- 11 minutes ago
The Hollywood Reporter partners with the Toronto Film Festival to present this Master Class with Viola Davis and Julius Tennon.
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00:28Transcription by CastingWords
00:30We are Ontario, and we're ready to roll.
01:00So head over to THR.com slash TIFF for full coverage of the 2020 festival.
01:07It's very, very important that we put the stories in the hands of the people who own those stories.
01:18The classic stories, good stories, original stories are always going to have high value.
01:29Good filmmaking requires vulnerability, and vulnerability requires courage.
01:35And that's just what we do.
01:56Hello everyone, I'm Joanna Vicente, Executive Director and Co-Head of TIFF.
02:02And I'm Cameron Bailey, the Artistic Director and Co-Head of TIFF, and we are so excited to welcome you
02:08to the 45th Toronto International Film Festival.
02:11TIFF has always been a chance for the film world to come together to share ideas at our industry conference,
02:18recognize new talents through our development programs, and of course, to discover great film.
02:24These initiatives were designed to strengthen and grow our industry, which is going through profound change right now,
02:31from the screens we watch our films on to the voices behind them.
02:35This year, we're welcoming you and thousands of other professionals to the festival digitally.
02:42Our conference will be hosted on a new live talks platform, and for the first time ever,
02:49our press and industry screenings will be accessed through their own online platform,
02:55which will also serve as a hub to promote films and talent.
02:59And we'll be joined virtually by some of the biggest names and brightest minds in film,
03:05including conference speakers Viola Davis, Ted Hope, Luca Guadagnino, Dream Hampton, Lulu Wong, Chelsea Ben-Stanley, and many others.
03:15This festival began in 1976 with the goal to transform the way people see the world through film.
03:21And that remains our mission today, because film is important.
03:26It has the power to inspire, enlighten, and connect us far beyond the closing credits and into a lifetime.
03:33But now, we need your help to support the art and industry we all cherish,
03:39as a not-for-profit organization that has been affected by the global health pandemic.
03:45You know, a few months ago, we launched our For the Love of Film Fund to help us continue to
03:50share the power of film with audiences.
03:53If you're able, please visit tiff.net slash loveoffilm to make a donation of any size.
04:00And know that just by joining us today, you're supporting us and helping us to share the power of film.
04:06A sincere thank you to our lead sponsor, Bell, and our major sponsors, RBC, L'Oreal Paris, and Visa,
04:14for their steadfast commitment, as well as our major industry supporters, Ontario Creates and Tally Film Canada.
04:22And thank you all for supporting tiff.
04:25We hope you enjoy your festival.
04:29Hello, bonjour.
04:30As a proud partner of the Toronto International Film Festival,
04:34we are thrilled that you can join us here today.
04:37Now, more than ever, we need to embrace, champion, and celebrate the talent that drives our industry
04:43and inspires audiences to imagine a better world.
04:47In this new time of digital conferencing,
04:51Telefilm wants to ensure that Canada's audio-visual sector continues to connect
04:56and to collaborate with our colleagues from around the world.
05:15These new circumstances remind us to appreciate the vital role that the film industry plays
05:22in how much cinematic storytelling impacts both our society and, of course, our economy.
05:28Stories have that ability to entertain, to educate, and inspire.
05:34And we hope today's conference will inspire and empower you on your journey.
05:40Congratulations, of course, to TIFF and everyone involved for finding new and exciting ways
05:46to ensure our industry continues to connect and to thrive.
05:51Écoutez, félicitations à tout le monde à TIFF,
05:54à toutes les personnes qui se sont impliquées à trouver de nouvelles manières créatives
05:58et de passionnantes façons de s'assurer que notre industrie continue à se rapprocher
06:04et aussi à prospérer.
06:07Merci, thank you.
06:11Hi, everyone, and welcome to TIFF 2020, the virtual edition.
06:16This year has presented challenges for the screen sector that most of us could never have imagined.
06:21But it's also served to remind us just how incredibly important the creative industries are
06:26to our economies and to our quality of life.
06:30Our music, publishing, interactive, and, of course, our film and television companies
06:34have demonstrated incredible resilience and innovation.
06:38And together, we've rallied to find new ways of doing business
06:41to ensure that great content still reaches our enthusiastic audiences.
06:47Ontario Creates is proud to be TIFF's longtime partner,
06:50and we congratulate Joanna, Cameron, and the entire TIFF team on their creativity
06:55and their successful pivot to deliver a strong festival and industry program
07:00in a hybrid format, just as we all needed that boost.
07:052020 also marks the 15th anniversary of Ontario Creates' International Financing Forum.
07:11TIFF has led to more than 100 successful productions over the years,
07:15and we're excited to welcome participants from countries around the world again this year
07:20for our virtual program.
07:22We're thrilled to be showcasing two great films in the festival this year,
07:27Charles Officer's Achilles Escape and Viggo Mortensen's directorial debut in Falling.
07:32And we're also looking forward to TIFF's Digital Industry Conference,
07:37featuring a strong program lineup and a virtual marketplace
07:40where you can learn everything you need to know about producing your next film safely in Ontario.
