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Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert.
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I m Dan Shepard and I m joined by a New Year s Eve mouse.
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With a little party hat on.
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Eating some cheese.
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Eating some celebratory cheese.
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Happy New Year s to everybody.
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Happy New Year s armchairs.
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This year, 2024 will mark our sixth year on air.
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On planet Earth.
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A little longer on Earth.
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No record of it though, that s the problem.
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You re right, you re right, six years.
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We have a wonderful guest today, Taraji P. Henson.
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Oh, what a firecracker.
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We love Taraji so much.
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She is an Academy Award nominated actor.
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We loved her in Hidden Figures, Empire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
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Not many people could be the mom of Brad Pitt, but she did it.
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A VP.
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Hustle and flow, what men want.
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And she is out in the movie right now that everyone is loving, that spectacular, The Color Purple, the musical version.
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Yes.
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I said this in the fact check, but it should be said now for people who don t listen.
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And if you don t listen, boo humbug.
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Boo humbug.
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But I think this is a great episode to start the year because she s very positive and optimistic and I love her attitude.
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Me too, me too.
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She is the perfect spirit for 2024.
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Yes.
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Wait, do you know one thing?
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You know how I changed the color of my background to the Pantone color of the year.
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Do you know this, yeah?
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Yes, you are very religious.
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Did you just give me a thumbs up on the screen?
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Listen, hold on.
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This happened to me the other day.
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I was FaceTiming someone and a thumbs up appeared.
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What?
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I don t know what, do you think it s because it s reading?
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Do you think someone s hacked your, oh my.
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If I do a thumbs up, it can see that and then it does an emoji?
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You activated it.
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Let me see if when I do it, it does.
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Nope, nope.
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Oh my God.
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Okay, you re on a special, what are you on?
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You re just on a laptop, right?
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I m on my phone.
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Oh, well that makes more sense.
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It does?
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Because earlier when we fact checked, you were on your computer.
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I was, yeah.
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And I was like, that old ass thing is reading your hand and putting emojis on screen?
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That seems improbable.
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I m still shocked that my phone can do it.
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Me too, but 2024, welcome.
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Oh, AI, city.
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AI Ziddy.
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This means that I have changed my phone to a very beautiful peach.
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Oh, oh yes, yes.
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But did you not have a story about when you changed it three weeks ago?
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SPEAKER_03
Not a verbal story, an Instagram story.
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SPEAKER_02
Oh yeah, I posted that it was announced, the color was announced, but now it s happened.
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SPEAKER_03
Oh okay, it wasn t a screenshot of your screensaver.
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SPEAKER_02
No.
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Okay, are you willing to share that with everyone?
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SPEAKER_02
A screenshot of my screensaver?
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Of course.
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Yes, it s so boring.
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It s out now.
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It s out on my stories right now, everyone.
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Go look.
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Enjoy.
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Go check it out.
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All right.
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Please enjoy Taraji.
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Follow me on Instagram.
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Taraji P. Henson.
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Is the air on?
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SPEAKER_03
No.
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It s hot.
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Oh, wow!
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I know.
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SPEAKER_00
This is unexpected.
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It is.
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She s always cold.
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I m always chilly.
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You re always cold, and I m always hot, but I just cold punch like, you feel me?
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Oh, sure.
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Do I need these or what?
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Yeah, you re cold.
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It s up to you.
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You don t have to.
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I can explain in boring detail why we prefer it.
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If you do it, I ll do it.
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SPEAKER_00
OK, then.
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We do it.
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We do it.
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That s the spirit.
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I ve ended up a lot of places with that sentence being stated first.
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If you do it, I ll do it.
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If you do it, I ll do it.
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I don t know about the other side of the world.
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Yeah, you know why I like it?
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SPEAKER_00
It makes it even more intimate.
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Yeah, it blocks out everything.
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And also, I ll end up talking to you.
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I already talk loud, too loud.
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It s all good.
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SPEAKER_03
When my wife and I first started dating at one point, she said, turn around for a second.
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Where is the volume knob on you?
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You re like, I need to turn you down to seven or something.
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So, how deep into this tour are you?
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A few weeks.
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We started just before Thanksgiving.
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Everything is a blur now.
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We started here, we did New York, we ve been to London.
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And when you say we, are you going with the other cast members?
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Yeah, it s usually our director, Blitz Bozzulule, Danielle Brooks, Fantasia, myself, you know, the three Cork women.
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Colman Domingo, you know, he s having an incredible year.
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I can do 10 on him.
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Earmark that.
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I want to do 10 on him.
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Yeah.
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So, you know, he comes and goes when he can because he s very busy.
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Sure, sure.
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Does he bring the thunder when he rolls in?
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Oh, I love him.
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Oh, good.
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He s just so nurturing.
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And he s just so careful with you.
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Just in life, you know?
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Doesn t have to do anything with work or being on set.
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This is just who this man is.
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And it s so infectious.
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I just love him.
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I love this entire, you know, Blitz text me on the way here.
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Blitz sent me a picture of us yesterday when we received our Critics  Choice and Getty took a picture and look at the laughter.
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Hold on, you already won an award?
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Yeah.
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How?
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The movie s not out yet, is it?
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SPEAKER_00
I know.
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How does that work?
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The critics get to see things sooner.
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They saw it a year ago.
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Look at the joy.
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Look at the joy.
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That s lovely.
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And he said, I just love us.
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That s literally the energy that was on the set every day.
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It s incredible.
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Have you seen it yet?
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SPEAKER_03
I saw it last night.
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SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
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That energy and the chemistry, it s real.
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Well, I m going to add a word, rhythm, too.
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It can be literal because it is a musical, but there s also a cohesion in the spirit.
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Ooh, you hit on something that gave me chills.
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Because I was just having this conversation with my makeup artist on the way here.
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Because we saw 10-10 on the end.
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We re very spiritual Virgos.
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And we looked up what 10-10 meant.
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And it s just like, you re walking in your purpose.
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Just be patient.
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Your words are powerful.
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Be careful what you speak.
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And if you see 10-10 all the time, then you re in alignment.
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It broke down 101, 10, 1,010.
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It broke it down so many ways.
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But anyway, one of the things she was saying was the synergy and the spirit and how Blitz handpicked all of us.
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The studio didn t want us.
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Come on.
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We were not their top picks.
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None of us.
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not even Danielle Brooks, who s been on Broadway.
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Well, actually, Fantasia was.
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Scott, our producer, did call on her, and she was like, no.
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She didn t want to do it, because when you take on these characters that have been so traumatized, and if it s kind of parallel to yours, it opens up your wounds that maybe you felt like you ve healed.
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And it s hard to carry that person s cross and yours.
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Yeah, well, there s a few things there.
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Yeah, do you want to spend time in that zone?
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Other additional issue.
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You re on very hollowed ground.
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You re taking on a character that will be won an Oscar for, I believe, right?
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SPEAKER_00
The film got like 13 nominations.
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I don t think anyone won, I don t know.
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I can t remember, don t quote me, let s look it up.
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An intimidating role to take, even though now the genre is different, and this is a musical version of The Color Purple.
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I m nervous to step into something that was done perfectly, if I m someone else, or maybe not.
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Well, I ll tell you like this.
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When I got the call, my manager called me during the pandemic and he was like, you re being tapped to play Suge Avery.
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And I was like, what the fuck?
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Why are we?
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What?
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Why are we doing?
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That s a classic.
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Don t touch it.
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Yeah.
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1985.
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We did it.
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But then Blitz broke down how he saw it.
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And one thing that stood out for me and that literally sealed the deal for me wanting to do it was
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It was a black man telling the story this time.
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So we were owning our narrative.
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And the fact that he saw something in me... Trust the universe.
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Because I remember, go with me here, Stephanie Allain produced Hustle & Flow.
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I sang the hook to the rap song.
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Yeah, you did.
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It s hard out here for a pimp.
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SPEAKER_00
Right.
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Sang it at the Oscars.
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Trying to get a dollar out of 15 cents.
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SPEAKER_00
Just sang it at the Oscars.
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SPEAKER_00
Just sang it at the Oscars.
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And the song won.
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No sweat.
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SPEAKER_00
Right.
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SPEAKER_00
So Stephanie Elaine is married to Stephen Bray.
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Stephen Bray did the music on Broadway and the music in this film.
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SPEAKER_00
Stephen Bray tapped me years ago to do it on Broadway and I turned it down.
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Because?
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SPEAKER_00
Because I trained in musical theater.
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I know what it takes
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for your voice to stand eight shows a week singing at that capacity?
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SPEAKER_03
It s all you can do.
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SPEAKER_03
You can t chat at dinner.
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SPEAKER_03
You can t talk to anyone else.
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SPEAKER_00
I wasn t ready for that.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, that s fair.
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SPEAKER_00
I knew my voice wouldn t survive it.
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SPEAKER_03
So what year was this?
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SPEAKER_00
Oh, God, I can t even remember.
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SPEAKER_00
20 years ago.
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SPEAKER_03
Oh, that long ago.
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SPEAKER_00
Like, that long ago.
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SPEAKER_03
Okay.
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SPEAKER_03
It s not that you were working also so feverishly in other things.
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SPEAKER_03
It was just the commitment you knew.
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I was like, I will shred my vocal cords.
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SPEAKER_00
And singing is not my first passion.
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SPEAKER_00
Like, I m not as confident in it as I am.
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SPEAKER_00
in my acting.
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SPEAKER_00
You know, my acting is natural to me.
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SPEAKER_00
These anointed voices, like Fantasia, can probably wake up and just go, - Let it rip. 
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- Baby, I have to go warm up the pipes.
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I gotta get the dust off.
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My tea and honey. 
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You know?
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SPEAKER_00
There are things I have to do.
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And I think a lot of it, too, is in my head.
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And I don t work at it enough.
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So, the natural thing is to second-guess yourself.
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Of course.
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But what I was saying about Blitz and how he hand-picked us, oh, he fought for us.
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us.
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And when you hear all of our stories, it is spiritual because all of us have a 360 story about how we got into this.
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Danielle and Fantasia on Broadway.
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Danielle and Corey Hawkins went to Juilliard together.
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Corey was the first person cast.
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Corey called Scott because he was in, was the other
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musical that Scott produced.
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SPEAKER_00
The Heights?
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The Heights.
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So he got naturally cast first because he worked with Scott on that.
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SPEAKER_00
Sure.
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He called Scott and said, I m grateful to do this part, but you got to do me a favor.
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You got to hire Daniel.
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How he picked me and saw me and my story, how I turned it down.
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And that s the thing.
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When something is meant for you, it is yours.
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No one can take it from you.
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I ran from Suge.
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20 years later, she was like, ah, ah.
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No, no, no, we have unfinished business.
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You know, and it was in the genre where I could really give it my all and not risk my voice.
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Do you also think maybe some life needed to happen to you before?
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Absolutely.
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Yeah, like there s also some serendipity to the timing and what you can bring from your life experience, I d imagine.
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Because that character shows up, a tornado just arrives.
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Oh, listen.
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Everything happens for a reason.
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All the roles, the women that I ve played, I couldn t have written this better.
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Scripted your own life better.
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Oh my God, no.
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I think too small.
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So... Me too.
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So, you know, that s why I say you just gotta trust the universe.
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Know that you re putting out good, you re gonna get good back.
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That s just how it works.
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It s called karma.
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And so, how he handpicked all of us.
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He had me ugly face cry at a Q&A when we were in New York.
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Because he was like, this was my ideal cast.
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And every time I gave, I would show up to the studio.
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These names were never on the list.
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I would pitch them, each and every last one of them, as these characters, never on the list.
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And I just broke out because I ve been doing this forever.
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You know?
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
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And it s like, bitch, I m still not on the list.
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Right?
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah, what s it take to get on the list already?
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Like, what the fuck?
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What do I have to do, people?
1
SPEAKER_01
I have played a character like Celie before.
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SPEAKER_01
Suge in Hustle & Flow.
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I ve made Cookie iconic.
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SPEAKER_00
You got the Emmy nods, you got a Golden Globe victory.
1
SPEAKER_01
And not only that, it s bigger than me.
1
SPEAKER_01
The pros that I ve played have inspired these babies, hidden figures, the influx of young girls coding.
1
SPEAKER_01
Are y all fucking paying attention out there?
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it s crazy.
1
SPEAKER_01
What do you tell yourself it is?
1
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I guess it s all a part of the struggle, but I m going to change the narrative because I do believe what you profess is what you will possess.
1
SPEAKER_01
So if I keep saying things are hard, things are going to be hard.
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SPEAKER_01
We already know that.
1
SPEAKER_01
We know the inequities that are happening in life.
1
SPEAKER_01
We know it.
1
SPEAKER_01
So why do we have to keep harping on it?
1
SPEAKER_01
Hollywood, you re going to pay me my worth.
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SPEAKER_01
It s time.
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SPEAKER_01
I ve done it all.
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SPEAKER_01
Way past time.
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SPEAKER_01
Come on.
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SPEAKER_00
Tons of hits, tons of everything.
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SPEAKER_01
And you was also saying, I needed more life to happen.
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SPEAKER_01
Not only that, I m a leading lady.
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SPEAKER_01
So to take on something of this magnitude.
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SPEAKER_00
You re so fine in real life.
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SPEAKER_01
I just want to add.
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SPEAKER_01
That came out of nowhere.
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SPEAKER_00
Thank you.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, 10 out of 10.
1
SPEAKER_01
Thank you.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I m single, but you know.
1
SPEAKER_00
Well, you said leading lady.
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SPEAKER_00
It felt appropriate.
1
SPEAKER_01
Oh, thank you.
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SPEAKER_01
I am a leading lady, but to take on something so historic and something that means so much to the community, I knew exactly how to support her.
1
SPEAKER_00
Okay, so listen though, I wanna pitch one other thing.
1
SPEAKER_00
So another valuable tool for us is framing.
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SPEAKER_00
And you have to think about the version of your life you re telling.
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SPEAKER_00
Now to me, the story where it was a given they d want you, and then you thought about three other things they also wanted you for, and then you decide, eh, this one works best for my schedule, and that s the story that lands you here.
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SPEAKER_00
My personal story, keep me as an underdog.
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I like it.
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What story do you want to tell?
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I actually have come to like, yeah, yeah, I m the underdog and I still built this.
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SPEAKER_01
You know why?
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That s better.
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It helps.
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It inspires.
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Listen.
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I could go on and on off that subject.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
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SPEAKER_00
Less.
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SPEAKER_00
Less, less, less.
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SPEAKER_01
Got to formulate my thoughts.
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SPEAKER_00
While you re thinking, can I add a couple?
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SPEAKER_00
Please.
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SPEAKER_00
A couple that are in that realm.
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I try occasionally to step back and go like, okay, well, just tell yourself the opposite story and see if you prefer that.
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SPEAKER_00
And I give credit.
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SPEAKER_00
My mother told me this one time.
1
SPEAKER_00
I was talking on the phone.
1
SPEAKER_00
I was kind of complaining that someone else had asked me for money.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I hate that every time I pick up a phone, I think it s going to be blah, blah.
1
SPEAKER_00
And my mom said, look, it s as simple as this.
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SPEAKER_00
In life, you get to be the person they call for something or you get to be the person calling for something.
1
SPEAKER_00
So what one do you want exactly and I m like, oh, yeah, I d way prefer to be called so get over it I got the role I want so again foregone conclusion I m about to do something versus no one thought of me.
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SPEAKER_00
I come and I fucking crush it.
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SPEAKER_03
Fuck you I way prefer that how many times cuz I get the initial sense of like I got overlooked and now I m here now You re here.
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SPEAKER_00
You should be there You should get paid but I m just saying
1
SPEAKER_00
You re talking about people on top of the mountain, and all I m suggesting is top of the mountain s not actually a place you want to be.
1
SPEAKER_01
As a counter-perspective— Or if you re at the top of the mountain, you gotta have a story that inspires people to want to be at the top of the mountain.
1
SPEAKER_01
And if you re at the top of the mountain, don t forget where the heck you came from.
1
SPEAKER_01
And still reach back down on that mountain, pull people up.
1
SPEAKER_01
So being on the top of the mountain is a good thing because you inspire people.
1
SPEAKER_01
But the point is, is that no one wants to hear how perfect your life is.
1
SPEAKER_01
Even on top of the mountain, it ain t perfect.
1
SPEAKER_01
As a matter of fact, once you get on top of the mountain, God damn it, it gets harder.
1
SPEAKER_00
Look at some of our heroes right now.
1
SPEAKER_00
Like the Camelots of her.
1
SPEAKER_00
No one s safe.
1
SPEAKER_00
Soon as you re there, there s only one more story left to tell about you, the fall down the mountain.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I don t really want to get...
1
SPEAKER_00
Because I know what story s next and I don t really want that.
1
SPEAKER_01
You live a good life.
1
SPEAKER_01
My karma s good.
1
SPEAKER_01
So I m here to serve.
1
SPEAKER_01
That is what humans are supposed to be.
1
SPEAKER_01
We need each other to make the world go round.
1
SPEAKER_01
God is brilliant.
1
SPEAKER_01
He put us here.
1
SPEAKER_01
He made us all look different because we need to figure this shit out.
1
SPEAKER_01
And it ain t hard.
1
SPEAKER_01
Have compassion.
1
SPEAKER_01
Go out and travel and meet people and learn different people and listen to each other.
1
SPEAKER_01
Don t be afraid of the truth.
1
SPEAKER_00
We re all broadcasters now.
1
SPEAKER_00
We don t receive messages.
1
SPEAKER_00
We just send them out.
1
SPEAKER_00
We re in the publishing business as opposed to the conversing business.
1
SPEAKER_01
Absolutely.
1
SPEAKER_00
Can we go back to D.C.?
1
SPEAKER_01
Let s.
1
SPEAKER_00
Let s go to D.C.
1
SPEAKER_01
Mumbo sauce.
1
SPEAKER_00
My mom took us.
1
SPEAKER_00
My mom was brave.
1
SPEAKER_00
She had three kids, single mom, and she would cart us around the country in a Chevette to see the world.
1
SPEAKER_00
And we went to D.C.
1
SPEAKER_00
in probably
1
SPEAKER_00
So I know the vibe of DC in the 80s.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s not the place I visit now.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s very different.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s very, very different.
1
SPEAKER_00
As is New York is very, very different.
1
SPEAKER_00
All these cities are beautiful now, but I remember, yeah, we were staying, we got some greasy pizza.
1
SPEAKER_00
We were at like kind of an hourly-ish hotel.
1
SPEAKER_00
There was some gunshots.
1
SPEAKER_00
the parking lot like that was the family vacation.
1
SPEAKER_01
But what an incredible education.
1
SPEAKER_00
Totally, totally.
1
SPEAKER_00
The best education.
1
SPEAKER_00
I m so grateful for it.
1
SPEAKER_00
By the way, everything just continued to feel safer and safer the older I got.
1
SPEAKER_00
But anyways, different place and I want to know, I feel like it s a unique situation you grew up in.
1
SPEAKER_00
Mom is a manager of a huge retail store.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so my mother, born in the South, country girl, Scotland Neck, North Carolina.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s like 20 minutes outside of Rocky Mount, an hour and a half from Raleigh.
1
SPEAKER_01
Little, little itty bitty town.
1
SPEAKER_01
My grandfather was a sharecropper, so you know, that s basically.
1
SPEAKER_01
Free labor, almost.
1
SPEAKER_00
For people that don t, they give you a sliver of the land you can work for your own needs, but then you re working all the land.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s a version of slavery without ownership.
1
SPEAKER_01
Absolutely.
1
SPEAKER_01
And you re raising nine children, one not yours.
1
SPEAKER_01
She had eight children biologically, and then she raised one of her nieces.
1
SPEAKER_01
And my mother, they knew about working hard because all the kids had to work.
1
SPEAKER_01
And when they all worked, they only came up with $300 a month.
1
SPEAKER_01
But you re also talking about when milk was a dollar.
1
SPEAKER_01
Right, right, right, right.
1
SPEAKER_01
So they had a system.
1
SPEAKER_01
There were three or four that stayed South, maybe moved to Raleigh.
1
SPEAKER_01
One sister stayed around the corner from my grandmother.
1
SPEAKER_01
And then the rest migrated north.
1
SPEAKER_01
But my auntie, Janie, who passed away, I love you, Janie.
1
SPEAKER_01
Rest in peace.
1
SPEAKER_01
I hope you re proud.
1
SPEAKER_01
She moved out first and went north.
1
SPEAKER_01
And so everybody would come and sleep on her sofa until they found a job, and that s how my mom made it to the big city.
1
SPEAKER_00
And she moved to the D.C.
