00:00A lot of those things I know about because I was there and I was part of them.
00:04I was around certain people that did it. I was around people who got robbed in the robbery.
00:08I know some of those people. My wife's
00:12house that she grew up in is a block and a half away from
00:16the place where it happened. So Collier Heights was where
00:20the rich and well-to-do black people lived and that's where the
00:24robbery was. So I have a lot of it. I
00:28came to this with a lot of information or a lot of
00:32knowledge about what was going on in the reality
00:36of it and in the mythology of what that whole
00:40thing was when it happened.
00:41You boys got any goddamn idea who you stealing from?
00:46This kid's taking on life of its own.
00:48These men are killers.
00:50Stealing from me? The man in my position can't have that.
00:54Don't nobody fuck with Frank Motley.
00:58So Mr. Jackson, it's a pleasure to be speaking with you.
01:04You famously went to Morehouse University.
01:06So I wanted to ask you, how did this film...
01:08It's a college.
01:10Morehouse College.
01:12Yeah.
01:14How do you think this film captured the essence of Atlanta, in your opinion?
01:18It was a vibrant place, you know, in the 70s.
01:22It was starting to bubble.
01:24You could see the potential for the city when it was happening.
01:28Having the Ali fight there was a really big deal.
01:32Him getting out of jail and having his first fight in Atlanta.
01:38It's pretty wild in that Lester Maddox was actually the governor.
01:46It was pretty crazy because, I mean, he got famous because he did all these crazy racist things.
01:52And he had a store in underground Atlanta where he saw axe handles.
01:58Because that's what he used to keep these black people out of his establishment.
02:04But he used to be in there signing them and selling them.
02:07It was crazy.
02:08But Atlanta was always blacker than, you know, most people thought in terms of what it was.
02:19It wasn't run by black people at that particular time because after Lester Maddox, you know,
02:24Atlanta did start to grow when Maynard Jackson became the first black mayor.
02:28And things started to change.
02:30And the growth that Frank saw in his mind or the growth that Chicken Man was seeing.
02:38There are a lot of people there in that particular film that are trying to get to a particular place,
02:43striving through it.
02:44Don's character, the cop, I had a cousin, my wife's cousin.
02:49He became my cousin.
02:50My wife's cousin was one of those first 23 policemen in Atlanta.
02:55Wow.
02:56And he actually became the chief of police at a certain point named Elgin Bell.
03:01So a lot of those things I know about because I was there and I was part of them.
03:06I was around certain people that did it.
03:08I was around people who got robbed in the robbery.
03:10I know some of those people.
03:12My wife's house that she grew up in is a block and a half away from the place where it happened.
03:19So Collier Heights was where, you know, rich, rich and well-to-do black people lived.
03:25And that's where the, you know, robbery was.
03:27So I have a lot.
03:29I came to this with a lot of information or a lot of knowledge about what was going on in the reality of it and in the mythology of what that whole thing was when it happened.
03:44So these experiences in the end is the closeness that you have to the story.
03:48How did that help you in your portrayal of Frank mode?
03:51I think that the things that we talked about more or I talked about more for Frank to myself were the things that we created in terms of what his grandmother talked to him about, told him about the land or what it meant to be who he was and how he had to, you know, carry himself in that particular world.
04:19And his expectations of other people and them listening to him or doing what he's doing.
04:27I mean, he's in the midst of a slight power struggle and understanding what that means to him and what he's trying to do and where he's trying to go.
04:39And move the the group of people or or confederates, he's trying to move them in a specific direction that they are not willing to go just yet because they're still busy doing gangster things.
04:57And he's trying to let them know that we can we can be legit and still be who we are.
05:02But nobody's trying to buy that.
05:04So he kind of has the lone wolf from at a certain point, you know, and he's he's handling that more so than all the other things that have happened to him.
05:19The robbery is just one of those things that he has to he has to he has to reclaim his reputation by cleaning that whole business up.
05:29But what his trajectory is, is not that, you know, to become the godfather of of Atlanta.
05:38But it's like he says, you know, the newspapers have to call you something when he's talking to Don, you know, they they call you a pig and they call me a criminal, you know, so.
05:51We're not other people.
05:53We're not defined by other people.
05:55That's right. That's right.
05:56Mr. Jackson, I appreciate you.
05:58Thank you so much.
05:59You're a legend.
06:00And I really appreciate you.
06:02I appreciate you.
06:03Thank you, man.
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