So what do you think about when you think about Cuba Gooden Junior? I think about Oscar award winning. This guy was in Jerry Maguire. Show me the money. Boys in a hood, as good as it gets. A few good men, the radio. He's played so many different movies with so many incredible actors. And today in this interview, we talked about the diddy allegations. He told two stories of Tupac the day Tupac got shot. He told the story of what happened earlier that day in Vegas. I'll let him tell you the story. We talked about how he deals with alcohol and part of. And what his escape is when his father died, when his personal life, he got emotional. When his dad, and if you don't know who his dad was, was a very famous singer. Everybody plays the fool sometimes. That's his father. Right. And so, learning more about him while we, you and I, watched his movie, there was a lot of interesting. You're going to see how this podcast, 2 hours, however long it is, is going to feel like five minutes simply because of all the stories he told. The amount of money he made for Jerry Maguire, or how much money he made for boys and hood.

You will not believe how much money he made for boys and hood. Anyways, if you're a fan, I'm a fan. If you're curious about a lot of these stories, you're definitely going to enjoy this podcast with the Oscar award winning Cuba gun Junior. 30 seconds. Did you ever think you were made? I feel I'm supposed I could take sweet victory I know this life meant for me.

Why would you bet on Goliath when we got bet, David?

Valuetainment given.

Value's contagious.

This world of entrepreneurs, we can't.

No value. They hate it. I didn't run, homie. Look what I become. I'm the one.

All right, so let me tell you why I've been looking forward to today's interview and sit down with the one and only Cuba Gooden Junior. There's a lot of different things to go through, but here's what's interesting about this. So obviously, we all know some of his work. You know it. Like, if I tell you Cuba Gooden junior, you're gonna say, show me the money, right? We all think about that. Or, you know, hey, you know Rod Tidwell, or maybe you go to men of honor, you know, Academy Award, best supporting actor, I think, for Jerry Maguire in 1996. But then you go a layer deeper, okay? And then you realize, boys in a hood 91 with Cube, Lawrence Fishburne, John Singleton's I think directed the movie. Then you got outbreak, which was really the first contagion epidemic movie that was done. I think that's also in the nineties. Then you got as good as it gets with Jack Nicholson. You got men of honor, you got Pearl harbor. Then you got radio. Incredible acting for radio. You got Nikki Barnes in the house, american gangster, blue Magic. Right, with that one song. That was what was Anthony Johnson, I don't know who.

The one song where the scene with Frank Lucas, seeing the girl, they're making eye contact. Phenomenal movie. Then you played Ben Carson out of all the people, right? TNT, gifted hands, phenomenal book. I read that. Then the people versus OJ Simpson. And then I went a little bit deeper. I said, there's gotta be more stuff here. You were a breakdancer. You apparently liked to play ice hockey. Then you still. Til today, you were talking about it right before this.

I skated with the Panthers coach.

I'm like, what high school did he go to? So you go to North Hollywood High, Tustin High, Apple Valley High, John F. Kennedy High, Granada Hills. I lived in Granada Hills off of Chatsworth and Balboa, and you apparently served that class president, three out of five of them, and you became a born again Christian at the age of 13. Then I'm going and seeing a breakdancer entertainer performing with a singular Lionel Richie at the 1984 Olympics. You were in MacGyver. I used to watch MacGyver was a phenomenal show. Coming to America, right? Dancer, Paula Abdul. I mean, there's so many butler. You were in the butler. I mean, again, the list goes on and on and on. And I know you're working on a bunch of different things right now. And then I got a lot of stories I want to go through with you, because your life, the catalog of the work you've done, the people you've done business with, the projects you worked on, the good, the bad, the ugly. If there's one thing that we know is you're one of the probably best actors we've had the last 20 years in some of.

Some of the most favorite movies that people talk about. Till today, you've been in those movies. So it's great to have you on a podcast that I've been looking forward to talking to you today.

Wow. Well, I love you for that. And how do I follow that up with thank you. And, you know, I did do a movie with Paul Hogan called Lightning Jack. And after the movie, which was a western, I played deaf mute. I joined the team penning and cutting horse competition in the rodeo. So I do ride a little bit.

Like, this background of yours. And then, by the way, and then, so then mom's upstairs. Vinny's like, pat, do you know what song his father sang? I said, what? Everybody plays the fool sometime, right? So walk me back before we go through some of this stuff here. What I want to find out is this, like, when did my son gets invited to the soccer league by this France World cup winner? 2018, I believe. And we're there, and he's going through the tryout, and one of the guy comes up. He's seen some of the interviews I've done in the past, and he's. He for Manu, he replaced Ronaldo.

Oh, wow.

And the guy looks. I mean, this guy looks like a piece of steel. Like a piece of steel 6465. Like a, you know, zlotton top of a body. Okay. And he comes, and we start talking. Great conversation together. I said, when did you know that you were going to make it to the pros as a soccer player?

Oh, interesting.

And he starts telling me the story. So, when did you know you knew how to entertain? You knew how to mimic. See, body language, creative, your brain, creativity. When did you know God gifted you with that ability?

I mean, back in the day, you know, having a famous father and having. And coming from a musical background of people, because not only was my dad the lead singer, the main ingredient, my mom. Quick story about my mom. So, my mom met my dad at the Apollo theater, and my mom was the headliner with her sister and another friend, and they were called the sweethearts. And one of the opening acts were the main ingredient, but the headliner was the sweethearts. And then one thing led to another. My mom's sister got pregnant and had my cousin Lynan, and then my mom got pregnant with my sister April. And so the group disbanded, and their female opening act took their place as the headliner. And that opening act was the supremes.

Wow.

So my mom always says that Diana Ross, she's responsible for her career because they had kids, and the Diana Ross and the spreems took the headliner, and then my father went from under card to the headliner, and then their careers were. The rest was history. So I always had music in the house, and I always had famous people coming over. You might know that my dad did some songs with the Jackson Five, produced some stuff with Stevie Wonder. So Al Jarrero would come by the house, and whenever they came by, my dad would say, watch my son do this. And I would either do a backflip or I would dance and they would, you know, I remember when my dad performed at Disneyland, because every night they'd have different performers at Disneyland, be it a Saturday or a Sunday and whatnot. And what would happen is my mom would get me and my sister, and we'd go as the park closed and we go to the. Well, I'll tell you another quick story. He performed on stage in Disneyland and would always bring me up as a little young kid. And I would do the lyrics of the song while he's singing.

How old are you at this time?

I can't remember. Whenever the first hit came out, it was either. It was probably, everybody plays a fool. It wasn't just, I want to be lonely. So I had to be seven, eight, nine. And I would, you know, do the lyrics. But then the park would close, the general population would go out, and all the performance would take the rides, and you ride the rides every night over. And I knew then I wanted to entertain people because it was like, wait, you get Disneyland all to yourself. And whenever I say anything into a microphone, people applaud. I was like, I'm hooked.

So that reaction, that immediate reaction, media reaction.

So, as life would have it, my parents had split in my first year. So I was probably 13 at around this time. And so we got evicted from one house, and we'd moved to the next city. And the first time it happened, my mom moved in with my grandmother in an area called Victorville, California.

Very familiar. So I lived in Vegas. On the way to Vegas.

That's correct. So I'm living with my grandma. My grandma, tough love, says, you guys gotta get out. So we go to Apple Valley, California. So I go to Apple Valley Junior High school, I think, first. And that was the first year transition. Cause they went. Junior high school used to be, I wanna say six, seven, 8th, 9th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th. And as the junior high president, we converted it to junior high school. Only 6th, 7th and 8th. And that year. Now you're talking eighties, early eighties. They. As a president, I got the body to agree to turn the 9th grade to the high school. So that I became the 9th grade president based on what happened there. And then I got voted in as the 10th grade president. But we moved away, right? So we moved from that house and we moved to Orange county. So we went from Apple Valley to Tustin. And that's where I. And then again, we. We stayed there for one year, and then we moved to Granada Hills. And that's when I went to Kennedy High School.

And do you remember where you lived in Granada Hills?

Yeah, I lived at the Sixpence Inn, right off the freeway of the 405 freeway. And what is it, Reynaldo?

118. Yeah. Oh, Reynaldi. Yeah. By the golf course.

Right? By the golf course, yeah. And we finally moved out. And when I say moved out, it's because the checks weren't bouncing and it was a motel. But I was going to high school in a motel in these three first years of my high school. So we moved to North Hollywood, but I refused in the middle of my junior year to switch schools. My sister switched because she was a senior. She's like, fine, I'll switch. My last year, I go, no, I'm going to take the bus. And I would take the bus from North Hollywood back to Granada Hills and do school until that summer. And then that summer I finally said, no, I can't do that. I have to get up at, like, six in the morning. And it was God's will. I did that because when I went to North Hollywood High School as a senior, and each one of these years, and you can. That was the other long winded way of answering your question. Every high school that I was in, I would be in the drama department, and eventually leading up to the Kennedy High School drama department, and they have this thing called the LAUSd Los Angeles Unified School District's Shakespeare Film Festival once a year.

And during my 11th grade year, living in, going to the Kennedy high school, I competed, and I did individual monolog and played 12th festie and 12th night, and won the competition of all the high schools in Los Angeles. And so what happens is, from each category, maybe there's 13 categories, each person that takes, you get a third place medal, a second placemental. Then you have first place trophy, and you perform in front of all the schools in the auditorium. So you have, I don't know, 1200 kids, and you go and they give you your medal, your award, you put it down, and then you do your monolog. If. If it's a group, five of you, you do five. If it's two, two. If it's one, it's just you in front of this whole school. And I'll never forget, I had done the monolog all day, so much. And I knew I'd already won. So I made my way through it. I'm skipping lines and everything, but I did a backflip at the end of it, and the whole place stood up. It was my first official standing ovation. Everybody stood up anyway, so I tell you that story, because here I am going back and forth on this bus.

And then even that summer, I had a job at the Northridge fashion center. Bob's big boy. And I'm doing that.

I worked at Bob's big boy.