1
SPEAKER_00
area?
1
SPEAKER_00
D.C.
1
SPEAKER_00
area, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
1
SPEAKER_01
So all the other siblings that ended up north, how they got there is they stayed on Aunt Janie s sofa, and then they got a job and got their own place.
1
SPEAKER_01
So that s how my mom ended up there.
1
SPEAKER_01
She met my dad, got married.
1
SPEAKER_01
He went to Nam, came back.
1
SPEAKER_01
Wasn t his best self, because how do you go to war and return normal?
1
SPEAKER_00
And how old was he when he went?
1
SPEAKER_01
I was young.
1
SPEAKER_01
My mom, she had me at 21.
1
SPEAKER_01
So dad was... He s two years older than my mom, maybe 19, 20.
1
SPEAKER_00
Did he come back with any addiction?
1
SPEAKER_01
Alcohol.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, how could he not, like you said?
1
SPEAKER_01
Absolutely.
1
SPEAKER_01
My mom was like, well, he never saw any action.
1
SPEAKER_01
I said, Ma, it s still war.
1
SPEAKER_01
You re hearing bomb.
1
SPEAKER_01
You re seeing a friend go and not come back.
1
SPEAKER_01
You know what s going on.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s not Disneyland.
1
SPEAKER_01
The adrenaline is at a hundred, they re living there.
1
SPEAKER_01
Just being there.
1
SPEAKER_01
Just trying to cope.
1
SPEAKER_01
And you know they were experimenting on him because he came back aging orange and literally his flesh would melt off his feet.
1
SPEAKER_01
But I don t know what he did, how he cured himself.
1
SPEAKER_01
I would come in the house and be like, what the hell?
1
SPEAKER_01
And he d be sitting there in a tub of, I don t know, bleach and whatever else.
1
SPEAKER_01
And it went away.
1
SPEAKER_00
Sounds like he and my dad were the same.
1
SPEAKER_00
My dad used to get poison ivy every couple of days.
1
SPEAKER_00
And his move was Clorox bleach.
1
SPEAKER_00
He d just scrub.
2
SPEAKER_01
Bob the fucking poison ivy.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s that Trump thing.
2
SPEAKER_01
I feel like that generation come by and honestly, like, bleach was a cure-all.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, exactly.
2
SPEAKER_01
You got a toothache?
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, fucking brush your teeth with some bleach.
2
SPEAKER_00
Let s go.
2
SPEAKER_00
You broke your what?
2
SPEAKER_00
Soaking some bleach, but he got rid of that Agent Orange.
2
SPEAKER_00
But they got a divorce when I was two.
2
SPEAKER_00
Then my mom became a single mother.
2
SPEAKER_00
But when she got to D.C., the job she found was working at a department store, sort of like Macy s.
2
SPEAKER_00
Actually, Macy s bought this company.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was called Woodward and Lothrop.
2
SPEAKER_00
And she worked in the basement putting price tags on merchandise, which probably those jobs don t exist anymore because we have...
2
SPEAKER_00
robots and machines now.
2
SPEAKER_00
But that s how she started at 18, I believe, and worked her way up the corporate ladder.
2
SPEAKER_00
Not dating anybody, because my mother still is.
2
SPEAKER_00
Ooh, a 10 plus.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, boy.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, drop dead.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m not opposed to seeing some photos of her.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, she s, listen.
2
SPEAKER_01
She kept it single?
2
SPEAKER_01
You didn t have a bunch of stepdads?
2
SPEAKER_00
No.
2
SPEAKER_00
My stepdad actually just passed away, oh, about a month ago.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m sorry.
2
SPEAKER_01
How long were they together?
2
SPEAKER_00
My mom was like 50-something when they got married.
2
SPEAKER_00
She found real, true love late.
2
SPEAKER_01
Was she waiting for all the kids to get out?
2
SPEAKER_01
No!
2
SPEAKER_01
What kept her from being available for that?
2
SPEAKER_00
It s the same reason.
2
SPEAKER_00
It just, you know... Yeah, I want to talk about that.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, I got a whole take on you.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s choices that you make.
2
SPEAKER_00
And my mom, I have it.
2
SPEAKER_00
We are loving, naturally.
2
SPEAKER_00
And we get it from my grandmother, who s still alive, who s about to make 100 in April.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I m taking her to the theater to see Color Purple Christmas Day.
2
SPEAKER_00
The whole family, we re taking her.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I m gonna sit right next to her, I m gonna watch her every facial expression.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, that s so special.
2
SPEAKER_01
She ll be watching the movie, you re watching her.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes, and she s so full of life.
2
SPEAKER_00
I remember my cousin said to her, Grandma, today you realize you re 99 and a half.
2
SPEAKER_00
She said, 99 and a half won t do, baby.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I love that.
2
SPEAKER_00
I have a feeling she s going to live beyond 100, because she s created her own blue zone.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m sure you ve seen that.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
Because it s not a place.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s what you create.
2
SPEAKER_00
She goes to bed every night expecting to wake up the next day.
2
SPEAKER_00
She makes plans.
2
SPEAKER_00
She travels.
2
SPEAKER_00
She s never alone.
2
SPEAKER_00
She has her own house, but somebody s always with her.
2
SPEAKER_00
She s just so full of life.
2
SPEAKER_00
And when we have parties, she s the first one up on the dance floor.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh my goodness.
2
SPEAKER_00
What s grandma s nickname?
2
SPEAKER_00
She has a boyfriend?
2
SPEAKER_00
With a gold chain.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes, she does.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh!
2
SPEAKER_00
If you re on the phone and he pulls up and says, baby, I gotta go, I gotta go.
2
SPEAKER_00
He s younger than her.
2
SPEAKER_00
Well, I would hope for her sake.
2
SPEAKER_01
She don t need an older man.
2
SPEAKER_00
Sure, sure, sure.
2
SPEAKER_01
Miracles do happen.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh man, that s so admirable.
2
SPEAKER_00
I love that.
2
SPEAKER_01
Okay, so back to momsuit.
2
SPEAKER_01
There was no stepdads growing up.
2
SPEAKER_00
No stepdads growing up.
2
SPEAKER_01
That s a blessing.
2
SPEAKER_00
Well, she had boyfriends.
2
SPEAKER_01
She had boyfriends.
2
SPEAKER_01
And how were they?
2
SPEAKER_00
I didn t like any of them.
2
SPEAKER_00
I think that s the time when I probably got closer to my dad, because I was becoming a teenager.
2
SPEAKER_00
And when you re growing up as a young girl, and it s two women in the household, you realize that your mom needs something you can t give her.
2
SPEAKER_00
So it s kind of like, I m trying to do my thing, she s trying to do her thing, and I love my mom.
2
SPEAKER_00
But you go through these weird transitions in your parents.
2
SPEAKER_00
From the beginning, a boy might cling to his mom, but in his teenage years, he s over here with pops.
2
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
2
SPEAKER_00
And so that kind of thing happened with me.
2
SPEAKER_01
There s a thing with teenage girls and their moms.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s a stressful period.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
Kind of like defining yourself in opposition to her.
2
SPEAKER_01
I ve got two daughters and a wife.
2
SPEAKER_01
And so when the three of them hit that
2
SPEAKER_01
where they re all synced up in their menstrual cycle, I m gonna be out for five days a month.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m gonna have an apartment.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m gonna get an apartment downtown with a ping pong table, pool table.
2
SPEAKER_01
I ll just be down there and I ll be like, when everyone s done killing themselves, let me know when the dust has settled.
2
SPEAKER_00
You re making a joke, but you re on to something.
2
SPEAKER_01
No, I think no one will be safe in this house very shortly.
2
SPEAKER_00
How old are your daughters?
2
SPEAKER_01
Eight and ten.
2
SPEAKER_01
Gonna be nine and ten next week.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s coming soon.
2
SPEAKER_01
You can get just little hints of it.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, coming.
2
SPEAKER_01
So dad though, did dad remarry?
2
SPEAKER_00
Both of them.
2
SPEAKER_00
My stepmom is still alive, and when I go home to D.C., I still go to my dad s house that she owns, and I actually redid the house for her through Houzz s.
2
SPEAKER_00
Houzz, remember that show?
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, yeah, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
I did that for her because I was like, Mama Angie, it s time for you to have your house.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was still so much of my dad, and I get it, but my dad passed in 06.
2
SPEAKER_00
And when I did it for her, she said, because you give so much.
2
SPEAKER_00
She s always opening the house and feeding and making sure everybody s okay.
2
SPEAKER_00
I said, I want to do something for you.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I want to give you a little feminine spin on the house.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s time.
2
SPEAKER_00
You deserve it.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so I redid the house and she s just,
2
SPEAKER_01
We did her kitchen.
2
SPEAKER_00
She s such an incredible cook, and I just made it hers, and she deserves that.
2
SPEAKER_01
That s lovely.
2
SPEAKER_01
What kind of girl were you in school?
2
SPEAKER_00
I was a good girl, but I was a cool girl.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was popular, but not popular like... Not a mean girl.
2
SPEAKER_00
Not a mean girl.
2
SPEAKER_00
No, no, no, no.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, thank you.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was the girl that would sync everybody together.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was like the connecting force.
2
SPEAKER_00
You were in lots of different groups?
2
SPEAKER_00
I just got along with everybody.
2
SPEAKER_00
If you didn t like me, something was wrong with you because I was artsy, I was fun, I was the life of the party.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m a class clown.
2
SPEAKER_00
And that s because I wasn t being challenged creatively.
2
SPEAKER_00
I had auditioned for Duke Ellington School of the Fine Arts in D.C., didn t get accepted.
2
SPEAKER_00
Corey Hawkins went there.
2
SPEAKER_01
Was that heartbreaking?
2
SPEAKER_00
It broke my heart because my best friend got accepted.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh.
2
SPEAKER_00
But it didn t destroy our relationship at all.
2
SPEAKER_01
But that s hard.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was hard.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was a tough pill to swallow, but it was a part of my journey.
2
SPEAKER_01
But when you re a kid, you ve created a story where if you don t go there, you re not going to the other places you want to go in life.
2
SPEAKER_00
I totally tricked myself to believe that.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_00
That rejection at that age, you don t know what to do with that.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so I followed another friend, because now I m just in regular public school.
2
SPEAKER_00
And she was really smart, Candace Dickens.
2
SPEAKER_00
And she went to North Carolina A&T.
2
SPEAKER_00
I knew I wanted to go to college.
2
SPEAKER_00
That was the plan.
2
SPEAKER_01
It was the North Carolina of it.
2
SPEAKER_01
Exciting, because that s where your mom s from.
2
SPEAKER_00
I knew I had family.
2
SPEAKER_00
I knew I wasn t gonna go hungry.
2
SPEAKER_01
Sure.
2
SPEAKER_01
You could find a meal on Sunday.
2
SPEAKER_00
Well, yeah, because we had a church on the corner.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s the South.
2
SPEAKER_00
Church on the corner on Sundays.
2
SPEAKER_00
You can get a fish dinner for $5.
2
SPEAKER_00
Sure, sure.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and it ll last you three days.
2
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
2
SPEAKER_00
Literally.
2
SPEAKER_01
But really quick, you were going there for electrical engineering.
2
SPEAKER_00
Following behind Candace, who was smart and actually that s what she does to this day.
2
SPEAKER_00
But I, on the other hand, am not wired mathematically.
2
SPEAKER_00
My soul wasn t there and I knew I didn t belong there.
2
SPEAKER_00
But I had to experience that and that was the one thing I loved how my father parented me because he never told me how to do things.
2
SPEAKER_00
He would show me the scenarios and be like, it s your choice.
2
SPEAKER_00
And whatever choice you make, you got to live with it.
2
SPEAKER_00
Good luck.
2
SPEAKER_00
So, he didn t try to talk me out of going to North Carolina A&T, because he could have, but he was like, you needed to fall flat on your face.
2
SPEAKER_01
And how long were you there?
2
SPEAKER_00
I did the whole year.
2
SPEAKER_01
In that year, I m imagining and starting to set in that this isn t actually your path, and now are you getting more and more scared, what is my path?
2
SPEAKER_00
Well, two things happened.
2
SPEAKER_00
My English class was in the drama building, the building where all the arts and all the freaks were.
2
SPEAKER_00
All my people.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
All my people.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was like a longing.
2
SPEAKER_00
And my heart would do this every time I would walk into that building because I knew that s where I belonged.
2
SPEAKER_00
I did not belong over there.
2
SPEAKER_00
I knew I had two tutors and failed pre-calc.
2
SPEAKER_00
My brain wasn t getting it.
2
SPEAKER_00
But, hey, I m at the HBCU.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m experiencing the black college experience.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s amazing.
2
SPEAKER_00
But knowing this is not.
2
SPEAKER_00
really my passion, but I did it and I gave it my best because that s who I am.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t care what I m doing, where I m working.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m going to leave good things with you.
2
SPEAKER_00
You re going to be like, I really liked working with her.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I
2
SPEAKER_00
auditioned because I had to walk past their bulletin board where they put their auditions and everything that s happening in the fine arts.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I walked by and I saw audition and my heart did this.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, I m going to do it.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m going to audition.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I went to the library.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t even remember what monologue I got.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s all a blur.
2
SPEAKER_00
But I remember standing on the stage and I was shaking because all I remember was being told no.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_00
Let me tell you about fear if you give into it.
2
SPEAKER_00
had me in a chokehold.
2
SPEAKER_00
I couldn t do the thing that came so natural to me.
2
SPEAKER_00
My fifth grade teacher, Ms.
2
SPEAKER_00
Lane, saw it in me and put me in a play.
2
SPEAKER_00
She got tired of spanking my hand.
2
SPEAKER_00
You know, back then, you couldn t get your ass whooped in school, and your mother gave them permission.
2
SPEAKER_00
She used to spank my hand, and she channeled my energy and put me in a play.
2
SPEAKER_00
That thing that I did so natural, and she saw in me and put me in that play, and I soared, and it was amazing, I couldn t do, because I believed the lies that I was telling myself.
2
SPEAKER_00
To this day,
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t know if I got a call back.
2
SPEAKER_00
I never went to see.
2
SPEAKER_00
You never checked.
2
SPEAKER_00
I never checked.
2
SPEAKER_01
Because you were certain you had shit to bet on.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was like, I was horrible.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was shaking.
2
SPEAKER_00
After that, things started feeling weird in my body.
2
SPEAKER_00
I failed pre-calc, and I had to call my dad.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m like, Dad, I m so sorry.
2
SPEAKER_00
Because he had his truck snatched and everything.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I just cried.
2
SPEAKER_00
And he was like, you know what?
2
SPEAKER_00
I m glad you failed.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was like, what?
2
SPEAKER_00
Dad, did I call the right number?
2
SPEAKER_00
He was like, you needed to go through that so you can understand.
2
SPEAKER_00
You need to get your ass back up here, roll in Howard University where your grandmother went, and you get up here and do the thing that you re supposed to be doing.
2
SPEAKER_00
Cut to, I get to Howard.
2
SPEAKER_00
Of course, this thing is living in my body now, this fear.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m still waiting for no.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yes, yes, yes.
2
SPEAKER_00
This time I was more prepared.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m in front of Dr. Henry Anderson.
3
SPEAKER_01
my acting teacher, acting 101, baby.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m in front of her, and I m doing my monologue, and I could feel myself shaking, but I leaned into it, and I just did it.
3
SPEAKER_01
When I finished, she said, come here, sit down.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was like, she s gonna tell me no.
3
SPEAKER_01
And she said, you got something.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m like, you talking to me?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
She was like, you got something, and be careful who you hang out with, because a lot of these kids that are coming in here and getting told yes, they not going where you going, and they not gonna survive this program.
3
And I was like, what?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Funny thing is, now I m in all the plays.
3
SPEAKER_01
All the Duke Ellington students are there.
3
SPEAKER_01
You remember when we were at Duke?
3
SPEAKER_01
I was like, no, they didn t accept me.
3
SPEAKER_01
Now everybody s forgetting that I didn t get accepted.
3
SPEAKER_01
But because I became a part of the family, you know, it s funny, this fear thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
Had I listened to that, we wouldn t be here.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and these little moments in time can arrest you.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, what a word.
3
SPEAKER_01
But what I didn t realize is that I was building that tough skin.
3
SPEAKER_00
This is back to the original story we re telling about you.
3
SPEAKER_00
This is a much better story.
3
SPEAKER_00
You go in your audition, you get straight into the academy, and then it takes you to where you re, you know, who gives a shit?
3
SPEAKER_01
I was developing a tough skin because all the no s I was about to be told coming out here, I had to go through that, and I had to work my way back to my passion on my own.
3
SPEAKER_01
No one could do it for me.
3
SPEAKER_00
You re so right.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s coming.
3
SPEAKER_00
Whether you got into Lincoln or not, those people might not have gotten there, but as soon as they got here, they did, or they got to New York, they did.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s inevitable.
3
SPEAKER_00
You re not going to sidestep it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Let s get it out of the way.
3
SPEAKER_00
We just had John Batiste on, and he was saying, let s go get rejected today.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s the goal.
3
SPEAKER_00
Let s go get our rejection, get it out of the way, and then keep moving.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s inevitable.
3
SPEAKER_00
So you got it early.
3
SPEAKER_02
Stay tuned for more Armchair Experts.
3
SPEAKER_01
Every job that I was like, they re going to reject me are the biggest ones that I got.
3
SPEAKER_01
Benjamin Button, I was having a garage sale.
3
SPEAKER_01
I didn t want to go and meet Fincher.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was like, why the fuck are y all calling me on a Saturday?
3
SPEAKER_01
Don t you people rest?
3
SPEAKER_01
God, I literally was not going.
3
SPEAKER_01
My agent called and said, girl, if you don t close that garage and go meet Fincher.
3
SPEAKER_01
I didn t even know that Lorraine Mayfield, who s a dear friend of mine to this day,
3
SPEAKER_01
had already handpicked me.
3
SPEAKER_01
She saw me in Hustle & Flow, and when I walked into the audition, she got emotional, and I was like, what the?
3
SPEAKER_01
This lady didn t take her medicine.
3
SPEAKER_01
I go in, and she s so touched, and she was like, you are rare.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I m like, what do you mean?
3
SPEAKER_01
She was like, I sat in the theater watching your work in Hustle & Flow.
3
SPEAKER_01
Every time you left that screen, I missed you.
3
SPEAKER_00
I completely agree with her.
3
SPEAKER_00
I so remember that was my introduction to you.
3
SPEAKER_00
I loved the movie.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then you, yeah, it s a revelation.
3
SPEAKER_01
So that s what got me cast in Benjamin Button.
3
SPEAKER_00
The most natural role of your life to play Brad Pitt s mother.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, my God.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was like, God, are you kidding me?
3
SPEAKER_01
I said I wanted to work with Brad Pitt, but not play his music.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I want to be his lover.
3
SPEAKER_00
Love her, not a mother.
3
SPEAKER_01
The first time he saw me out of the saggy boobs and the boot suit, he was like, Mama!
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, my God.
3
SPEAKER_00
I hope it didn t stand in the way of any off-camera romance.
3
SPEAKER_01
No, he was so in love with Angelina.
3
SPEAKER_00
They just had the baby.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, shit.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, they had just had the baby.
3
SPEAKER_00
Because that could have been freaky if you re playing mother and son, but you got a thing on the side.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s a kink right there.
3
SPEAKER_01
Benjamin going to edit this down, please.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, Benjamin.
3
SPEAKER_00
You re going to what?
3
SPEAKER_00
Kill your father and do what to your mother?
3
SPEAKER_00
After what meal?
3
SPEAKER_01
Lord have mercy.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh my God.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s so great.
3
SPEAKER_01
He has such a charisma about him and he s down to earth.
3
SPEAKER_00
He s like a Missouri boy, right?
3
SPEAKER_00
He really is.
3
SPEAKER_01
The stuff that he does that no one knows, like out here on his own without security feeding the homeless.
3
SPEAKER_01
This is stuff that Brad Pitt does.
3
SPEAKER_01
The rebuild he and Angelina did to the Ninth Ward.
3
SPEAKER_00
In New Orleans.
3
SPEAKER_01
This is from the heart.
3
SPEAKER_01
And he doesn t brag about it.
3
SPEAKER_01
People find out about it and say it.
3
SPEAKER_00
If he were a bragger, it d be fun because we d call him Brag Pitt.
3
SPEAKER_01
Brag Pitt.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that d be a good nickname.
3
SPEAKER_00
But he doesn t do it.
3
SPEAKER_00
He doesn t.
3
SPEAKER_00
No, so we can t.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s such a sweet guy.
