Gilbert Glenn Brown: An Actors Journey Pt. 2
Nicholas And Derek talked to Gilbert in Pt. 2 of the interview and how actors can prepare themselves to thrive.
Transcript
This is Film Center, your number one show for real entertainment
Speaker:industry news, no fluff, all facts.
Speaker:Now, here are your anchors, Derrick Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:Hey everyone, welcome to Film Center News.
Speaker:I'm Derrick Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And we're back again with the great Gilbert.
Speaker:How you doing?
Speaker:I'm doing great.
Speaker:So this is going to be part two.
Speaker:Two.
Speaker:If you would please be so gracious as to continue your story.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:So my dad sees a show and he's he didn't see me like after the first five seconds,
Speaker:he was just like, he was totally in love.
Speaker:And I'm, my father's not an emotionally expressive person, but
Speaker:it was telling me that he left.
Speaker:Because of how the play how it ends.
Speaker:I know I understood why he left, but then he came back and then he
Speaker:took he shared would be like, Oh, he was around for Martin Luther King.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, he was.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He wasn't.
Speaker:He left.
Speaker:He Yes.
Speaker:And this is something that my father hasn't had.
Speaker:He lets things slip out every once in a while.
Speaker:So he was allowed a lot more active in certain things that
Speaker:I've that I'm to this day.
Speaker:I'm still not completely aware of.
Speaker:I'm talking about social movements and things like that.
Speaker:But he might have known Martin.
Speaker:No, he did that.
Speaker:He didn't because he didn't get to the States until right after.
Speaker:Until a few years after Martin was already gone.
Speaker:Had already passed.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I think just how the piece ends and the state of the world.
Speaker:'cause we were doing the show and there was someone else in office.
Speaker:I'm gonna say, I'll say that it was in 2018.
Speaker:So that gives you an idea.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:It was happening in the country at the time.
Speaker:. Yeah.
Speaker:And so he, him, but with him saying that to me.
Speaker:And him saying that to me was just like, okay.
Speaker:Okay, cool.
Speaker:I think I, that was the biggest comp he gets it now.
Speaker:And it was the biggest compliment he could pay, even though he didn't give
Speaker:me a comp, he didn't verbally directly give me a job, but it's the same time.
Speaker:It's like he left huge.
Speaker:He had to, he had huge deep because he had to get back.
Speaker:He had to, I'm doing air quotes.
Speaker:You can't see it, but he had to get back.
Speaker:To Georgia, which I understood, but I was just like, no, that's
Speaker:still a super deep compliment.
Speaker:Like for him to be like, that's better than anything he could say,
Speaker:you're up there doing your craft.
Speaker:And he says, essentially you're doing it to a level to where you're my own son.
Speaker:And yet you transcended that.
Speaker:And I see the craft of what you're doing.
Speaker:That's a huge compliment for an actor, especially from your parents.
Speaker:I imagine that's my dad too.
Speaker:So I imagine my dad say something like that.
Speaker:Crazy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And and it was like it even now I was like, wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He, at that point he, I think he got it.
Speaker:And then he stopped asking those questions.
Speaker:Again, are you going back to school?
Speaker:Are you going to do that?
Speaker:I'm like, no, I'm not gonna not right now.
Speaker:Everything.
Speaker:I'm saying you were at what age, whenever he stopped being like,
Speaker:you're going to be a lawyer, you said 20, 18, 20, it was 20, 18.
Speaker:Oh, no, what I'll say, what I will say.
Speaker:Is that he stopped.
Speaker:It was maybe a couple of years, but a few years before that, because he started
Speaker:seeing the movement that was happening.
Speaker:And I didn't talk about it a lot.
Speaker:He would just see things and he would, then it became, why aren't
Speaker:you telling me that you see?
Speaker:When did you come to Los Angeles?
Speaker:Because you spent a lot of my, I say most of your time
Speaker:in New York, if I'm incorrect.
Speaker:Yes and no.
Speaker:I got out of school in 99.
Speaker:And I came to LA right after right after that.
Speaker:Oh, was there a reason that you came to LA instead of staying in New York?