Did you? I was at the. Bob's big boy junior in the Northridge fashion Center, right? So my mom and my sister say, why are you going to do this to yourself? You're really going to. You live. We live walking distance to North Hollywood high School. And I was like, yeah, but I'm the man at Kennedy. I remember I won the festival. Everybody knows. I never forget the first day. Do orientation. You pick your classes. And I walk into that drama class. Cause I wasn't a drama.

North Hollywood high at North Hollywood High School.

And everyone went, there he is. That's the kid that did back flip. And they all.

Wow. So they knew. Because of the shakespeare, they knew.

They knew. They knew. And I was like, all right. My mom was right. And from that moment on, I was a celebrity at North Hollywood High school. So much so that I was doing little Abner during the lunch breaks in the quad with all the crew. And at night, I was doing, you know, the highwayman in Tom Jones, which was, you know, these are, you know. Or I do a Shakespeare thing and play an old man and do all of this stuff. And one of the kids who wasn't even an actor in the play, in the night play, he was working the lights on the stage. His mom came backstage, and she said, he said, richard Milburn is named Richard. Said, cuba, you gotta meet my mom. She's a huge fan. And I said, hi. And she said, what you did on stage was amazing. Do you know who I am? I go, Richard's mom. She goes, my name is Corlee Junior of the Corley Junior agency. And to make a long story short, back in the day, Shirley Temple had one main competition, and it was Corleigh junior. They had the blonde locks, and they were little girls.

And Shirley Temple went to become this big star. And Coralie Junior, what she became was a specialty act agent. And the way she became that is she would go and do the little small parts of movies, not as big as Shelton Temple. And she'd see these little people. She called them. We called them midgets at the time, and they all were getting drunk and rowdy in this little area. And she said, you need to treat them better. They need to have their own hotel rooms in the air. And so she became the agent for the Munchkins. In the wizard of Oz.

Wow.

True story. So what Coralie did is she said, I don't have a lot of actors. I got female impersonators, sword swallowers, little people, you know, all of these variety acts of fire eaters. But I only have 250 year old white male, older gentlemen that I send out on every actor audition. So she said, you will be my third. And I'm an 18 year old black kid, right? So here's what happened with boys in the hood. I went on an audition and I picked up my sides and I sat in the room with all these other older white men. And Jackie Brown came out and said, okay, cuba. Cuba gooding. And I stood up and she said, oh, honey, you're at the wrong audition. I go, well, I'm here anyway. Will you let me read? She said, sure, come in. So I came in and I started doing the thing. I just became this old man and I started doing the whole thing. She laughed and laughed and she said, obviously, this part isn't right for you, but I'm gonna remember you. And she brought me back for John Singleton and Trey and boys in the hood.

Get out of here.

And that's how I got the role. True story.

Wow. Wow. Let me ask you, did you play sports in high school? Were you athletic as well, or. Yes.

Oh, yeah.

Because when you, when you watch Jerry Maguire, you don't, you know, those are all my moves. Yeah. You did a back flip as well, right? When you.

Well, I did the 1990 handstand, which is a handstand, but you're kind of.

Doing a Dion dance.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what, what. And who choreographed that? Or actually, she came on the set the morning of and goes, all right, I know you because I used to be her backup dancer to Paul Abdul. She goes, all right, do this move, do that move. Maybe do a 1990 let's do this and that and do this. She goes, all right, you're ready. And that was her, my choreograph for the end zone dance and Jerry Maguire.

Now, were you and Paula friends or was that just, like, friendly?

But I had, I, you know, when she hires, when she does a music video, remember which one it was? It was a break in and beat street. There was that beach street. But I wasn't in Beat street, but I was in Beach street. Ha ha ha.

Yeah. In my own way. In my own middle eastern way. Yeah.

But she, she remembered. She said, you were one of the dancers that were in my video. I said, I can't believe you remember that. I don't know, if she remembered it, but I remembered it, you know.

So now, at this point, is Paula Abdul a big deal? Is she like.

Oh, yeah, she's at the height of her.

Yeah, yeah. She had a handful of hits that were massive.

Right.

At the time. Yeah. Okay, so boys in the hood, this is. This comes your way at this point. What work have you done to prepare you to say, I can do this? What, what is your catalog and experience at this point where you have the confidence to go on? Boys in the hood?

So before boys in the hood, which was 1990, right. So if it came out in 90, we shot in 89. If it came out in 91, we shot in 90. I had been on television doing guest spots for at least four years. Private. Before that, I was MacGyver sidekick. Billy Colton, bounty hunter. In the last season of MacGyver, I'd done maybe 30 different guest spots and tv shows. I'd been on this, you know, stage throughout high school. So to me, I knew how to create a character. And there were, you know, it's so funny as I'm talking through this stuff, I have to. I have to give Corlee junior her flowers in that she gave me. I became a professional auditioner, and she would say to me, all right, here's the two things you need to do. Whatever you get your first audition callback on. And a callback is basically, I walk in, like with Jackie Brown. I walked in. I had gotten the sides, and I knew it was a kid that grew up in south Central, and he was a nice dresser. So I wore my cavalry pants. The cavalry were flared out like the tiger tamer in the circus.

Black. And I had a gold and black dress shirt that I buttoned all the way up. And it had a big bullseye on the heart of it. And I had black dress shoes. And I walked in and I did the performance for her as Trey. Right. I left. She called Corlee Coralee, said, you got your call back. Remember to wear the same thing. So a week or two later, I came back. This time it was Jackie Brown and John Singleton, and I'm wearing the exact same thing. And I did my callback. Right? Then again, I got a second callback and a third. And what I find out years decades later was that the studio wanted Malcolm Jamal Warner to play. They didn't want John Singleton, who was a first time director, to have some street kid that no one knew be the lead in a Columbia from Cosby. That's him. That's him. And they didn't want him. They didn't want the budget of this movie on the shoulders of this little black kid, this little Cuba kid, right? But every time I came back, I looked like Trey. And what John told me is, you are Trey Stiles.

You have the role. And I'll never forget, they called Corley and said, congratulations. He got it. And the read through is on Friday. So I went to the read through for boys in the hood. Was me, Neil long, ice cube, everybody. And Steve Nicolaides, the producer, comes in and he whispers something to John. And John starts cussing and screaming. And he said, this is bullshit. This is this, this is that. And I'm going, what's going on? He goes, Cuba, come here. And so I get up and I over the table, and he goes, man, we gotta put you on tape again. The studio wants to see one more audition. I go, you're kidding me. He goes, man, just go in and do this thing. So I'm so upset, I'm shaking. And what scene is it? Look, I'm getting emotional again. Give me the gun tray. And you know that scene. Give me the gun tray. The tears are going down. So they put a camera like this and they put it on me. And Steve Nicoletes just literally goes, give me the gun tray. And the tears just beamed out my face. And I say, whatever the dialog is, right?

And then they go. And then we do maybe one other scene. And I go back in and I'm angry now. Cause I'm like, all right. You know, I was just told I don't have the role. I'm here with all these people, and we do the end of the read through, and Steve Nicolaides walks in the room. I think Frank Price, who was the head of studio, walks and goes, ladies and gentlemen, I just want to say Trey Stiles, I go for today. For today.

Done.

Yeah, yeah. But he said, you have the part. And I go, yeah, for today. What about tomorrow? And it was a big laugh and everything, but that, that was when I knew that I had. You know what I'm saying? It's like, of course, in that moment, I knew no matter what anybody told me, I can emotionally go where I need to go for whatever the role was.

So. So let me ask you this question, though. Because for to play boys in the hood, this is so you guys. When did you guys start shooting? In 89.

Let's say 89. But it's. If the movie came out in 90. I remember July. It was like the 7 July 1990, but it might have been 1991. That's why I'm saying if you what? When does it say it came out?

July 2. 91.

91. So we shot it in 1990. Shot in the summer of 1990.

So 88 is straight out of Compton. So Ice cube.

Wow.

Right. 88 is straight out of Compton. And Cube. When did Cube do his. Okay, so at this point, you mean it's solo albums? Yeah.

I can answer this for you. So I'll never forget. He. You know, there's three moments that I'll never forget. What's Cube? The first time I go, hey, O'Shea, if you ever need any help with your role, he goes, hey, man, come here. Hey, nigga, listen. Hey, nigga, listen. It's Cube, right? And, you know. And I was like, oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Right? That was the first moment. The second one was. And these didn't happen in this order, but these are things that I remember when he knocked on my trailer, and he can't ame. And he sat in there, and he goes, I can't do this cry shit. I can't. I'm not built like that. And I said, what do you mean? Here's what he says to me now. I'm sitting there looking at him. Now. I'm his acting coach. Sitting there. I'm good. I got ice Cube asking me for help because he's got to cry in this scene, you know, where I say to him, you only got one brother left. I said, cube, the only advice I can give you is if you're trying to cry, you're going to look stupid. Just say whatever you feel when you think about the homies you lost.

And he looked at me, and he walked out, and we did this scene. And you've seen him. I don't remember any tears, but I'm not supposed to cry during that scene. And I'm trying to hold it back. And it was magic for these two kids who connected. Because now he wasn't scared. Because it doesn't matter if he doesn't cry. Cause he's not supposed to cry, but the grief is in his face. And when I say, amen, you got one brother left. That moment connected me. Our souls, I think. And so the third thing he said, he said, hey, man, you helped me out. You want to hear my new cut? I got a solo album. And he played the music to all of the songs. Maybe played three of them. And today was a good day. All of those on that get out of here. All of those songs. And I was like. Cause I. You know, obviously no one had heard this music yet. And I was like, well, I love this story. You're a killer. And at the end of it, you go, you know what was I thinking about? Click, click. And then it goes back into violence.

I go, that's you. Now, can you imagine if that guy had tears in his eyes? And to see. And he laughed. He laughed. I went out. So that's two. The third thing I'll never forget is my nickname when I grew up was Cube. Cute. Hey, Cube. Cube. You know how many times on that set, I'd be walking to the set or I'd be sitting, waiting between shots in the camera and one of his security guards. Hey, Cube. They go, yeah. They go, not you, Nick. If I heard that once, I heard that 50 times. Hey, Cube. Yes. Not you, motherfucker. Okay. All right. Got it.

