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Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Welcome

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Speaker 1: back to Work in Progress friends. I am elated to

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Speaker 1: be joined by an actor, producer and activist who I

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Speaker 1: look up to so much today. David o'yelowo is here

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Speaker 1: on the podcast. David was born in Oxfordshire, England, to

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Speaker 1: Nigerian parents. He grew up in South London and then

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Speaker 1: moved back to Legos, Nigeria at the age of six,

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Speaker 1: where he lived until he was thirteen before going back

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Speaker 1: to London again. He studied acting at the London Academy

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Speaker 1: of Music and Dramatic Art and then rose to stardom

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Speaker 1: in his stage performance as King Henry the Sixth in

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Speaker 1: the Royal Shakespeare Companies two thousand and one productions of

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Speaker 1: Shakespeare's trilogy of plays about the King. Many of you

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Speaker 1: probably know him for his incredible performance as Martin Luther,

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Speaker 1: King Junior in the film Selma in twenty fourteen. His

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Speaker 1: resume since is nothing short of incredible. But what is

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Speaker 1: really the most inspiring to me about David is his

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Speaker 1: leadership scholarship for girls in his home country Nigeria. David

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Speaker 1: saw a problem and decided he wanted to get to

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Speaker 1: work on fixing it. Nigeria has approximately twenty million children

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Speaker 1: out of school, sixty percent of whom are girls. That's

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Speaker 1: over twelve million girls, making it the highest number in

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Speaker 1: Africa and the second highest in the world. A frightening

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Speaker 1: majority of young school age girls become victims of terrorism

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Speaker 1: and gender inequality, and after the twenty sixteen kidnapping of

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Speaker 1: school age girls by Bokoharam, David knew he wanted to

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Speaker 1: get involved in being part of the solution. The scholarship

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Speaker 1: program he launched covers full tuition, room and board, health insurance,

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Speaker 1: social and emotional support, leadership development, independent academic assessments, workplace

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Speaker 1: skill development, and more. They do incredible work supporting girls

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Speaker 1: in Nigeria. Their first year, they started with seven students

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Speaker 1: and they're currently working with forty five girls in four

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Speaker 1: different places across the country. And his goals for growing

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Speaker 1: a program and working toward gender equality in his home

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Speaker 1: country are nothing short of inspiring. So let's get to it.

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Speaker 1: I love to start when people come and join me

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Speaker 1: on the show because everyone tends to be promoting something wonderful,

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Speaker 1: and I know you have something wonderful to talk about.

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Speaker 1: But we're still on strike, So we'll talk about it

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Speaker 1: when the strike ends. But there's so much wonderful work exactly.

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Speaker 1: There's so much wonderful work you do also, you know,

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Speaker 1: not just on screen, but off screen, your advocacy, you know,

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Speaker 1: so much of what you spend your time in platform

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Speaker 1: promoting that I'm excited to talk about. But I like

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Speaker 1: to go back and meet my guests before you became

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Speaker 1: household names. And so if we were to rewind and

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Speaker 1: meet a young David, say at eight or you know,

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Speaker 1: nine years old, what were you up to, where were

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Speaker 1: you living, what were you passionate about as a little boy.

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Speaker 2: Wow, that's a great way in At eight and nine,

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Speaker 2: I was living in Lagos, Nigeria. I was actually born

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Speaker 2: in the UK, but age six we moved back to Nigeria,

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Speaker 2: which is where my parents were from. And at that

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Speaker 2: time I was at Sin Savior's Primary School and I

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Speaker 2: was a very precocious young kid, very inquisitive, very artistic,

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Speaker 2: and that there was a real tension for me because

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Speaker 2: I was very artistic. But Nigerian culture generally is very

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Speaker 2: academic heavy.

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Speaker 3: So I could.

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Speaker 2: Feel already my parents' desire for me to be a doctor,

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Speaker 2: a lawyer, an engineer. That's pretty typical for a Nigerian family,

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Speaker 2: any immigrant family. Really, I could feel that pressure beginning

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Speaker 2: to rise up. And my dad was my hero, so

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Speaker 2: I kind of wanted to do anything I could to

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Speaker 2: please him. So I think my nine year old self

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Speaker 2: was sort of enjoying being someone who loved drawing and

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Speaker 2: painting and I loved doing plays, but it always felt

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Speaker 2: trivial compared to, you know, academia, which I was good at,

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Speaker 2: but I wasn't as passionate about as as the artistic self.

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Speaker 2: So that was the tension going on for me at

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Speaker 2: that at that time. And I'm the eldest of three sons,

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Speaker 2: and yeah, I think I spent more time than I

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Speaker 2: cared to admit bullying my brothers, not not not.

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Speaker 3: Not too intensely, but you know, I was.

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Speaker 2: I was very keen on establishing my my my alpha status, right.

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Speaker 1: Right, you're for you were the first pancake. You really

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Speaker 1: needed to establish dominance.

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Speaker 3: That's that's that.

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Speaker 2: Unfortunately I've I've I've grown to learn better, but at

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Speaker 2: that time, I was definitely that.

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Speaker 3: Kind of kid.

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Speaker 1: Yeah that feels fair. My my best friend has two

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Speaker 1: younger siblings and I'm an only so I never really

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Speaker 1: had the dynamic. But she always jokes that, you know,

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Speaker 1: she was in charge the first pancake joke as hers.

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Speaker 1: I have to at her and she's like, you know, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I was in charge. I had the most rules, but

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Speaker 1: I was also the one they had to figure it

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Speaker 1: all out on. So she talks about how the you know,

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Speaker 1: the younger ones sort of got to benefit from the

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Speaker 1: systems you helped to set up in your family.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure that's a definite dynamic that I experienced as

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Speaker 2: a kid, and definitely as a parent as well, you know,

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Speaker 2: But I would categorize what my younger brother, especially my

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Speaker 2: youngest brother was experienced was being spoilt compared to me

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Speaker 2: being very much kept in line, you know. Soon after

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Speaker 2: my nine year old self, I ended up going to

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Speaker 2: a boarding school at age eleven, and it was a

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Speaker 2: military style boarding school, pretty intense, and they did not

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Speaker 2: shy away from a good caning if you didn't walk

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Speaker 2: within the margins. And that is not unusual in Nigeria

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Speaker 2: at all, or certainly wasn't then, but I was.

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Speaker 3: I was a pretty naughty kid. It was.

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Speaker 2: It was a mixed boarding school, and I have to

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Speaker 2: admit to sneaking into the girl's dorms now and again,

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Speaker 2: and not to do anything crazy. It was it was

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Speaker 2: it was more this sounds so letchy in a kind

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Speaker 2: of a twenty twenty three context, but my my friends

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Speaker 2: and I would there.

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Speaker 3: There were a row of windows.

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Speaker 2: Where the girls would be having their showers, and I

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Speaker 2: have to admit that we would go and feast our eyes.

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Speaker 2: It was a terrible thing to do if my children

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Speaker 2: did the same thing and have something to say, but

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Speaker 2: but yeah, it was a I was a naughty kid.

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Speaker 2: I needed that cane and it certainly certainly brought me

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Speaker 2: back into line.

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Speaker 1: So was that how you wound up going to boarding

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Speaker 1: school in the first place, or or was that a

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Speaker 1: decision that you made. I don't know anyone who ever

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Speaker 1: went to a boarding school, so I'm sort of fascinated

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Speaker 1: by the whole culture of it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was, you know, I wasn't like a naughty,

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Speaker 2: naughty kid, but my parents worked very hard. You know,

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Speaker 2: they were at work a lot, and I think for

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Speaker 2: them having I was the only one of my three

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Speaker 2: brothers that did go to boarding school, and I think

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Speaker 2: it was one less kid for them to have to

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Speaker 2: sort of juggle in the midst of being both full

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Speaker 2: time working parents, but also my parents spent virtually every

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Speaker 2: cent they made on the best possible education we could

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Speaker 2: be afforded. And it was one of the best schools

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Speaker 2: in Nigeria at the time, and my brothers were going

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Speaker 2: to some of the best primary schools, and so it

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Speaker 2: was more that it was more what are the best schools.

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Speaker 2: They happened to be boarding schools because affluent Nigerians could

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Speaker 2: send their kids there from all over the country, and

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Speaker 2: so we actually didn't have much money, but I ended

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Speaker 2: up going to school with some of the richer kids

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Speaker 2: in Nigeria. So it was a weird, sort of schizophrenic

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Speaker 2: upbringing of being around quite affluent kids, but going home

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Speaker 2: in my holidays to a two bedroom apartment with my

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Speaker 2: parents and my three brothers who were doing everything they

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Speaker 2: could to keep us in these schools well.

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Speaker 1: And it's interesting that you talk about just a few

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Speaker 1: years before this, knowing that you loved art and storytelling

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Speaker 1: and being curious about plays, did any of the sort

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Speaker 1: of spectrum of what you got to see you in

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Speaker 1: your neighborhood versus what I'm sure some of these really

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Speaker 1: wealthy kids experiences looked like, did that feel a bit

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Speaker 1: like character study to you?

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I think I didn't realize it that I was internalizing

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Speaker 2: so much of what I saw everywhere I went. But

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Speaker 2: also because my parents were at work so much, the

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Speaker 2: television was my nanny to a certain extent, and so

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Speaker 2: I was watching so many TV shows, a lot of

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Speaker 2: them from the UK or from America that were happened

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Speaker 2: to be on Nigerian television, and so I was kind

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Speaker 2: of raised by both American and British television in Nigeria.

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Speaker 2: And Nigeria is an incredibly intense and vibrant place, and

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Speaker 2: so you are literally thrust into the most spicy and

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Speaker 2: intoxicating and invigorating soup of humanity in a sense. But

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Speaker 2: I also, unlike black kids or even older now that

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Speaker 2: I'm older, what happened to me was because I was

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Speaker 2: in Nigeria during some of my formative years and everyone

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Speaker 2: around me looked like me. I also didn't have what

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Speaker 2: I would call a minority mentality. I everyone around me were.

