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Aldis Hodge and Lauren E. Banks Talk New Season of ‘City On A Hill’ on Showtime | Sway’s Universe
Mar 29, 2021
Showtime’s ‘City On A Hill’ is back for another season and two of the stars of the show, Lauren E. Banks and Aldis Hodge call in to Sway In The Morning to talk about it.
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0:00
there's a price to hate there's also a
0:02
value in having a good enemy
0:07
man i saw that i actually got the
0:10
screeners have the beat this is one of
0:11
my favorite shows
0:13
i told him that when he came up out of
0:14
this high in the past i told kevin bacon
0:17
that when he came up
0:19
and i would tell lauren e banks when we
0:21
speak with her she's here with
0:22
us too city on the hill returns sunday
0:25
march 28 10 p.m
0:26
on showtime db let them know who we got
0:29
with us
0:30
well one of the uh guests is a returning
0:32
citizen of the show he's been on uh
0:34
several times before uh he came up once
0:36
and told us about learning how to rap
0:38
for his role as m.c wren and straight
0:40
out of compton he came by with alfre
0:41
woodard when he was talking about the
0:43
film clemency
0:44
and uh you know i actually got to see
0:46
one night in miami where he plays jim
0:48
brown
0:48
and i got you know the the studios like
0:51
to send out gifts
0:52
to a lot of the critics because i'm a
0:53
part of the critics choice association
0:55
and
0:55
i got this painting that he did that uh
0:59
it's amazing i might post it on my
1:00
instagram but i'm really just like
1:02
so excited to put this on my wall and
1:04
hang it up uh with the rest of my
1:06
collection so
1:07
uh aldous hodge is joining us and with
1:08
him is uh an
1:10
actress who is actually uh it follows in
1:13
line with other actors who have
1:15
gone from being athletes like dwayne
1:16
johnson and john david washington
1:18
to now finding the love for acting she
1:20
graduated from howard and from yale and
1:22
now she's joining aldous hodge on the
1:23
show city on the hill
1:24
season two which is returning this
1:26
sunday march 28th at 10 9 central on
1:28
showtime please welcome aldous hodge and
1:30
lauren e banks
1:31
yeah yeah yeah yep hey y'all hey hey hey
1:35
what up what's good
1:43
hey lauren what's up how you doing i'm
1:45
good what's up alex how are you
1:47
how you doing sway
1:50
you're so nice i appreciate you hey
1:52
others
1:53
my man how you doing man had to be and
1:55
tracy are here too guys but you know
1:57
what
1:57
y'all what's good hey heather hey tracy
2:00
hey
2:00
what's good hey sway if you don't mind
2:03
cause i just gotta jump right in
2:04
because you know lauren and aldis yeah
2:07
you know i'm going with this lauren and
2:09
eldest
2:09
me and sway got something going right
2:11
now we got it going on the college side
2:13
and we got it going on the pro side
2:15
both of y'all being from north carolina
2:17
i don't want to hurt y'all feelings
2:18
about north carolina basketball on the
2:20
college side
2:21
but who you taking in this in this final
2:23
four for that
2:24
and then on the pro side of the nba who
2:26
y'all got for the finals let's just get
2:27
this out the way early
2:28
because people been hurting my feelings
2:30
at the end of these uh conversations
2:32
starting with you lauren since you play
2:33
ball and all that who you taking for the
2:35
ncaa champs
2:38
listen i i when carolina isn't playing
2:41
it's really hard to say
2:44
okay yes
2:48
i go to durham frequently like i go back
2:50
home and i'm not trying to get
2:52
jumped on fayetteville street because i
2:54
i picked somebody that wasn't a home
2:55
team
2:56
mm-hmm right
2:57
[Laughter]
3:00
so she's just really safe choices saying
3:03
you know
3:04
i'm rooting for everybody oh okay
3:07
wow lauren's worse than me
3:10
worse than you now lauren do you got a
3:12
pro team that you're rooting for for the
3:14
nba to take the championship
3:17
um no no honestly i you know i live in
3:20
la
3:20
um i'm a big lebron fan um
3:23
yeah so yeah i'm always rooting for
3:26
lebron honestly
3:28
that's dope now we ain't mad at that one
3:30
now all this don't let me down what you
3:32
got family who are you taking
3:33
college you got this oh you out of it
3:36
when the nc's out
3:37
okay oh so so with college i haven't
3:40
been able to catch any
