Oh, you got me flowers?
Welcome.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you, Trevor.
This is-- am I holding these for you?
Am I--
No, no, no, no.
Those are for you.
TREVOR NOAH: These are for me?
I think I heard you got two weeks left maybe.
[laughter]
And so you brought me my flowers.
From the culture.
Oh, man, this is--
Those are your flowers, B. And those are--
I heard those are South African.
Yeah, this is beautiful. JONATHAN MAJORS: Yeah.
TREVOR NOAH: This is amazing. JONATHAN MAJORS: Yeah.
Well, no one else has brought me flowers, man.
[crowd awwing]
[applause]
This is-- wow.
Well, I had questions to grill you on.
But now I'm--
We'll take it easy.
Now we'll just take it easy now.
[laughs] No, but welcome. Welcome to the show.
What's up, bro?
It is an absolute pleasure to have you here.
I mean, obviously, for the new movie,
but for everything that you've been doing.
You know, you hopped onto many people's screens
for the first time, Last Black Man
in San Francisco, amazing film that I
think everybody should watch.
The way you carry a character, then, obviously,
Lovecraft Country, which you got your Emmy nomination for.
Congratulations on that.
[cheering]
You know?
And now in this film, it's amazing to be playing
a character that more people should know about because
of what they represented.
But to be playing the first Black pilot in the Navy,
many people talk about how Black service members were
fighting a war on two fronts.
JONATHAN MAJORS: That's right.
They weren't just fighting against wars
happening outside America.
They were fighting against what was happening inside America.
And you portray it in this film.
Talk me through the whys.
I know you're very intentional about why.
Why this movie, and why this character?
Wow.
Well, I play a supervillain.
And I thought this was an opportunity to play a hero.
TREVOR NOAH: I love that.
When I-- so I'm from Texas, Dallas, Texas.
Came up-- came up a certain way.
Jessie Brown is from Mississippi--
Right.
--and was the son of a sharecropper.
And somehow he made his way from those sharecropping
fields to the sky and became not
just a Black Naval aviator, but the best Black Naval aviator.
And I thought, OK, we've got stories about King and Rosa
Parks and Harriet Tubman.
And we don't have a story about this guy.
And this is his handshake.
This is the first time they're going
to say, OK, this is Jesse.
This is Jesse, you know?
TREVOR NOAH: Wow.
And I wanted to be responsible for that.
And I also wanted to fly some planes.
So--
What did you garner from that experience that helped
you in telling the story?
Well, it was access.
I mean, that was the whole thing.
That's Jesse's thing, access.
It's quite poetic.
It's a metaphor in a way.
If you can touch the sky in your life, in that way,
you can pretty much do anything.
You know what I mean? TREVOR NOAH: You truly can.
You truly can.
[applause]
What I love noticing is how many times the parallels will
be drawn between characters that great actors are playing
and the lives that they themselves are living.
I think you're no different.
You know, you're ascending at a rate
that everybody is enjoying.
You truly are.
You're flying from-- from indie films to a show that
was beloved on HBO, and then now, as you said,
you're going to be in a Marvel movie
and Marvel movies plural.
[cheering]
It's the opposite end of the spectrum.
It's so big.
How do you hold onto the small that you love in acting?
Because I know that about you.
You love the minute.
But at the same time, we saw you when you were in Loki.
That was one of the best surprises.
You made a pretty kickass villain.
Yeah, you blow it up.
You blow it up.
I mean, I just--
I love acting. For me--
TREVOR NOAH: Right. It shows.
Thank you, bro.
For me, it's my way of of healing.
I mean, you see a character.
You go, OK, it's like getting to know somebody.
You go, OK, cool.
And though I am pretty antisocial--
Yeah.
--I do love people.
You know what I mean?
TREVOR NOAH: OK, OK, that makes sense.
Clapping for that? OK, cool.
Yeah.
[laughs] That person's pro-people.
I love people too! - We love people.
I love people.
I like this guy.
We love people.
