Speaker 1: Oh God, I can't really tell you this story.
Speaker 2: Uh, sh man, what's hand him?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 2: You got more Shawn be Small Lynch, Doug Hendrickson.
Speaker 4: And Gavin Newsome.
Speaker 5: And you're listening to politics.
Speaker 3: You know to be, you known to be.
Speaker 5: We got Connie Nielsen coming up. Who's Marshawn? She's been
Speaker 5: in all kinds of stuff, from The Devil's Advocate to
Speaker 5: movies with Robin Williams. But of course she was in
Speaker 5: Gladiator twenty four years ago and is in Gladiator too,
Speaker 5: and she's the maybe I mean, if not the dominant
Speaker 5: character and Gladiator too, she's one of the dominant characters.
Speaker 5: And she's a dear friend and remarkable philanthropist and someone
Speaker 5: has been out front on gender equality and she's got
Speaker 5: her own nonprofit. She was, you know, and she was
Speaker 5: an actress going back when she's very young and Mark
Speaker 5: and as travel the world, speaks six or seven damn languages,
Speaker 5: one of those people.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: And so we're honored to have Connie Nielsen up next
Speaker 5: on politic.
Speaker 4: Connie, how are you?
Speaker 1: I'm good? How are you that?
Speaker 4: I'm doing great?
Speaker 6: You You are the hottest woman in town, in the
Speaker 6: country right now with this movie how are you feeling
Speaker 6: with it?
Speaker 1: I don't feel super hot. I gotta tell you. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm I guess I'm not dressing the part really like,
Speaker 1: you know, just a sweater.
Speaker 6: Well, I got my mind, Marshaun, shirt on, don't get,
Speaker 6: don't forget, you don't eat your chicken, and uh.
Speaker 4: I don't eat chick.
Speaker 6: So we're all dressed down, Connie, But no, thanks for
Speaker 6: coming on really for Gab.
Speaker 1: Gab is as always like super well dressed.
Speaker 5: I took my tie off for you. That shows my
Speaker 5: respect for so is my respect.
Speaker 3: So's my respect.
Speaker 4: Well, it's good.
Speaker 5: Thank you by the way for joining us, because I
Speaker 5: wasn't joking. You've been, I've seen, I've turned on. I'm like,
Speaker 5: what the hell you're in Australia, You're you know, all
Speaker 5: over obviously all of the United States, but around the
Speaker 5: rest of the world with this sort of next level
Speaker 5: blockbuster Gladiator too, and and and a movie that obviously
Speaker 5: doesn't need any introduction, a movie that's so indelible in
Speaker 5: our lives twenty four years ago. Uh and you had
Speaker 5: you had a significant role then. But Connie, I was
Speaker 5: sitting there with your son watching this movie. We just
Speaker 5: coincidentally went to one of the shows. He was sitting
Speaker 5: behind me and literally, I don't know, I haven't even
Speaker 5: told you this. I turned around. I'm like, I didn't know. Shot, Like,
Speaker 5: you're like the one of the mate. You're you're not,
Speaker 5: You're not just in the movie. You're like foundationally rushing
Speaker 5: to medium. It was next level part uh, And you
Speaker 5: didn't give me any warning about that? But was that?
Speaker 5: I mean, honestly, did you expect that role to grow
Speaker 5: in such a prominent and significant way? Did you expect
Speaker 5: when you got that script that you would be such
Speaker 5: a significant player in the remake or the second iteration?
Speaker 1: You know, it's so funny because you know, my memory
Speaker 1: of the first one is of course that I'm super
Speaker 1: central to I know, but not as And it's like
Speaker 1: the Rosencranz and Guildenstern thing, you know, which is where
Speaker 1: you know, this incredible play where you know, these two
Speaker 1: side characters and Hamlet, you know, think of themselves as
Speaker 1: the main characters in their own play. And so I'm
Speaker 1: one of those actors. I always think I'm the main character.
Speaker 4: But was it? I mean, it is, I mean it is.
Speaker 5: It's a remarkable movie because just the ability to take
Speaker 5: something that was you know, almost perfect, that's twenty four
Speaker 5: years old, with so much expectation, and actually match that
Speaker 5: expectation and exceed it. That's a risk in it of itself,
Speaker 5: just be participated. There's been a lot of great flops,
Speaker 5: and there are the Number two movies, but this isn't
Speaker 5: one of them. And I did you know that right
Speaker 5: when you saw that script or you just knew that
Speaker 5: before you even got the script because of the team
Speaker 5: that was assembled.
Speaker 1: I mean I wasn't sure about the script frankly until
Speaker 1: I read it. It seemed like an impossible task to
Speaker 1: create such a you know, a story that could actually
Speaker 1: measure itself next to the original. And as you said,
Speaker 1: like there was a lot of love for that first film,
Speaker 1: and I think people were worried that we were going
Speaker 1: to come and ruin it. And what we've had is
Speaker 1: like so many people who have literally said, like, I
Speaker 1: actually think I preferred this one to the first one,
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot of love for both glading
Speaker 1: it just that's for sure. And you know, I was
Speaker 1: definitely worried and then I read the script and I realized, no,
Speaker 1: you know, this is it's a really great story, So
Speaker 1: you know, I was excited to start it.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 6: Well, Connie, take me through when you're done with it,
Speaker 6: because obviously we have another buddying movie star here with
Speaker 6: Marshaun who's.
Speaker 4: Now in entertainment. But take me through when you're done.
Speaker 6: It seems like that Gavin said, you've been on every
Speaker 6: continent at premiers every place, and you've been at the
Speaker 6: Grand Prix in Vegas. You've been or f One. You've
Speaker 6: been everywhere. How's that the last three and a half
Speaker 6: we spend you've been on the road, interviews every place.
Speaker 6: Has that just been nuts in terms of what you've
Speaker 6: been doing for it.
Speaker 1: I've been on the roads for six weeks and if
Speaker 1: I tell you like my itinerary, you will faint. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's diffinite, it's crazy, But it's also been kind of amazing,
Speaker 1: you know, to premiere the film in Sydney, in Tokyo,
Speaker 1: in Paris, and Copenhagen in London, Los Angeles, New York, Like,
Speaker 1: it's been pretty crazy to meet with the fans in
Speaker 1: so many different locations since see them be so excited
Speaker 1: about the film and frankly also about my character. Like
Speaker 1: just a lot of people have just shown Lucilla a
Speaker 1: lot of love and it's just been beautiful.
Speaker 5: And I'm curious, Connie, just with you know, the experience
Speaker 5: you had twenty five years ago, and you're out imagine
Speaker 5: a version of a world tour.
Speaker 4: Is this?
Speaker 5: I mean, is it? I think it was Marcus Aurelius
Speaker 5: who sort of the the and the og of this
Speaker 5: the first film. He said, you never walk in the
Speaker 5: same river twice, not because the river's changed, because you're changed.
Speaker 5: And twenty four years later you're a very different person.
Speaker 5: The maturation of your character gave you that ability as
Speaker 5: well to bring that to life. And it's it's it.
Speaker 5: That's what was so wonderful for me to watch, just
Speaker 5: in terms of knowing you, which is always strange knowing
Speaker 5: someone and then seeing them on screen, but how you
Speaker 5: can just see your joy and try to bring that
Speaker 5: complexity and that maturation to the character to life and
Speaker 5: have I thought, just more room to run with that.
Speaker 5: But what was just the experience of being back out
Speaker 5: there in from a global perspective? Was it? I mean,
Speaker 5: was it the same river twice or was it something
Speaker 5: even more extraordinary?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: In fact, I think I used that precise take on
Speaker 1: it that you know that you in fact can't going,
Speaker 1: you know, walk into the same river twice, because the
Speaker 1: river has changed, and so have you, you know, I've changed,
Speaker 1: and even like the Roman Empire that we're talking about
Speaker 1: has changed. And that was what was so interesting for me,
Speaker 1: because I really just put myself in the place of Losilla.
