- 3 weeks ago
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00:00Hello, everyone. How are you?
00:03As Stephanie mentioned, I am the senior entertainment editor here at Essence.
00:07And so I might be a little bit biased, but I think this next panel might be one of your favorites.
00:12Oh, y'all agree. Okay.
00:14So we know, you know, navigating Hollywood in general can be quite the rollercoaster ride.
00:20But these next three gentlemen have had the advantage of being able to do it together as brothers.
00:24On screen, behind the scenes, in real life, these men are blazing a unique trail as actors, producers, and creators.
00:33Making it happen under the umbrella of their family business known as Tate Men Entertainment.
00:38And they're here today to tell us a little bit about it.
00:40So please join me in welcoming Lorenz Tate, Lamar Tate, and Leron Tate.
00:52Hello.
00:53Hello.
00:53How are you?
00:54Doing well.
00:55Good.
00:56One, two.
00:56Oh, they getting some camera time.
00:58Okay.
00:59Let those brothers get some camera time.
01:03Here's Lamar.
01:04Yes, let's keep clapping.
01:05Here's Leron.
01:06Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
01:09I'm going to jump right in first off and say thank you to Essence for hosting this Hollywood house.
01:15Indeed.
01:16This is a great panel.
01:19You guys have seen some other great panels.
01:21It's just the fact that we have this wonderful energy in here.
01:25This is beautiful.
01:26We need these kinds of things.
01:28These are the things that my brothers and I have always sort of envisioned, trying to make sure that we can come together, have dialogue, find ways to communicate and network.
01:38Talk about that inclusion and how we can all make a difference and truly be a force in this industry because we have worked for it.
01:45And it's great to see all of y'all in here.
01:48No disrespect to the men, but there's some beautiful sisters in here.
01:52Thank God for all y'all black women.
01:54Yes, I just want to put that out there.
01:58Now that I've gotten that off my chest, beautiful sister.
02:02All right, that's done.
02:03I don't feel like I didn't even ask no questions.
02:04You just go roll right in.
02:06Oh, don't get me started.
02:07I will take over and I will be the moderator.
02:12Let me start asking some questions with you.
02:13Moderator, the facilitator.
02:14Moderator, you want me to do that?
02:15Okay, okay, let's get, okay, let's, calm down, LT, calm down, Rance.
02:19Okay.
02:19I wrote half his script, by the way.
02:23Well, tell us, because I want to get into roles.
02:25That's where I want to start.
02:26We know your names, we know your faces, but when it comes to entertainment, y'all make the quiet moves behind the scenes.
02:32So tell me about each of your roles within the business.
02:36The wrong?
02:38Okay.
02:39Big bro.
02:40I am the guy behind the scenes.
02:43Of course, you got the faces of the company, Lamar and Lorenz, and what I do is I run the day-to-day operation for both Tateman Entertainment, our production side, and Tateman Productions, our physical production side.
02:56So I'm the guy behind the scenes.
02:59Leron is the magician behind the curtain.
03:02Let me just tell y'all how, because he's, I got to really get to what he does, and it's really important to know.
03:09So working with my brothers has been a great journey.
03:16Can I tell you a little bit how we sort of got into the business and why?
03:19That was my next question.
03:20So you take it.
03:21I know.
03:21You know what it is?
03:22We're just connected.
03:23That's all.
03:24That's all.
03:24I know.
03:26We just connected.
03:27Don't let cut look.
03:27Okay.
03:28We connected.
03:29So we're originally from Chicago, the West Side.
03:33Yeah.
03:33And so our parents wanted to make the move to Los Angeles back in the 80s, not because of anything in terms of the industry, but because my father was seeking higher education.
03:47He's been in the education field forever.
03:49And, you know, being on the West Side of Chicago, my brothers and I had a lot of energy, and there was things in the community that was changing.
03:58And mom raising the three boys just was not how she wanted to do it.
04:05And so she was like, listen, we got to go out with y'all pops.
04:08And I'm so happy that he did, you know, embrace the fact that we would go to the West Coast with him as he was, you know, going to college and finishing up some of his studies.
04:19And in that, moms and pops saw that once we got to L.A., we was like kind of wild.