So what I call you, they just.

Never talked to me. But if they were saying cube, they went to me. It was the ice cube.

Wow.

It was the cube.

Now let me ask you, how feared was he at that time? Was he a guy that you felt? His energy, his alpha, his toughness? It was felt because he.

Even when he smiled, he. His eyes would like. He fur his brow. You know what I'm saying? Man, that was good. Cute. That was good. You know, I was like, you sure? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a fist fight between a guy and a girl on set and his security broken.

Not acting. It's an action.

No, no. There was shots. There were. The helicopters in the movie were all laid in later, but we would have to stop and cut because they're helicopter. Okay. All right. Roll camera. But it's so funny when you see it. You see all the helicopter stuff in the lights and the windows. But that's all laid in afterwards because you don't want to mess up the dialog when you're. When you're recording it. Wow. But, yeah, that's it.

Shootings.

Hat was crazy. I'll tell you another quick story. I mean, we could talk an hour about.

I'm interested.

I'm so sorry. When boysenhood came out, it was huge hit, obviously, right? Made almost 50 something dollars off a $5 million budget. Back then that was like $100 million, whatever. But then it went to HBO, an HBO premiere. And back then they do. And then they'd have the HBO logo and they go, welcome to movie night on HBO. And then to be an actor from the movie. Hi, I'm Cuba gooding junior. Tonight you're going to see a story of redemption of streets and life in south central. And the camera pans up from me tonight, ladies and gentlemen, boys in the hood, right? Well, this was in 19. I don't know, 92, summer during the riots that HBO decides to shoot on the corner of Normandy and Western. And they got my black ass in a limo sitting on the street. And you could see, like, all these angry black people coming while they're lighting. And they. We did one take of the Carol, two take, and all of a sudden, one guy grabs a microphone, another one grabs things. And then they paid the nation of EMS to keep security. But you can see as I'm driving away with my publicist, they're just raping set and all the equipment.

Is that in the shot or.

No, no. I probably use the first story, though, but that all. I'll never forget that. I was like, why are we here in south Central? And they just got over the riots. I mean, this. It's still. It's still a powder keg. It's tender.

That's right. By great Western Forum is that. You know what my dad's. There was a 99 cent store, right, by video 2020. My dad was the cashier for 15 years at that time. Yeah, he was. He was a cashier at the 99 cent store then.

So.

Boys in the hood. So, yeah. Okay. So for you.

Yeah.

Incredible job. Acting. Convincing, obviously, when we watch you, you became a superstar star after this movie. Who is this kid? Right? For. For us, at least, for the viewer.

That's so interesting you say that. So. So Hollywood has lists, right? They got a list and they say b list and c lists. But basically they. They have. Now it's streaming in all these other ancillary markets and other venues that show products. And that's why I say to my son all the time, I know I'm gonna go off the track a little bit. A lot, because I did it a lot. But my son, Mason Gooding, who's I call my new and improved model, I say, for me, it was my job was to find the job. And once I got it, I knew I was on my way. Your problem is you're gonna get all this work, your talents. You're good looking. Your job is to find people to watch it. That's him.

Good looking.

Yeah. Good looking. Six, four muscles, the whole thing.

He's not a kid. He's 27 years old.

He's 27. But I said, your job is to be seen to do the role where they find you in it. You know, he's in scream five, scream six. He's been in book smart, all these wonderful movies. But, see, I knew I was gonna lose my train of thought. But, but I was talking about levels.

To a b's, you know, all these levels with actors. And so the superstar.

Thank you. So, so what this, what the studio did at the time, if you had a story with a black actor in it, they would greenlight it. If you went to Cuba gooding Junior or Wesley Snipes or just a handful of us. Right. And if you. And that was one. The second thing was I got a three picture deal. I did boys in the hood for very little money. Then they had me for a little bit more money for a film called Gladiator.

I remember that.

And then after Gladiator, because the boxing glass.

Same guy with Gladiator. You guys played in a few good men, right? Both of you ended up in few. Yeah, that's right.

Yes, that's correct.

Another good looking guy. He played a few different movies.

Yeah, he was. And we. Yeah, yeah, he did. What was the one? David fit and Lynch. I think he did a movie.

Well, I've seen him in a lot of different things, but. Okay, I'm following.

So, so, so here I have a three picture deal.

What did you make, by the way, on boys and hood?

So the boys and hood was 37,500.

You made 37,000.

Now I'm the hottest thing in Hollywood. You know how much they paid me for gladiators? You know how much they pay me for? $65,000.

Get out of here.

Now, wait, it gets worse. You know how much they gonna pay me for my 3rd? 100,000. And they dropped me because gladiator bombed and I didn't work. Now let's say 92, 93, 94.

How broke are you at this point?

I was broke. Broke. And I had. 94 is when I got married to my high school sweetheart and had Spencer. So now I had a young son at home. 95, 96. I had two young babies at home. And I'm doing anything I can to make ends meet. And here I am doing. At the time, film actors didn't do television, but my agents called me. I could go straight into the Jerry Magog.

I want to hear it. I want to hear this.

So my agent calls me and says, there's a tv movie. Because I had been doing a lot of film stuff and I had gotten that deal with the studio. So I thought, okay, tv's behind me. She said, there's a tv movie and Lawrence Fishburne is playing a Tuskegee Airman and they want you to play his coke Tuskegee Airmen. And I was like, who are the Tski earman and this is the theme of why I started taking real life characters. She said, read this book. And I remember reading this book and getting angry and saying, wow. I graduated high school. I didn't go to college because I was acting as a professional. And I never knew that there were an all black squadron of fighter pilots in World War Two. I didn't know that. They didn't teach me. It made me angry. So, of course, I committed to that movie. I did that movie. And another actor in it was an actor by the name of Alan Payne, Malcolm Jamal Warner. It was a whole crew of us. And all of us went on our own paths in life. But I'll never forget, when the movie was done, we were having a screening.

So it's probably now you're talking 1995, we're having a screening for one of the big generals of the government, the black general. And I believe it was George Bush's.

Colonel Powell.

Colonel Powell, thank you. And we're show, we're screening him, Tuskegee Airmen. And he, and he's, when you do an official screening, we even went to the White House. We did all this stuff with it. They always, they see it first. So he saw it and said, I'm going to do an official screening, and I want to meet these young fighter pilots and the whole thing. So I had had an audition for a movie called the Fan with Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes. And I was gonna be baseball. Was it baseball?

Is it a baseball theme movie? I remember.

So listen to this story. I told you I was gonna be all over the place, but this is gonna tie it all in together. So I wanted the role that John Leguizamo eventually got right. But I saw this character as bald with a goatee and two earrings. I already had one earring because it's a breakdancer. So I got my ear pierced, I shaved my head, and I put a goatee on. I went and auditioned for the late, great Tony Scott, who made me come back. One audition to audition, three auditioned just like boys in the hood and eventually went with John Lake was almost. And here I am now. It's 10:00 a.m. in the morning. There's a limo waiting to take me to my screening with Colin Powell and Risa Shapiro. My agent of time calls and says, I got amazing news. Now, whatever I'm about to follow with is a lie. But I don't know this. I'm a young kid. This is how these act. This is how these agents hustled us. I'm telling you, she said, do you know who Cameron Crowe is? I go, the director, he wrote. Say anything? Yes. He's having a read through at Sony at 01:00 today of his new script that he wrote, and it's a read through with Robin Williams and Mira Sorvina, and he wants you to play the football player in this thing.

I go, that's amazing. But today, is there a script? She goes, it's in the limo. I go, let me get this straight. I'm gonna read for Cameron Crow. She goes, oh, and James L. Brooks, who's producing the movie, I said, and I'm supposed to go from the press conference for a Tuskegee airman, HBO, straight to Sony? She goes, that's correct.

Wow.

So remember this, 10:00 a.m. so I get in there, Sean Suttles, my assistant, we drive to the press conference. We do the press conference. I start reading the script. So ten, 1112, one. So I had 3 hours. So I read the script. I got to know who this guy is. Now, remember, funny enough, I'm in a suit. Cause I was gonna meet quoth Powell, but I'm also a ball with a goatee and two earrings. Now, I wasn't gonna wear the earrings, but she said a football player, like, shaved shape. Ball, shaved shape.

Yeah.

So I put the earrings back in. I go, I meet Colonel Powell. It's crazy. I remember somebody like one of the generals that goes, oh, is this the statement we're making? And I go, it's for the next role. I didn't want to explain to him. Listen, I got, I got a big audition coming up in about an hour and a half. But anyway, we watched the movie. The movie ends. Or actually, the movie started. I jumped in the limo, and I started reading the script and the script and the limo driver circling around Columbia studios, and it finally stops. And I go, give me a six pack of beer. I know who this guy is. So we go to a liquor store. Me and Sean, we put on music in the limo, us drinking. I'm going, you know, you know, in the back of this limo. And I okay, so now I'm relaxed in it. Yeah, right in it. I walk through the gates of Sony. I walk into that room, and there is Mira Savino, Cameron Crowe, James L. Books, a bunch of studio executives and a bunch of other actors that I can't remember, and no one's really talking to me.

But Cameron Crowe goes over, hey, Cuba, that's great. That's great. I'm gonna sit you right here, we're just waiting for Robin Williams to show up. But I'm cocky now because I'm like, cube, you gotta be. This is Rod Tidwell's cocky. And remember when Mike Tyson fought the guy and he knocked him out? And then the guy he fought was using a pizza slice, and the pizza knocked out. I can't remember what his name was. But anyway.

Peter McNeely.

