Original subtitles

[man] Right here, sir.

All right, guys, we're up.

Camera speeding.

- [man] Is that us? - [man 2] Yeah.

Can we hold the noise down?

- [man 3] Quiet please. - [man 4] Rolling.

What's this about?

[Reginald Hudlin] It's for a documentary called Number One on the Call Sheet.

[Hudlin, narrating] There's a lot of great Black actors

who are tremendous pioneers in this business.

[Hudlin] We have you and people like you

who are for real movie stars

at the top of the food chain in Hollywood.

What's it like to actually, you know, have artistic success,

to have financial success, to exist in this town?

[laughs]

That's a big question, I--

- You know-- - [Hudlin] Yeah.

Was that a question or that's the overall--

- That was the answer. - Oh, that was answering my question.

- Okay. - We'll do it a bit at a time.

Okay, thank you. Thank you.

["Superstar" by Lupe Fiasco playing]

[man] On my mark.

[Don Cheadle] "Number one on the call sheet."

What does it mean?

I think it means a lot of stuff.

Number one on the call sheet means to me they look to you to lead by example.

Number one on the call sheet? Yeah, you that guy. Know what I mean?

That's kind of like hitting the lottery in a way.

It's incredibly humbling. It's empowering.

[crowd cheering]

You're the franchise player.

It means we made it.

"Number one on the call sheet." You actually don't hear that phrase a lot.

It just says it on the call sheet: "Number one."

You see your name and it's… it's a magic moment for most actors.

[Hudlin] When you work on a movie set, a call sheet is what you get

that explains the work that you're gonna do the next day.

It's something that every production has.

It's not just the actors, but the crew and everybody.

The entire production.

[Michael B. Jordan] You know, you get that call sheet,

and it was a testament, you know what I'm saying?

"Where you at?" You're constantly ranking yourself.

[Idris Elba] When you're, like, number 56, and your character doesn't have a name.

And you're just, you know, "Man."

You kind of slowly saw your name move up, from, you know, 12, 13, on up.

[Elba] When I got to a stage where I became number one on the call sheet,

it's an accomplishment, it's a status thing.

And it's a pride, you know, it's like, "Yeah, I'm number one."

There's a scene in Apocalypse Now that got cut from the original film,

and then it's been put back in the Redux.

I was, you know, I guess I was 14, 15, whatever.

Trying to do this scene, talking about, you know, really… sex.

And I had no sexual experience.

Like, none.

And Francis Coppola couldn't figure out how to get me to…

be any more experienced than I am.

But he kept asking me to do it over and over again.

I did something like 40 takes.

It was really bad.

And I could tell that he was disappointed.

So I was feeling really, really down. Really dejected.

You know, I was just… [inhales]

And I heard Martin whisper in my ear…

He said…

"Did anyone ever tell you you were a really good actor?"

And I said, "No."

He said, "You're a really good actor."

That's what being number one on the call sheet is about for me.

Saved my life.

People often ask me,

"How'd you become a writer, producer, actor…

You know, you directed, comedian…

How have you done all that?"

And I say, "Out of necessity."

Why did we eat pig feet back in the day?

Cause we wasn't getting steak.

And we had to make them pig guts and them pig feet taste phenomenal.

[laughs]

So that's what we do, brother.

We know very well that it's all about what's happening in the rearview mirror.

Hollywood is very much about what just worked,

not about "Let's take a chance on what might work."

We go through these periods of time where there's an enlightenment…

Obama gets elected, or George Floyd,

something happens where people go, like,

"Oh, wait we need to open up the lens a little bit,

and like, bring more voices in

and, like, actually try to investigate different stories

that, you know, people who haven't been centered--

let's center these people," and then it…

[chuckling] People forget about it and it goes back the way it was.

You can be fooled

and think we've had more success than we've had.

You can go to the movie theaters

and you can see a lot of movie stars and a lot of movies, uh,

starring great, diverse talent,

but when you drill into who are making the decisions

on what's getting green-lit,

that really has not changed much at all.

Early on, I didn't know how many opportunities I would have

to be first on the call sheet.

So I think about my grandmother picking cotton,

think about my grandfather,

I think about all of my family,

what they had to do in order for me to be in this position.

We're just… we're entertaining, man. We're out here doing it.

And that's because those doors have been…

[voice strained] …cracked open.

The actors of now,

we don't get here without your Denzels,

your Morgans, your Sams,

your Wesleys, Keenens,

your Martins, your fucking Eddies,

Richard, Sidney…

The list isn't as long as you think.

[laughing] Man, that tickles.

You some harmonica player.

Oh, stop crowing, man. There's nothing to celebrate.

Sidney Poitier. The first Avenger.

That's how I feel.

You know what I mean, came in here and just

opened a whole entire perspective for us.

Which is bigger than film.

It's an idea.

And when that idea transcends over years,

and you see Denzel Washington pick up his Oscar and say,

"Sidney, I'll always be chasing you,

I'll always be following in your footsteps…"

Forty years I've been chasing Sidney,

they finally give it to me and what do they do?

They give it to him same night.

[laughter, applause]

I'll always be chasing you, Sidney.

I'll always be following in your footsteps.

[Boyega] It inspires you in a way that you could have never thought of

and for me, Sidney Poitier always represents that,

and represents legacy.

There were guys before him that he'll talk about.

James Edwards, Canada Lee,

Paul Robeson, Hattie McDaniel…

Great actors.

That's why when you look at Sidney Poitier, God bless,

how amazing to be able to crack that code

at a time where we couldn't even sit in certain places in a restaurant.

There was civil unrest…

And I remember watching this interview where Sidney says,

[mimicking Poitier] "I was always taught… that…

I was worth more.

We didn't have money.

But I was taught…

that I was worth… more."

So to see him crack the code, you go, "Ooh."

Now that we know what that code is,

we go, "Oh, shit, he was not fucking around then."

Why'd you two come here?

Your attitudes, Mr. Endicott,

your points of view, are a matter of record.

You know, Sidney, when that white man slapped him…

[grunts]

[Foxx] …and he slapped that white man back so quick,

what was crazy about that, when you see that happen,

Black people didn't even get enough time to be mad,

'cause he slapped him so fast.

"Oh, man-- Ohh, shit!"

[laughing]

[mimics two slaps] It was like ping-pong.

[mimics slap]

I said, "If he slaps me, I'm going to slap him back.

You will put on paper…"

- [light gasp] - "…that the studio agrees

that the film will be shown nowhere in the world

with me standing there, taking the slap."

God, you had this written into the contract?

That's right.

[Nina Shaw] Actors like Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis, Jr.,

and Harry Belafonte realized that,

they had to advocate for social justice as part of what they did.

They were potentially risking losing their careers

by being too vocal about civil rights.

[Jordan] I think one of the biggest difference between the OGs

and our generation,

is the level of struggle and fight that they had to go through

in order to have the success that they had at that moment.

The racism which permeates American life from top to bottom

in very subtle ways and in very aggressive, obvious ways,

the Negroes paid a terrible price for this.

If the generations before me hadn't been honest about certain things.

I wouldn't enjoy a certain level of comfort.

You know when they say, "They opened the doors?"

That stuff is literal.

There's a whole different set of circumstances

when it comes to white actors and actresses and what they deal with.

With us, since it's not that many,

this business can overcomplicate it.

You know, as a Black man, this position…

it goes away if you make one mistake. You know what I mean, like,

the intensity of the responsibility of that position

sometimes is a double-edged sword.

The patience attached to white talent, the longevity in it,

is a lot longer than the patience attached to Black talent.

They go, "It's all on you if it doesn't work."

Somebody's gotta take the blame.

Are Black men and Black women getting the roles

that they should get in the theater, on television?

Are we making progress?

I don't know. I feel that, um…

we have a real major problem in the industry.

Totally.

So where is the problem? It's not the general public.

The general public doesn't have that problem.

Who's got the problem?

The problem has to do with the producers and their own fears

that this is not what the general public is gonna wanna see.

General public wants to see a talent.

They wanna see someone talented.

When you look at the '70s, to think…

that Cleavon Little can be the star in Blazing Saddles,

the biggest movie of the year,

and in the course of four years, can't get another leading man role?

He had to go back to Broadway.

How do you star in Blazing Saddles and not get one movie offer as a lead?

I don't have an answer to that other than racism.

Entertainment business likes to pick the one, when it comes to Black people.

You're the one for this era.

And you have to represent all of Black people.

But if you look at the history of Black cinema,

there's been times where that cycle of the one has been broken.

["Hollywood Swinging" by Kool & the Gang playing]

[gunshot]

But in the 1970s, you see an explosion of Black self-expression.

Shaft, Super Fly, Foxy Brown…

They really wanted to reflect the politics and the culture of the time,

which was Black folks were tired of taking low.

Dolemite is my name, and fucking up motherfuckers is my game.

[Hudlin] But those stars found a ceiling.

So then as we shift from the '70s to the '80s,

two major Black stars emerged.

Eddie Murphy and Prince.

Prince was such a big music star that he started making his own movies.

The winner is Prince for Purple Rain.

And as big as he was, Eddie Murphy was even bigger.

[singing "Roxanne" by The Police]

- [continues singing falsetto] - Is that him?

