Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: Man on Fire, Oakland, Michael Bay, Keanu Reeves

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Welcome back to All the Smoke, Day two in the Bay. Shout out to Netflix. Jack, you got to be a pretty bad motherfucker to just go by one name ship. I want to know the meaning behind it as well. Man, Welcome to the show. One of the most versatile actors in the business. Emmy Award winner. Welcome to the show Man, Yeah, yeah, for your time. First of all, congratulations and all the success. What's life like? What's going on right now?

00:00:29
Speaker 2: Oh? Man?

00:00:29
Speaker 3: Business is great and I'm chilling. Man.

00:00:32
Speaker 2: I My thing is I try to I try to keep everything real, nice, even and cool, even when it's even when it's loud. You know what I'm saying. I try to be the calm in the room. And That's what I'm doing right now. But I'm good, man, I got a great show to talk about.

00:00:46
Speaker 3: You know.

00:00:47
Speaker 2: I got another show called wonder Man, which which just came out earlier this year. We just got re upped for season two. Man on Fires coming out. Who's in that? That was Watchman watching It's a lot of a lot of Man's Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah. But that was on a on a Marvel that we just did. Okay, but you know, we got Man on Fire coming up, and you know that's that's gonna be hot.

00:01:11
Speaker 1: We got a chance to obviously see that before and and was very impressed.

00:01:16
Speaker 2: Again.

00:01:16
Speaker 1: That comes out April thirtieth on Netflix, remaking an original Denzel piece. First of all, how did it come about? And then once you accept the role, what is your thought process of? Like, man, these are some big ass shoes I gotta put on.

00:01:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I got a phone call about it from you know, my reps and Netflix and Stephen Cable Jr.

00:01:40
Speaker 3: Who is the who directed the first couple of episodes on this, and I read it and.

00:01:46
Speaker 2: I'm like, man, you know what y'all what y'all trying to do? You know, anytime you remaking something, you know you want to have a reason to do it. You know, we sort of living in the era of remakes. And I've done it. I've done a couple of myself.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: You know.

00:02:00
Speaker 2: Some of them I did it to pay the bills. Some of them, you know, I did it because I'm trying to you know. It feels like it's a you know, a good creative opportunity with this. When I got to the second episode and old Boy was speaking Spanish, m hm. And he was doing this interrogation scene in Spanish, and I said, okay, I think you know, okay, I think you know, I want to get into it. So it was a real exciting opportunity to go down to Brazil, you know, to work in Mexico City.

00:02:32
Speaker 3: I knew I had some some lighthearted.

00:02:34
Speaker 2: Comedy coming out with a wonder Man, and and this was just different. So it was it was it was a chance to show some different colors.

00:02:43
Speaker 1: Talk to us about actually because you guys were in the heart of Brazil as we were talking off camera before it started. I mean, you were in the territory where you had to get walked in by the by the people of the community. Yeah.

00:02:54
Speaker 2: Man, of like it talked to us about that problem.

00:02:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:02:57
Speaker 2: So you know, we really anytime you're go in you know, you're shooting in these neighborhoods, you know, you want to be respectful of the people who lived there. You know, it's it's some people call the hood politics, but it's just it's really the.

00:03:08
Speaker 3: Way of the world, you know what I mean.

00:03:09
Speaker 2: So you know, we wanted to make sure that we treated them with the same respect. You know that that we would ask for you know what I mean. So, but it was cool. They had it set up and the director went in and he you know, talked to the dudes that lived there. They came in, they had their you know, orange vests on. It was it wasn't like strapped in nothing like that. But not that we could see, you know what I'm saying. But they was real official, like they took their job seriously. Came in, you know, barbed wire everywhere, and they walked us through because we can only take the buses so far. We couldn't take our cars or nothing like that into their neighborhood. So we drove up maybe about half a mile away, and they walked us across this bridge and you see the whole the whole.

00:03:56
Speaker 3: Community, thousands and thousands.

00:03:58
Speaker 2: That's at least that's what it felt like, you know, as far as the eye could see vertically, and man, it was beautiful. But the people that showed us so much love, you know, and then they got to be in it too, you know, So so I feel like they felt like it was a part of a part of theirs, you know, a part of theirs as well.

00:04:14
Speaker 1: Any conversation with Denzel on the project at all now.

00:04:20
Speaker 2: I'm laughing because we reached out to him, and I didn't want to reach out to him. You know what I'm saying. I had met him. I met him a couple of times. Cool camp, real cool cat. But I knew what he was going to say, which was like, you know, he said exactly what I knew he was gonna say. Was what you asking me about? You know, I ain't got nothing to say. Do what you do, what you know to do. You know what I'm saying, And that's cool, right, you know, that's cool. That's what he was supposed to say. So nah, I didn't I didn't talk to him, but but that was his that was the word.

00:04:56
Speaker 3: And it was like, yeah, of course.

00:04:59
Speaker 2: But in terms of you or following and filling those shoes, it's like I didn't have no time to think about that ghost.

00:05:07
Speaker 3: In the room.

00:05:07
Speaker 2: Okay, you know what I'm saying. I know what it is that I do, and if I go out there trying to do Denzel, I'm ana lose already. I'm gonna lose every time, you know what I'm saying. So I had to look at that and I have to say, Okay, well, what is it that you like about it and what is it that you have to offer to the role. And you know, Creasey was just he's a Creasey's a fucked up dude, right Trump, you know what I'm saying, Like.

00:05:34
Speaker 3: That's just what it is.

00:05:35
Speaker 2: You know, like real demon, he's't real.

00:05:38
Speaker 3: He shouldn't be there.

00:05:40
Speaker 2: He not, he not. You talk about somebody who's he's equipped, but he's not ready understable.

00:05:47
Speaker 1: I think we talk now about a lot and when we grew up, we didn't was the mental aspect, and you really brought that to life and showing how rusty you were at the beginning.

00:05:57
Speaker 2: But it's still like riding the bike.

