-I have so many things to congratulate you about.
This whole interview is just gonna be a gush of love for you.
First of all, "Black Panther," congrats on that.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you. Thank you.
-Everything about it.
Seven Oscar nominations?
-Yeah.
-Not too shabby, man. -Yeah.
-It's the biggest movie ever.
That's got to feel good.
-You know, it's amazing.
I mean, really, I think we're all just full of
so much gratitude right now because we just had no idea.
You know, you go into something, you just give it your all.
We really felt that we were trying to create
something special and new,
but we didn't have any idea of this type of response.
-The other night at the SAG Awards,
I saw you guys won for best cast, or best ensemble.
-Yeah.
-It must be fun to celebrate with everybody
that worked so hard on the movie.
-That was the best. I mean, that was the best.
We were all sitting there.
And you know, you just --
It was such a beautiful room of, you know, your peers.
And that was the beautiful thing, it was the SAG Awards,
so it was, like, your peers voted for you.
-Yeah.
-And it was like we all got to get up there
and celebrate together.
You know, Sterling's up there double fisting,
'cause he won two awards in one night.
-Why not? -Like, dang, Sterling.
But it was beautiful. -Good for you.
-Sterling's my big brother.
We went to grad school together.
-Oh, no way.
-Actually, not together.
He was -- he graduated just as I came in.
But it's like such a little family, my graduate school,
it's Tisch Grad Acting. Such a little grad--
[ Cheers and applause ] Yeah?
Put 'em up, put 'em up. NYU in the house.
So, Tisch was just like a family.
Everyone comes back.
So he'd just come back all the time and hang out.
So he became my big brother, really.
-How cool is that?
-And he reminded me the other night, we were almost roomies.
And I'd forgotten about it entirely.
He's like, "Don't you remember you were gonna come
live in Brooklyn in that room I was gonna rent you
and it didn't work out?" -Really?
-I was like, "Oh, snap." Yeah. So we go way back.
-Oh, really? -Yeah, yeah.
I was trying to get the rent down.
You know how it goes. [ Laughter ]
-But you also -- you also know this person as well.
-I do know that person.
-Susan. She's from "This Is Us."
-Yes, so that was really cool. She's also a Tisch NYU grad.
And we were -- she was a year ahead of me.
So she was there also with Sterling.
And that was really cool, because we --
you know, you have that person, your do-or-die, you know?
The person you went through the trenches together with.
And helping each other through,
when you're all, like, broke and trying to figure it out.
-Sharing ramen noodle soup with. -Exactly.
You know, we just went through everything together.
And it was just so cool.
Like, we both got that award that same night.
To have gone through the journey we've gone through
over the last 15 years together was pretty awesome.
-It's hard work. It's hard work. That's how you got here.
-Right, yeah. -You know, it's hard work.
Last time I talked to you, you were having a play
go to Broadway that you'd written.
-Mm-hmm.
-With Lupita Nyong'o, who we love.
-Mm-hmm.
-And did you guys both know that you were in "Black Panther"?
-Yeah, she was acting in "Eclipsed," actually.
And I was the playwright, so I was coming in and out.
And we'd see each other like several times a week.
We'd hang out, everything.
And I had heard that, you know, I had this offer.
And I was told, you know, hush-hush.
And I'm used to hush-hush.
-"Walking Dead."
-"Walking Dead," you know what I mean?
I don't talk about nothing.
So I was like, "All right, I'm hushed."
And little did I know she's right there hushed too.
[ Laughter ]
So, you know, we finally figured it out
when Ryan came and watched the play.
And we were like, "Oh, you know Ryan?
I know Ryan.
How do you know Ryan?" [ Laughter ]
And then slowly it came together that we're both in this movie.
-And then you close the door like, "We're in 'Black Panther.'
We're in 'Black Panther.' It's so awesome."
[ Laughter ]
-Which was so very awesome.
-'Cause you also work with Letitia too, right?
-Yeah, I knew Letitia
because she was actually in that same play, "Eclipsed"
in London in 2015.
And the same role that Lupita played,
which is crazy, right?
-Wow. This is bizarre. What a small world.
-And then when I was trying to cast another play of mine
in London, we all were like, okay, it's Letitia's.
And they were like, "Um, Letitia's not available
because she's actually gonna be in a film with you called --"
[ Laughter ]
We're like, "Oh." -Hush, hush, hush.
-Exactly. More hush-hush.
But, yeah, she hadn't told me that. We need to text more.
-How great is that?
What is the name of that play? -"The Convert."
And it was just -- she actually did end up doing the play.
It just closed on Saturday.
That's why she wasn't at the SAGs
'cause she was doing the play at the Young Vic,
which was pretty awesome.
She's amazing.
-What a great career you're having.
I'm so happy for you. -Thank you.
-I know we can't really talk about "Walking Dead."
But we have to.
[ Laughter ]
What can we say about "Walking Dead"? I know --
-It's a TV show.
-Okay, good. That's good. That's helpful.
-On AMC. -Yes. It's on AMC. Yes.
We can say there's zombies.
-There are zombies.
They're in dire situations most of the time.
-Whisperers -- -Not a lot of laughs.
But, no, right now, there's a major threat coming along
called the Whisperers.
And you know, we've seen --
they've already taken out one of our dearest and nearest.
And so it's a whole new enemy.
I mean, these guys function on a whole other level.
It's like a psychological, you know, madness,
how they figured out how to get through this apocalypse in a way
that we don't know how to address.
So, they can come at us in any old way
'cause they look like walkers.