WEBVTT - Jeremy O. Harris 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:05.400 My darling. I gotta tell you, I'm always thrilled to 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:07.520 speak to you. So Jeremy's boyfriend and me and my 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:10.600 boyfriend are good friends. But when we walked down the street, 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:15.520 I do talk to Jeremy, Moore and Anderson and are 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:17.319 one a kind of like the grown ups, and me 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:19.480 and Jeremy are kind of like the kids who were like, well, 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:21.720 let's get candy, and my other guys are like, let's 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:27.960 get carfy. Let's Kenny and Calf. Me exactly. Hello, I'm 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:32.159 mini driver and welcome to many questions. I've always loved 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:35.839 Pruce's questionnaire. It was originally an eighteenth century parlor game 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:39.320 meant to reveal an individual's true nature. But with so 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:43.000 many questions, there wasn't really an opportunity to expand on anything. 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.520 So I took the format of Pruce's questionnaire and adapted 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.199 What I think are seven of the most important questions 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:53.160 you could ever ask someone. They are when and where 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.000 were you happiest? What is the quality you like least 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:02.480 about yourself? What relationship, real or fictionalized, defines love for you? 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:08.160 What question would you most like answered, What person, place, 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:12.399 or experience has shaped you the most? What would be 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:16.240 your last meal? And can you tell me something in 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.280 your life that has grown out of a personal disaster. 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.000 The more people we ask, the more we begin to 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.039 see what makes us similar and what makes us individual. 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.080 I've gathered a group of really remarkable people who I 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:32.280 am honored and humbled to have had a chance to 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:38.560 engage with. My guest today is Jeremy oh Harris. It's 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.360 hard to know where to begin an introduction to Jeremy 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.440 because to me, he is a force that has such 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.880 diverse impact. It feels limiting to say specifically what he 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.920 does or who he is, And actually part of his 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:52.920 fundament seems to be challenging the way in which we 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.360 quantify a lot of things. So it's probably right that 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:59.360 I don't know what to say. He is definitively the 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:03.160 author the highly acclaimed Slave Play, which has become the 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.280 most nominated non musical play in the history of the Tonys, 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:10.359 with twelve nominations. I won't say explicitly what the play 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:12.520 is about, because you should see it or find it 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:16.360 and read it and think. But the super redux version 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.480 is that it addresses themes of sexuality and racial trauma 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:24.080 in America. Out magazine called him the queer black savior 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.880 theater needs. I would rejoin and editor to say he 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.000 is the queer black savior we all need, and if 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.680 systems are grumbling, as they surely seem to be, voices 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:35.800 like Jeremy's are the ones I'd like to hear loudest 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.400 during the rebuild. He writes under different names, he explores 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:43.200 different mediums of art, acting, playwriting, screenwriting, producing, and as 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.280 a person and a rare talent at the forefront of 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.520 a new generation of emerging artists, he is dismantling the 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.079 idea of personal success and fame being the endgame. By 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.400 using carved out fees from big deals in fashion and 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:59.080 in television to establish funds and micro grants for theaters 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:03.320 and libraries. He is quite literally lifting up and creating 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.480 opportunities for others in his community and beyond. Whenever I 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.040 talk to him, I feel like I'm talking to the future, 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:18.639 a super tall, hot, progressive future. Correct me, jere I 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.000 mean if I'm wrong, but I believe Slave Play became 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:25.400 the most nominated Tony in the history of the Tony's. 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.760 It's the most nominated Tony ever, It's the most nominated 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:34.080 to It's been it's a Tony that has been nominated 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:38.760 so many times its name is now Anthony Slave play 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:42.880 was nominated more times than any other than any other play. 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.560 I think Hamilton's has the most of any thing best 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:48.960 because musical is cheat and can have more. You know, 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:55.360 He's best score, best book, best orchestrations, like, we don't 0:03:55.360 --> 0:04:05.320 get those. So now, what relationship, real or fictionalized, defines 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:10.600 love for you? Oh that's so good. Um, I mean 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.280 I'm probably so dark. It's probably like you know, the 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:17.840 Young Girl and the Soldier and blasted the Sarah Kane play, 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:23.440 like really dark. Oh my god, I mean I really 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:27.200 really really love Magnolia. I really love Earl Partridge and 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:30.080 his Wife that Julianne Moore plays. She married this guy 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.440 for money and then as he's dying, she realizes how 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:35.839 much she loves him. That is kind of what being 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.680 in love is like for me. Obviously, adoreless person. You're 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:42.159 able to be in public the face of the adoring partner, 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.480 but in private moments you're like, oh, wow, you're smelly. 