Are you trying to find the good
light?
I'm trying to get out of this weird shadow.
This is the danger of doing things
like this. Like looking at yourself
like, OK, it's not OK.
I think it's unavoidable.
Tom, is this good?
Greetings. I am Tessa Thompson.
And I'm Nnamdi Asomugha.
And this is.
The First Time.
I just remember listening
to all the songs that were in the
script.
My bands playing tonight
at night, if you want to come
to. I've met a girl who knows as much about music as you do.
So it felt like a very
like a musical experience
of of reading the script.
Did you read it and like pause every
time a song came up?
And then I would I would pause, play
the song and then continue reading
with this song.
So I really remember I remember
it musically, actually, which
which makes sense because I feel
like the film is partially a love
letter to the music
and the way it brings us together
quite literally sometimes.
The first time I read the script
for Service Love, I was on an
airplane.
I was headed to New York.
I get all my work done on planes, so
it's the best time for something to
come in. And I got
it. I read it.
And I think by the next
morning I was on the phone with the
writer and director Eugene, telling
him how much I loved it and how
much I wanted to be a part of it.
I sang in the choir
in high school, and then before
that, I in the fifth grade,
we did a production of West Side
Story and I
and I played Maria and my
family will never let me live it
down because I have the speech.
And Maria, at the end of it, she's
like, this will be the most
wonderful night. And then I did a
bunch of spins and I spun right into
the curtain.
And we have been on a family
video.
That's probably my first.
And then later I sang in a band.
And then more recently, I've got to
perform music in this
creed films.
But I'll never live down that
spinning right into the curtain
moment. I like kind of lost
my balance like
face planted into the curtain,
but I didn't want.
I had an acting coach,
she helped me out on this film that
I did called Crown Heights.
You got your family.
Your life, why are you still
wasting your time on me?
It's not just about you.
I mean, I'm just an amazing
experience working with her.
And she ended up getting cancer
and she passed away right before
we premiered the film.
So she never got to see Crown
Heights, which, you know, breaks my
heart. And I went
to her funeral.
There was a guy that got up and
he had a saxophone and he played
someone to watch over me at her
funeral. I was like, that was great.
Left it alone.
I get this script and I
see that Robert plays the saxophone.
And somehow and I think she
talks to me all the time
somehow that moment
and that image came to mind.
And so I reached out to her family,
got his information, sent
him the script, and he said,
I will teach you how to play the
saxophone.
You have to perfect this for
the film.
And so, in a weird way, I kind
of feel like her name is
Eden Bernadi. And I feel like Eden
is still sort of working her
magic through me in some sort of
way. But that was the that was
the moment where I really like what
full force into the saxophone.
I produced a film called Littlewoods
every day I'm with Mom and she's
dying, and I can do is get her some
medication so it hurts less.
You got something
and I met the
the filmmaker
when the script was a very different
script at the Sundance Labs, which
they do these labs where you get to
shoot scenes and sort of develop and
workshop the piece and that
filmmakers needed to Costa and
we like instantly just
had such a rapport.
And the third day I remember
the third day being there.
Drinking whiskey in this bar
called the Owl Bar and her saying,
we make this movie with me
when I make it. And I said, you
better not make this movie without
me. And then we just worked really
hard to get the film made.
And like Sylvia's love, it wasn't an
easy film. There weren't a lot of
people clamoring to make this film,
but it felt so special to me.
So I'm happy to get to continue
to do that and to do that with
producers that are as passionate as
nowadays.
So for me, the first time that
I epeat a film that
was Beasts of No Nation
on The View that I see.
Seen your family.
Cute.
You now have something that stands
for you.
I had just finished playing football
and, you know, it was maybe
five or six months later
and there
was this project that I
really loved and I really wanted to
be a part of as an actor.
And so I talked to the director and
talked to one of the lead producers
and they said, we really want to go
with people that actually are
from Ghana like they are.
