The Daily Show: Ears Edition - ICYMI - Jeffrey Wright on Giving Back to Veterans in "We Are Not Done Yet"

Episode Date: July 12, 2019

Actor Jeffrey Wright discusses his HBO documentary "We Are Not Done Yet," which explores his work to help veterans with PTSD express themselves through theater and poetry. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast. The Weekly Show is going to be coming out every Thursday. So exciting. You'll be saying to yourself, TGID. Thank God it's Thursday we're going to be talking about. All the things that hopefully obsess you in the same way that they obsess me. The election. Economics. Earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about

ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. And I know that I listed that fourth, but in importance, it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? I mean, talk about innovative. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast. Please welcome, Jeffrey Wrights. Wow. It's a

Ampton here. Yeah, this is an amazing audience. You're kidding me? Cool. Yeah, thanks. Wow. Wow. Yeah, this is an amazing audience.

Wow. Cool. Yeah, this is an amazing audience. You're kidding me? Cool. Yeah, they're amazing. Yeah. Can I just say, I mean, I've known you for a few years, but it's always weird speaking to you post-Westworld, because there are moments when I'm not sure if you are you. And I'm sure you get this for many people. You are so good playing that role. Like, has that just become something that you accept, thua, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, thi, to, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, to, thi, thi, too, too, too, to, to, to, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the people. You are so good playing that role. Has that just become something that you accept now?

Is people waiting to see if you twitch? I do glitch from time to time. I give myself away. I actually as well have a little bit of metal in this knee now. So I think that's kind of an upgrade on my former self. Because you had like a knee surgery, right? I had to fix an old ACL injury, but it's all good. It's all good. That's where you went away.

Okay. Yeah. We've seen the show. They take you away, they repair you, and then you come back. We get it. We get it. You're, we are not done yet, is in a big part about people who have survived fighting in a war. You know, veterans who suffer PTSD.

It's a powerful story. And what you do is you connect all of them to us and to each other using theater and poems. How did you even stop this process? It's a good question. I, you know, over time, I guess I kind of grew up and to to to to to to to to to th., and stop this process? It's a good question. I, you know, over time, I guess I kind of grew up and became a little more aware and a little more appreciative of the men and women who serve. I think one of the mistakes that was made after Vietnam

was that some of us conflated the politics of that war with the people who answered the call. And I think that would be a huge mistake right now. So I just, my respect, based on relationships that I developed with people who were veterans, based on an experience in Sierra Leone, going over there in 2001 during the war, a ceasefire at the time, but the first war zone that I had ever experienced, and it changes your thinking, those things that you once took for granted, like security, you no longer take for granted. You don't take for granted that when the order falls away, somebody has to work to restore it. So there were a number of experiences over time that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that that that that that that that the their the their the their their their their their their, cease, cease, cease, cease, cease, cease, cease, cease, cease, cease, cease, their, their, their, their, the for granted that when the order falls away, somebody has to work to restore it.

So there were a number of experiences over time that increased my respect. And I was doing a group of readings called Theater of War. There's a guy named Brian Dories who uses the Greek tragedies as a platform for conversation about the consequences of war. And he does it in military communities. He even does it in intercity communities around gun violence.. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. So thi. thi. So thi, times times times thi to to to times times times to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to times over times over times times times times times times times times times ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti. ti. to ti. ti. ti. the. theoe, thea thea thea thea. And he does it in military communities. He even does it in intercity communities around gun violence.

He, for example, argues that Ajax story, that's an examination of what we might contemporarily call PTSD. And so I was doing those, and I went down to DC for one of these readings, and there happened to be some people from the Pentagon there. And I asked, hey, is there any way I can get more closely involved? And in fact, a couple of weeks before that, I had been out in Colorado at an airport, rural airport with my kids coming home from vacation skiing. And there was a guy sitting in a wheelchair, you know, all the decorations there and he was a

triple amputee and he recognized me and I went over and I said hello and we talked and he talked about the people from my line of work who had visited him at Walter Reed. He had been hit by a mortar shell in Afghanistan and it just like rocked me. I was like, man, what am I doing with my time that I can at least go down and see if I can be useful too. So when I did this reading in DC met these these these these these these these these these these these these their their their the people, I their their, I, I the the the the the the the the the the the the the the theck, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm, the the the the the tie, toge, toge, toge, toge, toge, toge, toge, toge, the, the, the, the,this reading in DC, met these folks from the Pentagon, I said, hey, you know, what can I do? They called me back. Somehow I passed the vetting process for the Pentagon, and they introduced me to a woman named Sima Reza, who runs a writing workshop, veterans who are working through

their trauma through poetry. And one of them had the idea, to on a staged reading of collective poems that they had written and I was asked, would I come down and direct them? So I don't, you know, I never served, but you know, I know something about the theater, so I came down and it was a life-changing experience working with them. It's interesting that you say there are certain things we take for granted, such as security. A lot of America's military and a lot of the troops have been politicized because of who is in power and when and how. One thing that is apparent is that America seems to discard many of its troops

