The Questlove Show - Questlove Supreme: Anthony Mackie

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

We agree with our fearless leader, that when it comes to this week's Questlove Supreme guest the work speaks for itself! It goes without saying that Anthony Mackie is probably in at least one of your favorite movies. From Tupac to Marvel's The Falcon, he has done and is doing it all. This episode we dive into where it all comes from and what New Orleans, Juilliard and Wendell Pierce have to do with it. Trust that you don't want to miss this one and a warning that this episode may trigger a lot of laughter. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Questlove Supreme is a production of Iheart Radio. What up, man? What's up, man? How are you making? You're outside right now? You what? Oh, I thought you were outside right now.

Yeah, I'm outside, man. The basketball game on them in New Orleans. He could do adult shit, like, sit outside and have a drink. I get the... Look at him. Why his face? And he ain't even got no headphones on. Like, he just sprayed like I'm out in these streets.

Out of you. My guess is you just found out about this. No, I don't like headphones. I don't like to be contained, man. I'm a while at him. I'm ready to fight Anthony Mackey, and I barely know him. I'm sorry. Hey that.

Welcome to knowing Anthony Mackey. Let us start. Is everyone rolling? Yeah. Yes. Not Anthony Mackey, but. No. I don't recall it.

That's how they get everybody in trouble. I'm free play. I'm free play. I can tell this is already going to match our drunken Christmas episodes. I can tell already. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of, of Questlove Supreme. I'm your host, Questlove. We have Team Supreme with us. Unpaid Bill.

Hello. Yeah. How's it going? It's Tuesday. Everything's good. It's a way. You didn't tell us that we got black Muppets on the way. Oh yeah. Black Muppets. We haven't discussed black Muppets. They're on Black Muppets. Get into it. Well, wait. Now I got to pose, I got to pose the question like S&L. Does that mean all the other Muppets are white? Valid question. Can't answer that per se, but it's a really good question. Are you not allowed to answer that question? No, I mean, probably. I haven't honestly thought about it, but it's a good,

it's a good question. Don't answer it, dude. Don't answer. Are we recording? Because I don't, I learned from Anthony Mackey, I don't record. I just, I just, free play, baby. I just free play. Free, free living. Free, free life. So what's, what's, what's, uh, what's the Buppet's names?

Eric and Travis or something? No, come on. I think I got a regular name. No, one of them got a real black name. It's not real black, but it's a Black enough. Not like Loderican. You got to name one of them

Razul. You got to give him like a North Philly name Razul. Yeah. Please. Anyway.

Wait, is your girlfriend of urban descent? No, she's the producer of Sesame Street. Right. Is she of urban descent?

What is urban descent? What is she black? His stepmother's Jamaican though. Oh, okay. That's right. All right. Oh, their names are,

their names are Elijah and West. Which are not the blackest name that I heard either. Maybe they're like, Elijah's kind of, yeah. Yeah, and they did Elijah. Shout out to, you know, Elijah, rest in peace, Carole, Colorado Springs. That's what's up. Okay. I don't know about that.

They want my, my, my ex wanted to name my son Wyatt, and I was literally about to go to jail. And so you decided to name him. Anthony Jr. Oh. You think I'm going to name him. Yo, I, that was a rast of my mind. You guys see him in his face right now.

He's got a little question. What you think I named him. I'm from the south. You're going to be a junior. Shit. Oh, God, I let me some Anthony. I see that. Sugar, Steve, how are we doing this week?

We're doing great. Nice to see everybody. Team Supreme, Anthony Mackie. So nice to see you. What's up Rich, man? Greetings from Manhattan. Why are you? Yeah, man.

I'm hype. I'm ready for this. I'm ready to go in. Yes. You've been ready for about 10 minutes. Girl, go in. God, dang. I'm good.

I'm good. It's going to be a fun episode. Let's get it. All right. Yeah, I was about to say, I normally, I'm going to eschew the long darn out episode because there's really no need for the, this introduction. I'll just say this much. Please. Eight mile.

Brother to brother, Manchurian candidate. She hate me. Million dollar baby. Eagle Eye, the hurt locker. Notorious. Night catches us. Abraham Lincoln. Detroit. Captain America, win a soldier. Civil war also. The hate you give. I didn't realize that was thug acronym. I'll get that

later. Oh, man. Black or white. Oh, you knew that? Every, yeah, the thing, yeah. Yeah, I didn't know it. So, sorry. You're rigging me. All right. Anyway, the night

the night before Avengers Ant Man Striking Vibor's Black Mirror episode, definitely all the way. The Falcon Winter Soldier, of course. Dude.

What about the Matt Damon one? Adjustment Bureau. Come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, there was 12 more I was going to name, but fuck it. Ladies and gentlemen, we got Anthony Mackey on Questlove Supreme.

Yes. And we're recorded. Boom. Yes, we are recording. How are you right now, man? I'm good, bro. I'm chilling. I'm just living life, man,

enjoying this unemployment game. Shut up. Your job is on TV every week. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, I'm like, you're everywhere. So how are you unemployed? Well, this is how it's a job. You unemployed.

Thank you, sir. There's one person. here that knows how unemployment works. There's one person here that also knows that you probably have five other things lined up. Yep. I mean, later, yeah, but right now, I'm unemployed. I get that. You can actually file. He's right. I didn't think about it. Yeah. Well, I was told

I can't file. Oh, well, I was about to say, you can file? I don't get a stimmy check. Yeah, no. I was going to say, you got your stimmy? Dude. You was a superhero. I tried. I was. I tried. I was going to file for Stemmy and they told me I couldn't. Yeah, that would be pretty fucked up of a country if we let the Falcon get a stimmy.

That's income equality, like a motherfucker. Where are you right now? What part of the U.S.? I'm in New Orleans, downtown. So you are two blue Norlands. Yeah, 7W, Boscoville, hardhead.

that. Yeah, know that. Anything else? Who that? See, y'all New York motherfuckers don't know how to deal with that. Yeah, we go from... You saw the sounds afterwards. Right. Everybody was like, uh, two plus two. It's, uh... Yeah. Uh, love you too, Anthony. Thank you. I was just wondering if all the New Orleans

All-Stars knew each other because we've talked to Terrence Blanchard in the last month. We talked to PJ Moyen, Taint, and everybody is still... All the New Orleans folks are in New Orleans. I'm like a lot of other folks. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Always. It's the best city in the world. Why would you leave? You get European flavor with the amenities of America with the best food in the world. Why would you leave?

August. Shit. Oh, you don't like being Necky? I know. Oh, my bad. Wait, what else happens in August besides the amount of hurricanes and floods? No, I just mean it'd be on fire. Anthony Murray.

It'd be on fire. Yeah, you get in the pool and you get cat hot. Whatever your casual is, you're getting to pool. my neighbors know me through and through. Oh, wow. I'm like, stop looking over the fence. Dog, this ain't for you. Stop looking over the fence.

I'm not going to make it through this, I don't think. Oh, my God. All right. I don't even, like, I don't even feel like having a normal ass interview because But he deserves his flowers, so we, you know, he's like. Flowers? I think this is our flowers moment. Yeah.

Man, for real. Come on, I knew you too long. I'm going to be good. Go ahead, bro. Go ahead. No, no, you good. You're straight. I'm just waiting to get to this.

She hate me conversation. Uh-oh, here we go. The original dog, what's your family situation in New Orleans? Like, how many brothers and sisters or siblings? Three sisters, two brothers. We all live here. You know, once you're here, but you always come.

back. So, you know, and thankfully, knock on wood, none of us have had COVID, but I'm the youngest. Not the youngest. Okay. Are they all artistically inclined or you're the only one that sort of broke the path? Nah, I'm the only one. They, they can't damn. If you give them a menu to read, it'll be a disaster. So what drew you to acting? You know what? I was a kid, dude, and my teacher, you know, in the 90s, they wanted to put everybody on Redfern. So, you know, my mom came to school and was like, yo, that's a gateway drug. And I was like, what the fuck?

