James Earl Jones - Actor HARDtalk


James Earl Jones - Actor

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And now it is time for HARDtalk. HARDtalk has come to a fitter in

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the West End to meet one of America's most respected actors,

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James Earl Jones -- a theatre. His is an extraordinary story. Born

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into rural poverty in Mississippi in the era of segregation. He has

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be be an Oscar for a last time of cinematic achievement.

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These days, black American success on stage and screen is not unusual,

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but how hard has the journey been and has America really left the

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James Earl Jones, welcome to HARDtalk. Welcome to our theatre.

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Thank you. This bitter, where four weeks you have been treading the

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boards, -- This theatre -- in the play Driving Miss Daisy. I wonder

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ays to get up for the rehearsing and

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preparation, all the g all the g physical endurance you have to have

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for eight daily play. Everybody works. -- a day the play. Even the

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President and Prime Minister works. Then we sleep. It is not hard to

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work with this play. It is not hard to work with Vanessa Redgrave.

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wonder whether this play resonates with you because it is said in the

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south, in Atalanta, during the era of segregation. You were born and

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raised in Mississippi during the era of segregation. Does this

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particularly have meaning for you? Yes. I can say honestly I know a

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lot about it. I wish others knew about it. That is why it is

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important to do place like this. Luckily we have a play here which

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is not about polemics. It does not want to change your mind, it's

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simply wants to touch your heart. I want you to experience the

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characters. The society is there. through everrough evert happened in

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that world. What strikes me about this play is that in the

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relationship between these two people, and this play is about a

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relationship between a black chauffeur, and his boss who is a

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widow Jewish Women, in the Deep South, and they are both getting on

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a life, and their relationship was a false and it ends up becoming a

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trusting and loving relationship, despite all the crouching us and

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grumpiness. The black man in the play has great virtues. He is

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dignified and respectful, and respected. In many ways, it is some

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are too many parts you have played in your career. Would you agree?

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hope so. Some people cannot handle someone being that accommodating to

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other people, who are not accommodating to them. You mean as

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a black man he should have been angrier? That is the perception

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nowadays -- you should have been angrier. That is for people who are

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black, or who have less advantage. It is there for everybody. For all

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kinds of reasons. We all have anger. This is what I am interested in. We

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are talking about fiction but I want to bring it to your own life.

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When you were growing up in that particular era in the United States

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of America, was there not a lot of anger in you? I will tell you about

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three instances. I was raised by a racist grandmother. She was part

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Cherokee and part black. But she was the most racist person I have

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ever known. She trained us that way. She considered it defensive racism,

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but it is still racism. She hated black people and injuring people

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for allowing me to happen. -- Indian. It is like taking arsenic

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to cure whatever it is supposed to cure. When I got to school, in

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Michigan, I had to sort it out. She gave me my first need for

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independent thinking. I went to school with white kids and Indian

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kids. They were not the devil she said they were. I can now live in

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the shoes of a racist. I know exactly what they are feeling. I

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know what they are going through. It is no surprise to me. Also, on

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our farm in Mississippi before we move to Michigan, we had a wagon.

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Most kids do. We took good care of that wagon. We got into the wagon

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one day and it was all chewed up. The white people had used the wagon

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to cut wood up. It was all destroyed. We could not chastise

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them. My father said, no. It was the first time I understood. It was

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the advantage of being a white kid. If we fast-forward to your early

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adulthood when you are trying to make it as a young actor, America

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is going through turbulent times, the late 60s. I am thinking about

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the civil rights movement. The rise of black power and black leaders

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who are saying, we will no longer accept the status quo in any shape

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or form and if necessary will respond with direct action. Were

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you ever inclined to take that view yourself? I came out of the Army

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using everything I had been trained to use. I may be thought there

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would be a race war. But it was all folly. Malcolm X never visited the

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South but I had. Martin Luther King was a man of the South. I did not

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even trust him. You did not trust King? No. He was a preacher. There

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were preachers and my family. I do not trust a preacher. -- in my

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family. Even today, I do not listen carefully to them. So you did not

