Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating Wild Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have very
Speaker 1: special guests at Jason George is in the building.
Speaker 2: What's good?
Speaker 1: How are you good?
Speaker 2: How are you feeling good?
Speaker 1: I'm very thankful that you took time out of your
Speaker 1: busy schedule to come spend time with me.
Speaker 2: I wanted too. Plus, you know we're gonna eat.
Speaker 1: We're gonna eat.
Speaker 2: He's always good.
Speaker 1: Eating is always good. So we are eating a broke dish.
Speaker 1: What are you gonna have me eating today?
Speaker 2: This is one of the simplest things that actually required
Speaker 2: some cooking, because I think when you first opportunity to
Speaker 2: come here first came up, I thought about what did
Speaker 2: I eat while I was broke. My first thought was spaghetti.
Speaker 2: I ate spaghetti six nights a week for three years
Speaker 2: when I was studying acting. As a result, I did
Speaker 2: not touch spaghetti like you can ask anybody knows me.
Speaker 2: It was not a joke like I did not mess
Speaker 2: with can we cuss? I didn't fuck with spaghetti for years,
Speaker 2: like seven years before I touched spaghetti again, And even
Speaker 2: to this day, the only way I messed with pasta
Speaker 2: is if like some chef got super jiggy with it,
Speaker 2: like they got you know, you gotta throw like seafood
Speaker 2: in there. It's got to be like I need a
Speaker 2: like cord on blue chef to like get it never
Speaker 2: gets cooked in my house, my family. When I was
Speaker 2: in my mom's house when we were really broken we
Speaker 2: had to sell the house that we were living in. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, she would this. She had this. She found
Speaker 2: this perfect pizza that you just threw in the oven.
Speaker 2: That in the can to meade of no potato soup.
Speaker 2: That should throw a little extra stuff in. No, not
Speaker 2: the way my mom did it. It was genuinely, genuinely
Speaker 2: one of my favorite is one of the most emotionally favorite. Like,
Speaker 2: so you still that I will mess with my mama
Speaker 2: does it. Yeah, the mom does it because potato. It's
Speaker 2: just it's just a simple pizza you just throw in
Speaker 2: the oven like that. And those were like two simple
Speaker 2: there's like no cooking. This is taco soup, which is
Speaker 2: which is they call it our friends called the taco
Speaker 2: soup is really kind of you can burn it down
Speaker 2: to almost a chili. Yeah, but chili is most people's
Speaker 2: chili is too serious. So if you say it's a chili,
Speaker 2: then they're ready to fight you. You say to the taco soup,
Speaker 2: they leave you alone because this is not deep enough
Speaker 2: to be called a chili. This is so simple even
Speaker 2: an idiot could cook it.
Speaker 1: Like me, yea dude. It was cheap and affordable, and
Speaker 1: I'm curious. I've never had this. I always get excited
Speaker 1: when we have a dish on the show that we
Speaker 1: haven't had, So when I did see spaghetti coming later,
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, no, this is going to be
Speaker 1: the dish, So go ahead and tell me what ingredients
Speaker 1: you'll be having in this chaco soup.
Speaker 2: This is real simple taco soup is. You can do
Speaker 2: ground beef, but I prefer with turkey, right right. I
Speaker 2: would eat red meat. I'll tear a steik up, but
Speaker 2: I can't do it every night. I when black Man
Speaker 2: from the South blood pressures everything like that, you try
Speaker 2: to take care of yourself. I'm an actor. I got
Speaker 2: to take care of theself. Right, So ground turkey is
Speaker 2: the base, and then you got all your dry things
Speaker 2: that you're throwing. Kidney beans. You can also do black beans,
Speaker 2: but I prefer kidney beans because we black beans are
Speaker 2: like something by themselves, not something to throw into something else. Corn,
Speaker 2: uh and hominy.
Speaker 1: And then and that was my first time seeing how many.
Speaker 1: By the way I had to google it. I was like,
Speaker 1: what is homony?
Speaker 2: Know?
Speaker 1: What is that a bean? It's just white beans. It
Speaker 1: looks like on the can it looks like corn.
Speaker 2: How many is in that? I think it's it's somewhere between.
Speaker 2: Like I'm not even sure hundred how many. It's like
Speaker 2: I always think of it like with like coliflower and
Speaker 2: things like that is the way to think of it,
Speaker 2: like you know, but uh, but somebody's gonna follow you
Speaker 2: and explain better than me. I just know it's good. Look,
Speaker 2: I just think with mama cooked okay, okay, And then
Speaker 2: you got dice tomatoes, some tomato paste, and then a
Speaker 2: little bit of a chicken broth, a whole can of
Speaker 2: chicken broth. That's the secret sauce because people would do
Speaker 2: it with water. When we figured out chicken broth, pot
Speaker 2: of a whole other level of a little bit of
Speaker 2: flavor to it. And then and then for some little
Speaker 2: bit of extra spice, you can get some sausa.
Speaker 1: Okay, do you put the sausa in it?
Speaker 2: You can put the sausa in it. We would put
Speaker 2: the saucea in it a little bit, just to like
Speaker 2: really up and you can just throw it on top
Speaker 2: if you wanted to.
Speaker 1: That way is a taste, okay, Chef Jason, George.
Speaker 2: Jeez, Like I said, this is like the thing about this,
Speaker 2: like you said, affordable. You buy the cans, you cut
Speaker 2: the cans open, throw them in and it's got to
Speaker 2: keep you full. And the other best part is that
Speaker 2: it tastes better the next day or the third day.
Speaker 2: So like you eat something that night, get full, keep
Speaker 2: moving tomorrow, because it's all about the leftovers. It's all
Speaker 2: about the leftovers.
Speaker 1: Well, get in the kitchen, Jason, all go ahead, don't
Speaker 1: burn yourself. I'm guessing you're gonna start with the brown
Speaker 1: another meat.
Speaker 2: That's what's up, all right, look at me.
Speaker 1: While you start cooking for the both of us. Oh,
Speaker 1: you have a lib on. You're lived up. Well when
Speaker 1: you come to eat, you're gonna get on this mic.
Speaker 1: But now that you're in the kitchen, take me back
Speaker 1: to what was going on during this particular meal.
Speaker 2: This was something that we started eating when I first
Speaker 2: got to Los Angeles. I came out here with the job.
Speaker 2: I came out here to do a show called Sunset Beach.
Speaker 2: I like literally got the job out of a contest
Speaker 2: in them all, So it was like a fluke, so
Speaker 2: literally it was like, no, it was I'm not even
Speaker 2: telling you, Like, they didn't plan on getting anybody out
Speaker 2: of the contest. They thought they'd give somebody like four
Speaker 2: lines and send them home. But the day they were
Speaker 2: doing the contest here in Los Angeles was the same
Speaker 2: day they were casting the one black guy and the
Speaker 2: one black woman that were on the show. And so
Speaker 2: Sherry Salmon and I auditioned together and you know, got
Speaker 2: like and things went forward. I mean I was in
Speaker 2: the contest that was a separate thing from the real audition.
Speaker 2: She was in the real auditions. I was in the contest.
Speaker 1: Where were you at when you got into context.
Speaker 2: I was living in Philadelphia. I was an Eagles fan
Speaker 2: long before I lived in Philly, and then I got
Speaker 2: to live in Philly. I went to grad school at
Speaker 2: Temple University. The Act of Time Sizemore had come out
Speaker 2: of there just a few years ahead of us, So
Speaker 2: I was like really interested in and also I really
Speaker 2: wanted to be Look, the teaching acting was my plan
Speaker 2: as a backup to acting. Oh wow, so I really wanted.
Speaker 2: My mom was a teacher. My mom taught learning disabled
Speaker 2: kids all growed up. So the idea was, get the
Speaker 2: degree so you can teach acting, but get the skills
Speaker 2: so you can actually be an actor.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And I knew if I actually went to school in
Speaker 2: New York, I'd never graduate. Why because I be running streets,
Speaker 2: know thyself, know thyself.