Speaker:Because New York is grounds for a lot of stuff.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:No, I'm and I and the thing was, it's like I had, I love theater.
Speaker:I've done a lot of theater in New York.
Speaker:I've done some independent films in New York while in
Speaker:school and, and it was great.
Speaker:And I love New York.
Speaker:You'll never hear me say I don't.
Speaker:One of the things that happened was a professor of mine from from NYU we were
Speaker:doing a theater history class, but she also taught, I'm trying to remember
Speaker:because she also taught dialects and things like that, but it was a professor
Speaker:Professor Bynum, that's her name, and she said to me, we were having a
Speaker:conversation in class, and she's you, he said, you have to push yourself, you
Speaker:have to challenge yourself, and he's put, set, put, set yourself up to, to win.
Speaker:And Where do you need to be to do what you want to do?
Speaker:And that can be literally or figuratively.
Speaker:And then I saw, I think I said, what do I want to do?
Speaker:I want to do film and television.
Speaker:And while there's a lot of film and television, New York, there's more in LA.
Speaker:Yeah, it's definitely more in LA.
Speaker:I remember whenever I was deciding to be an actor and I was in new Orleans, right?
Speaker:This was around 2000.
Speaker:11, maybe 12, something like that.
Speaker:And I was going around, it was getting a little bit bigger cause
Speaker:it's New Orleans, stuff like that.
Speaker:And I remember meeting with some agents
Speaker:and I remember one guy, I don't remember his name, but he was like, listen, man,
Speaker:I'm going to be real honest with you.
Speaker:He said, you need, if this is where you're headed, you need to go to Los Angeles.
Speaker:He said, Now, don't get me wrong, you can day play, you can do
Speaker:whatever you want in New Orleans.
Speaker:He said, but there is no reputable institution that is going to cast
Speaker:anybody in here in New Orleans or Baton Rouge or anything like that.
Speaker:He said, if anything, you're going to win.
Speaker:Go to Los Angeles, get cast as a local hire in New Orleans and then fly back.
Speaker:He said, but you got to go, you got to go to Los Angeles, correct me if
Speaker:I'm wrong, but wasn't there supposed to already be some Hollywood Mecca
Speaker:like a while back in Louisiana?
Speaker:Yes, but what ended up happening was, is the mayor at the time.
Speaker:I forgot, I forget her name or his name was vetoed the taxes.
Speaker:That's how everything went to Georgia.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because we, that's how Atlanta got big.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's how Atlanta got big because it correct.
Speaker:This is, 10, 12 years ago.
Speaker:But what it, what, if I remember correctly, was it was supposed
Speaker:to be New Orleans because they call it the Hollywood South.
Speaker:And what ended up happening is one of the mayors vetoed the taxes and tax breaks.
Speaker:And they moved to Georgia and Atlanta.
Speaker:Georgia's tax breaks for film productions are a lot higher than Louisiana.
Speaker:And a lot higher than Albany's in the South.
Speaker:I think it was, it might've been better a couple of years ago, especially
Speaker:like after the the previous erasure.
Speaker:Because he's talking about 10 years ago.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because the thing was, is people loved.
Speaker:Coming to the south, especially Louisiana because the food is really great.
Speaker:Everything is really cheap and Nobody cares who you are like, oh, yeah nobody
Speaker:in Baton Rouge in New Orleans cares like nobody cares if Tom Cruise is in line.
Speaker:Nobody Brad Pitt is doing nobody cares.
Speaker:They're like, okay cool, man Like I gotta get my food if you could just get
Speaker:out the way they like my dad I'm like my grandparents like when I first worked with
Speaker:Bill Duke You Yeah, I worked with Bill Duke on one of his upcoming documentaries.
Speaker:I was like, yeah, I showed him a picture and I was like, yeah, this is me on set.
Speaker:They're like, that's cool.
Speaker:This is like a, he's like a, he's a, movie star guy.
Speaker:I'm like, yes.
Speaker:And they're like, yep.
Speaker:So what else happened today?
Speaker:I'm like, seriously?
