00:00Hi, Essence family. This is Yolanda Sanguini, entertainment editor at Essence.com. I'm here
00:13with the amazing Common. What's up, y'all? What's up? We're going to talk about his latest film,
00:18The Odd Life of Timothy Green and Hell on Wheels, season two. Yes, season two starting real soon.
00:24Cool. Timothy Green was weird to many people, and that difference also was something that I felt
00:33was a great jewel and lesson in it, was that you can be different, but still be really something
00:41special. I'm a true supporter of that. I've written children's books about that, so I always
00:48encourage people, if you feel that you're weird, different, however, just be it. I think Timothy
00:54Green, you know, also expresses that. Yes, Coach Cal is, like many coaches, like they want
01:02to see the best out of their athletes, out of their team, and Coach Cal is someone who's
01:08about winning. Like, at the end of the day, he wants the results of winning, and Coach Cal
01:14learned some lessons because of Timothy Green about life, and, you know, of course you want
01:19to win. But it's other lessons to get through the process of getting that gold medal, or,
01:27you know, that championship ring, trophy, or whatever your win may be.
01:32Elon Ferguson is a very strong, profound character for me to play. I mean, being someone who is
01:40from an ex-slave, really, and during that, you know, the post-Civil War, it's like, you
01:48think about somebody that's been, like, owned by another human being for their whole life,
01:54separated from their family in different conditions like that, and then to have to find your place
01:59in the world once they say, okay, you're free. Like, he comes to the railroad, to the Transcontinental
02:04Railroad to build his American dream, and to be something. And he still faces some of the
02:09same racial obstacles, but then, along with that, he wants to, you know, he falls in love
02:13with a woman, a white woman, which is like, you know, obviously is not allowed at that
02:19time anyway. And, you know, then even Elon going through the situation of starting to
02:25get power, because he naturally is a leader. He's naturally, like, ambitious and a strong
02:30individual. So he gets power and doesn't know how to deal with it in certain ways. Well, I was
02:37more self-conscious about, like, being 38, 39, and when I turned 40, it's like, I don't
02:43know, it's like, when you're going on a rollercoaster, and then you get to the top, and you, and once
02:49you, you're scared about the, you know, the dip, but once you get on the dip, it feels good.
02:53Like, you love being, so I felt like, man, 40 just felt like a blessed year for me. It feels
02:59like one of the best times in my life. Like, I, I feel, you know, just more self-assured,
03:06and just confident, and believing in what I'm doing, and just able to just be like,
03:11hey, this is what I am, this is who I am. So, it's a good feeling. I feel like, you know,
03:16I'm starting a new career, too, in acting, so it's new things to do there, and then I'm
03:21able to continue to do music, and, and stay in tune with what's going on with, whether you're
03:26young or old, just stay in tune with, with, with people.
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