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Speaker 2: There was affluence, there was poverty, there was that complete

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Speaker 2: spectrum of humanity. I didn't have that thing that I

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Speaker 2: definitely did when we came back to the UK of going, Oh,

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Speaker 2: I'm black and I'm not on posters or magazines or

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Speaker 2: front and center in the stories I'm seeing on TV,

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Speaker 2: and I am and this was some It wasn't like conscious,

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Speaker 2: but I was suddenly in environments where everything was telling

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Speaker 2: me that someone like me is on the periphery. Living

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Speaker 2: in Nigeria, everyone was at the center of their own lives,

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Speaker 2: and so that definitely informed how I carried myself, what

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Speaker 2: the estimation of what I thought I could go on

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Speaker 2: to achieve was. And then it was quite quite a

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Speaker 2: culture shift moving back to the UK age thirteen, where

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Speaker 2: that was definitely not the case.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and such formative years for you too. I mean

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Speaker 1: to move from the UK to Nigeria at six and

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Speaker 1: then be there from six to thirteen, and then in

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Speaker 1: that you know teenage experience where you really do begin

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Speaker 1: to shift into young adulthood. To go back, I did

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Speaker 1: it feel like a culture shock.

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Speaker 2: It was a massive, massive culture shop on so many levels.

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Speaker 2: Because even though my parents were not affluent, I had

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Speaker 2: been going to these very very posh schools and then

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Speaker 2: we were suddenly in the UK where financially they could

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Speaker 2: not support anything of that. So we actually my mom

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Speaker 2: and I and my three brothers. We moved back to

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Speaker 2: Nigeria and sorry to London. My dad remained in Nigeria

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Speaker 2: because he had to finish his contract at his workplace

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Speaker 2: for another four years, and we were living in a

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Speaker 2: halfway house. We were sort of in a hostel type

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Speaker 2: of situation while we were waiting for housing, and it

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Speaker 2: was just two rooms and my mom and my three brothers,

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Speaker 2: and we were going to state schools, so suddenly not

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Speaker 2: that level of affluence, and also kids who were talking

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Speaker 2: back to the teachers, and I mean things that were

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Speaker 2: just unthinkable in the environment that I had been in.

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Speaker 2: Also from a royal family in Nigeria, so even though

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Speaker 2: we weren't particularly well for my uncles were politicians and

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Speaker 2: doctors and lawyers, and we lived on a yelloway street

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Speaker 2: on the family compound for a time. So there were

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Speaker 2: things like that that suddenly you're thrust into the UK.

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Speaker 2: And some of it was familiar because I'd been born

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Speaker 2: in the UK, but a lot of it was very,

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Speaker 2: very very different, including the weather. So it was it

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Speaker 2: was a culture shock that took me quite a while

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Speaker 2: to get over, but you know, get over it I did.

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Speaker 1: And now a word from our sponsors who make this

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Speaker 1: show possible. And in the midst of all of this,

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Speaker 1: you have to tell your family you want to be

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Speaker 1: an actor. So when I'm curious when it happened for you,

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Speaker 1: because I remember for me, you know, my family came

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Speaker 1: to the US from Italy on a boat and there

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Speaker 1: was a lot of that, you know, they settled, they

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Speaker 1: came through all As Island, they settled on the East coast,

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Speaker 1: and there was a a lot of that, you know,

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Speaker 1: big loud Italian energy in my family where you know,

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Speaker 1: my uncle Raymond's like, you're going to be a doctor

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Speaker 1: or a lawyer or a lawyer or a doctor like

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Speaker 1: that was kind of it. And then I eventually was like,

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Speaker 1: I think I want to be an artist. And I

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Speaker 1: remember that, when when did you work up the courage?

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Speaker 1: Because it took me until it was time to apply

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Speaker 1: to college to say anything my family.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was it was incremental for me. I mean,

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Speaker 2: as I said, I pushed that side of myself away.

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Speaker 2: Even though I loved it, it never occurred.

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Speaker 3: To me that I would do it professionally.

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Speaker 2: So at some point I was just gonna knuckle down

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Speaker 2: and be a lawyer. But I was doing youth theater,

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Speaker 2: and I was doing my sculptures and my paintings and

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Speaker 2: my pencil drawings, and that was all the stuff I

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Speaker 2: really wanted to do. And television, as I say, was

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Speaker 2: such a cataly for me. There was this show called

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Speaker 2: La Law and uh, you know there there was this

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Speaker 2: black lawyer in the in the middle of the show,

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Speaker 2: and I was just so drawn to him, and because

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Speaker 2: he was the conflation of the two things that I

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Speaker 2: He was what my dad wanted me to do and

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Speaker 2: what I subconsciously wanted to do, which was.

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Speaker 3: The acting component.

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Speaker 2: So I became obsessed with that show and and and

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Speaker 2: but continued my quest towards going so I would say

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Speaker 2: to everyone I was going.

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Speaker 3: To be a lawyer.

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Speaker 2: But then, you know, I I fell hard for this

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Speaker 2: girl at church who didn't even know I existed, and

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Speaker 2: one day she invited me on what I thought was

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Speaker 2: a date, but it was actually to join a youth

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Speaker 2: theater at the National Theater in London. And I didn't

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Speaker 2: realize this until I walked into the room and there

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Speaker 2: were all these young people doing the crazy warm ups

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Speaker 2: and all stuff that was completely alien to me, and

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Speaker 2: I thought I thought we were going to see a

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Speaker 2: play and I was quite shy, so but I kept

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Speaker 2: going because I liked the girl. And then I really

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Speaker 2: caught the bug at that theater. But I was still

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Speaker 2: I had got into Oxford Brooks University to do a

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Speaker 2: law degree and so, but this is the schizophrenic nature

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Speaker 2: of it this. I took a gap year after high

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Speaker 2: school and I went to art school. I went to

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Speaker 2: the Guildhall School of Art in London. Yeah, but I

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Speaker 2: was still supposed to be going to go and do law.

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Speaker 2: But in that gap year, I bumped into my theater

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Speaker 2: study teacher who had had at high school, and she

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Speaker 2: said something to me that changed my life. She said,

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Speaker 2: and this was outside a train station. I literally bumped

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Speaker 2: into it in the street. She said, David, I wouldn't

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Speaker 2: say this to every student that I have had, but

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Speaker 2: I think you really should consider becoming a professional actor.

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Speaker 2: And it completely threw me because I had enjoyed doing

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Speaker 2: youth theater. In fact, she had helped me get into

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Speaker 2: something called the National Youth Music Theater, which is where

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Speaker 2: I actually met the lovely lady I eventually went on

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Speaker 2: to marry at the age of We were seventeen and

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Speaker 2: eighteen when we met, so.

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Speaker 3: She had helped me with that.

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Speaker 2: I had loved it, but still I didn't think that

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Speaker 2: this is what I would do professionally.

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Speaker 3: But then she helped me.

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Speaker 2: With my auditions and applications for drama school, all of

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Speaker 2: which I did secretly away from my parents, and I

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Speaker 2: got into the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts

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Speaker 2: on a scholarship because there was no way I was

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Speaker 2: going to be able to pay to go, and miraculously

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Speaker 2: I had this scholarship, and so that was the moment

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Speaker 2: of truth. I had to go to my dad, who

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Speaker 2: knew I was supposed to be going to Oxford Brooks

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Speaker 2: University to do law, and.

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Speaker 3: Say, this thing has happened.

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Speaker 2: So I will never forget going to him and saying, Daddy,

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Speaker 2: I have something to tell you.

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Speaker 3: Said what is it?

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Speaker 2: I said, I'm gonna go to drama school and said

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Speaker 2: and he went, what is drama school? I said, well,

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Speaker 2: it's a place I want to be an actor. You

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Speaker 2: want to go and be a caught jester. I was

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Speaker 2: just like, no, no, it's not. It's not a school

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Speaker 2: for court jesters. It's it's I'm going to be an actor.

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Speaker 2: And the thing was, and I didn't realize it. At

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Speaker 2: the time, there was so few representatives of true success

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Speaker 2: on television or in films for my parents to go, oh,

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Speaker 2: so you're going to be because Sidney Poitier and Denzel Washington.

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Speaker 3: That was pie in the sky stuff.

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Speaker 2: That was that's not going to be us on a

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Speaker 2: counselor state in North London. That's not the trajectory. So

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Speaker 2: it was just like that that that's not gonna happen.

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Speaker 2: What are you talking about? But the one thing that

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Speaker 2: caught his attention was the scholarship, and I said, but

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Speaker 2: I've got this scholarship. Ah, scholarship, we can tell everyone

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Speaker 2: you are a scholar. So that that was the thing

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Speaker 2: as long as he had something he could show off

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Speaker 2: to his friends about. So so that's so I ended

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Speaker 2: up doing three years of drama school at LAMBDA, and

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Speaker 2: they just came on thinking, well, okay, now you're going

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Speaker 2: to do a proper job. Are you now going to

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Speaker 2: go to law school or whatever? No, like, this is

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Speaker 2: now what I'm going to be doing. And it wasn't

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Speaker 2: until I am about two or three years after I'd

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Speaker 2: graduated from drama school, I got to play Henry the

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Speaker 2: sixth and the Royal Shakespeare Company production of those plays,

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Speaker 2: and my dad, who had suffered a lot of racism

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Speaker 2: in the UK, he had first come to the UK

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Speaker 2: in the sixties and seventies, and he just couldn't get

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Speaker 2: his head around the fact that any black man was

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Speaker 2: playing the King of England and that it was his son.