3
SPEAKER_00
What was that, we are here, we re gonna go back, but we re gonna go forward.
3
SPEAKER_00
So Fincher, I have this enormous fear.
3
SPEAKER_00
A, I love him as a director.
3
SPEAKER_01
Me too.
3
SPEAKER_00
Every movie he makes, I like.
3
SPEAKER_00
Even the ones that are less successful, I m like, there s a math to these things.
3
SPEAKER_01
He just has a vision.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_01
And he s very clear, very technical.
3
SPEAKER_00
Now, I m the type of person, I get insecure easy.
3
SPEAKER_00
If you support me, I ll do better and better and better.
3
SPEAKER_00
The more you say, good job, I m a good job junkie.
3
SPEAKER_00
If you start, no, this, this, now I ll start losing confidence.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I ve had this enormous fear of just the notion of working with him and having to do like 30 takes.
3
SPEAKER_00
To me, it feels like it would just- No, no, no.
3
SPEAKER_00
Tell me.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s not even how it is.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s not how it is.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s looking at things that ain t got to do with you.
3
SPEAKER_01
He looking at the leaf behind your head.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s not about you, and he will tell you.
3
SPEAKER_01
We worked with a lot of elders.
3
SPEAKER_01
on that movie and they re not as spry as they used to be.
3
SPEAKER_01
So talking and trying to hit the mark, it was a challenge.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so he would come over to me and he would just be like, it s not you, we just need her to hit.
3
SPEAKER_01
You just have to be patient.
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, that s nice.
3
SPEAKER_00
As long as he would let me in on that, I could keep my confidence.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, come on.
3
SPEAKER_01
Absolutely.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s not an evil man.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s a perfectionist and so am I. Shit, if you give me 50 times, well, I don t actually need 50 times.
3
SPEAKER_00
I think we can get it in three or four.
3
SPEAKER_00
Maybe two.
3
SPEAKER_01
It was an amazing experience.
3
SPEAKER_01
But see, I have this ability to read my director s cuts.
3
SPEAKER_01
I know when I m close, how they say cut, I can tell.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I got you.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_01
Cut!
3
SPEAKER_01
Some directors have a, that s it!
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, like, I can tell.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I don t watch the monitor.
3
SPEAKER_01
I live in between scenes.
3
SPEAKER_01
I don t have to stay the character.
3
SPEAKER_01
I literally can be bawling my eyes out.
3
SPEAKER_01
And they yell cut, and I ll be like, anyway, so last night... They got a 30% off thing going on over there.
3
SPEAKER_01
Really?
3
SPEAKER_01
Seriously, I m usually playing a game.
3
SPEAKER_00
I do that on purpose.
3
SPEAKER_01
They used to talk about me all the time on Empire because whenever they yell cut, I would go to my game and play my game.
3
SPEAKER_01
Cookie was a lot.
3
SPEAKER_01
I don t want that bitch s problem.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was like, I got my own.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was a young mother when I came out here, so when I would go to work and come home, he had homework, I gotta feed him, we gotta take a bath, so I had to leave it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And that s an important part of your story.
3
SPEAKER_00
So, 19?
3
SPEAKER_01
When I had him?
3
SPEAKER_01
No, I was 24.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, 24.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was 24.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was still in college, though.
3
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was in my junior year when I had him at Howard.
3
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
3
SPEAKER_00
Was Howard just the greatest?
3
SPEAKER_01
It was the best.
3
SPEAKER_00
Everyone I ve ever interviewed that went there had, like, the time of their life.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, I had a friend ask me yesterday, did you pledge?
3
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, no.
3
SPEAKER_01
For some reason, I didn t feel like I needed to pledge.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was at the Mecca.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like, that is the pledge.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m already in the family, in the brother-sisterhood.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m already there.
3
SPEAKER_01
We ain t even have a chance.
3
SPEAKER_01
Ain t you?
3
SPEAKER_00
You know.
3
SPEAKER_01
I have it.
3
SPEAKER_01
I have it all.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right, right, right.
3
SPEAKER_00
You re on the inside already.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m on the inside.
3
SPEAKER_00
Okay, so you get pregnant.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m guessing it wasn t planned.
3
SPEAKER_00
No, it wasn t planned at all.
3
SPEAKER_01
Who wants to get pregnant while they re in college?
3
SPEAKER_01
I don t even have a job yet!
3
SPEAKER_00
Listen, that s my assumption, but I m open to being wrong.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, no.
3
SPEAKER_01
It just happened.
3
SPEAKER_00
It just happened.
3
SPEAKER_00
Probably sex precluded it, but yes, it happened.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, actually, I woke up.
3
SPEAKER_01
And my son is the second coming of Jesus.
3
SPEAKER_00
So, now we re juggling some stuff, though.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
You deliver in your senior year?
3
SPEAKER_01
The end of my junior year.
3
SPEAKER_01
Actually, when I turned in my last term paper, I went into labor right after.
3
SPEAKER_01
I guess he was like, get me out of here, because I stayed up, like, 24 hours finishing this huge project.
3
SPEAKER_01
I finally finished it, and I waddled it.
3
SPEAKER_01
The next thing you know, the contractions came.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, oh, he s coming early.
3
SPEAKER_00
He waited, though, for you to finish that.
3
SPEAKER_01
But he still came early.
3
SPEAKER_01
He came, like, three weeks early.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, no kidding.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, I stressed him the hell out of it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
He wanted out.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, final exams.
3
SPEAKER_00
Who is this crazy lady?
3
SPEAKER_01
I need to see her face to face.
3
SPEAKER_00
How quickly do you move after graduation?
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, about a year later, because I graduated in 95.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I didn t quite have a plan.
3
SPEAKER_01
I have this baby now, so I m not single anymore.
3
SPEAKER_01
I just can t pack my bag and go to New York.
3
SPEAKER_01
I had to strategize.
3
SPEAKER_01
I knew I had to make money.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like, I m a worker bee.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m going to put food on the table.
3
SPEAKER_01
The light bill is going to be paid.
3
SPEAKER_01
The rent is going to be paid.
3
SPEAKER_01
I know how to hustle.
3
SPEAKER_01
I know how to work.
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, my favorite is you were working as a secretary in the Pentagon in the morning, and then at night you re singing on the Spirit of Washington.
3
SPEAKER_00
Talk about two opposites.
3
SPEAKER_00
Secretary of the Pentagon, it s as buttoned up as it gets, and then singing on a boat at night.
3
SPEAKER_01
And school in the middle.
3
SPEAKER_01
And a kid.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then a kid to go home.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s wild.
3
SPEAKER_01
But I had so much support.
3
SPEAKER_01
Ms.
3
SPEAKER_01
Hull, may she rest in peace, who babysat me in elementary school, was still babysitting when I had
3
SPEAKER_00
Can I mention that 80% of the people you ve mentioned you ve also had to say rest in peace and I m almost nervous, you know my name now.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know an inordinate amount of dead people.
3
SPEAKER_00
No, they re just older.
3
SPEAKER_00
Everyone she says is like rest in peace, I love you.
3
SPEAKER_00
No, no, no.
3
SPEAKER_02
You keep going back, you re like we re going back.
4
SPEAKER_01
Rewind Okay, okay, so some people are still alive, but okay.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you ve had some help I had some help and I just thought that was beautiful because she took such great care of me and I even called her my grandmother and her granddaughter we were like play cousins in school her mother and my mother worked at Woodward and Lothrop and
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, okay.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so that s how she was like, oh, my mom babysits.
4
SPEAKER_00
You should have her.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I was integrated into that family and then to become a young mother in college trying to make my dreams come true.
4
SPEAKER_00
And she s like, bring that baby over here.
4
SPEAKER_00
I could rest because I knew my baby was safe.
4
SPEAKER_01
And being loved.
4
SPEAKER_00
Loved and nurtured and fed and just, oh, everything just worked out.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was making good money.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I started on The Spirit of Washington.
4
SPEAKER_00
I graduated.
4
SPEAKER_00
Even how I got the job at the Pentagon, my stepmother worked in the library where they had all the secret documents, where the plane hit.
4
SPEAKER_00
It destroyed the library.
4
SPEAKER_01
Let s add, on your fucking birthday.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, on my birthday.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh boy.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, what a birthday.
4
SPEAKER_00
What a birthday.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I can t go to the store on my birthday.
4
SPEAKER_00
You cannot get carded.
4
SPEAKER_00
And they ll go, oh no, no, can you ring up my wine and banana, please?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
We don t need to go down this traumatic.
4
SPEAKER_00
Right, I m trying to celebrate.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, they really fucked up your birthday for you.
4
SPEAKER_02
No, not really.
4
SPEAKER_00
Not really, because we gained angels.
4
SPEAKER_00
We gained angels.
4
SPEAKER_02
Oh, you have such a beautiful perspective.
4
SPEAKER_00
Well, because it s all how we perceive things is how we live.
4
SPEAKER_00
I hate that that happened.
4
SPEAKER_00
I would never want that to ever happen to any human.
4
SPEAKER_00
On Earth, life is so precious.
4
SPEAKER_00
But if it happened, we got to make the best of it.
4
SPEAKER_00
The people that passed would want us to.
4
SPEAKER_01
Also, one of this is
4
SPEAKER_01
heading back to framing, which I love.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s just like, how do you think about it?
4
SPEAKER_01
And one of the main topics that comes up in my house raising two young girls often is, are you the victim in this story?
4
SPEAKER_01
Are you the hero of this story?
4
SPEAKER_01
And so if you re the hero of the story, then angels joined you.
4
SPEAKER_01
And if you re the victim of the story, then the world s just conspiring to destroy you.
4
SPEAKER_01
So another thing you can pull back off and just ask yourself a very simple question like, am I the hero in the story I m telling or am I a victim?
4
SPEAKER_01
Because I certainly would prefer to be the hero in the story.
4
SPEAKER_00
Absolutely the hero.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, you got to be the hero in your story.
4
SPEAKER_00
Kids want to look up to heroes.
4
SPEAKER_00
Life is hard for everybody.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t care who you are.
4
SPEAKER_00
It doesn t come with a golden rule book.
4
SPEAKER_00
Follow these rulings.
4
SPEAKER_00
The world will open up to you.
4
SPEAKER_00
You should want to be the hero.
4
SPEAKER_00
You can t wallow in the muck.
4
SPEAKER_00
It will consume you.
4
SPEAKER_01
Take a couple days, feel your feelings.
4
SPEAKER_00
Feel all the feelings, ask God why, drop to your knees, get mad, scream if you have to.
4
SPEAKER_00
Get it out of your system, because guess what?
4
SPEAKER_00
You were blessed enough to have breath this morning.
4
SPEAKER_00
Some people didn t make it.
4
SPEAKER_00
You said, I said a lot of RIPs, you know what I m saying?
4
SPEAKER_00
A lot of people didn t wake up this morning, and the fact that you did, you have a chance to become the hero.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, but you have to remind yourself of it.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you must.
4
SPEAKER_01
Because we all start feeling like the victim and the world s against us.
4
SPEAKER_00
Baby boy got me from feeling like the victim.
4
SPEAKER_00
My work heals me a lot.
4
SPEAKER_00
I still have a therapist, but.
4
SPEAKER_01
Well, you keep getting flashes of lightning that would contradict even your story if you were trying to tell it.
4
SPEAKER_00
Really?
4
SPEAKER_00
How so?
4
SPEAKER_01
Baby boy.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
Hustle and flow.
4
SPEAKER_01
Benjamin Button.
4
SPEAKER_01
They keep popping up hidden figures.
4
SPEAKER_01
You could be telling yourself any story, but the dad is gonna slap you in the face sometimes.
4
SPEAKER_01
Like, no, I keep getting hit by lightning.
4
SPEAKER_01
There s a grace for me.
4
SPEAKER_01
Good things happen to me.
4
SPEAKER_00
Absolutely.
4
SPEAKER_00
Good things happen if you wake up in your right mind and you got a roof over your head, you got clothes, you got heat.
4
SPEAKER_00
That right there should be enough.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
I wish we were wired that way, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
But tell me why Baby Boy.
4
SPEAKER_00
Because for so long when I was in a tumultuous relationship, you know, at a very young age, like Yvette was in that movie, I played the victim.
4
SPEAKER_00
He did this to me, he hit me.
4
SPEAKER_00
But what he didn t do was tie me to a radiator and hold a gun to my head.
4
SPEAKER_00
I wasn t a prisoner.
4
SPEAKER_00
I was a prisoner in my mind.
4
SPEAKER_00
When I got that script, it was a hard read because I had to face the girl in the mirror who had thought she was a victim all these years.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I would remember picking up, and it was this one scene where she has this dream that Jodie dies, and she has to go down the aisle and see him in the casket.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I ll never forget that day when we were filming.
4
SPEAKER_00
Cuba Gooding Jr.
4
SPEAKER_00
was there on the set visiting, and John kept going in close up, and I was wailing because I would have dreams like that about my son s father.
4
SPEAKER_00
So when I was reading the script, I got chills, and I had to walk away because it was too close.
4
SPEAKER_01
Your son s father did get shot in 2003.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yes, murdered.
4
SPEAKER_00
Stabbed from head to toe.
4
SPEAKER_00
Hit every major artery in his body.
4
SPEAKER_00
It was a complex.
4
SPEAKER_00
This was a personal.
4
SPEAKER_00
It was personal.
4
SPEAKER_01
Baby boy s two years before that?
4
SPEAKER_00
I had done baby boy, because he died when he was 34, on his birthday.
4
SPEAKER_00
I ll never forget I called John and I said, John, the dream came true.
4
SPEAKER_00
And he was like, what?
4
SPEAKER_00
He knew exactly what I was talking about.
4
SPEAKER_00
Because we would have those talks.
4
SPEAKER_00
So in that scene, I had wailed and wailed because this was a dream that I had so many times in real life.
4
SPEAKER_00
The dream had come true.
4
SPEAKER_00
Not really.
4
SPEAKER_01
No, I know what you re saying.
4
SPEAKER_00
My body recognized it.
4
SPEAKER_01
You knew it was coming somehow.
4
SPEAKER_01
You knew this was going to be an experience probably
4
SPEAKER_01
I didn t want to.
4
SPEAKER_00
You always get a premonition, especially if you re a spiritual person and you re an empath, you feel things.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I remember the last time I saw him, I was like, he s not going to live long, but I m thinking he ll die early, like 50 something.
4
SPEAKER_00
And this was the last time I saw him.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s what I said in my mind.
4
SPEAKER_00
I had a chill.
4
SPEAKER_00
And you weren t together anymore.
4
SPEAKER_00
No, we hadn t been together in years.
4
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I had been out in LA for nine years.
4
SPEAKER_00
Marcel was nine.
4
SPEAKER_01
But I would imagine if I m you, I m already raising a black son in America, and now I m raising a black son in America who doesn t have a dad.
4
SPEAKER_00
Well, you know, that s a fear in our community, black women with our men, especially with the rate that cops are having these altercations.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s a realistic outcome.
4
SPEAKER_00
You don t expect it.
4
SPEAKER_00
Of course, you re not gonna invite that energy in, but it s something that always lives in your subconscious when they leave the house, when you re not with them.
4
SPEAKER_01
The incarceration rates above 10% for a certain age group.
4
SPEAKER_01
The murder rate.
4
SPEAKER_01
These statistics add up.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t tack it like that.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t put numbers to it.
4
SPEAKER_00
But what I do is I pray over my son.
4
SPEAKER_00
I pray over him.
4
SPEAKER_00
My grandmother prays over him.
4
SPEAKER_00
We got a praying grandmother who has seen some things.
4
SPEAKER_00
Every time I talk to her, she s like, I pray for each and every last one of you.
4
SPEAKER_00
And she makes my son s face light up, because he has these deep dimples, and she always calls him the beauty dance.
4
SPEAKER_00
His whole face lights up.
4
SPEAKER_00
You guys made me cry.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t like it here.
4
SPEAKER_02
That s OK.
4
SPEAKER_01
That s our goal.
4
SPEAKER_01
We went to the Barbara Walters School of Interviewing.
4
SPEAKER_02
Clearly.
4
SPEAKER_02
Oprah Winfrey interns here.
4
SPEAKER_01
If you didn t cry, you didn t come here.
4
SPEAKER_02
Right.
4
SPEAKER_01
But it s real.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s real.
4
SPEAKER_02
And, you know, we get so many different types of stories of people who come in here, but this is a very specific one.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
And it s important for people to remember that these are things you are caring that other people aren t.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
A lot of parents are really worried what school their kid will get into.
4
SPEAKER_01
Exactly.
4
SPEAKER_01
That s the primary fear.
4
SPEAKER_01
A lot of other parents are worried that their
4
SPEAKER_01
sons will make it to retirement, you know, they ll be alive.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s so many things to worry about as a black parent because it s not even just the law, like what happens in school, black and brown kids are being punished more rigorously than the white kids.
4
SPEAKER_00
They step out of line just an inch.
4
SPEAKER_00
The punishment never matches the crime.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s so many things to worry about.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so you just have to have faith.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I just know that my son is going to make it.
4
SPEAKER_00
I speak all good into him because my dad did that to me.
4
SPEAKER_00
The fact that I m here is a miracle because when you re in an inner city school and it s a public school, you are in the pipeline to prison, period.
4
SPEAKER_00
You re forgotten about.
4
SPEAKER_00
You don t have the proper books.
4
SPEAKER_00
You don t have the proper staffing.
4
SPEAKER_00
You are set up to fail.
4
SPEAKER_01
You have all the teachers that have been kicked out of the different districts, but can t be fired and just get moved to that school.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yep.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s so many obstacles and red tape.
4
SPEAKER_01
Well, let me be clear.
4
SPEAKER_01
There s obviously a ton of brilliant, beautiful teachers, but also that is the pipeline.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
My black cousin, Jolen, is a principal.
4
SPEAKER_00
of a public school, so I m proud of him.
4
SPEAKER_00
We need more male, you know, positive.
4
SPEAKER_00
So this thing called life, yes, it can be hard, but what are you doing about it?
4
SPEAKER_00
Are you sitting around on your ass and complaining, or are you out here being a mover and a shaker and lifting other people up?
4
SPEAKER_00
Because when you lift other people up, you get lifted.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s as simple as that.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s why the mountain is not a scary place.
4
SPEAKER_02
If you bring everyone up with you, then you re more safe up there.
4
SPEAKER_02
Speaking of the mountain, when you were talking about getting rejected from the school, that happened to me also in an acting program where you auditioned to get to the next level and half the people got it and half the people didn t, and I didn t.
4
SPEAKER_02
And so from then on, every time there was a rejection, it was like, they knew always that I m not good enough.
4
SPEAKER_02
Exactly, based on that one moment.
4
SPEAKER_02
So when you say, aren t I here yet?
4
SPEAKER_02
Why am I not on the list?
4
SPEAKER_02
I did it.
4
SPEAKER_02
I proved myself.
4
SPEAKER_02
Maybe there s like a tinge every time of back to that moment of not getting excited.
5
SPEAKER_01
No, I ma tell you, it s simple as this.
5
SPEAKER_01
In this town, black movies are treated differently.
5
SPEAKER_01
They have low expectations, and I hate that word, black movie.
5
SPEAKER_01
God, it drives me insane, because why are our movies singled out like that?
5
SPEAKER_01
I don t look at trailers and go, oh, you know, today I m gonna go see a white movie.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, no, there s this really cool Asian movie.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m gonna go see it.
5
SPEAKER_01
I go because the trailer makes me interested, or I like that actor.
5
SPEAKER_01
But when it comes to our movies, it s always Black.
5
SPEAKER_01
So when you say that, other demographics go, oh, it s a Black thing.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s not for us.
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, there s also some weird paradox where white folks love black TV.
5
SPEAKER_00
They ve shown up for that historically.
5
SPEAKER_00
That can exist, but you re right.
5
SPEAKER_00
If it gets labeled a black movie, they don t feel invited or I don t know.
5
SPEAKER_00
There s a weird paradox there.
5
SPEAKER_01
It is because now I got to spend my money.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, that s a good point.
5
SPEAKER_00
I ll try this thing for free.
5
SPEAKER_00
Also, maybe there s even like, oh, in my living room, I m not going to feel other.
5
SPEAKER_00
But if I go to this black movie on Friday night, I don t know what people s thoughts are.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s why we need to stop saying black movies.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I hope that this Color Purple is doing this because this movie transcends color, age, race, religion.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s a story about humanity.
5
SPEAKER_00
You know what s interesting?
5
SPEAKER_00
And I wonder what your memory is.
5
SPEAKER_00
My memory of Color Purple, so it came out in 85.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was 10.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was 15.
