1
00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:05,360
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning,

2
00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:07,280
Speaker 1: everybody is j n V.

3
00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:10,200
Speaker 2: Just hilarious, Charlamagne the gud We are to Breakfast Club

4
00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:12,080
Speaker 2: and Lola Rosa is here as well, and we got

5
00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:14,200
Speaker 2: a special guest in the building, legendary.

6
00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:16,160
Speaker 1: That's right, Miss Mark rock A Kill.

7
00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:19,680
Speaker 3: Welcome, thank you, good good morning, good morning. Nice to

8
00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:20,040
Speaker 3: be here.

9
00:00:20,079 --> 00:00:22,600
Speaker 4: How are you, bless Black and Holly favorite. How's your energy?

10
00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:25,479
Speaker 3: It's great? Okay, I'm really I'm floating.

11
00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:28,720
Speaker 4: How does it feel to have yet another hit TV show?

12
00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:33,800
Speaker 3: Another another hit TV show? But this is global?

13
00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:37,080
Speaker 5: This is like the first time I have been on

14
00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:42,279
Speaker 5: a stage this big. Normally my shows are on up

15
00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:46,519
Speaker 5: and coming networks, so I feel like an angen new

16
00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:52,800
Speaker 5: Actually I feel I feel both veteran and both. I'm

17
00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,440
Speaker 5: also in awe. You know, it's just this an idea

18
00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:01,080
Speaker 5: is a global conversation. That is, it's kind of I'm

19
00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:04,000
Speaker 5: sitting in that. Mostly my career, I've been thinking about

20
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,760
Speaker 5: a national conversation, but this is a global one. And

21
00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:11,320
Speaker 5: I mean, I've always known that our stories are global,

22
00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:14,120
Speaker 5: but for it to be a reality, it's pretty special

23
00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:17,960
Speaker 5: and another hit right to be at it? Thirty years

24
00:01:17,959 --> 00:01:19,880
Speaker 5: in the game, thirty years in the game.

25
00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:21,480
Speaker 1: But let's talk about it.

26
00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:23,679
Speaker 2: Of course, for people that are just tuning in, you

27
00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:25,560
Speaker 2: created shows like Girlfriends the.

28
00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:28,360
Speaker 1: Game, Being Mary Jane. You've written on The Jamie Fox

29
00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:30,440
Speaker 1: Show and so many others. But this one.

30
00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:35,759
Speaker 5: Is so many, see so many see you.

31
00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:39,920
Speaker 1: This one's on Yeah, this one's on Netflix.

32
00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:40,360
Speaker 3: Yeah.

33
00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:42,959
Speaker 1: So how did the next the Netflix play come together?

34
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:44,560
Speaker 5: We're doing for I had a deal, you know, my

35
00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,480
Speaker 5: career did garner me a really wonderful deal out of

36
00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:47,840
Speaker 5: that deal?

37
00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:48,360
Speaker 3: I did stamp.

38
00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:50,000
Speaker 5: From the beginning, I hope you guys all saw that

39
00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:55,160
Speaker 5: amazing documentary that Roger ross Will directed, but about doctor

40
00:01:55,360 --> 00:02:00,040
Speaker 5: Abraham Kindy's work about the racist lies, I mean, the

41
00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:04,600
Speaker 5: myths of racism. That was my first offering in my deal,

42
00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:08,280
Speaker 5: and this was the second. It took a minute, strikes

43
00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:11,440
Speaker 5: and executive changes and whatnot. It took a minute to

44
00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:14,000
Speaker 5: get this one out, but it was it was special.

45
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,560
Speaker 5: From the beginning, I met Judy Bloom somebody Else's come on.

46
00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:21,720
Speaker 6: Come on, two of my favorite storytellers.

47
00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:24,320
Speaker 5: Come on, I mean, I mean, and that's God.

48
00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:28,120
Speaker 3: First of all, I didn't even realize that the book

49
00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:29,519
Speaker 3: was going to be fifty years old.

50
00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:31,480
Speaker 5: By the time re released, it was not even in

51
00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:34,519
Speaker 5: my thinking of that time seventy five.

52
00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:37,760
Speaker 3: But yeah, it took us a minute to get it out,

53
00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:38,760
Speaker 3: but we got it out.

54
00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:44,120
Speaker 5: And so when Netflix heard that that my take on

55
00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:48,000
Speaker 5: her story she was about, they were like, we are

56
00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:48,639
Speaker 5: about that too.

57
00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:51,359
Speaker 3: So it was a beautiful synergy.

58
00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:53,560
Speaker 5: One thing I will say about Netflix, when they're behind something,

59
00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:57,799
Speaker 5: they are behind it completely supported, resourced. I think that's

60
00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:01,079
Speaker 5: what's important to me in this this moment of this

61
00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:06,760
Speaker 5: hit show is that it was my vision was supported financially.

62
00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:11,240
Speaker 5: And also the episode Vive we went to the vineyard,

63
00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,840
Speaker 5: taking your crew across the country in the middle of production.

64
00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,240
Speaker 5: That is another level of support and in a place

65
00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,239
Speaker 5: that the infrastructure is not there. Thank you so much. Yeah,

66
00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:24,320
Speaker 5: so it was it was amazing to feel like, wow,

67
00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:27,200
Speaker 5: I'm supported, to got money, to have the vision that

68
00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:30,280
Speaker 5: I want and to get the people that I need,

69
00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:32,520
Speaker 5: the collaborators.

70
00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:33,240
Speaker 3: It's been amazing.

71
00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:37,080
Speaker 5: So short answer is Judy Bluem is marlbacker kill Netflix

72
00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:37,640
Speaker 5: wanted all of that.

73
00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:40,960
Speaker 1: We approach Netflix, do you approach it differently?

74
00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:43,640
Speaker 2: Because you know what a lot of the shows that

75
00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:46,000
Speaker 2: we spoke about is you have to wait for next week, right,

76
00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:48,160
Speaker 2: So it's almost like you can't wait, you schedule it,

77
00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:50,480
Speaker 2: you write it down. Well, Netflix, a lot of times

78
00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:52,600
Speaker 2: it's a lot differently because everything is right there, smacking.

79
00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:53,640
Speaker 1: You can binge watch.

80
00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:55,040
Speaker 3: It at your own leisure.

81
00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,440
Speaker 5: Yeah, correct, when you know that's I think that's what

82
00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,960
Speaker 5: I'm thankful for to know how to make television and

83
00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:05,640
Speaker 5: be able to stretch the canvas differently given different circumstances.

84
00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:08,440
Speaker 5: And so my job is to keep those keep you

85
00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:12,200
Speaker 5: on those eight episodes. I learned that back in the

86
00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:14,240
Speaker 5: day when we used to have to do cliffhangers for

87
00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:17,200
Speaker 5: the season, like you know, during Girlfriends or even Moesha.

88
00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:19,000
Speaker 5: We had to get you watching for the you know,

89
00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:20,680
Speaker 5: for the end of the season or if there was

90
00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:22,560
Speaker 5: a break in the middle of the season. So I

91
00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,479
Speaker 5: learned how to craft that shout out to my mentor,

92
00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:27,560
Speaker 5: I'm always gonna shout out my mentor, Ralph Farquhar.

93
00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:29,120
Speaker 3: I learned how to.

94
00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:31,880
Speaker 5: Make TV that way, how to keep you engage, how

95
00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:32,360
Speaker 5: to keep.

96
00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:33,039
Speaker 3: That binge going.

97
00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:38,760
Speaker 5: So I understood that, but it also was it was

98
00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:41,680
Speaker 5: also sort of just a fun way to play in

99
00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:45,720
Speaker 5: their sandbox. How do you win on their with their rules,

100
00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:48,560
Speaker 5: and so that was for me as a creative is wonderful.

101
00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:50,960
Speaker 5: But there's like that athlete spirit in me, like I

102
00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,599
Speaker 5: want the like all right, I'll with the ball, let's go.

103
00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:55,280
Speaker 5: So that was fun to figure out.

104
00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:59,360
Speaker 6: You said Judy Bloom was your first permission slip as

105
00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:00,000
Speaker 6: a storyteller.

106
00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:00,880
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness.

107
00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:03,400
Speaker 6: So how does your in a child feel knowing that

108
00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:06,640
Speaker 6: you have done such justice to want her iconic works?

109
00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:09,680
Speaker 5: Why does my innergy she feels on cloud nine. She

110
00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:12,160
Speaker 5: is twirling, she is cartwell. I used to cartwell back

111
00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:14,400
Speaker 5: in the day. I could cartwheel, backband, all the things

112
00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:17,200
Speaker 5: she's doing. All of that, I'm very proud of myself.

113
00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:20,520
Speaker 5: It was interesting because my body of work, or I

114
00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:23,839
Speaker 5: approached my work, I don't ever I never saw myself

115
00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:27,160
Speaker 5: as needing ip. I'm like, I'm full of stories. I'm

116
00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:33,359
Speaker 5: full of original stories. So but when the opportunity to

117
00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:36,359
Speaker 5: reimagine one of her books, there was no thinking. My

118
00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:38,280
Speaker 5: hand just went up and I feel like it was

119
00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:40,200
Speaker 5: a little protective as well. It was like, I want

120
00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:41,960
Speaker 5: to protect that story. I want to be able to

121
00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:47,080
Speaker 5: tell that story. But my little girl is like she's

122
00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:48,560
Speaker 5: she cabbage passion.

123
00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:52,080
Speaker 4: Does she feel like she made it.

124
00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:54,080
Speaker 5: Do you feel like you felt like she's felt like

125
00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:56,800
Speaker 5: she's made it a long while ago. I think this

126
00:05:56,880 --> 00:05:59,880
Speaker 5: is different in that it's a full circle moment.

127
00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:00,479
Speaker 3: I feel.

128
00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:02,880
Speaker 5: I often say that you become a writer as a

129
00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:05,800
Speaker 5: reader first, and so I used to get lost in

130
00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:08,359
Speaker 5: the pages of Judy Blue, and so for me to

131
00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:12,000
Speaker 5: be just the divinity of it, like the divineness of it,

132
00:06:12,040 --> 00:06:15,040
Speaker 5: that I would come full circle fifty years later, like

133
00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:17,400
Speaker 5: those kinds of things, right, It's almost like it was

134
00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:19,599
Speaker 5: written for me. It was written for me and Judy.

135
00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:21,599
Speaker 5: Matter of fact, I'm going to get a chance to

136
00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:22,560
Speaker 5: meet her personally.

137
00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:26,320
Speaker 3: I'm so excited going down to Key with yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, ok,

138
00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:27,040
Speaker 3: yeah yeah.

139
00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:29,320
Speaker 5: You live this life once and I'm gonna live in

140
00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:31,560
Speaker 5: that dream. So I'm excited to meet her. We met

141
00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:35,800
Speaker 5: at the time on zoom and talked on the phone

142
00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:38,240
Speaker 5: and emailed, but just to meet her and say thank

143
00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:40,880
Speaker 5: you and have her signed my book. I'm just that

144
00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:44,640
Speaker 5: twelve year old girl is running to Key with it.

145
00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:46,880
Speaker 4: I've done it a couple of times, yeah, just to

146
00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:48,160
Speaker 4: Cooks Blue.

147
00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:49,960
Speaker 3: About love, Yeah, just to know.

148
00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:53,160
Speaker 5: That's why what I really would love is for people

149
00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:56,760
Speaker 5: to honor more of their story, the craftsmanship, sitting in

150
00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:58,840
Speaker 5: the chair and writing. That woman sat in the chair

151
00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:03,600
Speaker 5: and wrote. I mean, it's like she never got out

152
00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:06,560
Speaker 5: of the chair, just writing and that and what it

153
00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:09,920
Speaker 5: would do just someone sharing the story, just my own

154
00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:13,200
Speaker 5: testimony is it ignited something in me. And I think

155
00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:15,960
Speaker 5: that even the feedback I'm getting from the show, not

156
00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:17,920
Speaker 5: just the show, but the shows I've had in my career,

157
00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:21,560
Speaker 5: it has ignited other storytellers. And I want us to

158
00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:23,480
Speaker 5: do I want us to do more by that. We

159
00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:26,440
Speaker 5: have so many stories in us that will die in

160
00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:29,320
Speaker 5: us if we don't even start crafting them and writing

161
00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:29,720
Speaker 5: them down.

162
00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:32,360
Speaker 3: And I appreciate like social media.

163
00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:34,640
Speaker 5: And we can do things video and content. I get

164
00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:38,520
Speaker 5: that too, and that's a beautiful expression. But to literally

165
00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:42,120
Speaker 5: craft story from a writing perspective, to have those layers

166
00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:48,920
Speaker 5: of theme and complexity, and understanding that her book is

167
00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:55,280
Speaker 5: still through this show now, is still it still lives,

168
00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:59,840
Speaker 5: It's universal, it's forever. But I'm bump what I did there.

169
00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:03,240
Speaker 7: The original book was written in the seventies, Yeah, seventy five.

170
00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:06,440
Speaker 7: Why did you choose to specifically set this story in

171
00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:10,080
Speaker 7: twenty eighteen. Well, I had to look at what would

172
00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:13,440
Speaker 7: make it fresh today and what to maybe have to

173
00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:17,760
Speaker 7: look at what where the kids are today? And Judy

174
00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:20,880
Speaker 7: and I talked about, well, they know a lot about sex,

175
00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:25,000
Speaker 7: like there's so much you could just hit Twitter, hit

176
00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:25,559
Speaker 7: hit whatever.

177
00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:27,240
Speaker 3: There's no Twitter anymore. You get the point.

178
00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:35,000
Speaker 5: But intimacy, connection, those things, I think we're further away.

179
00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:37,960
Speaker 5: Even though we are more technical technolo I can't get

180
00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:43,960
Speaker 5: this word out technologically advanced, we don't have. Though these

181
00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:46,880
Speaker 5: tools are meant to connect us, we are using them

182
00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:50,440
Speaker 5: in very disconnecting ways. And I think that to bring

183
00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:53,200
Speaker 5: the phone into the conversation, one of it is an

184
00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:55,640
Speaker 5: opportunity to talk about something unique to this culture.

185
00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:58,559
Speaker 3: I mean, excuse me culture, but this generation.

186
00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:03,240
Speaker 5: Excuse me, what it is doing to them personally emotional,

187
00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,120
Speaker 5: their emotional self there there, and then how it's even

188
00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:09,440
Speaker 5: affecting their physical self and then affecting their future. And

189
00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:11,439
Speaker 5: that's what the book was about, how do we explore

190
00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:16,040
Speaker 5: our emotional self, our physical self while maintaining a healthy future.

191
00:09:16,559 --> 00:09:21,160
Speaker 5: And this was my conversation today. Also between I also

192
00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:22,720
Speaker 5: wanted to talk about in the black family.

193
00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:25,040
Speaker 3: By by changing the white family.

194
00:09:24,760 --> 00:09:27,480
Speaker 5: To black, it allowed me to also talk about a

195
00:09:27,559 --> 00:09:31,920
Speaker 5: time that I think is very important for us to document,

196
00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:36,920
Speaker 5: between Trayvon Martin's murder and George floyd murder. George Floyd's murder,

197
00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:40,800
Speaker 5: we as black people, we as black families, as mothers

198
00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:44,040
Speaker 5: and fathers, we were screaming into a vacuum about the

199
00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:45,520
Speaker 5: fear over our children.

200
00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:48,920
Speaker 3: And there was no amount of fancy zip codes.

201
00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:53,600
Speaker 5: Or education that can save your child, you know, And

202
00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:56,240
Speaker 5: that was scary, and I wanted, I needed a place

203
00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:00,920
Speaker 5: for me as a mother to release all of that fear.

204
00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:02,960
Speaker 3: And then also then look at how much.

