All language subtitles for The.Captains.Close.Up.S01E03_Eng

♪♪ [ Piano: Ballad ]

♪♪ [ Continues ]

That's funny, isn't it?

Yeah. That's William Shatner
walking down the stairs
in my house.

That's pretty funny.

What are you
doing here?
What?

How'd you get up there?
That's the question.

I'm looking at the works of art
all around here.
The works of art.

Your wife is a work of art.
Did you know that?

I beg your pardon?
Your wife
is a work of art.

No, that's her parents.
That's not me.
How's that go?

I had nothing to do with that.
Really? You didn't
fashion anything?

I beg your pardon?
The two of you together,
forming--

The two separate
making a whole.
Oh, man.

You know, now you're
a biologist too.

Bill Shatner.
Avery Brooks.

Hey.
Long time coming.

Yeah, man, you know,
I told you, this is--
this is new, baby.

I've never done
such a thing.

Avery
had the capacity...

to be so enigmatic.

His intellect
and the way he phrases
and articulates his feelings,

they're advanced.

He's a big man,

but with his presence
he seems enormous.

He's bold. He's soft.
He's mellow.

With Avery, I felt like there
was a way we were communicating
without speaking.

Avery Brooks is jazz.

I think about him
more than probably any actor
I ever worked with.

I wonder about him more.

He really is not
that complicated.

It's just that he's deep.
[ Laughs ]

I still try
to unlock the mystery...

of who the hell
is Avery Brooks.

[ Narrating ]
I'm William Shatner,

and we're going close-up
with Avery Brooks.

Every time you look
at a human being...

you see something
that you did not know,

especially if you didn't
know him at all.

And you say, "Oh.

Oh, my."

♪♪ [ Piano ]

[ Shatner Narrating ]
To try and describe
a man like Avery Brooks is...

futile.

He's not comfortable
with lines of demarcation.

He is someone
who demands your attention...

and then rewards you
for giving it.

An enigma to some,

Mr. Brooks is a man
of multiple layers and talent.

Musician,

theater, film
and television actor,

husband, father,
professor.

But it was his role
as Captain Benjamin Sisko
on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine...

that would bring him into
millions of our living rooms..

for seven successful seasons.

But don't be fooled.

Mr. Brooks has no intention
of allowing any one thing...

to define him.

I'm interested
in the equation of
life saving and life giving.

Period.

It doesn't matter
what I'm doing.

[ Shatner Narrating ]
Avery's first major television
success came in 1985...

when he landed the role of Hak
in the ABC television series
Spenser for Hire...

and its spin-off,
A Man Called Hawk.

But in 1992,

he was offered the role
of Commander Benjamin Sisko
in Deep Space Nine,

the third installment
of the Star Trek
television franchise,

which would bring him
worldwide fame.

I asked Avery
why he took the role.

I wanted to put my children
through college.
That's it. Got it.

That was part of it.

That's not really
what it was.
Wait. Don't retract that.

No, no,
I'm not retracting.

I'm just going on to say,
because I read the pilot.

That's what happened.

And I said,
"Oh. Well. Oh.

This is very interesting
to me."

One of the things
that attracted me
about the Star Trek...

was that I did not
have prosthetic makeup
on my face,

that somewhere,
some 400 years hence,

that I would be human.

Completely human.

And brown... too.

See?

That is a beneficent...

fiction...

born out of
the imagination...

of how we can be.

I think Avery-- his performances
and in his personal life--

he... pays attention.

And it's a very, um,
dignified quality of his.

He doesn't just
communicate to you with words.

It's--

It's like life
is more complicated
and layered than that.

And he sees all that.

He sees the layers,
feels the layers,

and he's trying to communicate
all of that to you
in the simplest way.

And it demands from you
that you be-- that you be
relaxed, open...

and just be yourself.

Otherwise, he can see
right through you.

You know, when Armin and I
would do a scene--
Quark and Odo--

we would sort of--
"Oh, I screwed it up."

And the crew and everybody
would be talking
and doing their thing.

But when you would
get in scenes with Avery,
there was a, you know--

down to business.

When he's on the set,
everybody pays attention.

Everybody
brings their "A" game.

Everybody makes sure
that they're not wasting
his time or their time.

'Cause he's making sure
that he's on top of it.

[ Shatner Narrating ]
Avery Brooks's professional
acting career began on stage,

as do so many fine actors.