00:05:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, once you get back on that mike, you're gonna sharpen your skills. So your mental approaching that, like you played the ship out of that.

00:06:05
Speaker 3: Point, appreciate it.

00:06:06
Speaker 1: We can really feel like, Okay, he's starting to come out of shell. Oh this motherfucker's back you better way, you know what I mean. So we felt kind of your evolution as a character too as we were watching that.

00:06:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, he he was itching for a fight, you know what I'm saying. He needed he was he was trying to I think I feel like Creasy approached it where it was like, this just might be my last day on every day. If it is, that's cool, that's cool with me. I'm kind of hoping. I'm kind of kind of hoping that it might be. But I keep on living, you see what I'm saying. So he had to he had to deal with that, and I think.

00:06:42
Speaker 3: That was.

00:06:45
Speaker 2: He was scared to live and he was scared to die, you see what I'm saying.

00:06:48
Speaker 3: So he gonna he gonna.

00:06:49
Speaker 2: Drive each one all the way up to the edge. I think it was cool. I think it was cool.

00:06:55
Speaker 1: And you guys have the Queen of the South, Teresa Mendoza. I don't forgive me. I don't know her real.

00:07:03
Speaker 2: Yeah that was that was a nice lesson. Yeah, yeah, she don't I like her.

00:07:07
Speaker 1: And then Poe she played She she did great. How old is she the young actress that played.

00:07:12
Speaker 2: Post a teenagero? No po Poe might be Billy might be eighteen. Oh yeah, so he's about probably said about seven. She was. She she did a thing too. I really liked them.

00:07:21
Speaker 1: I'm excited for everybody to get a chance to see your work, man, because I said, I mean, you could just feel each episode like look, out he's sharp, but until he's starting to come back, and then the twist in it too.

00:07:33
Speaker 2: I got two.

00:07:34
Speaker 4: Questions, just just worrying. I don't want to tell the whole story, like a question. So the gun when they the nine, when they hand you the nine milimeter and you act like you know, was that on purpose? Or you really was that fucked up and you didn't know how to do it again?

00:07:47
Speaker 2: Not early on? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about. No, dude, dude messed up. Man, he shouldn't be there, so so he really was pumped up. He didn't just do it. He thinking he coming there because you're still sharp. We still got on the same tubes that I think he hit it on purpose to throw boy off now, but he ain't used him in the mind.

00:08:04
Speaker 3: I'm telling you he wouldn't.

00:08:06
Speaker 2: He wouldn't good enough at the moment. He wasn't good enough at the moment to be thinking on some tactical stuff. He in there really trying to you know, I could do it, of course I could do it. Ya could give me that, give me that, give me the next.

00:08:19
Speaker 3: Thing, you know what I'm saying.

00:08:22
Speaker 2: So it's like I told you, I ain't ready man. I thought this was a little security guard job.

00:08:27
Speaker 3: Do that? You know these waters too deep? You know what I'm saying, This is my last one. We're gonna talk about there.

00:08:34
Speaker 2: When she gave you the cour the coin at the end and say she wanted it back.

00:08:39
Speaker 4: Uh so were you getting it back to her because you wouldn't want to make no promises to come back to it, or you gave it or you just gave it back to her saying.

00:08:49
Speaker 2: Like you waste me time? What you think?

00:08:52
Speaker 4: I think you gave it back to because you didn't want to make no promises of you coming back to her, because she gave it to you to bring back to her when you come back to United.

00:09:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, creasy, cuasy. What I will say is Creasey is a Creasey is a dead man walking, right and you know it? Yeah yeah, yeah, he a dead man walk Yeah, and you know.

00:09:15
Speaker 3: She will.

00:09:17
Speaker 1: This is not your first time doing a legendary remake of property, obviously the matrix. How much do you take the original and kind of added in and put your style to it or is it just I'm going in tunnel vision. This is me and this is how I'm my move.

00:09:32
Speaker 2: Here it changes you know, sometimes I've been on things where a director wants something like the original, and then it becomes it becomes a negotiation of figuring out how much of that I want to I want to give, you know what I'm saying. So I do believe in taking some inspiration because that satisfies the fans. You know, fans are gonna come looking for. Fans are super loyal to who they who they to, who they rock with, you know what I'm saying. So people come to people gonna come to this show. They're gonna come to it like this. Side ways I came to it. I can't that's how, you know, came to it like this. Ye see what he's about to get it. So, so I think it's important to really honor or respect the fans, you know, respect them, and to me, that means you give them a little. That means you give them something that they want, and then you give them something that they didn't know that they want, and then you make it think that it was their idea the whole time, you know what I'm saying. So I like to give a little blame. But it's always important for me to show my individuality because otherwise.

00:10:46
Speaker 4: Just go get the dude, who did it last time? You know, something like that. Yeah, only b U. Yeah, stunts. How much did you participate in the stunts in the movie. Oh yeah, I was in there. Yeah, I was in there doing the thing. Yeah. I broke my broke my hand and everything, you know. Really yeah, getting in there.

00:11:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, you have to do all the training before. Yeah, a lot of training before and doing a lot of the gun work, all of the physical stuff. Still still had a really really strong, strong stunt man. But I try to, you know, the body tells of the body tells the story. You know, every everybody moves moves differently, and I always try to make sure that the story that I'm telling, you know, translates to the screen. So even if you know, my stunt man maybe may have what they always do, have better physical physical martial arts skills and things like that than me, I still try to make sure that they're telling the story. That the story that they're telling what their body is a story that I want to be told. Yeah, so that made me take the punch like this, like, you know, keep your chest up when you do this, because I want to make sure that he still has some pride and some attitude. So that's you giving them direction. Oh yeah all the time, all the time, Yeah, all the time, Yeah all the time. Yeah yeah yeah man, Yeah, I mean you have to because otherwise it because then it's not your performance. So you know, I let my stunt person I see what they want to do, and I say, I see what you're doing, and it may even look more professional, but I may say, my dude is not that clean. My dude is his mind is gone right now, so he ain't you know, he's it's it's muscle memory. But he's sort of fighting for survival. So it's not about precision right now. It's about it's about surviving, you know what I'm saying. So I try to make sure that that's being told in the body too. I like that. Yeah, the swag, John Creasy swag.