5
SPEAKER_00
Right.
5
SPEAKER_00
So you re more mature than me.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m seasoned.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s a little more Lowry, so.
5
SPEAKER_00
I d have still tried to talk to you, but anyways.
5
SPEAKER_00
In my memory, I m now realizing I saw that as a pre-Civil War movie.
5
SPEAKER_00
It felt very like this was the slave experience when I was 10.
5
SPEAKER_00
Now I m like,
5
SPEAKER_00
Oh, that s so weird.
5
SPEAKER_00
This is set in the turn of the century, 1900.
5
SPEAKER_00
So this is Reformation.
5
SPEAKER_00
I didn t have the details, I guess.
5
SPEAKER_00
As a 10-year-old, people were poor.
5
SPEAKER_00
They were just coming out of that.
5
SPEAKER_00
They were now still in agriculture.
5
SPEAKER_00
It was still rural.
5
SPEAKER_00
So it s just interesting that I even had, as a kid, the wrong idea of what story is even being told.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s a very interesting moment in history because people have just left bondage
5
SPEAKER_00
10 minutes ago.
5
SPEAKER_01
And you go, you re free.
5
SPEAKER_01
Right.
5
SPEAKER_01
Okay, where we gonna go?
5
SPEAKER_00
It s a very precarious and interesting time to look at.
5
SPEAKER_00
The first generation to have freedom and what do we do with that?
5
SPEAKER_00
How do we organize and what is the power structure and the status within it?
5
SPEAKER_00
It used to be everyone was just zero status because everyone was property.
5
SPEAKER_00
Now we re seeing strata of status.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s all so fertile for a really incredible story.
5
SPEAKER_00
What was your memory of that movie?
5
SPEAKER_01
I was 15.
5
SPEAKER_01
I got rejected from the School of Fine Arts, but I still had a longing.
5
SPEAKER_01
I wasn t in college yet.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was still in, yeah, high school.
5
SPEAKER_01
So I just remember seeing it going, oh my God, I could really do this.
5
SPEAKER_01
Outside of Roots on TV, on the big screen is a whole nother energy.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s superstar status.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s the thing that you go, I want to do that one day.
5
SPEAKER_01
And to see so many black people.
5
SPEAKER_00
And can we add,
5
SPEAKER_00
And I d be guessing here, I don t know, it wasn t my experience, but we re now at, culturally, a point where we would prefer, rightly so, that these stories are told by black folks.
5
SPEAKER_00
But, also, in 1985, Spielberg is the biggest thing in the world.
5
SPEAKER_00
He sent Cecil B. DeMille.
5
SPEAKER_00
Although now we would prefer it, there was also some really radical thing that the biggest star in the world that could tell any story he d want to tell would want to tell your story.
5
SPEAKER_01
Absolutely.
5
SPEAKER_01
It is a part of the cinema canon.
5
SPEAKER_01
It stays.
5
SPEAKER_01
It goes nowhere.
5
SPEAKER_00
It got the attention and the craftsmanship of the person that was doing it the best at the height of their powers.
5
SPEAKER_00
It was deserved and earned and warranted and it was right there.
5
SPEAKER_00
It had to be insanely inspiring.
5
SPEAKER_01
It is the spark that created the Color Purple multiverse.
5
SPEAKER_01
It started with a book, now we have a film, a musical on Broadway, and now the film adaptation of the musical.
5
SPEAKER_01
30 years from now, it ll be something else.
5
SPEAKER_01
Because you got to remember that book, how many pages?
5
SPEAKER_01
We only get to see about this much of the story.
5
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_00
I have not read the book.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, the book is massive.
5
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
You know, in 1985, we didn t really deal with the lesbian relationship, the love relation.
5
SPEAKER_01
I don t even want to call it anything.
5
SPEAKER_01
Just the love that these two humans shared, because that s what it was.
5
SPEAKER_01
It was the tenderness of pure love.
5
SPEAKER_01
Had nothing to do with sex or anything like that.
5
SPEAKER_01
It was two humans who actually saw each other.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And we re on opposite ends of this power structure.
5
SPEAKER_01
Because you got to remember, this is the first generation of freedom.
5
SPEAKER_01
This one was waiting to get out in the world.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes, yes.
5
SPEAKER_01
She went against everything.
5
SPEAKER_01
She was a me.
5
SPEAKER_01
Like, I m getting out of my zip code.
5
SPEAKER_01
She probably felt big in her environment.
5
SPEAKER_00
Oh, no.
5
SPEAKER_00
When you re floating up on the boat singing... Proud Mary, by the way.
5
SPEAKER_01
That was my single.
5
SPEAKER_01
That was not my single, my solo.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s what they called it.
5
SPEAKER_01
You got a solo.
5
SPEAKER_01
And we were A, B, C, or D. That s how they would do the shows, the waiters.
5
SPEAKER_01
If you re A, B, or C tonight, you re doing the show.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then whoever else, you had to do your solos.
5
SPEAKER_01
But if you were really good, you did the solo and the show.
5
SPEAKER_00
But yeah, you flowed up on this boat.
5
SPEAKER_00
You re from a different dimension.
5
SPEAKER_01
Am I?
5
SPEAKER_00
I m an alien?
5
SPEAKER_01
I m an alien?
5
SPEAKER_01
Wait, what is this?
5
SPEAKER_00
The way you re dressed, the way you re holding your fan, the way you re singing, the confidence, the matriarchal power you possess, all this is from another planet.
5
SPEAKER_01
She s the change maker in this film.
5
SPEAKER_01
You never know when she s coming, but when she comes, it goes up 10 notches.
5
SPEAKER_01
She comes and she gives the town hope because she made it out.
5
SPEAKER_01
Call her what you want.
5
SPEAKER_01
Whole, fast, drunk, whatever.
5
SPEAKER_01
She made it out and she s living her life unapologetically.
5
SPEAKER_01
She s free.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then Mr. is in love with you.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s complicated.
5
SPEAKER_00
Infatuated with you?
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, like all the men she sings to.
5
SPEAKER_01
There s no love there.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s only physical.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s why Celie is so important.
5
SPEAKER_01
You know, they have kids together.
5
SPEAKER_01
They never really deal with... You saw the kids running around.
5
SPEAKER_00
And Celie gets sold to Mister for a cow.
5
SPEAKER_00
The dad says, you re going with him.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then now she s not experienced her husband s lust or affection.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then this woman arrives and she sees her husband have this.
5
SPEAKER_00
And yet you two become friends.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, because they see each other.
5
SPEAKER_01
All the men that Suge laid up with, all the people that she give all her heart and soul to when she performs, she gives it all to them.
5
SPEAKER_01
She s getting nothing in return.
5
SPEAKER_00
There s a deep loneliness and sadness that they both have on opposite ends of the spectrum of how to end up with that loneliness.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s delicate.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s beautiful.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s the tenderness of pure love.
5
SPEAKER_00
Mm.
5
SPEAKER_00
You re incredible in it.
5
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I hope you feel so proud of it.
5
SPEAKER_00
And you sing like a motherfucker.
5
Thank you.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
Thank you.
5
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I guess we should have known from Hustle and Flow, but... No, that wasn t really singing.
5
SPEAKER_01
When people were like, you can sing, I m like, you could do that.
5
SPEAKER_01
You go in the studio, you sing the hook and they loop it.
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, Monica does not gonna want him to tell me that.
5
SPEAKER_00
No, yeah, because now he s gonna try, and oh, God.
5
SPEAKER_01
Can we, well... We need to talk about her being single.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s on the docket.
5
SPEAKER_00
Okay, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s no surprise, y all.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s crappy out there.
5
SPEAKER_01
You just said all the black men are in jail.
5
SPEAKER_01
The white men don t approach me.
5
SPEAKER_00
I just want to be clear.
5
SPEAKER_00
I never said all the black men are in jail.
5
SPEAKER_00
No, that was a joke.
5
SPEAKER_00
That was a joke, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
A lot of them are.
5
SPEAKER_00
Can I hit you with my theory before you give me any clues?
5
SPEAKER_00
What?
5
SPEAKER_00
If we re gonna be honest about everything... Uh-oh.
5
SPEAKER_00
To be a woman that is making the money and has places to be, you ve narrowed your field of options of men who have the confidence that can handle that and support that and not be jealous of it and not try to act out and claim their own dominance.
5
SPEAKER_01
Where are they?
5
SPEAKER_01
Can you tell me?
5
SPEAKER_01
Point me in the direction.
5
SPEAKER_00
This is what I m saying, because if we re being honest about the suffering of the different classes, you can have a great fucking life still with your blackness.
5
SPEAKER_00
I would say in this case, your femaleness is the thing that is probably more in your way.
5
SPEAKER_01
In the industry.
5
SPEAKER_00
in the industry and I d say in love.
5
SPEAKER_01
Why?
5
SPEAKER_00
Because you re powerful.
5
SPEAKER_00
Has that been an element?
5
SPEAKER_00
Absolutely.
5
SPEAKER_00
Because every time we interview a woman that would end up in here, unless they found the unicorn dude.
5
SPEAKER_01
I ve been there.
5
SPEAKER_01
Why?
5
SPEAKER_01
I m single and happy.
5
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_00
But is that, if we had to label one element that has gotten in the way?
5
SPEAKER_01
Being a very successful woman.
5
SPEAKER_01
Absolutely.
5
SPEAKER_00
How has that materialized when you ve been with people?
5
SPEAKER_01
Usually they start off infatuated, and the first thing I go is, you know what I do, right?
5
SPEAKER_01
I come with a lot.
5
SPEAKER_00
And when do you tell them, here s what the whole package comes with?
5
SPEAKER_01
When I feel them getting serious.
5
SPEAKER_01
If it s fun, who cares?
5
SPEAKER_01
But if it s getting serious and I m feeling like my heart is in, their heart is in.
5
SPEAKER_00
And what will you say are some of the things that you come with?
5
SPEAKER_01
People gonna be in your business.
5
SPEAKER_01
And that happened.
5
SPEAKER_01
They didn t like that we were together.
5
SPEAKER_01
Somebody created a page and started trying to tear him down.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was like, I told you, I come with a lot.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Because if you weren t with me, this wouldn t be happening.
5
SPEAKER_01
You could be dating any woman and it wouldn t be looked at under
6
SPEAKER_01
microscope.
6
SPEAKER_01
That means now your life is public.
6
SPEAKER_01
Now every move you make, people are watching because of me.
6
SPEAKER_00
Right.
6
SPEAKER_00
You ve now entered the play.
6
SPEAKER_00
You re a character.
6
SPEAKER_00
Whether you had set out to be so or not, that s what you re going to have to deal with.
6
SPEAKER_00
So, okay, so that s one of the things.
6
SPEAKER_00
It s like having kind of a public persona now that maybe you wouldn t have chosen.
6
SPEAKER_00
Well, you have a son.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s number one, right?
6
SPEAKER_01
Most guys at this age have kids.
6
SPEAKER_01
And if not, I m like, why don t you?
6
SPEAKER_01
Just what s wrong?
6
SPEAKER_01
Like, it could be anything.
6
SPEAKER_01
Are you a jerk?
6
SPEAKER_01
No woman wants to have a baby with you because you re that pitiful?
6
SPEAKER_00
It s something to think about.
6
SPEAKER_01
There are incredible men out there that just made the choice to say, I didn t want to have kids.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yes, but I also think Monica and I had once had an argument about this, but I was saying, if you meet a guy who s 40 who s never dated a girl for more than six months,
6
SPEAKER_00
I think it s appropriate to have some fears that maybe they re not.
6
SPEAKER_00
Absolutely.
6
SPEAKER_00
At this point, I know that s a little dicey, because you could end up there, honestly.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I don t think it s fair, yeah.
6
SPEAKER_02
Look, as a stereotype, yes, it shows that they can t commit or whatever.
6
SPEAKER_02
But you don t know people s individual stories until you know their individual stories.
6
SPEAKER_02
And I pushed back, because I said, I haven t.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m 36, and I haven t.
6
SPEAKER_02
So I would hate if someone just saw that on a piece of paper and was like, oh, she s never been in a,
6
SPEAKER_02
serious, serious relationship.
6
SPEAKER_02
So that s a no.
6
SPEAKER_02
It s like, they don t know why.
6
SPEAKER_00
But I want to be ultra clear is that you would give that explanation and that would be a suffice explanation.
6
SPEAKER_00
But I do think it d be okay for you to question why not?
6
SPEAKER_01
I would totally question because now are you a serial dater?
6
SPEAKER_01
They exist.
6
SPEAKER_00
Totally.
6
SPEAKER_01
As soon as it gets a little too... Because if I m in, I m all in.
6
SPEAKER_01
How are you coming to this?
6
SPEAKER_01
So if you re not, can we be upfront?
6
SPEAKER_01
But people don t have the balls to do that.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
I m happy.
6
SPEAKER_01
I m not longing.
6
SPEAKER_01
And at this point, I ve decided I don t want to be married.
6
SPEAKER_01
For what?
6
SPEAKER_01
I m not having kids.
6
SPEAKER_01
What s the point?
6
SPEAKER_01
Let s be life partners.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
Live and thrive.
6
SPEAKER_01
And I want to keep my house.
6
SPEAKER_01
You keep yours.
6
SPEAKER_01
I renovated my house.
6
SPEAKER_01
I said, when you walk in here, I want you to know this is a girl s house.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
6
SPEAKER_01
This is a girl s house.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
6
SPEAKER_01
So if you want us to be together, I m still gonna keep my house, but you can buy us another house.
6
SPEAKER_01
I m not moving in with you, you re not moving in with me, and we re gonna enjoy life.
6
SPEAKER_01
Without all these labels and ideals.
6
SPEAKER_02
And without all that paperwork.
6
SPEAKER_02
Sure.
6
SPEAKER_00
I think about this for Monica, because Monica s building the house across the street, and it s spectacular.
6
SPEAKER_02
Oh, it s a girl s house, too.
6
SPEAKER_02
I love it.
6
SPEAKER_02
We were picking out this chandelier, me and my designer, and I was like, God, it s very feminine.
6
SPEAKER_02
Who cares?
6
SPEAKER_02
I get to have that.
6
SPEAKER_02
Exactly.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it s nice.
6
SPEAKER_02
Exactly.
6
SPEAKER_00
But I think, and because I love Monica, I worry about her, I think what guy s gonna be able to hop right in there.
6
SPEAKER_01
It s a real issue.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you re the breadwinner, you ve got this great place, I m along for the ride, and I m not threatened by it.
6
SPEAKER_00
It s hard.
6
SPEAKER_00
I want that for you.
6
SPEAKER_02
I guess, and I wonder if you agree.
6
SPEAKER_02
It s not worth it.
6
SPEAKER_02
I d rather have this life without that person than compromise that other stuff just so that there can be a person there.
6
SPEAKER_02
I prefer this route.
6
SPEAKER_02
Just for the sake of, I have a man or I have a husband.
6
SPEAKER_01
Exactly.
6
SPEAKER_01
No, my happiness is priceless.
6
SPEAKER_01
And I even had to talk with God.
6
SPEAKER_01
I was like, look, I ve loved, I ve had love, I ve lost love.
6
SPEAKER_01
I know love, I am love.
6
SPEAKER_01
So I,
6
SPEAKER_01
I m okay.
6
SPEAKER_01
I m happy.
6
SPEAKER_01
Just as long as my loved ones are healthy and my heart is open.
6
SPEAKER_01
I m not bitter.
6
SPEAKER_01
I m not jaded.
6
SPEAKER_01
But the funny thing about Hollywood is no one comes here to give.
6
SPEAKER_01
People come here to take.
6
SPEAKER_01
What can this town give me?
6
SPEAKER_01
I want to be a star.
6
SPEAKER_01
So I never saw myself meeting my husband here.
6
SPEAKER_01
I literally was like, I m coming here to work, set up a life for me and my son.
6
SPEAKER_01
I never thought I d meet my husband in L.A.
6
SPEAKER_01
because I came here to take.
6
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
6
SPEAKER_00
I love that honesty.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
So, is he in L.A.?
6
SPEAKER_01
I don t know.
6
SPEAKER_01
Maybe in transit at the airport.
6
SPEAKER_00
Maybe he s on vacation.
6
SPEAKER_01
But I m open to love.
6
SPEAKER_01
I don t feel like I m missing anything.
6
SPEAKER_01
Sure.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, which is great.
6
SPEAKER_00
I think you should only hopefully see it as something additive, not your missing piece or to complete you or all these romantic fucking movie paradigms we re all stuck in, but just the additive nature.
6
SPEAKER_00
But you need a guy that s strong enough to be proud of you and not threatened by you that can go watch you in color purple and go like, oh baby, you can do that?
6
SPEAKER_01
I promise you that s how they come in.
6
SPEAKER_00
Then what happens?
6
SPEAKER_01
They come in and they go with me to an event, and they ll hold the shoes and the stuff and be proud.
6
SPEAKER_01
And then, I don t know if they re thinking that s just an isolated incident, but baby, I got several of these coming.
6
SPEAKER_01
Like, this is my life.
6
SPEAKER_01
You gonna be holding the shoes and the gold for it.
6
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
6
SPEAKER_01
That s your position.
6
SPEAKER_00
Well, there s two elements that can happen there.
6
SPEAKER_00
One is just the, oh, I feel less than because that s my role.
6
SPEAKER_00
Then the second thing is all this stuff around her is threatening me because it s very shiny and flashy and status-y, and I can t give that.
6
SPEAKER_00
So now the second layer of insecurity can pop up.
6
SPEAKER_01
Things that when you get nominated for stuff and they send you flowers, like companies are sending you flowers, so of course they re going to be as big as that desk.
6
SPEAKER_01
One guy, I could hear him say things like, I can send you flowers like that.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
I knew we were doing when he took us to the spa, and the lady said, this way, Mr. Henson.
6
SPEAKER_01
I was like, she just fucking killed my relationship.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
6
SPEAKER_00
They call me Mr. Bell sometimes at hotels.
6
SPEAKER_00
I m not claiming I m a big enough man that if I didn t have my own shit that I would be able to tolerate that as well.
6
SPEAKER_00
But I can because I have my own identity and my own shit.
6
SPEAKER_01
And you say you have a therapist, so you re working on yourself.
6
SPEAKER_01
I can work with that.
6
SPEAKER_00
I agree.
6
SPEAKER_00
I just need you engaged in the fight.
6
SPEAKER_00
I don t need you fixed.
6
SPEAKER_01
You know what I m saying?
6
SPEAKER_01
Because I ain t.
6
SPEAKER_01
I m working on me.
6
SPEAKER_00
I want to mention that before you go, because you also work with a foundation or maybe even founded it.
6
SPEAKER_00
You founded it.
6
SPEAKER_00
And it s to shine a light on the mental health crisis in the black community.
6
SPEAKER_00
And I d imagine for males a lot as well.
6
SPEAKER_00
Right.
6
SPEAKER_00
I would just tell you between you and I, this is a dangerous thing to say out loud, but I m from like the white trash area in the white trash area.
6
SPEAKER_00
The masculinity is really heightened and weaknesses.
6
SPEAKER_00
Oh, you re fucking dead if you have the weakness.
6
SPEAKER_00
So it s like none of that is going to help anyone say I need
6
SPEAKER_00
and I need to talk to someone and I m afraid and all this stuff.
6
SPEAKER_00
I do think it s heightened in these areas where masculinity has been kind of stolen from the people from the traditional ways of getting it.
6
SPEAKER_01
Bingo.
6
SPEAKER_01
And not only that, when you ve been broken in your manhood and emasculated by this country, by the world, basically, because you can t be black anywhere.
6
SPEAKER_01
So, what do you do when the world is telling you, you have to be strong, you cannot let them see you cry?
6
SPEAKER_01
Because what else do you have left as a man?
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_00
Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare.
6
SPEAKER_01
And it goes deep for us.
6
SPEAKER_01
It is so in us that we ll kill each other for that respect.
6
SPEAKER_01
It s a disease.
6
SPEAKER_01
It was forced upon us.
6
SPEAKER_01
And even with black women having to be strong, all of that shit will kill you.
6
SPEAKER_01
You cannot push through everything.
6
SPEAKER_01
And I understand why we needed that term back in the day, like when I was a strong black woman, yes, because there was a synergy among black women where we were smart.
6
SPEAKER_01
We were the ones going to college and getting jobs and making the money in the household.
6
SPEAKER_01
But other people take on, other demographics go, well, she s strong.
6
SPEAKER_01
That s why we re dying in hospitals, because we strong.
6
SPEAKER_01
They won t come to our aid.