04:27And we was like ready to get active and do some of the things we were doing in Chicago.
04:31And pops said, you know what, it would be great to get them into performing arts.
04:36So what they got, what they did was they got us involved with a performing arts school throughout the summer to keep us, you know, in the right direction.
04:46Preoccupied.
04:47Preoccupied.
04:47Let's call it like it is.
04:49And in that, it was an inner city cultural center.
04:53Malcolm Jamal Warner came out of that.
04:55It was the Kim Fields and Chip Fields.
04:57A lot of great, you know, artists had come through those doors.
05:01And, you know, we were presented with both theater, dance, music, just culture.
05:08And what was great about it is like it represented, you know, blackness in its fullest, right?
05:13And we were kids, young, just seeing who we were, you know, listening to African music and listening to things that were created by us and stories and plays and theaters that was written and directed by us.
05:29And, you know, it's all we sort of knew.
05:31And from there, we got recognized from Malcolm Jamal Warner's, his agent at the time, he had just got casted as Theo in the Cosby show.
05:42And we were like, oh, wow, that's great.
05:44You know, this could really, could really happen.
05:46And Leron, who is an outstanding actor, even though he's a producer and he does all the things, Leron is a quiet, like, killer.
05:54Like, he's, like, fantastic actor.
05:58The smile, the smile alone.
06:00I'm not paying his brother to say these things.
06:02No, no.
06:03But I'm kind of doing stuff so that he can say these things.
06:05Take your flowers.
06:06Fantastic, fantastic actor as well as Lamar.
06:09And that particular agent wanted to sign Leron and she wanted to sign Lamar.
06:15And our dad was like, yo, what about the little one?
06:19And she was like, no, no, no, he's too young.
06:21And he's like, listen, they come as a package.
06:25You take one, you take them all and rock with them.
06:29If not, then we're good.
06:31And thank God that she did because I probably wouldn't be sitting here.
06:36And little did we know that the little one would become what we have today.
06:42It's a blessing.
06:43It's a blessing.
06:44But through it all, we always stayed together.
06:48We always stayed connected.
06:49And one of the things about us, like, we never felt that there was a competition, right?
06:54And each of our individual success was the success of the group.
06:59And that's how our parents always, you know, wanted us to be.
07:02They wanted us to continue to thrive together no matter what.
07:06And so as it sort of turned out, we began to talk about things that we were seeing on the television and things that, you know, scripts that we would read or, you know, sides.
07:20Because back in those days, they didn't give us full scripts.
07:22We would just get the part, like, the couple pages of what your audition was going to be.
07:27And usually when we got scripts at that time or pages that we would go audition for, they were for, you know, young black teenagers or young kids.
07:39But we could tell that black people didn't write that.
07:44You just know.
07:45Oh, yeah.
07:45You got to kind of know.
07:47And listen, you know, Hollywood historically has always written for black people.
07:52It was always seen through their prism of who we are and who we should be.
07:57And early on, we just felt uncomfortable with that.
08:01We knew we needed to do something about it.
08:03So our dad would say, well, you guys are always talking about it.
08:06Why don't y'all do something?
08:08Start writing.
08:09And we're like, we don't know how to write a script.
08:11We don't know how to do that.
08:12Enter the run.
08:13He's going to college, and he decided to change his major.
08:17He's over at UCLA at the time, and he changed his major from theater.
08:21And he started, right?
08:22Well, not changed it, but you picked up writing.
08:24I picked up the emphasis in, they don't give majors, the emphasis in screenwriting.
08:31And I took all the courses.
08:32But it was weird because I was one of the few brothers on TV.
08:35I was actually on TV, and people would see me in class.
08:38I'm like, what are you doing here?
08:40I'm like, getting a degree so I can throw it at my kids' face in the future.
08:44What are you talking about?
08:45Real talk.
08:47I don't need this degree, but I will be tossing this back at somebody.
08:50And in the process, you know, eventually left the school.
08:57I needed something to graduate with, and I left with a script.
09:00That script would be looked at by John Wells.
09:03He really wanted it.
09:04But Lorenz was like, Will Smith just got this big deal over at Universal.