Peter McNeely. Thank you. So Robin Williams walks in. He quietly talks to Cameron Crowe. They kind of giggle. He says something that James O. Brookton. He looks at the table, he goes, hi, everybody. Sorry I'm late. Just came from Vegas. And he sits down, and he goes at the fights. And he looks at me. I'm sitting directly across me, never seen before. He goes, did you see the fight? This is Robin Williams. The only way. Robin Williams, you see. Finally, I go, oh, you know, he knocked that white boy out. He knocked that motherfucker out. And the whole room laughs. And Robin goes. He goes and goes, you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You feel. And I start having. And Cameron goes, okay, let's start reading. This is great energy. Reread the thing. At one point, I'm standing on the table. Show me the money. I'm doing the whole thing in the read through. 3 hours ends. Everybody's talking to everybody. Cameron Crow walks up to me and he says, I didn't know who you were before today, but now this is your role to lose. Robin Williams was reading this as a favor to me.

This is. I wrote this for Tom Cruise, and this is your party. Lose. Whoa. And that's exactly what I did. I went, whoa. So I leave, and Corlee goes, how'd it go? I go, I can't tell you what happened. She goes, I know they've already called. And he said that this is your part to lose. There's another read through with Tom Cruise Cruz, and it's two weeks from today. Get your mind right. I said, got it. Went. And did the same read through with Tom Cruise. Same energy, same electric everything. And then the studio. Isn't that funny? It's Sony, I think it's. Well, at the time, it was called Columbia Studios, but they did boys in the hood. They also did Jerry Maguire. And they were, the two times they were like, no, you have to go with the bigger actor. And I remember every black actor in Hollywood, even Jamie Foxx says that's the role that he lost. Well, Cameron Crowe.

Jerry Maguire.

Yes. And Cameron Crowe tells the same story. Of no. When anybody saw Tom Cruise, they would freeze. They couldn't read. And you have to dumb. You saw what I did with him. When I finally. The last audition was me walking in. It was just me, Tom and Cameron. And he goes, and we were laughing and hugging, and Tom's doing this thing, crazy thing. And he goes, you got it. You got the part. And he goes, but I gotta ask this, and this is a true story. Oh, my goodness. If this happened today, everybody beat me, too. But he goes, you don't have a problem with nudity, do you? And I pull my pants down, I show my ass and go, you think I got problem with nudity? Does this ass look like I probably. This is homegrown blackness, baby. They laugh. We laugh, James. I would laugh. I laughed. And then the rest of that.

Why do you ask that question? Is it because there's a scene when.

I go air dry?

Yes. And they're interviewing you guys in the locker room. Is that the one you're talking about?

Oh, yeah. And you know how hard it was to shoot. I mean, we're all naked, but Tom, all of us are naked. And some of these guys are kicking the tip with their knees. They walk around. I'm, like, looking around the room, and they go, okay, roll camera. Take the towels off. So they take around and take the towels off. It look like a dove. We were in a room full of black trees. They were just like, you know, I'm just sitting there like, yeah, just keep the camera a little higher than you normally would. Because. But that scene, how do you do.

It in that moment, though? I mean, I'm Rod Till.

Well, I'm Ron till. You tell Rod till how to do that shit when this what I do. Hear me? This is me, homie. That was my mentality.

Wow.

That was it. You couldn't. There was nothing you could say or do anything to me in that moment, because that was the character that I was portraying.

Let me. Let me ask you. So, Robin, to Tom. Yeah. Who was bigger at the time. It's Tom's. The. Is Tom.

Tom's always been top gun.

He's already done a bunch of stuff. David Thunder. Yeah.

Whenever Tom has a movie come out, I'm the first to see it, because I'm a true Tom Cruise fan. So when they told me it was Tom Cruise, I got angry. So you. Oh, you know. Oh, you put him with me. You know, that's my guy. Watch this. You know what I mean? It's like. It just is. What.

What was Robin's aura when you met him versus Tom's aura?

No, no. Robin was all about the jokes. Robin was all about saying the lines and making everything funny. And if it wasn't funny, he'd do ten minutes of why it wasn't funny, which then it became funny, like he, Robin, and I did a movie that is, again, a part of my soul, a film called what dreams may come sick movie, and how I got that role. Here's an interesting story. So here I am. Yep, there it is. I just won the Oscar.

Very interesting movie.

I just won the Oscar. Let's say it was like February, march, right? Here I am. I got the statue at home, and I go, eight months. I'm going on auditions and meetings, and I like to tell people, I just couldn't find work. I couldn't find work. It wasn't true. Steven Spielberg goes, I want you to play Cinque in Amistad. And I said, no, no. I just show me the money. It's too much of a like. I tell him, no. And he says, well, I can make you act like a slave. And I go, well, we should find something else to do. So that opportunity leaves itself, and then almost a year into it, I say to my agent, send me every script out there so I can read it. And I read this beautiful story of this, based on this book of this man whose wife. No, I think his kid. One kid dies. Another kid dies. Then his wife commits suicide, and he's so sick, grieving, that he kills himself to go to hell, to bring her back, to bring her in heaven, right? And I'm reading the script, and there's only two roles in there that I.

That are. That are major. There's his son and then his best friend growing up. And I was like, so I said, give me a meeting with the director. And I met with the director, and the director's like, so why do you think you can play the son? And when he said it, the idea came to me, because I was going to say, can he have grown up with a black best friend? I said, well, Vincent Ward is his name. I said, well, no, Vincent. I came here to read for his. And then I went, well, this is why I'm saying I can play a son, because his best friend's black. So I just assumed that I could get away with that now. But he doesn't recognize his son until he has to recognize his best black friend. And then the black friend reveals himself as being his son. He ate it up. I got the role. Next eight months, I'm with Robin Williams.

That's insane.

But it took me to get in a room with that director for us, for me to finally be on screen again, almost a year. Let me ask this question.

Why would Cameron have Robin come in to read with you? Robin is nothing like Thomas personality. Why is he doing that? Or does it not matter who it is?

Yeah. He goes, it's just a favor. You got to remember, think about it. I mean, think about it. It's kind of a naive question. Studio executives, they don't care which big movie stars in the room. They want to see movie stars in the room. So they're listening to this read through, but they're looking at Robin Williams and they're looking at Marisovino, and they're looking at who had also had it on. I think she added, maybe not at that time. She did. I know she handed, you know, there's another fun fact. She handed me my oscar when I won. She was the actress she had won the year before.

Yd Aphrodite.

And then she gave.

Was that intentional? Was it accidental? Like, did they do it intentionally, knowing that she's gonna give it to you, hand it to you?

No, no, no, no. Because you don't know who's gonna win. The one who wins last year, this best supporting actress gives it to the best supporting actor at that time. But my point is, there was Robin, her and I in that room doing the read through, but it became. I don't know who played that part or Renee Zellweger or. I can't remember which.

Yeah, it was Renee Zellweger.

No, but I'm saying I don't know if she played the sister in that read through.

Oh, I don't. I don't know. Yeah.

Dorothy Boyd.

So now Tom. So that's Robin. You've never met Tom before. You've never met Tom before the read.

Through, unless you got to remember, all of these are blurring in my head. I did a few good men. Oh, I'll tell you my few good men story. This is so embarrassing. So this is when I first met Tom. I'm casting a few good men, and I could tell you how I had. I went to that audition. I'll do a quick little thing of it. Rob Reiner. Now it's callbacks. And as you know, I'm wearing the same thing as a military guy, and I walk in and I do my screen test, and I nail it for the, one of the people who do the cold red on the. On the kid that weekend he watches boys in the hood. He comes back after on Monday, and my agent says, he wants to see you audition again. I come in and audition again, and he goes, hey, man. So anyway, I saw that movie, boys in the hood, you know, that's like, stand by me. We had the dead body, and we had the railroad tracks, and we had all of this, and I'm getting nervous. All right, never mind. Just read it again. So, of course I read it again.

And he casts his assistant to be the black guy. So I lose the role. Fast forward to their film and the movie. And all of us black actors, kind of, especially at that time, knew each other. And this Te russell, dear friend of mine, had gotten a one day role to be on the witness stand, but he can't do it because he's conflicting with a bigger role. So I called Corley, and I said, corley, get me that part. So she calls the casting director, and I go, of course, Cuba gooding junior, we know who he is. But it's just one day role. She goes, he doesn't care what the pay is. He just wants to be in the movie. So I go on the set, and I sit on that stand, and I'm looking at it. You who's who in? A few good men from.

You kidding?

Moore to rob Reiner. Tom cruise to the spacey. Not Kevin Spacey. Kevin bacon to all of these, right.

Kiefer sutherland, all of them.

They're all sort of. And this is all I had to say. That's all I had to say. Couldn't say for 4 hours. 4 hours. They broke to lunch, came back. I still couldn't say this word. Corporal Carl Edward Hammacher, Marine barracks, rifle security company windward, second platoon Bravo. I couldn't say. I will never forget that damn line.

I can relate to.

You can put that. Carl Abraham Barracks, rifle security company Bravo. But I couldn't say it. I just couldn't say it. I couldn't say it. And even the worst thing, Tom Cruise, they could, okay, we're breaking for lunch. And he goes, it's okay, man. It's okay.

Oh, so Tom is not putting more pressure. Tom is kind of like, you got this. It's gonna be all right. Yeah.

And every time I look around the room and I make eye contact with people that are looking at me like, you stupid.

Who's given the look? Who's, like, running out of patience?

That's a little short one with the hair. Kevin Pollock. Is it Kevin Pollock? He looking at me like.

Mm hmm.

He's looking at me like, better you than me, motherfucker. Better you than me. But I'm just still just like. And I'm trying to. And I got my. I got my little curt little mustache and I got my hair all clicked and, yeah, Wolfgang Bodesan is the one who actually got the main role. But there I am, and even my lips look swollen in there. I'm so upset. I'm so upset. I am literally so upset because I can't say these words. So now can you imagine? Fast forward, what year was that? What year did it say?

A few good men.

It says 92. Yeah. So fast forward, three, four years later, Tom Cruise hears about this Cuba gooding junior kid poisoning, thinking probably last time, understand he's ass and not the good kind. He's horrible. So I walk in as Rod Tidwell now, and we do the read through. And like I keep saying, the rest is history.

By the way, Tom Cruise?

