- I wanna talk about one of my favorite movies with you,
The Five Heartbeats. (Leon chuckles)
How did this movie find you?
Or did you go and find the movie?
- The movie definitely found me.
- Okay.
- I didn't know anything about it, actually.
Robert Townsend saw me, I didn't know him,
saw me at the MTV Awards with Madonna.
- Okay.
- Originally, The Five Heartbeats was written by
Robert Townsend, Keenen Ivory Wayans, to play brothers.
And it took a while to get made,
and then Keenen got In Loving Color.
So Robert got to go after the brother,
whatever brother he wanted, so.
And I met Robert,
and it was an interesting situation for me.
- Interesting, how? (Leon laughs)
- It was interesting because (laughs)
the way he was talking to me.
He was talking to me in a way that
no one had ever talked to me before.
He pulled me around a corner of,
I think it was the Wilshire Ebell Theatre and stuff,
and he was saying, "You know, I see you
"as a
"black matinee idol.
"Someone that women will go to the movies for
"just because you're in the movies."
- Just that.
- Same way they do with the white guys.
And I said, "You do?" (both laugh)
When you're an actor
in this town, so much depends upon what people think of you.
And even when you work, or with some of the things you work,
everything's so subjective.
So to hear someone like Robert Townsend, who at the time,
he was coming off Hollywood Shuffle, and was someone we were
looking forward to seeing-- - He was doing a lot.
- Doing some great things.
For him to talk to me like that, I mean,
unless he's a pimp, (both laugh)
I mean, no one had really talked to me like that.
I'm like, "Okay, really?"
I'm like, "Okay, so that's what you see?"
"Okay, yeah, I'm with you, let's do it."
So, that was the experience with Robert,
and we've been super close ever since.
- Everyone that I've talked to about him
always says a similar story, like, he saw me
in a different way, or he spoke to me in a different way.
Was working on set with Robert different from
other directors that you've worked with, and if so, how?
- Well, working with Robert was
different in a few ways.
One, at that particular point,
mostly all the directors I'd worked with were white.
- Yeah.
- So, in that respect, it was different, but
it was also different for me,
because I was a bit of a method actor, so
I just stay in my role the entire time,
and like to live and breathe the role, and
it was a bit funny, to be honest with you,
working with a guy who was also my director.
I didn't know how that was gonna be.
I was like, he's my brother in the movie,
but he's also directing.
- But I also gotta listen to him, yeah.
- Yeah, so it was weird, but, I think,
after the long rehearsal process,
which was like six or seven weeks that we went through,
I got used to it,
and we just rolled from there.
- I've always been fascinated by the idea of method acting,
because I feel like, whenever I hear about it,
I only hear about the extremes,
like so-and-so moved into a cave or something
for a month, to prepare for this.
So what did method acting look like
for this particular role?
How did you prepare for it?
- Preparing for The Five Heartbeats was, it was
definitely different from when I did The Temptations
or Little Richard or anything like that,
because it's a fictional group.
And, so, this is my role to make it what I want it to be,
and I was very confident in the fact that
I was right for this role.
So, for me, it was more about creating a character
that was memorable,
that wasn't like anyone else.
I think all the characters are like that in the movie,
I think that's the reason why (laughs) people went around
thinking The Five Heartbeats is a real group.
- I thought it was a real group for a really long time.
- Yeah, someone told me that they found out
The Five Heartbeats wasn't a real group,
and they weren't that upset since they found
that there was no Santa Claus. (both laughing)
- I believe it, I believe it, absolutely.
So to that note, I wanna switch directions,
nearly completely, to another movie that you did,
that all nineties kids love, Cool Runnings. (Leon chuckles)
I did not know that that was a real story,
again, until I was much, much older.
- I lived in Jamaica, Saint Ann's Bay,
probably three to four months out of the year for 10 years.
- Oh, nice.
- Yeah, so when they went scouting for Cool Runnings,
the late Dawn Steel, (laughs) when she, they came back
and they called me in to Disney for a meeting,
they were like, what is it with you and Jamaica?
(Tracy laughs)
Everywhere we'd go, they'd say, Leon has to be in the movie.
He's our favorite guy.
So she was like, "Yeah, they just,
"I mean, they just love you."
I said, "Well, that's where I go after every movie."
- How did you go about,
both making this role yours,
but also staying true to the character that you portrayed?
- For me, it's, the most important thing
is to bring the character to life,
take a writer's words and make that character real.
And I think I remember something in the L.A. Times,
reviewing Cool Runnings, and it said that
I made my character so real that you felt as though
he was sitting right next to you sometimes.
And to me, that's like, it was a high praise to me--
- Yeah, what a compliment.
- Because I'm, for me, that's my job,
my job is to make that character real.
And so, when I was preparing for Cool Runnings,
if you saw my room, there was every sprinter there was,
and I always had to try to match my body up against theirs,
and make sure that I looked like I could be a runner.
