Speaker 1: I am all in, kiss you, I am all in
Speaker 1: with Scott Patterson and I heart radio podcast. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: Scott Patterson, we are going to be talking to one
Speaker 1: of the great New York theater actors of his time,
Speaker 1: Lawrence Hilton Jacobs. Um. He has many credits that you
Speaker 1: know him from. We're gonna get into all that. Very
Speaker 1: excited to talk to him, reconnect with him. Super talented guy,
Speaker 1: a quintessential New York actor. And let's bring him on.
Speaker 1: Lawrence Hilton Jacobs. Ladies and gentlemen, he is here. You
Speaker 1: were part of my childhood watching you and welcome back Connor,
Speaker 1: that brilliant comedy. Um, so, how are you doing? What's
Speaker 1: going on? Oh good man? Keeping it busy, you know,
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. You know, Um, you know, kids
Speaker 1: are big. You know, we got grandkids, you know, the drails.
Speaker 1: Look at the youngest one is twelve out of my
Speaker 1: grand babies, and so you know, she's developing, she's becoming
Speaker 1: young ladies taking me out and uh, well it's wonderful
Speaker 1: to watch them all grow up, isn't it. It's just
Speaker 1: such a wonder man. How you holding. I'm doing good?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm in Halifax. Shooting a TV series. I
Speaker 1: missed my I missed my boy more and more every day.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I'm gonna get through this, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna gonna have to get through it. Um miss
Speaker 1: my wife, I miss everybody. It's just it's it's hard
Speaker 1: to be on location. I'm sixty three years old now
Speaker 1: and I'm on location and I never thought i would
Speaker 1: be on location at this age. But you know, it's
Speaker 1: a great job. But can what can you do? You know,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a great role, it's a great part.
Speaker 1: So the family that we're down with them because they
Speaker 1: know that, and we just have to roll with the
Speaker 1: dice and you know, the actor's life. Well, look, thanks
Speaker 1: for coming in. You played principal Martin. How did you
Speaker 1: get cast? Tell us about it. It's funny man on casting,
Speaker 1: But I was the only male up for that gig.
Speaker 1: That was I was like, you know, I don't think
Speaker 1: it was gonna happen to you because I came in
Speaker 1: and men and they have the audition process, and I
Speaker 1: saw these females and a lot of one of the
Speaker 1: actresses have been around for a long time, you know,
Speaker 1: and so forth, and I was like, well, okay, Lee
Speaker 1: was going to do my thing and I went in,
Speaker 1: I popped on my glasses. That did it and didn't
Speaker 1: let me leave the room. I told me I had
Speaker 1: the parts. Nice. Um, why did you decide to go
Speaker 1: into acting? And how did you break into the industry?
Speaker 1: Because I was like, you were nuts, psychiatric help. I've
Speaker 1: been doing it now five years. Man, you know I'm
Speaker 1: coming to Sunday. I'm gonna be sixty nine, he said,
Speaker 1: sixty three six coming up, you know. And um, I've
Speaker 1: been doing it since um sixteen, nineteen sixty nine when
Speaker 1: I got into the game, and um, you know, while
Speaker 1: I was going to school of Art in design, I
Speaker 1: grew up New York City, I just always wanted to
Speaker 1: do it and try it, and you know, and as
Speaker 1: a kid, I used to always um elementary school. They
Speaker 1: always equip me in the place and always got to leave.
Speaker 1: But it was like Peter and the Wolf, and I
Speaker 1: guess it's just in you know, something like that. So
Speaker 1: many remember you from Welcome Back Hodder. You play student,
Speaker 1: and you years later on Gilmore Girls and you're a
Speaker 1: school principal. What did you think of being back in
Speaker 1: school setting, but this time playing an authority figure. I
Speaker 1: didn't think of it in that way, you know. I
Speaker 1: thought of it as let me do a good job
Speaker 1: and learn the lines, and then the Gilmore girls you
Speaker 1: have to learn the lines exactly as they are. It
Speaker 1: was fun, you know. It's always interesting to try something
Speaker 1: different or something that um can stretch you as an actor,
Speaker 1: you know, and I've been I've been blessed in that way.
Speaker 1: I've been able to play a moder variety of roles
Speaker 1: over the many years of doing it. So it was fun.