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Speaker 2: And that was the day beyond which he became my

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Speaker 2: number one fan. You couldn't talk to him without just

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Speaker 2: boring you to death with my acting.

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Speaker 3: And so that was the turning point.

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Speaker 1: That's so amazing. What a cool experience experience to get

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Speaker 1: to have with your family. And oh gosh, I also

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Speaker 1: think your point about representation, how we see each other

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Speaker 1: or see ourselves in these spaces, really can shift your

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Speaker 1: whole experience. And to think about what you got to

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Speaker 1: see and didn't get to see for yourself as a

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Speaker 1: young man. You know, the significance of the character on

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Speaker 1: La Law, the significance of this experience at the Royal

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Speaker 1: Shakespeare Company for your father. It the ripple effect that

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Speaker 1: goes sort of back and forward generationally when people take

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Speaker 1: up space and change other people's experience in that space

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Speaker 1: is so profound. Yeah, and it makes me think about

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Speaker 1: something I remember reading this. You know years ago, I

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Speaker 1: loved the balls of it, and while the experience is different,

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Speaker 1: I remember feeling like, honestly, I was like, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: love that he said that. You know, I had this

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Speaker 1: sort of exclamation because you talked. I mean, it's got

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Speaker 1: to be almost ten years ago.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: You said, you know, you don't want to be sent

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Speaker 1: scripts if the role is the best friend who's black, right,

359
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Speaker 1: And I remember thinking like, that's exactly how I feel.

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Speaker 1: I'm so sick of being sent scripts for the girlfriend, right,

361
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Speaker 1: Like why can't I be my own person as a woman?

362
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Speaker 1: Why do I only exist if I'm in a relationship

363
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Speaker 1: on screen with a man? And you making that statement

364
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Speaker 1: in your experience as a black man, and who you

365
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Speaker 1: get to be, what roles you get to embody on screen?

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Speaker 1: I loved the frankness of it, and I loved the

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Speaker 1: boldness of it. And it's so hard because I want

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Speaker 1: to talk about things you've done since then, but we're

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Speaker 1: not allowed to talk about our work on strike. So

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out how to ask you questions

371
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Speaker 1: without details. But I am curious in the you know,

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Speaker 1: nearly a decade since that interview, when you've done all

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Speaker 1: of these things, these unbearably beautiful roles in your career.

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Speaker 1: Do you feel the same way. Do you feel like

375
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Speaker 1: the things you've been able to say and do have

376
00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:28,760
Speaker 1: helped shift the industry for you? You know, how do

377
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:32,840
Speaker 1: you look back at that beginning and where you sit

378
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:35,320
Speaker 1: today as an actor and the way you do get

379
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:36,480
Speaker 1: to represent yourself?

380
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Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much for acknowledging that. You know,

381
00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:45,520
Speaker 2: for us as actors, especially when you're at the beginning

382
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:52,879
Speaker 2: of your career, you can often feel that your existence,

383
00:24:53,040 --> 00:25:02,399
Speaker 2: your success, your ascendancy is very much predicated on not

384
00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 2: being seen to be what could be deemed to be

385
00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:12,359
Speaker 2: problematic in.

386
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Speaker 3: Relation to the boat.

387
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, exactly, don't rock the boat. Don't have a

388
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:22,120
Speaker 2: false sense of yourself. But I've had that from day one,

389
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:28,160
Speaker 2: you know, leaving drama school, I remember meeting agents and saying,

390
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Speaker 2: I want to go up for roles that are not

391
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Speaker 2: just race specific.

392
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Speaker 3: I want to be considered for.

393
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Speaker 2: The roles that white actors are going up for, because

394
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Speaker 2: at that time, and to a certain extent even now,

395
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,760
Speaker 2: they would often have more dimension because they were they

396
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 2: were they were being written as front and center, they

397
00:25:52,560 --> 00:26:02,240
Speaker 2: were being written as important, as complex, as aspirational, and

398
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:07,399
Speaker 2: there was less way less of that if it was

399
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:12,680
Speaker 2: centered around a specifically black character. So outside of being

400
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,440
Speaker 2: able to create those roles for myself in a world

401
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:22,120
Speaker 2: where I was still before, I decided that producing and

402
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 2: creating the kind of things I would want to be

403
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:29,040
Speaker 2: in was something at my disposal. My way of handling

404
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:32,560
Speaker 2: that was to say, okay, for me, when I get

405
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:34,720
Speaker 2: out of bed every day, the first thought I have

406
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:37,040
Speaker 2: is not I am a black man. How am I

407
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:39,000
Speaker 2: going to go out into the world and do black things?

408
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:41,919
Speaker 3: That is just not. I am a human being.

409
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:47,119
Speaker 2: I am complicated, complex, I am multifaceted. I am good

410
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:50,199
Speaker 2: and bad and everything in between. And I want to

411
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:54,000
Speaker 2: be able to mirror humanity back to itself in ways

412
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 2: that I understand as a human being. And so the

413
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 2: way to do that at that point in my career

414
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 2: was to say, do not think of me as a

415
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 2: quote unquote black actor.

416
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 3: And there were agents who loved at me. Literally.

417
00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:12,640
Speaker 2: I had an agent who I said that to who

418
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:17,000
Speaker 2: was just like, they stipulate and what am I going

419
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 2: to put you up for an eleven year old girl?

420
00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:21,800
Speaker 3: He was sort of playing dumb.

421
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:25,159
Speaker 2: He knew exactly what I meant, but you know, there

422
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:28,360
Speaker 2: was a status quo, and that, to my point earlier,

423
00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:32,200
Speaker 2: is the danger of sort of being forthright about what

424
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:32,880
Speaker 2: you want to do.

425
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:34,359
Speaker 3: But I stuck to my guns.

426
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,040
Speaker 2: I found an agent who believed in my perspective or

427
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 2: it was at least, to go on that ride with me,

428
00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:44,439
Speaker 2: and that's what led to me being playing Henry the

429
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:48,320
Speaker 2: Sixth that the at the Royal Shakespeare Company and doing

430
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:52,399
Speaker 2: projects that were not very specific because even though I

431
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,800
Speaker 2: now have the words to put to it now that

432
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:57,880
Speaker 2: I didn't have then, but the fact of the matter

433
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:00,080
Speaker 2: is I had a knowing then and I have it

434
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 2: absolutely now that you cannot be what you cannot see, yes,

435
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:10,240
Speaker 2: and I am a big believer in being part of

436
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:12,880
Speaker 2: the solution, not part of the problem. And so therefore

437
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:19,959
Speaker 2: I refused to accept stereotypical caricature roles that I felt

438
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:25,800
Speaker 2: continued to denigrate what I personally would want to see

439
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 2: as representations of black men on screen, and so I

440
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:37,359
Speaker 2: would only participate in projects where complexity, transcendency, inspiration, aspiration,

441
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 2: all of those things that I see. And this is

442
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:43,560
Speaker 2: where it's important in relation to my formative years in Nigeria,

443
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 2: I saw that growing up. So it was something I

444
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 2: knew was real, even though the society I was now

445
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 2: living in the UK for some reason was not necessarily

446
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,760
Speaker 2: showing that to me in a pervasive way. And I

447
00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:01,240
Speaker 2: knew that I had to be part of the solution.

448
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:08,240
Speaker 2: And so you know, I constantly till today gravitate towards

449
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:13,000
Speaker 2: those kinds of stories, and as I continue to build

450
00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 2: my career, I butt it up against the fact that

451
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 2: there is resistance to those kind of stories being told,

452
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:25,720
Speaker 2: and I think there is a fear around I hate

453
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:27,959
Speaker 2: this phrase because I actually black and brown people are

454
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:31,680
Speaker 2: the global majority, but what I guess we would call minorities.

455
00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 2: There is a sort of fear about seeing them front

456
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:41,280
Speaker 2: and center or being inspirational or it because it upsets

457
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:48,600
Speaker 2: the status quo of male, white, middle class apex predator transcendency.

458
00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:53,479
Speaker 2: And so even if that is sometimes an unconscious bias,

459
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 2: it's a bias all the same, and it's something to

460
00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 2: be thought, it's something to be challenged, it's something to

461
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 2: be eroded because it's not reflective of the world we

462
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:06,160
Speaker 2: live in. And so it's absolutely crucial this medium that

463
00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:09,200
Speaker 2: we are afforded the opportunity to be and has such

464
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 2: enormous global impact. It's you know, it's the reason why

465
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 2: ex presidents have deals at certain companies that will remain

466
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 2: nameless during the strike. But you know, it's it's just

467
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:28,280
Speaker 2: such a globally important means of education, inspiration, culture shifts,

468
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:32,479
Speaker 2: and you know, I have tasked myself with, you know,

469
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:35,840
Speaker 2: being being additive and not irrosive when it comes to

470
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:37,320
Speaker 2: the things I choose to do.

471
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,480
Speaker 1: I love that. And now a word from our sponsors.

472
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:54,600
Speaker 1: It's so important not to forget what a privilege our

473
00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:58,720
Speaker 1: relative platforms are. And it's it's so interesting to me,

474
00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 1: you know, this this idea that you're bringing up about

475
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:06,480
Speaker 1: what the realities of who we are as humans globally

476
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:13,120
Speaker 1: really are factually statistically, and then you've got these very bizarre,

477
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:18,600
Speaker 1: as you said, sort of status quo experiences or illusions

478
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 1: that people really want to hold on to. And even

479
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 1: for me, I had a really wild moment with my therapist,

480
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 1: who's my favorite person. I talk about him all the time.

