[MUSIC PLAYING]
Number one show on late night, nothing but illustrious guests.
Mero, who are we blessed to have in the virtual building today?
We got the god, the baller himself,
John David Washington in the building, y'all, you
know what I'm saying? He's starring in "Tenet."
You know what I'm saying? - He's been a football player.
He's out here.
Yo, John David Washington, or JD, I guess, as the homies
call you.
How's it going today, man?
I'm chilling.
I'm so happy to be here with y'all-- or, you know,
like this. [LAUGHS]
Yeah, virtually.
We here, though, virtual.
You know what I'm saying? - We're making it happen.
We're together, bro. [LAUGHS]
Yo, I see you right there.
"Tenet" out, it's out worldwide.
It's out some places in the United States.
Jersey, South Jersey.
OK, South Jersey.
[LAUGHING]
What's it like--
it's got to be weird, you know, having
a big movie like this, Christopher Nolan,
the name, the sound, everyone.
A movie like this is a must go see when it drops.
And then because of COVID and how Nolan feels,
he wants it to be seen in theaters,
so it wasn't released on Netflix and stuff.
What's it like working on something,
and then having COVID just come in and kind of change
all the plans like that?
JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON: Right.
I mean, this time last year, I thought
I'd be halfway around the world selling this thing, you know.
So obviously things have changed.
But when you're in it, though, when
I was working, when we were working on the film,
I didn't think about any of that stuff.
I felt that that would have been a deterrent to get the best
product forward, to get the--
to maximize the opportunity to tell the truth
that we were trying to tell.
So when you're in it, I was just a protagonist.
I was just my everyday routine and just
getting it done methodically.
So you would hope that when you come out of it,
you know, you get to release it and roll it out properly.
Obviously, things have changed.
But honestly, I-- now is the best time for it as ever.
I mean, this could be, as they're
saying, the savior of whatever.
But really, I think it's just an opportunity
to escape all this harsh reality that we've been living in.
Just for two and a half hours, just live in this epic,
crazy globe-trotting spy thriller/genre-bending
Christopher Nolan film that he made, that he created.
Did you know, during the whole process,
that Nolan wanted this to be, like, in theaters?
Like-- - Oh, yeah.
MERO: --that's the aim?
It was-- well, we shot with an IMAX camera.
I mean, this thing is--
Huge.
--huge, and it makes noise.
I mean, it was almost like the main character of every scene,
you know.
It was a scene-stealer, if you will.
So [CHUCKLES] we knew what it was meant to be.
I mean, all that-- we were in seven different countries.
I mean, the locations were of great scale.
So we knew that this was meant to be experienced.
I won't even say watched, but experienced in the theater,
IMAX, preferably.
This isn't a movie you just want to Netflix and chill.
I mean, which is fine, but I think this is the rollout.
The way it's meant to be experienced, just through IMAX.
MERO: Right.
What is that like, shooting a movie on that scale?
Because you said you're in different countries
and traveling like that.
When you got the initial offer and the script,
and you're looking at it, you're like--
are they laying it out right then and there?
They're like, yo, fam, we're shooting this in Mongolia.
We're shooting this in this.
(LAUGHING) Mongolia.
But did they come to you and they're like, yo--
(LAUGHING) Mongolia.
--there might be-- you know, you-- listen,
you know about all the big "Hollywood"
movies made in Mongolia.
You know Tyler Perry, they making
movies in Mongolia, all right?
[LAUGHING]
John, how comfortable are you sleeping in a yurt, John?
Everyone remembers, "Madea Goes to Mongolia."
That was a big film.
My Archie loves it.
Yo, y'all wild.
[LAUGHTER]
I mean, by the way, if Christopher
Nolan needs me to do it, guess where I'm going to be?
In a blanket in Mongolia somewhere, so--
DESUS: Right.
But no, yeah, when you're-- when
I was reading the script it took me, like, four hours to read.
I never read anything like this before.
And yeah, you see where these locations are.
I'm like, all right, we're going to probably
fake some-- it's Hollywood.
You'll fake some of this stuff-- DESUS: Right.
--but not with Christopher Nolan.
And Warner Brothers, they really support him,
and we went to several different--
we went to every location that was written in the script.
There was a real plane that crashed into a real hangar.
That wasn't green screen.
That was practical, so--
Oof.
It was-- it was epic.
Oh, so he was like, this shit is coming out on IMAX.
Forget--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
You can't do, like--
Yo, we blew up a whole plane.
I am not crashing a plane for HBO Max.
Are y'all bugging?
Yeah, get the fuck out of here.
[LAUGHTER]
Like, no, all right?
See, y'all are Christopher Nolans in a monologue.
I feel like this is exactly what he thinks.
Y'all are saying it. - Exactly.
For sure.