Speaker 1: I know. We had a little back and forth when
Speaker 1: there was kind of you know, and um, we were
Speaker 1: into it and so well I think we did all right.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, um, so we just recapped that episode Keg
Speaker 1: Max where you played a pivotal role in justice life
Speaker 1: and telling me he isn't graduating high school. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the scene? You know something? I remember both of
Speaker 1: them because I did him a you're apart. I remember
Speaker 1: the first one was with the was the first one
Speaker 1: with you. The second one was with you the second
Speaker 1: year we have done the scene. I think the first
Speaker 1: I think the first one was with me. It was
Speaker 1: with you. Okay, I'm getting flipped and but but I
Speaker 1: remember the young man coming in, and um, he was
Speaker 1: a nice dude. You know, we talked and I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't remember everything. You kind of getting
Speaker 1: around a while, but remember the experience was good. Um,
Speaker 1: it moved pretty quickly and so forth, and so there
Speaker 1: it is. Man, Yeah, so what so you recall Milo
Speaker 1: was a nice young kid and um, as an actor,
Speaker 1: he was definitely ready and on on, which you know,
Speaker 1: we always gonna appreciate. Um. You know, your show was
Speaker 1: the show that was very exacting on how you had
Speaker 1: to perform something in terms of dialogue and so forth.
Speaker 1: But I didn't feel restrained by that. But we're able
Speaker 1: to find a little give and take with each other
Speaker 1: that had some spontaneity in it. So that meant he
Speaker 1: was a responsive young man. And um, so that that
Speaker 1: enlightened me. Mm hmmmmm. Um. So what was your experience
Speaker 1: like on the set compared to others? Um? Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: when you're doing television as we've done for a lot
Speaker 1: of the years, especially when we did Welcome mcconter, we
Speaker 1: had dialogue, but we could be loose with it at times,
Speaker 1: you know, and many times would have happened on camera
Speaker 1: that became the lore of the show. We made it
Speaker 1: up on the spot and somehow we just knew how
Speaker 1: to respond. That ain't the Gilmore Girls. You know you
Speaker 1: gotta written has got to be this and and so forth. So, um,
Speaker 1: that made you really pay attention and it woke me
Speaker 1: up a little bit. But on the set it right,
Speaker 1: It is very very nice, you know, it was. You
Speaker 1: could feel it as a family crew or a crew.
Speaker 1: People are familiar with one another, so nobody tripped. They
Speaker 1: were certainly very nice to me, um, and I was
Speaker 1: nice to them as well. So all right, Um, had
Speaker 1: you watched Gilmore Girls before taking the role? You know
Speaker 1: something I had seen. It's like a lot of television. Um,
Speaker 1: when you're in television as long as I've been in it,
Speaker 1: you don't watch a lot of shows, which may not
Speaker 1: be a good advertisement for our game, but it is.
Speaker 1: But I had seen many clips and so I had
Speaker 1: a feeling with the Gilmore Girls about this is the
Speaker 1: popular show and on the c W back in that day,
Speaker 1: so it was there. So I was very aware of
Speaker 1: the mother and the daughter and the whole nine thing.
Speaker 1: So I had a feeling what it was about. And
Speaker 1: I like the show. I know some of my um
Speaker 1: younger family. Uh you never know anywhere, but younger than
Speaker 1: when they saw it. They were like lightening. Well that's
Speaker 1: my favorite chilly Compare what it was like working back
Speaker 1: in the seven early seventies, like Cornor was on. What
Speaker 1: were the years? It was early seventies and mid seventies,
Speaker 1: five to seventy nine, five seven nine, So what was
Speaker 1: tell us how different it was back then compared to now.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of television television as well as
Speaker 1: movie still had movie stars and big stars. There was
Speaker 1: a lot of fanfare behind that. When we did the
Speaker 1: Welcome Macato Show, you did the show where you came
Speaker 1: in on a Monday, you had to read through with
Speaker 1: the cast and the crew and all you know, the
Speaker 1: staff and so forth. Then you gotta when you started
Speaker 1: rehearsing on its feet. You did that for a couple
Speaker 1: of days. By Wednesday you would do it again, but
Speaker 1: this time the network would come in and give their
Speaker 1: approvals and make the changes. Then Thursday would come around
Speaker 1: and we would block the show. The camera block it
Speaker 1: will they Then on the fifth day, which is Friday,
Speaker 1: you get it was being rewritten all the way. You