Speaker:This is what's going on.
Speaker:Parents could be, parents are amazing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I was just, you can, you Fill, color that in however you want
Speaker:But yeah, it's so you came out then in 99?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So then this, what were you talking about that took place in 2018 with your father?
Speaker:Was that out here then, or was that in, that was no, that
Speaker:was in that was in Nashville.
Speaker:Oh, that was, yeah.
Speaker:You said that I was doing the tour.
Speaker:I was actually doing a tour.
Speaker:Do you guys do go to TPAC to do that or No.
Speaker:Man, I'm not even gonna lie to you, I don't remember exactly,
Speaker:because we did about 60 shows.
Speaker:Let me ask you this thing, if it was in, was it In like the city?
Speaker:It was in the city I do remember that it was, I think we were at a If
Speaker:there was any stadiums around or like any bars or The only reason I ask is
Speaker:cause TPAC is part of the Broadway tour they do before they hit New York.
Speaker:Maybe it was that.
Speaker:And it was that everywhere that I've seen, like really great plays or like
Speaker:awesome plays have always been at TPAC.
Speaker:That's they're like big place performance.
Speaker:So that's what I'm assuming it probably was.
Speaker:If you did it in Nashville, I'm, I'd have to look back and see, and I can confirm
Speaker:that for you, but it's possible because it was like, it was, it felt like it was,
Speaker:we were, Near the water it was we were able to walk to the water or a little more
Speaker:not, To see the water right and then there were a lot of bars restaurants around
Speaker:I can't there's a probably it probably was teabag now as you're describing
Speaker:you're probably us cuz I'll tell you what, especially was a 2018 I'm from
Speaker:actually Murfreesboro, the outskirts of Nashville, but just that area, it's city.
Speaker:And then there's a hard line and just straight rule.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:It was probably a TPEC and that's where that is.
Speaker:Cause the city is, it's very funny.
Speaker:I always say that Nashville was made for the tourists.
Speaker:And everyone else, like no one there actually does any
Speaker:of the rest of that stuff.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:It's like New York, It's have you been to the, Have you
Speaker:been to the Statue of Liberty?
Speaker:No, I haven't, I was like, I'll go someday, have you, but it's
Speaker:it's just, it's a tourist thing.
Speaker:So it's that's like back home.
Speaker:Not a lot of people go to bourbon street.
Speaker:It's it's all the tourists, it's all the tour, but also that's
Speaker:absolutely incredible 20 years.
Speaker:To get that compliment from your dad.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:To be fair, yeah.
Speaker:Cause I'm imagining, Jamaican parents, they're immigrants coming
Speaker:over to America for a different life.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that type of, hardworking background.
Speaker:My father he's.
Speaker:Not Jamaican.
Speaker:He came from a C Pleasant, Maryland.
Speaker:My grandmother working three jobs to raise him and his other
Speaker:siblings and stuff like that.
Speaker:People who come from that type of hardworking background, sometimes it's
Speaker:hard for them to really like, except like creativity or understanding, but and
Speaker:here's a fun, not funny, like high flame.
Speaker:My dad.
Speaker:And anyone who just asked me to talk about my dad, I'll say that I said, yeah,
Speaker:he's, yes, he's all of these things.
Speaker:And quite as is, as it's kept, he's also an artist.
Speaker:And it was like, I was like no, really.
Speaker:It's I like, even now I remember a sketch that he did of us when we were like
Speaker:little kids in the first car he had here.
Speaker:In the States, it was it was like a VW beetle or something.
Speaker:And he would, he did, and it was in this leisure book notebook that he
Speaker:would just had around and I would always, and I love looking at it
Speaker:and he he's a master welder as well.
Speaker:And so he what literally all of the ironwork that was around the
Speaker:house, chances are he did that.
Speaker:There was something that, and he would also like orange sculptures, like
Speaker:he, like The railings, any ornate things, iron at all, any iron at all.
Speaker:And he actually, and there was this one and I know I got still have it somewhere.
Speaker:He create, he made this this like tree, it was it was like, probably about, the
Speaker:base was probably about maybe two and a half, three inches, but it was heavy.