I'll bet, yeah.
He got better "media training."
[LAUGHS]
Now we'll watch the movie tonight,
and there's going to be, like, a green screen plane crash.
I'll be, like, nah, that's weak, bro.
Wow.
What-- you would say, what would Chris do?
Yeah, yeah.
[LAUGHING] We'll get the bracelet, [LAUGHS] WWCD.
Exactly.
But yo, you know what, he would IMAX this shit.
That's what he would do.
You know what I'm saying?
Exactly.
He would, though. He would.
Yep.
So yo, talk to me about the football
though, because you was into football.
And then you went and started up rocking on "Ballers."
Let's go even further back-- football,
track, and basketball.
You want some Odell stuff?
What's going on?
You're just out here, "multifacetous."
[CHUCKLES] Well, I see your shoe collection,
so you appreciate, you know, multifaceted.
But yeah, I was--
in high school, I played.
I was-- I ran track, played basketball.
But football was my one true love when it came to sports.
It gave me a sense of independence.
Everybody wasn't going to be rocking
with me because of my dad.
I had to earn everything I got on the football field.
So that's what I used it for.
I went to a black-- historically black college,
earned my own scholarship--
Morehouse.
--boom, then get into the NFL, right?
Get into NFL, ride the bench for two years.
It was all good, though.
I was a professional bench-sitter,
so it was no problem.
Hey, bro, I'll take it.
I'll take it.
[LAUGHING]
At least you were in that circle,
you know what I'm saying?
You feel me?
You were on the 50-man roster.
Bro, I would kill to be a backup quarterback right now.
[LAUGHTER]
Right now.
Anybody sign me, the Jets, Rams.
JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON: I mean, health
ins-- you get health care.
You get-- you know, you get the paycheck.
It's a beautiful thing.
But yeah, I did it, but I really wanted to act my whole life.
And so I get hurt.
I'm training for-- so I get released,
and I play in the UFL for some years,
played NFL Europe, tear my Achilles.
So my career is basically over.
And then I found myself auditioning for "Ballers."
And 10 auditions later--
I went out.
They kept calling me back, and 10 auditions later, I got it.
So after I got it, I went to school.
I moved to New York, went to HBC--
HB Studios in West Village and went to school.
I started studying at the same time
while I was filming "Ballers."
And then it's just-- we've just been rolling ever since.
Was that easy?
Like, I mean, not easy, obviously.
But was it, like, easy to play kind
of like a heightened version of yourself, in a sense?
It was-- it was fun, but it wasn't easy because I'm nothing
like that dude.
[LAUGHTER]
And you know, he's obnoxious, and he's loud,
and I'm not like that.
I'm just-- I'd rather be at home playing 2K.
Gotcha.
You know, [CHUCKLES] right, do you feel me?
The real ones, though, the real ones, though.
Right.
And but he was so different.
But I also-- it was such an important role for me
because not only just being my first,
but also being able to give the point of view
from the player's perspective.
Like a lot of these fans don't know
why-- but when they read, oh, why is
he holding out for more money?
He's so selfish.
Well, actually, it's business, and this is protocol.
And the agents in the organization
usually make that happen, not the player.
So it was just a lot of great reasons to play that role
and to get the point of view across, I thought.
Speaking of point of views, as of-- you know,
since you've been in the football world,
last night, when--
during the football game, when all the players came together
and did the bond the unity, and the fans
booed them, which as a black person,
you kind of knew that was going to happen.
You've been seeing stuff with, like, the kneeling and stuff.
Every now and then on Twitter, you
see people just be like, shut up and play ball, and all of that.
What is it like being in that kind of environment?
Do you-- like, do football players realize that,
that kind of it's-- they're not really
rooting for you individually?
It's kind of just like they just might be just rooting
for the team or for the sport?
Or they might not care about you as a person?
Or is that not how it's viewed?
Like, what's going on from the field viewpoint?
That's a good question.
I think it varies.
I think it's on the individual.
I think there are some players, athletes, out there that know--
that have sort of a five-year or 10-year plan, you know,
like that they want to get in, get their money, and get out.
Some people were able to go back and get their education.
I think, personally, I would like to see these universities
grant all these scholarship students with lifetime
availability to finish their--
and finish college.
But they can come back at any age.
If they decide at 50, oh, you know what, now I
want to be whatever I want to be,
that they'll allow them to come for the free education.
I think that can help shape their mentality of not taking
things like that so personally when the crowd reacts
to them, because sometimes that's all they
think they have is football.
So they're relegated to this one thing.
And that's-- I think it's on us to bring
the awareness to them that they could be more than one thing.
They can be multiple things, that this NFL thing can
actually be the side hustle, because, you know,
if you have people that react that way,
they're always going to react that way.