3:42
any of the games because my work
3:43
schedule has been nuts i'm actually at
3:45
work right
3:46
now in the middle of training so um wow
3:48
you know i
3:49
i ain't been able to catch up but as far
3:51
as professional
3:52
i don't know it's a tough deal
3:56
lebron is injured i think andy davis
4:02
uh i think maybe for the west right now
4:04
might be looking good for the clips
4:06
but um i don't know
4:09
i really don't know uh as far as who's
4:11
taking the whole thing
4:21
that's so focused right what are you
4:23
what are you uh training for black adam
4:25
what
4:25
what are you training for right now yeah
4:27
man yeah man right now training for
4:29
black adam uh we start our days early we
4:31
end
4:32
late we're in prep right now so i ain't
4:33
seen uh tv ain't even seen
4:36
me uh you know we usually start our days
4:39
around five o'clock in the morning and
4:42
uh you know weight lifting and all that
4:44
fight training stunt training we end
4:45
around like four o'clock in the
4:46
afternoon so
4:48
yeah we're getting at it black black
4:50
adam is a dc
4:51
um property that that aldous is in it's
4:55
in the cast it's like
4:57
dwayne the rock johnson is in there
4:59
quintessa
5:00
swindles in there um pierce bronson this
5:03
is a big
5:04
deal man you just been hitting them out
5:05
the park ever since you started
5:07
still taking ran lyrics bro
5:15
something out of this man shout out to
5:17
him
5:20
[Music]
5:21
now man it's just been a steady girl
5:23
study crawl you know always trying to
5:25
trying to um attach myself to to
5:27
projects of
5:28
merit and um you know with real
5:30
substance so i'm really really grateful
5:32
to be a part of this project and
5:34
you know i mean the same deal goes with
5:35
you know city on the hill i feel like
5:38
that was something i stepped into just
5:40
because i saw the potential for
5:42
um what it could represent you know and
5:45
and what my character
5:46
and you know my relationship with
5:48
siobhan where siobhan's character could
5:50
represent
5:51
so uh you know just trying to stay
5:53
attached to something of substance
5:55
brother it's a hard deal in this
5:57
industry and when you get it when you
5:58
can actually
5:59
you know pay some bills and still sleep
6:01
at night
6:02
with your moral compass intact it's uh
6:06
it's quite a blessing i i i admire that
6:09
about
6:09
the both of you too in this in this
6:11
series takes place in the early 90s and
6:13
is
6:14
talking about a time in boston's history
6:16
where it was a lot of violent criminals
6:18
it was a
6:19
lot of corruption what they call
6:21
tribalism it was just a whole lot of
6:23
just
6:24
nastiness and dirt you know and and in
6:27
this series like when i you know i
6:28
watched the first two
6:30
i want to say the first two episodes i
6:32
have received some screeners
6:34
and man it's as much as we've been numb
6:37
to
6:38
in the past few years especially since
6:40
social media
6:41
has become so prominent in our lives i
6:43
still find a way to
6:45
cringe you know what i mean because this
6:47
show
6:48
is straight up in your face there's a
6:50
lot of racial and homophobic slurs
6:53
the dialogue can be really offensive you
6:56
know
6:57
uh and i'm curious to you lauren um
7:01
dude as an actress does that ever get in
7:03
the way of your acting
7:06
oh uh no no it doesn't get in the way of
7:08
my acting honestly
7:10
i definitely understand how
7:13
you know an audience can be
7:17
just a little disturbed by really the
7:20
conversations of people that we
7:22
are not always privy to right like you
7:24
hear other people talking like hey do
7:25
they really talk like that
7:27
when we're not around you know what i
7:28
mean but i think um
7:30
as an actor i'm always looking for for
7:33
myself and the characters i go after i'm
7:34
always looking for
7:35
an authenticity um and and certainly
7:38
nothing to be overdone i just i can't
7:41
stand watching things where it just
7:42
feels like the n word is being dropped
7:44
way too much you know out of proportion
7:46
that's unrealistic
7:47
um or anything else you know any kind of
7:49
other slur racial slurs or
7:51
um or uh words that are just
7:56
you know for lack of better words
7:57
inappropriate but
7:59
um but yeah it doesn't take me out if
8:01
anything it fuels my character
8:03
specifically in our show