Speaker 1: What would it have been like for Loscilla had she
Speaker 1: had this experience of being like the daughter of Marcus Aurelius,
Speaker 1: And you know, Marcus Aurelius had presided as the fourth
Speaker 1: emperor in a lot, in a line of four emperors
Speaker 1: in a row, eighty years of unprecedented growth and like
Speaker 1: positive governance of this empire. And even so, you know,
Speaker 1: we've cast Lucilla as a as a republican who continues
Speaker 1: to believe that ultimately, you know, freedom for the people
Speaker 1: is the only truth that they really can you know,
Speaker 1: push for, you know, no matter how benevolent this dictatorship
Speaker 1: has been, well, not quite the dictatorship, but this emperor
Speaker 1: position has been for Rome. And we see why, right
Speaker 1: because after Commatist dies, you have a series of horrible
Speaker 1: rulers of Rome, and it must have been incredible for
Speaker 1: people who still remembered the Golden Age at that time,
Speaker 1: to go back to to to look at what had
Speaker 1: happened to their once proud, sort of shining example of
Speaker 1: a democracy, a democracy, you know, different from our terms,
Speaker 1: but in their terms of democracy back then in twenty years.
Speaker 1: You know, you have a moment when our film starts
Speaker 1: where the Praetorian Guard is basically just selling, auctioning off
Speaker 1: more or less the position of emperor to the highest bidder.
Speaker 1: It's a sad state. And I imagine what it must
Speaker 1: have been like to.
Speaker 5: Watch that, Marshaan, were you familiar? I mean, it's interesting.
Speaker 5: Everybody's now looking up Stoicism and everybody's learning about Marcus Aurelius,
Speaker 5: learning about one of the most significant works of literature,
Speaker 5: just deep human understanding meditations, and people that have read
Speaker 5: it maybe are rereading it today and picking up more
Speaker 5: contemporary cues. But I'm curious, Marshaan, you ever heard of
Speaker 5: Marcus Aurelius the most powerful man in the world?
Speaker 3: Rome, No, I haven't.
Speaker 5: But you saw Gladiator, right, you saw the first one, right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've seen it like I've seen it a while ago.
Speaker 2: So I mean, you know, and I haven't seen part
Speaker 2: two yet, and only because I haven't been able to
Speaker 2: sit down, Like I want to go and watch part
Speaker 2: one before I go and get in to two, just
Speaker 2: so I can make sure. Yeah, I mean there's nothing
Speaker 2: that I'm miss so you know, I mean, when I
Speaker 2: get the time to sit down, I'm going check that out.
Speaker 1: I do want to say, Machean, you don't have to
Speaker 1: watch number one because the number two actually just stands
Speaker 1: alone on its own. It does, and you kind of
Speaker 1: even even if you haven't seen number one, you can
Speaker 1: go in and kind of understand from the beginning what
Speaker 1: has happened as a preamble to number two. So I
Speaker 1: just want to say, if you want to catch it
Speaker 1: while it's still up on the big screen, I would
Speaker 1: definitely go do that, just because seeing that film on
Speaker 1: the biggest screen possible is really worth it.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I'm one of them dudes that like the
Speaker 2: If I want to watch something, I like the like
Speaker 2: the bands watch So you know, I mean being able
Speaker 2: to go and you know, I mean check one out,
Speaker 2: then go shit down there and watch two. I think
Speaker 2: that'll be But we.
Speaker 1: Should make like the double screening somewhere.
Speaker 3: Right, you can make that happen.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna make it all.
Speaker 6: Denzel seems like the coolest dude in the planet. Like
Speaker 6: I've never met him, it seems like the coolest dude
Speaker 6: that anybody would want to meet anywhere. Is he that
Speaker 6: good of a guy, that cool of a guy.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was so sweet because when we were
Speaker 1: doing the press tour for our film, he was also
Speaker 1: doing a press tour for a film that he's done
Speaker 1: with his kids that's called The Piano Lesson and it's
Speaker 1: gotten great reviews. And you've just never seen a prouder dad,
Speaker 1: Like literally so excited to tell us about this new film.
Speaker 1: And he was so out of having, you know, done
Speaker 1: this film not just with his two sons, but also
Speaker 1: with his daughters in this film, and so it's an
Speaker 1: exciting thing for him. It's an exciting moment for him.
Speaker 1: You know. I think he's he's kind of thinking of
Speaker 1: winding down his career a little by little, and I
Speaker 1: think having had this moment of shooting with his family
Speaker 1: made him just especially proud.
Speaker 5: No, but did you guys, I mean it must have
Speaker 5: had conversations over the years about the prospect of making
Speaker 5: number two, right, this didn't come out of the woodwork.
Speaker 5: Was Denzel always? I mean, did they did the Ridley Scott,
Speaker 5: Did they have Denzel in mind for a decade or
Speaker 5: so for this role.
Speaker 1: I mean, Ridley had already done one movie, American Gangster
Speaker 1: with Denzel and and so I think you know, when
Speaker 1: he wrote the character of Macronus, who also was historically
Speaker 1: you know, he's also part of the history book, then
Speaker 1: I think he automatically had Denzil in his mind.
Speaker 5: It's good and I mean obviously, look, I mean the
Speaker 5: epic nature of everything released Guy's ever done. But you've
Speaker 5: talked a lot about as you've been on the road,
Speaker 5: watched a few of your interviews, the nature of technology
Speaker 5: now and what he's able to bring to life with
Speaker 5: his quality of imagination because the technology allows him to
Speaker 5: scale that and generate in real time, the ability to
Speaker 5: make magic. I mean, I imagine a lot of that
Speaker 5: you anticipated, you may have seen or read in the
Speaker 5: script itself or felt, but when you saw it up
Speaker 5: there on screen, when everything came together, what was that
Speaker 5: like for you?
Speaker 1: I mean, he he does use technology a lot, but
Speaker 1: everything that you need to see he actually builds in
Speaker 1: real life. So you know, he had created an animatronic rhinoceros.
Speaker 1: For the big Rhinoceros fight scene. There were real boats
Speaker 1: for the boats seeing, though not real water. So it's
Speaker 1: just like, what what the technology allows him to do
Speaker 1: is to just reach a whole new level of effects
Speaker 1: that I don't think anyone has put on the screen yet,
Speaker 1: you know, not not to this level.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 1: And and it's uh, it's just he just loves uh technology,
Speaker 1: especially because it just allows him to, you know, whatever
Speaker 1: comes into his mind as a vision, he can make
Speaker 1: it appear.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: It's incredible.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Marshaun, You've got to go see it tonight. It
Speaker 6: is absolutely amazing. And again, Connie, I was with Gavin
Speaker 6: when your son was there watching as well too, and
Speaker 6: I was mind blown.
Speaker 4: It was just unbelievable. But let me ask you a question.
Speaker 6: I've always been admired, admired you as a person and
Speaker 6: everything you've done, as far as the philanthropy work, uh,
Speaker 6: you know, working in movies and whatnot.
Speaker 4: How have you been so grounded?
Speaker 6: I mean, you've got your great mother, You've been phenomenal
Speaker 6: everything you do, and you've lived away from kind of
Speaker 6: la and you've done it kind of your own terms
Speaker 6: and I've really admired how you've done it because you've
Speaker 6: taken the roles you want to take. You work when
Speaker 6: you want to work. Everything you've done is hit and
Speaker 6: been like blockbuster stuff, which has been great, and you've
Speaker 6: done it in a very cool way in your own terms,
Speaker 6: and I really appreciate that. So is that that's not
Speaker 6: normal in Hollywood, and you've been doing this for a
Speaker 6: long long time.