00:12:32
Speaker 4: You know, you had a lot of different office I'm once saying, he's sitting there rolling up the shirt.

00:12:36
Speaker 3: Next thing, you know, we.

00:12:37
Speaker 4: See the shirts tied around your face all like, all the swag and those type of decisions that you was that.

00:12:42
Speaker 2: No, that's me, man, that's trying to put I'm finding it as we go. That's what I like about about television, and that's also my my process, right which I kind of got a question I want to throw back on y'all a little bit, you know, and it pertains to processing and pertains to like what make what makes people different? What makes me different is that I never really know what I'm gonna do. I know my words, I know what I want, but my sort of calling card is like I'm exploring and experimenting on the fly a whole lot of the time. So in television, the good thing about television is that you're you're seeing me find find it. So I remember that doing the shirt and I was like, Okay, this is just kind of how I'm feeling because I got some tension. That's what I'm like, what is he doing? Like it was just sort of in my body. But then after that, it's like, okay, well, I guess the only thing left to do with the shirt is putting on.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: The because I can't, you know what I'm saying.

00:13:56
Speaker 2: So I was just exploring and finding that on the and that's sort of how I like, That's sort of how I like to work what I wanted to. I'm when I'm when I'm genuinely curious about it. Is I saw somebody say, you know, catching the NBA, catching the league.

00:14:11
Speaker 3: They're like, they all can.

00:14:13
Speaker 2: Go, you know, everybody can go, but if you want to stay in the key is to find your niche find what it is that you do and to do that. But then you got about ten to fifteen catch who that ain't their responsibility.

00:14:28
Speaker 3: They can just they're just different. Are the catch that are different? Are they really that different? Yeah?

00:14:36
Speaker 2: The specialists, you said, yeah, yeah, the specialists.

00:14:40
Speaker 1: And this is kind of my because Jack was a scorer, twenty point a game guy, but as he got older he had to find other ways to still contribute because he wasn't I mean right, and let me know.

00:14:52
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.

00:14:53
Speaker 1: And I feel like with the guys, there's a handful of guys that are going to go down doing what they came in the game doing. Kevin Durant a steph once he got healthy, arrest in peace to Kobe. Their whole entire career, they were that was their ship and they're different different, it's different. And then one thing I remember one of my coaches, Doc Rivers, says, is being a star in your role. So find out what your role is and be a star in that ship because we already have our superstars and our all stars, and then outside of that, everybody else's role players.

00:15:24
Speaker 2: Actors like that too. Yeah, you got people who you know you can call on. You got a whole role of des be like this cat dependable. You know what they're gonna do. They're gonna deliver this, They're gonna deliver that, They're gonna deliver that. Then you throw in a wild card up in there. And that's what the coach wants to know though. Every time I put you on the court, What am I gonna get from you?

00:15:38
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:15:39
Speaker 2: Period, Like I know what.

00:15:41
Speaker 1: I know what Steph's gonna because I played with Stephan kV on the championship. I know what they're gonna give me. I know what Clay gave me, I know what dream What are you going to give me? And I have to trust that every time you go on the court, you get me back and you might give me more sometimes, but you at least have to give me what I know you're gonna give me every time.

00:15:54
Speaker 4: And a lot of the lot of the guys we're talking without this different. We see it young, we grow growing up with them. We see a young perfect example, McDonald's game. We all go to McDonald's. Kobe wasn't eat that ship in high school. Yeah, because his mind frame was taking about his body. He wasn't thinking about that. As teenagers, you're going to get cheeseburgers and fives and shakes, not Kobe. So you see why he was different?

00:16:13
Speaker 3: See it? Yeah? You see it? Yeah, Okay, that's what's up.

00:16:16
Speaker 1: That's what's up without a Netflix. Next, with productions, like, compared to other companies.

00:16:20
Speaker 3: You work with Netflix, you get a lot of freedom. You know, I didn't.

00:16:23
Speaker 2: I didn't feel a whole lot of the whole lot of the studio, you know, sort of in the kitchen, you know what I'm saying. And that's cool because then you really just get to work and and and uh, you know, be be focused on the creativity, you know what I'm saying. But at the same time, with Netflix, I could also they were also accessible, so I can get on the phone, get on the email and say, hey, this ain't right, this need to be fixed, you know what's going on, and they were very very responsible. They also have the numbers, you know what I'm saying. They have all the algorithm you know, algorithm numbers, you know, the viewership numbers and things like that.

00:16:57
Speaker 3: So information is good.

00:16:58
Speaker 2: With Netflix's no shortage of information and that helps with selling the product. That helps with I think, with making creative decisions and things like that too. So Nefinlix just like a big guess brains, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's family yeah yeah yeah. Oak Town yeah, man, what's home with your home? Home?

00:17:18
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah?

00:17:18
Speaker 2: What does the city mean to you? Oh?

00:17:21
Speaker 3: Man?

00:17:22
Speaker 2: Where are you from?

00:17:23
Speaker 3: Oakland?

00:17:25
Speaker 2: Oakland really embraced me, man, because I'm from New Orleans.

00:17:30
Speaker 3: New Orleans is is a home. Yeah.

00:17:33
Speaker 2: And then I moved to Oakland, West Oakland, and West Oakland was like I stayed here on sixth fifth grade. Sixth grade, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was the last time I stopped bouncing back and forth and.

00:17:50
Speaker 3: Attitude. Man.

00:17:51
Speaker 2: It was just like it gave me a lot of a lot of pride, and it came in the form of it sort of came in the form of which I mean, you know how it comes. It's like, yeah, this where I'm from. They can't see us over there, so you know what I'm saying. But that really translated to like having pride and where you're from and you know, uh, knowing that you have to represent and and and you know, I think it really it started off with being like sort of a chip on my shoulder, you know, being from Oakland, coming out of Oakland, and you know, I went to Berkeley and went to Yale, and you know, some people look at you a certain way of things like that, and I have it, have it in my head, you know, in terms of why they're looking at me and things like that. You know, so I gotta eventually work that out. But but all of that really turned into a great sense of pride.