What, like, what is it a gateway too? So then I got scared. And instead of my third grade teacher came in and was like, yo, he's a good student. He just needs something to focus his attention. So she had me audition for the talented and theater program. And after that, I never had another problem. Wow. Yeah, I had some amazing teachers in my life.

Every step of my life, literally I am where I am today because of the teachers I had from my second grade teacher all the way up. And these are all teachers in New Orleans. So they had a, because we hear about music. I hear a lot about the music in New Orleans. But what's the kind of drama acting scene like locally? I mean, look, the action scene is great. You know, we have, we have theaters here. We have theater groups here.

You know, we have the, just the art scene in general. You know, if you look at the Mardi Gras Indians, all of that is just performing. You know, all of us are storytellers. You know, New Orleans is a culture of storytelling. So, you know, if you sit down with Went to Marcellus and Terrence Blancher, you see them dudes could tell a story that could wake up dead people, you know. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

We had them up on the show. Yeah, we did. Yeah, it's a part of the culture, man. That's all it is. Storytelling is a part of the culture. So, you know, everybody here. the actor and they all right. Your parents, what were your, what was your, what were your parents?

My mom was a housewife, dude. She just like chilled and spanked all six of us. And my dad was a contract. He had a roofing company. So, you know, he, with his education, became one of the most successful businessmen in the city of New Orleans. Wow. Just off of honesty and hustle.

It's literally like, Like one of the most amazing stories you would ever think to hear from my grandfather to my dad to his six kids. You know, the amount of growth and prosperity and appreciation is the biggest thing. You know, my grandfather was a sharecroft. You know, so, you know, it was, you know, it's just one of those things where I would never defile my family's name just simply because of who my grandfather was. Like when I got in trouble, my dad used to say, you know, you were Mackey, right? So, you know, the validity of our name always meant something even when I was a child. Like when we went somewhere, I was never Anthony.

I was that Mackey boy. So it was already a standard set. It already was up to. And that standard seems like it has a lot to do with the roles that you seem to choose, too. Oh, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I'll never use the M word on screen. That's why I choose roles in a way that people can watch, learn, and grow. Yeah, you do. When I play a thug is a thug with substance.

I don't want to just be willy-nilly out here, you know, acting like an idiot selling booty for cornbread. Yeah, we didn't mention one of my favorite Anthony Mackey Rose is the definitely That imagery right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to step on that.

That was so much. Yeah. I've never heard of selling booty for Cornbread. I feel like someone in your life once said that to you and that stuck with you. Yeah, 100%. That's somebody's grandmother's turn.

Don't be out there selling beautiful cornbread. My version of that was don't be out of the corner selling wolf tickets. Yeah, we had wolf tickets. That was our shit too. Wolf tickets. What's that?

Explain that. Are you no wolf tickets? Like wolf tickets? Like bullshitting? Yeah. Don't be acting a fool wolf tickets? Yeah. Yeah.

Don't be writing. No check you can't cash. You know. Sure. Right. Don't write it. Yeah. Bill, my dad was the type of person.

Yes. Like, his goal. in life. You know, like Chris Vox says, like, keep your daughter off the pole. Mm-hmm. His going life for me was just to keep me from going on the corner selling wolf tickets. What's the genesis of that saying, though? Who knows? You talk about, you want to find a... We got a large saying. We barely know what we come from. I'm like, we're recording. All right. We're recording.

I'm sorry, we're recording. No, now I got to look up. Wolf ticket. No, you know what it was. Some old, some old black dude got a dog and painted. him like a wolf and was selling tickets to see his dog. When everybody got mad and whooped his ass when they saw it wasn't a wolf. That was the origin of it. And that is improv, ladies and children. Storytime to New Orleans.

Making shit up. Yeah. Black history fact of the day. The fact for the day. So can I mention, Mr. Love? Can I just mention why he's mentioning that role of playing thugs and just more deeper than what you think during that. Half-nessing?

No, I was just going to. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Mr. and Pete. Yes, that was good. Sorry. Wait, Bill, to answer your question

on Urban Dictionary. Oh, God. Oh, these. The often cited urban dictionary, yes. Wolf ticket, yes. To try, it's to try and sell a lie either to yourself

or to others. To yourself. Wow. I'm from. That's called marriage. I'm happy. I am. I'm happy.

Wow. Wow. Let's go in. divorce let's do it let's go in you know what I did divorce right here yes club day let's go divorced men's dot or how long you how long you've been divorced mac you are you are you back married now where you at no no no no no I'll never know I've been divorced four years yeah me too four years okay got you yeah what you say never again never no he's talking to anthony I thought Anthony said.

That's me. My bad. You think you're doing again or are you good? No, you know what? I'm good. Unless it's Oprah or like, I mean, unless it's somebody like, unless it's Halliberry. You don't even mean.

No. I do. Or J-Lo. Come on, look at their history. That's what I'm saying. I'm like, that's perception. Anthony, what are we talking? Your name is.

Your favorite three the most... Are you doing this on purpose? He's told me. That's my list. I want, you know, if Camel of... You know. Michelle Obama.

Michelle Obama, you know. Yeah, but... The married one... You know, cookie from good times. Who was cookie? I don't know. I don't know. cookie, but

Walona. You know, I think now, especially the age that we are now, I think marriage is just finding somebody that you want to that you want to die with. That's the person you want to.

You know what? I think it's finding somebody that's nice, dog. Like people nowadays just aren't nice. And you meet people that unappreciative that not nice. No matter what it is, no matter what you do for them, it's not enough. No matter what, they always asking you for something. Like, it's like, just meet somebody that's nice. Like, yo, I'm outside cut the grass. You look hot. Let me bring you something to drink. You are man and I love you. You know what I mean? Like, just be nice. Like, take care of me the way

you don't take care of other motherfuckers. I know that's a hard idea to grasp. But just be nice. Like, you have a whole week. Go out with your boys. like stuff. Yo, just be nice. That stuff was eluded. But come home and take care of this when you finish with your boys.

You got to, you know, that's what you're supposed to do. Oh, don't worry about that. Okay. When I leave, when I get on. Go out and you have fun with your boys. You enjoy it. That's how that works. Even have fun's a loaded definition.

Have fun and keep your dick to yourself. No, that's it. You know, we. That's not. We so old. We so old. Our idea of having fun is sitting around talking shit about the stuff we didn't do. Drinking and having a good.

That's it. Shit. You know, my idea of having fun is silence. Exactly. That's it. For real. Wait. Don't be offended babe.

Yeah. Grace is away for a week and it's just me. Talking shit. I love silence. Yeah. I love silence. Okay. No, no.

I just mentioned. being in a relationship is, you know, I'm new. I mean, we're in the honeymoon phase still, so it's still like, you know. Yeah, we're still in our honeymoon phase. Like, how long has it been? Is it been? Is it two years? I don't hate her yet.

What was it? 21, two years almost. One of those years was a COVID year, though. So that's like a year on steroids. That's like five years. Yeah, 2020 might count for three years. And I'm shocked that we survived COVID. And so, you know, because a lot, everyone else didn't.

Yeah. So. Yo, they said the divorce rate during COVID went up like a thousand percent. Really? Yeah, it's crazy when you actually meet the person you marry. That part. Oh, that's just changing. Everything.

Exactly. It's like, yo, be nice. Be nice. Yeah, be nice to each other. I feel like that's fair. Like, just be nice. It is, but it's harder than it sounds. It's just...

Mine's not. It's like... For some people. For some people, yeah. Yeah, for some people, you know. Well, there's nice. There's also honesty. You can lie to me.

You can lie to me. Just be nice. Please lie to me. Tell me I'm the prettiest mom. I mean, please lie to me. Don't tell me the truth. How am I going to segue to Juilliard after this conversation? It's all lies.

It's all lies. It's all lies. It's all lies. He's in the middle of a monologue. So you might know what I thought this was the truth circle. It is a lie. It is. Wow, this is the truth circle, bro.

It is. Let me stop messing with you. Definitely a safe space. Definitely a safe space. Wolf tickets. I'm going to be all over TMZ. Anthony Maggie said. They're messing around with y'all.

