WEBVTT - QLS Classic: Glynn Turman 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:05.120 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:09.039 What y'all, it's Laiah for Team Supreme. Now, our newest 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:12.879 episode of Quest Love Supreme is with the legend Ben Buren. 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:14.000 Now, in that. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:17.279 Episode, which you have to check out, Ben mentions growing 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:21.040 up in Brooklyn with none other than Glenn Turman. Yeah, y'all, 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:24.360 they went to high school together. So this week we're 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:28.080 gonna revisit our late twenty twenty interview with Glynn. Now, 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:32.080 just to remind you, Glenn's career spans over sixty five 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:36.519 years and numerous pivotal, pivotal I know the word, numerous 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:39.960 pivotal roles. And in that conversation that we had, he 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:42.400 speaks about his approach to the work, some of the 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:45.960 roles that defined his career. Yes, it was very different 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.280 than our conversation that we had with Ben spoke about 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:51.720 his family and self discovery and more. But that's the 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:55.680 beauty of Questlove Supreme, the beauty of these conversations and 0:00:55.720 --> 0:01:00.560 the beauty of preserving. So take a listen as we 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:15.400 preserved and celebrate our history. 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.440 May much better. 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.399 Yeah, I was gonna say, also, uh, if he's been 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:28.959 acting with Teddy Wilson at least three filmself. 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:36.640 I gotta get picked, pay, pay and place Julia. That's 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.280 all I'm saying. All right, I'm I'm just bringing it. 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.279 I think between all of us will give me his career. 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:48.040 Yeah, get y'all. 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:55.520 Wow, Hello, legend, what's going on? 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:57.280 What's that? Colonel Way? 0:01:57.360 --> 0:01:57.720 Listen? 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:05.720 What know? Yeah? It's great, It's great. 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.120 All right, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to another episode 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.160 of Quest of Supreme Supreme Teams in the house, all 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:15.320 of us here and unpaid Bill. 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:19.200 Yeah, you're doing how worried roys to the building? Ready 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:23.960 for each of. 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:26.720 Us in this room, we're gonna have like are our 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:28.480 memories of our guest today? 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:31.080 Find take alo you cool? 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.639 Yeah, man, listen, I'm cool as I could be a legend, 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:35.400 and I know. 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:38.520 Questions. 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:39.200 Cool. 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:41.079 Good to see everybody. 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:42.000 Nice to see you, sir. 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:46.400 Oh yeah, and like you is also with us. 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:48.639 I am over joyed over there. 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:51.040 We already met. 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:53.120 This is special. 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:55.760 Now you got your healming on? No, I see him? 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:06.600 Okay, So I'll say that you know our guest today 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.440 beyond super legend. I mean I personally grew up watching 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:13.840 his entire canon, even if I didn't know I was 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:17.919 watching him. But he's literally been practically almost in every 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:22.280 movie that I was allowed to watch, which speaks highly 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.280 of his his his choice of film. This man is 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:32.600 sixty years of acting under his belt on all mediums, movies, television, plays. 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.040 I mean, if I name them, all will be here forever. 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:43.040 I mean Raising the Sun, Julia Room two, my Squad, 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:46.600 the White Shadow, Yeah, Coolie High, Peyton. 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.960 Place, Homework ain't nothing, but. 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:51.080 I know. 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:58.119 All the Black ABC After School's specials. 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:04.520 Jad's Revenged, you know, a different I'd see it had 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:09.520 one g in exactly. 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:12.200 You know that right, you. 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.640 Know, Jamie Fox Stay that one day just made me laugh. 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:19.600 I'm sorry, of course, our our white contendency definitely knows 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.159 him from the wire, you know, currently. 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.680 Riding high now on his I mean, uh, nomination. 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.280 Of How to get Away with Murder, currently giving us 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:34.160 a twofer in Fargo on effect. 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:37.880 Doctor Senator, doctor Senator. 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.680 His birth name, Doctor Senator. I love I love it, 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:43.760 you know, not to be out done in the in 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:48.840 the historical telling of My Rainey's uh illustrious career as 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:52.720 a as a pioneer in My Rainey's Black Bottom. Ladies 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:56.120 and gentlemen, please welcome to quest Love, Supreme One and 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:57.480 only Glenn Turman. 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:02.240 Yes, thank you very much for everyoneful introduction. My brother. 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:04.880 You look, man, I grow up. I won't be like 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:06.240 you look got kicked back. You up. 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:13.520 I'm just you know this, you know, I'm just relaxing 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.719 with friends. I know, I know, I know we usually 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.479 do this chronological thing, but it would be forever, so 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:22.239 I think this is going to be more rapid fire, 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:27.279 so I will go first. You know, I'm obsessed with 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.920 a particular period. I know that you're a Harlem Knight. 