205
00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:07,240
Speaker 5: We are we are out of love, but we are

206
00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:11,560
Speaker 5: raising our children from that fear, and how that is

207
00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:15,760
Speaker 5: hurting our children and their inability to have a natural

208
00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:20,600
Speaker 5: right of passage to explore again their emotional their emotional self,

209
00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:25,720
Speaker 5: their emotional maturity, their physical self, their physical maturity, to

210
00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:28,040
Speaker 5: have sex or not have sex, who to have it with,

211
00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:32,280
Speaker 5: what's the right conditions, all of those choices that they're

212
00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:36,199
Speaker 5: supposed to be making right now to protect.

213
00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:37,679
Speaker 3: The beautiful future. And that's another thing.

214
00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:40,760
Speaker 5: We need to open up some space because our children

215
00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:43,480
Speaker 5: also need a future and it's tough out there, and

216
00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:47,760
Speaker 5: I couldn't imagine being them today thinking about people, what

217
00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:48,839
Speaker 5: do you want to be with your grow up? Well,

218
00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:52,880
Speaker 5: what's out there? And so and we adults need to

219
00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:55,680
Speaker 5: get it together. And so this is a part of

220
00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:56,280
Speaker 5: my offering.

221
00:10:56,360 --> 00:10:59,800
Speaker 8: When the When the book so and back in the seventies,

222
00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:01,720
Speaker 8: it was controversial because of the things that it explored.

223
00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:04,200
Speaker 8: Today it's not controversial because we are so open. Like

224
00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:06,960
Speaker 8: what you talk about when you were crafting, like what

225
00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:09,000
Speaker 8: the storyline would be and how you would redo it.

226
00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:10,880
Speaker 8: Were there things that you were like, I want to

227
00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:13,040
Speaker 8: make sure I get to or make sure I get

228
00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:14,839
Speaker 8: in this storyline. Because you also made it feel closer

229
00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:17,400
Speaker 8: to home for like black teens, you know, now forever

230
00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:19,680
Speaker 8: feels like it's our story. But you had to do

231
00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:20,319
Speaker 8: it a different way.

232
00:11:20,360 --> 00:11:20,480
Speaker 4: You know.

233
00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:25,960
Speaker 3: I think it's controversial black male vulnerability. It's just there's

234
00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:28,640
Speaker 3: no room for it. I think there's no images for it.

235
00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:30,960
Speaker 5: And yet when I'm looking in the world and within

236
00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:34,439
Speaker 5: my own children, their friends in the community beyond that,

237
00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:38,040
Speaker 5: a lot of boys and more specifically black boys, they're

238
00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:41,240
Speaker 5: not all that hard, you know. They don't have any

239
00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:44,120
Speaker 5: room for their complexity, they don't have any room for

240
00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:47,319
Speaker 5: their feelings. Like it's always funny to me, especially by

241
00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:49,480
Speaker 5: the group of boys that I'm around. They're all privileged,

242
00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:51,680
Speaker 5: they live a great life. Time to take a picture,

243
00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:53,440
Speaker 5: they were laughing two seconds ago. You try and take

244
00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:55,120
Speaker 5: the picture, and then they get that stoic.

245
00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:59,760
Speaker 3: Cake what you mean mugging for?

246
00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:00,560
Speaker 1: You know?

247
00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:03,120
Speaker 5: And if you realize how much that's imparted on young

248
00:12:03,160 --> 00:12:06,120
Speaker 5: black boys all the time about what is manly? What

249
00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:09,920
Speaker 5: are those images of what a man is? And I

250
00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:12,440
Speaker 5: wanted to make a room.

251
00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:15,079
Speaker 3: For the real reflection. I'm actually looking at the real thing.

252
00:12:15,120 --> 00:12:17,880
Speaker 5: It's just what gets on that bigger screen and how

253
00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:21,000
Speaker 5: important it is. I know, we talk about representation matters.

254
00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:24,240
Speaker 5: That's why it matters. You got to see yourself.

255
00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:27,880
Speaker 3: In order to decide is that beautiful? Is that how

256
00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:28,680
Speaker 3: I want to look?

257
00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:29,200
Speaker 4: You know?

258
00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:32,240
Speaker 3: Is that right? That type? You know? I can't see it.

259
00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:36,400
Speaker 5: And I think I also think boys, and working on

260
00:12:36,440 --> 00:12:39,000
Speaker 5: this project, it made me look at something I hadn't

261
00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:41,800
Speaker 5: looked at before. I think boys are getting their heartbroken

262
00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:42,640
Speaker 5: a lot sooner.

263
00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:44,880
Speaker 3: I felt so bad for justin the whole time.

264
00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:48,040
Speaker 8: Why because I just felt like some of the things

265
00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:51,040
Speaker 8: that they were experiencing, Like I mean, I remember being

266
00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:53,720
Speaker 8: that age and going through like my first like relationship things.

267
00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:56,199
Speaker 8: But I don't know, I just felt like a lot

268
00:12:56,240 --> 00:12:59,200
Speaker 8: of times the characters they were yearning for this like

269
00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:02,640
Speaker 8: space of life, like I don't know, to just be

270
00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:04,560
Speaker 8: okay and the things would be going good and then

271
00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:06,640
Speaker 8: something what else would happen to be? Something small would

272
00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:09,719
Speaker 8: be like for Kesha, like the video gets sent to

273
00:13:09,760 --> 00:13:11,800
Speaker 8: her phone and she's finally in this relationship.

274
00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:11,920
Speaker 3: You know what I mean.

275
00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:14,400
Speaker 8: Like things were just like happening and I'm like dying kids,

276
00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:17,120
Speaker 8: Like why can't they just be and not deal with

277
00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:17,760
Speaker 8: these things?

278
00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:21,320
Speaker 3: But yes, life, and it's also technology that we didn't have.

279
00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:24,520
Speaker 5: We got some freedoms without you know that they don't

280
00:13:24,559 --> 00:13:27,360
Speaker 5: They're not afforded. And so that's what I want to

281
00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:29,839
Speaker 5: talk about. It's like, are we making any room for them?

282
00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:32,120
Speaker 5: Like one of the things that I love when we

283
00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:35,400
Speaker 5: every production meeting, I said, we're making an epic and

284
00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:38,400
Speaker 5: intimate love story within a love letter to Los Angeles, right,

285
00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:41,560
Speaker 5: And what that meant to me is that we need

286
00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:45,480
Speaker 5: to see them in scope and scale and epic. I

287
00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:48,160
Speaker 5: need to see them their bodies in the space in

288
00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:51,760
Speaker 5: Los Angeles. What that means is that they it's a

289
00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:56,160
Speaker 5: feeling cinematically that I'm making you feel that they belong here,

290
00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:58,880
Speaker 5: and when they belong here, they belong to us, And

291
00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:03,319
Speaker 5: so you would engage with our children differently, psychologically, emotionally.

292
00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:06,719
Speaker 5: Those things are important in our image. On the details,

293
00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:10,200
Speaker 5: the details on anyone makes them feel more human to you.

294
00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:13,040
Speaker 5: So I want to make just room for their humanity

295
00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:20,280
Speaker 5: so that we think about the measures around technology, we

296
00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:23,040
Speaker 5: think about what the rules are for these kids. I mean,

297
00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:25,520
Speaker 5: these kids are being told today that you make one

298
00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:26,920
Speaker 5: false move, you won't get a scholarship.

299
00:14:26,920 --> 00:14:28,800
Speaker 2: I mean, come on, it's the truth that follows them

300
00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:29,960
Speaker 2: for the rest of their lives and the rest of

301
00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:31,120
Speaker 2: their lives.

302
00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:33,720
Speaker 3: And that where is any room, there's no humanity in that.

303
00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:36,080
Speaker 8: That's how I felt, maybe that that was yes, at

304
00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:38,560
Speaker 8: the humanity part. I'm like, yo, she's young, she made

305
00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:39,080
Speaker 8: a mistake.

306
00:14:39,160 --> 00:14:39,360
Speaker 3: Yep.

307
00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:41,480
Speaker 8: Now it's following her, and it's like he's in love

308
00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:43,720
Speaker 8: and he just doesn't how to navigate it. Now he

309
00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:45,600
Speaker 8: feels like he's not a good person or not not

310
00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:47,520
Speaker 8: a good person. He doesn't feel like he can win

311
00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:49,200
Speaker 8: the girl in the beginning of things, and I felt

312
00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:50,040
Speaker 8: bad for that, Like.

313
00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:52,240
Speaker 3: But you know what, back in the day. Back in

314
00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:54,800
Speaker 3: the day, boys have to walk across the room to

315
00:14:54,840 --> 00:15:00,680
Speaker 3: ask you to dance. Did you ever have you ever

316
00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:00,960
Speaker 3: done that?

317
00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:01,480
Speaker 1: This course?

318
00:15:01,640 --> 00:15:03,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, how did you ever get rejected?

319
00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:06,480
Speaker 1: No?

320
00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,560
Speaker 2: Before you was, because I'll be honest, I only went

321
00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:13,920
Speaker 2: when I knew I was going to be received. If

322
00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:15,360
Speaker 2: I knew I was gonna get rejected or there was

323
00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:18,320
Speaker 2: a fifty to fifty chance, I wasn't gonna try. Of course,

324
00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:20,000
Speaker 2: remember it wasn't you know back then it was a

325
00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:22,880
Speaker 2: party and everybody standing on the wall and you have to,

326
00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:24,480
Speaker 2: like you said, you have to walk across. And if

327
00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:26,600
Speaker 2: I knew this person wasn't feeling me, didn't weaken, we

328
00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:29,920
Speaker 2: didn't have a crush on me, didn't write me, I

329
00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:31,800
Speaker 2: wasn't going. But if I knew that I got that little stair,

330
00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:33,360
Speaker 2: that little smile, I was gonna go.

331
00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:37,280
Speaker 5: So it was well, those socials that you have to

332
00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:40,000
Speaker 5: learn in real time, we're not learning that.

333
00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:41,160
Speaker 3: There's no space for that.

334
00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:43,920
Speaker 5: So I'm advocating for I want the kids to be

335
00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:46,920
Speaker 5: back outside. Like it's even sad we shot on Fairfax

336
00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:48,840
Speaker 5: Avenue right it's a ghost town right now.

337
00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:51,600
Speaker 3: But back in twenty eighteen, where it was depicted.

338
00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:53,800
Speaker 5: That was a place for them to be, but there's

339
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:56,600
Speaker 5: we are where are kids allowed to be?

340
00:15:57,040 --> 00:15:59,240
Speaker 4: But that's why I love the scene. I love the

341
00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:00,040
Speaker 4: scenes and mall.

342
00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:04,840
Speaker 6: Oh god, especially at the prom, because I feel like

343
00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:09,080
Speaker 6: in that moment, Justin was you know, everybody talked about

344
00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:10,720
Speaker 6: he's chasing the young lady.

345
00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:12,560
Speaker 4: To me, it felt like he was chasing his blackness.

346
00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:14,960
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, thank you for seeing that.

347
00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:17,680
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, one of the things I was trying

348
00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:19,560
Speaker 5: to say, trying to keep your son, trying to keep

349
00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:20,360
Speaker 5: our children safe.

350
00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:21,680
Speaker 3: Sometimes we're isolating them.

351
00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:24,480
Speaker 5: He had a pretty prison, but it was up on

352
00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:29,000
Speaker 5: the hill, isolated, and he's looking for more. But I

353
00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:32,600
Speaker 5: can also understand don she's so scared to put him outside,

354
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:35,560
Speaker 5: you know, also scared is he going to measure up

355
00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:37,360
Speaker 5: to where they are? You know I'm saying she's probably

356
00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:39,960
Speaker 5: not saying that, but that's psychologically, it's kind of it's

357
00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:40,480
Speaker 5: under there.

358
00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:43,520
Speaker 3: But fun fact, I was so proud as.

359
00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:47,800
Speaker 5: A producer to put all those black and brown kids

360
00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:51,080
Speaker 5: taking over the Pantamonica Peer. I don't you know, I

361
00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:54,760
Speaker 5: found one of the location. I think that's I think

362
00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,720
Speaker 5: the last time someone took over the Peer at that scale.

363
00:16:58,120 --> 00:16:58,240
Speaker 4: Was.

364
00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:02,880
Speaker 5: I was like, okay, but that means something to me,

365
00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:05,639
Speaker 5: That means something that we how we take up the space,

366
00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:09,280
Speaker 5: the epicness and the beauty of us. These these kids

367
00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:12,240
Speaker 5: are looking like this all over our country and we

368
00:17:12,320 --> 00:17:14,440
Speaker 5: see it on Instagram or TikTok or things like that.

369
00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:16,800
Speaker 5: But to put it on that scale, that level of beauty,

370
00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:19,399
Speaker 5: Anthony Hemingway directed his butt off in that.

371
00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:22,280
Speaker 3: You know, the kids were just beautiful.

372
00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:26,879
Speaker 5: The our costume designers amaze, our production design was amazing.

373
00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:28,960
Speaker 3: Our cinema tygraph was amazing. You know what I'm saying.

374
00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:30,719
Speaker 3: We had We had the thing lit up.

375
00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:32,960
Speaker 5: I was on cloud nine that day that we shot

376
00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:35,200
Speaker 5: and we got out of their safe and sound.

377
00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:36,120
Speaker 3: That's also important.

378
00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:42,240
Speaker 5: But it's uh, our kids having space in the world,

379
00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:46,960
Speaker 5: chasing their chasing themselves, figuring out who they are, including

380
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,800
Speaker 5: of their blackness, including of their you know, what they like,

381
00:17:50,119 --> 00:17:52,000
Speaker 5: just who they are. Even the making room for I know,

382
00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:54,679
Speaker 5: I get a lot of comments around he likes Naruto.

383
00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:57,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of black kids love Narto. You know,

384
00:17:57,840 --> 00:17:59,960
Speaker 3: we're a part of the world. So that was fun.

385
00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:02,360
Speaker 6: And as much as it's a story about the kids,

386
00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:05,080
Speaker 6: it's a story about the adults right, Like, like the

387
00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:07,600
Speaker 6: way Judy Bloom made people feel seen at thirteen, it

388
00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:09,560
Speaker 6: feels to me like you're making us feel seen at

389
00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:12,880
Speaker 6: forty something, fifty something. So what do those ages need

390
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:14,720
Speaker 6: that nobody's writing about.

391
00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:21,080
Speaker 5: I'm going to keep saying this over it just more complexity, more.

392
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:23,080
Speaker 3: Of our human side.

393
00:18:23,080 --> 00:18:26,560
Speaker 5: Like don't you know I've said before, I don't you know,

394
00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:29,800
Speaker 5: I don't really believe in positive images. I think they

395
00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:32,120
Speaker 5: can be just as damaging as negative images.

396
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:34,160
Speaker 4: What do you mean found on that break that down?

397
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:40,960
Speaker 5: Because okay, so the negative image is is a product

398
00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:44,560
Speaker 5: of a lie, going back to the documentary, like, it's

399
00:18:45,359 --> 00:18:50,080
Speaker 5: the perpetuating the lies and the mists of us that's

400
00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:52,240
Speaker 5: been out there. So a lot of black people want

401
00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:56,119
Speaker 5: a positive image because they want to rewrite the wrong

402
00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:59,560
Speaker 5: of somebody else's view of me. But what that doesn't

403
00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:01,880
Speaker 5: as an artist, it keeps me behind the eight ball.

404
00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:04,520
Speaker 5: I'm chasing up and trying to clean up somebody else's mess.

405
00:19:05,119 --> 00:19:07,280
Speaker 5: I'm from the Zori nil Hurston school of thought. I

406
00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:09,760
Speaker 5: know my people, I see my people. I want to

407
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:12,359
Speaker 5: be able to talk about them fully and in the

408
00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:14,480
Speaker 5: spectrum of our humanity, there is.

409
00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,960
Speaker 3: Light and dark. We are not. We are not perfect.

410
00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:21,120
Speaker 5: To be perfect, that's just as hard to be perfect

411
00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:22,120
Speaker 5: as it is to be bad.

412
00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:24,320
Speaker 3: Like I want to, I want the spectrum of my humanity.