They don't pay attention to Quest Love Supreme. It's too and herdy. Y'all's a trouble. Yeah. All right. So how did you wind up at Juilliardt? You know, it was a funny story. man, there was this actor from New Orleans

named, Wendell Pierce, and I met him. Yes. When I was 14-year-old. And when I met Wendell, Wendell showed up at school, he had on a white linen suit. He was driving a Porsche, a black Porsche.

He had on a white linen hat. Honestly, I was like, that's the cleanest black dude I've ever seen him. Wow. And he gave a speech, and I went up to him afterwards, and I was like, yo, bro, yo, whatever you did, I'm going to do.

Whatever you went, I'm a go. He goes, all right, youngs to go sit down. I'm like, all right, bet, bet. So I went to North Carolina School of the Arts. He went to Noka, I went to Noka. He went to Juleyard. He went to Juilliard. I went to Julia. I went there just specifically because he went there. Because he was such a role model and an ambassador to the arts for me just because he was such a talent to do. And I had never seen a black dude speak so eloquently, a black dude so, like, emotionally connected with his work. You know what I mean? Like the stuff that he was the best part about waiting to exist.

Yeah. And he had two scenes. Yeah, true that. And wait. And then y'all both ended up and she hate me together. Exactly. Exactly. That means she just wants to rush that she hate.

No, I don't. I don't. I don't. I was just saying, we'll go back to that. You know, put a pen in it. But I just thought that was. Well, see, now you said that, you said that, and now I'm thinking, shit. So that made an impression.

So you're saying that seeing that seeing. window and in his clean suit and his Porsche that made an impression on you and you're like that's what I want to that's what I want to do no it was seeing him so clean because I didn't even know he had the Porsche until I looked out the window and I'm not a Porsche dude like he had pulled up in a classic Mustang I'd have been like this guy is God you know but but just seeing him seeing him speak about the arts and the way his passion about the arts and him being so clean like you know my dad was a contractor, man. My dad was a roofer. Every day my dad came home, he got his, I mean, he was, like, I had never seen a dude that clean before, you know, and it really, it really changed my

perception of what a man was, because to me, a man was a dude who went out and had dirt under his nails and, you know, bust his ass for his family and really made sure that his house was in order. And I didn't know, I thought only white dudes could do that in the suit. Wow. See, now, damn, aunt, you said that now I'm all messed up because whenever I go to Philly. Yeah. I purposely try to do the opposite. Like I drive the Bummy car and the key of soul.

I'm trying to do this down-to-earth blue-collar musician thing. And I thought that that would make more of an impression than, you know. I think what's interesting, especially with kids. Kids want to see, that's why, like, people in, you know, everybody in the music industry and everybody who kids try to emulate, they try to emulate them because they look like they got it. Right. That's why women, that's why, you know, little girls are asking for these,

you know, drag queen eyelashes. Because, you know, that's the idea. now because I think that's the look of when you got it. And my thing was, my dad had it. But when I looked at Window, like I saw a window and he had

it. You know, his education level, you know, everything about him, dude, like to this day, like I talked to him last week before he left for Europe. And everything about this dude just exudes confidence and success.

So dope. You know? Yeah. Like if there's a, if there's a generation of Latin X, he's black X. No, you're right. He definitely needs to get more flowers out loud. You're right. Yeah, 100%.

Yeah. 100%. Can I ask you about that class of Juilliard? Because it's interesting, it seems like there's a slew of folks that came out of Juilliard from your year and like either the following or the pre. Like from Nel. I was thinking about Nelson Ellis from True Blood to my girl from Power. You know what I mean?

So can you talk about that? And if y'all connected and ever circle back in life? I mean, of course. You know, the great thing about it is our class was probably the first, well, I would say definitely the first. Ritina, I'm sorry, yes. Yeah, Ritina Wesleyan. Our class was definitely the first diverse class at Juilliard.

We had five black people. We had a Native American. We had an Asian. I mean, 20 people, you know, eight of us were forensic. You know, so we were definitely the most, the first and the most diverse class at Juilliard ever. And because of that, we were able to do things that other class weren't able to do.

Like, I first got recognition by playing Tupac off row. And that was a play we developed at Juilliard. You know, we did that play at Juilliard first because it was in the New York Times, you know, who would expect Julia students to be able to do a play about Tupac? And I'm like, So why is acting the only career where you're limited by your level of education? Like the more that you have, the less kind of roles.

No, no, no, no, no. The more you have, the less black you are. The less black you are. Thank you. Yeah, go ahead and say it. The less black you are. And that's the problem. That's the whole situation.

That's the whole situation that really confuses me. You know, if you're a black person with any substance, depth, and weight, you look upon as fake, phony, or not black. That's crazy. There's been times when I've gone in auditions and they're like, yeah, you ain't black. You went to Julia. I won't say the person's name who told me that. But, you know, that's happened to me a few times in my career, you know, but we don't look

at it that way. And that's the sad, scary part. If you went to Julia or not, you're not real. We got to go get somebody that shot 17 people and can actually smoke weed on Well, yeah, some of them commercials messed that up. When you see the commercials where people are speaking that urban thing and then they do the behind the scenes and they're speaking proper. And you're like, I think those kind of, yeah.

Like acting school. Oh, and Hollywood shuffle. Can you talk about, well, before you started eight mile, you were in a string of August Wilson plays. Yes. Was that just strictly for, how did you get involved in those projects? Were they Julia Arb or later? Was this...

No, no, no, no. No, that was just out of love for August. I mean, you know, piano lesson was one of the first plays I saw, and it literally changed my life. They changed my relationship with my father. Because I didn't understand him until I saw it's piano lesson. You know? So August was a dear friend and someone who had a lasting impact on my life.

And that's why I named my third son August. because of, you know, his inability to concede. You know, I mean, he did something. No other writer on earth is done. He documented a cultural, he documented a culture of people for a hundred years. And nobody gives them props. Nobody talks about it, you know, is, it's heartbreaking. At the same time, you know, that's our fault.

So, you know. Folks give them props, folks give them props, but maybe not enough. Maybe he's got a stamp. I mean, they gave him a stamp. But it depends on what you feel like props are. If you feel like, do you feel like the black community knows who the he is? Do you feel like the world should know?

And the world does know, but the theater world knows. It's interesting in that way because I'm like, I feel like August Wilson has been a part of the conversation for right a while now, depending on who you talk about. He's been a part of the conversation now, for I would say the past. Okay. Because of my. No, no, no. since Denzel and Viola Fences. Then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, we need to read

this book. Oh, this should be required reading. Oh, we should. And it's like, you know, when he was alive, nobody gave him that. They have been trying to make Fence in a movie when he was alive. Yeah. You're right. You know what I mean? So he deserves that, man. It serves, you know,

for all 10 of his plays to be done. What was it about the piano lesson that helped you understand your dad? I never realized the day-to-day struggles and hardships of a black man. And once he left the house to the time, he got back to the house. You know, my dad had to beg,

borrow, still fight and kill to make sure our roof was over our head as kids. And then he had to come home and deal with us out. There was six of us and my mom and whoever else was in the house, you know? And I always thought he was just a mean old dude. I always thought he was just a detached old dude. But no, a month.

Like, I always thought. he's wondered why my dad will pull up to the house and sit in his truck for 30 minutes before coming in. Man, listen. I do it to this day. I do it. Right. The black man driveway sitting. Oh,

I'm doing it right now. That is a real thing. I thought it was the only one in loan. It's a real thing. Sometimes you just got sitting your car for 25 minutes so he can just chill out. I literally thought that was just me. No. No.

That is us. That is us. That is us. And I never got that until I saw fences. When I saw, you know, what Troy Maxim had to go through, the hardships and decay that he had suffered, the experience and bastardizing of his masculinity, he went through every day.

And then he had to come home and deal with his family. And then his family had to come and deal with him. 100%. That's not a good one, black man. But that's a byproduct of everything. thing that he had to go through all day. I thought about that when you were talking about your father and Wendell Pearson. I was like, you know, not for nothing, it's a privilege.