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:47.680 You touched me all the time, you do, you know, 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:49.880 whatever the thing is, and then like you know, the 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:51.880 minute that you shut the bathroom door, You're like, where 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.039 are they? I need their warmth again, you know, because 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.200 there's something about human beings where like you kind of 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.200 want to nip the person that's closest to you. It's 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.280 like what we do with our parents, you know. And 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:03.640 the minute that you've gotten someone into your trust circle, 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.520 you do in your mind convince yourself that they're not 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.360 everything you want in the minute that they're about to leave, 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:11.839 where they could go that's to you wanted the best. 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:13.520 And I think that part of the work of being 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:15.560 a good partner and a good person love is to 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:19.239 minimize the moments of nipping that are natural and normal, 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:23.400 and lean into who you are to the world, and 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:25.920 lean into who you are when they're about to leave 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.400 in those moments when it's just you two lying in bed. So, 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:33.760 do you think that the specter of loss is then 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.680 part of the defining factor of love for you? The 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.359 idea that that person will be lost to you, or 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.240 could be lost to you, but ultimately will be lost 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.760 to you is actually what gives love of shame. Yes, 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:47.560 I actually think that having a recognition that this person 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.400 could be gone at any second should be the founding 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:54.560 principle of any love magicure and or any healthy relationship, 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:56.880 because that that would mean that you would treat it 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:58.839 a little bit better. You wouldn't take it for granted. 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.320 And I think that oft and we we take people 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.120 for granted because we think that we're going to be eternal, 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:06.200 you know. But even when I think about the fact 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.440 that thirty years feels like it's passed so quickly, I'm 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:11.000 just like, I'm going to be out of here. Even 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.240 if I lived to seventy or eighty, you know, I'm 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:15.440 gonna be out of here in a moment. I know. 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.000 It's a heartbeat, it's a heart Maybe that's also this time. 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.320 I don't know about you, but since this pandemic, I 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:27.240 felt like time has stretched, it's time slowed down. Time 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.080 stop being this thing that I was always chasing after 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:34.160 and actually became so present because all of the distraction 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:36.960 and all of those branches that were really a lot 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.160 of dead wood, kind of a cut away. But also, 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.800 don't you feel like those three months at the very 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:44.839 top of the year felt like forever, like at the 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.760 very top of quarantinshure. Well, now I think about it 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.040 from right now, I do, But at the time it 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.680 felt like days were stretchy. It felt like nine am 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:59.400 lasted until four. It felt like every moment was every 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.000 conversation Shan, everything that we cooked, everything that we ate, 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:08.600 every embrace. Yes, it felt distilled. You know, you couldn't 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:11.560 really have written it. And it's been believable or been 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:17.000 anything other than sort of Ryan Murphy kind of giant. 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:19.520 You'll never believe this. Here. Let me put on a 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.520 giant show for you. It's actually still Ryan Murphy. It's 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.840 like it's Ryan Murphy and Shonda. Ryan's actually doing a 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:29.440 cross over episode. It really is. It is exactly. It's 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:32.400 them just passing back a script over a weekend and 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.280 each of them perhaps drinking slightly more than the other 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:38.160 with each new draft, and it's getting more and more 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:52.960 insane and more and more ridiculous. All right, downing, So 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:58.000 can you tell me in your life about something that 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:01.760 has grown out of a personal disaster stuff? I mean, 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.560 there's been so many things, but I think the thing 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:06.520 and I know this because I went this amazing healer 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:08.920 and the swaman was like, wow, what happened when you 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.400 were nineteen? Like it's still living in your body. She's like, 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:13.080 it feels like a big trauma. And I was like, Oh, 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.200 that's so weird. That was the year that I got 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.240 cut from drama school. You know, I went to this 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.440 drama school. They accepted fifty two kids, only twenty sis 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:23.440 got to stay. I liked it because it sounded like 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.160 Survivor or a big Brother or something like. They turned 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.480 training to be an actor into the Bachelor, and so 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.160 I was really excited because I worked my ass off 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.079 and like I had done the math, I was like, great, 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.880 inside of my section, I'm in the top five percent. 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.160 If they're cutting half of us, I can't be cut 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.400 from my section. But there are five black men here, 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:47.880 and amongst them, I'm definitely the weirdest one. So either 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:50.000 they're gonna want me because I'm the weirdest one, or 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:51.920 they're gonna be like, even though he's one of the best, 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.200 he's gonna get cut because he's really weird. So I 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.080 just did everything I could be weird myself over the year. 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:59.200 So I came to school with really long hair. I 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:01.959 cut off all with my hair, like halfway through the year. 