09:08We should take it over there.
09:10We took it to Will.
09:11They opted for the project, and the rest is pretty much the way it began.
09:15That's kind of how we eventually started moving in that direction.
09:18And with that, we were able to get a couple, you know, television deals around town.
09:23We got with some other agents that we felt was the right, you know, fit for us.
09:29And we just began to, you know, sort of get into a space where we wanted to tell our stories and our narratives.
09:36But it was not easy, and it's still not easy.
09:39Because it's great when you can come in there and say, listen, I got all these great ideas.
09:44I want to tell these stories.
09:45But when you go into the rooms with people who don't look like you and who don't have your experience, it kind of falls on deaf ears.
09:52It really does, right?
09:53And the further we've sort of gone, the more we realize that there's less inclusion.
10:01Like there's just not people who are represented or who don't represent us.
10:06And it's really important.
10:08One of the things that I always say when we have conversations with, you know, now we can talk to CEOs and people who run these networks.
10:18You know what I'm saying?
10:19I always say, listen, man, black folk, we ain't looking for no handouts from y'all, man.
10:24Like we have earned this.
10:27You know what I'm saying?
10:27We have done the work.
10:29And for fair exchange for the work and our ingenuity and all the things that we've done, we are worthy.
10:38Period.
10:38We're worthy.
10:40And it's not like we're just asking for a handout.
10:43There's a lot of people who've broken down the barriers, who've laid the foundation, both black men and black women, people who have done so much, you know, that allows us to be where we are.
10:59And so when we say it's really important for us to tell our stories, why wouldn't we?
11:06And so that's one of those things that we have been, you know, doing and working with other people to tell our stories.
11:14Awesome.
11:15I love that.
11:16And I would love if each of you could kind of talk about navigating that because to hear all of you say you have decades of experience and you still have to fight.
11:23So for people who haven't been acting first or aren't even in the industry yet, what's your advice for having those conversations, for, you know, getting through the door when you're trying to make something happen?
11:34I'd say that understand the word show business is a compound.
11:41It's two words.
11:42And show is about 5% truly at this stage and 95% is the business.
11:48And so what that means is understand the business that you're going to get yourself into.
11:53Understanding the back story of it from if you choose an agent, a manager, what that money and finances go to.
12:03Also understanding your worth.
12:06I think a lot of times when we get in this business, we just want to appease.
12:11Instead of appease, appreciate what you got as you shine.
12:15And so that will give you the gratitude and the confidence to continue and have a mission.
12:21Have a goal.
12:21Set yourself a goal and understand that there is no ceiling in the business of entertainment.
12:27I've seen people who were wardrobe who become, you know, presidents of industries in the sense of studios and things of that nature.
12:36So give yourself a game plan.
12:38Give yourself 5-year, 10-year.
12:40I call it short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals.
12:43And make sure you're in it for the marathon, not just the sprint.
12:46You know, to even build on what Lamar is saying, you know, oftentimes people ask us how do we get into business?
12:54How do we do it?
12:55I mean, there's no one way to do it.
12:57I always say you just never know.
13:00You know, like Lamar said, you can start out in a wardrobe, you can start out in a makeup department, you can start out in PR.
13:06You know, Ava DuVernay was a publicist.
13:09I don't know if people knew that.
13:11But, you know, I've worked with her back in the days when she was a publicist, and now look where she is today.
13:16Right?
13:17Because you just never know.
13:18And I always encourage everybody, if you're going to be in the industry, you know, just try to see a little bit of all facets of it if you could.
13:27And I typically try to encourage black folk who want to get in the industry to do more behind the camera as opposed to being.
13:35A lot of us want to be famous, and that's cool.
13:39I promise you I would trade my fame right now for the people who run these companies and own this stuff.
13:45I promise you their generational wealth is a lot different than mine.
13:50I've been famous a long time, and it's great.
13:53You can get into a couple places.
13:55You can get into some places.
13:57They show you some love.
13:58You can get a free ticket here.
13:59But I want to own the building.
14:01I want to own the seats.
14:02You know what I mean?
14:03Like, it's a different.
14:06And I'm around it, and I'm seeing it, right?