And even in 2021, depending on how old you are, it's a privilege to be, like, emotionally evolved. And all black men didn't have that privilege. And I thought about your dad. And I was like, your dad really didn't have the privilege that Wendell had to be vulnerable, to show emotion, to do the things that require it for, you know, for acting at things. No, they don't know. Yeah. I don't know.

My dad, no, my dad, like I said, my dad got kicked out of school in eight grade. Like, my dad, you know, was born in the 40, so it was a different time. Yeah. You know, we didn't, you know, Benjamin E. Mays, who was the president of Morehouse College, said our grandparents studied agriculture so that our parents can study math and science so that we can study arts and literate. Philosophy, right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. My grandfather, now think about it. My grandfather was a share crop. for my daddy was a contractor and I'm a fucking actor. That's lineage, though. My dad took bullets and my dad took so much shit just so I can sit here and be a goofy dude, fucking actor, just so I can sit around and taste the coffee in a classroom.

You know what I mean? So it's just when you look at it that way, I can't get in a movie and start talking about mward, this, Mward that. I can't get in a movie and jeopardize the legacy of my dad and my grandfather and everything they put into me. Hell no. You can't do that. That's why when I see these t-shirts,

you know, I am not my ancestors. Hashtag these hands. Right. I'm like, what? What? What do you see them online? It's corny. It's fucking corny.

I am not my ancestors. That is the opposite of what black people should be saying. 100%. 100%. But, I mean, that's a generational thing, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. eyelashes and hookas.

That's what I call. How old is your oldest kid, Anthony? 59, 58, 58. Okay, that's fine. I know you're dealing with it. Whatever the ages. All day, every day. All day.

TikTok. I get it. Oldest kid, he's 11. I thought you said my oldest sibling. Oh, no. Okay, I thought you was joking and you didn't want to tell me if he was 11. Okay, we good again. He's 11.

Okay, me and you, we cool. Okay. Oh, girl. Oh, so before you all weren't cool, when you guys being passive aggressors? Exactly. Damn. Just that fast.

I guess that fan. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football,

or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that. to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just changing. facing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girl. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of The Girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist.

I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed, I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the Girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Ago Wadam. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet.

Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat just hanging. in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcast. So, when you came to New York, did you, when did you officially start pounding the payment as far as auditions are concerned with movies? Like, at what point did you decide, like, okay, I should get an agent, I should do movies? You know, going to Juilliard, to be honest, the agents come to us. Oh, I bet. We have auditions and they invite all the agents. Is there an acting draft? I was about to say, what does it look like?

At the draft. All right. See, I think she's throwing shots, right? No, this is, I'm really, I'm seriously fascinated by Juilliard and especially. Yeah. I got accepted to Juilliard and couldn't afford to go. So I'm kind of like vicariously living through you right now. Well, I think you, uh, I think you did all right.

So you're saying that already agents come to see like who's... Yeah, we do something called a consortium audition. And basically you prepare two scenes and they pair you up with someone. And the agents come. They watch the scenes. And then we do a repertory season. So the agents come. If they're interested in you and they watch your plays in the repertory season,

that's when you get a meeting with whatever agent is interested in you. Now, the interesting thing is some people get. get no agents and some people get all the agents. Wow. So, you know, and then there are the people in between. I was one of those like in between people. I didn't have a bunch of agents, but I didn't have no agents. But the agent that I got with, you know, in 2001, that's the same person.

Okay. That's what so. What is it about, one thing I always wanted to know, what is it about Juilliard that makes it such a great school and like, what did you learn? What are some of the things you learned there about acting that you still apply to your career today? You know, the great thing about Julia art was at that

time, there was no technique. Like, we didn't study Meisner. We didn't study any of the acting techniques. We literally, they developed a curriculum where you built your character from yourself and your

life experiences. Then you layered things on that character through movement. Then you layer things on that character as far as the way he talks, then you layer things, physicality onto that character, you know, prosthetics, hair, wardrobe, whatever. And then when you look in the mirror, it's a completely different person because he moves different, he sounds different, he acts different than you do.

It was never an idea of technique, you know, because if you go to school from now and your second year in, you realize my eyes and it doesn't work for you, you have to start out. But if you start from yourself, you build from yourself, you'll always be able to create an honest character because you started with yourself. Yeah, it's coming from you. Yeah, it was, you know, and that's why you can always tell

when motherfuckers are acting. Like when you saw Bernie Mac in life, he wasn't acting, he was that dude. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. You know, but there's certain other people. He was jangle-leg-leg-leg-lang, jang-lang. You know, there was certain other people who tried to imitate that

and you can tell they were acting because they had no substance in background with that character. Yeah. You know? Damn. So when you get a role, do you have to go through that process where you write a six-page biography of what your character was?

And, you know, it's like I heard the exercise of writing a complete biography of what your character was born. Nobody. Nobody do that shit. Yo, Questlove Supreme is the show that everyone just knocks the pulling pins down. I love it. You know I got to talk about that shit, man? No, anybody's going to know those six pages, motherfucker. I'm out of the unneeds. I'm going to come here to act.

Like, I barely graduate. I didn't know I don't want to take me the right six pages? ACK. Mawfuck, I came here to act. Right, dog. Right, dog. You got their thesis statements and shit. Right.

The motherfucking hollick open in this bitch. I've heard actors do that, though, so you don't. No, some do. Some do. Some do. I, for me, is different. The first thing I do is I read the script and I break it down three ways because life is about perception. It's not about how you act.

It's about how people perceive your actions. So if I say and I meant it sincerely, but you perceive it as sarcasm, your feelings are hurt, but I meant it sincerely. So even though I was trying to be nice, it don't matter. You took it as me being an asshole. So now in that reality, I'm an asshole because that's your personality. deception. In fact versus intent. There you go.

So that being said, when I get a script, I read it in three different perspectives. First, when I get a script, I tell my agents, don't tell me who I'm playing. Because, you know, I want to read the script for the story. If the story don't work, if the characters don't work, I'm not doing it. So when you read a script, you read it from the perspective of the writer, which no character delineage is involved. It from the perspective of your character. And then you read it from the perspective of the other characters talking about you. And you highlight your three different colors.

Because then you know, if you're walking down the street and you're like, you know, you walk up to a girl and you're like, hey, how you doing? That's when while you're walking down the street, they cut to two girls across the street. And they're like, look at that old goofy motherfucker walking down the street. So you know, you're walking goofy. You don't look cool. You look goofy. Right, right, right, right. So that affects the way you walk.

That affects the way you handle that moment. So the best information you get in the script is what the writer says about you. So if you read a script from the writer's perspective and they say he walk into a room, mug face, sullen, and his first line is, oh, I'm so hungry. You know exactly the emotion to put on that line when you say it. You know what I mean? So you have the three different perspectives of how you read the script. Then once I feel like I have a grasp and idea of the emotional state of the character,

I find a piece of art, I find a song. and I find clothing that I feel capture the essence of the character. I always, I buy a piece of art for every movie I do. What was your, in terms of, you know, do you talk about finding yourself inside a character? Where were you in your character for the Hurt Locker? You know what? The Hurt Locker, that's a great question.

The Hurt Locker was interesting because for me, the racial dynamic played everything about that. You have a black, so just trying to make it home to his family. who's trying to make his life better so he can use his GI Bill and go to college. That's the way I played it. That's the character I developed because he wanted to go to engineering school

because if you look at bomb techs, they're very smart guys. I mean, these guys go to MIT, Georgia Tech, you know what I mean? So he's a dude who went to undergraduate school, a state school, went, became a bomb tech, and now he's hoping to get back home so he can go to MIT or, you know, Georgia Tech and become an engineer so he can do better for his family.

That's when he didn't. he don't have the privilege to come and goof off and do all this shit like the white dude does. You know, and once again, it's an example of a white being privileged just simply because of who he is. So that that arrogant, that dynamic of frustration is what pushed Sanborn to the point where he was like, I might just kill us, my son. If it stands between me and him going home, I will kill him. how much of that for that particular movie how much of that is you bring into it versus what Catherine is like kind of directing you to do oh that was 100% my juliar experience yeah oh yeah when I read that script I was like oh this julia yeah I'm getting my ass kicked

and bust and working my fucking ass up laying under a piano so I can work on tune in my ears so I can hear different accents and sounds and this motherfucker ain't even and bringing scenes in class. He's the lead of the play. He's the lead. And I never got to leave. My entire time was there. The only time I got to leave

when I was at Julia art was when I created it. I get it. I get it. Fooling one time, shame on you. What was your song for Hurt Locker? What was it? Do you remember? You know what it was?