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sympathise with Malcolm X and did not trust Martin Luther King but

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surely the message from Martin Luther King resonated with you? The

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message for black people not to take their just deserts from

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society. Once I understood the footsteps of my had my Gandhi, I

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said yes, he is the right leader -- Mahatma. It was not well designed

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folly. It was not well designed activism. I decided I did not want

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of any part of that. To bring it back to your career, many people

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will remember poor performances in The Great White Hope, when he

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played the black boxer -- will remember performances. They may

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also think of the television series Roots. He played the role of a man

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going to West Africa to find his own ancestors -- he played. These

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are roles full of dignity and Admiral's Well qualities but not

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full of the anger. -- admirable. Racial consciousness is good. You

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should understand your people and your culture. But to be conceded

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about it, that is where the danger is. -- to be cacique. The young

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people pushing this up, it becomes can seat. That is misplaced ago.

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more recent times, I am thinking of Spike Lee, he has been very

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critical of the movie Driving Miss Daisy and said it had a very

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conservative and sentimental view of what happened to black people in

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the 20th century. Do you understand why he is coming from? Yes I do.

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where he is coming from. I am playing with two other black people

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in the theatre. They both refrain from using polemics. They choose to

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give you the character's experience. I do not expect to change anybody's

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mind because you cannot. I expect to change their hearts. If you give

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them the character's experience fully, and honestly, they will feel.

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The audience will sit here and feel it. That is a fascinating insight.

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Do you believe that you have managed to change some people's

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lights? I cannot tell. -- lives. If I can get through to their feelings,

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that is what the play is about. Comedies and tragedies. If I can

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get through one night. There are different ways of addressing the

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same thing, of trying to get the trip out to audiences. Let me quote

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you something that a black intellectual said of Sydney party,

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in 1969. -- --Sidney Poitier. He said there is no sense in been a $1

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million a shoeshine boy. I just wonder when you hear people say

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that sort of thing about this actor, whether you worried that some

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people might say that about your roles? I think that is distorted

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poetry. I do not understand that comment. Whoever he is. Sydney, I

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would more compare, to a cowboy. John Wayne? No. He was not a cowboy.

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Which cowboy do you mean? You will not fall safely... Who is that guy?

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The good guy of roads. That is The good guy of roads. That is

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The good guy of roads. That is Sydney also -- roads. -- Rose. He

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was here for the images that he put up for people. That is the only

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thing that defines her. Do you think that will continue to define

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the roles that black people play? The actor should have won the Oscar

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for playing the original man in Driving Miss Daisy. And he also

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played a penned one time. He was so scary. -- a pain. But -- a pimp.

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What we see today, from black actors, I am thinking of Will Smith

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and Denzel Washington, taking a good guys, bad guys, ambiguous

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roles, and I wonder whether some of the questions you had to face from

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people through this prison of being a black actor, whether that has

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gone now? I never paid attention to it anyway. I just pay attention to

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Am thinking about the America you have lived in and the

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transformation we had seen. It is ironic that he played a black

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president in the 70s and here we are more than three decades later

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end it is no longer fiction. Does that say you do something profound

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has changed - has been delivered for the African-American

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population? It surprised us. I understand enterprise due in

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Britain as well. That America was capable of collecting Barack Obama.

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I remember I was in my brother-in- law's house and it looked like it

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was going to go either way. I did not want to sit through that, so my

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wife and I went home. When we turn the television and later, Barack

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Obama had won. I was ready to accept it either way. I do sense

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some disappointment in use since. You have said things like, we

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thought we got the hero into the White House and we thought we had

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done our job, but maybe we celebrated too early. I do not know

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what we thought, but I know be did not react to that fact. The fact

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was, a door was opened and they should have been a flood of energy

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through that door. It should have heightened our behaviour and our

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experience. You have the same amount of crime going on in the

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streets and the same amount of lethargy going on in homes and

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schools. That shocked me, because with that kind of door open, it

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should have created in energy that went rewarded what he represented.