6
SPEAKER_01
Serena Williams, one of the most famous, incredible athletes of our time, almost died in the hospital, and I will guarantee you it was because she s a strong black woman.
6
SPEAKER_01
No one hears our cries.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, there s been all these studies where they ve shown that you ll get under-prescribed, you will not be taken seriously about your pain, all this stuff.
6
SPEAKER_01
Because of strong black women.
6
SPEAKER_01
We can take anything.
6
SPEAKER_00
Right.
6
SPEAKER_01
I started saying this years ago when it dawned on me, like, girl, you would not stop it with this strong.
6
SPEAKER_01
And I m almost offended when people say that to me.
6
SPEAKER_01
You re so strong today.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
At this moment.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it s like, don t put that on me.
6
SPEAKER_01
Don t put it on me, though.
6
SPEAKER_00
Well, it goes also to this ubiquitous objection to not being allowed to be an entire person.
6
SPEAKER_00
So you could only be a strong black woman.
6
SPEAKER_00
You couldn t be a full person with the full spectrum and some weaknesses and vulnerabilities and some fears.
6
SPEAKER_01
That s why Cookie was so important.
6
SPEAKER_01
Because if we didn t go into her life, you would just write her off as some sassy black woman.
6
SPEAKER_01
And that s why I wanted to play her, because I wanted to show her humanity.
6
SPEAKER_01
I wanted to show her vulnerability.
6
SPEAKER_01
That woman exists in the world, and she needs to see herself.
6
SPEAKER_01
All of the dimensions.
6
SPEAKER_01
If somebody s loud and rude, there s a reason behind that.
6
SPEAKER_01
And so when people see the reason, that s where humanity happens.
6
SPEAKER_01
It s like, oh, I have compassion for this person because I understand why they re like that.
6
SPEAKER_00
What was it like to go through that?
6
SPEAKER_00
It s lightning striking.
6
SPEAKER_00
Empire showed up and then all of a sudden it was like, oh, that is the biggest thing in the world.
6
SPEAKER_01
It was the weirdest moment.
7
SPEAKER_00
for me, who had been doing this for so long.
7
SPEAKER_02
And probably thought you understood what being in public was.
7
SPEAKER_00
No, I knew there was a difference.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I was clear on how I was vibrating.
7
SPEAKER_00
Kind of not everywhere.
7
SPEAKER_00
I was doing that on purpose.
7
SPEAKER_00
I have a son.
7
SPEAKER_00
I m a single woman.
7
SPEAKER_00
I don t want everybody knowing where I live.
7
SPEAKER_00
You know, I don t want you in like that, because there s so much to protect by myself.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I learned that from Regina King, who s a dear, dear sister friend of mine.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I loved how she was able to move.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, I want to be like that.
7
SPEAKER_00
I want to be recognized, but I can still blend in.
7
SPEAKER_00
I take on characters in life, and so it s imperative that I get to people watch.
7
SPEAKER_00
That s how I pick up mannerisms, and I could be on a date, and I m like, they re on a first date.
7
SPEAKER_00
Look at that.
7
SPEAKER_00
I pay attention to the room.
7
SPEAKER_00
It s getting harder and harder to do, but I fight for that.
7
SPEAKER_02
I just went to that sphere in Vegas, you know what that is?
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I haven t been yet.
7
SPEAKER_02
I hadn t either, but I go and you would think I d spend most of the night looking at the incredible multimedia display or YouTube.
7
SPEAKER_02
No, I was watching these two people that were clearly on ecstasy making out for two hours.
7
SPEAKER_02
That s always going to be where my interest truly is.
7
SPEAKER_02
I want to watch these two.
7
SPEAKER_02
I want to fill in this whole fantasy I have about what if they
7
SPEAKER_02
are they on that they would make out for two hours?
7
SPEAKER_02
It s so much more interesting to me.
7
SPEAKER_00
That s how I travel the world.
7
SPEAKER_00
Whenever I go to any country in the world, I spent three months in China for Karate Kid.
7
SPEAKER_00
And yes, I did the touristy stuff, because you get it out of the way.
7
SPEAKER_00
But I m there for three months.
7
SPEAKER_00
I was driving around, I m like, what s behind these walls?
7
SPEAKER_00
And they were like, oh no, those are the hutongs.
7
SPEAKER_00
I was like, what is that?
7
SPEAKER_00
They re like the alleyways.
7
SPEAKER_00
I was like, baby, I don t
7
SPEAKER_00
And that s the heartbeat of Beijing.
7
SPEAKER_00
Those are the workers.
7
SPEAKER_00
That s where I was every night in some bar in a hutong somewhere behind one of those walls.
7
SPEAKER_00
That s amazing.
7
SPEAKER_02
The best time.
7
SPEAKER_02
Who are you with?
7
SPEAKER_00
Oh, God.
7
SPEAKER_00
Jada Pink, GAMI.
7
SPEAKER_00
My mom had come for two weeks.
7
SPEAKER_00
We hung out a lot.
7
SPEAKER_00
I m a huge crew person, so I always hang out with hair and makeup.
7
SPEAKER_00
So it was that, because it was just me.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I was a supporting role, so I didn t work every day.
7
SPEAKER_00
So I really loved when my mom came out, her and my son came out for two weeks.
7
SPEAKER_00
But we hung out with GAMI, because she wasn t working every day.
7
SPEAKER_02
Wait, who are you calling GAMI?
7
SPEAKER_00
Jada Pinkett s mom.
7
SPEAKER_02
Oh, right, right, right.
7
SPEAKER_00
We just interviewed her.
7
SPEAKER_02
And I do remember it was Gammy.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, Gammy.
7
SPEAKER_00
I m sorry.
7
SPEAKER_02
I m like, are you calling Jada Gammy?
7
SPEAKER_00
No, who called Jada s mom?
7
SPEAKER_02
I don t know how I didn t get that in the research that her nickname is Gammy.
7
SPEAKER_00
I m sorry.
7
SPEAKER_00
I should have specified.
7
SPEAKER_00
I should have been more clear.
7
SPEAKER_02
Okay.
7
SPEAKER_02
I guess I just want to wrap up the empire experience.
7
SPEAKER_02
So once that broke, did you feel a sense of powerlessness?
7
SPEAKER_02
I think from the outside, people would assume when you achieve that much social capital, it induces power.
7
SPEAKER_02
But to what you re saying, or it s like, no, to be at a restaurant, have no control over what s about to happen.
7
SPEAKER_02
That feels very powerless.
7
SPEAKER_02
And so it s a weird dichotomy of rising status yet losing control.
7
SPEAKER_00
That s the perfect way to put it.
7
SPEAKER_02
Right?
7
SPEAKER_02
It s a very confusing experience, and from people on the outside, maybe hard to be empathetic with.
7
SPEAKER_00
Oh, yeah, I got into a screaming match.
7
SPEAKER_00
Well, I wasn t screaming, he was.
7
SPEAKER_00
In Chicago at a Target, because this guy said that I m supposed to take pictures because that s what comes with the job.
7
SPEAKER_00
And you re not supposed to be mad, so I m always supposed to be on.
7
SPEAKER_00
I can t just come and buy my toilet tissue and paper towels like everybody else.
7
SPEAKER_01
Right.
7
SPEAKER_00
Well, that s what you asked for.
7
SPEAKER_00
I just showed him compassion, and I just walked off.
7
SPEAKER_00
Right.
7
SPEAKER_00
I had to find my piece in it all because it happened like a storm.
7
SPEAKER_00
They didn t want to sell that overseas.
7
SPEAKER_00
You know how it got sold overseas?
7
SPEAKER_00
The fans found it and started downloading it illegally.
7
SPEAKER_00
And they were like, oh, there s money to be made over there.
7
SPEAKER_00
Because I ve been told my entire career, black doesn t do well.
7
SPEAKER_00
It doesn t translate.
7
SPEAKER_00
Now I have social media.
7
SPEAKER_00
So you can t lie to me anymore because I see the different flags from Ibiza, from places I ve never heard of in the world saying, I love you, all walks of life.
7
SPEAKER_00
And now you re lying to me.
7
SPEAKER_00
So I said to Twitter, I m going to get overseas.
7
SPEAKER_00
I don t know how, but I m coming to my fans overseas.
7
SPEAKER_00
Then
7
SPEAKER_00
Empire happens.
7
SPEAKER_00
All of a sudden, now they want to do this big campaign.
7
SPEAKER_00
I get to Paris, and it s me and Lee Daniels, and it s 1,500 seats, and it was a Q&A.
7
SPEAKER_00
We screened the pilot in the first episode.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I m sitting in the audience.
7
SPEAKER_00
No one knew I was there.
7
SPEAKER_00
And they re asking the questions, and they got to the cookie questions.
7
SPEAKER_00
Lee was like, why don t you ask her?
7
SPEAKER_00
She s here.
7
SPEAKER_00
Before he could say my last name, they stood up and screamed.
7
SPEAKER_02
Parisians no less.
7
SPEAKER_00
Listen!
7
SPEAKER_02
They hate all of us.
7
SPEAKER_00
They do, but they love me, honey.
7
SPEAKER_00
They made me ugly face cry.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I told them, I was like, oh my God, you are myth busters because my entire career, but not even that, because that was cookie.
7
SPEAKER_00
I go outside to get in the car.
7
SPEAKER_00
There are fans out there with jackets to my fucking movies, y all.
7
SPEAKER_00
They know my name.
7
SPEAKER_00
They re not calling me Cookie.
7
SPEAKER_00
They re going, Tito G, Tito G, please, please, may you sign?
7
SPEAKER_00
They re so generous and respectful.
7
SPEAKER_00
When I go there, I ll stop everything I m doing to take a picture, just how they approach you.
7
SPEAKER_02
Not like they re entitled to it.
7
SPEAKER_00
That s why I told my new business manager, I said, the plan is to be out of here before 60.
7
SPEAKER_00
Not out of life, but out of this soil over there somewhere.
7
SPEAKER_00
I don t know where yet.
7
SPEAKER_00
Italy, probably, because I love the food.
7
SPEAKER_00
Am I gonna stop acting forever?
7
SPEAKER_00
No.
7
SPEAKER_00
But I ve done a lot.
7
SPEAKER_02
Oh my God, yes.
7
SPEAKER_00
You know, I haven t played a villain or a superhero yet, but hurry up these knees.
7
SPEAKER_00
You hosted SNL?
7
SPEAKER_00
I did.
7
SPEAKER_02
That s impossible.
7
SPEAKER_02
You can say I did everything.
7
SPEAKER_00
I did.
7
SPEAKER_00
You hosted SNL?
7
SPEAKER_00
I did.
7
SPEAKER_00
I haven t joined the Marvelverse yet.
7
SPEAKER_02
So maybe you and I ll do them or I ll come out of retirement.
7
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
7
SPEAKER_00
These knees though.
7
SPEAKER_00
Do I have to run?
7
SPEAKER_00
Maybe I can be like a professor X in a wheelchair.
7
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_02
You could be like a minotaur or something.
7
SPEAKER_02
What are these half horse centaur?
7
SPEAKER_02
You could be like a beautiful horse.
7
SPEAKER_02
With long beautiful mane.
7
SPEAKER_02
Well, Taraji, this has been a blast.
7
SPEAKER_02
You re so fun.
7
SPEAKER_00
You are so fun.
7
SPEAKER_02
My last question is around the way, girl.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
7
SPEAKER_02
This is your autobiography.
7
SPEAKER_02
Do you have a relationship with LL Cool J?
7
SPEAKER_02
Is there any connection?
7
SPEAKER_02
Did he see that you titled your book that and reach out?
7
SPEAKER_00
I know his wife, Simone, really well.
7
SPEAKER_00
I love her jewelry.
7
SPEAKER_00
I m always, girl, send me these earrings.
7
SPEAKER_00
Not so much him, I was always a fan.
7
SPEAKER_00
Going back to school jams in D.C., back in the day, when you was talking about radio and mama said, knock you out with that t-shirt off.
7
SPEAKER_00
Don t call it a comeback.
7
SPEAKER_02
Do not call it a comeback.
7
SPEAKER_00
And the one year my mother wouldn t let me go, because this is how much we cherish family, I cut her head out of pictures and was poking needles in them.
7
SPEAKER_00
And she found that box and I was like, I m gonna die for sure!
7
SPEAKER_00
She laughed.
7
SPEAKER_00
She was tickled.
7
SPEAKER_02
But Around the Way Girl, it is a nod to that song.
7
SPEAKER_00
Absolutely.
7
SPEAKER_00
Because that s who I am.
7
SPEAKER_02
And I m proud of it.
7
SPEAKER_02
Well, I have enjoyed this so much.
7
SPEAKER_02
I hope everybody checks out The Color Purple.
7
SPEAKER_02
It s a Christmas release.
7
SPEAKER_02
I think it ll be enormous.
7
SPEAKER_02
It s so beautifully shot.
7
SPEAKER_02
The trailer is so fucking good and snappy.
7
SPEAKER_02
Whoever cut that needs a nod.
7
SPEAKER_00
Blitz.
7
SPEAKER_00
Our director had his hands on everything.
7
SPEAKER_02
Oh, it s so snappy.
7
SPEAKER_00
He s a musician.
7
SPEAKER_00
He was a rapper, and he was one of those kids handing out CDs in New York.
7
SPEAKER_00
He never went to film school.
7
SPEAKER_00
He s a Ghanaian.
7
SPEAKER_00
So, you know, in Africa, I guess their houses are always being worked on.
7
SPEAKER_00
And so whenever they would fix a room, there would be another empty room they would have to work on, and his mother would be like, go in there and make this your whatever.
7
SPEAKER_00
And so they don t dream to come here.
7
SPEAKER_00
The fact that he came to America and he s like the first to do this major studio feature film.
7
SPEAKER_00
Ghana is going nuts right now.
7
SPEAKER_00
This is just not the norm.
7
SPEAKER_00
And so he said he remember he would go to movies and he would go with his notebook and he would sit there after while the credits are rolling.
7
SPEAKER_00
He would take his notes.
7
SPEAKER_00
What his mother did was allowed him to dream.
7
SPEAKER_00
She always created a space for his creativity.
7
SPEAKER_00
He s in Ghana.
7
SPEAKER_00
He didn t have music schools.
7
SPEAKER_00
He taught himself instruments.
7
SPEAKER_00
His talents, he self-taught.
7
SPEAKER_00
That s so impressive.
7
SPEAKER_00
It s incredible.
7
SPEAKER_00
Fun, yeah.
7
SPEAKER_02
Fun, fun, fun.
7
SPEAKER_00
So fun.
7
SPEAKER_02
Well, I hope you ll come back.
7
SPEAKER_02
Oh, absolutely.
7
SPEAKER_02
I guess we ve got eight more years, it sounded like.
7
SPEAKER_01
Before you hit Rome or whatever.
7
SPEAKER_02
Before you peel off to Rome.
7
SPEAKER_02
Let s do this again.
7
SPEAKER_02
We will, for sure.
7
SPEAKER_00
Okay, let s.
7
SPEAKER_00
I would come back.
7
SPEAKER_02
Oh, we didn t even bond over Octavia.
7
SPEAKER_02
You know, she and I were in a comedy troupe together 24 years ago.
7
SPEAKER_02
Really?
7
SPEAKER_02
Yes, when we were all babies in LA.
7
SPEAKER_02
I love her.
7
SPEAKER_02
She s so special.
7
SPEAKER_00
We don t talk every day, but when we do, baby, it fills my heart and my soul.
7
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, she just leads with emotion.
7
SPEAKER_02
She s a good person.
7
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah.
7
SPEAKER_00
She s a good egg.
7
SPEAKER_02
She s a good one.
7
SPEAKER_00
I m glad I can call her my friend.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes!
7
SPEAKER_02
All right, well, good luck with everything and we ll do this again.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes, we will.
7
SPEAKER_02
Stick around for the fact check.
7
SPEAKER_02
Because they re human, they make lots of mistakes.
7
SPEAKER_02
You re in your cupboard.
7
SPEAKER_02
It s been a while since you were in your cupboard.
7
SPEAKER_01
You haven t been in my cupboard in a while.
7
SPEAKER_01
Hold on one second.
7
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_01
Will you talk?
7
SPEAKER_02
Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.
7
SPEAKER_01
Let s just leave it.
7
SPEAKER_02
You feel comfy?
7
SPEAKER_02
You feel comfy with this?
7
SPEAKER_01
I feel scared.
7
SPEAKER_02
Oh, why?
7
SPEAKER_01
Boo!
7
SPEAKER_01
No!
7
SPEAKER_01
You re supposed to protect me.
8
SPEAKER_00
I do have increased anxiety.
8
SPEAKER_01
Oh, disorder?
8
SPEAKER_01
I-A-D.
8
SPEAKER_00
Generalized anxiety disorder.
8
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I do have that, but I haven t had it in quite a long time.
8
SPEAKER_01
The listener can t see, but my coffee mug picked up a bit of tissue on the bottom as if it just left the toilet and had toilet paper.
8
SPEAKER_01
It s very embarrassing now.
8
SPEAKER_01
Okay, sorry, back to your anxiety.
8
SPEAKER_00
Wait, if you see somebody, if you see a stranger coming out of the bathroom, if you re at the airport, okay, and you see somebody walking with a tissue on their butt, on their butt, not on their shoe.
8
SPEAKER_01
Hanging out at the back of their pants.
8
SPEAKER_00
Would you say something?
8
SPEAKER_01
Well, hold on, let s first establish an order of embarrassment because in my mind,
8
SPEAKER_01
Shoe would be least embarrassing.
8
SPEAKER_01
Hanging out of the top of your denim would be second most.
8
SPEAKER_01
And then dangling out of the bottom of your skirt would be probably the most.
8
SPEAKER_01
Do you think that would be the most?
8
SPEAKER_00
Yes, that s so bad.
8
SPEAKER_00
And what if there s poop on it?
8
SPEAKER_00
No, we don t need to make it.
8
SPEAKER_01
No, it s already embarrassing.
8
SPEAKER_00
Okay, what would you do?
8
SPEAKER_01
Oh, so it just happened.
8
SPEAKER_01
Think at Descanso Gardens.
8
SPEAKER_01
I was walking out of the bathroom and I got behind this woman who was kind of lumbering already and like clogging up my exit.
8
SPEAKER_00
Sure.
8
SPEAKER_01
And then right as I was getting frustrated, I glanced down and she had like,
8
SPEAKER_01
A good six squares.
8
SPEAKER_01
It was like 18 inches of tissue hanging off of her.
8
SPEAKER_00
On the foot?
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, and she had a very large shoe on, and then all this tissue dragging behind it, and I just let her carry on her merry way.
8
SPEAKER_00
You leave that to the folks who are with her.
8
SPEAKER_01
I can t take on that responsibility.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that s the piety she should expect from her friends.
8
SPEAKER_00
I know, but sometimes it s like when I was walking back from all time and I had bird poop on my sweater.
8
SPEAKER_01
Oh, sure, yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
Well, that turned out to probably be granola.
8
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
8
SPEAKER_00
But what is I thought was bird poop.
8
SPEAKER_00
And then there was a man who was walking his dog who like looked at me.
8
SPEAKER_00
I thought he was just looking at my face.
8
SPEAKER_01
Sure, he probably was.
8
SPEAKER_00
No, he was looking at the bird poop, but then he didn t say anything.
8
SPEAKER_01
Really quick, how are you confirming what he was looking at?
8
SPEAKER_00
I just know these things.
8
SPEAKER_01
You know it intuitively.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
8
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I guess for me, it s better that he didn t say anything.
8
SPEAKER_00
Cause what would I, I would just would have said like, oh no.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
And then what can be done?
8
SPEAKER_01
The tissue, you could remove it, but this will sound very libertarian of me, but at some point, what s your personal responsibility?
8
SPEAKER_01
Like when I leave the bathroom, I glanced down at my shoes.
8
SPEAKER_01
And if you don t have that own care for yourself, I don t know why I have to have it for you.
8
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
8
SPEAKER_01
I know that s a hard take, but I also think it s true.
8
SPEAKER_01
Like if you don t care enough to look, why should I?
8
SPEAKER_00
Maybe in 2024, we should have a little bit more feelings of care for the world.
8
SPEAKER_01
Oh, that s a good idea.
8
SPEAKER_01
Okay, but let s, I m gonna use a different analogy that s virtually the same thing, which is like, when you see someone whose hair is a mess and tangled and ratty, you don t go like, oh, hey, you forgot to comb your hair.
8
SPEAKER_01
You go like, oh, yeah, this person doesn t give a fuck about combing their hair.