Speaker 1: I was like on that day, as it was elaborate, elaborate, please.
Speaker 2: I barely graduated Temple. As it was somewhere between my
Speaker 2: first and second year, this show came up that was
Speaker 2: a for the Travel Channel, a traveling show where like
Speaker 2: you go all around the world and do cool stuff
Speaker 2: with indigenous people's and just talk about it on camera.
Speaker 2: I was like, dope. But A it wasn't real acting
Speaker 2: as I saw it. It was hosting, which is cool, but
Speaker 2: it's a different thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And two, I wouldn't finished the program, wouldn't have gotten degree,
Speaker 2: so it'd have been just it would have been just
Speaker 2: a job as opposed to a career move, a cool job.
Speaker 2: If I finished up the program that had been great
Speaker 2: traveling all around the world, to be dope. I think
Speaker 2: I've never checked it out. I think Bradley Cooper ended
Speaker 2: up doing it. It was one of the like five
Speaker 2: people that had doing it or whatever like that. I
Speaker 2: know he did a show to like that, and I
Speaker 2: was like, he was from Philly, so I was like,
Speaker 2: probably the same thing. So that could have derailed me
Speaker 2: between my first and second year of grad school. And
Speaker 2: then I got the job on Sunset Beach out of
Speaker 2: the contest in the mall about six months before I
Speaker 2: was supposed to graduate.
Speaker 1: Oh so you still got derailed a little bit.
Speaker 2: I yes, yes I did. But and this is where
Speaker 2: I got lucky. God is good. I had the program.
Speaker 2: They give you the skills, so you graduate with a
Speaker 2: lot more credits than you actually need for the school's
Speaker 2: baseline definition of you have a Master of Fine Arts,
Speaker 2: right like you need sixty and I would have graduated
Speaker 2: like seventy five if I finished the program. I had
Speaker 2: fifty seven. Wow, right at the time. So they said, yo,
Speaker 2: go work, come back, give a thesis talk and will
Speaker 2: count that as an independent study. That be your last
Speaker 2: three credits you graduate. So that all worked out, and
Speaker 2: I literally my brothers will never stop teasing me because
Speaker 2: I was at the Daytime Daytime Emmy Awards or Soap
Speaker 2: Opera Digist Awards on Friday night, and then drove down
Speaker 2: to my graduation the next morning. Got there late. So
Speaker 2: I'm sitting in the stands with my brothers watching Bill
Speaker 2: Cosby because he was mister Temple then giving the speech,
Speaker 2: and I'm signing up autographs and my brothers, if you know,
Speaker 2: my brothers just give me stink eye and laughing. They're like,
Speaker 2: you are ridiculous. Everything about this, everything about you is ridiculous.
Speaker 2: But it worked out, so that was the upside. But then,
Speaker 2: but that whole time, my wife then girlfriend came out
Speaker 2: and she got a job at Wittier College, so I
Speaker 2: moved out. She came all the way to the West
Speaker 2: Coast for me, so I said, let me go to
Speaker 2: Whittier for her, which is practically a different country because
Speaker 2: it's yeah, pretty far from it's out there.
Speaker 1: It's hilarious at a different country. She moved all the
Speaker 1: way across the country for you. What you know, the traffic,
Speaker 1: you know how the traffic is my middle ground?
Speaker 2: Your wife?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, are your then girlfriend?
Speaker 2: That's my girl. But we are married during the so
Speaker 2: but we knew like we got to keep it lean
Speaker 2: because I want to try and do more.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we were like prepped. We were living renting
Speaker 2: an apartment. We were keeping it tight so that like
Speaker 2: as soon as I finished my three year track them
Speaker 2: out of here. And as it was, you know, I
Speaker 2: decided to leave the show and not renew my contract.
Speaker 2: Everybody else renewed their contract and got like back pay.
Speaker 2: They got like paid for the last three months they
Speaker 2: already shot, and they said we'll backdate the contract this,
Speaker 2: so people getting money for doing nothing. I was like, man,
Speaker 2: then I make a mistake. And then and then the
Speaker 2: show got canceled, didn't get renewed for another year. And
Speaker 2: I'd been knocking on doors, getting meeting everybody and casting
Speaker 2: offices and everything like that being out there and I
Speaker 2: hit the so I was running and they got caught
Speaker 2: flat footed.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So that was the part that felt good, Like, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: always always, you know, always worked a plan. You know
Speaker 2: what I mean, what are you really after? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: you're trying to make a career. You're just trying to
Speaker 2: do a job. And I had to keep remembering that,
Speaker 2: and that's always been our philosophy. You know, got away
Speaker 2: from it a couple of times. You know, you buy
Speaker 2: a house eventually, you know, and and next thing, you know,
Speaker 2: we went back to eating taco soup when I bought
Speaker 2: this house. And the day we opened escrow was the
Speaker 2: day that the show I was on Guy canceled.
Speaker 1: Now, this is a back check to you buying a house.
Speaker 1: Wasn't it hard to buy a house as an actor?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 1: What was your girl? What was your girl with girlfriend
Speaker 1: or wife at the time you guys married when you bought.
Speaker 2: The house, or by the time we bought the house
Speaker 2: we were married.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, So so I guess joint income they're going
Speaker 1: off of.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I mean, look, I'm putting money in the
Speaker 2: bank and they're looking at the beauty with being an actor.
Speaker 2: You could show them a contract and that would count
Speaker 2: for a little something. But and this is the benefit
Speaker 2: back in the day, this is right before this is
Speaker 2: a few years before the housing bus. So they had
Speaker 2: what they call they now called them, actually called them
Speaker 2: this then liar loans, because part of the whole reason
Speaker 2: why that housing bus happened was because the whole industry
Speaker 2: was just letting people climb whatever.
Speaker 1: People make two dollars by hand, Like, what are learning.
Speaker 2: For a living? I don't know. Oh did you see
Speaker 2: hear you say you earned three million dollars a year? Sure,
Speaker 2: let's go with that. Yeah. I remember I worked in.
Speaker 1: A building where someone was doing loans and people are
Speaker 1: showing up in drugs in their houses because like, why
Speaker 1: were you buying a house that was way above your budget?
Speaker 2: Anyways, they were letting.
Speaker 1: And they were doing those interest only loans.
Speaker 2: Too, exactly. There was sending people in for failure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, set.
Speaker 2: People up for play. But we got lucky, well and lucky,
Speaker 2: and that we kept going. But that was our first house,
Speaker 2: which we lived in for several years, and then we
Speaker 2: bought the house we live in now. And this is
Speaker 2: years ago, and you know, two years in we had
Speaker 2: to put it on the market because I was working
Speaker 2: but not at the level that could afford this house. Yea, yeah,
Speaker 2: and I was scrambling, you know, and we were like
Speaker 2: finding everywhere to save money. So suddenly all the like
Speaker 2: you know, fancy meals and eating out all the time
Speaker 2: and everything like that, all that went away again. And
Speaker 2: you know, taco soup has never left.
Speaker 1: It's spaghetti popping, it's no.
Speaker 2: Spaghetti never pops up. It mentioned spaghetti. Don't bring spaghetti
Speaker 2: back up in here again.
Speaker 1: I'm playing you guys so serious. To it was like,
Speaker 1: don't you dare?
Speaker 2: No, My kids loved spaghetti.
Speaker 1: But your spaghetti air was the sixty seven years you
Speaker 1: were doing spaghetti? What where were you doing?
Speaker 2: And that was when I was in grad school. That
Speaker 2: was when I was, you know, eating it six days
Speaker 2: a week, and I didn't matter how much pasta you ate.
Speaker 2: You couldn't you know. I was running all day, you know.
Speaker 2: When I was in grad school was eight in the
Speaker 2: morning to five at night. At school, six to ten
Speaker 2: o'clock in rehearsals, and then you had to rehearse like
Speaker 2: five scenes that you had for the classes going on
Speaker 2: the next days. And then on Saturdays we rehearsing to
Speaker 2: play from ten to six. Oh wow, So Sunday was
Speaker 2: the day you got to do some laundry and maybe relax.
