 1: I will always put some respect for that name. Always
Speaker 1: say nice to meet your Vanessa Pleasure. I can't wait
Speaker 1: to connect with you. Yeah. Same here. There's a deal
Speaker 1: made and that show will be seen next year and
Speaker 1: Spirited actors are in it. Okay, Elsa, I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it. Great question, Vanessa, thank you. So next
Speaker 1: up we have Lisa White, Spy Visa Lisa, come on
Speaker 1: and Lisa, I forget your name. This was this was wonderful,
Speaker 1: so many so many gems dropped. This is just incredible.
Speaker 1: I heard know your truth, no, your valued and then
Speaker 1: respect and I heard integrity and power of prayer and
Speaker 1: all of that is so so so important, so major,
Speaker 1: and especially as black women. My question to you today
Speaker 1: is can you share some of your habits that has
Speaker 1: held you up for the twenty five plus years in
Speaker 1: this business. So prayer, I'm just I got I can't
Speaker 1: like that is my number one. That is my beginning, middle,
Speaker 1: end of the day, during day before, the day after,
Speaker 1: the day. That um just you have to take that
Speaker 1: time to if you don't have that foundation, like for me,
Speaker 1: it's Jesus right, that's my that's my I don't even
Speaker 1: sugarcoat it. And for me, that's what's open every door.
Speaker 1: Like I could tell you testimony after testimony and you
Speaker 1: would know, oh my god, if you were apeist, you
Speaker 1: would believe after you some of my testimony. So that's
Speaker 1: that's the first thing. The second thing, faithful that works
Speaker 1: is dead right. So you have to have a relentless
Speaker 1: strong work ethic. You have to be okay with being
Speaker 1: broke because let me tell you something real talk, and
Speaker 1: I don't I haven't heard one producer addressed what I'm
Speaker 1: about to say. You can go a year or years
Speaker 1: between checks, okay, and that's talk you can you can have.
Speaker 1: There have been times where I've had a jar of
Speaker 1: peanut butter for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Okay. So there
Speaker 1: is you know, even though producer sounds glamorous and no,
Speaker 1: it is a hustle and a grind and a daily grind,
Speaker 1: and it is a a real, real struggle. I remember,
Speaker 1: before I really got into this, one of my colleagues
Speaker 1: and he was producing Forest Whittaker and all these big films.
Speaker 1: And I had my you know, I always had a
Speaker 1: day job at one for a period in my life
Speaker 1: while I worked on my dream. So it was always
Speaker 1: the two things at the same time, because you got
Speaker 1: to pay the bills. Yes, And he would call me
Speaker 1: and he's doing all these big films. He'd be like, Lisa,
Speaker 1: I need one hundred dollars. I mean, can you loan
Speaker 1: me two hundred dollars? And I would say to myself, Wow,
Speaker 1: he's producing Forest Whittaker, you know. And then once I
Speaker 1: got to a certain place in my career. I said, oh,
Speaker 1: now I see why he needed that money. Because let
Speaker 1: me tell and this is the kind of stuff I
Speaker 1: don't hear people talk about, but this is the real. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta be prepared to have struggle, but still persevere,
Speaker 1: still pressed, still go through. The third thing is you
Speaker 1: have to constantly network. You can't be afraid. Like, if
Speaker 1: I'm invited to an event, people that know me know
Speaker 1: that they're not going to see me by their side
Speaker 1: the rest of the night, right because I'm gonna work
Speaker 1: that room. I'm gonna get to everybody in the room
Speaker 1: that I need to get to. So networking is everything,
Speaker 1: whether it's in person. Go to every event that you can.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a there's an organization called Winston Baker.
Speaker 1: Winston Baker, look look them up. They are always having
Speaker 1: film financing events, all kinds of events. When you go
Speaker 1: to those events, first of all, it's not a jam
Speaker 1: pack room. It's literally maybe thirty to forty people in
Speaker 1: that room, but it's the decision makers on that stage.