00:18:41
Speaker 3: Man.

00:18:42
Speaker 2: People from Oakland, people from the Bay Area really love the Bay because it feels so us against the world type of you know, type of thing. And I think, you know, I definitely went out of Oakland with that, with that, with that.

00:18:57
Speaker 4: Attitude, I would say, uh, me, I've been a lot of places with Philadelphia, Detroit, maybe Atlanta, but here Oakland is the place where you feel.

00:19:10
Speaker 2: Most proud to be black. Hm hm.

00:19:12
Speaker 4: When I came to Oakland, like you, everywhere you go, like everybody, just it is just black pride here like everywhere. And I know the Black Panthers come from all that maybe that's why, but everywhere when I came to Oakland, like even soul food spots we went to as we went as teams, like even when we went out.

00:19:28
Speaker 3: The whole city.

00:19:29
Speaker 4: We had to support everybody, and everybody was just proud. Just the proud feeling in Oakland is like no other.

00:19:35
Speaker 3: It was like I think about the difference between.

00:19:41
Speaker 2: The Coliseum playing at the playing that night and Oracle and playing that Yeah, playing over there. You know it was like the Oracle guys scrappy, you know what I'm saying. It was everything everything bro yeah, man, but it was like, you know, the city really really really really take pride in its own. You know, it really takes pride its own. I think I think I kind of think low key that the city feel like an underdog. It kind of feel like an underdog. You got San Francisco to get it. Get a lot of national attention. You know what I'm saying, Uh, Los Angeles just right up the way, get a lot of national attention.

00:20:17
Speaker 3: Even on radio.

00:20:18
Speaker 2: It's like it's it's it can be hard to break through and get your get your music out of the Bay and into you know, New York mainstream and things like that. And so you know, I think you know, it's a lot of competition, but it's a lot of you know, this is the sense that you really got a band together in order to in order to sustain.

00:20:36
Speaker 4: Man, that's why we had success, because we felt that's just the pride from the from the city. You know what I'm saying. We was able to transport.

00:20:43
Speaker 3: That on the court. Yeah.

00:20:44
Speaker 2: And you always here at a good time too, Yeah, good time too. Yeah, man, the good old days.

00:20:50
Speaker 1: It's gonna be twenty years next year about that, right, Yeah.

00:20:54
Speaker 4: How did you fall in love with the film? Who are you out of? Who are some of yours? Dick Van Dyke Man?

00:20:59
Speaker 2: Interesting, Yeah, Dick, Dick Van Dyke is really where it started.

00:21:03
Speaker 3: And that's off my mom.

00:21:05
Speaker 2: You know, she had us watching Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and all the classes. She loved the classes in the black and white movies. I'm the youngest of six. You know, my dad was always at work, and you know, mom was a home mom. Yeah, she was a homemaker, and so I didn't even really grow up in the house watching a whole lot of movies. I was an outside kid. But you know, Peter Pan, Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams. Anything that really opened up the imagination. That was sort of my way. It wasn't my way in it was just what I knew. It was just what I knew. I never wanted to be an actor. I will always wanted to be an architect. I want to I want to play basketball, and I want to be an architect. And that was that was it, you know, that was it. So when I went to school, I went to Berkeley, I ran track. I studied architects. I studied architecture, end up working the city planning and I had ended up taking an acting class because I have a stutter, and so the acting I thought it would help with my architecture presentations.

00:22:04
Speaker 3: It didn't.

00:22:05
Speaker 2: I still study when I got up there doing my presentations, but in acting, I never stuttered. I never stuttered when I'm acting, and and I was good, you know what I'm saying. And so I always had this thing where where I liked I was like quiet, reserved kind of to myself. But then I was surprised everybody was like some class clown type of stuff, you know what I'm saying with some performance, And it was like, okay, that makes sense, you know what I'm saying. And so once I found acting, every whole world just opened up. Everything just got out the way. And you know that was the that was the path. You kind of skipped over that. What's your game like? I played bas what's your game? Like? I heard you say some of my basketball? I mean, I played the I played the two, I played the three. So mean, so you know I ain't got no hand you know, I ain't got no handles all over the court though I was all over the court.

00:23:04
Speaker 3: Yes, you know who I was. I was this.

00:23:06
Speaker 2: Dude we're talking help energy, energy, but you know I was also I was the dude in practice. And I hate when people get on the show to get across from y'all and they start talking about what they Chris, Look, I see how y'all looking.

00:23:23
Speaker 3: I know, y'all.

00:23:23
Speaker 2: You know, y'all just kind of looking like I wasn't anything. I'm gonna say I'm gonna do. Y'all gonna be like yo, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. That used to be me too in the sixth grade. You see what I'm saying. I'm talking about high school though. You know what I'm saying. But I could jump. I always could jump. You know what I'm saying I could jump compare your game to somebody in the league.

00:23:43
Speaker 3: Somebody in the league.

00:23:44
Speaker 2: You say, jump like dunk, jump past the president.

00:23:47
Speaker 3: Jump.

00:23:47
Speaker 1: Okay, I could jump compare your game to anybody in the pastor present. So we get an idea.

00:23:53
Speaker 3: My high school game. Okay, here we go.

00:23:55
Speaker 2: My high school game was like Dramond. But Dad, God damn it, I'm not.

00:24:05
Speaker 3: This is Jraymond's champ.

00:24:08
Speaker 2: You're not just But like five days ago, Draymond was like, you.

00:24:14
Speaker 4: See that some woman told him, you know what, someone loves you.

00:24:19
Speaker 2: He's like, well, he plays just like you. After you, he said, with your son must be asked what it was.

00:24:30
Speaker 3: I was an open gym hooper. I was a practice hooper.

00:24:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, but when I got in the game, man, my nerves was too like my my nerves was too bad.

00:24:40
Speaker 3: I was.

00:24:41
Speaker 2: I was a four point oh student and so I was always in the games. I was always trying to do what the coaches told me to do. And an open gym I think, and open gym. I was solid, uh and practice I was solid. The guys in the NBA like that, though, too.

00:24:59
Speaker 1: Some guys are just overthinking practicing, Like God, damn bro, how come that you don't do that when the lights come on?

00:25:04
Speaker 2: But I'm nice. Now the game to slow, you know, the game down? Now, the game game.

00:25:13
Speaker 1: That's real professional talk, though, that's real.

00:25:17
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, right, you know what I'm saying.

00:25:20
Speaker 2: I get it. You know, all of you know. I got some I got some I got some stuff. Man, don't nobody know. But I got some heat. I got better footwork. I got better footwork than I got footwork. Howld are you thirty nine? I was about to say something outrageous just now. I'm glad you just asked me. I'm glad you about to throw something? Staying out there interjected real quick, I was about to work. I was about to say something outrageous. You see how they get on these podcasts, They start saying anything.

00:25:46
Speaker 3: He was about to say, you got better footwork? Somebody?

00:25:50
Speaker 2: I felt you. I don't know what he was. He caught himself, though.

00:25:56
Speaker 4: Opening is a hot bed for Hollywood talent, yourself, Tom Hanks, I can't say, Michelle Harshey, Ryan Coogler, yourself.

00:26:06
Speaker 3: Why why is that? Oh man?

00:26:08
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's in the water man, you know, I just think it's it's really about the pride. I think people who come You notice a lot of people everybody out here out there who come from Oakland. They're real grounded. You know what I'm saying myself. Marshaan, Ryan for sure, Ryan Dang, Maherschel, Tom Hanks, he.

00:26:30
Speaker 3: Cool, you know what I'm saying.

00:26:31
Speaker 2: He's silent. And sometime I be sitting back and I'd be like, why is that? But I know why it is. You know what I'm saying, because I think, Uh, I think you kind of got to be. You know, if you're kind of picking up when I'm putting picking up when I'm putting down. You know what I'm saying, you kind of kind of got to be. And I think that gives us a lot of time to focus on our craft, you know what I'm saying, to do to keep the main thing the main thing. And I think that I think, I really do think that that helps a lot. I didn't know you was that shop. I didn't know you want to year mm hmmm, that's crazy.

00:27:06
Speaker 4: What's an open story that needs to be made into a movie that hasn't been made yet?

00:27:10
Speaker 3: An open story?

00:27:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, that I can get a roll in. You go.

00:27:18
Speaker 4: You shoot one hundred percent of the shot. I mean, you missed a hundred s of shots. You don't shoot.

00:27:21
Speaker 2: I don't know I do it, man. I got to do a little bit more research on on that. But I want to ask you actually specifically, why you call her? Man? Hmmm, why you call her calling? Ye know why you call her? I told you that I wanted to take her out? And that's how you do. I actually thought he was answering the question I missed. I don't know your line. That's your line, that's your that's your Who else asked that? Was that? The was that the snowfall line?

00:27:58
Speaker 1: He just had someone else hit you with that? You hit you hit Matt with that. Remember Dame dash Shad is doing that? You said, why are you calling? I told you you want to take out?

00:28:11
Speaker 2: And Dame da I got it.

00:28:13
Speaker 4: Now I'm here here, I'm here now, I just have to get here the past.

00:28:18
Speaker 2: That was a chess pass. Ask him again, sing, you're ready?

00:28:23
Speaker 3: Are ready? All right? All right?

00:28:29
Speaker 2: Then?

00:28:30
Speaker 3: Why you called it? He threw some heat on that ball.

00:28:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want it, I won't it.

00:28:47
Speaker 2: You can't come on here.

00:28:48
Speaker 3: That's gonna make me want any more?

00:28:49
Speaker 2: Bron You know what. I want it.

00:28:51
Speaker 3: I want it. That's cool, man, You know, I don't know, man.

00:28:55
Speaker 2: Actually, you know, there is a story out of my high school, my coach Dwight Nathaniel Man. They wanted the state championship and twenty two thousand and five or two thousand and six, they had an undefeated season. This is a couple of years he had after he had a you know, uh tracked personal couple of personal tragedies in the family. He lost his wife and then he lost his uh then he lost his baby girl and you know, a grand kid. And the team really rallied behind him and dedicated the season to him. Good sports, always good.

00:29:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, man like that too.

00:29:30
Speaker 2: Then they had an undefeated season, won the state championship. I think this is two thousand and six, and I think I think, I think there's a great story in there. I think it just want to want to Emmy for best. I don't want to call it, but it just the story just wanted Emmy. It might have been a documentary feature or something like that, but I think that's something that could make a really good, uplifting Oakland Oakland sports story. You know, would you do a sports movie? Yeah, man, Yeah, yeah, man, Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah, I'm I got this. I got a couple of sports things that I'm trying to get off the ground right now. You know, if I'm be forty years old in July, but you know, I gotta I gotta go. You know what I'm saying, It's about time. It's about time. Otherwise I'm gonna be coached after you cross that forty line. Boy, let me tell you it's me.

00:30:18
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:30:18
Speaker 1: We had a conversation we've been afflect now too long ago about it's Hollywood dead. It seems harder than ever to make movies in La the budgets, with the new technology, you can do movies anywhere.

00:30:31
Speaker 2: What's kind of your take on that, because you've done a lot of high budget projects.

00:30:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, remakes too.