Speaker 2: And that was the day we would splurge and like
Speaker 2: eat something besides pasta.
Speaker 1: Okay, And when you say we, who's we?
Speaker 2: Me? My best friend? He was my roommate. And when
Speaker 2: I got to grad school, it seemed like everybody was crazy.
Speaker 2: And I found one other dude who wasn't crazy, and
Speaker 2: I was like, that's my boy, and he's been adopted
Speaker 2: by my family, Like he's friends with my younger brother,
Speaker 2: even outside of me, Like.
Speaker 1: You know, he's like real fan, Fan's faan, he's real one.
Speaker 1: So you buy this house in two years and you
Speaker 1: get the we're riding the roller coaster way, take me
Speaker 1: through that.
Speaker 2: It was look, I I'd spend my entire career thinking
Speaker 2: in terms of like, you know, my mantra was, if
Speaker 2: I wanted safety and security, I'd have been a lawyer.
Speaker 2: Because my mentor was like a Supreme Court justice in Virginia.
Speaker 2: His dad was a vice person my high school, one
Speaker 2: of the best educators Avenue got to know him. I
Speaker 2: thought I was going to be a lawyer, and then
Speaker 2: I took an acting class and then all with the
Speaker 2: ship and so there was instability all over the place, right,
Speaker 2: but so, but my mantra was always like I was
Speaker 2: on the prize career moves not jobs. Right, you know,
Speaker 2: if you want safety, security, you could have been a lawyer.
Speaker 2: So don't make the safe.
Speaker 1: Move that gets my don't make the safe moved.
Speaker 2: Don't make the safe move. Make the smart move. Which
Speaker 2: sometimes takes risk, right, but that means you got to
Speaker 2: keep your you got to keep your life small.
Speaker 1: Don't make this safe move right.
Speaker 2: Don't just play it safe, play it smart.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the safe movies smartest highs.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's always high risk, but sometimes it is. Right.
Speaker 2: The safe move is just stay exactly where you are
Speaker 2: and don't do nothing right, in which case you don't advance.
Speaker 2: So sometimes the safe move is to stay still sometimes,
Speaker 2: I mean, sometimes a smart move is also the safe move.
Speaker 2: You know, you're at the cliff, don't move, stay still
Speaker 2: for a second, right, you know, Sometimes a smart move
Speaker 2: is not the safe move. You gotta take the risk. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And that was the deal. So in order to be
Speaker 2: able to do that, we always try to live below
Speaker 2: our means. Lost that for a bit with kids because
Speaker 2: my wife teaches at universities, and she's a poet and
Speaker 2: fiction writer and teachers at university. So we wanted to
Speaker 2: make sure that they had the best education we could
Speaker 2: get them, which there were some private schools that we
Speaker 2: fell in love with that had not only the education
Speaker 2: but also the diversity that we wanted. That's what I was,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, And we were you know, look,
Speaker 2: I mean she's Indians. So we were like, you know,
Speaker 2: it was the school was so dope that like our
Speaker 2: kid wasn't even only black an Indian kid in his class.
Speaker 2: Like they both my kids graduating in their classes were
Speaker 2: fifty or more kids of color. So I was like,
Speaker 2: we loved that school. And we were like, I will,
Speaker 2: I will pay for the nose. I will sell my
Speaker 2: house before I pull you out of school because I
Speaker 2: want you to have that experience all the way through.
Speaker 2: And you know, we were but we bought that second
Speaker 2: house and we were scrambling for a bit. So it's
Speaker 2: always about trying to keep it lean. Now I've been
Speaker 2: on you know, Grays, you know brought me on. I
Speaker 2: recurred on Grays as a guest star for years and
Speaker 2: then they brought me on as a series regular and
Speaker 2: then spun me off like a year and a half.
Speaker 2: Two years later on to Station nineteen. So now we're chilled.
Speaker 1: Are you feeling like stability? Comfort?
Speaker 2: More than I've ever had my career Because I look
Speaker 2: at my account and I know that if I wanted to,
Speaker 2: I could cut a check tomorrow and pay off what
Speaker 2: I owe in my house. Oh and that's the thing.
Speaker 1: That's a great feeling.
Speaker 2: And look I am for going from a kid who
Speaker 2: didn't know anything about financial literacy, who didn't know you know.
Speaker 2: I remember we saw a condo for one hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty thousand dollars when we were living in an apartment
Speaker 2: that the rent was like two thousand something, and I
Speaker 2: was like, the mortgage on this condo would be less
Speaker 2: then less when I'm paying rent. Yes, got the down payment.
Speaker 2: I didn't understand any of that. I didn't get finances.
Speaker 2: I didn't understand any of it. So by the time,
Speaker 2: so now my whole thing is I'm like going from
Speaker 2: that to now knowing. Okay, let's break down the numbers
Speaker 2: and if I needed to worst case scenario, we could
Speaker 2: eliminate the big bills that if you don't do that
Speaker 2: because it's better to that's them. YadA YadA, YadA. Okay,
Speaker 2: but I'm like, you know, so now I'm still keeping
Speaker 2: it tight. Like somebody I was, we're doing some renovations
Speaker 2: of our house and I goes, well, this isn't gonna
Speaker 2: be your last house, is it. I look at me
Speaker 2: and said, wy not. I was like, you're expecting me
Speaker 2: to go buy the bigger house because I can. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I said, me staying in this house that my kids
Speaker 2: grew up in, and we have an emotional connection to that.
Speaker 2: I know I can kind of check them out and
Speaker 2: be good on that is financial and therefore mental security.
Speaker 2: I'm good. Fuck all, y'all. I'm gonna do what I
Speaker 2: enjoy once my kids are out of school. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: do what I'm excited about, not what I gotta do,
Speaker 2: because that's the you know, that's the lesson. You know,
Speaker 2: my mom sold the house that I was sixteen. My
Speaker 2: mom had to sell the house that we grew up in.
Speaker 2: When we put our house in the market and we
Speaker 2: actually we actually sold it for a second, is what
Speaker 2: The dude who bought it was an ass. He was
Speaker 2: an idiot. You sold the house that we live in.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, you sold it for a second.
Speaker 2: And when we put it on the market because that
Speaker 2: show got like I said, we opened deskco of the
Speaker 2: show got canceled. We had it on the market for
Speaker 2: a while. And this is right after the bus so
Speaker 2: there was the hot market was flooded, you know, so
Speaker 2: it was a buyer's market. And the dude was like, well,
Speaker 2: it's a buyer's market. You're gonna do what I tell
Speaker 2: you to do. You're gonna do this, you canna do that,
Speaker 2: And he did it to the point where and I
Speaker 2: started getting feelings and getting signs that Grays might be
Speaker 2: Grays and Anatomy might be in a position to bring
Speaker 2: me on as a regular because I've been recurring for
Speaker 2: a while. And I was like, you know, a dude, Nah, nah,
Speaker 2: you ain't gonna buy my house. Yeah, yeah, you know
Speaker 2: you ain't going. You ain't gonna treat me like I'm
Speaker 2: moving the clown I got, yeah, you know you're out.
Speaker 2: And he was like, what do you mean, it's a
Speaker 2: buyer's market. I said, you can say it all you want,
Speaker 2: don't change the back. It's my house. And until we
Speaker 2: signed something, so we sold it and I swept for
Speaker 2: a couple of minutes and then and then it happened.
Speaker 2: But but until.
Speaker 1: That time, because what it was, we were you sold it,
Speaker 1: but then you got it back.
Speaker 2: We never we never officially signed the papers, so it
Speaker 2: never went away. And that was the thing. But we
Speaker 2: you know, we were right there before that, when we
Speaker 2: were like underwater and just we were bleeding money into
Speaker 2: the house and stuff it was like, that's the only
Speaker 2: time in my career that I've had sleepless nights, okay,
Speaker 2: because I was like, you know, you know, I gotten
Speaker 2: this house and provided for my family a full on
Speaker 2: middle class life, and I did not want to take
Speaker 2: that away from them. Yeah, and that's that that's that feeling.