8:04
um to to feel like i'm bumping up
8:08
against some of the
8:09
social um barriers and and hurdles that
8:12
one would in the 90s who's trying to
8:14
litigate in
8:16
in boston as a black woman that's a
8:18
black woman and both you guys play these
8:20
prominent figures
8:22
uh but i'm a just a follow-up to that
8:23
question because i'm sitting there
8:25
thinking even though it's
8:26
acting you know these words are still
8:28
being said
8:29
and people are really engaged and
8:31
committed to their character
8:33
how tense does it get on set like does
8:35
it get tense does it get intense
8:38
nah we have a really good uh respectful
8:42
uh set of cast members and crew and
8:44
especially when it comes to
8:46
saying certain things when we rehearse
8:48
those words on set and that's something
8:50
i do appreciate the liberties taken by
8:52
the actors themselves typically where
8:53
they just
8:54
will put some other word in place or
8:56
they just won't say it at all
8:58
until it is needed and necessary we've
8:59
even talked about
9:01
bringing on uh you know emotional
9:03
consultants if needed for anybody around
9:05
you know any
9:06
background actors in the scene who may
9:08
want to who
9:09
who may feel the need to
9:12
to um you know discuss maybe some of
9:16
this ease or whatever
9:17
when it comes to these environments but
9:19
we all know we're there we're doing the
9:21
job and when it comes to the narrative
9:22
or rather the
9:23
the intent of the narrative because we
9:26
do have these conversations often i've
9:28
been having these conversations
9:29
about you know the usage of these these
9:32
words
9:32
honestly brother since before i even had
9:35
the job
9:36
like before the first meeting i was like
9:37
so before we get to
9:39
let's talk about this thing that you
9:42
know because
9:43
we are representing something that
9:45
actually still does affect us today
9:47
um will afflict us uh primarily when i'm
9:50
speaking from the
9:51
you know perspective of the black
9:52
community and how these words are still
9:54
used against us today there's nothing
9:56
different from the atrocities
9:59
of the time frame the only difference is
10:02
how they are being committed and the
10:04
technology that goes along with how we
10:06
get to
10:07
experience it you know so we have to be
10:10
sensitive and aware of the fact that
10:12
we're speaking the truth from then that
10:14
is still
10:14
now and if something is used
10:17
it can't just be salacious it can't be
10:19
wasted air wasted energy
10:21
there has to be a point to it but along
10:23
with that point there has to be
10:25
the truth and the repercussions the
10:27
truth in showing
10:29
the people who are intended to be
10:32
victimized fighting back for themselves
10:34
gaining their ground
10:35
and substantiating their value in a
10:37
space and not just
10:39
being somebody's punching back right
10:41
there's a back and forth but we all talk
10:42
in the 90s we all talked in boston i
10:44
grew up in
10:45
the east coast you know uh i was in in
10:48
new york and jersey mostly as a kid i
10:50
traveled to boston often had family up
10:52
there
10:53
i know about the overt racism even in
10:56
new jersey i grew up in a town where
10:58
there was kkk and we dealt with him on a
11:00
regular basis
11:01
it was in your face so playing the truth
11:05
and the honesty of the time frame in the
11:06
era goes hand in hand with how we
11:09
execute that truth
11:10
verbally so you know we just try to find
11:13
the right balance with giving people the
11:14
honesty
11:15
but also giving them the nature of good
11:17
entertainment where they can digest and
11:19
see that we're trying to
11:21
speak to an issue that needs to be
11:23
addressed
11:24
as opposed to using commercial fodder
11:27
just to
11:28
you know just just for for drama
11:30
dramatic
11:31
purpose i'll just i'ma talk to your
11:34
agent to talk to showtime they should be
11:37
paying you more for the way you just
11:38
ambassador at this whole show right
11:40
there
11:45
okay uh wow man okay so that makes sense
11:48
to me we actually got somebody who grew
11:50
up in boston during that time on the
11:52
line
11:53
who just called in vernon grand rises
11:54
how you doing bernie what up
11:57
yo i'm good i'm here y'all can hear me
12:00
yes ma'am
12:01
of course yep say hello say say hi to
12:04
lauren ebanks and aldous hodge
12:06
yo grand rising green rises to everyone
12:22
okay
12:25
[Applause]
12:35
so basically my calling is because i'm
12:37
51 years old i haven't seen it all
12:39
and i want to um i want to address how
12:42
um
12:43
i'm glad the black cop in boston is
12:45
finally represented on the screen
12:47
you know granted it's the small screen
12:49
right now but you know
12:50
i don't think the black cop back in the
12:52
90s when all this gang stuff was going
12:55
on
12:55
uh is represented enough until now
12:59
yeah so you find city on the hill
13:03
you find it to be true to form from what
13:05
you remember back in the 90s when you
13:07
watch this show
13:08
is extremely accurate yeah they
13:10
definitely did their research
13:12
you know and me being from that era is
13:15
like you know
13:16
it rehashes a lot of stuff and i and i'm
13:18
i have a critical eye because i want to
13:20
see how accurate they're portraying this
13:21
stuff as
13:23
oh man thank you i'm older and i've kind
13:26
of been in the streets a little bit so i
13:28
i know i know a little bit more than
13:31
they put on the screen like how um
13:34
the young girl tiffany moore was killed
13:37
and um
13:38
i know after that the aftermath of that
13:41
was
13:42
they got a scapegoat um i know the guy
13:44
who was a scapegoat and he did a lot of
13:46
time for that it was wrongly accused
13:48
and then appealed it in one
13:51
um you know a lot of the bs that
13:54
happened
13:55
kind of was um detrimental to the black
13:58
community because they came through the
14:00
bus heads every time something like that
14:01
happened
14:02
they came through the bus heads and they
14:04
just arrested a lot of innocent guys
14:06
back then and there's probably still
14:08
some dudes in jail now over something
14:10
they didn't do
14:11
over when the police came through the
14:13
bus heads when some bs jumped off
14:15
like the uh the stuart incident for
14:18
for example what they did in mission
14:21
hill
14:22
there's probably there was a lot of
14:23
innocent guys in jail behind that when
14:25
they went near the bus heads
14:43
i'm here bro i'm here okay man your
14:44
citizen vernon my man vernon i sway
14:47
in the morning you know um
14:51
damn this is it's not enough time in the
14:53
day you know
14:54
lauren e banks you and i you know maybe
14:57
you read about it but
14:58
uh you and i got a lot in common being
15:00
being athletes
15:01
the two of us yeah yeah i ran track too
15:05
you know oh gosh lauren oh god sway
15:09
really i did run track lauren should
15:12
know this she's an olympic track athlete
15:14
come on no i was aspiring inspiring i
15:18
didn't go i didn't
15:19
i didn't participate in the olympics
15:21
well
15:25
look go uh i'm sorry i didn't mean to
15:26
cut you off you didn't oh you didn't
15:27
make it to the olympics but you
15:29
in your mind you could have made it
15:31
right
15:32
it was definitely it was a it was a
15:33
childhood dream of mine actually and um
15:36
i was running in you know that was just
15:39
something i was aspiring to
15:40
even on career day when i was in fifth
15:42
grade i reached out to
15:43
marion jones um to interview people
15:46
because they had to interview
15:47
people who were doing what we wanted to
15:48
do i said my interview
15:51
um i had to write it all out because you
15:53
couldn't type it to her in sydney
15:54
you know so yeah it was it was big on
15:57
the radar but when i found acting
15:59
um everything changed so yeah you
16:02
graduated magna laude with a bfa in
16:04
theater arts on theater arts um
16:06
at howard and a master's in acting from
16:09
the yale school of drama
16:11
um in 2017. uh i know you're you're
16:14
you're heavy into your activism i
16:16
remember reading the article on people
16:18
magazine when you were speaking about
16:20
brianna taylor and it's important that
16:21
we bring
16:22
these issues to light and so with that
16:25
said i want to ask you
16:26
um being that you were a athlete we've
16:29
been talking about this on your
16:30
on on this show what are your thoughts
16:32
on the debate about trans athletes
16:34
what do you think about trans athletes
16:38
um you know it's i'm not really privy to
16:42
what the hinge of the conversation is in
16:44
terms of
16:45
i assume they're saying what side of of
16:48