Your piece of art or whatever. What was it? The piece of art, I got a Jacob Lawrence painting called Funeral Procession. which literally took my whole her locker check. I mean, but it's a, it's a, it's a, I mean, but it's,

you can't, you can't not buy. No, I've seen that painting. I know that. Yeah. So, you know, I got a piece called funeral possession because, you know, when I, when I looked at that piece and I thought about the dignity of this man coming home and his mama taking him to church and saying,

look, my baby made it through the war. You know, how important is that to a soldier for his mama to see her baby coming up to drive. Man. You know? Oh, yeah. It's the famous one that was in the car. Yeah.

It was like you said. The hospital's house. It was at the hospital's house. Yeah. It was a whole episode on it. Okay. The song, I remember the song. I remember it was a Tupac song because all I listened to was Tupac.

But I can't remember which one it was. I'm sure it had a, you know, motherfucker kick-ass shit and something about that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Man, I would. Enemies. Hennessy.

He's been a C. Yeah. I wish they would have known. I wish they would have said something because in the marketing for Notorious, because when I saw Notorious and I mean, I had seen you in a lot of stuff proud of that. But I was like, yo, why did they cast Anthony Mackey's part?

Like that didn't make sense to me at the time. Until they gave you the backstory. Yeah, but now that I'm hearing this. I'm like, damn, why didn't they make that kind of. They mentioned it a little bit in the press, but not. To give us some context. Yeah, yeah. Because that would have set it up.

That would have set you up so much better, in my opinion, and just to give context as to why you were playing that role. What was that like? The interesting thing about Tupac because my first job, like I said, I played Tupac off Broadway.

Right. And his mama came and his sister came and all his boys came. And they were like, yo, you killed that shit. So when they said that, nobody else opinion matters.

Like the biggest thing, the biggest thing I got from people about notorious was he don't look like Tupac. And I'm like, if that's the only thing you can say, then I won, fool? Yeah. I won.

If you can say, oh, he was good, but it'll look like Tupac, though. All right, fine. You go cast somebody that looked like Tupac and see how that works. But can't act, right. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? And they do that so much. Like, they cast people that can sing and can't act.

And then you see the movie, and it's like, damn. Like, why didn't they just cast somebody who could act and dub the sink? You're right. Yep. You're right. You know, if all of us was Jennifer Hudson, and she wouldn't be special. Can you talk about the process that led up to,

what I'm assuming is your first film, which is eight mile. Yeah. At the time when it was presented to you, Papa Doc. Yeah, at the time when it was presented to you, did you think that this would be

Oscar caliber and critically acclaimed? Because even, even when I heard about the rumors of eight mile happening I think in my mind I just filed it in the kind of somewhere in between

Dr. Drey's the Wash and Purple Rain. Yeah, and the missing Beastie voice film. So plain. No. At the time it's just like, oh, Eminem's doing a movie. Okay. Cool. But, you know, I was shocked that

you know, everyone, it was I was shocked that it was great. So, you know, what was the process of you getting the role, like the audition process and all those things? The ironic thing was, so I had just got out of school. My first movie I did was this movie called Brother to Brother, which to me is some of the best acting or the best acting I've done in my career, which is sad to say because it was my first fucking movie. Now, I'm going to ask you about that. I'm going to ask you about that. When I was doing Tubac off Broadway at New York Theater Workshop,

and this woman, Molly Finn, God rest her soul, one of the best casting agents in the business, came to see the play because she was doing a movie about hip-hop. She came backstage afterwards and was like, you know, I want you to audition for the movie. She called my agent. I go to Curtis Tans. So when I read the script,

the script was very different than the way it is in the movie. The script was very, very different, right? Scott Silver by God, we completely rewrote that script. Eminem and Mackay completely rewrote that script every day before we walked on set. But it became his truth. You know, everything about that movie was truth. Even his battle against me, calling me Clarence because my parents had a good marriage. Claren't parents had a real good marriage.

I went to private school. So he just used those facts from your actual life against you? and wrote a rap about it. Wow. That's why I was so mad at the end. I was like, am I going to have to sneak him and them on stage? And you didn't know that he had written that before. You didn't know it until you heard it.

No, he came up to me before and he was like, yo, you know, I just wanted to warn you. Like, there's no reason for me not to like your character. Like, your character's a cool dude. Like, you're a cool dude. I was like, thanks, him. He was like, so, you know, I went online, got some stuff. And you know, I wrote a rap. And, you know, I'm going to do it when we, you know, get on stage.

I was like, that was your warning. That's all you get. Wow. That's it. Then he opened his fucking mouth. And I was like, this motherfucker. How many takes is that? One.

Because the crazy thing about the rap battle scene, I mean, it was sick. So he couldn't do a lot of takes. So he literally did it in one take. And then after that, it was just like him lipping it and like doing the motions. And they would play it back on the speaker. But the shit he did like that, and anybody will tell you. When we did that rap battle scene, they literally brought in like 300 people in this stage they built. and um they were everybody was right

st andrews in detroit it was supposed to be to st andrews but this was a room that they built on the stage okay okay right so they bring us in there and everybody there was like a budding rapper so everybody was looking at me like yo how the fuck they cast this dude to play a rapper we're gonna fuck him up when we rap and i'm like uh we're acting sir we're acting uh Curtis hanson was like yo you know we need some B-roll of people rapping against him and him so we can see him working his way up the ladder of beating people. So we're going to, you know, we need six of you guys to come up and freestyle against him.

He's not going to say anything because he's feeling kind of the weather under the weather. We just need footage of you like rapping against him. So these six motherfuckers got up. And the first dude got up and was like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You suck. Blah, blah, blah. And the audience was like, yeah, go. Yeah.

second person got up and it was a little chick. And the little chick gave Eminem his lunch. And when she finished, the crowd went crazy. It was like a rap. It was the Apollo in this motherfucker. It was crazy. So then Eminem looked at the crowd and looked at her and was like, nah, fuck this.

He turned the mic on. He turned his mic on. And you see the little girl face like, what are you doing? You're not supposed to, what are you doing? You know, and off the domes, he destroyed. I mean, literally, he finished this girl to a point. I'm sure she went and became a nurse and gave her back.

We never heard from her. And then the next dude gets up, and he's like, oh, shit. Eminem's mic is, okay, Eminem, I like your rhymes. You are cool. So wait, when they were doing B-roll, were they addressing him as rabbit but just kind of sub-reusing Eminem references that, you know. Exactly. They were talking about, because, you know, they were talking about him as Eminem,

but they were like, yo, you know, when you talk about him, you know, talk about him as rabbit, not as him and him. So they're like, hey, cool, because, you know, all these two are really talented rappers. So they were just coming off their head, like for freestyle shit. Man, when it's going to turn this mic on. That was it. It was it. It was done.

Game over. Did you not fear, but were you concerned that you actually had to prep as a freestyle MC to nail this role? Man, I'll tell you, like I told Curtis Hanson. I was like, you give me a week. I can fly a helicopter. I believe it. I believe it.

So he was like, he was like, because when I'm, first got the road. This was what was funny. I only had four lines and three scenes. And I was supposed to be there a week. And the longer I was there, Curtis started developing the role because we got along together so well. He started giving me more sings. Then he was like, yo, can you stay longer? I was like, hell yeah. I ain't got no job. So I literally stayed there. And then he comes up to me one day and he's like, yo, Anthony, can you rap? And I'm like, Yep. I played two-five, and I went to Julian.

I'm like, can you rap? Can they read Shakespeare? No. Thank you very much. Fuck out of it. Right, right. So wait, you wrote your rhyme during that battle? No, there was this, this freestyle rapper named Craig Gee.