Speaker 2: And I was like, I hadn't felt like that since
Speaker 2: when my mom came to us and said, I have
Speaker 2: to sell this house. And my mom is my mom
Speaker 2: is one of the most incredible individuals you're ever going
Speaker 2: to meet. Shirley George. She she came to us and
Speaker 2: she said, I'm sixteen years old. She comes to the house,
Speaker 2: calls a family meeting. We're not that fan. We didn't
Speaker 2: do family meeting. That wasn't a thing. But she came
Speaker 2: and she said yo. I didn't say yo. I'm saying yo.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: She goes, I have to we have to sell the house.
Speaker 2: We have to move. What constraints do I have? And
Speaker 2: my older brother was in college at the time, he
Speaker 2: was at Norfolk State, and he was like, he's a
Speaker 2: computer guy and an artist and he was at school.
Speaker 2: He's like, as long as we're in Norfolk, Hampton Rose,
Speaker 2: you know, I can drive to school. I'm here, I'm good.
Speaker 2: Wherever you want to go, I'm good. And my little
Speaker 2: brother's like, I'll make friends wherever I am and we
Speaker 2: can come back over here visit my old friends anytime.
Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm in my junior year of high school.
Speaker 2: You I was like, yeah, you know what's coming. I
Speaker 2: was like, I'm I'm probably going to be captain of
Speaker 2: the track team next year. I'll probably be you know.
Speaker 2: I ended up being vice president of student Like. I
Speaker 2: was like, my shot at scholarships is kind of depending
Speaker 2: on me being here because I got anywhere else. I
Speaker 2: start over again and I'm a new kid at senior year.
Speaker 2: What does that mean? So I was like so, and
Speaker 2: I was like, and I need to get some scholarships.
Speaker 2: So so my mom moved into a condo that she
Speaker 2: did not want to live in in order to keep
Speaker 2: me in school. She is the most incredible woman and
Speaker 2: s single parent household. My pop is a good man.
Speaker 2: He was not the greatest father, and he was bad.
Speaker 2: And you know, we've become friends again now, but at
Speaker 2: the time it was just my and all growing up,
Speaker 2: it was just my He's been a good grandfather, but
Speaker 2: my made that move for us, for me, and you
Speaker 2: have never seen a person with us to ask more
Speaker 2: to like find the guidance guidance. The guidance counselors in
Speaker 2: school did nothing for me. The guidance council's secretary, this
Speaker 2: is Verostik is my It was my angel. She passed
Speaker 2: away a few years ago. She became She saw how
Speaker 2: much I was pulling. Any scholarship that looked like I
Speaker 2: even had like a snowball's chance of getting at and
Speaker 2: she was like, let me help you out. So she
Speaker 2: started looking for me. She'd stopped me in the hall.
Speaker 2: She we got you're not supposed to have access to
Speaker 2: the references that people wrote for you. I managed to
Speaker 2: get hold of the references so that we could if
Speaker 2: we found a scholarship that was due today or tomorrow,
Speaker 2: we could print off the stuff and put together the packet,
Speaker 2: nothing flat, and I type something up, change up this
Speaker 2: essay or whatever. And I made school. I made money
Speaker 2: for school. That's how I paid for school. First year
Speaker 2: of school.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you knew the whole time that you you
Speaker 1: were aware of your family's financial restrictions.
Speaker 2: I knew that MA was my brother was working his
Speaker 2: way through Golk State. As a result, it took him
Speaker 2: like several years to get through, not a straight four
Speaker 2: year thing. And then I this is almost brought up.
Speaker 2: We're about I was like, let me, I've got to
Speaker 2: find a way to pay for this. And so I'm
Speaker 2: taking this out like it was. You don't really put
Speaker 2: this back in because I can just do everything in here.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we do it different possible.
Speaker 1: We're watching you, we're learning. I know I was thinking it,
Speaker 1: but I was trying not to coast one because I've
Speaker 1: never made tackles super fun.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, it's simple. So now you put in the.
Speaker 1: Drys so you're putting in all the can.
Speaker 2: Goods, all the can goods, that the dry stuff.
Speaker 1: So during all, during all of this, you but you
Speaker 1: tell your mom head on, you know you want to
Speaker 1: be an acted the whole time. When does acting come?
Speaker 2: And you know I want to be an act at all.
Speaker 2: I wanted to be a lawyer. Oh you know the
Speaker 2: judge was was my mentor at the time.
Speaker 1: And so when did the judge become your mentor? And
Speaker 1: when you were in high school?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so she agreed to so she feel it is
Speaker 2: it's fun. So she kept us in the NEIGHBORHO kept
Speaker 2: us in that school. And mister Hessel was a vice
Speaker 2: prince from my high school. And he and I were
Speaker 2: cool because he was that educated that like treated every
Speaker 2: kid like they were a human being, even when they're
Speaker 2: that trouble kid. Uh. And I wasn't the trouble kid,
Speaker 2: but I did get in trouble a lot because I
Speaker 2: could be I was what I'm just saying, Like I
Speaker 2: was like, you know, like I said, vice prince, vice president,
Speaker 2: but like I also knew, like I could get hold
Speaker 2: of hall passes, so I'd be like we pulled the
Speaker 2: car around sneak kids out.
Speaker 1: Of school, you know, kind of like me, I can relate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what I'm saying, I'd not show up
Speaker 2: for stuff and it'll be like, so I get detention
Speaker 2: a lot. And he but he talked to you like
Speaker 2: why you want me to give you attention? Yeah? What's
Speaker 2: going on?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And you take five minutes to talk about that, and
Speaker 2: then you take another forty minutes out of class and
Speaker 2: just what's going on in your life? And he'd really
Speaker 2: be interested in you. And he did that with the
Speaker 2: kids who were like always in fights and actually trouble.
Speaker 2: So he passed away my senior year, and even the
Speaker 2: kids who were the trouble kids, the teachers couldn't stand
Speaker 2: in tears because they loved that man. Wow, that's when
Speaker 2: you know you're bad. That's when you know you're a beast,
Speaker 2: because like even the kids that everybody can't stand love you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And they made a scholarship in his name. And I
Speaker 2: knew him better than most, so I was able to yes,
Speaker 2: scissors or something like that.
Speaker 1: Teeth jas No, I'm just trying not to be that person.
Speaker 1: It's eating while broke.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: I hope we get a zoom in are like, oh,
Speaker 1: there we go. That's how we know you're official. Okay everywhere. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you got to watch. It's all good though, It's all good.
Speaker 2: First you put it on the me This is the secret.
Speaker 2: You you put it on the stuff first.
Speaker 1: You put it on all the beans first.
Speaker 2: On the beans, the corn, the homony, and the stuff first,
Speaker 2: and then we'll put in the put in the liquid
Speaker 2: broth a little bit later. We want to like get
Speaker 2: it in the end of me on there for a second,
Speaker 2: just a little bit.
Speaker 1: When was the last time you ate this dish?
Speaker 2: My wife made it actually just like it's probably what
Speaker 2: made me think of it. She made this. I haven't
Speaker 2: made it in years, if you can't tell. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: she made it actually just a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2: For the kids. Wow, they love it. I mean they
Speaker 2: had it when they were level, but we haven't had
Speaker 2: it forever.
Speaker 1: So when does the acting end up taking play in
Speaker 1: your life.
Speaker 2: I get to college and I'm planning on being a lawyer.
