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The Chi's Curtiss Cook Talks Being Homeless To The New Car He Just Bought | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Jun 28, 2022
Season 5 of Showtime's hit series The Chi is out now, and Curtiss Cook aka Mayor Otis “Douda” Perry stopped by Sway In The Morning to talk about the new season and some of his trials to get to this point.
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The Chi's Curtiss Cook Talks Being Homeless To The New Car He Just Bought | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
https://youtu.be/C-nkGsuBgVo
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0:00
man oh man tonight it's going down
0:04
where all my shy the shy fans at where
0:08
y'all at chicago stand up
0:11
they made a whole series about you
0:13
where all the shy fans at one of the
0:16
realest people to ever
0:18
come into this studio just arrived
0:20
heather came through the front door i
0:22
tell you why i say that about this man
0:24
not because he really
0:26
shined on the lion king
0:28
when he did broadway
0:30
oh man miss saigon when he did the
0:33
interpreter years ago man they they
0:35
didn't know what was happening tracy g
0:37
they didn't know who who was on the rise
0:39
ignorant but what i knew when he
0:41
co-starred in luke cage with us heather
0:43
b hey hey
0:45
bring a roll of credits rolling credits
0:50
baby
0:50
this guy is special
0:53
he famous
0:54
[Music]
0:55
he's famous and then we we watched them
0:58
on the shy
1:00
transform this character of oldest dude
1:02
due to perry to one of the most
1:04
electrifying compelling alluring
1:07
polarizing characters you're ever going
1:09
to see on a series yes when people play
1:12
characters that well you make it makes
1:14
you wonder how much of them are in that
1:16
character
1:17
i digress we'll come back to that
1:19
perhaps
1:21
but him being the first american to be
1:23
accepted at the mountain view academy of
1:26
theater arts in london american wow we
1:29
won't put a nation ethnicity on that no
1:32
just a nationality first the first
1:35
american i love that how beautiful is
1:37
that right yep
1:40
first black american two in addition
1:45
but what i love about this man at his
1:47
hardest times and we talked about this
1:49
before
1:51
he prevailed
1:52
perseverance
1:54
commitment
1:55
faith
1:56
carried him through so much
1:58
he got a single father three beautiful
2:00
kids
2:02
um
2:03
kamani
2:04
kimani isis
2:06
curtis cook jr
2:08
they were evicted at one point wow wow
2:12
evicted they didn't have a place to go
2:15
and this man still
2:16
found a way to balance being a single
2:19
father black father in america and still
2:22
pursue his dreams
2:24
even through the hardship the man didn't
2:26
let go sight of his dreams because as a
2:28
father i know he understands that by
2:31
prevailing through all of this adversity
2:34
in front of his kids
2:36
one day is going to benefit his kids
2:39
amen that's going to equip his kids to
2:41
face adversity and not lose themselves
2:44
in the process and you can still
2:47
accomplish your dreams and this man is
2:50
the living personification of that yes
2:53
please welcome curtis cook
2:54
[Applause]
2:56
live in the studio look
2:59
looking shocked
3:01
might cut yourself next to him oh man
3:03
you don't get all that man you got my
3:05
feelings all rolling around inside of me
3:07
and everything and cutting thank you man
3:09
thank you
3:10
thank you man
3:12
brought back a lot of memories in that
3:13
um introduction and it feels beautiful
3:15
man sometimes when you hear it like that
3:17
as it all compacted like that it's it's
3:19
like a huge tidal wave that just kind of
3:21
rushes over you yeah yeah so it just it
3:23
just all hitting me man but thank you
3:25
and i'm so happy to be in the beauty yes
3:28
tracy geez
3:43
real quick
3:52
[Music]
3:53
[Applause]
3:54
i'm an actor i'm an actor i'm an actor
3:57
festival
3:59
[Laughter]
4:08
who did you grow up listening to i know
4:09
we touched on this well so you know it
4:11
was weird man because i'm a man of a
4:13
certain age yeah so are we okay okay
4:16
okay we're all a certain age
4:18
okay okay um
4:21
uh
4:22
so i remember when curtis blow came out
4:24
with these other these are the braves
4:40
i was listening to jeffrey osborne man i
4:42
was listening to you because i thought i
4:44
was i thought i was going to be a
4:45
jeffrey
4:47
um so i wasn't happy and then when rap
4:49
started really getting big i left the
4:51
country man and i was over there then
4:53
in the uk i was in london you know and i
4:55
was trying to figure out who and what i
4:57
was because i was being bombarded with
4:59
who you're supposed to be and how you're
5:00
supposed to be man i came back after
5:02
their first year speaking in an english
5:03
accent i remember my teacher one of my