His critically acclaimed
performances in productions
such as Othello and King Lear...

and Christopher Marlowe's
Tamburlaine...

have captivated audiences
since the 1970s.

But it is his portrayal
of Paul Robeson,

the famous singer, actor
and civil rights leader...

in a one-man show...

that has perhaps
resonated the most with Avery,

who is dedicated to preserving
the legacy of this great
historical figure.

In 1919, Robeson became one of
the first African-Americans...

to graduate from
Rutgers University.

Fittingly, Avery
would graduate from Rutgers
over a half a century later.

Avery has a sense of...

himself and his--

and pride in who he is,
where he comes from,

hat his view
of the world is...

and his view of
working as an artist.

And there is tremendous
dignity and pride.

You're a latter-day
Paul Robeson.

No, I'm not.
Yes, you are.

He was, obviously,
a hero of yours--

Yeah.
for a long time.

Yes.
Even as a kid?

Oh, sure.

That is to say that
I grew up understanding...

the-- the people
in the culture
who move us forward.

I mean, my-my--
my heroes
are my parents.

And then, moving through
the neighborhood,

through the community,
that's what I knew.

I listened
to the great music.

I listened
to great people.

I understood
who Paul Robeson was.

I understood who Nat Turner was.
I understood who
Denmark Vesey was. You see?

Did Paul Robeson influence
your playing of Star Trek?

If you want to talk about
in the sum of what I know--

Well,
what influences you.
Yes. Yes, absolutely.

Because without
Paul Robeson,
I'm not on Star Trek.

What do you mean?
That is to say
that I wouldn't be here.

I wouldn't be there
without Brock Peters.

I wouldn't be there
without Canada Lee.

I wouldn't be there
without Sidney Poitier.

I wouldn't be there
without William Warfield.

I mean, I could go on and on.
That's the fact of the matter.

But you're talking about
cultural acceptance
of black guys being--

I'm talking about Hollywood,
baby, the way it works.
Okay, Hollywood.

And I am not
in any way...

fooled, cajoled...

to think,
by virtue of Star Trek
or any other reality,

that I am in
some other place.

I'm-- You know, I'm exactly
who I was before the fact.

When Deep Space Nine began,

we all knew we were go

and to be honest,
at the beginning
we had no idea...

how we were gonna deal
with the character of Sisko.

Avery Brooks was
the first African-American lead
in a Star Trek series,

but he wasn't cast
as a captain.

He was cast as
Commander Benjamin Sisko.

When Mike and Rick
originally conceived
the character of Ben Sisko,

the idea was to make him
a commander,

a younger-- younger man,
less experienced.

Pete Fields and I, at the time,
were the only two guys on staff.

We came on and we were
already developing stories
before the show had been cast.

And then suddenly
they were all excited about
this audition they had just had,

and it was with Avery Brooks.

I'm thinking,
"Avery Brooks from Hawk?"

And here's a guy who's not
in any way a young man--

he's a man with gravitas...

and, uh, strength.

And we're thinking,
commander?

Why isn't he a captain?

[ Shatner ]
I just thought,

I haven't treated Star Trek
with the seriousness
that I had when I made it.

I realize that all these...
jocular things that have
been said about me--

Yes?

And I thought, "Maybe Star Trek
isn't all that good."

When people come up to me
and said, "My life changed
because of what you did,"

I would think,
"They don't really mean that."

Well, I-I don't know.

I can't make the case.

But, you know,
except for the spandex--

When we did
that crossover thing,
you know--

Uh, Lieutenant--
Benjamin Sisko,
sir.tenant--

I've been on temporary
assignment here.

Before I leave,
I just want to say...

it's been an honor
serving with you, sir.

The uniforms--
I mean, Lord. Huh?

Huh! No lunch.
That was no fun, baby.

But you did it,
and you were good at it.

Come on.
That's what you did.

What did you do?

As Cagney
talked about it,
you know,

you spend a nickel
and take a chance.

I go to work every day.

You know?
Just like that.

I'm not thinking
about anything...

but, you know, looking
and talking to the people
who are in front of me.

That's all I'm doing.

He wasn't on a starship
that was going places.

He was in a station
that was stationary.

What some people
complained about...

was that he seemed to be
nothing more than
a hotel director...

because he was
dealing with problems
in the restaurant...

or he was dealing with
problems in the engineering
side of things.

The stories didn't go anywhere.
They couldn't go anywhere.

Which is one of the reasons
that it was hard
for the writers...

to write the kind of episodes
that Star Trek was known for.