Speaker:It was solid steel.
Speaker:And then he had melted Metal or iron or whatever to form like a tree
Speaker:without leaves on just like a tree.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And I loved that piece.
Speaker:I was like, I, and he gave it to me, but it was just like, no, he's an artist.
Speaker:But again, coming from that background.
Speaker:You don't see a lot of people doing that.
Speaker:And you don't see it as a possibility of a way to, to earn to to build
Speaker:a career to, to earn, right?
Speaker:Because the risks are so high.
Speaker:There's nothing to fall back.
Speaker:It's not it's not safe.
Speaker:It's not a, and you have a family.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And especially as you coming over as a grant, you need the safe path to,
Speaker:to ensure that there's no safety net.
Speaker:And I think like the, he, they he, they, my parents, I feel like my parents
Speaker:instilled that me and not just my parents, because it's like, they also, I had a
Speaker:whole bunch of other people around me that mentors that I never seen where
Speaker:there were teachers and specifically Really really just had a real impact, a
Speaker:heavy impact on my life was when I went to that, to the, when I made that journey
Speaker:to the Bronx we had they were, they, we, they were with us rolling around the
Speaker:Florida is The direct the I'm just, I'll just run down their names real quick.
Speaker:And then you won't may not know them, but I just want to
Speaker:do it because out of respect.
Speaker:So it's like the first was a Harry Poe and he was the direct, he was
Speaker:the artistic director at the time.
Speaker:And then.
Speaker:Amin Hattep, who he was the the composer slash vocal coach slash everything he,
Speaker:and he became my godfather actually.
Speaker:And he passed away last year.
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:Yeah thank you.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:And he had a major impact on my life.
Speaker:And there's also my theater godmother as well.
Speaker:Hilda Willis, who became the director because Harry Os, he passed away wow.
Speaker:While I was still in high school, actually, if I remember correctly.
Speaker:And then Mel Beda Hughes was who was the choreographer.
Speaker:And then it was Byron Johns who ran the department.
Speaker:They all like to this day, there is, I have a connection to those
Speaker:who are still with us physically.
Speaker:I have a connection to and.
Speaker:And still a connection to the organization.
Speaker:They had such a huge impact.
Speaker:And and my parents, Allowed the space for them to become a part of their life
Speaker:foster parents to a certain degree, right?
Speaker:and They were there and I think they appreciated it And I know that there
Speaker:were points where they questioned it because it's like you're giving you're
Speaker:giving your child It sounds like you just had an amazing formation of people.
Speaker:Oh, it was a village.
Speaker:It was a village.
Speaker:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:And then what, one of the things I would ask you is that you've already, you had
Speaker:played Martin Luther King in the play.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:How did that come about?
Speaker:In your process as an actor lead you into playing Martin Luther King in the movie.
Speaker:Cause I'm sure it was very different.
Speaker:Yeah, it was.
Speaker:And then I feel like a special connection now that you did you feel like he prepared
Speaker:you at least that was prepared to no.
Speaker:What else?
Speaker:And I'll preface it with this.
Speaker:So there is an independence, Kansas, there's a theater festival that
Speaker:happens called the William Inge.
Speaker:theater festival happens every year.
Speaker:Really wonderful.
Speaker:I got invited down because there's a piece that I did a musical show that did
Speaker:that was Paula Vogel amazing playwright.
Speaker:I still, and she just hasn't, she has a new play on Broadway right now
Speaker:which is great, but she's that she's been in the game for a long time,
Speaker:but she's a really wonderful person.
Speaker:Anyway, it was called civil war Christmas.
Speaker:And so I She was being honored with an award at the Inch Festival, and so she had
Speaker:a curated list of artists that she wanted to come to be a part of that presentation.
Speaker:So I was one of the people on the list, and the person who was organizing the
Speaker:list contacted me, about it, and was like, I just have one question, shot
Speaker:in the dark, would you be interested in Reading a role of doing stage
Speaker:reading of a new piece that's going to Broadway that written by Katori Hall.
Speaker:And I was like, Oh what is it?