They live in Ghana.
We want it to be that specific, but
we just completely hit it off.
And so we would call each other
for like weeks.
And then finally,
the lead producer said, do
you want to just shadow me on this
and come on and
help up and and
bring the story to life because
we're having trouble getting it
made?
I said, sure, I don't even know what
that means, but I followed along
and we went to Ghana.
And so six months
after I was finished in the NFL, I
found myself in Ghana making
a film and shadowing the
director, Cary Fukunaga, who
was amazing, and Daniela
Teplin, the producer.
And making that movie
was a great experience.
Maybe Bamby and maybe another.
Know.
Mother, and it's so funny
because when I saw the
The Lion King,
when we fasted dies,
there was this kid in the theater.
You just heard one little voice go
dead.
No, no one and
clearly no one answered the
child because a minute later
the kids are dead
again and it was like such.
It brought me back to the time when
you're a kid and you're watching
these films and the and the
protagonist dies.
And I'm thinking back to that.
Some of those Disney films or these
early cartoons you watch, you're the
first time you're really processing
death as a kid.
But I remember that in Bambi, I
remember being in the theater and
being pretty distraught.
Oh, you're going to break my heart
with that story
that I'm going to
hear all the time whenever a
character dies.
And I'm like,
okay.
Oh, well, it's that's heartbreaking.
So the first time that I
saw the second movie I ever saw was
Boyz in the Hood just goes on
and on, you know.
And I remember when I remember
when Ricky dies at
the end, spoiler alert.
But I just remembered, like,
being in complete shock.
It was the first time I ever saw
someone die,
get shot there, killed.
So that was that was.
I know I know that that touched
me. I don't know if I cry, but I'll
tell you what recently
got me emotional was have
you ever seen this movie?
We always go back to the animated
films, but have you ever seen this
movie Coco?
So there's this moment at
the end I'm going to spoil the end
for you. But the family is walking
across this gold
sort of bridge and
the family was reunited
and this little girl
was older than
sort of the father figure because he
died so young and they finally
got to be together and walk across.
And that's just.
Oh, man.
My father is a musician, and so
he has,
you know, like musician friends
somehow I ended up in a music video
of Brenda Russell music video for a
song called Stop Running Away.
It was all done, by the way, my very
first kiss, his name.
His name is Floyd.
The concept of the video is this
married couple that were in
rest.
And I think we played like the child
version of them,
but we were doing kind of adult
things and I got a
kiss for it. He was my first my
first crush, my first kiss, and
also very apropos, very black
love. Just me and Floyd, two
black kids in this music video.
It is Baby Tessa.
Yeah, I have pictures of me in the
makeup trailer. I didn't know that I
would go on to do this.
It was just like fun.
Weird moment in time for me as a
kid.
So,
yeah, mine is not like mine is
really boring.
I don't remember the exact moment,
but I know because of football,
I was basically watching myself on
screen all the time.
But it's still like highlights
or just certain plays or whatever
or interviews after a game I'm
talking about in high school, like
they'll do the local TV
channel and they'll interview a
player after the game.
And so I remember that
stuff.
I was doing Shakespeare plays, I
was really interested in classical
theater, I thought maybe I would go
to conservatory, but I didn't think
I would pursue a career
in acting
in TV and film.
And then I honestly, I was so broke
that someone suggested that I should
interview.
I had like all these odd jobs.
I was like dancing at bar mitzvahs.
I was waitressing at a Chinese
restaurant.
I was teaching dance.
I was doing all these things.
And then I started I just auditioned
on a lark.
And it kind of work
begets work and it started to happen
for me. And then I think
one of my first experience is acting
on screen and
having a moment where I feel like I
forgot that the camera existed.
That was a moment where I was like,
I really I'd like to do this
forever.
I was in probably the middle of my
career and
I was doing a commercial as we do
commercials from time to time.