Speaker 2: I'm putting together programs like the University of Virginia. They
Speaker 2: don't have a formal pre law program, but you can
Speaker 2: kind of put something together like that because their whole
Speaker 2: thing is it's all the philosophy of they don't want
Speaker 2: to teach you like how to have the job. They
Speaker 2: want you how to think and that sort of things,
Speaker 2: the whole jam. And I'm like, cool, that's great. And
Speaker 2: but my boy was an architect and he was like
Speaker 2: he was an architecture student. He was like, Yo, we're
Speaker 2: gonna have really stiff jobs, so so we should do
Speaker 2: something for just fun. Let's go take an acting class.
Speaker 2: And we took that acting class and it was a rap.
Speaker 2: I just kept I just kept showing back architect. No, Well,
Speaker 2: if I'm being honest, he didn't get in the class.
Speaker 2: The class was over sold, was too many kids in
Speaker 2: the class, Like say, it's like supposed to be thirty students,
Speaker 2: it already had like thirty three. And he said, I'll
Speaker 2: take three more students and he just kind of did
Speaker 2: like a quick little audition and I got in and
Speaker 2: my buddy didn't. I think he's never forgiven me for that.
Speaker 1: Oh, but is the architect now or yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was designing golf courses, I think. But so
Speaker 2: I'm just warming.
Speaker 1: All the being and your mom's being supportive of this
Speaker 1: whole career choice.
Speaker 2: Well, she loved me being a lawyer. My dad loved
Speaker 2: me being a lawyer.
Speaker 1: Oh, your dad was semi around still.
Speaker 2: He was. We could contact him we want to. Our
Speaker 2: mom would make us call him on Father's Day. She
Speaker 2: would make us call him on Christmas. She would make
Speaker 2: us call him on his birthday. Which is when you
Speaker 2: know who's the problem in this situation is the parent
Speaker 2: that's making you call the other parent? Yeah, is not
Speaker 2: the problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, again, my mom's a insane. But everything's cool when
Speaker 2: you're going to be a lawyer, because you're gonna be
Speaker 2: official and everybody gets the stability of that. Everybody gets
Speaker 2: how that works. But I kept finding my way back
Speaker 2: in the theater department. I kept ended up over there.
Speaker 2: I did a play and then I like, then you're
Speaker 2: like really addicted. It's like that's one of the acting
Speaker 2: is in addiction, right, everything else is just helping you
Speaker 2: manage it. Yeah, so I was. Then I made the decision,
Speaker 2: you know what, I need to go to graduate school
Speaker 2: for acting because I want to do this thing for
Speaker 2: a living. I remember I had a teacher who she
Speaker 2: was the hard ass in the school. Who was she
Speaker 2: She's the one that people go into her office for
Speaker 2: their like mid semester or halfway you know, at the
Speaker 2: end of the semester like evaluation, come out crying. And
Speaker 2: I went in there like nervous as hell because everybody,
Speaker 2: like somebody came out right in front of me, boohooming.
Speaker 2: And I went in there and she sat down. She
Speaker 2: stared at me, Betsy Tucker, and Bessie looks at me
Speaker 2: and goes, you're not bad at this. You can do
Speaker 2: this for a living. And I'll never forget what she
Speaker 2: said there. She goes, you could do this for a living.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And that's why I'm beginning to get an idea of
Speaker 2: how deep this career could get in terms of, you know,
Speaker 2: how rough it would be yo at times. Now I'm
Speaker 2: throwing in the other dice tomatoes. Yes.
Speaker 1: And then how long on average does it take to
Speaker 1: make this?
Speaker 2: You said, well, I'll let it. I'll let it. See,
Speaker 2: throw the broth in for a second, bring it to
Speaker 2: a boil, and then and then we'll let it settle
Speaker 2: for like fifteen twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: So it probably takes like in in actually other like
Speaker 1: thirty or thirty minutes to make this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, it depends on if you wanted
Speaker 2: more like a soup, or if you want it more
Speaker 2: you know, like a stew, or if you want to
Speaker 2: get it all way to something feeling more like a chilling.
Speaker 1: Do you ever add tortillas on the side when you
Speaker 1: eat it?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I could see this dish being like a
Speaker 1: like flower tortillas on the side.
Speaker 2: Hard to have the name taco soup, because.
Speaker 1: You know it definitely looks hardy.
Speaker 2: It's just I mean, it's something like what do I
Speaker 2: what can I make? Yeah? What can be? Remember? I'm
Speaker 2: like we made this when weird. I had just gotten
Speaker 2: to town, gotten one gig under my belt. I'd seen
Speaker 2: plenty of other actors on soap operas get a gig,
Speaker 2: you know, even get nominated for a Daytime Emmy. I
Speaker 2: got my little Daytime Emmy nomination, and I was proud
Speaker 2: and love it. But then I've seen people get that
Speaker 2: and never work again.
Speaker 1: So how long was your was your hardest break? Like
Speaker 1: when how long was the biggest gap in your career.
Speaker 2: I don't think I've been blessed. I'm gonna say that
Speaker 2: right up, but you never know, because I think I've
Speaker 2: been blessed. I don't think I've ever gone more than
Speaker 2: a year wow without working, which, knock all the wood
Speaker 2: in the world is a blessing now. Like I said, though,
Speaker 2: I made the mistake of moving my lifestyle up and
Speaker 2: then I was working doing guest star roles. But I
Speaker 2: was trying to live a series regular life with a
Speaker 2: house in mortgage and intuitions. Yeah, so suddenly I was like,
Speaker 2: I'm working, but I didn't be working twice three times
Speaker 2: as much as I'm working right now, or earning two
Speaker 2: or three times as much. In order to state this lifestyle.
Speaker 1: Was there ever a period where you're on a break
Speaker 1: and you're like, Okay, I need to get a job,
Speaker 1: like another job.
Speaker 2: No. No, I thought about it, and I started. There
Speaker 2: was one point in that year where where I was like,
Speaker 2: maybe now we look at teaching acting kind of thing.
Speaker 2: It's always been a goal, but it was always also
Speaker 2: partially in my backup, so it was like, okay, let's
Speaker 2: think about this and turning this back up now. But
Speaker 2: I never did it at the university level, which is
Speaker 2: what I always thought I would do. But not long
Speaker 2: after the you know, we were, I was underemployed. Let's
Speaker 2: say I wasn't unemployed. I was underemployed for the life
Speaker 2: we had. But things started to like pick up looked
Speaker 2: like grays might happen. I started my own acting workshop,
Speaker 2: and because like I said, it had always been a goal.
Speaker 2: And then grades started happening and suddenly I'm a series regular.
Speaker 2: And but I kept the acting workshop going because it
Speaker 2: was what was beautiful about it was there was nothing
Speaker 2: on it. It wasn't to earn money for me. It
Speaker 2: wasn't for somebody to try and get a job like
Speaker 2: auditions are and everything like that. It's like whatever we
Speaker 2: do in here creatively, it's just about seeing what we
Speaker 2: can do. It's just about letting thoroughbreds passion. It's just
Speaker 2: for just for a passion, just for the art. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's like for the love of the game. Right. So
Speaker 2: that was I did that for like ten years. Wow,
Speaker 2: I ran that workshop. And you know, in some of
Speaker 2: my there's nothing better feeling and helping somebody break through
Speaker 2: in terms of understanding themselves and their craft. And they
Speaker 2: and so I'm you know, I'm watching them, you know,
Speaker 2: gave a couple of them the recipe for tacos. I'm like,
Speaker 2: here's something. No, but it was the it will help
Speaker 2: you through.
Speaker 1: But you did you ever give us student the same
Speaker 1: advice that your teacher said to you about you being
Speaker 1: a great actor? And I feel bad?
Speaker 2: What did she say, Yeah, you could do this for
Speaker 2: a living. I wouldn't wish that on my worst than.
Speaker 1: Did you say that to any of your students?
Speaker 2: I have, and they and they persist and they you know,
Speaker 2: and it's there's nothing better than seeing somebody get their
Speaker 2: first guest starring role, which is a big deal in
Speaker 2: an actor's life. And then and then the thing that
Speaker 2: many actors never get to see it. And you know, I've
Speaker 2: had one or two of them get their series regular.