Speaker 1: get your rewrites delivered to you early that morning. You
Speaker 1: get to work by twelve thirty day afternoon, and then
Speaker 1: you really pin, you know, fine tune what you've been
Speaker 1: rehearsing in terms of camshots and so forth. And then
Speaker 1: at five thirty we would do an earlier show with
Speaker 1: an audience of three hundred. We should call at the
Speaker 1: out of town tryouts. And then you do that, and
Speaker 1: then we go off to dinner and we get notes,
Speaker 1: and then we come back and we do an eight
Speaker 1: collection with a new audience and three people, and that
Speaker 1: that was over. We might do some pickups. Now, in
Speaker 1: the beginning we first did it, we were there. We'd
Speaker 1: come to work and we'd be there to tow three
Speaker 1: in the morning shooting. But you get your show down,
Speaker 1: you know, after a while. By the time we got
Speaker 1: into the third year, certainly the fourth year, I mean
Speaker 1: we're out of that. Studios passed, we really got notes,
Speaker 1: we shot it, we were at it about not thirty
Speaker 1: and night we're done. Wow. You know. Even rehearsals, we
Speaker 1: would come in and rehearsals used to be at like
Speaker 1: nine am, and it would go till six. Eventually it
Speaker 1: became like eleven to four. I would sit down with
Speaker 1: not not even trying to memorize it, read the script
Speaker 1: and know it. It just it just got to be
Speaker 1: like that for right, right right, and and you know
Speaker 1: that's the difference thing working on a sitcom in front
Speaker 1: of a live audience as opposed to working on a
Speaker 1: show like Gilmore Girls. You do you like it better
Speaker 1: in front of a live one? Did you like the
Speaker 1: conter four or four camera live audience sitcom better than anything?
Speaker 1: I think you make the adjustments that you go along
Speaker 1: least that's might take on it. Um I came, I
Speaker 1: come from theater. Is a lot of us, do you know?
Speaker 1: I did different guys growing up as an actor and
Speaker 1: living in New York City. Um, I learned to make
Speaker 1: the adjustments. I started doing a lot of film before
Speaker 1: I ever came to the sitcom thing. And when we
Speaker 1: got in there with the four camera, the three cameras
Speaker 1: in the one fourth camera as an isolator which they
Speaker 1: call iso camera, you make the adjustments and so forth
Speaker 1: and so um is there a preference? Um? Probably the
Speaker 1: future films I like doing. I like doing the film
Speaker 1: thing more like what you guys are doing. But doesn't
Speaker 1: make any difference to me. No, you know, you just
Speaker 1: make the adjustment and you, um, you understand that you
Speaker 1: have to lay yourself back a certain way if you're
Speaker 1: doing television, or you have to deliver it a certain
Speaker 1: way if you're doing theater, and you just um step
Speaker 1: up to that to that flavor, right right, right. So
Speaker 1: you so you did a lot of New York theater.
Speaker 1: You did you work with Joe Pop? Did you work
Speaker 1: with uh? That wasn't When I went out one summer
Speaker 1: with Joe Pap doing um, the New York Shakespeare Festival,
Speaker 1: we did um ceremonies and UM when a ceremonies in
Speaker 1: different what the wine sellers by with Joe Pap and
Speaker 1: Joe Pap was really this is what he always did.
Speaker 1: He was he would come around, he'd be a nice guy.
Speaker 1: He always brought this I don't know if he came
Speaker 1: out of the celling he read this this uh box
Speaker 1: with all these wines and they came out of this
Speaker 1: big creep and he gave everybody a bottle of wine
Speaker 1: and thank you and this episode joke right, Uh, did
Speaker 1: you ever? Did you ever work at the circle wrapper
Speaker 1: place like that? A circle rapper? I auditioned for Joyce
Speaker 1: Scott and didn't get the part George Sea, thank you, um,
Speaker 1: but I tell you down at the public theater, and
Speaker 1: we were down here a really enlightening thing for me
Speaker 1: is um. Other people were always rehearsing work there. So
Speaker 1: there was a young actor who was just about to happen,
Speaker 1: and he was a North Broadway star and he was
Speaker 1: rehearsing and he was no further further than maybe five
Speaker 1: feet from me. And I'm in the audience watching him
Speaker 1: rehearsed with the strip in his hand, and he's intense
Speaker 1: and he's into his thing, and he's so there's Alpaccino. Man. Wow.
Speaker 1: And then and there was like local joking dude, he
Speaker 1: walks in. It was Morgan Freeman. So this is what happened.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of people who was floating in
Speaker 1: out and Dick, Anthony Williams and Roscoe round and oh man,
Speaker 1: it was a nutsman. Johnny could say a lot of them, catchman.