07:46We've built on our deep capacity of crew, talent, and suppliers,
07:50and we're restarting production stronger than ever,
07:54with expanded studio space, leading health and safety guidelines,
07:58and a new Ontario green screen program to ensure a sustainable future for us all.
08:04Ontario is ready to roll.
08:08We know the format this year is a little different,
08:11but it's going to be a fantastic festival.
08:14We can't wait to connect virtually with our international friends,
08:17and we look forward to seeing all of you, live and in person, at the festival in 2021.
08:25Thank you, Krista and Karen.
08:28And now, settle in for a masterclass with the amazing Viola Davis and Julius Tennant.
08:35Bye.
08:51Hello, everyone.
08:54Welcome to TIFF's Masterclass.
08:57My name is Nicasa Moody.
08:58I'm the editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter,
09:01and today we are joined by Viola Davis and Julius Tennant of Juvie Productions.
09:07And I'm so glad to have both of you here.
09:10This is an unusual year for us, it's digital.
09:14But I think it speaks to the resiliency of the film festival
09:17that we are able to do it and have this wonderful conversation.
09:22Absolutely.
09:23Yes.
09:24Yeah.
09:25It's a pleasure to be here.
09:26So I'm excited to talk to you about Juvie.
09:30I know you've been here for many years,
09:32and to be able to talk about what's going on with Juvie,
09:36can you tell me a little bit, both of you talk about,
09:39what was your mission statement when you decided to create this production company?
09:46Well, you know what?
09:47When it first started, it really was sort of a venue for me.
09:52I mean, after the help, it became very apparent that
09:56if we weren't the change we wanted to see,
09:59then I was going to continue to have the same kind of roles available for me.
10:05So it became very obvious that I had to find those emerging artists.
10:11We have to find those emerging artists and find that material.
10:14And so we started the production company,
10:18and actually the name of it then was Mandinka,
10:20named after the Mandinka tribe in the Gambia, West Africa.
10:25And it was Mandinka Film, so it was a much more linear thing.
10:28And we wanted to do more than just film.
10:31We wanted to do TV.
10:33I mean, lo and behold, we didn't know that, you know,
10:37several years later, we would also add immersive and interactive
10:40to our production company.
10:43But yeah, it started out a deference with Viola's career,
10:46and then we decided we wanted to be the voice of the voices,
10:51to give opportunities to those who were underserved
10:56and not getting represented and having the opportunity
10:58to get work in the industry.
11:01Yeah, and we really started it in the spirit of excellence, too.
11:06You know, we really felt that, you know,
11:11overall in the industry that we had a type of standard
11:16for the narrative that we wanted to see.
11:20We really wanted to see a full exploration
11:23of the pathology of people who are voiceless.
11:26We didn't want them to be a device.
11:29We didn't want them to be, you know, just an image,
11:32just serving, you know, serving a white-centric sort of narrative.
11:39We really wanted autonomy for people on the periphery in narratives.
11:45And that became its own sort of fight.
11:48You know, we're usually on the outskirts and serving, you know,
11:54the white character all the time.
11:57And so we also put that spirit of excellence in there for a reason.
12:06And you mentioned it started after the health.
12:09It takes some courage to jump out on your own.
12:13Were there ever a time where you kind of felt, well,
12:16let me just give it a little bit more time.
12:18Let me see and see if the role will come, what I want will come.
12:23And what made you decide to take, to use a cliche of the bull by its horns,
12:27instead of saying, okay, let me just wait, because, you know,
12:31you were an Oscar-nominated actress at the time, for the bulls I want.
12:35Well, listen, you know, that's fine and dandy to kind of have gotten an Oscar nomination
12:42and all that.
12:43But what we both saw clearly is that the roles weren't there.
12:46And when you're looking at the traditional Hollywood pipeline
12:48and what's coming down the pipeline, it's usually a couple of films,
12:52you know, every year or something like that,
12:54and not necessarily where the characters are flushed out in a way.
12:58And when I looked at everything, I looked at who Viola was as a talent.
13:01So we wanted to go after material that was that.
13:04We didn't want to wait.
13:05There was no time to wait.
13:07Because once the window opens and you get this platform,
13:10then you have to take advantage of it.
13:12And so that's what we did.
13:13We just said, listen, we're going to put our own sweat equity.
13:15We're going to put our own money, and we're going to get started.
13:18We're going to do this.
13:19For six years, we worked for my house.
13:21In the last four years or so, almost six years,
13:25and in the last four years, we've been in an office,
13:27and we've grown from three people, Viola, myself, and Kaylin Hunt,
13:32who's our VP of operations, to now having a head of film,
13:36having a head of TV, having two creative assistants,
13:40an office manager.
13:41And, you know, so it's kind of taken on a different life of its own.
13:47So we want it to be the change we want it to see.
13:50You know, I've been doing this for 33 years professionally,
13:54and then it gets into the 41 years, if you look at my entire career.
14:01So I know the industry.
14:03I know the industry, but I also know the art form.
14:07You know, I've done theater before this, off-Broadway, Broadway, in the regions.
14:12I've done theater in the church basement.
14:14I've done TV, film.