- Hammond! - [continues singing]

- Hammond! - [feedback squeals]

Early on, Sidney said-- I didn't know if it was an insult

or a compliment, or something. It was like…

They were talking about doing Malcolm X.

Norman Jewison was putting it together, and they were gonna use

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley.

And they approached me about playing Alex Haley.

And some-kind-of-where around that same time

I bumped into Sidney Poitier at something.

And I asked him, "Yeah, I'm thinking about playing Alex Haley."

And Sidney Poitier said, uh,

[mimics Poitier] "You are not Denzel, and you are not Morgan.

You are a breath of fresh air.

And don't fuck with that."

And I was like, "What?"

[laughing]

I'm Axel Foley, Beverly Hills building inspector.

I can see. I can see!

Hey, hey, hey! What's happening, everybody?

[hooting laughter]

I would say Eddie Murphy is the person I have emulated most in my life.

I would say I know more words that Eddie Murphy said than anybody.

When I started my career, Eddie was what I was shooting for.

I told my team, I wanted to be Eddie Murphy in Star Wars.

Those were the kind of scripts that I wanted.

To me, Independence Day was my attempt to be Eddie Murphy in Star Wars.

Men In Black was my attempt to be Eddie Murphy in Star Wars.

I make this look good.

He was the biggest impact on me

as an actor and an entertainer.

Good morning, my neighbors!

[man] Hey, fuck you!

Yes! Yes!

Fuck you, too!

Eddie was one of my, what you could say, idols that I looked up to, so to speak.

He was the reason why I was in comedy, you know, him and Richard Pryor.

So to get the opportunity to work with him.

You can imagine how happy I was.

I knew that was a big blessing.

And then to see how sharp he was, and how quick he was.

Just a comedic genius.

And if you try to take my cornbread, part two of my killing spree

gonna begin up in here on your ass right now.

You fuck around with me, there's gonna be consequences and repercussions.

- [grunts] - [prisoners groaning]

Get up!

I got successful really, really young.

I kind of wasn't surprised because really early on

I just kinda knew I was gonna be fa--

I started, when I'm around 16, I'm going, "I'm gonna be famous."

I wanna get…

I would say famous by the time I'm 21.

I'm 19 now. I give myself two years.

When I was 19, I got Saturday Night Live,

and things just started happening.

- Should I get in the hot tub? - Yeah!

- Will it make me sweat? - Yeah!

- Should I get in the hot tub? - Yeah!

- Will it make me wet? - Yeah!

- Here I go in the hot tub. - [band playing funk tune]

[mimics James Brown scream]

♪ Too hot in the hot tub! ♪

♪ Burn myself ♪

I didn't go through all of the stuff that a lot of actors--

I didn't go through auditions.

I had one audition my whole life.

I think I'm the only actor that could say that.

I had one audition. It was for Saturday Night Live.

- [Paul Reubens] Eddie Murphy! - [cheering]

Eddie, baby!

It's as close as you can get to, you know, overnight success.

'Cause I'm on SNL, when I'm 18, 19 years old.

I did 48 Hrs. I turned 21 on that movie.

Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places, and 48 Hrs…

And Delirious is there, too.

That's all within the same two, three year period.

It's that boom, boom, boom, boom, back to back to back shit.

I remember once… [chuckles] …at Saturday Night Live,

Larry Holmes was there for something.

And the producer said, "Hey, you know, go down there and talk to Eddie.

You know, he's making a lot of money. Give him some advice."

And Larry Holmes just came to my dressing room, and said,

[deep voice] "Don't forget where you came from."

And I was like, "All right, nigga, what's up?"

What's this nigga talking-- [laughs]

And James Brown told me to…

He asked-- he told me I should stop cursing.

He said, "If you wanna be in this business for a long time,

you should stop that cursing."

And he said, "You think you got a million dollars?"

I said, "Yeah I do." He said, "You ain't got no million dollars."

He said, "If you do got a million dollars, you take it and you bury it in the woods."

And I said, "Why bury my money in the woods?"

He said, "The government will take it from you. So bury it."

And I was like, "But can't the government take your land?"

And he said, "But they won't know where the money is."

That's a true story. That's the kind of advice I used to get.

We didn't have a lot of elders, you know, you could-- [laughs]

- [laughter] - [man] Whoo!

I was in uncharted waters.

For Sidney and all those guys,

when I showed up, it was something kind of new.

They didn't have a reference for me, they couldn't give me advice,

'cause I was 20, 21 years old

and my audience was the mainstream, all everywhere.

Like, my movies all around the world, and

they had never had that with a young Black person,

so nobody could give me advice, really.

Everything broke really big, really fast.

I remember once… [chuckles]

21 years old. Marlon Brando calls my agent.

"Hey, I wanna have lunch with this kid."

And that was a trip.

He saw 48 Hrs., and he said,

[mimics Brando] "When you said, 'I'm your worst nightmare…'"

You know what I am? I'm your worst fucking nightmare, man.

"'I'm a nigger with a badge…'"

I'm a nigger with a badge. That means I got permission

to kick your fucking ass whenever I feel like it.

"'That means I've got permission to come in here

and kick your fucking ass, whenever I want to.'

That's when you became a star."

And I was like, "Goddamn, Marlon Brando. Shit!"

[laughing]

"Was I doing the shit like that, Marlon Brando?"

[Hudlin] After the success of House Party,

we got a phone call from Eddie Murphy's office.

He wanted to talk to us about making a movie together.

So suddenly for my second movie,

I'm working with the biggest movie star in the world.

He sends this script called Boomerang.

And it's a romantic comedy.

And I read it and I knew immediately

that was the right story to tell

because Black audiences really hadn't had a romantic comedy like this.

That was the side of Black life

that wasn't about suffering or about pain.

We were leading successful lives

without worrying about where white people were.

They weren't in charge of anything.

They worked at a Black company.

They were living their happy Black lives.

It was their first kind of movie like that.

It's the first movie with young Black people

looking like that, the first Gen X with Black folks,

a romantic comedy.

Often, when you talk about making a political movie,

you think about making a film like The Battle of Algiers

about revolution in Africa.

But sometimes, the most revolutionary story you can tell

is a story about everyday, normal Black life.

This is from the LA Times, this reviewer says…

it says, "The most intriguing aspect of Boomerang, turns out,

not its story, but its racial composition."

It says, "This takes pains to create a reverse world

from which white people are invisible."

Oh, yeah, this cat in the LA Times is tripping

because there was a…

There were no… There were white people in the movie

but there were no, like, white leads in it.

And you take a picture like Boyz n the Hood,

no one tripped about that because it was a movie

- that dealt with a violent thing. - [Leno] Right.

But, regular thing and it was business.

"Where are the white people? Who's running that office?"

[audience applauding]

I was talking through the scene with Eddie,

where Strangé, played by Grace Jones,

arrives at this big party.

And I'm describing to him how this cabinet opens

and she's brought out by a chariot.

And Eddie stops me and goes, "Hey, wait a minute,

didn't you say that that box is carried by a helicopter?"

I said, "Yeah, but the studio said that the helicopter part's too expensive.

But it's okay because I've got this great new idea,"

and he goes, "No, no, but you said you wanted a helicopter."

I said, "Yeah, but, you know, it's okay, Eddie I got a new idea."

And he goes, "Ah," picks up his phone, makes a phone call,

and says, "Now, the helicopter comes, then what?"

[helicopter whirring]

[Hudlin] And I was like, "Wow, this is new.

This is new."

It's just… [chuckles] the Black star supporting the Black vision

and just doing it right.

[speaking French]

A lot of the movies that I've done have been like, "I'm doing this movie

because there hasn't been a movie like this with Black folks.

So, I have to do this."

That's why I did a movie like Pluto Nash.

I was like, "They ain't never had no niggas on the moon,

so I'm gonna be the first nigga on the moon

and that's gonna open it up for other niggas to be on the moon."

[laughs]

Those the girls right there? I think three is gonna work out just fine.

Ladies!

[Murphy] No matter what script you give me, I'm gonna do it like me.

You see that? I'm at your feet, baby.

Thank you so much. And I'd do anything for y'all.

I'm like that from Saturday Night Live, though.

I think the pace of that show, going on the show,

on Monday there's no show,

and then Saturday, we going live.

so I think being at that pace,

doing stuff at that pace in the beginning

just made it… that's the way I work all the time.

I was a disciplined person

and always was working.

And I used to just go and just do movies

and just be miserable doing the movies you was making

because you was getting a bag.

So you'd just go do something and you'd be miserable.

When I was young, success was just, you know,

making lots of money.

Money is just a small part of that.

I know a lot of rich people that are miserable people.

That ain't to say I've been an angel, goodie two-shoes,

but what stopped me from going over the edge any time in life

was that I've always been grounded spiritually.

Being a movie star, being a movie actor,

being an actor, you want to be thought of as good at what you do.

That's primarily it, you know.

The first thing I do when I get on set

is try to make everybody understand

that it's not a movie star that walked in.

I'm just an actor, I'm no different than you.

But when you see me coming, just stand back a little more.

[crew laughing]

I would say the primary difference that I'd run into

working with different actors is who is acting

and who's reading copy.

By that I mean, some actors are celebrities.

They don't, you know, they don't put on a different…

a different costume, yes, but a different persona, no.

You know them.

I remember being in an ensemble company in Philadelphia

and what we used to do, before rehearsals,

is these little exercises in trust.