481
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: Trevor's my guy, and we had this conversation recently where

482
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 1: I said something about like, well, who's ever had more

483
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 1: permission you know, blah blah blah blah than me? And

484
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:44,160
Speaker 1: he just said, but you don't. You've been raised in

485
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:47,080
Speaker 1: this same society that has told you what your value

486
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 1: as a woman is, in an industry that's told you

487
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:51,720
Speaker 1: what your relative value is as a woman who's a

488
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:55,400
Speaker 1: certain kind of pretty per other people's opinion, who could

489
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:58,280
Speaker 1: service certain kinds of characters in service of men on

490
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 1: screen in certain kinds of ways. And I mean, he

491
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:04,080
Speaker 1: just broke this whole thing down for me, and I

492
00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, you're right, and I forget

493
00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 1: you know that I got on my first TV show

494
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 1: in the early aughts when tabloid media was at its

495
00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:16,480
Speaker 1: prime and we were ripping apart women like Britney Spears,

496
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 1: you know, for clickbait, and like, it's such a wild

497
00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 1: thing to realize the influence of a system. And even

498
00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 1: for me, by the way, as I'm only I'm only

499
00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:34,120
Speaker 1: one proximal degree away from pale mail and stale, you know,

500
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:36,960
Speaker 1: I was. I was born as a white woman in

501
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:40,000
Speaker 1: America in the year I was and still what I've

502
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:44,239
Speaker 1: experienced in terms of the upset that so many of

503
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 1: those typical people in power have at a woman who

504
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:54,200
Speaker 1: is educated, political, outspoken, and whose entire mission is to

505
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 1: burn down a white head inormative patriarchy and go out

506
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:01,719
Speaker 1: here and be part of this beautiful global populace. And

507
00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,800
Speaker 1: people are like, you are a nightmare, and I'm like, okay, cool,

508
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:09,560
Speaker 1: Like I'd love to be a nightmare to you. You know,

509
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:11,360
Speaker 1: what are the rest of us going to go out

510
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 1: here and do?

511
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:14,440
Speaker 3: And I I.

512
00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 1: Just I get so excited when people set examples as

513
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:23,440
Speaker 1: you have, where you get to go and make beautiful work,

514
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: and you get to go and do inspirational art, and

515
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:31,640
Speaker 1: you're not you're not nervous to say that there's a

516
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:34,680
Speaker 1: there's a mission in it in every step of the

517
00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:38,239
Speaker 1: way for you. It does take courage to do that.

518
00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:41,400
Speaker 1: And so I guess I'm realizing in this moment I

519
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 1: want to say thank you, well.

520
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 3: Well, thank you, thank you for saying that.

521
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:50,600
Speaker 2: And look, the reality is that we are all products

522
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:54,600
Speaker 2: of our environment, including white men. If all you have

523
00:33:54,720 --> 00:34:00,200
Speaker 2: been told your entire existence is that you are the

524
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:07,400
Speaker 2: the pinnacle of society in the world, and everything around

525
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:09,280
Speaker 2: you is evidence of that.

526
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:14,759
Speaker 3: You are you are that is going to inform your behavior.

527
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:18,320
Speaker 2: So you know, I don't I don't blame anyone for

528
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:22,479
Speaker 2: being a product of their environment. But where I draw

529
00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:27,200
Speaker 2: the line is when that is now being wheeled as

530
00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:30,360
Speaker 2: a cudgel, When that is being wheeled as a weapon

531
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:36,200
Speaker 2: to marginalize other people because of a false supremacist narrative,

532
00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:43,600
Speaker 2: that is just unequivocally problematic. And you know, our industry,

533
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 2: a lot of the people who run it are products

534
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:53,959
Speaker 2: of that environment, and the bias sometimes is not intentional,

535
00:34:54,160 --> 00:34:59,800
Speaker 2: it's it's just inherent. And so I feel like my job,

536
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:06,880
Speaker 2: to a certain extent is to highlight where we all

537
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 2: have blind spots. I have blind spots as a man.

538
00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 2: You know, I've produced movies. I remember doing a film

539
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:16,719
Speaker 2: a while ago where this was a scene in a

540
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:23,279
Speaker 2: police station and it took a woman on set to go,

541
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:28,160
Speaker 2: every cop in this police station is a guy, and

542
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:31,080
Speaker 2: we it was. It was a film set in south

543
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:34,920
Speaker 2: central Los Angeles. And and if you go into a

544
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:38,480
Speaker 2: police station there there are white there are black cops,

545
00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:42,520
Speaker 2: white cops, females male, there there's the plethoram And for

546
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:47,000
Speaker 2: whatever reason, I don't know who made the choice, but

547
00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:50,399
Speaker 2: none of us being did anything but right.

548
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:53,360
Speaker 3: And as a producer on.

549
00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:56,440
Speaker 2: That, on that film, I thought I was like, oh

550
00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 2: my gosh, stop, everything stops. I don't care what it

551
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:02,680
Speaker 2: says where we're going to be getting the uniforms from.

552
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:06,080
Speaker 2: But we cannot be part of the problem, like this

553
00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:09,279
Speaker 2: is not what a police station in south central Los

554
00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:10,520
Speaker 2: Angeles looks like.

555
00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:13,359
Speaker 3: Let's fix it.

556
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:15,920
Speaker 2: But I definitely, and I only say that to say,

557
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,520
Speaker 2: I'm sure there's a myriad of ones I didn't catch,

558
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 2: but we all have these blind spots, and for me,

559
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:24,799
Speaker 2: I have made peace with the fact that we all

560
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:31,319
Speaker 2: have biases. I have a bias towards African Black, you know,

561
00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 2: things that represent who I am, and I want to

562
00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:37,600
Speaker 2: see that on screen. I have blind spots when it

563
00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:43,000
Speaker 2: comes to Native Americans or Hispanic people or you know,

564
00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:46,960
Speaker 2: as I just given that example, women at times. And

565
00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:55,040
Speaker 2: so it's about there being more people, more different kinds

566
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:59,799
Speaker 2: of people in positions of power, whereby we are going

567
00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:03,960
Speaker 2: to do that normal human thing of pushing our own bias.

568
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:09,520
Speaker 2: But there's enough variation that you go, oh, okay, so

569
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:12,040
Speaker 2: that we need a bit of that. I didn't didn't

570
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:16,680
Speaker 2: didn't spot that, missed that one. But when when it's

571
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:20,960
Speaker 2: primarily one demographic that now is going on to just

572
00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:25,759
Speaker 2: completely dictate what the entire I mean, it's you know,

573
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:32,120
Speaker 2: Hollywood is such a culturally impactful industry, and and that's

574
00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:35,439
Speaker 2: the thing that that has to be shifted and and

575
00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:39,280
Speaker 2: and that you know, to your point earlier about my

576
00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:43,839
Speaker 2: my more philanthropic work, That's what also happened when I

577
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:47,440
Speaker 2: had three sons. I was one of three boys, and

578
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:51,400
Speaker 2: then I had a girl, and my world completely changed.

579
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:57,440
Speaker 2: I was just like, oh, my gosh, I have.

580
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 3: A limb.

581
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:05,800
Speaker 2: This girl is like my heart walking outside my body

582
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:09,640
Speaker 2: around the world. I just I love all of my children,

583
00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:13,759
Speaker 2: but there was something so profound about being one of

584
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:16,440
Speaker 2: three boys, having three boys, and then having a girl,

585
00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:21,240
Speaker 2: and so the notion that she could or would be

586
00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:25,560
Speaker 2: marginalized on the basis of being a girl was something

587
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:33,799
Speaker 2: I took incredibly personally and it affected my work choices

588
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:37,160
Speaker 2: in terms of certain films I went on to do

589
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:42,360
Speaker 2: that centered young specifically Black girls, where I was in

590
00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:47,640
Speaker 2: a smaller role in relation to them. That really was like, no, no, no,

591
00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:50,439
Speaker 2: that I am producing this film, I know, but this

592
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:53,920
Speaker 2: kind of person needs to be front and center because

593
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:57,520
Speaker 2: I need to send a message to my daughter. And

594
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 2: that went on to be the driving force for, you know,

595
00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:06,839
Speaker 2: the scholarship for girls that we have in Nigeria. And

596
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:10,760
Speaker 2: you know when that when that bring Back our Girls

597
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:15,440
Speaker 2: campaign began with the Boko Haram terrorist attacks in Nigeria,

598
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:19,560
Speaker 2: and you know, obviously as a Nigerian, but also as

599
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:22,480
Speaker 2: a father to a girl, and when the thing that

600
00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:27,400
Speaker 2: primarily was being denied these girls was an education, that's

601
00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:31,879
Speaker 2: when I just thought, Okay, I've got to somehow find

602
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:35,080
Speaker 2: a way again to be part of the solution and

603
00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:37,680
Speaker 2: be a drop in the ocean of saying to those

604
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:42,880
Speaker 2: girls that they are of value, their education is necessitous

605
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:47,440
Speaker 2: for continued development of Nigerian culture. Nigeria is a very

606
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:51,640
Speaker 2: patriarchal country and so in my own way, I wanted

607
00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:55,319
Speaker 2: to be able to just signify to them that for me,

608
00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:58,680
Speaker 2: I see them, I want to help. And that's how

609
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:03,279
Speaker 2: the scholarship for girls again, that's so beautiful.