Speaker 1: It is kind of funny. When I'm home in Denmark,
Speaker 1: people call me like a Hollywood star. I go like
Speaker 1: like I would get lost if you put me in
Speaker 1: the middle of Hollywood and asked me to go somewhere
Speaker 1: because I'm without my phone, because I have no idea,
Speaker 1: I don't know the place like whatsoever. And it is
Speaker 1: strange for me when I do go to La because
Speaker 1: I've really don't know very many people there. I'm just
Speaker 1: as much a tourist as anybody who goes there, you know.
Speaker 1: But I have lived the kind of life that I prefer.
Speaker 1: I am sort of someone who just likes to be
Speaker 1: with my friends and with my family and too, like
Speaker 1: I don't know outside of my work, you know, do
Speaker 1: like a real life, like living with real people who
Speaker 1: live normal lives, you know, And I guess you could
Speaker 1: say that. You know, the Bay Area is very privileged
Speaker 1: in many many ways, and there are all kinds of
Speaker 1: people here, and I know we have our own set
Speaker 1: of problems in terms of like the high living costs
Speaker 1: that's forcing a lot of those normal people out of
Speaker 1: the Bay Area. But that notwithstanding, I just have loved
Speaker 1: living here and building a life here for my kids.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 5: But Connie, when did you come out to California? I
Speaker 5: mean you, when do you leave Denmark? And then when
Speaker 5: at what age did you end up out here in California.
Speaker 1: So I've lived a lot of sort of weird chapters
Speaker 1: on the way here. I lived in Paris from eighteen
Speaker 1: to twenty one and did my first movie as soon
Speaker 1: as I arrived in Paris where I was staying with
Speaker 1: my uncle, And I literally did my first movie at
Speaker 1: eighteen there with Jerry Lewis as my co star. I
Speaker 1: was eighteen, he was fifty eight I think, and had
Speaker 1: just had open heart surgery and showed me I remember
Speaker 1: the scar that went from here down to here. And
Speaker 1: it was just before having my first film Kiss at
Speaker 1: eighteen with a much older man.
Speaker 4: Wow, that's a whole other podcast right.
Speaker 1: There, right, and then I went to Italy where I
Speaker 1: went to I did a acting school in Rome, and
Speaker 1: I had my first kid there. Lived in Italy for
Speaker 1: ten years, loved, loved, loved living in Italy, and then
Speaker 1: I moved to New York in ninety six. Did my
Speaker 1: first movie in America there literally two months after moving
Speaker 1: to New York, which was The Devil's Advocate, And it
Speaker 1: was quite a thing for me to land in New York,
Speaker 1: put my kid into the Italian school, and then go
Speaker 1: to work, you know, on a rooftop above Central Park
Speaker 1: with al Pacino and Keanu Reefs in my first scene.
Speaker 5: That was the first scene.
Speaker 6: Well, Conlie, how so before you got to eighteen, so
Speaker 6: in thirteen fourteen fifteen, you were doing acting and you
Speaker 6: told your parents to listen, I want to go do this,
Speaker 6: and then you find an agent then in Denmark and
Speaker 6: then they found this role for you in Paris or
Speaker 6: how'd you get there to begin?
Speaker 1: No, I was like, I was living in this tiny city,
Speaker 1: village actually outside of a city, a small city in
Speaker 1: the very top northern Denmark, and I told my mom,
Speaker 1: like I started doing acting next to her, she had
Speaker 1: a review and variety show in the summer that did
Speaker 1: political comedy show sketches, and I did my first scenes
Speaker 1: with her at fifteen and sixteen, and then I told
Speaker 1: her that that was what I wanted. And my grandmother
Speaker 1: had a cousin living in Paris, but we had no
Speaker 1: one living in Copenhagen, and so it just was easier
Speaker 1: for me to go to Paris than it was to
Speaker 1: go to Copenhagen. And when I got to Paris, I
Speaker 1: met a girl in the subway who was American. She
Speaker 1: asked me to dinner. I came to dinner. Next to
Speaker 1: me was sitting a producer. The producer asked me if
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask me what I was doing in Paris,
Speaker 1: and I said, I'm an actress and then he and
Speaker 1: then he asked me, oh, what's your background. I told him, well,
Speaker 1: I've been doing these political review shows with my mom
Speaker 1: for the past three years. And he was like, well,
Speaker 1: would you like to audition for this role young girl
Speaker 1: in a in a comedy And I was like sure,
Speaker 1: And literally three days later I went to the studio
Speaker 1: at the audition for the role, got the role, and
Speaker 1: it's there where I just want to say I could
Speaker 1: speak French because I had had I had done seven
Speaker 1: grades of French in high school because our teacher had
Speaker 1: this small group of girls, like seven girls to teach
Speaker 1: French to and was obsessed with it, and so he
Speaker 1: taught us how to read and write fluently in French.
Speaker 1: So I spoke fluent French when I got there. And
Speaker 1: so I realized, as I'm telling my story that I've
Speaker 1: had sort of like a forced gump like kind of
Speaker 1: life where I've just happened to you know, you know,
Speaker 1: but you know, I don't know, like sort of back
Speaker 1: my way into something rather than sort of forging ahead
Speaker 1: of it. Does that make sense?
Speaker 4: A hundred percent?
Speaker 6: Take me through the Uh, the guy's a gladiator. I mean,
Speaker 6: who was the toughest gladiator to those two guys?
Speaker 1: I can't really say because I would give it away.
Speaker 1: We don't want more sean she happens, do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 1: But I can reveal that one of them is my
Speaker 1: son and the other one is my husband. And so
Speaker 1: you're putting a woman in a hard place. Who is
Speaker 1: she going to choose her husband or her son?
Speaker 4: Like there you go, there you go?
Speaker 5: I like nine out of ten times it's the sun.
Speaker 5: But that's just you know, that's not wrong.
Speaker 1: No, it is Pedro Pascal. So it is a hard choice.
Speaker 7: I gotta say.
Speaker 5: By the way, if you I curious, have you talked
Speaker 5: to Russell about this new movie? Do you guys like
Speaker 5: compare notes? Is he a fomo that he's not in it?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: God, I can't really tell you this story. I did
Speaker 1: text him picture of me and Paul and said look
Speaker 1: our son and uh, and he didn't think it was funny.
Speaker 3: That's interesting, But that's good.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, legitimately, I don't even think about,
Speaker 5: you know, how he's feeling about all this, just with
Speaker 5: all the fanfare and energy. And I'm but you know,
Speaker 5: we don't have to go down that rabbit hole. But
Speaker 5: one of the things you know you have done is
Speaker 5: you've you've kind of you've made a few movies, and
Speaker 5: you've done it over and over again. I'm noticing a
Speaker 5: little bit of pattern Wonder Woman. Obviously you got nobody
Speaker 5: too coming out. But back to Wonder Woman. Uh, what
Speaker 5: I mean? That was interesting that I mean, I know
Speaker 5: and you we can get into a little bit also
Speaker 5: your passion you talk about things outside of Hollywood and
Speaker 5: the work you've done as it relates to gender equality
Speaker 5: and talk about your nonprofit in a moment. But Wonder
Speaker 5: Woman must have been intentional for you in terms of
Speaker 5: also expressing not only your acting chops, but also expressing
Speaker 5: a point of view and participating in what became also
Speaker 5: just an indelible and iconic breakthrough movie.