Relax and give it up.

And so, the best actors are the ones who just give.

And I think that's part of the secret of it.

The whole thing.

Morgan Freeman.

Fucking Lean on Me, man.

As a product of bad schools and violence in schools,

that movie has so much meaning behind it.

The idea of a teacher, the idea of a principal,

the idea of giving a fuck about your youth.

[Joe Louis Clark] Look at me boy! Don't you smoke crack!

- [stammering] Yes, sir. - You know what that does to you?

- Huh? - No, sir.

It kills your brain cells, son, it kills your brain cells!

When you're destroying your brain cells,

you're doing the same as killing yourself, just slower!

Morgan Freeman, wow.

Uh, people, I think, underestimate how great of an actor

he is and has been for many, many years.

Gospel at Colonus. Whoa.

The movie he did, what was that, when he was a pimp?

- What was that movie? - [Hudlin] Street Smart.

Whoo! Street Smart. People are like, "Morgan Freeman's God."

I'm God.

Morgan Freeman's the devil. [laughs]

Go watch Street Smart.

That movie is scary, he's scary good in that movie.

[glass shattering]

Try going into business for yourself

- you'll be one dead whore. - Not my face, please.

It's not your face, bitch, it's my face.

- My tits and my ass! - Hey, take it easy, yeah?

I always wanted to be a star, I always, from childhood on,

I wanted to be accepted.

I won't say idolized,

but that's what I did as a kid, I went to the movies every day I could.

It cost 12 cents to get into a movie, I went every day.

[Hart] No one even knows how old Morgan Freeman is.

Nobody fuckin' knows.

It's at a point where people stop asking.

It didn't happen for you right away.

No, it did not. It took a while.

- Yeah. - It didn't start until '86.

- How old were you then? - Fifty.

That's pretty interesting because you feel like you've had a full career

having made 50 movies since 50.

I always say, it didn't have to happen at all.

[Hudlin] When you first read the script for Unforgiven,

- what did you think? - I wasn't thinking at all, Reggie.

I was in Africa.

Clint called me,

asked if I wanted to take this ride with him.

The script was called The William Munny Killings.

Clint had sat on this script for a long time

until he felt old enough to play that part

and then he called me out of the blue.

He said, "Do you wanna take this ride?"

Abso-- [mouths curse word]-lutely.

Uh…

This kid, what's he like?

Three ways?

I see you still have that Spencer rifle, huh?

Yeah.

And l can still knock the eye out of a bird flying, too.

As Morgan's star ascended,

it was so encouraging and…

…it gave you such a sense of hope and confidence

to see the quality of work that he was doing

and the range of work that he was doing,

'cause another thing that's great about Morgan is Morgan has range.

That's essentially what I've been looking for most of my career.

'Cause, you know, there was Larry Fishburne

who's the guy in King of New York

and the guy in School Daze,

and those two guys are completely diametrically opposed.

And then there's Othello,

and then there's Ike, and then there's the guy I played in Deep Cover.

And then, there's you know, Morpheus.

Come on! Stop trying to hit me and hit me!

Early in my career, mostly film-wise I was working with Francis

so I wound up doing Rumble Fish, Cotton Club and Gardens of Stone

in the early to mid '80s.

And then I also wound up on Pee-wee's Playhouse.

People would often try to clown me about it,

they'd be like, "Oh my God, you were Cowboy Curtis,"

I was like, "Yeah, that's right!"

How's your wiener doing, Cowboy Curtis?

Well, just a little bit overcooked, but that's just the way I like it.

How's your wiener, Pee-wee?

- Perfect! - Good. Let's eat.

Paul Reubens, his was really the first set I worked on

where it was incredibly diverse.

He had women in non-traditional roles,

he had them behind the camera and one of the PAs on that

was John Singleton.

And John had just graduated from SC Film School.

He was like, "I've written this thing,

I want you to play the father, and it's really great," and I was like,

"When you got it written and it's ready to go,

send it to me and I will read it."

So, a year and a half later,

he sent me the script to Boyz n the Hood.

And it was really, really brilliant.

I owe him a great debt.

I want y'all take a look at that sign up there.

See what it says?

Cash for your home.

You know what that is?

[both] It's a billboard.

What are y'all, Amos 'n' Andy?

Are you Stepin and he's Fetchit?

I'm talking about the message, what it stands for.

Boyz n the Hood, that was the biggest unexpected turn.

I did not know that the movie

was gonna hit to that magnitude.

Hey, man, what's wrong with you?

[hip- hop music playing]

Fuck you lookin' at, nigga?

I'm still tryin' to find out, nigga!

[man] Hold up, hold on.

We got a problem here?

We got a problem here?

I'll never forget, my agent at the time,

he's like, "Yeah, it's doing really well

at the Cannes Film Festival," I was like, "Cannes?"

I said, "Are they gonna release it here in LA?"

That was the funniest, that was like,

"Why is it over there?

We gotta release it here!" You know.

The 1990s was a different kind of revolution

in terms of Black cinema.

One that was fueled by Black filmmakers,

Black directors, Black writers, Black producers.

They're working within Hollywood

but they're not just doing genre movies.

They're doing movies that are a lot more personal.

[yelling] Wake up!

[Hudlin] This is the first generation of Black filmmakers

who went to film school.

Spike Lee, John Singleton, myself.

As exciting as the movies of the 1970s were,

these movies are a new style.

They're fresh and they cross over

in a way that we've never seen before.

[people shouting]

[Hudlin] They are relatable to everybody

even though they're being very culturally specific.

[people laughing and screaming]

For the first time we're seeing

the variation of what beauty was

because we were driving the narrative

of the beauty as we knew it.

We were really committed to making sure

that we were very true to the representation.

[Reuben Cannon] John Singleton, God rest his soul and God bless him,

because of where he grew up and what he knew about South Central

he had no reluctance to hire actors from the community.

But also a rapper from the community.

If you're looking at Hollywood from a business standpoint,

this is risky.

But Ice Cube's one of a kind.

Either they don't know…

…don't show…

…or don't care about what's going on in the hood.

You know, I was just lucky to do my first movie with John

because not only is he a filmmaker, but he's a teacher.

John told me, "Make sure you can write

because you're not gonna find too many Boyz n the Hoods

for you out here in Hollywood."

So, he told me that I could be a writer in films

because my records were so vivid.

[hip-hop beat]

You know, the process of writing a song is basically

trying to get an idea over

in three verses, three minutes.

With a movie, you really have to dig deeper

into the ideas, dig deeper into the characters.

Give these people a life and make you care about them.

It's a process that I really dig, I dig writing.

Excuse me, brother.

What we call drugs at 74th Street Baptist Church

[singing] we call a sinny-sin-sin.

♪ Well, around here Between Normandie and Western ♪

♪ We call this here A little twenty, twen twen! ♪

- [vocalizing] - ♪ Nigga! ♪

When I first started doing movies, I got 97%

of all the auditions I went on.

As much as I got auditions, I think

I got discouraged after I got Batman.

I was supposed to be Robin

but they wrote me out.

And then, the new one came

and the director had a different idea of what Robin was.

And that was a heartbreak for me.

I've never been the guy.

"The guy" is one of the maybe five guys

that gets the best script attached with the best director,

attached with the best producers with the biggest budget

and the biggest marketing campaign.

And of the five to ten guys in Hollywood

that get that opportunity,

maybe one or two of those guys at a time are Black.

I had brothers like John Singleton sit me down,

"What are you doing out here?"

- "I'm gonna be an actor." - "No, you gonna be a Black actor."

"Yeah, I'm Black, nigga," right?

"What does that mean? It means there's no work for you in Hollywood."

If you wanted to hold a gun in a movie

or get shot in a movie or TV show, that was all available.

I felt like I was going to be doing a lot of theater.

I was doing that cadence that we do,

work, unemployment, work, unemployment.

I went to professional waiter school because I thought, "Oh,

I may need a leg-up in this waiter game."

I was on Picket Fences for three years

and I really wanted to get off the show

because I was 12th on the call sheet,

and my character was the heart of the show.

Which, I'm like, "I don't wanna be the heart of the damn--"

I wanted to be the balls of the show, you know?

Get me out of here!

I quit that show and Devil in a Blue Dress came the very next year.

What happened?

I ain't had no time to be tying him up, Easy.

What?

- You just said don't shoot him, right? - That's right.

Well, I didn't, I just choked him.

- What? - How am I gonna help you out

if I'm back here fooling around with him?

Easy, look, if you ain't want him killed, why'd you leave him with me?

[hip-hop beat]

[Hudlin] By the end of the 1990s,

Hollywood's appetite for personal storytelling

was kinda drying up.

Suddenly it got very hard for Black filmmakers

to get movies made.

But Black cinema has launched a bunch of new movie stars,

which are being quickly adopted by the Hollywood mainstream.

You have Wesley Snipes, you have Laurence Fishburne,

and you have Denzel Washington

who becomes America's new leading man.

Nigger, you better get your hands off me.

- Ain't no niggers around here, hear me? - I see.

The white man give you a coupla stripes. Next thing, you orderin' everyone around.

Like you the massa hisself.

This. Look at me. Pencil detonator.

C-4. Highly explosive.