413
00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:26,280
Speaker 5: I want to be able to make a mistake and

414
00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:29,160
Speaker 5: have my village patch me up and put me back

415
00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:31,879
Speaker 5: out there. I deserve that. You deserve that, We deserve that.

416
00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:35,000
Speaker 5: And so I want the spectrum of who I am.

417
00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:38,679
Speaker 5: And sometimes i'm you know, sometimes I'm not great, and

418
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:42,000
Speaker 5: sometimes I am in the same day, in the same hour,

419
00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:45,359
Speaker 5: and I deserve that, that sort of exploration of who

420
00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:47,479
Speaker 5: I am as a human being, and I give that

421
00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:50,359
Speaker 5: to my characters. I think Dawn, for instance, you know,

422
00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:53,160
Speaker 5: people there's a lot of conversation about her as a mother,

423
00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:57,280
Speaker 5: but that black mother has raised a lot of kids

424
00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:00,159
Speaker 5: to get them, to keep them alive, does she or

425
00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,240
Speaker 5: looking at herself? Yes, my hi, my name is Marb

426
00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:06,440
Speaker 5: Barack and kill and I'm a former Dawn. I put

427
00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:09,560
Speaker 5: my pain on the screen. I think, you know, I

428
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:13,240
Speaker 5: wanted to out of love. I'm trying to overprotect my

429
00:20:13,359 --> 00:20:15,520
Speaker 5: children and rightfully so.

430
00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:17,480
Speaker 6: Yeah, but and you end up, well, she ended up

431
00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:20,520
Speaker 6: raising her child out of fear and not love, and

432
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:22,520
Speaker 6: that's a question I always ask because I feel like

433
00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:23,919
Speaker 6: my father raised me out of fear and I love,

434
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:25,040
Speaker 6: not meaning that he didn't love me.

435
00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:27,280
Speaker 3: Yes, they love, and the kids know that. The kids

436
00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:29,719
Speaker 3: know that they love. But it still feels constrained.

437
00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:31,920
Speaker 6: But that dynamic was amazing, the way you had don

438
00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:34,760
Speaker 6: you know, being the overprotective parent who was raising her

439
00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:37,040
Speaker 6: son out of fear and I love. But then the

440
00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:41,760
Speaker 6: father Wood Harris character was you know, high emotional like

441
00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:45,240
Speaker 6: Q you know, very vulnerable, soft with his son in

442
00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:48,000
Speaker 6: a way that we don't really see on TV, especially

443
00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:51,240
Speaker 6: between black men and between black men period.

444
00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:52,720
Speaker 4: You thought that was incredible.

445
00:20:52,760 --> 00:20:55,919
Speaker 5: Thank you, I really, first of all, shout out to

446
00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:58,159
Speaker 5: Wood Harris and Karen Pittman, thank you.

447
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,800
Speaker 3: Kill You couldn't catch did it any better? No?

448
00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:04,240
Speaker 5: I mean that, I mean as soon as we met

449
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:07,320
Speaker 5: Lovey and Michael and put them together, it was like,

450
00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:10,119
Speaker 5: come on, chemistry off off the jump.

451
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:15,120
Speaker 3: Their chemistry was amazing. Karen and Woods, you know.

452
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:20,320
Speaker 5: That I did want to depict two types of black

453
00:21:20,359 --> 00:21:24,639
Speaker 5: families that are that we that we recognize, right but

454
00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:28,879
Speaker 5: speaking about the Edwards for a moment, it just shows

455
00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:31,280
Speaker 5: you the need to have two partners in a home

456
00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:33,280
Speaker 5: just the balance of it all.

457
00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:34,480
Speaker 4: Astely, I think.

458
00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:37,760
Speaker 5: That Eric could be that because he has such a

459
00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:42,199
Speaker 5: solid foundation in down and vice versa. I'm saying, I

460
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:45,960
Speaker 5: feel like he had his emotional maturity is because how

461
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:50,879
Speaker 5: much he is loved also by her and so and

462
00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 5: he can allow for her fear in a moment like this.

463
00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:59,240
Speaker 3: Keep in mind, he's also aware of her worries.

464
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:04,400
Speaker 5: About her children were so he understands and boys, and

465
00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:08,000
Speaker 5: he understands how how assertive she is, and he knows

466
00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:09,919
Speaker 5: all that stuff about her. And that's a lot of

467
00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:13,360
Speaker 5: my backstory when I'm writing those characters, and how much

468
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:17,479
Speaker 5: and it's and it is irritating in parenting when you

469
00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:20,720
Speaker 5: have different approaches at a very crucial moment when now

470
00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:22,919
Speaker 5: the kids can talk back, you know, I mean when

471
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 5: they're younger, it's a little you know, it's a little

472
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:29,800
Speaker 5: easier on the parenting different dynamics sometimes, but the stakes

473
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:32,280
Speaker 5: being high right these these children about to be out

474
00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,359
Speaker 5: of the house, those things get a little bit, you know,

475
00:22:35,359 --> 00:22:36,639
Speaker 5: we all react a little differently.

476
00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:38,439
Speaker 1: We'll talk about the importance of that. I think we

477
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:39,320
Speaker 1: missed that a lot.

478
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:41,879
Speaker 2: We've seen it a lot more with my parents, But

479
00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:44,640
Speaker 2: I think in these days, people don't, I don't think,

480
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:48,720
Speaker 2: care to really respect a two parent household.

481
00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:51,000
Speaker 1: It just seems like it's it's.

482
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:53,240
Speaker 2: Very loose, and people forget about what it means to

483
00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:54,479
Speaker 2: kids and how important it is.

484
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:56,879
Speaker 5: Well, it's just another witness to the you know, to

485
00:22:56,920 --> 00:22:59,639
Speaker 5: the witnessing in a lot of ways, Like you know,

486
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,680
Speaker 5: one of things in my own parenting, I used to

487
00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:06,919
Speaker 5: get frustrated about why the kids seem to act up

488
00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:08,840
Speaker 5: a little bit more with me than they did with

489
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:10,040
Speaker 5: their father.

490
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,040
Speaker 3: And I was like, and I would complain this lame

491
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:12,600
Speaker 3: all the time.

492
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:15,719
Speaker 5: And then I later I realized, Wow, what a privilege

493
00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:20,760
Speaker 5: it is that your children are the safest with you

494
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:24,679
Speaker 5: to act that you know what out you know, and

495
00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:27,240
Speaker 5: you're just like, oh, I am the safest place in

496
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:29,920
Speaker 5: the world for them to be to just show they ask.

497
00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:32,200
Speaker 3: And when you.

498
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:36,560
Speaker 5: Realize that honor, it's like, oh, okay, so then how

499
00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:39,159
Speaker 5: can I then how can I just be fortified, you know,

500
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:43,200
Speaker 5: in order to take those moments right? When I realized

501
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:45,840
Speaker 5: then I feel like the father or the second parent

502
00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 5: is the first bridge to the outside world, and how

503
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:54,320
Speaker 5: needed that role is because they kind of, you know,

504
00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:56,120
Speaker 5: they they rise up a little bit.

505
00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:58,400
Speaker 3: They you know, they they act, they act a little

506
00:23:58,440 --> 00:23:59,200
Speaker 3: bit better.

507
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,159
Speaker 5: For dad, you know time and in the case of

508
00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:03,879
Speaker 5: our home, right and so there's a bridge to that

509
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:07,520
Speaker 5: emotional uh maturity that they can.

510
00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:12,199
Speaker 3: Move through. And then then you drop them off at

511
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:14,400
Speaker 3: somebody's house and they come back. Your kid is.

512
00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:17,160
Speaker 5: Amazing, they did this, they did that, And you're like, oh,

513
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:18,560
Speaker 5: so you do know how to act.

514
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:22,639
Speaker 3: And that that just rhythm.

515
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:26,040
Speaker 5: And then sometimes you know, when I would be upset

516
00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:29,000
Speaker 5: about things, I did have someone there to tell me.

517
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:33,960
Speaker 5: Are you're fine, they love you, You're you're you're you're

518
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 5: tripping a little bit. You just relax a little bit.

519
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:44,600
Speaker 5: But that level of care, that level of the dance

520
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,800
Speaker 5: between the parents and the child is actually beautiful when

521
00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 5: you finally settle down into it and get into the roles.

522
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:53,720
Speaker 5: They're just rolls and it's okay to it's okay to

523
00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:55,919
Speaker 5: lean into them. And then and then there's sometimes that

524
00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 5: like I get things that they don't get. I get

525
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,160
Speaker 5: not just the acting out, I get those I get

526
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,359
Speaker 5: those intimate details, you know, I get those real when

527
00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 5: they're really really safe and they're telling you things, You're like, oh, shoot,

528
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:10,439
Speaker 5: I'm trying to remember it so I can so I

529
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:11,399
Speaker 5: can go back and tell.

530
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:15,520
Speaker 8: Don't tell that and something you don't yeah for a while.

531
00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:18,040
Speaker 2: Right, Well, see my wife, My wife will say, well,

532
00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:20,080
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell dad, but he's not gonna judge. You're

533
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:21,919
Speaker 2: not getting in trouble or you know some things. But

534
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:27,120
Speaker 2: I have the most difficult time with really being understanding, right,

535
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:29,680
Speaker 2: And the reason being is similar to what you just said.

536
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,400
Speaker 2: Like my wife will yell at my kids every day,

537
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 2: right for something small. I yell once a week, yes,

538
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:38,119
Speaker 2: and it's the worst thing ever. And I'm like the

539
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 2: time mom doesn't yell like it was the same yell,

540
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:43,400
Speaker 2: but they feel like Mom is that safe place they

541
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:45,639
Speaker 2: can open up, they can be comfortable, but Dad is

542
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:47,920
Speaker 2: the barrier to the outside world.

543
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:49,520
Speaker 3: To the outside world, and to see that.

544
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:52,960
Speaker 5: And then on on Keisha's side, being you know, having

545
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:56,359
Speaker 5: a single mother, how much you need a village. So

546
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:59,240
Speaker 5: she's very resourced and you know, the Edwards were more

547
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:02,919
Speaker 5: resource finance. Actually they got nannies and housekeepers and stuff.

548
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 5: She's got the bills, she's got cousins, she's got her grandfather,

549
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:09,680
Speaker 5: her dad. And then we that was that was purposeful.

550
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 5: We revealed that the Dad's been around. We just he's

551
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 5: not physically there all the time and he's not carrying

552
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,600
Speaker 5: his complete share, but he is present.

553
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:26,520
Speaker 6: I would just say that everybody is represented in this show.

554
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:30,720
Speaker 6: What's the most uncomfortable truth you had to face the

555
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:31,359
Speaker 6: right forever?

556
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:37,159
Speaker 5: Honestly, just you know, you'd like to think that you're

557
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 5: an amazing mother, just with my shortcomings as a mother.

558
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:46,200
Speaker 5: I think when I acknowledge that, I think not only

559
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 5: my children and then our our community of children need

560
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,000
Speaker 5: more space. We had to look at where I was

561
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:56,040
Speaker 5: allowing that. I think that was uncomfortable. I think the

562
00:26:56,119 --> 00:27:01,080
Speaker 5: other part was the depiction of getting into the nitty

563
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:05,119
Speaker 5: gritty around these like the sex tapes and then the

564
00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:09,440
Speaker 5: betrayals that are happening with these children whose brains aren't

565
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:13,160
Speaker 5: fully functioned yet and making bad. Wanted to make sure

566
00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:18,520
Speaker 5: I protected Keisha by also allowing the truth to be told.

567
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,600
Speaker 5: I'm saying, and the way it is experienced, and it

568
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:29,119
Speaker 5: can be the outcome, you know, even and it's he's

569
00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:33,719
Speaker 5: he made a horrible choice. I actually think Christian is

570
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 5: not I don't I don't. I know he messed up

571
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:41,640
Speaker 5: royally right, But I also think that there's room for him,

572
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:43,440
Speaker 5: but I know that people are like no.

573
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:45,719
Speaker 8: So when he came back into this not that I was,

574
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:48,479
Speaker 8: I was like, why why is he backing around and

575
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:50,960
Speaker 8: all these things? And she's dealing with so much stuff

576
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:51,360
Speaker 8: right now.

577
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 3: We don't make And that's the other thing too.

578
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 5: I've seen grown women not make great decisions, I'm saying,

579
00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:57,119
Speaker 5: and we just.

580
00:27:57,160 --> 00:27:58,200
Speaker 3: Put all this pressure.

581
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:01,520
Speaker 5: She's sixteen, you're young, and we're trying to negotiate a lot.

582
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 3: One of the things that I was trying to arc out.

583
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 5: What the Keisha character is what would it be like

584
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:12,200
Speaker 5: to be invisible at a PWI for most of your life,

585
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:15,680
Speaker 5: not think, not be reflected back that you are beautiful?

586
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 5: And then the first time you get attention from the

587
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,119
Speaker 5: ball or I'm saying that, who is How are we

588
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 5: making those decisions? How are we making those choices to

589
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:29,000
Speaker 5: be seen, to be loved, to be cared for. In

590
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:35,760
Speaker 5: a time when speaking about sexuality, especially that period and on,

591
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:40,200
Speaker 5: young women are saying, hey, I have sexual urges.

592
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:41,760
Speaker 3: I mean girls they love.

593
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 5: To They're they're the ones leading sometimes the blowjob conversation.

594
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 5: They're like, we can do so you're in this world

595
00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:51,440
Speaker 5: that some things are really okay.

596
00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 3: To do and just trying to negotiate all of these things.

597
00:28:56,480 --> 00:29:01,040
Speaker 5: It's she made, she made a batchelor, he made a

598
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 5: bad choice. Everybody's trying to impress, somebody trying to do.

599
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 5: These kids are managing a lot, and then the public

600
00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:12,680
Speaker 5: record of it and the forever record of it.

601
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 3: It's very hard to live with.

602
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 5: So I think that faith your question was what some

603
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 5: of the hardest things, trying to be honest about the

604
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,959
Speaker 5: times and honest about why people are making the choices

605
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:29,320
Speaker 5: that they are making, even when you are I know

606
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 5: that's no not a lot of compassion for the Christian character,

607
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 5: and I'm aware of that, and that was very That

608
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 5: was a very tough choice to make, trying to make

609
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 5: it as honest and grounded as possible and so that

610
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:46,280
Speaker 5: it can be the thing in the middle of this

611
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 5: love story that they actually moved through. What's great to

612
00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 5: me about Justin and Keisha's that they both.

613
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:55,040
Speaker 3: Come from love.

614
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 1: They know it.

615
00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:58,200
Speaker 5: It may be a little complicated, it may not be

616
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 5: you know, ideal and times, but they know they're loved.

617
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:06,320
Speaker 5: And what's beautiful is to watch two young people choose

618
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:10,360
Speaker 5: love from having been loved. And I think what's beautiful

619
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 5: for us as a community, especially family, especially as parents,

620
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:18,000
Speaker 5: is our ability to witness our children's choices while they're

621
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,080
Speaker 5: still in our home. What it's also happening in society.

622
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,840
Speaker 5: They're calling it late bloomer. I think that's the new term.

623
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:26,760
Speaker 5: I mean, young people are not even getting to feel

624
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 5: desired until they're like damn, they're thirty. Yeah, they're not

625
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 5: even know like that reciprocal like he liked me, I

626
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:34,440
Speaker 5: like her.

627
00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 4: What they got to go outside? You got to get

628
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 4: off out there for that.

629
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 5: I think there's that's there's that too, and then and then,

630
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 5: and that's the other layer we're putting on it.

631
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 3: We go outside.

632
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:46,400
Speaker 5: But some of our kids and some you know, that's

633
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 5: I wanted to talk about putting our kids in private

634
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 5: white institutions. They go through most there's a there's an upside, right,

635
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:56,719
Speaker 5: you're trying to give them the best education, set them

636
00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:59,760
Speaker 5: up for the best you know, future. But the consequence

637
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 5: of a lot to that is they're not being seen.