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, want to credit you know, Patty Jenkins,
Speaker 1: and and also to a degree Zach with with with
Speaker 1: just having the vision firsts you know, as a director
Speaker 1: and then so our producer to come up with this
Speaker 1: vision for for Wonder Woman. I think that everyone fell
Speaker 1: in love with the world of the Yscira that you know,
Speaker 1: Patty put up on the screen, with the incredible costumes,
Speaker 1: like just incredible people who did a lot of different
Speaker 1: things to make this so beautiful. I was very inspired
Speaker 1: by an incredible book called Amazon's which is written by
Speaker 1: Stanford just a wonderful professor at Stanford in so sorry
Speaker 1: I'm blacking on her name, but just like an incredible
Speaker 1: woman who in her studies of anthropology had you know,
Speaker 1: like revealed what no one seemed to really talk about,
Speaker 1: which is the extraordinary thing that you know, all of
Speaker 1: those ideas we have about what is male and what
Speaker 1: is female and what did women do in history and
Speaker 1: what did men do in history. Well, it turns out
Speaker 1: that a lot of these ideas about warriors being male
Speaker 1: and you know, people working in the home being female
Speaker 1: were misleading simply because anthropologists, you know, just assumed that
Speaker 1: if they saw a sword in a grave, well, then
Speaker 1: that was a male grave, and if they saw a
Speaker 1: bowl in a gray, well, then that was a female grave.
Speaker 1: But what this anthropologist then realized or like describes in
Speaker 1: this book is no, in fact, you know, when these
Speaker 1: new female anthropologists started like testing these graves, it turned
Speaker 1: out that the DNA revealed that all the way up
Speaker 1: to twenty percent of these graves were actually female warriors
Speaker 1: in like places like Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and parts of Serbia,
Speaker 1: you know, where the Amazons that were considered mythical were
Speaker 1: in fact not therefore mythical, and were in fact these
Speaker 1: female warriors that really grabbed the imagination of the Greeks,
Speaker 1: who were famous misogynists and who just could not even
Speaker 1: bear to consider this idea that that these women were
Speaker 1: warriors and able to you know, beat them in battle.
Speaker 1: And so that was my inspiration for Hippolyta, the character
Speaker 1: that I played in Wonder Woman. For me personally, as
Speaker 1: I was I was, I kept in mind like this
Speaker 1: one grave that I read about, which was like the
Speaker 1: most famous grave, and it was a woman warrior. She
Speaker 1: was covered in gold, gold plates, like as in her grave.
Speaker 1: She was buried with her hunting dog, with her with
Speaker 1: her hawk, her trade hawk you know that she used
Speaker 1: for for hunting and and and seven horses and so
Speaker 1: she must have been insanely rich at the time. And
Speaker 1: uh and it just like could not get her out
Speaker 1: of my mind, like this, that's a story that you
Speaker 1: just never.
Speaker 3: See national r and body for that role.
Speaker 1: Well, that's who I sort of had in my mind. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I did that, all, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3: It as dope as fun, you know, Marshawn what's interesting.
Speaker 5: And Connie, I appreciate you you because all that research
Speaker 5: you do for these these parts, et cetera. And I
Speaker 5: think that was something that really struck me as it
Speaker 5: relates to the interviews you've been doing on the Gladiator
Speaker 5: two tours. Your ability to iterate and engage, particularly with
Speaker 5: a director like Ridley Scott who wants that and chooses individuals,
Speaker 5: actors like yourself that are willing to express themselves and
Speaker 5: are willing to sort of challenge some of those norms.
Speaker 5: And I think for Marshawn, it's interesting just as you
Speaker 5: start your acting career as well. You know what's that
Speaker 5: I'm curious and this is a question for you, Connie,
Speaker 5: but it's a consideration for you as well, Marshaan. At
Speaker 5: what point do you have that confident that you can
Speaker 5: move from the script and this job to more of
Speaker 5: an expression and you know, take that risk that you
Speaker 5: may you may get pushed back that we hired you
Speaker 5: to do this role. Read your script, shut up versus Hey,
Speaker 5: I'm a human being. I thought you hired me because
Speaker 5: you wanted more than was just the written word. You
Speaker 5: wanted me to bring something extra to this role. I mean,
Speaker 5: was there a moment, Connie where you were like, I'm
Speaker 5: going to move out of my shell after a third
Speaker 5: film or sar Were you that way with Pacino and
Speaker 5: you said, Hey, al, here's the way this character is
Speaker 5: gonna work for me.
Speaker 1: You know, my dad was a real tough cookie, and
Speaker 1: so I learned to negotiate with tough guys since I
Speaker 1: was a baby. Okay, I learned how to that. You know,
Speaker 1: a no does not mean a know, it just means maybe.
Speaker 4: Connie does not play Marshall. She's a tough, tough I love.
Speaker 5: Doug's basically advantaging for that.
Speaker 1: I'm just like, I just really believe that you can
Speaker 1: negotiate anything, and especially if you're coming from a place
Speaker 1: that is not an ego, but you're coming from a
Speaker 1: place of passion and enjoy You're coming from a place
Speaker 1: of wanting to share all of the discovery that you've
Speaker 1: made in creating this character. And if you're not just
Speaker 1: there because you're this narcissistic person who is like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's my way or the highway, but if you're there
Speaker 1: because you want to share ideas and ways to make
Speaker 1: your character richer, that will benefit the film as long
Speaker 1: as you're also listening for what is the other person
Speaker 1: really trying to do anything. That's where working with someone
Speaker 1: like with big and amazing directors like you know, Ridley,
Speaker 1: like Patty, like Zach like you Just like with Zach,
Speaker 1: I can, for example, say on Justice League, you know
Speaker 1: there were ideas where in the script, you know, I
Speaker 1: escape this uh, this collapsing, you know this collapsing place
Speaker 1: where where it buries a lot of my my Amazons
Speaker 1: inside it. And then off we are to the racist,
Speaker 1: you know, to get the mother box out of there.
Speaker 1: And I said, Zach, you know, I really feel like
Speaker 1: it's it's it's sad that she doesn't take a moment
Speaker 1: to consider the lives that these Mamazons have sacrificed. And
Speaker 1: so he set up this whole scene where I honor
Speaker 1: that sacrifice, that loss for a moment, and it gave
Speaker 1: a dimension to the film and to the character because
Speaker 1: just a little thing like two seconds where you take
Speaker 1: a moment to honor these swallen warriors. That was that
Speaker 1: said a lot about the character and a lot about
Speaker 1: the film.
Speaker 5: Marshawn, you a little bit of it. I mean, you
Speaker 5: and I know we've talked a little bit about this,
Speaker 5: but you're you're Marshawn's first big movie. Connie was Bottoms
Speaker 5: and ninety nine percent making this up. But Marshan, maybe
Speaker 5: you can share. I mean, all most your lines are
Speaker 5: just stuff you said, Hey, this is this is what
Speaker 5: I think needs to be said, not necessarily what they
Speaker 5: told me that I should say is that I mean,
Speaker 5: is am I overstating that sort of a similar experience
Speaker 5: a little bit, Connie.
Speaker 1: And by the way, can I just say I love
Speaker 1: that film so much and you're awesome in it.
Speaker 2: Thank you, I say, I appreciate it. No, it was
Speaker 2: just I mean for me is because I'm so green
Speaker 2: in the space. It's kind of more so like I'm
Speaker 2: I'm to the point where it's like, all right, tell
Speaker 2: me what it is that you're looking for, and then
Speaker 2: if you give me an opportunity to, yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: do me. I've just been uh blessed to where they
Speaker 2: actually like, you know, when I do me, and then
Speaker 2: if we can find a happy medium to where I
Speaker 2: can give them, you know, I mean, uh, the few
Speaker 2: things that they need, you know, I mean to drive
Speaker 2: the film with the with the story and the concept
Speaker 2: of everything. And I'm able to, you know, I mean
Speaker 2: give them that and some of me and a good
Speaker 2: mixture of it. So uh, you know that's kind of
Speaker 2: you know, my thought process, because the thing is, I
Speaker 2: never want to go into no position where I'm stepping
Speaker 2: on nobody toes. So when they do give me the
Speaker 2: actual opportunity to do me, I make sure make sure
Speaker 2: I do all of me. And it's and it's been
Speaker 2: working out, Uh, you know pretty well for me.
