Speaker 1: My next guest is on the phone. First time we've talked.
Speaker 1: No of his work. Is a former NFL wide receiver
Speaker 1: turned filmmaker who played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals,
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers, and the Baltimore Ravens. He retired to two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven and moved to LA to pursue a
Speaker 1: career in entertainment. Since then, he has going on to
Speaker 1: direct music videos, short films, feature films, television and wealth series.
Speaker 1: He's an NFL alum director Monkey Ball, Jim Monkey Paul
Speaker 1: Production Films and television executive and author of When I
Speaker 1: Just Read It last Night called hair Love. He currently
Speaker 1: is a television executive, like I stated early with Markey
Speaker 1: Paul Productions. Please welcome to money making conversations. My man,
Speaker 1: Matthew A Cherry, Hey, how you doing well? You've got
Speaker 1: a lot going on, you know, for to be a
Speaker 1: former football player. A couple of things. You know. First
Speaker 1: of all, you know a sport that I you know,
Speaker 1: a sport that I would never play because physically, uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I looked at it this weekend. I'm going,
Speaker 1: how do y'all do it? So do you look back Matthew,
Speaker 1: he go, how did I do it? Why did I
Speaker 1: do it? I don't, No, not at all. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's just uh, some people, you know, like
Speaker 1: when you when you're growing up, you live in certain
Speaker 1: environments and neighborhoods, and you know, it's kind of what
Speaker 1: all your friends are doing, and you know, you you
Speaker 1: want to kind of stay up the streets and make
Speaker 1: sure that you have something else going on. And you
Speaker 1: know football growing up in Chicago was uh what kind
Speaker 1: of that for me? So no, not at all Chicago.
Speaker 1: I was in Chicago. I lived in Chicago. I was
Speaker 1: I was producing, uh that could produce a Steve Harvest
Speaker 1: talk show from and um my man, I got closed
Speaker 1: winter clothes, but I had to buy in Chicago that
Speaker 1: I wear nowhere else. Hilarious. It gets pretty pretty crossed
Speaker 1: the up there. So do you miss the code? That's
Speaker 1: all I'm ask Do you miss the cold Chicago? My friend? No? No,
Speaker 1: I live in l A now, so you know, don't
Speaker 1: miss it all. So let's talk about you getting started
Speaker 1: in this business, because, like I said, you know everybody's
Speaker 1: stereo types individuals. You know your your football player when
Speaker 1: you start trying to get out of that window people
Speaker 1: can look at your life. M Why how uh is
Speaker 1: that is that even possible? Even if I like that
Speaker 1: to the fact that you know, I come from the
Speaker 1: inner city, Uh, Matthew, and I my degree is in mathematics.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a stand up comic, and people
Speaker 1: look at me like, okay, stand up comic. You're not
Speaker 1: Richard pryor you're not red Box. So people always want
Speaker 1: to block. You always tell people have to be careful
Speaker 1: to people who who you might consider your family or
Speaker 1: your loved ones or your best friends, because they can
Speaker 1: be the first people to throw out the negative statements
Speaker 1: and throw out the blocks. So so when you when
Speaker 1: you when did you? When did you start developing these skills?
Speaker 1: Did I did? I introduced you as directed and all
Speaker 1: that comes into play? When do you start developing these skills? Um?
Speaker 1: You know it was something I was always interested in,
Speaker 1: man um. You know, probably as early as high school. UM.
Speaker 1: I remember wanting to, uh, you know, kind of join
Speaker 1: like the radio and the TV club that they had
Speaker 1: and uh at my school. And you know, I major
Speaker 1: in the radio and TV broadcasting college. So you know
Speaker 1: I knew that I knew I always knew eventually, whenever
Speaker 1: I got done playing sports, that you know, this would
Speaker 1: be my kind of long term career, and it was
Speaker 1: just kind of a matter of what the approach might be.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I always always knew. Now that would I
Speaker 1: say all this? So you you you're no longer player
Speaker 1: professional football? You say you would moved to Los Angeles?