638
00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:06,720
Speaker 5: That's social. They don't feel beautiful, they don't feel handsome,

639
00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 5: they don't feel important, there's nothing marrying them back.

640
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:14,680
Speaker 3: Oftentimes that's what I feel like. So that so when

641
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:17,240
Speaker 3: you say they have to get outside. They are outside.

642
00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 8: To that party in the stairs, and Justin tells her

643
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:23,320
Speaker 8: that she's beautiful, yes, or gorgeous, and she stops and

644
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:25,640
Speaker 8: I'm like, I mean, but to your point what you

645
00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 8: just said, they're like the only black kids.

646
00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:27,800
Speaker 3: Yes.

647
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:29,400
Speaker 8: For her to hear that from him, it probably was

648
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,000
Speaker 8: a whole different type of your gorgeous or you're beautiful,

649
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:33,560
Speaker 8: whatever you had said to her. But I didn't even

650
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:35,239
Speaker 8: think about that point of it. I just thought it

651
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:36,720
Speaker 8: was just our first time interacting with a boy.

652
00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:38,920
Speaker 5: She like, yeah, you know, yeah, there's not enough to

653
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,360
Speaker 5: sort of like. And it may be that maybe other

654
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:43,920
Speaker 5: kids like them, but maybe they're conditioned not to for

655
00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:45,920
Speaker 5: race reasons or things of that nature.

656
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 3: But I don't know that.

657
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 5: Our kids sometimes they're outside, but they're not always connected.

658
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:53,120
Speaker 5: That's why we've spent a lot of time and money

659
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 5: trying to get to the vineyard.

660
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 3: But that's two weeks. Yeah, that's two weeks.

661
00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 1: But it's funny that you said that.

662
00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:00,200
Speaker 2: That's you know, my daughter had the same problem, and

663
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 2: I wanted her to go to HBCU because of that.

664
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 1: I went to Hampton and she didn't.

665
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:06,240
Speaker 2: She went to great schools a lot of white kids,

666
00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 2: but nobody ever approached her, so she didn't feel beautiful,

667
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,040
Speaker 2: she didn't feel away, and then when she.

668
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 4: Should be there approached her.

669
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:15,880
Speaker 1: No, nobody proud now.

670
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:18,200
Speaker 2: But the problem is she never felt that love exact

671
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:21,840
Speaker 2: so she a little depressed. She felt like she wasn't

672
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:24,320
Speaker 2: as beautiful as she is. And then when she finally

673
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 2: when she got when she went to n YU, there's

674
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:28,080
Speaker 2: no campus, so she felt even worse.

675
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:30,720
Speaker 1: And then COVID hit. So now, if you you know Manhattan,

676
00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:31,760
Speaker 1: Manhattan is.

677
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 2: Your campus, so there is no campus, so you're going

678
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 2: to venues and clubs with everybody. And that made me

679
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 2: nervous because now she's not well equipped. And thank god

680
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 2: she found somebody that did find it. But at first black, yeah,

681
00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 2: but at first she was.

682
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:49,480
Speaker 8: You have to say that, y'all kids are going to

683
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:51,400
Speaker 8: very nice schools, so it might not always be black.

684
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, it was very difficult.

685
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 2: But I felt guilty about that for years because I

686
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 2: was like, am I setting them up for failure?

687
00:32:57,360 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 1: Am I setting them up for somebody not to love them.

688
00:33:00,440 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 2: I went to a black school, I lived in a

689
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:04,720
Speaker 2: black neighborhood, so I'm seeing love all day long and

690
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:05,880
Speaker 2: she didn't have that feeling.

691
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 1: She didn't have those friends.

692
00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 2: Which which is probably why she's so close to me

693
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 2: now and I'm kind of like her best friend. Like

694
00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 2: we go out and we do things like right now,

695
00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 2: she just text me Dad, what time you coming home?

696
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:17,360
Speaker 2: And she's twenty three years old? What is just that relationship?

697
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 2: But give me it gave me a guilt as a parent.

698
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:21,200
Speaker 3: It's funny when you asked me what I have to face?

699
00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:24,760
Speaker 5: That's that, that's that, there's I know we made choices

700
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 5: for a certain reason, but you're thinking, ooh, what you know,

701
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 5: my kids are fine, But also that's what you moved

702
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 5: through when you're just trying to give them the world,

703
00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:39,280
Speaker 5: the best, the best you can give them, and you realize, oops.

704
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 3: I missed that part.

705
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:43,240
Speaker 5: So they are getting outside and then La specifically, you

706
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 5: know these kids don't want to drive it like I

707
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 5: was at the DMV like at nine am on my birthday. Yep,

708
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 5: they are not so I mean that. So it was

709
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 5: how are they even seeing each other? And that goes

710
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 5: back to where are the spaces. I was at the

711
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,120
Speaker 5: skating rink, I was at this, there was I was

712
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 5: at the mall, I was here. That's not happening that

713
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:06,080
Speaker 5: much anymore, and so I that concerns me as well.

714
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:09,600
Speaker 5: So I'm hoping that some of these images on the

715
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:15,080
Speaker 5: show makes people want to connect, get outside, be back outside.

716
00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:17,360
Speaker 3: I think we need that, I mean, but the.

717
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:19,920
Speaker 7: Beauty of it is let me get a damn question,

718
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:21,520
Speaker 7: miss kill.

719
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:25,360
Speaker 3: How the whole town knew about the sex tape? But

720
00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:29,840
Speaker 3: Keisha mother, Well, now it's funny.

721
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:32,160
Speaker 5: That's why we were in la That's why I did

722
00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:35,839
Speaker 5: above the ten and below the tent. Certain communities can

723
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:37,840
Speaker 5: know it and hold it and let you know it

724
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,360
Speaker 5: when they feel like it. But below the ten, she

725
00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:42,480
Speaker 5: was able to keep that. She was able to keep

726
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:44,880
Speaker 5: that going. And that shows the disconnect of the village.

727
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:49,480
Speaker 5: There was no parent from those communities that thought to

728
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:51,319
Speaker 5: call Shelley.

729
00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 3: That is all, you know. That's the other thing I did.

730
00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:57,720
Speaker 5: Make a commentary on that, being a black parent, sometimes

731
00:34:57,719 --> 00:34:59,719
Speaker 5: in these schools, you're you're a parent, but are you

732
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:02,080
Speaker 5: really a part of the community. Sometimes, and now I'm

733
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:04,920
Speaker 5: not saying it's one hundred percent like that, but sometimes

734
00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:08,920
Speaker 5: that's where things do part. You know, when when there

735
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:13,480
Speaker 5: is judgment or or maybe that's the wrong word, when

736
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,440
Speaker 5: there's not real community, when there's not real connection, when

737
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:19,840
Speaker 5: there's not real care that you're just seeing as a

738
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:23,200
Speaker 5: part of this like a sprinkle on top to our communities.

739
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:26,720
Speaker 5: And I say that in a generality, I think there's

740
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:29,719
Speaker 5: certainly some families who are figuring that out. But so

741
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 5: it's not please don't come for me that we can't

742
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:37,319
Speaker 5: figure that out. But what I've also noticed in these

743
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:42,040
Speaker 5: communities is sometimes I mean in these worlds, because Shelley's

744
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:45,759
Speaker 5: from a different economic backets she's lived, she doesn't live

745
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:49,480
Speaker 5: anywhere close to where these communities are. She's further away

746
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:53,879
Speaker 5: from the information. And it took Dawn to find out

747
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:55,359
Speaker 5: to bring it back to her.

748
00:35:56,520 --> 00:36:00,279
Speaker 6: You know, black love has been so commodified lately, right

749
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:01,759
Speaker 6: like I feel like, you know, you see people doing

750
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:04,080
Speaker 6: the matching outfits on the ground, or you know, they

751
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 6: have black love weddings.

752
00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:08,880
Speaker 4: But what makes Forever feel real and not curated?

753
00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:13,879
Speaker 3: I would ask you, what did you feel.

754
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:16,200
Speaker 4: That I actually saw myself?

755
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,360
Speaker 6: I saw me and my wife, you know, I saw

756
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:24,359
Speaker 6: my teenage daughter and her friends. I saw how I mean,

757
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:26,759
Speaker 6: It's it's a little simple things like the conversations they

758
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:30,399
Speaker 6: was having it to cookout, like arguing about you know Kanye, Yeah,

759
00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:32,319
Speaker 6: they smoking the weed, and then the kids come and

760
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:33,400
Speaker 6: they try to put it out, but you know, they

761
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:35,640
Speaker 6: dance into their own music. I just felt like, that's

762
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:40,319
Speaker 6: just real aesthetics. That's what real black love and black

763
00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:43,360
Speaker 6: relationships look like. And even things like you know, not

764
00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:45,480
Speaker 6: arguing it, or trying not to argue in front of

765
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:47,640
Speaker 6: the kids, or even if you and you and your

766
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,960
Speaker 6: significant other disagree, not showing that in front of the child.

767
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:53,840
Speaker 6: It was times that we would be like yo, yeah,

768
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:55,520
Speaker 6: and then she would know, and then he would say

769
00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:57,600
Speaker 6: what he said a vice versa, and I just I

770
00:36:57,680 --> 00:36:59,480
Speaker 6: just thought that was powerful.

771
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:02,799
Speaker 5: It's just be paying attention to my own life, the

772
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:05,919
Speaker 5: life around me, just paying attention to us. I think

773
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:09,799
Speaker 5: that's my job as a storyteller, you know, Nina Simone says,

774
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:12,920
Speaker 5: I'm here to reflect the times. It's for me to

775
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 5: look at us, look at each other, and find all

776
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,799
Speaker 5: those I know about your guilt because I have it

777
00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 5: and I have my own.

778
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:20,080
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.

779
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:22,919
Speaker 5: I know about these things. I know about how how

780
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:26,960
Speaker 5: beloved by a black man who can be very strong

781
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:31,000
Speaker 5: in his opinions, But it's not intimidating. You know, he

782
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,320
Speaker 5: might feel intimidated to the world, but he's not intimidating

783
00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:33,520
Speaker 5: to me.

784
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.

785
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:37,239
Speaker 5: I know there's love there and also and he knows

786
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:40,200
Speaker 5: I'm strong black, a strong black woman. She's got an opinion.

787
00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:44,080
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say something. I can say it without losing

788
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:44,919
Speaker 5: my softness.

789
00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:47,480
Speaker 4: I want your kids to bring home a black significant other.

790
00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:50,640
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, not because of racism, but because you want

791
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:53,640
Speaker 6: somebody to understands. You want somebody that's gonna understand you

792
00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:54,520
Speaker 6: and what you will.

793
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:56,120
Speaker 3: To protect you and protect you and to protect you.

794
00:37:56,160 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 3: That's what I mean.

795
00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:59,719
Speaker 5: Think at the core of a parenting, we want to

796
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:01,440
Speaker 5: be we want to love our kids, and we want

797
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:03,040
Speaker 5: our kids loved, and we want them protected.

798
00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:04,680
Speaker 3: We want them safe in the world. And so.

799
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:08,160
Speaker 5: You know, our history will tell us that it just

800
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:09,879
Speaker 5: seems like the odds are better that way.

801
00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:15,080
Speaker 8: Keisha's story, well, first to bring home the black significant other.

802
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:19,279
Speaker 8: When Dawn she's upset she and Justin doesn't have his

803
00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:21,440
Speaker 8: phone or whatever. But then at one point she's open

804
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:23,040
Speaker 8: to him getting back into the world and having the

805
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,799
Speaker 8: phone or whatever. Because Wood Harris is like, you know,

806
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 8: he met a girl, like, you know, ease up on

807
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:30,040
Speaker 8: him a little bit when they had that conversation when

808
00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:31,680
Speaker 8: she findances down with him and she's trying to like

809
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:33,600
Speaker 8: get in his business about who he's dating and who

810
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:37,960
Speaker 8: the person is. As a mom yourself personally, what did

811
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:40,000
Speaker 8: you put into that conversation that you do with your

812
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:42,000
Speaker 8: own kids when you're trying to enter into their world

813
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:44,080
Speaker 8: and like make sure that even though they're at the

814
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:46,520
Speaker 8: white schools and all these things, the blackness is still

815
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:48,319
Speaker 8: there without being like you got to be black, because

816
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:50,920
Speaker 8: she was very like soft, but she was also it

817
00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:52,600
Speaker 8: was obvious she wanted him to be with a black girl.

818
00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:55,440
Speaker 3: We just talk real, you know.

819
00:38:56,520 --> 00:38:59,080
Speaker 5: We've always just been honest with our kids from the

820
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:02,160
Speaker 5: jump there, from their level of understanding, you know what

821
00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:06,040
Speaker 5: I'm saying, using their language for their entry into the conversation,

822
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:14,239
Speaker 5: you know, uh, being very honest. Why, I mean, why

823
00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:15,920
Speaker 5: I want you to be with a black woman? You know,

824
00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:18,200
Speaker 5: even though that could be challenging, even though it's like

825
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:20,279
Speaker 5: I can, yeah, you can date whoever you want to date.

826
00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:21,879
Speaker 5: This is going to be your life. But I'm gonna

827
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:24,480
Speaker 5: tell you why, and just I just why. I think

828
00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:26,880
Speaker 5: it's beautiful. I just think I just give my opinion,

829
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 5: but make room for theirs. That's I think that's what's important,

830
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:34,359
Speaker 5: is for me to make room for theirs. For so

831
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:38,640
Speaker 5: I use that, I use you know, it's funny because

832
00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:41,400
Speaker 5: even the music, I think one of the things. Music

833
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:44,600
Speaker 5: is a big part of the show, and it's funny.

834
00:39:44,800 --> 00:39:50,600
Speaker 5: In my car, I let them have the ox. I

835
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:52,600
Speaker 5: just want to know. I just want to witness them.

836
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:54,920
Speaker 5: I want to know what they're thinking about. So every

837
00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:56,719
Speaker 5: like fourth you know, like if you get like a

838
00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:58,919
Speaker 5: Spotify account and you don't you do like the base,

839
00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:00,920
Speaker 5: you got to get a commercial like every four songs,

840
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 5: So in my car, you get a lecture every four songs.

841
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:07,239
Speaker 5: And we used to debate about, Okay, if I don't

842
00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:09,400
Speaker 5: let you eat McDonald's all the time because of X

843
00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:12,960
Speaker 5: y Z, I need you to understand what these lyrics

844
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:14,040
Speaker 5: are doing, what you're eating.

845
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:16,360
Speaker 3: And so he's like, mama's just to beat, just to beat. Well, no,

846
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:18,319
Speaker 3: it's more than a bet. So we would talk about that.

847
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:21,200
Speaker 3: They push back. We talked about misogyny and things like that.

848
00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:23,640
Speaker 5: He's like, well, the women, some of the female rappers

849
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:25,680
Speaker 5: that got I said, yeah, misogeny is not particular to

850
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:26,680
Speaker 5: one group of people.

851
00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:27,920
Speaker 3: It's massage's misogyny.

852
00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:30,799
Speaker 5: It's just like you know, racism is racism, it's it's

853
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:35,480
Speaker 5: it's so you get to talk to your kids and

854
00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:40,040
Speaker 5: find out who they are and give them your point

855
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:43,359
Speaker 5: of view while the world gives them gives them their

856
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:45,760
Speaker 5: point of view. And so I think if you remain

857
00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:48,480
Speaker 5: a trusted place, they are going to hear your voice,

858
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:51,480
Speaker 5: God willing, they will hear it before they get themselves

859
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:53,879
Speaker 5: in any type of danger or you know that kind

860
00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:54,160
Speaker 5: of thing.

861
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:58,719
Speaker 3: But I feel like just giving them my opinion, what

862
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:00,279
Speaker 3: emotional space, and then showing my.

863
00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:02,319
Speaker 5: Life, you know what I'm saying, living my life, you know,

864
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:06,560
Speaker 5: like even like with even like your career paths or

865
00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:10,359
Speaker 5: your future path, teaching them how I recognize that I'm

866
00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:13,279
Speaker 5: a writer? I reminded, how did I know that I

867
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:16,000
Speaker 5: was a writer? How did I know what my path was?