14:15So then it becomes very apparent after being in an industry that long,
14:22what will happen, what's not going to happen.
14:25I mean, it's a long conversation in terms of taking control of my career
14:31and what that means.
14:32I don't think people actually know,
14:34and there's no way to really even articulate it in this conversation.
14:39I continue to tell people, you know,
14:43that the national unemployment rate is probably what, 15% now?
14:49The unemployment rate in acting is close to 95%.
14:530.04% of actors are famous, and there's different levels of fame.
14:58So that whole idea of taking control is very, it's a very abstract notion.
15:07What is more specific to say is I just wanted to see my career differently,
15:17and I just did, you know, as I was getting older.
15:21There's just certain roles that I wanted to see,
15:24and I just decided to go for it.
15:26Now, whether that whole journey of going for it, though, is,
15:33it's a long conversation.
15:36It's a very difficult conversation.
15:39Was it a scary proposition at first?
15:42Well, it is, you know, because, listen,
15:44I decided to start the production company.
15:48My wife and I talked to her.
15:49I decided to do it.
15:50I'm an actor in my own regard,
15:52and I could have continued,
15:54and I still act, you know, here and there and love it,
15:58but I saw a bigger mission,
16:00and the mission was to give Viola,
16:03where Viola was in her career,
16:05give her the opportunity to be able to step into the kinds of roles that she deserved.
16:09And so I was scared as hell, to tell you the truth.
16:13I'd never been, I'd done a lot of things in my life,
16:16but I'd never ran a production company.
16:18And, you know, always, you always have this thing in the back of your head.
16:21You think, you know what?
16:22I'm going to get found out.
16:24But, you know what?
16:25What I've realized is that it's a lot of people in the industry
16:28that aren't necessarily, that don't know any more than you know.
16:32You know, and so you just have to get out there
16:34and put one foot in front of the other,
16:36and that's what we did.
16:37And so now the success of Juve and the industry being known
16:42that we're collaborators, that we're authentic,
16:45that we're about elevated and prestige content
16:50because of who Viola is,
16:52is kind of, you know, what's put us where we are.
16:57What was it like to greenlight that first project?
17:02Wow.
17:03You remember Viola, Lala and Eve?
17:06Oh, yeah, it was awesome.
17:08It was awesome, but, you know, it was a learning curve, too,
17:13because, you know, it was the first time that, you know,
17:15I had been on a movie as a producer, and I acted in that film.
17:20We both acted in our first film that we produced together.
17:24And so that was quite a task, but very interesting.
17:29Learned a lot.
17:30I always think, you know, you've got to listen.
17:32You've got to be open.
17:34And that's how you get around a lot of things.
17:37Just keep your ears open and listen to what other people
17:40who've done it before have done, and then you learn a lot.
17:43Well, I mean, the thing about it is to, again, you know, I'm always,
17:52in conversations like this, I always feel like I have, like, this filter in my head
17:57that goes from my mouth because it's so much I actually want to say,
18:02but I know it's probably not what people want to hear.
18:07The thing about being greenlit and a project moving forward,
18:12there's so much involved with finding the project, finding the actors,
18:19the actors who say no, finding the writers,
18:25actually the writing being where you need it to be when you start production.
18:30And a lot has to be said for the potency of your power.
18:37I think that, listen, I'm always flattered as to how people see me,
18:43how they see Julius, how they see the power of being black,
18:48especially in this zeitgeist where people are saying,
18:52we're taking control of our own destiny.
18:56But there's still a huge part of the work where you're always fighting for your autonomy.
19:04You're always fighting for those projects that absolutely are reflective of your talent,
19:10where you are on the same playing field as your white counterparts.
19:16And the solution is not easy.
19:18The fight is not easy.
19:20Sometimes you win 20% of it.
19:24Sometimes you win 80% of it.
19:26A lot of times you walk away from projects that people don't even know about, of course.
19:31But I say all that to say our first project was great,
19:37but it was a learning curve for me of all things that I loved,
19:41that I will do again, and a lot of things that I never want to happen again.
19:48And then as we move forward, there's going to be more lessons to learn.
19:52But this is where the deficit has been.
19:56See, we're making up for lost time, many lost decades.
20:02And me and Julius, everyone at Juby Productions, we're running a huge race just to get at the starting line
20:12of where people have been for many years.
20:14I mean, what I tell and what I tell our people all the time, I say, what we do is
20:19hard because of the way we want to tell stories and the narratives we want to tell.
20:23And that we want to we want to see people of color across the board normalized when you're working in
20:30a system that had not had that hasn't normalized people of color.
20:33Then it's always hard when you're going in and you're pitching those projects where people of color normalize in their
20:39leads where you normally don't see a Chinese lead or black lead or Indian lead or an Asian lead or
20:46whatever.
20:47So but we stayed steadfast to our mission statement because it's about a broad spectrum of humanity.
20:53And that's all of us. We're not excluding our white counterparts.
20:56We have narratives where we have white actors in leads.
21:01But it's but the characters, the other characters of color are characters who aren't tropes or stereotypes.
21:07So we want to get away from that and just make these people be people.
21:12And so that's a fight. And I tell my people that.