5:05
um
5:06
um um mentors miss patricia copeland no
5:09
longer with this god rest her soul she
5:11
can't pull me to the side one day when i
5:12
came back she said um curtis
5:15
that's beautiful you sound wonderful but
5:17
don't forget who you are and where you
5:20
come from
5:21
and i was like of course miss copeland
5:23
i'll never forget who i am and where i
5:24
come from thank you i didn't understand
5:26
nothing she was saying i was like she's
5:28
crazy
5:30
yeah and it wasn't until you got to the
5:31
city you started to do things like no no
5:33
no who you are and what you are is just
5:35
as important as any of that stuff so i
5:37
started to lean back into who and what i
5:39
am and started living my life and um it
5:41
was her who really just kind of put her
5:43
hand on me and i feel like her hand is
5:44
always guiding me say her name again
5:46
miss patricia copeland say it two more
5:48
times patricia copeland miss patricia
5:50
copeland she was my high school drama
5:52
teacher wow
5:53
she was also the woman who introduced me
5:55
to the muse machine who ultimately
5:56
helped me get the scholarship to london
5:58
so yeah she's a guardian man and i and i
6:00
think about her every there's not a day
6:02
that i don't wow
6:04
that's powerful man you say something
6:05
really interesting never forget who you
6:07
are
6:08
what'd she say never get who you are and
6:09
where you from and where you're from and
6:11
where you come from because it's just as
6:12
important because you know i'm i'm
6:14
i came from a two-family household you
6:15
know what i mean um
6:17
we were poor it was that same story we
6:19
were poor but we didn't know we were
6:20
poor yeah what i mean should be turned
6:22
off in the house you'd be like okay so
6:23
it's off today so i guess we're gonna
6:25
figure out another way to do it you know
6:26
what i mean maybe tomorrow right
6:28
hopefully um um but uh but we didn't
6:31
have much and i was running the streets
6:32
doing what i was you know just trying to
6:33
be a kid at that time man in the you
6:35
know the late 70s early 80s or whatever
6:38
it was and um
6:40
and she was the one who said no no bro
6:42
you got talent man you really can do
6:43
this you because i was gonna go to the
6:45
navy go to the navy and um get back get
6:47
a 30 000 a year job yeah and you know
6:50
get a little house somewhere getting
6:51
married and have kids i mean that was
6:52
you know
6:54
and hey ain't no doubt no knocking
6:56
anybody who's doing that right because
6:58
it's real that's what i was going to do
6:59
but she was like no no no you have
7:01
something else dude you have something
7:02
else i think you should pursue it and i
7:04
was like really you can do this as a
7:05
living as a living yeah he's like yeah
7:08
and now i know look at him look at him
7:11
for that man's warehouse cuddy curtis
7:13
cuddy curtis in the
7:26
curtis cook is here you know him as
7:28
duder perry on on the shy from um season
7:31
five tonight make sure you're watching
7:33
it on showtime
7:34
um
7:35
you i just i really love this the single
7:38
blackfather story
7:41
i know you're not single now right you
7:43
know but
7:44
a lot of us believe when we have kids we
7:46
cannot achieve the dream
7:49
right i had a kid oh damn it i can't do
7:52
what i thought i was going to do yeah
7:55
how did you navigate that balance and
7:57
what advice would you give
7:59
what do you hope people learn from yeah
8:01
yeah man and it's weird because i think
8:03
about it and it's um
8:06
the phrase that pops in my mind is
8:07
ignorance is bliss yes
8:10
because if i had thought about it hard
8:12
enough and long enough maybe it would
8:13
have um paralyzed me maybe it would have
8:15
stopped me from moving forward and doing
8:17
anything but it was just i knew i loved
8:19
acting i knew that i could do acting i
8:21
knew that my my opportunities were
8:23
getting more and more and i was getting
8:24
more opportunities but i also knew that
8:26
i had to feed the children right
8:28
so so they're in my mind this is weird
8:30
there was no don't do it anymore just
8:33
stop and focus here i feel like no no i
8:35
can do it all i can i can pick up both
8:36
of these things and it was rough now i'm
8:38
going to say there was times when you
8:40
know what to say this story a lot of
8:41
times when we were just eating that box
8:42
of pancake mix that you mixed with water
8:44
yeah that would be our breakfast lunch
8:45
and dinner you know what i mean
8:47
literally and um but it was it was what
8:49
it was it wasn't like it was bad or good
8:51
it was just how we live and you know i
8:53
never said this before but there was a
8:54
friend of mine at the time when we got
8:56
evicted in yonkers her name is i'm gonna
8:59
say her name her name is a den relay ojo
9:01
because when we got evicted i didn't