It seemed like we were doing
The Love Boat without the lov.

Kirk and Picard
were so clearly defined,

whether they were fighting or
whether they were negotiating.

You understood
why they were doing it.

They had to find different ways
to involve the characters
with one another.

It became the first
Star Trek series
that was character-driven.

Prior to that, it had always
been story-driven.

I think Deep Space Nine
may end up,
of those series,

being the most complex
in terms of the characters.

Every character
had some big, strange
problem, you know.

When we started the show
he had hair and no goatee,

and that bothered him
every second of every day
that we filmed.

He hated it.

With Sisko, he started out
as a guy who had lost his ship,
lost his wife,

was not happy to be
at the place where he was.

That's asking the audience
to make a huge left turn...

in getting behind
this character.

And it was very difficult
for them to do that.

And we didn't make it easy
for them, unfortunately.

He loved the character.
He wanted this character
to be precisely proposed.

The bald head with the goatee
was part of the look.

It was part of the defining
of who this person was.

People used to ask me,
how does it feel
to be a brown person--

the first black captain?

I can't think about that.
No. Absolutely not.

- You know,
you're almost brown. Look.
- I am.

- I don't know
how to ask the question.
- Go on. Go on.

Is there an anger?
Is there any resentment?

Yeah. I'm angry about
the condition of the world.

Why don't we start there?
It has nothing to do
with color.

The intellect that I've been
given as a human being...

allows me to talk
about the world,

not in terms of color,
but in terms of circumstance
of the human condition.

That's where I begin.

Now, you want to put it
in terms of television
and Hollywood and all that,

that's what
they're looking at--
here, here, here, here.

They want me to be this way,
and I'm not.

I'm not the black dude
in the pink hat.

And that's what's so interesting
talking to you now.

I could sit here
and talk about, you know,
some resentment or some anger,

and I don't have that.

How we treat each other.

I have the rage about that.

- You're firing me?
- I have no choice, Benny.

It's his decision.

Well... you can't fire me.

I quit!

To hell with you...

and to hell with Stone!

- Try to stay calm, Benny.
- No.

I'm tired of being calm.
Calm never got me a damn thing.

[ Brooks ]
Chinua Achebe--

Nigerian,
brilliant novelist, thinker--

talks about two kinds
of imagination.

One benevolent,
the other malevolent.

A set of people should not
exist on the planet.

It's fiction.
It comes out of the imagination.

There is this benevolent way
of imagining humankind
and our world,

and there's another way.

And that is our history.

You know, of mankind.

That's our history.

In the third season,

I went to see Avery
do his one-man show
as Paul Robeson,

and I was blown away.

He had such a life force
in him.

He was funny.
He was personable.

You felt and empathized
with him.

I went back
to the writers room and said,

you know, it's not him.

It's us.

We're not doing justice
to the actor.

It wasn't until they made him
the captain of the Defiant...

that it totally changed it
for the writers...

and for him as an actor.

He was a captain now.
He could command a crew
on a ship,

and they could
go places.

And it totally
changed it.

In my opinion,
after the third season,

we had the most interesting,

most multidimensional
captain...

in the history
of the franchise.

I think that what Avery
and the Emissary...

and Sisko all brought
to Deep Space Nine...

was a great deal of the reason
that the audience continued
to tune in.

He was the Emissary.

He had something to him
that was an incredibly deep
and rich part of the captain...

that I don't think any
of the other captains had.

He was a leader.
He was a father.

He was a friend.
He was a lover.

And he turned out
to be God.

[ Brooks ]
You love Sisko.

You love what
the writers did.

Then you love
Gene Roddenberry.

You have to keep going
to talk about the things
and how it was created.

You say,
"Oh, Captain Sisko."
So what?

I didn't write it. Hmm?

I spoke the words.
I surely did.

I'm a very small part
of this huge, huge thing...

that was going on
long before me.

And so I acknowledge
where that power comes from.

[ Shatner Narrating ]
In 1976, Avery became
the first African-American...

to receive a Master
of Fine Arts degree...

in Acting and Directing
from Rutgers,

where he is currently
a tenured professor
of theater...

at the Mason Gross
School of the Arts.

I came from teachers.
That's true.

My mother--
teaching 40-plus years
in public school...

and teaching
private lessons.

Choral music,
piano, organ--
all that stuff.

And then my grandmother--
Mississippi--

you know, 44, whatever
those years were.

You know, so if I live,

then perhaps-- longer--

then I'll have
something to teach.