00:30:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think we live in the land of It's like IP is what everybody's after right now. You know, they basically just flipping product, you know what I'm saying, and going to say, Okay, we'll work back. Then let's see how we could go acquire those rights and just sell you back the same thing, you know again, and sometimes it works. You know, I think we got one that you know, hopefully works but we do need more originality. I think there's a lot of money in the game right now, right there's a whole lot of money in the business right now, and it really feels like, you know, people want a sure thing. So everybody's saying, Okay, well what worked last time? What's the last thing that worked? And then how can we get a little bit more that, you know, get out came out and then all of a sudden, you know, you see you start seeing a lot more black horror. That's not a coincidence, you see what I'm saying. So I think that the industry is really it's extremely reactive right now, which I think that's the reason why, you know, something like Centers breaks out because Sinners wasn't necessarily reactive. Centers kind of went against the grain. We need more original stories, and I really do think ultimately those are going to be the stories that win. And that went big is you know, the original stories, because the audience wants the same thing that the actors want. We want something new, rat some new material or different take on something.

00:32:03
Speaker 3: You see what I'm saying. So and then with the strikes and.

00:32:07
Speaker 2: You know, uh, there's not there's not as as many jobs as there used to be, you know, So it's a it's a tough time, I think. But if you if you're working right now, you're real blessed. You're real blessed to be working right now. Yeah, they're talking about me. But I get sad checks every month. They be about four dollars. Yeah, but I can say I can I get sad checks.

00:32:28
Speaker 4: I'm saying you'll get three a month, yeah, man, eight four dollars, two dollars, but it's still sad checks.

00:32:35
Speaker 1: Actor AI in Hollywood? Does it excite you to make you nervous? Do you not pay attention to it?

00:32:42
Speaker 2: Man? I don't. I'd be lying if I set up here and told you that I pay I pay any real attention to that.

00:32:47
Speaker 3: Man. I be living my life walking my dog. Man. You know what I'm saying.

00:32:53
Speaker 2: Uh, I'm gonna have to deal with it at some point. And you know what, I put it like this, If I was twenty three years old and I was on the outside of Hollywood and I wanted in me, man, I'll be mixing AI and everything.

00:33:09
Speaker 3: I'm doing.

00:33:11
Speaker 2: Everything I'm doing, you know what I'm saying, because I'm because I'm after it. Now, I'll still be writing my own original stuff, but in terms of trying to figure out how to how to get my graphics going and how to how to you know, save the money that I don't have. You know, if I'm twenty three, twenty four on the outside and I'm homeery trying to get in, I'm using AI to the best of my to the best of my ability. You know, people use use use photoshops, you know what I'm saying. They use filters and things like that for Instagram and for social media. So there's a place for it, and especially there's a place for it if you don't have resources right now. If you do have resources, and if you do have a whole lot of money, you know, then I think they still hiring they actually still are hiring the best people to to implement AI. They're not just you know, they're not only you know, knocking people out the way and then say AI, come and do your thing. Whoever's still you know, uh, operating that software. They're talented, they have taste, you see what I'm saying. They still they still you know, it still takes it takes a talented person to do a lot of the creative things that that we're eventually asking AI to do. So I think it's a tool. I think it's I don't think it's going anywhere. And I think that's just that's really just the name of the game, you know, so adapted. I think I really think that that's where the that that's where the world is, you know, right now. But I think it's also cool to see somebody just sort of go go in a log and do things, do things the old school way. But I think you got to figure out. I think it really depends on project, the project, and and on what level, you know, what level you're at.

00:34:51
Speaker 4: Shack made me a believer because remember, I want to shoot our video like really real time. Like I said, I, He's like, nope, let's do it. I'm like, shocking, man, that ain't gonna look right. Five hundred million views on all my platforms in twenty.

00:35:04
Speaker 3: Four hours, is that right? Yeah?

00:35:05
Speaker 2: Man, he s like, I promise.

00:35:06
Speaker 3: It's gonna work.

00:35:07
Speaker 2: And we did the video.

00:35:08
Speaker 3: AI. I knew it crazy, now, you know what.

00:35:09
Speaker 2: I'd have seen that that that really threw me off. I saw AI tears in the movie one time, and nobody knew it a I tar, Yeah, nobody knew it, but I knew it.

00:35:18
Speaker 3: I saw it. I was like, oh, that is here. Nobody. Nobody knew it.

00:35:24
Speaker 2: That was that was that was That was strange because I'm an actor, you see what I'm saying. So I saw it and I was like, uh oh, but that's the name of the game. You got a crying on a stick game like it's acting.

00:35:38
Speaker 3: You know, if if if, if, if.

00:35:41
Speaker 2: I cut you in the scene, you ain't gonna expect real blood. So where do you where do you draw the line? You know, they got they got the stuff that you can put in your eyes, the menth all crystals, you know what I'm saying. That's ae, you know, artificially motion. You see what I'm saying, and you put do the crystal and do the whole thing and to get okay, mo w everybody, get back, Get back. That's my first time here.

00:36:05
Speaker 3: Get back, you know.

00:36:06
Speaker 2: And then you come down and that they start flowing and the tears start flowing. You just there with the tiers flowing, you see what I'm saying. Then everybody be like, yeah, good job, Yeah, you get up, good job, wipe it off, and then you go home. You know, as long as you got the shot. You see the economics of streaming.

00:36:24
Speaker 1: You talked analog and kind of old school, and obviously we all grew up in the movie theaters. How have you kind of seen that change the business? And a two part question, what's the future of movie theaters?

00:36:36
Speaker 3: Man? I don't know.

00:36:37
Speaker 2: You know, I got here, you know, ten years ago, and it seemed like as soon as I got here, every things start changing.

00:36:43
Speaker 3: I'm like, slow down, you know what I'm saying. Slow down.

00:36:47
Speaker 2: So I'm I'm learning what that is right on.

00:36:51
Speaker 3: The fly, just like everybody else.

00:36:52
Speaker 2: Bro, I I really would love to be in the movie theaters because that's a that's a fantastic experience. It's a different type of it's a different type of experience. You got the big screen and the sound, and you know, that's how I grew up, and so I want to be able to give people that same that same experience, you know what I'm saying. So I think it's very very important. And what that means is you really just have to raise the bar or be very specific because everything apparently doesn't require being in the movie theater.

00:37:25
Speaker 3: So all of this stuff.

00:37:27
Speaker 2: Right that, the AI, the big streaming you know, companies, all of the changes. What it ultimately means is you got to you got to get better.

00:37:41
Speaker 3: You know.

00:37:41
Speaker 2: The artist just has to rise to the challenge, you know, otherwise, you know there's too much there's too much competition, you know. So if it depends on how you built, you know, creatively, you know, if you built you know to say, okay, well, you know, I don't see limitations in this. I see an opportunity to either devide the odds or to to to to prove that what I have it's different and it's worth it. Then that's then that's that's where you play. You know, if you if you work from a place of fear, they got a place for you to place, you know, to As an actor though, like.

00:38:19
Speaker 4: When you know you made it to the big screen, you don't ever actually want to get that feeling. I want to go see it, sit in the movie theater and actually see myself on the big screen, like you ever get that it as actor, I.

00:38:29
Speaker 2: Want to see myself right now. I ain't up, I ain't on, I ain't up there right now. I want to see my I go see myself. Buy you some popcorners bout yourself. Yeah, just go, yeah and just go see it. Yeah, yeah, man, absolutely, I'll be lying up. I said, I've been lying up and said that that juvenile. I've been lying some legends you work with.

00:38:51
Speaker 4: What's the first thing that comes to mind when I say these people name, give me a story about them.

00:38:56
Speaker 2: Start with Ken Reeves.

00:38:59
Speaker 3: Man. Man, he humble. Keanu is a little bit humble to a fault. Man.

00:39:04
Speaker 2: He's like, you know, he the man, you know what I'm saying. And he worked hard. He know, he know it's way around them guns and you know, uh, he he works extremely, extremely hard. He's a great U number one on the call sheet. But he also don't and he don't.

00:39:23
Speaker 3: He don't push his weight around either. You know what I'm saying. He don't. He don't.

00:39:25
Speaker 2: He don't push around that you know that number one. And there was some times where I sort of wish that he would like, come on, man, we're still at work, Come on, man, say something. Oh here here, you know, he'll sort of say that back, like, hey, does anybody know what time we you know we're leaving it. I was like, you know, whenever whenever you say we leaving, you know we're out of here. But he real, boss, yeah man, But he's he's humbled like that.

00:39:46
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, he don't throw his weight around. Yeah. The legend.

00:39:49
Speaker 2: Regina King, she's funny man man, she dope.

00:39:52
Speaker 3: She funny. Regina funny. Yeah, Yeah, that's my that's my girl. She's uh.

00:39:59
Speaker 2: Real down on earth, real cool down on earth. She was in Boys in the Hood.

00:40:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, she got a real she's been around a long time.

00:40:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, she's a she's a leger.

00:40:11
Speaker 2: Michael Bay might by a wild boy. Man might be a wild boy, but he's also like a he like a kid man. He got the most energy in the room. He pull up in his you know, in his Mercedes or whatever. He's like the type too, you know, pull up to the set, hop out, lead a car, run and toss the keys, let it fall to the ground, and walk straight to set. All right, let's go, what are we shooting? Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

00:40:37
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.

00:40:38
Speaker 2: Like he's he he's like a movie star. Director, loves the attention, loves making movies. I mean, it'd be lunchtime and he's leaning out the car. Even the camera. He just grabbed the camera and starts shooting something on his own. Just shooting the sky. You know, at lunch time. I'll find a place to put it just you know, we'll do it in posts, we'll do it in it's just go, go go.

00:41:01
Speaker 3: You know.

00:41:01
Speaker 2: He's the type to go to the beach on the weekend shoot some birds with his phone and then come back and like, show you, hey, man, I shot this. You know, check this out?

00:41:11
Speaker 3: Isn't that? You know?

00:41:12
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm like, I see the birds.

00:41:14
Speaker 3: You know. It's cool though.

00:41:17
Speaker 2: He's just enthusiastic, you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, Jake jilling on.

00:41:22
Speaker 3: Jake.

00:41:24
Speaker 2: Jake got a little bit of that mic in him too.

00:41:26
Speaker 3: I ain't gonna lie Jake.

00:41:27
Speaker 2: Jake got a little bit of that of that of that energy into Jake. Knows how to make a movie, you know, Jake. He's been around long enough where he knows how it goes. If something ain't right, just be like, okay, Jake, if the seeing configuration isn't working, Jake, what do we do?

00:41:44
Speaker 3: All right? We do this? Boom boom? You do it like that?

00:41:46
Speaker 2: Okay, just scream, just scream, just say it loud, okay, boom, got it?

00:41:50
Speaker 3: Okay. Cool.

00:41:50
Speaker 2: So Jake is one of those professionals where he's been around long enough to whereas he knows how to fix something as an actor. Yeah, one of the funniest people around. Jordan Peele, Jordan Peele. Jordan was real quiet and smooth man. He didn't have no none of no comedy energy to him. You know, when I met him. I think also, Jordan was a little bit when I when I met him, I had this big I had. I had my beard from the get down. You know what I'm saying. I have my beard on my afro. He was a little weirded out. He was like, oh you kind of you kind of look like it kind of looked like my dad.

00:42:32
Speaker 3: You know. He was a little bit. I threw Jordan off a little bit. Jordan off a little bit, but he cool. Yeah, he cool. Yeah, he cool.

00:42:40
Speaker 4: Did anyone's order to make you nervous when you met him?

00:42:44
Speaker 2: Lisa bo name, I get it, Little court that's her name. Now, I think a little court Moon, I believe. Yeah, and man, uh he said, the whole room, yeah, real get it. Uh, she was cool. I threw it off. I threw it.

00:42:59
Speaker 3: You know.

00:43:00
Speaker 2: I walked in. We was filming The Aquaman and she was over. She she was in the gym, and I walked in and she was. She set up right where by the ping pong table. That's where I set up every single day. And I didn't know that she was coming. And I go here, I walk to the to the to to what was my area, and she's over there, just kind of just chilling. I go in there, I walk, I see her, she see me, She speak and my dumba hass just kind of look. I just made her right, went straight on the exercise bike. I ain't nobody worrying about you. You know what I'm saying. I was so starstruck that I did the complete opposite. I just acted like she was nobody.