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It was not him, it was asked that one that presidency. It was our job

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to make hay from it. Why hasn't that happened then? Because we do

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not know how to maintain it. The idea of setting up a hero and

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vetting in delayed is still pretty strong. For a guy who has won Tony

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wants and has had an honorary Oscar, you were never pressure about --

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pressures about your career. You are happy to do commercials, radios,

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screen performances. It is called acting. Yes, I am a journeyman.

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say that, but many others would not. You go through a period where you

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would have to prove yourself. You cannot do it without being an

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apprentice first. You go out there and you learn how to build it up.

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You start as a stage carpenter. You get out there and you work your

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butt off all night to get decent painted, C can go out and get the

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lead actors to do a show the next night. Do you think the discipline

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of acting and the art of acting has been skewed by the money and the

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glamour that particularly resides in movies? I wonder when people are

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going to start occupying the movie studios over distorted racial

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salaries. It is ridiculous. I would not turn it down, because it is

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money. If somebody wants to dump millions of dollars into my pocket,

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I would not say no. But it is ridiculous. What job of work is

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worth more than $1 million? Would job in the world? Is taking's job

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worth more than $1 million? No. interested in that train of thought

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that Hollywood and everything that he can offer is sucking up so much

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of the interest and talent. It is very complex, because it is not

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just the act of. It is also be the agents. There is a competition

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between agents. Once you get bigger salaries, it gets even bigger. What

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bothers me is the match is below the lead actor, who has to suffer a

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much smaller salary because the lead is getting more to million

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dollars. That bothers me. That is worth an occupied movement.

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thing that strikes me about your career is so many people around the

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world are not going to identify you buy your face, but your voice. You

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have lived by your voice. I wonder when you recognise that your voice

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was a special instrument. I had to find it first. I did not talk from

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the age of five to 15. We do need? It was too embarrassing and painful.

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I am a stutter rap. I still am. One reason I am not an activist is

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because when I get heated, I go haywire. Many people would say your

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voice carries with it a weight and authority. We have to talk about it,

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we have to talk about Darth Vader and the fact that so many millions

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of people associate your voice with that character and that 'Star Wars'

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trilogy. There is something unique about it. When I began talking

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again and the teacher in high school he got me talking again said,

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now that you are talking, you now have a male, had old boys. It

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happened to be a base and those are rare. The best advice I have for

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you is do not listen to it. You might fall in love with it yourself

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and what you do, you're doomed. Because if you listen to it, nobody

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else will. She wore dinner to be too self-conscious about it? Yes.

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The worst thing an actor can do is be self-conscious. I wonder if it

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sticks in your throat, giving the span of luck that you have done,

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but people come back to Darth Vader? A performance that did not

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have too many words in it and where you could not be seen. It goes down

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like butter. I love being a part of that whole myth. Especially when

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they are kids than they won their posters signed. You cannot say no

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to that. Did George Lucas have to get you to adapt your voice for

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that particular role? No. He did that in casting. He wanted to use

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Orson Welles, but he thought he would be to recognisable. So he

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chose a starter. I got a job. He did not pay much. If you are in

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actor, I would have gotten points than staff had been a millionaire.

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I am happy to have been special effects and that's all I was.

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is how you are titled Yousuf Raza Gilani that is how I titled myself.

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When you talk about your career now, you say that you now believe your

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best baby, your legacy may be, lies in the future, that it is still

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ahead of you? Yes. What is your dream role? There is a writer out

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there who has that hedging in the back of his mind and soul. He or

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she will write it. In the meantime, are you going to stay on the stage?

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That is my tendency. I would do a little movie. I would do a little

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part in a movie here and there, but I find it easier to commit to this.

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I know what is going on here. this way you deal most comfortable?

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I never feel uncomfortable. I am never nervous. That feeling is

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something else going on. That adrenalin. I fear heightened. --

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field. I would not compare to a poll put, but when you have a good

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play, it is worth preaching to a congregation. There is something

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similar about it. Not that I want to be religious at this moment.

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There is something sacred, to me, about this. I do not like people

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