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00:00What film or series lit your fuse and made you have to tell stories on screen?
00:17There were two of them. Robert Townsend and Keenan Ivory Wayans were huge
00:25influences on younger me. When I saw I'm Gonna Get Your Sucker and realized the story behind it,
00:34it really changed the way I looked at filmmaking and what it meant to be a filmmaker.
00:41Just because it was comedy that I could relate to and it was so ridiculous that it became
00:46a thing of household legend with me and all my friends. In Living Color was a sketch comedy show
00:54that I think to this day changed the entire world of television, especially for me because I had
01:00never seen anything like that. And the level of talent on that show, as far as improv and ability,
01:09the names that came off that show, it was nothing like it on TV. And it really was a huge
01:16influence on me and how I wanted to move through the business because everybody was so different
01:21and everybody could do everything. They were just really profound talents. And Don Cheadle did a
01:30movie called Rebound where he played Earl the Goat Manigault. And I remember one night when we first
01:35got cable, I saw it on HBO and it was just a performance that has stuck with me my entire
01:43life. Now, I might go back and watch it now and it sucks. But when I was a kid, it was really like,
01:51you know, Don Cheadle was one of those actors that I always looked up to just simply because his
01:57ability was so simple and unforced, but yet so educated and specific to what he was trying
02:08to achieve as a character. So that was something that really influenced me as an actor and how I
02:13wanted to work. Well, now, so you went to Juilliard, you're making your way in the business.
02:21What movie or series or performance did you watch that was so good it made you think,
02:28what am I doing here? I, you know, can I really play in a sandbox? I'll say this. I'm the most
02:35famous actor on The Wire who has never been on The Wire. All my friends were on The Wire. I
02:42literally know everybody on that show. All of my friends got cast on that show and I never did.
02:48So watching The Wire when I was a kid, more so than any other show, I feel like The Wire had
02:54such an effect on me because I got to see my people that I knew in day-to-day life
03:02get amazing scripts, an amazing platform at the time, and do amazing work. Like, it don't
03:09always line up like that. Sometimes you'll get a great script and you'll get a mediocre co-star or
03:14a mediocre director and an okay script, but that was the first show I saw where I had to run home
03:22and watch it. That's fascinating because a lot of people didn't catch up to that show until
03:28long after it ended. Right, of course, of course. And I, it's funny because I auditioned for the
03:35first season. Like, when HBO was like, we're doing this show called The Wire, my agent was like, you
03:39have to go in and audition for the show. You know, Dave Simon, this, that, and the third. And it was
03:44just one of those shows that affected me because I literally saw and knew everybody doing the
03:54highest work of their potential. Wow. You know, I remember when I first met Michael B. Jordan,
04:00we're walking down the street on the Quonset when they were premiering Fruitvale Station,
04:05which really launched him and Ryan Coogler, and somebody yells out, hey, where's Wallace at?
04:11You know, and I think it kind of freaked Mike out a little bit, but it just goes to show you, man,
04:17that show. Yeah, right. That show resonated. It was a great show. A lot of episodes, it didn't
04:22really feel like much happened, but it was just that through line. Well, every, you had so many
04:29different, you know, personalities. Like you look at Andre Arroyo, the work that he was doing on
04:36that show was crazy for that time. You know, you look at Jamie Hector, the work that he was doing
04:42on that show was crazy. You know, it was Charles Dutton did a series for HBO, it was a miniseries,
04:47like four episodes called The Corner. And not too many people remember it. I've never seen it again,
04:53but it was the catalyst for The Wire. When that show came on, Charles Dutton directed it,
05:00and he went to the block and just made a show on the block. And it really,
05:08I was like, I was, I mean, I was 16, 17, but I was just petrified by what he was able to capture.
05:16So I was glad when they brought The Wire and scripted it and made it work off of that.
05:20But The Corner, it wasn't a series. It was, it was, it wasn't an ongoing series. It was just
05:25a four part miniseries. And what Charles Dutton was able to do was so, so futuristic and so
05:30beautiful that they had to bring the show off the back, the piggyback off it.
05:35Boy, I didn't realize that.
05:37Yeah, go back and look, go back and watch The Corner and then watch The Wire. It's really
05:42interesting.
05:43Wow. Well, now, so maybe it was something that you did where you got acclaim, or maybe it was
05:50approval from someone whose opinion really mattered to you. What first gave you the
05:55confidence that this is what you need to be doing?
05:58When I was a kid, so I was, I was a pretty popular kid in New Orleans. And I had my little TV show,
06:10and I had my little radio show. And I was doing King Lear by William Shakespeare. And I was
06:17playing the bastard son, Edmund. And my friend Tristan was playing my brother, Edgar, right?