9:03
have anybody to call
9:04
and i called her and i said hey
9:07
we just got kicked out of our house
9:09
and you know i'm a joker so she was like
9:10
shut up
9:12
get out of here i was like no no no no
9:14
no i'm serious and i guess she heard in
9:16
my voice the i'm serious yeah and she
9:18
was like oh
9:20
no y'all you can come over here had a
9:21
dog i had a um a boxer beautiful white
9:24
boxer nairobi
9:26
and she was like y'all can just come and
9:27
just hang and chill and um i picked up
9:30
everything i had man i had this little
9:32
jar coins i think i told you i have this
9:33
jar of coins that you know you have your
9:35
spare tires
9:36
it was one of those big old pretzel um
9:39
tubs
9:40
yeah so the thing
9:41
weighed about 50 pounds yeah and i'm
9:43
carrying that and the dog and then when
9:45
we get on the metro north to go to
9:47
harlem because she lived in harlem i was
9:48
like hey she was like
9:50
hey just chill just let me know how long
9:52
you need to be there man and it was um
9:55
nope not doing it it was uh it was it
9:58
was it was a time bruh uh
10:00
and and we made it through we all got
10:02
through it um
10:04
um the children's mother uh their
10:07
grandmother lived in queens subsequently
10:09
um kimani and isis stayed with them
10:10
curtis stayed with me over at dimly's
10:12
house and that was for a period of maybe
10:14
three to four weeks maybe that we had to
10:16
stay there while i i got i was still
10:18
auditioning i auditioned for the lion
10:20
king at that time wow wow why you were
10:23
evicted while i was evicted i got the
10:26
lion king wow and this was in this was
10:28
uh
10:29
this was all the shit's coming back so
10:31
quick um this was um 9 11. this was a
10:33
911 because right before it was right
10:35
before 9 11 it happened
10:36
because we had i found this place up in
10:39
another place in yonkers i found it and
10:42
we got in i got the call from my agent
10:45
saying you know what i think they're
10:46
going to book you we booked the lion
10:47
king i started rehearsals 9 11 happened
10:50
oh my gosh so that shut everything down
10:52
yeah and i'm thinking oh we're going
10:54
back cause i'm i got the apartment on
10:56
the base of saying to them hey so listen
10:58
i got this job i called them you know
11:00
what i mean i think we can take care of
11:01
this like okay just make sure you can
11:02
you'll pay these videos i was like yeah
11:04
so um
11:05
but no i remember the music director
11:06
saying you got in at the right time it's
11:08
lion king disney ain't going to where
11:09
they don't get the apocalypse disney
11:11
still be like hey
11:27
i love disney
11:28
i love disney
11:30
they pay me to this day this is not one
11:32
of my favorites
11:34
because um they're part of uh the show
11:36
time in oh right right right yeah yeah i
11:39
love i love you said it already
11:45
so what was the first thing
11:48
when you got in the clear was the first
11:50
fun thing you bought yes oh
11:53
wow man
11:56
i don't know uh
11:58
i i i kind of always pay myself first
12:01
i don't know what the first thing was
12:03
but i just did buy a new
12:06
thing okay you wanted to say it it
12:08
sounds like it's to say ferrari
12:12
okay corny old man okay i bought and uh
12:15
should i say this because now people can
12:16
be looking at me down the damn street
12:18
like oh there it is well if you if you
12:20
don't say it they're gonna be looking at
12:21
you like
12:28
[Music]
12:30
on the east coast so that's how stupid i
12:31
am because how many times i'm gonna pop
12:32
the roof if you like three months
12:37
um but but it feels good it's one of
12:39
those it's one of those splurge buys i
12:40
was like and i wasn't even thinking
12:41
about it i was like you know what i just
12:42
want to get a new car or whatever else
12:44
and normally i never my father was that
12:46
dude to say don't you don't buy a new
12:47
car you know you just don't you can
12:48
always get the year before and what if
12:50
not understand the logics behind that
12:51
and why you would and i was like this
12:53
time i was like you know what
12:54
i went in there
12:56
saw it 2022
12:59
brand new no miles nothing i said hey uh
13:05
that one
13:07
they said yeah well which how you want
13:08
to do what i said
13:09
that one that one the and you go
13:12
uh right now sir like
13:14
yep
13:15
that one there you go you earned that
13:17
yeah
13:18
my
13:22
[Music]
13:31
are you at a point in your career where
13:34
you no longer have to audition
13:36
uh no
13:37
i still have to audition um
13:40
but the difference is is that sometimes
13:43
we can say we prefer an offer and then
13:46
they say well no okay yeah you can ask
13:47
me an offer no he's not getting one tell
13:48
him to put himself on tape and send you
13:50
that um but i will i would say like the
13:52