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:35.479 Correct. You were born in Harlem, you know. 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:41.440 And I've heard a lot from Nina Simone, James Baldwin, 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:45.840 but I never got to hear any personal tales of 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:51.279 the great Lorraine Huntsbury. And I know that she cast 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:55.119 you at a young age and raising in the sun 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:57.600 so and I think the way she casts you was 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.480 very casual. It wasn't like you had, you know, these 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.640 goals to be an actor. Can you just explain to me, like, 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:06.880 what was it like in that environment growing up with 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.360 those those giants as as a young person looking at them? 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:17.359 Well, you know, I was born in Harlem but raised 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:21.760 in Greenwich Village, so my mother a single parent moved 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:26.160 from Harlem, she and I to a cold water flat 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:28.960 six what they used to call cold water flat in 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:34.400 Greenwich Village in the fifties, and that meant that the 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:37.760 departments were were literally that there was no hot water 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:40.360 and you had to walk up five flights and six 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:43.719 flights of stairs and you had to boil your water, 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.800 you know. And that was sort of the norm of 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:52.280 apartments styles in the village at that time. And the 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:58.640 people who were predominantly living in these these conditions were 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:06.680 artists James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansbury, Smith, Oliver, Nina Simone, and 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:11.000 all of these people were my mother's contemporaries. And there 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.960 were few, just a handful of blacks in the village 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.120 at that time, and she was a part of this 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:25.640 bohemian sort of clique of intellectuals, you know. So one 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:31.920 Dame Lorrain, my mother said, you know, my friend Ms. Hansbury, 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:34.520 she's written a play. There's a part for a little 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:36.720 boy in it, and she was wondering if you might 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:39.000 be interested in and auditioning for the part. But I 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.080 didn't know what an audition was. I had no idea. 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.480 And my mother said, well, yeah, if you get this part. 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.800 It's going to be many saturdays. So I said, well, 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.120 I don't know. She said, well, let's study the part 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:55.440 and we'll go and meet them on this particular date, 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:57.240 which I did. And then there were a whole bunch 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.320 of other little kids, black boys in the hallway when 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.160 we got to this office up in Midtown, and I 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.720 didn't know what they were there for. I didn't know 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:09.080 that they were there competing for the same role that 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.680 I was competing for. I thought the role was mine, 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.120 So I couldn't figure out what all these other little 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:18.320 knuckleheads was doing there because my role I read the play. 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.720 There's only one little boy in the play. That's me. 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:27.720 So what y'all doing here? You know? So but I 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.000 larned to found out what an audition was that they 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:31.760 were all we were all there for the same role. 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.679 But I got the role, and so there I was 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:37.200 in show business. 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:39.439 That's that's a hell of an entry. 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:43.880 Yeah, do you do you have just personal memories of 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.760 speaking with her or interacting with her or well what 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:48.240 it was? 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:52.000 Yes, she she and I. I. You know, there were 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:53.960 a lot of games that you played in the streets 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:55.960 in those days. You didn't have to be in the 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.400 house all the time. When I grew up, you know, 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:05.520 there were games that you play, you know, stickball, stickball, skullzies, 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:11.800 you know, sullies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was my game. 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.880 So Skelzies and so on and so for and Ms Hansbury 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:19.320 had a college dog. And and she herself was beautiful, 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:23.160 She was really pretty. And what happened was that happened 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:26.560 was because we were on the ground playing skullzies. You know, 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:30.280 we were thumping the bottle caps or whatever it was 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:32.200 was your piece. You know. We spent a lot of 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.480 time down low on the ground as kids. But all 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:39.400 of a sudden, this dog would walk through our game, 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:43.640 you know, and then these beautiful set of legs would 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:46.719 walk through the game. And when I was looking up, 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:56.840 I would find myself saying hello. In his hands, she 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.719 said hello, laying you know, I tell your mother this. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.959 I'll tell you mother that of blah blah blah blah blah. 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:06.080 So she was very part of the neighborhood. You know, 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:08.120 we were it was a neighborhood and we were all 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.120 in this neighborhood. So you know, sometimes I say I 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.240 carry that for you. I carry those groceries for you 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.600 in Garam home and she just hitting me a quarter 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:16.800 and so on and so forth, you. 