610
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:07,360
Speaker 1: And what I love about what you're saying is the

611
00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:10,960
Speaker 1: willingness to acknowledge where our blind spots are doesn't necessarily

612
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:14,719
Speaker 1: have to mean something's wrong with you or that you're

613
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:18,960
Speaker 1: a bad person when we are able to grow, you know,

614
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:21,399
Speaker 1: the way I think about it is and talking about

615
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:24,319
Speaker 1: our particulars. You know, you as a black man, me

616
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:29,200
Speaker 1: as a white woman, like the people whose experiences I

617
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:33,359
Speaker 1: learn about that viscerally affect me and that I can

618
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:39,040
Speaker 1: relate to in my own way. I think as I

619
00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:41,919
Speaker 1: move through my life, those are the people who never

620
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 1: leave me. Like when I walk into a room and

621
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 1: sometimes I'm the only woman in the room, who else

622
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:49,719
Speaker 1: am I carrying with me? In my perspective? Who else

623
00:40:49,719 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 1: am I looking for? On set? When will I stop

624
00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:54,239
Speaker 1: and say, hey, have we noticed who's not in this

625
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:58,600
Speaker 1: room and should be? And I think it's really special

626
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:02,160
Speaker 1: to hear you talk about the inherent experience as a

627
00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:04,759
Speaker 1: man and a father, one of three boys and a

628
00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:08,280
Speaker 1: father to boys. You only know what you know until

629
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:11,120
Speaker 1: you have a daughter, and then you see the world

630
00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 1: through her eyes, and suddenly your perspective grows yet again.

631
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:21,799
Speaker 1: And it makes me think so much about how we've

632
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:24,719
Speaker 1: seen consistently, You know, when you talk about the industry

633
00:41:24,719 --> 00:41:25,319
Speaker 1: we work in.

634
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 3: Or.

635
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:31,839
Speaker 1: School age children around the world, when we include more

636
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:35,520
Speaker 1: people at the decision making table, when we around the

637
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:39,280
Speaker 1: world center to the education of girls, education for boys

638
00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:41,880
Speaker 1: gets better when there are more people like us in

639
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:46,240
Speaker 1: rooms where decisions are made. Projects do better. Companies actually

640
00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:49,880
Speaker 1: have a better ROI So having more women and people

641
00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 1: of color in your c suites actually means you're just

642
00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 1: going to make more money. So it's not simply a

643
00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:59,640
Speaker 1: moral imperative. It's a smart decision for the forward motion

644
00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:04,439
Speaker 1: of the world. And having worked on global education for

645
00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:09,399
Speaker 1: so long, when I read about your work, it felt

646
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:11,720
Speaker 1: like someone put a little more oxygen in the room,

647
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:15,160
Speaker 1: because it is I think a gift for us to

648
00:42:15,239 --> 00:42:19,960
Speaker 1: be in the most connected generation in history. But it's

649
00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:24,600
Speaker 1: also something I know causes feelings of helplessness for people

650
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:27,560
Speaker 1: around the world. Because we hear about what happens to

651
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:31,160
Speaker 1: these girls, we hear about this Boko Haram attack. Folks

652
00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:33,960
Speaker 1: are helping to call attention to it and bring back

653
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:36,879
Speaker 1: our girls. Is trending online and then you go book

654
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:41,440
Speaker 1: what else do we do? Is this enough? And to

655
00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:48,320
Speaker 1: have watched what you built and the launch of your foundation,

656
00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:52,400
Speaker 1: and again the way you spend the privilege of a platform,

657
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:56,400
Speaker 1: not just centering young women on screen and taking a

658
00:42:56,400 --> 00:42:59,160
Speaker 1: step back, you know, as an actor who's used to

659
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:02,080
Speaker 1: being lead in his projects and saying I'm going to

660
00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:04,440
Speaker 1: give up some of this, you know, privilege of how

661
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:07,920
Speaker 1: the lines are divvied up here. But to use that

662
00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:10,839
Speaker 1: platform and say when I go out and promote, when

663
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:13,720
Speaker 1: I have the ear of the biggest talk show hosts

664
00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: in Hollywood, New York and London, I'm going to talk

665
00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:20,320
Speaker 1: about these girls. I'm gonna I'm gonna let the world

666
00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:23,400
Speaker 1: know about what the education system in Nigeria looks like

667
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:27,400
Speaker 1: and what these girls deserve. Again, I think of the

668
00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:31,640
Speaker 1: ripple effect that you have it and it really does

669
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:35,040
Speaker 1: create a massive shift.

670
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:41,840
Speaker 2: And that's the power again of what we do. Because

671
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:46,000
Speaker 2: the reason I love to do that on screen is

672
00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:52,640
Speaker 2: for that little white girl in Idaho to feel connection

673
00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:59,240
Speaker 2: to a little black girl from Uganda who plays chess,

674
00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:04,719
Speaker 2: and the little girl and Idaho loves chess, and the

675
00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:07,200
Speaker 2: likelihood that she will ever meet someone like that might

676
00:44:07,239 --> 00:44:12,160
Speaker 2: be incredibly remote, but there's a connection. And that's the thing.

677
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:15,319
Speaker 2: You know, Until you walk in someone's shoes, you don't

678
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:19,360
Speaker 2: really know who they are, so to speak, and especially

679
00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:23,800
Speaker 2: in a world that unfortunately has become increasingly divided. Ironically,

680
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:28,200
Speaker 2: the closer we are by way of proximity, the more

681
00:44:28,239 --> 00:44:32,440
Speaker 2: divided it seems like we are. In some ways, it's

682
00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:36,480
Speaker 2: extraordinary what can happen when, for whatever reason, you are

683
00:44:36,560 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 2: in the proximity of someone, for two hours, just two hours,

684
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:44,160
Speaker 2: and that tends to be around about the time that

685
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:48,239
Speaker 2: a film is or if it's a TV show, you

686
00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:52,800
Speaker 2: have even longer. And it's extraordinary what can be achieved.

687
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:56,920
Speaker 2: I mean the Girls Scholarship. You know, I have a

688
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,800
Speaker 2: wonderful relationship with Oprah Winfrey, who I did a film

689
00:44:59,800 --> 00:45:04,480
Speaker 2: with and we played mother and son, and it led

690
00:45:04,560 --> 00:45:13,320
Speaker 2: to me going to her academy for girls in South Africa,

691
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:20,560
Speaker 2: and three hundred South African girls, a lot of whom

692
00:45:20,719 --> 00:45:28,800
Speaker 2: were coming out of sexual violence, poverty, living in refugee camps, abuse,

693
00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:34,759
Speaker 2: just every challenge you can imagine, and they're being afforded

694
00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:40,799
Speaker 2: this opportunity on the basis of their intellect to go

695
00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 2: to an academy where that will be nurtured into its

696
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:48,879
Speaker 2: greatest potential. And Oprah did that because she saw herself

697
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:53,600
Speaker 2: reflected in these kids. Her story is one very much

698
00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:57,799
Speaker 2: rooted in everything I just said, all of those challenges

699
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:02,600
Speaker 2: she dealt with as a young person, and so given

700
00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:07,040
Speaker 2: the platform, given what she's been blessed with, she recognized

701
00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:13,280
Speaker 2: what her plus them could equal, not just for South Africa,

702
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:16,319
Speaker 2: but for the world. And I went and it was

703
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:20,759
Speaker 2: this sort of incubator for greatness. I just thought, Wow,

704
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:26,480
Speaker 2: what an amazing thing. And by seeing again, you cannot

705
00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 2: be what you cannot see.

706
00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:28,399
Speaker 3: I went to that.

707
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:31,960
Speaker 2: Academy and I saw what was possible, and that was

708
00:46:32,120 --> 00:46:35,359
Speaker 2: hundreds of girls. We currently have forty five girls that

709
00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:39,280
Speaker 2: we put through their education where with them for six years,

710
00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:44,280
Speaker 2: everything is provided, room board, all the books, all the facilities,

711
00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:50,000
Speaker 2: all the education, and there's a mental health component because

712
00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:53,720
Speaker 2: you know, some of our first girls had literally seen

713
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:56,680
Speaker 2: their parents murdered in front of their eyes because they

714
00:46:56,760 --> 00:47:01,759
Speaker 2: were there in the middle of these terrorist atrocities and

715
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:04,560
Speaker 2: things like that. And so you can go in and think, oh, yeah,

716
00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:06,560
Speaker 2: we're going to do this great thing and educate them,

717
00:47:06,600 --> 00:47:10,480
Speaker 2: but it's so far wide and deep what they actually need.

718
00:47:11,120 --> 00:47:13,080
Speaker 2: But once you know what it is they need and

719
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:16,480
Speaker 2: can afford it to them, it's the greatest joy imaginable.

720
00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:23,320
Speaker 2: But the reason I felt the need to really focus,

721
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:25,719
Speaker 2: and this is another thing Oprah taught me. She said,

722
00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:28,440
Speaker 2: people are going to pull on you left, right and centitive.

723
00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:30,720
Speaker 2: Part of that cause part of that court you're gonna

724
00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:33,160
Speaker 2: erode yourself and you're just going to be tired. Pick

725
00:47:33,280 --> 00:47:37,280
Speaker 2: one thing and do it to the absolute end. Theory

726
00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:41,720
Speaker 2: and funnel everything into that and I took that to heart.

727
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,040
Speaker 2: So girls' education is my thing, and I'm an ambassador

728
00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:48,200
Speaker 2: for Girl Rising, and then you know, I have a

729
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:53,719
Speaker 2: leadership scholarship for girls, and those forty five girls who

730
00:47:53,760 --> 00:47:57,640
Speaker 2: we are hoping become hundreds and thousands are my focus.

731
00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:04,600
Speaker 2: And in focusing on them at a time where the

732
00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:06,680
Speaker 2: bring back our girls, I just knew that was going

733
00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:09,239
Speaker 2: to fall out of the news cycle. I knew the

734
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:13,160
Speaker 2: hashtag and all of that, and it did. But it

735
00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:17,640
Speaker 2: is so meaningful for these girls to know that even

736
00:48:17,640 --> 00:48:19,560
Speaker 2: though a lot of the world seems to have moved on,

737
00:48:20,120 --> 00:48:23,719
Speaker 2: certain folks haven't and are here for the long haul.

738
00:48:24,440 --> 00:48:27,280
Speaker 2: That in and of itself, outside of the actual education

739
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:34,760
Speaker 2: of them, just means the world. Because for so many girls,

740
00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:40,680
Speaker 2: the feeling of being devalued, forgotten, discarded.