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.240 He was like radical transformation, And you know, I worked 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:07.800 really hard, and I was still one of the people 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:10.839 that got cut, and some of the cruelest things that 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:12.280 I've ever been said to me were said to me 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.560 when I was eighteen years old about why I was cut, 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:16.920 saying was true of other actors. And you know how 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.160 this is like these people are working with people at 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:22.040 the beginning of their development into young adults, and like 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.560 decided to say this the kinest things to them because 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.679 they can because Heinu's things are said to them. They 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.520 said a whittling down every year, and we were a 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.000 part of the lucky community because they stopped whittling people 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:35.880 down the second and third years, so it was just 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:38.600 like one cut instead of multiple. I think that is 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.280 so hideous because it means you could never actually relax. 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.000 It's like the hunger. Yes, it's like you totally know 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.280 that there's a Gaillo scene hanging above your head every 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:48.720 day that you go to school. I mean, what a 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.640 dreadful way to try and learn. Yeah. One of my 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.520 closest friends there, Erica, who also got cut. You know, 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:56.120 she had come from a school where she had never 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:57.920 done a play before in her life. She got into 0:09:57.960 --> 0:09:59.880 a drama school, I having never done a play before 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.160 her life, and she didn't more than one for me, 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:03.800 And it's like let's that girl get in, Like she 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:05.520 just gets to stay for all four years, because like 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:07.920 what the fuck? But she came from a really rough 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.200 community and she wasn't used to going to a room 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.040 with a bunch of white kids and crying. She's like, 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:15.000 I don't cry in front of people. You don't do that. 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:17.200 She's in these classes with all these kids, many of 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:19.439 whom come from privilege, who are able to weep form 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.920 command all the time about anything, and her teachers are like, 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.760 you feel too hard, but you don't want to share yourself. 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:27.640 She's like, no one's giving me a reason to cry, Like, 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.400 give me a scene, I'll do that. Then I'm just 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.000 gonna sit and cry and gossip with you. Anyway. That 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.040 was really difficult for me, and I'll never forget that. 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:37.960 One of my professors told me, she's like, well, Jeremy, 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:39.920 you're just not castable. Yeah, She's like, you have the 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.120 face of the child, a body of demand. You won't 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.439 be cast into your at least thirty five forties. So 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:46.360 you should think about going to grad school for acting. 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:48.680 And right now, you know you seem to like writing, 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:52.800 so do that. And I was like what what? But 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:56.000 it's incredible because of what did come out of that, Well, Yeah, 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.160 because I immediately decided I was going to prove her 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.000 I could be castable. So I got asked every major 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.920 show that was happening in Chicago at the time. And 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:06.040 then two years later I went to l A and 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:07.920 that was when I started telling me I was a writer, 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.679 which is what they had told me at school, and 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:15.640 my entire identity changed after that. It's so extraordinary. I 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.199 think I overuse the matrixes of reference points of touchstone 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.040 in my life, but I do often think, like you 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:24.880 know the scene where he goes to see the oracle 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.280 and she tells him he's not the one. I just 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:29.920 think that those moments in our lives where life is 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.720 telling you, no, it's absolutely not you, it's not you 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.680 at all, they are the moments out of which the 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.640 most grows because you have to disagree with it in 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:40.560 order to carry on in a way, or you have 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.079 to become something else. Yes, I was the only kid 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.439 in my class to graduate from drama school without an agent. 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:47.920 You know, it's just me and my mom and all 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.199 these other kids standing with their agents and their parents 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.440 after the last performance with like warm white wine, and 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:55.880 I was like everyone has an agent here except me, 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.240 and my mom was like, well, I don't have an 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:03.720 agent either. That's amazing. That's literally something my mom would 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:06.160 say to me. Yeah. I mean it was really hard 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:08.960 and it was really harsh. I think it's really interesting though, 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.080 that the people who were so unsupportive of you as 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.920 an actor told you that you were a writer and 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:15.280 that you should go and do that, and the fact 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.840 that you actually did go and do that, and now 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:20.640 you can be an actor, you can be a writer, 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:24.320 you can do whatever you want. It's interesting. I like 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.679 it when the people who were apparently limiting us, we're 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.120 actually giving us exactly what we needed to grow. Yes, yes, 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:37.000 it's everything. Were you a student when he wrote