Speaker 6: Well, the cool thing is Gavin. You know, Kanye and
Speaker 6: mare shown are very similar. They both done it their way.
Speaker 6: They're authentic, Uh, they're they're humble. They're not gonna like
Speaker 6: Marshans to step on anybody's toes, but they're gonna have
Speaker 6: their own mind and think and do it that way.
Speaker 6: And Kanye, honestly, everything you've talked about in your life
Speaker 6: is very similar how Morshaan's live his life. No one's
Speaker 6: ever kind of told him, hey, this is your box,
Speaker 6: stay in it. He's done his own thing and he's
Speaker 6: whenever I had to do a contract for him, he said,
Speaker 6: why is this the contract?
Speaker 4: Why can't we get more? What about this?
Speaker 6: He's always pushed to the higher limits, which is cool
Speaker 6: as you guys are very similar that way.
Speaker 4: But Kanye did have a question.
Speaker 6: So if Morreshawn did have a great year in the NFL,
Speaker 6: and you know he was a free agent, all these
Speaker 6: teams to come calling and offering new stuff off of
Speaker 6: this movie. Now is the phone ringing like crazy or
Speaker 6: people calling and seeing what you did, because again, the
Speaker 6: movie was absolutely phenomenal, Or is it now you're you're
Speaker 6: looking at ten twenty different scripts of what you want
Speaker 6: to do? Is how does it work in Hollywood? Is
Speaker 6: that kind of on the heels of a movie like this?
Speaker 1: So I am like, apparently I literally got a text
Speaker 1: from my my agent like an hour goes in, You're
Speaker 1: number three on IMDb, which is like apparently, you know,
Speaker 1: determined by how many searches.
Speaker 7: For your name?
Speaker 3: Nice?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so yes, I am reading scripts still, and
Speaker 1: I'm working a lot also on my own writing as well.
Speaker 1: There I started producing and writing and I got my
Speaker 1: first sort of own project done two years ago where
Speaker 1: I described how Karen Blixen, who wrote Out of Africa,
Speaker 1: how she became a writer. And I just was like
Speaker 1: so excited and was really truly exciting to do my
Speaker 1: own stuff, like things that I had come up with
Speaker 1: the concept for and really wanted to to talk about.
Speaker 1: And that kind of stuff is what I'm really hoping
Speaker 1: to do more of now as well.
Speaker 5: And no directing, Connie, I mean, as you ever had
Speaker 5: the directing.
Speaker 1: Bug that my producer in Denmark would like me to
Speaker 1: direct my next project. Yes, but we'll see. I get
Speaker 1: one step at a time, and it's just like my Sean,
Speaker 1: it's about being humble and and and also honoring the process,
Speaker 1: you know, and and I really so I feel like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would love that, But I also am aware of
Speaker 1: how many much better directors than me that are out there,
Speaker 1: and so if I, you know, if if the right
Speaker 1: thing comes along for it, then I would love to
Speaker 1: do it. I saw my old ass the other day
Speaker 1: after my youngest had recommended it to me, and you know,
Speaker 1: that's an actress who who has now made her second movie,
Speaker 1: and that film is like unbelievably good and just uh,
Speaker 1: it's inspiring when you see that stuff happen.
Speaker 5: By the way, just in terms of your own, you know,
Speaker 5: the sort of expansive career that you've had, are there.
Speaker 5: I'm feeling more optimistic. I mean, it's interesting in the
Speaker 5: last two years, sort of backing up, you've had these
Speaker 5: sort of twin movies that have sort of broken through
Speaker 5: and given you know, some you know, given new life
Speaker 5: to quote unquote Hollywood obviously with Barbie last year and
Speaker 5: now you and Wicked this year. But what are you
Speaker 5: optimistic about your industry? Are you concerned about some of
Speaker 5: the trend lines in the industry, the streaming side of
Speaker 5: things versus the blockbuster over reliance on already well conceived
Speaker 5: or well received movies and becoming derivative of those movies
Speaker 5: or lack of original I mean what you're over under
Speaker 5: in terms of your own you know, own perspective and
Speaker 5: your own experience.
Speaker 1: I mean, my perspective is colored by the fact that
Speaker 1: my great great grandparents had movie theaters. They had three
Speaker 1: movie theater My great great grandmother built three movie theaters.
Speaker 1: My great grandmother had built and operated one movie theater.
Speaker 1: My great grandfather made his own comedy film movie. And
Speaker 1: then my great grandmother stopped the her movie house in
Speaker 1: the late sixties because this craze for bingo.
Speaker 6: Uh, that's more Shawn's mother now about to say, what
Speaker 6: kind of bengo like?
Speaker 1: Bingo like ravaged the movie theaters in the provinces of Denmark,
Speaker 1: and so all of a sudden people weren't going to
Speaker 1: the movie theater. They were going to bingo because they
Speaker 1: could win a goose or something like that, you know,
Speaker 1: if they wonted bingo.
Speaker 3: I played Bengos for gooses.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they played that you could win something and it
Speaker 1: was yes, usually like a frozen something and so, but
Speaker 1: then movie theaters just innovated, they made you know, it
Speaker 1: went from being palaces at the time of my great grandparents,
Speaker 1: and then they became smaller and they could put more
Speaker 1: movies in the movie theaters, and then they also became
Speaker 1: bigger and better sound, and now here in the Bay
Speaker 1: Area there are plenty of them where you can have
Speaker 1: dinner at the same time, you know. So I think
Speaker 1: through innovasion, people will always figure out a way to
Speaker 1: go to the movies because I think it has so
Speaker 1: much in common with sports. You know, if you did
Speaker 1: not have the people sitting there watching sports, it would
Speaker 1: not be the same thing, you know, being a part
Speaker 1: of it and participating in whether a story, whether it's
Speaker 1: something that's played out on the field or or shown
Speaker 1: on the big screen. You know, it's a communal experience.
Speaker 1: And I just don't think that that will change, and
Speaker 1: I don't want it to change, you know. For me,
Speaker 1: in my mind, I trace it back through not just
Speaker 1: through my family over the past hundred and fifteen years,
Speaker 1: but also because that's one hundred and fifteen years since
Speaker 1: my great grandparents opened their first movie theater. But I
Speaker 1: traced my job all the way back to ancient Greece,
Speaker 1: and probably before that, you know, where people sat in
Speaker 1: huge arenas and watched plays. That's how I see it,
Speaker 1: I think. And before that even we had itinerant storytellers
Speaker 1: who would go from village to village and they would
Speaker 1: sit around the fire with the village and the elders
Speaker 1: and the children and everybody would listen to the story.
Speaker 1: This is before reading. This storytelling goes back to the
Speaker 1: cradle of humankind, and it is what tells us about
Speaker 1: who we are and how to live and what's funny
Speaker 1: about all of that too.
Speaker 6: Hey, hey, Connor, let me ask a question you literally have.
Speaker 6: I'm not sure if it's one or two sons, but
Speaker 6: that a famous obviously rockstar father and a rock star
Speaker 6: actress mother. Are they falling any lead in the music
Speaker 6: path or the entertainment path or both or neither.
Speaker 1: So, my oldest son, Sebastian was a hip hop producer
Speaker 1: for more than fifteen sixteen years, and the music industry
Speaker 1: during that time just changed so much. And I do
Speaker 1: want to say this publicly the way that and I
Speaker 1: say this also to a legislator, the way that all
Speaker 1: of the money is amassing at the very top of
Speaker 1: that food chain meaning in the distribution access meaning stream
Speaker 1: of the music. H is quite literally killing talent, uh
Speaker 1: and making them go away for music because they don't
Speaker 1: know how to monetize it anymore. A very few people
Speaker 1: can monetize it. Right now, my two middle sons, Miles
Speaker 1: and Lane have an incredible band TYPEI Houston. They're touring.
