Good to meet you.
Thanks for having me.
I saw your movie last night
at a screening, you know,
one of those things where they arrange it.
And so usually those are real subdued--
Uh-huh, what happened? You know,
because it's bunch of industry people.
And it's a real powerful film.
People were shouting, like guys sitting there in suits
were like, you know, shouting at each other.
This is a pretty intense movie.
That's what it's about.
That's what I'm supposed to do.
It's supposed to be one of those movies that stays with you.
Is it still with you?
Yeah. (laughs)
I'm doing my job.
Yeah, no, and the movie, you know,
for people who don't know anything about it,
it was a movie about, you're hoping a typical campus, right?
Well, no, not the typical campus.
It's a campus that's kind of like a microcosm
for America itself.
You know, America's becoming, you know,
they say more conservative,
but it's almost like more fascist.
And that's what, you know, the picture is like.
Yeah, and this was like, you know,
a lot of the movie is it's not just a black and white.
It's a lot of different kinds of people,
can't get along.
Yeah, yeah.
People are, you know, divided over their sex.
And you know, ethnicity, everything, you know.
it's just one big battleground.
Yeah, and really, it made college, you know,
you see this, it makes it a very intense experiences.
Does this reflect at all what your experience was like?
I mean, was it that intense?
I think of my experience at,
I went to the university of Southern California, USC.
(audience cheers)
All right.
(Conan laughs)
Reserve your applause.
But my experience was a little bit less intense
than the characters in the picture.
But it was very intense, you know?
What kind of things did you experience there?
You know, sometimes it's very easy for people to think,
well, you know, racism, that kind of division,
it's not as bad, you know,
people have a tendency to put that,
like in the 60s or something.
Did you-- No, no.
I mean, you know, at that school,
that school is a predominantly white university.
You know, and it's set like right near
south central Los Angeles.
But it's like a big island.
And you know, and I was like, you know, I just,
I could walk right off the campus, you know?
And it was like going to school in my neighborhood.
I didn't have anything really to worry about.
But I mean, being on the campus,
you know, and being, you know,
African-American and going on on that campus,
it was kind of like constricting for me.
In a lot of ways.
How did people react?
'Cause you know, I guess, you felt like some resistance,
you wanted to be a filmmaker.
You were in the film program-- I got in the film program.
And you know, I was one of like 14 African-Americans
in a program that had like 2000 students.
And you know, since my success,
they've admitted, like, you know, more than that.
But I mean, you know, when I was there,
I mean, dudes used to like, you know,
look at me and be like,
Oh, well, you should just give it up, you know.
'Cause you're black and you'll never make it.
And you know, we're gonna make movies,
and you're never gonna make movies.
And it's just like, after a while I was like, you know,
I was trying to be cool with people.
But I was like, you know what?
You know, kill this, you know?
So I just stepped to everybody after that.
And I was like, listen, I'm gonna make movies.
You are not going to make movies.
(Conan laughs) You have nothing
to talk about, you know?
I have life, you know, I have a life?
You know, what do you have to talk about?
You gonna talk about growing up in Encino?
So you know, (Conan laughs)
I started becoming more-- Well an alien could visit?
You know? (laughing)
I started becoming, they put me in a position
where I had to be, like,
I felt I had to be big up on them.
You know, I had to be like 10 times better.
And I had to like, you know, be as irascible as they were.
Because everybody there was trying to be like,
George Lucas or Steven Spielberg, everybody.
They would grow beards that look like Spielberg.
(Conan laughs) And look like Lucas.
And they wear the right kind of glasses and stuff.
And I was like, you know,
people will say, oh, you're trying to be like Spike Lee.
Like I was trying to be like John Singleton.
I was trying to define my own identity,
you know, as a person.
And then maybe I'd find it if I got a chance
to make a movie.
Now, do you call these people now?
Get them on the phone?
No. (laughing) (Conan laughs)
You should do that! They should call me!
They call me. (Conan laughs)
They call you up. They call me for jobs.
But it's all right.
You know, there's no there's no love lost, so--
Well, you grew up in south central.
And I remember when I saw "Boyz n the Hood,"
I thought, this must be, in some ways,
very autobiographical.
I mean, you know, Lawrence Fishburne is playing
your dad in that movie.
Yeah, that film was, you know,
at the time I was saying it wasn't autobiographical.
but there were a lot of things in the film that,
you know, were directly from my life, you know?
Was your dad a strict guy like that?
Or was he-- Yeah, he was really strict.
You know, I grew up first with my mother,
and then I started acting up.
And my mother's like, oh, you know,
you're getting out of line.
You gonna have to go over to your daddy.
So, you know, I did that and I thought, cool.
You know, I live with my pops.
I'll be able to stay out to 10 o'clock every night.
You know, I was like 12, 13.
He was like, nah, it's not gonna go like that.
You know, he's like, you're gonna have to like,
you know, wash dishes and do all that stuff.
It's like almost slave labor, you know?
(Conan laughs) All he'd have to do was work.
You know, 40, 45 hours a week.
I had to come home and wash dishes and everything, you know?
It just seemed so unfair at the time.
But you know, now I know otherwise.