- Put 'em all together, you got a bomb. - [explosion]

[laid-back hip-hop music]

When you're talking about stars, it's a rarefied group of actors.

There's only so many of them under any race.

Denzel Washington represents the last 30 years

of Hollywood movie-making.

He is the standard bearer.

D was the dude I thought was the cool, square Black guy on St. Elsewhere.

When we seen him do what he did in that, and then [quietly] Malcolm X.

Come on.

You're playing one of the most powerful

but super-controversial characters

in our world.

Before there was any such thing as a Republican or a Democrat,

we were Black.

Before there was any such thing as a Mason or an Elk,

- we were Black. - [woman] Yes!

Before there was any such thing as a Jew or a Christian,

we were Black people.

In fact, before there was any such place as America,

we were Black.

And after America has long passed from the scene,

there will still be Black people.

[crowd cheers]

He plays the character to where, no matter where you came from,

he gave the character multi-dimensions.

But it was still wrapped in Black.

And then you see him emerging as saying, like, "I got the culture."

Before we was even saying the culture.

[Hudlin] Did you have a plan when you started your acting career?

Uh, yes.

To do Broadway and make $650 a week

and be like James Earl Jones.

That was as far as I saw. I wasn't a--

I still am not a movie buff.

But I really wasn't following a whole lot of movies.

I mean, the movies I watched growing up were, like, Super Fly, Shaft, so…

Once I started acting, I was more interested in the theater.

Movies were, you know… It's a director's medium.

You could be giving the performance of your life,

and you might be pushing in on the glass of water.

[chuckles] You know.

Theater is an actor's medium.

Once the curtain goes up, it belongs to the actors.

[man] Can I ask you a question?

How come you ain't never liked me?

Like you? [chuckles] Who the hell said I got to like you?

- [laughter] - What law is there say I got to like you?

You wanna stand up in my face and ask a damn fool ass question like that.

Talkin' about likin' somebody. Come here when I'm talkin' to you.

When I started, the Black stars were comedians.

Richard Pryor. Then Eddie Murphy.

I really wasn't looking at movies.

There weren't any parts for me to play anyway, you know?

In those days, you could be somebody's buddy.

You know, he gets the girl. He saves the day.

You pat him on the back, and "You can do it."

I got a part in a movie in 1986.

I called it, "The Nigga They Couldn't Kill."

- [crowd laughs] - Yeah.

- He was supposed to be a… - [laughter continues]

He raped a white woman, and they tried to electrocute him,

but it didn't work.

- And he became sort of a cult hero. - [woman] The one with George Segal?

No, not that one. That was the other awful one, but…

And then they try to hang him. And they try to do all this stuff, and…

- So anyway, to make a long story long… - [crowd laughs]

I call Sidney, and I was…

'Cuz he told me to call if I… You know. I call, I was--

I said, "Man, they're offering me $600,000 to play 'The Nigga They Couldn't Kill'."

[crowd laughs]

And he said, "I'm not gonna tell you what to do."

He said, "I'm not gonna tell you that, Denzel, but I can tell you this.

The first two or three or four films you do in this business

will dictate how you're perceived in this business."

- [woman] Uh-huh. - "So, you make a decision."

You know, he didn't tell me what to do. I give him credit for that.

And I turned it down.

And six months later, I got Cry Freedom.

- [applause] - [Washington] I got an Oscar nomination.

[Hudlin] Yeah, but pretty quickly, you became number one.

Even from your first film,

from Carbon Copy, you were number one on the call sheet.

[Washington] I wasn't number one on the payroll,

so being number one on the call sheet didn't mean… [laughs]

It's about being number one on the payroll, isn't it? [laughs]

Yeah, I don't remember when I became a star.

I don't know if that's a particular film or day or time.

Ain't no rhyme or reason.

Just doing the best I can with the abilities that I've been given.

And that's it, really.

Just trying to do the best work. This really comes down to the work.

I'm the man up in this piece.

You'll never see the light. Who the fuck you think you fuckin' with?

I'm the police.

I run shit here. You just live here.

King Kong ain't got shit on me.

Denzel sat right there on that table.

Because I'd have people come to the house.

And I said, "D, if you come, man, I want to invite some young actors.

And, oh, we wanna get fed. We wanna hear the stories."

And he broke bread, and he talked about being on Broadway.

He talked about how, "We were thespians, man. We didn't care nothin' about a car.

We didn't care nothin' about-- We wanted to act."

And I think all of us needed to hear that because we were all into the fame of it.

[Elba] When I was in my sort of late teens,

thinking, "Okay, this is what I really wanna do. I wanna be an actor."

My dad was like, "Look, you know, great, you wanna be an actor, that's great, but…

most actors don't work." And he was right, you know?

There's a statistic that's like, you know, 80% of actors are unemployed.

"As a Black man, you just might as well forget it."

And, you know, that's my dad telling me that in my late teenage years.

And I'm thinking, "Nah, that can't be true.

How can I not do what I want to do?"

[commandant] Who wants to fight? Aha.

I'm only taking the brave.

I'm not taking the scary.

I'm not taking no girls.

- Are you ready to fight? - [all] Yes, sir!

- Are you ready to fight? - Yes, sir!

- You want to take that bridge? - Yes, sir!

[Elba] And then, get to America,

that was the first time I heard someone call me chocolate.

"Ooh, boy. You so chocolate." I was like, "Huh?

Chocolate? What, like Maltesers? What are you trying to say?"

She's like, "No, no, man. You just chocolate-skinned. So fine."

It was a revelation for me that, in America,

amongst African American culture,

the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice.

And before you know it, I was being regarded as sexy.

That became part of my career journey. You know, playing handsome characters.

I mean, it's a privilege. I'm not gonna lie.

I've been called worse. Let's put it that way.

So, let me tell you this. Like…

I was really skinny and nerdy and no self-confidence.

I'm not Denzel Washington, you know what I mean?

But then I get the role for How Stella Got Her Groove Back.

And then, I do the movie, and I'm like, "Oh, maybe I am somebody." Right?

I come back to New York. I go to this club.

And I'm thinking people are just gonna sense

that I have-- Like, that I smell like a movie star.

Nobody noticed shit.

I was like, "What? Come on, man. Don't you know?"

And I did not want to be that guy that was like,

"Excuse me, I'm about to come out in a movie."

[laughs] I wanted to so bad.

You know, there's something about this industry

where it can get inside your head.

And I'm-- Oh, I'm getting goosebumps. I remember.

In my bathroom, Upper West Side, and I looked at the cover of Vanity Fair.

It was Matt Damon. Big smile. In the tub.

And I was like, "I want that."

And then my whole thing was like… [imitates clicks]

On the phone with agents. "How come I'm not…? How come I'm not…?"

My whole thing was like, "Don't treat me like a Black actor.

Treat me like an actor."

And you go to these agencies. They're like, "Absolutely. We're gonna…

We don't see you… We see you as a this and that."

They're gonna tell you exactly what you want to hear.

And I didn't know that.

[hip-hop record scratch]

[Shaw] Some 20-some-odd years ago, I think it's been now,

we made this little movie, Friday.

And at one point, we were talking about foreign distribution.

And we're in with the studio head of the European marketplace.

And because Ice Cube is such a big, worldwide music star,

he's offering to do music tours

and promote the movie in that way.

And this man explained to us in the most minute detail

that people who go to concerts don't go to movies.

And I… I remember thinking,

"Really? Is that how it works in Europe?"

You know the myth about "Black films wouldn't travel."

There's a belief among the distributors that Black films would not travel.

It wouldn't do well overseas.

And as a result, also, lower budgets for Black films.

These were conversations you'd hear. "People of color don't play overseas."

"International comedies don't make money."

It's a trip because a lot of studios,

you know, when they look at the budget and they write in "international,"

they put in a zero.

Like our movies are not gonna make any money internationally.

But thank God for Bad Boys,

with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

It kinda opened up that ceiling. It broke it a little bit.

Will obviously blew that, uh, that theory out of the water.

["Ruff Ryders' Anthem" by DMX playing]

[Taye Diggs] He just said, "Okay. You say Black films don't do well overseas.

Watch this."

And he just did it. Like, that's not that deep.

He just did it.

[song fades]

The central ideas for me was it had to be global.

I always hated the idea, um,

that was kind of generally accepted in Hollywood

that Black people don't translate globally.

I had already been around the world with music.

So, maybe it hadn't been done on the scale

of what, you know, Hollywood would call a blockbuster,

but I knew it wasn't true that it couldn't happen.

I was always looking for the unfair advantage.

What was the unfair advantage that I could have?

And when I found out that actors didn't like to travel,

I knew anybody who didn't like to travel was never gonna beat me.

The idea actually came from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He turned me onto that.

I walked into a room. You know…

1990, 1991. Something like that.

Fresh Prince was just on. Just getting started.

It was Arnold, Bruce and Sly.

And I walked up to them, and I was like, "Hey, look." You know?

"I don't mean to interrupt y'all, but I want to do what y'all do.

What's the secret? I know you know something other people don't know."

And Arnold said, [with Austrian accent] "If you want to be a movie star,

you'll never be a movie star

if your movies are only successful in America.

Your movies must be successful everywhere on Earth."

[normal voice] And I was like… [gasps]

Box office-wise, if you're big enough around the globe,

you can flop a movie in America and still make the studio's money back.