Speaker 1: So you can walk up to the film finance here,
Speaker 1: you can walk up to the head of so and so.
Speaker 1: Like I had some of my investors to this day
Speaker 1: came from those Winster Baker events. Okay, the fourth thing
Speaker 1: you want to do and this is all so for Vanessa,
Speaker 1: I didn't think about this to just now. So there's
Speaker 1: in Can right now. This is worth saving up your pennies.
Speaker 1: The Can Film Festival, not the Camp Film Festival. Can
Speaker 1: every year has something called Midcom m I p c
Speaker 1: O M. Amazon, Mary, I p c O M. Okay,
Speaker 1: so they have midcom mid com girl. Every decision maker
Speaker 1: from every corner of the world. I'm saying in Africa, India,
Speaker 1: you name it, they're all there and you literally everybody's
Speaker 1: there for the same reasons to make deals, right period.
Speaker 1: So you go there. So the first year I went,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a network is what I do, girl.
Speaker 1: I went up to everything and everybody, and they had
Speaker 1: a place where and I didn't know about it, in
Speaker 1: advance where you can get fifteen minutes with the decision
Speaker 1: maker at every network to pitch your show. So I
Speaker 1: was like, So the guy was like, well, you had
Speaker 1: to register for this month in advance. I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I came all the way from the United States,
Speaker 1: please please please, and he let me in. I met
Speaker 1: with every single one of those decision makers and walked
Speaker 1: away with three deals that year. The first year, I
Speaker 1: went three. That's great. So nip Com. Then there's another
Speaker 1: one called Natti and APTE. That one's Miami. That's another one.
Speaker 1: All of the television executives are there, all of the
Speaker 1: networks are there. You could pict your content. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: Those are the things that come to the top of
Speaker 1: my mind. But the networking is everything. And just have
Speaker 1: to make those relationships, you know, and honey, you will,
Speaker 1: you will be indoors. You never imagine. It's wonderful. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. That was great. Are you welcome?
Speaker 1: Thank you Lisa and Lisa it's a group. Oh my god, Lisa,
Speaker 1: you got everybody excited. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1: I do. You're giving great information and the most important
Speaker 1: thing is she's sharing. That's the most important thing. Right,
Speaker 1: So we are still blessed. We are going to have Lisa.
Speaker 1: She's going to hang out for class in session and
Speaker 1: she's going to give our actors even more diamonds. You
Speaker 1: guys better have like a trunk in front of you
Speaker 1: catching all this. I pray you do. So, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: I just want it once again. Put your hands together
Speaker 1: please for a Lisa oh Lloyd A. Yeah, you got
Speaker 1: it right, Yeah, thank you, Yes, I want her real name. Um,
Speaker 1: And we'll be back with the Spirited Actor Podcast with
Speaker 1: me Tracy Moore and we're going to do Classes session.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore.
Speaker 1: And you are still blessed and I know you're so
Speaker 1: grateful for all the diamonds and emeralds that this woman
Speaker 1: has been dropping. She is not Miss Lisa. She is
Speaker 1: Lisa Ocean Lola. Okay, that's who she is, Lisa Chalo Okay, hey,
Speaker 1: I like hey, okay. So we are now going to
Speaker 1: do Classes session, which is one of my favorite segments,
Speaker 1: and Elsa is going to introduce us to the Spirited
Speaker 1: Actor alumni. Who is who are going to read the
Speaker 1: scene and I'll be reading the narrative for you. Yes
Speaker 1: today in class in session we have an original scene.