14:08And, you know, once you've sort of been exposed to it, for us, I just think that it's really important for us to do more behind the scenes, whatever it is.
14:21Production.
14:22The one thing about actors and actresses, you can't be in everything, right?
14:28Right.
14:28You know?
14:29You can't be in everything.
14:31But there's always productions going, right?
14:34There's always a TV show in production.
14:36There's always a reality show.
14:38There's always a movie.
14:40It's the people who are behind the scenes that stay working.
14:45Consistency.
14:46Consistency.
14:46That's it.
14:46They go from job to job to job, and what I've seen going from these, a lot of them don't look like y'all.
14:55That's what I'm saying.
14:56Like, you got to do.
14:58I know it's really nice because everybody want to be famous.
15:01We got social media for that.
15:03Y'all can be famous there.
15:05But honestly, just directors and writers, and we need producers.
15:09People, producers, but going further, and I'm going to shut up because I know my brothers are like, would this Negro stop talking?
15:15Never, never, brother.
15:16But listen, but listen.
15:17You're dropping gems.
15:18No, no.
15:18When you talk about, you know, how long it has taken some of our, like, in the hair and makeup department, how long it's taken us to get some of the barbers, the brothers.
15:27You know, I go to these sets or I do these shows, and I say, no disrespect, but I need a barber's touch.
15:34You know what I mean?
15:35I'm not, listen, I get it.
15:37Can't cut his hair with scissors, damn it.
15:41Right.
15:41I don't need a washing cut.
15:43You know what I'm saying?
15:44That ain't how black folks do it.
15:45That ain't how we do it.
15:47So to be able to see more of us in those spaces, wardrobe, all of it, you know, the grips and lighting and all of that stuff, they stay working, and the union protects them.
16:02They stay, you know, busy all the time.
16:06So I would encourage you can do all of it.
16:09You can do all of it.
16:10Which is one of the reasons why, you know, for us, one of the things Ren's kind of touched on in terms of ownership, in terms of IP and stuff like that.
16:17You know, we're thinking like that today.
16:20Before, it's kind of difficult to kind of say that because people are like, what do you mean, own?
16:25You don't, you know, we're not trying to let you own.
16:27We can let you rent, but you ain't here to own.
16:31Part of us starting our own production company, that was one of the things our father was advocating for.
16:37You know, own some stuff.
16:38Keep it 100.
16:39Own some shit.
16:40Simple as that.
16:41Own some shit.
16:42So one of the things that we've been fortunate enough to do is hire people, you know, as an executive producer on different projects that we do, working with different networks or a studio for that matter.
16:57One of the things that I take pride in is being able to go and find people of quality, first and foremost.
17:03I'm not hiring you just because you're black.
17:05That ain't happening.
17:06All right?
17:07It don't work like that.
17:08It is literally, if you're qualified and you fit the bill, I got one request.
17:15Bring me your excellence.
17:17That's all I ask you to do.
17:18Bring me your excellence.
17:19One of the things that I wanted to point out, and this is sort of a testament to just with inclusion and things that when we have the ability to bring people to the table.
17:33I know we produced a movie for BET, back to the good life that started, Kyla Pratt, and one of the things was the movie was originally told from a male perspective.
17:46A man's point of view, and I was telling Leron, I was like, yo, man, we need to switch it and put a woman as the lead and just completely change it.
17:55And it would be a great story, because she's an executive and she can do all these things that men are doing.
18:02And we said, okay, but because men wrote the project, we're going to need a woman to come in and rewrite it and put that.
18:13And then Leron took it to the next level.
18:16He was like, okay, so we've got to hire some black women as our producing partners, black director.
18:25Female.
18:25Female black director, as well as camera operator and DP, the director.
18:31So we wanted to have real inclusion in real key places where typically women, black women specifically, don't always get that.
18:41We placed them in empowerment.
18:44Yeah, and it was one of those things that we wanted to show that we see you.
18:49We see black women.
18:50We celebrate.
18:51And we need to celebrate.
18:52I was just telling someone backstage earlier, I said, you know, I'm kind of digressing, but here's the point.
19:00Black men and black women need to heal.