when these people come home. You see so many people that are, you know, that are lauded and applauded when they're out fighting. But when people come home home, they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they th th th th th th th th th th th thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi the the tho-a thr-a thease thease tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a tho-a th. tho-a tho tho. tho. tho. tho. tho. tho. tho. tho. tho. tho. tho. thoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo struggle to find jobs, they struggle to find their place in society. And time and time again, we see these conversations where people are saying, is America doing enough for the troops who are no longer active? Is it as important? What did you find when you spoke to the human beings behind the uniforms? The answer to that question is no. And I think one of the things that I'm proud about about this film is that it gives voice to those men and women who know best, those men and women who put themselves on the line. And

these are veterans who experience PTSD from combat but also sexual assault related to their military experience, but we don't hear from them and we hear from the politicians and the blowhards who actually use these men and women to divide us. So we have a conversation about police brutality, and all of a sudden the troops are brought into that conversation. Conversation about immigration. All of a sudden we're deploying troops down there

who are going to sit and do what? Fire on women and children? Can you imagine the optics of something like that? Can you imagine the act itself? So, but we hear the troops manipulated and the vets manipulated for political agendas, but we don't hear from them. And those very issues that are used as political tools are not addressed.

So you still have 20 vets per day dying from suicide. We heard a lot about that during the campaign, not so much anymore, but the rates are still the same. Right. It's a powerful program that you put together. And what's great in watching this documentary is, you see the human side and all of these people come out. You know, for so long, people have looked at them as only troops. I always see people saying, I thank you for your service, and that becomes a thing. It's an archetype

that people hold up. But the human comes out on the other side. Why was poetry so powerful? Why do you think the arts was something that helped a lot of these veterans? Well, because I think they have stories, and maybe as a result of the military culture, and stories, and stories, and stories, and stories, and stories, and stories, and stories, and stories, and stories, and stories, th., th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, it, it, it, it, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's their, it's their, it's their, it's their, it's their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi, throoi, thi.a, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, it's a their, it's a their of the military culture, stories around vulnerabilities and stories around injuries that they can't communicate within that space. But there's a need to communicate it, otherwise, as they describe, it will kill them. Right. So they need to get it out. They need to purge them of the shame of what they might not have been able to do. Perhaps the shame of what they might not have been able to do, perhaps the shame of what they did, the injury as a result of losses that they experienced,

sexual assault as well. They have these things that they need to release in order to free themselves of these demons, and they need to be heard so that, one, they can perhaps be validated and perhaps be seen without judgment, but also what they describe is they want to speak as a show of leadership for others who are like them, because there are thousands like them. You know, I think what we do at Veterans Day is wonderful to honor the vets. Of course, we honor the men and women who put themselves in harm's way on our behalf.

But I think at the same time, what we do perhaps too much is we impose our sense of who they are onto them. Because there was a really stunning moment when we were working together in this piece and we show it in the film in which one of the vets is reading a poem, words that he's written and he comes to the word heroic, and he can't say it. Because he doesn't, he's conflicted about what his heroicism, what that word means for him. And so, rather than listen to them, and hear them, and hear them, and hear them, and hear them, and hear them, and hear that, and hear that, and hear that, and hear that, and hear that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that. that. that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that. that. that, that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. that. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the theyyyy. the the the the the the the the the the the theeeanananananananananane, that that that word means for him. And so rather than listen to them and hear that they may be in pain,

they may have shame, they just perhaps are confused, or whatever the emotions are around this, it's not what we perceive them to be. It's not so easy. And the thank you for the for your service is great, but they need a little more. They first need to be heard so that we can begin to understand them. So I mean, I think what we do is we either kind of claim them as our own, we misunderstand them or we ignore them. And the problems that they're facing are generational. Homelessness, suicide.

And if we're going to solve those problems, we're not going to solve them by talking ourselves. We're going to solve them first, by acknowledging them, by hearing them, listening to them, and not making assumptions based on our own misperceptions. Well, thank you so much. The documentary is that on more. We're not done yet.

It's currently airing on HBO and is available to stream on HBO Now and HBO Go. You really want to watch it. Jeffrey Wright, everybody. The Daily Show with Cover Noa, Ears Edition. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, Central on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central app. Watch full episodes and videos at the Daily Show.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and more. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. Hey everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show. It's going to be coming out every Thursday. So exciting. You'll be saying to yourself, TGID, thank God it's Thursday.

Thank God it's Thursday we're going to be talking about. All the things that hopefully obsess you in the same way that they obsess me, the election, economics, earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're gonna be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. And I know that I listed that fourth,

but in importance, it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? I mean, talk about innovative. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast.