00:00I'm Lance Gross, and a value that's important to me is health.
00:07And when I say health, I'm talking body, mind, and spirit.
00:11Your body, because I just believe in physical appearance.
00:15If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.
00:17Your mind, you just need to be mentally grounded.
00:21And spiritually, because you need to know that there's a higher power controlling your steps and your everyday movement.
00:28So that's why health is important to me.
00:40My man, Omari Hartman, thank you for sitting with me, allowing me to turn my camera on.
00:48Of course, man.
00:49So, with this project, I've come up with a wish list of celebrities and talent to photograph.
00:56Now, I've also put a list together of my values that are important to me.
01:00So, for you, I chose health.
01:02You know, I've known you for a long time.
01:04We've had conversations.
01:05And every time, it's just like, wow, man.
01:08You embody what I believe is being healthy.
01:13Body, mind, and spirit.
01:15Thank you, brother.
01:16Yeah.
01:17So, what are your daily health rituals?
01:22I try to brush my teeth, hell.
01:24You gotta do that.
01:26I think it's underrated, man.
01:27You should always shower and brush your teeth.
01:29And then I hit the gym when I can.
01:31I think at this point in my life, because the knees have taken such a beating, you know,
01:37in terms of all the years of ball and baseball included as a catcher.
01:41And so, you know, that sort of has, at this point, had to be put on the back burner.
01:47A lot of heavy bag.
01:48You know, I love that your studio has replicas of none other than, of course, Muhammad Ali.
01:53And then read, you know?
01:55Yeah.
01:56I think, you know, I'm always reading.
01:57Just condition your mind.
01:58You gotta condition your mind in everything, man.
02:01You know what I mean?
02:02Not just reading one genre of whatever, but just everything.
02:05Trying to brush up on anything and everything so you're not lonely in a conversation.
02:09So, you briefly mentioned being an athlete.
02:11Mm-hmm.
02:12How would you say that informed you your career as an athlete?
02:15So, I think, you know, maybe the non-obvious answer would be the fact that as a young African-American
02:22being raised in the South, it immediately gave me other people whose faces didn't necessarily
02:27look like mine.
02:28And so, I think sports did a great job of allowing me to jettison into a world of a variance
02:35of people, which I always thought was a really good thing.
02:38Do you believe in spiritual health?
02:41Yeah.
02:42I think most important.
02:43Yeah.
02:44You know?
02:45It makes no sense for your exterior to be on point, or whatever that means, in terms
02:49of your physical appearance.
02:51Mm-hmm.
02:52If your insides is all contaminated, it's not a great thing.
02:55That wouldn't be good.
02:56Yeah.
02:57Yeah.
02:58My lady is always asking my daughter, where are you most beautiful?
03:03Yeah.
03:04You know, even at almost four years old, Nova's response is inside.
03:09I know when I come home from a long day's work, seeing my daughter, man, it's like, I don't
03:16care how challenging, how bad my day was, seeing that little girl, it puts me in the happiest
03:24place I could ever be in.
03:25Absolutely.
03:26I know you work a lot.
03:27Yeah.
03:28More than me.
03:29I work a lot.
03:30You know?
03:31So, what is that feeling for you when you come home and your kids is like that?
03:35Yeah.
03:36They scream, Papa.
03:37Yeah.
03:38There's nothing better than that.
03:39Yeah.
03:40There's nothing better than that.
03:41I remember people telling me as an artist, you know, Mario, you already have so much
03:44stuff inside of you, so much complexity, so many buttons to push, but once you become
03:48a father, that he multiplies it.
03:51I definitely can say that's true.
03:54Whether you need to smile, whether you need to cry, whether, whatever you need.
03:58And it's crazy because you don't understand that until you actually have a kid.
04:02I don't care how old you are, you don't have a kid.
04:05You don't understand what that feeling is.
04:07Yeah, you can't.
04:08You listen to people and you try to, but there's no way.
04:11You try to prepare for it, you hear it, but it's not until you actually experience it.
04:16Yeah.
04:17It's interesting.
04:18Yeah, it is.
04:19Omar, have you ever been in a situation where you had to choose between a job or a person
04:24or your own well-being?
04:26Probably sixth year of my working career as an actor.
04:32We were pregnant with my first child, filming Dark Blue, lying to kick ass so that I could
04:40do both.
04:41And dealing with the baby sliding and not doing well.
04:45And the doctors letting us know, you know, that if it were them, they would have aborted.
04:51And we chose not to.
04:53And just riding that out for months in terms of like, not wanting to go to work.
05:00And of course, having somebody secure enough and strong enough at home to go, no, you got
05:04to go to work.
05:05And then it came to a place where, where the baby, we lost the baby.
05:11And ironically, the day that we delivered the baby, I was forced to work.
05:15And it was the first moment to me where I, you know, there was the level of, this was
05:21a moment of anger at the industry.
05:23Yeah.
05:24Now, I relate to you so much in that moment.
05:27I was, uh, you don't know, but, but we lost the child.
05:33And, uh, I remember getting the call from, from my wife.
05:38I was in the middle of a scene and, uh, I got the call from her and it did something.
05:46You know what I mean?
05:47Cause I, I felt like I should have been there.
05:49Yeah.
05:50We learned how many people share those stories, but nobody talks about it.
05:53Yeah.
05:54Nobody talks about it.
05:55I said it was a very good question you asked.
05:57How do you stay sane?
06:00My sanity has definitely been a marriage or a hybrid of, of the gem meets writing.
06:06Yeah.
06:07For me as a poet, as you know, as much into the poetry as you are into photography.
06:11And so it saved me.
06:13I've thought about all the years that I rocked on stage or, it truly is something that once
06:18it's out, it's out.
06:19Yeah.
06:20And so that, that aids in sanity in terms of getting it out.
06:23It's on the stage.
06:24It's there.
06:25I ain't got to deal with it no more.
06:26Yeah.
06:27Well, Omari, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you coming in and sitting with me.
06:30Allowing me to turn my camera on.
06:32It was fun, man.
06:33I appreciate it.
06:35Yes, sir.
06:37Yes, sir.
06:40Yes, sir.
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