868
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:18,799
Speaker 5: Teaching them those things, what it's going to feel like

869
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:21,759
Speaker 5: in your body, what it's going to look like, how

870
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:26,120
Speaker 5: you're going to act, you know when it's going to

871
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:27,000
Speaker 5: take discipline?

872
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:29,920
Speaker 3: Where's the sacrifice in these ideas? You know what?

873
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:35,040
Speaker 5: Even like you know, yes, Mom and Dad, we made

874
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 5: a lot of money. But understand, we're built on a legacy.

875
00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:41,239
Speaker 5: Let's go back to grandma and granddad and grant grandparents,

876
00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:42,920
Speaker 5: and let me tell you where you came from. This

877
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,400
Speaker 5: is you know, us owning more than one home is

878
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:46,440
Speaker 5: not new to this family.

879
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:50,000
Speaker 3: It happened over here. Understand that. Understand So you got to.

880
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:56,040
Speaker 5: Give them history, opinion, knowledge, show it be it. You know,

881
00:41:56,280 --> 00:41:58,680
Speaker 5: even when we talk about dreams, I talk about my dreams.

882
00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:02,719
Speaker 5: I still got dreams and so and dream take resources.

883
00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:05,600
Speaker 3: So are you going to hit that basketball train or not?

884
00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:09,280
Speaker 3: Because I could use that money.

885
00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:11,160
Speaker 6: So I want you to stay there for a second, like,

886
00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 6: how was your own evolution spiritually, emotionally as a mother.

887
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:20,680
Speaker 4: How did that influence the writing of fel Oh completely?

888
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:23,799
Speaker 5: So my writing styles I tend to muse off of

889
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:26,359
Speaker 5: I find them. I tell the truth through fiction. I'm

890
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:29,520
Speaker 5: a journalism major. I went to Northwestern. Shout out to Northwestern.

891
00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:32,480
Speaker 5: I'm always called shout out. I love Northwestern. One of

892
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:35,080
Speaker 5: the best choices I've ever made. I went to medil

893
00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:36,319
Speaker 5: So A lot of my.

894
00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:39,719
Speaker 3: Approach to a to a story, I start to lock

895
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:43,120
Speaker 3: in on there'll be a muse and then I open.

896
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:45,440
Speaker 5: Up to see what what is happening in the zeitgeist,

897
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:50,719
Speaker 5: what is happening at strong sociology classes? Like what's where

898
00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:53,439
Speaker 5: are we at as a people? So figure out where

899
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:57,480
Speaker 5: the teenagers were where we're at today. So my children

900
00:42:57,520 --> 00:42:59,960
Speaker 5: were my muse because that's what I was concerned about.

901
00:43:00,239 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 5: So I came into this, this project just as a

902
00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:05,759
Speaker 5: concerned mother.

903
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:06,960
Speaker 3: My guilt.

904
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,400
Speaker 5: Am I doing this right? Am I giving enough space?

905
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:11,120
Speaker 5: Did we pick the right schools for them?

906
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:11,920
Speaker 3: We pay?

907
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:13,919
Speaker 5: Did we set up our life in a way that's

908
00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:18,960
Speaker 5: really going to support them as you start to think

909
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:21,759
Speaker 5: about the more complexity parts of their life as and

910
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,520
Speaker 5: life was changing fast because of technology as well.

911
00:43:24,600 --> 00:43:26,320
Speaker 3: Right, So that's.

912
00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:28,439
Speaker 5: Where I was at the same time that the Judy

913
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:33,080
Speaker 5: Bloom opportunity came. And that's where my big bang happens. Wow,

914
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:35,839
Speaker 5: And that's how I put those So I'm musing off

915
00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:39,360
Speaker 5: of my own parenting. So I started therapy because of parenting.

916
00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:42,239
Speaker 5: I realized, people.

917
00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:43,520
Speaker 3: Are You're an amazing mom. But I was like, I

918
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:44,839
Speaker 3: need to feel like a better mom.

919
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:48,200
Speaker 5: So let me start unpacking some of the things, all

920
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:51,120
Speaker 5: these sort of all the things that therapists take you through.

921
00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:53,719
Speaker 3: And so I started.

922
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:56,759
Speaker 5: Doing that and realizing how I was parenting from a

923
00:43:56,800 --> 00:44:00,960
Speaker 5: catastrophic place, a fear not just because of the times,

924
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:03,319
Speaker 5: but just all the things, and you realize, Okay, I

925
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:05,440
Speaker 5: need to let this go in order to be a

926
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:08,480
Speaker 5: better mother. And I think the best way I can

927
00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:11,600
Speaker 5: do that is offer it in my work and mirror

928
00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:15,160
Speaker 5: myself and allow. And I think that's the power of storytelling.

929
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:18,240
Speaker 5: When you share your story or a testimony in church,

930
00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:21,600
Speaker 5: it actually hits the hearts and souls and spirits of

931
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:25,080
Speaker 5: so many other people. But that's that's why sharing of

932
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:27,160
Speaker 5: the story is so important. It's not just about you.

933
00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:31,880
Speaker 5: It's about the collective us, right, and so bringing all

934
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:35,880
Speaker 5: those things to bear and having this amazing opportunity with

935
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:40,080
Speaker 5: the book to place all of these things.

936
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:42,560
Speaker 3: Even in the translation of the book.

937
00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:44,880
Speaker 5: I got to talk about what it's like to be

938
00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:47,480
Speaker 5: black parents, you know, Judy got to talk about what

939
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:48,480
Speaker 5: it's like to be white.

940
00:44:48,239 --> 00:44:50,920
Speaker 3: Parents of that time. But let me tell you what

941
00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:53,399
Speaker 3: it's like to be black parents in America. I don't

942
00:44:53,520 --> 00:44:56,279
Speaker 3: it's probably not that different from you know, other generations.

943
00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:58,799
Speaker 5: But this is the These are the details of our time,

944
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,239
Speaker 5: and this is what it looks like, and this is

945
00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:03,319
Speaker 5: why we love our kids just as much as you

946
00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:04,800
Speaker 5: love your kids, but they have it.

947
00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:09,120
Speaker 3: They don't have as much freedom sometimes. And here's why.

948
00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 5: Black boys are just as vulnerable and actually are just

949
00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:18,239
Speaker 5: as I'm nervous mostly about black boys when it comes

950
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:22,160
Speaker 5: to sexuality, because before they can even say they love someone,

951
00:45:22,560 --> 00:45:26,839
Speaker 5: they're considered enemy number one because of their They're they're

952
00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:29,840
Speaker 5: not little boys anymore. They are, their bodies just getting

953
00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:33,160
Speaker 5: bigger muscles on their body, having a penis, they're suddenly

954
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:37,120
Speaker 5: like a threat. You have to talk about rape. You

955
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:39,800
Speaker 5: got to talk about that with black boys, just your presence.

956
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:43,120
Speaker 5: Sometimes it may not be what you and the young

957
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:46,400
Speaker 5: woman consent it to, but you are to still in

958
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:49,319
Speaker 5: the time if their parents say, we witness that in

959
00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:52,400
Speaker 5: real time, these things are happening. So we've got to

960
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:54,719
Speaker 5: be we can be real clear on consent. We've got

961
00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:58,600
Speaker 5: to be real clear on these sorts of things. Wanting

962
00:45:58,640 --> 00:46:02,000
Speaker 5: to put that not to for wanting to not only

963
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:04,239
Speaker 5: protect my own sons, but all of these beautiful black

964
00:46:04,280 --> 00:46:08,400
Speaker 5: boys that I get to, you know, be in community

965
00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:10,160
Speaker 5: with that I love and I don't want to see

966
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:12,960
Speaker 5: hurt and I don't want to see miss understood and

967
00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:16,640
Speaker 5: misjudged just by their physical presence, nothing more than that.

968
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:19,960
Speaker 5: And because they don't like to smile, because you know,

969
00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:23,200
Speaker 5: they want to keep it real. I want them to

970
00:46:23,200 --> 00:46:24,960
Speaker 5: see I want them to see beyond that. I want

971
00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:27,759
Speaker 5: to see black boy vulnerability. I want people to see

972
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:30,919
Speaker 5: them as they're fuel that that that they actually can

973
00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:33,360
Speaker 5: cry and Michael jokes, Michael Cooper jokes and goomore, I

974
00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:33,919
Speaker 5: gotta cry again.

975
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:36,879
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, you gotta cry again. He's hurt,

976
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:40,200
Speaker 3: he's more sensitive, I said, the character sensitive. I said that, so,

977
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:42,480
Speaker 3: but yeah, because I.

978
00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:46,839
Speaker 5: Just want to Yeah, black boys cry and they also ball,

979
00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:49,640
Speaker 5: and they also go for their dreams, and they want

980
00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:53,400
Speaker 5: the girl, and and they they get the grades.

981
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:53,960
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.

982
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:59,000
Speaker 5: They do all they struggle, you know, they they're frustrated,

983
00:46:59,200 --> 00:47:00,399
Speaker 5: they're all of those things, and.

984
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:02,520
Speaker 6: Then when they finally get what they want, it scares

985
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:04,480
Speaker 6: them for some reason. Because he know he didn't mean

986
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:06,040
Speaker 6: none of that stuff he said. I don't want to

987
00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:07,160
Speaker 6: give it away, but he ain't mean none of that

988
00:47:07,200 --> 00:47:10,000
Speaker 6: stuff on that last episode. I don't think he really

989
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:13,480
Speaker 6: want I know he didn't want to walk away. Why no,

990
00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:16,360
Speaker 6: I think he was just afraid of what he was.

991
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:19,680
Speaker 6: He was afraid of losing it, so he feels like

992
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:23,680
Speaker 6: letting it go would be less painful than just losing it.

993
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 5: You know what I love about storytelling because it meets

994
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:29,800
Speaker 5: the viewer where they're at. You're going to see it

995
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:32,399
Speaker 5: that way, and someone's going to see that. While he

996
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:37,720
Speaker 5: understood that, he did not have the capacity to let

997
00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:43,040
Speaker 5: go of her and choose himself, so he needed to

998
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:46,200
Speaker 5: choose himself. He would have just stayed up underneath her,

999
00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:48,440
Speaker 5: and a lot of people do that. A lot of

1000
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:51,520
Speaker 5: young people do that because it feels good to be loved.

1001
00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:55,040
Speaker 5: It feels good for somebody to call you and want

1002
00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:58,799
Speaker 5: to see you and hug you and kiss you, and

1003
00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:01,360
Speaker 5: you can get lost in that and you can lose time.

1004
00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:05,800
Speaker 3: I think he understood time is ticking, and that's.

1005
00:48:05,600 --> 00:48:09,080
Speaker 5: A reality to being young and making that leap in

1006
00:48:09,280 --> 00:48:13,239
Speaker 5: the especially in the capitalistic democracy.

1007
00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:17,440
Speaker 3: You gotta go. He understood that, and she helped him

1008
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:18,160
Speaker 3: understand that.

1009
00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:21,920
Speaker 4: It felt to me like he didn't He wasn't chasing her.

1010
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:25,120
Speaker 6: By the end of the series, though, he was literally

1011
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:29,799
Speaker 6: just chasing an identity that he hadn't felt before. Like that,

1012
00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:32,719
Speaker 6: like that real blackness, like the blackness that you know,

1013
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:35,520
Speaker 6: his mom and his dad wanted him to have and

1014
00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:37,560
Speaker 6: not lose by growing up the way he grew up.

1015
00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 6: By the end of the show, he felt like yo

1016
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:41,920
Speaker 6: going to that prom with her and just being around

1017
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:43,279
Speaker 6: her and her and her friends, and hear and her

1018
00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:44,480
Speaker 6: say she wanted to go to Howard.

1019
00:48:44,600 --> 00:48:46,200
Speaker 4: It didn't feel like he was just he was chasing her.

1020
00:48:46,280 --> 00:48:47,760
Speaker 4: He was chasing his blackness.

1021
00:48:47,760 --> 00:48:52,120
Speaker 5: To me, I think all can be true. All can

1022
00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:55,080
Speaker 5: be true, But also imagine you get to Howard and

1023
00:48:55,160 --> 00:48:57,640
Speaker 5: all you know is Keisha. He might just be all

1024
00:48:57,719 --> 00:49:01,279
Speaker 5: up underneath Keisha. Yeah, and that and really, I mean, heye.

1025
00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:05,239
Speaker 5: I'm sure he played those scenarios out. I know he did,

1026
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:09,920
Speaker 5: because we do as a writing team. But what I again,

1027
00:49:10,120 --> 00:49:14,600
Speaker 5: what I love about storytelling is that it meets the

1028
00:49:14,719 --> 00:49:17,919
Speaker 5: viewer where they are. And this is what's beautiful about

1029
00:49:17,960 --> 00:49:20,680
Speaker 5: the show, and all the different conversations that are coming up,

1030
00:49:20,719 --> 00:49:22,600
Speaker 5: all the different opinions that are coming up.

1031
00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:23,680
Speaker 3: This is us.

1032
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:25,759
Speaker 5: This is the best dinner party you can ever have,

1033
00:49:26,320 --> 00:49:28,560
Speaker 5: and you just this is what we think. And everybody's

1034
00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:31,440
Speaker 5: got opinions, and what sticks to you is for you,

1035
00:49:31,520 --> 00:49:34,839
Speaker 5: and what sticks to you is for you. What irritates you.

1036
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:38,320
Speaker 5: It's also for you what irritates you. As a writer.

1037
00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:41,000
Speaker 5: This is some game I give. It's like a lot

1038
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:43,319
Speaker 5: of times people like I don't like that, I don't

1039
00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:45,960
Speaker 5: like that is just as important as the what you

1040
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:49,600
Speaker 5: do like and writing, because I say, what sticks to

1041
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:53,480
Speaker 5: you is yours is that's your examinations. That's for you

1042
00:49:53,560 --> 00:49:56,719
Speaker 5: to examine. It's called your attention. You can't shake it,

1043
00:49:56,840 --> 00:50:00,680
Speaker 5: you can't let it go good or bad. Look into that,

1044
00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:04,839
Speaker 5: investigate there, dig there. I think that's what I think.

1045
00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:07,439
Speaker 5: That's why I think, that's why I keep getting hits

1046
00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:12,120
Speaker 5: after hits, is because I like digging deeper into to us,

1047
00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:15,719
Speaker 5: and I think, who doesn't want to be seen? And

1048
00:50:15,880 --> 00:50:18,680
Speaker 5: I think a lot of our stories either they're missing

1049
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:21,880
Speaker 5: or they've been distorted, like it said the negative, like

1050
00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:24,520
Speaker 5: they've been distorted. I think when you start to really

1051
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:27,200
Speaker 5: see yourself, you know, you might want to tighten up here,

1052
00:50:27,239 --> 00:50:28,680
Speaker 5: a little tighten up there. For the most party, Like

1053
00:50:28,719 --> 00:50:31,960
Speaker 5: I'm cute, I'm cute, I'm doing okay, I'm doing all right.

1054
00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:35,760
Speaker 5: I can lose five pounds whatever, but for the most part,

1055
00:50:36,200 --> 00:50:37,000
Speaker 5: I'm doing all right.

1056
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:37,680
Speaker 3: I think that.

1057
00:50:39,120 --> 00:50:44,759
Speaker 5: Those ideas of ourselves or what we're stuck on that

1058
00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:48,319
Speaker 5: may be for you to examine, you to look at.

1059
00:50:48,440 --> 00:50:50,799
Speaker 5: And I think that's why we need more storytellers out there.

1060
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:53,319
Speaker 6: I think I got three more questions if you've got to, Yeah,

1061
00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:56,400
Speaker 6: what emotional space does Forever occupy than none of your

1062
00:50:56,440 --> 00:50:57,360
Speaker 6: previous shows.

1063
00:50:57,120 --> 00:51:00,760
Speaker 3: Have what emotional space as it occupied?

