- Have a seat, have a seat.
Oh, you're being a gentleman.
I like it. - Well, ladies first.
Ladies-
Hey!
- You're here in person this time.
- I know, I know.
It's the first time for everything.
The first time I was doing that little COVID
parole situation
- I know we all had to do it.
The Zoom, the Zoom interviews.
- I hated Zoom.
- I know, but here's the question.
Were you wearing pants?
'Cause I always had like,
I literally had a blouse on
and then it was like my yoga pants.
- See, I was very afraid that the tilt always get me.
'Cause my house, I had to figure out
how to tilt the computer.
So I knew if I wasn't wearing pants,
my dog would walk by
and everybody would see the round brown.
- So I had to- I had the blankets, I had everything.
- I think I just didn't care.
I just didn't care.
I was so comfortable in my Nikes.
I was like, yes, I love this half-up job.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was comfy.
But the no pants, that's how you lose your job.
- Yeah. (laughs)
- Or gain a whole new audience.
- A whole new audience.
- So you actually have a musical background.
I didn't know this, you were a DJ for like years.
- When I was a kid, my cousin had a record label
and I wanted to be a rapper.
So I was DJing and I bought all these records
and I took my dad's records and I was a DJ, yes.
- You're like a real DJ.
Like real records.
Yeah. - Yes.
- That's like real DJ.
- We didn't even have computers back then, remember?
This was before cell phones.
- I know.
Now they just plug it in.
- Now they just plug it in and hit a button
and everybody jump around.
But nah, we had to- - Yeah.
- You know, we had the boards.
- It was like a real art form.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was fun, it was a lot of fun.
- Were you, what was your like DJ name?
What-?
- I was the Wanderer.
DJ Wanderer.
- Now that could- - I used to kill it.
- That could mean like many things.
- I know, that's what I'm saying.
It's a whole archetype of different ways.
- Okay. I like it, okay.
- 'Cause sometimes I'll do like the old school,
and when I'll do the new school
I'll do hip hop, I'll do funk, I'll do-
- Oh, you like a wide variety.
- I wandered through the crates.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- I like that.
- Yes, see what I'm saying?
I thought about this
- I was thinking about the song, "The Wanderer."
- No, never heard of it.
♪ I get around, around, around ♪
Yeah, see, and I thought that was a different vibe.
That name.
- No, no. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was like, I don't know if-
- Slam like LL Cool J with the Beatles.
- Yeah. That's cool.
- Crazy.
Crazy.
- I love that.
I'm a big fan of not limiting yourself to one genre.
- I agree.
I agree.
- Everything is influenced by everything I feel.
- Everything.
But if you can get like-
Funny story, when I was in high school
Michael McDonald was doing a show in North Carolina.
So I was like, oh man, that dude,
he a member of the Doobie Brothers.
So me and my roommate go the show
and this old white dude comes out and he's like,
(imitates singing)
I was like, man, this is a cover band.
He goes, no, that's Michael McDonald.
- Oh my god, you didn't know he was-
- I thought they were the Doobie BROTHERS,
(Kelly laughs)
not the Doobie Brothers.
- Oh, my god.
That's incredible.
- Yo.
- Mind blown.
- It was very hurtful.
- But were you kind of like at the same time, like,
this dude is killing it.
- I, to this day, all I want to do is do a song with him.
- Oh, my God.
He's got an incredible voice.
- He's amazing.
- But I love that though.
Video did kill the radio star because it's like,
you just listened instead of saw the music.
- And his voice has so much soul.
And who don't like the Doobie Brothers.
Like you put some Run-D.M.C. and the Doobie Brothers.
(imitates explosion)
- Know what I'm saying?
- Is it true, speaking of artists,
is it true that Busta Rhymes is why you became an actor?
- Busta has had a long influence-
- Look at this picture.
I love that's your-
(both laughing)
That's your inspiration, I love it.
- When I was 12-years-old,
there was one of the best shows ever on TV.
On TV was this "Arsenio Hall Show."
- Hello. Woo, woo, woo! - So me and my mom-
Right. - I'm the same age, I think.
- We would always sit on the floor and watch
'cause we have a floor model TV, right?