And the cool part about people is really we're all
the same in a way, you know?
I'm not going to get on a soapbox, but we really are.
And the older I get and the more I'm rearing a kid
and building a career, you go, all
these mother-[bleep] the same. TREVOR NOAH: [laughs]
You know what I mean?
It's like, everybody's hurting, you know?
Yes.
And there's something about just finding purpose.
All the homeys talk about it. - Right.
I mean, Muhammad Ali talked about purpose, you know?
Nipsey Hussle talk about purpose.
Right.
You know what I mean?
Man's Search for Meaning, that whole book
is about people surviving this hard time because of purpose,
you know? TREVOR NOAH: Yes.
And I feel quite fortunate that this is my purpose.
I look at somebody, and I go, OK, tell me where it hurts.
What's going on?
I go, OK, cool, where is that hurt on me?
And you try to-- TREVOR NOAH: Wow.
And you grow that way.
You can make some really great friends that way too.
TREVOR NOAH: Wow.
And you tell amazing stories that way.
Yeah, hopefully, that--
Yeah, no, because it connects to what people
are experiencing, whether it is the housing crisis in San
Francisco, whether it is people being forced
out of where they live, whether it is civil rights in America.
And I think you show that in everything.
People are so excited to see you not just in Marvel films,
but everyone was shocked and amazed not just at the fact
that you're going to be in Creed III--
the trailer looks amazing.
[cheering]
Right?
Directed by Michael B. Jordan, and you're going to be
starring across from him.
But then the images came out of you--
Oh, here we go.
--on Men's Health.
Yeah, it is definitely here we go because I
think we have the image here.
[cheering]
Why are you doing this to us?
[laughter]
I'm doing this for us.
TREVOR NOAH: You realize there are normal men out there.
We're living our lives, eating bread.
And then you do-- what is your body
fat percentage at right now?
3.6.
3.6?
3.6.
I feel like athletes are, like, 5.
So what don't you eat?
What do I not eat?
TREVOR NOAH: Can you eat?
I can't not eat.
TREVOR NOAH: Explain this to me.
How is it that everybody who gets a Marvel
movie gets a six pack?
What is happening there?
Why is Disney not releasing--
I want to know what this is. How many hours?
- It's an algorithm. - What are you eating?
Like, what is your life?
I mean, pfft, what is my life?
Oh.
So I woke up this morning. TREVOR NOAH: No!
I want to know about the muscles.
You know what I'm talking about, man.
I just train, man.
I train probably two--
I train two times a day.
You stay away from carbs. You know what I mean?
TREVOR NOAH: You see? I knew it.
Unless you need the carb, right?
Because-- - I knew it.
--I have oatmeal in the morning.
- OK. - That's a carb.
And the fun carbs.
You can put some--
You know what I mean?
Well, like what? Like pizza?
TREVOR NOAH: Saying, like, oats is carbs is like someone
saying, you want to come to a party?
And you're like, yeah.
And they're like, it's a political party.
Aw. - OK.
[laughs]
That's-- oats are the cause of that.
OK, OK.
I see the game you play.
OK, OK, OK, OK.
I was hoping there was, like, a hack.
I thought there was a hack. - Well, I'll tell you--
I thought there was a trick that you'd tell me.
--something about this.
Yeah.
I ate Shake Shack the day before.
That's a secret. - You see?
Now this is something I can do. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[laughs]
I want to incorporate this into my life.
Yeah, yeah.
Once you've deaden yourself to a certain point--
Oh, no.
I just want to eat Shake Shack the day before, man!
I want to eat Shake Shack the day before.
Before I let you go, I remember the first time
I saw you on the screen.
And I was like, this guy--
I don't know how he's doing it, how he's making it so-- you
sucked me into your world.
I promise you, you just-- everyone
knows that you're going to be the biggest
star anyone has ever seen.
And everyone's going to be giving you the flowers.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for joining me on the show.
Thank you for creating what you create.
Congratulations on everything.
Thank you.
Jonathan Majors, everybody.