1064
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:01,000
Speaker 4: That?

1065
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:03,680
Speaker 3: I think the cross generational idea.

1066
00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:05,960
Speaker 5: You know, for the most part, I've written adult adult

1067
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:09,840
Speaker 5: conversation though that I've had parents come into those stories.

1068
00:51:09,880 --> 00:51:11,600
Speaker 3: They're not They're like.

1069
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:16,560
Speaker 5: Drive bys in a lot of ways. I just think

1070
00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:25,720
Speaker 5: the complexity of family and the and the generational connection

1071
00:51:26,600 --> 00:51:29,280
Speaker 5: and that I just really enjoyed that. I think also

1072
00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:37,080
Speaker 5: the scale emotionally, it allowed me to really scale us

1073
00:51:37,680 --> 00:51:41,799
Speaker 5: that I enjoyed that and it you know, the kids say,

1074
00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:44,640
Speaker 5: take up space. It allowed me to take up space

1075
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:46,880
Speaker 5: for us and for myself.

1076
00:51:48,120 --> 00:51:51,360
Speaker 6: And what did Judy Bloom teach you about softness and

1077
00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:52,960
Speaker 6: how does that show up in your characters now?

1078
00:51:54,440 --> 00:52:02,560
Speaker 5: Well, softness is details, I think, especially in the book Forever,

1079
00:52:03,280 --> 00:52:10,800
Speaker 5: most of the book is about Catherine's internal feelings thoughts,

1080
00:52:09,600 --> 00:52:15,520
Speaker 5: and to use that much time on the internal space is.

1081
00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:23,440
Speaker 3: Really a privilege. A luxury. Oftentimes most of our storytimee

1082
00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:25,200
Speaker 3: we're more observed than.

1083
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:29,880
Speaker 5: We are explored. And I enjoyed being able to explore.

1084
00:52:30,680 --> 00:52:33,360
Speaker 5: And that's what Judy taught in her in her writing

1085
00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:38,799
Speaker 5: all the books. She's an internal writer, and then she

1086
00:52:38,880 --> 00:52:42,400
Speaker 5: allowed us she gave as young people reading her books,

1087
00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:46,560
Speaker 5: you're validating these feelings inside that I don't necessarily show

1088
00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:48,879
Speaker 5: because I don't want to be embarrassed or I don't

1089
00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 5: want to be judged, or I don't want to be misunderstood.

1090
00:52:52,520 --> 00:52:54,799
Speaker 5: So kids are keeping a lot to themselves. And she

1091
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:59,160
Speaker 5: was being honest on the page. So I believe I've

1092
00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:01,279
Speaker 5: been doing that in my body of work, and I

1093
00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:04,960
Speaker 5: got to do it again to give young people a

1094
00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:09,840
Speaker 5: view of themselves today like she gave us, you know,

1095
00:53:09,920 --> 00:53:10,720
Speaker 5: fifty years ago.

1096
00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:14,919
Speaker 6: My last question is forever about love You've had, love

1097
00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:16,000
Speaker 6: you've lost, or love you.

1098
00:53:16,080 --> 00:53:17,760
Speaker 3: Still believe in all the above.

1099
00:53:18,280 --> 00:53:22,480
Speaker 5: I believe in love. I believe in love. One of

1100
00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:24,719
Speaker 5: the things I'm really proud of with the ending. I

1101
00:53:24,719 --> 00:53:27,279
Speaker 5: know there's a controversy about the ending, but what I

1102
00:53:27,320 --> 00:53:30,720
Speaker 5: love that Justin and Keisha showed us is how love

1103
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:34,880
Speaker 5: endures and it takes its shape, shifts, can it's dynamic,

1104
00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:39,520
Speaker 5: can change, but love can stay present. And they showed

1105
00:53:39,680 --> 00:53:44,520
Speaker 5: us how to let go and keep love in that

1106
00:53:45,960 --> 00:53:50,719
Speaker 5: In that ending, I think we could learn a lot

1107
00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:55,200
Speaker 5: from Justin and Keisha. You know, the question, you know

1108
00:53:56,719 --> 00:53:59,319
Speaker 5: is someone is this? Is this a forever love or

1109
00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:02,359
Speaker 5: the one you remember forever? And I would like to

1110
00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:05,520
Speaker 5: think that we as we move through our lives as

1111
00:54:06,040 --> 00:54:10,399
Speaker 5: human beings, that when we choose to use that word right,

1112
00:54:11,120 --> 00:54:13,520
Speaker 5: I loved you, that you there's a present that you

1113
00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:16,640
Speaker 5: were so present and so loving that even if you

1114
00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:20,080
Speaker 5: don't last, the couple doesn't last, the love can last.

1115
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:21,759
Speaker 3: It just it might shift to.

1116
00:54:23,440 --> 00:54:25,839
Speaker 5: Wow, it might just shift to we always just sort

1117
00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:29,960
Speaker 5: of text each other on each other's birthday that you

1118
00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:30,759
Speaker 5: matter to me.

1119
00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:31,200
Speaker 3: You know.

1120
00:54:31,280 --> 00:54:34,040
Speaker 5: One of the fun things you realize when you're revisiting

1121
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:40,080
Speaker 5: the work, especially as young people, oftentimes that's where our

1122
00:54:40,200 --> 00:54:44,960
Speaker 5: big dreaming happens, and those young loves that a lot

1123
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:47,200
Speaker 5: of times the best part of you is packed in

1124
00:54:47,280 --> 00:54:50,440
Speaker 5: somebody else's memory of you, and so to have.

1125
00:54:50,440 --> 00:54:53,719
Speaker 3: Access back to those people actually is good.

1126
00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:56,520
Speaker 5: For you to remember who you are when you lose

1127
00:54:56,560 --> 00:55:00,520
Speaker 5: your way, and because you're gonna lose your way, love

1128
00:55:00,719 --> 00:55:03,360
Speaker 5: holds you there. So it is about the past, the present,

1129
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:05,919
Speaker 5: and the future. And I think that love can take

1130
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:08,759
Speaker 5: many different forms, you know. And you know, I have

1131
00:55:08,840 --> 00:55:12,319
Speaker 5: my young one plays baseball, and I've learned a lot

1132
00:55:12,360 --> 00:55:17,800
Speaker 5: about watching him sit in the stands play baseball, long games.

1133
00:55:17,400 --> 00:55:17,960
Speaker 3: Long games.

1134
00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:21,440
Speaker 5: But what's beautiful about it is everybody who walks into

1135
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:26,440
Speaker 5: that batter's box has a different fight. And so I

1136
00:55:26,480 --> 00:55:32,400
Speaker 5: often think about relationship. Right, did you swing the bat?

1137
00:55:32,719 --> 00:55:34,200
Speaker 5: Did you have a they call it? Did you have

1138
00:55:34,280 --> 00:55:37,440
Speaker 5: a good at bat? And sometimes you're at bat, you

1139
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:39,959
Speaker 5: strike out, but you still had a good at bat.

1140
00:55:40,719 --> 00:55:42,840
Speaker 5: And I think that's what I think love is about.

1141
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:45,440
Speaker 5: Are we having a good at bat? Are we swinging?

1142
00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:49,799
Speaker 5: Are we using our technique? Are we using all the

1143
00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:53,360
Speaker 5: knowledge we've spent all week learning for this one to

1144
00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:55,840
Speaker 5: two times we get to walk in that batter's box

1145
00:55:56,400 --> 00:55:57,520
Speaker 5: and are we using it?

1146
00:55:57,640 --> 00:55:58,399
Speaker 3: Are we do we?

1147
00:55:58,560 --> 00:55:59,840
Speaker 4: You know? Do we what?

1148
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:01,799
Speaker 3: Whatever the shoulders and the hips and all that kinds of.

1149
00:56:03,719 --> 00:56:05,960
Speaker 5: All those things, all those things you gotta do with

1150
00:56:06,040 --> 00:56:09,919
Speaker 5: this ball coming at you eighty ninety miles an hour,

1151
00:56:11,239 --> 00:56:14,360
Speaker 5: that's love. And I think that I would like to

1152
00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:18,719
Speaker 5: think that we can all approach it at a good

1153
00:56:18,719 --> 00:56:18,960
Speaker 5: at that.

1154
00:56:21,360 --> 00:56:21,760
Speaker 4: Wow.

1155
00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:25,720
Speaker 8: I have one final question Regina King in her directing, Yes,

1156
00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:29,080
Speaker 8: thank you for asking. Yeah, because okay, so I was

1157
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:31,319
Speaker 8: trying to look to see what the conversation around it

1158
00:56:31,360 --> 00:56:33,160
Speaker 8: was online. But I remember when I first found out

1159
00:56:33,160 --> 00:56:34,640
Speaker 8: that she was doing it, my first thought was, I

1160
00:56:34,640 --> 00:56:37,279
Speaker 8: wonder what their conversations were like, like what changes she

1161
00:56:37,400 --> 00:56:39,440
Speaker 8: made and what she brought to the screen, because I

1162
00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:40,839
Speaker 8: heard you say a lot of it was about your

1163
00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:42,000
Speaker 8: life as a parent as well.

1164
00:56:41,880 --> 00:56:45,320
Speaker 3: Too, But no, it's you move. Let me be very clear,

1165
00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:46,880
Speaker 3: I muse.

1166
00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:49,920
Speaker 5: I have a muse entry point, and then once I

1167
00:56:50,000 --> 00:56:52,759
Speaker 5: go into that entry point, then I become a journalist

1168
00:56:52,800 --> 00:56:56,359
Speaker 5: almost and look at the world around and then that's

1169
00:56:56,360 --> 00:56:59,960
Speaker 5: how I sort of craft my stories. That said was

1170
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:03,239
Speaker 5: it's beautiful about the art form is that the art

1171
00:57:03,320 --> 00:57:08,040
Speaker 5: form is a collaborative art form. I had to sit

1172
00:57:08,040 --> 00:57:09,759
Speaker 5: in that chair. Judy had to sit in that chair

1173
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:11,759
Speaker 5: to write that book. I go look at the book.

1174
00:57:11,760 --> 00:57:13,840
Speaker 5: I had to sit in that chair and adapt that book.

1175
00:57:15,120 --> 00:57:18,640
Speaker 5: But one of the first phone calls you make after

1176
00:57:18,920 --> 00:57:22,840
Speaker 5: you have a script, you call your casting director Kim Coleman.

1177
00:57:23,040 --> 00:57:26,280
Speaker 5: And then the second immediate is who is going to direct,

1178
00:57:26,320 --> 00:57:28,560
Speaker 5: And I called Regina King and said, I think it's

1179
00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:32,720
Speaker 5: time for us to collaborate again. She first Regina I

1180
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:35,480
Speaker 5: first worked together when in early in her directing career,

1181
00:57:35,640 --> 00:57:39,920
Speaker 5: she directed episodes of Being Mary Jane and she went

1182
00:57:39,960 --> 00:57:42,840
Speaker 5: off to have a really wonderful directing career, and it

1183
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:44,880
Speaker 5: was like, okay, I need you to Help's helped me

1184
00:57:45,160 --> 00:57:48,480
Speaker 5: reset the tone. We both are mothers, we both love

1185
00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:53,640
Speaker 5: our sons. I needed Regina King, I need that chemistry,

1186
00:57:54,640 --> 00:57:57,400
Speaker 5: her iconic performances as an actress. I would love them

1187
00:57:57,480 --> 00:58:00,760
Speaker 5: rooted in these characters, especially helping us launched this love

1188
00:58:00,800 --> 00:58:07,840
Speaker 5: story within these two young actors, anchoring them in their

1189
00:58:07,920 --> 00:58:11,160
Speaker 5: chemistry and everybody knowing where they are in this play,

1190
00:58:11,280 --> 00:58:15,360
Speaker 5: in this world. Then, of course we built out the

1191
00:58:15,400 --> 00:58:17,840
Speaker 5: team and the decisions that we make together, you know,

1192
00:58:17,920 --> 00:58:22,120
Speaker 5: finding Combio who is our DP, Suzuki our production designer.

1193
00:58:22,520 --> 00:58:25,520
Speaker 5: We collaborate on the ideas of our you know, our

1194
00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:30,400
Speaker 5: costume Minka and Tanja. These are the principal storytellers that

1195
00:58:30,440 --> 00:58:33,040
Speaker 5: we need to help tell our story. Just helping to

1196
00:58:33,080 --> 00:58:36,440
Speaker 5: make those decisions together, it was really lovely to help

1197
00:58:36,520 --> 00:58:38,800
Speaker 5: set the tone for it so that we can take

1198
00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:42,360
Speaker 5: off and run. I mean, you know, Anthony Hemingway coming in,

1199
00:58:42,440 --> 00:58:47,600
Speaker 5: Timby Banks. All of these major decisions are editors, you know,

1200
00:58:47,720 --> 00:58:52,720
Speaker 5: Carolina and Naomi and just Gary gunn Our composer kier Lehman.

1201
00:58:52,800 --> 00:58:56,560
Speaker 5: We put like it's almost like speaking of baseball references,

1202
00:58:56,600 --> 00:58:58,360
Speaker 5: almost like you have your baseball cards out, You're like,

1203
00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:00,360
Speaker 5: we should bring this for this. I got this for this,

1204
00:59:00,440 --> 00:59:02,000
Speaker 5: and you kind of put it together and it's fun

1205
00:59:02,040 --> 00:59:02,960
Speaker 5: to puzzle together.

1206
00:59:03,040 --> 00:59:05,440
Speaker 3: It's fun to sort of collaborate on that level.

1207
00:59:05,480 --> 00:59:10,200
Speaker 5: So she and my company Story twenty seven Hers Royal Ties,

1208
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:10,800
Speaker 5: we've come.

1209
00:59:10,680 --> 00:59:15,120
Speaker 3: Together to help set.

1210
00:59:14,440 --> 00:59:17,160
Speaker 5: A bar of excellence that we want the show to

1211
00:59:17,240 --> 00:59:18,920
Speaker 5: live in and thrive from.

1212
00:59:19,320 --> 00:59:22,240
Speaker 4: And you know what season two is going, I do.

1213
00:59:22,280 --> 00:59:24,680
Speaker 5: I mean I have ideas. I still have to go

1214
00:59:24,720 --> 00:59:27,160
Speaker 5: through the process, you know. Part of well, I think

1215
00:59:27,160 --> 00:59:31,680
Speaker 5: another thing that makes me successful is how I honor

1216
00:59:31,720 --> 00:59:38,240
Speaker 5: my partnerships and I come into it respectfully and really

1217
00:59:38,280 --> 00:59:41,880
Speaker 5: to always garner that to garner that energy.

1218
00:59:41,600 --> 00:59:42,080
Speaker 3: Back to me.

1219
00:59:42,480 --> 00:59:44,240
Speaker 5: But I have a concept of what I need to do.

1220
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:46,720
Speaker 5: I won't share it until my partners are signed off

1221
00:59:46,760 --> 00:59:51,640
Speaker 5: on it. But my next steps are me coming into

1222
00:59:51,720 --> 00:59:57,200
Speaker 5: a meeting ready to talk to Netflix around, Hey, this

1223
00:59:57,240 --> 00:59:59,120
Speaker 5: is where I see it, and this is where I

1224
00:59:59,160 --> 01:00:02,640
Speaker 5: think it should go, hearing their feedback, their concerns, taking

1225
01:00:02,680 --> 01:00:08,640
Speaker 5: that in consideration, sometimes debating it for a while, but

1226
01:00:09,000 --> 01:00:11,480
Speaker 5: finding a way to communicate why I think it's the

1227
01:00:11,520 --> 01:00:14,440
Speaker 5: way it's to go, and if not, where is the

1228
01:00:14,480 --> 01:00:19,520
Speaker 5: compromise in that, and feeling good about the artistic flexibility

1229
01:00:19,560 --> 01:00:22,160
Speaker 5: that I have to craft story to figure that out.