Speaker:I was like it's called the mountaintop.
Speaker:You'd be playing Martin Luther King.
Speaker:I was like as a black man, it's a, that's a, that's an intense figure.
Speaker:Martin.
Speaker:That's a weight of responsibility.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I was like I was like, Peter, I don't.
Speaker:No, I was like, let me read the script first and then I'll give you an answer.
Speaker:And so and then I had already like at that point I had done like I'd
Speaker:had done some historical roles.
Speaker:I did a one man musical about Malcolm X.
Speaker:That's a whole that was a whole other thing.
Speaker:Yeah, that was an amazing experience for me.
Speaker:And I was like, Okay, I read it.
Speaker:And I was just like, Oh, some things that he that's being said that he
Speaker:says, the things that in the piece itself, if you haven't seen it.
Speaker:Is that Martin?
Speaker:The thing is, when did Martin ever saw himself as anything other than a man
Speaker:and that and it's clear even in Katori's writing of and so it's surprised a lot
Speaker:of people because he's been deified.
Speaker:In such a way in society, in, and in culture, it becomes almost mystical.
Speaker:And it's and he never saw it that way.
Speaker:And the people who were living during that time never saw it that way.
Speaker:And even being a preacher, he would have never have wanted
Speaker:it to be viewed in that way.
Speaker:No, not at all.
Speaker:Not at all.
Speaker:And so the piece itself plants him on the ground, makes it tangible
Speaker:because the idea is that if a man.
Speaker:Who's, I'm just, he's a man can make these can do what he did
Speaker:accomplish what he accomplished.
Speaker:And don't forget he was on, he was 36 when he was assassinated.
Speaker:You don't, people don't think about that.
Speaker:It's they thought he was like, what's quite interesting is that for
Speaker:some reasons and this is my mom's a psych, my mom's a psychologist.
Speaker:So anytime I talk to her, she's always talking about something with the brains.
Speaker:I will say this, it was quite interesting having a mom as a psychologist.
Speaker:You can't trick her with anything.
Speaker:No, even until this day, like if I start talking to her about
Speaker:something, she's Oh, cool.
Speaker:So actually this other thing's going on.
Speaker:I'm like, how do you know that?
Speaker:I'm like, what is going on?
Speaker:The mother intuition and she's a psychologist.
Speaker:I lose every time.
Speaker:But anyway, something that she once told me was that basically when people have
Speaker:a really positive view of someone, they always age them significantly higher.
Speaker:And it's just like something that people just do in general.
Speaker:It's quite interesting.
Speaker:And it's I guess it's like, it means it's not to take, they live life.
Speaker:And the assumption is because they live the life that they live, they
Speaker:must have lived for a long time.
Speaker:And it's no, he just, he was activated at an earlier age.
Speaker:He was knew what he wanted to do.
Speaker:And he saw the need.
Speaker:And that's what's his trajectory had a beeline for exactly.
Speaker:We can go into things about, the issues he might've had with his parents
Speaker:and things like, but that's a whole.
Speaker:That your, it's a whole nother ball.
Speaker:Mom, your mom could talk about that part.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:. But it's like he, he would, when you're clear and you're, and you know
Speaker:what it is that you're, your, what your purpose is and you go for it.
Speaker:The, wherever, whatever whatever area, whatever career it is, as
Speaker:long as you your desire is to be the best and to do the best and to
Speaker:affect the world in a positive way.
Speaker:Do that.
Speaker:Like my tool is I'm an artist.
Speaker:I'm an actor.
Speaker:I sing, I write, I do all the things that is my tool.
Speaker:That is my, that is the blessing that I have that I can share with the world.
Speaker:So that's what I do.
Speaker:But with him in particular so going back to that, I read the script.
Speaker:And I was just hi, this is a lot.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:It's a lot.
Speaker:It's a two hander and it's a lot of stuff.
Speaker:And I was like, and there are things in there that I learned
Speaker:that I wasn't aware of also.
Speaker:And so that made me do some research.
Speaker:So when I got there, I said, okay, I told him I'll do it.