the binary should a trans athlete
16:50
be allowed to participate on right
16:53
that's all i know about
16:54
yeah yeah and you know i think it's i
16:57
think it's a very complicated
16:58
conversation but i
16:59
i think it's a necessary com
17:01
conversation because i think
17:03
for so long we've just only acknowledged
17:05
the binary of gender and we know
17:07
now you know we can appreciate more
17:09
today that gender
17:11
exists on a larger spectrum than that
17:15
and i think therefore it challenges all
17:18
institutions
17:19
um not just sports to to look at
17:21
themselves and figure out how they can
17:23
be more inclusive
17:24
um and so i think that there is a real
17:28
reckoning that's necessary to be had
17:30
and you know and it's obviously not it's
17:33
i think
17:34
if we're still trying to figure out how
17:36
to get more than 10 dumbbells in a um
17:39
in a weight room for women athletes then
17:41
obviously
17:42
we got a long way to go as it relates to
17:45
acknowledging trans the transgender
17:48
community and how they can participate
17:50
in sports
17:50
but i think they have every right to
17:54
obviously i think that we have to figure
17:57
out you know how sports exist
17:59
and how and how we can compete in that
18:01
regard but um yeah
18:03
i think it's a necessary conversation to
18:04
be ahead learning banks learning banks
18:07
this your breakout roll
18:08
um this if i'm not mistaken this role is
18:13
like a breakout
18:14
role for you what does that do for your
18:16
your confidence as an actor
18:18
uh a great deal i was learning you know
18:22
i
18:22
i was learning how to to act on tv in
18:25
our first season uh
18:26
and because i'd done a guest star and
18:28
maybe like a co-star
18:30
just a couple months before booking this
18:32
this gig um
18:34
and i'm learning opposite al defies
18:36
who's had a whole
18:37
life of a career and the same for um
18:40
kevin bacon and joe hennessy um so
18:43
it does a great deal for my confidence
18:44
just to know that i can like get in the
18:46
ring with them and that they
18:48
don't see me as kid you know just a new
18:50
kid on the block but rather
18:52
a worthy collaborator i feel the same
18:54
from showtime and
18:55
and from our show runner um with the
18:57
responsibility they've given me in the
18:59
second season
19:00
um so i'm i'm ready you know i'm excited
19:04
and i'm excited for what's to come
19:06
that's track athletes beautiful
19:08
we walk with confidence us
19:12
come on in the preparation
19:16
a lot of working out all right you
19:17
mentioned
19:20
no you're gonna say you don't win you
19:22
don't win a speaking of trash you don't
19:24
rent a win a race on
19:25
race day you win it in practice because
19:28
it always comes down to that millisecond
19:30
or the lien or whatever so um if you're
19:32
not putting in the work in advance
19:34
you're not gonna be ready oh i say that
19:36
all
19:43
well i'll be thinking it heather i'll be
19:44
thinking it okay all right
19:46
but would you mention kevin bacon and we
19:49
had kevin bacon um back when the first
19:51
season premiered he came on the show and
19:52
he spoke about
19:53
the way of playing his character jackie
19:56
and um
19:57
i want to play back what he said
20:00
i want to play him with as much honesty
20:03
as i possibly can
20:04
and also make him a human being because
20:06
what's frightening about people
20:08
like jackie rohr is that they do get
20:11
into power
20:12
and that they are real human beings who
20:15
think
20:16
that the things that they're doing are
20:18
okay you know the ends are justifying
20:19
the means in
20:21
some sort of a way
20:24
um i know it's amazing for you to be
20:26
working with kevin bacon as
20:27
much as it is amazing for him to be
20:29
working with you all
20:30
um and i love the way you play play your
20:34
role
20:34
out is is very very convincing man so
20:38
for some reason i feel like
20:39
i feel like you representing me you know
20:42
what i mean so
20:43
so when you get in these back and forths
20:44
i'll be like yo get them when you play
20:46
the district attorney ward
20:47
how did you prep how did you prep to
20:50
play district attorney ward
20:52
what did you want to accomplish i mean
20:54
outside of the technical
20:56
research into what the job environment
20:58
is like you know speaking to an actual