So you've got to make the best situation for you
with the money you get, with the free education that you get.
And you don't necessarily know or come
into that kind of knowledge that early when
you're in school like that.
So there's just different ways to bring that awareness out,
you know.
And now another--
one last question about football,
watching the trailer for "Tenet,"
there are some stunts in there, bro.
You were doing some flipping.
You tumbling.
MERO: You do it all you?
That was all you? DESUS: Is that you?
JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON: Yeah, brothers, that was me.
Thank you very much.
That was me.
I'll proudly say it.
Like football, you know, there's training camp of football.
Well, there was a training camp for Nolan school,
for Nolan league.
So it's everything that my instincts
say to do, you know, like advance the football forward,
move forward.
When you're beating somebody up, you beat them up forward.
You know, that walk and getting dra-- getting dog-walked.
But in this, it's like you've got to do it backwards.
So yeah, my defense is my offense.
My offense is my defense.
Right is left.
Left is right, or down is up.
Gravity's changed in the laws of inversion.
I mean, I even had to learn how to blink,
walk and talk backwards.
So it was crazy.
It was a whole--
Yo.
[LAUGHTER]
Y'all got to see this movie.
I'm telling you, because--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
I might have to make that visit
out to Jersey for this, bro.
It's worth it, man. I'm telling you.
Listen, we're not going to disrespect.
I'm not going to illegally download
it on a Fire Stick, all right?
[LAUGHING]
I'm not going to violate.
You're not going to see me on the-- just
out in the street watching it on my phone,
like, yo, this is wild.
See?
You see?
Only our people, man, only our people.
Yo.
[LAUGHTER]
Just got a wrong name, and start, yo.
Yo, y'all watching "Tenet"?
Y'all watching "Tentoes"?
I'm like, it's not "Tentoes." It's "Tenet."
It's not "Tentoes."
It's "Tenet," dog.
Hey, listen, bro, hey.
Hey, bro, he said, IMAX, I got a iMac.
You know what I'm saying?
Close enough.
It's all good, bro.
(LAUGHING) Y'all--
It's all-- I'm like, wait a minute.
Hold on, they got--
Y'all are wrong, man.
I think y'all are wrong.
Y'all ain't right.
[LAUGHTER]
OK, wait a minute, they got Young Thug on the soundtrack?
That is official?
I was--
No, that's Travis.
It's Travis. [LAUGHTER]
I'm like, wait a minute.
They having a shootout to what?
What?
Well, now, seriously, what that got to do with bullets?
I don't understand.
This ain't that.
I think they gave us the wrong thing.
[LAUGHING]
What's it like, you know, forging your way in Hollywood?
You know what it is.
You get the question all the time.
You've got your pops, whatever.
And that kind of-- that puts a target on your back.
But at the same time, it's like you
got to work harder because you've
got to get out of the shadow, and you
got to be your own individual.
What is that like?
Well, that's a part of the reason,
definitely, early in my career in "Ballers,"
I didn't want to do any press.
I wanted to avoid press because that's going
to be the narrative, you know.
That's what everybody's going to judge you on.
So I just wanted people to see the work.
You know, I just--
it's almost like a Batman/Bruce Wayne complex.
You know, I just wanted to let people know
who I am through the work, and I still
want to continue to do that.
I work extremely hard, and I'm extremely hard on myself.
But I don't want to let, necessarily,
people know about what's happening
personally because they don't need to know,
because it's about the work.
If they connect with the work, then we'll get to talk.
Or then we'll talk about the work,
because I've been working very hard.
I mean, that's what the NFL served.
I got that on my own, you know.
But every time I'd have a good game,
it would be Denzel Washington's son ran for 100
yards and the touchdown.
Denzel Washington's son this and that.
So I'd see it was inescapable, but I
used it as fuel to motivate me.
I don't use it as fuel as much so much
anymore because of people like Spike Lee
and Christopher Nolan, who don't give
a damn about who my father is.
They wanted me for the work.
And to be able to build a career that I want,
these are the kind of people that I want to work with.
These are the kind of people that I want to continue to work
with in my career, that want to just work with me for my talent
and for what I can bring to the table.
Why didn't you become a rapper?
Because it was right there.
It was right there.
It was right there, bro.
Young Denzel, come on, bro, get
some face tats, some dreads?
Know what I'm saying?
What are you talking about?
Come on, bro.
Now if I--
now that would be setting myself up.
I deserved all the dad jokes and stuff if I became a rapper.
I would deserve it.
[LAUGHTER]
Can you imagine me on Breakfast Club being
a ra-- are you kidding me?
Woah!
But look, look, at least-- look, at least-- at the very least,
I have not seen anything that leads me to believe that
your pops says some Lavar Ball shit,
and he's just, like, yo, my--
my son is the motherfucking greatest.