Yeah.

How many movies can you. And I say where this guy absolutely crushed it. He's been nominated four times. Born on Fort to join Jerry Maguire. I was gonna say born on for Maverick. And there's one other rain man.

I mean. I mean, everything that he's done, people gotta understand.

How has he never won an Oscar?

Well, you gotta understand. You need a sounding board. If you had two idiots talking to each other, it just looks like Beavis and butt head. But if you got one straight man and an idiot, people can laugh at the idiot. Cause especially you have an intelligent somebody who's together. You need somebody to bounce off of it. And he's been that guy. I mean, think about it. The closest he's ever got to winning an Academy Award was tropic thunder. But it wasn't the Tom Cruise we know. He went into this. The fat bastard. Whatever character.

We don't negotiate with terrorists.

Yeah, yeah. You remember?

And by the way, when that came out, everybody's like, who is that guy? At the end, everybody was googling.

Yeah. They didn't know it was because they.

Didn'T know who that guy was.

That's right.

And like, is this who I think it is? And like, wait a minute. It is. And by the way, do you know the story of. He approached and he says, I'm taking hip hop dancing classes. And he pitched this to Ben. Did you know the story that he went to? Ben pitched it saying, for the last 30 days, I've been taking hip hop classes. I'm gonna play this part. It's my part. Trust me. And Ben is like, what are you talking about? He went and pitched it to me like, holy shit, tom, what did you do with this? Okay, so.

And look at how he came in. He probably came dressed exactly like that when Ben saw.

By the way, how come he has a one? How come he has a one?

I think it's just that I think they want to see him disappear. I mean, you think about Leonardo DiCaprio. We almost could say, why didn't Leonardo DiCaprio?

He just won.

Right, but, I mean, you saw that role.

Yeah.

I mean, I had to give it to him for that. I mean, I don't like the cold. I wish I could play ice hockey in a warm arena. How much? He wasn't on ice. But it's to see him cold and stick his body in that horse and fight the bear and all that stuff. I mean, he deserved it. He deserved it. But, but when you, when you think of leading man and you think of the Jack Nicholsons and the Daniel day Lewis's of the world, you can't deny them because they keep flipping the script. You know, it's like, it's like people question. I was gonna say Muhammad Ali. Cause I'm looking at the boxing gloves. Michael Jackson. You think of Michael Jackson? Oh, you're, you know, Jackson five. Okay. Oh, wow. Off the wall. Yeah. But you can't. Oh, I'm bad. Yeah. Okay, well, now it's really over. Every time, every five years, waiting for a fall, you're waiting, and then all of a sudden, it's this new butterfly. It's this new thing. Well, that's what we do with every role. And when you see a real leading man, you don't expect him to go into somewhere else.

You think he gives a shit if he ever wins again or not?

100%. Everybody gives. People say they don't give a shit. We. We. Like, I'll tell you the one reason why I probably won't do the whole award circuit thing ever again has nothing to do with my talent or me wanting the accolades from my peers. But I had two films come out, and I bought the hype from my publicist. This is why I had. I still don't have a personal publicist for going on two decades now, but they convinced me to do all of the Tonight show circuits and all the press for fighting temptations, and it came out, let's say, in September. Then they. And then literally the next month, interviewers were like, well, here he is again. Oh, I get it. For the Oscar campaign for radio, because they came out literally within two months of each other. Those two movies and the backlash I started to get from the role of radio was, oh, he's just trying to win another Oscar. And they were right. They had me on every other Oscar thing doing that. I did look at that. And I went, they're right. It's gross. I didn't even think about that. But you're right.

Let the work speak for itself. It's so funny to segue to bad press, but it's funny about these years of this last few, you know, the darkness of my career, of my dad passing away and then the accusations and all of these things in the press and reading these headlines that are just simply not true, that the PDD thing just simply not true. It's ridiculous. But if I allow those things to identify who I am, and I say, well, that's what it says, and I'm explaining myself to you, then I lose. I have to be who I am no matter what the headline is, no matter what the narrative is in the media. And at the end of the day, you could just hope that people can still go and see your role and say, there he is. That's the character, that's Rod Tidwell, that's James Robert Radio Kennedy, that's Karl Brashear, that's Dory Miller, that's that Tuskegee Airman who died for me and gave me the freedoms. That's the character that I want to follow, high or low, and even the dark ones. That's the Nicky Barnes, that's OJ Simpson. The biggest compliment I ever got.

Even though it took me a while to look at a white bronco without crying. It's just. Cause it's, you know, these are, you know, when you're. When you're doing emotional scene and you're grieving, you get. You like, I break out, not your body doesn't know that you're really grieving. Your body thinks you're going through it. So you never kind of let that go. People would come up to me after that show aired, the first ten episodes, they said, it's so funny. I saw a picture of OJ and I forgot what he looked like. I just had it in my mind that it was what you looked like in that show. That's what we want. That's what brought me back to North Hollywood high school. In the morning playing little Labner, and in the evening playing 12th night, you know, festy, those characters and those kids cheering two different people.

What role changed you? Was there any role like, where, like, you know, Austin Butler plays Elvis Presley? Afterwards you're like, he can't stop talking like that. Like, he can't get rid of that, right or right now. My kids were going through Godfather. My oldest son is about movies. I'm going to New York for him to go through a one week camp and I'm going to take him there to go. He's twelve years old. He's all about movies. He's obsessed with movies. And we're watching Godfather, and he changed the thumbnail to his iPad. Now to godfather. And you're seeing Pacino, where he goes from the role, his wife, the wife in Italy blows up and he's coming back and he sees that his dad's dying, flies back in. Sonny's about to get killed. Sonny doesn't have the temperament to be a boss. His younger brother Fredo is not older brother. Fredo was making too many mistakes. He's too controlled, being bullied by the guy in Vegas, the owner that runs the casino. And then he realizes, this is my job, right? And you wonder a job like a role like that, you go in it, right?

You go deep.

Do you leave it like Daniel day Lewis, last of the Mohicans? I'm gonna go out there and live in the wilderness for six months to really understand what this is really all about, because he really goes into it, right? And, you know, three academy awards, you know, Lincoln, all these different things that he's done. What, what role did you go so deep into? Where you're like, dude, this permanently changed a part of me?

Well, probably OJ. I mean, I still haven't seen it. Like, it's, it's funny because even when I was going on the tour. Cause I made a deal with Ryan Murphy, I said, I don't want to make a political statement based on what you think he did or didn't do. So let's just do a thing. Let's do a take where I do it, where he's guilty, and let's do a take where he truly believes he's innocent. And then you decide and you use the takes you want. And that's how we shot that character. But again, it's. I was dark, man. I had just gotten separated from my wife. I was living by myself. I couldn't. The sun would drop and I'd look out my windows and I go, it's. And we now know it's depression. I would have to go to a bar, to a restaurant around people, and just sit and talk to people, and we'd talk, tell stories and all that stuff, but I couldn't I couldn't be by myself because it's almost like I could, you know, and looking at all the footage and all the court stuff and the autopsy photos and all that stuff, I mean, it really imprints scars on your soul.

The other. I mean, so many of them did that. Outbreak did that. I never forget Carrie Fisher. So here's a funny story about outbreak. When we started outbreak, Arnold Copleson, who's the producer, big mega producer. He was in competition with Robert Redford and Jodie Foster because they had ebola virus. Big studio picture. So he. Brilliant producer, he was. Flew the cast to northern California, and we started shooting trees. We didn't have a script. We just started shooting. And because we were shooting, they abandoned the end zone or whatever it was called, the hot zone. And so now he stopped for three weeks, wrote the script, and then we shot it. But because. And so you can imagine the script was never where it needed to be. But Dustin Hoffman had a real close relationship with Carrie Fisher. So Carrie Fisher flew out to Ferndale, I think Ferndale or California? Northern California. And she sat with Dustin Hoffman in his trailer, rewriting the script and showing him video footage. And I'll never forget, Dustin runs into my trailer, you got to see this. You got to see this. And I literally looked at a black and white video of a soldier because the soldiers at the time kept dying from some weird brain disease.

When they went in the jungle, and they. They had this young soldier. He was healthy, but he had this early signs. So they. They said, you're gonna die. They told the soldier, you got about 810 days. We were gonna record it so we can figure it out. And so I literally watched this soldier deteriorate. This young, blonde, blunt, blue eyed kid. I'm assuming he's blonde and blue eyed, but that's what he looked like in the black and white footage in this room. And slowly dry heaving. And literally, it went time lapse for ten days until he deteriorated and died. And because of that, they figured out that when they lay in the brush, even if they put it on their arms or whatever, the lice from the mice would go in their ear and eat their brain, and that's how they died. So then, because of that video, they have their helmets, and they sleep on their hard hat helmets that keep them off the grass. So he saved people's lives. But that's another thing that I can never unring that bell. That's a part of my psyche now.

What? So when. When you go. When you're. What are you shooting? OJ. Because if you're saying personal life, 2014, 2017 is, I think if I read it correctly, you're going through the divorce or got finalized.

My father.

You're separating? Your father passed away. And when are you shooting this? When are you shooting OJ?

Well, so. So OG came out in 2016, right? So I got separated in 2013, so I'd been on my separation journey. 1314 1516. Right? And then we got, you know, we were the belle of the ball. Every Emmy, every tone. At one point, there was OJ's documentary that won the Academy award. So people were going, congratulations on your oscar. I was like, I'll take it. There wasn't an award we didn't win with that. And then my dad dies. So now here I am. Now I could tell myself I did the right thing, right? I fought the good fight to play a dark character, and then now I'm back in the darkness all over again, you know? And then at some point, there's the pandemic and there's. There's all of these things that was like, you know, when it rains, it pours. When one thing gets after the other, after the other. And I believe. I believe that changes you. It changes a man.

You know, it's. By the way, you close to your pop? What are you guys supposed.

Oh, yeah, yeah, that's my dad. We fought cats and dogs. He used to tell people I had to name first, right? Cuba Gooding junior. Cuba Gooding senior. I don't know how to put senior. I'm Cuba Gooding. All right, dad.