Speaker 1: Now did you knew would established relationship or you moved
Speaker 1: out there just to you know, you say, man, this
Speaker 1: is where I was supposed to be. I gotta go
Speaker 1: and get my feet wet and start making it happen. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know when when I was playing ball, um actually
Speaker 1: came out to l A for the first time in
Speaker 1: like oh five when I was with the Bengals, and
Speaker 1: this radio personality that I worked with in Cleveland at
Speaker 1: the radio station out there basically asked if I want
Speaker 1: to come out for the BT wards and just kind
Speaker 1: of hang out. And I was like, you know, this
Speaker 1: would be a good opportunity to kind of get eyes on,
Speaker 1: you know, the city and kind of see what it's like.
Speaker 1: And I just love that. It was just all about production,
Speaker 1: you know, like the coffee jobs, you got nothing but
Speaker 1: writers and they're writing scripts uh, you know, even the
Speaker 1: printing copy stores. You know, they're offering discounts on head
Speaker 1: shots and script printing, and it just felt right. And
Speaker 1: I was lucky enough to meet a person who was
Speaker 1: a part of this program called street Lights and street License,
Speaker 1: as nonprofit organization that kind of helps men and women
Speaker 1: of color get jobs as production assistance in the industry,
Speaker 1: like in mostly the commercial world, and um, basically, you know,
Speaker 1: I met her, we vibe asked her she would kind
Speaker 1: of put me down as a reference that she did,
Speaker 1: and um, I applied to this program him and I
Speaker 1: got in and so when I moved to l A,
Speaker 1: this was kind of like the only really relationship that
Speaker 1: I had coming out there. And I kind of came
Speaker 1: out here knowing that I was gonna be doing this
Speaker 1: like production assistant training program. And you know, as you know,
Speaker 1: production assistants like you do all the hide jobs like
Speaker 1: I know, where the moving to director's chairs, getting the
Speaker 1: talent out the trusting room, righting in the stage like
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But you know, it's a great opportunity
Speaker 1: to actually physically get on set and to kind of
Speaker 1: see what everybody does and trying to figure out what
Speaker 1: it is that you may want to do for a living.
Speaker 1: We know it's really important that you said that, because
Speaker 1: you know a lot of people they have standards. You know.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that, you know, but but I
Speaker 1: tell people when you as as a production assistant on
Speaker 1: the set that was called p A S. And And
Speaker 1: so you get you get to really get to really
Speaker 1: get into some areas where you wouldn't normally get if
Speaker 1: you were just a producer because a king, you know. Plus,
Speaker 1: you can like get into writer's rooms, you can ask reductions,
Speaker 1: you can you can be you can sit down next
Speaker 1: to a director. But you have to have your game plan.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't be annoying. You have to be
Speaker 1: a person that doesn't look too comfortable because a lot
Speaker 1: a lot of people want they want to just sit down,
Speaker 1: you know. In other words, you almost got to be
Speaker 1: just be in the back of the room and blend
Speaker 1: in and and a lot of people don't understand that.
Speaker 1: You always tell people in my life, I don't always
Speaker 1: and you might be the same way with you, Matthew,
Speaker 1: it's not about the financial opportunity. It's about the opportunity. Now,
Speaker 1: it's what you do with that opportunity. That could lead
Speaker 1: to a financial opportunity. And and a lot of people
Speaker 1: understand that just getting in the door that he said
Speaker 1: that really clear. And that's why I try to make
Speaker 1: sure people who come on my show let them note
Speaker 1: the end results. You know, Black Plansman is the end results. Okay.