Speaker 1: But I wanted only Miss Lisa Capri say hello, j
Speaker 1: Lisa hey in joining her for this scene is a
Speaker 1: Spirited Actor Podcast newbie, missus Linda Martinez. Welcome, Thank you guys,
Speaker 1: movie for life, absolutely, thank you, and what's the way
Speaker 1: But what's the name of the then elsa don't week
Speaker 1: for me? Don't week for me by Julisa Capri. Okay,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. The lawyer, I'm gonna say Interior
Speaker 1: interrogation room day. The lawyer is led into a small
Speaker 1: room by the correction officer. She observes the room before
Speaker 1: sitting down on the cold metal chair. She takes her
Speaker 1: folder out of her briefcase and places and puts her
Speaker 1: glasses on. As she notices the slight, continuous flicker of
Speaker 1: the overheader light, Mary scuffles in and cuffs that resembles shackles,
Speaker 1: connecting her feet her hands to her feet. The officer
Speaker 1: uncus uncuffs her hands, but leaves her feet shackled and
Speaker 1: attached to the cust to the metal table. I told
Speaker 1: you I don't want no lawyer. My name is jan
Speaker 1: Rodriguez and I am you defense attorney. This can be
Speaker 1: as hard or as easy as you want it to be.
Speaker 1: But whether you like it or not, I am leaky lawyer.
Speaker 1: I to let them know that I can represent myself.
Speaker 1: Why you have no law experience, not even a high
Speaker 1: school diploma. Oh I'm sorry, I'm not educated enough that
Speaker 1: you're liking Mary, That's not what I meant. Your request
Speaker 1: to represent yourself was denied. The state, the one that
Speaker 1: risk any mistrau of anything going wrong just because you
Speaker 1: decide to go ouder by yourself representing yourself that you
Speaker 1: have some sore experience, so everybody thinks it's better for
Speaker 1: you to have a lawyer. So hey, here I am, Yeah,
Speaker 1: here you are. What do you want from me? You
Speaker 1: can start by telling me why you did that. Let's
Speaker 1: say we can be a case from there. Say something
Speaker 1: you want me to say, but I did it, but
Speaker 1: oh I'm remorseful. Will I do it again? So no,
Speaker 1: I don't have any remorse. If you don't let me
Speaker 1: help you, they're gonna throw the book as you do.
Speaker 1: You even know what that means. You could be facing
Speaker 1: death penalty. I am very good at what I do,
Speaker 1: so you should let me help you. Stand up there
Speaker 1: and you righteous soup, what your righteous siditude, and think
Speaker 1: that you have all the right answers, But you don't
Speaker 1: let me look at you. You have no idea what
Speaker 1: it's like to be a black woman in this country.
Speaker 1: I may not be blood, but I am a person
Speaker 1: of color. Okay. I don't see whether you find that funny,
Speaker 1: maybe because y'all all use that car, But it's convenient
Speaker 1: for you. When I walk into a room, my melanine
Speaker 1: is a dead giveaway, so nobody has to ponder what
Speaker 1: my race is. You you get to turn it off
Speaker 1: and all like a light switch. Whenever you believe. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be I'll extop you here. Can you tell
Speaker 1: me what happened today? Mary? I killed him because I
Speaker 1: had to. Well, you mean you had to. Were you
Speaker 1: hearing voices in your hands to something? Oh? I found
Speaker 1: out that his great great grandfather beat, tortured, and slaughtered
Speaker 1: my family. He wanted to make an example out of
Speaker 1: them because they tried to escape from this plantation. He
Speaker 1: only let my great grandmother survived because so she was
Speaker 1: one of his best breeders. How did you find this out?
Speaker 1: You know those little at homes, and they tested everybody
Speaker 1: does think that they canna find out something wonderful about
Speaker 1: their tree. Yeah, I found out how much blood was
Speaker 1: on the leaves of my family tree at the hands
Speaker 1: of that devil's family tree. Not to say that your
Speaker 1: actions were justifying, but if his family here, your family,
Speaker 1: I'll come, You're end are killing all those innocent people there. Yes,
Speaker 1: they're just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Speaker 1: But you know, when I think about it, you know
Speaker 1: their families are probably guilty of the same thing, just
Speaker 1: for somebody else's family, so they had to pay. They
Speaker 1: all need to pay. Yeah, well that's not that turned about.