06:25And so it comes to the point in the play where Tristan had to kill me. So Tristan takes his big
06:31bronze sword, and he runs me through. And right when I'm holding the sword, and right when I'm
06:37going to the ground, about four girls in the audience jump up and go, Anthony, no! I was like,
06:42I want to be an actor.
06:47So I owe it all to Tristan Kedrescu.
06:52You owe it all to a great death scene, huh?
06:56Now, what would you say was the biggest obstacle that you had to overcome to allow you to turn
07:03these performances and projects that influenced you into your own language as a performer?
07:10Great question. One of my favorite, and no one knows this, so I'll tell you. I studied with this
07:19amazing clown from the Big Apple Circus named Dickie Ellis. And Dickie, he was like the head
07:29clown at the Big Apple Circus. And I studied with him for like two years. And I really learned
07:37body control and physical speech. So it's something that really stuck with me, the idea
07:46of taking the words away, taking everything away, and all you have is you. Now, how do you
07:51communicate? And I think that what, you know, and not to get on some existential artsy shit,
07:57but I think that's what really, when you started, when I started studying it, when I started looking
08:03at the idea of, you know, the theater history, theater lit, the idea of just theater as a whole,
08:11it made me a much better actor and a much more convincing actor because I was able to convey
08:16my thoughts without having a bunch of words I needed to use. Well, you know, you mentioned
08:21Don Cheadle before, and I'd read that you were his understudy on, what, Top Dog, Underdog, right?
08:28And then later on, you guys were in the Marvel Universe together. So when you, having that
08:34youthful memory of him and then watching him work on stage, what does that feel like? Validation,
08:41intimidation? Like what is, what is his magic that maybe rubbed off on you a little bit?
08:47No, it's still, it's still admiration. I've admired Don. I mean, that was my second job,
08:53second, third job. And I got to watch Don Cheadle and Jeffrey Wright go at it every night on stage.
09:02And it was, it was like a PhD class and how to capture an audience. And, you know, we would
09:09sit backstage, I would talk with Don, I would watch him prepare. I would see how much work
09:13went into him being ready to go on stage every night. And I just, I learned a great deal,
09:19even to this day, when we get on set, you know, for the Marvel stuff, or when we do something else
09:24together, he's just, he's, he's a professional. And I think, you know, being a professional
09:32is probably 75% of the business that we're in. Because if you show up prepared and ready,
09:38when they say action, it's all systems go. So most of the work is done before you even get to work.
09:45So I learned that from him. And just seeing how, how hard he swings, you know, it's,
09:52it was, it was a great experience to have early in my career.
09:55You know, I'm, I've done interviews, for instance, with like LaMonica Garrett on 1883,
10:01and at the premiere, because he was aware of this, when they would show the credits to those
10:07old Western shows, his was one of the very first black faces you saw. And I brought that up with
10:14David Oyelowo for Bass Reeves. And he's like, you know, so LaMonica, at the premiere, his whole
10:21family, they were bawling their eyes out. And I'm a white guy, I would never even think of these
10:26things. But you know, I met you at one of those Avengers parties, and yet, and you had cute kids
10:31running around and, and all that stuff, when there's never been, I mean, Captain America
10:38played by a black actor, what does that mean to you in terms of when you look at your kids,
10:45and when you look at future generations, 20 years ago, that probably wouldn't even have
10:49been in the realm of possibility. Can you kind of distill what that means to you?
10:57You know, it's funny you say that, because I feel like 20, 30 years ago, where was the time,
11:02it definitely would have been in a realm of possibility. You know, I feel like as a, as a
11:08art form, we take a step back. If you look at TV in the 90s, and early 2000s, think about all the
11:16black families, think about all the black faces you had on TV then, as opposed to now. I mean,
11:22Captain America is, you know, a black man is a huge monumental step. But remember, we had Blade,
11:27and we had Spawn in the 90s and early 2000s. So it's not, you know, we're not breaking the mold
11:34here. You know, it's just Marvel just happens to be much bigger than those movies were back then.
11:40And, you know, for me, what makes it so important, and, you know, my kids will never know
11:48how hard I worked to get where I am. Like my kids will never know the amount of sacrifice
11:56that I put in to get to where I am. And that's why it's very personal for me. Even if I try to
12:03explain it, they can't understand. You know, so it's, it's very, this whole Captain America thing,
12:11this whole, like career, 23 year career thing, is something very personal, because I had every
12:19opportunity and reason to fail, and I didn't. And I've seen it, I've done it, I've experienced it.