Speaker 1: They are unbelievably talented and given, and they make incredible music.
Speaker 1: And you know, we'll see if they can figure out
Speaker 1: how to monetize this thing. If not, they too, were
Speaker 1: gonna goat it.
Speaker 4: We know somebody can. Can you fix it?
Speaker 1: Gather?
Speaker 4: This is this is part of the show.
Speaker 1: Something's gotta that's for sure. You can't. You can't have
Speaker 1: to have one hundred thousands streams before you can afford
Speaker 1: to buy a coffee. I mean, and I think it's
Speaker 1: even worse.
Speaker 6: Actually no, but Gavin, that's true. Let me snoop talking
Speaker 6: that before with us. How do we fix that?
Speaker 4: Gavin? Honestly, let's get this one.
Speaker 5: I mean, come on, Connie, you're adjacent to the answer,
Speaker 5: which is Lars was out front on this decades ago.
Speaker 1: He was Yeah, it was like and do you know
Speaker 1: how much shit he took for that, like it was
Speaker 1: like people that like sent him death threats for telling
Speaker 1: the truth.
Speaker 5: No, I mean he was literally on the forefront, right
Speaker 5: on the edge. Sean Parker Knapster, I mean that was
Speaker 5: that was the game changing stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: No, So it's so yeah, I'm the last guy the
Speaker 5: answer to that question. I just call Lars and get
Speaker 5: the answer and then just.
Speaker 1: So now I think that the answer is that we
Speaker 1: have to go back to like making sure that Paola
Speaker 1: is not repeating itself. That's what I think.
Speaker 5: So there's a lot of that. You're just calling that
Speaker 5: straight out.
Speaker 3: I like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, absolutely. I'm not in the music business, so
Speaker 1: I really don't care.
Speaker 5: But it goes to Doug's question, though you're you, I mean,
Speaker 5: I love it because a lot of parents don't want
Speaker 5: necessarily the experience is the negative side of fame and
Speaker 5: the experience of celebrity and and you know the trials
Speaker 5: and errors, you know, I mean, it's a tough business
Speaker 5: in terms of ego. Uh, you know, you're up, you're down,
Speaker 5: et cetera. But you you you embrace, you want you
Speaker 5: want them to follow their passion, your kids, and you're
Speaker 5: not trying to say don't get into acting. Don't become musicians.
Speaker 5: Uh just you know, I mean you're you're not in that,
Speaker 5: You're not in that.
Speaker 1: Space, absolutely not. I think I really believe that the
Speaker 1: passion that each one of us has is so important.
Speaker 1: You know, whether it's for sports or music or whatever
Speaker 1: it is. For me, if they were interested in uh,
Speaker 1: you know, math or science, I would be just as happy.
Speaker 1: But ultimately, all I my job is to just tell
Speaker 1: them go with your heart. To just go with your heart,
Speaker 1: because I believe in that so much.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 5: But don't go to Hollywood necessarily.
Speaker 1: You know, they can go to Hollywood. Three of them
Speaker 1: lived in La so when you know, yeah, so they go,
Speaker 1: they went there.
Speaker 6: So what can I macconnie. I mean, you seem very
Speaker 6: happy in a great spot. And I've known you a while,
Speaker 6: but you just seem very happy and you should be.
Speaker 6: Obviously your life's phenomenal. But you see, and what do
Speaker 6: you do outside of this business? I mean you do
Speaker 6: a lot of you know, yoga, meditation.
Speaker 5: Talk about tenth anniversary or nonprofit as well, and also
Speaker 5: finding that passionate purpose.
Speaker 1: So we just celebrated the tenth anniversary of the opening
Speaker 1: of a community slash Municipal Services Center that we created
Speaker 1: in the slum of Kibera, which is the biggest slum
Speaker 1: in East Africa. And you know, we started the project
Speaker 1: back in twenty ten and to watch over, you know,
Speaker 1: the progress this passion project has taken over these past
Speaker 1: fourteen years and ten years of the center, it's remarkable.
Speaker 1: You know, we collected thirty people, young people from all
Speaker 1: of these differing tribes living in this slam who two
Speaker 1: years prior had been trying to kill each other over
Speaker 1: electoral issues in Kenya and told them, you know, everyone
Speaker 1: here is equal, just as many men as women. Always
Speaker 1: make sure you have one from each team, one from
Speaker 1: each gender, and so on your team's talk about DEI.
Speaker 1: We were doing DEI fourteen years ago and it worked.
Speaker 1: And you know, our center became a place of peace
Speaker 1: and of progress and a place where anyone who won
Speaker 1: to get a skill sets and education had, get a loan,
Speaker 1: start a business, go on the internet, take a bath,
Speaker 1: use the bathrooms, and bring home clean water. All of
Speaker 1: that is available to you. And you know, if you're
Speaker 1: living in a place where you don't have running water
Speaker 1: or access to electricity, all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 1: finding a job becomes extremely difficult because how are people
Speaker 1: going to get in contact with you? How are you
Speaker 1: even going to propose yourself to a job if you
Speaker 1: haven't had a shower, or if you don't know how
Speaker 1: to write an application a job application, and if you
Speaker 1: don't have skills for any job. And so we built
Speaker 1: those and we can now look back and say, you know,
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of people have benefited from clean water,
Speaker 1: and thousands of people have built businesses and lives and
Speaker 1: income livable income through these services. And for that, I
Speaker 1: feel like this enormous gratitude is just for me that
Speaker 1: we've been able to just come up with a simple thing,
Speaker 1: which is make these services available for people in one
Speaker 1: spot where they will not waste any time or have
Speaker 1: any difficulty finding all of these services under one group roof.
Speaker 3: That is awesome and people.
Speaker 1: Will do the rest. People will do the rest, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think we should take this concept and make
Speaker 1: it available everywhere in the mart in the United States
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 6: Well. It's funny, Connie, you know Marshawn when he graduated
Speaker 6: from cal when e'ven in the NFL, he started a
Speaker 6: fan First foundation in Oakland and they have a youth
Speaker 6: center in Oakland and they do similar stuff where they
Speaker 6: have a kind of a one stop shop where kids
Speaker 6: can get off the streets and and you know, job
Speaker 6: training and just you know, if they need to get
Speaker 6: away from and get counseling or whatever it may be.
Speaker 6: More shutting can touch more monet But it's been an
Speaker 6: incredible foundation they've done for the last nineteen twenty years.
Speaker 3: You said where over Africa, It's.
Speaker 1: In Nairobi, but you're so right, my Sean. In the
Speaker 1: center of Nairobi, it's like a slum there called Kibera,
Speaker 1: and like hundreds of thousands of people living there, and honestly,
Speaker 1: there are so many unincorporated you know, communities just I
Speaker 1: think in the United States that could benefit from a
Speaker 1: sort of like micro you know, municipal center that provides
Speaker 1: you know, all of these services, because these are just services.
Speaker 1: It's not you know, I know that in America a
Speaker 1: lot of times, you know, anything that is services based
Speaker 1: is seen almost as if it were socialism. But these
Speaker 1: services help change people's lives and make it empowers them
Speaker 1: for change.
Speaker 2: When you're agreed, Marshaan, Yeah, that's interesting because maybe ten
Speaker 2: years ago in Nairobi as well, but we went and
Speaker 2: put a fresh water system out there. That was one
Speaker 2: of my first international projects that we did on behalf
Speaker 2: of our foundation.
Speaker 3: But as you was talking about it, I just looked up.
Speaker 2: On my phone the the pictures and everything. And we
Speaker 2: went out there and to a village that they took
Speaker 2: me on.