00:43:44
Speaker 3: You see what I'm saying.

00:43:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that was strange of me to do, you know, but the corrected. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I apologized, and you know, she I guess. I guess people do it all the time, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, I would have been right there with you. Yea turned around. Nope.

00:44:08
Speaker 1: Basically all right, man, quick hitters. First thing to come to mind, Let us know what is a must have in your trailers?

00:44:15
Speaker 2: The dipty candles? Yeah, I like, I like really nice candles candles, So it gotta gotta smell nice. What's the dip tea? Is that? Like? Like really it's.

00:44:27
Speaker 3: Tak is a brand tea? Okay?

00:44:29
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, I might need to look into that. Yeah, man, check them out good And they're not paying me to say it, but they should be so real.

00:44:36
Speaker 3: There you go.

00:44:37
Speaker 2: No one direct that you would like to work with. Uh, I would like to get down with what Ryan?

00:44:45
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:44:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, get on Ryan and make something that kind of feel feel like the Town or something like that.

00:44:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:44:50
Speaker 2: Craziest stunt you've ever done. Yeah, craziest stunt I ever done.

00:45:02
Speaker 3: I don't know, I gotta it.

00:45:03
Speaker 2: Gotta be something like jumping from some a couple of stories or something like that.

00:45:06
Speaker 3: Hooked up, hooked up to the wire.

00:45:08
Speaker 2: I think I did that for Matrix and probably did that for one of the Aquaman movies. Uh yeah, yeah, yeah, didn't didn't do didn't they didn't do.

00:45:19
Speaker 3: But you know, you gotta do. You gotta do what you gotta do, got it? Yeah?

00:45:22
Speaker 2: Man? Most underrated movie in your opinion?

00:45:26
Speaker 3: Underrated movie?

00:45:28
Speaker 2: Oh that's a good question. Give me, give me, give me what's underrated? Take because if it's if it's underrated. Uh, but if it's the most underrated, then that means it's not. Oh, I know exactly what it is. Let's see. Let's see swan song by my herschel Ali. Anybody know it. When he played the when he played the when he played man, he was a dude, and the dude is dying from a terminal from a he got a terminal illness, right, So then he goes to this, to this program and Glenn Close plays the plays the head doctor, and he basically clones himself to let the healthy. They clone him and then they take out the disease right so that he can die, but the clone version of him that still has all of the memories can go and live on and live on the.

00:46:26
Speaker 3: Rest of his life.

00:46:27
Speaker 2: His family don't know about it, right, but there's a little crossover time where where they keep the two clones, the two versions of himself in the facility until they make the agreement, until until he chooses whether or not to go ahead with it. But old boy who come out on the other side the clone, he like, he like, Okay, it worked, it's me So I'm ready to get home and go to my and go and go and get back to my wife. But the sick one is like, nah, but you ain't me. I'm me, that's my that's my wife. But he's like, no, this is what we're planning to do. What you mean? It worked, so they they battling each other for.

00:47:16
Speaker 3: And then they got this scene where they argue, where they're arguing.

00:47:21
Speaker 2: And he like, man, he called himself a bitch because he was scared to die. You see what I'm saying, like, and he fell into his arms like oh, Mann, Swan song, Swan songs. It's just it's just real. But it's sci fi. Let's see, it's cold blooded. Benjamin Cleary was the was the writer Childhood Crush, hm hmm.

00:47:52
Speaker 3: Julia Roberts.

00:47:57
Speaker 2: Walking down Julia Roberts, that was my little childhood like Thomas crown Afair too, mm hmm. You know it's like eight years old or something like that. Like Guilty Pleasure, The Office. Oh, I can sit there. I can watch The Office back to back to back. Now, the other side of that is sometimes I'm like, I don't know why I'm telling the truth, but I'm telling I'm gonna tell some of the truth. Its all the smoke. Sometimes I order, uh, I order seven eleven sometimes like what the let me hear your order, all right? Uh? The blue a blue raspberry slushy, Yeah, and then a red one. Yeah. And the strawberry cheese cake ice cream. Who make the strawberry cheese cake ice cream? Uh?

00:48:58
Speaker 3: No, not hogging does.

00:48:59
Speaker 2: It's the I know exactly what you're talking about. The Ben and Jerry's the Ben and Jerry strawberry the Ben and Jerry strawberry cheese cake ice cream. No, it's one that's one one strawberry, one blue and then yeah, and then you know, and then that and then uh, the the white oreoles, the vanilla oreoles.

00:49:20
Speaker 3: But I don't eat the cream. I just I just handled the cooking. You know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying.

00:49:29
Speaker 2: You know we got some you know, you gotta have some self control, you gotta have.

00:49:34
Speaker 1: Some you gotta about it. I just I just want some of what you're spoken though. Let me hit that we got to try. Yeah, and uh, you know, in a large water, had a large water bore it down, stay healthy. If you could see one guest on our show, who would be.

00:50:00
Speaker 2: I think I think that's that's all cool. You can tell her cool. You can tell you, you can tell her cool. So you know, I think I think he did this this whole Hollywood acting career thing, like real smooth obviously right, but like he's still he still know what's up.

00:50:16
Speaker 1: At the same time, make sure you check out Man on Fire April thirtieth, Netflix.

00:50:21
Speaker 2: Y'all.

00:50:21
Speaker 1: Yeah man, We appreciate you continued success fans, and we can't wait to.

00:50:26
Speaker 2: See what's next. Bro.

00:50:27
Speaker 3: Yeah man, thank you, I appreciate It's a wrap.

00:50:29
Speaker 2: All the Smoke.

00:50:30
Speaker 1: You can catch this on All the Smoke YouTube and the DraftKings Network.

00:50:33
Speaker 2: See y'all next week. We