Speaker 1: You know, kill them all, even the baby's suit, before
Speaker 1: they have a chance to grow up and kill your family.
Speaker 1: So maybe I'm just not turned up my generation. You know,
Speaker 1: don't we deserve vindication? Don't we have a right to
Speaker 1: feel and fight and scream and kill two? Why is
Speaker 1: that only white people's birthright? You know, maybe we should
Speaker 1: try for a different angle. Okay, insanity, that just might
Speaker 1: work for us here. No, what do you mean though?
Speaker 1: If we don't figure things out, you're gonna fry on
Speaker 1: the electric ship for the rest of your life. So big,
Speaker 1: you are making things very difficult, Mary, I'm only here
Speaker 1: to help you. You should be happy, Miss who would
Speaker 1: your name again? Yeah? Rodriguez? Oh, missus Roguez, you should
Speaker 1: be happy. So but it shut case, the check still clears,
Speaker 1: right starts, so you want to court me? God? Miss
Speaker 1: Rodriguez has left speechless and defeated. She takes a moment
Speaker 1: and gather her things and her things and then exits.
Speaker 1: See girl, Lisa, it's on you. Oh yeah, at Lisa,
Speaker 1: come on, I want to hear your insights. First of all,
Speaker 1: both of you ladies are phenomenal actresses. The one thing
Speaker 1: I I have one thing that I look for when
Speaker 1: I look at an actor, and that's do I believe them?
Speaker 1: That's that's that's the That's the only thing I go by.
Speaker 1: I know that sounds however sounds, but that because some
Speaker 1: people they act and just turn the channel. And first,
Speaker 1: let me just start with Alsa girl. What I love
Speaker 1: about your acting and I liked it from the first
Speaker 1: time I saw you in a showcase, which is why
Speaker 1: I held onto your card and kept it in my
Speaker 1: wallet because I was like, one day I'm going to
Speaker 1: be in a position where I could cast Jo Lisa
Speaker 1: and you. Great actors become the spirit of the person
Speaker 1: that they're that they're acting is not acting. It shouldn't
Speaker 1: be acting. It should be you literally becoming the spirit
Speaker 1: of that person you act from a deeper place, like
Speaker 1: you could like I believe you, is what I'm really
Speaker 1: trying to say, Like I believe, Like my eyes welled
Speaker 1: up with tears when you said a few of the lines,
Speaker 1: because I felt it, like I felt the pain of
Speaker 1: why you did what you did, and and I felt
Speaker 1: how it made you feel, you know, And I also
Speaker 1: felt just the deep resentment that your character has in
Speaker 1: general regarding all kinds of things. You know, when you
Speaker 1: mentioned about, you know, the melanine and not being able
Speaker 1: to turn it off and on like a switch, you know,
Speaker 1: all of those things, You've meant that. So that's what
Speaker 1: I love about you as an actress. And I think
Speaker 1: that was one of the reasons why I've always remembered
Speaker 1: you and I've always just kind of held onto you,
Speaker 1: is because you're the truth. Like I just see you
Speaker 1: becoming like and I keep saying Angela Bassett, but for
Speaker 1: some reason, you just remind me of Angela Bassett, Like
Speaker 1: you just have a depth that a lot of actors
Speaker 1: appear or outside of themselves, but it's very few that,
Speaker 1: like Viola Davis Man, that they just come from a
Speaker 1: place that's so inward. So bravo what I gotta say, Bravo,
Speaker 1: Miss Linda, Honey girl, I definitely believe you also as
Speaker 1: that you know, I watched these shows where you know,
Speaker 1: I'm addicted to shows like Power and BMA. I don't
Speaker 1: know why. I actually asked myself sometimes, why don't even
Speaker 1: love these shows so much? Like I just love these
Speaker 1: corrupt drug shows and they always have the attorneys in it.