Speaker 3: This uh, this mother walk.
Speaker 2: So they took me on a mother walk with you know,
Speaker 2: all of the women from the.
Speaker 3: Village who actually take care of everything.
Speaker 2: You know, the husbands go out, you know, and work
Speaker 2: could be from you know what I mean monthson.
Speaker 3: At a time.
Speaker 2: And before we actually went to the water system, I
Speaker 2: got to see like what it was like as like a.
Speaker 3: Day and of life.
Speaker 2: And I mean we walked from the village to the
Speaker 2: to the water hole where I mean everybody came here.
Speaker 2: And when I say everybody, I mean that the animals,
Speaker 2: the people from the village like and it was almost
Speaker 2: like a neutral spot where everybody called the truths like,
Speaker 2: I mean, the animals come in, they get their water.
Speaker 3: The mothers walked there.
Speaker 2: It was probably like a half a mile and they
Speaker 2: say they maybe make that walk maybe like ten to
Speaker 2: fifteen times a day just to be able to have
Speaker 2: water and shit. So before they actually took me to
Speaker 2: the system, this was like, this is what we have
Speaker 2: to do in order to get you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: our water, and then we have to boil it, I
Speaker 2: mean to sterilize it and do that. So when we
Speaker 2: go to the actual water system where you know, it
Speaker 2: was maybe like three or four fountains, you know, the
Speaker 2: big water tower, and I'm just like, okay, this this
Speaker 2: is a pretty convenient.
Speaker 3: This is pretty nice. But you know what I mean
Speaker 3: when you start speaking of the services.
Speaker 2: That you, you know, you're able to provide for these individuals,
Speaker 2: just fact that how appreciative and the gratitude that they
Speaker 2: should just to go to a place where they can
Speaker 2: actually get fresh water, and you know they talk about
Speaker 2: you know, I mean the like how much time it
Speaker 2: cuts out I mean by just having it I mean
Speaker 2: accessible like this, and what that meant for the for
Speaker 2: the community out there that that was that was huge.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure I mean how.
Speaker 2: Much work you still do over there, but that's something
Speaker 2: that I mean I would like to look into, and
Speaker 2: I mean if there's opportunity, I mean to go over
Speaker 2: and see, you know what you got going on we'll.
Speaker 1: Come to come with me in January. We're going to
Speaker 1: the center in January and we're going to go with
Speaker 1: with other people as well. The center is completely self
Speaker 1: run by the community members. And when you go to
Speaker 1: the center, you have both our own well, we have
Speaker 1: our own solar system, we have our own water bottling plant. Now,
Speaker 1: we have we have a eighty computers for IT training
Speaker 1: so that people can get jobs and just in a
Speaker 1: three month course people can access it jobs at a
Speaker 1: low level that you know brings them seven times up
Speaker 1: in wages just from the first just from the first
Speaker 1: month of work, and within six months, you know, they're
Speaker 1: able to radically change the income for the rest of
Speaker 1: their family.
Speaker 3: In additions that can.
Speaker 1: Also have our own bank that was started by our
Speaker 1: own people. Now has a loan nut that has grown
Speaker 1: organically of more than four hundred thousand dollars and they
Speaker 1: only they take a very low interest rate. That's how
Speaker 1: we grew it very very low, so that people can
Speaker 1: forward it. We have both a MENI MBA class every
Speaker 1: summer for entrepreneurs. We have, as I said, lots of
Speaker 1: IT class, but we also have a music and film
Speaker 1: studio where people can learn how to become videographers photographers.
Speaker 1: We do a course with Nikon, so we have like
Speaker 1: all of these different areas that people can use, and
Speaker 1: then we have you know, twenty toilets and showers for
Speaker 1: men and women and and so you kind of have
Speaker 1: like this whole sort of like every aspect of how
Speaker 1: to get ready for a job.
Speaker 3: That's there.
Speaker 4: Congratulations, man, this is unbelievable.
Speaker 3: You've done?
Speaker 5: Do you and I doing for a living?
Speaker 3: Buddy?
Speaker 5: I mean yeah, listening to these two.
Speaker 3: I had a lot of time.
Speaker 2: Uh I was over it for like two or three weeks,
Speaker 2: and I got to like I said, I did the
Speaker 2: mother walks and then you know the from the other
Speaker 2: side of that. Uh I was with a group Masi
Speaker 2: Warriors and they were you know what I mean, kind
Speaker 2: of telling us like, oh, yeah, this is how you know,
Speaker 2: you do your crossover and you become a.
Speaker 3: Man like you gotta go out and uh I actually.
Speaker 2: Got some of the uh some of the tools and
Speaker 2: we ain't gonna call them weapons, We're gonna call them
Speaker 2: tools that they that they equipped the youth with to
Speaker 2: go out like that with that. Yeah, yeah, I got
Speaker 2: that motherfucker city right next to my bed at the house.
Speaker 1: It's incredible. I have one too, you.
Speaker 3: Know what I mean.
Speaker 2: But they you know what I mean, they took me
Speaker 2: through the whole process, like you know, I mean, got me, uh,
Speaker 2: got me suited up.
Speaker 1: Kneel and wait for the lions, and.
Speaker 3: Then a whole little process.
Speaker 6: I may need this politically, by the way, this might
Speaker 6: be glighted at three Marshawn might be glighted.
Speaker 2: A man, you say, a lion like while we're speaking
Speaker 2: right now, But then when you see one actually in
Speaker 2: the wild, like yeah, I mean that motherfucker a little
Speaker 2: bit different than the lines that you see at the zoo.
Speaker 2: And you know what I mean, this is a little
Speaker 2: different process. But uh, you know the time that I
Speaker 2: was out there, you know, I mean I really got
Speaker 2: to learn a lot, you know, with the village that
Speaker 2: I was in. But during the Massa war here, like
Speaker 2: they took us on a on a took us on
Speaker 2: a trail, you know, I mean, it showed us like, okay,
Speaker 2: this where the lions at. Don't walk that way you
Speaker 2: get too close to their cubs. They I mean, the
Speaker 2: whole process, you.
Speaker 1: Know about the conservancy thing that they're doing. They're no
Speaker 1: longer killing the.
Speaker 3: Lions right right.
Speaker 2: But the thing is they put me through this course
Speaker 2: and then they give me these two us and they're like,
Speaker 2: come on, let's go on a walk. And then at
Speaker 2: this time it's like, all right, well we showed you
Speaker 2: what to do if anything.
Speaker 3: Is to happen.
Speaker 2: Nah, you know what, take me back to the to
Speaker 2: the village where you know what I mean, you got
Speaker 2: real MISSI warriors who really know how to.
Speaker 3: Handle this ship.
Speaker 2: And then just take pictures and then show me that way,
Speaker 2: I could say, like, you know, I was there because
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, I don't really the animals
Speaker 2: in the wildlife and you.
Speaker 3: Know what I mean, you know I wasn't really, I
Speaker 3: wasn't really for that.
Speaker 1: You haven't done the Safarian experience where you.
Speaker 2: Go out no, I said, I started, Yeah, I started
Speaker 2: until I seen like how real it was, and I'm like, nah,
Speaker 2: it ain't no, it ain't no gates, it ain't no
Speaker 2: like visionary lines and nothing is. More so like we
Speaker 2: have a level of respect here. You respect, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, what they got going on, and they respect
Speaker 2: what we got going on. You just don't cross that line.
Speaker 2: The thing is, I don't see these lines. There's no
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, no course, so they're saying, don't
Speaker 2: cross this line, and I'm like, well, there's no line
Speaker 2: here to cross. So you mean to tell you if
Speaker 2: I just stepped out of place. Yeah, I'm gonna go back.