Speaker 1: I would see them all the time down there and
Speaker 1: then get to know some of them and talk to them.
Speaker 1: So for a young actor it was super education. So
Speaker 1: that they all came through the public theater as well.
Speaker 1: Everybody had stepped through the public theater that ever took
Speaker 1: a step in New York City and wanted to be
Speaker 1: an actor. We had down there. There was also the
Speaker 1: Lamana Theater. There was you know, there was a new Um,
Speaker 1: the New Federal you know theater down there with Whitty
Speaker 1: King Jr. Ran forever until he retired recently, and um,
Speaker 1: we all had our steps. There was was the Wooster
Speaker 1: group going that weren't going back in the seventy front.
Speaker 1: That's Willem Dafoe and Elizabeth the Compton um not knowing
Speaker 1: that super super they were down on Garage Street or
Speaker 1: something like that. I mean, it was just like this
Speaker 1: super experimental stuff, that stuff going on down in the village,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I said, the Lama, it was like that.
Speaker 1: Mama did a lot of Yeah. I studied out of
Speaker 1: the New Ensemble Company and then up in Harlem at
Speaker 1: the Fantastical Ensemble. You know. Um, I had two days
Speaker 1: in the actor's studio, did you Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean there there was always gonna be really difficult to
Speaker 1: get into the actor's studio. So listen, I walked up
Speaker 1: to the door and they didn't they said, you're in.
Speaker 1: I was shocked. I guess they had seen I've done
Speaker 1: a movie called Clodian, you know, and so they had
Speaker 1: seen that movie and so they knew me. They said, no,
Speaker 1: you're in. And then two days later I got Coolie high,
Speaker 1: so I had to split. So the actor's studio admitted
Speaker 1: you as a member without auditioning because they've seen you
Speaker 1: in a film. That's my assumption. These So they didn't
Speaker 1: give me any they didn't give me no, no preamble,
Speaker 1: and they said, okay, you're I came in and set
Speaker 1: a couple of times to see people doing that thing.
Speaker 1: You know. Didn't do it with Eli Strassburg, but other
Speaker 1: teachers were there. And that was gone for six weeks,
Speaker 1: six and a half weeks in Chicago doing COOLi hut
Speaker 1: I was. I was an observer there for a couple
Speaker 1: of years. I did a bunch of plays there, but
Speaker 1: I never I auditioned once and they stopped me in
Speaker 1: the first two and a half minutes. So it's like
Speaker 1: they were shattering. But they never they never let anybody
Speaker 1: buy after their first audition. Never the front door there,
Speaker 1: you know, when you went in there and it was
Speaker 1: all closed off in that little bobby, you know, and
Speaker 1: they had this little slip thing they you know, they
Speaker 1: opened up and looked like you know, Joe sent me.
Speaker 1: It almost felt like, you know how that just worked out,
Speaker 1: you know with me. So I had to act studio,
Speaker 1: very intense experience in there. That that was That was
Speaker 1: something um um. So you're currently working on a series
Speaker 1: called A House Divided on Amazon Prime and All Black
Speaker 1: or A L L B l K All TV, which
Speaker 1: also Amazon Prime. It's underwritten by A mc amaz We're
Speaker 1: doing that now for about three years. We just finished
Speaker 1: a fifth season and playing this super lely rich guy
Speaker 1: who's got a family of problem children and everybody else
Speaker 1: and we're going through the most intense drama this last season,
Speaker 1: which is coming out in October. They decided to make
Speaker 1: me go nuts and I was having all just losing
Speaker 1: my mind. So I'm missing everybody up, I'm having a
Speaker 1: good time with and and that's that's Cameron Sanders, the
Speaker 1: character of Cameron Sanders writing. I'm directing, and they got
Speaker 1: me doing it all man so and I'm one of
Speaker 1: the co producers on the show. So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: All right. So check out Lawrence Hilton Jacobs and the
Speaker 1: Amazon Prime House Divided. Uh, you'll be glad you did.
Speaker 1: You also have a film coming out this October called
Speaker 1: night Stalker. What can you tell us about it? We
Speaker 1: don't start until a late part of October, and it's
Speaker 1: based on a true story about a serial killer whoever
Speaker 1: were killing a lot of women in Atlantic City and
Speaker 1: then eventually went up to Long Island and they can
Speaker 1: They never knew who this guy was, so they made
Speaker 1: a story based on that with myself in two hot
Speaker 1: shot female detectives and who come to the wrong jurisdiction.