8
SPEAKER_01
If their teeth have turned yellow and green from not brushing your teeth, you don t go like, hey, you ve forgotten to brush your teeth for the last decade.
8
SPEAKER_01
You re like, they don t give a fuck.
8
SPEAKER_01
So if you don t look down when you re leaving a stall of a bathroom.
8
SPEAKER_00
Oh no, that s so different.
8
SPEAKER_01
To see if you re dragging Connell, well.
8
SPEAKER_00
Because one s an honest mistake and the others are choices.
8
SPEAKER_01
They re all neglect.
8
SPEAKER_00
Oh my God.
8
SPEAKER_00
Now, I mean, I guess I ll just admit here today, 2024.
8
SPEAKER_00
Oh, shh.
8
SPEAKER_01
2024, shh.
8
SPEAKER_00
I never look at my feet when I leave the bathroom.
8
SPEAKER_01
Oh boy.
8
SPEAKER_01
That s brazen.
8
SPEAKER_01
Do you think it s absent-mindedness, cockiness, or belief that that kind of thing won t happen to you?
8
SPEAKER_00
God, I guess all three of those are kind of one in the same, really.
8
SPEAKER_00
I think for me, it s just, I forget that s a thing that happens.
8
SPEAKER_01
Oh, sure.
8
SPEAKER_01
Not me.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m always on high alert for that, because that s rough.
8
SPEAKER_00
You d think I would be really hyper aware of this as someone so worried about embarrassment.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
8
SPEAKER_00
Although I don t think I would be that embarrassed if someone said, oh, you have tissue paper on your shoe.
8
SPEAKER_00
If it was coming out of my pants, I would cry right there.
8
SPEAKER_00
I would just cry.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, because the assumption then would be, oh, they wiped.
8
SPEAKER_01
They didn t even throw it in the toilet.
8
SPEAKER_01
They just left it between their butt cheeks and pulled their pants up.
8
SPEAKER_00
No.
8
SPEAKER_01
Which I might not point out that that happened, but I might get their number to try to hang with them.
8
SPEAKER_01
They also sound kind of fun.
8
SPEAKER_00
No, I think it s that they wiped and it didn t make it into the toilet.
8
SPEAKER_00
So that s worse.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it s soiled.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
8
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I feel like this strangely leads into what we want to talk about, which is we d like to explicate the movie, Poor Things.
8
SPEAKER_00
But first I do want to say, happy new year.
8
SPEAKER_01
Oh, happy new year.
8
SPEAKER_01
And truth be told, we re not at new year yet, but I ll be traveling.
8
SPEAKER_00
Oh, you re gonna do that?
8
SPEAKER_00
See, today s the day I feel like we don t do that.
8
SPEAKER_01
So your new year s resolution is to start lying like I have been in the past.
8
SPEAKER_01
We got to sync up our ethics.
8
SPEAKER_00
I know, let me tell you mine, okay?
8
SPEAKER_00
I have very specific rules about this.
8
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
8
SPEAKER_00
If it s something where time matters, like this is a case where time matters.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s the beginning of a new year.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s a big declaration.
8
SPEAKER_01
Fresh start.
8
SPEAKER_00
Fresh start, resolutions.
8
SPEAKER_00
We do have to pretend because that is very jarring for someone who s moved into the new year and then is like, oh God, they re still back there.
8
SPEAKER_01
So then in this scenario, should I pretend I pulled the prank I intended to pull?
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
where I ordered the pizza, do you know this?
8
SPEAKER_00
No.
8
SPEAKER_01
Delta and I came up with this bit together.
8
SPEAKER_01
We re gonna order a pizza at 11.50 p.m.
8
SPEAKER_01
on New Year s Eve.
8
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
8
SPEAKER_01
And then when it arrives a half hour later, we re gonna tell the delivery person, we don t want this pizza.
8
SPEAKER_01
And they re gonna go, why?
8
SPEAKER_01
And we re gonna go, we ordered this pizza last year.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that s great.
8
SPEAKER_01
So now the question is, do I pretend that I executed that?
8
SPEAKER_01
Do I assume I do?
8
SPEAKER_00
Are you really gonna do it?
8
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I kinda wanted just to make Delta laugh, and the driver.
8
SPEAKER_00
Okay, I think you should act like you, tell the story as if it happened, and then in the next fact check, we ll reveal that that was a lie.
8
SPEAKER_01
Okay, this seems stressful.
8
SPEAKER_00
Do it.
8
SPEAKER_01
Okay, so we.
8
SPEAKER_00
Tell me about your New Year s Eve.
8
SPEAKER_01
Oh my God, it was so fun.
8
SPEAKER_01
Delta and I ordered pizza at 1151 PM.
8
SPEAKER_01
And when it arrived at 1220 AM, we said, we don t want it.
8
SPEAKER_01
And the man or woman said, why?
8
SPEAKER_01
And we said- Was it a man or a woman?
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, we ordered this pizza last year.
8
SPEAKER_01
We don t want it now.
8
SPEAKER_00
Oh, that s so funny.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it was so funny.
8
SPEAKER_01
Everyone laughed so hard, especially the man or woman.
8
SPEAKER_00
And did the man or woman get upset because they have to work on New Year s Eve?
8
SPEAKER_01
No, there s someone that they don t even recognize this calendar year we re on, so it s fine.
8
SPEAKER_01
It s like being Jewish and working on Christmas.
8
SPEAKER_01
It doesn t mean anything.
8
SPEAKER_00
Oh, wow.
8
SPEAKER_00
All right.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
You get it now.
8
SPEAKER_01
Tell me about Georgia.
8
SPEAKER_00
Georgia s great.
8
SPEAKER_01
You went to a fun restaurant last night?
8
SPEAKER_01
It was hyped up.
8
SPEAKER_01
Did it deliver you?
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it was really yummy.
8
SPEAKER_00
We went shopping, of course, first.
8
SPEAKER_01
TJ Maxx or Marshalls?
8
SPEAKER_00
TJ Maxx the day before.
8
SPEAKER_00
First thing we did.
8
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
8
SPEAKER_01
Did you get anything?
8
SPEAKER_00
Well, yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
We were looking specifically for these all-clad measuring spoons that my mom got at TJ Maxx a couple weeks ago.
8
SPEAKER_01
Oh, you went back for round two.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yes, she wanted to get it for me as a, quote, surprise present, but it wasn t a surprise.
8
SPEAKER_01
Or she takes you there and points to it on the rack and then asks you to put it in the basket and then.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yes, and pay for it.
8
SPEAKER_00
Anyway, we went to T.J.
8
SPEAKER_00
Maxx, unfortunately sold out.
8
SPEAKER_00
No measuring spoons.
8
SPEAKER_01
Well, of course, of course.
8
SPEAKER_01
All-cloud measuring spoons at T.J.?
8
SPEAKER_01
That s gonna fly off the shelf.
8
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s a hot commode.
8
SPEAKER_01
That s like a Wusthof knife set on sale there.
8
SPEAKER_01
That s gone.
8
SPEAKER_01
Bye-bye.
8
SPEAKER_00
They didn t have that, but they did have a tiny all clad pan.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s tiny.
8
SPEAKER_00
It will fit a fried egg.
8
SPEAKER_01
Oh, like just to make two eggs pan.
8
SPEAKER_01
I love that kind of pan.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s not really for that, but that s what I m going to use it for.
8
SPEAKER_01
It sounds so cute in size.
8
SPEAKER_00
And the line was so long at TJ Maxx.
8
SPEAKER_01
Of course.
8
SPEAKER_01
Days before Christmas?
8
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
8
SPEAKER_00
It was insane.
8
SPEAKER_00
And I was just getting this one tiny pan.
8
SPEAKER_01
This now brings up another thing, which is those stores bring on extra staff.
9
SPEAKER_00
just for that period.
9
SPEAKER_00
And that s, I think, generally people that are home from school.
9
SPEAKER_01
Oh, sure, yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s a curious time to work somewhere for two weeks, because it s the worst two weeks of the whole year at that place.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
9
SPEAKER_00
Like, I want to work for two weeks over winter break at, like, the beach or somewhere that gets no use during that holiday.
9
SPEAKER_00
Not, come work for us for the two worst weeks of the year.
9
SPEAKER_01
I know.
9
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I don t think people want to be.
9
SPEAKER_00
I salute these folks.
9
SPEAKER_00
And they know the least about the store.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s also a curious time for ill-informed employees because it s a madhouse.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
Anyways, the line was outrageous.
9
SPEAKER_01
Line was outrageous, but I stood in it.
9
SPEAKER_01
I stuck it out for the tiny pan.
9
SPEAKER_00
Ah, you didn t try to buy someone s pan at the front of the line like Taylor Swift style?
9
SPEAKER_01
No.
9
SPEAKER_01
When I m in Georgia, I m normal.
9
SPEAKER_01
I m normal here.
9
SPEAKER_01
You know, I actually, speaking of my anxiety, I ve been thinking about that since I ve been here.
9
SPEAKER_01
I m having some weird, I m worried this is gonna come off strange, so I might have to cut it.
9
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
9
SPEAKER_01
But I m having some sadness around my old life.
9
SPEAKER_00
Missing your old life?
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I think that s very normal.
9
SPEAKER_01
Like when TJ Maxx, when it was so exciting.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_01
Cause you know, we went there and they didn t have the measuring spoons and I was like, oh man, like I was really mad, you know?
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
9
SPEAKER_01
And then my mom was like, well, you can just buy it like full price.
9
SPEAKER_01
I can just buy it.
9
SPEAKER_01
I can just go on the website and buy it.
9
SPEAKER_01
It s not going to make a difference.
9
SPEAKER_01
And I got sad when she said that because it was true.
9
SPEAKER_01
And it really did bum me out.
9
SPEAKER_01
I think that sounds really disgusting and privileged.
9
SPEAKER_00
So weirdly to me, it s almost anti-privilege.
9
SPEAKER_00
Of course you can do that, but the thing you re experiencing in sharing is the reality of, quote, privilege that no one wants to hear about, because it ruins the fantasy.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yes, so everything s just relative.
9
SPEAKER_00
Everything just steps up one peg, but it s all the exact same.
9
SPEAKER_00
So your thing now is like, you go to the row, it s on the website and it s gone.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
That s your T.J.
9
SPEAKER_00
man.
9
SPEAKER_00
But it s all the fucking same.
9
SPEAKER_00
I know.
9
SPEAKER_00
You re just paying a lot more for the same feeling.
9
SPEAKER_00
I know.
9
SPEAKER_00
Like wanting something and then not getting it.
9
SPEAKER_01
Or like wanting a deal.
9
SPEAKER_01
The missing of being excited for a deal.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
There s trade-offs.
9
SPEAKER_00
This is one of the trade-offs.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you won t have that end zone dance feeling when you got something at 40% that you had wanted and couldn t have otherwise.
9
SPEAKER_00
That s a very exciting feeling.
9
SPEAKER_00
You lose that.
9
SPEAKER_00
You get what you want, but then ironically, when you get everything you want, you don t really want anything because the excitement is the dopamine.
9
SPEAKER_01
Is the feeling, yeah.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s not the item.
9
SPEAKER_00
The objects are ironically immaterial.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s just the anticipation and
9
SPEAKER_01
I know.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
So that weirdly, I don t know.
9
SPEAKER_00
I feel like that s, I think that s counter to, I think if you went and you were like, oh, they weren t here.
9
SPEAKER_00
Oh, who gives a shit?
9
SPEAKER_00
I ll order it online.
9
SPEAKER_00
That to me would be privileged without recognizing like, oh, I pay a price for that.
9
SPEAKER_00
And I lose something for that.
9
SPEAKER_00
And, and huh, that s curious and interesting.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, because the truth that when my mom said, you can just buy it, and I was like, oh, yeah, I guess.
9
SPEAKER_01
I m not buying that.
9
SPEAKER_01
I don t need that.
9
SPEAKER_01
I don t really, I mean, I do want it, but I don t.
9
SPEAKER_00
You wanted it from TJ Maxx.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yes, I wanted it from TJ Maxx for a deal.
9
SPEAKER_01
And I don t know, it just sort of made me sad.
9
SPEAKER_01
I m like, what is the point of all this?
9
SPEAKER_01
I mean, New Year s is a sad time.
9
SPEAKER_01
I mean, we had a blue Christmas and I don t wanna have a blue New Year s.
9
SPEAKER_00
No, right, yeah.
9
SPEAKER_01
But- But let s go blue.
9
SPEAKER_00
Let s go blue, U of M, Rose Bowl, today.
9
SPEAKER_01
No, it s just, it is a time of reflection.
9
SPEAKER_00
Well, absolutely.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s all about evaluating your previous year and then making goals to have a year you d be, I don t know, more proud of or whatever the following year.
9
SPEAKER_00
This is very appropriate, but I wonder, it s all tricky.
9
SPEAKER_00
I m going to give you one story that I hope relates to it.
9
SPEAKER_00
I was on Instagram.
9
SPEAKER_00
Someone posted a picture, maybe even Pete Wentz.
9
SPEAKER_00
Somebody posted a picture of like,
9
SPEAKER_00
the old Nintendo, the original Nintendo and about seven games.
9
SPEAKER_00
And they were really excited.
9
SPEAKER_00
They got all this from eBay or whatever.
9
SPEAKER_00
And then I, I was like on the path.
9
SPEAKER_00
I went to eBay.
9
SPEAKER_00
I m like, I m too going to get, you know, I m going to get Street Fighter.
9
SPEAKER_00
I m going to get all these things.
9
SPEAKER_00
And I had a moment of clarity.
9
SPEAKER_00
It was like, I don t miss the game.
9
SPEAKER_00
I miss being in seventh grade and discovering these games.
9
SPEAKER_00
and then sitting in my basement with Aaron trying to beat them.
9
SPEAKER_00
I miss the feeling associated with that game, and that I can t buy on eBay, sadly.
9
SPEAKER_01
I know, we re all chasing this childlike purity.
9
SPEAKER_00
Novelty, this is all gonna circle into poor things, but beautifully, it s all getting set up.
9
SPEAKER_00
But, because I too have had this kind of utopian desire for the simpler times,
9
SPEAKER_01
Mm-hmm.
9
SPEAKER_00
But I think what we really want is like, we wanna be back in the simpler times, but with the knowledge that everything worked out and we re safe.
9
100%.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yes, which is just not what life is.
9
SPEAKER_01
Exactly, because when I really do, when I think about that time, it was so stressful because of future surfing and what am I gonna have and what is it gonna be?
9
SPEAKER_01
It s just, I guess it s impossible to be happy.
9
SPEAKER_00
Happy New Year.
9
SPEAKER_00
Well, so my solution to that, which you already know, is I suffer all morning.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
I suffer all morning.
9
SPEAKER_00
I meditate.
9
SPEAKER_00
I m not in the mood to do that.
9
SPEAKER_00
When I wake up, I want to drink coffee and look at my phone.
9
SPEAKER_00
So I put that off for 20 minutes to meditate.
9
SPEAKER_00
And then I have to journal, which I m not always in the mood to journal.
9
SPEAKER_00
And then hopefully I have to write a page of prose.
9
SPEAKER_00
I m not in the mood to do that.
9
SPEAKER_00
And then I go sit in the fucking cold plunge for seven minutes, which is miserable.
9
SPEAKER_00
And then I go into the gym to work out, to warm up, which is miserable.
9
SPEAKER_00
But after all of that,
9
SPEAKER_00
which is now 11 a.m.
9
SPEAKER_00
The rest of the day, I m like, oh yeah, I m entitled now to just be happy and indulgent because I earned it all.
9
SPEAKER_00
And that s just how I figured out how my body works.
9
SPEAKER_00
Like my body works that way.
9
SPEAKER_00
If I make it suffer for the first third of the day, then I can have a really great rest of the day.
9
SPEAKER_01
Sure.
9
SPEAKER_01
I understand that feeling.
9
SPEAKER_01
That s the old addict behavior that s been channeled because you know, I have that too, to an extent where it s like, if I ve worked all day, I obviously earned the wine bar.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_01
If I just go to the wine bar, I feel less good about that.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
9
SPEAKER_01
But hold on, another ding, ding, ding, duck, duck, is we have so many hanging tabs.
9
SPEAKER_00
Loose ends, yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
That was my resolution, more loose ends.
9
SPEAKER_01
Ding, ding, ding, I m about to say a resolution.
9
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
9
SPEAKER_01
You just said Street Fighter.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_01
And that s really sim because I just started a book and I just read that.
9
SPEAKER_01
I just read Street Fighter in my book.
9
SPEAKER_00
You did?
9
SPEAKER_01
A mere 14 minutes ago.
9
SPEAKER_00
What book?
9
SPEAKER_01
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.
9
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
9
SPEAKER_01
It s very popular.
9
SPEAKER_00
You love a popular book.
9
SPEAKER_01
I like reading books that I ve heard are renowned.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
And then you ll be able to chat with other people about who have read it.
9
SPEAKER_01
Exactly.
9
SPEAKER_01
I started it.
9
SPEAKER_01
I love it so far.
9
SPEAKER_01
A resolution I ve decided, remember in the holiday episode, I hadn t really figured it out yet.
9
SPEAKER_00
Right.
9
SPEAKER_01
but I have one now that I really wanna stick to.
9
SPEAKER_01
I have to either read or write every day.
9
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I love it.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s a great resolution.
9
SPEAKER_01
One or the other has to happen every day.
9
SPEAKER_01
And I don t have to do both, but one or the other has to happen.
9
SPEAKER_00
Reading or writing.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s fundamental, I love it.
9
SPEAKER_00
Will you do that in the more, I think you have to be a little more specific.
9
SPEAKER_01
I know.
9
SPEAKER_00
For me at least, if it s not scheduled at the same time every day, it won t happen.
9
SPEAKER_01
I know, well, I started to panic, anxiety, ding, ding, ding, because I was trying to plan out these new mornings, and I was like, I guess I ll start waking up at 6.30.
9
SPEAKER_00
Oh boy, that s too ambitious, but go ahead.
9
SPEAKER_01
Exactly, and I m smart enough to know that s not gonna happen.
9
SPEAKER_01
Then I push it to seven, then I wake up at seven, and then I have to have lemon water,
9
SPEAKER_01
a tea, and I also wanna start drinking spearmint tea, but I also drink this rest and digest tea at night, and I m worried this is too much tea.
9
SPEAKER_00
No, your people invented tea, I think.
9
SPEAKER_00
If anyone could pound tea, I think it s you.
9
SPEAKER_01
They invented chai.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I just think tea originated there altogether.
9
SPEAKER_00
Here s a fascinating side note.
9
SPEAKER_00
Do you know how many different kinds of tea plants there are?
9
SPEAKER_01
In the world?
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
400,000.
9
SPEAKER_00
There s only a single species of tea.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s all the exact same tea leaf.
9
SPEAKER_00
What do you mean?
9
SPEAKER_00
It s just cooked to varying different degrees.
9
SPEAKER_00
So it s either brown.
10
SPEAKER_01
during the drying and cooking process, or it s left more green, or they add spice.
10
SPEAKER_01
But there s only one species of tea, isn t that impossible?
10
SPEAKER_00
What?
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I watched a history of tea on the History Channel one time.
10
SPEAKER_01
I did.
10
SPEAKER_00
Wait, that s... Is that mind-blowing?
10
SPEAKER_01
So if they had chai tea, they had tea, they had the tea.
10
SPEAKER_01
And think about the Anglo-Indian tea trading company that was all about going to India to get tea.
10
SPEAKER_01
That s why the Brits loved their tea and had to be in India.
10
SPEAKER_01
It s all tea.
10
SPEAKER_01
If they didn t have that tea, they probably wouldn t have to deal with the Brits.
10
SPEAKER_00
Oh my God, their curse and their... Their tea was their downfall.
10
SPEAKER_01
Blessed, blessed and cursed.
10
SPEAKER_00
Oh my God.
10
SPEAKER_00
Well, because chai actually means tea.
10
SPEAKER_01
Chai actually means tea, I believe that.
10
SPEAKER_00
The word is tea, chai is tea.
10
SPEAKER_00
So it s confusing in the Americas when we say chai tea because we re saying tea tea.
10
SPEAKER_01
Oh, sure, sure.
10
SPEAKER_01
Or what about tai chi?
10
SPEAKER_01
That s different.
10
SPEAKER_00
But if you say tai chai chi.
10
SPEAKER_01
Careful, careful.
10
SPEAKER_00
Stop, stop.
10
SPEAKER_00
If we re saying Tai Chi Chi, you re saying Tai Chi Chi.
10
SPEAKER_01
You re allowed to say that because you re East Indian, is that, I mean, East Asian, whatever the fuck we re, Southeast Asian.