What do you. What do you even like it right now? When you're in the car and radio or you somewhere, the song plays. Do you go anywhere?

Oh, man. I mean, I'm not gonna get emotional, but. But there's this song that he sings. Mmm. Don't you worry about a thing. Don't you worry about a thing, mama. Cause I'll be standing on the side when you check it out. And when I hear that song, I put the song in my playlist and it. Every once in a while, I'm going through something dark, and the song comes on the radio and I go, thanks, dad. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, any bad thing, bad press thing happens or something, I read it, and all of a sudden, I'm in my car driving, and that song, boom. And I go, thanks, dad. There he is. I'm telling you, I connected with him in death more than I did in life. And now. And it's so funny. Cause I'll be standing on the side. Wouldn't you check it out? Well, would I die? No, but I think it's. Cause whenever anything's there, he's there. He's standing there. He's standing there. He's standing there. Yeah. I believe that, man. Yeah.

There's a song that I listen to, papa. And if I listen to this song, papa, I think it's by Paul Unka. If I listen to the lyrics, man, I'm gone. Yeah. You know, and I can play this, but.

Okay. But my dad's voice.

I know.

Do you understand?

I know. That's what I'm saying. So this is a song.

I hear his voice singing that song.

Try to avoid hearing.

Don't you worry about the thing? No, I just know when I'm. Or even I'm gonna go do something. We had a big interview, the big two hour interview last week. And I got in the car, turn it on. I was like, oh, there he is. There you go.

Does it take you to a happy place?

Yes. Every time. Every time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Was he your call? Like, when you're going through tough times and you need somebody to just kind of lift you up, was he your call?

No. You don't listen. You interview, you don't pay attention. I told you, when he died is when I got close to him.

Got it.

You know, and my dad was old school, remember, from Harlem, you know, grew up that way. He grew up a street guy. Everywhere he laid his hat was his home type guy. So everything was a hustle with him. And then when he passed away, the community, especially in New York City, they came and said, we got you now. And so now I got that community as my support system.

Let me ask you, you know, for me, I wrote a book called choose your enemies wisely. And I'm talking to Brady. And one of the things I said to him, I said, you know, anybody that I see that somehow, some way makes it to a high level that is able to tolerate the kind of pain you need to get to that level has three things in common. They have experienced unconditional love from one person. You need one person to give you unconditional love. Right. The other thing is you need somebody that no matter how much you ever do, you will never win them over.

That's right.

That that person, no matter how many oscars you win, no matter how much money you make, no matter how, you know, sports, accolades, everything. And you need to choose your enemies wisely because the right enemies will drive you, the wrong ones will destroy you.

That's right. Those three, the iago's will destroy you.

Right? Was your father the one that, you know, was it an element while he was alive?

Hundred percent.

Nothing was ever enough. Was it kind of like a.

Okay, so I'll tell you a quick story. So I was, which will bring us to the firing squad, which is funny enough, my dad would say to me all the time, you're not a singer, you can't sing. You're not a singer, you can't sing, right? So even happy birthday was hard for me. Happy birthday. Because I was always insecure about my voice. So he passes away, right? And my reps call me and they say, okay, so we got an offer. So have you heard of the musical Chicago? I said, of course. Says, so they've offered you to reinstate it. This is in 19, this isn't right. Before the pandemic. The year before the pandemic. So 1718 they're going to do it on the West End shit stage in London. And I went, but I can't sing. And my agent, of course, remember this agent? Oh, don't worry about it. You don't sing. What do you say? You talk the words? Is everybody here? Is everybody. It's like that. So I go, well, if they'll give me a vocal coach for at least three months, then I'll do it. So in walks Eric Vitro into my life and three months becomes six months, six months becomes nine months.

And then I go on a plane to London and I step on that West End stage after three additional months. So probably a total of a year. And I wind up doing eight shows a week, six days a week for five months playing Billy Flynn. And I'm telling you, I don't know who that was. It had to be my. I flew back to the States. I do it for another six months on Broadway and another six months on Broadway playing Billy Flynn in Chicago. And before all of this Tim Shea, writer producer director of firing Squad offered me a movie called freedom, which I did in the mid to two thousands. And it's a slave picture. And he says at the end of the movie, the last scene because they do the director, I think it was Vincent Ward directed. I can't remember, no, not Vince award. He did what dreams may come, but he says you're finally going to find redemption. You're by this, you're all this, the people, you've finally made it to the north and you've got all these slaves and handlers and I just want you to sing amazing grace. I go, excuse me.

Now, remember, this was years before Chicago or anything. He goes, I just want you to sing. Amazing singing. I go, and what do I say? I don't know the words. He goes, don't worry. We're gonna have the words on cue cards. And sure enough, I come out of the trailer, I come into this riverbank with all of these extra 200 people, slaves, horses and everything, and big cue cards. Amazing grace how sweet the sound I was lost, and now I'm found, and I. Amazing. Great. And it's almost like it's moment. It remind me of a few good men. Like, here I am, back on this thing. I can see the actors look at me going, this boy ain't supposed to be doing this. We finished that day of filming. I go into the sound editing room. The director has me in there. He's got a vocal thing. They're trying to get me to sing it. They're doing all the tricks with the. Whatever. The movie comes and goes. Fast forward to last year. Tim Shea calls me and says, I got this script. It's a true story about three Americans who are overseas. They got mixed up in drugs, and they're put to death via firing squad.

I want you to play one of the prisoners. I said, well, all right, Tim, send me a script and read it. And I read it, and I break down. I'm crying, because the way these guys did it is the guy. They sing amazing grace with guns in their face. But this time I can sing, baby.

When you were performing, were you. Were you. Was it kind of like a level of safety to know the insecurity was gone because he's not here? Or was it more like, I'm gonna show you that I can sing. What was it like for you to know now performing without him saying, you can't sing? Stop singing. You don't have a voice. Stop singing.

I always have a laugh that's always boisterous. I always sing along loud, or if I need to get a retention, I laughed. And so when I finally. What I say to people, let go. Let God. I didn't have any more tension in my diaphragm.

Yeah.

So when that note hit in the Broadway play, I. Eric would just keep saying, I need you to relax. You gotta let it go. Both reach for the gun, the stop. And I just. I literally. And I just. And at one point, finally, it was one of those things where my body was like, relax. And I think that was my dad. Both reach for the. And on and on and on and on and on and on and on, and we both. And he looked at me on the. The thing, and I'm sorry I blew your ears. I apologize. I probably, you probably. I hope you knew that was coming. But he on the piano, and he goes, there's your voice. And I believe that release, that personal tension, soul release, opened up what I.

Always had, you know, years ago, when I'm trying to find out what I want to do in my life. And you're a little late for that.

You found it.

Well, no. In my late twenties, I am very good as an insurance executive, and I'm making very good money.

Right.

But I love art. I love movies. My therapy is early in the morning, going to the movie theater, watching movies with 80 year olds, because that's when they go watch movies, right? Senior citizens watch movies early in the morning, right. On a week. And I was my therapy. So I would come back to the office, suit and a tie, but I got popcorn all over the place. That was my therapy. I love movies. Even in Iran, when you're coping through things, we watched a lot of movies. That was the MO, you know, coping mechanism therapy. That's what it was. So my wife at the time was my girlfriend. For my gift, she gets me a 1 hour session with Aaron Spicer. Okay, I don't know if you know Aaron Spicer is. He's an acting coach. Aaron Spicer, if you want to google him, he's worked with, I think just type in Aaron Spicer, acting coach. He worked with J Lo. He worked with Will Smith.

Can you hear me?

Yeah, I hear you.

Something's doing something.

No, it's fully fine. So. So I'm with this guy, and I sat down with them, and I said, hey, here's what I'm thinking about. I want to find I have a creative itch, and I don't want to be 60 years old, looking back, saying, hey, why don't you go pursue the creative itch? He says, okay, what do you want to do? I said, I want to act. He says, what do you do with lag time? I said, what do you mean? He says, well, as an actor, you're not working 80% of the time, 100%.

You're on the set 17 hours, actually in front of the camera, 45 minutes.

So he says, and forget about even when you're working on the set, because at least you're around people.

That's right.

But what do you do when the rest of the six months out of, dude, you have no work. You got paid, you're doing nothing. Can you manage your level of creativity to not be self destructive, because that's when a lot of guys lose. So he said, maybe you want to consider funding movies, you know, maybe going a different route than doing this because you're constantly, your brain is constantly going for you. How did you, when you're saying, you know the boys in the hood and you do the second one, gladiator, and then they drop you, you make $36,000 and $65,000. The third one was supposed to be a hundred thousand dollars, but they don't pay you.

Yeah.

Now you don't have a job. You're, you're not doing anything till 94, 95. Then you get in the call for Jerry Maguire and you did something in 94 for a few good men. All the stuff that you're doing, right. How do you manage your lack time? Are you able to find a way to not let your creative juices go to a place where you become self destructive? Or is that where you lose?

Well, you let me plainly answer, it's an everyday struggle. It's, you know, just like when they say in AA, you do one drink at a time. Same thing. I don't know if you knew this, but Sammy Davis junior was an expert markman with the six shooter, and he could do all the things because that became his hobby. Oh, ice skate like the wind. And at one point, I used my money and built an ice rink in my backyard in the Hollywood Hills next to the sunset sign. Because I practiced, I skate. I skate, I skate. And that became my outlet. Boxing was another one. I was in the wild card gym for 1012 years under Freddie Roach and all of his trainers there, Troy Bodine, Steve Petromalli, these are people that were in my life. And I, the one thing, just like studying a character, when I'm not filming, I'm in the gym, I'm on the ice, I'm doing. I'm, you know, and it's funny now because you can see my fingers don't touch anymore. It's like so many broken knuckles and stuff. And so I don't, I don't go to boxing gyms anymore. Chris Shelios, his dear friend of mine, had a beach house.