21:15So if you talk to anybody on our staff, they would always say, yep, Julius always says what we're doing
21:18is hard because it is.
21:20Yes. Was there a blueprint when you started, Juvie, that you kind of like, OK, this is where we want
21:29to be?
21:32Well, we are in the industry where there are no blueprints.
21:36OK, I know there's a lot of people who say this is how you're supposed to start a business for
21:42every person who followed that blueprint.
21:45There's 50,000 more who didn't and roads to the top.
21:48Who knows? This is a business that has no textbook.
21:52No. I mean, you can have five actors on a stage who talk about how they started their careers.
22:01And there's five different stories.
22:02OK, so there's no blueprint.
22:05I'll tell you what the blueprint is.
22:06The blueprint is that once you are on a level in your career where you have some power in the
22:14industry,
22:14I'll tell you what power is. Power is me or Julius calling up.
22:19I don't know. Let's just make it up.
22:22Steven Spielberg and saying, we have a great project for you.
22:25We have a couple of great. And someone said, OK, who's on the line to speak this?
22:30Oh, it's Viola Davis and Julius Tennant.
22:32Bam, we can get in the door based on my name.
22:36That's the only blueprint.
22:37The blueprint is your power in the industry based on what you've done before.
22:42OK.
22:43But at the same time, there's a blueprint to the business.
22:48OK.
22:49And the business blueprint is all based on one.
22:53So the nice color.
22:55And that's green.
22:59That's a blueprint that you're constantly fighting based on, I don't know, what are the projections of how much this
23:09movie can make in China?
23:11If Viola were the lead, how can we distribute it internationally?
23:15Me being 55 years old and, frankly, sort of not having really the energy.
23:23And when I say energy, I mean the personal energy I had when I was 25.
23:27All of those become blueprints of a production company.
23:34I mean, and we've gotten our power now because, of course, how to get away with murder.
23:41That's been huge.
23:42That's been huge for me because it's made me, it's really made me global, as did the health.
23:50You know what I'm saying?
23:52And so that's the blueprint.
23:55And also the other blueprint is what Julius just said, is just never giving up, holding true to your mission
24:02statement.
24:03Just feeling like, you know what?
24:04You just, after a while, you have to live a life of transcendence and significance.
24:10You have to say, okay, do I just want to always take the money and sort of, you know, have
24:16a lot of followers on Instagram?
24:18Or do I want to look back and really feel like I shifted the world or the industry even a
24:26little bit?
24:26So that's been our blueprint.
24:29But as far as the industry is concerned, I don't care what anyone says.
24:32There is no blueprint.
24:34I mean, obviously, you know, I mean, obviously with me, you know, starting the company and I have to be
24:40there day to day because Viola can't do all of this stuff.
24:43I mean, she can be the brand.
24:44She's the brand of the company.
24:47She's that, but she couldn't be there day to day.
24:51And so for me, actually running it and then being the boss of all these other folks.
24:56And by the way, I'm not really a boss.
24:58I'm not a micromanager.
25:01I love my people.
25:03They have their positions.
25:05I empower them to do what they do.
25:07I empower them to bring their thoughts and all that to work with them and give them the space to
25:14do that, as with our creators, the same thing.
25:17But, you know, I read a lot of books about things, about production companies, about how the people went about
25:22things, read Hollywood books.
25:24And all those things were useful to me.
25:27But there's nothing there's something to say about kind of doing it day by day, you know, going through the
25:34paces, you know, being there,
25:36working with your staff, working with other folks in the industry, and it just all starts coming together, you know.
25:43But as Viola was saying, I mean, there's kind of a way in, but there's really no blueprint, you know.
25:50And at the end of the day, you know, you have to make that green, you know.
25:53You can sell a lot of things, and we've done that, and we have a lot of things out there
25:58now on both sides.
26:00But you have to, you know, at some point get to a point to where you're making money in the
26:05industry.
26:06That makes you viable, too.
26:08And we're getting, we're getting, we've already made some, but we're getting close to really doing really well.
26:13So we're excited.
26:15Was there, what do you kind of wish that you had known when you started out that maybe would have
26:21helped you or maybe would have changed your perspective a little bit on this company?
26:28Let me just say, for me, it was nothing.
26:30It was like all in because of this great talent that we're looking at on the screen right here.
26:36So when I thought about my wife and I thought about, you know, who she is as an artist, it
26:42just was no way.
26:44I mean, there was no way that we could just sit back and rest on our laurels when I was
26:48looking at nothing being done.
26:50So if you're there, you're sitting there and you're looking and you're seeing nothing's being done and I'm going, Viola,
26:55the window is wide open.
26:56We got to jump in here because that window is starting to close on this producing because then people can
27:02have a perception that maybe, you know, they don't want to produce.
27:04Maybe she just wants to act.
27:07Mostly she does act, but Viola is valuable to the company in a lot of ways, just kind of because
27:12of her voice, because what she means to us or what she means to women, what she means to the
27:17world.
27:18And so it was just like a no brainer for me.
27:20So I didn't think about anything that except that I just wanted to move forward to try to propel Viola's
27:27career initially.
27:28That's what it was.