20:59
consultant in boston who was a da
21:02
and told me about his experience being a
21:04
black ba dealing with the overt racism
21:06
having to
21:06
you know pitch cases against young black
21:09
kids that uh
21:11
didn't deserve the time that they were
21:12
getting but uh you know he was put in
21:14
situations where it was like look
21:17
you gotta sometimes win the war by
21:19
giving up a couple battles and
21:21
at the end of the day you go home trying
21:23
to figure out how to
21:25
deal with yourself how to look in the
21:26
mirror it's not always uh
21:29
it's it's not an emotionally or
21:32
spiritually safe environment
21:34
um on on the on the side of justice when
21:37
you're dealing with you know
21:39
crooked people in in in positions of
21:44
sort of uh manicuring what that justice
21:47
actually looks like
21:48
so there's the technical side of it but
21:51
on the
21:51
on the personal side you know i just
21:54
wanted to dig into a man who is trying
21:56
to always stay rooted and anchored
21:59
in who he is there has to be an obvious
22:02
nature
22:02
and and sort of an awareness about him
22:05
understanding what he's doing you know
22:08
he's in a situation where his community
22:10
may not trust him just because he wears
22:12
a badge he's also in a situation where
22:14
his co-workers
22:16
um don't give him the proper respect
22:18
because he's black so he's you know
22:20
between a rock and a hard place
22:22
and how does he maintain his own moral
22:26
conduct and his
22:27
value of a rather evaluation of what
22:29
justice
22:30
is his version of justice that he's
22:32
trying to push
22:33
um and it's playing sort of
22:38
the duality of making sure
22:42
you learn the language of the monsters
22:45
that you're dealing with so you can
22:47
speak with them and and you can
22:49
understand
22:49
you can interpret what they're saying
22:50
but not become a monster yourself
22:53
i feel like i've done that dance quite a
22:55
bit in my personal life in my
22:57
professional life and entertainment
23:00
and i still even do it today in terms of
23:03
understanding you know what's right in
23:06
front of me but not allowing it to shape
23:08
me and make me something worse
23:09
or something other than you know and i
23:12
just wanted to
23:13
play to a degree a bit of his
23:17
hope for what justice actually is as
23:20
he's fighting
23:20
through the muck and the dirt and the
23:23
grime of
23:25
the judicial and political system of
23:26
boston
23:28
yeah okay city on the hill man we love
23:30
it hey
23:31
it's it's great i mean i'm a fan already
23:34
yeah
23:36
yeah i sit and watch it man i hate when
23:38
it ends like it's hour-long episodes but
23:40
you know i'll be wondering yeah i'll be
23:42
feeding it you know
23:43
three runs rather reruns no we got good
23:46
strong eight for you this season
23:48
okay good i'm looking forward to a city
23:50
on the hill sunday march 28th
23:51
show time and beginning april 18th the
23:54
series will move to 9pm eastern
23:56
uh tracy you want to jump in yeah
23:58
absolutely i'm still stuck
24:00
on aldous when you were speaking about
24:03
choosing all of your projects based on
24:06
the merit that they bring to the table
24:09
and a lot of creatives and i think
24:10
humans in general it can be challenging
24:14
learning how to say
24:15
no to something um especially if you're
24:18
a minority
24:19
and the conditioning is you should be
24:22
grateful to have
24:22
anything you know what i mean so was
24:25
that something for the both of you that
24:27
came
24:27
easily or do you remember having to like
24:30
train yourself to be comfortable
24:32
with passing down opportunities
24:35
um training through experience
24:39
through lived experience because i mean
24:40
i've been in the game since i was like
24:42
two
24:42
three years old so i've been in very
24:44
different positions i even
24:46
have done background work where people
24:47
look through you don't even see a human
24:49
being
24:50
i've been on auditions i remember 12
24:51
years old because i walked into the room
24:53
and i was articulate
24:54
and educated the you know 40 year old
24:58
white casting director looked at me and
24:59
said you're not black enough for the
25:00
role
25:01
because there his understanding what
25:03
black was meant something less than what
25:05