In Europe, Japan…

When Russia opened up, we did one of the first premieres in Russia.

So, the idea of global success,

the number one everywhere on Earth,

was how I was measuring success.

I decided I wanted to be the most famous actor on Earth.

I didn't want to do one second

of something that was gonna prevent me

from being the biggest movie star in the world.

And I just… I lived a disciplined life.

And everybody around me had to live a disciplined life.

If you weren't on this mission, you couldn't be here.

[crowd cheering]

[Lawrence] Bad Boys was presented to me back in the day.

It was something I wanted to do.

And we just had to find the other partner to cast.

And I had Eddie Murphy in mind.

But my sister Rae said, "Martin, I think you should cast Will for it.

Y'all would be perfect."

So me and Will had a dinner at my house.

And so, you know, once you meet Will…

He's the… He's the best.

I mean, sharp, smart… How could I say no?

Why I gotta be all that?

Slow- ass…

I'll take you and me off this fuckin' cliff.

- Keep fuckin' with me. - Yeah.

All right? Then it'd be what? Two bitches in the sea.

- Huh? Is that it? Is that what you want? - Shut up, Marcus.

My wife knows I ain't no bitch.

[Mike scoffs]

[Marcus] Yeah, I'm a bad boy.

[both] ♪ Bad boys, bad boys What you gonna do? ♪

♪ What you gonna do When they come for you ♪

You know, there's a "Black movie" way that the studios will promote,

and then there's an international, global, movie-star way

that they promote.

And Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer had produced Eddie's Beverly Hills Cop.

So, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer knew

that Black people could translate internationally.

And they demanded that the studio promote Bad Boys

as a global blockbuster.

There were two things that happened really early in my career

that set the trajectory.

First was Bad Boys wildly overperforming.

And then, the year after that was Independence Day.

- [grunts] - [alien groans]

Welcome to Earth.

Between Bad Boys and Independence Day, the questions were gone.

[reporters shouting questions]

[news anchor] Will Smith as the larger-than-life genie in Aladdin

banked over 207 million dollars worldwide.

[speaking Japanese]

[applause]

[laughs]

[Smith] I've always looked at being number one on the call sheet

as me being the general.

I had dinner with Colin Powell one time,

and I was like, "What's the road to a general? How do you become that?"

He said, "It means you're good at a lot of things and great at nothing."

It was the first time I understood.

He said, "It's a general as opposed to a specific."

I was like, "Oh!"

It became important to me to make sure I had some comprehension

of what it took to do every single job on the set

so I could present myself in the best light to every department

for the highest probability of success.

Will took a different route than D,

in the fact that he was first on the call sheet but demanded…

demanded that things be almost colorless when it comes to me.

"I'm wrapped in Black, so that ain't gon' change,

but I want the same thing he gettin', I need."

And I just… I applauded that, man. I watched that from close proximity.

Watching Ali, and how he moved…

[jump rope thumping]

You know, to have him say, "Come do it,"

and Michael Mann's like, "I don't know who this is."

And Will Smith saying, "If you won't do the movie, I won't do the movie."

That's big.

And that should be celebrated.

- [doors thud] - Sonny Liston, you ain't no champ!

You a chump! Float like a butterfly sting like a bee.

[in unison] Oh! Rumble, young man, rumble…

[Fishburne] I can't do what Will does.

His focus,

his drive,

and his commitment to whatever it is that he's playing.

His performance in King Richard is just heartbreakingly beautiful.

Hold it right there if you don't mind. Let me tell you why.

Richard, we're doing an interview.

What she had said, she said it with so much confidence the first time,

but you keep going on and on.

- But you can't keep interrupting if-- - What you gots to understand

is you're dealing with the image of a 14-year-old child.

You're dealing with a little Black kid.

Let her be a kid.

Now, she done answered it with a lot of confidence.

Leave that alone!

Will Smith was my North Star when I was getting into Hollywood.

I looked at his career. A global career of a leading-man movie star.

And I thought then, "I would like to do that.

Only differently and better."

And that was no disrespect to Will.

That was, "You're so good, how can I best that?"

[shouts with effort]

Tell me again why I decided to get on this roof.

I think you can chalk that up to bad life choices. [laughs]

Uh, The Rock? The biggest movie star in the world?

[laughing] What else can you say?

He's the biggest motherfucker in the world. [chuckles]

[Johnson] When I first started my career in Hollywood,

I had seven bucks in my pocket when I was cut from the CFL,

the Canadian Football League.

So, when I got into wrestling, I just didn't want to be broke.

[no audible dialogue]

I got the call from Lorne Michaels.

Said, "We'd love to have you host Saturday Night Live."

I said, "Wow, I would love that."

- [cheering] - [jazzy intro]

[Johnson] Never acted before, though wrestling is a form of acting.

Physical acting.

You see, Nicotrel contains my cravings.

Now when I want a cigarette-- Oh, God!

- [whimpers] - Stop smoking!

- Ow! Not my face! - [laughter]

[Johnson] And it was after that show that studios and directors

started to see me in a different way, in a different light.

And when I got the call from Universal…

Said, "We have a sequel to The Mummy.

It's called The Mummy Returns.

Would you be willing to get on the phone with our director, Stephen Sommers?"

I said, "Sure I would. Of course."

He called, and he goes,

"I'd love to have you in the movie playing the Scorpion King."

- [creature growling] - [weapons clanging]

[Johnson] We shot it in the Sahara Desert.

I had maybe three, four days of shooting.

One line.

Haku machente!

And while I was over there, I remember pulling the director aside and I said,

"How do you think I did?" He goes, "That was great."

I didn't know, 'cause this was my first time ever on a movie set.

I said, "Do I need to say more? Should I have more lines?"

That's an actor for you. And he goes,

"You would actually be fine not saying anything."

And at first, I thought he was messing with me.

He goes, "What I mean by that is, you can hold the camera.

And you're gonna hold the screen."

- [whispers] Boo. - [people screaming]

I started to reevaluate my plan

when the movies that we're making were doing okay.

They were doing okay business.

Barely turning a profit, if we're lucky.

I was buying into, "Well, don't call yourself The Rock.

Don't talk about wrestling.

Maybe you should go on a diet. You're too big."

If those other guys,

the Will Smiths and Johnny Depps and George Clooneys and those guys,

if they're the biggest stars in the world and that's your North Star,

if I want to be like them, then I got to be like them.

That was a time where I felt like I was really kinda getting kicked around.

Then I realized I was really allowing myself to get kicked around.

- [snaps fingers] - It was like an "ah-ha" moment.

Well, I'm not them, and I'm never gonna be them.

I'm me, I'm gonna be me.

[grunting]

[Johnson] This is what I like to do.

This is my past, and I'm proud of my past.

I realized that I need to be myself in Hollywood.

The first movie coming out of that time

was Fast & Furious Five.

It was my very first time in the franchise.

We created a new character called Hobbs,

and in that role,

I was able to be authentically me,

one hundred percent me.

If there's anything we can do to help--

Two things: One, I need a translator.

- Claro, we have in public relations-- - Elena Neves.

[police chief] But why? We have many more experienced people.

I like her smile.

What's the second thing?

Stay the fuck outta my way.

And the funny thing happened: Hollywood conformed around me,

and things started to move in a different direction.

Success is the road you travel.

Did you get up today and work towards your dream,

or did you sit back and did you complain?

'Cause that's wasted time.

My brother Keenen said, "In this journey as an artist,

you're as great as you work to be,"

and you have to be an undeniable force of nature

to make it in this industry, especially if you are Black.

[imitating Keenen] You can listen to me,

or you can wait for life to knock.

And when life knocks, it's unforgiving.

Are you gonna talk to me, or are you gonna talk to God?

God's only telling me what to tell you.

And if you make God scream,

you ain't gonna like it, baby brother.

If you're in this business for a long time,

you learn all that stuff.

You just get a wisdom that gets added to you

just from being in the mix.

I had people ask me, "Are you gonna do something serious?

Like, doing a drama is different from doing a comedy."

And I'm like, it's all the same shit to me.

It's all just acting.

[Murphy] The movies that I've done that have been really successful

have had all of those elements in it.

Even though the movie might be a comedy at the center of it,

you'll have stuff in it that's some drama and some stuff that's heartfelt.

You take a movie like Raging Bull,

- and you take a movie like The Grinch. - I've got all the company I need.

It's like, hey, what Jim Carrey is doing

is just as hard as what Robert De Niro is doing.

[Hudlin] When Jim Carrey talks out of his ass, I go…

Hey, man, some time went into that.

You don't just reach over and start talking out your ass.

All right, that's it!

Now it's my turn! Five minutes alone! That's all I need!

To be comfortable enough to make that choice,

you have to put some time in.

You don't just start talking out your ass.

Meryl Streep don't talk out her ass, huh?

De Niro don't talk out his ass.

[chuckling]

[hip-hop beat playing]

[Hudlin] As we move into the new century,

the major movie studios are really focused on making movies

with the biggest movie stars they can get, Black or white.

So it really made it hard for that next generation

to find the right vehicle to break through.

However, there were a bunch of low-budget romantic comedies

using Black casts

that were the launching pad for the next generation

of big movie stars.

[Hudlin] Who's your Mount Rushmore? That's an American--

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't have to… - [Hudlin laughs]

I'm cultured, my guy.