19:03We need to, and it doesn't matter whatever it is, whoever you date, whatever that's on you, whoever you want to love,
19:09but specifically, black men and black women need to heal, whether it's your grandmother, your grandfather, your aunt, your uncle, your sisters, whatever, aunties.
19:19We as a community just need to heal and to see each other and find some common ground and some understanding.
19:27Because when we are unified, great things happen.
19:31Good things happen.
19:32Yes, absolutely.
19:33And I'm glad they clap because I want to thank you for the intentionality behind the work that you do.
19:39That's extremely important.
19:41It makes me excited to know what you all have coming up next.
19:43So tell us whatever you can about some of your next projects.
19:47Oh, man.
19:47We got a couple things.
19:49I know what happens is, you know, Lamar and I are working together.
19:53You know, we are doing a little show.
19:55Yeah, the show Goats of Power.
19:57So we're working together.
19:58I'm so happy that Courtney Kemp, who is phenomenal along with 50 Cent, Curtis, 50 Cent, Jackson, and what they've been able to do.
20:08When I had the opportunity to have someone come on the show to play my brother, you know, I was like, I got to have my brother.
20:15And she was like, okay, so your producing partner, Leron, he's an actor, right?
20:19So she wanted to hire Leron.
20:21Okay.
20:21And I was like, well, he's my producing partner.
20:24And she said, he acts.
20:25I was like, yeah, he acts, but this is the guy.
20:29And she was like, oh, Lamar, yeah, say less.
20:33And she says, don't tell him, but he's going to be on the show.
20:36So for a long time, I didn't tell Lamar until we finally told him he's going to be on the show because we've been trying to find something together for a long time.
20:42So we have that.
20:43We still have that going on, but we are creating something.
20:46Thank you for that too, bro.
20:47Yeah, 100%, man.
20:48We got to keep it in the family.
20:49Keep that bag in the family.
20:52Woo!
20:53It's a nice bag.
20:54They got the bags over there.
20:55Trust me.
20:56It's a nice bag.
20:57Don't cry for us.
20:58We good.
20:59Listen, but we are working on something together that we can't say.
21:04Okay.
21:04But the three of us are working on something where you all would be able to have access to all of us and have forums like this.
21:12So we're working on something really special.
21:14And some movies and some TV shows.
21:16I'm going to throw it out there because we got to throw it out there.
21:19Go for it.
21:19We put the pressure on the network.
21:21We are working on a docuseries.
21:24Lorenz will be the host of the docuseries.
21:26And it is in the space of systemic racism.
21:31And injustices.
21:32Social injustice.
21:32And injustice is what it really is about.
21:34Yeah, we really want to do something about that.
21:37Talk about the things specifically to black communities, specifically to black cultures.
21:44People of color, period.
21:45Yeah.
21:45You know, but specifically black.
21:48But something we were saying, when we are so-called pro-black, please, I beg y'all, or I insist, not begging, I insist, when black folks are talking about the liberation of black people and the love of black people, do not look at that as anti-anything else.
22:08Yeah, because we're not.
22:09When we're talking about us, it don't mean you can't be included.
22:13You know what I'm saying?
22:14Well, how come this, you know, you know, Kenny and, you know, Beth, we ain't talking about them right now.
22:23We're talking about, you know what I'm saying?
22:24We're talking about black people and blackness, and it's okay.
22:28And we are unapologetic about it.
22:30I'm not apologizing for loving on black people and blackness.
22:35We deserve it.
22:36Absolutely.
22:37Now, and then, because we get a lot of blurred lines here when it's about minorities and people of color.
22:42No disrespect to that, but that ain't who we talking about.
22:46Right, right.
22:47And that ain't what we're dealing with.
22:48We're dealing with issues with us.
22:51Yeah.
22:51Period.
22:51That's it.
22:52Yep.
22:52And I'm comfortable with that, and I can go to bed at night comfortable knowing that's what we're representing.
22:58Yes.
22:58Amongst other things, but specifically, black folk.
23:01Absolutely.
23:02The liberation of black people and black love.
23:04Thank y'all.
23:05Yes.
23:06Thank you all.
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