Because, the beginning of a story,
especially when you play the lead character in a movie,
if you can convince people that you are that person,
from the very beginning, you can take 'em anywhere.
You can take 'em to Mars, and they'll believe you.
- [Tracy] I mean, I--
- As long as they believe you are that person.
- I would follow you to Mars, I would.
Just decided, absolutely. (Leon chuckles)
You were in a little movie called Above the Rim,
R.I.P. to Tupac, R.I.P. to Bernie Mac.
What do you think you, in particular, brought to
such a varied cast?
- Well, for one thing,
I don't ever like to talk about
anything that I've done that's,
is any better than anyone else.
But, in talking about Above the Rim, I do like to say that
I believe that, for ball players,
that's the best movie.
- Ever, the best ball movie, period?
- Well, no, because everyone in there were ballers.
I mean, those guys you saw in the street,
those were all schoolyard legends from the Rucker.
- Yeah.
- Our practices, for the roles like that,
those scrimmages at NYU were great.
Duane Martin was one of the last guys cut from the Knicks.
I mean, he-- - I did not know that.
- Yeah, I mean, he could really ball.
- Wow.
- And I was all-city scorer in New York and everything
when I was in high school, so, I mean, it was real ball.
And so, I like to say that, one of the things
that I brought to the role was obviously
the experience of being a real ball player.
And that same park that we played in,
I averaged 30 points a game when I was in high school,
at the Rucker. - Really?
- So it was--
- So you were at home, pretty much.
- Everything was very familiar to me.
But, on the flip side, that's the character.
- Yeah.
- Thomas Sheppard is a character,
and I played the character.
Even the way I played basketball in that movie
is not the way I play, per se.
That's the way I thought my character would play.
- I am legally obligated to talk to you
about The Temptations, legally obligated.
If I don't do it, I get ushered out immediately.
We don't want to see that happen, so,
one of your most iconic lines, as everyone knows,
I've been practicing this line for my whole life, maybe?
Give or take 10 years.
- Okay, go ahead, lemme have it.
- Well, well, well, oh, well, (laughs)
take me to dinner first or something. (both laugh)
I would actually like to challenge you to an Otis-off,
to an, "Ain't nobody coming to see you, Otis"-off.
- But you, that's not fair.
- How not?
How is it not?
- Because, one, that role, I played a long time ago.
- Okay.
- I don't really watch my movies.
I don't like to, because after a while,
I start picking myself apart, I'll be like,
why you hold your head like that?
Why you lips look funny?
- [Tracy] I feel that, I do the same thing.
- I don't even wanna do that,
I'll just leave it alone, people love it.
You watch the movie all the time,
you say the line all the time.
- You're right.
- So you have a distinct advantage over me.
- I'm also not a professional actor though.
- [Leon] Right.
- I feel like that works against me much more.
- But I can tell you something that's more important.
- What's that?
- The history of the line.
- Expound, what do you mean?
- Well, that line wasn't in the script.
- What?
- No.
- It wasn't in the script?
- No.
- It was improvised?
- Yep.
- What?
- We were in rehearsals, and (laughs)
I was David Ruffin the entire time, okay?
And I found out later,
my costars didn't particularly care for me. (both laughing)
But I stayed in that role the entire time, so I was always
thinking of things, and telling the director
and the producers and stuff,
and things that I had researched and the way things were.
And, actually, I just said that line in rehearsal.
And Allan Arkush (laughs)
came and whispered in my ear, and said,
"You know, he doesn't really like it when you say that."
And I turned to him and said, "He's not supposed to."
- Fair point. - I said,
"Did you see the reaction on his face when I said it?"
(Tracy chuckles)
I said, "Isn't that what you want?"
So.
- And that was that.
- I just improvised a line, and next thing I know,
it's like, (laughs) that line follows me around the world.
- Instead of a challenge,
that I still feel like I would lose,
maybe you can be my acting coach for a second.
I will deliver the line for you.
You let me know how I do.
- Okay.
- Is that fair?
- Sure.
- Okay, and don't hold back just because
I'm very charming and fragile, like a
flower, am I like a flower?
- Okay, flower. (Tracy laughs)
- Okay, (clears throat) lemme get in my zone.
(inhales, exhales, clears throat)
Okay.
Action. (clears throat)
Ain't nobody coming to see you, Otis.
And scene.
- That's really good.
- Are you just saying that because I'm very charming?
- No.
- Yay!
- I'm saying that because you got the most important thing--
- What was that?
- About it, not the words, your lips. (Tracy slaps knee)
- I'm so glad, I'm so glad. - They was all out here, like.
- That's what it was, and I was like,
"He's bad, he means that for real."
Aw! (shrieks)
Yay!
Well, I'm in the wrong field.
I quit everybody, I'm an actress now, so--
- You obviously paid your cable bill.
- Uh, well, (both laughing)
we can't talk about my finances at the moment.