27:29I didn't think about anything that I didn't know, whatever, because I didn't know anything.
27:34I knew enough because I was an actor on sets, but, you know.
27:38I mean, I have to say that usually I always say, oh, yeah, I have lots of regrets.
27:45Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah.
27:47Because I never believe the people who say they don't have any regrets.
27:50But this is one instance where I probably wouldn't have done anything differently.
27:55You have to understand that I came, you know, when I was coming up, there were no streaming services.
28:01There was ABC, CBS, NBC, maybe PBS.
28:04You know, some people were doing after school specials.
28:07That wasn't my journey, you know.
28:09My journey was when I got how to get away with murder in my mid-40s or late 40s.
28:16You know, I really became sort of known to the public in my 40s.
28:22I definitely lived the life of a journeyman actor.
28:26And that is the story of most actors.
28:30It just is.
28:3198% of them probably have my story.
28:35I didn't, you know, I didn't get that big major movie in my 20s.
28:41So the fact that I was even a working actor, that I spent less time in unemployment than I did
28:49in employment, was a gift to me.
28:54And the reason why I also wouldn't change my journey, too, is now I really understand the work.
29:01See, there's a difference between a business conversation and an artistic conversation.
29:06And I think most people in this business have business conversations masquerading as artistic conversations, and they're not the same.
29:16It's not the same when you look at narratives, understand how to fix them, understand the arc of a character
29:24and the arc of a story.
29:25And that has only come through my journey in being, you know, in the must-see theaters in New York
29:34or church basement.
29:36You know, that's what I learned along the way.
29:40You know, so I'm so happy that I had a slow burn because it's helped me tremendously as a producer.
29:51Now, many people, you know, you can have a lot of successful movies out there, but the mark of an
29:58artist, it's like Charlize, actually Charlize Theron said it.
30:01Someone said, what are you the most proud of in your career?
30:04And she said longevity.
30:07And that's, you know, what I'll say about Juvie.
30:11That's why we have so many just really beautiful voices.
30:14We're operating in our company because we know the road.
30:17And you spoke, you touched on this a little bit.
30:24If you both could speak about how your artistic vision kind of formulates what kind of projects you choose in
30:33the path going forward into like, okay, we're greenlighting this.
30:37We're saying no to this.
30:39Well, we're always hoping we're going to get green lights.
30:42So we're always looking for really, you know, provocative kind of things.
30:46I mean, I think, you know, we're at Amazon and I deal in TV and in film currently.
30:52And that's not necessarily a mandate.
30:55I mean, we just want to have people of color's voices elevated.
31:00And we want to find content that speaks to the zeitgeist.
31:05Things that are, it's like, why this director?
31:08Why this story?
31:09And why now?
31:11You know, those are big things, you know, because you have to do things that you hope that as you
31:17develop them, you hope that they're going to go out into the world and people are going to receive them
31:21and love them.
31:22And they're going to be just fantastic.
31:24You don't know how it's going to be received.
31:25So we're just always looking for material that, you know, that's present and present for where we are.
31:33And we are across all genres.
31:35So we, you know, we do a plethora of things.
31:38We just always want to find an interesting way into narrative content.
31:42How can we twist it?
31:45How can we, you know, you can love that genre, but how can we do it a little bit different?
31:49So what's familiar is not so familiar.
31:52And you go, oh, wow, that was cool.
31:54They did something different.
31:55And that's hard, but it's worthy because the only thing you have is how great the content is going out
32:01the door.
32:02And it's got to be great because there's a lot of competition out there to get things sold.
32:06Because just because you're putting things forward doesn't mean they're even going to get, you're going to sell them.
32:11You can work on something for two years and then go out there and pitch around and nobody picks it
32:15up.
32:16It's gone.
32:17You're on to the next thing.
32:18So you're always on to the next thing.
32:21So you just have to kind of make sure that when you're working with your partners, you know, you're looking
32:27for the same kinds of material.
32:29You collaborate and then you try to put the best stuff out there and just try to make it as
32:33elevated and as prestige as you can.
32:35That's our thinking.
32:37And, you know, all of our projects reflect our taste, you know, every, you know, all of it.
32:44Everything from First Lady, you know, that we have with Showtime with, you know, that profiles three First Ladies, you
32:52know, Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford, Michelle Obama.
32:56You know, Woman King that we have, you know, great Gina Spicewood, Prince Spicewood, who is at the helm directing
33:06it.
33:06They all reflect our taste and, you know, once again, the journey in making it great is always a fight.
33:16You have to understand that what we're fighting as not just a black production company because we are, you know,
33:26committed to the broad spectrum.
33:27Okay, of humanity, but what we are fighting is a whole system that has been used to seeing us in
33:37a certain way.
33:39We have not usually been humanized.
33:44And so looking for those sort of narratives that don't, where the image and message is not more powerful than
33:53our humanity is finding him, finding the right, you know, the writers and the directors who will honor that and
34:01finding the studio execs, the studio, the people who have the money to be able to commit as fiercely as
34:10we're committed to it.
34:11That's a journey.