1230
01:00:23,520 --> 01:00:26,400
Speaker 5: So I'm looking forward to that and success especially. You know,

1231
01:00:26,520 --> 01:00:28,440
Speaker 5: sometimes success can make people tighten up too.

1232
01:00:29,200 --> 01:00:30,240
Speaker 4: He's not playing tomorrow.

1233
01:00:30,320 --> 01:00:35,520
Speaker 6: Yeah, I hit after heat in multiple decades. Okay, streaming services,

1234
01:00:35,560 --> 01:00:38,040
Speaker 6: the linear television, give her what she wants, that's right,

1235
01:00:38,040 --> 01:00:42,160
Speaker 6: including the fifty million dollars for girlfriends we need.

1236
01:00:42,880 --> 01:00:43,640
Speaker 4: It's that simple.

1237
01:00:43,680 --> 01:00:46,520
Speaker 3: It's that simple. We've been talking about this. It's real.

1238
01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:50,000
Speaker 5: It's really that simple, and I'm excited. I think it's

1239
01:00:50,000 --> 01:00:51,760
Speaker 5: gonna come. I don't know, I feel I feel it

1240
01:00:51,840 --> 01:00:53,400
Speaker 5: like I don't know. Last time I was here, we

1241
01:00:53,440 --> 01:00:56,400
Speaker 5: talked about it, and I think what was beautiful in

1242
01:00:56,440 --> 01:00:59,000
Speaker 5: my journey at that time was for me to claim

1243
01:00:59,040 --> 01:01:02,920
Speaker 5: the value and understand the boundaries and understand what it is.

1244
01:01:03,800 --> 01:01:06,400
Speaker 5: I don't know, just I think and also this success

1245
01:01:06,760 --> 01:01:09,280
Speaker 5: breeds more success, so I kind of feel I don't know,

1246
01:01:09,320 --> 01:01:11,720
Speaker 5: I kind of feel like I think.

1247
01:01:11,560 --> 01:01:13,960
Speaker 4: It's time and a success girlfriend just had on Netflix.

1248
01:01:14,080 --> 01:01:16,400
Speaker 3: Oh my god, oh my god, like they should see

1249
01:01:16,480 --> 01:01:18,920
Speaker 3: generational success and people watch it. I watch that. I

1250
01:01:18,960 --> 01:01:20,960
Speaker 3: rewatched the whole thing with my mom and I was like,

1251
01:01:21,000 --> 01:01:22,720
Speaker 3: this is so different. But you know, it's fine.

1252
01:01:22,800 --> 01:01:25,400
Speaker 5: Finding out people are putting girlfriends on for their go

1253
01:01:25,480 --> 01:01:28,760
Speaker 5: to sleep. It's their they call it their comfort TV

1254
01:01:28,840 --> 01:01:31,160
Speaker 5: show that they put on and they just let it run.

1255
01:01:31,200 --> 01:01:32,720
Speaker 5: And some people let it run while they go to

1256
01:01:32,720 --> 01:01:38,000
Speaker 5: sleep blows my mind. Secondarily, my youngest son, I noticed that.

1257
01:01:38,760 --> 01:01:41,160
Speaker 5: He will tell me like his friends are watching it

1258
01:01:41,480 --> 01:01:44,360
Speaker 5: and they think, I'm your mom is cool because she does.

1259
01:01:45,880 --> 01:01:48,200
Speaker 3: So I still got street cred, job, I still got

1260
01:01:48,240 --> 01:01:49,000
Speaker 3: it in the game.

1261
01:01:49,240 --> 01:01:52,200
Speaker 5: I'm up and down all that up and down for

1262
01:01:52,360 --> 01:01:53,400
Speaker 5: thank you, thank you, thank you.

1263
01:01:53,600 --> 01:01:56,960
Speaker 6: And I don't know if people know, but nine to

1264
01:01:56,960 --> 01:02:02,240
Speaker 6: eleven of this year marks twenty five years of girlfriends ago.

1265
01:02:02,320 --> 01:02:04,640
Speaker 3: This year, so we need to make that announcement right,

1266
01:02:04,720 --> 01:02:07,480
Speaker 3: it's time. That would be the announcement to make it.

1267
01:02:07,440 --> 01:02:11,080
Speaker 4: Only makes sense. The first episode was nine eleven two that.

1268
01:02:11,240 --> 01:02:15,400
Speaker 7: Still looks so good. All of them still.

1269
01:02:15,280 --> 01:02:17,880
Speaker 5: Looks I saw Tracy recently we went to go see

1270
01:02:18,800 --> 01:02:20,440
Speaker 5: The Wiz went back on the screen.

1271
01:02:20,480 --> 01:02:22,360
Speaker 3: Did anybody see it on the screen?

1272
01:02:22,440 --> 01:02:25,840
Speaker 5: Oh, you guys, I've seen the Wiz over and over,

1273
01:02:25,960 --> 01:02:28,680
Speaker 5: you know, but the Wiz on big screen. I haven't

1274
01:02:28,720 --> 01:02:31,920
Speaker 5: seen that since I was a young girl. And Tracy

1275
01:02:31,920 --> 01:02:33,760
Speaker 5: and I went together to go see it and we

1276
01:02:33,840 --> 01:02:35,840
Speaker 5: had a ball. And it was also really fun to

1277
01:02:35,960 --> 01:02:38,960
Speaker 5: watch her watch her mom. It was kind of like, oh,

1278
01:02:39,000 --> 01:02:42,960
Speaker 5: this is like very meta, right, So that was amazing.

1279
01:02:43,040 --> 01:02:47,760
Speaker 5: Then Jill, Yeah, Jill my birthday party. So to your point,

1280
01:02:47,880 --> 01:02:49,760
Speaker 5: they look smashing.

1281
01:02:50,720 --> 01:02:53,160
Speaker 4: To It has to happen. It's going to happen. I

1282
01:02:53,280 --> 01:02:54,040
Speaker 4: know what's going to happen.

1283
01:02:54,120 --> 01:02:56,760
Speaker 6: Yes, because it's like the one black sitcom that we

1284
01:02:57,000 --> 01:03:00,240
Speaker 6: really did not get any closure on whatsoever, and there's

1285
01:03:00,240 --> 01:03:02,520
Speaker 6: so many loose ends to tie up.

1286
01:03:02,680 --> 01:03:04,240
Speaker 5: You know, it's really it's not just loose ENSEI it's

1287
01:03:04,240 --> 01:03:06,880
Speaker 5: actually very relevant. I think it's a very karmic idea

1288
01:03:07,080 --> 01:03:11,040
Speaker 5: to have the show have a ending in a film.

1289
01:03:11,160 --> 01:03:15,400
Speaker 5: I just want to do a movie because of where

1290
01:03:15,560 --> 01:03:18,600
Speaker 5: we as a society have grown around the importance of

1291
01:03:18,680 --> 01:03:23,720
Speaker 5: relationships and Tony and Joan breaking up, I think has

1292
01:03:23,800 --> 01:03:27,200
Speaker 5: been the hardest thing on the audience, even over Joan

1293
01:03:27,360 --> 01:03:29,120
Speaker 5: not getting her man, you know what I'm saying, And

1294
01:03:29,200 --> 01:03:34,080
Speaker 5: so I think that that's an interesting thing to put

1295
01:03:34,120 --> 01:03:35,000
Speaker 5: back in the chat.

1296
01:03:35,240 --> 01:03:36,960
Speaker 3: So it's still relevant to this day.

1297
01:03:37,040 --> 01:03:40,360
Speaker 5: It's like, how does friendship come back together or not

1298
01:03:40,480 --> 01:03:41,240
Speaker 5: come back together?

1299
01:03:41,360 --> 01:03:41,520
Speaker 7: Right?

1300
01:03:42,920 --> 01:03:45,760
Speaker 3: Can you still find that love of your life when

1301
01:03:45,800 --> 01:03:48,880
Speaker 3: you choose? You know what I'm doing all right? By myself,

1302
01:03:48,920 --> 01:03:49,800
Speaker 3: I'm doing nothing.

1303
01:03:49,800 --> 01:03:52,240
Speaker 5: There's nothing wrong with me for not having had a

1304
01:03:52,320 --> 01:03:55,440
Speaker 5: husband like we But that was a different conversation back

1305
01:03:55,440 --> 01:03:58,360
Speaker 5: at the time we were producing that show to where

1306
01:03:58,520 --> 01:04:00,800
Speaker 5: we have progressed today five years later.

1307
01:04:00,840 --> 01:04:02,040
Speaker 3: There's a different.

1308
01:04:03,800 --> 01:04:08,880
Speaker 5: Value in society around relationships and friendship and how important

1309
01:04:08,920 --> 01:04:12,920
Speaker 5: friendship is and the you know, the the sustaining of it,

1310
01:04:13,040 --> 01:04:16,680
Speaker 5: the care of it, the beauty of it, the complexity

1311
01:04:16,760 --> 01:04:19,000
Speaker 5: of it. And I'm like, okay, look at us grow

1312
01:04:19,320 --> 01:04:21,920
Speaker 5: and then and then also this idea that you're not

1313
01:04:22,080 --> 01:04:26,440
Speaker 5: broken because you're not in partnership romantically. It's not to

1314
01:04:26,480 --> 01:04:29,440
Speaker 5: say that you don't want that, but understanding that there's.

1315
01:04:29,280 --> 01:04:31,560
Speaker 3: A different there's a different.

1316
01:04:33,480 --> 01:04:36,440
Speaker 5: You know, entry point into that that it's not just

1317
01:04:36,560 --> 01:04:39,200
Speaker 5: being married to be married, you want to be really

1318
01:04:39,240 --> 01:04:42,600
Speaker 5: partnered with your soulmate or your you know, those was

1319
01:04:42,600 --> 01:04:44,440
Speaker 5: a twin flame, which one it did? Whatever, Joe fair

1320
01:04:44,520 --> 01:04:46,040
Speaker 5: one it is, whichever one's the hot one?

1321
01:04:46,120 --> 01:04:48,040
Speaker 4: That one.

1322
01:04:48,240 --> 01:04:51,480
Speaker 8: I was gonna say, So Joan is, you can't say anything,

1323
01:04:51,520 --> 01:04:54,000
Speaker 8: but Joan is, actually she does still want to be

1324
01:04:54,320 --> 01:04:55,840
Speaker 8: married and be with a person or she just gonna

1325
01:04:55,840 --> 01:04:55,920
Speaker 8: do it.

1326
01:04:55,960 --> 01:04:57,960
Speaker 3: But I'm just talking about where we left her, and

1327
01:04:58,000 --> 01:04:59,000
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna give it.

1328
01:04:59,000 --> 01:05:00,840
Speaker 8: It's funny because and like it sounds like you're not

1329
01:05:00,880 --> 01:05:03,919
Speaker 8: doing all by herself still, I'm just talking about where

1330
01:05:03,920 --> 01:05:07,840
Speaker 8: we are in society again, because she would be shared

1331
01:05:07,920 --> 01:05:10,160
Speaker 8: with you guys very openly that my writing process, My

1332
01:05:10,200 --> 01:05:12,320
Speaker 8: writing process is like who am I musing on?

1333
01:05:12,800 --> 01:05:15,040
Speaker 5: And then you open up to seek where society is

1334
01:05:15,080 --> 01:05:17,160
Speaker 5: the journalist in me, And that's where we are. And

1335
01:05:17,200 --> 01:05:20,760
Speaker 5: that's all I'm sort of commenting on in that where

1336
01:05:20,760 --> 01:05:24,840
Speaker 5: we left the show twenty five years, where society is,

1337
01:05:25,000 --> 01:05:28,680
Speaker 5: I feel the relevance of girlfriends is almost matched to

1338
01:05:28,720 --> 01:05:33,800
Speaker 5: where our ending was. Yeah wow, and so and even

1339
01:05:33,960 --> 01:05:37,400
Speaker 5: like we've talked about their physical beauty, even that I'm saying,

1340
01:05:37,440 --> 01:05:42,680
Speaker 5: even how as you know, that's important, you know, and

1341
01:05:42,680 --> 01:05:44,160
Speaker 5: and and also how do we get there?

1342
01:05:44,200 --> 01:05:45,000
Speaker 3: And what are we doing?

1343
01:05:45,480 --> 01:05:48,000
Speaker 5: Even my generation of women, which is also the generation

1344
01:05:48,120 --> 01:05:51,280
Speaker 5: of those women on girlfriends, We've pioneered a whole new

1345
01:05:51,400 --> 01:05:55,320
Speaker 5: conversation around We're openly going to talk about paramenopause and menopause.

1346
01:05:55,480 --> 01:05:58,600
Speaker 5: We're not going down like the previous generations being oki

1347
01:05:58,640 --> 01:06:01,040
Speaker 5: doped by the lies over there. So it's like those

1348
01:06:01,160 --> 01:06:03,840
Speaker 5: there's so much to talk about, I think in a

1349
01:06:03,920 --> 01:06:08,600
Speaker 5: new a new iteration of the ending that we're still

1350
01:06:08,600 --> 01:06:10,640
Speaker 5: holding on to from twenty five years ago. So it's

1351
01:06:10,640 --> 01:06:12,720
Speaker 5: an interesting thing to hold on to in terms of

1352
01:06:12,760 --> 01:06:16,280
Speaker 5: like the details of what I would do. I'm not

1353
01:06:16,320 --> 01:06:19,800
Speaker 5: going to share that because that's my currency, you know.

1354
01:06:19,960 --> 01:06:23,440
Speaker 5: My ideas are my currency. My craftsmanship is how I

1355
01:06:23,560 --> 01:06:25,440
Speaker 5: make you know, everybody got a dressed, but it's how

1356
01:06:25,440 --> 01:06:25,840
Speaker 5: I make.

1357
01:06:25,760 --> 01:06:27,360
Speaker 3: The dress right, you know, And so.

1358
01:06:29,080 --> 01:06:31,920
Speaker 5: I'm excited for that opportunity. I just I don't know energetically,

1359
01:06:31,920 --> 01:06:35,680
Speaker 5: I just feel it differently because I'm on your show now.

1360
01:06:35,800 --> 01:06:38,840
Speaker 5: See It's it's like even that is a beautiful omen

1361
01:06:38,960 --> 01:06:41,200
Speaker 5: right because we talked about it last time I was there,

1362
01:06:41,200 --> 01:06:42,920
Speaker 5: and now I'm back and we're talking about it again,

1363
01:06:43,080 --> 01:06:44,520
Speaker 5: and yeah.

1364
01:06:44,400 --> 01:06:47,080
Speaker 4: I mean, there's nothing guaranteed, but the girlfriends is a guaranteed.

1365
01:06:47,280 --> 01:06:50,520
Speaker 4: I don't care what nobody right global easily.

1366
01:06:50,640 --> 01:06:52,479
Speaker 6: I want to show you this opposedly this last week,

1367
01:06:52,640 --> 01:06:56,640
Speaker 6: now that we're grown, which friend was the most toxic Joan?

1368
01:06:57,520 --> 01:06:58,680
Speaker 3: Why did you?

1369
01:06:59,360 --> 01:07:01,440
Speaker 6: Because we're her own now, so we have a different

1370
01:07:01,480 --> 01:07:10,760
Speaker 6: perception of all of them. Uh Todd Todd Todd had

1371
01:07:10,800 --> 01:07:13,560
Speaker 6: no business, had no business maritime.

1372
01:07:13,760 --> 01:07:16,960
Speaker 4: But honestly, people always leave Lenn out.

1373
01:07:17,280 --> 01:07:21,080
Speaker 6: Lynn would be considered very toxic nowadays because she didn't

1374
01:07:21,080 --> 01:07:21,800
Speaker 6: have no boundaries.

1375
01:07:21,800 --> 01:07:23,920
Speaker 4: She didn't respect nobody's boundaries.

1376
01:07:24,480 --> 01:07:26,800
Speaker 3: I think she was the most at one with herself.