12:26And now I'm on the other side of it, and I'm able to reflect on it and smile about it. But going
12:32through it, you know, life wasn't a crystal stair. It was, it was, you know, Juilliard was not a great
12:39time. You know, moving to New York at 17 with $400 in your pocket was not a great time. You know,
12:46even boarding school, North Carolina was not a great time. But I was able to take those and build
12:55Because I knew, I knew what I wanted to achieve. And I was able to fight for it in the way that I
13:02fight. I love that. So, you know, you mentioned what you owe to that clown. And so, and then we
13:12move to Twisted Metal. And one of the most indelible images is of a clown who does not
13:18look happy, who looks like he occupies your nightmares, you know, just like the one from
13:24the movie It does. Right. Looking at Twisted Metal, and what you've done with it, what burned in you
13:31to want to tell that story? Because it does veer a little from the track that you were on.
13:38But you're executive producer, and I'm sure there's a lot of things that you're an input,
13:43and you're still learning. Give me a sense as to why, what burned in you to do that and what
13:50you're excited about to do it for for a second season. First of all, Twisted Metal is a great
13:56property. And whenever I read a script, I read it from the perspective of is there something I can
14:01bring to it to make it better. I always if you look at my resume, and you look at what I've done,
14:05I've always liked to play different characters, different types of characters. I don't care if I
14:10have one scene, I don't care if I'm the lead of the movie. If it's some shit I've never done
14:13before, I am in. Right. So with John Doe, he's a he's such a unique dude. And he's such a,
14:21just a beautiful, untampered soul. Like he just he just sees the world for the beauty of the world,
14:29you know, and but at the same time, he's quirky, and he's weird, you know, like he don't really
14:34fit in anywhere. His likes and wants are very different than other people's likes and wants.
14:39So I've never played that before. I've never had that opportunity. And Twisted Metal is such a
14:43unique property because they don't give you you go back and play the video game. John Doe was just a
14:49dude in a car who didn't know his name. That was all the story you got. So I was able to go in
14:57and build him from the ground up, I was able to go in and suit him to this world we were creating.
15:02So it was just different and exciting and unique in a way that there's nothing I don't know if
15:09there's ever been anything like Twisted Metal on TV. It's just such a unique show and such a weird
15:15show that it it was it's it's fun to do. It's fun to show up to set with Stephanie and just
15:22just be ridiculous 12 hours a day and see if it works.
15:27Well now when people see you do they they probably call out something that you did
15:32like where's Wallace you know that kind of thing. Do they remember you for Twisted Metal or is it
15:37Captain America or something else? You know the biggest thing is it I can it I can narrow it down
15:44to two movies when I see the person. I can look at each person and say you probably know me from this
15:49you know but the the biggest thing which I'm most proud of like I said I've been in the game 23 years
15:55now and I have over 100 credits but 8 Mile is like the one. Like everybody has such a passionate
16:05infinite love for that movie and ironically enough I was you know I'm still good friends
16:13with all those dudes. Like I was hanging out yesterday with Eugene Byrd so you know I talked
16:19to MacGyver a week ago you know so it's just we're all still uh really good friends because
16:26we were just kids we didn't know what we were doing and Curtis Hanson was such a great director
16:31that he just he gave us that opportunity to just have fun you know and so most of the time I get
16:38uh Papa Doc. Papa Doc is the the one of one and then you know I'm sure once Captain America comes
16:46out that'll change but if you're a dude I don't care what your race is if you're 30 to 55
16:54it's Papa Doc. Wow that's something now what was more intimidating to play Tupac or MLK and why?
17:03Uh MLK uh MLK was a a daunting uh experience and something I wanted to do personally that was a
17:14very personal decision and personal role for me and you know Tupac you have to be aware that
17:22Tupac like uh Bob Marley like Elvis uh like uh Malcolm X they live in three different realities
17:32they live in the reality of the people that knew them they live in a reality of what the press says
17:37about them then they live in a reality of what they said about themselves so at best you have
17:43a 33% chance of getting it right and once you realize that all bets are off you're never going
17:49to please everybody because 99% of the people knew him in one way or another no one knew him
17:56except his family in all three ways and when his mom came to me and told me I did a great job and
18:03she was proud of me nobody else mattered because they didn't know Tupac they knew what they saw
18:08in the news they knew what they heard in his music they knew what they read in magazines but they did
18:12not know him his mother knew him even his sister to this day she was like you know you did a great
18:19job as my brother and his sister ironically lives in New Orleans now so I see her all the time so
18:25when the two of them gave me props but MLK was you know that that's that's something you can't get
18:33wrong you can get everybody else wrong you can't get MLK wrong you just can't