Speaker 2: But I got I got renamed out there. They gave
Speaker 2: me a name, kit Rap. It was around the time
Speaker 2: that kit Rop had won the eight hundred in the Olympics.
Speaker 2: So and I'm, you know, trying to get an understanding
Speaker 2: of my name and they tell me it's like rain Man,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, rain Man, Okay, it makes sense because
Speaker 2: I had brought the fresh water system there and so
Speaker 2: the name kind of went together. But it was a
Speaker 2: it was a it was a great experience, you know.
Speaker 2: And then I had worked with a company that you know,
Speaker 2: got me out there to put all this together. So
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, as well as like I said,
Speaker 2: if it's something opportunity, I mean, to put something together
Speaker 2: while you're going, Marshaun.
Speaker 1: And you're so welcome to come with us, Absolutely happy
Speaker 1: to do it again. And this time I'll drag you
Speaker 1: with me on a walking on a walk about come on.
Speaker 2: You got your own tools, I do, But I got
Speaker 2: the thing is I got I got too much respect
Speaker 2: for you. I mean the animals and their kingdom, and
Speaker 2: I understand that this is this is their kingdom. I've
Speaker 2: got no problem with, you know, watching from Afar or
Speaker 2: looking at the pictures with individuals who are brave enough
Speaker 2: to put themselves in that type of predicament.
Speaker 3: I'm just not that one.
Speaker 4: So Gavin, here's the deal, Gavin.
Speaker 6: You've got a couple things in your agenda, a few
Speaker 6: of more things, Gavin, but you got to fix the
Speaker 6: music business for Connie's sons.
Speaker 5: I got it.
Speaker 6: And then we have to implement I think I think
Speaker 6: we're in the former committee today of Connie and Marshawn
Speaker 6: to implement another center or center in the US, right Connie,
Speaker 6: can we can we take that model and expound upon.
Speaker 1: Oak mixed services available to everybody.
Speaker 4: Toddy, He'll be there with you.
Speaker 2: He'll be got some people that you know, can get
Speaker 2: some things offline more so, just like dates and everything.
Speaker 1: Definitely, let's do it.
Speaker 2: So we, like Doug was telling me, we got a
Speaker 2: foundation in the community center in Oakland. Who I mean
Speaker 2: between me, my cousin, Josh and Marcus, individuals who also
Speaker 2: played in the league that I think I met them.
Speaker 1: I think I met them at one of Dougs, like
Speaker 1: one time with Doug.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, probably probably, probably so, but uh, you know,
Speaker 2: I tend to bring them with us when we go
Speaker 2: to these uh to these other countries and do these things.
Speaker 2: And then I mean, you know, it's just something that
Speaker 2: you know, we got into, uh that I really like.
Speaker 2: And then along with the water system that we did
Speaker 2: out in Kenya, we did another project, well I did
Speaker 2: another project with a teammate of mine who's from Haiti,
Speaker 2: and we went and kind of.
Speaker 3: And his his his whole.
Speaker 2: Situation is more like, uh, what you did where you know,
Speaker 2: we we built schools, uh bill housing as well as
Speaker 2: the the fresh water project, so you know that was
Speaker 2: more so like a bigger thing for me. But I
Speaker 2: mean we've done these and you know, I'm trying to
Speaker 2: do it, you know, I mean all around the world.
Speaker 2: Just I mean, just but what we did and bring
Speaker 2: those resources to those other places. So yeah, I'm not
Speaker 2: sure you know how we go about, you know, hooking
Speaker 2: that up, but that'll be something that really interesting and
Speaker 2: well we'll.
Speaker 1: Set it up. I'm We're I'm really good at getting
Speaker 1: that stuff done very quickly.
Speaker 6: So Connie is the is the Gladiator? Then is the
Speaker 6: press workut kind of done now? Is this kind of
Speaker 6: the end of it or is it still going the
Speaker 6: next few weeks.
Speaker 1: We've got a few things still to do coming up
Speaker 1: next week. Uh. And also I don't know, like there's
Speaker 1: just a we have the San Francisco Film Festival going
Speaker 1: on right now. There was wonderful dinner last night with
Speaker 1: Steve McQueen, the filmmaker who is in town. He spoke
Speaker 1: just mentioning San Francisco Film Festival so that people can
Speaker 1: go out and buy tickets and support your local film festival. Please,
Speaker 1: and Gavin, thank you so much for making these tax
Speaker 1: rebates for our industry so we can keep this industry
Speaker 1: and it's incredible talent here in California, especially all of
Speaker 1: our incredible crew members who otherwise get short changed for
Speaker 1: crew members in other corners of the world simply because
Speaker 1: of a tax rebate, and that allows crew members to
Speaker 1: keep their families here in California as well. So I
Speaker 1: just want to say kudos to you for doing that.
Speaker 1: That's really, really, really important. But Steve McQueen at dinner
Speaker 1: last night spoke, I asked him to talk just a
Speaker 1: little bit about this incredible film that I don't if
Speaker 1: you guys saw it. It was one of his first
Speaker 1: films called Hunger UH and it's about the hunger strike
Speaker 1: of the Irish prisoners UH in Ireland. And it was
Speaker 1: just like really amazing, an amazing thing that he spoke about.
Speaker 1: And I asked him what it was about that film
Speaker 1: that he wanted to that had sort of like guided
Speaker 1: his uh he's thinking, and he said, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the things that people who have no power, even
Speaker 1: children can do, is to refuse, to refuse. And I
Speaker 1: was just like that was the whole point of his film,
Speaker 1: like to show the power of refusal, simply refusing. And
Speaker 1: I just thought that was such a pretty and and
Speaker 1: and beautiful image that that he that he brought up
Speaker 1: when it was and it was an incredible film as well.
Speaker 3: So I love it.
Speaker 5: Love it reminds me of Hobbl's piece The Power of
Speaker 5: the Powerless. Yes, it's sort of the same same some
Speaker 5: principles which I love.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 6: My Christmas wish wish gis Guy Gavin is to see
Speaker 6: a collaboration with Marshawn and Connie on the film at
Speaker 6: some point coming up in the next few years and.
Speaker 5: See if he can audition for Gladiator three. Clearly you
Speaker 5: should be pushing him for that. Start start working out, Marshawn,
Speaker 5: you need to work out. You know, Denzel's guy, he's
Speaker 5: he's seventy. You know, you could be Denzel's son or something.
Speaker 5: And Gladiator four.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't want to give away the film. I don't
Speaker 1: sure you watch The Governor, did you want?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not going to say anything.
Speaker 5: I'm not talking about you. I'm not talking about I'm
Speaker 5: just it's all. I'm just, yeah, speculating, you know, it's all.
Speaker 6: That would be word plot, that'd be a interesting plot,
Speaker 6: that would be a little confusing.
Speaker 5: It's a lot of a lot of you know, it's
Speaker 5: it's Hollywood. It's not Hollywood. It's it's you know, make believe.
Speaker 5: It's what I look Connie. Nothing, nothing about you is
Speaker 5: make believe. You're the real deal. I'm grateful, We're all
Speaker 5: grateful you join us today. Congratulations on another uh successful
Speaker 5: tour around the world. Congrats on everything you're doing outside
Speaker 5: of the day job as it relates to the big screen,
Speaker 5: and and thank you for your integrity and your friendship.
Speaker 5: And thanks for your contributions overseas, not just across our
Speaker 5: country and the state, and I'm looking forward to comparing
Speaker 5: your notes between Marshaan and yourself. When you guys finished
Speaker 5: that walk about in Nairobi, I'll.
Speaker 3: Hey, oh yeah, I appreciate it, young lady. Thank you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Connie, thank you so much.
Speaker 6: You're you're unbelievable and I've always admired you and love
Speaker 6: what you're doing and uh, you got great things are funny,
Speaker 6: so I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Have a great holiday season, thanks so much, and