And I was doing what I think I was
in Houston, Texas, and
we finished shooting and I went back
to my trailer that was
getting ready to get on a plane.
And the director comes into the
trailer and he says, hey,
do you want to get a bite to eat?
I just want to talk to you about
this business and everything.
And I told them, no, I got to get on
a plane.
You know, I kind of pushed
him aside and
I got a call a couple of weeks
later saying, look, I think
you're really talented.
I get a lot of players that come in
and do commercials and nothing
happens and nothing comes from it.
But there's a natural thing
that you have. And I was like, oh,
this is cool. He said, you should
really pursue it.
A couple of weeks later, he says,
hey, I want you to be on my show
Friday Night Lights.
And I'm like, Oh, my
sister loves this show.
Yeah, that would be great.
And I find out that
this director is Peterburg.
He created Friday Night Lights.
I start telling people this story
and everyone's like, you got advice
from Peterburg.
You've got to this is a calling.
You know, that everybody's going
crazy. And
so I kept playing, but I knew that
when I was done, someone
said I was good.
So let me try this avenue
and see if it actually works.
So, yeah, I think that was the first
moment where it was like,
oh, this might be the next thing
that I did.
I still get starstruck, I don't
know.
I know you're supposed to be cool,
but I remember I don't know what
red carpet was on, but
I looked and felt someone behind
me and Meryl Streep was there and I
just went up
to get help.
Also, when I met Tilda Swinton,
I was sure
she gave me a piece of pizza.
I was beside myself
once. I was princess for Halloween
and I never got to meet Prince.
I'm a massive Prince fan and a
friend of mine who is close with
Prince sent a picture of
me.
As him to Prince and Prince
wrote back, saying
that I did a good job and I
that was like a real.
Moment for me, although it was not
in person, so it doesn't
really have so I don't really get
starstruck.
I'll tell you this,
I was doing a play called
Good Grief at the theater in New
York. So it's an off Broadway play.
And I had finished
the show. And every day you finish
in the lobby is crowded with people
and it's but it's small off
Broadway play.
You know, maybe someone
comes, maybe they don't.
The random night.
I think it's a Tuesday, the night
when I really don't want anyone to
come because you're warming up
and I walk out into the lobby.
And there's Tessa.
And she has like this
red something
outfit and her hair is done
in some sort of way and I'm just
like.
What are you doing?
Well, it wasn't star struck,
it was like awestruck
like one, why are you here?
And to why are you the
most radiant person in the
room?
Like, why are you glowing?
And everyone's like Tessa Thompson,
you know,
leave me alone and
smile, girl.
So that was like a cool moment.
That's what came to my.
I was probably only the fifth
teen to
be 15, 14, and I got
really involved in my high school
with doing
AIDS education, with working
around dispelling
myths and stigma.
And that was something that really
mattered to me.
And then also did a lot of work in
my high school. There was a program
that was developed by students there
called Racial Harmony, and
it had to do with with
different people of different races
coming together and interrogating
racism and calling it out in each
other and in ourselves.
And that was something, I think,
that really helped
me in understanding how
essential it is and how difficult
it it can be to build community
and also to create sort of
grassroots organization around
issues.
When I was in college, I went to
Berkeley and there was a protest
basically every day or every other
day on campus.
The black population
on campus was I think I was about
two point eight percent, if I'm
getting that number right.
And we protested
like this, this number is too small.
Let us in. We qualify.
We deserve to be recognized.
And so, you
know, for a couple of days, we wore
all black.
And black masks, black
hats, black head
to toe, Black Panthers,
Oakland and Berkeley, so we were
just all black, we linked
arms and we sort of did like
a sit in where we
we linked arms and we stood in front
of the gate that gets you into
campus.
So not letting anyone come in the
campus. So they had to go around or
find other ways.
And it was big news.
And yeah,
everybody it was great.
Everybody was so shocked that a
football player was a part of the
group doing it, because we tend to
stay off to the
side. But it was really
it was fun.