741
00:48:41,560 --> 00:48:43,160
Speaker 3: Is the wound.

742
00:48:44,040 --> 00:48:48,520
Speaker 2: That's the word you carry, and therefore just it becomes

743
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:51,520
Speaker 2: this sort of insurmountable thing in relation to what your

744
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:55,920
Speaker 2: actual capabilities are. But to know more than anything actually

745
00:48:56,080 --> 00:48:58,960
Speaker 2: to know I remember going to see some of these girls,

746
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:04,720
Speaker 2: just going almost meant more than anything else we could

747
00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:10,480
Speaker 2: afford them. And so that to to feel seen to

748
00:49:10,560 --> 00:49:13,040
Speaker 2: feel like you're you're at the center of a life

749
00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:19,080
Speaker 2: that is meaningful. Is just it's you cannot put a

750
00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:22,279
Speaker 2: dollar number on that. And so what we're trying to

751
00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:25,240
Speaker 2: do is not just educate girls, but shift the culture

752
00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:28,600
Speaker 2: in relation to who is valuable, who gets to be

753
00:49:28,640 --> 00:49:31,919
Speaker 2: a leader. There's it's very intentional calling a leadership scholarship

754
00:49:33,239 --> 00:49:36,319
Speaker 2: and so you know, look, I can go on and

755
00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:39,120
Speaker 2: on and on, but it's that that to me, it's

756
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:43,560
Speaker 2: about centering those who are worthy of it, not because

757
00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:49,800
Speaker 2: they are special, but because they are flesh and blood

758
00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:55,040
Speaker 2: human beings, traditionally marginalized. As you said earlier, we are

759
00:49:55,200 --> 00:49:58,480
Speaker 2: all better. I mean, there's a reason. There's design in

760
00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:01,080
Speaker 2: the fact that by a life wherever you go, fifty

761
00:50:01,080 --> 00:50:02,560
Speaker 2: percent of the population are men.

762
00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:04,680
Speaker 3: Fifty percent. We need each other.

763
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:11,279
Speaker 2: Why, whether it's female directors or actresses or politicians or

764
00:50:11,520 --> 00:50:15,000
Speaker 2: you know, all these arenas where women are marginalized, Why

765
00:50:15,040 --> 00:50:19,000
Speaker 2: would we do that when nature itself is telling us

766
00:50:19,719 --> 00:50:21,680
Speaker 2: there's a there's a yin and a yang to this.

767
00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:25,080
Speaker 2: There is that you need both sides of this coin.

768
00:50:25,600 --> 00:50:28,880
Speaker 2: How dumb is it to the It's like saying to

769
00:50:29,080 --> 00:50:32,080
Speaker 2: your body, I'm only going to work out my left

770
00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:36,200
Speaker 2: side right, you know, and you know that's going to

771
00:50:36,239 --> 00:50:38,799
Speaker 2: be great for this body. It just doesn't make any

772
00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:39,360
Speaker 2: sense to me.

773
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:50,800
Speaker 1: And now a word from our wonderful sponsors. Well, someone

774
00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:54,440
Speaker 1: I found thanks to Oprah years ago on her podcast,

775
00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:57,760
Speaker 1: she was doing a super Soul Sunday with a woman.

776
00:50:57,960 --> 00:51:01,880
Speaker 1: She's a famous Catholic nun, Sister Joan. She's in her nineties.

777
00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:04,440
Speaker 1: And you wouldn't exactly think a Catholic nun is going

778
00:51:04,480 --> 00:51:08,080
Speaker 1: to be a feminist leader, because you know, most religious

779
00:51:08,120 --> 00:51:11,960
Speaker 1: institutions are very patriarchal, at alone the Catholic Church. And

780
00:51:12,960 --> 00:51:15,840
Speaker 1: she said the most profound thing because Oprah said, I

781
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:18,319
Speaker 1: don't understand talk to me about how you became a

782
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:23,279
Speaker 1: feminist through your faith, And Sister Joan said, we've been

783
00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:26,959
Speaker 1: letting fifty percent of the population make one hundred percent

784
00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:30,879
Speaker 1: of the decisions, and you have to have the other

785
00:51:30,920 --> 00:51:33,560
Speaker 1: fifty percent if you want to have solutions that work

786
00:51:33,600 --> 00:51:37,359
Speaker 1: for one hundred percent of the world. And so I

787
00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:43,160
Speaker 1: love that you look at your foundation as a way,

788
00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:47,239
Speaker 1: through its language, through who its centers, to begin to

789
00:51:47,520 --> 00:51:52,280
Speaker 1: shift and highlight that other fifty percent for the folks

790
00:51:52,320 --> 00:51:54,880
Speaker 1: at home who didn't read every single thing there is

791
00:51:54,920 --> 00:51:57,319
Speaker 1: to read about it ahead of today's interview like I did.

792
00:51:57,719 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 1: Can you give us a quick overview of the year

793
00:52:01,600 --> 00:52:04,960
Speaker 1: you chose to start it and to your point, what

794
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:08,520
Speaker 1: these programs cover for these forty five girls and how

795
00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:12,320
Speaker 1: people who are no doubt inspired by our conversation today

796
00:52:12,360 --> 00:52:15,080
Speaker 1: can get involved. I'd love to set the scene for

797
00:52:15,160 --> 00:52:18,160
Speaker 1: them and in directors.

798
00:52:17,600 --> 00:52:22,160
Speaker 2: Speak, thank you, Thank you so much for the opportunity

799
00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:25,040
Speaker 2: to do that. So, yeah, we've been going about seven

800
00:52:25,280 --> 00:52:30,040
Speaker 2: years now, so I guess around twenty sixteen around where

801
00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:32,520
Speaker 2: they bring back our girls of it all was happening.

802
00:52:32,640 --> 00:52:38,320
Speaker 2: Is when we started this. We started with seven girls

803
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:43,480
Speaker 2: I believe back then and that we have We now

804
00:52:43,520 --> 00:52:48,720
Speaker 2: have forty five girls and we have four schools across

805
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:54,000
Speaker 2: Nigeria in Northern Nigeria in Jos and Abuja, and then

806
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:59,600
Speaker 2: in eastern Nigeria in Enugu and then in western Nigeria

807
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:06,480
Speaker 2: in Ibadan or your state. And you know, Nigeria is

808
00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:13,000
Speaker 2: the most populous country in Africa. One in four Africans

809
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:19,480
Speaker 2: is Nigerian, but twenty million kids are out of school.

810
00:53:19,680 --> 00:53:23,440
Speaker 2: Sixty percent of those are girls. So twelve million girls

811
00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:29,279
Speaker 2: out of school and that leaves them vulnerable to child pregnancy.

812
00:53:30,239 --> 00:53:38,920
Speaker 2: They are often subjected to abusive situations. They are often

813
00:53:40,239 --> 00:53:45,080
Speaker 2: very much operating beneath their potential from a societal point

814
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:52,000
Speaker 2: of view, very little education when it comes to menstrual

815
00:53:52,120 --> 00:53:57,160
Speaker 2: care or sex education or in all the things that

816
00:53:57,239 --> 00:54:02,400
Speaker 2: would keep society healthy because of them being fifty percent

817
00:54:03,200 --> 00:54:09,240
Speaker 2: often is not afforded them. But education being the big one.

818
00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:15,960
Speaker 2: Nigerian politics is incredibly male centered. There are so many

819
00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:20,279
Speaker 2: areas where that's the case. And a lot of this

820
00:54:20,400 --> 00:54:23,720
Speaker 2: was driven by a study done not a long ago

821
00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:26,279
Speaker 2: that basically said the way to end well poverty is

822
00:54:26,320 --> 00:54:31,799
Speaker 2: to educate girls globally. Yes, and you know, so what

823
00:54:31,840 --> 00:54:36,040
Speaker 2: we are we're taking that to heart. And like I say,

824
00:54:36,120 --> 00:54:41,279
Speaker 2: we have forty five girls now. We do fundraisers through

825
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:46,719
Speaker 2: the year. It's you know, I'll say it freely. I

826
00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:49,160
Speaker 2: put a lot of my own personal money into it

827
00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:55,640
Speaker 2: to keep these girls in school. We have a bunch

828
00:54:55,680 --> 00:54:58,359
Speaker 2: of celebrities who are friends of mine and sure tell

829
00:54:58,440 --> 00:55:02,359
Speaker 2: Edgy four who has supported this as well.

830
00:55:03,640 --> 00:55:06,640
Speaker 3: To help with the fundraising. But you know what we.