Speaker:I said, I'll do it.
Speaker:But I have some questions for Katori.
Speaker:Just about just how the piece was received and, and she was very honest
Speaker:and she's Yeah, a lot of people were offended because of some of the he's
Speaker:cursing he smokes He does drink and he's but those things but you're
Speaker:making him more you're grounding him.
Speaker:Exactly And making him a person exactly and then I got okay god
Speaker:and then once when she said that I was like And then the director his
Speaker:Che Yu was his name, is his name.
Speaker:We had a conversation about it and he was just like, he's a man and
Speaker:just go from, I was like, yeah, he's got thoughts, feelings, desires.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And so that was the first time.
Speaker:And I got, we got I was opposite Anika Noni Rose, which I don't understand why
Speaker:she didn't do the Broadway version, but that's She had some reason, I'm sure.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And from there, after doing that, I said, okay, this is possible.
Speaker:And then, fast forward a couple years later, I get an opportunity
Speaker:to, first to audition for it.
Speaker:And, but the director, I had worked with her before, and she was like, I know who
Speaker:I want for this, and this is who I want.
Speaker:And I was like, okay.
Speaker:She's she passed away last year.
Speaker:Unfortunately, but she made Shirley Joe Finney's her name and a brilliant
Speaker:creative mind and human being.
Speaker:She.
Speaker:But the producing entity was like, eh, we don't really, we don't know him, so let's
Speaker:just bring, let's bring everybody in.
Speaker:So they brought everybody in.
Speaker:And then she said this to me afterwards.
Speaker:She said that, she said, Gilbert, after you left the room, I was like, she
Speaker:said, I wasn't, she did not sit down.
Speaker:And normally when there's an audition process, she sits down and she's connect.
Speaker:But she said, I didn't sit down because I wanted, I didn't want them to look at me.
Speaker:, I, she was stayed.
Speaker:She walked to the back and stayed in the back and let them watch.
Speaker:And then after I left, all she did was walk down and just looked at
Speaker:them and they were like, and she was like, and they, and she was like, and
Speaker:she's and they were like, yeah yes.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:What we gotta, she said, but we still have other people.
Speaker:We got it.
Speaker:We still have to, we gotta convince, we know we, but they knew at that point.
Speaker:I think they knew.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So long story short.
Speaker:Did the tour with Karen Molina White and who's brilliant and amazing
Speaker:human being and artists as well.
Speaker:And we toured all, we toured internationally with it.
Speaker:We got as far as where did we go?
Speaker:Bermuda.
Speaker:We went to Bermuda as well.
Speaker:And we did, it was like, I think we did 50 shows over the
Speaker:course of three or four months.
Speaker:That's some back to backs.
Speaker:You know what's very interesting is that It's funny that you say that.
Speaker:We used to have to go look at the other people.
Speaker:I know exactly how that feels.
Speaker:Especially when you're you're casting a project and stuff like that.
Speaker:And then you see the person that you want, you're just like, Oh man,
Speaker:I gotta go see these other people.
Speaker:And I know they ain't gonna get it.
Speaker:I know they're not gonna do it.
Speaker:It's it's where you're it's where you're weird feeling.
Speaker:Cause you're like especially cause that person leaves like you see the person
Speaker:that you're like, okay, there's them.
Speaker:I want them.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:This is what we're going with.
Speaker:Everyone's yeah, everyone's, you managed to agree with it.
Speaker:That person leaves.
Speaker:Then the next person comes in, they do what they got to do.
Speaker:And then as soon as they leave, you look back at the cast directors and you're
Speaker:like, Again, we're still thinking about that person from a while ago, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Alright, cool.
Speaker:Can we go home?
Speaker:But you can't.
Speaker:But you can't.
Speaker:You can't do that.
Speaker:No offense to these other actors, but we already found the one.
Speaker:And then at the same time, what's really what I always find very interesting,
Speaker:especially with the casting process, cause a lot of, a lot of, and we've
Speaker:said this, me and Nicholas have said this on the show before, a lot
Speaker:of young actors don't understand is that, We want you guys to win.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:This is not the doctor's office.