But I'm not fooled.

I've gained information,
and I'm really
interested in it.

What information
are you learning
in this school?

Well, it's the exchange
of the discovery,
isn't it?

The discovery--
Discovery.
Discovery of self.

Oh, really?
Indeed.
It's not that easy.

The classes aren't dull,
even though I haven't been
teaching full time for a while.

You know, I'm gonna
sit in front of somebody
and say what?

I'm gonna tell you the truth.
I'm gonna ask you a question.

"Are you telling the truth?"

But how do I know?
No, no, no.

That's the point.
You have to answer it.

Well, I'll answer it,
but how do I know
it's the truth?

And how to you know that,
if it were the truth,
that it is the truth...

or that I'm trying
to make something up
to please teacher?

It's based on
belief and faith
and all that stuff...

which moves us
into this, you know,

these other places
I'm talking about.

And it is
the "highfaluting"--

It is the high-reaching place
of human expression...

that I know is at the base
of what I come from.

It is not about the job.

It's not about the award
or the thing.

It's about expression.

On any set, be it Star Trek
or any TV series,

the star of the show
sets the tone.

And I think Avery
set the tone...

in terms of what he saw
the show being.

We didn't play a lot
of practical jokes
and pranks,

which surprised the fans.

They expected that we were,
you know,

just as crazy and wild
as The Next Generation.

Sometimes
The Next Generation--

on the other side
of the alley
at the studio--

would finish while DS Nine
was still shooting.

And they would come over,
and they couldn't believe...

how different the attitude
was on the set.

What we did have
was a seriousness
and an intensity.

And I do think
that it came across...

when you watched the show.

The Deep Space Nine set
was-- was...

a place where people worked...

rather than went
to kid around and have "fun."

But I will say
it was a very welcoming set.

Avery Brooks
is the only person...

that knew everybody's name
on the set.

Seven years later,

sometimes you don't know
who that guy, you know,

hanging up there,
what his name is.

Avery did.

He called everybody out
by their first and last name.

It made you feel like...
this is important,
what's going on.

wrap it around that pain
and toss them both away.

But it doesn't
work like that.

Running may help
for a little while,

but, sooner or later,
the pain catches up with you.

And the only way
to get rid of it...

is to stand your ground
and face it.

I believe
everything is music.
That's exactly right.

I've done so many things--
the Shakespeare Theatre
in Washington,

doing Christopher Marlowe's
Tamburlaine.

You know, the free verse
and the meter.

It's so large.

This wild, enormous piece.

So how else can
I think about it
except in terms of music?

I can't.
I opened in Tamburlaine.

In the Winter Garden,
Stratford, Ontario.

What year was that?
Middle '50s.

Guthrie's.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it was my introduction
to American television.
That's great.

They-They filmed it?

No, but the producers
came to see it,

and I got some notices.

And that was how I got--
broke into TV.
Is that right?

I didn't know that.
Out of Tamburlaine.

I played Usumcasane,
your--

Oh, Usum-- Yeah.
I remember that.

Isn't that wild?
Is that an incredible
coincidence--

that the two of us
played that piece?

Unknown piece. Who's ever heard
of Marlowe's Tamburlaine?

Actually, that we should not
have played it together.

We should have.
[ Laughs ]

That's Avery Brooks.
He hits the high notes.

And he can pause
and leave everybody still.

Most of us had
huge theater backgrounds,

and I do think it made
a very big difference.

Not just in
our discipline working,

but also the way
we interacted.

What's he gonna say next?

What's he gonna do next?

It was exciting
to work with Avery...

because it was like
you showed up
for a tennis game,

and suddenly a basketball
would come at you.

That's how we watch him.
We don't know--
What's he gonna do next?

We just love it though.

Any scene-- especially
two-character scenes--

is like a sport.

And you're playing it
together...

and you want to get
the volleys going.

You're not competing
with each other.

But you are demanding
of each other...

that you deliver the goods.

♪♪ [ Ballad ]

♪ I'll be tired of you ♪

[ Both Laughing ]

♪ Not before dinner ♪

♪ When ♪

♪ Grass is tired
of growing ♪

Oh, that's fun.

♪ I'll be tired of you ♪

♪ When music
reaches its end ♪

♪♪ [ Vocalizing ]

Go on.

♪ Music goes on ♪

♪ And so does my love ♪

♪ The notes go on ♪

♪ Then I'll be tired ♪

♪ Of you ♪

♪ Of ♪
♪ You ♪♪

Here.