And in his beach house, he had a dry sauna and a stationary bike. And I said, what is that? What are you doing on that? He goes, I watch my games in there, and that's how I station and I lose the weight. So now, whatever city I am, wherever I am, all over the world, I find the spas and I do an hour and a half steam shower or dry sauna shadow boxing workout. And it's funny, I've been doing this now for at least 10, 12, 20 years, something like that. And I've been in a, from Russia to London. When I was on the London stage, they just knew I had my routine. But it's that fanatical pit bull mentality thing. When you're not working, you got to get into a routine. There's the military thing of you. As soon as you wake up, you get out, you make your bed. To this day, I make my bed. It's funny because even today I was in a hotel around the corner because I didn't want to go from the corner, so I started to make the bed. No, no, it's a hotel room. But it's like, it's these little things that you program because it's true.

An idle mind is the devil's playground. And we as actors, we constantly study behavior. I constantly am watching. I constantly am seeing how people do things. Because you're always, you know, and if you think it's so funny, it's like the hardest parts of my day when I'm dealing with something, be it lost or be it a darkness, are the mornings. Because that's when I wake up. I'm fresh. My mind is the first thing that wakes up. And it doesn't go to the happy places. It goes with all the things that I have to solve. So now I'm solving with that and I'm trying to work all of that stuff out. Now I'm on, you know, doesn't happen every morning, but it happens a lot. You still drink?

You still drink?

Yeah, I have drinks every once in a while.

Every once in a while. It's not like drinking drink.

No, no. It's a, you know, it's casually especially. Best beer in the world is in the locker room after a game. That's it. That's. You have to. It's now the first one you're working out. Extreme workout in your body. It's like.

Yeah, because, you know, sometimes, you know, when you're talking to certain people who drink or alcohol or whatever it is that you're, you're going through. I was in the army. I mean, we drank for a living.

Oh.

And you're, you're, you're either drinking because you like it. You either drink because you're addicted.

That's right.

You either drink because you're escaping or coping with something, trying to numb your bodies.

Yeah, that's right.

What's your reasoning?

Yeah, I think there's a sub that. It depends when. When you're talking to me. But for the most part, I have a rule. Never drink to feel better. Drink to feel even better. So if you're gonna celebrate something and you have a drink, but if you're doing it because you need it, then leave it alone. You know, I've been doing this intermittent fasting thing where I drink green tea. I don't have food. My only food is until 06:00 p.m. and then I can eat or drink whenever I want in the evening. And what it does is in the morning, everything. I mean, you get. There's no holding back in the morning. But my body's now used to knowing, like, I don't know what time it is, but I'm not hungry yet.

But if 30 minutes, you got 534.

Yeah. So right at around 06:00 you're gonna feel it. Well, what'll happen is I'll get the gurg. Right now. I won't. If we talk to eight, which I can't because I gotta go to the next thing. But if we kept talking eight, I would get the gurgle, but I probably wouldn't feel the hunger. Cause my adrenaline's going. But you're talking about a normal day that I'm gone. Helping my girlfriend pick up her kids from school. I look, it's 530. I'm hungry, but it's because of this regime that I put my body on.

A couple questions here for you with acting. So you played with Nicholson. Yeah.

Cruz.

Fishburne. De niro.

Yes.

Denzel. Dustin Hoffman. Morgan Freeman. Cube. Demi moore. Ben Affleck. This is just a list of people that you work with. Who was the one on set where you were like, holy shit, this guy's on a whole different level?

Well, there's one I was working with and one I wasn't working with. The one I was working with to just cherry pick out of that. I mean, it's just so many. Maybe Dustin Hoffman. Only because Dustin was a teacher. Dustin. Dustin taught. I learned so much with just the little stuff, little prodding stuff. He said, there's a scene where I play major salt, and we go into a news station. We take it over, and I got the gun out, and I kick the door, and I go, everybody remain calm. Remain calm. And everybody screaming, the papers flying everywhere. And Dustin Hoffman's just going through, and he goes, where's honey? I need the keyboard, major salt. And then I put the gun. And then we get the live, and then we broadcast. So we've been doing it about eight, nine, tick. Hey, man. Hey, man, let it go. I go, excuse me? He goes, no, man, do the opposite. I go, yeah, all right. No, do the opposite. So do another take. Kick the door. And I'm just yelling and screaming. I'm telling you, man, you just try. Why does just a take doing the opposite?

So I screwing with him, go, oh, I'll show him. So they go, action. I kick the door and I go, calm down, everybody screaming. Everybody with major salt, please, ladies, please. That's the take they use in the movie. And I went, wow. Because it was the opposite of what you think would happen. Here's a man that lives in chaos. He knows what a gun does, the sight of a weapon does to a human. So the fact that he's got a point at everybody's gonna freak. He's gotta be the. And it was that lesson that I went, wow. And anything I did on set, if it was too emotional, I made it comedy. If it was too funny, I brought something dark to it. Back and forth, back and forth. That was my lesson. The other guy that I never worked with, but I had three encounters with that, I went, wow, there's a movie star. And that was Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood came to the set. He was Dustin's friend, and desire said, you want to meet him? I go, I can't believe I said that. But by the way, if I was hired to act next to him, then he wouldn't have been Clint Eastwood anymore.

He had been whatever the role was. But that's the guy that took my breath away.

Why is that?

Just the way he looked, the way he stood, the way he stood still and everybody was buzzing around him. It was almost like he was the sun and they were all the planets around him. And I thought, that's presence. That's real presence.

He's still doing moving movies at this age, and he's what, 93 years old? Born in 1930.

Can you imagine?

His birthday is coming, coming up in.

Three weeks, May 31. Yeah, but I directed one time. He's directing and starring still. And when you're a director, everybody comes to you for every question under the sun.

That's the love of the game, though, at that level, yeah. Did you ever do anything with Tupac or. No. Did you ever.

No. I saw him right before he passed, too. That's crazy. Never worked with him, though.

What did Tupac do? He did gang related poetic justice. He did jews, and he did a couple other.

He did a basketball Jim Belushi. But really did the one thing.

What did he do? Can you. Above the ram, poetic justice with Janet Jackson, which I thought it was great.

Yeah. Bullet. Bullet, I think.

Oh, yeah. Gang. Gang related album soundtrack was actually good. I don't know if you've listened to the gang related soundtrack.

Was that a minute? Not in a minute.

Yeah, it was a really, really good soundtrack.

Yeah.

Cuba with all this stuff that's coming up with Diddy and on one end, you know, 50 cent is calling out Diddy, and here's what he's doing and all this stuff. And they got the back and forth. I got suga on here.

Look at this example. Look what happened.

Yeah, yeah. And I got suga on. Yeah, exactly. No question about it. What do you think's going on with all the stuff with Diddy, with little rod, with, you know, all the stories that everybody's hearing about?

You mean in terms of what?

I mean, you know, being. Raiding his, you know, his house being raided.

I mean, that's crazy. That's the craziest thing I'd ever. And then, hey, how about me? I wake up in the morning, I turned stage. Short actor Cuba gooding junior. I was like, excuse me, pull me into this. I think whatever he's dealing with, he's on his journey, man. I think that God has got him on a path where I can't imagine that he's stupid enough to do whatever he's doing and keep it on his premises. I think that the raid and all of that stuff, only time will tell who was involved, who had been a frequent guest in these places and areas. It's funny because my lawyers said, you know, every outlet in the world wants to talk to you. And again, I'm like, I'm not defining myself from some headline in the press, so I stayed quiet. And it's so funny. So I'll tell you a little story about who my girlfriend is. She gave Robert De Niro three grandkids. Her name is Claudine De Niro. She married his son Rafael. They separated, and we've been together for a while. But she at one point, ran Naomi Campbell's publicity. She at one point, ran P.

Diddy's publicity. Right when he started doing the white party thing, he had just gotten freed from indict, found not guilty. Did he? Did he? Did he? Did he? Did he. And he said to her, I'm a die running with these nuggets, man. I need you to help me with the white folks and the switch. And so she changed, helped change, cultivate his new image. So they had a friendship for years, but I had never met him till probably 2000, 1920. Just casually, Claudine and I, he invited his house. The pandemic was starting to ease and hadn't seen him since that night, where this guy with this picture, it says that I had my shoulder on him and all this stuff making it look sorted. Well, that picture, everyone in the room, there's probably 300 of us on the deck of P. Diddy's. I'm going to show you on P. Diddy's boat, New Year's Eve. I went from one ship, happy new year. So I hung out with Tyson, and next ship, there's Drake. This ship had P. Diddy. He had his guy, his videographer, they're listening to music, and he says, hey, cube, listen, you want to hear P.

Diddy's new song? I said, yeah, sure. Sit down next to him. They didn't use this angle, which is. Which, to me, makes. Makes me laugh, because I go, oh, I get it. You used. You made it look the way you wanted it to look. But that. And if you hold it. You know how you hold it and it does the thing where can you hear all the people if you tap it or something? It's a live picture. You see what I mean? It's like, here we are just listening to music. Finished, took the thing off, said whatever I said to him, left. That was it. But this guy who's suing him, going after the money man, I'm sure. And by the way, I don't know. Petey did his life. I don't know what he's going through. I don't know what the police are gonna find on all of that.

Were you guys close? Were you guys friends or.

We were acquaintances. Just like I just showed you. Two, three times I've seen him.

So it's, oh, so diddy. You've only seen him two or three.

That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.

So why would they include you all of a sudden, in some way?

I think because of the darkness of the other grab, grab, grab of the cases that I already had went through.

A lot of that stuff is 18, though, 19. Right. Those are from five, six years ago cases. Yeah. And. And that was kind of. Was that at the peak of the me too movement, or was that me too movement off?

Yeah, right. Crazy.

Yeah. So it's. I mean, it's gonna be interesting to see what happens with Diddy.

Oh, yeah.

But I did not know that you guys only hung out two or three times.

That's it, man.

And 50 was with you for your birth. For your 56th birthday. I think you guys were hanging out together. Miami.

Yeah, because we were in St. Barts on that boat, but then in Miami, which is where I run around now. Yeah, of course. I ran into 50, and he was promoting his champagne. I've seen Drake 100 times around town. He loves Miami.