Speaker 1: And you nailed it like they're you know, they're they're
Speaker 1: very um. You know, you had an air of being aloof,
Speaker 1: you know, like because because most of the time they
Speaker 1: come in and they really don't care. And so you
Speaker 1: carried off the don't care part very very well, you know,
Speaker 1: like it was really I don't know if the character
Speaker 1: was supposed to care, but from what I've watched from
Speaker 1: these shows, they never really truly care, you know, And
Speaker 1: so I think you did your job in terms of, like, listen,
Speaker 1: you're gonna fry girl, like you literally is not gonna
Speaker 1: go well for you basically if you don't let me
Speaker 1: help you. And you know, and then when you took
Speaker 1: off your glasses and you did like this, you know,
Speaker 1: like those types of moments, it was really important because
Speaker 1: it was just showing your frustration, like I can't believe
Speaker 1: this woman is not hearing me right now, you know,
Speaker 1: like I'm trying to tell her she doesn't want to
Speaker 1: excuse me. She doesn't want to understand. So I think
Speaker 1: you did a really, really, really great job. But let
Speaker 1: me ask you one thing, Linda, was your were your
Speaker 1: lines before you I already know? Yeah, I love these characters.
Speaker 1: I mean when Jo Lisa brother to my attention, I connected.
Speaker 1: It was just like a lot of attraction kind of
Speaker 1: thing because I was writing my own script based on
Speaker 1: the same in scenario. I'm nineteen years correction officer and
Speaker 1: fourteen years military, so I've been in jail. I seen
Speaker 1: the lawyers and things like that, and my script was
Speaker 1: of just last year, like I shared with Miss Tracy
Speaker 1: and I shared with my whole team here, my classmates.
Speaker 1: I came home from active duty and I found out
Speaker 1: my sweetheart, my partner, the love of my life for
Speaker 1: twenty two years, but another woman, Lisa, and I had
Speaker 1: a weapon on me and he had a weapon. And
Speaker 1: I told Miss Tracy like I sure I can find this. Um, Look,
Speaker 1: I don't even want to right now. Okay, Linda hold
Speaker 1: that I can find this with Tracy because I told
Speaker 1: her that active saved my life. And I connected with
Speaker 1: the script so much. I was like Lisa, I was
Speaker 1: writing the same big I was actually the crew because
Speaker 1: I used to ended up being a little Loretta Bobby
Speaker 1: and Wagon called his stuff in pieces and put in
Speaker 1: the script together. So wait, she said you were run
Speaker 1: in the lawyer. I was like, oh my god. So
Speaker 1: that was like that attic toude, I looks like here
Speaker 1: to help you, whether you take it or that, because
Speaker 1: I was imagining the lines that I was writing for
Speaker 1: my lawyer as well. So it was easy for me
Speaker 1: to connect Lisa, because I think great actors are made
Speaker 1: based on their life experiences as well. You can connect
Speaker 1: even more. Lawyers are so easy for me to remember,
Speaker 1: just put that touch of me because I've been through that.
Speaker 1: And the thing is is what makes an what makes
Speaker 1: what makes acting authentic, is when you have the experience
Speaker 1: of the character. And so that's what makes it and
Speaker 1: that's where the authenticity comes from. Thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like that trading certificate from work just to pretend that
Speaker 1: I was looking like her father. We never use it,
Speaker 1: We never use that word pretend. Ever, acting is not
Speaker 1: pretending imitating. That was her case. But you know, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm excited about for you, ladies, is one
Speaker 1: of the you know, it feels weird to say this,
Speaker 1: because it sounds weird when you say it. But one
Speaker 1: of the gifts that I know that God has given
Speaker 1: me that I have is the gift to recognize greatness
Speaker 1: when I see it, a star even when I see it.
Speaker 1: And I say that because I've been going to Tracy
Speaker 1: showcases for years and there were certain people that would
Speaker 1: stand out like you did, Je Lisa that first day
Speaker 1: and now you, Linda, and I see those people on
Speaker 1: TV all the time, all the time, movies, television. I
Speaker 1: remember walking through the mall once and this little boy.
