Stefan. I'm well.
Thank you, Stefan.
You're okay? Yeah.
It's actually Pape, bit like Pape
No one in my family knows where it comes from, but we're rolling with it, it's cool....
I'm going to begin.
I've really enjoyed what I've seen.
So far of 61st Street, and I think you play a great character in this.
I just wondered what it was when you first got that script.
I know. Obviously, you obviously get a lot of scripts coming your way.
What was it that made you feel like this is one?
I want to get involved and this is a character I need to play.
How many episodes have you seen, Mr. Pape?
Just two actually.
Me too, you and me have seen the same amount,
but it was it was the to
the creator, Mr.
Peter Moffat and the showrunner in Chicago.
David Shanks.
I sat with them and their passion about the project.
Really made me say, Let's take the leap together.
You know, that we're going to be we're going to be doing this
together an interesting get together because it's such a huge undertaking
that it really takes it really takes and took all of us together.
And being the the the person out there to lead
the way, lead the charge, and everyone else followed us.
So we were I was so grateful that I partnered up with
people who were true to their word, and passionate about this story,
creating the story and telling the story so that it was the two of them.
Was it quite helpful having David Shanks around to discuss his projects?
I know he's got an affiliation, of course, to Chicago,
but also had a previous job in law enforcement.
So having that kind of inside track must have been quite useful, I guess,
from crafting this character understanding as well as.
It was that was helpful.
But it was more helpful that there
he was just there he was there all the time.
And, you know, being able to, you know, knowing the
the characters and being in the writer's room
and knowing all the writers and knowing what it took for them
to, you know, to craft the story.
So it was it really was.
And no, he was a police officer and all.
And he was able to advise us when we were meandering the topic
didn't get it quite right,
not getting it quite right, but the fact that he was always there to be able to.
David, what do you think?
How to, you know, and then be able to bring us all together
and being able to give us some perspective as we were, you know, maybe
getting too focussed in the minutia.
So I deeply appreciate that he was there
and that Bravo had hats off to Peter Moffat for bringing him on board.
He was he and Alana Mayo
were invaluable to us.
Yeah, a Chicago part of America that, you know, quite well.
I went there a couple of years ago and I just fell in love with that city.
So much is so rich in that particular musical.
I'm a big music fan.
So just knowing that you walk in the same streets
as Sam Cooke once, that is always enough for me.
But is it just a place that you're that you feel that you knew well before
getting involved in this project you've been to many times before?
Yes, I love it's my favourite city.
Yeah.
So it's, it's really,
really the history of the city is rich.
The architecture is just the river going through.
The city is so wonderful to see.
And people walk in Chicago, you know, and people ride bikes
and people scoot with scooters and it's like London
is just it's the people town and people get around.
It's like New York without the dirt, you know, it's got its issues
as all cities, as all people, as all families do.
But you got to take the good, the bad and the ugly together.
And and as my wife says,
find the good and praise it. I love the city.
I loved the dysfunction of it.
Yeah. You know that.
But the hope is there.
People, you know, people will come together.
They then when they have their concerts and Grandpa and when the when the
the lake freezes over and the wind blows down Michigan
Avenue and folks are holding on the ropes trying to get from here and there.
And, you know, it's just it's a it's a city with all the seasons
and all the, you know, the trials and tribulations I love.
You know.
I was going to talk about your character for the moment.
I mean, he's a he's a really good man.
But of course, from what I've seen, he's he's flawed like anyone is.
I mean, even in our first scene, we meet him.
He lets his emotions kind of get the better of him.
Is that how important is it for you?
The characters you come with have imperfections, and no one person
is just the kind of yeah, it's perfect in every in every regard.
I think
our job is that we hold as far as
Shakespeare said, the mirror up to nature.
We're we're we're letting folks know that,
you know, it's okay to be okay.
It's okay.
You know, we're all trying to figure this out together.
And that's that's the whole point.
And that there's no shame in being, you know, a regular Joe.
There's no shame in being a post office worker.
And there's no small jobs.
There's no no small parts.
It's everyone adds to the whole
I can only be what I'm supposed to be if you are.
John Donne said that I was of the king's favourite poet,
that the rich man can be
what he is supposed to be, and to the poor man is what he is supposed to be.
We're all tied to the to the mast piece of the whole.
And, you know, I look at it like that.
I look at, you know, you know,
by the grace of God, I I wouldn't be here.
I'm, you know, I could be you know, no one knew who I was.
No one I didn't know what I wanted to do.
I wanted to know my mission was to find out
to be find something to do that I was happy doing.
And that that's a very human emotion.
And there were people in the I know that was where I wasn't in college.
Everyone seemed to know what they wanted to do.
And I felt, you know, alone.
And that's a very human emotion.
So if I can find my way, anybody can find their way,
you know, the main thing is just, you know, don't stop, don't settle.
You know, it's it's not over till it's over.
And, you know, in the midst of these crazy, crazy times, it's
very easy for people to lose hope.
But I just, you know, keep pushing, find a way through.
You get to
the end of your rope but not to the end of your hope.
No mention of it. I completely agree with you.
There's no such thing as as a as a small job.
Everything's so important.
But you're as an actor, you've played such a variety of roles, allows you
to try your hand at so many different causes.
You have so many different jobs.
You think in some ways it gives you a great understanding of the world.
You know,
when I'm a kid, I could decide
if I wanted to be a journalist or an astronaut or a footballer as an actor.
In some ways, you get to be all of those kind of things.
Is that one of the perks of your career is having a million jobs have been
within one?
It is
if everything goes as and we would hope and pray.
But, you know, the the journey is all there.
You know, in order to do to get to the place where
new roles come to you,
you have to take the chance of nothing coming to you.
And people in our profession,
as in any freelance profession, you have to take the chance to go.
I may not work.
This may not happen for me.
And when our parents we make the commitment and our parents go work
I send you to Harvard for you to be in our team.
And 95% of the actors don't work.
Is that is that is that a good choice? Course.
And I said, I'm going to find something I'm happy doing
it gives brings me joy to to
to get on that stage and find my way.
So that's all I knew.
And that's and God bless them
for not making me feel less then for making that choice.
So, you know, I'm indebted to my parents
and all my surrogate fathers and mothers and aunts and uncles
to who supported me when nobody knew who I was.
I've only got time for one more question, but I was
I was reading that this week was a really wonderfully eloquent article,
an important article written by your wife about the banning of certain books
at the moment and the erasure of certain stories in America.
Is that something you think
the film and TV industry can really help if to bring these stories to the screen?
It sounds like you, yourself and Angela [Bassett] are really working
towards towards doing that and bringing some great
and unheard stories to to to add to our lives and to our major nations.
Over the next two years.
Our production company Advanced Advanced Productions is all about that.
And it's important.
It's, you know, that's we're at a place now we can and people listen to us
if we have something to say and we're just saying, let's let's use it.
Let's not wait for projects to come to us.
We'll continue to do that.
But let's that's impact that's that's a part of projects
that are important to us.
Let's use our names, collective and individual names, to, to, to,
to draw our men and women to us
and, and boys and girls to us to say something.
Because then the world
with the world or the songwriters said needs
now is love and, and more of it.
And, and it's easy to be evil and mean and
mean spirited, but to bring truth to someone,
to bring joy to some of that's work.
So that's what we're about we're trying to bring some joy and some truth,
that's all.
And then it's, you know, then it's someone else's turn.
Yeah. Brilliant.
I think you did some great work.
Thank you so much
for your time today, Courtney,
Thank you, Mr.
Pape, sir. Thank you.