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:20.520 Know, everyone fighting to get her attention. I see wait, 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.839 I do have a question for you. You mentioned growing 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:28.160 up in Harlem. Do you have any memories whatsoever of 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:34.080 the Harlem Cultural Festival that went on? It was it 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.480 was it was a concert thrown by a gentleman named 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:37.280 Tony Lawrence. 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:41.559 And this was like nineteen sixty nine. It was like Nina. 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:46.000 Simone Stevie Wonder. Yeah, like it was all the summer 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:46.960 of nineteen sixty nine. 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:48.880 Do you have any memories of I don't. 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.400 I really don't. I came to California in sixty eight, literally, 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.360 and I've been in California living since nineteen sixty eight, 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:02.920 so that that particular event I'm not necessarily familiar with. 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:06.400 What prompted the move to California. 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:09.840 I came to do a play at a theater company 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.440 called the Inner City Cultural Center. The Inner City Cultural 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:19.720 Center was over on Pico and New Hampshire, the East 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.640 LA and it was run by a man by the 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:27.719 name of ce Bernard Jackson, and it was a wonderful 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:31.360 theater company. It there's still remnants of it now, which 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:33.080 I'm still a part of As a matter of fact, 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.040 we've got a zoom thing that we're getting ready to 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:38.440 do pretty soon. But I came to do a play 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:42.640 there called Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, which had 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:46.000 been done in Broadway in New York with Clarence Williams 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:47.840 the third and I was going to do the West 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:52.640 Coast version of it, and that brought me here by 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.200 a woman who is a high school teacher of mine 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.200 at the High School Performing Arts which I attended. She 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:02.240 brought me out here to do that play. Her name 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.720 was Bennett Carroll, and she was one of the first 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:09.480 black female directors on Broadway, having directed a play called 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.800 Your Arms Are Too Short to Box with God, God. 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.640 Before Your Turn and Raising in the Sun. Did you 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.320 have aspirations to give them a business or to be 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.400 an actor or was it just like something that worked 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.080 out and you're like, well, I want to try it again? 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:27.200 Like what was No? 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.280 I had no obsperation at all. You know, I did 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.880 this thing. My mama told me about it. She said, 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:34.880 we get to travel, so which we did. You know. 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.080 I was got to go to Chicago and Philly and 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.280 New Hampshire with the play touring before we came into 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.520 New York. Of course I got to meet all these 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.679 wonderful people, Sidney Poitier and work with them, Ruby d 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:51.600 and Ivan Dixon and Lou Gossett, you know, all these 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:55.280 people that were fantastic. And then see some people that 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:59.560 I knew from the movies like Sammy Davis, Junior Earth 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:03.640 a kid to you know, beautiful Dothy Dandridge. You know. 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.680 So I got to meet all these people that my 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.400 mother and my aunties and everybody was like saying, oh 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:13.480 my god, oh my god, oh my god, you know, 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:16.720 but for me it wasn't. I was just a kid, 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.200 so it was it was a big deal, but it 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.120 wasn't a big deal. You know what I'm saying. Kids 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:24.360 don't really pay a lot of attention to that. 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:30.240 Right So when it's over, then suddenly is it feeling 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:32.960 of emptiness like, well, when's the next one? 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:34.000 Or how can I do this? 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:37.200 No? I kept. I quit the play. I quit the 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.480 play after a year being in it. Sidney Poitier left. 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:43.200 I left soon after, just to get back to being 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:45.880 a regular kid, you know, and going to my regular 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:47.960 high school because I was going at that time. They 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.920 took me out of my regular school and put me 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.960 in a children's school, professional school, you know, and I 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.280 didn't like it. You know, all my thug buddies. 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:02.080 Was going to a different school, right so I was 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:04.320 ready for thug every one oh one, you know, and 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:07.080 I wasn't going to give that mace professional children's school. 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.000 You know what made what made. 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:12.160 You stay that long? I'm curious because you mentioned that 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:14.880 you weren't like phased by the stars or anything else, 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:15.640 but you stay long. 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.240 It was fun. I did this, you know, I was 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.680 with them. But also, you know, like I said, we 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:26.360 needed the money. You know, my mother was a single parent. 