Speaker 1: I said, Oh my god, that boy is a star.
Speaker 1: And I went up to his mother and then she said,
Speaker 1: oh wow, we just moved to la for that very reason.
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah blah. Two years later, he had his
Speaker 1: own show on Nickelodeon. So you, ladies, I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: you guys are going to fulfill greatness as actresses in
Speaker 1: this business because there it's not only the gift of
Speaker 1: authentic authenticity and just acting, but I can sense that
Speaker 1: both of you have a very deep passion to become
Speaker 1: great at what you do. You know, because sometimes people
Speaker 1: do things for the wrong reasons. Some actors just want
Speaker 1: to be active, to be famous. They just want to
Speaker 1: be on television. But then there are other actresses like yourselves,
Speaker 1: where this is your calling and you're just gonna grow
Speaker 1: into that greatness like Denzel did, like Viola did, like
Speaker 1: Angela did you know you like Jeffrey Wright one of
Speaker 1: my favorites of all time, like he has. That's what
Speaker 1: I see in the both of you, Like we're going
Speaker 1: to see you guys working a lot, Like I would
Speaker 1: just encourage you create your own vehicles so that you
Speaker 1: can not wait on the jobs, but create your own
Speaker 1: vehicles so that you can accomplish. And I'm even thinking
Speaker 1: in my mind, I'm like, okay, what I got on
Speaker 1: my board that I could try to put the you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Like, so yeah, ladies, you you
Speaker 1: guys have it and just continue to work on your craft.
Speaker 1: And really, you know, I'm just in awe, Like I
Speaker 1: have so much respect and admiration for actors and especially
Speaker 1: actors that really do the work. And I could tell
Speaker 1: you guys are doing the work. So keep up the
Speaker 1: amazing word. You guys are phenomenal. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you ladies and gentlemen, please stand up, all of
Speaker 1: you here stand up and give it up for Lisa Oceanloan.
Speaker 1: Thank you, lady, everybody for having trace Lisa. You are
Speaker 1: a breath of fresh air. You are totally everything and
Speaker 1: more that I knew she was going to be. And
Speaker 1: I'm so blessed to have this platform to share. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much, and we'll be back on the Spirited
Speaker 1: Active Podcast with me Tracy Moore and I'm gona give
Speaker 1: a little love, just a little bit of love, and
Speaker 1: now it's time to give love. I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: you the best medicine is laughter. I can't tell you
Speaker 1: how many moments that I have in my happy thought
Speaker 1: archives that I can pull out and laugh at any moment.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it surprises me where I could just be,
Speaker 1: you know, having a conversation with Soryo or Miles or Radiance,
Speaker 1: and then in the middle of it, I just burst
Speaker 1: out in laughter because one of those happy laughter thoughts
Speaker 1: and my archives came out. It's not that serious. I
Speaker 1: try to teach my children. I try to enforce in
Speaker 1: them that it is not that serious life. You have
Speaker 1: to laugh, you have to have fun, and you have
Speaker 1: to remember the reason why we're here. We're here to love,
Speaker 1: We're here to learn and we're here to grow. And
Speaker 1: instead of being on this journey that could be very
Speaker 1: challenging and you know, not as optimistic as you might
Speaker 1: want it to be, don't allow yourself to get involved
Speaker 1: in that noise. Stay on your journey, stay on your mission,
Speaker 1: stay focused and your passion. Because laughter goes a long way,
Speaker 1: and it's better to laugh than sometimes cry. Don't forget
Speaker 1: to look out for us on our new show, Inside
Speaker 1: the Black Box. My co host will be Joe the
Speaker 1: Legend Morton. It's going to be The Spirited Actor Podcast
Speaker 1: on Steroids. We'll be streaming on the Crackle network. If
Speaker 1: you posted, thank you for joining us on the Spirited
Speaker 1: Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore. I look forward to
Speaker 1: our next Spirited Podcast. Thank you