34:13Yeah, and seeing these stories the way Viola's always seen, you know, as Viola said so eloquently, you know, in
34:20her Emmy speech, you know, it's like unearthing these stories that haven't been told about these people, but, you know,
34:26normalizing and humanizing them and getting your partners to see the value in that.
34:32I always tell everybody we work with, you're going to win, you're going to do stuff with Juvee, you're going
34:35to win.
34:36Everybody's got a lane in what they're doing.
34:39I just know, we know what Juvee wants to accomplish.
34:42So we're focused on what we're trying to do with our partners, and we feel like we're going to be
34:49successful, because I think hearts and minds are starting to open up more than ever before.
34:55And content now travels everywhere.
34:58There's no such thing as black content doesn't travel or whatever.
35:01Oh, forget about all that stuff now.
35:03Technology's changed the whole game.
35:05Streaming's changed the whole game.
35:06So now it's up to those creators and those companies and leaders who are brave.
35:12I always say it takes courage.
35:14In any of this, it always takes courage.
35:16If you're going to see something different and you're going to enter into something that's different, but something that can
35:22be beneficial to the greater populace and to your company, then that's a win.
35:28Do you think, how have you seen the landscape change over the last, let's say, five years, and especially maybe
35:36over the last few months?
35:38Obviously, we're in a racial reckoning.
35:40But, you know, as you mentioned, Viola, with How to Get Away with Murder, you have a lot of content
35:46from people of color that have done really well, you know, from all different spectrums.
35:55So do you find that it's easier to have those conversations with the studio execs than it was when you
36:05first started?
36:06Absolutely.
36:07You know, I worked with the great Gloria Foster before, you know, I came to Hollywood.
36:13And one of the things she said is she said, Viola, it's so much easier for your generation than it
36:20was for mine.
36:21We didn't even have a home.
36:22We didn't have a Negro ensemble.
36:24Only one Black actor had an agent that was Cindy Pottier.
36:27And I say that about the generation coming up now also, you know, the Issa Rays, the Michaela Coles.
36:38And, you know, because now you have streaming services.
36:41Now you have YouTube, Facebook.
36:44You have so many different venues.
36:46And now you have a zeitgeist that is screaming, screaming and absolutely demanding a space.
36:56And so absolutely it's better.
36:59Absolutely we have all ears, all eyes.
37:02Now, and then you have some terrific young artists now who have their ear and who have found success on
37:12these streaming services, especially.
37:14And now what you need are a plethora of new artists who are going to honor that.
37:21Because in our profession, there is always, will always be a high deficit.
37:29It just is.
37:30That's just the nature of being an artist.
37:32It's always going to be a high unemployment rate.
37:35People may not want to hear that, but that's just the way it is.
37:38Like I said, 0.04% of actors are famous.
37:42And you have to define famous.
37:44So now it becomes, what are we going to do with this time?
37:49What are we going to do with it?
37:50So you've had a successful movie.
37:52You've had a successful show.
37:53And now what?
37:54How do you keep it going?
37:56So that when we look back at that time, we don't have to say, oh, man, we had an opportunity
38:01and the door closed and we missed it, you know?
38:05And so we always have to do things with a spirit of excellence in mind.
38:11And we're always trying, and we're always matching.
38:14For the content that we're doing, we want to match the writers.
38:17We want to match the writers to that content.
38:21So if you're writing, if you're doing certain kinds of shows, I mean, we have Wild Seeds set up at
38:26Amazon.
38:27And it's really getting fast.
38:29It's really moving along.
38:30So we're really excited about Wild Seeds.
38:32But we went out and we got, we were able to get two African women, the director and the writer.
38:38They're both writers.
38:38Well, one is a director, but they both write.
38:42And we were able to get them.
38:46And that's been amazing.
38:49So with the kind of content we do, you have to have the kind of writers.
38:53You have to get the kind of writer's room you want to bring that content to life.
38:57And sometimes our white counterparts can do that.
39:00But sometimes in some regards, they could bring us material about people of color, but they can't necessarily figure that
39:07out.
39:08Doesn't mean that they're not valuable because they're valuable.
39:12Let's work together.
39:13But let's also be open to bringing the people of color into it to help make sure that we can
39:21tell the story the right way.
39:23That's really important.
39:24And what's really, really also important is, this is my personal thing, is this, is just like you have to
39:35have a diverse portfolio when you have enough money to invest.
39:40It's got to be diverse.
39:41You put your money in, you know, different corporations or whatever in order to make money.
39:47It's got to be the same way with storytelling.
39:50I always say the same people who go to see, I don't know, My Dinner with Andre, may not go
39:59see Taxi Driver, but may go see, I don't know, Jurassic Park.
40:03With white people, you have a diverse range of stories.
40:08And they all fit.
40:11There's a place for all of them.
40:13I don't think that all of our stories have to be in a certain genre or a certain format.
40:20They don't always have to be romantic comedies.
40:24They don't always have to be a voice in the hood.
40:28Those movies are fantastic.
40:31Fantastic.
40:32They're some of my favorite movies.
40:34I'm just saying that if you have a voice, if you have a taste, I say the most courageous thing
40:42that you can do is go for it and not think about its marketability before you have even put it
40:50out there in the world.