831
00:55:07,600 --> 00:55:11,400
Speaker 2: Started in twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen. You know, we wanted

832
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:14,440
Speaker 2: to get to the point where we clearly are not

833
00:55:14,840 --> 00:55:18,360
Speaker 2: just a foundation or a scholarship that's just flavor of

834
00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:22,839
Speaker 2: the month. You know. We had this cause and we're celebrities,

835
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:24,440
Speaker 2: and we're going to do this thing, and before we

836
00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:26,360
Speaker 2: know it, we get bored and we move on. So,

837
00:55:26,920 --> 00:55:30,480
Speaker 2: you know, gosh, I think I think it's more than

838
00:55:30,520 --> 00:55:33,560
Speaker 2: seven years now that we've actually been going and so

839
00:55:33,600 --> 00:55:36,480
Speaker 2: we're established. What's beautiful that's happening is some of the

840
00:55:36,520 --> 00:55:39,120
Speaker 2: girls who have gone through our program are now going

841
00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:44,120
Speaker 2: back and educating the new girls coming in. Gosh, a scholarship,

842
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:55,600
Speaker 2: you know, which is just it just it's just as

843
00:55:55,160 --> 00:55:59,359
Speaker 2: it's that is as satisfying a situation as you can

844
00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:03,719
Speaker 2: you can find, because that is just simply there's no

845
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:10,399
Speaker 2: way that's happening without the hard work that so many

846
00:56:10,440 --> 00:56:13,440
Speaker 2: people are putting in to leave these girls the kind

847
00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:18,479
Speaker 2: of self esteem that they now feel able to pay

848
00:56:18,520 --> 00:56:24,719
Speaker 2: forward into the next generation. So we are really hopeful

849
00:56:24,800 --> 00:56:27,960
Speaker 2: that we are going to now be able to get

850
00:56:28,080 --> 00:56:33,239
Speaker 2: corporate sponsors that can give us that security of five

851
00:56:33,320 --> 00:56:37,240
Speaker 2: year sponsorship so that we can go into having hundreds

852
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:43,040
Speaker 2: of girls going through our program, thousands of girls, because

853
00:56:43,080 --> 00:56:47,040
Speaker 2: if we have thousands of scholars You are shifting the

854
00:56:47,080 --> 00:56:52,040
Speaker 2: notion of Nigeria being a patriarchal society will because you're

855
00:56:52,200 --> 00:56:56,360
Speaker 2: raising up leaders. And when we talk to them, we say,

856
00:56:56,480 --> 00:56:58,880
Speaker 2: you owe us a debt. You owe us a debt

857
00:56:58,960 --> 00:57:03,320
Speaker 2: of going out there and being your absolute best self.

858
00:57:03,360 --> 00:57:05,839
Speaker 2: And it's not something we do in a dogmatic way,

859
00:57:05,880 --> 00:57:09,399
Speaker 2: but it's in an encouraging way. We are we are

860
00:57:09,680 --> 00:57:13,680
Speaker 2: giving you the platform to lead. We want you to lead.

861
00:57:13,880 --> 00:57:17,600
Speaker 2: We are challenging you to lead, not to be on

862
00:57:17,680 --> 00:57:20,960
Speaker 2: the periphery. That's why you were given a leadership scholarship.

863
00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:25,080
Speaker 2: We have a rigorous way of picking the girls who

864
00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:30,560
Speaker 2: we give these scholarships too. And so our hope is

865
00:57:30,600 --> 00:57:34,400
Speaker 2: to get to a point whereby having girls as leaders

866
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:38,920
Speaker 2: across Nigeria becomes the norm and that others will replicate

867
00:57:38,960 --> 00:57:42,440
Speaker 2: it all over what is Nigeria which is such a

868
00:57:42,480 --> 00:57:46,080
Speaker 2: populous country. And so you know, if people want to

869
00:57:46,160 --> 00:57:48,520
Speaker 2: join us on this quest.

870
00:57:50,880 --> 00:57:54,520
Speaker 1: That's so funny is Aprah calling?

871
00:57:56,360 --> 00:58:06,880
Speaker 2: That's calling? See this is how much I value you.

872
00:58:07,320 --> 00:58:14,440
Speaker 2: I'm ignoring Oprah for you, so flattered Mama was just

873
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:19,160
Speaker 2: calling me anyway, So yes, and that and she's partly

874
00:58:19,240 --> 00:58:20,440
Speaker 2: the inspiration for all of this.

875
00:58:20,600 --> 00:58:23,000
Speaker 3: That was kind of perfect. She's going to find so

876
00:58:23,120 --> 00:58:24,720
Speaker 3: cool anyway.

877
00:58:24,960 --> 00:58:29,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, GeneCo dot org is is where people can go

878
00:58:29,160 --> 00:58:32,919
Speaker 2: to to to join us in this quest, and yeah,

879
00:58:32,920 --> 00:58:34,400
Speaker 2: we'd love to have them.

880
00:58:34,400 --> 00:58:39,720
Speaker 1: Wonderful. It's just it's so very cool. And I just

881
00:58:39,800 --> 00:58:43,080
Speaker 1: have to say personally, you know, I've I've spent most

882
00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:46,560
Speaker 1: of my career traveling around the world to talk to

883
00:58:46,640 --> 00:58:51,320
Speaker 1: school girls and open primary schools and and talk to

884
00:58:51,440 --> 00:58:56,320
Speaker 1: families and visit with people whose lives are changed by education.

885
00:58:56,640 --> 00:59:04,640
Speaker 1: And HM, it's it's beautiful to hear about girls who've

886
00:59:04,640 --> 00:59:07,800
Speaker 1: gone through your program coming back to reinvest in the program.

887
00:59:07,800 --> 00:59:10,480
Speaker 1: And I just it's like, as you were talking, I

888
00:59:10,600 --> 00:59:13,760
Speaker 1: was imagining, you know, like when you do that those

889
00:59:13,800 --> 00:59:17,000
Speaker 1: connect the dot sort of pieces of artwork, like all

890
00:59:17,040 --> 00:59:19,640
Speaker 1: these little dots going out and moving across the country,

891
00:59:19,680 --> 00:59:23,960
Speaker 1: and thinking about these girls becoming executives and politicians, and

892
00:59:24,080 --> 00:59:26,920
Speaker 1: just like what's happened in the last seven years and

893
00:59:26,960 --> 00:59:28,760
Speaker 1: what will happen in the next seven and the seven

894
00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:31,919
Speaker 1: after that. It's really magnificent.

895
00:59:34,440 --> 00:59:36,760
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, thank you. You know, I think

896
00:59:36,800 --> 00:59:40,080
Speaker 2: if we all take up the challenge to be a

897
00:59:40,240 --> 00:59:43,720
Speaker 2: drop in the ocean of goodness. And then I can

898
00:59:44,560 --> 00:59:48,040
Speaker 2: sound a little sacchering and corny, but I really really

899
00:59:48,080 --> 00:59:52,600
Speaker 2: believe it that that's the way we move the needle on.

900
00:59:52,840 --> 00:59:56,200
Speaker 2: I think what all of humanity really wants and needs.

901
00:59:56,280 --> 00:59:59,480
Speaker 2: We can end well poverty if we just focus on

902
00:59:59,640 --> 01:00:03,400
Speaker 2: educator in girls globally. You know, there's so many of

903
01:00:03,440 --> 01:00:09,280
Speaker 2: the challenges we face would be eroded by us just

904
01:00:09,400 --> 01:00:12,840
Speaker 2: doing what, like I say, working both sides of the

905
01:00:12,840 --> 01:00:18,600
Speaker 2: body to keep the whole body strong. So you know, yeah,

906
01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:23,080
Speaker 2: g e a n co dot org is how people

907
01:00:23,160 --> 01:00:26,800
Speaker 2: can can join us in this question, gimco dot org.

908
01:00:27,560 --> 01:00:31,680
Speaker 2: And you know, it's the thing I've devoted my life to.

909
01:00:33,120 --> 01:00:37,360
Speaker 2: I think anyone out there who's listening and who's wondering,

910
01:00:37,480 --> 01:00:40,440
Speaker 2: because I completely agree with you, and I felt that

911
01:00:40,520 --> 01:00:44,200
Speaker 2: feeling of paralysis of like, oh, there's just so many

912
01:00:44,320 --> 01:00:47,919
Speaker 2: bad things, how can one be? You know, I gave

913
01:00:48,040 --> 01:00:50,400
Speaker 2: that fifty dollars, I gave that one hundred dollars, but

914
01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:53,320
Speaker 2: I still feel like is that enough? You know? I

915
01:00:53,320 --> 01:00:56,120
Speaker 2: would take Oprah's advice and just like, pick a thing

916
01:00:57,560 --> 01:01:01,600
Speaker 2: and just give it your all. And and actually by

917
01:01:01,640 --> 01:01:05,040
Speaker 2: picking a thing, you also have to be disciplined about

918
01:01:05,120 --> 01:01:08,400
Speaker 2: saying no to other things so that you can be

919
01:01:08,520 --> 01:01:12,960
Speaker 2: focused and effective and productive and not get overwhelmed and exhausted.

920
01:01:14,280 --> 01:01:16,560
Speaker 2: And if you feel bad about that thing you're having

921
01:01:16,560 --> 01:01:19,320
Speaker 2: to say no to, feel free to say to that person, look,

922
01:01:19,760 --> 01:01:22,120
Speaker 2: I'm focused on this thing over here. But you know,

923
01:01:22,200 --> 01:01:24,640
Speaker 2: you keep going with your thing, and hopefully we'll all

924
01:01:24,640 --> 01:01:27,560
Speaker 2: do our things really well and it'll all join up

925
01:01:27,600 --> 01:01:31,320
Speaker 2: to add to a mountain of goodness. And so, you know,

926
01:01:31,360 --> 01:01:34,920
Speaker 2: it's really helped me to find that focus because I

927
01:01:35,040 --> 01:01:38,480
Speaker 2: just I just found myself just feeling paralyzed into.

928
01:01:38,240 --> 01:01:41,960
Speaker 3: A state of inertia. And it has been.

929
01:01:41,920 --> 01:01:44,800
Speaker 2: It's been as much a blessing for me as I

930
01:01:44,840 --> 01:01:47,360
Speaker 2: hope it has been for these girls. It just you know,

931
01:01:47,400 --> 01:01:49,800
Speaker 2: you get out of bed every day, especially in our

932
01:01:49,880 --> 01:01:54,520
Speaker 2: crazy profession that can be so self centered inducing, just

933
01:01:54,560 --> 01:01:55,880
Speaker 2: to do something beyond that.

934
01:01:56,560 --> 01:02:00,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, is it? Do you think it's sunk in for

935
01:02:00,200 --> 01:02:03,640
Speaker 1: your daughter that she really inspired all of this? Does

936
01:02:03,680 --> 01:02:04,320
Speaker 1: she know yet?