Speaker 2: You know, get a contract thing where you can actually
Speaker 2: be like, oh so for the next you look at
Speaker 2: the contract next year, I can breathe, yeah, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. And that's a that's a crazy time.
Speaker 2: But it's but it's tough because you also don't know
Speaker 2: because you can make money. I tell people, I'm like,
Speaker 2: when you first get on a show, god bless you,
Speaker 2: thank God, hug everybody. Treat everybody well, from the janitor
Speaker 2: to the person who writes the show. But you know,
Speaker 2: buy a car, don't buy the house.
Speaker 1: Why I would to say I would have said, I
Speaker 1: would have thought you would have said the opposite, because
Speaker 1: with the house to get equity, yes, and a car
Speaker 1: is a liability.
Speaker 2: The only way that's my initial statement is okay, we're
Speaker 2: gonna get into financial leadership. If you can get a
Speaker 2: house where or a condo where you know that the
Speaker 2: monthly mortgage once you do the down payment will be
Speaker 2: the same as you pay in rent, then it's a
Speaker 2: smart move. A mistake that most people have is they
Speaker 2: think I'm on TV, I got a contract, I'm a
Speaker 2: serious regular I'm gonna buy a million dollar house. I'm like, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, wow, Wow,
Speaker 2: what are you doing? I mean, like, slow it down
Speaker 2: because now you've now you're paying monthly two and three
Speaker 2: times times which you were paying. Keep it low.
Speaker 1: I was freedom and so and banks like to banks
Speaker 1: like to offer you way more house than you can
Speaker 1: buy and as.
Speaker 2: Much money as they can they But.
Speaker 1: I like what you said, like, make sure that the
Speaker 1: rent is you know, something that you pay in the
Speaker 1: in the real market.
Speaker 2: If your more, if your monthly mortgage is basically what
Speaker 2: you be paying a rent, you got to pay to
Speaker 2: somebody better to pay it to you yet, right, But
Speaker 2: that's my secondary conversation. My initial conversation is if you
Speaker 2: need to buy a car, buy a car, but don't
Speaker 2: buy the house, because that's a whole level of financial
Speaker 2: responsibility which takes away some of your freedom.
Speaker 1: Yeah it does, right, yep. So you you give people
Speaker 1: the keep your overhead as low as possible while pursuing
Speaker 1: this passion.
Speaker 2: That's your freedom. Yeah, that's your frequency only. You have
Speaker 2: control of a very few things in this business, but
Speaker 2: that one you do. I mean, look, my first coming
Speaker 2: off the soap, the first tip I did was for
Speaker 2: Aaron Spelling, you know, legendary producer. I've been blessed to
Speaker 2: work with Aaron Spelling and shine the rhymes like to legendary.
Speaker 2: And he was like, cool, so, well, you know I've
Speaker 2: started in this primetime show. You should audition for that.
Speaker 2: So I went into test for that, testing for his
Speaker 2: show on day one and testing for another show on
Speaker 2: day two. The first episode the first show was it
Speaker 2: was a horrible show, and I was the black best friend.
Speaker 2: My job was basically asked the white guy who was
Speaker 2: the lead, I was your date last night. So then
Speaker 2: he could go on for like five minutes about what's
Speaker 2: going on in his life. The other show, I basically
Speaker 2: was going to play Lady Kravitz basically like this ron star, right,
Speaker 2: this rock star, like you know, and who's trying to
Speaker 2: figure out like who in my life actually loves me?
Speaker 2: For me? Like, what does this mean? I'm successful? What
Speaker 2: does that mean? I was like, that's dope, that's a
Speaker 2: cool that's like that's juice. I could do that all day.
Speaker 2: The other thing is like a job, that's a career move,
Speaker 2: that's a job. So they literally Monday and Tuesday auditioned
Speaker 2: for Titans on Monday and on for the spelling Joint
Speaker 2: on Monday and I walk in and it's for the
Speaker 2: writer and director. That's it. I do my thing. I
Speaker 2: don't even make it home. Half an hour later they go,
Speaker 2: you got the job, and I realized that's a good
Speaker 2: spelling basical, was like, hey, number ten or eleven in
Speaker 2: the call sheet, it's my guy. If you hate him,
Speaker 2: then no, but otherwise, you know, give them the job. Simple,
Speaker 2: no big deal, keep it moving. I got a job.
Speaker 2: I said, well, great, I'm auditioning for the thing I
Speaker 2: really want tomorrow. Can I tell you them tomorrow?
Speaker 1: Can I confirm tomorrow if I.
Speaker 2: Auditioned, I'll have an idea of like, yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 2: kill it. Did I kill whatever? You know? And they're like, no,
Speaker 2: you got to tell us now, Jesus, And I said, okay,
Speaker 2: well I got to tell you now.
Speaker 1: Then No, I knew you were going to say that.
Speaker 1: I just know based thought this whole story he was
Speaker 1: going to say, no, I'm right and that.
Speaker 2: It was one of my proudest moments because I was
Speaker 2: like and then so then they were like, okay, I went.
Speaker 2: I went to the audition the next day. Then my
Speaker 2: thing did not get the other thing by the way
Speaker 2: that one, Like, where was the writer and director for
Speaker 2: the spelling thing? It was like thirty fifty forty people
Speaker 2: in the room, like everybody had to sign off from me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: didn't get it. Immediately called and said, yo, can we
Speaker 2: get the other thing back?
Speaker 1: Did they see us?
Speaker 2: Yeah? They did, Thank god. That's but that also tell me.
Speaker 2: That taught me another big lesson. It's just business for them,
Speaker 2: it's just business. For us, it feels personal and we're
Speaker 2: all caught up in it.
Speaker 1: And so what was cool was that, Like, I love
Speaker 1: that you called back that, you know, And so I.
Speaker 2: Remember going to the other table read for that show
Speaker 2: and they came, you know, the president of Spelling Television
Speaker 2: that Aaron were like, they were like, dude, you gave
Speaker 2: us a heart attack, Like give me hugs and stuff.
Speaker 2: I thought it'd be mad. No, it's just business. So
Speaker 2: when you we worry about the risk all the time,
Speaker 2: and it's like part of the risk we think is
Speaker 2: they'll hate me and they won't hire me anymore. And
Speaker 2: it's like for them, it's just business. They get that
Speaker 2: this role is not the end all be off. They
Speaker 2: get that that's a better role. They know that they
Speaker 2: know what's best for me, and that they can't be
Speaker 2: mad at me for trying to do it's best for me.
Speaker 2: If I do it in a jack away, there's a
Speaker 2: different thing. So it was like it taught me a
Speaker 2: lot of lessons really early in my career of like
Speaker 2: how to conduct yourself, don't you know, make the smart move,
Speaker 2: not necessarily the safe move, know when they're the same thing,
Speaker 2: and know when they're not the same thing. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: kind of how I've been trying to live my life
Speaker 2: the entire time and try to teach my kids and
Speaker 2: try and tell my friends when they asked me for advice,
Speaker 2: I'm like, look, you got kids in the family. You
Speaker 2: need to put your head down and work this way.
Speaker 2: My kids are almost grown, so I'm like looking forward
Speaker 2: to this chapter where I'm like, what kind of buck
Speaker 2: ass wild stuff can I do next? I mean, but
Speaker 2: I've been blessed that, like I'm back on Grays. I'm
Speaker 2: back on Grays Anatomy because when Station nineteen wrapped up
Speaker 2: after seven seasons, they were like, we think you can
Speaker 2: come back over to the Grades. I was like, is
Speaker 2: there still story there? And they ran down a bunch
Speaker 2: of ideas for you know, my character Ben warrened to
Speaker 2: go through and I was like, yeah, okay, I'm in.
Speaker 2: I'm in because it got me excited as a as
Speaker 2: an actor.
Speaker 1: What do your kids say about your career?