So we'd sit on the floor and watch Arsenio Hall.
And Leaders of the New School was on Arsenio Hall.
They were performing "Scenario."
Busta comes out to do his verse
and he is on a Dr. Seuss hat. - Sure.
- And he goes, "Powerful impact, boom, goes the cannon."
And his hat goes (imitates hat expanding)
and literally the entire audience goes crazy.
Like Arsenio Hall runs off the stage,
the cameras are shaking.
We're in our living room, like, "Holy (censored)."
And my mom standing in the back.
And I was like, "Mom, I want to be that guy."
- I love that that's what you said.
- I was like, that guy affects change.
I wanna be that guy.
And then I met him and I was like,
"You're that guy." (laughs)
- That's awesome, mine was Mariah.
Her first performance was Arsenio.
And I was sitting there going, I wanna do that.
- I wanna do that.
- She sang "Vision of Love"
and I was like, "Woo."
- She killed it. - Yeah.
I missed Busta's.
I'm gonna Google that tonight.
- Yo, it is the craziest show you've ever seen.
- I love that.
- Tore up the studio.
- So I can't let you be here
without asking you like one question, okay?
So can you tell us anything
about the new Captain America?
- Ironically enough, I got my script today.
- This is a sign.
- Like today.
I literally, I'll show you the email.
I got my script today.
Haven't read it.
Haven't opened it.
I haven't got my passcode to the website
that let's you get to the website
- I will read it for you.
- We literally get a passcode
to a website that gives us a location to meet the person
to sign, to sit with a computer and read our script.
- Wow.
They don't trust y'all.
- They don't trust nobody.
And it's always like some 21-year-old intern
and he just hates you.
You know, he's sitting there eating Cheetos
and he's like, read faster, you know?
And I'm like, I'm dyslexic.
And he's like, I don't care.
Like it's, oh, it's a whole thing.
- Oh wait, are you dyslexic?
- Yeah. - Oh, my god.
- Everybody's dyslexic.
- That's interesting.
My daughter literally was crying the other night
'cause she can't keep up.
She's dyslexic.
And they just kind of figured it out.
And she was having- - Really?
- And I was telling her that a lot of artists
actually, so many actors-
- Our brain works differently.
- And that's why I told her, I was like,
it's special though.
You see it differently.
It's just that most of humanity sees it one way.
That doesn't make it wrong.
- 100%. - But it's so cool.
I love that freakin' Captain American's dyslexic.
I can't wait to tell her that.
You don't understand.
She was crying.
- That's what got me into acting.
You know, teachers are the most important foundation
of American culture. - My mama was a teacher.
- Your mama wonderful. - Yeah.
- She's a foundation. - Yeah.
- She's a pillar. - Yeah.
- And I had this teacher named Ms. Dorsey.
And Ms. Dorsey-
I was making straight A's and B's.
I couldn't figure out English.
Like, see Spot run.
I didn't even know Spot was in a race.
- Yeah - Right?
And she was like, you know, we just need to find something
to pique your interest.
Make reading interesting.
And then she gave me this whole program
and (imitates popping noise) all of a sudden,
I'm reading Shakespeare,
I'm eating reading Ibsen,
I'm reading Chekhov.
I'm reading all this different stuff.
And it's making sense.
Like reading with comprehension made sense
when the stories were made interesting.
- Yeah.
- Like me 44, I hated history when I was in school.
Now history is the most interesting thing
on the planet to me.
So you just have to find a way to make it interesting.
And those kids will unlock something and focus on.
- And comprehension.
They're like learning how they, you know-
It's such a process.
And then I didn't know that there were many
different forms of dyslexia too.
- Yeah.
- It's just 'cause I never went through anything with that,
with any one of my friends.
But it's interesting.
I love that you talk about it
because that kind of stuff really empowers young kids.
- Yeah. - Y'all are their heroes.
And then they hear that and they're like,
wait, then I'm cool too.
Like you don't know what kind of impact.
I'm gonna totally cry, I'm fine.
(both laughing)
- It's gonna be fine.
It's gonna be fine.
- Like, it sucks to see your kid struggle, you know.