last few jobs that i've gotten have been
13:54
through offers offers
13:55
congrats yeah man that feels a lot
13:57
different and it's a lot of different
13:59
pressure too because you know and when
14:00
you're auditioning you figure out they
14:01
saw you so they know what you can do and
14:03
how it might feel so you're like okay
14:05
they can see what i do and but then when
14:06
you don't audition you come and you'll
14:08
be like are they gonna like what i do
14:09
they're gonna probably be like oh if we
14:11
would have saw what you was doing bro
14:13
thank you
14:14
no we don't need this no
14:17
one of the big one of the last things
14:19
that i did was um i don't know if
14:20
anybody seen it it's called the devil
14:21
you know yeah
14:23
yeah wow that was one of the brothers
14:28
we all
14:31
like extended family right and so he had
14:34
us all come down in new york
14:37
yeah
14:40
i was beating him down
14:46
even like now when i get finished with
14:48
dude i cut my hair immediately i get rid
14:49
of the part i let the grays come through
14:52
you know what i mean so that when people
14:53
see me they don't know a lot of times
14:55
people don't recognize me and i love it
14:56
because it allows me to stay in the fly
14:58
on the wall and hopefully allow the
15:00
talent to speak for herself as opposed
15:02
to yo y'all y'all go see the devil you
15:05
know vanessa like this is so good omar's
15:08
wife is in it omar like it's glenn turn
15:10
like this film is so good like y'all go
15:13
check it out for real man charles murray
15:15
charles
15:15
yeah
15:16
yeah yeah yeah we would have had the
15:17
problem
15:18
yeah invited us out yeah
15:28
yeah y'all streaming so go check it out
15:30
absolutely now i'm curious curtis and
15:32
shout out to your new audi does this
15:34
mean do you ever have like poverty ptsd
15:37
yes okay all the time so it's that thing
15:40
like you you know you pay yourself first
15:42
but i'm like no all this is going here
15:45
and it's like in a locked vault and it's
15:46
not moving anywhere you know what i mean
15:48
so it's i always feel like i have an
15:49
extra stash just because people are like
15:51
no no i'm like no no no no you have no
15:54
idea and like even like my children now
15:56
when i feel like if they don't have
15:58
something part of me is like
16:00
it's i have a stash for you yeah i have
16:02
something waiting for you so you don't
16:03
have to relive that part of your life
16:06
um so yeah i i do sometimes think about
16:08
what could happen and how could i all be
16:10
taken away so i get scared like even
16:11
when i heard y'all talking about the
16:12
nfts the other day which sounds oh
16:14
you're yeah yeah and and other
16:16
things or like bitcoins i get scared
16:17
because i'm like um yeah maybe no
16:24
you know what i mean but that those
16:25
things sound amazing um i wish i could
16:27
have gotta i got your number i'm gonna
16:29
give you game on that
16:31
i'm gonna make it easy for you
16:33
you you saw that you
16:43
uh mr curtis cook i know you have
16:45
another appointment
16:47
but know that you are always welcome to
16:49
this show you ain't got to have nothing
16:51
going on
16:52
this is your house
16:54
all right and me and you got to hang out
16:56
already see that man i got to get in
16:58
that back seat because your wife ain't
16:59
going to let me get in the pacific
17:02
they're going to be like the
17:08
yo my mother-in-law was in the back seat
17:10
one time and she's a little woman man
17:12
shout out to your grandmother man
17:14
yeah
17:15
thank you brother my mother
17:19
80. um she got it man she's a small
17:21
thing she got him back she was like oh
17:23
that's the car you bought why are you
17:25
oh you bought this car
17:28
y'all don't think you want to be in the
17:29
backseat
17:30
yeah yeah
17:44
curtis cooker maybe possibly he got a
17:46
heart out man if we get ten minutes with
17:48
this man we gotta pray we did the phone
17:50
call but we gotta do it in person man i
17:53
love this show man and i love y'all and
17:55
i appreciate this time man shout out to
17:57
all of my family members all of my loved
17:58
ones curtis isis kimani harlem and jade
18:01
angelica my siblings and dayton i love
18:03
all of y'all as well wow this is amazing
18:05
to me i do not take it lightly i know
18:07
that everything is for a reason and i'm
18:09
so blessed to see y'all's faces in this
18:11
space right now thank you sir thank you
18:13
we appreciate you brother curtis cook
18:15
y'all follow him at curtis cook two
18:17
esses c-u-r-t-i-s-s-c-o-o-k
18:20
make sure you watch the shot tonight
18:22
tonight season five on show time nine
18:25
p.m eastern don't forget we're gonna
18:27
come back with some breaking news with
18:29
mike news up next shade four five
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