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.160 She wasn't working at the time, you know, and this 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.680 money came in handy to turn the lights back on, 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:36.240 you know, so uh uh. You know it was a 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:40.080 practical factor involved as well. And once we got on 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:42.800 our feet, you know, mom said it was okay, leave, 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:48.520 We're cool, and I split. Wow, you mentioned, but I 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.400 kept getting parts. I kept getting parts while I was 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.600 in junior high school because I had such notoriety as 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.400 a result of being this kid in a Broadway place. 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.240 So anytime there was a little black kid, they kept 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:03.960 putting me. I kept getting in these different shows. A 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.320 lot of different television shows, you know, and a lot 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:11.480 of different stage plays with Leroy Jones, who was Mari Baraka. 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:14.760 So I worked with him when creating some of his 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:20.000 early works. I worked with James James Kahn, Jimmy Kahn 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:24.480 and Robert Redford in a TV series, you know, TV special. 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:28.480 They were live, it was live television, man. And so 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:34.440 I kept getting in these things, and uh, then uh, 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.360 it came time to go to high school. And I 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.240 had a teacher, a wood shop teacher, black wood shop teacher, 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:42.440 who said, Terman, what what school you're going to go to? 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:44.760 What high school you're going I said, I'm going to 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:46.920 high school with aviations in his design. I'm going to 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:52.400 become an aviation's engineer. He said, Terman, you are a 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:57.760 chronic truant. You haven't been to a math class since 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.960 in the last three semesters. How do you don't? You 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.760 have to take a test for aviation and aviation and 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:08.920 design and you don't know anything about math. You know, 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:11.720 it's all math. I said, that's okay, I'm going to 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.480 take the test and I'll pass it. He said, well, look, 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:17.760 there's a school called the High School Performing Arts. It's 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:22.240 now called LaGuardia, right, And I said, he said, why 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.520 don't you audition for that school? They do acting and 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:28.520 stuff like that, the art I said, oh no, no, no, no, no, 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.120 I'm not doing that. I'm going to aviation and design, 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.960 you know. And he said they said, he said, well 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:39.880 do this take the test and the audition. Well I 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.320 failed the test, like he knew I would the audition. 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:51.160 What was the school like back in I'm assuming this 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.520 is the mid sixties or late sixties. 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:54.800 Yeah, early sixties earlier. 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.840 Yeah, Like I like, I've attended to Performing Arts school, 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:02.520 but in the late eighties and nineties. But what was 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:06.320 the curriculum like back then? Like was it diverse? 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:09.120 The Guadia is now on I think fifty ninth Street 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.960 or something like that, Yeah, and ninth or tenth Avenue. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.040 But then Performing Arts, which was the movie Fame was 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.720 made about. Yeah, and actually that was my graduating class 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:25.240 that they made that movie about. What Yeah, And that 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:30.200 school was on forty sixth Street between sixth and seventh Avenue, 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.119 so it was right in the heart of Broadway. So 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.960 there I was again in the middle of Broadway, you know, 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:42.320 where I had been as a as a kid all 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:47.000 that time, and I ended up becoming top of the class. 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.640 I got an A for the first time ever in school. 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.640 I got all these great marks and graduated vice president 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:58.000 of my senior class and won all the awards and 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:01.439 all that. I said. When I got from A that 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:03.960 first semester, I came home, I said, Mom, look I 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.280 got an A. And she said, yeah, well I've been 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:11.280 trying to tell you, you know, so you need to go. 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:14.000 So she wanted it for you even more than you. 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.280 Wanted it for yourself, you know. But that was always 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.240 a ham. You know, I'm always a kid. You know, 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.240 you got a cousin or if maybe it's you, you 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:24.760 know that you got a kid that on the holidays 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:27.800 or the party, the house party or whatever. When you 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:30.040 were a kid, you know, your folks would call you, 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:32.239 come on out and do sing a song, Come on 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:33.840 out and dance, come on out and do this. 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:34.240 Come on. 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:36.280 I was always that kid, you know. 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.400 So you mentioned you went since Fame was based off 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.040 of your class, where there's some peers that came out 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:43.440 with you. 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.880 Remember there was a black kid in that movie Fame, 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:56.320 Lee Roy that was Ben Vereen. Shut up, yes, yes, So. 0:18:56.440 --> 0:19:01.719 Genie was a troubled uh the troubled child that was 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:03.480 talented and still. 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:09.800 We're all troubled children. Word. But Ben and I close 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.480 to this day. We've been buddies ever since we've been roommates. 