1377
01:07:28,000 --> 01:07:30,480
Speaker 6: Was the only one that was unproblematic to me. But

1378
01:07:31,800 --> 01:07:36,360
Speaker 6: Lynn didn't respect anybody's boundaries. I have interesting theories about

1379
01:07:36,800 --> 01:07:38,040
Speaker 6: Joan and uh Tony.

1380
01:07:38,440 --> 01:07:41,480
Speaker 3: Let me ask you, why did you use the word toxic?

1381
01:07:41,880 --> 01:07:43,480
Speaker 6: Oh, I reposed it to me. That was just a

1382
01:07:43,520 --> 01:07:45,439
Speaker 6: conversation starter, I know.

1383
01:07:45,360 --> 01:07:48,080
Speaker 3: But why did you repost that conversation starter?

1384
01:07:50,080 --> 01:07:52,240
Speaker 6: I think I think that they had traits that could

1385
01:07:52,240 --> 01:07:53,800
Speaker 6: be considered toxic.

1386
01:07:54,080 --> 01:07:55,280
Speaker 3: You know what I want to say about that?

1387
01:07:56,600 --> 01:08:00,200
Speaker 5: What I love about the vulnerability and the complex city

1388
01:08:00,280 --> 01:08:06,840
Speaker 5: of the characters that later they can be analyzed, yes,

1389
01:08:07,280 --> 01:08:10,520
Speaker 5: and give some language about what they were brave enough

1390
01:08:10,560 --> 01:08:14,960
Speaker 5: to be. And what I look at between the generations

1391
01:08:15,040 --> 01:08:18,240
Speaker 5: is that when we there's this generations, we have more

1392
01:08:18,320 --> 01:08:22,920
Speaker 5: language to label things, to label it. I feel like

1393
01:08:24,200 --> 01:08:27,760
Speaker 5: those characters and so the word toxic I just sort

1394
01:08:27,800 --> 01:08:31,599
Speaker 5: of underscore, highlight and circle because that can be this

1395
01:08:31,760 --> 01:08:34,800
Speaker 5: blanket over them that doesn't deserve to be there.

1396
01:08:36,120 --> 01:08:40,559
Speaker 3: And that's what I'm saying is that we are complex. Now.

1397
01:08:40,800 --> 01:08:43,960
Speaker 5: I'm not saying that the complexity means you need to

1398
01:08:44,000 --> 01:08:47,080
Speaker 5: be friends with them for a lifetime. You may only

1399
01:08:47,120 --> 01:08:49,640
Speaker 5: complex for a while, you know. I'm not saying you

1400
01:08:49,680 --> 01:08:51,960
Speaker 5: can't grow from them. I can't say you might, like

1401
01:08:52,479 --> 01:08:54,080
Speaker 5: I said, you might not have a good at bat

1402
01:08:54,120 --> 01:08:54,920
Speaker 5: and strike out.

1403
01:08:55,360 --> 01:08:57,320
Speaker 3: But I don't know.

1404
01:08:57,320 --> 01:09:01,000
Speaker 5: I just I want to be I think it's important

1405
01:09:01,080 --> 01:09:08,880
Speaker 5: to examine, but not hold the label true and what

1406
01:09:08,920 --> 01:09:11,760
Speaker 5: because one of the things that Lynn represents to me

1407
01:09:12,280 --> 01:09:14,600
Speaker 5: and what she I think represented to the generation that

1408
01:09:14,760 --> 01:09:16,280
Speaker 5: was actually beautiful.

1409
01:09:17,479 --> 01:09:17,920
Speaker 3: Is that.

1410
01:09:19,840 --> 01:09:23,519
Speaker 5: At the time that I was writing that series, all

1411
01:09:23,560 --> 01:09:26,840
Speaker 5: black women were presented that they knew exactly who they

1412
01:09:26,880 --> 01:09:28,960
Speaker 5: are what they needed to be in.

1413
01:09:29,040 --> 01:09:36,320
Speaker 3: Order to be accepted. Lynn represented She didn't know, but

1414
01:09:36,360 --> 01:09:39,680
Speaker 3: she was still loved even in her sexual like she was.

1415
01:09:39,920 --> 01:09:41,559
Speaker 8: That was probably like the first time I ever saw

1416
01:09:41,560 --> 01:09:44,679
Speaker 8: a woman, black woman on camera that she was queer,

1417
01:09:44,880 --> 01:09:48,080
Speaker 8: but like we didn't know really what that was it

1418
01:09:49,080 --> 01:09:51,559
Speaker 8: she that Yeah, I just thought Lynn was just like

1419
01:09:51,600 --> 01:09:53,040
Speaker 8: the girl who just did whatever she wanted to do.

1420
01:09:53,080 --> 01:09:55,960
Speaker 8: And everybody has that friend, yes, and those friends they

1421
01:09:56,000 --> 01:09:57,880
Speaker 8: have to be strong in themselves to a certain extent

1422
01:09:57,920 --> 01:09:59,639
Speaker 8: because you're so different than everybody else.

1423
01:10:00,000 --> 01:10:01,840
Speaker 5: But if you think about Len and you put it

1424
01:10:01,880 --> 01:10:04,720
Speaker 5: in this new drugs, she was break the no boundaries.

1425
01:10:05,160 --> 01:10:08,400
Speaker 5: She was actually instead of it being toxic, she was

1426
01:10:08,520 --> 01:10:14,400
Speaker 5: actually being progressive. Most people would align queerness to progressive thought, right.

1427
01:10:16,240 --> 01:10:21,519
Speaker 3: She was challenging notions.

1428
01:10:20,600 --> 01:10:23,800
Speaker 5: Why one could say the way she lived her life

1429
01:10:23,840 --> 01:10:26,799
Speaker 5: was communal living, which is now a conversation for the future.

1430
01:10:28,040 --> 01:10:30,920
Speaker 5: I'm just saying how we look at things and being

1431
01:10:31,040 --> 01:10:36,080
Speaker 5: careful not to I think it's beautiful to analyze because

1432
01:10:36,080 --> 01:10:39,160
Speaker 5: that's how we progress, but be careful not to then

1433
01:10:39,320 --> 01:10:41,600
Speaker 5: blanket everything with labels.

1434
01:10:42,320 --> 01:10:44,479
Speaker 3: Let's go back to forever.

1435
01:10:45,360 --> 01:10:48,840
Speaker 5: In twenty eighteen, we were saying ADHD twenty twenty five

1436
01:10:48,880 --> 01:10:53,719
Speaker 5: we're saying, you're divergent. Language keeps changing as we understand ourselves,

1437
01:10:53,760 --> 01:10:57,160
Speaker 5: and I think that's an interesting thing about the power

1438
01:10:57,200 --> 01:11:00,240
Speaker 5: of language. And one of the things I want to

1439
01:11:00,280 --> 01:11:03,599
Speaker 5: be mindful of, especially in our community, is how quick

1440
01:11:03,680 --> 01:11:05,479
Speaker 5: we are to say, Oh, he's.

1441
01:11:05,320 --> 01:11:07,360
Speaker 3: Toxic, she's toxic, toxic, toxic, toxic.

1442
01:11:07,840 --> 01:11:10,599
Speaker 5: I would love to say, Okay, maybe that aspect of

1443
01:11:10,600 --> 01:11:18,439
Speaker 5: that person needs some development, needs some growth. Don dj Mbi, Mara, Don,

1444
01:11:18,479 --> 01:11:21,080
Speaker 5: we are in this, Okay, our guilt fear. Maybe as

1445
01:11:21,160 --> 01:11:24,559
Speaker 5: parents we need to release that, understand what it is,

1446
01:11:24,640 --> 01:11:28,240
Speaker 5: and let it go, but just be careful not to

1447
01:11:28,320 --> 01:11:35,200
Speaker 5: keep blanketing us and our desire to grow and our

1448
01:11:35,240 --> 01:11:41,280
Speaker 5: desire to urge, you know, and get whole. So that's

1449
01:11:41,280 --> 01:11:43,840
Speaker 5: what I would say. I think what I love about

1450
01:11:43,840 --> 01:11:49,320
Speaker 5: the collection of those women, those characters is as complicated

1451
01:11:49,800 --> 01:11:55,000
Speaker 5: or toxic as they were, even in that we deserve

1452
01:11:55,080 --> 01:11:58,320
Speaker 5: love and they were trying to figure it out, and

1453
01:11:58,600 --> 01:12:01,160
Speaker 5: they're different ways to stay together and their friendship and

1454
01:12:01,200 --> 01:12:04,960
Speaker 5: then their respective relationships, you know, and and that how

1455
01:12:05,000 --> 01:12:08,439
Speaker 5: do we move forward together in the complexity.

1456
01:12:07,840 --> 01:12:10,080
Speaker 8: Of us Because Carrie and Samantha fell out and nobody

1457
01:12:10,080 --> 01:12:13,120
Speaker 8: calls them toxic when yes, they did know people people

1458
01:12:13,360 --> 01:12:15,640
Speaker 8: love so toxic you to the first person I can

1459
01:12:15,680 --> 01:12:18,840
Speaker 8: remember say that. People feel like Carrie is like was

1460
01:12:18,880 --> 01:12:21,280
Speaker 8: wronged by Samantha, and Samantha is just his free friend

1461
01:12:21,280 --> 01:12:23,040
Speaker 8: who just eventually. They still want to see him get

1462
01:12:23,080 --> 01:12:25,120
Speaker 8: back together as friends. People want Jill to never speak

1463
01:12:25,120 --> 01:12:25,639
Speaker 8: to Jone again.

1464
01:12:25,720 --> 01:12:26,920
Speaker 4: No, that's not true.

1465
01:12:27,040 --> 01:12:28,920
Speaker 3: People feel like they were bad friends to each other.

1466
01:12:29,920 --> 01:12:31,479
Speaker 6: Maybe, but that's not true. We definitely want them to

1467
01:12:31,520 --> 01:12:33,280
Speaker 6: get back together. That's part of the closure. We want

1468
01:12:33,280 --> 01:12:35,240
Speaker 6: to see if Jill and Joan become friends again.

1469
01:12:37,240 --> 01:12:43,400
Speaker 4: Arguing do you guys know?

1470
01:12:43,439 --> 01:12:45,599
Speaker 5: But I'm asking you guys, do you really I know

1471
01:12:45,640 --> 01:12:47,880
Speaker 5: you do? Charlayne, you are very clear about wanting to

1472
01:12:47,880 --> 01:12:48,519
Speaker 5: see a movie.

1473
01:12:48,600 --> 01:12:49,759
Speaker 4: You are sixteen years.

1474
01:12:52,640 --> 01:12:54,400
Speaker 5: I want to also say I'm always going to take

1475
01:12:54,400 --> 01:12:56,920
Speaker 5: a moment to say thank you because you also that

1476
01:12:57,040 --> 01:12:59,040
Speaker 5: means a lot to me as a storyteller, Like wow,

1477
01:12:59,080 --> 01:13:01,720
Speaker 5: that that level of impact on you and even the

1478
01:13:01,760 --> 01:13:04,240
Speaker 5: fact that me and Judy Bloom are.

1479
01:13:04,160 --> 01:13:06,320
Speaker 3: The same thing. So I'm a thank you.

1480
01:13:07,000 --> 01:13:09,720
Speaker 5: Now, you three you want to are you going to

1481
01:13:09,760 --> 01:13:11,960
Speaker 5: go spend some money at the theater to go see

1482
01:13:12,040 --> 01:13:13,439
Speaker 5: a girl walk to the theater.

1483
01:13:14,360 --> 01:13:21,519
Speaker 3: I'm trying to be in the day. Yes, yes, I agree.

1484
01:13:21,600 --> 01:13:23,080
Speaker 1: My wife is taking me there so fast.

1485
01:13:23,120 --> 01:13:27,840
Speaker 6: It's it would be an event. Not too many events anymore.

1486
01:13:27,840 --> 01:13:28,599
Speaker 6: It would be an event.

1487
01:13:28,800 --> 01:13:30,680
Speaker 3: I think so too. I think people would dress up.

1488
01:13:30,800 --> 01:13:34,439
Speaker 1: I think people on this nice dress.

1489
01:13:36,240 --> 01:13:39,519
Speaker 8: Something you asked on Sherry Shepherd for her to open

1490
01:13:39,520 --> 01:13:41,120
Speaker 8: her phone. She knows somebody with fifty million dollars X

1491
01:13:41,240 --> 01:13:44,519
Speaker 8: these too? Yeah, who you got your phone? Let's call somebody.

1492
01:13:44,600 --> 01:13:46,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm been trying to shake.

1493
01:13:49,360 --> 01:13:53,439
Speaker 3: Let's call somebody. Yes, thank you for joining us, Thank

1494
01:13:53,479 --> 01:13:54,160
Speaker 3: you for having me.

1495
01:13:54,320 --> 01:13:57,160
Speaker 2: It's on Netflix now. We appreciate it. It's a long conversation.

1496
01:13:57,240 --> 01:13:57,760
Speaker 1: We appreciate it.

1497
01:13:57,800 --> 01:13:59,519
Speaker 4: I loved it. I love what you say.

1498
01:13:59,760 --> 01:14:00,439
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you.

1499
01:14:00,439 --> 01:14:04,160
Speaker 6: You've always been so intentional, and you're right. Girlfriends gave

1500
01:14:04,240 --> 01:14:05,960
Speaker 6: us a lot of a lot of vocabulary.

1501
01:14:06,520 --> 01:14:06,880
Speaker 3: Yeah so.

1502
01:14:08,360 --> 01:14:10,000
Speaker 5: I had another question, But it gave us a lot

1503
01:14:10,040 --> 01:14:12,960
Speaker 5: to It gave us a lot to have a conversation about.

1504
01:14:13,080 --> 01:14:16,000
Speaker 5: And I think that's really where everything is at is communication,

1505
01:14:16,600 --> 01:14:20,240
Speaker 5: have conversation, share ideas. Were not all we're going to agree,

1506
01:14:20,400 --> 01:14:22,000
Speaker 5: but I think we all get to know each other.

1507
01:14:22,160 --> 01:14:23,759
Speaker 4: But what do you want for ever? To get people permission?

1508
01:14:23,800 --> 01:14:23,880
Speaker 7: To do.

1509
01:14:23,960 --> 01:14:24,720
Speaker 4: And that's my last question.

1510
01:14:24,760 --> 01:14:27,479
Speaker 3: I promise, what do I want forever love?

1511
01:14:28,600 --> 01:14:32,280
Speaker 5: I want people to think more about love in every

1512
01:14:32,320 --> 01:14:35,280
Speaker 5: aspect of their life. And actually, even if we're older,

1513
01:14:36,040 --> 01:14:38,960
Speaker 5: that it's okay to want that that first love kind

1514
01:14:39,000 --> 01:14:39,439
Speaker 5: of feeling.

1515
01:14:39,479 --> 01:14:41,280
Speaker 3: Like what do we need to do to get back

1516
01:14:41,320 --> 01:14:44,559
Speaker 3: to that first love kind of feeling? I don't know.

1517
01:14:44,600 --> 01:14:47,000
Speaker 5: I just think it's I think as a human spirit,

1518
01:14:47,040 --> 01:14:51,880
Speaker 5: having a human experience, dancing with love all the time,

1519
01:14:51,920 --> 01:14:54,679
Speaker 5: it's got to be our top endeavor.

1520
01:14:54,760 --> 01:14:56,240
Speaker 3: So that's what I want.

1521
01:14:56,960 --> 01:15:02,000
Speaker 6: Marl Rocker Kill. Thank We appreciate you so much. We

1522
01:15:02,080 --> 01:15:05,000
Speaker 6: love you, we value you, appreciate you and all your work.

1523
01:15:05,040 --> 01:15:07,760
Speaker 3: Thanks right, thank you. I really appreciate being here. Thank you.

1524
01:15:07,760 --> 01:15:08,479
Speaker 3: Breakfast Club.

1525
01:15:08,520 --> 01:15:11,200
Speaker 1: It's the breakfast Club. Good morning, wake that ass up

1526
01:15:11,720 --> 01:15:13,439
Speaker 1: in the morning. The breakfast Club.