10
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I m Asian.
10
SPEAKER_00
In 2024, we can all agree I m Asian.
10
SPEAKER_00
No.
10
SPEAKER_00
Now, listen, so this book I m reading, I just read a line I want to share with you.
10
SPEAKER_00
I thought it was so beautiful.
10
SPEAKER_01
Oh, please.
10
SPEAKER_01
You ve memorized it or you re gonna pick up the book?
10
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I think, I ll probably get it wrong, of course, but it says something like, looking into someone s eyes is the only form of time travel, seeing present and past concurrently.
10
SPEAKER_01
Isn t that nice?
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10
SPEAKER_00
I think it s really true.
10
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, humans make us time travel.
10
SPEAKER_00
I m gonna read and write.
10
SPEAKER_00
I wrote a little bit yesterday, which is what made me think I really need to,
10
SPEAKER_01
And are you writing in a notebook by hand?
10
SPEAKER_01
Or are you typing?
10
SPEAKER_00
No, computer.
10
SPEAKER_01
That s probably smart, because it ll save you this annoying step I m in the middle of doing.
10
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I m not doing what you re doing.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, it s a bad plan.
10
SPEAKER_01
It s a very bad plan.
10
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you ve written everything by hand and are now trying to convert it.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yes, and I can t spell and my handwriting sucks.
10
SPEAKER_01
So, you know, it s even for me a beat down to read what I ve written at times.
10
SPEAKER_00
Do you think one of the girls could take that on for you?
10
SPEAKER_00
And then that may be a sweet project for them.
10
SPEAKER_01
To edit my memoir?
10
SPEAKER_00
Well, like they get to read it.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, but no, I don t think I want them to do, I don t trust, do you want the total truth?
10
SPEAKER_01
I don t trust them to transcribe it correctly.
10
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
10
SPEAKER_01
I decided I didn t even trust someone else to transcribe it correctly, because my writing s so wonky and honky, because I m a honky.
10
SPEAKER_01
Oh yeah, sure.
10
SPEAKER_01
Okay, Poor Things?
10
SPEAKER_00
Sure, okay, LaBrie, we wanna talk about Poor Things today.
10
SPEAKER_00
If you haven t seen it, please see it.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I would say pause and go watch it, but that s not possible, it s so long.
10
SPEAKER_00
No, movies are, okay, can I just, movies are so long again, what s going on?
10
SPEAKER_01
I, well, I have a theory, which in a weird way, they re not commerce anymore.
10
SPEAKER_01
It s like, no one thinks they re greenlighting a $30 million movie that s going to make money.
10
SPEAKER_01
So these ones that slip through the cracks are like mostly auteur driven, like crazy good directors with crazy good talent.
10
SPEAKER_01
It s not going to make money, but fuck it, they do it.
10
SPEAKER_01
I don t, I don t know.
10
SPEAKER_01
So in that case,
10
SPEAKER_01
It s not the formula.
10
SPEAKER_01
When you re making a movie at a studio, they are telling you, look, 90 s perfect, and the most we re gonna accept is 120 minutes.
10
SPEAKER_01
And you re battling with them, and it s a science to them.
10
SPEAKER_01
But that s not happening when Christopher Nolan makes a movie.
10
SPEAKER_01
He makes whatever fucking version was in his head, and same with this chap.
10
SPEAKER_00
I guess that s a good theory.
10
SPEAKER_00
It s so counterintuitive to me, though, because we live in a time where attention is at its most scarce, and these movies are so long, all of them.
10
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I m looking at all the, I watched that Julia Roberts movie, that was two and a half hours.
10
SPEAKER_00
Poor Things is two and a half hours.
10
SPEAKER_00
Maestro s really long.
10
SPEAKER_00
I just started Saltburn.
10
SPEAKER_00
It s also over two hours.
10
SPEAKER_00
It s so good, by the way, also.
10
SPEAKER_01
Oh, it is.
10
SPEAKER_00
Uh-huh.
10
SPEAKER_01
I just watched the trailer last night.
10
SPEAKER_01
I was trying to determine if I thought it looked good or not.
10
SPEAKER_00
It s really good.
10
SPEAKER_01
Oh, good.
10
SPEAKER_01
I ll watch it.
10
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
10
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
10
SPEAKER_01
So, but the runtime for me is fine for things.
10
SPEAKER_01
It s super duper long, but I wouldn t have wanted them to speed any part up.
10
SPEAKER_00
I agree.
10
SPEAKER_01
Even the parts that felt long were, I think, intentional, and they earned you all this stuff by going through it.
10
SPEAKER_00
Yes, I agree.
10
SPEAKER_01
OK.
10
SPEAKER_01
I want to, of course, know what you thought first.
10
SPEAKER_01
You loved it, right?
10
SPEAKER_00
I loved it.
10
SPEAKER_00
I loved it so much.
10
SPEAKER_00
I think it s the best movie of the year.
10
SPEAKER_00
It is so funny, though, because we had Will Amon, so I knew the premise.
10
SPEAKER_01
Right, which is in the trailer, which is, for anyone who s not heard it, it s a woman- Wait, and pause if you don t wanna hear it, because this is what I m about to say.
10
SPEAKER_00
I was with four people who didn t know anything.
10
SPEAKER_01
Right, right.
10
SPEAKER_00
And it had a massive impact.
10
SPEAKER_01
Ah, I bet.
10
SPEAKER_01
Them just trying to figure out what the fuck was going on with this woman.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, because you would probably, did they just think she was like mentally handicapped the first?
10
SPEAKER_00
Well, exactly.
10
SPEAKER_00
So Anna was next to me and I knew the premise, which we ll say now.
10
SPEAKER_01
And we said in the Willem episode, this kind of Frankenstein character in the early 1900s in London puts a baby s brain in a woman s body, head.
10
SPEAKER_01
She has died and she was pregnant with a baby and he took the baby s brain and put it in the mother s head.
10
SPEAKER_01
And now he s raising this,
10
SPEAKER_01
30 plus year old baby.
10
SPEAKER_00
And so the movie starts and she s a baby walking around and I laughed really hard.
10
SPEAKER_01
And they thought you were laughing at a handicapped person.
10
SPEAKER_00
Right.
10
SPEAKER_00
Ana then was like, Oh, I felt okay to laugh once you laughed.
10
SPEAKER_00
Cause at first I didn t think I was allowed to laugh.
10
SPEAKER_01
Right.
10
SPEAKER_01
If you think you re watching like Helen Keller, you shouldn t be laughing.
10
SPEAKER_01
Oh, Helen Keller is a great movie, but you would never laugh at her.
10
SPEAKER_00
It s a movie?
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
10
SPEAKER_01
She was a real person.
10
SPEAKER_00
Well, I know her as a real person.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
10
SPEAKER_01
And there s a movie.
10
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
10
SPEAKER_00
Anyway.
10
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
10
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
10
SPEAKER_00
So.
10
SPEAKER_01
So you were free to laugh, all right, but I wanna hear your opinion.
10
SPEAKER_00
I knew to laugh.
10
SPEAKER_00
There s this crazy part at the beginning where Willem Dafoe, he s like a Frankensteined character.
10
SPEAKER_00
His father worked on him.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
10
SPEAKER_00
And it s, oh, that part is heartbreaking.
10
SPEAKER_01
It is, he s so good in it.
10
SPEAKER_00
He s so unbelievably good, oh my God.
10
SPEAKER_01
So was Rami.
10
SPEAKER_01
I was so happy with how good Rami was.
10
SPEAKER_00
I know.
10
SPEAKER_00
Everyone was, Mark, oh my God.
10
SPEAKER_01
Ruffalo is the insane.
10
SPEAKER_00
Revelation.
10
SPEAKER_01
It s hard to say it s his best because he s been brilliant so many fucking times.
10
SPEAKER_01
Foxcatcher, I mean, he s so good, but he hit a zone in this movie that was so hysterical to watch.
10
SPEAKER_01
When he starts losing his shit, oh my God.
10
SPEAKER_00
Oh, it s so good.
10
SPEAKER_00
Everyone s incredible.
10
SPEAKER_00
Emma Stone is unreal.
10
SPEAKER_00
She s so good in it.
10
SPEAKER_01
She s so free.
10
SPEAKER_01
She s unbelievable in it.
10
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
10
SPEAKER_01
It s the performance of a lifetime hers in that if she wanted to retire now, she s good.
10
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
10
SPEAKER_01
OK, but what did you think of the themes and what did you think were the themes?
10
SPEAKER_01
Because to me, I just was like, I love what s being explored right now.
10
SPEAKER_00
They toss around a lot of things.
10
SPEAKER_00
I think one major one is, well, I guess sort of ding, ding, ding what we were just talking about, what you lose as you get older.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that was a really impactful thing.
10
SPEAKER_01
It s like, what are the trade-offs of getting more sophisticated?
10
SPEAKER_01
and understanding the world around you.
10
SPEAKER_01
Like, what do you lose when you understand the world around you?
10
SPEAKER_01
What pains come with it?
10
SPEAKER_00
And you lose some, in a bizarre way, you lose intelligence.
10
SPEAKER_00
Like, children have a level of understanding that s, again, very pure that we lose.
10
SPEAKER_01
Well, it s not hampered by the layers of culture yet.
10
SPEAKER_01
It s like, however they feel, they feel.
10
SPEAKER_01
That s that.
10
SPEAKER_00
And then that s the truth.
10
SPEAKER_00
I mean, really, ultimately.
10
SPEAKER_01
There s no guilt.
10
SPEAKER_01
The no guilt part was really fascinating.
10
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, like spoiler, I guess, not really, but when she s learning about her body.
10
SPEAKER_01
I mean, that has to be talked about in order for me to explore the point I want to explore.
10
SPEAKER_01
But yeah, she discovers masturbation quite early and she thinks it s the make her happy.
10
SPEAKER_01
The way she calls it is like self-touching, make me happy or something.
10
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I forget exactly the phrase, but... And she can t believe it.
10
SPEAKER_01
This can be done at all times.
10
SPEAKER_01
You can make yourself happy as many times as you want in a day, and she can t get over that.
10
SPEAKER_01
It s so funny.
10
SPEAKER_00
It is, and she s like trying to explain it to this older lady who s obviously unhappy, and she s telling her the cure for it.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yes, yes, yes.
10
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so the aging thing was really profound to me, and I m going to parallel it with the Anthony Bourdain documentary.
11
SPEAKER_00
I don t think I ve ever seen a movie tackle this incredibly complex, weird, paradoxical fantasies men have.
11
SPEAKER_00
So Mark Ruffalo s character is with her at the beginning.
11
SPEAKER_00
Not all men.
11
SPEAKER_00
A lot of men have this fantasy where it s like, you want this creature that s hyper-sexual, hyper-adventurous, hyper-fun,
11
SPEAKER_00
And then immediately you will try to control that aspect of her and be threatened by that aspect of her and end up basically destroying this thing you really wanted.
11
SPEAKER_00
Mm-hmm.
11
SPEAKER_00
And then when they proved to be everything you were originally attracted to, you lose your mind.
11
SPEAKER_00
Like this was the Anthony Bourdain story.
11
SPEAKER_00
This is what happened to him as he was with this younger girl that captured this thing for him.
11
SPEAKER_00
that he then couldn t stay connected with and he was getting self-conscious.
11
SPEAKER_01
It was so... That s interesting, yeah.
11
SPEAKER_00
I found it to be so spot on of this crazy paradox.
11
SPEAKER_00
And I don t know, maybe women have it too in some other version, but there s this kind of... It s the old man with the young woman.
11
SPEAKER_00
It s like, oh...
11
SPEAKER_00
She s so exciting and sexual and hungry and passionate and playful and adventurous.
11
SPEAKER_00
And now I m with her and I m terrified that she ll want more than me.
11
SPEAKER_00
Because what I liked about her is that she wanted everything.
11
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
11
SPEAKER_00
And now I m going to completely turn myself into this monster trying to squash out that flame.
11
SPEAKER_01
That s pretty fascinating.
11
SPEAKER_00
It can make a man go crazy.
11
SPEAKER_00
The movie, I thought, just did an incredibly honest job of that.
11
SPEAKER_01
Yes, that s really smart.
11
SPEAKER_01
I had not thought about that.
11
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I was wondering, because obviously as a man, it was so clear to me.
11
SPEAKER_00
Like, I could relate to the excitement of meeting this creature.
11
SPEAKER_01
It s really interesting hearing it from that perspective, because I did think
11
SPEAKER_01
You know, I was like, oh my God, men are so ridiculous.
11
SPEAKER_01
In my head, what happened is he wanted to use her for sex.
11
SPEAKER_01
He so much said so, like, you know, for an adventure, for fun.
11
SPEAKER_01
He even says like, you re going to want to fall in love with me, but don t, you can t.
11
SPEAKER_01
He wanted to use her for sex, but because she didn t care, because she didn t fall in love with him, then he fell in love with her.
11
SPEAKER_00
Yep, totally, totally.
11
SPEAKER_00
The movie was deeply feminist, which I love.
11
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
11
SPEAKER_00
And I was just thinking how much stuff, because we re watching Gen V, also incredibly feminist.
11
SPEAKER_00
This season of Fargo 5 is like insanely feminist.
11
SPEAKER_01
Really?
11
SPEAKER_00
Yes, and then this movie was insanely feminist.
11
SPEAKER_00
I definitely think there were white men telling everyone s story for a long time, and that was not great and should be fixed.
11
SPEAKER_00
But at the same time, I m delighted that someone as talented as this guy is allowed to tell a feminist story because he s got such a incredible world in his mind.
11
SPEAKER_00
And I wouldn t want him to be limited to only telling dude stories because he s so fucking masterful.
11
SPEAKER_00
And I m glad because I can see some version of the left saying,
11
SPEAKER_00
that wasn t his movie to make, you know?
11
SPEAKER_00
Because it s just as feminist as Barbie to me, that movie.
11
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I mean, different, right?
11
SPEAKER_01
I do think if a man made Barbie.
11
SPEAKER_00
Well, the inclination is to think it wouldn t be as good, right?
11
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I guess that s kind of what I would think immediately is like, it wouldn t be as authentic.
11
SPEAKER_00
The messages that were being conveyed were so deeply personal, probably to Greta.
11
SPEAKER_01
To women.
11
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
11
SPEAKER_00
But I would argue this thing I just saw was equally as impressive in that way.
11
SPEAKER_00
Like really understood this insane box we put females in and what role we want them to play.
11
SPEAKER_00
And we want them to be a baby and be dependent on us, but we also want them to be a hellcat and the sexiest person in the world, but then only towards us.
11
SPEAKER_00
And just all this crazy,
11
SPEAKER_01
But that s the difference.
11
SPEAKER_01
It s a feminist movie through a male lens.
11
SPEAKER_01
Like it s seeing the folly of men.
11
SPEAKER_01
So I do think it s okay for a man to- But it is her story for sure.
11
SPEAKER_01
She s the vehicle, but like the themes, I think you re right in saying there s a lot about what men do to women or how they are around them.
11
SPEAKER_01
And I think that s,
11
SPEAKER_01
It s great for men to be self-aware enough to be able to tell that.
11
SPEAKER_00
Great movie, great movie.
11
SPEAKER_01
Great movie.
11
SPEAKER_01
Also, it s weird.
11
SPEAKER_01
Like, it is a weird movie.
11
SPEAKER_01
You should probably know that going in.
11
SPEAKER_00
You should be prepared to work a bit, and then by the end go, wow, that, because they gotta, you have to settle into this insane world that s being presented to you for quite a while.
11
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I loved it.
11
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
11
SPEAKER_00
So your resolution is to read and or write each day.
11
SPEAKER_00
Mine, one just very tangible one is I m going to quit dipping.
11
SPEAKER_00
I ve quit dipping according to our current fib.
11
SPEAKER_00
I m no longer dipping.
11
SPEAKER_01
Great.
11
SPEAKER_00
And then this one just hit me.
11
SPEAKER_00
This one s a little, I think this is too ambitious, but it has occurred to me, I might want to start learning about Buddhism a bit.
11
SPEAKER_01
Oh, I love that.
11
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and I m not sure where that came from, but I just decided, oh, I think I, you know, I know where it came from.
11
SPEAKER_00
Lincoln and I were watching this show called Holiday Light Fight, and it s where people decorate their homes, extreme.
11
SPEAKER_01
Oh, fun.
11
SPEAKER_00
And there was this family, which was so cute, in California, and the mom and dad were from, I think China, and the daughter was like first generation super American, you.
11
SPEAKER_00
And the dad is so into decorating the house for Christmas.
11
SPEAKER_00
And he s talking and he s like, you know, I don t believe in this, but we re Buddhists and we can enjoy anything that celebrates life and blah, blah, blah.
11
SPEAKER_00
And the way he was just so happy and he was fucking loving Christmas, but he was a Buddhist and he doesn t believe in any deity.
11
SPEAKER_00
I was like, I don t look into that one.
11
SPEAKER_01
I think that s great.
11
SPEAKER_01
I love that.
11
SPEAKER_01
Ding, ding, ding, circling all the way back to the beginning of this, my anxiety.
11
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
11
SPEAKER_01
I had therapy yesterday that just reminded me because she was talking about Buddhism a little bit.
11
SPEAKER_01
And I was saying, I m feeling anxious and I m feeling hints of old anxiety.
11
SPEAKER_00
All anxiety.
11
SPEAKER_01
No, when I had like really bad anxiety and I had panic attacks and all those things, and I can feel something happening.
11
SPEAKER_01
And so I was telling her like, I really don t want it to get back to that point.
11
SPEAKER_01
I don t know what s going on.
11
SPEAKER_01
And we came to this conclusion that was sort of interesting where I think, and I m sharing this because it could be helpful to other people, perhaps.
11
SPEAKER_01
I think my anxiety is there as a protection mechanism in some ways.
11
SPEAKER_01
It comes in when I m avoiding another feeling.
11
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
11
SPEAKER_01
I was like, ah, I m anxious at home a lot.
11
SPEAKER_01
And my mom is driving so slow through this light, this traffic light.
11
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, ah, like, what are you doing?
11
SPEAKER_01
And it was making me so anxious.
11
SPEAKER_01
And then really what we got to was, I m just sad.
11
SPEAKER_01
I m sad that they re getting older and there are pieces of it that I see.
11
SPEAKER_00
Your grandpa s dying.
11
SPEAKER_01
Exactly.
11
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
11
SPEAKER_01
And it s, it s just really, it s actually very sad, but my brain doesn t let me have that feeling.
11
SPEAKER_01
So it just puts a bunch of fear on top of it instead.
11
SPEAKER_00
Right.
11
SPEAKER_00
That makes sense.
11
SPEAKER_00
Also, it s sad and it s scary.
11
SPEAKER_00
So you start ruminating on these other things that maybe have a solution or that you could control.
11
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, perhaps.
11
SPEAKER_00
Like you can t control people dying.
11
SPEAKER_01
No, or getting older.
11
SPEAKER_00
So it s like, let s focus for me on my financial insecurity.
11
SPEAKER_00
Like let s just decide instead that I m gonna be broke and then I can obsess about that and maybe fix that.
11
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it s just life has a lot of sadness.
11
SPEAKER_01
It really does.
11
SPEAKER_01
It s like full of it.
11
SPEAKER_01
It s a lot.
11
SPEAKER_01
And so, yeah, I think my brain goes into fear mode instead of sitting with sadness.
11
SPEAKER_01
It would rather sit with fear.
11
SPEAKER_00
I relate to that.
11
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
11
SPEAKER_00
That was my therapist the other day saying like, you re quite afraid of your own feelings and definitely that like, yeah, sadness and despair scare me.
11
SPEAKER_00
Like there s no coming back that you could surrender to it and it would be everlasting if you indulged it.
11
SPEAKER_00
But yeah, it doesn t feel like indulging anxiety is the same risk.
11
SPEAKER_01
It s all very interesting, but it s already helped in moments where I am feeling it a tiny bit, when I ve told myself there s something else I m actually feeling.
11
SPEAKER_01
What is that?
11
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, like focus in on the actual thing you re sad about and allow yourself to feel sad about it.
11
SPEAKER_01
Yes, this is happening because I m sad about this.
11
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
11
SPEAKER_01
And then the anxiety goes away because I ve just rationalized it away in some way, like found the answer.
11
SPEAKER_01
So that was good.
11
SPEAKER_00
Last update for me.
11
SPEAKER_00
I watched for the very first time.
11
SPEAKER_00
This is embarrassing.
12
SPEAKER_01
saying watch it on the airplane on the way home from Tennessee.
12
SPEAKER_01
It s a Wonderful Life.