Yeah, yeah, 50.

I'm big with the rappers.

How do you feel about 50? How is 50?

Like, you know, it's so funny. I got a call from 50, who reached out to me and said, we got to uplift our black entertainers and let's work together. I said, great. So we'll see. You know, I try not to voice any of my opinion when it comes to the rap songs, because just like everybody else, I'm into that music, man.

Are you following the Lamar and Drake thing?

No, I just heard about that.

Yeah. I mean, that's like a whole.

Somebody just got shot today outside of Drake's house. Did you see that?

I heard.

So, I mean, it's like drive by shooting in a gated community. I mean, that sounds a little crazy.

Yeah. Drake security guard seriously injured in shooting at Toronto's mansion. Guard was shot inside Drake's home and had serious but non life threatening injuries while the silent fled on a vehicle.

Yeah. I say to them, just like I said to Tupac, when I saw him in the lobby, that hotel in Chicago, he said, hey, man, help me, man. Give me some advice. I said, hey, man, just remember your artist tree. First. I know you're getting caught up with all this madness, but you're an artist now. He said, thanks, cube. He hugged me, and he went off.

And how old was he at the time?

Well, two, three weeks later, he was gone.

Oh, no.

I saw him. And here's the second time I saw Tupac. This is a true story. Now, I don't like the whole conspiracy things, but that day, he was in a convertible like Rolls Royce. He was at the stop site, and I was on a hockey tournament, so I was in Vegas as well, playing hockey. And Tyson, we had his fight, and I jumped out of the car, and I ran up to his car park. It's cubed. And all three cars, all these cars with the guns, get out. No, no, no. Let's keep going, man. Hey, let's keep a gun. I go, oh, sorry. Sorry, man. You good? I go, I'm good. I'm good. I'm sorry, guys. I got in the car. So that happens that day when the sun's out, and at night they get shot. There's no cops around here. That's a true story. I was involved.

So, in the morning, few hours later, he's gone.

Yeah. Yes. And so where were all of those undercover cops that pulled the guns on me when I tried to approach him? Sitting in his car? Convertible.

What are you saying?

I'm just saying it's weird that they were gonna blow me away. Academy award winner. That's all I'm saying.

Yeah. Cause that's 96. In 96, you're, like, everywhere.

You're a man.

Yeah. You're the man.

We don't care. Get away. Back up.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

By the way, what do you pay you for, Jerry Maguire? I forgot to ask you earlier. Was it. Was that your big payday?

No. Yeah. At that .6 hundred grand.

What's the biggest you made for a movie?

Snow dogs. You know, I should never. I can't talk hell about snow dogs. That was a good year. Well, that's one two hit, baby. 13 million total that year.

Get out of here. Good for you.

You know that money's gone.

Good.

You know, I already spent that money.

Really?

Yeah. $13 million.

I understand. I'm assuming you made some good investment.

I made some investments, yeah. But. Yeah, that. That money.

Hey, final. Final thoughts before we wrap up. How. How do you feel about some of the stuff that's going on in. In Hollywood right now? Yeah, I think you commented. Yeah. Like, even the, you know, dei stuff that they're doing and forcing some things. If you want to win an Oscar, be nominated. You have to be able to qualify for these. All these things, or else the movie cannot be going, how different? Yeah. All that stuff. And you're a black man. I'm Middle Eastern. How do you feel about saying, well, in order for a movie to be nominated for XYZ, a third has to be this, and a third has to be that, and third has to be this and da da da. How do you feel about that?

Yeah, I think that's crazy. I think the idea that is crazy to implement in Hollywood, because, you know, it's almost like. It's almost like you say, all right, cube, I'm have you work in my house. You can be the gardener. I'm a pool man. And me and the pool man say, you know what? We need more money. And you go, you're right. I want you. You know, from now on, here's a set of rules. But yet. But I don't need you to work today. Matter of fact, I got another gardener that's coming in. There's. In other words. All I'm saying is, you can set rules for diversity until we as people, minorities, get the opportunities afforded us based on our talents and exposed, and I'll bring it back to hockey. Okay. People come up to me all the time, say, man, you play hockey. Black people don't know hockey. And I say to them, we invented hockey. People don't know this, but the runaway slaves went up through Nova Scotia, England, in America, into Nova Scotia. There's a book called Black Ice and the Black Hockey. The black slaves got with the Indians, and they created black hockey leagues of the Maritimes, 1895 to, like, 1900.

And these rules that they did, and even the goalie, they had a black goalie that stack his pads. That's how they adopted the rules of the NHL today. Right? So here you're looking at. The NHL is an all white sport, but we were at the genesis of it way back in the day. You know, you think of hip hop, it's like, how many years from now? 40 years now? They say, I mean, what are you doing as a black guy? You're not white man's music. Do you know what I mean? It's like. So I I think of the DEI, and all of that is any positive step you can get. But we need the tools. We need the inner city kids to have the same. It's funny, because you talk about when they say nepotism. And my son, mason gooding, he has an opportunity, let's be honest, because he has the exposure of who I am. So how you get around that? I think you just have to, you know, I mean, I guess. I guess I really, at the end of this day, is that I don't have the answers.

Did you feel like you being black hurt you and making an holly, like, did you feel you had a disadvantage?

I always looked at every. I always look, and I do this to this day. I look at the positive side of things. I knew that when Coralie sent me to those auditions and I was surrounded by those white guys, that I had something they didn't have. And I put myself. She put me in that position to be scene where she wasn't looking for me. And I've always been that way in my life. When I. The ice hockey, the rodeo, horseback ride, motorcycle ride, anything where I know that there's. I'm not gonna blend in, and I stand out, good or bad. I know that there's opportunity there, and that's what I try to look for. In every area of my life.

It's the right mindset. You said something from christian movies are coming up. I think your exact words were, I think Hollywood is just waiting to see what's going to happen. Let me see if I can find this. What you see here, you said, you can't deny the shift with what is happening with faith based movies.

That's right.

Hollywood isn't going to come and say, what are you doing? They're going to say, let's see if it works. If it works, then we know if it's the right way to go. That's how Hollywood works right now. Everybody is as quiet as church mouse. But it's because of the reactions that we're getting from the audiences all across the country, from Hawaii to New York City. So we'll let the film speak for itself. And this is based on a few movies you commented on. Sound of freedom, Jesus revolution, ordinary angels. What do you think is going on with movie making?

I'll tell you right now what's going on. You have a destruction. After the pandemic, you had the perfect storm of events happen, right? You had these streamers that all came out of nowhere. You had every studio now shuttering their theatrical distribution business because they didn't have one, they didn't have product, and people were afraid to sit in an audience with other people, right? But who was never afraid other than Floridians, but who was other. Who was never afraid to go and sit amongst the congregation? Christians. Christians. I don't care if we had to wear a mask or if we didn't wear a mask. We went to church. And what Hollywood, but keeps forgetting that these people get. We get up every Sunday, put our best clothes on, and we listen to the pastor, and the pastor says, see this movie? That's where we look. And after the end of the movie, we tell our friends, we buy tickets and we go to that. And I think there's a bunch of these examples, but the most obvious one, which always makes me laugh, is the Barbenheimer phenomenon. Yes, Barbenheimer made a billion dollars. Even Top Gun made a billion dollars.

But what was Oppenheimer?

You mean, what did I say?

You said Barbenheimer, the phenomenon.

That was Barbent, Oppenheimer and Barbie.

I got it.

And then the third movie would be Top Gun.

Got it.

What were your other choices? Especially with Top gun? You only had top gun, so it made a billion dollars. Of course, there's not a lot of competition because there's not a lot of product ready. But you look at Barbenheimer or Oppenheimer and Barbie, what was the other one that made, quietly, $100 million that nobody talked about that starred caviezel? You see what I'm saying? But Hollywood doesn't want to talk about that that weekend. Now they say it in hindsight. Oh, yeah. And sound of freedom. Boy, what a phenomenon that was. And it's made this much money because it doesn't fit in their mold. It doesn't fit in their narrative. They need a narrative to follow. And then. And then they'll follow it once they get it. Floodgates? Rope it.

I think so as well. Brother. This was amazing. When is the movie coming out? So fire.

August.

August 2, 2024.

2500 screens across the country. Eventually. More than that.

We are looking forward to watching it. Appreciate you for coming out. Where can people find. Is there anything else you want people to go to? Are you working on.

I have another project coming up too. I have another strong one. But I'm not supposed to show you the poster even though I brought it with you. I show you, but you can't put it.

No, you can show it to me. I just want saying. Here we go. Do you know about it, Rob or no.

Angels have fallen. Warriors of peace. And I play the Archangel Baldazar. Me. The Baldassarre Getty. I'm blanking right now, but I'll show you. I'll even show you this over there. As long as you don't steal the image and put it up there. I don't get in trouble to direct. You notice that's my bread and butter. Get that next job with me.

Give me.

But you'll see, you can. You can say the people in the poster you see with me. But, uh. All right, let's. That. Very tarantino esque.

Oh, okay.

Randy Couture.

Yeah, I saw that. Respect.

This one's. This one's violent, y'all. This one's violent. But it has, again, it's got that uplifting.

Denise Richards.

Yeah, it's got that uplifting feel story and I'm killing demons. The poster. Hand to hand. Look, look. Pamphlet. You see that paper?

You see that?

Don't tell nobody, my man.

Again, appreciate you for coming out, man.

Thanks, man.

Really enjoyed talking you with your story. And by the way, I was going to tell you, though, I started my own insurance company because I watched Jerry Maguire. I wrote a 16 page letter to the entire company executives. Eventually, that was the reason why I ended up leaving the company. If I don't watch Jerry Maguire, I don't send that 16 page proposal. If I don't send that 16 page proposal, I'm still probably in the same company. And so ended up one of the best things. Me. Watching Jerry Maguire changed my life. God's will, my man. God bless you, brother. This was great. Love you, too. This was fantastic.

Call me vanimi, my man. I'm out.