00:00I think just imagining what he would be going through at this stage of his life and at this point in his career and I know it resembles sometimes some of the things I was going through in my life in this part of my career. So I was like, oh, okay, cool. You know, like this, you know, over the years, you know, you start to somehow work out your own shit through the characters that you play. And hopefully by the end of the film, you've worked some stuff out, you know.
00:28I spent the last seven years of my life living out my wildest dreams. Bianca, Rocky, my dad. This was built on their shoulders.
00:50Hey, my man, can I help you? Let me get an autograph. No, I ain't signing an autograph since you get off my car. You don't remember me, huh?
00:58Hey, how long were you locked up? 18 years, bro. Just got out last week. Glad to have you back out, huh? I know I've been away a long time, but I kept myself in shape. I still got gas in the tank. Come by the gym. Thank you.
01:17You have been with this character for eight or nine years at this point? Eight or nine years, something like that.
01:21But now you're transitioning into directing. What was, I guess, the pressure like for you getting behind the camera to direct your co-stars and yourself in a sense for this film?
01:31Um, it was, I mean, it's pressure more I put on myself. You know, it wasn't a lot of, you know, pressure. It was just the, I guess, anxiety of the unknown because I haven't done it before.
01:43And then once I started to kind of get my bearings and, you know, get, get, get comfortable pretty quickly, uh, it started to flow and, um, the anxiety of not knowing, okay, how do I talk to, you know, my actors and this type of way?
01:55Just talk to them like you always talk to them. Okay. Got it. Cool. You know, how do I, you know, who's yelling action? Who's yelling cut? All right. My first AD is doing that. Cool. Got that out the way.
02:02All right. Now it's just about, you know, finding the truth, you know, workshopping these scenes, you know, just trying to squeeze every, you know, bit of juice out of, uh, you know, every moment you can. And, and, and, um, and yeah, just, you know, take it a day at a time. And that, and that, that's kind of what I did.
02:17Now this character's grown, I guess, with you over the years. What is it like kind of, I guess, ideating all these arcs for him as you go through changes in your own life?
02:25A little bit. You know, I think, I think, um, just imagining what he would be going through at this stage of his life.
02:32I mean, at this point in his career, and, uh, I know, you know, it resembles, you know, sometimes some of the things I was going through in my life.
02:39I mean, this part of my career, so I was like, oh, okay, cool. You know, like this, this, you know, over the years, you know, you start to somehow work out your own shit through the characters that you play.
02:49And, and, and, and, um, and hopefully by the end of the film, you, you, you've worked some stuff out.
02:54You know, I think that's, that's, um, kind of therapeutic in a way for, for, for me and, and some other actors that I know.
03:01So, um, that was an interesting, um, thing and super rare, you know, this is the third time I've played this character.
03:08I've never done that before, you know, um, so to kind of have these parallels in certain areas, I thought was, uh, interesting.
03:14And I felt like it was a shame if I didn't really explore them to the best of the, you know, the ability of the story.
03:19That's what we did.
03:20Makes sense. Now, you feel like you've been bit by the directing bug.
03:23Like, would be more of these coming down the pipeline now?
03:25I think so. I think so. I, I really enjoyed it. Um, just, you know, working with my cast and my crew, you know, you know, working on the story, just crafting every element of it with, you know, my collaborators and department heads.
03:37And, um, I thought it was, I thought it was, um, yeah, it's, it's dope. You'll, you'll, you'll see some more of me. Not sure when, but, you know, for sure.
03:44Now, I know that you've mentioned that a lot of the fight scenes in this were kind of anime inspired, you know, but of course, I'm assuming the anime inspirations is most black men around our age group would be like Dragon Ball Z, for example.
03:57Um, I did want to ask you if you have, like, an anime spirit animal that kind of inspires you when you're in the fight scenes, who would that be?
04:04Now, Jonathan said he's Vegeta, so.
04:06Yeah, he definitely gave Vegeta vibes on this for sure.
04:10I mean, when it comes to, you know, Dragon Ball Z, I mean, I think definitely Goku vibes, you know what I mean, but, you know, yeah, I'm like a, in Naruto, I'm probably like a Shikamaru meets, you know, Rock Lee a little bit, you know what I'm saying, a little bit of that, a little of this.
04:26Uh, no, but, but, but, uh, yeah, anime had a huge influence over, over, uh, you know, just me in general, you know, so I think as I'm starting to, you know, craft things that I like and things that I enjoy and especially where it makes sense around fights, you know, things just naturally start to fall.
04:40Please.
Comments