black actually is he was culturally
25:08
inept and didn't understand how to
25:09
appreciate
25:11
or approach the idea of my culture
25:14
so i had to realize i cannot succumb or
25:16
submit to
25:17
his opinion or view of me
25:20
i have to change my environment that i'm
25:23
in because i deserve to be here but i'm
25:25
not going to be here working under the
25:27
guise of somebody else's ego
25:29
i'm not doing that so you know there's a
25:32
sort of a mentality of doing what you
25:34
have to do until you can do what you
25:36
want to do
25:36
but you got to realize in order to do
25:38
what you want to do you have to live
25:40
in that energy in that space and making
25:42
sure that every decision speaks towards
25:44
your future
25:45
positioning yourself doesn't mean
25:48
selling
25:49
out on yourself and you have to figure
25:51
out that and understand that
25:53
no is oftentimes the most powerful word
25:56
that you can use because at the end of
25:58
the day when you're good
26:00
and it's meant for you it's meant for
26:02
you believe in that but they need
26:04
you as much as they want to make you
26:06
believe
26:07
that you need them so you got to
26:09
understand what your value is and your
26:11
potential when you walk into a room and
26:12
when you walk away
26:13
walk away with the faith that you know
26:15
that you're walking down your right path
26:17
don't fear the hardship of a hard time
26:19
and
26:20
you know what at the end of the day when
26:21
you walk in your truth it all works out
26:25
amen man i say that too
26:30
i'm not even gonna y'all know i'm not
26:32
gonna say nothing
26:33
[Laughter]
26:36
you got that tattooed on your arm don't
26:37
you swear i got that i wrote yeah man
26:39
you know lauren what about you i mean
26:42
it's early in your career lauren so are
26:44
you in that same mind frame
26:46
oh absolutely i think um out has
26:49
articulated that perfectly and i think
26:50
um
26:51
you know i i aspire to have a career
26:55
that is you know a lot of a lot like
26:58
people
26:58
like our late sicily tyson who's had a
27:00
lifetime in
27:01
in a career so i'm always looking at the
27:03
bigger picture and i'm not necessarily
27:05
looking at
27:06
um getting you know jobs are important
27:08
but i'm looking
27:09
to build a career so i'm looking to pick
27:12
projects or
27:13
even audition for projects that i
27:15
believe in um
27:16
and i won't audition for it if i read it
27:18
and i and i'm not i don't
27:20
enjoy it i'll tell my team no i'm okay
27:22
i'll pass like i'll just said i'll say
27:24
no and that's a very powerful thing to
27:25
to say because it frames and it shapes
27:28
also how people see you
27:30
and understand what you're interested in
27:32
but
27:33
i think you know overall my litmus test
27:36
or
27:37
my guide is definitely a spiritual one
27:40
um and it's also um one that
27:44
i say all the time i'm interested what
27:46
success looks like for me
27:47
is to do work that i believe in with
27:49
people that i believe in
27:51
and that's when i'm the happiest and i
27:54
could be doing a reading
27:55
in a small room in new york of a play
27:58
but it's with
27:59
it's it's a play that i really believe
28:00
in and it's with a really great
28:02
playwright
28:03
and actors that i admire i'm very happy
28:07
i can be on a big major project and be
28:10
getting paid but be miserable because i
28:11
don't even
28:12
we're doing feminist quote unquote
28:14
feminist work and half the people
28:15
working on it don't even know who
28:16
shirley tobin is you know
28:18
i'm frustrated so um so for me
28:21
it's definitely that is my guy um a
28:24
spiritual one a spiritual connection to
28:26
the work itself and then
28:27
um is this a project that i believe in
28:29
and our people that producing it working
28:31
on it
28:31
folks that i believe in i love it lauren
28:34
e banks great to have you on the show
28:35
this morning
28:36
um welcome to the citizenship you are
28:39
officially now a citizen
28:49
love the conversation yes
28:52
when i come back can i freestyle oh
29:10
mean if you with it right that's what
29:12
i'm saying
29:14
acapella no i'm just playing nah nah nah
29:17
let you know what i'm saying she got to
29:18
get in her mode you know okay
29:19
like you know like she's a real one
29:22
ready you ain't got to get ready
29:23