Speaker 1: And and plus that's not his end end I shouldn't
Speaker 1: even say that. That's one of his accomplishments. We're all
Speaker 1: are aware of. But before that, he was just a
Speaker 1: b A And you know, I mean, and that's the
Speaker 1: thing though about in It's like, you know, sometimes when
Speaker 1: you come out there and you you kind of think
Speaker 1: you already know what you're doing, sometimes that can hinder
Speaker 1: you because, like you you may be closed off to
Speaker 1: kind of all these other opportunities, you know, And being
Speaker 1: a p A is it's such a great way to
Speaker 1: just like literally spend a little time with every department
Speaker 1: kind of Okay, do I want to get in hair
Speaker 1: and makeup? Do you want to be a grip or electrician?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like you really can kind
Speaker 1: of find your your your you know, whatever it is
Speaker 1: that you're trying to get into long term, you know, absolutely,
Speaker 1: So back to let's talk about hair love. Okay, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: like I said, I know, I have a daughter, all right,
Speaker 1: my wife. You know, uh, I've done my attempts over
Speaker 1: the years. My daughter said, don't mess with my hair
Speaker 1: no more, Dad, please stop. Okay, that's not what you do. Okay,
Speaker 1: I love you, but leave my hair along. What was
Speaker 1: the motivation behind hair love? Well, you know, it was
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, back in two that in seventeen.
Speaker 1: I am you know, very very active on social media,
Speaker 1: and I just really noticed this trend. I kept coming
Speaker 1: across all these videos of specifically African American fathers doing
Speaker 1: their daughter's hair, and you know, I always like trying
Speaker 1: to share a lot of family, friend and content on
Speaker 1: my social media, and it was I was just noticing
Speaker 1: this trend to where every time I shared like a
Speaker 1: video of a mom interacting with their kids, you know,
Speaker 1: they would do well because a lot of times the
Speaker 1: videos were cute, but it was every time it was
Speaker 1: a black dad and a black daughter or a black
Speaker 1: dad and their kids, period, they always just like overperformed.
Speaker 1: And I just really just noticed, you know, it seemed
Speaker 1: like it was kind of this double edged sword because
Speaker 1: like obviously the videos are very cute and touching. But
Speaker 1: I kind of learned that it was also because people
Speaker 1: weren't used to seeing black men depicted in this light,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, you know, we get
Speaker 1: all these negative stereotypes in the media, like for not
Speaker 1: around for our kids and you know, et cetera. And
Speaker 1: so them seeing like these dads that were taking the
Speaker 1: time to do their daughter's hair, it kind of felt
Speaker 1: like an anomaly. And for me, like I have a
Speaker 1: lot of I'm not a father yet, but I have
Speaker 1: a lot of friends of a young fathers, and there's
Speaker 1: not a nomaly to them, you know, Like rent is
Speaker 1: expensive everywhere and often now now how times you know,
Speaker 1: both parents have to work, and so mom gotta leave earlier,
Speaker 1: gotta go out of town or something, you know, Dad
Speaker 1: gotta step up going to letch kids go to school
Speaker 1: or or wherever. Looking crazy, right, you gotta get together.
Speaker 1: So I think that's when my daughter said, I was
Speaker 1: I had a looking crazy there, but I did step
Speaker 1: up though, I did step up. Bathe and Matthew, You're
Speaker 1: gonna be right back because I want to tell you
Speaker 1: everybody about this short film as well, which currently has
Speaker 1: over ten million views and will release decemate fan. Wow,
Speaker 1: right back with Morema Man Matthew H. Cherry changing the
Speaker 1: game on how people do things and how people you
Speaker 1: know you can do it. You know he started here
Speaker 1: and go there. You can be here. You can be
Speaker 1: you can make a transition life and not be afraid
Speaker 1: to be successful someplace. We'll be right back with more
Speaker 1: money making conversations. I just with Sean McDonald and you're
Speaker 1: listening to money making conversations talking to a a former
Speaker 1: NFL wide receiver. Transition made a decision. Hey, I went
Speaker 1: to school for this, all right. We all know that
Speaker 1: when you're dealing with athletics, there's a window, so you
Speaker 1: have to plan for that next life. His next life
Speaker 1: was to go to l A. Leave. You know, he
Speaker 1: born in Chicago, so he knew about that cold weather.