Slave Play? Yeah? Yeah, 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:41.600 my god, Jeremy. Basically, Slave Play haunted all three years 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.480 of my graduate degree because in my first year I 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.360 started working on it and writing it, and then my 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:50.720 second year we put it up in the fall and 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.240 there was a big fallout with the administration and a 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:55.839 lot of my professors who really hated the play and 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.200 tortured me. And then the next half of the year 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:00.920 I was trying to get some of the people who 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.880 were really messed up about that fire um and then 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:07.360 in my third year I wrote a thesis play about 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.320 how that experience had been the worst thing ever while 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.200 the play was going up in the city. What was 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:17.240 the central beef that they had with your play? Well, 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:19.360 it was mainly a power thing, which is one of 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.080 the reasons why it was most frustrating and really drawing, 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.079 because it had very little to do with the actual 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:27.480 like nuts and bolts of my play, as I could 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.640 see visa vie their relationship to the other work that 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.040 was happening around me. It was more so the fact 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.440 that they told me to cut twenty minutes out of 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:37.680 the play and I said, I don't want to do that. 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:39.440 That note doesn't make sense to me, and they said, well, 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:41.600 we're telling you to do this, and it was about 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.360 like this power thing, and I think the more I've 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:45.160 dug in my heels and was like, no, I think 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.560 that's a bad note, the more angry they got. And 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:49.480 it was just like the Battle of wills that ended 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.560 with a professor yelling at me and sending me really 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:56.400 hate his emails and just having like a full mental spiral. 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:00.560 Do you think it made you connect? Forced each connect 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.760 with the thesis of the play even more because you 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.719 were defending it so profoundly. Do you think that you 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.840 you kind of bonded with your play more because of 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.240 that extreme conflict? Well, yeah, I mean I think it 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:18.240 may be bond with the performers, especially the performer playing Knisha. 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.160 A lot at Yale is played by this woman named 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:24.400 Intra Neet Crow Legacy, who's an amazing actress. And obviously, 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:26.000 as you've you've been to drama school, you know that 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.760 when someone's actually just doing a power play, they'll change 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.680 their tactics really well. And so the tactic became, well, 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:34.920 it's not about the twenty minutes in that part so much. 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:37.320 It's just that those twenty minutes are so bad that 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.520 the endings the worst thing I've ever seen. I can't 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:42.320 believe this actress is doing this. If you're not gonna 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:44.200 change these twenty minutes, you have to change the ending. 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.920 And so I tried to change the ending, and I 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:49.560 came back and his actors was like, why are you 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:52.760 changing this? Your play is saying this to me. She 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.320 said something to the room about her character and why 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:58.960 she understood what was happening in the play. That was like, 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:01.400 my secret, it's for why I had written the play. 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:03.760 It's like someone's naming all the reasons why I had 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:05.840 written the play from the point of view of acting 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:11.880 in this thing, and so I felt so immediately um indicated. Yeah, 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:14.360 And it also made me know that at the end 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.040 of the day, great performers, they are great ensemble are 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.000 more important than teachers. No wonder how many you know, 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:25.280 McArthur Pullitzer, O bis they've won. You know what I mean? Well, 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:28.560 you'd think that. But by the way, speaking as someone 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.480 who has worked with extraordinarily collaborative people and then slightly 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:38.200 more autocratic directors and producers, I must say that it's 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:42.000 very refreshing to hear you say that, Jeremy, because it 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.880 is a collaboration. You're all working towards the same thing. 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.880 And I think sometimes actors certainly get the reputation that 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.160 it's really just about self aggrandizement. And I really is 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.880 biggest soliloquy as opposed to no best idea wins. Yes, 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:58.640 And I love because you're a writer and an actor 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:01.960 and a director and a kind of conceiver of art 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.560 that you recognize that. I feel vindication as an actor 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.920 knowing that you say what you bring him when you're 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:11.680 inside a character, you can sometimes give a perspective that 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.440 is unique because you're living inside your particular piece of 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:17.960 this greater piece of work. One of the things that's 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:21.240 most invigorating about getting all of these Tony nominations is 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:24.440 that twelve Tony nominations have very little to do with 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.560 Jeremy o' harris writing this play right, and everything to 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.120 do with the community of people around this play that 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.240 I wrote. Those things really matter to me because the 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:36.640 family that we made with this play was really tight, 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.080 and we listened really