12
SPEAKER_01
Have you watched that movie ever?
12
SPEAKER_00
Oh that, isn t that a ding ding ding sad movie?
12
SPEAKER_01
in the most joyful movie imaginable at the same time, it makes me now wanna see all the Frank Capra movies, because it s so incredibly well done.
12
SPEAKER_01
I haven t seen it.
12
SPEAKER_01
Have you seen it?
12
SPEAKER_01
Okay, I hadn t either, and I didn t like how old it is and that everyone s seen it, and then I finally watched it, and honestly, especially what you re talking about with the TJ Maxx and all the other stuff, I was crying on the airplane at the end of it.
12
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, people cry in that movie.
12
SPEAKER_01
It s a wonderful movie.
12
SPEAKER_01
It s no wonder that it keeps getting played.
12
SPEAKER_01
It s really great.
12
SPEAKER_01
I think you should watch it.
12
SPEAKER_01
I think where you and I in particular, it s a good movie to see.
12
SPEAKER_00
Really?
12
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, because I think you and I are both very, very goal oriented and we have a laundry list of things that will be lovable and likable if we achieve.
12
SPEAKER_01
And then often we miss like the very best things we re doing for everyone have nothing to do with that.
12
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, well that s nice.
12
SPEAKER_01
And the sadness, back to the sadness, the sadness is the T.J.
12
SPEAKER_01
Maxx of it all.
12
SPEAKER_01
It s not getting.
12
SPEAKER_00
I know, but I m already feeling, I m already like.
12
SPEAKER_01
You re already in T.J.
12
SPEAKER_01
Maxx land.
12
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I m already in T.J.
12
SPEAKER_00
Maxx land.
12
SPEAKER_00
I don t know if I can double down.
12
SPEAKER_01
I understand, I understand.
12
SPEAKER_00
But we ll see.
12
SPEAKER_00
I ll let you know.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay, we do have some facts.
12
SPEAKER_00
Who is this for?
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
12
SPEAKER_00
The first episode for 2024 is Taraji P. Henson.
12
SPEAKER_00
She was so lovely.
12
SPEAKER_01
She was.
12
SPEAKER_00
She s a firecracker.
12
SPEAKER_01
There we go.
12
SPEAKER_00
And I felt like she was very spiritually evolved.
12
SPEAKER_01
Mm-hmm.
12
SPEAKER_01
She also had that superpower you and I are attracted to, which doesn t seem like she was suffering much at the notion that people liked her or didn t like her.
12
SPEAKER_01
We like that a lot, right?
12
SPEAKER_01
We always covet that when we meet people that seemingly are fine with themselves.
12
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, she was really cool.
12
SPEAKER_00
I like that we re opening this year with her because she s very positive, extremely positive, and not without a bunch of hardship, but yeah, just a beautiful person.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay, but she talked about 1010, the number 1010, and we have talked about how I always see 1111.
12
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, she loves 1010.
12
SPEAKER_00
She loves 1010.
12
SPEAKER_00
I love 1111.
12
SPEAKER_00
It s all numerology.
12
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
12
SPEAKER_01
Well, you said it s all hooey.
12
SPEAKER_01
I looked it up.
12
SPEAKER_00
No, it s not.
12
SPEAKER_00
It s real.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
12
SPEAKER_00
1010 is what they call an angel number.
12
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
12
SPEAKER_00
Well, 2-2-2-2, 5-5-5, 3-3-3, and 11-11 have spiritual connections, but 10-10 is also an angel number.
12
SPEAKER_01
Ding, ding, ding, it s a wonderful life.
12
SPEAKER_00
Oh, angels.
12
SPEAKER_01
There s angels, yep.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay, according to Glamour magazine, angel numbers are thought to offer support and guidance from guardian angels or even the universe, and each angel number has a different meaning.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay, now, that s from Glamour mag, but now I m gonna go to Allure mag,
12
SPEAKER_01
Oh wow, we re getting all the well-researched.
12
SPEAKER_01
Then we re going to Young Miss after that.
12
SPEAKER_01
We got an article out of YM and Sassy.
12
SPEAKER_00
Oh my God, I bought a really funny vintage book called like Women in Fitness or something.
12
SPEAKER_00
And it has this...
12
SPEAKER_00
young lady on the front.
12
SPEAKER_00
It s from like the 40s about how to keep fit.
12
SPEAKER_00
It s so funny.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay, I m gonna read some.
12
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
12
SPEAKER_00
Zero, zero, zero, or zero, zero, zero, zero.
12
SPEAKER_00
Zero is associated with new opportunities.
12
SPEAKER_00
When you witness zero in a sequence, either within a set of three, four, or within a pattern, this could signify a fresh start.
12
SPEAKER_00
You re at the very beginning of a brand new cycle, which means you can create whatever your heart desires.
12
SPEAKER_00
Don t be afraid to make big, bold decisions at this point in your journey.
12
SPEAKER_01
The listener won t appreciate this as much as I do, but I do need to explain that normally I m looking at you on the couch and your eyes go down to your computer to tell me these facts.
12
SPEAKER_01
I m in a very weird and privileged position, which is you re also FaceTiming me from your computer.
12
SPEAKER_01
So you re virtually looking into the lens to read to me.
12
SPEAKER_00
Oh my God, weird.
12
SPEAKER_01
Yes, it s a very new experience with the facts.
12
SPEAKER_00
Oh no, is it like when you sing to me?
12
SPEAKER_01
Well, no, I don t mind this.
12
SPEAKER_00
Are you sure?
12
SPEAKER_00
Do you need to cover your eyes?
12
SPEAKER_01
No, no, no, no.
12
SPEAKER_01
No, I like it.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
12
SPEAKER_01
It s like you ve memorized the facts entirely because you re looking me directly in the eyes and reading out loud.
12
SPEAKER_01
It s like a monologue.
12
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay, 1-1-1 or 11-11, this is mine.
12
SPEAKER_00
One is a powerful manifestation figure.
12
SPEAKER_00
If you encounter one as an angel number, either within a set of three, four, or within a pattern, relish the opportunity to make a wish, set an intention, or plant a seed.
12
SPEAKER_00
And this is believed to indicate a green light from the universe.
12
SPEAKER_00
You are working with extraordinary support from your angels, guides, or ancestors, so at that moment, the present and future are dynamically connected.
12
SPEAKER_01
Oh, wonderful.
12
SPEAKER_01
And Matthew McConaughey s probably excited about that.
12
SPEAKER_01
Zero, zero, zero, green lights.
12
SPEAKER_01
Green lights.
12
SPEAKER_01
Hello, Mr. Universe.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay, ready?
12
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
12
SPEAKER_01
2-2-2 or 2-2-2-2?
12
SPEAKER_00
Two suggests balance, trust, and alignment.
12
SPEAKER_00
Experiencing two in a sequence, either within a set of three, four, or within a pattern, could mean that someone either in the physical realm or spiritual domain is helping you get where you need to go.
12
SPEAKER_00
Seeing twos could indicate that it s an excellent time to reach out to your most trusted companion to see if divine collaboration is possible.
12
SPEAKER_01
Oh my God, divine collaboration.
12
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay, three, three, three, or three, three, three, three.
12
SPEAKER_00
Three is an indication of magnetic creativity.
12
SPEAKER_00
Noticing three as an angel number, either three, four within a pattern, could mean that you have the opportunity to add your unique talents and abilities to a situation.
12
SPEAKER_00
Moreover, the presence of three indicates that by leaning into your innate gifts, you ll find more value and abundance in whatever circumstances you are navigating.
12
SPEAKER_00
Your artistic expression is critical.
12
SPEAKER_01
Imperative.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay, I m only gonna do one more.
12
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
12
SPEAKER_00
I m gonna do fours because we re in 2024.
12
SPEAKER_01
And I love fours.
12
SPEAKER_00
Evens.
12
SPEAKER_01
Twos and fours.
12
SPEAKER_00
Four symbolizes stabilization.
12
SPEAKER_00
Observing four as an angel number, either within a set of three, four, or within a pattern.
12
SPEAKER_00
I forgot that was coming.
12
SPEAKER_01
You did?
12
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
12
SPEAKER_00
Suggest that you are in the process of grounding, rooting, and cultivating an infrastructure that s truly built to last.
12
SPEAKER_00
When interacting with four, don t be afraid to ask for help or assistance, DAX, especially if you re navigating long-term projects that require specific expertise.
12
SPEAKER_00
Fundamentally, this is about establishing trust that will empower you to reach new heights.
12
SPEAKER_01
Ooh.
12
SPEAKER_01
You know, I think it s all hogwash, and yet I do love even numbers, and I am delighted that the explanation of four being stability, and two, because that is the thing I like about it, is it feels like it s not gonna tip over.
12
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and that means this year s gonna be really grounded, and good, and- Stable.
12
SPEAKER_00
Stable, we love that.
12
SPEAKER_01
Don t need to chew tobacco, there s no reason to do it.
12
SPEAKER_00
You don t need to.
12
SPEAKER_01
So stable.
12
SPEAKER_00
Okay, actually though, I m gonna do one more, because you re turning,
12
SPEAKER_01
I don t like what age I m turning.
12
SPEAKER_01
I almost want to skip over the age.
12
SPEAKER_01
Cause you know how I do it.
12
SPEAKER_01
I alternate.
12
SPEAKER_01
So last year I focused on the fact that I was 48 in an even number because it was 23 and I hate that year.
12
SPEAKER_01
But I just focused on my birthday.
12
SPEAKER_01
So now I ve transitioned perfectly into, now I m focused on the year and I m ignoring my birthday.
12
SPEAKER_01
Cause nine s not great.
12
SPEAKER_01
At least it s divisible though, I guess.
12
SPEAKER_01
That s nice.
12
SPEAKER_01
Three times three.
12
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, actually it doesn t even make sense for me to read nine because it s not within a set of three, four within a pattern.
12
SPEAKER_00
Right.
12
SPEAKER_00
It doesn t even make sense.
12
SPEAKER_01
No, it doesn t apply here.
12
SPEAKER_00
Anyway, I always make wishes on 1111.
12
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I want you to keep doing it.
12
SPEAKER_00
I will forever.
12
SPEAKER_01
I happen to be around you quite often on 1111 because we record at 11 often.
12
SPEAKER_00
Well, yeah, and I just happened to look at it at that time.
12
SPEAKER_01
What if you set an alarm on your phone for 1111 and in every interview that we started, like 11 minutes in, your phone goes off and then you make a wish out loud?
12
SPEAKER_01
I mean, that could be part of the resolution too.
12
SPEAKER_00
I do have, on my alarms, I have 1111 saved.
12
SPEAKER_01
Oh, you do?
12
SPEAKER_01
Wow, you only have two alarms?
12
SPEAKER_00
I deleted all of them and I kept 1111.
12
SPEAKER_00
Oh, wow.
12
SPEAKER_00
And then I have another one that changes every day.
12
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I have 50 or 60.
12
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it s fun to delete them.
12
SPEAKER_01
I should.
12
SPEAKER_00
Try it.
12
SPEAKER_00
I will.
12
SPEAKER_00
For your birthday.
12
SPEAKER_00
How are you feeling about your birthday tomorrow?
12
SPEAKER_00
It s tomorrow.
12
SPEAKER_01
Generally, I m fine with it.
12
SPEAKER_01
I guess inching towards 50 is bizarre.
12
SPEAKER_00
Mm-hmm.
12
SPEAKER_01
But I feel very youthful and athletic and healthy.
12
SPEAKER_01
So.
12
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you are.
12
SPEAKER_01
I guess who cares?
12
SPEAKER_01
I guess more I m thinking like, okay, actually this is exactly what the, this, this birthday signifies to me.
12
SPEAKER_01
Cause I m so bad at asking for something that I want or.
12
SPEAKER_01
So the clock has started.
12
SPEAKER_01
I have a year to think of what I want for my 50th birthday.
12
SPEAKER_01
Cause I know that ll be a big thing.
12
SPEAKER_01
Like, well, what do you want to do?
12
SPEAKER_01
And I ll be like, I don t know, go roller skating and it won t be eventful.
12
SPEAKER_01
Basically I have a
13
SPEAKER_00
and I do want to think of something that s really memorable and fun.
13
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
13
SPEAKER_00
You know, I think what compounds me getting older, and I m sure a lot of people who have parents that died really young feel this way.
13
SPEAKER_00
It s always weird when I go, okay, well, I was at my dad s 50th party.
13
SPEAKER_00
I flew back to Michigan.
13
SPEAKER_00
And he was old, like he was having a hard time walking.
13
SPEAKER_00
His breathing was bad.
13
SPEAKER_00
He had heart disease really bad.
13
SPEAKER_00
So that s really weird, like how differently my 50th party will be than his.
13
SPEAKER_00
But then also you just, I d be crazy not to go like, wow, and he only had 12 more years.
13
SPEAKER_00
So I think having a parent that died young is the only part that gets tricky about getting older for me.
13
SPEAKER_00
Or I m like, I just haven t seen a shepherd go long distance.
13
SPEAKER_00
And I very much want to.
13
SPEAKER_01
Well, you will, and you do things in your life to maximize that chance.
13
SPEAKER_01
I do, for the most part.
13
SPEAKER_00
That they did not do.
13
SPEAKER_00
Yes, yes, yeah.
13
SPEAKER_01
Well, which is why I guess dipping is stopping.
13
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, although I really don t think I would die of it.
13
SPEAKER_00
But yes, but yes, yes.
13
SPEAKER_00
Knock on wood.
13
SPEAKER_00
Come in.
13
SPEAKER_01
Well, I m excited for your birthday.
13
SPEAKER_00
Thank you, thank you.
13
SPEAKER_00
And then we have another exciting year ahead of us.
13
SPEAKER_01
Oh my gosh, it s gonna be a good year, I really feel it.
13
SPEAKER_00
You re feeling it, oh good, good, good, good.
13
SPEAKER_00
I don t have a pull one way or another, I m not pessimistic about it, I just haven t had a big grip of anything about it.
13
SPEAKER_00
So I m delighted to hear that it s tracking to be positive.
13
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it is.
13
SPEAKER_01
Okay, wait, hold on.
13
SPEAKER_01
I think I might have one more fact.
13
SPEAKER_01
Oh, great.
13
SPEAKER_01
Did Whoopi win an Oscar for The Color Purple 1985?
13
SPEAKER_01
No.
13
SPEAKER_01
It got a lot of nominations, but no wins.
13
SPEAKER_00
No wins.
13
SPEAKER_00
Not Oprah?
13
SPEAKER_00
She got nominated, though.
13
SPEAKER_01
Nominated, but nope.
13
SPEAKER_01
And Whoopi nominated, but nope.
13
SPEAKER_01
Best Pitcher nominated, but no.
13
SPEAKER_00
It didn t win Best Pitcher?
13
SPEAKER_01
Mm-mm.
13
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
13
SPEAKER_01
But it, yeah, it got, let s see how many.
13
SPEAKER_01
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 nominations.
13
SPEAKER_00
Ooh.
13
SPEAKER_00
Oh, can I do one thing?
13
SPEAKER_00
Just cause it s been requested a lot.
13
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
13
SPEAKER_01
Hermian Permian.
13
SPEAKER_00
Oh my God.
13
SPEAKER_00
Great.
13
SPEAKER_00
Great.
13
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
13
SPEAKER_00
But I m not sure what he would say.
13
SPEAKER_01
What do we say about the new year?
13
SPEAKER_00
Well, it s 2024 already, and I guess I just picked my head up for one second, looked up, and I thought, wow, I thought it was 2018 still, but that time it ll boogie by on you.
13
SPEAKER_00
Over here, Hermie and Permian, we re having a real nice little celebration to bring in the new year.
13
SPEAKER_00
Got my friend over.
13
SPEAKER_00
I don t know what a new year is.
13
SPEAKER_00
I am slotted to live for a thousand years.
13
SPEAKER_00
This guy s the greatest.
13
SPEAKER_00
He s going to be around for 1,000 years.
13
SPEAKER_00
We re just a tiny speck on his long, long arc of history.
13
SPEAKER_00
So try to make it a good spark.
13
SPEAKER_00
That s why I invite him over all the time.
13
SPEAKER_00
Hermian Birmingham.
13
SPEAKER_00
I hope everybody gets all their wishes come true this year, because I know we re living the good life over here in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, USA.
13
SPEAKER_00
Don t need to wish for nothing, already got it all.
13
SPEAKER_00
Got a good friend here, my friend Robot.
13
SPEAKER_00
Thank you for calling me your friend.
13
SPEAKER_00
He s a good boy.
13
SPEAKER_00
Oh my God, he s glad I was a boy.
13
SPEAKER_00
The robot had his same speech impediment for a second, but I cleaned it up midway.
13
SPEAKER_01
Oh, my God.
13
SPEAKER_01
Oh, I love this friendship.
13
SPEAKER_01
What a beautiful friendship.
13
SPEAKER_00
I ve got a whole day of movie watching planned.
13
SPEAKER_00
It s all films with famous robots.
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Star Wars, CP3PO, RD2-2.
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Then we go straight into Daryl, the boy that was a robot.
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Shortcut.
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He loved Shortcut.
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SPEAKER_01
Oh.
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SPEAKER_00
I know you don t like Shortcut, Miss Monica, because of its racism.
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SPEAKER_01
That s right.
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I know it s not for me and I find it offensive.
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SPEAKER_00
I would never put that on if you were at my house, Miss Monica.
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SPEAKER_01
What would you play for me?
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SPEAKER_00
Bend It Like Beckham.
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SPEAKER_00
That s a celebration of an Indian girl reaching for the stars and touching them.
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SPEAKER_01
Listen, that s really funny that you brought up Bend It Like Beckham, because it s come up a few times recently, again, Sam, numerology, threes, pattern of threes.
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SPEAKER_01
Thirds of charm.
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SPEAKER_00
And because- I can t believe all the things it said about three, it didn t say it s the charm.
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SPEAKER_00
That was a mistake.
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SPEAKER_01
That was, you re right.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah, Bend It Like Beckham.
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It came up and then Rachel, my friend Rachel was looking for it.
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SPEAKER_01
We were on a group text and she said, oh, good news.
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SPEAKER_01
You can watch it here for free or whatever.
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SPEAKER_01
And I said, Bend It Like Beckham was so triggering for me.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah, scary movie.
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SPEAKER_01
And I actually brought this up in therapy because people saw it and then they recognized that I was Indian too, and she outed me.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00
Dumb soccer player.
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SPEAKER_00
Shined a big ol  light on your brownness.
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SPEAKER_01
Yep, and no one would have known if it wasn t for her.
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SPEAKER_00
Nope.
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SPEAKER_01
And I was doing such a good job and she ruined it.
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SPEAKER_01
Now, when I was with my mom the other day, she wanted to go into an Indian grocery store.
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SPEAKER_00
Oh, right, yes.
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SPEAKER_01
To get something.
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SPEAKER_01
And we go in there, as soon as I step foot in that grocery store, I have a visceral,
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SPEAKER_00
Physiological response.
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SPEAKER_01
Yes, like I have to get out of here.
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SPEAKER_01
I hate it in here.
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SPEAKER_00
What if you would have put a hoodie on and stuff to disguise yourself?
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SPEAKER_01
If I had one, I would have.
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SPEAKER_01
I had to literally say to myself a few times, you re not seven.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_01
It s okay to be here.
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SPEAKER_00
Right, yes, yes, yes.
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SPEAKER_01
Nothing s gonna happen to you.
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SPEAKER_00
You re not gonna be excluded.
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SPEAKER_00
You re not in danger here.
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SPEAKER_00
You re not gonna be hurt.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_01
Isn t that crazy?
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SPEAKER_00
They re deep.
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SPEAKER_00
They re deep.
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SPEAKER_00
As Gabor says to us, it takes us out of the present and puts us in another timeframe.
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SPEAKER_01
Like eyes.
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SPEAKER_00
When we re seven.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00
Time travel.
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SPEAKER_00
Way to wrap it all up.
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SPEAKER_00
All the loose ends have been knotted.
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SPEAKER_01
We did it.
13
SPEAKER_00
Happy New Year to everybody.
13
SPEAKER_01
Happy New Year.
13
SPEAKER_01
Happy day before your birthday, Dax Shepard.
13
SPEAKER_00
Thank you.
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SPEAKER_01
And we ll see you guys on Thursday.
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SPEAKER_00
A couple dozen times a week for the next year.
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SPEAKER_01
Right.
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SPEAKER_00
All right.
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SPEAKER_00
Love you.
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SPEAKER_00
Bye.
13
SPEAKER_01
Love you.