937
01:02:06,480 --> 01:02:13,120
Speaker 2: She's eleven and I don't. I don't know. But there's

938
01:02:13,160 --> 01:02:22,840
Speaker 2: a way she hugs me. There's a way she hugs

939
01:02:22,880 --> 01:02:28,000
Speaker 2: me when we talk about this stuff that makes me

940
01:02:28,120 --> 01:02:33,920
Speaker 2: know she recognizes it, you know, it's it's sort of

941
01:02:34,120 --> 01:02:39,480
Speaker 2: non verbal at this point, which is I think right

942
01:02:39,640 --> 01:02:43,200
Speaker 2: for an eleven year old. You know.

943
01:02:44,800 --> 01:02:47,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, there are movies I've literally done because.

944
01:02:49,280 --> 01:02:53,240
Speaker 2: Of her, and I know she's very proud of them,

945
01:02:53,240 --> 01:02:55,080
Speaker 2: and they're her favorite movies of mine.

946
01:02:55,240 --> 01:02:57,640
Speaker 3: She completely ignores everything else I do.

947
01:03:00,240 --> 01:03:02,480
Speaker 1: It feels right for an eleven she's almost a teenager.

948
01:03:02,560 --> 01:03:04,680
Speaker 1: She's supposed to ignore you a little bit, right, Oh.

949
01:03:04,600 --> 01:03:06,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly exactly.

950
01:03:06,120 --> 01:03:09,920
Speaker 2: So I guess the short answer is, it's less about

951
01:03:11,120 --> 01:03:14,000
Speaker 2: in the moment. It's more a legacy thing for me.

952
01:03:14,320 --> 01:03:20,400
Speaker 2: You know, I really I want to be part of

953
01:03:21,040 --> 01:03:25,720
Speaker 2: helping manifest the world in which she doesn't have to

954
01:03:25,720 --> 01:03:30,320
Speaker 2: face some of the challenges her mom faced, or certainly

955
01:03:31,240 --> 01:03:35,080
Speaker 2: you know, mixed race girls like her have have had

956
01:03:35,120 --> 01:03:37,560
Speaker 2: to face, or black girls have had to face, or

957
01:03:37,600 --> 01:03:41,480
Speaker 2: girls generally have had to face because the world spun

958
01:03:41,560 --> 01:03:44,920
Speaker 2: a little bit more on its axis because daddy, you know,

959
01:03:45,320 --> 01:03:48,600
Speaker 2: tried to do a couple of things that she inspired.

960
01:03:48,800 --> 01:03:54,040
Speaker 2: So that's that's the Yeah, I think, I think. I

961
01:03:54,080 --> 01:03:57,960
Speaker 2: think my happiest moments are going to be probably deep

962
01:03:58,080 --> 01:04:01,000
Speaker 2: deep into my dotage, just sing wow, look at her.

963
01:04:01,080 --> 01:04:05,440
Speaker 2: Go yeah, And I hope. I hope I helped encourage

964
01:04:05,440 --> 01:04:07,040
Speaker 2: her towards taking flight.

965
01:04:07,640 --> 01:04:14,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, undoubtedly. And I I also would be remiss not

966
01:04:14,680 --> 01:04:15,280
Speaker 1: to say.

967
01:04:15,040 --> 01:04:17,080
Speaker 3: I I know.

968
01:04:18,680 --> 01:04:23,120
Speaker 1: That what your boys are learning by watching the way

969
01:04:23,880 --> 01:04:30,240
Speaker 1: their father stands up for their sister will cause incredible

970
01:04:30,280 --> 01:04:35,360
Speaker 1: ripple effects in their lives as well, because we need

971
01:04:35,440 --> 01:04:37,080
Speaker 1: we need more boys like you too.

972
01:04:38,200 --> 01:04:41,440
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you saying that and that, yes, we

973
01:04:41,560 --> 01:04:44,360
Speaker 2: focus a lot on my girl because of the scholarship.

974
01:04:44,400 --> 01:04:48,760
Speaker 3: But I truly truly believe that, you know.

975
01:04:48,960 --> 01:04:53,800
Speaker 2: I I sometimes men will say to me, gosh, wow,

976
01:04:53,880 --> 01:04:57,320
Speaker 2: so you're you're doing this girl's scholarship thing, like why why?

977
01:04:57,400 --> 01:04:58,200
Speaker 3: Why? Girls?

978
01:04:58,880 --> 01:05:03,840
Speaker 2: And it's because I truly believe that it needs to

979
01:05:03,880 --> 01:05:07,080
Speaker 2: be priorities for men, because I think that also sends

980
01:05:07,120 --> 01:05:14,480
Speaker 2: a message around the need for men to value women

981
01:05:14,600 --> 01:05:19,720
Speaker 2: and their contribution to society. And and yeah, my, my, my,

982
01:05:19,720 --> 01:05:23,160
Speaker 2: my boys are I will say, I'm blessed with boys

983
01:05:23,160 --> 01:05:26,480
Speaker 2: who are very mindful of that. It's something my wife

984
01:05:26,560 --> 01:05:31,880
Speaker 2: and I have tried to cultivate. But you know, stepping

985
01:05:31,880 --> 01:05:35,640
Speaker 2: away from the objectification of women, the disrespect of women,

986
01:05:35,800 --> 01:05:40,960
Speaker 2: the marginalized, marginalization, and the value of women is something

987
01:05:41,000 --> 01:05:46,720
Speaker 2: that that we just do not stand for in my household,

988
01:05:46,800 --> 01:05:53,880
Speaker 2: because again with that thing of feeling incapable of being contributed,

989
01:05:54,080 --> 01:05:57,400
Speaker 2: because it's also big you start with your own household

990
01:05:59,040 --> 01:06:03,040
Speaker 2: already does pretty majup. So yes, thank you for saying that.

991
01:06:03,280 --> 01:06:07,720
Speaker 2: And I've seen it to be true. They are wonderful,

992
01:06:07,800 --> 01:06:12,200
Speaker 2: wonderful young men, and yeah, I guess are living out

993
01:06:12,240 --> 01:06:18,680
Speaker 2: what I hope they've seen exemplified for them.

994
01:06:18,720 --> 01:06:20,520
Speaker 1: Well, you and your wife have been together, is it

995
01:06:20,560 --> 01:06:21,080
Speaker 1: twenty five.

996
01:06:20,960 --> 01:06:26,800
Speaker 2: Years now, we've married twenty five years, been together twenty

997
01:06:26,840 --> 01:06:29,720
Speaker 2: seven Yeah.

998
01:06:28,680 --> 01:06:31,400
Speaker 1: I mean I think you guys are probably setting a

999
01:06:31,480 --> 01:06:34,920
Speaker 1: pretty cool example in your house.

1000
01:06:34,960 --> 01:06:39,200
Speaker 3: Congratulations, thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, she's wonderful.

1001
01:06:39,240 --> 01:06:41,160
Speaker 3: My wife really really amazing woman.

1002
01:06:42,840 --> 01:06:46,280
Speaker 1: Well, I'm just so thrilled that I got to ask

1003
01:06:46,320 --> 01:06:49,040
Speaker 1: you all of these questions today. I look forward to

1004
01:06:49,080 --> 01:06:51,640
Speaker 1: a non strike time when we can also talk about

1005
01:06:51,680 --> 01:06:55,320
Speaker 1: the exciting things you're doing on screen. But this is

1006
01:06:55,760 --> 01:06:58,439
Speaker 1: it's so meaningful and I know will be so inspirational

1007
01:06:58,480 --> 01:07:02,840
Speaker 1: for our audience and certainly has been for me. So

1008
01:07:02,920 --> 01:07:05,520
Speaker 1: thank you for taking the time to share about the

1009
01:07:05,520 --> 01:07:08,640
Speaker 1: foundation and about your journey.

1010
01:07:10,080 --> 01:07:13,240
Speaker 3: Thank you. Thanks Sophia for giving me the time.

1011
01:07:13,320 --> 01:07:16,000
Speaker 2: And isn't it great that we can have a nice,

1012
01:07:16,080 --> 01:07:22,080
Speaker 2: robust conversation that isn't centered on you know, just the work,

1013
01:07:22,200 --> 01:07:25,120
Speaker 2: the work we do, but the work that what we

1014
01:07:25,200 --> 01:07:26,360
Speaker 2: do enables.

1015
01:07:26,080 --> 01:07:29,439
Speaker 3: Us to do it. That's a real blessing as well.

1016
01:07:29,480 --> 01:07:31,400
Speaker 3: So thank you. This has been wonderful.

1017
01:07:31,520 --> 01:07:34,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, well this is oh, thank you. This is the

1018
01:07:34,360 --> 01:07:37,760
Speaker 1: real beauty of life stuff. You know. I always joke

1019
01:07:37,800 --> 01:07:40,360
Speaker 1: that anyone who comes on my show joins team email.

1020
01:07:40,440 --> 01:07:42,600
Speaker 1: I'm like, you want to come talk about feelings and purpose,

1021
01:07:42,800 --> 01:07:46,840
Speaker 1: let's go. So I'm glad. I'm glad to have you

1022
01:07:46,880 --> 01:07:47,480
Speaker 1: on the team.

1023
01:07:47,720 --> 01:07:49,240
Speaker 3: You had me tearing up twice.

1024
01:07:49,320 --> 01:07:52,760
Speaker 2: They don't do that on podcasts, so I'm trying to

1025
01:07:52,760 --> 01:07:55,800
Speaker 2: be a butcher leading man over here for goodness sake.

1026
01:07:55,880 --> 01:07:57,320
Speaker 2: So he yea.

1027
01:07:59,720 --> 01:08:02,000
Speaker 3: Thank you, but no, this was great.

1028
01:08:02,400 --> 01:08:03,320
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it.

1029
01:08:03,880 --> 01:08:05,000
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you, David