Speaker 1: But we gotta get this guy. And so that's the
Speaker 1: through line of the film. Now, in real life, I
Speaker 1: heard from the director, whose name is Keith Veil that Um,
Speaker 1: the guy who had um was the elusive killer. They
Speaker 1: found him, but he was a junkie and odeed and
Speaker 1: he had an ode brother that I mean buddy that
Speaker 1: you know, fested up about him. So did They didn't
Speaker 1: rewrite the movie to put that in there because they
Speaker 1: had a better in me. I just they like. But
Speaker 1: but he gets his in the end, and you know
Speaker 1: and um, I won't give it away, but um, but
Speaker 1: I get him. Um. Okay, you're ready to play rapid fire,
Speaker 1: Come on with it, man. How many coups of coffee
Speaker 1: you have them? Every day. I don't drink coffee at all. None.
Speaker 1: Who is your favorite Gilmore Girls character? The guy I'm
Speaker 1: I'm looking at right now? There you go, There you go?
Speaker 1: What would you order it? Luke's Diner? Um? Hamburger? Would
Speaker 1: you rather go on a road trip with Taylor or Michelle? Um?
Speaker 1: The jury is out? Yeah, that's probably neither. Uh finished
Speaker 1: finished the lyric? And where you lead? I will follow?
Speaker 1: What's the w where you go? I believe that's it.
Speaker 1: I'm never remembering anywhere that you tell me? Too so close.
Speaker 1: We're gonna We're gonna give you the We're gonna give
Speaker 1: you the points on that one. Uh, Jackson's Vegetables or
Speaker 1: Suki's Baked Goods Jackson's Vegetables. Man mean, yeah, you get
Speaker 1: better believe it? Uh? Would you rather listen to Drella's
Speaker 1: Harper the Trooper Doors cover songs? Trop Doors? I used
Speaker 1: to go, hang up there? Are you kidding me? Children?
Speaker 1: Prepper Stars Hollow Hi? Sit again? Chilton Prep or Stars
Speaker 1: Hollow Hi? Oh Stars Hollow Hun. That's because you're the principal.
Speaker 1: That's right, man, I'm in charge. Dare I tell people
Speaker 1: were like what to do and maybe actually listen to me, Lawrence.
Speaker 1: It was a pleasure talking to you, catching up with you,
Speaker 1: and you are the real deal. I'm gonna read some
Speaker 1: of your credits if you don't mind. Uh. You were
Speaker 1: best known for playing Freddie Boom Boom Washington. Absolutely, welcome
Speaker 1: back Carter, Welcome back Cotter. Uh oh, and you had
Speaker 1: so much attitude. I remember when I was a kid
Speaker 1: watch watching you. The attitude. I was like, Wow, that's good.
Speaker 1: We're bout a little tough New York guys. When we
Speaker 1: got all of us. You will also appear a number
Speaker 1: of films and television use Glen Claudeine what you mentioned
Speaker 1: got you into the actress studio Coolly High Roots Wow,
Speaker 1: Roots was a massive television event. I don't know Roots.
Speaker 1: This Sunday, I was at Glenn Terman's house that just
Speaker 1: ranch has a ranch and you want to have a
Speaker 1: bunch of people over. And I had not seen him
Speaker 1: in years. I was sitting down with Ben Vereen from Roots.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Really in Years Man, which was just wow, Uh,
Speaker 1: Bangers and Mash Alien Nation, The Jackson's in American Dream
Speaker 1: and thirty one. Uh. Lawrence, has been a pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 1: You're the real deal. You're a real, real New York
Speaker 1: theater actor who branched out and and uh got success
Speaker 1: in film and television. Can't wait to check out the
Speaker 1: new series. I'm gonna I'm gonna dig into it tonight,
Speaker 1: I think. Okay, Uh, I'm good luck with your show,
Speaker 1: you know. And keep on strolling, man, But get homes
Speaker 1: and say hi today that sun man. Darn right, man,
Speaker 1: I'm counting the days anyway. Much love, take care man,
Speaker 1: Thank you, thanks for coming on you too, buddy. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: and don't forget follow us on Instagram at I Am
Speaker 1: all In podcast and Emailie at Gilmore at I Heart
Speaker 1: radio dot com. Oh you gil More fans. If you're
Speaker 1: looking for the best cup of coffee in the world,
Speaker 1: go to my website from my company scott ep dot com,
Speaker 1: s C O T T y P dot com, scott
Speaker 1: ep dot com Grade one Specialty Coffee. Yeah.