Speaker 1: So he knew there had to be an exit planning
Speaker 1: away from that cold weather. And so he went to
Speaker 1: l A where he still resides, and Monkey Paul Productions,
Speaker 1: where he resides television executive. And he created this a
Speaker 1: book called hair Love, and then the short film called
Speaker 1: hair Love and uh. He posted it December five on
Speaker 1: YouTube and now currently has a ten million views. I
Speaker 1: asked you matthew A Cherry. Did you expect that? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think you can ever predict kind
Speaker 1: of how a thing will be received. I mean, we
Speaker 1: had a little indication that would be well received because
Speaker 1: we had a theatrical release in front of Angry Verse
Speaker 1: to back in August was like August fourteen, I believe
Speaker 1: was the date, and um, you know, got a lot
Speaker 1: of love. It was kind of a universal, um good reception.
Speaker 1: You know, people families of all different backgrounds and types. Uh,
Speaker 1: it seemed like they were digging it and feeling it.
Speaker 1: And so the thing I was most excited about when
Speaker 1: it came to putting it online was just, you know
Speaker 1: it getting access to audiences that you know kind of
Speaker 1: don't have the resources to go to the movies every week,
Speaker 1: and you know, just getting it out there even more
Speaker 1: even internationally. And so yeah, it's been a crazy reception
Speaker 1: for sure. Now let's talk about bringing this this project
Speaker 1: to animation. Talk about that process. Yeah, you know, so
Speaker 1: we did a big started campaign for it two years ago. Um,
Speaker 1: it was kind of in part just because like this
Speaker 1: being a medium I had never done before animation, I
Speaker 1: knew that it would be hard for me to go
Speaker 1: to different studios and try to pitch it out right,
Speaker 1: you know, and especially being like a full story about
Speaker 1: a dad doing their daughter's hair, you know, like I
Speaker 1: knew would be something that I would have to show
Speaker 1: people as opposed to telling them. And so he did
Speaker 1: this Kickstarter campaign and it just took off like crazy,
Speaker 1: Like we ended up raising the a three hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in thirty days. Our initial goal was seventy five,
Speaker 1: you know, and we kind of blew past that goal
Speaker 1: and it was just insane. You know. We end up
Speaker 1: getting a book deal through our Kickstarter campaign through a
Speaker 1: Penguin Random House, and you know, really we're just about
Speaker 1: putting a really great team together, so you know, an
Speaker 1: animation as you may. And I know, like it's not
Speaker 1: the most diverse field and entertainment, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And he really knew of two or three people of
Speaker 1: color or black people specifically that we're working in the field,
Speaker 1: and because it centered on the black dad and black father,
Speaker 1: I thought it would be really important to try to
Speaker 1: get as many people you know or black in that
Speaker 1: field kind of involved with the project. So one of
Speaker 1: the first people I reached out to, Peter Ramsey was
Speaker 1: one of the co directors on Into the Spider Verse,
Speaker 1: which when the Oscar last year. And then the other
Speaker 1: black animator named Frank Abney who worked at Pixar and
Speaker 1: you know, long story short, you know, looking at different
Speaker 1: places where to get to get the short done. Um,
Speaker 1: we end up getting this relationship with Karen Tolliver at
Speaker 1: the time was working at Fox, who ended up moving
Speaker 1: over to Sony and she you know, eventually it was
Speaker 1: a very organic like we're just working on it, working
Speaker 1: on the characters, developing it, and eventually, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Sony ended up just really being helpful and ended up
Speaker 1: distributing the film in front of Angie Birds too, and
Speaker 1: then now they're kind of helping us with our Oscar campaign. Cool.