♪ You ♪

[ In Different Keys ]
♪ You, you, you ♪

No, no.
It's right here.

♪ You ♪♪
B-natural.

You're not gonna keep
most of this stuff,
so it's okay.

What are you talking about?
That's what
I'm talking about.

This is a special.
It's horizontal.
It's your show.

And it's horizontal.
That's how it works.

I don't know
what our show is,

and I think what
we're doing here
is monumental actually.

It's certainly unusual.

It's-- Yeah.
I'd say.

Unique probably.

[ Shatner Narrating ]
Listening to him play...

reminded me of one
of the best decisions...

I made during the production of
my documentary, The Captains--

bringing Avery aboard...

as the music supervisor
for the film.

Mr. Shatner called and said
that he would like me...

to do this music.

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

And then I said,
"Well, I know who I need.

His name is Andy Milne."

He's one of the finest pianists
that I have ever heard,

whose virtuosity...

is in no way an impediment...

to the breadth of empathy...

and feeling.

Avery Brooks called me
and asked me...

if I'd be interested
to score the music...

for a documentary about
the captains of Star Trek.

The next thing you know,
Bill Shatner gave me a call...

and said, "Are you
ready to do this?

And I said, "Sure."

[ Brooks ] His facility
is an understanding
of the piano,

you know, in a way
that it's both percussive...

and this incredible orchestra
in your hands.

[ Milne ] Avery and I
have known each other
for several years.

I've been performing
with him in New York...

and recorded on his CD.

♪♪ [ Jazz ]
♪ You and I ♪

I've improvised
many aspects of this...

in sort of dialogue
with the characters
and the actors in the film.

And that's different than
taking musical ideas
and preparing them...

and coming to the studio
to record them.

I think when I was young,

acting was, for me,
the great escape.

My parents would disappear
for a few days,

go to New York,
see a Broadway show
and come back home---

[ Shatner ]
We're putting music...

to a film
as it is happening,

extemporaneously.

[ Brooks ]
So it's real--
real fat.

[ Andy ] Avery and I are
working back and forth
throwing ideas at each other,

and somehow
it's coming together.

It's magic actually.
I think it's a really
interesting process.

What register it was,
that doesn't matter.

No, I'm talking about
higher in key.

Okay. With a "B"?
Up a tritone?

♪♪ [ Chord ]

Yeah.

So we're in the midst
of it now. Deep in it.

Let's get into Vegas
actually.
Let's do the second thing.

- [ Shatner ]
You wanna see Vegas?
- [ Brooks ] Yes. Correct.

Let's tackle that one.

[ Milne ]
Part of me
feels like we're--

There's something historic
happening here.

And it's, like, pretty cool
to be engaged in it, you know.

We're thrilled with it.
Okay? You cool?

I had fun.
That's great.
You're cool?

Yeah.
Okay.

So now pressing on.
What's the next one?

[ Brooks ]
The unknown...

is part of the wonder
of living, after all.

What may be orthodox
for one...

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

is certainly not
orthodox for all.

♪♪ [ Jazz Ballad ]

Those great songs.

Whoa.

♪♪ [ Loud Chord ]

♪♪ [ Quiet Chord ]
[ Laughing ]

We could go on.

We could.
We could tour.

You know we could.
[ Laughing ]

Thank you so much.

It's great to see
that aspect of you...

and to get to know
that part of you.

Or to become acquainted
with it.

Hey, man.

Over the shoulder.

[ Both Laughing ]

Yeah.

[ Brooks ]
The wonder of being alive.

The wonder of possibility.

That's what Mr. Roddenberry
created, et cetera.

Not alone,
but that's what he did.

And then the people took it.

[ Laughs ]

You admire so many--

Like for example, people like--
Well, me, I admire Brando.

- I admire you.
- I admire you.

- Okay.
- All right.

- But I've had no influence
on your work.
- No, you haven't.

- But yes, you have.
- How?

And-And this-- this moment
is what we witness.

See? That's
the beauty of it.

- The moment of--
- Yes. You and I.

- Right now.
- That's it.

- The interaction.
- I think so.

And you will have
influenced me.

I will take from
this conversation you...

and will remember
essences of you
until I die.

Yeah. You could also
play it back.

- Not fully.
- [ Laughing ]

"Who was your favorite
character?" Child asked me.

Huh? What do you mean,

who's my favorite character
in Star Trek?

It's gotta be Sisko.
What?