- Yeah, but the great part about that is
with your daughter struggling,
when she comes out of that,
she's gonna be 10 times stronger.
- She is.
'Cause she has to do all these therapies, like these extra-
- Exactly, exactly.
And I had to do so many programs
where they would sit me down and read,
and do this and break down and do all that.
So I had to learn the way around my dyslexia.
So by the time I got to college,
I figured out a way how my reading worked,
and how my reading was different than everybody else's.
- But it wasn't wrong, it was just different.
- No, it was just me with a card like this.
- That's what my daughter's gonna have to do.
I know, we have to do that too.
I just think it's really cool.
You're also cool too,
because I know that you've been a big supporter.
You're from New Orleans. - Right.
- And I think it's really cool
that you're actually doing something special
with the city, right?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I partner with GAF
and we're going around the southeast regions
and we're removing blue tarps.
So you have all these houses after the storms come through,
and they put tarps on the houses to stop from leaking.
And my dad was a roofer.
I've been doing this since I was 12-years-old.
Believe you me...
It's not fun.
You know, so you get to get up,
go up on these roofs and replace-
give people new roofs after the storms
because there's so many houses
that you fly into the southeast
and it's just blue tarps everywhere.
It's a sea of 'em.
And ironically enough, the video they just showed,
I had never met this man before.
You know, he was selected through the process
to do his house.
Come to find out, he was the dude
who sold my dad the property to build the house
that I grew up in.
- What kind of small world was that?
- And he lives around-
He literally was sitting there like this.
Right? Not saying nothin'.
He looks at me, he go, "Mackie."
I'm like, "Yeah."
He go, "You Mackie from over there by the bridge."
I said, "Yeah."
He was like, "I sold your daddy that land."
I'm like, "What?"
And when he told me the whole story
and literally, it blew my mind.
Like you never know what your parents do for you.
You never know the sacrifices they make.
The things my dad did for me to be sitting here.
And you know, I kind of joke about it, and this and that,
but to hear this dude tell this story,
it put the whole GAF thing into perspective.
- And first of all, there's ownership.
I grew up in rentals.
My family, nobody owned anything.
So the fact that-
That's an amazing thing, to own something.
You didn't buy dirt.
That's not what everybody say happens.
Everybody says, "This house."
- Right.
- Your new movie is called "We Have a Ghost."
I wanna talk about it
because it's not the typical ghost story.
Right?
- No, it's different.
It's a ghost with heart.
So...
This family moves into a house
and they find out that they have a ghost.
And this kid who's kind of like,
growing through growing pains and puberty,
him and the ghost become friends
and he goes on this whirlwind adventure with the ghost
to figure out why this ghost is stuck in this house.
- Yeah, I love that.
Look at that, I did well. (laughs)
(audience applauds)
So you're from New Orleans
First of all, I love New Orleans.
Anytime we tour there, it's just a cool city.
I love it.
So much culture, great food.
And great end of tour parties, by the way.
But it's a pretty haunted place though.
There's like some spooky stuff.
So growing up there,
did you ever experience anything?
- No. I will say this, I do believe in ghosts.
My house was built in the 1860s.
- Wow.
- So when I first moved in, and my brother,
when he first came to my house,
like had to renovate and I'm working in it.
He comes in, he walks all the way to the back of the house.
He looks in the yard and there's a swing in the yard.
And one of the swings is just doing that.
There's no wind.
- And no one's in.
- It just doing that. - No.
- So I come back and I'm like, "Yo, what'd you doing?"
My brother go, "Caroline on that swing."
And I'm like, "Why would you say that?"
- Why? Is it her name?
- How do you know her name?
- Oh no.
- So we talk and he's standing there.
He keeps looking out the window
like on some Poltergeist-type stuff.
- Yeah, no.
- So I'm like, "Yo bro, you gotta go.
I gotta get back to work."
So he leaves, he comes back the next week.
And he goes that swing ain't stop swinging, huh?
Bet, went downstairs, got my saw.
Zzzzz.
(Kelly and audience clapping)
- Bye-bye, Caroline.
- Bye-bye Caroline, find a new swing.
- Oh, my god.