He's going to win 25 Oscars.
He's going to never lose.
I guarantee you will never hear that from him.
I guarantee it.
[LAUGHTER]
Hopefully, there's only one Lavar Ball out there,
because the world can't take more than one.
[LAUGHING]
That's a lot of pressure.
God bless those guys, yeah.
Good luck.
[LAUGHING]
How long is the press run?
I've been-- for this particular thing, I've been--
I guess it's been three weeks.
For "BlacKkKlansman," I was doing it--
it felt like about six months from when we went from Cannes
till about February, where I think
Cannes was in March or something,
till February of 2019.
So it's been great.
I've just been excited about it because, I mean,
where we are as a industry, you know,
being able to be a part of a Christopher Nolan film,
to be part of history, being who I am to being at the face of it
was just exciting for me.
And I got to--
I shot something during COVID, something I'm very, very
excited about, with Sam Levinson,
creator of "Euphoria" and Zendaya,
who are just a powerhouse.
Those two, I mean, I just, you know--
it's just a little--
I had a little role in it, but they really--
it's really something special, I think.
And I'm very excited about that.
So I just-- you know, I'm just looking to do more things.
Yo, Zendaya is a generational talent, y'all.
JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON: She's something else.
Talk to the homie right there.
So when you're not out here running footballs
and making classic movies, what's
like-- what's your life like?
What's just like a-- are you-- can you just,
like-- are you still able to just, like-- well,
it doesn't even make sense to ask this question
because of coronavirus.
But before corona, could you just still just
walk around freely and not be bothered by people?
Or is it--
Oh, man, yeah, I mean, catch me on the subway.
I'm in Brooklyn, holla, you know.
Hey, grrrr.
What's happening?
Like, I be like--
[CHUCKLES] That's where I live.
I mean, I--
New Yorkers are funny.
They show love but keep it moving always.
Thank you for that.
They give you that head nod and that point, like, yo.
It's just like that-- you.
You-- exactly, and they keep it moving, so--
[LAUGHING] I love that.
That's great.
[LAUGHS]
That's the beauty of New York, because I've been guilty of it
too.
I remember one time we were going to Shake Shack,
and we passed, like, Robert De Niro.
And Mero was like, yo, that's Robert De Niro.
I was like, who?
Cool.
[LAUGHING]
I love it.
That's the best.
I got one beard question out there.
Yo, what you use for your beard, son, like, something like that,
but that was it.
[LAUGHTER]
Even that, it's not even about you being on TV.
It's not even-- it's a throwaway.
It's a throwaway, all right.
Yeah.
Oh, man, love that right there.
Are you watching-- you watching the final-- you
watching the playoffs?
Yeah, I'm watching the playoffs.
I'm actually-- I've got my 2K season going as well.
I'm one game away from the finals myself,
you know what I'm saying, so I'm feeling really good about it.
I'm going to be back on it tonight when this is over.
Believe that. But-- yeah.
What team?
Yeah.
You'd be surprised.
I used the Knicks, but I made some trades.
That's why we're here. - Oh!
OK.
[CLAPPING]
Let's go!
My man, my man.
Yo, yo--
I only say that because the other night,
I was watching the playoffs, and I was getting tight.
And I was like, you know what this needs?
Yeah, the Knicks need a run.
Yeah.
(LAUGHING)The Knicks need a run.
The Knicks need a run.
I got to say, one of the best moments of my life,
there's nothing like going to a New York sporting event, right?
But there's nothing like going to a New York
sporting event with Spike Lee.
He took me to two Yankee game-- playoff
games and a Knicks game, and it was
incredible, the energy, man.
It was-- I love Madison Square Garden.
Nothing like it--
ah.
Oh, my god.
You just added something to my bucket list.
(LAUGHING) No.
Right, you got to go with Spike. You got to--
With Spike Lee.
Listen, we're going to make that happen.
Yo, he's so funny.
The people love him too.
Oh, yeah.
Spike, I know you watching.
Like, yo--
Make it happen.
Make it happen. Let's do it.
Make it happen.
John David, we know you're a busy man.
You're out here.
You got more press.
Thank you for taking time out your busy schedule to sit down
and chop it up with us.
Listen, you know what it is, Flatbush in the house.
You know bodegas got the neon sign.
Be here all day.
What would your neon sign say?
I guess black--
I'll go with "Black Power" for now, "Black Power."
"Black Power," you know the vibe.
John David Washington in the house.
Yo, "Tenet" is in movie theaters.
Yo, John David Washington--
my guy, in the building.
[CLAPPING]
Appreciate y'all man.
This was fun.
We all go meet up at Garden State Plaza, six feet apart.
You know what I'm saying? Let's go.
Let's go.
Bring your own nutcracker.
[LAUGHTER]