40:51I mean, once again, I mentioned My Dinner with Andre, with Andre Previn and Wallace Shawn, because it was a
40:59movie just about these two men having a conversation.
41:03That's all it was, an experimental film.
41:05And it became a cult classic.
41:08That's all the film was.
41:09And I'm just saying that there's a place for us, too, as people of power, as people on the periphery.
41:16A story is a story.
41:17If it involves humanity, if it's a human experience, it deserves to be told, no matter if 50,000 people
41:26go to see it or 50 million people, 50 trillion people see it.
41:31I don't think that everything has to make a billion dollars in order for it to be in order to
41:38for it to have relevance.
41:41I think it's really interesting that you mentioned Octavia Butler.
41:47I remember reading one of her books and thinking, wow, this is so this would be great for on screen.
41:53But then I thought, well, who's really going to make that?
41:56This is maybe like about 15, 20 years ago, like, you know, and she had, you know, she had already
42:01passed.
42:01She had had all these books and like, is this ever really going to happen?
42:04And the fact that Juvie is taking one of her books and putting it out there, I think, shows the
42:10importance of something of like Juvie, because it's about telling those stories.
42:18Yeah, it really is about telling those stories.
42:21You know, I mean, they're out there.
42:23You just have to find them.
42:24You have to believe in them.
42:26And you don't have to so much live in any of the all of the bad things that happen to
42:32people of color in their lives.
42:34There's many things that have happened to us, you know, over these 400 years of being in America, you know.
42:42But, you know, you just have to get to the crux of the story.
42:47Is there a story?
42:47If we're going to tell a story, let's do a Lincoln about the 14th Amendment, right?
42:5313th Amendment?
42:5413th Amendment.
42:5513th Amendment.
42:57The 13th Amendment.
42:59And you live with that so you can tell a linear story so you're not trying to tell Lincoln's whole
43:04life from cradle to grave.
43:07We lived there and we lived in that history.
43:10And at the end of that movie, you were able to kind of like go, wow, that was just amazing.
43:18So that's the way we look at things.
43:20If we're going to do an autobiography or any of those kinds of things, we always want to take a
43:24sliver.
43:25We don't want to try to go from here to all the way to there.
43:28We want to take a sliver of what's really dominant.
43:31What was that dominant four or five years and then tell that?
43:33You know, a lot of people have stigmatized our mess.
43:36They have almost made us believe that we cannot be flawed, that if we're flawed, then we somehow deserve to
43:46be a race.
43:47And then there are some of our people who actually even cringe when they see our mess on stage or
43:54on screen.
43:55And really, it's the mess that makes it a human experience.
43:59You know, I reject the notion that I just have to be an extreme image of positivity in order to
44:09be relevant.
44:10I mean, I'm a human being.
44:12I've had experiences my entire life.
44:15You know, some that I probably would cringe at.
44:18But those are really at the center of any narrative.
44:24As was, once again, I always mention any movie like Kramer vs. Kramer or Clue, any number of movies that
44:32literally have a heroine or a hero in it that is enormously flawed.
44:38And the reason why those movies have made such an impact is because it is the flaws that make people
44:46lean in.
44:47You know, and I don't believe that all of our stories, too, have to be biopic.
44:53I know I have a lot of them.
44:54We have a lot of them.
44:55But I don't think that just because we made it into a history book means that those are the only
45:01black people, the only people of color that deserve any space on screen.
45:07I think there are a number of people whose stories, you know, have died with them, you know, that deserve
45:14to be told.
45:15Simple stories sometimes.
45:17You know, once again, stories.
45:21That is the foundation of what we do as artists.
45:24Just stories.
45:25Well-told stories.
45:27A couple of projects you have coming up.
45:30I believe, correct me if I get the name wrong, but one is Giving Your Voice.
45:35Yeah, Giving Voice.
45:36Giving Voice, which takes you on the journey of these students during an August Wilson monologue competition, which I imagine
45:49for both of you must have been very interesting because of the power of August Wilson, especially both of you
45:54being actors and the power of August Wilson.
45:59Well, we both come from theater, and Viola is a true Wilsonite.
46:04I mean, when you think about Viola, you know, some of her biggest accolades have come from August Wilson plays.
46:10Viola and I started dating in 1999.
46:12I go to the Tony Awards.
46:14My friends see me in the audience.
46:16Viola wins her first Tony Award.
46:18But think about this.
46:20Two years before that, I didn't know her, and she got a nomination for August Wilson plays seven guitars, then
46:26moved two years later, and then she gets another Tony nomination and wins for King Hedley II, and then gets
46:33another Tony Award for August Wilson's Fences in 2010.
46:37And then does the movie Fences and wins an Oscar.
46:41So August Wilson has been so prominent in the life of this woman in my life, too.
46:48I've always loved August's work.
46:50I've only gotten to do one of his plays, Piano Lesson.
46:53But August is just, it's amazing, and this documentary is amazing because you follow these six students on their quest
47:01to go to New York and get scholarship money, and it's just amazing.
47:06Their lives, their journey, everything.
47:09And then Viola is amazing.
47:13Yeah, I love the documentary because it's the journey, and it's my journey, and how I discovered that I was
47:22an artist.