well to each other. And I 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.280 think what's really exciting what the Tony is that everyone 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:47.120 seeing James Society, Morier, Jachina Cala Congo, Annie McNamara, Shalia Latour, 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:51.160 Auntie Blanks and Wood, Lindsay Jones, G G D D 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.640 Clint and Robert and not to mention like Paul Sullivan 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.120 and it ain't a who were the three actors of 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.240 our eight that didn't get nominated, but who obviously play 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:04.000 the gift twelve nominations, they're still being celebrated as well, 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:06.960 the community saying like, no, you guys really came together 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.040 and you fought for each other. And that makes me 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:11.400 soory because Arena and Shalia were in the first reading 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:15.520 of its play, So I just wanted to say that 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.840 Slave Player also did something really extraordinary. Jeremy insisted on 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:24.920 there being a subsidized ticket program so that when you 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.200 would go to buy a ticket, you would be also 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:31.399 able to buy a ticket for someone who maybe couldn't 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.600 afford to go to the theater. And what that did 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:38.200 for the community and the anomaly that that was I'm 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:42.320 really genuinely hope becomes a normal practice on Broadway in 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.800 the West End, in every theater loving city in the world. 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:49.880 It was extraordinary the amount of first time ticket buyers 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.080 or theater girls who went to see Slave Blay because 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.560 they were able to what that speaks to you about 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:56.439 community and what that speaks to you about what the 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:58.600 theater is always purporting to be about, which is about 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:01.440 coming together and than the stories of our community. For 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:04.800 the community, that was one of the most amazing. I mean, 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:09.600 beyond the extraordinary impact of the play and what it 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:14.159 forced us all to meditate on and think about and 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.280 talk about forever, is that notion of community for me 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:22.200 and availability to everybody, not just to the famous people, 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.000 the rich people, the white people, but to everybody. It's 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:28.399 an incredibly special play for so many reasons. When I 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.960 hope that it stops being an anomaly and actually just becomes, 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.800 you know, the norm same. I mean, it's really nice 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:37.720 to be an anomaly because it means you're special, you're 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:39.680 one of a kind. But when being one of a 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.080 kind means that you're like opening the doors for more 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.159 people than it's not fun. You want to know that 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:46.320 more people are doing that so that this thing you 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:49.600 love a can survive and be can be experienced by 0:18:49.600 --> 0:19:06.640 as many people as possible. What person, place, or experience 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:12.000 has most altered your life, well, I think I think 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.520 because she's constantly offering the direction of my life. It 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.199 would have to be my mom, because she had me 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:21.119 when she was nineteen and came to a community that 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.840 does not have very many opportunities for people of color, 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:29.159 especially women of color, and worked really hard to psyphon 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:31.880 off as many opportunities as she could for me, even 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:36.400 if that meant denying herself certain opportunities. And so that's 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:38.679 why I think she's most afted in my life. She 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.480 put me in the private school so that she couldn't 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.800 afford to send me to and she's always sounded like 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:48.920 an extraordinary person. She's the absolute Disneys and I wouldn't 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.560 be the person I am now without her. Um. I 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:59.119 love that. I love that. I'm glad it's your mom. 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.359 So here we go. I would like you to please 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:09.159 tell me where and when you were happiest. This is 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:11.640 really it is actually really funny because I just answered 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.760 this question for g Q and and for some reason 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.320 felt like a fake answer at the time. But the 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:19.840 more I think about, the more real it sounds in 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:22.439 my head. I think I felt the happiest when I 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:26.199 was at McDowell in New Hampshire, which is where I 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:28.040 went when I was twenty six year old. It's where 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:29.760 I decided I was going to go to grad school, 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.000 and it was where I really, for the first time 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:38.120 in my life, I felt like an artist because I've 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:42.240 been welcomed into this historic colony of artists. For people 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:46.600 who don't know McDowell, it's the oldest artistic commune in 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:51.760 the country. James Baldwin wrote Giovanni's room there. Tanahusey Coats 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.160 wrote there the color purple is written there. I'm naming 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.639 only the black people like Lennard Bernstein went there and 0:20:56.680 --> 0:21:02.120 it's artists of all disciplines. It's painters, writers, composers, playwrights. 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:06.320 And you endowed with this. You invited, you singled out 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.399 and invited. No, you're not invite, you apply. So it's 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:12.479 an application process is highly competitive. So many writers I 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:15.520 know haven't gotten in. And it's a place that's really 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:17.720 rare because you can be there with someone who's won 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:20.560 four pool and surprises, you know, Michael Chaban, can be 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.400