Speaker:Yeah, I think, I'm not really, It's not the dentist's office.
Speaker:I have no idea where this sentiment came from that like actors are
Speaker:like, Oh, they're going to hate me because they're a caster.
Speaker:Because, Insecurities.
Speaker:And I think the Unfortunately We're, I think that we're preconditioned
Speaker:to think the worst before the best out of situations and people.
Speaker:And so to actually walk in with, I'm right.
Speaker:And it's not we were talking about this off, off mic, just the the
Speaker:having that self, that confidence in what you bring to the table.
Speaker:And if you.
Speaker:If there's an, and it's not about arrogance, it's not about that at all.
Speaker:It's just that I know what I bring to the table and I'm going to bring that.
Speaker:And so if you do that and that works for this project or this
Speaker:particular situation, then it's yours.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:There are politics and things that are at that play.
Speaker:And I can tell you other stories about situations that I was in
Speaker:where they eventually realized, Oh wait a minute, we made a mistake.
Speaker:And, but I'll tell you that off mic.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:But we're in a situation here as actors where we're going to hear a
Speaker:no a lot more times than we hear yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you, and what I will say is that I think my family in particular may
Speaker:have instilled in me a sense of stick to itiveness of in the spite of, in
Speaker:spite of any of the obstacles in my fall in your path that you got to
Speaker:keep where you got to keep going.
Speaker:I think like even even when I think about my childhood, just that being
Speaker:instilled in me, there's certain, and it has a, it's a double edged sword because
Speaker:there's certain things that you're like, that you I'm going to hold this because
Speaker:I got to keep going, but you have so much, you have so much background and
Speaker:experience and then it also feels and you got to correct me if I'm wrong, but.
Speaker:And it was like this way for me, eventually when you're, you don't
Speaker:even hear the nose anymore, it's more like you just keep going forward.
Speaker:You feel like if you let a single no be super devastating to you
Speaker:and hold you back, you're not going to be able to get anywhere.
Speaker:Facts.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:As a professional actor like yourself, what advice would you give to possibly
Speaker:someone who's coming up for them to keep pushing forward past those notes?
Speaker:Because I'll be honest, just like any other creative, those first
Speaker:couple of notes, they hurt, but then eventually, you build a skin.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because it's okay, I'm going to answer that, but I'm also going
Speaker:to give you a little thing.
Speaker:The organization I was talking about, I went, I would write for them, chose
Speaker:for them, and then I was asked to come back and basically take over
Speaker:the department, and I jumped at the chance, because I happened to be in
Speaker:New York, and I was like, I'll do it.
Speaker:And it was great, and one of the things that I would say, and one
Speaker:of the things that would happen is that, you drop a line, or you forget
Speaker:you're blocking or something happens.
Speaker:And I would watch kids completely fall apart and not know what to do.
Speaker:And I'm like, okay, it's not.
Speaker:It's it's not about, I'm not preparing you to for perfection.
Speaker:I'm preparing for you for projection.
Speaker:I'm preparing you to keep moving.
Speaker:Not perfection, projection.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Okay, so it's the situation where It's not about when you get the lines, right?
Speaker:And I think we had a conversation about this and it brings you back
Speaker:to something that Mike Tyson said.
Speaker:Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It's all it's all about recovery.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:I think that's what people care about more.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:'cause I remember when I was in theater school , I was in my
Speaker:second semester final performance.
Speaker:In front of the whole school.
Speaker:. . And what ended up happening was I, there was a point it was Neil
Speaker:Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or.
Speaker:No, that was First Men's, but the second one, I forget what it was,
Speaker:but anyway, I had dropped some papers during the scene and completely
Speaker:blank in front of everybody.
Speaker:And now my classmates told me I was only, I had only blank for five seconds,
Speaker:but I thought it was two hours cause I'm sitting here just completely blank.
Speaker:And so I then.
Speaker:I don't know if I'm going to get it back.
Speaker:Obviously, long story short, I finished the scene.
Speaker:And this is then the next semester going in is one X to get cast in one X.
Speaker:And I'm like there's no chance.
Speaker:And there's no chance anybody cast me for anything.
Speaker:Cause you thought that you messed up.
Speaker:I just.
Speaker:completely messed up so gigantically.
Speaker:And what ended up happening was that I got cast in all of the one acts.
Speaker:And I went to ask my friends in the upper years, I was like, I don't
Speaker:understand why you guys cast me because I just messed up so massively.
Speaker:And they were like, We didn't care that you messed up.
Speaker:The thing that we cared about was the fact that you did mess
Speaker:up, but you were able to recover.
Speaker:'cause that's going to happen Exactly.
Speaker:To getting back on divorce.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We need to know that you can recover.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it's and not only recover, but also deliver.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And it's we're human beings.
Speaker:We have our insecurities, we have all of those.
Speaker:And so we, all of that stuff, plus the, whatever our families contributed to our.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Environment contributes to it.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Everything contributes to it.
Speaker:So it's it's more so about, okay, so what do, but what do you do?
Speaker:What do you do if some, if what you plan to happen does not
Speaker:happen, what are you going to do?
Speaker:Are you going to stop?
Speaker:And a lot of times in, that's what would happen.
Speaker:They would stop.
Speaker:And I was like, no, do not stop.
Speaker:You have to keep going.
Speaker:The audience doesn't know.
Speaker:They don't, they don't even know.
Speaker:I've had situations on stage where literally.
Speaker:Doing fight choreography and it was a knife fight and there's a point
Speaker:and there's a point where I don't know if it was me or if it was
Speaker:my my my, one of my best friend.
Speaker:We were playing opposite each other, which is always fun.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:We leaned in and then something happened and we actually hit heads.
Speaker:We bumped heads.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I'm not even like a tap.
Speaker:It was like, bang, hit by each other.
Speaker:We both fell out.
Speaker:And it was the, it was like the client, the end, the last
Speaker:climax and like the finale of the show was this big fight scene.
Speaker:And we both fall out, but.
Speaker:And the everyone in the cast was like, oh.
Speaker:And then 'cause they saw, they could see what happened.
Speaker:The audience doesn't know.
Speaker:But then we, it felt like you were saying, and it like, it felt like it
Speaker:was like 10 minutes that we were out.
Speaker:And it wasn't, it was like literally a couple seconds and then we got back up
Speaker:and then we went right back into it.
Speaker:. And it was a great show, but it was just like, we at the end,
Speaker:we were like, yo, you all right?
Speaker:Are you all?
Speaker:He said yeah.
Speaker:I'm good.
Speaker:You good?
Speaker:Yes, I'm good.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:It's not really about what happens to you.
Speaker:It's really about, yeah.
Speaker:What you choose to do with those responsive times.
Speaker:Gilbert, it's been so great to have you on the show, man, in the the
Speaker:first part and the second part is it where we're and we can follow you?
Speaker:Oh, yes.
Speaker:You still use Facebook.
Speaker:It's under my name, Gilbert Glenn Brown, Gilbert G I L B E R T G L E N B R O W N.
Speaker:And also same on Instagram, same on Twitter, same on my website.
Speaker:All the handles are the same.
Speaker:All the handles are the same.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Keep it simple.
Speaker:Dope.
Speaker:It's been so great to have you.
Speaker:so much for coming on.
Speaker:so much.
Speaker:It's been a lot of fun.
Speaker:I'm bummed it's, we're done, but.
Speaker:But yeah, but no but thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:There'll definitely be more great stuff soon.
Speaker:And we'll have you back on the show.
Speaker:I'd love to.
Speaker:I would absolutely love to.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Guys, this is Film Center News.
Speaker:My name's Derek Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And we're here with the great Gilbert Glenn Brown.
Speaker:And we'll see you next time.
Speaker:See ya.
Speaker:This has been Film Center on Comic Con Radio.
Speaker:Check out our previous episodes at Comic ConRadio.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:You can follow the show at Film Center News on all major social media platforms.
Speaker:Tune in next Wednesday for a fresh update.
Speaker:Until next time, this has been Film Center.