Speaker 2: My kids, my goal was like if I could have
Speaker 2: had the money, and like if I could have had
Speaker 2: like Will Smith's money and choices, but like, had my
Speaker 2: kids think I was a janitor, that would have been
Speaker 2: like my goal for the longest time to keep I
Speaker 2: keep it as regular as possible at home. And so
Speaker 2: for a long time it didn't factor it. It wasn't
Speaker 2: until like Grey's Anatomy was just too big and too
Speaker 2: big with their friend group to like hide that they
Speaker 2: had friends who were like a little like geek, like,
Speaker 2: oh I know you did, and like that's when they
Speaker 2: like so they were like, you know, beyond that, beyond it.
Speaker 2: They had like a little there was a kids movie
Speaker 2: that like I did that they loved when they were
Speaker 2: like five, but like that was like you know, my
Speaker 2: daughter cried about like daddy, bad guy whatever. You know,
Speaker 2: that's a whole different thing. They don't get it. This
Speaker 2: was when they actually went like, oh, okay, and they
Speaker 2: saw that, like, you know, financially things changed and our
Speaker 2: vacations got better. But the house I love.
Speaker 1: I love that you keep it. It's like you fully
Speaker 1: understand the scope of the risk that you take the
Speaker 1: whole time you're doing this career.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like and you know when the and what
Speaker 2: I'm excited about is, you know, look, I'm a I'm
Speaker 2: an enjoy myself on grades and when they're done with
Speaker 2: me or when it doesn't make any more sense, there's
Speaker 2: no more story for bed. Whatever the next thing is
Speaker 2: is going to be something that only the stuff that
Speaker 2: I'm excited about because I love my kids are almost
Speaker 2: out the house, so I'm like, it's not about yo,
Speaker 2: that job thing. So it's like, you know, I can
Speaker 2: go back to making risky moves.
Speaker 1: Oh my good, and the house is almost paid off.
Speaker 1: I'd imagine at this point.
Speaker 2: It's like we do okay. It's like, yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 2: been it's been an interesting ride. And in that spot
Speaker 2: where knowing that like, you know, I can still beat
Speaker 2: my kids in the foot race, so but we're in
Speaker 2: the financially decent spot. So I was like, I'm pretty
Speaker 2: hyped about where I am right now, Like yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, let's see what your tackle soup tastes like.
Speaker 2: Is it right? It's somewhere in there. It should be.
Speaker 2: I mean, it should taste decent. This is the thing.
Speaker 2: Is the thing about taco soup is that it gets
Speaker 2: better as its I'm gonna let it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go pick up my daughter and come right
Speaker 1: back and be like, let's bring this soup home. Well,
Speaker 1: I didn't even bring it to a boil, so oh,
Speaker 1: it's gonna take a while.
Speaker 2: I got to bring it to a boil and then
Speaker 2: let it simmer for like a little bit after that.
Speaker 2: But so it takes a second, you know how like
Speaker 2: chili is and good soups do. But you could take
Speaker 2: a sip down and I give you an idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna take just put a little bit. You
Speaker 1: and buy are both gonna do it together. Okay, So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna judge based off the fact that he couldn't
Speaker 1: fully fully bring it to a boil and simmer. It
Speaker 1: looks really good though, it looks colorful. I have a question,
Speaker 1: do you ever add a cheese to this?
Speaker 2: But again, we'll put we'll put the I should have
Speaker 2: told you treaded cheese and like you said, taco strips
Speaker 2: or something like that, and you can throw a little
Speaker 2: bit of the We can't have people do I don't
Speaker 2: because you know I try and do hikma say how many?
Speaker 2: How many? How many? How many? How many?
Speaker 1: All right? Does it taste good?
Speaker 2: Okay? Anything? But it gets better over time? Like I said,
Speaker 2: is it? This is really good? As it sucks up
Speaker 2: the juices and stuff, it gets better.
Speaker 1: Now the meat is perfectly tender and it's not dry.
Speaker 1: If you boil it and let it simmer, Will the
Speaker 1: meat get dry.
Speaker 2: When you get dry with it? No, that's the beauty
Speaker 2: of it. It's just gonna get It's gonna's gonna suck
Speaker 2: up these juices. So right now it's on the super side.
Speaker 2: This is the taco soup. It'll start looking more and
Speaker 2: more closer to a chili as this like, if I
Speaker 2: boil it, let it similar for another like fifteen to twenty.
Speaker 2: After that, we eat whatever we're gonna eat, throw it
Speaker 2: in the fridge. Tomorrow's when it tastes the best. I really,
Speaker 2: I think it's good the first out, but the next day,
Speaker 2: which is perfect for the like we are on crazy schedules,
Speaker 2: we're running.
Speaker 1: Did you put real tomatoes in this?
Speaker 2: What did you do?
Speaker 1: Oh tomatoes?
Speaker 2: It is good? You look so we just hitting the
Speaker 2: boil now.
Speaker 1: Honestly, if this tastes better tomorrow, I go see you
Speaker 1: eating with this with like saltine crackers.
Speaker 2: Right, it thickens up whatever you want to. It's like
Speaker 2: all those like very tortillas, all that stuff is just
Speaker 2: it's a vehicle for whatever something else.
Speaker 1: So when do you add the salsa in it?
Speaker 2: But then sometimes I throw it in now if I
Speaker 2: want to. It's at a good spice level. Right now.
Speaker 2: Some will leave it, but people will sometimes throw it
Speaker 2: in on top of the you know, with you throw
Speaker 2: some cheese on it, just like a taco, right, you
Speaker 2: throw your cheese on top of it and throw because
Speaker 2: you can actually say something, this is magnificent.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you, thank you, and for all y'all listeners
Speaker 1: at home. This was literally a couple of bucks, like
Speaker 1: a dollar, two dollars cans.
Speaker 2: It's the whole point.
Speaker 1: It's like, if you can't cook and you're a man,
Speaker 1: this is like, yeah, you can impress someone with this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is what I My wife is the one
Speaker 2: who introduced it to me, and then I would it
Speaker 2: was one of the things that I could cook that
Speaker 2: even when she wasn't around.
Speaker 1: The sauce is really good. Did you try a bit
Speaker 1: just a song?
Speaker 2: Hm?
Speaker 1: Great, great meal. Thank you so much Jason for feeding me. Now,
Speaker 1: shout out to your mom because there's a couple of
Speaker 1: things that you mentioned that I don't want to overlook
Speaker 1: the fact that your mom raised three sons. It sounds
Speaker 1: like all three of you went to college.
Speaker 2: See it again, three sons went to college, worked that
Speaker 2: way through. My older brother worked his way through. I
Speaker 2: managed to put together scholarships, and I worked as an
Speaker 2: ra to get myself all the way through. And my
Speaker 2: younger brother got an athletic scholarship and athletic academic combination
Speaker 2: scholarship the Howard University, so Norfolk State, UVA, me and him.
Speaker 2: My older brother went to Norfolk State. I went to UVA,
Speaker 2: myright younger brother went to Howard and she we all
Speaker 2: had to get it done. But she, she's the matriarch.
Speaker 1: She held it down. Even the conversation when she talked
Speaker 1: about like selling your home, just how she included you guys,
Speaker 1: like what are the restraints, what are the feedback? And
Speaker 1: for her to even hold it down to just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know this is your goals. I'm going to make
Speaker 1: sure that you see those things through. I think that
Speaker 1: was pretty impressive, along with the fact that you've eaten
Speaker 1: broke so long that you cannot even eat spaghetti anymore,
Speaker 1: really says a lot about your story, and even just
Speaker 1: sharing like the financial literacy aspect really shows that you
Speaker 1: were really eating while broke while pursuing your dreams and
Speaker 1: earning college degree and making sure that you had career
Speaker 1: stability with acting teaching acting in the background. I love
Speaker 1: every part of your story. Thank you, and we love
Speaker 1: watching you on Gray's Anatomy. We want to keep seeing
Speaker 1: you on more and more and more and more stuff.
Speaker 1: What advice would you give to an actor and actress
Speaker 1: trying to get in this industry? Now?