Craig Gee. Yeah, he was the one. Oh, Craig Gee wrote that? Yeah, no, we worked together. and I gave him some shit and he took it and made it into a rap because when I did it, it was like, yo, yo, uh,

check it. Check it. Yo, yo, that's shit to get you killed in the battle. You got to come right off. You got to come right off with it. It's like not jumping in the double-dust world. Wait, can I ask Monta is yo-yo-un, the black version of well my name is done and I'm here to say here to say right right

straight up stalling bro you got to get right to the smoke I said you'll check it for like 16 balls and this motherfucker was like all right sit down but he really you know we sat down for like 45 minutes and really crafted some shit where I could get

you know grimy and emotional with it and really show like the skills of Papa Doc as a battle rap, as a freestyle rapper. And, you know, so I owe it all to him. I mean, if it wasn't him, I would look like booty up there. Okay. All right. So I have

I have a question about brother to brother. So of course now in 2020 or 2021, we're slowly becoming more evolved when dealing with people who are culturally different than the rest of the world. your character was a homosexual in this film.

So, you know, I remember distinctly an interview that Will Smith gave in which he said that Denzel told him, right? Planned Day would end his career. Right. He gave him a warning about six degrees and said that, you know, be careful how you play this world because this could destroy your career. Right. You know, of course now, again, we're inching towards being evolved

as humans in 2021. But back in 2004, we weren't quite there. So how difficult or hard was it to accept this role as you're the first? So technically you're saying that this is the first movie that you made, even though 8 Mile came out first? Yeah. Okay. No, I asked for that role.

The young man Rodney Evans, who wrote Brother to Brother, he offered me the role of the poet that was played by Larry Gilli. because he felt like he needed a gay man to play the gay role. He was like, you play Tupac. There's no way you can play a gay character. What? I went to Juilliard. So I literally said, I literally said, I went to Juilliard.

I read a scene for him. And he was like, all right, I'll give you the role. You can play the role. And, you know, what was weird? Like, when I was in school, I realized that I was, a sexist homophobic. Yeah, a whole black man in the 90s. What made you realize that?

There was this actor, my freshman summer. I went to Chautauqua, New York, to do a Shakespeare. And I said something stupid about my gay teacher. And this other actor came up to me and set me straight. You know, I just felt like less than a human being. for even looking at, for thinking it was okay to look at another human being that way just because of their sexual preference. And I was ashamed.

I was literally ashamed of myself. And it took me those three years to exercise that demon. And the culmination of that was when I read brother to brother, I was, look, look, if I'm an actor, you know, I need to play this role so that I can understand the day-to-day struggles. But what a young gay black man goes to him. And did that role help you understand that? 100%. It changed my life.

It changed my perspective on life. So talk about that in relation to your Black Mirror episode, Striking Vipers, because that was like next level. It was decades afterwards. Yeah, that episode went in the direction. I did not expect it. But I was so here for it because it was, I mean, it's not fair, so it always makes you think differently,

and it always makes you think this shit could happen. And so I was here for these two black men having this beautiful moment. I don't know. What do you say? Well, the idea of striking vipers, which was so funny, is the quintessential romance. Every dude would agree. When you out with your boys and you're having a good time and your girl call, you're like, fuck, give me a minute.

And you run outside, jump in the car, roll up the window. Oh, no, but at the top is just, hey, they were out having fun with my boys. Right. I'm just chilling. And then she's like, come home. You're like, damn, I don't want to leave my boys because I'm having so much fun. You know, so it's the same thing with striking vipers. It's just they took it in a virtual sense.

And the funny thing about it was when I read for Shrike and Vipers, there was supposed to be two white dudes. Then the director was like, maybe it could be a white dude and a black dude. And then went to the director, the director was like, I've been a theory of homosexuality and a black community. Wouldn't we fuck people up if we do it with two black dudes?

Yes, yes. And I was like, yes, you would. And he's like, think black people need to see this. And I was like, yes, they do. Yes. It was literally this little white European director who was like, yo, I'm putting this shit out there on blacks.

Yo, and the two actors, and it's so dope, too, because it couldn't have been too perfect actors, you and y'all, like, especially the perception in the roles that y'all have already paid in the past. So that's why that reaction for Fonte was probably how everybody felt because they would have never imagined these two actors. Yeah, I didn't see that episode going in that direction. was sitting in the airport

and there was a dude sitting across from me playing his little like Nintendo Switch, right? So he's playing his Switch and he looks up and he sees my face and he's like, he turned. He turned his switch off and put it in his bag. Because not for nothing,

have you heard any feedback from any, especially gay black men? I have a gay black brother that talks about this episode. He's a fan. He's a big, He was a Harvey Mackey fan. But for him, it meant something different as well. So I was curious if you got

any feedback about that. You know, I have... Time out. Time out. Time out. Margaret, you have a brother? A black, you know, my play brother. Oh, black people. All right, good. Sorry. Lies, man. We all...

We asked the question. I'm sorry. Wolf tickets and shit. No, it was just five years into the show. I'm like, wait a minute. You have a brother? You have a sibling? Right. No. All only children got a bunch of fake brothers and That's just what we do. Sorry. I only claim my own.

Good. And that's why I did the episode because I expected that. Like I expected the conversation, the acknowledgement, the feedback, the appreciation. And I haven't got that at all. Okay. Well, they love it. If anything, I've gotten the direct opposite. What you mean?

Oh, my God. Are black people watching Black Mirror? Yes. Yeah. That's why it's called Black Mirror. At least at least a Black Museum. That was the whole Black Museum season. So yeah.

Yeah. But what was the other reaction that you been getting? Just like, you know, a lot of negative. No. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's interesting. The connotation of, you know, negative feedback as far as, you know, questioning if, one, I was gay, you know,

their opinion of what homosexuality was. their opinion of what, you know, it means for the law school, which is something I definitely expected and was ready to question and strike down as soon as that conversation came up. But I was just surprised by the fact that, you know, I went out there and like nobody had my back. Oh, I got you. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know there are people out there that do.

Yeah. But there's been times where, you know, you got to. let somebody know that you're in the gym and you bench pressing 225, 15 times. Yeah. There's been a few instances like that, you know? Yeah, yeah. Wow.

I did not know. I felt the weight of that role. I felt the way to that role, I felt the way to that role, especially for you. No, I really like that episode. I didn't think there would be any negative feedback. No, it was a great experience. Yeah.

A win is a win. A win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clever Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes. And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that, trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends, Oh my God, this is the same man.

A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed. I will be his last target.

He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Ego Wode. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network.

It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, who. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day. And I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet.

Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. And he goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall, and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there.

Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to thanks, Dad, on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, before we get to She Hate Me, I do have to briefly ask, even though it wasn't a major role. But could you talk about Manchurian candidate and

sort of like the process of doing that and how was that for you? Manchering was hell on earth, dude. I mean, I was only there a few days because I was doing another movie. And I literally did it just because I wanted to work with Jonathan Demi.

Right. You know, being an actor in New York, Jonathan Demi was a god, like a thing of folklore and legend. So, you know, when he, because he knew me from theater and independent films in New York. So he was like, you know, I'm doing this little movie, you know, you know, Denzel said yes, so I have another role for you. I'm like, I'm cool.

So, you know, he brought me out. He's really, he was really good at casting people he liked to be around, people he considered friends. So it was, it was more so the experience just to be on set with him and see him direct. but they didn't tell us we was going to be in New Jersey and two feet of snow in fucking January trying to act like we were in the desert and shorts and T-shirts. Sounded like somebody from N-O.

I see. Yeah. Hey, take it. Okay. Also, before we, before we I don't have a lot. Oh my God. I don't have.

I just wanted before because I know you about to go in. Half Nelson, man. That's one of my favorite roles of yours. Uh-huh. I thought that script was very, It was, it was, yeah, that shit was, it was, it was a chance. I mean, it was risking, you know what I mean? It could be interpreted in a lot of different ways.

But tell me about that role and like working with like Ryan Gosling and what was it like shooting that? You know, having Nelson was dope. We literally shot that belly of Brooklyn. And, you know, working with Ryan at that time was interesting because he wasn't Ryan Gossel. You know, so he was taking chances and doing things in a different type of way. There was a different understanding of the way he was working, you know.

And that movie made him, put him on a map. And, you know, for me, growing up in New Orleans, like, the drug dealers I knew were the ones who took care of the neighborhood. They took care of the block. So if you were a smart kid with good grades and you come out and you're like, you're like, you're going to sell rocks. They're like, no, go. Get the hell on. You don't. You just ain't for you.

You know? So when I read that script, I talked to the producer. and Ryan, Anna, who directed it. And I was like, this is this. I mean, he's taking care of this chick and making sure that she's, you know, provided for and taking care of in a situation where she has no one.

You know, he's that dude that take care of block. He's providing jobs and economic structure for his community when the government has basically bastardized them and condemned them to nothing. So that was something I predicated on that role and wanted to, you know, grow and mature that character into because I knew those dudes. I grew up with those dudes.

You know, when I needed, when I wanted a pair of Jordans and my mama wouldn't buy me Jordans, like, you know, my, my dude on the corner made sure that we had girls. Like when I had to take the bus at 530 to make it to school by 8, my dude on the corner made sure I didn't get beat up on my way to the bus. Oh, wow. You know, so the drug deal is literally found. thought I was a little arson dude, and they took care of me. I never got jumped on the way on me.

Wow. Because if you stepped on, if you stepped in Boscoville and tried to steal up on me, them boys were still ready. Ready. You wouldn't come in the Boscoville talk. Listen, I don't have a lot. We already, we had Spike Lee on the show. I told him, she hate me was always an interesting movie for me,

just from the storyline of you and the ladies and in pregnant. them. I said that was Spike's Midlife Crisis. I agree with you. I agree with you. And so to his wife and his daughter. But listen, my question to you about she hate me outside of the draw of this phenomenal cast, because it shouldn't not be forgotten that Lynette McKee, Jim

Brown, Ozzie Davis, window. Everybody was in his movie because I know that was a draw. But really tell me, Anthony Mackie, when you read this script, the way you do with your three layers. Did you read it three times? What was the real draw of the

This script. To be honest, Jeffrey Wright was offered. She Hate Me. And he turned it down. Really? Dario Dawson and Jeffrey Wright. Whoa. Wow.

Yeah, and they said, no. I didn't want to see him in that physical position like you. I was working with Spike on. So I hold the record of being the lead of two Spike Lee movies nobody saw. Oh, shit. So the movie I was working on the bike. It was called Sucker Free City. It was a movie we did for.

Oh, yeah, yeah, the one. Yeah. Yeah, I totally forgot about that one. But yeah, I saw that. So when we were doing Suckerford City, Spike was like, man, I got this movie, Worm, Worm, Worm, Worm, it's going to be crazy. You know, Jeffrey Wright, Most Deaf, Woh, Worm, Worm, Rosario Dawson. I'm like, Beck, let me know when you need me.

So two weeks later, he comes back, he's like, yo, my next project, would you be interested in doing it? I'm like, hell yeah, I'd be interested in doing it. So the crazy thing was when I read the script, to me, because of Michael Jeannet wrote it, it read like a Shakespearean play. If you read a Shakespearean play, you have plot, subplot,

you have four different storylines, and they all culminate into one story. If you look as She Hate Me, it's really Shakespearean in the way it's written. Because you have plot, subplot, you have two or three different storylines. You do. I got that you. And the crazy thing about it is,

people say it was Spike's Middle Age crisis. You know what was the cover of the New York Times magazine, the week she hate me came out. What? Looking for Mr. Goodsper. Women over 40 paying young men for sperm instead of going to sperm banks. But they weren't as Anthony.

And these women were rich in the New York Times magazine. And what was not even connected? Not even connected. Not at all. Not connected at all. And what was crazier, this was the same time that that doctor had, impregnated like 150 women with his own shit, yeah.

Y'all was top of a little, y'all was timely. It was timely. Even the subplots with the embezzlement and stuff like that, yeah, yeah. But it was just so it's easy, it's easy to say that, you know, a mid-like crisis of a man or a man's dream and a sexist connotation that men

disrespect and bastard out of women. But the reality of it is it was very timely and on point. That's a nice translation. Very well done. My lady. Tilly all. Phenal.

It's a nice little box. I mean, I think, too, in that movie, too, I mean, they were the thing I liked about it. I mean, both parties, they were making a choice. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't, you know what I mean? It wasn't like there was this guy that, like you said, a homie that was just giving women his own shit unknowingly. Without their knowledge or whatever, both parties were consenting that this is what they

wanted to do. We live in a day and age where consent is okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's mandatory. It's preferred. Preferred. You know.

It's the law. It's preferred. There are a lot of There are a lot of aspects of me that enjoyed that movie. I just, you know. If you want to say, so what did you like about, Laia?

That was it. It was just always odd to me that this man was having physical sex and they were enjoying it and these women were not queer women. They were supposed to be like straight up lesbians. So I was like, where in the world do they not just ask this man for the uh a turkey a turkey baster where they do that but i enjoyed so much i can say about that there's so much is it is it is it anthony

was okay and at least was the original was the original script what wound up on the final uh the final cut or were their adjustments made or well for she a bit yeah no that was pretty much the original script. I mean, when I came on board, Michael Genet had to change some things. But for the most part, that was the script I read. I mean, it was pretty, it was pretty, you know, when Spike comes on board, he does his spikeisms. But, you know,

it was pretty much the script I read. Now, this is why I love your journey. Like, I love watching your actor journey because, I don't know, every role stood out and every role had a meaning and it was deeper than you thought. Same thing that you're doing right now with the Falcon, because I was like, it's ill that the Falcon is getting a little deep. I was like, you know what I'm saying?

You put a little Anthony on the Falcon. Yeah, man. Yeah, we got to talk about, yeah, like, how did you come into the Marvel universe? I mean, we know like the, um, uh, your boy, Terrence Howard, he originally was, uh, no, that was Don. No, that was Don. That's right. It was Don't.

Yeah, it was Terrence and Iron Man 1. And then Don's death in the Iron Man 2. Yeah. Yeah, because he became war machine. But the Falcon is. So how did your journey come into it? Um, you know, my, uh, Marvel experience. It was very different.

They came to me, and I was asking them to be a part of the Marvel universe around the time of Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3. And then they asked me to come out to L.A. to have a meeting. And literally, we had lunch, and they said, okay, we can't tell you what movie. We can't tell you what character. But if we ask you to be in the Marvel universe, would you do it? Wow. Wow. Wait

And I said Would you want to tell them about that gunline, boss? The state of Mississippi In the state of Miss Mississippi Who did you In a dream world, though, Anthony I mean, I'm sorry, but who would you have wanted to Is there a, did you have a preference?

Did you want Black Panther? Oh no, no, no, no, no, I mean, anybody. No, no, no, no. For me, it was either, because I didn't think they were going to bring the Falcon into the fold. Right. For me, when I was harassing them, I was harassing them about Black Panther. Because I thought that was, for me, if you look up any press I did before they even announced it. I said very specifically that the movies they should do was Black Panther and Wonder Woman.

Oh, yes. Ah, okay. Because little brown boys and girls need representation. How steep were you into the universe of Marvel before you actually got involved in the film?

Not at all. I was never a comic book kid. That's why it's so funny to me. That's why it's so funny to me now when people say, oh, I'm a nerd, I freak. I'm like, if everybody was reading comic books, why did all the comic book stores go out of business? So stop fucking lying. The movies,

and they were so bad. Betty and Veronica in the grocery stores too nobody was reading fucking comic books. I got to admit in my five year history of this show, I was nervous about you coming on only because I know that there

there's such a, there's a contingent or at least a certain fan base, you know, those in San Diego, what do you call them? Comic Conners. Oh, Comic Con. Comic. Comic. Yeah. That are so deep into the shit and I I'm not a more, and it's not like

I'm not a Marvel head. I just didn't grow up reading comic books and whatnot. I knew nothing about the Marvel. I didn't know it that deep. And I was afraid, I was like, yo, if I have him on the show and don't ask him some deep Easter egg question that. It's okay. I have notes. What do you need? Because I want you to hurry and get to your question because I guess a Marvel notes. You have to you have to look at Comic-Con. I wish I could block you right now. You can. You have to look at Comic-Con this way. Every year, you know, 10 to 15,000 people go to San Diego for Comic-Con.