I'm cultured, you know. I know what Mount Rushmore is, my guy.

You know what I mean? I read. Know what I'm saying? Know what I mean?

Mount Rushmore. Denzel Washington.

Oh, mate. Sidney Poitier.

Samuel L. Jackson. I'd have to say Jamie Foxx.

I'm not just saying that 'cause he's producing this. Know what I mean?

[laughs]

[upbeat music playing]

There it is, champ. Stay on your toes now.

You are a stone-cold fox.

I liked you better before.

[cries out]

First of all, the way you know your movie's good or not is always TSA.

You're going through TSA, and-- "Come on through.

Foxx, man, what the hell happened with that last movie you had out? Man!"

- [imitates machine whirring] - "Shit, man. I had to get my money back."

[laughs]

Or if you did something good-- "Man, I loved Django.

You killed all them white motherfuckers." That type of shit.

- [women screaming] - [man groaning]

Last time I seen you,

you had your hands on my--

- [groans] - [screaming]

[shouting in pain]

[Foxx] I envisioned a life of this,

but I didn't think it would quite go this way.

My biggest influences were music.

It was Stevie Wonder. It was the Winans.

Lionel Richie. "Lynell" is what we called him in Texas.

In Terrell, you say "Lynells."

I wanted to be like them. I wanted to be a singer.

And so I envisioned being Lionel Richie.

I mean, I had the curl.

California curl, as a matter of fact. Low in the front, long in the back.

From the side, it looked like a Z/28. That's a whole different thing.

But I wanted to be that.

And when that didn't happen,

I had to make other moves, other artistic moves.

You know, comedy, so forth.

Now let's meet our new bachelorette.

- Please welcome Miss Wanda Wayne! - [game show music plays]

- Holy crap! - [audience laughs, exclaims]

Hi!

Bachelor number one, this is your question.

If I had a tattoo of the United States all over my body,

which area of the country would you go visit?

I'm going to Europe.

[audience laughing]

I knew I was different when I did Any Given Sunday.

I just knew this is the moment,

the opportunity to be working with Oliver Stone,

who is beyond a master at his craft.

Even meeting Al Pacino was fucking like, you know…

Sat with him.

Learned a lot.

All you do is talk at me, man.

So I'm gonna stay who I am-- Steamin' Willie Beamen.

With the time I got left, I'm gonna play my way,

get my dollars up,

so when you waive me, trade me, injured-reserve me,

or whatever the fuck y'all do, I'll be worth ten times what I was worth

before I got here.

With that movie, it changed.

I was able to adjust my satellite a bit

and now take on more dramatic roles, which actually helped me.

What's with you?

As in?

As in, if somebody had a gun to your head,

said, "You got to tell me what's going on with this person over here,

or I'm gonna kill you,

what is driving him, what was he thinking?"

You couldn't do it, could you, because…

…they would have to kill your ass because you don't know

what anyone else is thinking.

[Foxx] I couldn't believe the freedoms of it.

I said, "Oh, man, I'm looking so forward to the next character."

Oh, Jamie's--

In my top five all-time great performances is Ray Charles.

It's just one of the best performances ever.

Don't think I'm unappreciative of everything you guys have done here, Jerry.

I'm very proud of the work we've done here together,

but Atlantic has done pretty good money-wise on my records, haven't they?

Yes, we've done very well, Ray.

You were the ones that taught me that making a record is business.

Find the best business deal you can.

Now, 75 cents of every dollar and owning my own masters

is a pretty damn good deal.

Can you match it?

I remember doing Ray,

and I remember Terrence Howard and Larenz Tate not quite knowing what it was.

[piano playing]

I remember Terrence Howard-- "What's going on with you, man?

This is gonna be interesting.

This is gonna be something else, man."

But then when I walked out as Ray

and said, "You know what? Everything's gonna be all right.

[stuttering] You ready to start the scene…?"

And I couldn't see him, but I felt him go,

"What the fuck?"

And so I think that's my superpower, is to disappear.

[singing together]

Yeah!

Jamie Foxx is one of the most

multitalented individuals you will ever meet in your life.

He can do standup,

he can do Shakespeare,

a beautiful ballad on the piano,

standing up, holding court.

Any set that Jamie's on, Jamie runs the set.

Had a chance to meet Jamie many years ago, and he was always great and gracious.

And I'll also say this about Jamie:

When I got into Hollywood, he was already in Hollywood,

and he was already dominating at that time.

It's one thing when I get into Hollywood

and say, for example, I see Stallone and Arnold, who are welcoming to me.

I think it's another thing when I meet Jamie, as another man of color,

and he's already on top.

And for him to be welcoming to me,

I just always remember, I never forgot that.

On camera, off camera, he's the perfect scene partner.

He gives you exactly what you need, he knows what you need as a character,

and he'll tee it up for you.

Perfect wingman, you know?

I think Jamie's all around just a great human.

And I think that humanity, that empathy he has as a person,

is one of the things that makes him such a great actor.

[Foxx] It's the characters, man.

Look at Django,

Willie Beamen, "Bundini" Brown.

All of these different characters is my wheelhouse.

So now I'm hanging them up.

I've been lucky and fortunate enough to hang them all up.

Whenever that time comes where I say, "Okay, I got to pull it back,"

I want to be able to look at all those characters and say,

"I disappeared, man."

By being able to be in the position that I'm in now,

you feel good.

When you see Michael B. Jordan in Just Mercy

who goes for the character,

who's not worried about his persona.

You feel good about seeing these young guys.

If I could ever help them, I'm always there to do it.

Hey, Mom. Well, get on through here, then.

That's the genesis.

[laughter]

My mom lives with me,

my stepfather lives with me,

my niece, nephew, their parents,

my daughter, my sister-- everybody lives here.

My sister, who's from south Dallas, in the hood,

now she works on all the Marvel films, doing hair.

My daughter runs part of my company, with Datari.

My other daughter is one of the youngest in the Writers' Guild.

So by having this, you give up certain things.

Like, maybe you are giving up the cookie-cutter lifestyle

of normalcy,

but you don't want no stories.

You know, when people, when they're not here,

they, "Mm-hmm, I'm gonna tell you what he really is."

Then the TMZ, you hear that sound-- [imitating percussive TMZ theme]

You don't want that. Hate that sound. Especially when it's about me.

[Hudlin] Will, talk a little bit about how family has affected your journey.

Mm-hmm.

It was probably… [sighs]

…Willow's "Whip My Hair."

♪ I whip my hair back and forth… ♪

[Smith] It was 2010.

I'll never forget we were in Dublin, Ireland,

and Willow comes offstage.

She was on tour with Justin Bieber. Hit record.

20,000 kids whipping their hair in Dublin.

And she comes offstage and was like, "I'm done, Daddy."

I was like, "Yeah, baby, that was a great show."

She was like, "No, I mean I'm done. I'm ready to go home."

And I was like, "Well, no, you can't go home, sweetie.

You promised Mr. Jay-Z that you were gonna do

these 30 days of this tour."

She said, "No, Daddy, you promised Mr. Jay-Z."

And I was like, "Sweetie, I get it,

but we promised as a family, and you have to finish."

She looked at me-- I'll never forget the look in her eyes. And she was like,

"It doesn't matter to you that I'm finished, Daddy?"

And I was like, "Yes, sweetie, it matters, but you can't be finished."

She was like, "Oh, okay."

So we go back to the hotel, and Jada had just left.

So I'm there. It's my first night of daddy duty.

And she came out the next morning, and she had shaved her head bald.

In the middle of her "Whip My Hair" tour,

she shaved her head bald.

And it was, like, a magical moment.

I was like, "Got it."

I used to think, in order for it to work,

in order for family and a marriage to work,

things have to be a little bit compartmentalized

and perhaps even separated.

Let me get to whatever location I need to get to,

let me get settled, let the crew get settled,

and then we'll bring you in.

I did that for a long time.

That, and some other reasons led to the dissolving of the marriage.

Our daughter, Simone, was maybe five or six years old,

and I found myself in a position where

now there's a strong possibility there's gonna be somebody else,

another male figure in her life whose gonna help raise her

even though I'm still here in her life.

And I'm trying to figure out my own life, so, I went through all that.

Now, fortunately enough, I've been blessed with two more babies

and you realize, man, this time around,

I go somewhere, we all go somewhere.

If I go for six months, then,

we all go, [laughs] for six months.

And we keep that nucleus tight.

It's okay to be ambitious but what I've learned over time is

we gotta do all we can to make sure that everything is good at home.

My daughter drives.

My daughter's 17, driving.

To school, from school. Takes her brother to school.

"Come on, dude, you're gonna ride with me. I'll pick you up."

"Dad, is it cool if me and my friends,

we just gonna go to Malibu, we gonna hang out?"

[sighing]

[grunting]

Yeah.

I didn't have a fucking car in high school.

I don't know one person.

I don't think-- I'm gonna be honest with you.

I'm gonna say this as a fact.

I was at George Washington High School in the Northeast.

There was not one Black kid at this school with a car.

It was unheard of.

In our neighborhood, none of us had cars.

All we had was the bike and a jump rope.

And shit that we had to make on the ground.

Illegally cut on fire hydrants and play with the water.

They got pools. [laughs] What are you talking about?

Why? Why would I wanna leave this house? I wouldn't want to leave either.

I couldn't wait to get the fuck out of my goddamn

one room efficiency.

I'm looking in real-time at the change.

You know, I want my kids to have the best opportunities.

I want my kids to…

I want them to know that life doesn't come easy.

It's not given, it's earned.

We take a trip, you know, we take a real trip to Philadelphia

uh, and you know, we land, and I say, "I'm gonna show you where I grew up."

I'm like, "Look, I didn't have, okay?

Look, this is-- This is the grass.

See these little things, this is all the grass we had.

I had to sit on the step, I waited for the bus here,

I walked two and a half miles

to get from here to where I had to go to meet my mom.

This was not a situation that you were comfortable in."

And I get done and my kids are like, [yells] "We wanna live here."

Just trying to change the narrative…

…attached to family wealth.

[upbeat music plays]

Yes, cake is my weakness.

- Along with speed and strength. - Huh.

[Jordan] Love Kev, man.

He's extremely talented.

And continues pushing himself, he's never satisfied.

You know, he has an engine that just won't stop.

Let me ask you a serious question, do you think I look like Idris Elba?

'Cause a stripper at the club, "Sweaty Crack", told me that last night.

I had a lot of ones, so I don't know if she was trying to play me.

Most comedians aren't really good actors.

Kevin is a good actor, funny, can do stand-up,

family-oriented, hard-working,

Kevin Hart is… [imitates Poitier] "a breath of fresh air,

and don't you fuck with that!"

No! [laughs]

You can't deny talent. Talent is talent.

I don't care what talent we've seen, if they were talented,

talent's gonna get multiple shots.

My starring roles in the beginning of my career,

all of them came with dud effects, if you really wanna be honest.

Paper Soldiers, I was number one on the call sheet.

All right, this is it. Well, it wasn't.

Big House, my TV show, I was the star, I was the creator, writer, okay.

This is it.

Well, it wasn't.

Soul Plane, here we go. Hell, yeah. This is the one.

It wasn't.

These were all things I was hoping would be the thing to pop me.

None of it stuck.

[Hudlin] Except for The 40-Year-Old Virgin?

40-Year-Old-- Here's the thing.

40-Year-Old Virgin didn't necessarily stick,

it's an accident.

This is what made me realize that the things that are going to act

as propelling moments for you in your career, you're not going to see.

40-Year-Old Virgin came up,

the part that Romany ended up getting, I was up for.

It was between me and Romany. I have to get this.

Judd Apatow has been a believer in me from day one.

Judd's my guy, there's no way I'm not gonna get this.

I don't fucking get it. What the fuck is wrong with this town?

I see the movie. Romany was way better.

Welcome to Smart Tech.

Is this your boy?

Yeah, nigga, we will both mash you!

- What? - How can we help you, sir?

No, no. He don't need no help, he's already been served.

I served him. He's taken care of. He a little slow, but he got it.

What he thought was he can come up in here and make the rules.

But now he see that Jay make the rules at Smart Tech…

that I run this bitch and now he 'bout to bounce.

This your boy?

Yeah, that's my boy, nigga. We represent Smart Tech.

You just got fucked up with him.

Both y'all niggas going get clapped up when I get back.

Both of y'all niggas.

- What did I do? - It don't fucking matter!

Yeah, aim high, Willis. Aim high!

Damn, I'm not… I'm not where I'm supposed to be.

I'm not that good.

I gotta go get better.

I went and sat in an acting class.

By the way, some of the weirdest people I've ever met in my fucking life,

I'll never forget it.

But they all had a vision, a dream. I needed to be around that energy.

I needed to be around people with nothing.

Looking for opportunities, wanting opportunities,

seeing that I'm not the only one.

Let me feed off of that energy, let me feed off of that drive.

I'm doing the fucking work.

Opportunity presents itself, I promise I'm gonna be ready.

Whenever it comes, I promise I'm gonna be ready.

I'm going back on the road.

When I get back on the road, I'm gonna work the fuck out of this road,

I'm gonna build my fan base and I'll be back, bitch.

[chuckles]

I don't know when but I'll be back.

They thought I was bullshitting. I wasn't bullshitting.

I came back with revenue attached to my persona.

To my likeness. I came back saying, "This is what I do."

Will Packer said,

"I know that's what you doing, that's why you're gonna be in my movie."

And if you look at the separation of movies,

between Soul Plane and when I did Think Like A Man,

that real one came…

…I was ready.

I was a thousand percent ready

for Think Like A Man when Think Like A Man came.

This is why we're ruining my party. 'Cause of that information?

I got it online. Here we go. I got a review.

- I gotta get my hands on that book. - No, you not gonna do it now.

- You said bros before hoes. - [Cedric] Exactly.

Guess what, your bro need a ho. Let me tell you something.

I got a pocket full of ones and I ain't got no drawers on.

I didn't wear no drawers tonight. Now y'all are supposed to be my wingmen.

Right now, fly with me!

Celebrate, man. Get your-- Fly with me, man. Goddammit!

I just love Kevin Hart, like most people.

He just shows up and I'm like,

you can't not love this guy.

For a man of such small stature,

he is a giant.

They put this motherfucker in a movie next to The Rock.

[yells] And he held his ground.

Is that man enough for your ass?

- We gotta go. - I can't outrun those guys.

- [bike revving] - [gun fire]

We gotta go now.

- Get on my back. - What? I would rather die.

- Jump on my back. - No. I'm gonna die.

Put me down!

I think with Kevin and I,

there is that old adage that opposites attract.

From the moment we met,

instantaneously we had that chemistry.

Ow!

[Johnson] And I believe that the anchor of the chemistry that we have…

is trust.

Oh, my God! You look great.

- No. No. You look great. - Stop it.

No, you haven't changed since high school, dude.

No, you're just sexy as dick right now.

You don't look somebody in the eyes and say that.

Hey, let's get hammered.

I got-- I got a early day at work--

- Come on, I'm buying. - Oh, shit.

The reason why it works,

'cause we both take our egos and we fucking throw them in the ground.

There is no ego.

We come to work together. We wanna make the best movie possible.

It's called soul gazing.

Stare into my soul and I'll stare into yours.

- Come here. Shh. Hey! - You are not my wife.

- Shh. - Oh, that's it.

[laughing]

- I'm gonna-- - Shh.

- I promise-- - Shh.

[laughs] Let's keep on--

We have a common connective tissue, Kevin and I.

Kevin is very ambitious and he really likes to expand his aperture,

and he loves creating business.

And he does have a mogul mindset.

It's rarefied air, and I'm very fortunate and blessed.

I remember when I was a kid growing up and I would go to movies,

and my favorite movies at that time were Star Wars movies,

the Rocky movies, and Indiana Jones.

I didn't see anybody like me.

So I do like now being in this position where we can reach more people

and become even more globally influential.

[Boyega] Star Wars always had the vibe of being in the most whitest elite space.

This is a franchise that's so white, that it's like,

a Black person existing in that, um, was something.

And you can always tell it's something when some Star Wars fans try to say,

"Well, you know, we had Lando Calrissian and had Samuel L. Jackson."

It's like telling me how many cookie chips are on the cookie dough.

I'm like, "Bruv, they just scattered that in there, bro."

They're okay with us playing the best friend.

But once we touch their heroes, once we lead, once we trailblaze,

it's like, [shrilly] "Oh, my God, it's a bit too much. They're pandering."

The Force Awakens to me was like a fundamental moment.

We waited months for that.

When that big call came in,

that's that call that all those stars talk about that changed their lives.

It's like, "Is it? That's the call?"

It's such an attack on reality.

I couldn't tell anyone.

But I snitched. You ain't gonna know who I tell.

Like, I got in a taxi and told the driver. That was the first person I told.

My mom's not here, my dad's not here, we sharing in this moment, bro.

Bro, I just got Star Wars. He was like, "Yeah, congratulations, mate."

You know what I mean? "Great. That will be 45 pounds, please." You know what I mean?

And it was that kind of moment. But I had to share.

I know the rules were like, "Don't share," but come on, man,

you've just offered me an opportunity of a lifetime.

And then I went to go and tell my mom and dad which was special.

You know, 'cause I felt like for the first few years of acting,

I had been going away to work on stuff, I'd been coming to LA to hustle,

I'd been staying on so many sofas out here,

that my parents were kinda like,

"Uh. We know what he wants to do, but we are not seeing the evidence.

But we still believe that Jesus will bring him through. Amen."

And that was the vibe I got.

And that was the moment for me that kinda, like, nailed it

'cause for my mom, I'd told her at 15,

"I might do this, I might get you on the red carpet,"

and she always remembered that.

For my dad, it was the moment of,

"My boy. You are making money now." You know, that just-- [laughs]

That happiness when your dad knows… [joyful yell]

"My son is going to be rich."

I find it strange that people in the creative arts

don't handle their careers creatively.

My filmography's an art piece. That's how I see it.

My agent gives me a synopsis.

If I read the synopsis and it makes me wanna read the script,

that's the same decision if an audience reads the synopsis

and they wanna watch a film.

So I wanna be in that seat. "Oh, I really wanna read that."

Same way the person goes, "Oh, I really wanna watch that."

I want my stuff to be…

have that shareability, have that thing about it so it's all organic,

I put myself in the audience seat when I'm in these kind of modes.

Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton of the Illinois Black Panther Party.

[Laura Dern] And the Oscar for Best Actor in a supporting role goes to

Daniel Kaluuya…

[Kaluuya] It gets crazier every year that it goes on.

I just make sure I don't believe it.

I don't-- It doesn't mean I'm any better because of it.

You gotta celebrate life, man,

we're breathing, we're walking, it's incredible.

It's incredible.

- Peace, love, and onwards. We go again. - [applause]

[Kaluuya] It's a privilege to be recognized by your peers.

It's an incredible achievement.

But, like… this is my job.

You know what I mean, I lived it up when I… I can't lie. [laughs]

We passed the Oscar around, it was amazing.

It's like, let's keep it real, I won an Oscar. That's crazy.

It's still something that I'm processing.

["Party People Go Off" by Ice-T playing]

What I find really encouraging about the new generation

is that they are not scared.

They're so entrepreneurial.

They build their own production companies.

They create vehicles not just for themselves,

but for their colleagues as well.

They're doing it at a whole new level

and if I was gonna name a movie that symbolized this new era,

it's Black Panther.

[crowd cheering]

Black Panther was a very special job.

That, for me personally, was incredible.

That's what I wanted, it was about finding community.

- Border Tribe! - [chanting]

[shouting in Xhosa]

Seeing that attention to detail that you rarely see on things.

Ryan just being incredible at what he does and giving his all to it.

It gets bigger as time goes on.

Anywhere you go in the world, Black Panther has touched it.

You know, and a story that's about empowering us,

that shows our perspective, has touched corners of the world.

If I pull up to a New York airport

and there just happens to be loads of Nigerians there…

They're going, "Oh, my God, W'Kabi."

You know what I'm saying? You're like, "Oh, shit…"

I cried a little bit when I saw Black Panther.

I was on Broadway, in fact.

And I went to the premiere and I wasn't interested in the red carpet and all that.

So I went backstage and I saw Chad and Ryan.

I spoke to them and then I sat down and watched the movie.

And I felt like the baton had been passed.

I was like, wow, these young boys are gone, you know.

I felt…

I don't know if the word is "relieved", but I was proud…

to see what they had done and seeing where they were headed.

You know, I didn't know then they were gonna make a billion dollars but they did.

So that, uh, that was a special moment for me.

Black Panther for me was, like, the movie that Black people had been waiting for

for 100 years.

Like, for a century, we've been waiting for a movie like this.

Because you don't just get one prince in this movie.

We got two princes in that movie

with Chad and Michael B.

And we never had that before. In cinema.

We never had that before.

So for me, that was like all of our history.

Sort of wrapped up and condensed in this wonderful

fantasy world of Wakanda.

That is born out of our need to have these kind of heroes

and this kind of representation.

And Coogler did such a fine job with it.

And both Michael B. and Chadwick

really stepped into those roles

with a kind of pureness of heart, man, that's just…

That just really, really meant everything to me.

Only reason I don't kill you where you stand

is because I know who you are.

Now, what do you want?

I want the throne.

Coming in as the, you know, the antagonist,

I was, like, "I'm causing a ruckus."

[chuckles] I'm causing a ruckus.

First thing we did, first day was, uh, Tribal Council.

So, the first day, I walked in in chains, that was the first day.

And it was like go time. I had my gold teeth in.

On set, whenever I had them things in, they already knew

I was in a different place.

That was the beauty of those characters

and the sophistication and layers of it.

It wasn't just black and white, you know,

it was two sides of a conversation that needed to be had.

It was that extra thing that allowed us

to sit in our characters a certain way and just be.

And we did it on the biggest stage.

And we allowed the world to get in on that conversation.

And, you know, we don't sell overseas.

Our movies don't translate.

Nobody wanna go and see a Black movie with an all Black cast.

All that good stuff.

So I think burning down those imaginary boundaries

that's been projected on us for so long, that we started to believe it.

I think that was, like, a reeducation for everyone,

but especially for us.

It changed my life. It changed Chadwick's life.

You know, like, Chad's immortalized.

Wakanda Forever. Chadwick forever, you know?

[reporter] We are all waking up to the devastating and shocking news

that actor Chadwick Boseman has died.

[reporter 2] On social media, friends and young fans

mourn the loss of the onscreen king.

Everything that you fought for was not for yourself.

It was for those that come after.

Now this is your time.

[crowd cheering]

That one shook us all up.

Just because he took his battle, he took it on by himself.

He didn't make it the world's business.

It was private between him and his family.

That's real strength to walk out every day and put a smile on,

and shake everybody's hands.

Have a presentation of good. Life is good.

Every time I saw him, he had nothing but fucking prayer

and good words. "Brother, I love you. Say a prayer for you, Kevin."

He always would say a prayer in my ear. "God, hold onto him, be strong."

It was, like, damn, man, Chadwick was just such a positive, uplifting dude.

Chadwick had other reasons.

Too soon.

Too soon.

It's something I think about often, you know.

Not checking up as much as I should

is something that, you know, weighs on me also.

Not turning this into a therapy session,

but it's a-- Chadwick is special.

I was looking forward to, like, you know…

You know, just…

You know, yeah…

- [Hudlin] Yeah, exactly. - Mm-hmm.

[Kaluuya] The last time I saw him, we did a Q&A.

And they were, like, "Who's the people in this process

that you think are amazing?"

And I just said Chad.

Because being the lead

is a really hard job and it's a thankless job.

It works because all the characters shine around you.

You know what I'm saying? Really and truly, like,

So, say, in Get Out, like, Rel shined.

Shit!

[Kaluuya] And I'm just in the pocket.

Nope, Keke shines.

And I'm in the pocket. It's a thankless job

if you're gonna do it the right way, know what I'm saying.

If you're serving a piece, serving a story,

and to have that moment of Black Panther, then to understand

what he was going through, and still choose to be in the pocket.

Still choose his craft, still choose his technique

is just-- It's an incredible thing to have witnessed

and to have been around.

Also, the kind of man that he was, you know what I'm saying, like…

Like, he helps people and he helped people.

He's still helping people. Let's keep it real.

And it's on us to keep going, just-- It's on us to keep going.

[Hudlin] What do you think about the state of the industry today

with the opportunities for Black artists?

Shit, it's never been better.

Biggest stars on the planet.

I cannot think of a better time in my experience in the business

than to be a Black actor today.

[reporter] Marvel's Black Panther is already setting records.

[reporter 2] Straight Outta Compton raking in 56 million dollars.

Biggest debut ever for an R-rated movie…

[Cannon] We hear the word "diversity," we hear the word "inclusion,"

but I think it could be just jungle fever.

And, you know, a fever will subside.

We've made a lot of progress, but we can't pretend like everything's fixed.

I think there's a tremendous amount of work to be done.

You know, we started realizing the people that we look up to,

icons, legends, revolutionaries.

You realize, "Oh, they were my age when they were doing that,

they were younger than me. Oh, man, let me get my shit together."

[Jordan] We've gotta keep agitating things, we can't be complacent,

we can't let this moment just pass us by,

we have to continue to put our foot on their necks.

[cheering and applause]

I think there's a…

responsibility that goes along with being number one on the call sheet.

It's not just about being the first person who has--

The one who has the most lines and is the lead,

it's like, you're kind of setting the tone.

How are you gonna weather these storms that every production has?

And people tend to take their cue from you.

There's a lot of influence, a lot of responsibility, it's leadership.

That's how I see it, whether you are aware of it or not.

[Hudlin] Your property is huge.

Yeah, 40 acres on purpose.

It's on purpose. 40 acres.

A lot of times, the outside looking in on Black folks…

wonder why we celebrate.

"Why does it have to be all that? Jesus Christ."

"You know, you're rich."

"Should just be happy about that."

"Why's there have to be a message?"

We gave 400-plus years of free labor.

And then they promised 40 acres and a mule.

"Yeah, we got you. On Friday, on Friday." [laughs] It's like, what?

Coming from that, the 40 acres was…

so necessary.

I think our generation,

with the opportunities and the… and the access.

Being able to have multiple platforms,

it's harder to keep us in a box now.

There's still spaces we haven't been before,

so I think that's where my eyes start to go.

Getting more people in positions to make an impact

not just in front of the camera.

So the idea of number one on the call sheet for me, in my perception

it means your first opportunity to be an owner.

The first opportunity to be a partner.

The first opportunity to really look behind the curtain

and take advantage of what's back there.

There's something special about ownership.

Right now a lot of actors, we're starting off our own production companies,

we're collaborating, we're finding IP, we're finding scripts.

You gotta get used to it.

We coming. In numbers.

And we inspiring in numbers.

It's critical to tell your own stories.

We got Black billionaires now that will put up something for those stories.

I'm not going to wait on somebody to bet on me.

I'm not gonna sit around and wait on Hollywood

to tell me what my value or my worth is

or how good I am, what my excellence is.

I know my excellence.

They might call us a minority, there's a billion Black people,

there's a billion White people.

What's minor about that? I'm major, bro.

I ain't taking nothing minor. At all.

Once you get to the top of the mountain, then what happens?

Do you stay there, do you look around, do you become satisfied?

I realized that what I wanted to do, being at the top of the mountain,

is bring people up, and create more mountain.

[chuckles]

[hip-hop beats playing]