Speaker 2: A couple of things. On the we talked about financial literacy,
Speaker 2: keep your overhead low, right, that's that financial freedom is
Speaker 2: freedom and financial freedom is creative freedom. On the creative tip,
Speaker 2: you got a camera in your pocket, you need to
Speaker 2: be creating. Stop. You know, if you can learn how
Speaker 2: to write, if you can learn how to direct, if
Speaker 2: you can all that, you can just play around with it.
Speaker 2: Nobody else needs to see it. You and your friends
Speaker 2: making stuff, and if you do it right, then it
Speaker 2: becomes you know Ray, you know, awkward black girl, which
Speaker 2: becomes insecure. I mean, like you need to be creating
Speaker 2: your own stuff because nobody. I had a friend who
Speaker 2: used to use this great phrase. He said, you're unique,
Speaker 2: but you're not special. I mean, don't think you're better
Speaker 2: than anybody else. But nobody in the world has what
Speaker 2: you have, the exact blend of stuff of you. So
Speaker 2: create something. I mean, just do it on your phone.
Speaker 2: Create something. You never know what it's going to turn into.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: And sometimes when you get a veteran in the game,
Speaker 1: someone that has a long resume like yours, they hate
Speaker 1: on the new era of the phone and pull out
Speaker 1: your phone.
Speaker 2: And technology always changes, Technology always changes. Every theater actor
Speaker 2: hated on you know, every silent film actor hated on talkies,
Speaker 2: and then you know film actors hated on television, and
Speaker 2: everyone wants to hate on whatever the new thing is.
Speaker 2: Get over it. It moves, it moves, you know, move
Speaker 2: with it or be a dinosaur. Right that said, you
Speaker 2: got to hold on to and remember what's actually real,
Speaker 2: because that human thing like AI is the only thing
Speaker 2: that I'll hate on uh and even But here's the
Speaker 2: thing I say when I say hey, I don't mean
Speaker 2: because my brother's a computer jack and he uses AI
Speaker 2: all the time as a tool. He's a human theme,
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, using it as a tool. But there are
Speaker 2: two people who try and use it to replace human beings.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, the thing that allowed us go from
Speaker 2: theater to move to silent, to talkies to TV is
Speaker 2: that human thing we always connect with. You see somebody
Speaker 2: who's like, I know exactly what that's like to fall
Speaker 2: in love, to lose somebody, to do with that human
Speaker 2: thing that sticks. If you can hold onto that doesn't
Speaker 2: matter what the technology is. And if you can use
Speaker 2: AI to bring that out, that's cool. But AI can't
Speaker 2: create that.
Speaker 1: AID can't create it. And I think there's this thing
Speaker 1: where people think that it can. And I was I
Speaker 1: have a girlfriend that's doing a children's book right now.
Speaker 1: She hired an animator and the animator was obvious was
Speaker 1: using AI. And I looked at it, and she's like,
Speaker 1: what do you think? And I was like, this is AI.
Speaker 1: And the truth in the matter is kind of what
Speaker 1: you said about being unique. It's just when you're an
Speaker 1: artist and you can somehow that vulnerability is still pours
Speaker 1: through an art. And I like when you say AI
Speaker 1: can be used as tool, but it cannot on no
Speaker 1: lever can it replace incredible writing, or incredible acting or
Speaker 1: incredible drawing. You could see it from a mile away.
Speaker 2: I spell it with with computer generated animation, they would
Speaker 2: call it. If you see a computer generated person, they
Speaker 2: called it the uncanny Valley. It could be looking like
Speaker 2: it was a picture, almost like an actual photograph, except
Speaker 2: for something about the eyes.
Speaker 1: Yeah you can't.
Speaker 2: You can just look where the movements and we just go, Nah,
Speaker 2: that's not it. That's not a real person.
Speaker 1: I assure you, even if you try, like I play
Speaker 1: around with a lot of AI tools, I just I
Speaker 1: don't know. For me, it's like a playground of just
Speaker 1: seeing what it can do. But if you pay attention,
Speaker 1: you will see when it comes to the details, it
Speaker 1: misses every time.
Speaker 2: Exactly details. And that's ultimately what that's what makes the difference.
Speaker 2: The difference is as a human being, we have opinions
Speaker 2: and best sign I saw on the strike lines because
Speaker 2: I was neat. I was part of the negotiating committee
Speaker 2: for the billion dollar deal we got coming out of them,
Speaker 2: the striking such but walking the picking lines. I remember
Speaker 2: sobody had a sign it was a writer and it
Speaker 2: said AI didn't have a fucked up childhood? Yeah, And
Speaker 2: to me, I was like, that's the world. Like there's
Speaker 2: a perspective that comes from all the stuff that hits
Speaker 2: you in your life, good, bad, ugly that you bring
Speaker 2: to when you write this thing, which is why you
Speaker 2: got the writing job instead of that person, you know.
Speaker 1: And then that that diversity is like the missing link,
Speaker 1: Like that's why you see big companies like Google or
Speaker 1: whoever when they have to have like this diverse, like
Speaker 1: different backgrounds, because they need these perspectives. And that that
Speaker 1: sign right there said all more than enough. But where
Speaker 1: can everybody keep up with Jason George?
Speaker 2: You know, I'm on Instagram and Facebook. I think Instagram
Speaker 2: is Jason Winston George and they spoke. I think it's
Speaker 2: Jason W. George and I think that's what it is
Speaker 2: on Blue Sky and X.
Speaker 1: And then do you actually handle your own handles? Do
Speaker 1: you and say hey, what up?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, you gotta know that, like my Facebook is
Speaker 2: connected to my Instagram. So I had a friend, like
Speaker 2: somebody who I knew who like lived down the block
Speaker 2: for me has my phone number. They made a movie
Speaker 2: and they were like, you know, an independent joint and
Speaker 2: they were like, yeah, well that was the role. And
Speaker 2: they showed me. They were screaming the movie. They were like, yo,
Speaker 2: that's the role that we wanted you to do. I
Speaker 2: was like, why didn't you holler at me? They're like
Speaker 2: we dead. I was like, no, you did not higher
Speaker 2: at me because and they said, yeah, I hit you
Speaker 2: on Facebook.
Speaker 1: I was like, stop, stop, I don't get that.
Speaker 2: Don't don't hit me on Facebook. You need to hit me.
Speaker 2: So but my point is they hit me on Instagram.
Speaker 2: They'd have had a twenty percent chance of getting me
Speaker 2: Facebook give a zero.
Speaker 1: If you have the number, I hit the number direct.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying, but if you hadn't actually just walked
Speaker 2: down the street knock on my door man, you know
Speaker 2: where I live. But but yeah, but you it's mine.
Speaker 2: So if you holler at me when you see me
Speaker 2: putting stuff out there, that's me putting stuff out nice
Speaker 2: And I'll be putting random stuff out all the time.
Speaker 2: Like I almost had like a thirty six hour think
Speaker 2: of just eagles after.
Speaker 1: Because I can tell you are so proud of this moment.
Speaker 2: Eagles one on my super Bowl.
Speaker 1: That's right on my birthday.
Speaker 2: My birthday was the day that Eagles won the Super Bowl. Somewhere,
Speaker 2: we're Shannon that I can't see. Shannon. My publicist is
Speaker 2: around here somewhere, and she's a Cowboys fan. And she's
Speaker 2: rolling her eyes right now because she's My mom's a
Speaker 2: Cowboys fans.
Speaker 1: Shout out to your mom. We love her.
Speaker 2: It's her one fault. It's her one fault. Leave she can,
Speaker 2: she can be Cowboys fan. You can be wrong. It's
Speaker 2: legal to be wrong. It's legal to do unintelligent things.
Speaker 2: But that's just on you. That's just on you.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you Jason for feeding me and taking time
Speaker 1: out of your crazy schedule to bless us with a
Speaker 1: little insight of who you are behind the camera.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Thank you. He's out, y'all. Assass