How many people are in America? Very true. But Anthony, don't you agree? There are levels of these people. Like, it's not just Comic-Con or Amir. There are, like, at least different levels in between Comic-Con and Amir. Right, 100%.

But I'm saying the whole thing of, you know, now... Well, I'm not at the bottom. I see these films. Now, everybody you talk to grew up reading comic books and knowing everything. I'm like, that's not true. That's not true.

No, it's not true. Like, people get mad. Now, everyone has the internet now. Yeah, that's what it is. They got the internet now. You can go back and read, you can become a retroactive comic book fan. Right.

Or just read the comic book fan. Yeah, you just read it, nigga. Yeah, because, you know, they see the chick dressed as Leah at Comic-com. You know, and they're trying to impress her by telling her about the Captain America Truth series. It's like, come on. Stop it.

Stop. Stop. But what is that process like? Like living up to an expectation of, you know, having to go to ComicCon and meet these, you know, these Trek-Trek-like nerds and whatnot. Like, is it exhausting? Like, do you have to do it in the Marvel world? Yeah, you definitely have to do it.

You know, but the big thing is it feels good to be appreciated. You know, there's so many as artists, how many times have you created something? and put it out there and, you know, no one has reacted or responded to. Or even worse, you put something out there and motherfucker who's never made an album, a motherfucker who has no talent whatsoever, say, your shit sucks.

Right. You know, so it feels good. Imagine every time you put something out, you know, a motherfucker like, yo, this is the best shit ever. Yeah, but, okay, I have my version of Comic-Con and that's called OK Player. Yeah, but that ain't Comic-Con. For real, for real.

Yeah, no, but it's, It's like, it's, there's a danger in that. I feel like there's a danger. I know you're saying that it's, it's, it's great to be loved and appreciating, da, da, da, da. But then I just see Comic-Con people as like extreme level of nerdness and. Not all. Not all. Like okay player.

Yeah. Just music nerds is just different. Inside baseball, man. Yeah, that's what it is. So. I mean, it's also the thing where on OK player, you know, there's equal amount of hate and disdain and criticism for the roots in Questlove as there is love, probably more than so.

Yeah. Well, for Marvel folks, I think it's more about the writers and what directions they go in with the characters, and that's when the fans get mad to pin it on if they go off script. So that's how it works for them. That being said, Anthony, can I ask you, one of my Marvel heads wanted me to ask you, do you think that the world was ever ready for,

a black Captain America? What his role was. I think the idea of, you know, was the world ever ready for a green Hulk? Right. You know, it was never, how could you accept a green dude and not accept a black dude? You know, it was never a question of...

Captain America is such an institution and the way he's looked at is different than a Black Panther. You know what I mean? I think, you know what? I'll be honest. I think, like, especially being... Do you have kids? No.

I know some, though. Okay. One thing I know about kids and one thing I admire. Kids aren't racist. Yeah. Like, they're pretty open-minded. We teach them racism. Right.

So if you're making a comic book for kids about a character, no matter what color he is, if he has cool, policy, they're going to love it. Right. But that's assuming that they make all these things for kids. Like, at this point, marbles an institution, right?

Wait, wait, wait, wait. But the key phrase, at this point. At this point. Right. So, you know, before, you know, it was cool to be a quote unquote nerd before, you know, Comic-Conns and people dressing up and doing cosplay, you know, books for teenagers and kids, you know, so if you present them with a black Captain America, they'll grow up with a black Captain America. And they don't know any different. They wouldn't know any different. So how could they not be ready for something they don't even know, they don't even, they don't even, they wouldn't even.

know anything as opposed to black captain America what? Because nobody complained when they made Captain British American. You're right. Yo, I always want to ask you about pain and gain. Pay the game, bro. Like, how much did you have

to, like, put on for that? Like, what was your training regimen like for that? I put on, like, I went up to about 220. Okay. So I was 195 before I started training for that. And I just literally ate steak and potatoes in the morning and six eggs and oatmeal for breakfast.

And it was, dude. That was just breakfast? Yeah, six, no, six eggs and oatmeal with berries for breakfast. And then lunch, I would do like a weight of mass gain of protein shake with a steak and some eggs. And then I would have like four more meals because I was eating like 35% of Canada. Good God. Man, what was that experience?

Like, I like that movie. I think I might be one of the only people that shit went up for that movie. I fuck with that movie. But what was it like working with Mark and The Rock? It was great, man. You know what? Mark is one of the coolest dudes I've ever worked with. And, you know, he really gave me an opportunity with that joint.

We had a great time. Like, we literally, every day came to set, shop for shit, and had fun. I mean, it was like, it was, you know, Michael Bay gave us the keys to the car and was, like, be as ridiculous as you want to be. Wow. I was going to ask you on some insider Marvel baseball on the season two episode with the young, the young black man and the young black man, I heard those are actual Marvel characters. I was just going to ask you if that was going to develop into something. I don't know, but Isaiah Bradley, a lot of people don't know.

Isaiah, yes, Isaiah. Yeah, a lot of people don't know that the Super Soldier serum was originally tested on Tuskegee Soldier. and it was a comic book came out in the early 2000s called the Truth and Isaiah Bradley was it was a limited run

people like talk shit about it so it went away but the writer name was Morales and he created this cartoon series where basically Isaiah Bradley and a bunch of Tuskegee soldiers were

being injected with the simple search the super soldier serum so that they can perfect it and once they perfected it they gave it to Steve Rogers wow and so the rumor is that the grandson

is going to become a young Avenger I'm just no that's that's like a whole that's from the comic book one thing you have to one thing you have to realize Marvel never takes the comic book's word for word note for note okay

so even if you look at the comic book when Falcon first was introduced he was a hustler from Harvard you know so if you watch the movie the Falcons from Louisiana so you know it's a completely different world, it's a completely different universe so

it's not something where they take the comic book word for word or no for a novel and have you put any Anthony into any of these storylines? Um no. Not at all. Because I didn't you know Malcolm Spellman our writer you know him and the Marvel

crew and Carrie our director, they were the ones who came up with the storyline and ideas that when came to me, it was like, this is what we're thinking. So, you know, it wasn't me. It's dope. I have two questions and then we'll let you go. One is about just the

secretive process in the Marvel world. How airtight or Fort Knox Light is the process of actually getting the physical script? Like, do they have to like hand-delivered? it to you? Like is it? You know, it's so crazy. No matter what happens if you lose your your

briefcase or something? Yeah. No matter where you are in the world, they send someone to come to you. You signed a letter saying that you received it. That person turns around, goes back to the airport, gets on an airplane, and flies back to L.A.

Wow. That's it. Okay. My final question is, are you going to do any for a raise into directing? Actually, I'm I'm working on that now. I'm working. There's this story that I'm acquiring the rights

to about this young girl during civil rights who was the first person the first woman to sit on a sit on a bus and not get up. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, Fonte.

Nice. Nice. Fonte knows this shit. Yeah. Oh, man, before we, before we go, I have to deliver this message to be mad. Omar Dorsey wanted me to ask you Why does everyone He said

Why does everybody call you an asshole But they love him? Because Omar out here selling his booty for Congress Right Yes Ladies and gentlemen Thank you That is another episode of Quest Love's Supreme

With Anthony Mackey Won't be able to see Supreme You got dunked on bro You got dunked on I'm sorry And all the cool bread in the world Thank you Anthony Mackey Thank you Flowers

Flowers, powers. We will see you next round, Quest Love Supreme. I'll see you. Get your wolf ticket. Hey, this is Sugar Steve. Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at QLS. And let us know what you think. You should be next to sit down with us.

Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast. Much Love Supreme is a production of Iheart Radio. For more podcasts from IHart Radio, visit the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok.

When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.