Speaker 1: This is uh, this is really this is really special. Congratulations.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Matthew A. Cherry. His project Hair Love
Speaker 1: is an animated short film about an African American father
Speaker 1: trying to do his daughter's hair for the first time.
Speaker 1: And it plays out now it ended the video. You know,
Speaker 1: we we I wanted to that's the mom, that's the
Speaker 1: mom character, that's and that that that that has no
Speaker 1: hair and I think that and that plays an important
Speaker 1: role and why was that? Why why would that part
Speaker 1: of the story. Um, you know, it really was just
Speaker 1: about kind of character development. You know, like you have
Speaker 1: this young girl who obviously has growing up with her
Speaker 1: mom being this really popular and natural hair blogger, and
Speaker 1: now she's waking up knowing the special day and you
Speaker 1: know it's like kind of the one thing that she
Speaker 1: can't do on her own. You know, we try to
Speaker 1: establish her like she's able to get up and get
Speaker 1: dressed and um, you know, get you know, kind of
Speaker 1: get her day started, but the one thing she can't
Speaker 1: do was her hair, and she has to enlist her father.
Speaker 1: And for me, it was just really about like what
Speaker 1: would be the most touching kind of gesture that this
Speaker 1: young girl who knows how about her mom's hair meant
Speaker 1: to her to you when they're going to pick her
Speaker 1: up in the hospital, and the act of her getting
Speaker 1: her dad to do her hair in the style that
Speaker 1: you know she really liked that her mom did are
Speaker 1: and also presenting that picture that showed that you know,
Speaker 1: no matter what, whether you have hair you don't have hair,
Speaker 1: I still see you as a queen. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's it's a real thing, you know, like you
Speaker 1: know when black women, you know, get I'm getting sick
Speaker 1: and lose your hair, like it's a really big thing
Speaker 1: that you know, a lot of people tend to be
Speaker 1: so conscious about, and we just wanted to show that
Speaker 1: kind of regardless of whether you have nastural hair, your
Speaker 1: hair was straighte, you didn't have hair at all, that
Speaker 1: you know, you're still beautiful and you know, kind of
Speaker 1: doing that through the daughter. Excellent work man. The animation
Speaker 1: is very clean, very clean. Uh. The story is uh
Speaker 1: is funny, it's uh, it's engaging. It feels real when
Speaker 1: the when the father looks across and sees all of
Speaker 1: those those hair care products on that chair from the bathroom.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, as a as a father who
Speaker 1: you know, who makes that attempt for the very first time.
Speaker 1: It probably it's five times that you know, because you
Speaker 1: just don't know what to do, You don't know what
Speaker 1: step to goal, and your daughters looking at it, you're
Speaker 1: going they know you don't know. First of all, they
Speaker 1: know they're going they know confusion, okay, and and they
Speaker 1: start questioning you because for the first time in your
Speaker 1: life as a father who's making an attempt to do
Speaker 1: that you're not very confident in your effort, that company effort.
Speaker 1: And so so when I look at this man, first
Speaker 1: of all, I just want to say congratulations because you
Speaker 1: because what you're doing is first of all been being
Speaker 1: the transition to be to reinvent yourself and and and
Speaker 1: to do the project like this, that is that is
Speaker 1: being just being considered for awards, That is being uh,
Speaker 1: like you said, translating and making people feel they can
Speaker 1: do this too. Just just a simple concept that's turning
Speaker 1: their heads out there. But you tie to one of
Speaker 1: the most popular production companies in the world, Monkey part
Speaker 1: of the Monkey Paul Production, which is Jordan Peel's production
Speaker 1: company US get Out Twilight Zone. You've been up, You've
Speaker 1: worked on the now Academy nominated project h Black Klansmen.
Speaker 1: What what do you want to do? What is your goal?
Speaker 1: You know we started we was a former NFL football player,
Speaker 1: was a former p A. Now you got this high
Speaker 1: animated project out there. You've executive produced The Black Plansman.
Speaker 1: What do you want to do? My friend? Um, you
Speaker 1: know I'm kind of doing it now. You know, it's
Speaker 1: just uh for me and just continuing to create projects
Speaker 1: that kind of elevates and humanize black people, you know.
Speaker 1: Um be that in any medium, be the animated, live action,
Speaker 1: TV or film. Um, you know, I'm directing television now too.
Speaker 1: So I just did an episode of Blackish. I'll be
Speaker 1: coming out around Valentine's Day, this big book, a big
Speaker 1: movie that hasn't been announced yet, but I'm I'm excited
Speaker 1: about and uh, you know, trying to figure out a
Speaker 1: live acting feature as well. So you know, just continue
Speaker 1: to working, trying to reinvent myself. Man, that that's really
Speaker 1: the goal and the dream now, the dream that the
Speaker 1: last o G that's you. Yeah. Yeah, I was a
Speaker 1: co producer and director on the show too. So yeah, Matthew, Matthew,
Speaker 1: you need to stop being humble. There's a humble interview. Matthew.
Speaker 1: You there's a humble interview. You know, you know you
Speaker 1: you got it going on, my man. You know govern
Speaker 1: the reason I say that because you know, I'm Hollywood.
Speaker 1: I went out to Hollywood, I know, you know when
Speaker 1: they buried all the sitcoms on w B and U
Speaker 1: p N. You know what I'm saying, where as used
Speaker 1: as a starter started kits and when I see you're
Speaker 1: in a you're in a a guy, your talents are?
Speaker 1: Is that Hollywood at a good time? You know, well,
Speaker 1: we can start telling our stories. When I look on
Speaker 1: when I look at TV commercials, I see I see
Speaker 1: interracial people on TV dating, buying insurance together, buying cars together.
Speaker 1: Where only a couple of years ago, when a little
Speaker 1: black girl mixed or a black girl went in the
Speaker 1: room for cheerio, they wanted to shut down cheerios. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, that ain't that far from that.
Speaker 1: And to be able to just stories that are being
Speaker 1: told are able dune And if you hear this here,
Speaker 1: this right here, you're saying, you're comfortably saying I want
Speaker 1: to tell African American stories because you know, now there's
Speaker 1: a demand or need, our requests for that type of
Speaker 1: confidence that has to make you feel good. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I mean I think you know nowadays, like you know
Speaker 1: you're talking about back in the day with like the
Speaker 1: c W and the w B and UPN and all that,
Speaker 1: Like you know, now there's so many more networks from
Speaker 1: places that are doing original content. So you know, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of like a byproduct of that, like the
Speaker 1: more outlets that need content, you know, the more opportunities
Speaker 1: that you know, black creators and creators of color are
Speaker 1: going to have to be able to tell their stories
Speaker 1: and you know, hopefully do them in a in a
Speaker 1: good way that you know it makes their people look good.
Speaker 1: So you know, I just want to continue that. You know,
Speaker 1: people like Aba du Renee and Jordan's and very James,
Speaker 1: you know, are all kind of been mentors to me
Speaker 1: and people who are really uh just admire and want
Speaker 1: to follow in their footsteps. So well, I'm telling something
Speaker 1: you did. You are a special talent if I can
Speaker 1: compliment you in that manner and you accepted. My wife
Speaker 1: Alwa tells me, I don't know how to say thank
Speaker 1: you when people compliment me because of the fact that
Speaker 1: some of the things I'm just doing what I love
Speaker 1: to do and you're doing what you love to do.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you don't understand that what you what you have
Speaker 1: a unique talent and you're accomplishing things that are not normal,
Speaker 1: And I just I feel fortunate. Did you call my
Speaker 1: show so I can share your story and knowing the
Speaker 1: future when that big movie come out that you can't
Speaker 1: say right now? Did you come back on money making
Speaker 1: conversation so we can talk about that too, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: no man, you know you got me. Man, it's a
Speaker 1: good I appreciate your Matthew A Cherry