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:14.880 And the whole thing, as a matter of fact. 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:19.760 What's crazy is we interview the woman, the woman who 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:22.720 taught him how to dance. Her grandson became like the 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.560 legendary rapper because but she used to dance in the 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:31.600 Cotton Club. It's like a whole circle, remember y'all prodigy? Yeah, sorry, 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:32.200 but that's just. 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:35.879 So yeah, sure, that's dope. 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.440 Okay, I'm gonna push it up a little bit because again, 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:43.040 your your career sprawls decades, and you know, we got 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.080 to cover everything, and then I'm gonna let you all 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:47.120 take it after do this question because I know y'all 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:50.000 got questions too, But I just want to say that 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:56.560 in retrospect, I guess, uh, Preach was was maybe the 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:03.199 first black nerd I've ever seen on media screen. So 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:05.800 maybe because the thing is is that when all my 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:10.600 friends watched Coolly High, they all related to coaches. And 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:18.119 for me, she goes, yeah, I related to Preach. You know, 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.480 I mean I didn't see myself as a nerd back then. 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:23.760 But I mean, obviously I was more preach. 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:24.040 Than I was. 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:31.880 You hold the podcast. No, man, I'm fucked out done. 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.159 It was just no, it was it was important. It 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:40.040 was important for me to see that, even though I 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:44.199 guess in real time I didn't see that as a 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:49.800 seed being planted, but I definitely knew that watching that 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:54.160 character and kind of the cheapest way that he didn't 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.000 want people to know that he was that smart. Like, 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.920 especially when you have to survive in the area that 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:03.040 you grow up, you know, you don't want people think 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:06.480 that you're weaker anything, so you try and over commodate whatever. 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:09.320 But can you just talk about like just working with 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.080 Michael Schultz and that whole like as coolly high, as 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:15.639 iconic to you as it is to us, or you 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.359 are you tired of everyone like making the deal over it? 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:24.320 No? Actually, it is one of my favorite movies. Even 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:27.840 if I wasn't in it, the fact that I am 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:30.000 in it makes it one of my favorite movies that 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:35.160 I've been in. Oh really yeah, Yeah, it's a terrific movie. 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:38.840 And because its it talks about just what an exposed is, 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:41.200 just what you're talking about, a side of us that 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:46.359 very few, so especially at the time when exploitation movies 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.480 were being made, because all the characters were pimps or 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.479 players or tough guys or gangsters and so on and 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:55.440 so forth. So all of a sudden, here you are 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:58.800 in the neighborhood, and the gangsters are not the star 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:02.080 of the movie. A nerd is the star of the movie. 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:06.679 You know. It gave us a chance to expose that 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:12.600 some of your concerns, you know, how do I stay 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:20.600 smart and stay cool? So you know, so he was 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.960 indeed a cool nerd, you know, and that's that's what 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:27.200 we that's what he turned out to be. But at 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:31.720 the same time, it was interesting that that our culture, 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:34.000 which was my culture. We used to hit you on 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:37.040 the back of the buses, you know, jump the turnstiles, 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:40.880 ditch class. Told you that ditch class. I Holly every 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:43.800 went to the class, you know, and so all those 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:47.439 and spend time after zoo while waiting, you know, for 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:49.639 school to be over so we can go back and 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:52.600 get up books and do whatever. All of that was 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:56.119 my culture, you know, and we had never seen that 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:59.200 on the screen before. Now the fact that forty five 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:06.520 years later, there are still for decades of people, youngsters 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:10.919 who grow up watching that movie. That surprises me, you know, 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:13.760 because I still have you know, young teenagers will come 0:23:13.800 --> 0:23:15.480 up and say, oh, you preach you know. I said, 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:20.920 well you you watch Coolie. Yeah, yeah, you know. So 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:24.000 that's that surprises me. So no, I did not and 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:27.200 we did not expect it to be the iconic film 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:30.040 that it turned out to be. But a lot of 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:33.800 that has to do with Michael Schultz and Steve Krantz, 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:36.200 who was the producer, Michael Schultz, of course the director, 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:41.080 and of course Eric Monte who wrote the piece. They 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:44.320 did something that was brilliant. There's a star. There's a 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:48.000 star in the movie that no one notices. Of course, 0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:51.199 there's myself, and there's Lawrence Hilton Jacobs and Garrett Morris 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:57.080 and Steven Williams and and the people who were acting 0:23:57.680 --> 0:24:00.679 in the movie. But there's also a movie a music 0:24:00.840 --> 0:24:03.760 score that you couldn't pay. 0:24:03.560 --> 0:24:09.880