47:23And I discovered that I was an artist because part of it was discovering even August Wilson at a young
47:29age because, once again, he represented me.
47:34I saw myself in his work, and that's very potent.
47:42And you also have Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which is also coming out.
47:47And I read that you gained a little weight for it.
47:50You did, you know, I feel like every role you do kind of shows you in a different light, but
47:57this is also another thing that, you know, kind of takes us into another realm of Viola Divas.
48:02Let me say something before she talks about it.
48:06This woman called me, and she said, honey, you got to look at this.
48:11I said, what, what, what?
48:12She said, my fat suit.
48:14She said, I'm so proud of this fat suit.
48:19I tried to gain as much weight as I could.
48:22I mean, I got up there.
48:23But, you know, she was really big.
48:25She was, you know, probably close to 300.
48:30So I got close to 200.
48:34Wow.
48:35To go over the hump.
48:36So Anne Roth, the great costume designer, Anne Roth, she said, Viola, what body do you want to look like?
48:46And the body that I love.
48:49See, once again, I grew up with a lot of big women that I thought were the most beautiful women
48:55in the world.
48:56I didn't know that I was not supposed to see that as beauty until I came to Hollywood.
49:00But it's, I, so for me, it was Aretha Franklin.
49:05I said, I want that body, you know.
49:08And so they, she really, what she did was she got Aretha Franklin's measurement.
49:14And she made a suit, a fat suit based on Aretha Franklin's measurement.
49:21And that was Ma Rainey's sort of, you know, fat suit.
49:26And can I just tell you, but I felt very sexy with that fat suit.
49:31Okay.
49:32Okay.
49:33I did.
49:34You could tell Denzel, he was like, man, you are loving this suit.
49:38Well, she told me about it.
49:40So I know she was in love with it.
49:42She was like, honey, I'm loving my fat suit.
49:47Okay.
49:47Can I ask, you guys have, you know, obviously been a couple.
49:51I remember seeing your culture story on Black Love.
49:54How has doing Jouvet together brought you two closer together?
49:59Well, it just has because we have similar sensibility in terms of artistic wise.
50:05And we allow each other space to, you know, to express who we are as artists, who we are as
50:11creators.
50:12And it's collaborative.
50:15And there's no ego involved with me in Viola.
50:17I mean, I would say, you know, we're not ego-less, but ego plays no part in our company at
50:23all.
50:23It's always about the projects.
50:25It's always about the content.
50:27If you're running a company, you're trying to put great things in the world,
50:31and you have to kind of agree to disagree, because we do.
50:33But then we've got to get something done.
50:35So we're always working toward that.
50:38So that's what's been lovely about working with my wife, is that we just float.
50:44Yeah.
50:45You know, and we're not in the hole together all the time.
50:50So whenever I feel like I'm at a deficit and I'm just hit a wall, then Julius will be the
50:57voice of reason.
50:58And vice versa.
51:00But mostly he's the voice of reason, I have to say.
51:04And so it makes for a great partnership.
51:06And I think that we really have the same sensibilities, actually, as far as the work is concerned.
51:13You know, the most important thing in this business is to stay in your lane.
51:19See, that's the thing that's really, could be really dicey in this business, too.
51:24And it's because of the onset of social media.
51:27And you have images coming at you constantly of people doing successful productions and successful business deals.
51:34And this is going and this is going.
51:37And so what you do is you try to model yourself after what someone else is doing who has been
51:43successful, who just got that movie made.
51:46And it's really important to stay in your lane.
51:49It really is.
51:51I mean, you have to be, when people say you have to be the change you want to see.
51:56So my big question is, the huge question is, so what do you want to see?
52:01Because my sensibility is not like anyone else's.
52:04It's just not.
52:05I mean, it's just not.
52:07That's not good or bad.
52:09It just isn't.
52:11And me and Julius are really aligned in terms of that.
52:15Yeah.
52:17And I think we said it's been about a decade so far of this.
52:23What do you see for yourself in the next decade?
52:27In 2030, what would you like to see, Juzi?
52:32Listen, I want the company to still be viable.
52:35We're going to be viable.
52:37It's always about being positive.
52:39It's always about looking forward.
52:42And so as we look forward and as we move forward, I'm excited about what the things about the birth
52:48into the world in film and television and in immersive and interactive.
52:54You know, so there's nothing but positivity in the next years because we were on the cusp.
53:01We really feel we're really on the cusp of, you know, entering kind of the space and putting the quality
53:08and the kind of content that Juzi wants to become known for putting out there.
53:13Yeah, I'm very excited about the level of excellence in each of our projects because it's going to show that
53:21people of color, that we are extraordinary artists, you know, and we're built for a transformation and we're just as
53:30technically, artistically viable as anyone else.
53:33That's what I'm most excited about.
53:36Okay, well, we're almost out of time.
53:40I really appreciate this conversation.
53:42It's been great.
53:43I wish you two the best of luck with Juvie and everything else.
53:47I'm looking forward to Ma Rainey and everything else going on.
53:51And thank you so much for joining us today.
53:55Thank you so much.
53:56It was wonderful.
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