hold up right don't be her publicist
29:25
what's up lawrence don't do me
29:27
wait hold up you want to spit something
29:29
real quick hold on hold on
29:32
hold on we got cynthia you can't hold up
29:34
put cynthia uh we got cynthia revo on
29:37
the line with us too she's playing
29:38
aretha in the jeans oh
29:40
let's put something wait you got here i
29:42
got cynthia here
29:45
the last time i saw cynthia we were in
29:47
santa barbara doing karaoke
29:49
on stage paul cynthia yeah okay
29:52
cynthia graham rises how are you doing
29:56
everyone hey
30:00
cynthia this is a lovely conversation
30:03
i've just been listening in the
30:04
background with my smile on
30:06
it's wonderful
30:14
[Music]
30:20
cynthia well you know anthony hemingway
30:22
he's fam but uh
30:24
yeah first of all congratulations on the
30:26
work in a second you know my brother
30:27
edwin hodge actually
30:29
did uh did some work with y'all down
30:30
there too plays your pops so
30:33
that was actually awesome
30:41
thank you and susan laurie parks too we
30:44
got to shout her out um
30:45
work she did on on genius aretha hey so
30:49
because you know what i wanted to do
30:51
cynthia's here
30:52
cynthia and and because you are a a
30:55
singer
30:55
songwriter uh tony emmy and grammy award
30:59
winner and
31:00
two-time golden globe and two-time
31:02
academy award nominee
31:04
i thought when when lauren when lauren
31:07
bust this a cappella she could do it in
31:09
front of you and then you could give
31:11
some feedback
31:14
no pressure
31:27
this is what he does all the time now
31:29
this is what he's doing
31:35
yeah i'm crossing the bernie sands for
31:37
real for real
31:38
okay let's go
31:42
let's do it um they'd be like
31:46
rumble queen but i'm a humble queen
31:48
because everything is
31:50
everything after winter comes to spring
31:52
thanking god for the blessings that they
31:54
bring
31:54
gratitude is my attitude never cocky
31:57
never ruled but me will bust gum pun
32:01
open your heart let me in i'll be your
32:03
best lover but first of friends feel
32:05
free
32:05
with you freedom with you kiss you too
32:07
your face is blue as the carolina sky
32:09
the san francisco quick may they may day
32:11
my insides on hip hop
32:13
ray but be an audience in my nature so
32:14
now i'm falling down with all that
32:16
stalling
32:17
i can hear god calling with the window
32:19
of opportunity to make manifest this
32:21
unity
32:22
in life and liberty while live being
32:24
that bully because happiness will come
32:26
naturally for us i'm a warrior for this
32:28
love-ish don't play as much above it
32:30
it's just who i am and i get it from a
32:32
fantasy not sure right elizabeth renee
32:34
alex and lou
32:35
from olivia to paxton to my carol
32:37
woodland crew we filled it up more than
32:39
i knew
32:40
and it gave me this lighter shine this
32:42
world is mine whole team with me
32:43
move it focus fearlessly over
32:45
unforgiving season then i'll part that
32:47
is call of moses yeah since i talk that
32:51
is
32:51
cause i'm chosen catch me on your tv the
32:54
movies making plays is derozan
33:03
what what
33:07
hey sway she threw in the catalog
33:18
yes yes well let's get it let's get the
33:20
feedback from cynthia
33:21
cynthia what do you think on the scale
33:22
one two three
33:24
a scale of one to ten i'm gonna give you
33:26
a ten for that today because it's
33:27
earlier you were giving me visuals
33:30
i could see pictures i could see the the
33:33
world you were painting around you i
33:34
could see
33:35
how close it was to you um the fact that
33:38
you were telling the story that it's
33:39
part of your life felt really
33:41
like you pulled me into something
33:42
personal which is i think is really
33:44
special
33:45
wow that's so beautiful
33:50
from mr rebuff there you go man
33:53
that's big time lauren e bars that's
33:56
your new name
33:56
lauren e bars all right
34:00
man yo wow that was nice when we you got
34:02
to come in the studio we're going to put
34:04
you to the test on over some beats but
34:06
that was great lauren
34:07
um and congratulations on all your
34:09
success absolutely out inside you
34:11
already know what it is
34:13
city on the hill sunday march 28 10 p.m
34:15
on show time
34:17
we got a hyena up in here hyena
34:25
[Music]
34:32
okay
34:34
[Music]
34:37
you
#Arts & Entertainment